Location Lighting using Canon EX Speedlights

[vicmac]

Id love to develop my skills in this arena with a view to doing some MTB and outdoor portraits.

I have one EX580 and have to get some gear, can this (or the appropriate canon IT trigger) be used as a master with cheaper units from the likes or sigma or nissin, or am I going to have to splash out and purchase the real canon mccoy?

Also, has anyone used the cheap IR type units that are available on ebay to trigger flash units manually, are these any good + is getting the exposure right a case of trial and error?

Or is the way to go to set up using battery powered studio lights?

Your assistance greatly appreciated

 

[david1701]

for manual I'd use radio everytime, if you want to keep ttl I dont actually know if you can slave a non canon flash and retain function

 

[richpips]

If you are going to shoot MTB get some radio triggers.

IME shooting MTB with canon IR is a nightmare.

Exposure is indeed trial and error, for uncomplicated shots it takes me 3 or 4 shots max to get the level right.

I've got 3 speedlights, but there is no reason you couldn't use cheaper flashes. You'll be shooting them all in manual mode anyway.

 

[david1701]

I suppose the recycle is less of an issue because they move so fast you will only get one shot per pass?

 

[Marcus Geezer]

I use up to four speedlites in manual with radio triggers to fire them and it just works. I previously tried to use a master slave type system using the optical system and it wasnt reliable enough for me.

You may have issue with recharge times but using the radio triggers I guess you can mix and match across brands?

 

[vicmac]

I had a chance yesterday to play around with rf 602 that a friend of mine has which he hasnt used (Nikon) and this seems to work so I ordered a set from ebay last night + flash difusser from elemental, looking forward to getting new toys!

Many thanks for your comments, greatly appreciated

 

[thompo]

Hey man where are you shooting?

Heres a link to my work from the Irish champs.
http://www.thompsonimages.co.uk/portfolio111356.html

I shot using 2 550ex flashes mainly at 1/4 power for the remote camera and used a 550ex and Sigma ef500super at 1/4 & 1/8th for the handheld stuff. Depends weather you want to balance or kill the ambient as to how much power you need. I tried to use just enough to pop the riders out.

I found using Iso 800, 1/4 power was more than enough at f4-8 and gave me a decent shutter speed to help stop motion blur. Also allows faster recylce and multiple shots.

Canon cannot to rear curtain sync off camera so if your shooting with flash and fast moving subjects, you get the motion blur infront of the subject, not good in general.

I used RF602's to trigger a remote camera on 1 channel and in turn trigger a lighting setup on another channel, Absolutely flawless operation

Again Manual is the way to go. As you know our MTB spots over here very rarely get decent or changing light so you can almost set up and if your shutter speed allows you can bring in or dial out the ambient should the sun ever shine!