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That syncing feeling
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Bad pun I know, but it’s been a long night.
I have just got my SB-600 back from Conns after it fell from a light stand a few weeks ago.
The problem I am having is with the Nikon wireless setup.
My D200 is talking to the flash and it’s doing what it’s supposed to – but my fancy new Elinchom D-Lite2 doesn’t seem to be firing in sync with the built-in flash and the SB-600.
When I use the Elinchrom by itself I can use a 1/250 shutter speed and about f9 with really bright, clear images (ISO100).
But when I try and marry the SB and the strobe I’m getting much duller images forcing me to slower the shutter and open the lens right up.
I have tried the sync cable to the elinchrom as well as letting it slave off the speedlight, but I can’t seem to get this to sing.Any suggestions?
I was happier with the results I was getting using the studio light alone – so it’s very disappointing not to be able to bring in more control with the second flash.
Thanks,
Cormacis the SB-600 firing a pre-flash?
if so it could be triggering the D-lite to early
i think you can tell the d-lite to ignore the pre-flash, although i am not certain
the other thing, with my canon 580, to use a 250 shutter speed, i have to turn the flash into high speed sync, I wonder if you have to do the same
Hi Cormac & Steve,
It can only be the pre flash, which you can probably (not sure) disable from the camera. The D-lites don’t have the ability to ignore pre flashes.
PS Don’t be too hung up on setting a fast shutter speed as the flash duration will effectivly be your “action stopping” speed.Have you set your camera to full manual mode? If not, you should do. If I’m not mistaken, that will shut down the pre-flash. But even so, when using studio lights, you should always use manual mode on your camera.
Thanks very much guys.
I’ll look into the pre-flash this evening, fingers crossed.
Cormac
you can’t use Nikon’s wireless system and get a good result of your other lighting equipment
they “talk” each other using preflashes, to evaluate power needs and to talk to each othercorded/on-camera manual mode (full power or not) is the only way forward, or at least the only one I could find
Quilmore – you probably just saved me alot of frustrating trial and error, thanks for the info.
Have you used a radio wireless system along with corded by any chance?
can you set your Elinchrom to be on their own? (they release when they “see” other flash going off)
then there you go, use your sb600 on the camera or wired in manual mode and leave the others alone and all of them will fire at the same time
it will be no less than guessing exposures but that’s lighting after allLast night I did a very quick test of a cheap 4-channel radio trigger I picked up on ebay.
Finally, the Elinchrom D-Lite and SB-600 were singing from the same hymn sheet!
Not only is there an amazing difference when both light sources fire in sync, but my understanding of the lighting dynamic increased ten fold.
Based on results I was getting last week and earlier this week, I genuinely thought that I was facing a long, uphill battle with lighting – and I really wasn’t looking forward to it.
Based on last night’s test I am more encouraged than ever, I might even start shooting some portraits of my kids!
Thanks for all the input guys – but I have one last question: Is there any reason a simple slave connected to an SB-24 wouldn’t work with my new setup?
Well done
I have one of them slave if you want to test it, anyway, they are cheap enough to risk it (that’s what I’ve done)Thanks quilmore.
I might just order a second radio trigger for the other flash – it would be cheaper than cables and more reliable at any kind of distance.
Someone suggested lighting the backdrop (a bed sheet) from behind to get a really clean white, I’m guessing the flash could be too hidden to work reliably with the slave in that situation. Either way, 10 euro won’t kill me.Thanks again for the help – I hope to upload my efforts for critique shortly.
Sounds good Cormac. I’m thinking about getting some lights like you did so I’ll be keeping an eye on how your getting on :)
What radio trigger flash did you get after ? Was it the Wireless Radio Slave Strobe Flash Trigger Kit PT01 AR01 from the same ebay seller ?
cheers
Mark,
I bought the 4CH Wireless Radio Slave Strobe Flash Trigger PT04 AR02 – it gives you a choice of channels in case you are shooting where there are other radio triggers at play.
If you order one, get an extra few receivers for additional flash guns that you might use in the future – I’m regretting not ordering them, now I have to wait and pay more postage.
I can heartily recommend the D-Lite strobes too. I was going to go for the interfit starter kit – but picked up one light with a soft box and an extra stand for the flash instead, very happy with it all and got good advice from Barker Photographic.
Let me know how you get on.
Cormac
Cormac wrote:
Someone suggested lighting the backdrop (a bed sheet) from behind to get a really clean white…
Have a look at Getting a White Background with Speedlights.
Thanks Torsten – I picked up that link from another thread around here somewhere and it was very useful.
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