When using an external camera flash?

Question

What is the lowest shutter speed I can use to avoid motion blur created by hand shake while using an external flash (SB-800)? I know the camera will output enough light even at high shutter speed but I want to keep as much ambient light as possible.

Answer 1

The key to remember when hand-holding is to not let your shutter speed go below the focal length of your lens. In other words, you're using an 18-70 lens @ 55mm, so don't let your shutter speed go below 1/60th. Make sense?

Also, to keep as much ambient light as possible, set your external flash to 1/4th or 1/8th power. When shooting a wedding reception (and this all depends on lighting, of course), I usually shoot at f/5.6 at 1/60th or 1/80th of a second, with the flash set at 1/4th power.

Answer 2

That will partly depend upon the weight of the camera and lens, type of lens (does it have IS), and your skill of holding the camera steady.

Disregarding the flash for a second, the rough rule based on a lens is the focal length of the lens. So if the lens is 200mm, you should shoot at least 1/200 sec.

Most people can shoot an average length lens (ie. 50mm lens) at 1/60, some can go as low as 1/20 (but that's really cutting it close).

I personally find I can do 1/60 with little to no problem, and if I can sometimes use 1/30.

Some people naturally shake and can't hold it too steady, so they are more likely to shoot at 1/250.

I'm probably more steady at the beginning of an event, then I am at the end of the event, especially if I've been holding a heavy setup all day long.

Answer 3

Get comfortable and READ & STUDY the section on "Using Flash" in the Owner's Manual for your camera. Different cameras have different flash synch speeds. Using a higher speed than specified will result in partially exposed, partially unexposed images.

Now READ & STUDY the Owner's Manual for your flash. Your camera and flash are designed to work together. You must learn how to take advantage of them.

The camera doesn't "output" light at any shutter speed - the flash is the light source.

If your backgrounds are too dark try using bounce flash. It gives better results anyway so you should be using it whenever possible.

Answer 4

Research a technique called "dragging the shutter". It is a method, used by wedding photographers, to balance flash with ambient to avoid the dark cave look when using flash. Basically, you expose for the ambient with shutter and aperture controls flash output. It's not a hard technique to learn with digital. You still need a fairly steady hand, though,

Answer 5

Two answers have included a rule of thumb saying the shutter speed should be at least as high as the focal length you are shooting with.

THEY LEFT OUT AN IMPORTANT DETAIL! That rule of thumb is VALID FOR 35mm CAMERAS ONLY!!

If you are using a digital camera you need to determine the "crop factor" and multiply the focal length by that number to get a good estimate. The crop factor is a value that compares an image sensor size to a standard 35mm image size. Many point and shoot digital cameras have very small sensors which have crop factors of three or four or even more so you would need to multiply the speed by that amount (but they also have very short focal length lenses so a "normal" lens is 10-20mm instead of 40-50mm). Advanced digital SLR cameras have crop factors in a range of 1-2.

I find a better rule of thumb to be that a wide to normal lens can be used with shutter speeds of about 1/25 - 1/60, then double that number each time the focal length doubles.

So, if you have a camera with a built in 7-70mm zoom you would try -

1/25 at 7mm
1/50 at 14mm
1/100 at 28mm
1/200 at 56mm and
1/250 at 70mm (because it is only about 1.3 times 56).

For a camera with interchangeable lenses and a crop factor of 1.5 you would set the shutter speeds for -

20mm to 1.5*20 or 1/30
40mm to 1.5*40 or 1/60
80mm to 1.5*80 or 1/120 (usually 1/125 is the closest setting to match that).

Hope that helps.
email me if you have specific questions.

Answer 6

shuter speed of +60th of a second