Setting up multiple off-camera flashes...

[newgirl]

Hi all,
Newgirl here starting out in this large and technical world of photography and hoping one you lovely experts could help me.....

I have a Canon 60D, a 10-20mm lens, and a 2nd-hand 580EX and I am hoping at some stage to get into property photography.

I would like to buy another two or three Speedlites to place around dark corners of interiors when needed but need to know what the best way is to trigger them? Any details on the best product and exactly (I love detail....) what I need would be HUGELY appreciated.

I have been reading about the Pocket wizard but it looks like it is incompatible with my Canon 60D....

Again, just a beginner here so any info or links would be great. Thank you!

[smurff]

hi and welcome!

i use Yongnuo wireless triggers. they are manual triggers, so you need to adjust your flash powers at the flash themselves.

i was pretty sure PW do unit that will work with your 60D, i would have to have a look though. will try do that at work tonight for you :)

one thing to be careful about doing property photography with the 10-20mm, the distortion can look really bad. an easy tip is to keep the camera level, this will reduce the distortion. i think photo shop can fix it aswell, im not sure how well it works though.

this is one of my favourite threads for looking and learning more about property photos
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=902973&highlight=property+photos

they use alot of HDR and combining multiple photos, so one photos with the lights on, one with the windows in good exposer, and one with flash. then combine them in photoshop. i think most of the good guys on there also use tiltshift lenses aswell.

-smurff

[Frostiboy]

just a thought, you could get a 580 ex II, they can act as a transmitter

[smurff]

will the EXII trigger the older EX?

-smurff

[Redal]

Hi all,
Newgirl here starting out in this large and technical world of photography and hoping one you lovely experts could help me.....

I have a Canon 60D, a 10-20mm lens, and a 2nd-hand 580EX and I am hoping at some stage to get into property photography.

I would like to buy another two or three Speedlites to place around dark corners of interiors when needed but need to know what the best way is to trigger them? Any details on the best product and exactly (I love detail....) what I need would be HUGELY appreciated.

I have been reading about the Pocket wizard but it looks like it is incompatible with my Canon 60D....

Again, just a beginner here so any info or links would be great. Thank you!

If you are doing interior photography you want reliability, and speed. Unless you are doing very high end houses. This mainly due to the amount you are paid, per house.
You will want something that can be set up very quickly , and adjusted very quickly.

Pocket wizards will work either from your hot shoe or PC sync cord. Very reliable, still the market standard. If they dont fire your flashes it is user error, 99.99% of the time. Unless you are going for the new generation TTL version, you have to manually set the flashes and adjust each flash as needed. Consistently triggers at max sync speed.

Using your Canon flash as transmitter, you need compatible flashes that you can control, or flashes that have an optical trigger which is triggered when you main flash is fired. Placement of remote flashes will need to take into account walls, line of site in some circumstances, furniture, these might affect reliability of trigger.

Radio poppers, these are very reliable, flash ( most canon and nikon)output can be adjusted from the on camera trigger.

Cybersyncs, very reliable but need manual adjustment of flashes.

Off brand triggers, reliability is getting better, and consistency of sync speed is getting better. Need manual adjustment of flashes.

I have used all the above , in order of what i would use for interior lighting would be , pocket wizards, then cybersyncs, then Radio poppers (only because i have only had them for a few weeks), off brand triggers then canon flash as master.

Also if you are wanting to do this and get paid for it. If something happens and your trigger wont fire your flashes, for what every reason, this wont ender you on the clients, HAVE a backup . Even if it is manual sync cords, these are cheap and can save face.
This happened to me once, when i left my off brand transmitter in the sun on the way to a shoot. Everything was set up , client were ready , and my trigger wouldn't fire, check lights, receivers battery's /channels, put it down to trigger, pulled out sync cords and with in two minutes we were shooting. The client didn't know anything was wrong and we got some great shots.