What do photographers call the things most people call strobe lights?

I've seen outdoor skiing photos taken with powerful lights that flash at 10 Hz or faster. As a dumb kid, lights that flashed rapidly and

continuously at "fun houses" or used for engine timing lights were called strobe lights. I want THAT kind of strobe light for some creative

photography. I've seen powerful ones in the past used for interesting action shots with the camera lens stopped down and shutter on long

exposure so multiple images in one shot.

 

The problem is: What are they called? If I search using the word "strobe" those lights are buried beneath uncountable hits for speedlite a,

studio flash, on camera glad etc.

 

Not looking to argue terminology. Just need to know what the high frequency flashing lights are called now so I can find them.

 

I could find no category for this question under lighting.

<p>Disco strobe, DJ strobe, party strobe, etc. All should return hits for places to buy or rent those lights.</p>

<p>Just checked the Speedlite 580 EX manual since this flash lets you set the frequency, intensity and number of flashes. Canon calls it (Multi) Stroboscopic Flash. I hope googling stroboscopic flash will narrow your search a bit.</p>

<p><em>I could find no category for this question under lighting.</em><br>

Reason for the confusion - Harold Egerton, the great pioneer of electronic flash photography<br>

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Harold+Egerton&qpvt=Harold+Egerton&FORM=IGRE<br>

was interested in motion analysis, which called for very short and very high frequency flashes to get multiple images in the same frame.</p>

<p>I agree with using the term "stroboscopic" to refer to a light that flashes continuously for visual effect (or timing or motion analysis etc.) rather than a light that flashes once to take a picture.<br /><br />But if you are trying to create multiple images in one long exposure, a DJ strobe is probably not what you want. They don't put out that much light, it often goes in random directions and it's not controllable. Both Canon and Nikon speedlights have a setting where they can flash multiple times during one exposure. That's the better way to do it. </p>

<p>Its called stroboscopic but it is also not as powerful when coming from a single flash head. People who do those sports shots use multiple pack and head systems namely Broncolor and set them off with Pocket wizards set at delays for each pack to fire one right after the other giving the stroboscopic effect but with more power.</p>

<p>The repeat strobe mode on the Nikon SB-800 limits output so much that it's necessary to work fairly close, in a dark room or outdoors at night to get the desired effect without too much background distraction. This photo of a crafty neighbor's pinata drying outdoors at night required some retouching to minimize background distractions. At base ISO 100, f/8 for 2 seconds there was a lot of background visible at night from surrounding apartment complexes. I've had better results at night in a rural area, although ubiquitous mercury and sodium vapor lights were visible.</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17532612-lg.jpg" alt="She walks these hills" width="536" height="800" border="0" /><br>

<em>Off-camera Nikon SB-800 in multi-pop repeat strobe mode, with Nikon V1 (incompatible systems so I had to manually trigger the flash)</em>.</p>

Thanks to everyone who said stroboscopic. I agree for what I want I'll need significant flash power. I appreciate the

mention of time delayed packs and a brand name to investigate. I did see an article (forget where) where the

photographer got multiple shots of an airborne skier using. One very powerful "stroboscopic" flash with batteypack. No

issue with overexposed ground because the flash was on the other side of a rise and the flash wouldn't affect the sky. I

have a number of studio packs to play with and radio controls. I'll rig my own time delays for practice before I shop for

hardware. I'll have some challenges coming up with ways to compose so as not overexpose ground and backgrounds.

Shooting for newspaper and aiming for photo -not "photo illustration".

<p>Strobes are lights - lights that act as a flash on your DSLR camera - that are specifically placed and angled toward a subject. The difference between a strobe and a "built-In" flash (or even an attachment flash) is that a flash module is directly connected to your camera - meaning that however you adjust you camera, the flash will always go off from the same direction as the lens is pointed, leaving shadows on whatever is behind the subject, and nearly destroying your image, putting unrealistic light on the subject.<br>

<br />I'm using one and bought it on this website so you might wanna check.<br>

<br />www.photozuela.com</p>