Sunday Showcase: High Speed Sync

High speed sync is your flashes ability to use flash at shutter speeds faster than your camera's native sync speed (1/250th of a second). When would you use high speed sync? Outdoor portraits on a sunny day would be a perfect time to use high speed sync. If you were to use your cameras normal sync speed of 1/250th, the photo would most likely have an aperture of about f/16. That means everything in the picture would be in focus. To still get that creamy bokeh and have your subject in focus you would have to open your aperture to lets say f/2.8 and the shutter speed would be about 1/4000 of a second. Because we are shooting outdoors in bright sunlight, unwanted shadows may be present. How do we get rid of those shadows and still have that classic portrait look? The answer is by using high speed sync. On Nikon cameras look in your settings for Auto FP. On Canon cameras the syn button is actually on the flash and is represented by the lightning bolt with the letter H. Keep in mind that when you use high speed sync the power of the flashes effective range diminishes. What other situations would high speed sync benefit your photography?