In my last post I mentioned that with the new Pocket Wizards Hypersync mode they're saying that you can sync at up to 1/500th of a second and that I thought you could go faster. I'd like to clarify that a little. While Hypersync, or an early sync signal, is key to high speed sync and especially with a full frame camera, that alone won't do it. And 1/500th - 1/800th sync is pretty hard to get, 1/1000th is a little easier. The reason for that is that at 1/500th of a second shutter the opening is a slit, (see the photos in Camera Sync Speed and Flash from last July) and no matter how early you fire the flash you're not going to change that. What you need to rely on is the flash duration being slow enough to cover the entire frame as the shutter moves across it. That's kind of opposite of what we normally want for action, which is a really fast flash duration. And 1/500th shutter with 1/500 flash is often not as good at freezing as 1/250th shutter with 1/2000th flash duration.
As you've probably already guessed from reading this far there is a lot going on when you are syncing at high shutter speeds. I like to shoot at 1/1000 of a second and run my SB800's at full power. That gives me a flash duration of close to 1/1000 of a second, which is pretty close to the shutter speed, but it still doesn't quite always fill the entire frame. You will also notice that the light falls off a bit through the end of the frame as the flash duration measurement of T.5 (measured from when the flash hits full power until it drops to half power, thus the .5) includes a full one stop range in flash output. Ie at full power if the flash is at f8, when it drops to half power it'll be at f5.6, which is more than enough light to still be visible, and enough of a difference to be noticeable. Also when your flash duration is so close to the shutter speed you start to notice things like the 1/15,000 to 1/20,000 of a second irregularities in the shutter. Sometimes you see a little of the shutter curtain, sometimes you don't, there aren't many cameras that have shutters that are accurate to 1/15,000 of a second or faster.
So what I'm really saying is that to sync your flash at faster than 1/500th of a second you really need a slow duration flash, and slower is better to some extent. If you're shooting at 1/1000th and your flash duration is 1/500th, then the flash turns on, your shutter moves across the image, and then your flash turns off, with a bit of leeway on either side.
To do this you need to be able to fire the flash 1/10,000 of a second or so before the shutter opens, and you need to be able to adjust that sync point by 1/10,000's of a second to make up for variations in shutters and flashes.
David Hobby said in his review of the new Pocket Wizards on his Strobist blog that "It's only a matter of time before the message boards start lighting up with best settings for every camera and flash model combos to rack the full sync out as far as possible." Well I can tell you from experience that there is a different setting for every shutter speed and flash power combination with every different camera and flash model. So it's going to be a huge list. I started making one with exact sync offsets for my SB800's and my D2Xs and my D700 or D3 and realized that while you can get pretty close with a chart, I find I still need to finetune by 1/10,000's up and down every time I set up.
This is a lot of tech information and may be a little much for those of you that aren't total geeks, so I'll follow this up with a few more posts on the topic and eventually (hopefully soon) a video post about how to set up Pocket Wizard Multimax's to do all this.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Pocket Wizardry
Pocket Wizard has just announced the new Flex TT5, the successor to the MultiMax. While it's currently only available for Canon, a Nikon version will be available soon. You can read about it here
So why would a flash trigger be Nikon or Canon specific you ask? That's because it reads and uses the camera's TTL codes and each manufacturer uses slightly different pins on the hotshoe to transmit those codes. It also does something else that is way more important for me, it allows you to pretrigger the flash. They call this HyperSync, and this is their brief description of what it does
"With PocketWizard HyperSync™ Technology, the FlexTT5 can precisely advance the timing of your flash trigger so that increased flash sync speeds, up to 1/500th of a second is achievable with many strobes."
Now while they say 1/500th of a second sync speeds are possible, the reality of it should be far greater. I can currently sync at 1/1000 or even 1/2000 using the now old fashioned MultiMax's with just about any camera. Here are a couple of examples shot with my full frame D700.
You may notice that the image shot at 1/2000 only has light on the bike rider and not on the rest of the frame vs the image shot at 1/1000 that has light across almost the entire frame. This is not really a technical issue, I just used a couple of other flashes on the 1/1000 shot to light up the jump. It's a bit more work to figure out but not technically more difficult. Both images used SB800's to light the rider, and for the image shot at 1/1000 I used a couple of Quantum T2D's to light the jump.
