Anyone using high speed sync flash setting ? And for what ?

Had so far over looked the ability to use flash , and 1/8000 shutter speed. Is anyone using this option,and for what. Would this be useful for bif ?

Done some cheer shoots of friends, it works great. Put the sun at their back and shot away!

The most useful time for it is dimming the ambient outdoors while adding light to a subject. The flash is quick enough to stop motion indoors.

Used HSS this past weekend. 600RT on camera. Kids at b-day party playing in a nearly dark bounce house party room. Seems like I was shooting with ISO 1600-3200 with SS in the 500-640 range, flash on ETTL.

keeperseeker wrote in post #17459465
Had so far over looked the ability to use flash , and 1/8000 shutter speed. Is anyone using this option,and for what. Would this be useful for bif ?

Heya,

Not useful for BIF really. HSS flash is more like a continuous light than a strobe, and as the shutter speed goes faster, the power output of the HSS drops dramatically. At 1/500s you're talking very little flash output. And since light falls off over distance, very quickly, take a low power output and put that over a distance, such as a bird flying, and you'll find that it probably doesn't even do much for exposing the bird (even with a better beamer perhaps). That will be relative to distance though and how fast your shutter is.

It's good if you wanted to use a wide aperture, and a fast shutter speed, and get some fill light, at close range. It's not good at a distance because again the power output is low in HSS at faster shutter speeds.

For BIF, traditional 1/200s or 1/250s sync speed with ETTL flash is fine, with a better beamer. The duration of the flash stops motion so the slower shutter is not a problem. Take a look at examples of birding with flash extenders. They're not using HSS.

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #17459549
Heya,

Not useful for BIF really. HSS flash is more like a continuous light than a strobe, and as the shutter speed goes faster, the power output of the HSS drops dramatically. At 1/500s you're talking very little flash output. And since light falls off over distance, very quickly, take a low power output and put that over a distance, such as a bird flying, and you'll find that it probably doesn't even do much for exposing the bird (even with a better beamer perhaps). That will be relative to distance though and how fast your shutter is.

It's good if you wanted to use a wide aperture, and a fast shutter speed, and get some fill light, at close range. It's not good at a distance because again the power output is low in HSS at faster shutter speeds.

For BIF, traditional 1/200s or 1/250s sync speed with ETTL flash is fine, with a better beamer. The duration of the flash stops motion so the slower shutter is not a problem. Take a look at examples of birding with flash extenders. They're not using HSS.

Very best,

Have to agree here. I tried HSS with a Better Beamer for birds at a feeder and the results were a bit disappointing. At any worthwhile distance, the flash was too weak.

OK , MalV and M Six,,,,makes sense,,but disappointing.

keeperseeker wrote in post #17459586
OK , MalV and M Six,,,,makes sense,,but disappointing.

Heya,

Get a better beamer, a good flash bracket to hold it off camera and use a TTL cable for off-camera flash, your HSS capable flash is definitely capable of ETTL. Use it in ETTL or manual if you know the exposure power setting you want/need. Setup on a tripod and start taking on birds. You can get great distance with normal flash with a better beamer. And again, 1/200s or 1/250s depending on your camera is enough even for something moving typically because it's the flash duration you're exposing, unless you just use it as fill (that's different). Stop down aperture for ambient light. Expose subject with flash. ISO again based on ambient light and power level needed from flash. The result is that you can make the ambient light darker by a few stops and expose your subject via flash, making those popping isolated images. No need for HSS.

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #17459597
Heya,

Get a better beamer, a good flash bracket to hold it off camera and use a TTL cable for off-camera flash, your HSS capable flash is definitely capable of ETTL. Use it in ETTL or manual if you know the exposure power setting you want/need. Setup on a tripod and start taking on birds. You can get great distance with normal flash with a better beamer. And again, 1/200s or 1/250s depending on your camera is enough even for something moving typically because it's the flash duration you're exposing, unless you just use it as fill (that's different). Stop down aperture for ambient light. Expose subject with flash. ISO again based on ambient light and power level needed from flash. The result is that you can make the ambient light darker by a few stops and expose your subject via flash, making those popping isolated images. No need for HSS.

