Help Please: Problem with Off Camera Flash

[Derek Zoolander]

I'm getting results like this and it's gotta be something simple...right? Any suggestions? I'm shooting everything manual...

Sometimes you see more of it, but at least half of it is black like that. Nothing is covering my lens or anything, it takes pictures just fine without the flash...is it my camera?

 

[sarahashleyphotos]

ahh the dreadful black line thingy. =) I rember having that problem when trying to do studio strobe work before I got to my studio lighting class. Your best solution would be to buy a flash meter. That will tell you the correct exposure to use.

 

[Jaszek]

It is the camera. Make sure you have you shutter speed set at the appropriate sync speed. at 1/200th of a second the whole image should be visible, and at 1/250th it will be dark at the lower quarter of the image. This is caused by the mirror and shutter closing to fast not capturing the light.

 

[Derek Zoolander]

It is the camera. Make sure you have you shutter speed set at the appropriate sync speed. at 1/200th of a second the whole image should be visible, and at 1/250th it will be dark at the lower quarter of the image. This is caused by the mirror and shutter closing to fast not capturing the light.

exactly what it was! thank you! i got scared.

 

[Samanax]

That's the shutter screen. You'll 'capture' it if your shutter speed is faster than the max sync speed of your camera.

You didn't post the exif info and there's no exif available in your picture...what shutter speed were you using?

Have you read Lighting 101 and 102 over at Strobist yet?

 

[tsaraleksi]

When the camera is shooting at a shutter speed over the max sync speed, it no longer totally opens the shutter and instead scans the negative with a slit, so to speak. When the light only fires for a fraction of that time, only that portion gets the light on it.