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Alcohol is Yummy

L

LumbermanSVO

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 15, 2007
1,234
622
Denton, TX
On some Saturdays I really push myself to run a couple extra(legal) hours and end my day just inside Montana at a little bar I really like. As normal, I'm sitting there tonight with my camera next to me with the grip and 50/1.4 attached. A guy sits down next to me and asks about the camera and we strike up a conversation.

It turns out, he owns about 5 trucks now, but used to run a wedding and portrait studio in Salem, OR. He ran outside real quick and came back in with a 7D, 70-200 f/2.8L IS, 85/1.8 and 580EX II and let me tinker with all of them for a bit. That 70-200 is one VERY nice piece of glass. My bank account is now quivering...

But then came the real kicker, he volunteered to let me borrow his 580EX II for a few weeks so I can tinker with it while testing out my new flash gear(Strobist Starving Student Kit + Strobies Portrait Kit) and I can return the flash to his relative that lives near me when I'd done with it.

Now, my experience with photographers of all levels so far has been that they are really friendly and willing to share, but this goes far beyond the "normal" person, right?

Is there anything you suggest I try while I have this 580 on hand? My other flash is a 420EX and I don't think they can "talk" to each other.

I do have a few friends who have no issues with sitting in front of the camera while I tinker...
 
Depends on what you like to shoot. I'm not a portrait shooter so manual flashes work for me in a lot of situations.

600


Even if they don't "talk" to each other the 420 should be able to work as an optical slave. For example, the above photo has an SB-700 and cheap manual flash on wireless triggers. The red like is another manual flash that is an optical slave. When it sees the wireless strobe in the bus trigger it also fires.

So if you like photos like this there is a lot you can do. If you like portraits it is still useful. Use the 420 as a backlight / hair light. Set the power manually and have it as an optical trigger. The 580 can then be used with TTL light the subject. Or use the 580 for your key light and set the 420 as fill. Even if it isn't TTL you can still get good results. You just might have to use some of that math stuff or a bit of trial and error.

I bought several cheap, manual flashes just for special effect lighting. TTL metering is nice but if I can get five manual flashes for the cost of one SB-700 I can do a whole lot more.
 
do portraits of your loved ones, and experience with multi flash lighting setup then. they will be your best subjects ever, and continue to be so.
 
I'd shoot a full range of subjects and familiarise myself with the camera, then buy the guy that loaned it to you several beers....You can blame him when you head to the store to buy your own!:)
 
LumbermanSVO said:
Now, my experience with photographers of all levels so far has been that they are really friendly and willing to share, but this goes far beyond the "normal" person, right?
Click to expand...

Yes, and it says something about you too: he obviously judged you to be a trustworthy guy of the right sort. :)

If you can trigger both of the flashes off-camera, then you can have a lot of fun with them. It will be a great way for you to learn about using key and fill flash for portraits or products. Even if you can't trigger them both off-camera, you can still use them both for long-exposure light painting by triggering one remotely and firing the other one from your hand by pushing its test button (during long exposures, there is plenty of time for triggering manually). There will be a full moon on Tuesday, which is perfect for doing outdoor night photography. The sky is the limit!
 
I would love to have another flash.

I want to get more into portraits indoor and outdoor and really think I need to get another flash to make it work.

Since you have two (and if you have something like a 600d) you should be able to fire them both wirelessly. If not stick to taking one flash off camera and using the other to trigger it. With the stand attach the flashgun to a tripod and mess around with fill, key and backlight. For example shoot backlit and then use the flashgun with a yellow gel (if you have one) to provide a physically impossible but interesting sunset picture!

With that extra power try overpowering the sun.

Only thing that puzzles me is that if the guy is a pro why doesn’t he need the flash on the jobs he’s working?
 
Thanks for the ideas everyone! I've already started playing with it as well as lining of some time with friends to do some testing.

joemod said:
he was a pro :)
Click to expand...

Yes, he ran the business with his wife. When they got divorced, he took the buyout on the business and bought a truck.

