Portrait, Fashion and Glamour Model Photography, Lighting Techniques, Workshops & Teaching
Studio Lights: How to Take the Sharpest Pictures with Every Camera
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Dutch
Cameras and glass. You can buy them cheap, or you can spend a lot, buying the most expensive lenses and camera bodies. Several times a week I receive questions from students and other interested photographers about what to buy when making studio portraits.
- I want to make sharp studio portraits. Is this lens good enough?
- I’m afraid to step into beauty photography, because I don’t think my camera has enough resolution. What camera do I need?
- My studio photos are not that sharp as I would like. I think I need a tripod in my studio, what tripod do you recommend?
- Which Photoshop action do you use, to make your photos beautifully sharp? Can you share it with me?
- Your photos are tack sharp. Because she must be standing very still, look at those details. Can I attend a shoot, to see how you instruct the model?
- How many megapixels has your camera? Because I’m starting to do portrait work and I also want to make those pictures with that detail.
Those inquiries are just a few, a small selection. But most of the time it’s about quality, details and colors. People who are looking for the best glass and best camera to use in studio situations, to produce the sharpest portraits to share on social media like I do.
Because of all those questions, I decided to make an article about how to take sharp portraits in studio setting, with studio lights. Surprise: you can do it too, with a cheap DSLR (or other camera with flash connection) and a cheap lens (85mm or longer for tight portraits).
The amount of detail visible in my photos on the web doesn’t depend on the used camera or glass or on the points stated above, but on the quality of light. And in this article I’ll explain a little bit about it, including a special graph.
Difference in studio flash lights
There are a lot of different studio flash systems on the market. Some of them cheap, some of them more expensive. But what’s the difference? Is it only a label like “Made in China“, or is it more? Why do some photographers invest in expensive studio flashes, while cheaper ones are sometimes even as powerful? To me, four reasons:
- Flash durations: the shorter the flash pulse, the easier it is to freeze movement of the subject or the photographer, so the more sharpness and details remain visible;
- Color consistency: the same color balance (color temperature) on all power levels, and no gaps in the color spectrum: very important while working with delicate skin tones;
- Light modifiers: the ability to use a wide spectrum of heavy duty modifiers on the studio flashes, to influence the distribution and bundeling of the light while making shadow transitions softer or harder;
- Service and support: in case of failure I would like to have a replacement as soon as possible and a good service, with status reports and guarantees.
In this article I’m talking about the first point: flash durations. In 2006 I started with some simple studio lights, a cheap Chinese brand. The brand was and is sold everywhere in the Dutch photo stores. And, I even see them getting used in the supermarket while a lady is photographing babies and children in her portable photo studio on location. It always gives me a smile on my face, knowing that she’s also doing the most beautiful job I know of. 😉
But there was a problem. In studio I was doing my best to focus on the eyes, but now and then some photos were not that sharp on 100% zoom. Together with the model I always had to make a first quick selection, to eliminate the unsharp ones. And not only that, but after some months of doing portrait work on daily basis I wanted to do more with timing and movement. I wanted to capture the model at the moment I wanted, while she was turning around with wind through her hair and movement all over. No matter how hard I tried, taking a sharp picture on 100% zoom was virtually impossible.
I learned it was because of the quality of my studio flashes. Every studio flash emits a flash burst. That flash burst illuminates the subject. Usually, cheap studio flashes have a long flash duration: the flash burst illuminates the subject for a rather long time. More expensive or higher quality studio flashes are designed differently: they have a mechanism to deliver a flash pulse with a very short duration.
When working in the studio with a moving model (and yes, every living subject moves, more or less) it’s only possible to make 100% sharp pictures of the model with a very short flash duration. A very short flash duration freezes the movement of the subject and the movement of the photographer, delivering a stunning detailed image, shot after shot. This is the secret of delivering tack sharp portraits to clients. And yes, this way in studio setting you can take sharp pictures with a cheap kit lens and a cheap entry level camera too. After upgrading my studio lights to the Swiss Elinchrom brand all of my work is tack sharp, no matter what.
On the left you see the picture of Esmeralda taken with a long flash duration, on the right you see the picture taken with a short flash duration.
The Sekonic L-858D Speedmaster
The Sekonic Speedmaster L-858D measuring the flash duration of the Elinchrom ELB 400 with Action head connected to port B.
But how do you know the quality of your lights? The flash durations? Often, it’s not stated in the technical specifications or in the user manual, especially while using cheap ones. Previously, the common way was connecting a light sensitive transistor circuit to a scope and doing the math.
But as of 2017 things have changed: Sekonic released the L-858D Speedmaster light meter with built-in flash duration measurement mode. Now it’s possible for everyone to measure their studio lights and seeing the flash duration directly on screen, without doing any calculations.
For the first time I was able to do own extensive measurements of all of my Elinchrom lights in my own studio. In this article I will share them with you, in a beautiful handy interactive graph, a flash duration chart.
The flash durations differ a lot. They depend on power level settings, room temperature, flash tube temperature and quality of the used gas in the flash tube.
In the Elinchrom Flash Duration chart you see the ELC Pro HD 500 and the ELC Pro HD 1000. Both of them are high quality studio flashes, with a short flash duration to deliver a stunning amount of detail and to freeze every movement. I also measured the ELB 400 with the HS head, the Pro head and the Action head connected to it. And I also measured the same heads on the previous unit, the Quadra Hybrid. This way I could see if there were huge differences in flash durations between those units.
I learned quite a few things:
- The ELC Pro HD 500 unit has the shortest flash duration at power setting 3.1;
- The ELC Pro HD 1000 unit has the shortest flash duration at power setting 3.6;
- When you need more power, the ELC Pro HD 500 is the best at power level 5.6 or the ELC Pro HD 1000 at power level 5.3;
- The ELC Pro HD results are close to the results in the ELC Pro HD manual. There’s a table with factory estimated flash durations;
- The absolute winner (before the ELB 500 TTL came out) is the ELB 400 with the Action head connected to port B, on power level 1.7;
- The HS head is not suitable for studio use when you want tack sharp images, because of the long flash duration (see below);
- Using the Pro head is the best in the B port of the ELB 400, on maximum power 4.4.
In the studio I always set the shutter speed of my camera to the X-Sync value as stated in the user manual. This is the shortest shutter speed I’m able to use in the studio if I want to capture the flashes perfectly, while having as little ambient light as possible in the image (actually: none).
In the studio I freeze motion with an ultra short flash duration (preferably shorter than 1/1000 of a second).
When working outside in the sun, things are different. Then the ambient light is so vivid, I need to use shorter shutter speeds in combination with a flash with long flash durations: there the HS head comes to play, and then I freeze the motion with the high shutter speed (ultra short camera exposure time, preferably shorter than 1/1000 of a second). But that’s enough to talk about in another future article, back to studio non-HS photography for now.
The Elinchrom Flash Duration Chart
Below you see a chart with some graphs. You can switch them on and off and you can hover with your cursor to make the actual measured point values visible.
A big thanks to Jennifer and Gerwin for helping me to measure those hundreds of different values, experimenting with JavaScript and for letting me measure the Quadra unit and Pro head. Only measuring those took already a whole evening and a night.
The room temperature was a solid 21ºC and the duration between every measured flash was about 12 seconds on average. I measured the flash duration on every 1/10 stop of my Elinchrom power settings. I turned off the modeling lights, to ensure the lowest temperature possible. The ELB 400 and the Quadra were connected to the battery and the charger while testing.
On each power level of each flash, I did 3 measurements, then I took the average of those 3 measurements. This way I was able to eliminate most of the tolerance and variance because of the temperatures.
Although I have made the graphs responsive and the layout too, I recommend you to view them on a computer screen. This way you can enlarge them really big, the checkboxes will fit and you’ll see the results in a glance. Or, click HERE for a quick & dirty screenshot.
This chart can make your life easier, while working in the studio. Now you know why it’s better to choose power setting 3.6 on the ELC Pro HD 1000 for sharpness, in stead of for example 3.7.
So, if you want to buy new studio lights, choose wisely. Aim for a short flash duration on a rather high power level (that’s why I love Elinchrom) and don’t buy the cheapest flashes if you want to capture detail in studio setting. You can look in the user manual or technical specifications for flash durations, or measure them with the Sekonic L-858D.
