DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

This Is Your Flash, This Is Your Flash On HSS (Strobes At 500,000 FPS)

Mar 17, 2013 by Udi Tirosh Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

DIYP reader Florian Knorn just sent in this really rare footage of a Sony HVL-F58AM Flash gun shot with a super fast 500,000 frames per second Fastcam SA4.

This Is Your Flash, This Is Your Flash On HSS

The SA4 is usually used to study ballistics and explosions, but Florian turned it on a strobe, playing a 500,000 movie at 25 FPS – an X20,000 reduction in speed. Actually, he did it twice, once that shows the strobe firing at 1/32 power with HSS on, and one that shows the same power shot with HSS off. The videos and my thoughts after the jump.

HSS Off

This is what we normally use for flash when the camera can sync. The flash fires one continuous burst of light. In our case, from 0.036ms to 0.278msm which means that the burst was about 1/5 of a millisecond.

HSS On

HSS or High Speed Sync is a way to let the strobe add light into the exposure even if it is too slow to sync.

Here is how David Hobby explains HSS in a way even I could understand: “High-speed sync (also known as “Focal Plane,” or FP sync) is a special protocol that some cameras and flashes share. The camera controls the flash (whether remote or on hot shoe) in a way that causes the flash to pulse through the exposure.“. Now this is pretty cool because it means that sometimes (if you are lucky to have the “right” camera) the strobe can be used to add light even if you are shooting at 1/1000 of a second. You would lose some light yes, but some is better than none.

One things that I learned from that comparison is that while the HSS-Off burst was over at about 1/5 millisecond, the HSS-On was still throbbing at the end of the clip, which explain why you can’t rely on HSS for motion freezing.

One last thing, Neil van Niekerk has what is probably the best HSS tutorial on the planet, both from a technical perspective and a practical one. You may wanna give it a read if you are into that kind of things.

P.S – If you are into camera and slo-mo, check out our shutter slo-mo compilation from a few weeks back.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Watching A Ball Hit Glass At 10,000,000 FPS Is Like Stopping Time How The Launch of Apollo 11 Looks Slowed Down at 500 FPS Is it still worth using neutral density over HSS with today’s flash tech? Probably not This is how to shoot a $2,500,000 car with a $50,000 camera

Filed Under: Tutorials

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.net

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

« How To Build A Teleprompter + Tips
Light Painting And EL Wire Secrets Revealed »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts

  • This map is your ultimate guide to the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses
  • Dog ‘driving’ a speeding car caught by traffic camera
  • AI strikes again: Image of shirtless man kicking an alligator fools the internet
  • Apple says it will fix iPhone 15 Pro overheating problems
  • 10,000 frames to make one. What’s wrong with me?

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy