Is second curtain flash a better choice??

[tayl0124]

Okay I was at a wedding reception this weekend and I took some pictures while people were dancing. needless to say they were moving at a pretty good clip. A lot of the photos show a lot of blurring because of the motion. Do you think it would have been better to use 2nd curtain in this instance as it would show motion but also show a more focused looking image?

[Canuck935]

Yes, absolutely. When my subjects are moving I almost always go with rear sync. It often produces the more desirable effect.

[tayl0124]

Darn, wish I would have thought about that last night. What is the opinion of most. Is second curtain flash underused and should it be the primary source of flash??

[mjs1973]

I'm not a big flash user, but I do set mine to 2nd curtain sync. You can still get motion blur using it, but it's generally a more pleasing image. When your subject is moving, the 2nd curtain flash will freeze the subject after the blur, with 1st curtain sync, the subject will be frozen at the start of the exposure, and then blur making the subject a lot less defined. I haven't picked up "Hot Shoe Diaries" yet, but from what I have heard about it, Joe McNally recommends always (or almost always) using 2nd curtain sync.

[another view]

Do you think it would have been better to use 2nd curtain in this instance as it would show motion but also show a more focused looking image?

No. Well, maybe.

Let's say the ambient light exposure is 1/2 second at your chosen aperture and ISO. Slow sync, as Nikon calls it, fires the flash at the beginning of that half second. Second curtain sync fires the flash at the end of that same half second. There's a huge difference between the results you'll get with one versus the other.

I know of two situations where 2nd curtain is by far better, and one is in most Nikon instruction manuals. They show a car going through the frame, and in slow sync you see the car on the right side and the tail lights streaming through the car, most of the way through the frame. This is because the flash popped off right away and the tail lights kept moving. Second curtain would show the car on the other side of the frame with the red stream from the tail lights leading up to the back end of the car (desired result, of course). The other example I picked up at Nikon School a long time ago - if shooting portraits or candids with flash and a long shutter speed, people will move or look away right after the flash goes off. With 2nd curtain, they don't become anywhere near as much of a blur.

Try both slow sync and second curtain and compare the results, and which is better depends on the results you're trying to get. The thing is, I hear a lot of people talk about second curtain as though the choices are that or a faster (1/60, 1/125) shutter speed. This isn't the case at all. Slow sync and second curtain will give you different results with any subject motion, and both are a lot different than using a faster sync speed.