No doubt most readers know this already but what they may not realise (and hence the reason for my response here) is that this problem does not occur if one fires the studio flash using a speedlite (dialled down to min. power) instead of a radio trigger, then shooting at max sync speed works fine. Personally, I prefer to use a radio trigger and live with the lower shutter speed as it makes for easier handling on account of the lighter weight on the hotshoe. But it’s nice to know there’s a way to get max sync speed while still triggering remotely.

- Thorsten.

Many photographers have found out the hard way not to shoot at ma sync speed in the studio because of exactly that problem. You can see the edge of the one curtain.

The problem arises because of propagation delay.

By the time your camera fires the radio trigger which fires another radio trigger which trips the lighting .. there is a small delay. This can become significant.

It varies from setup to setup.

I have the same problem with the Nikon D3 under certain situations, where I can’t use 1/250 because of that. I have to shoot at 1/200 or lower.

Neil vN

Anoop, however you decide to balance your settings, the combination of settings (shutter speed / ISO / aperture) has to be such that you don’t over-expose the ambient light for your subject.

In other words, you can’t both have a wide aperture AND a medium shutter speed (such as 1/250) on a sunny day. (Unless you use an ND filter.)

So to use a wide aperture, you have to go to a higher shutter speed. Simple.

But your flash does become less efficient. Whether this important though, will depend on what you’re actually trying to achieve with flash … and the specifics of the scenario you are photographing.

I also can’t give you specific advice about the flash exposure compensation, since this too will depend on what you’re trying to achieve, or the specific scenario you are photographing.

Neil vN

iam a Nikon Shooter and got a Question Iam out on a Sunny day and want to use the Wide open Aperture (2.8 or 4) to Get a Shallow Depth of field without blowing out the Background. Shuld i keep my flash outpower to -1.5 to -1.7 TTL BL and switch to Auto FP(1/250 or 1/300) Hope you can help me.
Thanks
Anoop

Nick, what you’re seeing there is that you can go into high-speed-sync mode with your SB-800.

However, the max flash sync speed on your camera still remains 1/320 (or 1/250)

Go through this article on maximum flash sync speed for more on this.

Neil vN

The flash sync speed that provides the longest flash range for the two cameras is 1/250, which is currently what most Nikon models support.

Thanks! Typo is fixed now. Others also pointed out the mistake.
I take it as good sign that people are actually following what is written. ;)

Neil vN