With this flash set up and my camera will I be able to freeze motion?

penguin · Dec 6, 2013

Hi everyone,

I have a Canon 550D the maximum shutter speed is 1/4000 of a second I have taken photos outdoors in full sun and indoors with continuous lighting in the shutter range of over 1/1000th to 3200th.

Now I am setting up a studio at home and will be buying flash lights, these in particular Linkstar DL-350D Studio Flash Kit 2x 350Ws fan cooled heads with LED display.

My camera sync speed is 1/200th of a second does this mean that I will not be able to freeze motion over 1/200 such as 1/3000th?

runnah · Dec 6, 2013

It means you can only set your shutter speed to 1/200 max with a flash. depending on the motion that should be enough.

Braineack · Dec 6, 2013

curious: what sort of motion do you expect to be freezing in your home studio?

penguin · Dec 6, 2013

Water splashes. Water looks so different at very high shutter speeds. I wish I would be able to do it at home. But seems like I'll need to rent a studio with powerful continuous.

Overread · Dec 6, 2013

When you light a scene with flash if you want to stop motion the method is simple. You just have to ensure that the only light contributing to the exposure comes from the flash. The flash light comes in a very fast pulse so if you only have the light from the flash creating the exposure on the sensor then it doesn't matter what the shutter speed is (so long as its not faster than the sync speed) because only the split second of flash light will be recorded.

Now this doesn't mean you have to shoot in a pitch dark room - just that you'll want to set your camera settings and flash so that if you took the shot without the flash you'd get a black (underexposed) shot. Then when you add the flash in the flash itself provides al the needed light.

SCraig · Dec 6, 2013

Doubtful if the lights are continuous. Water droplets will accelerate based on the force of gravity which is 32 feet per second per second. At 1/200 second a water droplet will move 0.16' (1/200th of 32' = 0.16') or about 2". If you use strobes the light duration will be much shorter than the amount of time that the shutter is open. If you keep the ambient light low so that it doesn't affect the exposure, and strobe only the water droplets, then you might be able to get it to work.

robbins.photo · Dec 6, 2013

SCraig said:
Doubtful if the lights are continuous. Water droplets will accelerate based on the force of gravity which is 32 feet per second per second. At 1/200 second a water droplet will move 0.16' (1/200th of 32' = 0.16') or about 2". If you use strobes the light duration will be much shorter than the amount of time that the shutter is open. If you keep the ambient light low so that it doesn't affect the exposure, and strobe only the water droplets, then you might be able to get it to work.

Argghh! Math.. with a.. a .. strong science component! Geez, a little warning next time huh? Lol

KmH · Dec 6, 2013

Photography gets a lot easier if you have a good handle on how math works, and if you have a good grounding in the physical sciences so you understand all the underlying technology.

hirejn · Dec 6, 2013

Freezing motion with flash has nothing to do with shutter speed. You could have shutter speed of 1 second and freeze splashing water with flash. The key is flash duration. The burst of light coming from the flash has a short duration, faster than 1/10,000 on some Speedlights. Duration depends on the power setting: lower power, shorter duration. When the flash is providing 100 percent of the light, its duration becomes the effective shutter speed. The only thing you need to worry about is controlling ambient. Indoors, an ISO of 100 and aperture of f/8 are almost always sufficient to eliminate ambient light. You simply set the shutter to sync speed. The shutter can't travel fast enough to affect flash exposure.

You may find this article informative and interesting as it covers the process.

Continuous light is not a good solution for freezing motion. You can't depend on its duration because it's on throughout the frame. You can only meter for it and crank the ISO until you get a fast shutter speed. Indoors, that will mean a high ISO and super bright continuous lights. It's easier just to use flash. Any flash can do it.

lambertpix · Dec 6, 2013

Overread said:
When you light a scene with flash if you want to stop motion the method is simple. You just have to ensure that the only light contributing to the exposure comes from the flash. The flash light comes in a very fast pulse so if you only have the light from the flash creating the exposure on the sensor then it doesn't matter what the shutter speed is (so long as its not faster than the sync speed) because only the split second of flash light will be recorded.

It takes a little while to wrap your head around how / why this works, but give it a shot (so to speak) -- it'll probably turn out to be easier than it sounds at first.

Stradawhovious · Feb 18, 2016

Yep. Shutter speed has nothing to do with freezing motion, it's all about the light. This image was captured with a several second shutter speed. If the only source of light is a blast from a speedlight lasting only 1/30,000 of a second, it will be the same has having a 1/30,000 second shutter speed, even if the shutter is open for far longer.

Stradawhovious · Feb 19, 2016

Oh... another quick point on this... With studio strobes, the flash duration is MUCH longer than with speedlights.

Put another way, studio strobes, in general, will be less effective at REALLY freezing action than speedlights will.

In general.

And also depending on the action you are trying to freeze.

For example, they will likely freeze a water droplet, but not the projectile from a pellet gun.

astroNikon · Feb 19, 2016

Stradawhovious said:
Yep. Shutter speed has nothing to do with freezing motion, it's all about the light. This image was captured with a several second shutter speed. If the only source of light is a blast from a speedlight lasting only 1/30,000 of a second, it will be the same has having a 1/30,000 second shutter speed, even if the shutter is open for far longer.

View attachment 116179

Old thread, but great shot.
Must have been a blast to capture it.