Anyone use TWO on-camera flashes?

[laughing buddha production]

<p>I was at the Bryant Park Fashion week and saw a guy on the other side of the room using a camera with TWO speedlights on it. One was a Quantum Q-flash of some type, angled off to the side for bounce. The other looked like a standard Canon 580 pointed forward.</p>

<p>Didn't get a chance to talk to him. But I shoot a lot of events and have been thinking about a similar rig. I always like to point the flash to side/back - anywhere to get some bounce and DIRECTIONALITY rather than flat straight on flash. I find off the ceiling often leaves harsh shadows on the eyes. I'm a big fan of Neil van Neikerk's approach.</p>

<p>So I can see using a more powerful Quantum as the main light - but angled off the best surface for some directionality to it. Then using a Nikon SB-800 straight ahead, dialed down say -2.0 EV for fill. I could even use 2 SB-800's but can see a power advantage to the Q-flash. I guess you could use 2 x SB-800 and have one be the commander, one remote would be pretty straightforward.</p>

<p>Has anyone used something like this? How well does it work? Any tips on connecting all the sync cords?</p>

<p>Any thoughts?</p>

<p> </p>

[dave_wilson1]

<p>Yes, all the time on the Hasselblads. It takes practice, and you need to know exactly how each piece works and how to control the power. I'll try and upload shot of my rig. Its Hasselblad 503CW, 50 fle, 400ws Lumedyne with control booster, lower head is a standard head with Norman white glass diffuser reflector, upper head is a model lamp head that lights up to see things and shrink pupils if needed. The top head can be rotated and or bounced and sometimes I use a large Lumiquest bouncer on there. This is all manual and there is no auto or TTL, I can adjust power of lower head 50-100-200-400, top head 100-200 or if I reverse cables they can be controlled opposite, they are hooked to radio remote for more strobes.</p><div></div>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Big Metz hammerhead flashes (eg, 60ct4) have / used to have two flash tubes in one package. The lower, smaller one was always pointed forward for direct / fill flash, whereas the upper, larger flash was adjustable in azimuth and elevation and could be used for bounce flash. </p>

<p>Before I started using the 60ct4, I did exactly what you are considering, namely, I cobbled together a "two head flash" from two separate, stand-alone flash units. It worked fine, but was large, heavy, and, in general, a pain to schlep around, and a pain to have to adjust two flash units for each shot. </p>

<p>Tom M.</p>

[wedding-photography-denver]

<p>Yikes. While Toms suggestion is better, I don't think you can improve things that much by using two ON camera.... can you?</p>

[neilambrose]

<p>Don't most speedlights have two strobes on them anyway - one fully directional, the other a fill light that's always facing forward? At least, all of mine do ....</p>

[picturesque]

<p>You can try it, but you will probably get those awful shadows from the one flash that is forward. I know what you're talking about--when you angle the flash head backwards or sideways, etc., you get nice light with diffuse shadows, but sometimes you get darker facial rendition that one would like, not to mention possible motion blur on the shadow side, if you are dragging the shutter. I use a tiny bit of white card to bounce some of the light forward. Or if you use a Demb Diffuser or white card, it helps if you can angle the card backward.</p>

<p>The fact that one can use a more powerful light for the bounce is a good one though, and I have a Metz 60, 45, and 54MZ4-i. All of them have the secondary reflector. Again--they are nice, but you still get those shadows if you are next to a wall, for instance, and most of these don't allow fine control of the power of the secondary reflector light.</p>

<p>The other thing about the double flash set up is the sheer size and weight.</p>

[steve_hovland]

<p>I've thought about having two shooters with two flashes on each camera. The flash on the bracket would be slaved to the other shooter.</p>