Moving into Flash photography - what to get?

boulderNardo · January 22, 2009

I want to further improve my ski action shots and my still lives (and possibly get into some portraiture) and am thinking about getting an off camera flash system.

Hoping to start off relatively cheap, and more importantly, relatively LIGHT since I would be taking this rig in the back country for ski shoots.

First off, here's what I've been looking at:

1. Two or three Vivitar 285HV units. Cheap and powerful.
2. Two or three Westcott 750 Photo Basics 7.5ft Light Stands. Cheap & relatively light.
3. Shoe Mount Multiclamp
4. Umbrellas

Oh and, what kind of remote firing systems are out there, how do they work, what do you guys use?
I looked at Pocket Wizards ... Do I need only one transmitter for the camera and one receiver for each flash?

What do you guys think, what do you guys use...
Recommendations appreciated. Thanks!
_Bernardo

divamum · January 22, 2009

Have you been reading The Strobist? If not, then get thee hence! His lighting 101 series is fantastically informative. If you have already been that route, then apologies for the redundancy of this suggestion....

Art Scott · January 22, 2009

The viviatars are great flashes, I have personally wore out at least 4 of them.....as for slave triggers these work great and at $22.00+ s/h for 2 receievers and 1 transmitter.....I don't think they can be beat......and Ihave not had a prob with that reseller on ebay either......you may want to also look at Amvona for the stands and umbrellas.....not that I would be taking an umbrella into the ski country.....but.....there I would opt for a LumiQuest soft box or the Large Softbox....they fold flat and can be used on any shoe mount or handle mount flash out there.......Also you mightwant to be checking out BH for deals on the SunPak 622 handle mount flash units......real powerful especially for outdoor shooting.

Good Luck

Qarik · January 22, 2009

as far as the remote triggers are concerened..if you are looking into pocket wizards, at similar price point are teh newish radio poppers which actually can do TTL.

boulderNardo · January 22, 2009

Wow guys, thanks a ton for the replies!
Had never heard of The Strobist, that link is KILLER, thanks divamum! Been devouring it for the past hour instead of doing work

The links for the slave triggers are cool, might get started with a cheap setup like that at first. Definitely going with the Vivitars for now, been reading up more and more about them and they sound great.

I had only mentioned the PocketWizard because I heard of them somewhere else. They definitely are too expensive for now, especially if I want 2-3 external flash units.

Thanks for the input, and keep it coming if there's more I need to know!
_B

Scott_Quier · January 22, 2009

Something to be aware of - when shooting with off-camera flash you are limited to the x-sync speed of your camera for shutter speed - unless you use some sort of system (RadioPoppers, for example) that transmits ETT-L (Canon ... don't remember the Nikon version) information and thus enables high-speed shutter synchronization. Any faster than that and you will have problems.

For Canon cameras, the x-sync speed varies between 1/250 and 1/200. Nikons (some) are a bit faster than that. Is that shutter speed fast enough for what you have in mind?

boulderNardo · January 22, 2009

Scott_Quier wrote:

Is that shutter speed fast enough for what you have in mind?

(EDIT: I shoot Canon 40D and planning to move up to a 1Ds Mk II soon)

Good point you make, I only started thinking about this as I've been reading into The Strobist Lighting 101...

... I'm wanting this setup for ski action photography. Which can mean high subject speed or maybe big jumps with big powder exposions, therefore high shutter speed in order to freeze the action / snow splashes. Looking at some of my shots, the majority are shot between 1/400 and 1/1250, leaning more towards the faster side (averaging at 1/800 or so).

Most of the time I shoot at f/4 to blur out the background, that doesn't help much either. The flash units would mostly be used as fill flash even in the brightest day light conditions.

This is a good point you bring up, not sure how to go about it. Thanks!
_B

Scott_Quier · January 23, 2009

boulderNardo wrote:

(EDIT: I shoot Canon 40D and planning to move up to a 1Ds Mk II soon)

Good point you make, I only started thinking about this as I've been reading into The Strobist Lighting 101...

... I'm wanting this setup for ski action photography. Which can mean high subject speed or maybe big jumps with big powder exposions, therefore high shutter speed in order to freeze the action / snow splashes. Looking at some of my shots, the majority are shot between 1/400 and 1/1250, leaning more towards the faster side (averaging at 1/800 or so).

Most of the time I shoot at f/4 to blur out the background, that doesn't help much either. The flash units would mostly be used as fill flash even in the brightest day light conditions.

This is a good point you bring up, not sure how to go about it. Thanks!
_B

Something to consider...

I have successfully achieved shutter speeds of 1/1250 with off-camera flash and PocketWizards using my Canon G9. This is possible because the G9 has an "electronic shutter" rather than only a mechanical shutter. If you were to use a cable between the camera and the flash(es) you could achieve synch speeds of up to (IIRC) 1/2500. I believe the 1/1250 limitation I ran into, I believe, is in the PWs.

Moving into Flash photography - what to get?

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