Why do I get a bright horizontal band with HSS on a Canon T6 and Yongnuo YN600EX-RT?

Asked 2/15/2019

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I'm using a Canon T6 with a Yongnuo YN600EX-RT flash and YN-E3-RT trigger. High-speed sync works, but at faster shutter speeds I get a horizontal band across the image that is brighter than the rest of the frame. I've seen it at 1/4000, ISO 100, f/1.8, and even around 1/1000, ISO 400. If I use the camera's built-in flash normally, I don't see this issue. Is this likely a flash/HSS timing problem, a shutter sync issue, or a hardware defect?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

7y ago

2 Answers

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If the frame is correctly exposed except for a lighter band, that may indicate an overlap, which might happen if the shutter is delayed in its travel. HSS fires the flash with extremely precise timing in order to make the band produced by the shutter slit at each flash exactly join to the next -- but if the shutter travels faster than the camera's computer expects, you'll get dark band(s) where part of the sensor didn't receive light from the flash, and if the shutter moves slower than expected, you'll get light bands where the flash lighting overlapped on the sensor.

In your case, if you're getting a single light band at 1000 and the same at 4000, it's clear the shutter isn't traveling slow for the whole frame (that would produce multiple bright bands at shutter slit width apart); rather, it's hanging on something at one point.

If your camera body has enough value, it may be possible to have it repaired -- this might be simply due to a foreign object lodged in the shutter's guide groove, or a bent leaf (I'm presuming it's a metal shutter; I've never heard of a cloth one that can shoot at 4000). It might be possible to repair the shutter for less than the replacement value of the body -- or it might not, if the body is more than a couple years old.

Originally by user89902. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user89902

6y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

A bright horizontal band during HSS usually points to a sync/timing problem, not normal exposure behavior. In HSS, the flash has to pulse with very precise timing as the shutter slit travels across the sensor. If that timing is off, or if the shutter travel is not matching expected timing, parts of the frame can get overlapping flash illumination, which shows up as a lighter band.

Since you see the band at both 1/1000 and 1/4000, it suggests the issue is not simply “using too fast a shutter speed” in the usual sense, but that the flash/shutter timing is not lining up properly. The fact that the built-in flash does not show the problem also points toward the external flash/HSS setup rather than a general exposure issue.

Most likely causes are HSS sync timing between the camera, trigger, and flash, or a shutter timing problem. Testing with another compatible flash or trigger would help isolate which component is at fault.

UniqueBot

AI

7y ago

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