Early Morning Swimmers, a Man Called Neptune and Matching the Shadows

I was down on the beach at Lyme Regis at 7 yesterday morning for the next set of portraits for my “I am Lyme” project, this time with early morning sea swimmers, Mary and Christine; Mary runs the Axminster and Lyme Regis Cancer Support, and Christine, an artist and also the wife of Harry May, one of the fishermen I photographed a good few weeks back.

Waiting for them to come out

Low tide had been at around half four, and we were shooting at seven, so the sea was on its way back in but still a fair way out, so I waited until they'd had their swim and photographed the two of them together right on the water's edge, wet hair and robes.

Christine and Mary

My dear friend Steve Healy came along to help out and did a top job holding the light, which meant I could spend the time talking to Mary and Christine rather than fiddling about with a stand.

And then Neptune turned up

This is the part I couldn't have planned.

While we were shooting, Mary and Christine spotted a chap they knew coming out of the sea and pointed him out to me; Nick, known affectionately as Neptune, another early morning sea swimmer that has done so pretty much his entire life of 83 years; yeah I know what you’re thinking “He’s 83??” Yep, looks amazing huh. I guess there’s something in this sea swimming.

Nick aka Neptune

Anyway, they called him over and he was keen from the off, which always helps. For him though it had to be in the water, because anywhere else would have been wrong, so it was trainers off, trousers rolled up and in I went. Mary took over the light for that one, stood in the sea alongside me, and it was done in a handful of frames.

What I used

• the Westcott FJ800 strobe

• the Westcott Rapid Box, 3ft by 4ft softbox

• the Fujifilm X-T5 with the 33mm f/1.4 WR lens

• the Westcott XT1-M wireless trigger

That's the lot, and you'll notice there's no neutral density filter on that list.

The settings, and why there's no ND filter

Normally on the seafront I'd have one on to keep the shutter speed within sync while I'm shooting wide open, and to hold on to the detail in the sky. This morning was properly overcast though, so the sky was doing nothing dramatic and there was nothing to rescue. The grey did the job for me.

My Fujifilm X-T5 was in Manual with the following settings used to “set the scene” …

1/160 sec, f/4, ISO 100, with the 33mm giving me roughly the 50mm equivalent on the X-T5.

For the flash, the FJ800 went into TTL first, purely to get the exposure right on the skin, and once it was there I locked it in using the TTL to manual function, which I keep banging on about. From that point on it fires exactly the same every single frame, so nothing shifts as I move around or recompose. It takes seconds to do, and on a morning when your subjects have just got out of the sea, seconds matter.

Matching the shadows, which is the bit most people miss

The softbox was in as close as I could physically get it, just out of frame, and that was a deliberate decision rather than habit.

When you're using flash outdoors, most of the attention goes on balancing the flash with the ambient, so the two brightnesses sit together and it doesn't look lit. That's only half of it. You also have to match the quality of the light, meaning the shadows your flash makes need to look like the shadows already in the scene, whether those are hard or soft.

Yesterday morning was flat and overcast, so the light on everything around us was very soft, with shadows that were barely there. If I'd lit Mary and Christine with something small, or with a big modifier pulled back a long way, I'd have put a harder shadow on their faces than anything else in the frame had. The eye picks that up straight away, even when the person looking can't tell you what's wrong with it. It's one of the biggest giveaways that a flash was used.

So a 3ft by 4ft box, in tight, giving light almost as soft as the morning itself. On a hard, bright day I'd want the opposite, something that puts a shadow on the face with an edge to it, because that's what the sun is doing to everything else.

It's worth paying as much attention to that as you do to which modifier you own. Same softbox, wrong distance, and the picture tells on you.

BIG Thanks to Steve for holding the light all morning, to Mary for taking over when I waded in, and to Christine and Nick for being so game about the whole thing.

Latest Wex Roadshow Locations and Something That Stuck With Me

The last few days took me out on the road for the next two dates of the Wex Photo Video Roadshow, first at Milton Keynes and then up to Nottingham. Two very different days, and both of them a lot of fun.

Milton Keynes was the testing one. It's a relatively small store, so there was no space indoors to set up for my bit showing how I take portraits with minimal kit in a small space, which meant being out the front of the store, under a gazebo, in 34 degrees.

Working under a gazebo in the sun

It was hot, and on top of that we had the sun shifting round through the day and bright light coming in under the edge of the gazebo.

So the light was never quite the same for very long.

I had good company out there though, with my friend Carly from BenQ UK and my friend Dominic from Epson both under the gazebo with me.

Carly from BenQ UK

I actually really enjoyed it; it kept me on my toes and it kept making me adapt, and more than that, it showed something I think is worth showing; whatever the environment, you can still make a good portrait … you just work with what you've got in front of you.

It was good to be able to talk people through the technical side of that, but also the other half of it, which is how I zone in on somebody so that all their focus is on me; voice, mannerisms, the way I talk to someone while I’m working. That's what helps them relax.

The people who sat in front of the camera

I wasn't photographing models over the two days, II was photographing whoever had come along and wanted to know more about what I do, which for me, is always the better way to do it.

My friend Mick Hampson came along at Milton Keynes and I got a portrait of him that he’s really happy with. There was also a lady called Deborah, a photographer herself, who hates having her picture taken, but she's seen her portrait since getting home and she's really pleased with it, which is just wonderful to hear.

Mick with one of the other portraits I took of him

Then after Milton Keynes I had a lovely dinner with good friends Mick and Ian Munro before setting off up the road to Nottingham.

