Triggers

Hi all

I have three flash guns i use for weddings these are two Canon 430EX lll RT and one Yongnuo 568 EX ll, they all work fine on cameras but now im starting to do larger weddings i need to take them off and use them off camera.

 

I know the canons can work as a master and slave but i want to invest in a reliable set of triggers i was thinking of the

YONGNUO YN622C-KIT Wireless E-TTL Flash Trigger Kit but i have heard they are only reliable about 90% of the time so any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Steve

For commercial reliable "has to work, every time" situations, you may have to fall back to the standard Pocket Wizards.

 

For a hobbyist, I can afford the RF trigger not being 100% reliable. That is why I have 2 of them + optical slaves.

I am not shooting "one chance only" shots, or have a client watching me as a troubleshoot a flash that is not going off.

What do you mean by ...

" ...but now I'm starting to do larger weddings" ?

 

How do you envision use of off-camera lighting to help with larger weddings? In what way do the Canon RT Speed-lights fall short?

 

If you get the highly reliable standard Pocket Wizard units, you will lose TTL ... therefore have to adjust the off-camera speed-lights manually.

 

- marc

 

 

 

If you "have heard they are only reliable about 90% of the time" then you haven't tested your setup extensively. If you haven't, in a multitude of environments, then you need to set aside a day or two and do so. This work will pay of in spades, as you'll (likely) develop an intuitive understanding of placement, as well as when obstructions/environment cause (or are likely to cause) trigger failure.

 

However, that said, not in all the days, nor all the events I've done since I quit using film, have I only shot a group with a single exposure. It is absurd to me (in this day and age) that a single trigger failure would yield catastrophic results. If the flashes didn't fire, they are ready to fire the next time you hit the shutter button. Learning your system (whatever it is composed of) will allow you to learn to avoid accidently placing your flashes inside a faraday cage, or behind a steel and earth wall (which, w/ the RT can moderately affect the trigger reliably) - depending on the environment (due to RF propogation) something as simple as moving the flash 6" forward can yield huge differences in trigger reliability.

 

If you only have a 90% fire rate, that implies that you can trigger again, and you'll have a 90% the next time...and so on, until it fires. That said, IME, placement is the critical cause of failure. If you learn how to place your flashes properly, I suspect your trigger success rate won't ever be an issue. Since you already should be learning how to place them to accentuate the scene through lighting, marrying the two requirements into one skill is, IME, part of the job.

If there is an industry standard, I would go with the industry standard. You need total reliability and even back up units for redundancy. I would go with nothing less than the best. And you are going to have to test lighting in a multiple light situation, so I would expect to do tests anyway. Power control and balance are never going to be laid back Trick will always be to make them flash every single time. Right?