Long distance flashes

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jacques.vdk

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Hi everyone,

I am looking to do some sports photography at night, mostly, Kitesurfing. I have tried once with a borrowed canon 550 EX on an eos 40d with decent glass, but I am looking for two different things. First I'd like to know if you guys knew of a cheap but very powerful flash (more than the 550EX if possible) that I could you use on camera or as a slave. Secondly, I am looking to take a wide angle shot and flash the kiters several times in one exposure, would you know of any system that could do a decent flash to about 20m and maybe 5 times in 4-8 seconds? It could be anything from a flashgun to a DIY lightbulb and capacitor set-up... The goal is to be cheap since I don't do it often enough to justify an investment into a 580 EX 2! I'll try to post the DIY ideas we've had later. Cheers
 
I look forward to coming along on the next night-time adventure! :D

With the multiple flashes, wouldn't a hand-held flash triggered manually do the trick?

Oli
 
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Well we got enough power with three flashes at full power (guide number 43,46 and 55) triggered together by a camera. But we wanted to take one long exposure with a couple of flashes to freeze different parts of the jump. And the flashes we had don't have enough voltage to recharge fast enough from fullpower... so we might build a system to trigger 5 (more or less) flashguns with time intervals, or make the equivalent of flashguns ourselves, or make 1 superflash that could be triggered several times in the span of a couple of seconds. But we aren't sure which components to go for... also, i am still not sure what flash i could get with the equivalent power output of a 580 ex 2
 
The only flash that I know of with enough output for what you are trying to do would be Metz hammer heads. I use a 45cl4 for night time rallying and can get 2 shots off set at half power on the same car.
 
3 things I can think of......in increasing order of cost.

1. Increase the ISO of the camera. That will demand less light so you can turn the flashes down and they will recycle faster. Gonna give you problems with ambient...

2. Buy 3 X RF602 receivers and transmitters. Set them each to different channels and put one on each flash gun. Open the shutter and have one person fire each gun manually by eye at the right time. Tricky to time but could be quite cool.

3. Get an EID500 - http://www.viewfinderphotography.co...0w-Studio{47}Location-Flash-Complete-Kit.html - at 1/8 power flash recycle is instant for the first few pops.

Or, you know, do it the pro way.... http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/10/chase-jarvis-tech-strobed-photo-sequences/
 
JonathanRyan said:
3 things I can think of......in increasing order of cost.

1. Increase the ISO of the camera. That will demand less light so you can turn the flashes down and they will recycle faster. Gonna give you problems with ambient...

2. Buy 3 X RF602 receivers and transmitters. Set them each to different channels and put one on each flash gun. Open the shutter and have one person fire each gun manually by eye at the right time. Tricky to time but could be quite cool.

3. Get an EID500 - http://www.viewfinderphotography.co...0w-Studio{47}Location-Flash-Complete-Kit.html - at 1/8 power flash recycle is instant for the first few pops.

Or, you know, do it the pro way.... http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/10/chase-jarvis-tech-strobed-photo-sequences/
Click to expand...

Impressive results, but I doubt the student budget will stretch to that! :shake:
 
Crikey, talk about picking a difficult subject. At a guess, the hardest thing to do will be to get close to the action. You'll need to be close so you can use low power for fast recycle times if you want to use strobe.

Take a look here and see the "pro" way of attacking this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP6a47BQA70
 
Rod Pierce said:
The only flash that I know of with enough output for what you are trying to do would be Metz hammer heads. I use a 45cl4 for night time rallying and can get 2 shots off set at half power on the same car.
Click to expand...

I quite agree, I use a 60 ct1 Metz with the sports adapter to light subjects up at a distance of 100 meters away and it works great. Will need to set camera to manual also if long exposure is attempted fire flash manually a few times painting subject with light. Only problem I can see with wid angle shot is the subject will have moved out of the flash 's spread of light so part of image may be dard
 
jacques.vdk said:
Hi everyone,

I am looking to do some sports photography at night, mostly, Kitesurfing. I have tried once with a borrowed canon 550 EX on an eos 40d with decent glass, but I am looking for two different things. First I'd like to know if you guys knew of a cheap but very powerful flash (more than the 550EX if possible) that I could you use on camera or as a slave. Secondly, I am looking to take a wide angle shot and flash the kiters several times in one exposure, would you know of any system that could do a decent flash to about 20m and maybe 5 times in 4-8 seconds? It could be anything from a flashgun to a DIY lightbulb and capacitor set-up... The goal is to be cheap since I don't do it often enough to justify an investment into a 580 EX 2! I'll try to post the DIY ideas we've had later. Cheers
Click to expand...

I quite agree, I use a 60 ct1 Metz with the sports adapter to light subjects up at a distance of 100 meters away and it works great. Will need to set camera to manual also if long exposure is attempted fire flash manually a few times painting subject with light. Only problem I can see with wid angle shot is the subject will have moved out of the flash 's spread of light so part of image may be dard
 
Hi everyone, thanks for your replies, I was abroad for a couple of days... Option 2 with several triggers was what we tried at one point, because we had 5 flashes so we triggered the pilot lights by hand. But with different specs, the lighting is very inconsistent. As a diy project, I thought of making a fully manual and cheapo equivalent to Chase's broncolor. I now there are some fairly simple systems used in nightclubs which trigger HUGE beams using music bass. To control the flash, I wouldn't mind triggering it manually if I start a long exposure on my camera with a wide angle and then move around with the flash. And one of my friends (electrical engineer) could make an electronic timer which we could use. The only part that worries me (us) is the actual lighting bit. We don't really know the type and size of the light bulbs and capacitor(s)... Has anyone made a strobe like this before?
 
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