flashes and radio slaves on manual RFs?

[stet]

All this flash talk is getting to me! Even more so as I've tried to take some skateboard shots, but nobody skates much until sundown or at night.

I've never really done it, though, but want to try. For the most part, a lot of skate photography contains no motion blur and is heavily lit, and is almost never done in only natural light. There are good examples of this at skateboardphotography.com, which is a great resource, but with my RFs I wanted to ask if anyone here might be able to lend insight on using a flash with a Canon 7s and a Rapid Omega 200.

The most common flash in skating seems to be handle-mount, either Metz 45/60 or the Sunpak 555 or 544. Can I use these with my camera? Is it possible to use a radio slave? I know a lot of skate photogs go nuts with the flashes, but I think I'd like to start out with one. I'm thinking a handle mount like the ones above, or maybe a Vivitar 285 with a stand. Well, if the pocket wizard is usable...

Any more secret flash users wanna come out the woodwork with their hints?

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I am at a loss as to why you want to use Pocket Wizards to fire one flash if you have the flash on camera. If you are trying to fire multiple off camera flashes then I can understand it.

If you are trying to gain extra light from using multiple flashes, here is what I would do as cheap experiment. I would buy some Wein peanut slaves that will fit into the synch on Vivitar 283/285HV type flashes. Your on camera flash will fire the remote flash with wein peanut attached as long as the peanut can "see" the light from your on camera flash and as long as the ambient light is not too bright. Of course everyone elses flash will also set off your remote flash which can be a bummer.

The Koni will flash synch at all shutter speeds. I think the top flash synch on the Canon 7s is around 1/50 second or slower.

A couple of peanut slaves shouldn't cost you much over $20 each. Much cheaper than pocket wizards to start out any way.

Wayne

 

[jan normandale]

on this thread , any good links or books on flash photography? I have been mystified by most of what I have read.

thankss Jan

 

[stet]

Wayne: thanks; I know nothing about slaves, and it seems like all the skate photogs exclusively use pocket wizards for some reason. The peanut slaves are much, much cheaper. About the on-camera flash, is one needed to trigger the slave? I was thinking of a scenario where I would set up a flash on a stand and shoot from somewhere else; at least two flashes are needed to do this? In other instances, I was thinking of a handle mount flash so I could at least get it at arm's length away, but this may not be possible to do and still hold the RO steady.

EDIT: Okay, so the 7s only syncs at 1/60, which might be a problem trying to get the shots I like. I might only be using this with the RO, and maybe with my Minolta XG-M. But I have to check, because I think the shoe on the Minolta doesn't work.

 

[stet]

ManGo: Oops, I forgot that that site makes you register to see anything. And once you do, only about a third of the site is up; you have to subscribe to gain access to the rest. If you're interested, their photo issue is available to anyone, but it's a 10MB pdf:
http://www.skateboardphotography.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=1

Some good stuff there, from pretty young kids, too.

A lot of the skate photos use a fill flash in daylight too, so it wouldn't just be for fading light. One skate mag just had a photo buyers guide, and an intro essay writer said he subscribes to the "more-is-more" crowd with flashes. As far as motion blur, at least with skate photos, my tastes run with the herd. I like to see the trick in crisp detail. Maybe I'm brainwahsed after reading these mags for 15+ years, but I prefer the stopped motion and well-lighted subjects. I've seen a lot of skate photos done with motion blur, too, generally done more from an artistic POV rather than a skateboarder's, and they never really appeal to me.

Although, some skate photogs do a lot of slow synch, which does look nice when done right.

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

Stet,

On the peanut slaves you do need some way to trigger the first flash so that it will set off the second, third , fourth, etc. flashes. This can be a small 2 AA flash on camera, or you can run a PC synch cord to a flash on stand near you that will fire with your shutter, which will in turn fire the remote slaved flashes. This is assumming that no one else has fired a flash just before you, which would fire your remote slaved flashes and they may not have had time to recycle when you fire your main flash. Also if some one moves in front of the peanut and blocks the light from your main flash the reomotes will not fire. The reason pros use radio controlled remotes like pocket wizard and quantum is that they are not fired by other flashes as they rely on radio signals from a specific channel to fire them. They also are often good for up to 1000 feet or so through crowds, etc.

Inside a studio I have taken a couple of pieces of unexposed and developed E-6 120 film and taped them over my small on camera flash lens. This will allow infared type beams to pass through the film and set off the remote flashes, but does not give me visible light from camera postion on my subject.

This is a very brief explanation of remote flash control. Hope it helps some what.

Jan Normadale:

Here a of links that may help with off camera flash techniques:

http://webs.lanset.com/rcochran/flash/techniques.html

http://lightingmagic.com/

Wayne