Photo by Isaac Bauman When shooting outdoor action shots like mountain biking or skate boarding one great tool to keep in mind as you experiment is your flash. While an outdoor setting might not conjure images of brightly lit scenes in your mind the flip side of bright sunlight is that you can also end up with fairly dark shadows. Using a flash in these fast moving environments can help you achieve both well exposed images (using both the light of the flash to fill out shadows as well as the natural light in the scene) as well as some pretty cool effects if you shoot with slower shutter speeds. If you have control over the output of your flash (some point and shoots and most flash gun units allow this) experiment with a variety of different levels of output. You probably won’t need a full flash burst so pull it back a stop or two to get a more natural look. 4 Creative Techniques for Capturing Action with Your Flash Photo by tetsuo11 Check out some of the following 4 techniques which are illustrated in the shots above and below: 1. Slow Sync Flash Experiment with flash plus a slower shutter speed ( slow sync flash ) for shots that capture the movement of the moment in it’s natural ambient light as well as some frozen details and you could end up with some ‘wow shots’.

Using Flash in Action Photography