Hypersync Fashion Portrait - James Woodley Photography Blog

I shoot fitness, sports and action. After I ditched my Profoto B1 (long story), the only viable replacement was PocketWizard’s Hypersync feature.

Though Hypersync works differently to Profoto’s HSS functionality, it does not limit you to just one strobe (The B1… with max 500w/s output).

In my experience the pros and cons of each (Profoto HSS vs PW Hypersync) are as follows:

(Note, I am not talking about the B1 as a unit, just the HSS function).

Profoto B1 (pros)	Profoto B1 (cons)	PocketWizard Hypersync (pros)	PocketWizard Hypersync (cons)
Built in function	Limited to the B1 power	Universal system	Effectiveness varies with equipment used
No settings or tweaks to make	HSS saps the output power	Can use an PW as the receiver	Works best with slow flash duration
Allows upto 1/8000s shutter	Only works on level 8 or above power setting	Potentially unlimited poweroutput	Requires manual setup in PW software
Requires no thought to activate		Customizable settings	Need a computer to change settings
			Only works with Flex TT1 or TT5 as transmitter
			With fast strobes, banding appears at higher shutter speeds.

So, neither are perfect. In an ideal world I would have a Hasselblad H6D with a leaf shutter (go look that up) that I can use with any flash at any shutter speed… However, I don’t have $35k (plus taxes and lenses!) to buy one of these.

So what can you do with Hypersync. Well, first, you can freeze action much better outdoors. Traditionally 1/250s was your sync speed limit, so with strong light (such as we get here in Miami), will cause motion blur. Even with a short flash duration.

The other use, that will probably apply to more photographers, allows shooting in bright sunlight, with a strobe and a very shallow depth of field.

Think about it; before you were limited to 1/250s shutter. Even at a low ISO, you would still have to sit at around f7 or above on a very sunny day. Unless you used just natural light and remove the shutter speed restriction… But what fun is that?!

A quick shoot with Ms Shireen Sandoval last weekend allowed me to try just this. It was 2pm in Miami. The sun was high and it was hard dirty light. I whipped out my 70-200mm, zoomed all the way in at f2.8 and 1/800s. Set my strobe to full power (640w/s) with a silver beauty dish and white diffuser attached.

The results as you can see, give a really interesting look.