Shutter speed

[epeace]

I've noticed that with my D60 i cant shoot anything faster than 1/250 s when using a flash/strobe . . . the result is something like this (1/350 s):

http://ezrapeacephotography.com/images/CRW_0916.jpg

whats the deal?

[cactusclay]

What's the flash sync speed of your camera?

[CyberDyneSystems]

Not more than 1/250th ;)

[robertwgross]

whats the deal?

That sounds about right. Read page 143 of the manual, bottom of the page. It says 1/200th is the maximum.

---Bob Gross---

[Pekka]

See also http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index.html#fp , high-speed sync mode gives you more speed but less reach.

[epeace]

That sounds about right. Read page 143 of the manual, bottom of the page. It says 1/200th is the maximum.oh man . . .
See also http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/index.html#fp , high-speed sync mode gives you more speed but less reach.good read . . . so if i understand this correctly . . i can shoot in FP mode if my strobes support it? so this is something id have to set on the flash units then?

[timmyquest]

What type of flash do you have?

[epeace]

Alien Bees B800's

[Mike Panic]

if your shooting in a studio w/ strobes and your subjects are static (not moving) what do you need a shutter speed that fast for?

set the camera to manual, 1/125 - adjust apreture as needed - and adjust lighting output as needed

[epeace]

depends on the subject . . . if im shooting a kitten scratching the back of his head . . and i want to stop the motion completely . . i have to bump up the shutter speed . .

i have also been kicking around the idea of shooting small fountains in my studio just to play around with that frozen water effect combined with interesting lighting . . but i wouldnt be able to effectively if i cant freeze the action . .

[Pekka]

depends on the subject . . . if im shooting a kitten scratching the back of his head . . and i want to stop the motion completely . . i have to bump up the shutter speed . .

Use max normal sync speed and put more flash into the scene. To freeze action with flash you want to kill ambient light completely. High speed sync does not help there because of the way it works (see the FAQ). Or just get more fixed lights into studio.

i have also been kicking around the idea of shooting small fountains in my studio just to play around with that frozen water effect combined with interesting lighting . . but i wouldnt be able to effectively if i cant freeze the action . .

Few thousand watts of halogen should do it :)

[epeace]

High speed sync does not help there because of the way it works.
right . . that article about FP mode mentioned that . . . the trick seems to be in the strobe time . . but im pretty sure i cant control that on the bees . . .

[NGrinerPhoto]

as long as you are two stops away from the ambient light, the shutter speed doesn't matter

-nick

[epeace]

well . . it does if the strobe lights longer than is necessary to freeze the action . . .

[NGrinerPhoto]

oh yeah ... turn off your modeling lights

[chtgrubbs]

Your shutter speed has no effect on stopping motion with a strobe light. Stopping motion is based solely on the duration of the flash tube. The strobe light duration is usually faster than 1/300 of a second, and increases as you decrease power output. To stop motion, reduce ambient light and modelling lights to at least 3 stops lower than your working f/stop and cut the power output to half or quarter power. This will give you an exposure equivalent to 1/1000 of a second or better.

[epeace]

so . . . then how is it done in daylight?

[wolf]

The B800 flash duration is 1/3200 at full power and up to as much as 1/1600 at 1/32 power. So basically with no ambient light (or very little) you could stop motion of almost anything at full power.

[Andy_T]

Your shutter speed has no effect on stopping motion with a strobe light. Stopping motion is based solely on the duration of the flash tube.

BUT ... if you also want to use a shutter speed faster than 1/250 on your camera, you can't use flash - unless it is an EX or compatible flash in FP mode.

The reason is that 1/250 is the slowest shutter speed where the shutter is completely open for some time... for reasons of physics.

When you take a picture, first the front curtain opens, and then the rear curtain closes. There is a certain limit to the speed of these curtains.

At faster shutter speeds, the second curtain already starts to close when the first curtain is not completely opened. If it was possible to have a 1/3200 second flash in this instant, either the top or bottom part of the sensor would still or already be covered by one of the curtains and the picture would not be completely exposed.

FP mode uses a burst of high-speed, but low-power flashes that are fired so all parts of the image are properly exposed. Most likely, this is not supported by studio strobes.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Andy