Using multiple flashes outdoors - help!

DoctorIt

I was asked to do a team photo for the UMass cycling team. Lucked out, got great weather yesterday afternoon for it, so we were ready to go. I did borrow another 2 flashes as I was pretty sure I'd get some harsh shadows, was planning on using them for a bit of fill and mellowing of the shadows.

Too bad it didn't work at all. I've played around with dual 580EX's several times, never had a problem firing the slave. But yesterday outside, it wouldn't fire unless it was about 2 ft from the master. Huh?! Does bright ambient sun affect the range of remote flash? I ended up doing the photos with just ambient, moved the guys around enough to try and keep the worst shadows off their faces, but I'm sure it could have been better.

Anyone have any experience with this?

DoctorIt

bump, i really need some help on this. please?

Shay Stephens

The brighter the ambient light, the harder it is for the optical sensors to see the signal from the master flash. The only sure-fire method I know of in bright daylight is radio triggering.

If your flash heads rotate, you can help things out a bit by pointing the sensor at the master flash and the head at the subject or whatever it is meant to illuminate. But you still face signal degredation in bright light.

DoctorIt wrote:

bump, i really need some help on this. please?

patch29

Are you triggering them with a 580EX or STE2?

How far away are the extra lights? Don't forget outside there are not walls or ceilings to bounce the signal off of either, so it may seem to be weaker because of that too.

I think what you really need is some Profoto gear, namely the Pro-7b stuff. As Shay said you can either use radio slaves or go old school and use wires to sync everything.