If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know I love doing unusual things with my cameras to get the lighting and image I want. Hypersync is one of those things. Making a camera sync at any speed is especially useful for freezing action and being able to create good light even in crappy, midday sunlight.

I’m an incessant tester, I like to be prepared. To this end, I hadn’t updated my firmware in my PocketWizard Mini and Flex units, so they weren’t doing what I expected my first time trying Hypersync (see my original article HERE ) on the Nikon D800 didn’t work. I decided to try again, working with gymnast Anna Clols.

Shooting on a trampoline and letting her hair flow, I shot this at 1/2500th of a second, using one Dynalite 1000 w/s pack at full power into a beauty dish with a diffuser on it as the main light, and another 1000 w/s pack with two heads (500 w/s each) to edge light her, with harsh, overhead, midday sunlight almost directly above her.

Cropped in a little, you can see that her hair may be flying, but it’s frozen.

I also shot a couple of shots at a nearby park to work on beating crappy midday sun, something I often have to do for clients who can’t afford to shoot everything in the golden hour.

I’m using a different lighting kit altogether, this is a 400 w/s Lumedyne pack into a single head in a large Chimera softbox. I wanted shallow depth of field, so I shot it with a Nikkor zoom lens at around 100mm at f/3.5, setting the shutter speed on the D800 at 1/1250th.

I also shot Anna in some shade, lighting her with the same light setup, but controlling the full sunlight coming in through the trees. I wanted the sunlight to be darker so she would stand out.

Same zoom lens, at around 150mm, 1/800th of a second at f/4.

Having the versatility to make light bend to my will is absolutely amazing. The PocketWizard Mini and Flex worked flawlessly for the whole shoot. Being able to make well-lit pictures at times of the day when the sun is harsh but not caring is invaluable. There will always be times when this comes in handy, and being well practiced in it and knowing how to do it when it counts adds versatility and makes me look like a hero to my clients.