Just a quick post… found this web site called simply Digital Photography Tips and Techniques while searching for information on flash sync speed, something I truly just don’t understand and amazingly found an explanation written in plain english. I’ll quote a little bit without spoiling their article:

The picture shown on the right is where the flash is used as a complementary light source to fill the shadows (fill light) in outdoor shooting. In a sunny day, the shutter speed is ~1/100s at f/16 @ ISO100 based on the “sunny f/16″ rule. For many shooting situations, it is desirable to shoot at wider apertures to have a nice background isolation. So 1/200s at f/11, 1/400s at f/8, 1/800s at f/5.6, 1/1600s at f/4, … oh wait, this may already far exceed the maximum flash sync speed of your camera!

Incredibly easy to understand… you might need to raise your shutter speed above your flash sync speed, thus the importance of higher flash sync speeds. Compare this writing to Ken Rockwell’s article about the same subject:

Example one: You can’t reduce the required flash output by increasing the ISO. You will need to use a smaller aperture to keep the ambient exposure constant because you can’t increase the shutter speed above the sync speed. Because of the smaller aperture at the higher ISO you still need the same flash output. A higher ISO can’t get you more range or better battery life.

Example two: A lower ISO can let you use larger apertures for portraits, but it won’t speed up recycle time (and thus frame rate) or increase range. If you set a lower ISO and use a larger f/stop you still need the same flash power output. A faster sync speed would give you more range or require less power from the flash when using the larger aperture.

I know they are covering two different aspects of the issue, but the clarity of writing in both examples is evident. I’ve enjoyed much of Ken Rockwell’s writing in the past, but I have to say I don’t understand a word he is writing about flash sync. More correctly, I understand all the single words like ISO, f/stop and sync speed, but I can’t understand his overall point.

I’m not laying the blame specifically on Ken, though. I’ve read a lot about flash sync and just didn’t get any of it. Thanks to Digital Photography Tips and Techniques for putting it so simply.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 7:46 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.