Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

While conversing with a fellow photographer recently, he expressed difficulty getting enough lighting (with speedlights) while trying to do HSS technique with skiers (and stopping the action). I recommended using an Einstein, long throw reflector or Omni, and a ND filter on his camera (at max sync.)

I came under fire from other photogs who expressed that my recommendation was the "worst" way to solve the problem. Did I miss something?

When shooting with flash outdoors in daylight, you are essentially lighting two images of the same thing at the same time. One image being an ambient only image, and one being a flash exposed image. The two are, of course, recorded simultaneously, but this is how I think about how to light something.

In this scenario, you have a skier in motion. We all know Einstein would freeze the action well if it was the lone light source, as the amount of time light from Einstein is reflected of the subject is very very short.

However, we also have the amount of ambient light that is contributing, so we need to consider its effects. If we were to take a photo at x-sync (let's assume 1/250), then you will likely get motion blur as the skier moves in the frame.

When you combine the two, you will have the blurry ambient lit photo with the frozen flash-lit photo over top. Since the frozen image is smaller than the blurry one, you will still see the blur around the edge of the sharp image. While flash does well to freeze action, it cannot remove blur caused by ambient.


Your suggestion of using an ND filter would work fine for portraits to open the aperture wide but keep the shutter speed slow. Since there is little to no movement in a portrait, there will be no blur.

Thanks for the info!

I wouldn't agree the ND route is the worst solution. It can certainly work if you can get the light close enough to the skier to overpower the ambient.

But the ambient could get pretty high in a snow situation. On the other hand, you would have the same problem with HHS or Hypersync solutions because of the dramatic flashpower reduction.

Some Fuji camera, and a couple others can sync at up to 1/4000 second. I have used the SX100 (I think - cheap but discontinued). David Hobby swears by the X100. But it has a fixed 28mm lens.

The new - cheap X30 may have the same leaf shutter and fast flash sync speed, but the specs don't reveal max sync speed. It has 4X optical zoom.

Canon G15/16 can sync at 1/2000, but are limited to f11 highest aperture.

I don't get why Fuji or someone doesn't recognize the need for leaf or electronic shutter with high flash sync speeds in a high quality camera??

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/control ... &A=details

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... amera.html

I wouldn't agree the ND route is the worst solution. It can certainly work if you can get the light close enough to the skier to overpower the ambient.

But the ambient could get pretty high in a snow situation. On the other hand, you would have the same problem with HHS or Hypersync solutions because of the dramatic flashpower reduction.

Some Fuji camera, and a couple others can sync at up to 1/4000 second. I have used the SX100 (I think - cheap but discontinued). David Hobby swears by the X100. But it has a fixed 28mm lens.

The new - cheap X30 may have the same leaf shutter and fast flash sync speed, but the specs don't reveal max sync speed. It has 4X optical zoom.

Canon G15/16 can sync at 1/2000, but are limited to f11 highest aperture.

I don't get why Fuji or someone doesn't recognize the need for leaf or electronic shutter with high flash sync speeds in a high quality camera??

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/control ... &A=details

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... amera.html

My photog friend was posted approx 20' away from the skier.