I'll try to have a post up in the next day or so with details on how to sync at 1/500th and higher.
So why would a flash trigger be Nikon or Canon specific you ask? That's because it reads and uses the camera's TTL codes and each manufacturer uses slightly different pins on the hotshoe to transmit those codes. It also does something else that is way more important for me, it allows you to pretrigger the flash. They call this HyperSync, and this is their brief description of what it does
"With PocketWizard HyperSync™ Technology, the FlexTT5 can precisely advance the timing of your flash trigger so that increased flash sync speeds, up to 1/500th of a second is achievable with many strobes."
Now while they say 1/500th of a second sync speeds are possible, the reality of it should be far greater. I can currently sync at 1/1000 or even 1/2000 using the now old fashioned MultiMax's with just about any camera. Here are a couple of examples shot with my full frame D700.
You may notice that the image shot at 1/2000 only has light on the bike rider and not on the rest of the frame vs the image shot at 1/1000 that has light across almost the entire frame. This is not really a technical issue, I just used a couple of other flashes on the 1/1000 shot to light up the jump. It's a bit more work to figure out but not technically more difficult. Both images used SB800's to light the rider, and for the image shot at 1/1000 I used a couple of Quantum T2D's to light the jump.
I'll try to have a post up in the next day or so with details on how to sync at 1/500th and higher.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Upcoming Posts
So I'm trying hard to get into the habit of posting more often. I'd like to be able to post almost every week, or sometimes twice a week. I just need to put the time aside to actually write the posts.
I shot a few things in the past week that I'd like to write posts on, and I'm going to Jamaica in a couple of days for the Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival so I'll have a few posts about that trip. I also get asked questions about stuff through emails and conversations, I'll try to put those questions and answers into posts as often as possible as well.
I shot a few things in the past week that I'd like to write posts on, and I'm going to Jamaica in a couple of days for the Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival so I'll have a few posts about that trip. I also get asked questions about stuff through emails and conversations, I'll try to put those questions and answers into posts as often as possible as well.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Red Bull Crashed Ice 2009 - Shooting in the cold
I started off planning to blog every event and photoshoot this year as they happened. It was pretty much a new years resolution for me, but I'm already struggling with it. Here goes for a post I started a couple of weeks ago.
Red Bull Crashed Ice is one of the craziest looking events I've ever shot. It's like a skier cross or boarder cross event, except it's on ice skates, on ice, downhill, with turns and jumps and all sorts of other fun stuff. It's the kind of event that Red Bull is famous for and I've shot the one in Quebec City for the past 4 years now. Aside from all the craziness of the event itself it's also a fairly difficult event to shoot. It takes place at night in Quebec City in the winter so right away you can correctly assume that it's dark and it's cold. Red Bull and Gestev (The company that produces the event) do a really good job of lighting the place up so it looks awesome on TV and in photos. But that light still falls way short of what you'd really want if you could choose. Here is a brief description of the Crashed Ice photography issues over the last couple of years.
The first year the track itself was fairly dark, hidden behind the crowds and the boards. I shot with a couple of Quantum Q flashes, placing them on tall light stands and trying to light up the crowd and the action, while still shooting at a high enough ISO to get the ambient lighting on the buildings etc. This worked to a point and I got some great shots, the biggest issues were the crowd (60,000 or so) and the cold. The crowd was a major factor as it was very difficult to move around and leaving a light stand in a location for a short period of time was almost impossible. Without even worrying about it being stolen or tipped over the biggest issue was probably trying to retrieve it whenever I wanted to change locations. Also the first year it was about -20 Celsius, which is cold, not extreme cold, but definitely cold enough to be an issue. I was mostly concerned about batteries but the biggest trouble came with the lcd screens. The Quantum flashes and the Pocket Wizard triggers both use lcd display screens to show you what's going on and after about 2 hours in the cold they started to go out. My flashes and Pocket Wizards still
worked but I had no idea of what the settings were because the displays were completely blank. Lesson number 1 for shooting in the cold, bring pocket warmers and tape for all your gear. Little point and shoot pouches work great for the pocket wizards, you can fit a hand warmer in there with them and they'll go all night with no problems. I didn't have pouches big enough for the Q Flashes so I just taped pocket warmers to them. Not as good a solution, but better than nothing at all. Here are a couple of shots from that year.
