Problems syncing my studio flashes. (pics)

[Enem178]

Ok before I got my wireless flash triggers I was of course using a sync cord and I would set my 40D to a shutter speed to 1/250 and everything seemed to be fine. After I got my wireless triggers (with the same settings) I noticed that part of the frame would be drastically under exposed. The under exposed part was in direct relation to the bottom of the camera, meaning in landscape mode it would be on the bottom and in portrait mode it would be on either side depending on if I rotated the camera clockwise or counter clockwise.

Actually now that I look at it, even with the sync cord it was slightly under exposed but with the triggers its drastically under exposed. I set the shutter to 250 because I read that's the 40d's sync speed. My question is, why is it only under exposed on one side and why is it worst with the wireless triggers??? Im a noob with the studio stuff so forgive me if im doing something obviously wrong. Check out the pics and thanks guys!!

With Sync Cord

With Wireless Triggers

 

[Enem178]

Dresses?

 

[tirediron]

Dresses?

If you hadn't confirmed you were shooting at sync speed, I'd say your shutter-speed was too high. I have to admit I'm confused on this one...

 

[Enem178]

No someone replied and put a link up there to dresses for some reason!! Obviously he deleted that post, so just ignore that comment.

Now if a camera has a certain flash sync speed should'nt you set your camera to that speed no?? Also why would it be worst with the triggers??

 

[Don Kondra]

That's the max sync speed, just lower it to 1/200.... there may be a very small delay with the triggers.

Cheers, Don

 

[Enem178]

O ok, Actually I lowered it down to 160 and that seemed to take care of the problem but I thought something might have been wrong if i couldnt use 250. Thanks Don

 

[Don Kondra]

Forgot to mention, lots of trigger problems can be traced back to low batteries....

Cheers, Don

 

[Enem178]

cool, thats easy enough to check..thx

 

[Garbz]

More expensive triggers often have shorter processing delays. You won't get near your sync rate on cheap triggers.

 

[Enem178]

Ok got you. Im using the yongnuo rf 602's so that's probably the problem. Like I said earlier I had to lower it to 1/160 and that seems to do the trick.

 

[katerolla]

I had the same problem over the weekend I stared with 1/250 went down to 1/125 and that seem to help but not every time so I used 1/60

 

[Enem178]

Hey Katerolla, were your pics underexposed in the same location? Just curious..

 

[Village Idiot]

O ok, Actually I lowered it down to 160 and that seemed to take care of the problem but I thought something might have been wrong if i couldnt use 250. Thanks Don

Read the portion of the manual about the x sync. It says that with Canon flashes, it's 1/250. Without, I think it's 1/160.

Plus there are other options. If you ever want to upgrade, look at the newest pocket wizard trigger that comes with a program that allows you to adjust the sync speed so that it triggers the flashes sooner/later so that you can shoot at say 1/500 as an x sync.

In the studio and with model work, this shouldn't be much of a limitation unless you're shooting outdoors and are shooting action.

 

[Enem178]

Time to start saving!! lol Thx

 

[katerolla]

yes the picture were underexposed just like yours, but when i used 1/60 they were fine, this i think was caused by the flash on my camera cause i had no cables i used the sync on the strobes, this causes a slight delay, by having the shutter open a little longer allows for the strobe lag, this was a new problem for me since I started using a DSLR