How often does it actually matter? I know some shooters like it for freezing motion when shooting jumping models or other moving things, but what other benefits are there to owning lights with that have a particularly fast flash duration?

Depends on your style and what you shoot.

For portraits, weddings, etc. it does not matter too much. Most run of the mill strobes will have duration short enough to effectively freeze motion. With skateboarders, dancers, etc. controlling the flash duration can be critical to getting the look you want though.

Even with "moving" objects, there are ways to diminish the "effective" motion that the camera sees. Something coming straight toward you, or further from your camera, or seen using a wider lens will show less apparent motion.

But sometimes you just need short duration. Liquid pours, dancers in mid air, etc. If you only need that rarely you can rent when you do. Or **try** to get by with speedlights instead of strobes. Speedlights can have very short durations. Obviously that only works with smaller sets, etc.

Reducing the power on a strobe usually gives you shorter durations. But of course you can also run out of power - there are some tricks to get around that.

There are a couple of examples and a decent discussion in this brochure from Broncolor, starting on page 8:

http://www.bron.ch/_data/bc_do_bs_grafitaplus_en.pdf


Brent Ward has been using short duration to do liquid pours lately. Not sure how much he has on his web site. Do a search here to find a link.

Are you buying, already own, just curious? What are you using?

Best,
Michael

Also, some prefer them because they are less "blinding" and/or irritating to the subject.

Good luck

Here are some sample images of dancers from the same web site. By Lois Greenfield. :

http://www.bron.ch/bc_ga_ph_en/detail.php?nr=2453


Not a lot on Brent's site, but here is the link:

http://www.brentwardphoto.com/

mmurph wrote:
Depends on your style and what you shoot.

For portraits, weddings, etc. it does not matter too much. Most run of the mill strobes will have duration short enough to effectively freeze motion. With skateboarders, dancers, etc. controlling the flash duration can be critical to getting the look you want though.

Even with "moving" objects, there are ways to diminish the "effective" motion that the camera sees. Something coming straight toward you, or further from your camera, or seen using a wider lens will show less apparent motion.

But sometimes you just need short duration. Liquid pours, dancers in mid air, etc. If you only need that rarely you can rent when you do. Or **try** to get by with speedlights instead of strobes. Speedlights can have very short durations. Obviously that only works with smaller sets, etc.

Reducing the power on a strobe usually gives you shorter durations. But of course you can also run out of power - there are some tricks to get around that.

There are a couple of examples and a decent discussion in this brochure from Broncolor, starting on page 8:

http://www.bron.ch/_data/bc_do_bs_grafitaplus_en.pdf


Brent Ward has been using short duration to do liquid pours lately. Not sure how much he has on his web site. Do a search here to find a link.

Are you buying, already own, just curious? What are you using?

Best,
Michael

Mainly just curious. I've just really not run into situations yet where I find I actually need short duration. I have alien bee stuff and am in the process of buying Dynalite gear.

mmurph wrote:
Here are some sample images of dancers from the same web site. By Lois Greenfield. :

http://www.bron.ch/bc_ga_ph_en/detail.php?nr=2453


Not a lot on Brent's site, but here is the link:

http://www.brentwardphoto.com/


Thanks Murph!

There are more here http://www.splashpour.com/

( I keep meaning to email you by the way, I want that cord!)

Brent Ward wrote:
( I keep meaning to email you by the way, I want that cord!)

Cool! I will ship it to you. I am off to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, we can sync up after I get back.

Have a great holiday!

Best,
Michael

mmurph wrote:
Brent Ward wrote:
( I keep meaning to email you by the way, I want that cord!)

Cool! I will ship it to you. I am off to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, we can sync up after I get back.

Have a great holiday!

Best,
Michael


Holiday? What the hell is that? I'll be working like usual. Everyone of my clients likes to load me up during the holidays so they an take time off.

Brent Ward wrote:
Holiday? What the hell is that? I'll be working like usual.

Ah, Brent, **somebody** has to do it! Better you than me.

I am glad to hear that you are busy. Just remember to maintain that work/life balance so you don't burn out! Do you get a bit of a break in February?

I have been busy too! I think I have shot 4 jobs since I closed my studio 2 years ago. Plus, I have done *at least* 4 personal shoots too. Hard to keep up!

Hopefully the docs will get me "fixed" soon. (Oooh that sounds bad. Ouch.)

As long as you can remember to enjoy what you have day to day. Shouldn't be too hard in that beautiful studio?

I have a 10 year old, I am already feeling that time goes past so quickly. He will be off to college too soon. I am lucky to be able to spend so much time with him now though.

Cheers!

Michael

Studio flash can freeze most normal movement, but radial motion (e.g. swinging arms of dancer ) can be very rapid and beyond the ability of most studio flashes to completely freeze. In general lower power levels result in shorter flash durations but that is not always the case.

Hot shoe flash works differently, using a "thyristor" switch to abruptly cut off power to the flash tube. As a result flash durations as short at 1/50,000 sec. can be obtained at low power levels. Fast enough to freeze water drops a slow moving bullet. The tool of choice for many stop action shooters is the Vivitar 285HV or similar flashes.

Chuck

The expensive packs with fast duration work like the 285's, just not as fast.

Of coarse it would take a lot of 285's popping through a medium or large softbox to still get f22 @ 1/6000 from 3 feet away!

Alienbees show the flash duration to be twice as fast at full power as with 1/32 power.
t.1 Flash Duration t.1 is defined as the time during which the flash lamp output is above 0.1 (or 1/10) it's peak intensity
Full Power 1/32 Power
B400 1/2000 sec. 1/1000 sec.
B800 1/1100 sec. 1/550 sec.
B1600 1/600 sec. 1/300 sec.