The Flash Photography Field Guide

Hacking Sync With Power Pack Heads

Using the camera’s built-in Auto-FP or High Speed Sync (HSS) setting is a great way of making your camera’s flashes sync at all speeds. This works because at speeds greater than the conventional sync speed, the shutter is never fully open, but is a slit that moves across the shutter. To provide coverage with flash at speeds like this, the flashgun pulses very quickly, though pulsing flashes aren’t as bright as one big burst of light, so the power is reduced and the flash’s effectiveness is far lower.

There is another way of using this type of technique, except with more powerful flashes. If you use larger, pack-powered flashes—like an Elinchrom Ranger or Ranger Quadra—these are far more powerful, though the ...