Weird shadow showing up at bottom of images

[dpinion]

Greetings all,
I take images of my company's products and have had this occur several times now. I have a dual elinchrom d-lite 2 set and a D90 with 60mm 2.8 lens. When I take the images, they sometimes come out looking like the attached, and I have no idea why. The area that is dark at the bottom is lit by the lights the same as the item on the table, but for some reason I am getting this shadow. It seems to always occur at the bottom (even when I shoot vertical).

[Skoropada]

Originally Posted by dpinion

Greetings all,
I take images of my company's products and have had this occur several times now. I have a dual elinchrom d-lite 2 set and a D90 with 60mm 2.8 lens. When I take the images, they sometimes come out looking like the attached, and I have no idea why. The area that is dark at the bottom is lit by the lights the same as the item on the table, but for some reason I am getting this shadow. It seems to always occur at the bottom (even when I shoot vertical).

It looks to me as if you are shooting faster than the sync speed of your camera.

Can you post som exif data?

[OsmosisStudios]

Sync speed issue. Im gonna guess your shutter speed was faster than 1/200s.

What happens is that the flash is so short that it isnt around for the entire time the sensor is exposed between the curtains. There are ways around this, but the easiest is to simply use a slower shutter speed.

[dpinion]

Greetings All,
Thanks for the fast responses! Attached is my exif data. Shutter speed is currently 1/250, which is what I *think* it is supposed to be set to, but will check the Elinchrom manual again. These are the lights I am using:
D-lite 2


Still much to learn..

[Skoropada]

Originally Posted by dpinion

Greetings All,
Thanks for the fast responses! Attached is my exif data. Shutter speed is currently 1/250, which is what I *think* it is supposed to be set to, but will check the Elinchrom manual again. These are the lights I am using:
D-lite 2


Still much to learn..

The sync speed is a feature of your camera, and you should look for it in the camera manual.
For what I find on the web, it's 1/200 s for the D90.

Regards

[dpinion]

I see. There also appears to be a sync speed for the Skyport transmitter with 2 modes:

Speed: 1/250 s
Standard: 1/200 s

Like I said, Lots to learn. I will check in the D90 manual again to find it and make sure I get everything sync'd up.

[Kamal M]

I have a D-lite 4 and was having the exact same problem, reduced my shutter speed to 1/160 and it was perfect! dno why at 1/200 it wasnt working properly....anyway if u dont feel like flicking through ur manual, just take test shots while reducing ur shutter speed till its fixed

[bivanh]

Yes, most likely because you exceed 1/200 shutter speed. As mentioned in the official site, the maximum sync speed for D90 is 1/200.
And even sometimes they don't give you a real 1/200 but a bit less than that. So if you still find problem when using 1/200, just dial down to 1/160

[bivanh]

Yes, most likely because you exceed 1/200 shutter speed. As mentioned in the official site, the maximum sync speed for D90 is 1/200.
And even sometimes they don't give you a real 1/200 but a bit less than that. So if you still find problem when using 1/200, just dial down to 1/160

[inkista]

Just FYI, here's a good explanation of what's going on and why shooting at or below your max. sync speed is important if you're using manual lights that don't do high-speed sync.