{"id":52439,"date":"2026-03-16T01:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T05:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=52439"},"modified":"2026-03-16T01:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T05:46:40","slug":"how-to-decide-on-settings-for-high-speed-flash-sync","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/how-to-decide-on-settings-for-high-speed-flash-sync\/","title":{"rendered":"How to decide on settings for high-speed flash sync"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/dance\/anna\/dance-photographer-new-york-NYC_5311.jpg\" alt=\"dance photographer new york NYC\" width=\"900\" height=\"1125\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>How to decide on settings for high-speed flash sync<\/h2>\n<p>A sequence of dance photos where I collaborated with Anna Russel, aka PoppySeedDancer. Anna is incredibly athletic in her explosive movements. Amazing experience to work with her. To freeze movement, I was in high-speed flash with the 1\/800 shutter speed. Since HSS reduces flash output by 1-2 stops, and with the softbox attached, the flash output was reduced a lot to the point where it was just enough of a fill-flash.<\/p>\n<p>Scroll through the images to get to the last two photos which are the test shots with which I confirmed that I was still getting useful fill-flash at those camera settings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Camera settings:<\/strong> 1\/800 @ f\/4 @ 800 ISO<\/p>\n<p><strong>Flash settings<\/strong>: full power (to help overcome the limitation of HSS)<\/p>\n<p>I knew that going in to HSS would limit the amount of light from my flash. Adding to this problem was that I wanted to use a softbox. \u00a0So I immediately went to full power on my flash &#8230; and then only had to figure out the distance from my flash to the dancer. \u00a0Remember, flash exposure is calculated with this acronym: PAID. \u00a0Power, aperture, ISO, distance.<\/p>\n<p>When going in to HSS mode with your flash, remember that the shutter speed now becomes a linear control of your flash power, just like aperture and ISO.<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect, I could therefore have bumped my shutter speed to 1\/1000 @ f\/3.5 &#8230; or any similar combination of settings while using a high shutter speed to help freeze her movement.<\/p>\n<p>Please check out this video tutorial about high-speed flash sync (HSS), and why you lose 1-2 stops of light immediately when you go into HSS.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9MWPa6i19yc\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\"><\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Equipment used (or equivalents)<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-d5\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Nikon D5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(<em><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-d5-bh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;H<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-d5\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/em>)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-24-70mm-f2-8e-vr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nikon 24-70mm f\/2.8E\u00a0VR<\/a>\u00a0 (<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-24-70mm-f2-8e-vr-bh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>B&amp;H<\/em><\/a> \/ <em><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-24-70mm-f2-8e-vr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-sb5000-af-speedlight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nikon SB-5000 flash<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0(<em><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-sb5000-af-speedlight-bh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;H<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-sb5000-af-speedlight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/em>)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/lastolite-ezybox-24x24-softbox\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manfrotto 24&#8243; Ezybox collapsible softbox<\/a> \u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/lastolite-ezybox-24x24-softbox-bh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>B&amp;H<\/em><\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/lastolite-ezybox-24x24-softbox\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Amazon<\/em><\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/dance\/anna\/dance-photographer-new-york-NYC_5308.jpg\" alt=\"dance photographer new york NYC\" width=\"900\" height=\"1125\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/dance\/anna\/dance-photographer-new-york-NYC_5310.jpg\" alt=\"dance photographer new york NYC\" width=\"900\" height=\"1125\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The pullback shots to show the position of the softbox with the speedlight. It is aimed up high for where Anna would approximately be when she leaps.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/dance\/anna\/D5A_5305.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"1125\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Two photos to show the effect of the flash &#8211; just enough fill flash to lift shadow details where necessary.<\/p>\n<p><div class='one_half'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/dance\/anna\/D5A_5302.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"563\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class='one_half last'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/dance\/anna\/D5A_5303.jpg\" width=\"451\" height=\"564\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class='clear'><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Related articles<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/choosing-camera-and-flash-settings-with-high-speed-flash-sync-off-camera-lighting\/\">Camera &amp; flash settings : high-speed flash sync &amp; off-camera lighting<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/compact-portable-off-camera-lighting-profoto-a2-flash\/\">Compact, portable off-camera lighting : Profoto A2 flash<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/how-to-position-off-camera-flash\/\">How to position off-camera flash<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/photographing-with-available-light-only\/\">Photographing with available light only<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/dance-photographer-nyc-new-york-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dance photographer in NYC, New York\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to decide on settings for high-speed flash sync A sequence of dance photos where I collaborated with Anna Russel, aka PoppySeedDancer. Anna is incredibly athletic in her explosive movements. Amazing experience to work with her. To freeze movement, I was in high-speed flash with the 1\/800 shutter speed. Since HSS reduces flash output by&nbsp;<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/how-to-decide-on-settings-for-high-speed-flash-sync\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read more inside&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8554,110],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[1116,1115,1021,1478,8740,10181,1857,6340,2101,1856,1587,7242,1841,1267,1198,1146,6734],"class_list":{"0":"post-52439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dance-photography","8":"category-off-camera-flash","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52439"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52483,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52439\/revisions\/52483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52439"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=52439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}