what shutter speed do you use in the studio?

xishnik wrote in post #12174047
I'd say they are 5D users

If using strobes I use 1/250s at ISO 100 or 200, and anything up form f4/8

GK

Why would you think they are 5D users? In a studio, it's not necessary to use sync speed. You could shoot at 1/60; ISO 100; f/4 and most likely not have any ambient in your frame.

Gatorboy wrote in post #12175564
Why would you think they are 5D users? In a studio, it's not necessary to use sync speed. You could shoot at 1/60; ISO 100; f/4 and most likely not have any ambient in your frame.

If one has 250-watt modeling lights and the subject has any light tones, there will probably be some ambient exposure recorded at those settings.

You're usually safe with >5-stop underexposure. By that rule, exposure is measured with an incident meter, so underexposing by five stops puts middle gray into Zone 0. However, bright Zone 9 highlights will then be in Zone 4 and still recorded. So the best practice is to use as high a shutter speed as possible.

1/160

RDKirk wrote in post #12175835
If one has 250-watt modeling lights and the subject has any light tones, there will probably be some ambient exposure recorded at those settings.

If your strobes aren't overpowering those modeling lights, shutter speed is the least of your problems.

Gatorboy wrote in post #12176644
If your strobes aren't overpowering those modeling lights, shutter speed is the least of your problems.

They might not overpower the modeling lights at a slow shutter speed and a low flash level. I don't set my main modeling light to "track" the flash setting because I always want the brightest image in the viewfinder of how the shadows are falling.

So if I set the flash power low to get a wider aperture and I set the shutter speed low (when I have no desire to add ambient light to the scene), then I might very well get some ambient leakage.

The point is: Unless one wants ambient light affecting the image, there is no good reason to set the shutter any lower than required for full sync, but there is good reason to set it to its maximum syncable speed.

RDKirk wrote in post #12177235
They might not overpower the modeling lights at a slow shutter speed and a low flash level. I don't set my main modeling light to "track" the flash setting because I always want the brightest image in the viewfinder of how the shadows are falling.

But the modeling lights go OFF when the strobe fires.

Gatorboy wrote in post #12177379
But the modeling lights go OFF when the strobe fires.

No, the electronic flash has fired and quenched long before the modeling light extinguishes--and that's only in the systems that turn the modeling light off at all--most do not.

The flash gets the trigger to fire first in order to have the shortest possible lag, then the system turns off the modeling light while the system recycles. It certainly can't wait for that slowpoke incandescent light to turn off.

mbloof wrote in post #12037146
While many cameras have a 1/200 or 1/250 sync speed, many studio lights won't sync at that speed. I commonly use 160th with my monolights. If you have a black stripe on the bottom of your image (in landscape mode) you may be exceeding the sync speed of your lights.

You are absolutely correct, I did extensive testing with my 5dII and I found that I had to slow all the way down to 1/100 sec to get consistent results. Even at 160th I was getting a dark vignette at the top of the frame. I researched it on the Internet and it is more of problem with 5d than the crop cameras. But it may also vary depending on which strobes and triggers you use. Easy way to test is to take photos of a white wall, meter the background in several places to make sure your lighting is even, take the photos at different shutter speeds and then review the results on a pc check for vignette at top and bottom of the frames in landscape orientation.

In studio I use 1/125 regardless of the camera I'm using.

Why? Because my light meters (a Gossen Luna Pro F and a Sekonic L-558R Dualmaster) are designed to use that shutter speed by default.

From page 21 of the Gossen manual: "The circuitry of your Luna-Pro F is designed to indicate the f/stop which will produce correct overall exposure with a shutter speed of 1/100th to 1/125th second."

sebasr wrote in post #12578969
You are absolutely correct, I did extensive testing with my 5dII and I found that I had to slow all the way down to 1/100 sec to get consistent results. Even at 160th I was getting a dark vignette at the top of the frame. I researched it on the Internet and it is more of problem with 5d than the crop cameras.

The 5D has a 24x36mm sensor (like the 1Ds) but a consumer-grade shutter (like the 15x22mm cameras). The consumer-grade shutter curtains cross the sensor at a lower velocity than the curtains of the professional-grade shutters in the 1-series. This isn't a problem when they only have 15mm to traverse in the cropped cameras, but it results in that lower sync speed when a consumer-grade shutter curtain has to traverse all the way across 24mm in the 5D.