EOS 300D Shutter Speed Restricition.

AnthonyL wrote:

Try http://www.johnaldred.com/what-is-sync-speed/ and see if that explains it for you.

Excellent link (though the animation is a bit fast to see what's going on sometimes). Thanks for sharing.

How can the flash be determining the exposure when the room the photo was taken in is bright as day?

AnthonyL wrote:

electrolux wrote:

Firstly is HSS 'high speed steel' or 'high speed sync' (Don't bother replying to that one!)

Yes I don't need a higher shutter speed than 1/1000sec but my EOS still doesn't do that with flash which I need for indoor photography otherwise I'll get a black square.

Yes you will get a black square because at faster than sync speed the shutter is a moving slit and the non-hss flash has fired whilst some of the picture is blocked off. This is what happens with ALL DSLRs.

Try http://www.johnaldred.com/what-is-sync-speed/ and see if that explains it for you.

Thanks for that page it's pretty good. I'll read it later.

Here is a photo I took with 1/200sec & NO external speedlight etc.

Yes, the flash now is determining the exposure. You would have likely got the same if you had shot at 1/100th. But with an external flash you can reduce the strength of the flash to give an even shorter exposure time.

Thanks, Yes I'm 13, here's a link to my Viewbug page:

http://www.viewbug.com/member/electrolux

Love your work! It's an exciting time to be starting out in photography! Enjoy every minute of it. I'd say "try everything" and it looks like you already are. I started out at 13 in 1957 using a Brownie box camera with black and white film. That was difficult but I still enjoyed every minute of it. Digital arrived shortly after I retired from a non-photography job, and  it's like "being a kid again"! I'm having so much fun. Best Wishes! You have a good eye.

P.

Thanks for the motivation, with a bit of calculation I worked out your a 'golden oldie at 71, correct?

electrolux wrote:

How can the flash be determining the exposure when the room the photo was taken in is bright as day?

Well, perhaps you might have experienced people taking a flash picture of you when you looked straight at the camera/flash. It's blinding. Means, the flash can be very bright, and what looks like a bright room is not necessarily that bright. Your eye adapts to an amazing range of light intensity.

I would suggest you experiment a bit with shutter speed/aperture inside and outside and see what exposure times etc. you get.  I think you used f22 in your pictures, that's not normally an aperture that one uses inside with 1/200, it would be too dark.

So that means the flash IS determining the exposure because it is brighter than the light in the room?

electrolux wrote:

So that means the flash IS determining the exposure because it is brighter than the light in the room?

yes, it sure looks like your splashing water glass has the camera flash as the main light source.

With an external flash, you could control direction of light and intensity better.

The camera flash is mostly used as "emergency flash" when no other light is available, or as fill in flash, i.e. when the ambient light is strong enough to give you a picture with your camera settings, e.g. 1/100 f8, but your object has the light in the back, and is thus dark, so you can brighten up the face with the flash (the auto modes may do it sort of okish). But if the sun is strong outside, and the subject far, the flash won't be strong enough. It's all about the balance between flash and ambient light.  Indoors it's not unusually that the flash will easily be the dominant light source.

Thanks, so I suppose that finally answers my question, I don't really need a speedlight but it's an important luxury... time to save up my 'pocket money'.

Thanks

Yes, I watched a Youtube video about photographing peppers falling (splashing) in to water & it recommended two HSS flashes, one behind a diffuser & the other above the fish tank with a wireless transmitter on the hotshoe.

Next month. Right now I'm merely 70! And, still hiking and camping about 100 days a year! I'd do more but the weather in Oregon is sort of wet and dark most winters!

Near enough then!

I saw a segment on Oregon Public Broadcasting about a man who photographs water splashes to create "works of art" -- his photographs of the water. I just found the link to it. I think it would tell you a lot about what you need to know to get that golf ball splashing the water out of the glass.

The show is called: Oregon Art Beat, and the episode is: Liquid Sculpture by Martin Waugh

here is the link:

http://www.opb.org/television/programs/artbeat/segment/liquid-sculpture-by-martin-waugh/

You can click on the video and see it online. There are quite a few photographers featured in their programs. I'm a painter so I watch the show every week.

P.

Thanks, looks good, I'll watch it.