Noob question about high speed flashes...

Hi Guys!

Maybe someone can help me?- I've only had my 580exII for a short while. This evening I was trying to capture some images of midges flying at dusk. The problem is, they move *really* fast. But the quickest my flash can go is with a 300/sec shutter speed, which leaves them looking a bit blurred. Is there a trick to this that I haven't thought of?

thanks!!

Steve

Most flashes have a very short flash duration that they can freeze action and motion if they are the only source of light. If you decrease your aperture so that the main source of lighting on your subject is the flash, you shouldn't have any problem with motion blur on your subject.

What Leo said. Also, maybe post an example of the results you got that you were disappointed with.

If you turn on the HSS of the 580, you can use any shutter speed with the camera in M mode. Don't know how well that works with shooting midges, but just another trick.

Thanks for all the very enlightening replies, everyone! I'm not sure how to add a photo to my post, but basically I had a sort of double exposure with the crisp flash image then the blurred normal one underneath caused by camera shake. Stopping down sounds like a pretty good idea, although then my spidery little midges might rather get lost in the detailed garden background. Sorry for sounding ignorant, Lotto, but what is HSS (high speed shutter!?) I've just scanned my manual, and google and couldn't come up with too much yet!

**EDIT: I have now found the stickied flash bible, which I'm sure will be everything I need and more - thanks again all **

HSS-High Speed Sync.

Lotto wrote in post #5903630
If you turn on the HSS of the 580, you can use any shutter speed with the camera in M mode. Don't know how well that works with shooting midges, but just another trick.

Usually the shutter speed is slower than the speed of the burst of flash output, so HSS is less valuable for motion freeze where the flash is the main source of exposure. HSS is more valuable when the ambient light is the main source of exposure but you need flash as a fill light.