Rear Curtain Sync

I am trying to use the second curtain sync on my flash to show motion trails but no matter how slow a shutter speed I use the subject still is frozen. I've tried shutter speeds from 1/20th to a half a second with no luck. Also tried different aperatures. Can anyone tell where I'm going wrong. The flash is set to 2nd curtain sync and it shows up as so in the data. Thanks in advance.

what ISO are you using? I found with my 60D I need to bump the ISO up to at least 3000 as well as dropping the shutter speed.

hillr5 wrote in post #13685072
I am trying to use the second curtain sync on my flash to show motion trails but no matter how slow a shutter speed I use the subject still is frozen. I've tried shutter speeds from 1/20th to a half a second with no luck. Also tried different aperatures. Can anyone tell where I'm going wrong. The flash is set to 2nd curtain sync and it shows up as so in the data. Thanks in advance.

The motion trail blur is caused by the ambient light (unless the subject itself contains a light source, like a head light or a tail light of a vehicle), not the flash so make sure the camera is set to capture the ambient light exposure as well. And, of course, the shutter speed should be long enough to capture the motion blur.

Be sure to balance the flash and the ambient exposure so that the subject does not get over exposed by the combination of the two light sources.

http://web.canon.jp …ctions/curtain/​index.html

PacAce wrote in post #13685224
The motion trail blur is caused by the ambient light (unless the subject itself contains a light source, like a head light or a tail light of a vehicle), not the flash so make sure the camera is set to capture the ambient light exposure as well. And, of course, the shutter speed should be long enough to capture the motion blur.

Be sure to balance the flash and the ambient exposure so that the subject does not get over exposed by the combination of the two light sources.

If I follow your correctly I can expose for the subject and then drop the shutter speed until I get the desired effect.

hillr5 wrote in post #13685744
If I follow your correctly I can expose for the subject and then drop the shutter speed until I get the desired effect.

Yes, but make sure the subject is exposed properly with both the flash and the ambient light if it's the subject you want to motion blur of.

Yes, you need some kind of an ambient exposure for the motion trail and then flash to make the 'pop' at the end. The flash will hit the surroundings also, changing its exposure.

You don't always need much of a flash to make the image at the end of the motion trail, but you do need to have a light-colored subject against a darker background. Otherwise you get the ambient background showing through the subject, and the subject doesn't have enough of its own exposure to mask that.

Simply switch your camera to Av mode. It's gonna set exposure for the ambient slowing down the shutter, so you'll get your motion blur. Then you can play with exposure compensation to change the balance between ambient and flash (-1EV, -2EV,... whatever works for you). You can also tweak ISO to change the appearance of the motion blur (the shutter will be adjusted automatically again)

Is the object moving, or are you panning.

Thanks to all of you. I've tried all of your suggestions and am having some success. The only thing moving around here is a 5 mo. old springer and a ceiling fan. As you can imagine I've got lots of pictures of a ceiling fan with motion blur.

sempaidavid wrote in post #13687211
Is the object moving, or are you panning.

The object is moving.