Shutter speed

Farmers wife 79

Farmers wife 79

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Paula
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Ok this might be a silly question but i am trying to have a go at water drop photography and understand that i need a high shutter speed but when i set it to 1/4000 it says too dark so when i put the flash on it drops to 1/200 am i doing something wrong? i have a Nikon D5100 thanks in advance :) i am using the Sigma 70/300 DG Macro lens
 
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1/200 will be your max flash sync speed, the best way to get water drop shots is to use a flash gun off the camera, using just the flash for illumination no ambient light, then the flash will freeze the subject for you.

Hope that helps, sounds alot more complicated than it really is.:thumbs:
 
Most camera's have a sync speed of about 1/250 when you attach a flash. Its all to do with the speed of the flash and the shutter.
Its perfectly normal.

The best way around it is to take the photo in a dark room and use a longer exposure like 1/200 and let the flash freeze the water.

You can get flash units that have a high speed sync mode up to about 1/4000, but not all camera's support this.
 
If you can, turn the flash power down to the minimum it goes to as the flash duration will be shorter then so it freezes the motion more effectively.

For example, with a Vivitar 285 flashgun, firing at full power gives a 1/1000th of a second flash duration but at 1/16th power its about 1/40000th which is great for capturing fast motion. Obviously at 1/16th the range is drastically reduced from the full power guide number of 36 but as you'll be working quite close it won't matter.

This does apply to all flashguns with a manual mode not just the Vivitar 285, although their perfect for this as their powerful, not too costly (About £30 used) and very easy to use plus you can use the auto mode with the built in light sensor as well for general photography as there is not TTL flash metering with it.
If you should get one though make sure its the 285HV model as the sync voltage is safe for use with modern cameras then.
 
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