Motorsport Flash question

[Echo63]

if this shouldnt be here, Mods Please move it

my question is.
if i shoot motorsport at night and have my camera in M - 1/80th f2.8 with a speedlite attached i can get good shots but they dont have the "wheel blur" that everyone here likes
now if i bump my shutter speed to 1/250 (on my XT/350d) and enable High speed sync, because it is firing small pulses instead of one big pulse i should be able to get some wheel blur but less flash range ?
would this work and does anyone have any idea what the flash range would be ?

[Lowbyte]

I've had the same issues, and I go with the two obvious solutions ;)

1) Use my 135/f2 and really good panning to nail shots at 1/125-1/60 @ iso 1600 with no flash
2) Use the flash in more 'head-on' shots that more-or-less eliminate the wheels

I was also thinking of trying rear-curtain sync and setting the flash power low to see if that would help. I don't have high hopes on that working.

[TCorzett]

When you use flash for the main source of light... regardless the settings... you will get relatively static shots due to the short duration of the flash. When it comes to night shooting you either need to crank-up the ISO and shoot with fast glass, or deal with semi-frozen images. I tend to do a mixture of the two... just enough flash (manual settings on the flash) to get a little more light on the subject or to trigger the reflective graphics, but not enough to park the wheels... everything else comes from ambient (high-ISO and fast glass) which at times can be quite low. Stuff at night tends to get more "artistic" because of the limitations.

I think the key to shooting at night is to remember that it is night, and the photos shouldn't be as bright as the day... remember, it's night.

-Todd...

[PhotosGuy]

because it is firing small pulses instead of one big pulse i should be able to get some wheel blur but less flash range ? I've never tried that, but the effect might be interesting? Try it.

[Echo63]

next time i shoot at night i will give it a go
thanks for the assistance guys, i will see what happens