Shutter Speed with flash (ISO 400)

[cromatt]

Heya

I´m shooting a roll of 400 at night using flash and was wondering what kind of a shutter speed I should be using?

thanks

 

[Don_ih]

You need to use the flash sync speed for the camera. If a leaf shutter, the faster the shutter speed, the blacker the background will be. Your aperture needs to be set correct for iso400 and the subject distance.

 

[BrianShaw]

It depends on the type of shutter. If focal plane, then no more than the flash synch speed determined by the camera manufacturer. If leaf shutter, then theoretically any shutter speed is okay when using an x-synch strobe. If using flash bulbs…

 

[grain elevator]

Assuming a focal plane shutter and electronic flash, your camera's flash sync speed (or slower if you want some ambient light too). For the flash exposure, all that matters is that the whole shutter rather than just a slit is open when the flash goes off, which is an order if magnitude shorter than the shutter. In other words, the exposure is determined by aperture, flash power and distance - shutter speed doesn't matter as long as the shutter gets out of the way in time.

 

[albada]

As others have said, the shutterspeed must not exceed the shutter's sync speed (often 1/60 to 1/125 for SLRs).

However, you can use a slower shutterspeed to make your photo a mixture of ambient light and flash light. The ambient light fills-in black shadows caused by flash and reduces the harshness of flash. That's why I often use a shutterspeed of 1/30 when shooting with flash.

 

[cromatt]

thanks everyone

 

[Sirius Glass]

Focal plane shutters need a specific shutter speed while leaf shutters do not. Check the manual.

 

[ic-racer]

Your shutter speed will determine how bright the background will be in the print with NO EFFECT on the portions of the scene illuminated by the flash. This is a powerful tool but you will need to experiment, depending on the kind of image you want; anything from 1/30 to 30 seconds and beyond.

 

[Les Sarile]

What's the camera and flash? What's the setting, individuals or groups? Posed or moving?