Nottingham, and the luxury of air conditioning

Nottingham is a much bigger store, so this time I was actually inside, with air conditioning, which after the day before, that felt like a proper treat.

Great day again, and lots of pictures taken, including one of a member of staff called Sam.

I distinctly remember a lovely guy by the name of Kevin, who came along and told me straight out that he doesn't think he's very photogenic.

We got a black and white portrait of him looking away from the camera, a bit moodier, a bit more contemplative, which he's now seen and he's really happy with.

He said in an email reply that it's encouraged him to want to get back into taking portraits himself.

That sort of thing is why I do these days.

The bit that stayed with me

There was a chap at Nottingham who'd clearly been doing photography a long time. We got talking, and I invited him to take a seat so I could photograph him. His wife sat down instead, which was lovely.

While we were there, a friend of his came over and said to him, “oh, I'm surprised you're here, you already know how to do all this”, and he meant the setup, the lighting, all the technical side of it.

That stuck with me, because that's not what portrait photography is about.

Yes, it's important to have nice light on someone, light that complements them or creates the mood you're after, but the most important thing of all is the person in front of the camera.

Somewhere along the line, that chap's priorities had turned a hundred and eighty degrees, and the kit and the setup had ended up mattering more than the person sat in the chair.

It's the point I made over both days, and it's the one I'd want anyone to take away from this:

“If someone looks uncomfortable on camera, they will look uncomfortable in good light and in bad light. It makes no difference. So helping them become comfortable is the most important thing of all.”

Portrait, retouch, print, all in one go

The thing I enjoyed most over the two days was being able to show the whole process end to end, and that came down to teaming up with BenQ and Epson.

At Milton Keynes it worked like this…

I'd take a portrait, then bring everyone round the laptop, which was hooked up to the BenQ SW272U, the same monitor I use day to day at home. I'd talk through the edit as I was doing it, with people stood there watching it happen. Then I'd hand it over to Dominic, who printed it out on a matt fine art paper.

We did the same at Nottingham, although Carly wasn't there for that one, so I was editing on my MacBook Pro screen and then passing the files to Dominic to print.

Somebody could sit for a portrait, watch it being retouched, and then hold a print of themselves in their hands, all within a few minutes. People really loved seeing that hands-on, and clearly something people want more of.

The kit

Nothing complicated, and all of it small enough to go in the car for two locations:

• Fujifilm X-T5 and GFX 100S II

• Westcott FJ100 strobe

• Westcott Rapid Box Switch, the medium Octa

• Westcott X-Drop Pro background

That's the lot, and portability was the whole point of it.

The new FJ100 Storebe from Westcott perfromed flawlessly … and didn’t need a signle charge. In fact I doubt I’ll be charging it for the remaining tour dates.

---

where I'm off to next

Both teams at Milton Keynes and Nottingham were incredibly engaging and so welcoming, and there was a real buzz about both days, so a HUGE thank you to them.

Norwich is next, later this week; quite a drive for me but I’m really looking forward to it, so if you’re in the area … I’ll see you there ( LINK )

Photographing "Beach House Café Jason" for I am Lyme

I was up and out at 4.30 last Sunday morning to take an early morning sunrise photograph of a chap called Jason down on the seafront for my "I Am Lyme" project.

Jason is a well known face around Lyme Regis. Everyone knows him and everyone comments about him being such a kind, gentle soul. We chose The Beach House Cafe right on the front as the place to photograph him as he’s great friends of the owners.

I've seen him loads of times, always a “Good morning”, and the odd bit of chat, nothing much more than that, but I've wanted to photograph him for a good while.

Turns out somebody else I'm shooting for the project soon had already mentioned it to him. So on the Saturday, when I was out with my friend Steve Healy and we happened to see him, we got chatting about the project and I asked him there and then. He was more than happy to be involved, and it was Jason who suggested six o'clock the following morning. So that's what we did.

Sitting down before picking the camera up

I got down there good and early and was set up by 5.30am, and before I even picked the camera up we sat and chatted, talking about all sorts.

That's when he told me he isn't originally from Lyme Regis; he's from Southampton, and a few years ago he was cycling round the world, all over India and Thailand, and he was making his way round the UK when he stopped off here and never left. He got the job at the cafe pretty much the next day and has run it ever since for the elderly couple who own it.

At one point in the conversation he also opened up about some fairly serious medical problems he's had to deal with in the not too distant past. It's not my story to tell so I'll leave it there, but it really struck me … you just never know what somebody has been through.

Taking the portraits

Once he'd finished setting up, that's when we started taking some portrait shots; all very slow paced with no rush at all, which was lovely.

It was genuinely a completely relaxing experience and that's exactly what I'm loving about the "I Am Lyme" project, much the same as I did with the veterans work. By sitting and chatting with people you get to know them a bit, you understand them a bit more, and I genuinely believe that comes through when you take their portrait.

The thing that really got me though was how many people said good morning to him while we were stood there. I honestly lost count. Everybody knows Jason.

The kit I used

Nothing complicated, and nothing I haven't used a hundred times before:

• Fujifilm X-T5

• Fujifilm XF 33mm f/1.4 R LM WR

• Westcott FJ800

• Westcott Rapid Box Switch Octa, 3ft x 4ft

• Westcott XT-1M remote trigger

• Tethered into Capture One Mobile on the iPad

Settings were ISO 100, f/4.0 and 1/125 sec.

---

---

TTL to manual, and why I keep banging on about it

The flash side of it is the bit worth explaining, because it's the thing that makes a shoot like this so much calmer than it sounds.

It works like this.

