trying to adjust shutter with flash

[robinmichaels]

I have a quick and hopefully easy question. I have been trying to get some good indoor, fast action shots of rc racing but my D90 automatically locks at 200 shutter. I have tried everything I can to try and get a faster shutter but nothing works. Is there anything that could be adjusted to get that changed? Thanks in advance everyone.

[RichardTaylor]

1/200 is the maximum flash synch speed.

The flash exposure itself will be much shorter than that (millisecond(s)).

If you want to shoot at higher shutter speeds and flash you will most likely need an external flash gun that allows high speed synch.

[OsmosisStudios]

Not to be an ass here or a anything, but did you READ the MANUALS that came with both the camera and flash? This is the kind of thing that is easily answered.

[robinmichaels]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Not to be an ass here or a anything, but did you READ the MANUALS that came with both the camera and flash? This is the kind of thing that is easily answered.

Certainly did, and it is an honest question when you think about it. The manual will cover all of the usual adjustments about setting for the flash intensity and synching to the camera but not about getting the fine tune settings in the camera. Kind of like everyone throws their questions in here for suggestions that are not in the manuals. The manuals do not cover what would give the best exposure setting for a sunset or what would be a good shutter speed to cover a speeding car around a corner. Some things you learn from doing, or if you would like some insight and expertise, you ask those that do it for a living for suggestions.

[zona5101]

Do you have an external speedlight? Like an sb 600, Sb700 or 800 or 900?
As Richard mentioned - you are at your max sysnc speed...to go faster you need a high speed sync feature available on Nikon flashes like those listed.
There is trade off with high speed flash, namely reduced power output so your subject to flash distances are cut down. Still, for your subject it will probably work just fine.

Using your (I assume) built in flash, what is happening that you want to get a faster shutter? Motion blur?? If yes then you can try and lower the ambient light so the flash has more influence on the shot. It is the ambient that is allowing the recording of blur. Of course lowering the ambient makes if hard to focus....fun!

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by robinmichaels

Certainly did, and it is an honest question when you think about it. The manual will cover all of the usual adjustments about setting for the flash intensity and synching to the camera but not about getting the fine tune settings in the camera. Kind of like everyone throws their questions in here for suggestions that are not in the manuals. The manuals do not cover what would give the best exposure setting for a sunset or what would be a good shutter speed to cover a speeding car around a corner. Some things you learn from doing, or if you would like some insight and expertise, you ask those that do it for a living for suggestions.

Just looking for something containing the words "flash" and "shutter speed" gives you sync speed in the manuals. Believe me, it's in there.

[NathanFranke]

With Flash:

IF the ambient light is low enough, AND
IF the flash exposure is correct,
it won't matter what your shutter speed is, the action will be frozen. If that's what you're going for. With flash photography, the exposure triangle changes a bit.
For the subject: ISO, aperture, flash power.
For everything else, background, etc, it's still the old triangle: ISO, Aperture, shutter speed.