Great Video on Overclocking Your Sync Speed
We talked about this in the sunset tiki hut portrait a ways back, but wedding shooter David Ziser has put together a well-done twelve-minute tutorial on working above your flash's native sync speed for outdoor lit portraiture.
(This, of course, does not get you anywhere near the insane sync speeds with the SB-800 diagnostic mode detailed early last April, but it is way easier to pull of, with no complicated button sequences...)
See the original post at Digital Pro Talk. Thanks to David for the vid and to everyone that let me know about it.
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by David, at 12:00 AM.
48 Comments:
I don't want to shoot upside down. It is easier to use high sync mode on my 580ex flash.
So if you think about this, you really only want to over sync your camera to an area that is too bright such as a sky but still keep the subject within the normal sync so you can get light to fall on them?
I dont' understand why he's darkening the bottom of the frame with this technique when he could just feather the lightsource.
heres a question i'd like to pose. I shoot with a nikon d40, sb-28dx and poverty wizards off of ebay. i've been experimenting with sync-speeds and my flash. I've been able to produce results up to 1/1000 sec with NO special button sequences, no special settings or anything. Just straight up manual exposure, manual flash. i have noticed however if i shoot at 1/1250, the scene is all black. I haven't noticed any major dark areas or anything that makes the image look weird or discolored or non-exposed properly. this was even done with no ambient light, or very very little in fact. any thoughts?
Andrew
I see moss.
hmm.. thanks for sharing. Its quite interesting way to go, specially for cases when FP mode is not available at all.
Pretty obvious to , but i never projected using that effect of darkening with balancing to ambient light. Something to play with this weekend. Yuppie :)
Could keep the subject in the top of the frame only and just crop out the lower 1/3 .
Good stuff.
Yep, the high sync mode on canon EX speedlites is a better and easier option...
@ Anonymous:
The D40 has an "electronic shutter" which simply activates the sensor for the exposure time. The physical shutter is still limited to 1/250th, any speeds higher than that are controlled by turning the sensor on and off. Hence, no dark strips from a moving shutter blade.
This is actually a significant advantage that your camera has over many more expensive ones.
Cycle 61 Photography
Keep in mind that high sync mode considerably reduces the effective range of the flash because it's no longer able to shoot at full power. Your flash instead of discharging in one peak of about 1/1000th duration will just 'keep firing' lesser flashes in waves for the exposure duration... of course you could remote sync your flash placed closer to the subject than the camera :)
The key idea in this video is a reminder that if you need to sync at 1/500th... its usually because you're in conditions where the ambient light is asking for that shutterspeed... turn off the flash, no band, but you don't have your fill. Turn on the flash, you'll have an underex band but its intensity will only depend on how many stops you have between ambient and flash fill. Try those indoors, and you'll have black banding... unless you have really huge continuous lights Oo
Andrew: with your eBay triggers, there is a slight delay between the signal being sent and the flash going off. This is around 1/1000s (but varies) so the reason your image is black at 1/1250s is that the flash went off too late to be captured.
@Anonymous: Your D40 can sync above 1/250 because it uses an electronic shutter. Most (if not all) "real" DSLRs unfortunetately can't.
@OASIS: High speed sync mode takes power out of your flash, decreasing your range quite a lot depending on how high you want to take your shutter speed. This also drains your batteries a lot faster.
@Patrick: Shooting at or below 1/250 would, as you mentioned, have required feathering to achieve the same result. However getting some additional control over the ambient with the higher sync speed is a nice thing - the falloff it creates just adds a little extra "punch" to the image for free.
The sensor on the D40 (just as on my D70) is special insofar that it doesn't use the shutter curtains for speeds faster than 1/500. This means it will sync at all speeds; in fact I have quite a few shots synced at 1/2000 and even faster.
I just tried the technique from the video with my D700 and my D300. It seems the shutter on the D300 runs the other way around, meaning the part of the image that is not getting any flash exposure will be at the top.
Carsten
The sensor on the D40 (just as on my D70) is special insofar that it doesn't use the shutter curtains for speeds faster than 1/500. This means it will sync at all speeds; in fact I have quite a few shots synced at 1/2000 and even faster.
I just tried the technique from the video with my D700 and my D300. It seems the shutter on the D300 runs the other way around, meaning the part of the image that is not getting any flash exposure will be at the top.
Carsten
Much ado about nothing. The author doesn't mention that proprietary strobe limit the shutter speed so you need to use a generic strobe, or put Scotch tape over the extra electrical contacts.
Further, I can sync to a 1/3000 using a D40 or a D70S without any back-flips, even using a wireless connection.
This is a great video, however I've just run some tests on my Nikon D300, using quantum triggers and anSB800 flash gun.