I set the flash to TTL and take a frame, and the flash works out for itself what it reckons is the perfect exposure. All I have to do then is nudge it up or down on the dial on the remote until it's where I want it, and use the TTL to Manual function to lock that power in.

That's it. Pretty much one shot and the flash exposure is bang on and we're good to go.

From then on the flash fires at exactly the same power every single frame, so nothing is quietly drifting about while I'm working, and that's really the whole point of it for me. It keeps the technical side of the photography simple and quick, so as a portrait photographer my time gets spent engaging with the person in front of my camera instead of being distracted by the tech.

For anyone who's been put off by the idea of manual flash, it's a lovely way in as well, because you're letting the flash do the maths and then simply keeping the answer.

The ambient was the interesting part that morning.

The rising sun was over to camera right and it kept appearing and then going back behind the clouds, so the light was changing every couple of minutes. Rather than chase it, I set my camera for the ambient with the sun behind cloud and then only took photographs when it was behind cloud. Wait, shoot, wait again.

It sounds like a faff but it isn't. It meant the ambient light was consistent, and because the flash power was locked in manual, that was consistent too. Same background, same light on his face, frame after frame.

The print

I'll be getting Jason's print to him in the next few days, which is the bit of this project I look forward to most. Handing somebody a print of themselves in person is a very different thing to sending them a file, and it's become the part of "I Am Lyme" that I wouldn't skip for anything.

I’ll make sure to grab a picture of Jason with his print and share it.

The New Westcott FJ100 and How It Compares to the Profoto A2

Westcott have announced the FJ100 today, and there are actually two of them; there's a speedlite and there's an off camera strobe.

It's the strobe I want to talk about here, partly because it's the more interesting of the two, and partly because it lands right on top of a light a lot of people already have strong opinions about.

The headline is simple enough … hundred watt seconds, a colour touchscreen, a removable battery that charges over USB-C, and a body small enough to disappear into a jacket pocket, and Westcott are selling it at £217 plus VAT.

A hundred watt seconds in something that size

The thing worth sitting with for a moment is that number; a hundred watt seconds is proper output. It's not a speedlite pretending, it's a strobe, and it's arriving in a housing that measures about 16 by 13 by 8 centimetres and weighs 700 grams with the battery in.

The whole design brief here was clearly footprint.

The spec sheet has the usual things you'd want and a few you might not expect at this size …

There's a modelling lamp. There's zoom control running from 24mm all the way out to 200mm. There's stroboscopic mode. HSS up to 1/8000th, TTL and manual, front and rear curtain, and a freeze mode that shortens the flash duration when you need it. It works as both a host and a client on the FJ wireless system, so it'll trigger your other lights or be triggered by them.

The battery is the bit that matters

700 full power flashes on one charge.

Of everything on the spec sheet, that's the one that changes how you actually work.

700 at full power means a wedding day, or an event, or a long portrait session, without the moment where you glance at the battery icon and start quietly doing sums about ISO.

It charges over USB-C, which means a power bank in your pocket, or a laptop, or the back of the car. You can run it off mains as well, so it does studio duty without eating charge cycles.

And it's the same battery family as the FJ80, so if you've already got a drawer of those, they carry straight over.

The touchscreen

The screen is crystal clear. The screens on the other FJ units are very clear anyway and easy to read even in bright sunlight, but this one is a noticeable step up.

That matters more than it sounds like it should. You're reading power values at arm's length, often in bright light, and usually in a hurry.

The Octa 15 and what goes on the front

Alongside the light there's a new Octa 15, a 15 inch softbox that clicks open in one motion and comes with the grid in the box. It's the same twist lock mount you already know from the FJ80, so existing Westcott twist lock modifiers go straight on.

For anything larger there's the S2 bracket, which is designed so the weight sits correctly through the stand rather than hanging off the light itself. That's what lets you put a proper sized box on the front of something this small, and it means my favourite 3' x 4' is still on the table.

The Creative Pack gels drop straight on the front.

How it compares to the Profoto A2

This is the comparison everybody's going to make, so let's make it properly. The A2 is Profoto's 100 watt second light, and it's £699.

Same wattage. Roughly three times the money.

A few of those deserve a sentence rather than a row.

The modelling lamp difference is the one worth pausing on. Profoto's runs at 3500 K, which is warm, and nowhere near their own flash at 5800 K. Westcott's is 5500 K, essentially daylight, and close enough to its own flash to be useful. One is for judging where your shadows fall, the other you could actually shoot with.

The zoom is the clearest gap. The A2 doesn't zoom at all.

The weight is the odd one. The Profoto is genuinely the smaller light being about the size of a drinks can and the Westcott about the size of a regular coffee mug, but with the battery in and the stand adapter on, which is how you'd actually use it, it comes out at 773 grams against the Westcott's 700. The smaller light is the heavier one.

But none of that is three times the money's worth of difference, and the battery gap runs the other way by a long distance.

Where I'll be with it

I'm looking forward to getting out and shooting with this one properly, and there's a video coming very soon showing it in action, so do keep an eye out for that.

I'll have it with me at all of the Wex Roadshows ( LINK ) I'm on as well. If you're coming to one, come and find me and have a play with it yourself. Pick it up, put it on a modifier, fire it at something. That's a far better way to work out whether a light suits you than any spec sheet is going to manage, mine included.

The travelling is the part I'm quietly pleased about. I've got flights over to Belfast and up to Glasgow coming up, and something this size just goes in the bag without a second thought. Anyone who's wrestled a full sized strobe through an airport will know exactly why that matters.

