How to shoot outdoors in bright conditions

Normally I would use shutter speed to control the lighting outdoors but with strobes I can only use 1/160 because of sync speed. Aperture controls DOF but with strobes it also controls the amount of light hitting the sensor. I can overcome this by increasing or decreasing power so this is not a great issue. But I want to shoot in bright conditions and a shutter speed of 1/160 and an aperture of 2.8 or bigger causes the background to blow out. If I wasn't using flash my shutter speed needs to be 1/3200 or more. So how do I use aperture at 2.8 or 1.4 and shutter speed of 1/160 and still keep the background from blowing out? Do I need to pick up a ND filter? I would need a 5 stop filter?

The only thing I can think of is use an ND filter to limit the light so you can shoot wide with a flash. Other than that, you may be asking too much.

blocks wrote in post #11339949
Normally I would use shutter speed to control the lighting outdoors but with strobes I can only use 1/160 because of sync speed. Aperture controls DOF but with strobes it also controls the amount of light hitting the sensor. I can overcome this by increasing or decreasing power so this is not a great issue. But I want to shoot in bright conditions and a shutter speed of 1/160 and an aperture of 2.8 or bigger causes the background to blow out. If I wasn't using flash my shutter speed needs to be 1/3200 or more. So how do I use aperture at 2.8 or 1.4 and shutter speed of 1/160 and still keep the background from blowing out? Do I need to pick up a ND filter? I would need a 5 stop filter?

Try raising your f-stop to 16 and expose for the background. The flash should illuminate your subject while controlling the ambient light.

yup- ND filter. You might have to stack them to get sufficient light loss

osanai wrote in post #11340006
Try raising your f-stop to 16 and expose for the background. The flash should illuminate your subject while controlling the ambient light.

but that won't let the OP shoot at F2.8 if that's what he needs to blur the BG sufficiently.

I use high speed sync with Nikon not sure what Canon has to give the same effect.

I am assuming your iso is set at 100. You can cheat the synch and shoot at 1/250. Yes you will not cover the whole sensor but it might work if you know what part of the sensor you are losing.
Maybe lose the flash and try reflectors?
Can you use HSS..Another option..

Anyone know why we can't set lower than iso 100 on these cameras? I used to shoot 25 speed slide film.... Would help with shooting wide open in good light without reaching for filters

Along with the ND filter, you can also increase your shutter speed from 1/160 to 1/250 or whatever your max sync speed is. Because you'll be shooting in bright sunlight, the dark shading you would normally get at the bottom of the image when shooting only with a strobe will not be an issue outdoors.

^^^^ +1
I have shot 1.4, 1/400th and fired a speed light OCF with an rf602 at 1/32 power. No black bar, but it was full bright sun.

ND filters, simple.

Look here.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=924448

Do strobes work differently than using off-camera flash? It seems that HSS should be able to get around this, if it's an option with strobes.

Snydremark wrote in post #11340422
Do strobes work differently than using off-camera flash? It seems that HSS should be able to get around this, if it's an option with strobes.

Strobes won't let you do HSS. You can use HyperSync tricks to get faster ss than your max sync speed but even that is limited. I can do 1/500 on my 1dmk2 but not on 5d which only doe still 1/250. This is using miniTT1 on camera and Plus II on rx side. Haven't tried my FlexTT5 with ABs yet.

ND filters, but at some point your flash can't keep up.

windpig wrote in post #11340500
ND filters, but at some point your flash can't keep up.

Thread jack alert !!!! Love your avatar windpig !!! My Siamese cat is due to have a litter in January.

scorpio_e wrote in post #11350105
Thread jack alert !!!! Love your avatar windpig !!! My Siamese cat is due to have a litter in January.

Pictures, I want to see pictures of the little ones. Actually, my avatar is our cat Jimmy. He is one of 3 Balinese and 1 tuxedo cat we have.