Studio lighting with digital Rebel

[amber1]

I have recently decided to purchase studio lighting for a small

studio set up at my house. I previously had been using an on camera

flash (guide #130). I just learned however that I am not able to use

the on camera flash with my digital rebel. I do not understand much

about flash but it was explained the the flash is to powerful for the

rebel. Now I am worried about what type of flash I can use with the

Digital Rebel. I have a hotshoe to Pc adapter, but I am not sure

what I can safetly connect to the Camera. I know that the light that

I am considering buying can be used as a slave flash or pc cord

(alienbee 400) and I have several small slave flashes that can also

be connected with a pc cord, but I can find no information as to what

can and cant be used with the Digital Camera. I appologize about my

ignorance, but I have been greatly helped in these forums in the past

and was hoping that someone could explain this to me. Thanks!

[robert_reiss]

I would search the forums for a product called Wein Safesync and see if that helps.

[jim c]

Hi Amber

I remember your earlier post about help with deciding on which studio lights to get. You made a good decision with the Alien Bee's. What you are calling the on camera flash I would assume is one you are trying to use in the hotshoe. It should have some type of control to reduce the intensity of the flash. If you don't have the manual for it you can experiment with the controls and see what adjustments are possible. With a digital camera it is a lot easier to play around with setting and you won't be burning up film. Just take some shots and see how they look in the LCD. The manual that came with the camera should list the Canon speedlights that are recommended for the Rebel. The Digital Rebel is made by Canon which has a few speedlights for use in the hotshoe which will work just fine. If you are going to buy or have a mono light you need to be more concerned with using that in your studio. You can use the hotshoe pc adapter to connect the camera to the light. You should be able to fire the slave flashes with the Bee light. You will have to get a light meter to adjust the camera for the output of your mono lights and slaves. If not you will just be guessing at the camera settings.

 

I am not trying to be critical but you do need to educate yourself about the workings of your camera and the type of lighting you want to use. It's hard to come to a forum like this without some knowledge base to start from. A good cheap way is to go to a good book store and take a notebook with you. Get the books thay have on digital camera operation and lighting. Keep reading until you start to understand the basics. You don't have to buy the books but you can stiil find out what you need to know. That way when you ask questions on a forum you will have a better understanding of what the members are trying to explain. You can learn a lot from the manual that came with the camera too. Another choice is the local junior college. Most have basic camera courses that are great to get started. Again I'm not trying to sound critical but the change from just using the camera in it's auto mode to going into studio work involves a lot of extra knowledge and work not to even mention the equipment you need (like the meter for one). You can start out with very little in the way of equipment but it still requires knowing how to use what you have. I hope this doesn't discourage you. You can push ahead and just do it by trial and error but it's much more rewarding and faster to know how to do it right. Please ask all the questions here that you can. There aren't any bad questions because with a camera everything is confusing at first. Just be patient with us too as some of these questions are hard to answer when we don't know what your level of expertise is. I hope we helped and can continue to help you in the future with your new setup.

[steve_hovland]

Whoever made the "too powerful" remark doesn't know what they are talking about. Don't go back to them.

 

You can either connect to one flash with a synch cord, using a Wein safe synch, or you can put your shoe flash on and tilt the head away from the subject. It will trigger the Bee's.

 

Set the camera to a low ISO setting and put the aperture at about f8. Turn the Bee's down to a low power setting, take a picture, and check the histogram to see what exposure is like. Adjust the power until the histogram is good- bumping up against the right side.

[amber1]

Sorry guys I guess I wasnt too clear on what I meant. When I said too powerful I was refering to the trigger voltage. I actually spoke to the manufacturer of the flash that I have and was told that the digital rebel could not handle a trigger voltage of more than 6 volts and that the flash that I own was not safe for the camera. I have searched the specs on the alienbees and several different hotshoe flashes but they dont list trigger voltage at all. I guess the wein safe-sync may be the only way to go, but my current flash doesnt meter properly with the digital rebel anyway so I will not be able to use it to fire the strobes. I will either have to connect one of the lights to my hotshoe/pc adapter (and Im not sure how safe this is with the digital) or fire the built in flash which will cause shadows since I cannot swivel it. I guess I really just need to know if their are any flashes that have a low enough trigger voltage to use with the digital. Thank guys!

[steve_hovland]

Unless you spend a bunch of money for dedicated units, which usually don't have much power, your TTL flash metering is gone once you start using studio flashes.

 

I have a Sunpak 383, under $100, that I use on my Nikon N70 to trigger bigger units, and it hasn't fried the camera. Most current-manufacture shoe mounts should be OK, but the Safe Synch may be the best way to go.

[steve_hovland]

You can hold a small mirror or business card in front of the built-in flash or your inflexible shoe mount to trigger the studio lights. I would recommend using your shoe mount to conserve battery power in the camera. I do this all the time with my Canon A70.

 

Also, many digital cameras have a pre-flash which causes problems. I have this in aperture mode on my Canon but not in manual mode.

[steve_hovland]

You can put the Safe Synch in the shoe and the little flash in the hotshoe to PC, then plug that into the Safe Synch. You just need a stand to hold the flash. My hotshoe-PC thingy has a 1/4" tripod socket in the bottom, so you could use any stand or extra tripod to hold it.

[jim c]

Most newer type flash units are safe to use with the Rebel. The high voltage problems were with older type flash units and you shouldn't have any problems unless you do have older flash units. The Alien Bee's are safe too but you don't have a sync cord connector on the Rebel so you are forced into using the hot shoe solutions. There is another solution that you can try that's not too expensive. Your camera store might be able to get you a sheet or sample of a #82 0r #83 (I can't remember the exact number) infrared filter. If you can get one cut a piece and tape it over your onboard flash. It will only allow the infrared signal to escape and will supress the flash light. The infrared light emitted will trigger your remote flashes with out the inclusion of the onboard flash. If your using off camera flash you won't be getting any metering from the camera anyway. You'll have to invest in a light meter to set you aperture then set your shutter to 1/200 which is what I think is the sync speed of the Rebel.

[steve_hovland]

Use the image to judge the lighting effect and the histogram to judge exposure.

 

Here's an excellent article:

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml