Mixed Brand Flash for Portraits Not Firing

[bruce_varner]

I have been reading the archives but nothing seems to fully explain

my issues so here goes.

I have long had access to a studio setup so lighting has not been an

issue. Now that I no longer have this access I am trying to

compensate at home. Please note that I do NOT do much studio work so

I do not wish to spend the money required for a professional setup.

I also like to use a light meter to measure manually the lighting in

studio settings. I do less then half dozen portrait sessions in a

year. Here is the equipment and what I have unsuccessfully tried:

 

Equipment (Shooting a high key setup where the background is washed

out): Canon 10D, 550EX Speedlite as Key Light, 430EZ Speedlite or

4000AF SunPak as Fill Light, 555 Auto Thyristor SunPak as Back Light

(to get a washed out effect).

 

PC cord from 10D to 555 SunPak. Wren or K-Star (tried both, both non-

digital units) slaves attached to key flash and fill flash. All

flashes set to manual. I never got the three to all go off. One or

both key or fill would not fire. They might fire once & then stop

until I removed them from the slave and re-installed. When the

4000AF was substituted for the 430EZ, it would regularly fire. The

555 also reliably fired.

 

I would like to be able to keep my existing flashes for such a setup

if possible. Please tell me how I might achieve this goal with as

much of this existing gear as can be used. Also remember that I do

not wish to use the E-TTL for studio.

 

Thanks,

Bruce Varner

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/btvarner/Bruce/photo.htm

[allan_fontanilla]

Have you tried connecting all of them with a pc cord instead of trying to trigger with the slave?

[g._armour_van_horn]

It sounds like you have a couple of cases where a specific slave is not compatible with specific flashes. They're cheap, try some others. Be considerate of your own time in the future and discard the ones that don't consistently work.

 

Van

[bruce_varner]

Thanks Allan & Van,

I am not aware that the two Canon flashes can be connected with a PC cord? I will check with Canon and see.

 

I have used several different slaves. None seem to work with these two Canon flashes.

 

By-the way, sorry I have taken a couple of days to answer. I thought I was supposed to get copied anytime someone posted an answer to my question but that seems to not be working.

 

What I am end up doing is just purchasing a couple of used vivitar 283's or 285's & only use the Canon flashes "on camera". It just is to bad that these two expensive units will not work as desired.

 

Bruce Varner

 

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/btvarner/Bruce/photo.htm