The curtain comes in from the top down on a Nikon - not bottom up as has been seen on the Canon and in the Video - so to get the great effects I'd need to shoot with the camera upside down all the time - which is a pitty.
Hey who's this guy in the Google shirt?
http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2008/10/photoplus-expo-day-1.html
I saw him discuss this on photoshop user TV last week and he mentioned the video was in his blog, but I never could find it.
Thanks for posting it!
Great vid. I do the same technique when shooting skateboarding using flashes =)
I take it that this will not work on a Nikon CLS system. For example, I have a Nikon D80 with a max sync speed of 1/200th. If I want to shoot faster than that, I have to enable Auto FP High Speed Sync which then reduces the power of my strobes.
So, I guess if I want to be able to overclock my shutter, I will need to get a Pocket Wizard or some other remote trigger instead of CLS?
I was digging through flicker and thought you might appreciate this. Someone even mentioned your name...1940s strobist.
http://flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179055031/
to Andrew:
I've used my "Poverty Wizzard" for about a year and i've tested with Nikon D70s with SB-800 at a maximum of 1/1600s.
I just can't get anymore speed (one should remember that David Hobby has already posted about high-speed sync with a D70s up to 1/4000, but with Pocket Wizzard") because the Cactus V2 and other versions have a maximum speed sync of something like 1/1600 or so..!
That means that even if your camera speeds up to 1/8000, your flash will not show in the picture because of the speed of the radio comunication!
At least, this is what i think!
See ya!
João Camilo, Portugal!
This is a little off topic for this particular post, but I wanted to see if you had seen this super clamp kit the B&H has put together... the part number is B&H# BO2910, easy to find on google. But anyway, its a Bogen head attached to a superclamp - seems like a pretty good alternative to a tripod for tight shooting in a small room or for sports shooting with pocket wizards. And it seems also that the price isn't bad for the kit... great blog! thx for all the help!
Turning the camera upside down. Shouldn't you be able to use rear curtain sync for the same effect? Just a thought, I'll try it tomorrow. And if the D300 shutter moves opposite to DZ's camera, just hold it right side up and use rear curtain sync. Worth a shot, no pun intended.
thanks, great video, can't wait to try 1/500 sync.
I think some of the people commenting didn't pick up on the part about this being for non-dedicated flash units. I tried it with my D50 and SB-26 anyway. I'm just getting into this, in fact I have a set of ebay wizzards and two 285HVs on order.
What I did find out was I have 1/500th sync speed on my D50! I had no idea! Can't go any higher than that using the pop up flash for a trigger so I'll have to try it out again after I get the PT04s.
@Anonymous "I take it that this will not work on a Nikon CLS system. For example, I have a Nikon D80 with a max sync speed of 1/200th. If I want to shoot faster than that, I have to enable Auto FP High Speed Sync which then reduces the power of my strobes. "
Not sure how Nikon works... on Canon FP sync is an option we have to select. ETTL is on as soon as we have an ETTL flash plugged... ETTL is annoying me, because it fires a preflash which makes it hard to use my studio strobes at the same time: I only need to tape the 4 connectors around the trigger on the hotshoe mount and tadaaa... no more ETTL... and I can shoot my flash in manual and keep it in sync with strobes.
So maybe on your nikon, if you tape those connectors you'll be able to bypass the CLS and force the flash to work as a cheapo 1 contact full manual one.
I liked the topic better (because it was far shorter and got the point across just as well) when DH covered it himself in June 2007.
Guys! this has nothing to do with HSFP on either Canon or Nikon. This is about cheating the normal sync of your camera to get a technical shot. It is a tool that gives a great effect if wanted. The only downside is you need to adjust the darker shudder spot into the area where it won't show.....thusly upside down! It also helps were the ambient is brighter but you want to use a fill in front on full power.
It's tool for use as good as your skills allow. Try it it works great!
I'm not quite sure when you'd use this. Only thing I'd say is for freezing the subject? But that doesn't seem like a thing for the wedding pics he shows.
If I'd have to go to 1/400th at the scenes he shows it would be because of that the sky would be blown out at 1/250th right? But what aperture would you be working? Why not use the aperture for fixing this? Because you're at F22? Well then I guess you'd have to have one really big flash to give enough output to light the subject from that distance.
Just my thoughts, correct me if I'm wrong. (In this case I just might like to be wrong)
Richard
---
www.urban-exploring.com
Good video! But he missed what some of you pointed out; that the shutter goes the other way with most Nikon cameras. I have used this technique with a D300 and a D200, but the effect is different. It darkens the top of the frame. With these cameras this technique does a great job darkening the sky in certain photographs, and you don't have to turn the camera around.
Amazing how many commenters missed the point here. "Not sure when you'd use this technique?
What about all the examples in the video? Knocking down the sky behind the bride with the faster shutter, then popping in some dramatic side light. Watch it again.
