Studio Lights and Nikon SB-800

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MrPhil

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I am looking at setting my own "studio" up at home and after days of research am looking at getting the "ElitePro Twin Head Softbox Kit with Background"; which seems to me to cover my immediate needs.

Now I know there will be times when I want a 3rd light (as my skills develop) and I was wondering if it is possible to use my Nikon SB-800 in place of a 3rd light?

Would this work and if so, how would I set it up to trigger with the other lights?

Many thanks

Phil
 
I don't know the technical ins and outs of it but I'm pretty sure it will work. I've used studio lights with a SB-800 mounted on my camera set to commander mode to trigger the studio lights. If you had the SB-800 off camera then the in-built camera flash set to commander could be used to trigger all 3 of your lights.

Garry Edwards will be along any minute now to fill in the huge gaps in my post.
 
Garry Edwards will be along any minute now to fill in the huge gaps in my post.
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Not sure that I can fill the gaps...

Yes, you could trigger using the method described by Rob, or (I believe) with a slave fitted tothe SB-800.

And yes, it will work as an additional light source, but a couple of things to remember:
1. The SB-800 has very little power compared to the studio flash - around 60 J against 300 so, although it will be fine as a hairlight it may not be able to do much else - although it will probably be OK as a fill in some situations, fitted with an umbrella or even used directly on camera.
2. It will take longer to recharge than your studio flash
3. You won't be able to fit much in the way of modifiers to it, although you won't anyway because of the limited power.
4. The colour temp of hotshoe flashes goes through the roof when used at anything less than full power - not a problem as long as it is at full power, but it will give a light that becomes progressively more blue as the power is reduced. This can be corrected on computer when it is the ONLY light source but has to be avoided when mixed with other lights.

If this sounds negative, it isn't meant to. I've combined hotshoe flash with studio flash in the past and it has worked, I'm just pointing out the limitations
 
I think hot shoe guns are a great addition to a bigger studio set up. They are not so powerful obviously, and do take a few seconds to recyle on full power, but they are plenty good enough for a highlight or accent light. They are so small that you can hide them easily behind the subject, or mount them in places that are impossible for normal studio heads, 'strobist' style. With a zoom head, you can put a small spot of light anywhere.

With modern guns fitted with clever auto exposure features, eg Nikon CLS and Canon E-TTL, it can get confusing working around the pre-flash systems that they use, but if you switch everything to manual, as you must do for studio lights anyway, and trigger them via a simple optical slave, then they work really well IMHO.

A simple slave like this one (I lifted the link from another thread here) is all you need. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wireless-Remo...t_RL?hash=item483728f063&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I've not noticed any significant colour shifts using a hot shoe gun at variable power outputs, though I understand the theory of why it might be so. Just out of interest, I've just tried my Canon 580EX at all power outputs from full power to 1/128th power, white balance fixed, in a dark room with very low ambient light, checking the colour of a white ceiling and various coloured furnishings - no change in colour that I can see.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Set the SB-800 to SU-4 (slave) mode and you're all set :thumbs:
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Cheers Flash. Specialist Nikon knowledge to the rescue :)

It won't work like that with Canon guns - all on-board slave functions are cancelled if you are using studio flash to trigger.
 
Great info guys.

So wont replace a 3rd light, but will handle some small specific lighting needs and using the slave setting it should be fine :)

Regards

Phil
 
I use mine in SU-4 mode as a fill light in the studio for picking out detail and it works great, not bags of power but nonetheless a handy tool :)
 
when I combine lights I hook the radio trigger up to the hotshoe flash and let that trigger the studio heads with there built in slaves
 
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