Sync Speed vs High Speed Sync with Flash Photography | Mark Wallace | Exploring Photography

In this episode, Mark Wallace dives into the fascinating world of sync speed and external flash. Discover how sync speed sets the limit on your shutter speed when using a flash—unless you're harnessing the power of high-speed sync. Curious about the difference and how it all works? Dive into this video to uncover all the answers!

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0:00 Introduction
0:28 How your camera's shutter works
1:49 Sync Speed defined
2:06 How your camera's shutter syncs with your flash
3:16 High Speed Sync
4:00 conclusion and bonus info

[andreasstolten]

I already understood sync speed prior to this video. However this was the best animation to demontrate sync speed I have ever seen. Well very done. As I wrote before: you are a very good edjucator.

[ChuckSeayII]

Very well explained. You cleared it right up for me and that's hard to do. Thank you for sharing.

[PokuPokuYeah]

I just used your video to teach sync speed to my student. It's just absolutely perfect. GOOD JOB SIR

[srb]

Hey Mark, Thank you. This was the most clearly explained video with examples on Sync Speed & HSS that I’ve ever seen.

[silvinaslatopolsky]

Thank you Mark! First time I get to understand REALLY what happens!!! You are a great teacher

[steveduff]

Thank you for this explanation of how it works, simply explained for my simple mind

[Paulus]

I have watched loads of videos on this and none of them have ever explained it so coherently as you did in this video, thank you! Liked and subscribed!

[jegannathan]

very informative. Just got understand how the High speed functions.

[dodsdods]

the most profesional video ive ever seen on this topic really really good

[skillcubator]

Best animation to explain this concept. Great job.

[lschiz-photography]

Excellent thank you.
Always impressed
W your training!!

[antondymkovych]

I finally got it) Thanks a lot for such a clear explanation!

[Daniel_DP]

New Videos about

- Histogramm
- whitebalance
- Colorchecker etc.

would be nice!

[photonsonpixels]

Thanks, Mark. Now a days some cameras have only an electronic shutter (my Nikon z8) and others have what they call a "global" shutter. It would be nice to understand what is different - if any - when you use flash with those cameras. Also, I seem to remember having seen that "silent" shooting can prevent the flash from firing, but I don't know why that is. Thank you!

[martinwhite]

I know all this, but I'm still going to watch it. I just like people's take on stuff.

[rb]

Great video. Can you explain how the sync speed works with a Hassleblad X2D? Being new to photography, I'm purchasing this camera in a few months for my degree program starting in January, but I've read that the Hassleblads sync speed is faster?? Can you explain the difference?

[jpdj]

There's an alternative to High Speed Sync called "HyperSync". This relies on the flash duration of the speedlight/strobe relative to the slit shutter. It works better with a relatively slow speedlight/strobe (that has a longer flash duration than a fast one).
And as we want to shoot at high shutter speeds, we need to have sync moment that coincides with the departure of the first curtain. This would be called "FP" sync, rather than "X" (see my other comment).

So with a camera with a slit shutter or an electronic shutter that effectively boils down to a slit shutter, we need to distinguish 3 sync moments:
X-sync - pops the flash when the first curtain arrives at the other side and the second curtain still has to close.
"2nd curtain" - a variant of X-sync where the flash pops when the second curtain starts to close.
FP-sync - pops the flash when the first curtain starts to open.

My flash trigger has a feature to measure flash duration and get a histogram of light as function of time that also indicates the sync moment. And with that I can shift the sync moment in the trigger (The Raven).

The advantage of HyperSync is absence of banding that HSS could cause.

What if your speedlight or strobe is too fast for HyperSync?
Well, imagine you shoot outdoors sports shots in the dark. Whatever flash you use, the top of the image is dark because the sky is too far away from the flash.
The foreground is overexposed.
Now with HyperSync you have less overexposed foreground ;)

[donaldbrocksmith]

If you're using multiple flashes do all of them to be in HSS if your main light is in HSS?

[AnalyseSciences]

Mark, can you make a video on High Speed sync using Mirrorless camera like Nikon