I did some tinkering last night and made and learned a bit. I already knew that my 420(I picked it up used a few weeks ago) only worked with my 600D in E-TTL mode, no manual. It also can't be controlled wirelessly from the camera for some strange reason, so I had already purchased a 16' E-TTL cable to get it off the camera.

I did discover that I can control the 420 wirelessly with the 580 while the 580 mounted on the camera(or cable), but I am restricted to E-TTL only this way. I can control overall flash power from the camera this way, and the balance between the two from the 580. I need to play with this a bunch more.

I did so some shooting with just the 580 in manual mode last night and learned a bunch. One of the important things being that I will be buying one of these :D

Here are a couple pictures from last night.

MG1362-XL.jpg


MG1411-XL.jpg
 
joemod said:
he was a pro :)
Click to expand...

Cheers for the clarification! I was obviously reading the article a little too quickly!

LumbermanSVO said:
I did so some shooting with just the 580 in manual mode last night and learned a bunch. One of the important things being that I will be buying one of these :D
Click to expand...

I think I might have to be in the same boat. I took my flash off camera wirelessly and put it into a makeshift softbox I had made.

The problem is that my camera can’t focus in no light and the pop up flash can’t be directed.

For me I think another 430exii would work nicely!

Look forward to seeing more shots!
 
acearchie said:
....

The problem is that my camera can’t focus in no light and the pop up flash can’t be directed.
...
Click to expand...

Use a flashlight (on the subject) to focus. Either focus manually with the flash light on the subject...or let the camera autofocus with the light on and then turn it to manual focus so the camera then doesn't hunt for the focus with the flash off.

A very bright flashlight works best. A dim one may not work at all. One advantage is that you can illuminate just the point of focus to force the camera to focus there and not on something else.

Luck.
 
snberk103 said:
Use a flashlight (on the subject) to focus. Either focus manually with the flash light on the subject...or let the camera autofocus with the light on and then turn it to manual focus so the camera then doesn't hunt for the focus with the flash off.

A very bright flashlight works best. A dim one may not work at all. One advantage is that you can illuminate just the point of focus to force the camera to focus there and not on something else.

Luck.
Click to expand...

When I quickly took a picture of my sister and her friends I got them to hold their phone up to their faces and then hit live view.

I normally take quite candid photo’s and it’s always nice knowing the flashgun is going to 90% of the time sort the focus for me.
 
acearchie said:
When I quickly took a picture of my sister and her friends I got them to hold their phone up to their faces and then hit live view.

I normally take quite candid photo’s and it’s always nice knowing the flashgun is going to 90% of the time sort the focus for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah... the flashlight trick only works well on static objects. Not so much on candids. In my very early days my camera as a rangefinder, with no focussing aids. You just estimated your distance from the subject and turned the focussing ring distance scale to that distance. One gets very good at estimating distances, eh? Most of my work in dark is now in the studio.... so I've not had to worry about whether my flash gun can estimate distances. Luckily, I suppose.
 
I did some more tinkering this morning, I can fire both flashes from the cheapie Universal translators that came with the Strobist kit, but there is no control over the 420 power. This morning I just knocked down the power with some paper towels over the head and taped a grid over that to get some control over direction. I just ran the E-TTL cable to the 580, then put the cheapie translator between the cable and 580 and I was able to fire both flashes.

One of the two translators is a bit picky about how exactly it is placed in the hotshoe. If it isn't just perfect, no flash. I'll have to find a better solution.

Here are some of my shots from this morning, first up is Mr. Wood:

MG1554-XL.jpg


MG1561-XL.jpg


MG1563-XL.jpg


MG1573-XL.jpg


And the real reason for his name

Next up is some crystal glasses, I didn't realize until this morning that they aren't all the same height or that is one has a different stem than the rest.

MG1596-XL.jpg


I added some beer, hard cider and Rockstar to them for color. It's also a good reason to drink beer early in the morning, wouldn't want to waste it. :D

MG1627-XL.jpg


MG1666-XL.jpg
 
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