Max sync speed?

[Hardrock]

I'm wanting to do some indoor action shots using flash but the cowboy studio triggers aren't working above 1/250 even with my Canon 430ex ii set to high speed sync. On cowboy studios website they say they go to 1/320. Is there an alternative to having a high speed sync of lets say 1/400 and using OCF. With out spending a small fortune?

 

[Big Mike]

The maximum sync speed is a limitation of the camera, specifically it's shutter. At speeds above the max, the shutter isn't all the way open and any one point in time, thus, if the flash fires, the shutter sill be blocking part of the sensor.

High Speed Sync (HSS) on the flash, is a function that fires the flash repeatedly and at a lower power level...thus allowing the whole scene to be lit up as the slit in the shutter travels across the frame. It only works when the flash is on the camera, or is being controlled via a Canon master flash/unit.

In other words, you can use HSS with a simple radio trigger like that. So even if the Cowboy trigger is good up to 1/320, the camera itself is only good to 1/250 without HSS....so that is your max.

With that out of the way...you may not need a fast shutter speed to freeze movement. The burst of the flash is much shorter than 1/250...so it can freeze action pretty easily. You can use 1/2 and get nice sharp shots when using flash. They key is to limit the amount of ambient exposure...which will cause blur with moving subjects. So if you're indoors (and in control of your lighting) then just shut the lights off and use only the flash.

 

[Hardrock]

Thanks! So in other words expose for the flash only not the ambient?

 

[D-B-J]

If you are trying to expose for the ambient, just close your aperture a little more, a stop or two. But i have to use a special setting on my nikon in conjunction with the su800 to get my sb600's over the 250 mark.

 

[Big Mike]

Thanks! So in other words expose for the flash only not the ambient?

If your goal is to freeze a moving subject...then yes.

 

[minister]

This thread brings one more question to my mind ,
If i am doing high speed photography like gun shot,
it defiantly require above 250 shutter , and my cam is nikon d5000, so dose it mean I can't do high speed photography.or off the camera allow me to use faster shutter

 

[Edsport]

I would think that trying to capture a bullet coming out of a guy would require a very high speed shutter. I'm no expert about flashes but my guess would be to use a constant light rather than a flash...

 

[cnutco]

I would think that trying to capture a bullet coming out of a guy would require a very high speed shutter. I'm no expert about flashes but my guess would be to use a constant light rather than a flash...

I too, think that would be the easiest way.

 

[Overread]

Actually most setups which go for gunshots, insect wings etc... ultra fast motion - rely upon bulb mode in the camera for shutter speed. They then have to combine a highspeed and high powered output of flash light (to freeze the motion in a split second) with a super fast external shutter (to ensure ambient light is 0 and to help capture the frozen motion).

Bulb mode is used in the camera whilst the external shutter fits either on the lens end or between lens and camera - that way only the fraction of light that the external shutter lets in is registered on the sensor (the rest of the bulb exposure is black with no light).

 

[Village Idiot]

This thread brings one more question to my mind ,
If i am doing high speed photography like gun shot,
it defiantly require above 250 shutter , and my cam is nikon d5000, so dose it mean I can't do high speed photography.or off the camera allow me to use faster shutter

Are you talking about using a flash as well? If so, read up on how you get two exposures when using flash, the ambient exposure and the flash exposure.

 

[KmH]

A bullet's motion is stopped with lighting, not the shutter speed setting.

Hot shoe flash (strobe) units produce their flash of light in short time frames.

At full power a Nikon SB-800 has a flash duration of about 1/1050 sec. At 1/128 power the flash duration is just 1/41,600 of a second.

High speed photography using strobed light was pioneered by Harold Eugene Edgerton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Many not familiar with strobed lighting don't understand that shutter speed is not used the same way as when not using strobed lighting. Shutter speed is used to control the exposure of ambient light while the lens aperture is used to control the exposure of the strobed lighting. The duration of the strobed light is used to stop motion, though consideration must be given to if the flash of light is in sync with when the front shutter curtain has fully opened, or just at the instant the rear shutter curtain begins to close.

Many cameras and hot shoe flashes also have a mode for using flash when the shutter speed is to short for both shutter curtains to be fully open at the same time, usually faster than 1/200 or 1/250. In that mode, the strobe has to fire many times during a single exposure, and in order to recycle that quickly the strobe must fire at less than full power.

 

[Garbz]

I would think that trying to capture a bullet coming out of a guy would require a very high speed shutter.

A bullet's motion is stopped with lighting, not the shutter speed setting.

Hot shoe flash (strobe) units produce their flash of light in short time frames.

Nearly. The common studio strobe actually doesn't produce a bright enough light for a short enough duration to freeze a moving bullet. The shortest duration of a typical strobe light is 1/40000th of a second and in this time a bullet moves enough to blur. To freeze a bullet it's often done with a special type of flash which doesn't ignite a xenon tube with 3000V like a normal flash, but instead basically generates a bolt of lightning at 50kV with a duration of 1/1000000th of a second or so. They are specialist devices and they sound like a gunshot when you take a photo.

 

[cnutco]

Does anyone have the setup it would take to do this? and if so, do I have the gear needed.

Why not take my photog gear to the shooting range too...

 

[KmH]

Nearly. The common studio strobe actually doesn't produce a bright enough light for a short enough duration to freeze a moving bullet. The shortest duration of a typical strobe light is 1/40000th of a second and in this time a bullet moves enough to blur. To freeze a bullet it's often done with a special type of flash which doesn't ignite a xenon tube with 3000V like a normal flash, but instead basically generates a bolt of lightning at 50kV with a duration of 1/1000000th of a second or so. They are specialist devices and they sound like a gunshot when you take a photo.

Yep.

That's why I linked to Edgerton and his work.

 

[minister]

thanks for all u r comment , can you help me with any how to link here , bcoz, i want to make sure i can do it with my gear limit's , I also saw some shot's with balloon blast by niddle. if not gun shot why not balloon