Comments on: Dave Black: Shooting Motorcross with 8 Speedlights

By: robert

robert — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 23:25:03 +0000

Hoi,

Chris OConnell Shoots the First 1/500th Shutter Wireless Synced Flash Sequence Morph Photo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vc9Cdhwvqw

By: John

John — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:19:53 +0000

I love seeing stuff like this. Old dudes out spending big loot on tons of flashes to do the most simple shots. I’m not talking about Joe McNally ‘got a speedlight in every corner” stuff, but these mega-grouping of battery-powered strobe units. Here’s an idea – go buy an AB mono-light and a Vagabond. You just got the same shot, and saved yourself about $3200, dummy.

By: Daf

Daf — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:20:51 +0000

Cool stuff.

Just had a search and found that Dave Black gave a talk for Nikon at Photokina on using speedlights (+ other topics). So yeah – 8 speedlights may not be the most economical way if buying them – but I think he probably borrowed them for free.

By: John

John — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 17:58:21 +0000

@Patrick
Yes you can use high speed sync with alien bees. It requires using a RadioPopper PX mounted on a flash or IR trigger (ST-E2) set to high speed sync and a RP JrX on the alien bee. There are lots of examples online of shutter speeds up to 1/8000th. There are power things to work out and testing required to get the strobe to blast as much light as possible for such a short shutter opening, but its completely doable. Way cheaper, way less complex, and way less setup time than 8 flashes plus a bajillion AA batteries. Not to mention that the recharge would be faster at higher light outputs, a big battery would last longer, and you wouldn’t have a ton of tape and fiber optics weirdness to setup.

By: Wesley

Wesley — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 16:33:43 +0000

Great video, this guy i really fearless to get so close next to the track.

@lee, you can split the pocketwizard output port.
Illustrator: http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157603935488241/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martijnfoto/3926013700/
http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/193

Here is a small trick to use your studioflash at high speed sync :)
http://www.prophotonut.com/2010/05/23/18000th-flash-sync-with-broncolor-mobil-and-canon-5d-mk2/
Give it a try guys!

By: Si

Si — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 13:38:39 +0000

Scrub all that, it’s the ambient light that makes these photos so good.. I would love to know his camera settings though..

By: Si

Si — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 13:36:52 +0000

Wouldn’t an Einstein and a strong ND filter work the same if not better? Einsteins will fire at 1/10000 or more if you can eliminate the ambient light at 1/200… Maybe even a fast head elinchrom quadra.. Need that ND though (or two)

By: Matthias Wjst

Matthias Wjst — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 11:24:00 +0000

Great pics + interesting but expensive setup. Can probably be done also at the price of one SB900 using 4 old SB20 ($100), 1 FourSquare block ($100), 1 optical Hama trigger ($20) and 1 Yongnuo sender/4 receiver at $100. Works up to 100 meter distance for me. Don’t believe it? Details at my website, search for “high speed” there. Keep on, great vids!

By: Marc Pagani

Marc Pagani — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 04:47:09 +0000

I like the idea of this…I currently use a Profoto Acute 600B for stuff like this, but find that with my subjects (and me) moving around so much, it’s tough to get exposure spot on using no form of TTL (only Pocket Wizard), yet when I shoot outdoors with Nikon Speedlights and have the conveniecne of the RPoppers, TTL and the SU-800, I am lacking power. I’d love to be able to have the power of the Profoto + the high shutter speed of this setup. The one question I have (having never used more than one speedlight at the almost exact same light source location) is this: The photographer talks about shooting with everything at full power manual. If I were to shoot a setup with 2 or 4 speedlights set up as above and used my SU-800 with everything set to TTL (FP), will I still get the 2x or 4x increase in flash power? I would assume so, but would love confirmation. This would be a great boon to a project I’m working on (shown on Profoto’s blog here: http://blog.profoto-usa.com/?p=2179)

By: scott

scott — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 03:28:25 +0000

As I said in the surfing post a few days ago, you can achieve the same thing with older generation dedicated flashes and a long cord, just so long as they can high speed sync. And high speed sync is the whole point to using Speedlights the way he is.

I use Canon, I have six 550EX’s (around $150 each) and can fire all of them with high speed sync at 1/8000 from 10 yards with a $40 ETTL cord. That is cheaper than a couple of weekends rent on Broncolor’s with insurance, is way more practical, lighter and easier to move and direct as well. There is no other system that can do the same thing, let alone for the money.

If your ambient registers a ghost image at 1/250 even the Broncolors are useless for achieving this particular style. Look at his ice hockey videos where he is using big lights at 1/250, he is getting ambient blur, with the high speed sync the subject is pin sharp. The fastest flash speeds mean nothing if you have to drag the shutter for 1/250.

32 packs of AA batteries can be had for less than $20. That is the same as D&P on two rolls of film and gives me over 400 shots, I think that is a reasonable expense.