scottconners

I'm really looking forward to the release - they've been enough in the community's eye that I'm sure we'll know very quickly how the product stands up to the hype once it's released. If it works as good as they say, I bet it sells extremely well. Not to mention the promise of a cheap reliable radio trigger in the future. I'll hold my cash till the reviews are in, but I'm hoping for the best, I want these to work.

I'd say the largest "candid" pro market right now has got to be weddings, and the majority of wedding pros I know use flash brackets to get the flash up above the lens. I've recently seen some really good rigs with miniature umbrellas or softboxes above the photographer's head on the bracket - I'd say start with a TTL-cable and flash bracket (I personally would only buy one which keeps the flash directly above the lens in portrait and landscape orientation), and if you still want to soften the light you can add something like the Wescott Micro Apollo or Mini Apollo softbox.

(#1)The cable on the left is a Stereo 1/4" to HH(household) cable. This is probably built to be used with HH extension cords and a HH to PC cord on the other end, as I don't know of any cameras with a 1/4" or HH sync connection. It may be home-made, looking at the lamp-cord type wire and the stereo 1/4" plug.

 

(#2)The cable in the middle is some type of PC to PC, the picture isn't close/detailed enough to see what sexes they are.

 

(#3)The cable on the right is a standard 1/4" to PC cord, used for many different systems.

You can use a cord splitter to operate two (or more) strobes from one wizard. This gives you wireless camera, but you don't have to spend $350+ for two more wizards.<BR><BR>

 

You can use cords with 1/8" (PW size) or 1/4" (WL size) ends, and you can buy a splitter/more cords at a radio shack or any music store. 1/4" connections are fairly robust and reliable, and you can buy cheap guitar cords or make your own, and splitters etc are readily available. Five years experience in pro live audio has proven to me that the single peice molded splitters/adapters are far more robust than the ones with short peices of wire, unless you buy top of the line name-brand adapters (Hosa, Pro-Co). <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=search&A=search&Q=&ci=0&sb=ps&sq=desc&ac=&bsi=&shs=1%2F4%22+Y&ci=4173&basicSubmit=Submit+Query">Here is a link</a> to B&H's selection of splitters as an example. Sync connections are typically made using Mono hardware, I've heard of people having issues with Paul C Buff gear in the past when using a stereo adapter, but stereo *should* work just fine, as long as you stay away from splitters that are stereo to L/R mono (ones that split left and right channels into separate jacks - they will not work for splitting flash sync). I hope this isn't too confusing, if you need links to specific adapters just ask.

You have a couple of options: Shoot wide open with a fast lens at high ISO, giving you useable shutter speeds with ambient only. The other option is to shoot with flash and expose for ambient by dragging the shutter (I.E. set the camera to expose for ambient or a stop below, and use the flash to stop motion and light the main subject.) Personally, I'd probably start by using a flash, ISO 400, and about f4 @ 1/30 or 1/15 at a guess, and I'd go from there.

Yes, as Wayne said, you can use it in manual mode or auto mode. They work very well in auto, just set your shutter to sync or below, and set the same aperture on the flash and camera. Keep the subjects within the distance range shown on the flash, and you should see really good exposures, I often have to compensate i-TTL for underexposure, but auto is normally close enough for no compensation.

If you are going to have a third Skyport receiver for the SB-600, all you need is one of these: <a href="http://flashzebra.com/wizardcables/hotshoe.shtml">http://flashzebra.com/wizardcables/hotshoe.shtml</a>. The threads on the bottom make it easy to securely attach it to a light stand. I use cheap umbrella adapters or small ballheads with my speedlights.

<BR><BR>

I love the Skyports, they work great and have been very reliable for me, triggering SB-600, SB-80DX.

Without an example photo showing the problem, it's going to be very hard to tell you exactly what is causing it. Try replying and only attaching one picture per post. It sounds like it might be flare, were you shooting with a lens hood? What camera and lens?

You can buy a PC cord tip conditioner for a few dollars that should help, or careful squeezing with some pliers if you are handy can also help.

Supposedly coming very soon, Radio Poppers should be able to pass iTTL info via radio slave, I can't wait and see how they work real world. <a href="http://www.radiopopper.com/">http://www.radiopopper.com/</a><BR><BR>

 

Other than those, you have a few manufacturer specific triggering systems, like the Elinchrom Skyport USB and the Quantum solution that interfaces with iTTL, but to use your SB-800 you'll be in manual mode, which is how I shoot 90% of the time. Pocketwizards are awesome, Skyports work great too.

