Terrified of Lighting Conditions at Beach Wedding

[picturesque]

<p>G.--don't panic. I don't use Nikons, so I am not intimately familiar with Nikon wireless. I'm not even intimately family with Canon wireless, although I use it. Mostly I use it when I am in a hurry and/or don't want to drag my off camera stuff with me.</p>

<p>There are several things that I might point out. First, pay attention to orientation of the units to the 'master'. I know many people complain about how unreliable the Canon system is outside in bright sun. Well, so far I haven't seen much evidence of that except for when I have NOT followed directions concerning orientation of the units to each other, and/or strayed outside of the acceptable limits and angles.</p>

<p>Second, take your units outside in the bright sun and test them out before panicing and buying Pocket Wizards. They are great, and so are the Cybersyncs (for less money), but my guess is, if you follow directions, and your off camera light placement is not extreme--probably not, for group placements--you should be able to make them work.</p>

<p>If you do get other kinds of triggers, I'd stay away from the cheap ones--even Gadget Infinity. They may work 'most' of the time, but then fail just when you really need them to work. I know--I had a set of cheap ones that worked most of the time. I finally gave up and got reliable ones.</p>

<p>And yes, if you get PWs, it is manual flash, which is not a bad thing. You can still run your on camera in i-TTL, though (I think--someone correct me if I'm wrong).</p>

[cjogo]

<p>You are doing your second wedding-and you are thinking of using dual strobes? Concentrate on the shooting < why even introduce problems~stress. Control that single strobe first ...</p>

[g._snow]

<p>C Jo - you're probably right. The wedding is over a month away and I'm already starting to stress. But I was under the impression that I may not get enough power from one speedlight to compete with bright sun, white sand, glare from ocean.<br>

Ian, your suggestion seems simple enough. In the image you posted (beautiful BTW) was your flash on or off camera? I'm wondering how you kept the champagne glasses from getting blown out.</p>

[picturesque]

<p>You have enough power if you stay close to your subjects. I'ts just harder to do so with group shots. However, your groups are not what I'd call really large, so it should be do-able. Within 10-12 feet at about 35mm zoom on the flash will still get you your 1 stop less flash (bare headed--no modifiers). In my posts above, I was indeed suggesting that even two might struggle. 10-12 feet for two flashes, one on each side of a wide group, will indeed struggle. This is on the borderline. If doing this, I'd just put them in manual and fire them full blast. Also because ETTL tends to underexpose. If the two flashes were used together on a subject (the power combined), you get one stop more working 'room'. This translates to the next 'notch' up in subject distance.</p>

<p>As I said above, get your flashes out in bright sun and do some tests.</p>

[g._snow]

<p>Nadine - thanks for clearing that up. And I was not aware that ttl tends to underexpose. Good to know.<br>

It's been overcast and raining here the past two days, but I am anxious to do some tests. I'm going to the beach 2 weeks before the wedding and doing more tests. Family is there so I have people to sit for me. Hopefully when wedding day arrives I'll have it nailed down...not saying you haven't heard the last from me :^) At the very least, I'm just grateful for the learning experience. Thanks again everyone for your comments.</p>

[pete_s.]

<p>G, there is some technical info in this thread but I miss a major piece of information that can be used to retrieve some seriously valuable information - where is the wedding (city/area & country) and roughly what date?</p>

<p> </p>