David thank you for answering my question. To clarify I was using strobes in studio. I was at full power so I think that was the problem It totally makes sense that the flash duration acts like the shutter speed. That is what i was doing wrong. Thank you
Great video. I vaguely knew how this works but this was very helpful. Your explanation of how the electronic shutter works was also more complete than what I have seen before. Suggestion: it might have been helpful to mention RC flash sync speeds.
Great video demonstration. You've provided me a better understanding on this subject. That Flash Point Explorer is a beast of flash and most likely at a Hulk of a price. Nevertheless the video gives me a good perspective of what my limits are when using my speed lights. As always thanks a lot for sharing.
David, late to this party, but just starting my adventure with strobes (relatively new amateur photographer) - and I must say, your videos are always super informative and to the point covering essential information. I've had a flash in hand for 2 weeks to give you some idea, but already am using it for many things including rear curtain sync ghosting of movement (thanks Seth M) etc. Here's my question for you (if you get back here): Going up from a speedlite to 1200 Watt seconds is an expensive venture. So, if I was interested in photographing moving/rotational dancers in a controlled environment (i.e. studio), all things being equal (I know they rarely are), would it be more advantageous to purchase a more powerful strobe (i.e. 1200ws) vs 2 600ws strobes used at low power - but also giving you the ability to light different sides (i.e. left/right). Thank you in advance.
Wow, when I first saw Lizzie, she looks so much like my granddaughter , thanks to her for making this video possible. Being a sport photographer and when researching strobes used in gyms for basketball, I learned that some of these older powerful strobes get shorter flash duration as the power is increased, unlike most of the newer ones like I use, Flashpoint ( Godox ) is just the opposite. When I mean older strobes, I mean the ones I could afford at the time and they were old. I never ended up trying the strobes in gyms, as usually not needed in most gyms, just dial up the iso and go. Thanks David and Adorama.
What if you opened up your aperture from F11 to, say, F5.6? That should enable John to also reduce his flash power, right? However, that will also change your depth of field. And if John wanted to keep his depth of field where it was, this was definitely the way to go. Would using a speed light tree with the speed lights all turned down to, say, 1/64 power but having 3 or 4 of them to approx. equal the amount or light that you had work?
Yes - a wider aperture would have helped. Also yes - multiple speedlites with lower power would help too. However, remember that you only get one more stop of light every time you double your number of flashes. So there is a point of diminishing returns. 1 to 2 lights is 1 stop. 4 lights is 2 stops. 8 lights is 3 stops, etc....
I've really only considered the difference between ambient and flash when shooting motion (I photograph a lot of roller derby and almost always am using multiple flashes). I thought keeping 2-3 stops difference between ambient and flash was sufficient to freeze motion, though flash duration can contribute.
I have discovered that more watts on a flash doesn't always equate to a short flash duration. I have a 500 watt monolight/strobe and a 250 watt. I had more success with the 250 watt. So more power doesn't always mean a short flash duration and it depends on the flash as you indicated. I think Mark Wallace touched on that with a video he did quite a while ago if I remember correctly. Thanks for another great video!!!
Actually for most of the part more power does equate to short duration. If you have two strobes of the same make and series, but one is 500watts and the other is 250watts, when you use the 250watts one it will be at full power and recycle time and flash duration will both be longer than the 500 watts one at 250 watts as it is working at half power. The same goes all through the power cycle. the 250 watts light at 1/4 power would be equivalent to the 500watts at 1/8th power. If you look at the manual (or if the light has the option to display flash duration on it's screen. you will notice that the 250 watts at 1/4 power lights flash duration is higher than the 500 watts light at 1/8th power. An example would be my Godox AD200Pro vs my Godox AD400Pro, the 200Pro at full power (200watts) would have a flash duration of 1/220th of a second while the Godox 400Pro at 1/2 Power (200 watts) would have a flash duration of 1/790th of a second, that's a huge difference and the same goes when you use equivalent power setting in both. Hope this helps explain a bit 🙂
Great explanation as always! Finally understand the importance of flash duration, thanks 👍 One question, I saw you swapped triggers without turning off camera. Is it best practice to switch off camera when attaching to the hot shoe?
Even though HSS would not have been powerful enough - you should have gone through it anyway to show how it works, You need to do an electronic shutter seesion later using this scenario as well. Otherwise good explanation of the issues.
No one shoots at 32000 iso. At least most cameras normal people carry are incapable. I know you are using a4G camera. So this exercise is not intuitive. Can you do this with a Fuji x100v at lower iso and basic flash? Not what the pros use.
