Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I currently have two Alien Bees 800 along with a Cybersync Trigger and a CSRB Cybersync receiver.

I usually shoot at ISO 100 at f11 at around 1/160 and everything works well. I have a white floor, white ceiling and all white wall so I do a lot of white background shots, some greenscreen as well. I point one light at the background and one at the subject with a reflector.

When I shoot someone swinging a bat or jumping they do come out a little blurry. I'd like to be able to do high speed shots such as sports, water dropping, hair spinning etc...

Would I be able to accomplish this by just adding an Einstein light? My idea would be to use the Einstein out front as the main light and use the two AB's to light the white background and then use a reflector for fill.

A few questions... Would this work together well, or do I need 3 einsteins? Would my cybersyncs still work? What else would be recommended to make this setup better? What would be the best to put on the einstein (softbox, umbrella etc...)

Any help is appreciated.

You might be able to get away with using the Bees on the background (or, in your current set up, for that matter). However, their fastest flash duration will be at full power, which is where they will need to be set. If that produces too much light, then you can use ND gels over them (or your lens) to take your aperture back down.

If you use the Bees at their current settings on the back ground, they can still cause a blur on the subject.What happens is the subject is blocking the background, and looks ok at the beginning of the flash pulse, the most intense part. Then, as the flash pulse dissipates, the subject moves to a new part of the image. Since the new part of the image is getting light from the back ground for less time and intensity, you get a grayish ghosting on the leading edge of the movement, which is visually reverse of the direction of movement.

Of course, Einstein at less than full power will offer increasingly faster flash durations, which will freeze the movement nicely. Using them all the way around would be the ideal setup.