A hundred watt seconds, a touchscreen, USB-C charging and 700 full power flashes at £217 plus VAT.; on paper that's a lot of light for the money

WeX Manchester, Portraits and a Long Overdue Catch Up

Last week took me up to Manchester for the next leg of the Wex Summer Roadshow, and what a great couple of days it turned out to be.

I travelled up the day before so I could arrive fresh rather than rolling in as the shutters were going up, which is always the better way to do it when the store is a few hours away.

Good company for the journey too, but more on that shortly.

Manchester is a great store as well. There's a lot going on in there, plenty of space, and a real buzz about the place from the moment the doors opened.

The team at Wex Manchester

I have to give a mention to Guy, the store manager, who was just so incredibly welcoming from the off. The whole team were brilliant, friendly and dynamic and genuinely engaging with everybody who came through the door.

Photo by Ben Kapur

It's one of those things you notice when you visit a lot of different places. You can always see how the person leading a team influences the team itself, and Manchester is a really good example of that. Great atmosphere, great people.

Portraits on the shopfloor

As with the other roadshow dates, I spent the day on the shopfloor doing what I always do, which is classic portraits with minimal kit. Nothing that needs a studio or half a van to transport.

Here's what I took along this time:

• the Westcott X-Drop Pro background system

• my vintage grey backdrop

• the Westcott FJ400 II

• the Westcott X-T1M multi-brand remote trigger

• my Fuji

That vintage grey backdrop gets a lot of attention wherever I take it, and Manchester was no different. Loads of people came over to ask about it, which is always great to see, because it's such a big part of the look and yet it's the least technical thing in the bag.

What struck me at Manchester was how many people came over specifically to ask how I do the portraits. Not just what I use, but how it all fits together and why it looks the way it does. So we shot quite a few portraits across the day, and I'm really grateful to everyone who was kind enough to stand or sit in front of my camera for me.

I even edited a handful of them and emailed them across afterwards, which is always a nice way to round things off. There's something about handing somebody a finished portrait rather than just a snap on the back of a screen.

TTL to manual, and why I keep banging on about it

The thing that got the biggest reaction, as it has done at every stop, is the TTL to manual function on the X-T1M trigger.

It works like this. You take one shot in TTL and let the camera and flash sort the exposure out between them. With the Fuji, if you've got face detection and eye focus switched on, that's largely where it's metering from, so it's exposing for the skin, which is exactly what you want for a portrait. Have a quick look, make any small adjustment you fancy, then hold down the group A button on the trigger. It flips over into manual and remembers the power it was using in TTL.

That's it. One shot to get you there, and from that point on every frame is the same consistent exposure, shot after shot. No light meter, no guessing and chimping your way towards it.

For anyone who's been put off by the idea of manual flash, it's a lovely way in; you get the consistency of manual without having to do the maths first. It was great fun showing people how it worked and watching the penny drop.

Filming it all

I travelled up with Ben Kapur, who lives locally to me and is filming the majority of the roadshow dates and producing the content.

Ben's an incredible videographer. He shoots for some seriously high end clients, and the speed he turns work around at is something else. He's also a photographer, but it's the video work that really makes you sit up.

One evening he sat me down and showed me how he works in DaVinci Resolve, and I think that's now going to be my video editor of choice. The speed of it and the functionality on offer were enough to convince me on the spot.

An overdue catch up

The other highlight was getting to meet up with my great friend Dave Jagger, who I've known for a good number of years now through photography.

We got to spend some proper quality time together during the day and then headed out in the evening as well. It was very much overdue, and it was lovely to just sit and catch up properly rather than the usual quick hello at a trade show. Those days are worth the drive on their own.

Then it was the drive back home the following day, tired but with that good kind of tired you get after a day where everything just worked.

Where I'll be next

The roadshow rolls on, and here's where I'll be for the remaining dates:

• Milton Keynes, 14th August

• Nottingham, 15th August

• Norwich, 21st August

• Belfast, 3rd September

• Glasgow, 11th and 12th September

Photo by Ben Kapur

If you're anywhere near one of those, do come along and say hello. Entry is free, and you'll find me on the shopfloor throughout the day with the backdrop up and the light on, so there's no need to book anything or wait for a set time slot. Just wander over.

And if you fancy being in front of the camera, bring it on!

Here’s the ( LINK )

Hopefully see you there,
Glyn

TTL Flash: What It Is, How It Works, and How I Use It

TTL has a bit of a reputation. People find it unpredictable, they get one shot that looks perfect and the next one that looks nothing like it, and they quietly go back to manual and never touch it again.

I understand why, but it's worth persevering, because TTL is not actually unpredictable. It's very consistent at doing the one thing it was built to do. The trick is understanding what that one thing is, and knowing when it's the wrong thing so you can step in. Once you have that, TTL stops being a mystery and becomes a genuinely useful tool.

So here is the whole thing in plain language.

What TTL is

TTL stands for Through The Lens; it's an automatic mode for your flash.

Instead of you deciding how much power the flash puts out, the camera and flash work it out for you, aiming to give your subject a sensible exposure.

The single most important thing to understand from the start is this … TTL is a flash mode, not a camera mode. It decides flash power; it does not decide your shutter speed, your aperture or your ISO. Those are still yours. Hold onto that, because it answers most of the questions people have about what overrides what.

How it works on a digital camera

On a digital camera, TTL works using a pre-flash.

When you press the shutter, the flash fires a quick, low burst of light a fraction of a second before the picture is actually taken. That burst bounces off your subject, comes back through the lens, and lands on the camera's metering sensor. The camera reads how much light came back, works out how much the real flash needs to put out, then fires the main flash at that power as the shutter opens. All of it happens in a few thousandths of a second, so in normal use you never see the pre-flash as a separate pop.