The last 3 years they put lights in the boards and increased the amount of light on the buildings so it's been a lot easier to shoot. And this year with the new cameras and the higher ISO's it should have been a really easy event to shoot. No flash, just put the ISO at 1600 or 3200 and shoot away. Last year I shot with a Nikon D2Xs and most of my shots were at ISO 640 or 800 around 1/250 f2.8. Not what you'd call ideal for action. This year I was shooting with a D700 and getting 1/800th at f.4 and 3200 ISO which was awesome, the only problem was the cold. At -37 Celsius Digital Cameras have some serious issues. I kept spare batteries in a pocket with handwarmers and swapped them out occasionally, so that wasn't as much a problem as it could have been, my friend Yorick went through 3 batteries in several hours. The biggest problems had to do with the lubricant in the lenses becoming quite stiff, and the lcd and indicator lights not working properly. The lens problem was mostly an issue with my 70-200 zoom, it was so stiff it felt like was going to tear the lens off the camera when I zoomed. Autofocus was also an issue, I could definitely notice the focusing speed slow right down as the lenses got cold, not good when you're trying to focus track. The LCD screen on the back of the camera started to flicker a lot, and the focus indicator light in the viewfinder quit working all together. This was really a problem in the end when I was trying to prefocus to avoid the really slow autofocus.
I did a fair bit of reading before and after the event and came up with a few recommendations for cold weather (below -20C) shooting.
1. Do not bring your camera or lenses inside if you can avoid it. Besides the usual problem with condensation on and in cold lenses and camera bodies when they're brought into a warm humid environment, lenses supposedly also work better when they're consistently cold. Aside from the lubricant issues, lenses suffer from the glass and metal parts expanding and contracting at different rates when they're brought in and out of the cold. So leaving them in the same temperature to 'acclimatize' before using them is supposedly a good idea.
2. Keep spare batteries in your pocket with handwarmers to keep them warm, then switch them often.
3. As a part of number 1 above, if you do need to bring your cameras inside, take the cards out in the cold and put your bodies and lenses in sealed ziplock bags inside your camera bag and don't open your bag for several hours. Don't open the zipock bags until the bodies and lenses are no longer cold to the touch. (At Crashed Ice this year we saw more than one photographer walk into the media room with a 300 2.8 over their shoulder or attached to a monopod. Once inside the lens would immediately be almost dripping wet, with condensation on both sides all the lens elements. A short time later the photographer would walk back outside into the freezing temps and all that moisture would freeze solid. Hard to shoot with a lens full of ice.)
A few photos from this years event...
Red Bull Crashed Ice is one of the craziest looking events I've ever shot. It's like a skier cross or boarder cross event, except it's on ice skates, on ice, downhill, with turns and jumps and all sorts of other fun stuff. It's the kind of event that Red Bull is famous for and I've shot the one in Quebec City for the past 4 years now. Aside from all the craziness of the event itself it's also a fairly difficult event to shoot. It takes place at night in Quebec City in the winter so right away you can correctly assume that it's dark and it's cold. Red Bull and Gestev (The company that produces the event) do a really good job of lighting the place up so it looks awesome on TV and in photos. But that light still falls way short of what you'd really want if you could choose. Here is a brief description of the Crashed Ice photography issues over the last couple of years.
