Explain DTS please

[David Whatley]

Can someone tell me how you "drag the shutter"? And why?

[*Mike*]

Dragging the shutter is when you shoot with a flash and slow enough shutter speed to capture the ambient light as well. For example, in order to capture a bride in front of a skyline at night... you shoot with flash, but with a slow enough shutter speed to capture the skyline in the background as well. Shoot based entirely on the foreground and flash setting and you'll have no detail in the background.

Anyway... just my quick and dirty def. I'm sure someone will step in with a helpful link or two.

[Sonny]

can someone post exapmples?

[CaptainTom]

Ok David I'll jump in here first.( oops, now I am last)

DTS (dragging the shutter) gives you quite different results than routine flash photography.
Set up your camera as you normally would for non flash use. I like to use Aperture priority, or manual. Make sure the shutter speed selected is not faster than the fastest synch speed of the camera. Attach the flash unit. Either have the flash on manual or ETTL (which I prefer). When you shoot, you will of course see the flash fire, but the shutter duration will be metered for the ambient light. What you get is a scene where the close objects (those within the flash operating distance) will be lit by the flash, and the rest of the scene will be lit by ambient light. This technique works best if the subjects are not moving, because if they are moving, they will have a "ghost" created by the long shutter speed.

I use this when I want to avoid the usual "subject is lit well, but the background and surroundings are black because the flash couldn't cover the whole area". I also have some creative ways of using the zoom lens while the shutter is open.
I'll look for an example and add it to this post.

[*Mike*]

Here's a quick link: http://www.planetneil.com/faq/dragging-the-shutter.html

[brad]

Here are a couple samples from a recent wedding... you can get different effects...

For a "still" look, one I did.


Or if you pan the camera a little, you can get a really cool effect... a great example that Leslie did at that same wedding..

[boxofrocks]

Dumb question du jour:

If you want the cool trails effect in motion photography when dts (like on a dance floor), you use rear curtain, right?

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by *Mike*

Here's a quick link: http://www.planetneil.com/faq/dragging-the-shutter.html

Thanks for the link. Man, this guy's good.

[brad]

Originally Posted by boxofrocks

Dumb question du jour:

If you want the cool trails effect in motion photography when dts (like on a dance floor), you use rear curtain, right?

Yes, that is correct... at least if you want the light trails leading into the figure "frozen" by the flash.

And for those who don't know what "rear curtain" is: that's when you set the camera to fire the flash in sync with when the shutter is closes rather than as it opens.

[Daniel Bates]

Or you can do "hand synch":



Shutter speed was around one second, and I held a 580EX in my other hand and just hit the "test" button sometime during the exposure. Wireless off-camera flash on the cheap.

[boxofrocks]

Originally Posted by brad

Yes, that is correct... at least if you want the light trails leading into the figure "frozen" by the flash.

And for those who don't know what "rear curtain" is: that's when you set the camera to fire the flash in sync with when the shutter is closes rather than as it opens.

Thanks, Brad. I was having brain cramps.

[JohnT]

Hey, Daniel, that's a nice shot. I've got some classical music playing right now that seems to fit the picture.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by boxofrocks

Thanks, Brad. I was having brain cramps.

Join the club. This flash thing is going to be a learning curve for me along with making decent people shots.

[Daniel Bates]

I swore I was going to be an available light only shooter... it's so much easier!

Then wedding photography happened, and available light just doesn't work anymore.

[David Whatley]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

Ok
DTS (dragging the shutter) gives you quite different results than routine flash photography.
Set up your camera as you normally would for non flash use. I like to use Aperture priority, or manual. Make sure the shutter speed selected is not faster than the fastest synch speed of the camera. Attach the flash unit. Either have the flash on manual or ETTL (which I prefer). When you shoot, you will of course see the flash fire, but the shutter duration will be metered for the ambient light.

So in my case, on a Rebel, would thet be 200, or should I go "slower" to say .25?

It "seems" like if you are synching, with a fast shutter, then the background woud be dark? What am I missing?