Question about shutter speeds and strobes

[Douglas Carl]

Pardon my ignorance. I have no formal training with my camera or lights. Just kinda been teaching myself so far. I have a question. I have to shoot at 1/160th or slower while using the strobes, or else the shutter blades get in the way and half my picture is dark. Is this normal? Is there a way to shoot faster with strobes?

Thank you for your time,
Douglas Carl

[Bigram]

Well for me personally I always shoot at 125 inside my studio with a backdrop..It's different when you are outdoors or inside somewhere where theres ambient light.

[Nick Saglimbeni]

Hey Doug,

It depends on the camera you are using. Canons and Nikons (and most 35mm DSLR equivalents) use a horizontal focal-plane shutter, which is in the camera body. So if your shutter moves faster than your strobes, you will see a horizontal exposure difference or black out part-way through your image.

Some cameras, like medium-format, use leaf shutters, which are not in the camera body, but actually exist in each lens. They operate similar to an iris, and will theoretically capture strobes at any speed without dark gradients appearing.

My experience with Canons and Nikons is that you'll need to shoot at 1/200th or slower in order to capture the full strobe exposure. If this gives you an image that is too bright, dial the ISO down as low as it will go (usually 100 ISO), and walk your strobes in as close as you can get. The next option is to get strobes with higher output and fast recycle time. Hope this helps.

[Douglas Carl]

Great. Thanks Nick. I do use Canon. (5D) I see in some of your pictures you are using the medium format you are talking about. *drooling* Some day, I will have one.

Douglas Carl