Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 17: Sync Speed and Flash Duration

[geoffdoor]

yeah its really good but what was the aperture setting on the camera it was 1/ 1/2 of a second so what was the aperture i use a multiblitz 200 watt heads really good but i need a light meter because bruce jones stole it ...the fucking piss head knob head

[PHOT0GUY]

Not all cameras use a narrow slit at high speeds so they don't need to use power wasting multiple flash fp modes or special flashguns, so they can be used at all speeds with studio strobes too e.g. Nikon D40, D50

[MrOhrensausen]

The Video is great. Thank you.

Does this mean, that the first curtain always needs about 1/200'th of a second to fully open? And the shutter speed only tells the second curtain how long to wait to follow the first curtain? This would mean, that every picture needs at 1/200'th of a second in total.

Thanks Chris

[csohasri]

u realy helping me on photography...

[aoratosaspida]

beautiful!!!...quick question. you showed when you shot in the dark with 1/2 second shutter speed, you resulted freezing the movement. my understanding is that will never happen, especially when she is dancing like that. did i understand wrong? i tried but still blurry (handheld)

[PHOT0GUY]

@aoratosaspida it's the flash duration that freezes the action not the slow camera shutter speed.

[oevt]

Sad to see like a repetition before you were on Adorama. You alredy had given this class""........

[toshiroo]

fast question : I dont know well what a strobe does, but

if I use a cobra flash ( as 430 ex II) and active high speed sync, it will work same? whatever i am in a studio or outdoor

[lucasgaroto]

i'm seeing all the videos that you made. they are all great. but this one is the best, so far =)

thanks!

[lamyeechiu]

you have 114 likes and 0 dislike. impressive.

[kivilcim88]

Great video. I had just bought an SB-900 to make some strobist work at home and some of my pictures were completely black on different shutter speed and flash durations. I think I have started figuring it out now. Thank you!

[membio]

well, i understand that the camera doesn't capture any light without the flash, so the only light it will capture is the one coming from the flash, so because the duration of the flash is so little the camera will freeze that motion. What i really want to know is how i capture a fast action movement, like a girl dancing and at the same time, capture the ambient light, like on a bar or car workshop, that are usually very moody locations. What do i have to do to capture that ?

[tomekmisiewicz]

thanks 4 d vids, u xplainn everything so cleary

[maltijien]

Hi Mark. I have high speed sync on my speedlite. can this be used in this situation?

Also, where do I find flash duration info for my canon 580 ex ii?

thanks a lot ;)

[erics1959]

What about cameras that have high speed sync. How does this effect shutter shutter speed relative to flash sync.

[MrKhan65]

Mark, this is the best explanation of this concept i have found anywhere.

[VideoCast714]

Mark, Great Vid! I guess not all strobes allow for control of the flash speed. I have some photogenics strobes that don't allow me to come close to my canon's 1/250 sync speed. If so, I will start to see the black bar.

[CENSORED68]

Great video, thank you.

[juiceman72x]

Great video Mark, thanks!

A couple of things worth noting - not all studio strobes have their fastest flash duration at the lowest power setting. Alienbees, for instance, are just the opposite.

Also, speedlights get their name from the fact that they are extremely fast. A Nikon SB-900 has a flash duration of 1/38500 at it's lowest power setting. You'd be limited to a small guide number, so it's perfect for capturing crystal clear pictures of small things in motion, like water splashes.

[snapfactory]

@juiceman72x Thanks for the comment! I did not know that about Alien Bees, but I looked it up and you are absolutely right. We are working on a separate video for speedlights because they have some special abilities (fp sync/high speed sync) and are different enough to warrant a special video. :)

[Bl4ckVV0lF]

Thank you Mark for this ... I had the same problem and thought there was a problem with my Flash or camera even lol ... I bought the flash used so maybe there was an issue there ... After trying what you explained here my flash is good lol ... Again, thank you very much

[mcheng102]

That is amazing, but what about the AF senser? Did you turn off the AF senser and manually focus? You know that when is dark, it can't pick up the AF senser to shoot. 

[EnriqueRodasTapia]

Please talk and make the samples with NIKON cameras too..

[BrenBrenBrenH]

@EnriqueRodasTapia Why would that be necessary? Does Nikon implement Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO differently than all the other cameras?

[in2food]

Thank you for explaining this so clearly. I'm a total novice and I understood it perfectly. I'll be looking forward to your vid on doing this in a more high key situation with more ambient light.

[zygotepeyote]

Mark. Is this all based on the fact that the camera must be motionless? If the camera moved during the dancing pics would it still freeze the action? Thanks for the great video and your expertise!

[snapfactory]

@zygotepeyote No, the camera could have some movement. We had it on a tripod so I could pre-focus and then shoot in the dark. But it would have work just as well if it was hand held. Try it out yourself and let us know how it works! :) I'd love to see some of your shots.

[vannabie]

I don't get get. I watched it three times and still don't get it. In art school we learned to use a fast shutter speed to freeze motion, but now it's 1/2 of a second! Won't this blur everything?

[BrenBrenBrenH]

@vannabie While the shutter may be opened for half a second, it's only exposed to light for the duration of the strobe, in this case... 1/3200 of a second I think the video said. This is the equivalent of having a 1/3200 shutter speed *only* because he is shooting in total darkness. Had there been ambient light, it would indeed cause blur, as that light would be captured by the sensor.

[samo1100]

as always a great video and a great tutoring, I have a question which might sound silly........ if you increase the flash duration and decrease the shutter speed, wont that also do the trick? thanks a lot.

[chris5903]

great video... thank you so much...

[JD95]

Mark. Thank you for the video. I was going to send you an email regarding some additional questions regarding this studio setup like the one but since we're on the same topic, I decided to do so here.

1. How do you focus when you're in a pitch dark situation?

2. Could you show us how to set flash duration on a studio lighting? (I've only used a speedlight and I am really interested in the basic controls of studio lights)

[snapfactory]

@JD95 For this demo I put my lens on manual focus and focused while we had the lights on. Changing the power settings on your flash will change your flash duration. With a speedlight you'd need to use the manual setting and then adjust the power up or down (check your user manual for more info). But when you are in manual you also need to meter manually. Check episode 2 for more info on that.

[jhsong84]

Fantastic explanation. Never would have known about this if you hadn't explained this!. Thanks Mark!!

[samo1100]

@jhsong84 me too