Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories

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Chapter 3 ✦ Choosing the Right Equipment for the Job

The drawback to this technique, shown in Figure 3-23, is that the same slow shutter speeds required to

achieve this effect also provide opportunities for ghosting. Ghosting is the blurry halo that happens when

your subject moves during the exposure.

Figure 3-22: When on-camera

flash is combined with a slow

shutter speed the background

light minimizes the appearance

of any shadows from the flash.

17mm, f/4, 1/15s, 800 ISO

Figure 3-23: The trick is in

finding the perfect shutter speed

and ISO combination that allows

some background light without

creating too much ghosting.

17mm, f/4, 1/8s, 400 ISO

Figures 3-24 through 3-26 illustrate the results you will see when using a flash in combination with very

slow shutter speeds. Some areas appear sharp where the flash froze the subject, while other areas

appear with double images or blurry halos around the subjects. The ambient light hitting your subject

after the flash is what creates the blurry areas. It takes a lot of practice and experimentation to deter-

mine just how slow you can set your shutter and still create acceptable images. You also have to adjust

your shutter speed depending on the subject. For example, people pictures should be sharper, while

dancing pictures can look very good with some ghosting and light streaks in the background.

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Part I ✦