Flash Multi Mode

[Sanny Olafeso]

Haveyou ever been to a disco, performance, or another place where they used a strobe light? If so, you saw the interesting effect created by the rapid flashing. Smooth movement gets broken into a series of frozen-stepped motion, not unlike the frames of an old-time movie.

Different flash manufacturers may use different names for this capability. Canon, Godox, and Yongnuo call it Multi-Mode, while Nikon calls it the Repeating Flash Function. However you refer to it, multi-flash is the capability to fire multiple flashes during one camera exposure.

The best way to see if your flash is capable of this effect is to read your flash manual. If the flash you own does have this capability, a photo illustration will often accompany it showing the kind of images possible, like this one here:

This one can sometimes throw the new user as it uses a term not always familiar to everyone: hertz. In very simple terms, hertz refers to the number of cycles in one second. So, 1 Hz=1 flash per second, 10 Hz=10 flashes per second, etc.

Now say you want to capture something faster like a club hitting a golf ball off a tee. You can still get the flash close enough to use 1/32 power. You want 15 steps in your sequence and guess the action will take just 1/30th of a second to complete.

You will find that at the higher hertz rates, the flash fires so fast that it seems like just one burst. However, when you check your shot, a fast-moving subject lit with a high flash-per-second (hertz) rate should show the individual steps in the movement.

Ambient light is not your friend as it will begin to force settings you may not want. You also want to eliminate distractions in the shot as the steps of the object in motion will create a busy enough image already. Your best bet is to work in a darkened room and use a black or very dark background.

You will want to adjust your aperture based on the depth of field you need for your particular shot. Also, keep in mind that most lenses perform best between f/8 and f/16, so try to be in that range if you can. You can also adjust your aperture for exposure if you need to. However, I recommend making exposure adjustments using ISO and flash power first.

You may also find the flash will limit what other settings you can input, especially with higher power settings. To allow sufficient time to recycle between flashes and to prevent the flash from overheating, it may not allow many flashes or a higher hertz setting at higher power settings.

For example, my Canon 550EX can shoot 70 continuous flashes at 10 Hz if the power is turned down to 1/128 power. However, it can only shoot 2 consecutive flashes at that same 10 Hz rate if the flash is turned up to 1/4 power.

You will very quickly find that because each step of the sequence in a shot only gets a portion of the total light during the entire exposure, darker objects in motion may not show up well. Also, because static objects in the shot will get the full sum of the light, they will be brighter.

I have said it before. I always try to make sure that I get the most out of the equipment that I already own. I have been shooting a lot of flash lately and that got me thinking about a flash mode that I have not used for a long time. I wrote a little bit recently about using the FP mode AKA high-speed sync. Then I got to thinking that it has been a while since I did any shooting in the Multi-Flash mode.

Multi-Flash is another function that most of the newer add-on flashes have but one that I know some people overlook. It is another one of the flash modes that let us get creative while exploring new possibilities.

Hertz is the rate or frequency of how often something happens. If something is occurring at 1 hertz it means that it is repeating once per second. So if we set a flash to fire at 6 hertz it means the flash is firing at a rate of 6 times per second. If we set the fire the flash at 12 hertz it means the flash is firing 12 times per second.

So if we set our flash to the Multi-Flash mode and want to fire the flash 6 times during a one-second exposure we would set the flash to fire 6 times at 6 hertz. If we want the flash to fire 6 times in second we would change the setting to 12 hertz.

Once you determine how many times you want your flash to fire and at given hertz, you will need to calculate how long of a shutter speed you need to capture all of the times the flash will fire. If you are going to fire 8 flashes at 150 hertz you would need a 1/20th of a second for that sequence to complete.

To calculate your shutter speed you take the number of flashes you want to fire divided by the hertz you are setting them to repeat at and that number converted to a fraction is your shutter speed.

Multi-Flash is usually set up on the flash. With some cameras, you may be able to set it up on the camera. When I was using Nikon I would set it on the flash. With my Fuji I can set it up on the flash or the camera as long as the flash is on the camera and the flash is turned on. When using the Godox 860 II that I just purchased it is easy. I put the flash on my camera and power it on. Then I go into the flash menu on the camera. I go to Flash Function Setting and normally that displays TTL. I rotate the main command dial on the camera to select Multi. Then on the same screen, I select the flash power. You can set however much power you think you want. With the Godox, I can select full power, half power, or down to 1/128th power. Then I select how many times I want the flash to fire and last I set the hertz. It might sound like a lot but once you see how to do it you can run through it in about 30 seconds. In the camera flash menu, I also check and make sure it is set to front curtain sync. It is easy as pie!

Some cameras will automatically set the flash to rear curtain sync when you set longer shutter speeds. If your camera does this you will need to go into the flash setting and set the flash to front curtain sync. I know this seems contradictory when shooting at longer shutter speeds but I have encountered this with my Fuji X-T2 and multi-flash does not work properly in rear curtain sync. This is easy to check. When using multi-flash your camera should be in the normal front curtain sync mode.

I recently purchased the Godox 860 II and this flash has quite a bit more power than the flash I had been using and the extra punch is coming in handy when experimenting with multi-flash. The Godox 860 II uses its rechargeable battery. I have been doing a lot of shooting that requires a lot of flash power and I have not had to recharge the battery yet. The Godox flash with this battery is a real powerhouse.

No idea what the issue might be, but what if you set the camera so that it's just using regular on-camera flash, without the multi? A lot of times, Godox does an end-run around the camera/flash communication protocol to achieve some functions. I'd say just set the camera menus as if you're using simple on-camera flash without any of the functions set in the menus, and any turn off wireless functions. Have the camera treat the transmitter like you're doing direct on-camera flash.

Thanks for your response. After fiddling around a bit more, I managed to figure out that I had to switch it to manual mode then set the flash setting in camera to front curtain sync, then switch back to multi which retained the front curtain sync setting in camera which I could not change when I set the flash to multi mode.

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This section describes wireless multiple-flash shooting in manual flash mode. You can set the flash output in a range from full 1/1 output to 1/8192 output in 1/3-stop increments for each firing group. All settings are configured on the sender unit.

This flash unit is capable of firing multiple times while the camera shutter is open (multiple flash photography). Multiple flash photography allows you to capture a series of movements of the subject in a single photo.

I would like to use this setup so that two flashes both fire multiple times until the shutter closes. I can get the flashes to do this individually when attached to the camera, and I can get both to fire once, triggered by the YN622-TX transmitter, but cannot find a way to combine these functions. If any member has an answer, I would be very grateful.

Read the manual, it is all there although not super easy to understand. I have YN685 lights, this is how I get them to work in Stoboscopic mode remotely with a YN622C-TX. Put the lights into 622 slave mode. On the 622-TX press and hold the Mode/EM button (note: press AND HOLD not just press). It will display "TTL" in the top middle of the display. Press and hold this button again, it will then display "Multi". When in this Multi mode, short press the GR/* button to scroll through to the flash power, the HZ or the total number of flashes and use the four buttons up/down and left/right to change these settings once selected. Press your camera shutter release to test. Have fun!

The only way I've been able to get 'Multi (Stroboscopic) Flash' to work wirelessly via a YN622-TX is to set the multi settings via the in-camera flash menu of my Canon camera with the YN622C-TX set to 'Manual' for the group(s) I'm using in 'Multi' mode.

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