The Flash Book

Getting Soft Blurry Backgrounds with Flash. Spoiler Alert: You Use High-Speed Sync

The secret to getting an out-of-focus background with flash outdoors is to get your shutter speed high enough so you can shoot with wide-open f-stops, like f/2.8 or even f/1.8, which (when paired with a nice zoom lens, like a 120mm or a 200mm) gives you that soft, out-of-focus background. The problem is, when outdoors on a bright, sunny day, to get a proper exposure, we’d have to use an f-stop like f/11 or f/16, which makes the entire background sharp and in focus, and generally, isn’t awesome for location portraits (to say the least). The solution? High-Speed Sync, ...