Like someone else, I immediately thought of just composing my shot loosely so that the dark area will get cropped. Good stuff!
Apparently everything goes the other way around between Nikon and Canon... from focus ring to zoom ring... and even shutter :D
Richard, I guess it's mainly a case of flash filling the subject under harsh light conditions... to break those nasty hard shadows. You'd also need that kind of speed for backlighting situations; and of course the aperture could be used to drop the light levels, or even ND filters if you really need to keep your depth of field. But it's more about fill than stopping power.
yeah i agree with hivewasp... i've done alot of outdoor glamour/portraits and being able to kill the ambient with higher shutters speeds would be great...
@Richard ... if you up the aperture you will lose the ambient yes, but you'll lose flash power as well... and since these little guys aren't all that powerful being able to dim the ambient more with higher shutter speeds is great...
so in the whole of the video he said that he was working with a non-dedicated flash... so i'll assume that the nikon cls will not work since to my understanding the high speed sync tells the flash to do short power draining bursts to compensate for going past the sync speed... i will try it out though and see if i can get a similar but if anyone knows for sure if you can do something like this via nikon cls let me know :)
-ben
BL.photography@yahoo.com
Dudes.. its not just about how to get higher shutter speed. It is also about how to use this extra creative side-effect to put light accents :)
FWIW, my D50s also exhibit the behavior described by other folks for the D40. I have synced (sunk?) my Alien Bees all the way from 1/500th to 1/4000th with no difficulty (using a pc sync cord). This even works on rear curtain sync, which I'm slightly surprised by. The AB400 claims flash duration in the 1/2000th to 1/6000th region at full power (which was where I was testing it).
Makes it rather a shame that attaching a Nikon flash (I have SB600, SB800, and SB22) forces it to lock down to 1/500th.
--Simon
Thanks for sharing, that is cool.
Given that Mr. Ziser likes to shoot with shallow DoF apertures like f/4.0, it makes sense that he would need fast shutter speeds outdoors - flash or not. It's an interesting hack that I'll have to try out on my camera. I can't see myself shooting upside-down, though.
COOL!
I've shot upside down before. In a pinch, it's a way to use the built-in flash on the Canon 30Ds (etc) and minimize the shadow created by a longer lens barrel. But I digress.
Anyhow, this was an amazing tip that I'm eager to implement. Thanks!
If I'd know that this wasn't common knowledge I woulda made a video about it ages ago!!
just made myself a little cheatsheet for this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7979823@N06/2981092408/
Richard
---
urban-exploring.com
To those who think high sync mode is a better and easier option...well, you haven't realized that when you put the flash on HSS, or FP, mode it drastically cuts the flash's power and range.
High sync mode has its place, but for a lot of shooting scenario small Canon/Nikon flashes are just not powerful enough, or you can make them powerful enough by combining them together but that gets real expensive quickly, not to mention tedious to set them up. And that's why big and relatively inexpensive studio strobe still rules and the technique described in this article is very useful.
It's a pretty interesting video, and I had never heard of that turning the camera upside-down-technique.
Another interesting thing is that while looking at this video, I remembered a shoot I did a while ago. I remembered that I had a hard time getting any exposure at all, many of the images just went pitch black. But some of them turned out really good, without changing any settings.
Now that I look at the EXIF info from these photos, I see that I have sync'd a "third-party" strobe to 1/800 of a sec with my old camera, a Fuji Finepix S9500. And as far as I know, the S9500 also has a maximum flash sync speed of 1/250 sec. So how in hell did I get good exposures? :)
Any Pentax shooter here? I tried my K10D with ebay trigger and viv285HV in M mode. The XSync speed is 1/180. When I set the shutter faster than that, the flash can not be triggered. The flash only fires when I set a shutter speed below 1/180. Maybe this is unique to Pentax bodies? Is there any work-around like taping certain electrical contacts on the hotshoe? Any input is highly appreciated.
Any Pentax shooter here? I tried this with my K10D, ebay trigger and viv285HV in M mode. When I set a shutter speed faster than the X-Sync speed 1/180, the flash can not be triggered. It only fires when I use a slower shutter speed than the X-Sync speed. Is this unique to Pentax bodies or am I doing something wrong? Any input would be highly appreciated
My Nikon D-79 syncs at 1/500 and I notice that if I try to set the shutter any higer, it just won't go (when the SB800 is mounted and turned on). Question. Is there any way to override Nikon D-80's apparent maximum shutter sync?
thanks for sharing... after watching it, he's right, it's not rocket science. it's just really understanding what goes on, and using that to make (what i found to be) pretty great compositions!
I love my pentax but that sucks me off my pentax k20d wont fire above 1/180 secs neither through cable or hotshoe
won´t work for pentax that sucks!
neither through cable or hotshoe just 1/180 secs
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