Shooting motion in studio

[KevinCarter]

Boy the idea I 'm going to use on camera flashes to light dancers seems bizarre. And then Profotos on the other end cost thousands of dollars.

I just always thought stobe freezes subjects at about 1/1000 of a second. no?

Why would one light at 1000 watts freeze action worse that one light at 200 watts?

In any case, the maker is not important right? I have Lumedyne I can dial down to 50 watts and trim it lower. Of couse I'll the shooting wide open right? thanks. I also own two canon 580's, but not sure I can put those on stands

[Run]

Kevin,

Strobe or flash systems can change the amount of light put out by changing two parameters. These are the amount of power used to pulse the bulb and the duration or length of time of the pulse.

Roughly speaking the majority of studio packs work from 1/1000th to 1/3000th of a second when set to full power. To decrease the amount of light put out they shorten this duration or length of time anywhere down to 1/10,000th of a second depending on the design used and the manufacturer. As Michael pointed out, the Normans I use in the studio are not fast by any means, yet they work perfectly for me to do still lifes and product photography. If I want to do high speed imaging such as you are looking to do I would use Vivitar 283's or rent or purchase a dedicated high speed system capable of the durations I required.

So the short answer to your question; If the unit changes flash duration to change the amount of light then you are looking at a scneario such as;

1000WS flash lasts 1/1000th of a second.

200ws flash lasts 1/5000th of a second.

They kept the power the same but cut the duration to a 5th of the 1/1000th shot. The low power output is much better for freezing high speed motion as you can see.

These vaules are not representative and for discussion here only, check with manufacturer specs to determine real world values and the best system for your needs.

Good Luck

[Run]

[quote=David_Buzzard;464664]S

>>Snip<<

The trick to getting short flash durations is to use multible heads on the same circuit. If you have a 2000W pack, instead of running one light at 2000W/sec, run run 4 off the 800w/sec channel, and two off the 1200W/sec channel.
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Hi Dave,

I have done that quite a bit to drive down exposure as well, thing is, where do you dump all that light when you dont have access to a room for the extra lights to sit in :-)

[David_Buzzard]

I almost never use the whole 2000W/sec. I usually just draw off the 400W/sec circuit, I have two or three heads spread over 400W/sec.

I think I used my Normans twice in the last year. Now I do everything with a couple of Nikon strobes and some umbrella mounts. What used to take a truck to carry around now fits in the side pocket of my camera bag.

Nikon and Canon strobes don't really have any flash duration issues.

David Buzzard