HSS. Why?

[Braineack]

OR just use HSS and no ND filters...

 

[Derrel]

The problem with using neutral density filters when you need fill-flash with most d-slr cameras is that the view through the viewfinder is seriously compromised. For hand-held work, where you're shooting people, having that welder's glass on the front of the lens is a f***** joke. It's really a crappy solution, and it's the main reason that HSS flash exists: high speed flash synch outdoors is a dream! it took many decades before the idea of high speed focal plane shutter flash synchronization became a reality. Now that it exists, outdoor high-shutter speed flash fill lighting for "social photography" is a Godsend. Using a 3-stop ND filter is a technically rational issue that's basically not worth a tinker's damn if you need to shoot anything that's fluid, and not locked down on a tripod and slow-paced.

 

[Braineack]

I took this shot at something like 1/500 or 1/800 with fill flash.

That was extremely harsh noon sun. Those shadows would be pure black otherwise.

If I had to keep screwing and unscrewing on an ND filter due to the changing light conditions I'd just give up on life.

 

[runnah]

Heck, we did just fine with ND filters long before HSS technology recently came about.

Define "fine"?

We also used to have to crankstart our cars and kill our supper.

 

[Derrel]

I shot this this weekend in very bright (for November in Oregon) late afternoon sunlight conditions. Thank goodness for fill-flash. SB 800 right in the hotshoe. Unretouched proof file, crop for Instagram. [ _D3X0310_web-3.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com ]

 

[runnah]

ND filter?

 

[Derrel]

ND filter?

I don't even carry ND filters these days, not since I got a camera that can do FP Synch flash with TTL metering and easily-adjustable Minus flash compensation right on the back...this is Minus 2.7 EV of fill...just enough to lighten the shadows and get some eye-sparkle.

 

[runnah]

We do live in a wonderful time for photography.

 

[Derrel]

We do live in a wonderful time for photography.

For sure. We now have d-slr cameras that give Kodachrome 64 Professional quality at ISO 400 to 640. When I was in high school, Kodak made the world's very first ASA 400 color negative film, Kodacolor 400. It was not very good; for the following 10 years, color in 35mm cameras really had to be ISO 100 or slower in order to have LESS THAN the quality we get now from a Canon 5D Mark II or anything newer in the FF arena. The first AF camera I ever saw was a Nikon N20/20...wow...it was not very good autofocus. This is truly a Golden Age in photography, it really,really is. Digital SLR cameras eclipsed the technical image quality of 35mm film some time ago, and I think the newer cameras are delivering medium format film-level image quality, or better, at low ISO settings that were comparable to medium format rollfilm of the 1990's. At ISO 400, or higher levels, digital sensors left the old Kodak high-speed films in the DITCH, rolled over and wrecked, years ago now.

 

[18.percent.gary]

I don't understand the antagonistic nature of some members here... I gave a simple answer to:

You're shooting something in daylight at f/1.8 (for thin DOF) and 1/2000 sec. You need some fill. How else are you going to get it if you don't have something like HSS?

I said "a ND filter". And then out come the pitchforks.

Obviously HSS is a far better solution, and I use it all the time. I just wish my monoblocks had it though...

 

[Mach0]

I don't understand the antagonistic nature of some members here... I gave a simple answer to:

You're shooting something in daylight at f/1.8 (for thin DOF) and 1/2000 sec. You need some fill. How else are you going to get it if you don't have something like HSS?

I said "a ND filter". And then out come the pitchforks.

Obviously HSS is a far better solution, and I use it all the time. I just wish my monoblocks had it though...

Right triggers and mono's can if you use supersync or hypersync.

 

[Village Idiot]

I took it as he meant an ND filter with fill flash and no HSS.

Yep, that's what I meant to imply. I was just making the point that there are simpler and less expensive options than HSS flashes.

Heck, we did just fine with ND filters long before HSS technology recently came about.

And HSS is only so powerful.

 

[Village Idiot]

I don't understand the antagonistic nature of some members here... I gave a simple answer to:

You're shooting something in daylight at f/1.8 (for thin DOF) and 1/2000 sec. You need some fill. How else are you going to get it if you don't have something like HSS?

I said "a ND filter". And then out come the pitchforks.

Obviously HSS is a far better solution, and I use it all the time. I just wish my monoblocks had it though...

Right triggers and mono's can if you use supersync or hypersync.

I posted about this in another thread. I use Pocket Wizards and the 5d MkII only works up until 1/250 before the black bar starts showing when you turn it up.

 

[Mach0]

I don't understand the antagonistic nature of some members here... I gave a simple answer to:

You're shooting something in daylight at f/1.8 (for thin DOF) and 1/2000 sec. You need some fill. How else are you going to get it if you don't have something like HSS?

I said "a ND filter". And then out come the pitchforks.

Obviously HSS is a far better solution, and I use it all the time. I just wish my monoblocks had it though...

Right triggers and mono's can if you use supersync or hypersync.

I posted about this in another thread. I use Pocket Wizards and the 5d MkII only works up until 1/250 before the black bar starts showing when you turn it up.

Not sure about canon but the slower the flash duration at full power the better it works. I haven't used it above 1/4000s.

 

[Derrel]

Another thing to try is a DIRECT, PC-cord connection to the monolight flash, to see just how fast you can go. Paul C. Buff himself did some tests years ago, and got VERY fast speeds using the ALien Bee units and a PC cord connecting the flash to the camera, shooting on the rather long "tail end" of the flash burst. As I recall, 1/2500 to 1/4000 were no problem, although there is some loss of effective flash power, since the "tail" is lower in intensity than the peak flash is. But still...

DIfferent cameras and different flashes can give different results. Last week I saw somebody's test shots at 1/400 with only a very,very small black band across the bottom of the frames; I wanna say he was shooting the new D810.