Shooting Action with Strobes Using Hyper-Synch

Lars Sternberg at Stevens Pass. Shot at 1/3200th of a second

This post is going to be super heavy on camera nerdy tech jargon.  If you're not a dorky photographer, this might not make a lot of sense... but please keep reading and enjoy!

That disclaimer aside, I started working with Pocket Wizards to trigger my off camera strobes roughly 5 years ago. Last year, I was fortunate enough to get contacted by them to help in the Beta testing of their Flex TT5 and Mini TT1 units. I was super excited to start testing these as they promised the new ability to synch strobes above the normal 1/250th of a second shutter speed. For action shooters, this is a dream come true. The previous limitations of technology prevented photographers from shooting above 1/250th of a second. Instead, we had to rely on the flash duration of our strobes to freeze the action. Beyond just the ability to freeze action, it also prevented you from under exposing a scene to achieve a heavy dramatic look.



Although I've been working with the Flex and Mini units for over a year now, I was still having trouble achieving a proper hyper-synch. Occasionally they would work at speeds over 1/250th, but it wasn't always reliable. Fast forward though to last week and the game changed. With the release of Firmware Version 3.110, any issues I had previously had with the units disappeared. (There are some adjustments that need to be made in the Pocketwizard Utility in order to achieve accurate hyper synch. Below is a screen shot of how mine are set up for use with Elinchrom Ranger RX's).

I went out and shot with pro mountain biker, Lars Sternberg last week to put the Flex and Mini units to the test. The results were astounding! Shooting with a Nikon D800 and two Elinchrom Ranger RX packs (utilizing the S heads, NOT the A heads), I was able to get full synch at 1/1250th. A HUGE jump from 1/250th.

However, I was able to continue pushing synch speed higher with hardly any clipping. At 1/1600th I had very slight clipping at the base of the frame... and I mean hardly noticeable. As shutter speed was pushed higher, the clipping gradually grew, but very minimally. Even at 1/8000th of a second, the clipping was still very minimal (see reference files below).



I know some will look at the above and say that there is a bit of darkness at the tops of the frames that could be construed as shutter lag. However, it's affect is so minimal compared to normal shutter lag, that it can easily be compensated for by increasing the strobe's power or camera's f-stop by +1/2 a stop.

Additionally, with the huge file sizes being output by the D800 (36.2MP), the tiny clipping seen even at the fastest shutter speeds can easily be cropped out without losing the detail or size of the file.

A big thanks to the people at Pocket Wizard for working with me on the beta testing of these units. I'm excited to see the new possibilities that this will open for action shooters utilizing strobes. Hope this article helps some of you. Good luck and happy shooting.

1/3200th with no cropping of shutter lag at bottom of frame

Mountain Biking

Just dusted off the mountain bike after a long winter of rusting in the garage. Great to be back on the trails again. Here's a few shots from last weekend's ride over in Leavenworth, Wa.

We've got plans to a lot more bike shooting over the summer, so keep checking the blog to the latest work. Thanks for looking!

Cascade Designs

Just had the chance to do some work for the Seattle based company Cascade Designs. We were shooting for their ThermARest division to showcase their new backcountry cot line. Check out a couple of the photos from the shoot and the some of the resulting tears. Enjoy!

Revo Sunglass Shoot for Factory Design Labs

 

(The crew at the base of Palmyra Peak in Telluride)

Last month I had the great opportunity to shoot a commercial campaign for Revo Sunglasses with their ambassador Jimmy Chin. Teamed up with the amazing people at Factory Design Labs, we had an awesome six day shoot in Telluride, CO and Arches National Park, UT.

While I can't yet share any of the images from the campaign, I can show off a few of the behind the scenes images from the week (courtesy of my assistant Pat... thanks buddy!).

(Everyone waiting for the light to"pop" in Arches National Park)

A big thanks to the folks at Revo and Factory for working with me on this. Additionally, a huge thanks to Jimmy Chin for all his hard work. Jimmy is an extremely talented photographer and athlete and it was an absolute pleasure to shoot with him. And finally, a huge shout out to my crew for kicking ass and taking names.

Will update the blog and website later with the finished campaign once it's available.

(Shooting in Telluride)

(A shot from Jimmy's perspective: via his Instagram Account. (Copyright: Jimmy Chin)

Oahu

Last month I took a short trip to the North Shore of Oahu with my wife, in order to get away from the dreary Pacific Northwest winter. After an incredibly rough winter, some time away was much needed... and a week in the sun can be a great thing.

While there, I woke up early one morning and put together an impromptu running shoot on the beach at sunrise. Couldn't have asked for better light and scenery.

Sometimes it's nice to shoot... just to just. Without client or personal restrictions on creativity, it can be really enjoyable to just shoot because it's what you love to do. 

  

Fitness/ Workout Shoot

I did a personal shoot the middle of last month and I just got done retouching everything. I'd been wanting to shoot some edgy fitness imagery for my portfolio, so I called up two models I've worked with in the past and they were stoked to lend a hand. Really happy with the diversity of images we were able to shoot. A big thanks to Rachel Elizabeth and Stuart... you guys kick ass!

You can check out my portfolio website to see some of my favorites from this shoot, but I wanted to post a handful of the others I'm really digging that just couldn't fit on the main site.

(Behind the scenes of the lighting for the image below)

 Hope you all like how everything turned out.

Storm Shooting at Night in the PNW

I had a chance to get out and take advantage of the big storm that rolled thru Washington last week. With athletes Elyse Saugstad, Amie Engerbretson and Tyler Ceccanti I headed up to Stevens Pass to do some night shooting with all the new snow. Really happy with how the images turned out. These are just a few from the night. More to come later.