# What happened here?



## Rachel1786 (Nov 6, 2013)

I was taking before and after photos of a standard poodle I groomed today, using the same lens for both, a few shots into the after shots, they started coming out with the bottom of the pic being cut out(I guess that would be the best way to describe it). I took the lens off and didn't see anything obviously wrong, but the problem continued, I ended up switching to my 50mm, and then they came out normal(aside from focusing issues, which I clearly had with the other lens too ) I just put the other lens back on for a test shot, and it's coming out normal again. So any ideas on what caused this and how to keep it from happening again?


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## amolitor (Nov 6, 2013)

You were using flash, and a shutter speed too high to sync with the flash. The shutter is never fully open, above a certain shutter speed, instead the two blades are dragging a wide "slot" down the sensor, so each pixel is only exposed for 1/500th of a second, but the whole process takes 1/200th of a second, day.

The flash only pops for an instant. So you took a picture of your shutter blades, and the wide slot that was being "dragged" over the sensor.

Use a slower shutter speed. "Flash sync speed" is usually the keyword.


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 6, 2013)

amolitor said:


> You were using flash, and a shutter speed too high to sync with the flash. The shutter is never fully open, above a certain shutter speed, instead the two blades are dragging a wide "slot" down the sensor, so each pixel is only exposed for 1/500th of a second, but the whole process takes 1/200th of a second, day.
> 
> The flash only pops for an instant. So you took a picture of your shutter blades, and the wide slot that was being "dragged" over the sensor.
> 
> Use a slower shutter speed. "Flash sync speed" is usually the keyword.



wow I feel like such a dork for not figuring that out! I just looked through the settings and in all the ones that happened in the SS was at 1/400th all the others I set it at 1/250th...in my defense, I don't use flash very often


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## robbins.photo (Nov 6, 2013)

You have angered the camera gods, obviously.  Oh.. and all that flashy synchy crap amolitor said is probably true too.. lol


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## amolitor (Nov 6, 2013)

This is actually one of The Most Common errors people make, don't feel bad! Once you've seen what the result is, you'll never make the mistake again (for more than one frame, anyways!) but it's not at all an obvious thing before that.


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## ronlane (Nov 6, 2013)

No need to feel like a dork. Now you know what it is and if/when you see it again, you will know. I remember the first time I did that too.


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## Derrel (Nov 6, 2013)

Welcome to the club!!!! Only 114 more blunders before you're a certified expert shooter!

Yeah...X-sync woes...

Interestingly when I got into photography, the word "sync" was almost ALWAYS spelled "synch", as an abbreviation for synchronization. But over the decades, it has come to be shortened to sync.


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## ronlane (Nov 6, 2013)

Derrel said:


> Welcome to the club!!!! Only 114 more blunders before you're a certified expert shooter!
> 
> Yeah...X-sync woes...
> 
> Interestingly when I got into photography, the word "sync" was almost ALWAYS spelled "synch", as an abbreviation for synchronization. But over the decades, it has come to be shortened to sync.



I'll be glad when I get that last of my 114 blunders. Not sure which one I'm missing or if I just miss counted. Well darn it, now I've got to start all over. (Go ahead and say it D.)


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## amolitor (Nov 6, 2013)

The truly advanced photographer is capable of inventing entirely new blunders. Sometimes, to be sure, they're just minor variations on previously discovered blunders, but there's something new in each one!


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 6, 2013)

Thanks everyone, I've only had the camera, gee almost 6 years, you would think I would have figured that out, I guess it really shows how little I use flash lol



robbins.photo said:


> You have angered the camera gods, obviously.  Oh.. and all that flashy synchy crap amolitor said is probably true too.. lol



I thought that my camera was mad at me for talking about replacing her


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## Derrel (Nov 6, 2013)

ronlane said:


> Derrel said:
> 
> 
> > Welcome to the club!!!! Only 114 more blunders before you're a certified expert shooter!
> ...



113 more to go, Ron!!!!!! Ah, we all make mistakes. My most recent blunder came on a trip to the coast with Majeed...we were walking along the beach and shooting pics, and I was having a tough time. I told him, pretty agitatedly too, "Well, sonofabeach! My camera's malfunctioning! It doesn't want  to shoot talls right!" Ohhhh, I was agitated... then about five minutes later I look and see that the vertical grip's trigger button is set to L...for LOCK. 

*Doah!!!! Dingleberry Award Winning Performance!*


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