Lighting/Strobes and stuff questions.

Recently I went to my high school basketball game and noticed something I've never seen before. A photographer from one of our local newspapers was there and I've seen him before, but never really talked to him. I shook his hand and everything, learned his name, and watched him take pictures.

I kept noticing this strange outside flash coming from no where until I looked up in the stands and saw these big, box-shaped contraptions. They were flashing everytime he took a picture. I had no idea what this was and I guess he noticed me looking at them so he asked me if he could see my camera. He installed this wireless transmitter and I took a picture....woe and behold he had strobe lights set up in two different spots. He explained some stuff to me but it was hard to hear over the band playing and crowd shouting. He turned a bunch of knobs on my camera and I didn't know what they were for. He asked me what the sync speed on my camera was and all this crazy stuff.

For my question(s),
What is sync speed? How do I figure that out? I want some strobes really bad...which ones are decent for a low budget 16 year old yearbook photographer that works at a skating rink? Better lighting would make my life so much better...someone help me out!

This is in the wrong forum for stobe/lighting advice. If he was using stobes he is probably using a $2,000 setup at minimum at a guess.

Sync Speed is the highest speed the camera will work correctly with stobe lighting, usually around 1/125 to 1/1000 depending on the camera being used. Digital cameras like the 10D have a maximum sync speed of 1/200th, speed is the Tv mode on your camera. e.g for portiture work, usually a setup in manual mode of Av f/8 and Tv of 1/125 is a good start. But for sports you would be looking at something more like f/2.8 - f5.6 and speeds of around 1/500th or more.

That is a generalised explaination.

If you can, ask him if you can help him out sometime and maybe learn a bit off of him, by the sound of it, he would be glad to help you out. But get your parents permission first. You might be 16, but there are some strange people around, not that I am saying he is. If you get the opportunity to learn from someone making money out of photography, go for it and soak up all you can. He might advise you on lighting as well. Might even have some secondhand stuff you could use.

Hope that helps.

That's how I understand they do it at big arenas. Actually with the quality of DSLR's at higher ISO speeds, it may become a thing of the past as photographers can get really great images with available light.

The wireless transmitter on the camera sends a signal to a receiver up in the catwalk or wherever. It fires some sort of light - probably a powerpack with a couple of heads. This quick flash stops the action so the shots will be very sharp. There's usually a setup or two at each end. With a setup like this you'll have to count how long it takes to recycle - take a shot, count to four (or whatever it is) and shoot again. Some lights beep when they're ready but of course you can't hear it.

The sync speed depends on the camera, it's in the manual. Between the radio slaves (wireless transmitter/receiver) and a bunch of lights, the number Peter mentions is probably a good start. A less expensive way to do it would be to use flashes like Vivitar 283's and optical slaves. It's not as much light and optical slaves don't fire as reliably - but it will get you started.