Speedlight not flashing regenerating

<p>I have my speed light off camera on its own stand. It is connected to my Paul Buff Alien Bee light so will flash when the Alien Bee flashes. This worked for awhile, but now I'm having trouble with the speed light not flashing or regenerating when attached to the Alien Bee. It works just fine when I attach it to the hotshot on the camera, but when I remove it from the camera, place it on a stand, and attach it by the cord to the back of the Alien Bee, it does not flash. What could be the reason for this? I will mention that I changed the batteries in the speed light, thinking that could be the problem. </p>

<p>I'm using the speed light as fill light for the darker shadows on the face, and I really need to get it working. I don't know what to try. I did post a question on the Paul Buff technical forum, so I hope to get an answer back from them. But I know there are a lot of smart people here, so I thought I'd post the problem here as well. Thanks so much!</p>

<p>Which hot shoe flash are you using? Brand? Model? <br /><br />Knowing the specifics will help with diagnostics and suggestions.</p>

<p>yes, some detail would be helpful.</p>

<p>possibly the shoe on the bracket is aluminum or conductive and that is shorting out the pins on the base of the flash (and it worked for a while but you've worn the insulating paint off so now it's shorting). put a piece of electrical tape in the 'channel' of the bracket so the pins dont touch and try that.</p>

<p>It's a Canon 430 EXII on a 60D camera. When I take the flash off camera, I have a speed light foot adapter that I use to attach the speed light to the stand. I've only had the adapter for a few days, so it has not had a lot of use, but it worked perfectly when I first set it up, but now I can't get it to flash at all off camera.</p>

<p>is the foot adaptor listed as a 'cold shoe' ? </p>

<p>is the foot adaptor listed as a 'cold shoe' ? </p>

<p>It could be as simple as a bad/damaged cable. On the off chance that's the case, consider getting a simple optical slave trigger instead of a cable - that way the 430 can be triggered through its hot-shoe mount, and will simply go off whenever it "sees" the AB going off. Better yet ... you have less cabling in your way. PC-cord cables stretched between lights on set present a constant threat of tripping, pulling the flash off the stand (or pulling the stand over), damaging the connectors, and so on.<br /><br />Also: how are you triggering the AB - also with a cable, or are you using a Buff remote? </p>

<p>Does the flash have a "sleep" mode? I cannot recall offhand.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>What do you mean the speedlight is "connected" to the Alien Bee? Are you saying you have both of them plugged in to the same PC cord? You do not normally "connect" one flash to another.</p>

Matt, I'm triggering with a CST transceiver by Paul Buff. I also have the cyber commander but I only use that to control the lighting

because I'm short and can't reach the lights. The job I have is in 2 days so I don't think I can get another receiver for the Speedlite at this

point. However, I have another cord. I can try it to see if it works any better. I agree with you about the cords, & I intend to tape them

down at least.

Oh....and yes, I'm using the remote for triggering.

Henry....I'm not sure. When I get home I'll look in the manual to see if there is a sleep mode. But like I said, the flash is

working when I put it on the camera. If it were in sleep mode, it wouldn't work on the camera either, correct?

Craig, the technician at Paul Buff told me to plug in the Alien Bee with a power cord. Then I used the sync cord to

connect the back of the Alien Bee with the Speedlite. It plugs into the hot shoe adapter on the speed light because my

light doesn't have a receptor for a plug. I'm still waiting to get a response from the technician at Paul Buff. If he doesn't

respond by email, I'll call this afternoon when I get home from work

<p>Christal, that's not a recommended way to synch two flashes together. The socket on the back of the AB is for connecting a camera to the AB, not for linking to another flash. IMO you're lucky not to have damaged the hotshoe flash, and doubly lucky that it ever fired at all.</p>

<p>Get a little optical slave trigger for the Canon speedlite and all should be well. That's going to be the easiest and safest way to do what you want.<br>

Unfortunately, not all slaves are compatible with Canon flashes (or maybe the other way round). Read this page: http://pixsylated.com/blog/canon-speedlites-optical-slaves/</p>

<p>Okay....here's the latest. First of all, Rodeo, I was mistaken. The sync cord was NOT plugged in to the back of the Alien Bee (I had told the tech support guy it was, but I was mistaken about that). It was plugged in to the receiver, which was attached to the AB. Is that better? </p>

<p>When I talked to Paul Buff tech support this afternoon, he told me to turn off the slave/master mode, which is what a couple of you were saying above. So I went in to custom functions and disabled that. Now it's working.</p>

<p>Here I've pasted what he said to do.....which is the same stuff you guys were telling me. He basically just told me exactly how to do it. :-)</p>

<p><em> Rather than putting the cord into the Alien Bee, plug it into the 3.5mm jack on the receiver. Be sure to place a different plug into the sync jack of the light to lock out the slave eye. </em><br /><br /><em> Also, be sure your auto sleep timer is extended or turned off. If the light goes to sleep, and it will do so quickly by default, it will not awaken remotely. I am not sure if this requires power cycling, or just the test button (this varies from model to model).</em><br /><br /><em> Be sure the speedlite is in Manual mode, and the slave/master mode is turned off (if it cannot be disabled entirely, then set to Master).</em></p>

<p>At any rate, all is well now, and it's working. I'm getting a much better result with my headshot. Thanks so much for helping!</p>

<p>Rodeo, I love that link....thanks! I'm a little in the dark about flash, so I need to read up on it. I took a quick look, and I think I'll be able to understand most of that. :-)</p>