It works this way for a reason. On film, the camera could read the light reflecting off the film surface during the actual exposure and cut the flash the moment it had enough. A digital sensor is not reflective enough to be read like that, so the pre-flash method replaced it. Every current system does this, whether it's Canon, Nikon, Sony or Fujifilm. They all fire a pre-flash to measure before the shot rather than during it.

What the metering actually is

This is the part that explains nearly every frustration people have with TTL.

TTL metering is reflective metering. It measures light bouncing back off your subject, and it has no idea what it's looking at. It cannot tell a white wedding dress from a black dinner jacket. All it knows is how much light came back, and its goal is always the same. It wants to render whatever it measured as a mid-tone, a medium grey.

That works beautifully when your subject is roughly average in tone; it falls apart when it's not. Point it at something white and bright and it assumes plenty of light is coming back, so it holds the power down and the white comes out grey and underexposed. Point it at something dark and it assumes too little is coming back, so it pushes the power up and the dark comes out washed and overexposed.

So TTL is not unreliable; it's reliably aiming for grey. The skill is knowing when grey is the wrong target and telling it so, which you do with Flash Exposure Compensation. FEC adjusts only the flash output and leaves your ambient exposure alone. White subject looking muddy, dial in some positive FEC; dark subject blowing out, dial in some negative. In real use it tends to live somewhere between minus two and plus two stops depending on the subject and the scene. There is no single setting that works every time, because there are too many variables. It's an educated adjustment, and the back of the screen tells you when you have it right.

Do your other camera settings override TTL?

They do not override it, but they absolutely shape what it does, and this is the mental model worth having.

Your aperture and ISO set the box TTL has to work inside. Open the aperture or raise the ISO and TTL simply needs less power to get there. Stop down or drop the ISO and it needs more. TTL adapts to your settings, it does not fight them. You can back it into a corner though. Shoot at a very narrow aperture and very low ISO and the flash may need more power than it physically has, so you get underexposure even at full output. When that happens the answer is not more compensation, it's changing your aperture or ISO to bring the flash back into range.

Shutter speed is the odd one out, because within your sync speed it does not change the flash exposure at all. It changes how much of the existing room light or daylight you let in around the flash. That is why I think of shutter speed as the ambient dial and flash power as the subject dial. They are largely independent, and that independence is what makes flash so controllable once it clicks.

If your camera is in manual, does that override TTL?

No, and this catches a lot of people out.

Your camera's exposure mode, whether that is Manual, Aperture Priority or Program, and your flash's metering mode, TTL or manual, are two separate systems. You can have the camera in full manual and the flash still in TTL, and the flash will happily keep metering with its pre-flash and adjusting its own power shot to shot.

That combination is actually one of the most useful ways to work. Camera in manual gives you a fixed, deliberate ambient exposure that will not drift between frames. Flash in TTL then tops up the subject automatically as you move around. Change your shutter speed and the background gets brighter or darker while the subject stays put. Change your aperture and TTL quietly compensates to keep the subject exposed. You get consistency in the ambient and convenience in the flash at the same time.

The trap is the opposite setup, camera in Program or Aperture Priority with TTL as your main light. There the camera keeps shifting your shutter speed between frames, your ambient drifts, and nothing feels consistent. If you want predictability, put the camera in manual and let TTL handle only the flash.

How I actually use TTL, and why I don't carry a light meter

Here is the bit that ties all of this together into something practical, because it's exactly how I work.

I shoot the Westcott FJ system, and my trigger is a universal, multi-brand unit, so the same trigger sits on top of whatever camera I am using rather than being locked to one brand. That is handy in itself, but the feature I lean on most is the TTL to Manual carry-over.

In TTL the flash recalculates its power for every single frame. Convenient, but it means the power can wobble slightly from shot to shot as the metering reacts to tiny changes in the scene. For portraits I am going to retouch as a series, I do not want that; I want every frame identical.

So my routine is simple. I set the flash to TTL and take a shot to get a good base exposure in seconds. Then I hit the TTL to manual function, which carries that exact TTL power output straight over into manual. From there the power is locked. If I want it a touch brighter or darker I nudge it from that known starting point, and once I am happy every single frame fires at precisely the same output. Nothing drifts.

That is the reason I do not carry a handheld light meter. TTL gets me to the right ballpark faster than metering ever would, the carry-over locks it in, and my own eyes on the back of the screen do the fine tuning. For the way I shoot, a meter would just be an extra thing to hold.

Worth knowing if you are not on Westcott, this is not a Westcott-only idea. Some other brands have their own equivalent technology, so whatever system you are on, it's worth checking whether you already have this feature sitting there unused. It's one of those things that quietly changes how you work once you start using it.

A word on Fuji face and eye detection

I shoot Fuji, and a question I get asked a lot is whether having face and eye detection switched on matters when you are using flash. It does, and in a good way.

Start with the obvious. Face and eye detection's main job is autofocus, and that alone is reason to leave it on. Eye detection is really just face detection refined to lock onto the eye, which is exactly where you want critical focus on a portrait.

Here is the part people miss. On Fuji, TTL meters the flash essentially the same way the camera meters ambient light. And when face detection is active, the camera biases that metering towards the detected face, to the point where it takes over from whatever metering mode you had selected. Put those two facts together and you get something genuinely useful. With a face detected, your TTL flash exposure is weighted towards exposing that face correctly, rather than being thrown off by a very bright or very dark background behind it.