Very best,

I don't want to sound like an echo, but again, I agree. I bought C shaped bracket that clamps onto the Arca-Swiss foot on my 400 5.6 and allows me to mount the flash and Better Beamer above the lens and well forward of the body. I use a cable back to the camera for ETTL. Not a rig you can walk around with, but great for backyard stuff or hanging out by a lock & dam.

I use it for fill on sunny days when I need faster than 1/200 SS and am close enough to the subject. Mostly animal portraits thinking about it (not BIF).

The purpose of HSS is to make it possible to shoot with flash in bright light. A typical application would be shooting a portrait outdoors on a sunny day. The combination of aperture you want to use (especially if you would like to get a bit of background blur) and the ISO floor of the camera (ISO 100 for Canon) may make it challenging to get under the sync speed.

HSS lets you cheat a bit on this. But note that every stop higher than the sync speed makes the flash shoot in greater numbers of pulses to work, and so trying to use HSS at very high shutter speeds will likely result in a very tiny flash range.

Also note that if you really want to use very large apertures in bright light with flash, a neutral density filter is probably going to be needed. HSS is only a little effective, ND filters are better.

jay125 wrote in post #17460912
I use it for low key photography. This shot was taken in an office full of windows on a bright sunny day. The only illumination captured was from the flash which was positioned about 18 inches from his face.

F32, 1/1000s, ISO 200.

So if you drop to ISO 100 (which would make more sense) you then get away with 1/500s. Same exposure.

Add a single 1 stop ND filter, or a CPL will do this too (they're usually around 1 stop or so). And you're at 1/250s shutter. And now you don't even have to use HSS to get the same thing.

If you really like low key stuff, I would recommend you get a few ND filters, like a 3 stop and a 6 stop. Then you can avoid using F32 and get more creative with wider apertures, while cutting out the light and getting these kinds of effects.

@TS:

Here's a few ND filters stacked up during the bright sunny day, shot at F2.8 to get isolation, and the ND filters nuke the ambient light. Brought back exposure on the subject with flash. No HSS used. ND filters bring down ambient light so that you can still shoot wide aperture without the need for a fast shutter.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oKvD​TB

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pEdK​AC

Thanks for the enlighting replies! Not only a lot to learn,,,but a lot to remember to apply,,,once you learn it!

TerryMiller wrote in post #17459494
The most useful time for it is dimming the ambient outdoors while adding light to a subject. The flash is quick enough to stop motion indoors.

Sounds good, but exactly backwards. The flash is actually prolonged in HSS. It flashes repeatedly as the shutter exposes each passing very small segment of the sensor. That is why HSS consumes so much power. The faster the shutter, the higher frequency of flashes required. A flash a 1/8000 actually last 1/8000. A flash at 1/60 can be as fast as 1/25000. Which is how you freeze action with a flash and slow(ish) shutter speed.

I've use my 580EX II at 1/8000. At f/2.8 is good for about 6 feet. You ain't doing BIF with that.

GeoKras1989 wrote in post #17461054
Sounds good, but exactly backwards. The flash is actually prolonged in HSS. It flashes repeatedly as the shutter exposes each passing very small segment of the sensor. That is why HSS consumes so much power. The faster the shutter, the higher frequency of flashes required. A flash a 1/8000 actually last 1/8000. A flash at 1/60 can be as fast as 1/25000. Which is how you freeze action with a flash and slow(ish) shutter speed.

I've use my 580EX II at 1/8000. At f/2.8 is good for about 6 feet. You ain't doing BIF with that.

This is important for people using HSS. For instance, suppose your subject is moving a little, you might well stop motion with 1/200s or slower with regular flash if the flash is providing most of the light, but then go to 1/320 s and get something not as sharp. Once you get into HSS you better back sure that your SS is fast enough to stop any movement however much you are lighting the subject with flash.

I've had this happen to me where I probably needed 1/400s without flash but got away with 1/200s and fill-flash. move up to 1/250s and HSS and image is not quite sharp. At least I think that's what was happening.