Video showing the power of High Speed Sync in a bright environment

We have probably already established that just one soft light can make a huge difference in how a picture looks, but many times it is too bright to use a strobe. If you want to get a correct exposure with a wide aperture, you need very fast shutter speeds. Sadly, most systems don’t like to natively sync faster than 1/200 or 1/250 of a second and this is where HSS (or high speed sync) comes into play.

Chicago based photographer Manuel Ortiz demonstrates how using HSS even on a bright day cat get you to 1.4 aperture with a strobe and earn Bokeh

I mean, having an 85mm G master 1.4 lens on your Sony A7rii and limiting yourself to F/5 and below is just not getting everything you can out of this $1,700 lens. As strobe, Ortiz uses a Flashpoint Xplor 600 TTL strobe, connected to a Godox X1T trigger which supports sync up to 1/8000 in a Paul C buff 47inch Octabox

https://youtu.be/KksX2sWR_DI

Here is a first shot taken with no flash at all

now adding a strobe at max sync definitely improves the photo, but background is still pretty distracting.

Lastly, here is where HSS comes into play and the lens is opened all the way to f/1.4 and shutter speed of 1/4000

Here is a quick comparison of the max sync speed (1/250@f/5) vs. HSS (1/4000@f/1.4)

Here are two more photos to illustrate the technique, one with the 85mm, and one with the 35mm sigma art 1.4 lens with Laea3 adaptor.

Manuel Ortiz has a great youtube channel so check it out for more tutorials. You can also catch Manuel on his site, Instagram and Facebook page.