How to drag Your Shutter
Creative Shutter Drag Technique. Using flash and ambient light for cool Glamour shots and Portraits
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hey gang thanks for checking out this
week's episode of the last frame in this
episode I'm going to show you two images
that use a technique called shutter drag
but I'm going to add some drastic camera
motion to the mix for a really cool
outcome stay tuned
[Music]
before I get into my shots let's make
sure you're up to speed on what shutter
drag is and why you would use it
shutter drag or dragging the shutter is
a flash technique you can do it with
speed lights or mono lights and it can
be used in a studio or on location
depending on the circumstances and the
results that you're after we all learn
very quickly than when using electronic
flash the light falls off rapidly and a
single flash tends to make for a very
dark background when I was a newspaper
photographer I learned that I could
brighten the dark backgrounds by setting
my exposure for the subject and the
flash and then lowering the shutter
speed to allow more ambient light to be
recorded this works because when you're
using the flash the shutter speed has no
effect on your flash exposure because
the flash fires it is speed much faster
than your camera in this photo of two
young cheerleaders
I used a direct flash but set my shutter
speed to one tenth of a second now this
was handheld in this photo of a house
with Christmas lights my camera is on a
tripod for a four second exposure at f/8
even though it's a wide-angle shot I
needed f8 for enough depth of field to
keep the whole house in focus the flash
fired when I press the shutter and the
four second exposure allowed the much
dimmer Christmas lights to record
similarly this was an assignment I did
for a rare Philadelphia Eagles playoff
game and I was shooting in a bar I had a
flash on camera bouncing into a white
card and a flash in the back of the bar
but in order to not have completely dark
spots in the bar I shot at 1/8 of a
second to allow the ambient light to
fill in the dark areas that weren't lit
by my strobes now you can also get a
little creative with shutter drag here
are two shots of a small town parade
after dark
this was in a rural setting with almost
no ambient light so shooting it one
the second to pick up as much ambient
light as possible also recorded streaks
from the few lights that did exist in
the scene so basically what's happening
in all of these shots is that the
shutter opens and begins recording the
ambient light the flash fires and lights
the subject for an extremely brief
period of time that's how you're able to
get a sharp image of the subject and
then the camera continues to record the
ambient light until the shutter closes
that brings us to the first of our two
images for this video this image was
inspired by the movie The Fifth Element
my model had made this outfit as a
Halloween costume so we decided to go
sci-fi and futuristic with the shot to
do this you can see that I have a single
beauty dish set up on camera right no
modifier on the dish I have a second
strobe also on camera right set low
aiming up with a blue gel on it behind
the model on camera left is another
strobe with an orange gel and this is
dialed up brighter than I would normally
do a rim but we were going for a bit of
a chaotic feel to the shot and I felt
this would help the light that you see
on camera right and behind the model is
a continuous light in this case it's a
lowell total light with a halogen bulb
this is the light that i'm using for my
ambient light to create the ghosting
effect when I drag the shutter now it's
important to note that to make this work
you must turn off all the lights in your
room including the modeling lights on
your strobes otherwise they'll be
recorded as ambient light and will
override your lighting we added a large
piece of orange tool and a fan on camera
right so that it would blow around the
model and the background is an orange
seamless paper roll this shot was made
with an 85 millimeter f1 point-eight
lens set at f-16 the shutter speed was
one-fifth of a second and the ISO 100
but here's the trick to using the
shutter drag to get this motion effect
the shot is handheld and as I'm firing
the trigger I'm moving the camera
rapidly from side to side this is a
scenario where you need to shoot a ton
of frames it's an experiment all the way
the only guarantee with this technique
is lots of bad shots so you have to
shoot until you get the good ones it
helps if you can shoot tethered
that way you can see your images easily
as you're shooting I'll usually set my
laptop cart just off to the side but
within I range so that I can peek and
see the images easily as I shoot now if
you don't shoot tethered no worries just
take breaks and review your images on
the LCD screen
the final image required very little
post-production beyond the usual color
contrast and sharpening and of course
removing of blemishes the second image
that I have for you is a portrait you
may have seen this one before on my
website this one was done with just two
lights a beauty dish placed on camera
left with a sock diffuser and a halogen
Lowel total light on camera right to
light the background I went with a low
camera angle on this one to create
additional drama and place the model in
front of a dark red seamless paper
backdrop the shot was made with an 85
millimeter f1 point-eight lens set at
f10 the shutter speed was also 1/5 of a
second and the ISO 100 just like the
previous shot I was moving the camera
from side to side rapidly as I took the
photo this image also required very
little post so there you go you may have
seen other tutorials about using shutter
drag for outdoor portraits but here's a
way that you can use that same technique
creatively in a studio setting as always
gain the possibilities are only limited
by your own imagination so I hope that
sparks some ideas for you take this idea
and run with it and go create and show
me what you come up with
don't forget your best shot it's your
next shot so keep learning keep thinking
and keep shooting adios
[Music]