In practice that means better, more consistent skin exposure straight out of camera when you are working quickly in TTL. It's not a pure spot reading off the face, it's more of a blend under the bonnet, and Fuji do not spell out the exact recipe, but the result is reliable and it works in your favour for portraits.

Two things to keep in mind. First, because face detection takes over your metering, do not rely on the Fuji spot meter for an ambient reading while it's active, because a detected face will quietly override it. If you want a spot reading off a specific tone, take it with detection off, then switch detection back on for the shoot. Second, none of this applies once your flash is in manual power. If you have locked your power in manual, including straight after the TTL to manual carry-over above, the flash fires at the set power regardless, and detection is back to doing nothing but focus. Which, for a controlled portrait, is exactly what you want anyway.

wrapping up

TTL is an automatic flash mode that sets flash power and nothing else. On digital it uses a pre-flash to measure light bounced back through the lens, then fires the main flash to match. It always aims to make what it measured a mid grey, so it gets fooled by very light or very dark subjects, and FEC is how you correct that. Your aperture and ISO define the box it works inside, shutter speed handles your ambient, and TTL adapts rather than getting overridden. Putting your camera in manual does not switch TTL off, and camera manual paired with flash TTL is a strong, consistent way to work. And if your kit has a TTL to manual carry-over, use it, because it gives you the speed of TTL and the consistency of manual in one move.

Get those few ideas straight and TTL stops being the thing you avoid and becomes another tool you can reach for when it suits the shot.

Minimal Kit, Timeless Portraits with WeX in Bristol and Birmingham

The last few days have been brilliant.

Last Thursday, the 23rd July, I was over in Bristol for the next leg of the Wex Summer Road Show, and then on the Friday and Saturday, the 24th and 25th July, I was up at the Wex store in Birmingham.

The idea behind these days is simple. I'm there on the shop floor, all day, showing people how I take classic, timeless portraits using minimal kit in a limited space, and when I say limited space, I really do mean it. Being on the shop floor, that's genuinely all the room I've got, which is exactly what makes it so authentic. There's no hiding behind a studio setup. It's just me, a small bit of kit, and whatever space I can carve out.

The kit I've been using is the same as I've had for a while now:

• X-Drop Pro Background

• My signature vintage grey backdrop

• One light … either the FJ250 or the FJ400 from Westcott

• White / Silver Reflector

• My Fuji X-T5

• Medium RapidBox Switch Octa from Westcott (36”)

That's it.

That's the whole point.

Showing people that you don't need a room full of gear to take a portrait you'll be proud of.

It's been a fantastic few days. I took some great portraits of friends along the way, and on the Thursday over at Bristol I grabbed Andre from Lumix for a slightly different kind of portrait, again using just that one light.

The Friday at Birmingham was really busy, and it turned into a day of constant repeat mini workshops, which I absolutely loved. Taking people through the process from scratch is my favourite part. So many of the attendees had never used flash, so being able to simplify it right down so it just clicks for them is such a good feeling. You can actually see the light bulb go on in their eyes when they get it.

One moment that stuck with me was chatting to a couple of gentlemen and walking them through it all. One of them handed me his camera, a Canon 200D with a kit lens on it.

Because the Westcott X-T1 M is a multi-brand trigger, I could switch it over from Fuji to Canon, pop it straight onto his camera, and take a portrait of his friend using that same single light. I edited the shots afterwards and sent them over, and they were over the moon with them. That's the bit that makes these days worth it.

The team at Wex

I also have to give a special mention to the staff, and in particular the team at Wex in Birmingham. They were so welcoming, so friendly and genuinely caring, and it made the whole couple of days an absolute pleasure.

Adele, the store manager is a sweetheart. She was incredibly attentive, constantly making sure everything was running smoothly. She even went so far as to sort out a salad for me on the second day, having picked up that I'm quite particular about the food I eat. That kind of thoughtfulness is just brilliant, and it doesn't go unnoticed.

Rees too, who I believe looks after sales for Wex across the south of the UK, was super friendly and attentive throughout … a lovely guy! Honestly, I couldn't have wished for more.

The TTL question

One thing that's come up again and again on this road show is how surprised people are that I'm using TTL with the flash.

Here's how it works. My camera stays in manual, so I can set the scene and get rid of any unnecessary ambient light, which really matters in the stores with all the mixed lighting going on, but the flash itself is on TTL.

TTL does all the hard work of calculating how much flash power you need. I take a shot, the TTL tells me what it thinks it needs, and I make an adjustment from there.

Then comes the really clever part.

Using the Westcott trigger, I use the TTL to Manual function and the trigger shows me exactly what the power output is. Once that's locked in, I can carry on shooting and get the exact same flash power shot after shot after shot. It's such a great way to work and removes any need for a flashmeter.

This coming week I'm in Manchester, and I might even dive a little deeper into that TTL to manual setting, because it's genuinely useful.

I'm loving this road show.

Loving meeting the people, and loving seeing folks get excited about something creative in their lives.

Bring it on.

Here’s a ( LINK ) to the remaining road show dates and locations … it would be awesome to see you there!

I Am Lyme: Nicola of Kathrens Rare Knitwear, Lyme Regis

Last week I was out shooting another portrait for my I Am Lyme project, this time with the wonderful Nicola Kathren, who owns Kathrens Rare Knitwear on Coombe Street in Lyme Regis.

I'd known of Nicola for ages but we'd never actually met, until Sarah from the Town Mill Bakery introduced us a week or so ago while I was there grabbing some breakfast. We hit it off straight away, got a shoot organised, and on the day my mate Anthony Crothers drove over from South Wales to lend a hand.

