uncontrolable blinking

[katie h.]

In shooting weddings, I have come across the occasional person who

seemed to be blinking in every other photo, but this is a little

more challenging. I just did a portrait for a bride who is getting

married in Feb. I realized early on that we were having a blinking

problem but I had no idea to what extent...

 

I shot some MF no flash (most, but not all, turned out fine), some

MF with manual flash (60% blink rate) and some digital (sb800 on

d70, 95% blink rate when looking forward). And many of the ones

where her eyes weren't completely closed, they were half closed. We

have enough good ones for the portrait (mostly from the available

light) but I want to be as prepared for this situation as possible

for the wedding. It is an evening wedding so in most cases no flash

will not be an option. I tried the "ok, close your eyes and on 3

open them" but this could get tedious for the bride during the after

ceremony formals and it worked with mixed results. I understand

that the digital flash has preflash and may be causing her to

blink. Is there a way to turn that off? I can shoot 35mm but

anticipating some group shot head switching digital would be

better. Or would an older flash in manual on the d70 be better?

Please share any advice you have on equipment, technique or how to

approach this issue with the bride. Thanks!

 

Katie

[bruce_rubenstein]

You should be able to kill the preflash in a couple of ways. On all the Nikon film cameras, setting the sync to rear curtain stops the preflash. I would try this first, since if it works you retain TTL. For group shots you can always set the flash to Auto or Manual mode. Manual isn't a bad idea for formals since it isn't hard to establish exposure, using the histogram, and then all the shots will look the same because the same amount of flash is used on all the shots.

[todd1664878707]

I have come across the same thing in one person who sensed the preflash. He blinked in almost every picture with flash. Another trick to do is count out loud to three. Tell the bride to blink when she hears the word three. Give her a split second after three and shoot.

[Jerry_]

You have two choices:

 

 

 

1. Take a tripod and use Fuji film that can take 'mixed' light well (Superia 800 or 400.) Or find the right color temp setting on your digital camera. ...don't use the flash for half the formals.

 

 

 

2. Find a decent video light, and bounce it into a umbrella, giving you constant light for the formals. The use of your digital camera should handle the lighting without a hitch.

[Philip Freedman]

I have used an old SB22s with my D70, setting it on "A" and setting the camera on manual (1/500 at a suitable aperture). No pre-flash so no blink problem.

 

Philip

[steve_levine]

There are some interesting threads in the archives regarding this.

 

Use your viewfinder. With practice you will know when a blink occurs without seeing the film.

[timcorridan]

a tripod will let you fire a shot and look at her eyes at same time.

[picturesque]

Type "blinker" in the search function and these two will come up.

 

The bride is a "blinker"! by Kate Lowenstein (2005-10-13).

 

the blinker from hell by Stephen Seward (2005-06-07).

[frank_skomial]

Katie,

 

There was a comparison tests presented here of SB-800 used on D70, and on D2H, both with preflashes. D2H did not cause closed eye at all, while D70 was bad. This is not as much of a problem with SB-800 and the iTTL system, but more of the inferior electronic quality of the camera.(consumer grade versus professional grade).

 

Lets hope D200 will work better in this respect.

[andy m.]

<p><i>'Use your viewfinder. With practice you will know when a blink occurs without seeing the film'.</i><p>

 

How, considering the total black-out during exposure that occurs with an SLR? Am I missing something?<p>

 

BTW, some people blink during a significant majority of exposures, with flash or without, rangefinder, SLR (film or digital), or TLR. The 'count of 3 then open eyes' trick may be tedious, but shut-eye shots aren't too exciting, either.

[nico_.]

You can program the AEL/AFL-button to act as flash level (FV) lock (custom function 15). That means the preflash will fire when you press the button and the camera stores the calculated exposure until you press it again or the meter turns off. It's on pages 103-104 in your manual. This way you retain iTTL and avoid preflash blinking.

 

BTW: Rear curtain synchronisation does *not* cancel the preflashes on the D70 as one can easily verify by choosing a long exposure time.