Flash lighting

smelltheglove

Ok without going into too much detail I need to photograph a few lads in a location where I am not allowed set up tripods or lights etc. So I have a sigma ef 500 which I use on my nikon 200. I would like to use 2 flashes for lighting, I will need them to be triggered from the camera but I have never done this before, I only have used studio lighting and my own small lights.

So what do I need? Do I need a trigger for my camera or will it be best to use a flash on the camera that will trigger a subsequent flash? Can the other flashes be handheld so I wont be breaking the rules by setting up a tripod and instead I will just have an assistant hold one or two assistants for 2.

Any help greatly appreciated and also a nudge in the right direction of where to get them cheap. This is a free job for good friends so I dont want to be spending 100 euro at conns renting equipment if I can do it cheaper.

melekalikimaka

www.strobist.com


that will guide you for all.

i do alot of lighting with flash, i use tripods or lighting stands to propthem

smelltheglove

melekalikimaka wrote: »

www.strobist.com


that will guide you for all.

i do alot of lighting with flash, i use tripods or lighting stands to propthem

Thanks, I have tripod stands, I'm just not allowed use them though, I assume if I position assistants I'd still be able too do it, human tripod I suppose.

DaireQuinlan

smelltheglove wrote: »

Thanks, I have tripod stands, I'm just not allowed use them though, I assume if I position assistants I'd still be able too do it, human tripod I suppose.

Voice activated light stands is what they're called on Strobist

Tallon

smelltheglove wrote: »

Thanks, I have tripod stands, I'm just not allowed use them though, I assume if I position assistants I'd still be able too do it, human tripod I suppose.

yeah thats fine, stand has nothing to do with the flash, it just a non moving assistant. make sure yours stay in line and keep it pointing where YOU want

Fionn

if they're speedlights and i assume they work the same way as Canons do, you can set up one as a master and any subsequent ones as slaves, all been controlled from the master.
I know with the canon system you can even have the master not fire if you wish but still trigger the other ones. All you need then is to position them appropriately - i guess you'd need to make sure the guide number is sufficient for the job!

eas

that's the problem with the human assistant - they generally get bored and loose concentration and you end up with wonky lighting.

Without good control I'd try to use an umbrella to give you a good spread of light so your helpers don't need to be overly accurate with where they point their flash guns.

I bring a selection of "bungee cords" with me to weddings and latch them around a flash guns and connect them to any number of things ranging from chair legs to trees to whatever is around. I find this a better option than the human assistant because at least you know the light wont move.

oshead

If there are walls you could use some bungie cords and gaffer tape to position the flashes. As far as triggering them is concerned, You can pay very little for apparently quite reliable ebay ones or go into the hundreds of euros and purchase pocket wizards or the like. I use Skyports by Elinchrom. They are a good compromise between reliability and price. Which ever way you look at it you will need something to trigger them. I don't use Nikon, but maybe you could use Nikons CLS (Creative Lighting System) for triggering the slave flashes. If you google it you will find all you need to get you going.

Hope this helps

David OS

mrmac

Best bet: one wireless trigger, mounted on the hotshoe. Two wireless receivers attached to battery powered flash units. Make sure the flash heads allow manual control of zoom and output (bring a few extra sets of batteries).

I'd try to get my hands on this stuff a few days before you actually need it, so you can practice sample set ups, flash output settings etc.

One tip I will give you about using external, off-camera flash
"Shutter speed controls ambient light levels, aperature controls flash light levels".

Placebo

i use wireless triggers

CabanSail

When is the shoot?

You could use the Commander Mode along with an SB 600/800/900 as a remote flash. No need for triggers etc.

The Sigma Flash does not have this feature though.

If I am not using it at the time you could borrow my SB600.

smelltheglove

well the shoot is on Saturday morning through all day I'm afraid, this was a last minute set up. The venue of choice was a chance, I never thought we would be allowed use it but since we are I really need to sort this quick.

Ok so the commander works with the sigma when I use the on camera flash to trigger the sigma, problem though is either the sigma is flashing too early or too late, just not at the same time as the shutter. Maybe I am doing something wrong or maybe it is just not possible as cabainsail says.

I see dml rent out metz flashes for only 18 a day so I might give them a shout and see if they have a full set up that can be rented.


whats driving me mad is I was looking at a set on adverts last week, half was gone but the flashes were still available, only I was too busy over the weekend to take them so they went to someone else. I should have found the time, in between my 2 weddings and gig that is, still I'm kicking myself now.

CabanSail

Correct me if I am wrong but I think that the Sigma may only work as a slave, which is different to the Commander Mode, which uses the flash on the camera to set things up. When the set up flashes fire, it will trigger the Sigma but this is before the exposure is taken.

smelltheglove

CabanSail wrote: »

Correct me if I am wrong but I think that the Sigma may only work as a slave, which is different to the Commander Mode, which uses the flash on the camera to set things up. When the set up flashes fire, it will trigger the Sigma but this is before the exposure is taken.

yes, I took it off commander and even on ttl the same thing happens, so it will slave but it will fire beofre the shutter closes which I'm guessing means that this is no use to me at all then and I will need to get something else asap.

melekalikimaka

is it light triggered, alway get mixed results with non nikon flashes tbh, tho i use vivitar 20 euro jobbies

DaireQuinlan

smelltheglove wrote: »

yes, I took it off commander and even on ttl the same thing happens, so it will slave but it will fire beofre the shutter closes which I'm guessing means that this is no use to me at all then and I will need to get something else asap.

Can you fire the on-camera flash in some simple manual mode or something ? Anything which doesn't pre-flash. That ought to solve the problem of your slave strobes going off prematurely. Its not as though you'll be using TTL flash anyhow.

smelltheglove

It's all good, Steve has come to my rescue and has all that I need.

As always a saviour! Hopefully it wont be too long before I can share the results with all here!