[scollins]

Originally Posted by rodi

#1 - obvious studio shot with lights

#2 - look at the light fall off on the background - it matches the face: that's a big long wall of a window. catch lights confirm. that natural light spill, it wraps smoothly and even.

#3 - i doubt they had a big enough softbox to light that scene so evenly and so soft. if you want to go off the catchlights, you'd think lightsource is coming from the right of frame, but it's not (no harsh light from that side on him). it's coming from above, the front and the flanks. they're outside somewhere on a cloudy day on a sidewalk or something.

#4 - in an alley or something obviously, close to the edge of a building @ the street (light fall off is smooth and gradual).

but more importantly- in all 3 of these, the depth of field is thin - they shot close to wide open and, inherently, a fast shutter. if they were balancing their lights (if they were to use them) with the sun/natural light, they would need a camera that could sync at high-speed (1/1,000+). and well, it looks like those client couldn't afford that type of budget (i.e.: Leica S2 $30k+ lenses and equipment). ;]
in order to sync and balance the sun on a budget, your 1/250th and needs an f/16 - and that means big powerful lights and huge depth of field.


phew.

Thanks! Always looking for opportunities to learn....


Now for a follow-up. Supposedly, based on the manual for my SB-600 flash and Nikon D300, I can sync at any speed up to the max shutter speed available.

High-Speed flash synchronization at your camera’s highest shutter speed is
now possible. In this mode, the Auto FP High-Speed Sync mode is
automatically set when the shutter speed exceeds the camera’s sync shutter
speed. This is useful when you want to use a wider aperture to achieve shallow
depth of field to blur the background.