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I recently bought myself a pack of four YN560 IV's and a YN560-TX for my Canon camera, and apparently I got ahead of myself and didn't realise I should make sure the flashes support HSS.

I tried them out yesterday at home, and even on 1/128 and 1/250s on the camera, they were overexposing here and there. Unfortunately, I don't really have the space to move the flashes much further from my subject, so I was wondering if there is any way to trick them into HSS? I should mention that I also own a Canon 580ex II, which does support HSS. I was thinking I could perhaps use that mounted on the camera to trigger the Yongnuo's, but as far as I can tell that would render the 560-TX useless as the flashes can't be controlled wirelessly when in S1 or S2.

I guess I could buy an ND filter, but as I have lenses with differing sizes, this feels like more of a pain in the ass.

Is there any hack I can pull off here that you guys know of?

Thanks!

Micke Alm
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  • With flash, 1/250 sec (max sync speed) will not affect flash illumination as captured by the sensor (it will affect ambient illumination captured). The equivalent of the exposure triangle for flash is ISO, aperture, and distance. Reducing the ISO or narrowing in the aperture can compensate for too much flash power for a particular subject distance. Aperture is probably where the camera has the most "headroom". –  Oct 30 '17 at 17:17
  • Gels can reduce the illumination from a flash. ND gels are available. –  Oct 30 '17 at 17:38
  • Thanks for your reply, Ben!

    ISO is already at 100, and sure, I can close the aperture more (I think I wound up at around ~4 to make it work), but I'd still like the option to retain a very shallow depth of field (crop sensor camera as well).

    ND gels just might be the way to go, actually, I hadn't really considered those!

     – Micke Alm Oct 31 '17 at 07:02

2 Answers2

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No. There's no way to get HSS from a Yongnuo YN-560 IV.

HSS requires camera/flash communication along the flash foot pins that the YN-560IV doesn't have (being single-pin. That pin is for the sync/fire signal). And the built-in radio transceiver of the YN-560IV & YN-560-TX combo doesn't accommodate HSS signalling over radio, like the Godox TT600 & X1T or Cactus RF60 & V6II (also single-pin manual-only flashes) can.

With Yongnuo gear, the only triggering systems that accommodate HSS are the 622 triggers/lights (e.g., YN-685 & YN-622-TX), and the -RT triggers/lights (e.g., YN-600EX-RT II & YN-E3-RT).

Theoretically, if you hooked the YN-560IVs up via PC to YN-622C triggers, you might be able to do tail-syncing (aka hypersync, supersync, etc.), but I was never successful getting my YN-560 (I) to do that, only my 580EXII (which of course is kind of a pointless exercise, since the 580EXII does HSS).

The ND filter trick may be your only way to get thin DoF in bright ambient with fill flash, but remember, you're still not actually getting a faster shutter speed. So if your HSS requirement was for freezing fast action in bright ambient, that's still not going to work.

You can, however, buy a single ND filter in the largest size you need, and then use step-up rings to fit it to smaller lenses. The problem is knowing how much ND darkening you'll need in a given situation. Variable ND filters is one way, getting a set of NDs of different concentrations and then stacking them is another.

inkista
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  • Thanks for your reply, and it's pretty much exactly as I expected...

    While most of my work is in my home studio (I went with Speedlights for cost/footprint), I also had hopes of having them be mobile enough to easily bring outside for portraits. Ie, the issue of freezing action isn't really what's important to me.

    I may have to try out ND filters, but from what I've read the variable ones have issues even at the highest price points, and for set filters I just won't know which ones I'll need.

    I think I'll just have to accept that I made a rather uninformed purchase =)

     – Micke Alm Nov 01 '17 at 10:12
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I just read on dpreview that this should be possible using your HSS flash as master mounted on the hotshoe and triggering the Yongnuos via infrared. The HSS flash obviously triggers in sync with the shutter and the infrared receivers of the Yongnuos are so fast that can follow it on time. If you don't need/want to light with the HSS flash on the hotshoe, reduce its power to 1/128 and even point it away from your subject. If you are indoors it should trigger the slaves no matter where you point it.

Ignacio
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    If you mean this article, that's not really HSS. It's tail-syncing. Read through the comments, particularly noting the one by fotowbert saying that it's -5EV vs. HSS in his results. – inkista Mar 22 '18 at 20:51