I need help with lighting.

vikingtyty

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I shoot with a canon digital rebel xt. I mostly photograph skateboarding/bmx, and those guys generally want to do it at night, since they have less of a chance of getting in trouble.

Now, the thing is, the dinky little flash on my camera just doesn't cut it.

Could someone give me some pointers on flashes/lighting, as well as recommend a flash? I don't want a Q flash or anything, but I don't want garbage either. The speedlite series of course seems promising, but I'm not sure if I want to buy one of those just yet either... a bit scared of something happening to it when I go skating.

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated, guys.

-Tyler
 
The best skate (& similar) type shots are done with remote flash. Basically, you set up a flash somewhere and trigger it remotely. This way the light is not coming from the camera's location. Makes for great shots...but it may not be cheap or easy.

A dedicated Canon flash (any of the EX units) will give you the benefit of all the technology. There are other brands that will also 'talk' with the camera but maybe not to the extent that a Canon flash will. The Sigma 500 Super is powerful but not as expensive as the top of the line Canon 580EX.

What's your budget? A Canon 430EX (or older 420EX) would be a great unit for you...but those still aren't cheap.
 
That would certainly work. You don't need a Vivitar remote trigger...any optical trigger will do (check E-bay for cheap ones).

The Vivitar 283/285 are great units.
 
the 283 would probably work as well and is probably a few bucks cheaper... your on camera flash would be the trigger for it most likely wouldn't even need a radio slave.

However there are some guys here who shoot a lot of skateboarding at least there used to be, some of them should weigh in soon. I think they were recommending two remote lights for some reason I dont know about. Most likely for the shadows but im not sure.
 
Big Mike said:
That would certainly work. You don't need a Vivitar remote trigger...any optical trigger will do (check E-bay for cheap ones).

The Vivitar 283/285 are great units.

well I mean, it's only 30 bucks brand new, unless there's a cheaper one that you'd recommend.
 
I bought one for about $7 (plus shipping)...but mine isn't as nice as the Vivitar. There are some sturdy looking ones on E-bay for less than $10.

You could even look into a cheap radio slave set. There are cheap ones avaliable on E-bay. I've heard good and bad things about them...but for less than $30, they might be more versatile than an optical slave (or maybe not :scratch: ).
 
I've never tried those radio slaves...so I won't say any more about them.

As for an optical slave...if you can find one at a local store and don't have to pay shipping...then just pick one up. From what I can tell...the ones that cost less than $50 are all pretty similar.

If you can find a Vivitar 285, then go for it.
 
Awesome, I'll probably be doing this within the next few days. I'll bump this thread and let you know how it goes.
 
If you shoot at night it wont be a problem the strobe is the shutter . it is usually 1 /1000 to 1/10000 of a sec... the difference between the 283 and 285 is the zoom thing and about ten bucks so i would buy either. optical works pretty well unless there is to much daylight or if you dont have a direct line of site. Radio would indeed be more veristile.
 
mysteryscribe said:
If you shoot at night it wont be a problem the strobe is the shutter.

I was thinkin that too, but I bet there's at least SOME ambient light... at least enough to see where they're going. In which case, with a smaller strobe (guide no. 80 or so), I suspect he'll be shooting at a higher ASA and therefore.... well... you see where I'm going.

Pete
 
You have a point you do have to make sure your fstop is high enough to exclude the ambi light at the shutter speed the camera is on. the 283 and 285 have a guide of 120 at iso 100 . I bet if you shot an iso of 400 you would get a sinsitivity enough to stike..... That may also be why those kids use two lights. One of the fstops is 5.6 at about forty feet auto. but one is f8 at about twenty feet iso 100 might have to be a little closer and use a wide angle lense. Hum interesting problem would have to be there with a light meter. and just do the math

with an optic trigger you could shoot at the highest shutter speed and exclude the light though... Thats what you meant now i see
 

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