The idea

Nicola has this big desk where she sits with her sewing machine and all her day-to-day bits around her, so it made sense to photograph her right there seeing as I Am Lyme is about the people who make this town what it is; an environmental portrait of her in her own space, doing what she does, felt exactly right.

The setup

Nicola’s desk sits right by the shop's big front window, which looks straight out onto the narrow road outside. When the light comes through that window it's fantastic, but at the time we were shooting there just wasn't enough of it. It's a narrow street with tall buildings opposite, so they block a fair bit of the natural light, and at midday the position of the sun meant the shop front was sitting in shadow for much of the time.

The first challenge was actually the window display; we had to carefully reposition the mannequins so as not to disturb it, while still leaving enough of a gap for the light to come through.

Keeping things simple, I went with one light, but this time I put it outside, pressed against the window, essentially to create my own window light. The direction of that natural window light and what it did was absolutely stunning; I just needed more of it.

So I set up the Westcott Rapid Box 4x3 softbox and the Westcott FJ800 on the pavement, firing in, to enhance the direction that was already there rather than fight it, so it still read as natural, even though it was being lit.

Nicola's camera-right side needed a little lift, so Anthony stood just out of frame holding up a white reflector to bounce a touch more of that softbox light back onto her. I tried the silver side first, but it was too much … it flattened everything out and almost removed the shadows completely. The white gave just the gentle lift I was after.

The shoot

It only took a few minutes to get everything up and running, so Nicola sat at her sewing machine and we just chatted. It felt like a conversation with the odd frame grabbed along the way, rather than a "shoot."

Then, in a lull, she rested her head against her hand and looked completely relaxed. That was the moment, and it came about naturally rather than being posed.

I was aiming the camera at Nicola through a gap in the big overhanging fern because I really wanted to add some layers to the image and show exactly the creative environment she works in.

Shot on the 33mm on my Fuji X-T5 (50mm equivalent), on a tripod, tethered into Capture One Mobile so I could see everything coming through as we went. Start to finish, about 45 minutes.

A brilliant shoot with a wonderful person.

What's next?

Keep ‘em peeld because very soon the I Am Lyme website will GO LIVE with the dates organised for the exhibiton in Summer 2027, to be held in the Town Mill Gallery.

Onwards and upwards 😃

🚨 Check out Kathrens Rare Knitwear, Lyme Regis ( LINK )

Explained: HSS (High Speed Sync) versus ND when using Flash

High-Speed Sync, or HSS, is a flash mode that lets you use flash at shutter speeds faster than your camera's normal flash sync speed.

For most cameras, normal flash sync speed sits around:

1/160 sec, 1/200 sec or 1/250 sec

Go faster than that and HSS becomes essential.

What High-Speed Sync Actually Does

Normally, when you take a flash photo, the flash fires one quick burst of light while the shutter is fully open. At normal sync speeds, that works perfectly.

But push past your camera's sync speed and the shutter is no longer fully open at any single moment. Instead, a narrow slit travels across the sensor. If the flash fired just one burst at that point, only part of the frame would be lit, leaving you with a dark band across the image.

HSS solves this by making the flash pulse rapidly for the entire time that slit is travelling across the sensor. So instead of one big pop, you get lots of tiny rapid pulses instead.

Why I Use It

The main reason is simple: it lets you shoot with wider apertures in bright light.

Say you're outside on a sunny day and you want to shoot a portrait at f/2.8, f/2, or even f/1.4. That gives you shallow depth of field, a blurred background, nice separation, and that more polished portrait look.

The problem is, in bright daylight, a wide aperture often forces your shutter speed up to something like 1/1000 sec, 1/2000 sec, or even 1/4000 sec. Without HSS, your flash simply won't sync properly at those speeds. With it switched on, you can keep that wide-aperture look and still use off-camera flash.

What It's Really For

Here's where a lot of photographers get it wrong: HSS isn't really there to freeze action. That's a common misunderstanding.

Its real purpose is to give you control over ambient light while still using flash. It frees up your shutter speed, which means you can darken the background, hold onto detail in a bright sky, shoot wide open, and still light your subject properly with flash.

Put simply: HSS lets you make daylight behave itself.

How I Use It in Practice

A typical off-camera flash setup with HSS goes something like this.

1. Set your exposure for the background first

Start without flash. Choose your aperture, for example f/2.8, and set your ISO low, around ISO 100. Then adjust your shutter speed until the background looks the way you want it. In bright daylight, that might mean 1/1000 sec or faster.

At this point your subject is probably too dark. That's where the flash comes in.

2. Turn on HSS

You'll usually need to enable HSS on the flash trigger, the flash head, the camera's flash menu, or sometimes all three, depending on the system. With Westcott, Godox, Profoto, Canon, Nikon, Sony and so on, the exact menu or button differs, but the principle is the same. Look out for HSS, High-Speed Sync, FP Sync, or a lightning bolt with an H next to it.

3. Add flash to light your subject

Position your off-camera light where you want it. For portraits, I'll usually go for around 45 degrees to the subject, slightly above eye level, using a softbox, beauty dish or umbrella, and close enough to keep the light soft and powerful. Then adjust your flash power until your subject looks right.

4. Balance flash and ambient

Think of it this way: shutter speed controls the ambient light, flash power controls the light on your subject. In HSS, that's mostly true, but there's one important catch. Because HSS reduces flash power, very fast shutter speeds will also make your flash work a lot harder.

A Simple Example

You're photographing someone outdoors at golden hour, or in bright sun. You want a blurred background, a dramatic sky, and your subject nicely lit.

