I follow The Strobist, a blog about using speedlights, by photographer David Hobby. He works for the Baltimore Sun. I admired a photo of a Xohm technician shot in Baltimore without realizing he shot the picture. Here’s how it was done:
In a situation like this, shooting in manual is probably gonna make more sense than TTL. Reason is, that highlight on the panel at left is gonna change as you change your shooting angle. And it could very well influence your TTL response. I used both TTL and manual in this shoot, but ended up in manual just for that reason.
For a trigger, I fired my fill light on-camera and slaved the SB-800. Dear Lord, I love those perfect little flashes.
Last week, we talked about how to do this in TTL mode. It is very easy in manual, too. Crank the ISO down low. Shutter at 250th of a sec. Choose an aperture that gives you a nice, rich exposure. Bring your key light in against the ambient on manual power until it lights your subject well.
Ambient sets the environment, key light properly exposes the subject and on-axis fill dials in the shadow contrast.
What’s this got to do with wireless? Well, not much.
But I am happy with my Cactus V2s Radio Slave set that I ordered from Midwest Photo Exchange ($29). It comes with a Transmitter and Receiver. The transmitter emits a radio signal at 433MHz to the receiver when the shutter is pressed. It’s great for multiple strobes or for remote camera triggering.
I use a Canon 420EX strobe. It does Through The Lens exposure metering through the hot shoe on both my Canon S5-IS and XT. I use a multi-pin cord off-camera to connect the TTL strobe data to the camera body and use the Cactus wireless trigger when I need multiple strobes or more off-camera distance.
Nikon’s system is better because it can do iTTL metering wirelessly. Nikon uses coded pre-flashes on Nikon’s SB-600 and SB-800 strobes which communicate with the camera’s built-in flash (in “controller” mode) to chop off the light. In radio systems, like the $30 Cactus or the $400 Pocket Wizard, some of that TTL automation is lost.
The Strobist is chock full of in-depth, helpful information. David Hobby likes wireless flash triggers and knows how to use them.
