Studio shutter speeds?

Byker28i

Byker28i

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I normally shoot products, a few portraits and have access to a small studio with 500W Bowens studio flash guns.

Yesterday I talked a colleague into letting me shoot his 4 year old daughter and we had a great time, but I struggled with some of the 'action' shots.

As she was very active we were just generally larking about and having fun, but I've noticed some of the shots where she was jumping are motion blurred.

What's the best shutter speed for this or what's the highest I can use? I've a feeling I'm starting to see the banding at around 1/250th.
 
check the durations of the strobes in their specs. it's the strobes that will stop action, not the shutter speed.
 
You can't go above about 1/200th before you get blackout (the shutter starts to close during the flash exposure). There's no need for high shutter speeds with studio flash as the exposure comes from the aperture setting, the ISO and the flash power. All the shutter speed does is limit the contribution of ambient lighting.

What setting did you have your camera on?
 
a) you can't (sensibly) use anything faster than your camera's synch speed - typically 1/200 or 1/250 these days
b) exposure is controlled by ISO, aperture and strength of lights
c) the duration of most studio flashes ought to stop any movement dead in its tracks

a sample picture would help
 
How much other/ambient constant lighting was there. Was the modeling light adding a significant portion of the key light?

... If there was enough constant light to record an image, the shutter speed would be to blame for the blur. Decrease the ambient/constant lighting or Increasing the power of the strobe(s) and meter according to the flash.
 
Yup I guessed at 1/200th. I think I've tried 1/250th before and got blackout starting.

Standard I use in the studio as a starting point is 1/125th F8. I didn't change the shutter speed as I was just shooting as chatting and didn't want to stop/lose the moment.

No pics - sorry. It's a colleague so I won't post his daughter without asking first.
 
singlespeed said:
How much other/ambient constant lighting was there. Was the modeling light adding a significant portion of the key light?

... If there was enough constant light to record an image, the shutter speed would be to blame for the blur. Decrease the ambient/constant lighting or Increasing the power of the strobe(s) and meter according to the flash.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all this as I'm still learning.

White backdrop, one studio flash either side with reflecting brollys to light the backdrop.

Model in front of these lit from the front with the other flash and a large softbox.

I'm pretty sure it's because I had the shutter speed at 1/125th. Just wondered what I could have gone to, or maybe lit differently?

Edit: All wirelessly triggered using the Bowens trigger.
 
Make sure the modelling lights go off when the flash goes and the room is dark otherwise - the flash will stop the action.
 
awp said:
Make sure the modelling lights go off when the flash goes and the room is dark otherwise - the flash will stop the action.
Click to expand...

Exactly... the actual flash duration from the strobe will be in thousandths of a second, so would freeze most movements. Any constant light source, would be the likely cause of motion showing at 1/125 sec.
 
There isn't a simple answer to this question.
Although it's true that the ambient light level doesn't make a measureable contribution to the exposure at 'normal' shutter speeds it CAN contribute to motion blur, so in this situation it makes sense to use the fastest shutter speed that will work.
Checking the specs of the studio flash is all very well in theory, but there are two factors that you need to remember...
1. The published flash duration is normally expressed as t.5, which is the time that it takes for the flash to expend HALF of its energy. the other 50% takes much longer to expend, and at longer shutter speeds especially can contribute motion blur and colour polution, as the remaining flash energy becomes increasingly red as it dies down. A much more useful flash duration is t.1, which is the time that the flash takes to expend 1/10th of its energy. In practical terms, if the t.5 time is 1/1000th sec, the t.1 time is about 1/330th - which isn't very fast.
2. Flash duration is commonly measured at full power. At reduced power (and especially with less modern flash heads) the flash duration is MUCH longer.
Make sure the modelling lights go off when the flash goes
Click to expand...
This doesn't make any difference - the shutter has normally closed again by the time the modelling lamps have even started to dim
 
singlespeed said:
Exactly... the actual flash duration from the strobe will be in thousandths of a second, so would freeze most movements. Any constant light source, would be the likely cause of motion showing at 1/125 sec.
Click to expand...

some studio flashes have quite slow durations. the manufacturers may quote figures like 1/1500 t.5 etc, but the real world duration can be as low as 1/500th which can lead to some slight motion blur in some situations.
 
Garry Edwards said:
...
2. Flash duration is commonly measured at full power. At reduced power (and especially with less modern flash heads) the flash duration is MUCH longer.
This doesn't make any difference - the shutter has normally closed again by the time the modelling lamps have even started to dim
Click to expand...

yea, Garry pretty much covered it whilst i typed. As he noted, most studio lights work the other way to hotshoe flashes - the duration gets slower at lower power settings.
 
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