Sometimes the ambient light level is too low for successful for photography, or it’s the ‘wrong’ kind of light. This is where photographers turn to flash (or ‘strobe’, if you’re in the US). Flash works by emitting a very short, very powerful burst of light. Energy is stored in a capacitor in the flash head […]
Flash duration
Flash duration is the length of time a flash is generating light. The flash duration is typically very short, often between 1/500sec and 1/1000sec, but often even faster than that. This is useful for freezing fast-moving objects, but it can make exposure settings, particularly the shutter speed, more complicated. Almost all cameras have a maximum flash sync speed which is much lower than the actual flash duration. Many flashguns offer a high speed sync mode to get round this. Flash duration depends on the model, its power setting and sometimes the mode it’s being used in.