terry_lee10 Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Let me point out that studio photography is totally new to me. I have been invited to attend a studio photo shoot and the studio uses Bowens Gemini flashes and they do not have a spare flash trigger for me to use. My question is, can the 420EX fire or trigger their studio flash ? Naturally, I will be pointing the flash head upwards (very high dark ceiling) so it should not throw any light onto the subject. I do not need want to purchase a Bowens Pulsar Flash trigger just for this forthcoming event. Can other EX flashes like 550, 580 trigger it ? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian_coy Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 Many studio lights include an optical slave so that any flash can trigger the light. The drawback is that any preflash from a flash unit can trigger them prematurely, and if you are shooting with others, there flash can do the same. If none of these would be a problem for you then I would just go that route. Another option would be to buy a syn cord and trigger it that way. If you are using a rebel or similar camera you may have to buy an adapter for the hotshoe as I don't think that these cameras have a sync port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisjb Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 pity the 420 has not got manual mode, the preflash will trigger the studio lights, you should have the camera in `M` if you use FEL(*) you can preflash and then you will have more time to shoot recovering the bowens to full HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisjb Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 BTW the 550/580/580ver2/430 ex`s all have `M` mode and work well for this:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitmstr Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 You can get a cheap PC cord or...a DIGITAL SLAVE which ignores the pre-flash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisjb Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 FYI, I just tried a 580ex2 with this method not sure with 420 but no reason it shouldn`t. I pressed FEL and held it on (easy with thumb and no more preflashes) then shot a series of shots with a set of strobes no worries. Usualy I use radio triggers.:) cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitmstr Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 The FEL trick is cool...except if you use the * button for AF or..if you have a weak thumb ;p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eosdoc Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 There is a Light method and a Dark method for FEL. See:<BR> <a href= http://eosdoc.com/manuals?q=blankFEL >http://eosdoc.com/manuals?q=blankFEL</a> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry_lee10 Posted February 22, 2008 Author Share Posted February 22, 2008 Looks like the 550EX in manual mode is the simplest method. Thanks for the great tips everyone, especially Julien?s link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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