I love my Elinchrom Skyports. 100% reliable triggering, tiny size, and within my budget. I used a small rubber washer around the receiver power button to make it harder to hit accidentally, and they have been awesome.

I love my Skyports. I chose them over Pocket Wizards because of cost, size, sync speed and groups. The Pocket Wizards only sync to 1/250 (FP shutters), while the Elinchroms sync all the way to 1/1000 - only some cameras can take advantage of this, but it's really really useful when I'm shooting to overpower ambient with flash, as it effectively makes my lights two stops brighter.

 

The Pocket Wizards are really great products, but I found the Elinchrom's suited my needs better. I've never had a range issue, but I've also never shot over 400' away from my lights.

If the blades still operate you can work around the problem by holding the DOF preview button down for a second before firing the shutter, though this is very situational and not the best solution, it is free and I've used it when I wanted to use a specific lens that I hadn't had fixed yet.

Seems like if I already have to walk over and place a sensor, I can just use a meter instead and not have to walk back over to pick the sensor back up. What kind of scenario did you have in mind for it's use?

For babies you could probably get away easily with a 4'x4' piece of plexi. The edges are out of focus and more importantly, completely blown out with proper lighting or post processing. Either way works, it just depends on how you prefer to do it. With a posed shot like this you could spend the time to get it right in camera using a doll, then just bring the babies in and shoot without changing the lighting, so you can concentrate on the crawling challenge at hand and not lighting.

You can use <a href="http://flashzebra.com/hotshoes-shoes/0064.shtml">one of these hotshoe adapters</a>, it has a test fire button and just attaches to the foot of the flash.

I had a similar problem with my D70, the cause was the camera, not sure if it was a flash that fried it (I used an older 283 at the time as well as the speedlights) or if it just failed, but I had it fixed under warranty and the fix was a mainboard replacement. The flash would fire (at least a few preflashes) but there was never any flash in the exposure. Interestingly, the Commander mode of the built in flash still worked, so it took me a while to even see the problem.

High speed shots are not shot with a fast shutter speed - in fact may have shutter speeds over 1 second. They are shot in total darkness, and it is the flash's duration that freezes action. A bullet shot like the one you posted is usually shot by using a device that hears the gunshot, and waits a predetermined time delay before firing the strobe. These sound triggers can be home made quite easily, type "sound trigger" into google.

 

If battery powered small strobes aren't fast enough for you, you'll be needing some expensive high speeds strobe equipment, usually arc-light based.

May we see an example?

<i>People are so crazy about Buff lights; WL should have a community forum where these problems could be raised after hours.</i><BR><BR>

 

The <a href="http://www.paulcbuff.com/forums/">Paul C Buff Forums</a>. I have not spent time on them but have heard good things.

You can use your SB-28s quite well on a DSLR - I use a SB-80dx often in "A" mode, which is surprisingly accurate, I often prefer its exposure over the results my SB-600 gives in TTL, in side by side comparisons. That said, the SB-600/SB-800 is unbeatable when I want to blend ambient and flash, I adore TTL BL mode for speed and accuracy.

 

You can use the built in flash on your camera to control one or more SB-600 or SB-800s off camera in commander mode. It works fairly well, but requires that the sensor on the remote flash be able to see the flash from the on board, and it has a rather lot of pre flashes which can cause issues for people with blink issues - overcome able with FV lock, but still situational. With a SB-800 or SU-800 as commander, you can have multiple groups of flashes and control them all wirelessly, and change settings from the camera. I am eagerly awaiting the new RadioPoppers, hopefully they'll make CLS control amazingly powerful by removing the limits of IR communication.

<a href="http://michaelbass.blogspot.com/2007/01/off-camera-shoe-cords-mods-accessories.html#OCC_Splitter">Michael Bass Designs</a> might be able to help you out, he has lots of cord options for TTL stuff.

If you want large apertures with powerful lights, use a ND filter. It will let you open up without overexposing.

The lights are almost always on the same circuit, so will all cycle together. If there is more than one switch is is *possible* for them to be on different phases, but very very extremely unlikely.

The bible for tricky lighting is <u>Light: Science and Magic</u>. I can't personally recommend any of the books I've read recently on studio work unfortunately.