on camera flash ruining off camera shots!

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estoril-5

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hi guys,

i have bought a jessops 360afd flash for my nikon d40.

i wanted to try off camera flash, now the 360 has optical slave, so you need to fire your onboard flash at minimal power to trigger the 360 which is off camera.

now the onboard flash which is set to 1/32 power is still giving enough light to ruin the shot, but without the onboard flash i cant fire the 360.

:bang::bang:

any ideas guys without spending a fortune on PW's or a sb-8/900?
 
ebay triggers or a cable?
 
I have a 360 and although it has an optical slave and will fire after sensing the flash from your onboard flash, the onboard won't react in the same way as it does with CLS compatible units.

The only way you can get over the onboard nuking your scene is to switch to full manual and maybe diffuse the onboard to buggery.

There is also a small black plastic appendage for blocking or attempting to block the spill from the onboard.

I struggle to remember the part name :thinking:

Personally, I'd go for a PC sync cable or a set of triggers :thumbs:
 
Does the 360 AFD actually need to see some light from the on-camera flash or is it a radio link?

If so, it will probably react to infra red. Try it with a dark red filter over it if you can find something suitable.


Steve.
 
its got an infra red sensor at the front but this responds to changes in light afaik not radio.
 
i have the canon fit version and it's a great budget flash. i find the slave function pretty effective.


estoril-5

indoors i have found that the flash will fire as it detects bounced light and the sensor doesn't need to be facing the camera, with this in mind you could tape a bit of card over the onboard flash and it will still work.
outside is a completely different matter and ebay triggers are the way to go.
 
estoril-5 said:
£50?? £99 in jessops.

have i been done? :(
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Sorry bud, my mistake, they were on sale for a good while and a mate bought a load so I got a good deal. You haven't ben ripped off.

estoril-5 said:
are ebay triggers the cactus triggers or from the far east?
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Like a lot of electrical good these days, more than likely but don't let that put you off.

What are you shooting with the current set up and how are you shooting it?
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
Wouldn't the deep red filter colour the shot though? :thinking:
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Depends how deep it was. If you got hold of the Infra Red gel filter that Ilford sell to use with their Infra red film, that would work and show no visible light in the image at all. A deep red filter would pass on some red to the subject but I doubt that you would notice it.

Actually, I have an offcut of the Ilford filter here at work. It's about 30mm x 70mm. If the OP wants it, send me a PM with your address and I will post it to you.


Steve.
 
is this true? wouldnt you see a red tinge if i was shooting something reflective like a white ceramic mug for example?
 
cactus triggers will do the job and are cheap too
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
Sorry bud, my mistake, they were on sale for a good while and a mate bought a load so I got a good deal. You haven't ben ripped off.



Like a lot of electrical good these days, more than likely but don't let that put you off.

What are you shooting with the current set up and how are you shooting it?
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well im just experimenting at the mo but ideally i want to shoot my car, i have seen some good threads over on strobist blog and wanted to give them a shot
 
estoril-5 said:
well im just experimenting at the mo but ideally i want to shoot my car, i have seen some good threads over on strobist blog and wanted to give them a shot
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Ok gotcha, I'd recommend getting a set of cheap triggers then really.

Misfires aren't going to matter if your finding your feet and experimenting, it's only when your relying on a triggering system on a paid job where the unreliability of the cheaper triggers is going to be a problem.

You can also use PC sync cords too, a very inexpensive alternative.

Invest in a few stands, umbrella swivels/brackets and some shoot through umbrellas for diffusion. To shoot a car you probably should pick up another 360 too :thumbs:
 
If you fancy bodging it to get by, the dark filter over the flash should work. I've done it with some cellophane sweet wrappers (box of Roses I think ;) ). If you keep the master on min and max up the slave, you should/might be okay. If not, keep adding bits of sweet wrapper either until the master flash is no longer visible, or the slave stops working LOL

Also, only the slave has to see the master flash, not the subject. A bit of carboard makes a crude reflector/gobo. I saw one guy with something like this, lined with kitchen foil for extra style points. It deflected the master flash 90 degs with unfailing reliability, with no spill on the subject.
 
estoril-5 said:
hi guys,

i have bought a jessops 360afd flash for my nikon d40.

i wanted to try off camera flash, now the 360 has optical slave, so you need to fire your onboard flash at minimal power to trigger the 360 which is off camera.

now the onboard flash which is set to 1/32 power is still giving enough light to ruin the shot, but without the onboard flash i cant fire the 360.

:bang::bang:

any ideas guys without spending a fortune on PW's or a sb-8/900?
Click to expand...

If you get ahold of the free Lee Filters swatch book and cut the ND filters it contains down to size and try them over the pop-up flash it might do the trick.

The alternative is to use your 360AFD on camera and source another one to use as a slave. The beauty of doing it that way is that the slave one doesn't even need to be a Nikon version - the ones both Tomas and I have are Pentax versions!
 
supposedly exposed (or developed i cant remember) film works well as an ir filter but I reckon radioslaves and maybe let an off camera flash fire another via optical slave but tbh i just use radio
 
david1701 said:
supposedly exposed (or developed i cant remember) film works well as an ir filter but I reckon radioslaves and maybe let an off camera flash fire another via optical slave but tbh i just use radio
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I use a small piece of exposed film over the popup flash when using the sony/minolta wireless flash system & it works fine for me. I also use a mixture of popup flash (for the sony strobes) & cactus triggers (for the studio flash) together when required.
 
You could try one of these - sits in front of your flash blocks the light but lets the IR pass.


 
Steve is spot on with the filter idea, I have read, (but not done it myself) that you can place an exposed but not developed piece of film over it. It blocks light but let's through IR apparently.
 
AliB said:
Steve is spot on with the filter idea, I have read, (but not done it myself) that you can place an exposed but not developed piece of film over it. It blocks light but let's through IR apparently.
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I was going to post this too but I decided not to since this is a mainly digital forum.

However, the version I have heard is the other way round. It's non-exposed but developed Kodachrome which is supposed to be a good IR filter.

When you get Kodachrome processed, they always leave the offcut ends in the box with the slides.

And I still have that offcut of Ilford IR filter if anyone wants it.


Steve.
 
Are basic optical triggers, such as that in the Jessops flash, fired by the IR portion of the spectrum?
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Are basic optical triggers, such as that in the Jessops flash, fired by the IR portion of the spectrum?
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They are senitive to a wide spectrum, visible and IR. So if you put an IR filter over the flash, it will still trigger the slave. Like the Canon ST-E2 and similar.

Part of the problem is that there isn't much IR in the flash output so you end up with a pretty feeble trigger without much range. Also like the ST-E2. I guess this is why radio is becoming more popular. Getting cheaper too.
 
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