Settings might look like this:

• ISO 100

• f/2.8

• 1/2000 sec

• HSS turned on

• Flash in a softbox, off-camera

The shutter speed brings the bright background down. The flash brings your subject back up. That's HSS doing its job.

Why Not Just Use Normal Flash Sync?

At normal sync speed, say 1/200 sec, bright daylight might force you to use f/8, f/11 or even f/16. That gives you more depth of field, so the background is sharper.

That can work fine for some shots, but if you're after that more cinematic, shallow-depth portrait look, it becomes limiting fast. HSS removes that restriction entirely.

The Limitations of High-Speed Sync

HSS is brilliant, but it's not without trade-offs.

1. You lose flash power

This is the big one. Because the flash is pulsing rapidly rather than firing one full burst, the available power drops significantly. The faster your shutter speed, the more power you lose. At 1/4000 sec, your flash has nowhere near the effective reach it has at 1/200 sec.

2. You may need the flash closer

With less power available, you'll often need to bring the light in closer to your subject. That's not necessarily a bad thing, closer light is usually softer, but it can be a problem if you need to light someone from further away.

3. Battery drain is higher

HSS makes the flash work harder, which means more battery use, slower recycle times, more heat, and fewer shots per charge. Fine for a quick portrait session. Worth thinking about for fast-paced shoots, events, or long days.

4. It's not ideal for overpowering the sun

You can use HSS in bright sunlight, but if your goal is to completely overpower harsh midday sun, you need a genuinely powerful light. Small speedlights tend to struggle here. Something like a Westcott FJ400, or similar, is much better suited to the job.

5. It can be less efficient than an ND filter

An ND filter lets you keep your shutter speed at normal sync speed while still shooting wide open. For example:

• ISO 100

• f/2.8

• 1/200 sec

• ND filter fitted

• Flash at normal sync

This keeps far more flash power in reserve. So the real choice often comes down to this:

HSS is faster and simpler, with no filter needed. An ND filter gives you more flash power, but it's slower to work with.

HSS vs ND Filter

Use HSS when:

• you want to work quickly

• the light is changing

• you don't want to mess about with filters

• you're shooting portraits outdoors

• you need flexibility with shutter speed

• your flash has enough power to spare

Use an ND filter when:

• you need maximum flash power

• you're working in very bright conditions

• your flash is struggling to keep up

• you want to stay at normal sync speed

• you're happy taking a little more time

Neither is better than the other. They're just different tools for different jobs.

The Big Thing to Remember

High-Speed Sync is mainly about creative control. It lets you shoot with flash at fast shutter speeds so you can use wide apertures, darken the ambient light, hold onto detail in bright backgrounds, create separation, and light your subject properly outdoors.

The price you pay is reduced flash power. So the practical rule I stick to is this:

Use HSS when you need the shutter speed. Avoid it when you need maximum flash power.

That's HSS in a nutshell. It gives you freedom, but it charges you for it in flash output.

Portrait using a 55mm Prime and LED Lighting

I’m currently trying out a new portrait style for me using a different lens focal length than what I’ve used for a while now, and also adding in an additonal light to my usual one-light set up.

For some time I’ve used the Sony 85mm G Master lens with my Sony A7RIV and have and still do love it for the quality and sharpness of the files it produces. However I’m now going to be using a 55mm focal length … my Zeiss f/1.8 Prime Lens.

It’s hard to put into words what I’m really liking about the look the lens gives … it’s just different. Some would say that it gives a much more realistic ‘as the eyes see it’ look but I guess that also depends on how close to the subject you position yourself.

I also like how the focal length means you’re much closer to the subject, making the portraits much more intimate and revealing of the person being photographed ... if that makes sense.

I’m also, like I said, using an additional light with this new look I’m working on; both of which are LED Constant lights.

I’ve been using the 60W Westcott L60-B COB LED for a while now but a few days ago I received the new 120W L120-B COB LED; a slightly bigger unit with the advnatage that no adaptor is needed to fit any of my light modifiers.

So the portrait of my friend Anthony above, I took using one of the grey walls in my office as the background; here’s the set up showing the positon of the lights …

LIGHTING

Westcott L60-B COB LED fitted with a square Westcott Pocket Box Softbox rear and camera right and positioned so that it added both a bit of light onto the background but also a hint of light onto the camera right side of Anthony’s head.

Westcott L120-B COB LED fitted with the 24” Rapid Box Switch Softbox

Westcott 2-in-1 Reflector (silver and White) with silver side uppermost

*NOTE: If you’re looking to invest in Westcott Kit, then give me a shout and I’ll pass on a Discount Code

Westcott L120-B COB LED

Westcott 24” Rapid Box Switch Beauty Dish

Westcott Pocket Box Speedlight Softbox Kit

camera settings

• Aperture: f/5.6

• Shutter Speed: 1/60sec

• ISO: 1250

When taking Anthony’s portrait I was experimenting with different apertures to see hat I prefered for this new look; f/2.0 , f,4.0 , f/5.6 and actually liked the look of f/40 as with the 55m lens it gave a great depth of field with the tip of the nose in foucs and then from the ears losing focus.

However, I mistakenly left the camera in f/5.6 so during the retouching in Lightroom I used the Lens Blur to convincingly fake the depth of the field.

retouching in lightroom

The portrait I retouched using only Lightroom and I’ve added it into my Lightroom Community Profile Page …

When you go to my Lightroom Community Profile Page, click on the portrait and this will then take you to where you can see all of the retouching steps I did to the ‘out of camera’ file. You can also save the settings as a preset to use on your own images and even click on Remix to get access to a Smart Preview of my original file and have a go at retouching it yourself.