The first year the track itself was fairly dark, hidden behind the crowds and the boards. I shot with a couple of Quantum Q flashes, placing them on tall light stands and trying to light up the crowd and the action, while still shooting at a high enough ISO to get the ambient lighting on the buildings etc. This worked to a point and I got some great shots, the biggest issues were the crowd (60,000 or so) and the cold. The crowd was a major factor as it was very difficult to move around and leaving a light stand in a location for a short period of time was almost impossible. Without even worrying about it being stolen or tipped over the biggest issue was probably trying to retrieve it whenever I wanted to change locations. Also the first year it was about -20 Celsius, which is cold, not extreme cold, but definitely cold enough to be an issue. I was mostly concerned about batteries but the biggest trouble came with the lcd screens. The Quantum flashes and the Pocket Wizard triggers both use lcd display screens to show you what's going on and after about 2 hours in the cold they started to go out. My flashes and Pocket Wizards still
worked but I had no idea of what the settings were because the displays were completely blank. Lesson number 1 for shooting in the cold, bring pocket warmers and tape for all your gear. Little point and shoot pouches work great for the pocket wizards, you can fit a hand warmer in there with them and they'll go all night with no problems. I didn't have pouches big enough for the Q Flashes so I just taped pocket warmers to them. Not as good a solution, but better than nothing at all. Here are a couple of shots from that year.
The last 3 years they put lights in the boards and increased the amount of light on the buildings so it's been a lot easier to shoot. And this year with the new cameras and the higher ISO's it should have been a really easy event to shoot. No flash, just put the ISO at 1600 or 3200 and shoot away. Last year I shot with a Nikon D2Xs and most of my shots were at ISO 640 or 800 around 1/250 f2.8. Not what you'd call ideal for action. This year I was shooting with a D700 and getting 1/800th at f.4 and 3200 ISO which was awesome, the only problem was the cold. At -37 Celsius Digital Cameras have some serious issues. I kept spare batteries in a pocket with handwarmers and swapped them out occasionally, so that wasn't as much a problem as it could have been, my friend Yorick went through 3 batteries in several hours. The biggest problems had to do with the lubricant in the lenses becoming quite stiff, and the lcd and indicator lights not working properly. The lens problem was mostly an issue with my 70-200 zoom, it was so stiff it felt like was going to tear the lens off the camera when I zoomed. Autofocus was also an issue, I could definitely notice the focusing speed slow right down as the lenses got cold, not good when you're trying to focus track. The LCD screen on the back of the camera started to flicker a lot, and the focus indicator light in the viewfinder quit working all together. This was really a problem in the end when I was trying to prefocus to avoid the really slow autofocus.
I did a fair bit of reading before and after the event and came up with a few recommendations for cold weather (below -20C) shooting.
1. Do not bring your camera or lenses inside if you can avoid it. Besides the usual problem with condensation on and in cold lenses and camera bodies when they're brought into a warm humid environment, lenses supposedly also work better when they're consistently cold. Aside from the lubricant issues, lenses suffer from the glass and metal parts expanding and contracting at different rates when they're brought in and out of the cold. So leaving them in the same temperature to 'acclimatize' before using them is supposedly a good idea.
2. Keep spare batteries in your pocket with handwarmers to keep them warm, then switch them often.
3. As a part of number 1 above, if you do need to bring your cameras inside, take the cards out in the cold and put your bodies and lenses in sealed ziplock bags inside your camera bag and don't open your bag for several hours. Don't open the zipock bags until the bodies and lenses are no longer cold to the touch. (At Crashed Ice this year we saw more than one photographer walk into the media room with a 300 2.8 over their shoulder or attached to a monopod. Once inside the lens would immediately be almost dripping wet, with condensation on both sides all the lens elements. A short time later the photographer would walk back outside into the freezing temps and all that moisture would freeze solid. Hard to shoot with a lens full of ice.)
A few photos from this years event...
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Bike Mag Cover
Last month I got something really exciting in the mail, Bike Magazine, and for the second time in my life I had a photo on the cover of it. What set this cover apart for me was that it was shot at 1/500th of a second with flash. See my post on Camera Sync Speed and Flash for more details.The Details:
This was shot at 1/500 f5 with a Nikon D2Xs. I used 2 Nikon SB800's set to manual 1/2 power and mounted on a single stand. I can't remember exactly what the zoom was set at but I metered it out to match the sunlight coming from almost directly overhead. Flash's are on a stand at the bottom of the photo in the middle, behind the bush. Some people may wonder why I used 2 flashes at 1/2 power, isn't that the same as one flash at 1/1? Yes it is, the big difference is that the flash duration is way quicker, so you get a crisper image, and if I was going to take a second shot, they recycle way faster as well. I've started using 2 SB800's together now for a lot of different things, it just seems to work better for me.
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