newby to speedlite....and another question.

so, i have an EOS 600D and my new Yongnuo YN560 II speedlite arrived yesterday and although im very happy with it every time i take a shot with it hotshoe mounted at shutter speeds greater than 1/250 there is an annoying shaddow cast along the lower half of the picture regardless as to camera/speedlite settings/bouncing flash off walls......if i slow down the shutter the smaller the shaddow and its limit seems to be 1/250.....dumb ass question of the week, is this S/Speed the flash limitation.
thanks in advance for any advice in maybe sorting this issue.

Its a limitation of the body, and to a lesser degree the flash. Let me explain. 1/250 of a second is the fastest shutter speed that your camera's entire sensor is exposed to light at the same time. At faster speeds the second shutter curtain begins to close before the first curtain is fully open. At very fast speeds the shutter opening is a tiny slit that moves across the sensor. Since the flash is of very short duration it leaves the shadow that you see when you go above the camera's max sync speed.

There are flashes that let you use faster shutter speeds, but only because the flash changes the way it behaves. With flashes that offer high speed sync (HSS) the flash doesnt fire a single burst but rather pulses to emulate a continuous light source. You lose a lot of power, but it will allow you to go above the max sync of your camera.

thanks for the swift reply and i thought as much.

popsandme wrote in post #16591028
thanks for the swift reply and i thought as much.

A couple of ways you can mitigate the need for faster shutter speeds. If the goal is to freeze motion, the brief flash duration can do that at lower shutter speeds as long as your flash is 2 stops brighter than the ambient light. If you are competing with the bright sun consider getting an ND filter to allow you to work at slower shutter speeds while maintaining the same aperture and accommodating your flash.

i'll bear that in mind gonzo cheers mate.

I'm not familiar with that flash. Canon flashes prevent you from shooting faster than sync speed unless you switch it to HSS (if available). I would have thought a canon clone would do the same even if the flash is not HSS capable.

digital paradise wrote in post #16591183
I'm not familiar with that flash. Canon flashes prevent you from shooting faster than sync speed unless you switch it to HSS (if available). I would have thought a canon clone would do the same even if the flash is not HSS capable.

The 560 is a manual only strobist flash. Not a canon clone.

so if i had bought a full auto speedlite regarless as to the make the sync speed would be faster? am i understanding correctly?

popsandme wrote in post #16591339
so if i had bought a full auto speedlite regarless as to the make the sync speed would be faster? am i understanding correctly?

No. HSS is a feature, some flashes have it, some dont.

thanks gonzo. ill take HSS into account when i get anoher flash.

Just to be clear HSS is not as appealing as it might seem. You lose well over a stop of flash power just going into HSS mode, each additional stop of shutter speed costs you that much more. So its only effective if you are using the flash up close and with no modifiers. Its basically good for fill flash on a bright day. In order to get the most out of HSS you need to gang up enough speedlites to overcome the power loss from going into that mode.

thanks for clarifying it mate.

I have never been overly impressed with a speedlights ability using HSS; once I took the plunge into bringing studio lights with a battery supply outdoors a new world of photography opened up to me wherein speedlights had only ended in disappointment.

Middle ground would be the new AD360/Cheetah Light as you get some of the best benefits of both worlds. Sufficient power for all but the most demanding circumstances at a much lighter and easier to move around package.

gonzogolf wrote in post #16591193
The 560 is a manual only strobist flash. Not a canon clone.

Thanks. Did not know it was manual only.