Unexpected lighting/shadow effect in studio sessions.

your camera's shutter speed is too fast that your strobe light cannot catch up.

Buckeye1 wrote in post #15875179
Hmmm...how does shutter speed degrade image quality if you are doing portraits? I can see if you shoot 1/160 in faster moving objects that you may get blurry images. Please do share your information, thanks.

Here is one shot at 1/80...

Shutter speed can affect the image if you're shooting handheld and you shake, even with a non moving object. You can shoot 1/80th fine with an 85 mm lens, but if you try it with a 200 mm lens, any camera shake becomes easier to notice.

JeremyBlake wrote in post #15877035
Shutter speed can affect the image if you're shooting handheld and you shake, even with a non moving object. You can shoot 1/80th fine with an 85 mm lens, but if you try it with a 200 mm lens, any camera shake becomes easier to notice.

If handheld, if I shake, if my focal lenth is more than my shutter speed, etc...that's many ifs and not part of the OP's question and concern, and certainly not IQ. I do appreciate your sharing your knowledge though.

Sync speed is correct, but you are also completely blowing out the faces. I would be much more concerned with that.

As long as there is no ambient ie continuous light, you can lower your shutter speed to whatever you need to eliminate the black bar induced by a lack of sync. Strobes have such short durations that they eliminate the effects of "camera shake" on their own, as long as they are the only source of light in the exposure.

In other words, as long as you keep the shutter speed up high enough that without flash your image is pitch black you'll have no effect of camera shake in your image, and therefore no loss of sharpness from it.

to the OP, WOW... just saw the 2nd image and that black bar is HUUUUGGGEEEE for 1/200!!! Something's definitely going wrong there! What kind of triggers are you using?!??? I think your triggers are malfunctioning or something.

wayne_eddy wrote in post #15875118
I can find out. The remote triggers are supplied by the studio and have four dip switches (1,2,3,4) for coding flashed used on the set. I don't recall a branding.

Chances are they don't look much different from this: http://www.ebay.com …ories&hash=item​336fdd5ece

The reason you're having trouble at 1/160th is that they simply aren't very good triggers. However, you can get by with them if the conditions in my previous post are met. Once you get outside and encounter daylight, however, you run into more difficulty.

I use cheap a$$ Promaster triggers, they have a max sync of 1/160th. And they false trigger all the time as well, we are talking once every 10 seconds sometimes.

I think you can set up your camera and flash for high speed sync as well, if you really feel the need to shoot at that fast a shutter speed. I shoot hand held in the studio all the time at 1/100th and slower with no sign of blurring or lack of sharpness....try it and you will see! I also use the cheap Yongnuo triggers with no false triggering unless they are bumped.

Point-n-shoot-n wrote in post #15881032
I think you can set up your camera and flash for high speed sync as well, if you really feel the need to shoot at that fast a shutter speed.

Getting high speed sync will also depend on the triggers and flashes used.

You should be just fine using a slower shutter speed. There is obviously little ambient affecting these photos ( judging by the bar being completely black ) therefore the exposure is completely a product of your flash, rendering your shutter speed moot. You could probably shoot at 1/2 second and still get a sharp picture assuming that isn't long enough for the ambient to show up because the flash duration will freeze motion.

Thanks for those contributing information, it's been a real help to me and those that will read the post.

Cheers!

I've been having good luck with using Cowboy Studio triggers, OCF, and OCF at 1/250 with a Canon 7D and 30D. I've never seen this "black" bar.

pwm2 wrote in post #15876396
When using radio triggers, the trigger introduces a slight delay.

Depending on how large that delay is, the flash might trig just after the shutter has started to close again, resulting in a black bar even when the camera shutter speed is within supported flash sync speed.

So if you get the bar at 1/200 but are okay at 1/160, then the triggers are most probably the cause of the issue.

I can second this. 60D sync speed is maximum 1/250. When using flash triggers, banding can be seen, so I have to reduce the shutter speed to 1/160 to solve the problem.