Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I would probably consider myself a noobie when it comes to studio flash units so bare with me..

I currently have 1 AB800 and a Nikon D7000. I am also using the Cybersync wireless triggers. The D7000 has a max sync speed of 1/320. Is it possible to get faster shutter speeds with the setup I have now? I am needing to freeze some faster moving subjects and 1/320 is just not cutting it.

Thanks in advance!

Depending on whether you're doing this outside or inside, you don't need more shutter speed to freeze motion...use the flash pulse to freeeze motion if you don't have much ambient light...

This is indoors w/ minimal ambient light....can you elaborate on the flash pulse?

If your shutter and aperture are set to something that will give you a totally black frame (such as 1/250th & f/8) without any strobes going off, then the strobe will be the only thing adding light to the image. Because of that, the flash duration becomes your effective shutter speed.

With Bees, and other voltage controlled lights, the flash duration is fastest at full power. The higher you set the flash power, the more effective the technique is.

Your D7000's max is actually 1/250th for strobes. The 1/320th sync option is ONLY available when using Nikon-branded speedlights. Even then you may want to test which shutter speed works best with your camera/strobe combination.

When using strobes (or speedlights for that matter), your shutter speed is almost irrelevant in freezing motion. It is mainly used for controlling the amount of ambient light entering the camera. As the flash occurs so quickly, it's 'flash duration' is what will effectively freeze your subject.

With strobes, you can just as easily drag your shutter at something as low as 1/30th or even 1/15th of a second and still 'freeze' your subject, assuming your flash duration is fast enough.

hope this helps!

What is weird then is I can set my shutter to 320 and sync to 320 and I never get the black bar on my shot..

Thanks for the response and yes this has helped me understand more how this studio lighting works...

If you are indoors the shutter speed has no effect on action freezing. I'm sitting here in a moderately lit room. Ambient meter reading is f1.0 at 1/30 second. Take that up to 1/125 and you get 2f less ambient . . . .totally black on the film.

Shoot with Einstein in the 40WS to 160WS range and you will absolutely freeze action . . . even at 1/60 shutter speed, with zero blur from ambient.