Be careful though: you’ll also see terms as t0.5 and maybe t0.1. The value of t0.5 is usually about 3 times faster (shorter flash duration) than the t0.1 value. At the t0.5 time, the flash pulse has dropped down to 50% of its peak. At t0.1, the flash has dropped 90% from its peak. Essentially, they are giving you a feel for the shape of the back slope of the pulse. But that’s enough stuff to talk about… in another article.
Good job, was looking for comparison like this. 🙂
Any chance you could test an older Elinchrom head, like Style RX 600? I’ve read older heads are supposed to be faster then the new ones (ELC)..
This is a great post. Do you mind if we link to it?
FYI, we have RX600 and 1200 info on our blog post here:
http://www.theflashcentre.com/comparing_elinchrom_flash_heads.html?page=3
Alex, thanks for your link. And of course, spread the world! I love to share knowledge and experiences, let’s make the world smarter.
Also thanks for your blog post about the RX 600 and 1200.
The style RX is WAY slower in duration than the ELC. Try a splash shot and you will never freeze the water. Or a action model shot the hands and feet will be smeared while running.
Thanks Mat! 😃 I will add the Style RX 600 to my measuring-wish-list. As soon as I have the opportunity and as soon as I have a Style RX 600 within reach I will test it.
Kip, you’re right. But slow flashes are excellent candidates for shooting HS… 😉
Excellent writeup. I’ve been searching for this info for forever. I have einsteins and ELB400’s with HS heads, and always wondered about the duration at different power levels on the the ELBs. Eli didn’t respond when i asked. The t0.5 is nowhere near the einsteins (t.1) data, but the action heads should let me at least shoot in the studio with the ELBs when i need to. THANK YOU!
Hi Nick, you’re welcome! The Action Heads are great, but also the ELC1000 on 3.6 and the ELC500 on 3.1.
The Einsteins are IGBT flashes, so their shortest flash duration is usually at the lowest power. I need high power and short flash durations because I use gridded beauty dishes: I loose a lot of light because of the modifiers. Elinchrom gives me the sharpest images and the shortest flash duration on those power levels.
I’m glad to make you happy with it and I hope to make your workflow and studio time a little bit shorter this way. 😃
Understood Hans. It looks like the action head on the ELB in the B port has the advantage from full power, for about 2-3 stops down, but after that, the einstein duration is shorter.
I found this with actual numbers (in t.1 measurement times) http://gock.net/blog/2012/01/flash-durations-small-strobes/
Bad thing is, that the fast flash duration goes against the HS principle. We have got our Skyport HS and our studio RX600 are simply too fast. It works towards something like 1/600.
So – you either go for the fast flash duration and well darkened studio, or you go for the HS and slow flash duration, which is usefull in outdoor conditions for e.g. We got both 🙂
That’s true Petr. 😃 I’m preparing for another article later this year. Or we freeze motion with an ultra short flash duration, or we freeze motion with an ultra short shutter speed. An ultra short shutter speed needs a high, large slow flash duration, that’s why the HS heads are around 1/300 of a second. I’ve got both here too, fortunately.
I’m thinking about making an article about my outdoor workflow while using HS, combined with measuring with the Sekonic 858-D light meter (it measures HS and HSS now).
Hi, great article thank you for sharing. I have a question regarding the Sekonic 858 and Elinchrom HS. Does the 858 measure Elinchrom HS at shutter speeds above normal sync speeds, I have been told it doesn’t by various different outlets and companies but read in your piece it measures HS is that correct?
Hi Phil,
Good news for you: yes, the Sekonic L-858D does measure HSS AND HS. 😃
To measure HSS you need to put the meter on HSS mode.
To measure HS you need to put the meter on normal flash mode and dial in shutter speeds faster (shorter) than 1/200s. The only caveat is: after changing your shutter speed on the light meter, you have to re-measure the flash again for the most accurate readings.
Enjoy!
Hi Hans,
Thank you so much for your reply to my question.
—
Hi Phil,
Good news for you: yes, the Sekonic L-858D does measure HSS AND HS. 😃
To measure HSS you need to put the meter on HSS mode.
To measure HS you need to put the meter on normal flash mode and dial in shutter speeds faster (shorter) than 1/200s. The only caveat is: after changing your shutter speed on the light meter, you have to re-measure the flash again for the most accurate readings.
