Flash effects

I was playing with my camera the other day, trying to "get to know" the flash a

bit better, and I had an idea. What if one were to stop the lens down (or shoot

in less light, to make the exposure longer), set the shutter sync to first curtain,

and use the flash on the image while in focus but throw if out of focus for the

remainder of the exposure? I haven't done it on a tripod yet, but when I did it

hand-held there was a sort of halo (I really threw it out of focus) around what I

would presume would be a sharper subject had I used the tripod. Has

anyone every done this to soften an image of just for experimentation?

I does indeed produce a halo around the primary image, and softens the image as well. I've also tried this with a zoom lens and it produces some really strange effects. If the image in the foreground is shot against a very dark background, the image appears to be receding into the background if you zoom toward it (increase focal length) after firing the flash.

If your flashgun supports stroboscopic mode, using a zoom, but keeping focus, you might get some interesting effects, too.

<a href=mailto:uce@ftc.gov></a>

Which EOS camera do you have? Double-exposure focus blurring

is available as a standard feature of my EOS 1000FN (a.k.a.

REBEL SII).