External Speedlite alongside studio setup (Umbrella lights)

[samsim]

There are two kinds of photographers in India that cover weddings – The Candid Photographers and the Regular photographer. By regular I mean the guys who only shoot the staged photos who stand for 4-5 hours at a stretch in front of the stage where the couple are at their reception getting wished by well-wishers. So this is how it goes- invites/guests come onto the stage, wish the couple, stand for a group photo – snap and they head to the dining for lunch/dinner. Now this part is covered by the so called regular photographer who just stand there snapping away with their entire setup of umbrella lights flashing away every time they press trigger (standard settings on their camera). So now comes the problem bit that I face as a candid photographer. Me with my 5D Mark II and my Speedlite 580 ExII go around covering the event in a photojournalistic fashion, as long as I am focusing away from the stage area everything is fine , as soon as I focus onto the stage area my images are burnt out – reason because my external flash in turn triggers their umbrella setup. Now I have approached these guys on numerous occasions asking them if they can change their setting/channel on their triggers to avoid their flash units going off when I press my trigger. With my limited to no knowledge of how their studio lighting works as I have not yet learnt the art of studio lighting I get mixed responses. Some of them say that they cannot make changes and neither can I. Some of them say I need to make changes in my camera to turn of wireless flash trigger. Now the only setting that I know on the 5DMarkII under the category ‘External Speedlite control’ > ‘Flash function settings’ > ‘Wireless set’ is disabled, but yet it triggers their setup. Can someone please help me on this, is there something I am not doing or is there something that I can guide the other photographers to make changes to their setup. Thanks in advance.

 

[tirediron]

My guess is that most of them are likely using an optical slave system which is 'seeing' the flash of your speedlight and triggering their lights. If that's the case then no, there is really nothing that can be done about that other than not pointing your light toward them.

 

[samsim]

Hi thank you for the reply to my post. Im kind of new to studio lighting part of it , so what is the other option if its not an optical slave which can be fixed .

 

[Village Idiot]

Hi thank you for the reply to my post. Im kind of new to studio lighting part of it , so what is the other option if its not an optical slave which can be fixed .

It is an optical slave. They would have to have Canon studio lights that trigger via the proprietary Canon wireless system and AFAIK, Canon doesn't make studio lights.

 

[CameraClicker]

Many studio systems have a radio in one lamp and all the rest trigger when they see the flash from the lamp with the radio. I have the one with the radio set to fire if it sees a flash too. This way, I can use the studio radio, or I can use my Canon radio and a Speedlite or two for added lighting. When doing this, you can set the studio lights a couple of different ways. The studio lights can fire on the first flash they see, which requires the Speedlites to be in manual mode, or you can set the studio lights to fire on the second, third, etc. flash and choosing the right value will allow you to use ETTL mode with the Speedlites, instead of the studio radio.

From your description, it sounds like your flash is in manual mode and their studio lights are set to fire on the first flash. I have a 5D Mk III, but I suspect a Mk II will work the same way. With a flash in place, DOF preview causes the flash to fire several times, rapidly, to act as a modelling light. Touch the button just before you take the photo. This will cause the studio lights to fire, it will take them a second to recharge and be ready to fire again, during that time, your flash can fire and it will be the only one, so you should get a good exposure. You could try ETTL mode which should fire the studio flashes with a pre-flash, but will probably result in under exposure unless you are just using your flash for fill. If the studio lights register during pre-flash, your flash will reduce power to compensate but the studio lights can't fire a second time, that fast, so they don't provide the light the camera expects.

 

[tirediron]

...Touch the button just before you take the photo. This will cause the studio lights to fire, ...

Highly professional! If the "studio guys" are using an optical slave system, then it's going to be a challenge. What I prefer to do in a situation where there are toes I may steop on (over here it's usually the still guys Vs. the video guys) is to meet with them beforehand, discusss the situation and plan things so that each of us bothers the other as little as possible. It could be as simple as them putting a little piece of card on one side of the optical trigger so it's 'blind' in that direction, or moving their lights a little bit. Planning and preparation will yeild a much better end result for everyone.

 

[CameraClicker]

...Touch the button just before you take the photo. This will cause the studio lights to fire, ...

Highly professional! If the "studio guys" are using an optical slave system, then it's going to be a challenge. What I prefer to do in a situation where there are toes I may steop on (over here it's usually the still guys Vs. the video guys) is to meet with them beforehand, discusss the situation and plan things so that each of us bothers the other as little as possible. It could be as simple as them putting a little piece of card on one side of the optical trigger so it's 'blind' in that direction, or moving their lights a little bit. Planning and preparation will yeild a much better end result for everyone.

LOL! Not highly professional, but a technical solution to his problem. The OP is the one who asked, not the "studio guys". If the "studio guys" had asked, I would have responded they should get a radio for each strobe and turn off the slave sensors. I'm a little surprised they haven't done that already since not only is the OP causing them problems, but everyone with a P&S. I doubt you could block the light from random flash users while still having reliable firing of the studio strobes when the controlled strobe fires.
Meeting with the "studio guys" would have to be a couple of weeks ahead in order for them to have time to organize more radios. I don't know how they would feel about the extra expense. If their gear is flashing fairly frequently, explaining that everyone else is triggering their flash and radios are the way to stop that, might work. The inexpensive way is to try to avoid triggering their flash just as they are going to take the next shot. A couple of seconds either side of their shot should not affect them, except for the actual flash which might startle people.