Synch-speed ?

My camera's synch speed is 1/250 and yesterday shooting in open shade, I found myself ending up cranking up the ISO to 1600 just to get an aperture my lens could handle f/5.6 with my flash.
Bare in mind, I'm still learning how to use my SB800 (line of sight really sucks too btw...lol)

My question to you guys is, without having to crank up the ISO, what other methods/choices did I really have? Thankfully it was just a fun day at the park with a friend of mine so I didn't mind having the pics come out brutal as they did.

Don't know if its really relevant, but neutral density filters may be an answer.

Hi Jacob,

If I understand you question correctly, your problem is not excessive light (which might require the use of ND filters as Ray has suggested), it is the opposite. Your flash defaults to 1/250 synch speed but you want to be able to shoot at lower shutter speeds since the available light is not enough to shoot at 1/250 - F/5.6 unless you shoot at ISO 1600. Is this correct? If so, you should set your SB800 to the fill-in flash mode (IIRC, it is set by default to operate full flash at 1/250 synch speed) and maybe adjust your camera too (which camera is it?). In any case, set your camera to the aperture priority mode or the shutter priority mode but not the program mode. I used to have a SB800 one myself but have sold it a while ago since I made a transition to Canon <oops>. I don't remember the exact settings you would need. Nevertheless, hope this helps a bit.

Regards,

Hi, Jacob,

jacob smith said:

My camera's synch speed is 1/250 and yesterday shooting in open shade, I found myself ending up cranking up the ISO to 1600 just to get an aperture my lens could handle f/5.6 with my flash.
Bare in mind, I'm still learning how to use my SB800 (line of sight really sucks too btw...lol)

My question to you guys is, without having to crank up the ISO, what other methods/choices did I really have? Thankfully it was just a fun day an aperture of about f/22 wat the park with a friend of mine so I didn't mind having the pics come out brutal as they did.

Click to expand...

I'm, not sure just what you were trying to accomplish. I'm not sure just what you meant by the passage I have marked in red.

Can you tell us a little more what is up here?

Was this on any particular kind of camera?

And what kind of flash (I guess SB800).

I assume you were trying to use flash fill.

Often, the real problem in doing that outdoors is that, with a limit on the maximum shutter speed, you cannot get a small enough ambient exposure with an aperture that leads to workable flash fill exposure if the subject is a fair distance from the flash unit. Is that the problem here?

This reminds us that the flash unit is not as potent as the sun (for fairly long ambient axposure times - that is, moderate shutter speeds).!

Of course, to get the ambient exposure down with such a relatively slow shutter speed, the normal ploy is to use a lower ISO sensitivity (not higher). If the ambient illumination is fairly high, there may not be a low enough ISO sensitivity available.

For example, in the kind of illumination that leads to the "sunny 16" exposure rule, with an aperture of f/22 and a shutter speed of 1/250 sec, a sensitivity of about ISO 100 would be needed.

You guys pretty much understood my dilemma.

I was shooting around 7pm and the light started to change fast and go down as fast.
I was using my D200 with the SB800 as a main source of light and/or fill really, to light up my friend.
But I couldn't get a decent aperture 5.6 without having to shoot with a high ISO (in this case 1600).
I never thought about setting the camera to aperture priority (my fav when shooting casually) and setting the flash to fill mode.
Learning process I guess, but I'm also considering getting myself a strobe for location stuff to learn.