Enjoy!
—
May I just clarify one thing before parting with a lot of money and then passing on my current Sekonic 358 meter. To meter Elinchrom HS with the Sekonic 858, set the meter to measure conventional flash as I would do on my current meter, take a test reading (for output) having the meter set to say ISO 100 and 1/160th sec and the meter gives me f8 for the power the flash is set to, then reset the meter to ISO 100 and 1/4000th sec and this would still give me f8?? And then when i take the picture is the subject going to be exposed correctly?? or could I give you a telephone call for two minutes to clarify TQ Phil
Hi Phil,
Sorry, I just wrote you a mail back before I saw your reply here. I’m answering here too, that’s better because of Google and this way, others can learn too.
With Elinchrom HS, just set the meter to conventional flash (as you’re used to in the studio on your current meter). You can take a test reading at 1/160s and you can also take a test reading at 1/4000s, both readings will be correct (as long as you remeasure again).
So, in your example: ISO 100 and 1/160s gives you a reading of f/8. Then (if you use HS light) you can change the shutter speed of the Sekonic L-858D to 1/4000s (still ISO 100). The meter will now display a wrong value but don’t worry: just take a new reading. Now your meter will display the correct exposure (probably way lower, f/2 or something). Then you can take the picture and it will have the correct flash exposure.
Are you sure this is a correct way to mesure Hi-Sync? I always thought that the problem with Hi-Sync is that, since it cuts into the flash while open (and can be adjusted with ODS), there wasn’t a real proper way to meter it.
If all of this is true, I am really tempted to get the new Sekonic with the Elinchrom module.
Guy, the Sekonic light meter is (finally) smarter. Under the hood it analyzes the flash durations and calculates the right Hi-Sync exposure. That’s also why it needs a re-measurement after adjusting the shutter speed on the meter. It takes the flash duration and shutter speed into account.
Great work, I was looking for someone who had tested the elb 400 heads in studio. So it was good information that the hs head was not good for studio work.
Do you by the way have tested the elb 400 hs and action heads outside? I would like to see images with people and how sharp they are compared to each other.
And when would you change from and hs head to and action head outside? I think as day goes into more dark evening and night?
Hi Per,
The ELB 400 HS head will be useful whenever you want to go faster than you regular sync speed. For example, the sync speed on a 5D Mark IV (regular) is 1/200sec.
If I want my shutter speed to be slower than that, to have brighter exposure for the background, the best will be to use the Action head because of it’s fast flash duration.
Whenever you want to go faster than 1/200sec, you will need the HS head because its slow flash duration combined with the HS transmitter will allow the flash to be “continually lit” during the whole exposure time. The HS head acts as a continuous light, if you will.
Thanks for the answer Guy. Exactly right, couldn’t say it better. 😃 Enjoy Per, I’m glad to have helped you with the article. And yes, I often use the Action Head outside, when my shutter speed will be at or below (slower than) 1/200s.
Thank you.
Oh one more thing. If you have both heads is it possible to use the second head as fill light whatever head you use?
Yes, that’s possible. With two Action Heads (or one Action Head as key and a HS Head as fill) and speeds below X-Sync no problems. But with the HS Heads you’ll have only the best results with port A (the slower port). And it takes a little bit of ODS tuning on the HS Trigger I think, to get a better port B syncing (but then port A will be less efficient).
x synch?
Well my idea was on sunny day to use the hs head for main light and action for fill.
For night or studio to use action for main and hs for fill.
Will this be possible? I’m not sure I understand correctly.
And will this be possible with one battery or you need 2 batteries for this?
Per, if you use on a sunny day the HS Head for main light and the Action Head for fill, you will only see the light of the HS Head in the photo (when you use shutter speeds shorter than the X-Sync speed of your camera).
For night or studio it’s fine to use the Action Head for main, and the HS Head for fill, because then you will use a shutter speed equal or slower than the X-Sync of your camera. Just turn off the HS Head then, when you want to capture or freeze motion (the HS Head will give blurry images when used with slow shutter speeds).
In both cases you can do fine with one battery. On average power one battery will give me several hundreds of shots with two heads connected at the same time.
