Lighting set up... HELP!

Zach23 · April 3, 2012

OK infinite wisdom of DGRIN... Let's see if you can keep your perfect track record!

I have this problem I can't figure out. When shooting a reception I like to have off camera flashes as well as an on camera flash for fill. Currently I am using canons infrared ettl system with a 580 as master and a 430 & 420 as slaves. This is not ideal as the ettl really gets confused when its looking at itself plus the range and line of site really mess things up. So I only hit my desired lighting like 50% of the time.

This is what I am looking for - On camera flash for fill preferably ettl to handle the variable distances etc. WITH radio triggered speed lights that will be set to manual. Is this possible? The only thing I can find is the pocket wizard system but I have also heard horro stories about using the 580 or other speedlights with them. Plus they are like 700 for "possible" solution. I like the radio poppers but I can use the on camera flash with them

Is there a way to do this? Perhaps using my cyber sync radio triggers?

I have almost given up on this!!!!

Thanks

Moving Pictures · April 3, 2012

I've had really good luck with the very affordable aputure trigmaster series.

Art Scott · April 3, 2012

Do you have a connection for flash triggers other than the hotshoe on your camera?? If so then there should be a myarid of triggers available on ebay and such than range in price from under $20 per set to wll the PW's and Poppers prices....checking your profile you do not list any gear and that makes it a bit hard to suggest what to use....

Matt's Camera · April 3, 2012

I use the PW MiniTT1 and FlexTT5s with my 550ex and 580exII to get the same effect that you are looking for. I'll set the 550 on a stand on manual at a low power setting (16 or 32) and then use the 580 on-camera for fill. I've never had any issues. Works well for me! I know the 580 might have issues with the PW system, but at the range of a typical reception room, I don't think it would be an issue. I'd say I get about a 90% success rate, with the 10% missed fires due to recycle times when I'm shooting fast.

Matthew Saville · April 4, 2012

Art Scott wrote: »

Do you have a connection for flash triggers other than the hotshoe on your camera?? If so then there should be a myarid of triggers available on ebay and such than range in price from under $20 per set to wll the PW's and Poppers prices....checking your profile you do not list any gear and that makes it a bit hard to suggest what to use....

This is the ticket for getting into radio triggering, affordably, without sacrificing your on-camera TTL.

The trigger set that I use is from Scott Robert Lim, and I've used them successfully with a TTL 580 EX on-camera, and a 430 plus all sorts of other "dummy" flashes in manual mode as remotes. You get your TTL on-camera for bouncing and fill, and you get your off-camera manual flash with reliable radio triggering.

The key is the PC port on your camera. I don't know if the Rebel lineup has one, but I think it may and all the higher end lineups certainly have a PC port. Be sure to get the PC cable that actually screws onto your camera, so you don't have to worry about that connection which can get loose after much use.

Eventually you may decide that you also need a more robust system like Radio Poppers or one of the various Pocket Wizard systems, however cheap triggers like Scott's "Tiny Triggers" setup are still handy for on-the-fly setups because they're, well, TINY, and you can just leave them in your bag as a backup. So it's a good investment either way.

=Matt=

avangardphoto · April 4, 2012

I would second using the PW MiniTT1 and FlexTT5s.

sphynge · April 4, 2012

The thing I'm wondering here is if you should ever have your flash on camera - it seems to me that if your key flash is at 45, then your fill flash should be across from it, which would mean it's on camera left, not on the hotshoe.

Matthew Saville · April 5, 2012

sphynge wrote: »

The thing I'm wondering here is if you should ever have your flash on camera - it seems to me that if your key flash is at 45, then your fill flash should be across from it, which would mean it's on camera left, not on the hotshoe.

That's what bouncing at an angle is for, in my experience. But this is more of a photojournalistic situation, not a studio situation...

sphynge · April 5, 2012

Matthew I'm thinking that if you're going to go through the trouble of setting it all up, why not make it 2 radio triggers?

Matthew Saville · April 6, 2012

sphynge wrote: »

Matthew I'm thinking that if you're going to go through the trouble of setting it all up, why not make it 2 radio triggers?

Indeed, I actually do use two (or four!) radio remotes during wedding receptions. However I often still need an on-camera fill, in fact I usually leave the off-camera remotes turned down pretty far, whereas the on-camera bounce often finds itself up at 1/4 or 1/2 power.

The only time I use remotes as the main light is when I'm going for a really dramatic shot, either during the first dance, or the toasting. That's when a snooted remote works great as my main light source. The rest of the time, I usually find myself using on-camera bounce for subject face-fill.

=Matt=

Lighting set up... HELP!

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