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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> How Does Flash Freeze Action?
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04/22/2009 10:50:24 AM · #1
I have been experimenting with flash (and reading Strobist) while balancing for ambient light. I get the concept, but I'm still trying to grasp freezing action shots and stop motion generally (without ghosting) while still balancing for ambient light. I'm trying to understand how one still freezes fast moving objects at shutter speeds between 1/60 and say 1/125 sec set because they are still trying to balance for ambient light? So . . . what I think I understand is . . .

If you reduce your flash power you are also shortening the flash duration. The shorter the duration of the flash the more it freezes your subject (same as a fast shutter speed). Thus, you can still expose for ambient (say at 1/60 to 1/125 sec) even at low ISOs while also freezing the subject because your flash duration at lower power settings will be fast (or short). It's flash duration that freezes the action at slower shutter speeds such as 1/60 to 1/125 sec.

Have I missed something?

I understand I can do it by setting higher apertures to get the sync speeds down to my max (1/250) in daylight. But, that doesn't work so well indoors (like a gym), at night, during sunset and sunrise.
04/22/2009 01:12:42 PM · #2
Using a regular small flash, the flash duration is short enough to freeze pretty much anything within reason at pretty much any flash power, as long as you have little or no ambient light getting through. Really fast moving objects, like hummingbirds, will require a lower flash power to get a shorter flash duration, but that's the exception rather than the rule. For most practical purposes, the flash duration itself doesn't matter much.

Most of the time, ghosting comes from the ambient light. The flash sync speed on most cameras is too slow to freeze a lot of action if there's much ambient light. Your ambient will need to be at least a couple of stops lower than the flash to control the ghosting. In most shots where the motion is frozen by flash, the subject is either against a (mostly) dark background, or the background is lit by flash too. If the background is lit by ambient light, there will be ghosting against the background.

Do you have an example of what you're trying to do?

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