To know the unique X-Sync speed of your camera, just look into the camera manual and search for the technical specs (or search for them online).
Hi again.
So a night shoot with shutter speed for 100-200 will work fine with action head for main and hs for fill light?
And as understand connection both flash head at one battery will also fastens the flash duration
Hi Per,
During a night shoot with a shutter speed of 1/100 – 1/200s the Action Head will work fine indeed, because that will freeze the action. As long as you use the HS subtle, as fill light for example, the blurryness of the HS won’t impact overall sharpness that much, because the Action Head will freeze that indeed.
And no, both flash heads on one battery will actually slow down the flash speed. Best is to use the heads each on port B of a separate pack, to obtain the shortest flash durations possible.
Well reading a bit more about the heads and talking to the dealer, I was recommended a hs head and pro head instead. So how are you experience witht the pro head and portrait or using to stop if someone is walking as that’s the fastest action I need to stop 🙂
My experience with the Pro Head is simple: the best of both worlds, but not really fast to obtain the sharpest images and not really slow to obtain the smoothest gradients during HS. The Pro Head is fine, and a good overall head, but if you want to do things to the max then it’s still a compromise.
Such a useful post! Great work, Hans. I would love to see more information about how you use the HS heads vs. the Action heads outside. You mentioned in a comment you will be working on more content.. would love to read it.
Thanks Dan! The days are getting longer here, so I will be more outside. But the ELB 500 TTL works better for me because of the powerful HSS (almost as powerful as the HS, only max. 0.5 stop difference) so I will work more with the ELB 500 TTL than with the ELB 400. But when I have some more time I will create more content about both, in a follow-up article here and/or in a YouTube video.
Does the elb 500 work well with phase one camera asweel? As I had to buy two different heads for the elb 400 as I have phase one and canon.
Hi Per,
Here the ELB 500 TTL works with Phase One camera, but only in normal (manual) mode, not in TTL mode (yet). TTL mode works only with Canon and Nikon. Sony will be next, then Olympus/Panasonic and then Fuji. But I always use my light meter with Phase One cameras because I never use a large Phase One camera for a quick point & shoot shot. But it would be nice to have TTL there too indeed. Who knows…. 😉
Great article! Still relevant in 2021!! 🙂
My question is: Is the t0.5 flash duration in your chart for example of 1/2500 comparable with 1/2500 shutter speed?
Hi Hans, First of all thanks for this detailed information, it is really helpful! I’m looking to upgrade from a speedlite setup at the moment and all the options available are pretty overwhelming.
I would like to double check something about the durations for the ELB500 TTL – are these definitely t0.1 readings? It’s just that on the Elinchrom site they specify t0.5 between 1/250 and 1/20000 so it seems unusual!
Hi Hans,
My question is similar to Tom’s. I’ve been looking into the Elinchrom Quadra and ELB 400 systems for some time and short flash durations are critical for my use case, so found the data you’ve collected very useful.
I’m just a bit concerned as to whether what you’ve recorded are actually the t0.1 times. The reason being that Elinchrom lists the t0.5 times of the pack in conjunction with the Action-head in port A as 1/2800 and in port B as 1/5700, which roughly aligns with your t0.1 measurements at full power.
Initially I thought this may have been a feature of the design of the Action head (that the t0.5 times were equal to the t0.1 times). But upon further inspection I noticed that the manufacturer listed t0.5 times for the Pro-head are 1/1200 and 1/3000 for ports A and B respectively at full power. This again lines up almost exactly with your t0.1 measurements.
Normally we would expect the t0.5 times to be 2-3 times longer than the t0.1 times, so I’d be very surprised if indeed they were the same. Which makes me think that either you or Elinchrom have made a mistake.
Here’s a link to the data I’m quoting from Elinchrom:
https://www.elinchrom.com/wp-content/uploads/download-center/160316-elb400-a5–en.pdf
Anyway I’d be very grateful if you could get back to me on this one. I think a lot of other readers you have may be thinking the same thing, or using this data, so it’d be quite useful if we can get an answer.
Many Thanks,
Danny.
Hola.
Deseo saber si las luces GODOX son perfectas para studio y lograr nitidez en la imagen
Hi
Thanks for your efforts and time to make this chat…You saved my time.
Regards
Ram