Photography
Related: About this forumEver wonder what the shutter does in your DSLR? The SloMoo guys show you.
Good video showing the rolling shutter. It also shows the short comings when shooting video.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)The reason why most cameras have a shutter flash sync speed that slower than the fastest shutter speed is because the flash is relatively instantaneous and needs the shutter to be completely open for it to work properly.
alfredo
(60,077 posts)to spend time learning about flash, but my first love is available light.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Lot's of incredible photographers based their whole career on nothing but natural light. The other side of that coin is there's also a lot of incredible photographers that rely heavily on artificial light and do so with incredible effect.
Depending on what camera you have, flash photography need not be expensive either. If your camera is able to work with a basic manual flash, there are some you can buy for $50-75 that work incredibly well. You'd be amazed at what you can do with a cheap flash, a decent reflector, and natural light. With one artificial light you get the equivalent of 3 light sources. Very handy.
There's a ton of stuff on this website including how to get started and all sorts of projects you can try. Although you can certainly get very elaborate, the site is geared towards lighting on the cheap with all sorts of DIY solutions.
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html
alfredo
(60,077 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)The cheapest option if your camera has a PC jack or can be adapted to one is a PC cable. PC cords are cheap and flashes that have PC capability are cheap. This pretty much limits you manual mode. This isn't a bad thing. I still use manual mode on my late model Nikon strobes.
Many camera manufacturers make cables that extend the hot shoe, but you are usually limited to a few feet with those.
Optical and RF triggering is also an option that's either inherent to some camera and flash combinations, or can be added to both with aftermarket devices. Optical can be as simple as a slave flash that triggers when your on-board camera flash fires, or more elaborate systems that use pre-flashes to communicate. RF systems have gotten cheaper and more elaborate the last few years.
alfredo
(60,077 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)The ones I have can be ganged together for more reach. They work well with flash brackets or just handholding your strobe off to one side. The strong point is you retain all the hotshoe functionality. The weak point is their limited distance.
alfredo
(60,077 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)But if you are using the strobe as your primary light source you often have it very near your subject with perhaps a modifier like an umbrella or softbox. For that type of application you often need more length than a cable like that will provide.
alfredo
(60,077 posts)great for street portraits. I wouldn't want it for candid street.
It would be usefull for macro.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Basically what you do is set up your lens in manual focus and leave the focus set for the reproduction ratio you want. Then you aim your bracket mounted flash at that focus point. Since the flash to subject distance never changes, you can set the flash to manual mode at the correct power setting and forget about it. Then you simply move the whole rig back and forth until your subject is in focus and fire away. Works great for moving targets like insects and other small critters.
alfredo
(60,077 posts)liberal N proud
(60,346 posts)alfredo
(60,077 posts)global shutter vs rolling shutter. Then one should consider the focal-plane shutter you find on the Leica, or the leaf shutter used on the Fuji X100 series.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)Thanks for posting.
alfredo
(60,077 posts)My next camera will either be the Fuji X100s or the Ricoh GR. Both have the very quiet leaf shutter.
JDDavis
(725 posts)I learned something today.
Please feel free to post more of these kinds of videos if you come across some.
jmowreader
(50,565 posts)When you push the "expose" button two things happen: the sensor starts recording, and the mechanical shutter starts moving. Couldn't the sensor just record for whatever length of time the camera tells it to without a shutter mechanism?