Need help with my Canon Flash

Br37t

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Hello everyone this is my first post here. So I've been a photographer for almost 15 years and I've spent most that time as a landscape photographer. Well over the past couple years I've made the switch to portraits and now weddings. I use multiple off camera flashes and have really grown accustom to them. My setup right now is a
Canon 6D
ST-E3-Rt Trigger
2 600 Ex Rt flashes
Here is my question and it's really been bothering me because I can't seem to find any answer. Is there a way to sequence flashes meaning this.
I have flash A and Flash B they are off camera and being triggered by my Camera.

Is there a way to shoot a subject and when Flash A gets hot or over cycled flash b instantly takes over and starts firing. So if I'm shooting multiple shots a second I would have coverage?


Thanks a lot
 
Are you trying to do stroboscopic pictures? There are specific lights made for this.

If you need to keep using speedlights. You need to add more lights and lower the power of each unit lower. This would allow you to say get 7fps for a limited time. But your going to have each flash at 1/16 or down to 1/32 each or lower. But there is nothing that I know of that will swap flashes in mid use.

Other solution is to go with a monolight, again at lower power so it can have faster recycle times. The monolights would be better for longevity. And they will recycle faster than the speedlights will.
 
Are you trying to do stroboscopic pictures? There are specific lights made for this.

If you need to keep using speedlights. You need to add more lights and lower the power of each unit lower. This would allow you to say get 7fps for a limited time. But your going to have each flash at 1/16 or down to 1/32 each or lower. But there is nothing that I know of that will swap flashes in mid use.

Other solution is to go with a monolight, again at lower power so it can have faster recycle times. The monolights would be better for longevity. And they will recycle faster than the speedlights will.
At this time I'm not trying to use stroboscopic. What happened was I was shooting a wedding and missed a lot of important parts because my flash didn't shoot. After doing some research it looks like I probably needed to change batteries sooner. I didn't realize that if your batteries arent fully charged the flash won't have its max refresh rate.
 
I still got like 500 usable good pictures but just had a lot that where under exposed because of no flash.
 
I still got like 500 usable good pictures but just had a lot that where under exposed because of no flash.

Pick up a CP-E4 battery pack or 2. Will reduce your recycle times and last much longer.

I shoot Nikon now and have several external battery packs. I would guess the Canon packs are very similar. They would be what you need.
 
I still got like 500 usable good pictures but just had a lot that where under exposed because of no flash.

Pick up a CP-E4 battery pack or 2. Will reduce your recycle times and last much longer.

I shoot Nikon now and have several external battery packs. I would guess the Canon packs are very similar. They would be what you need.

Yea I was thinking of purchasing one. Do you notice a big difference with yours?
 
Yea, recycle time is quicker. And can go quite a while on it. On long nights I do switch external batteries. As the recycle times start to extend as the external batteries start to wear down. I recently switched from Energizer and Tenergy basic rechargeables to a completely new set of Enoloops (several 16 packs). Going to see how they perform.

I also picked up some third party battery packs. I have 3 Nikon packs and picked up 2 Chinese made ones. Going to give them a test. I don't think there is much circuitry if any inside them. So, they should works just fine.
 
Last edited:
Hello everyone this is my first post here. So I've been a photographer for almost 15 years and I've spent most that time as a landscape photographer. Well over the past couple years I've made the switch to portraits and now weddings. I use multiple off camera flashes and have really grown accustom to them. My setup right now is a
Canon 6D
ST-E3-Rt Trigger
2 600 Ex Rt flashes
Here is my question and it's really been bothering me because I can't seem to find any answer. Is there a way to sequence flashes meaning this.
I have flash A and Flash B they are off camera and being triggered by my Camera.

Is there a way to shoot a subject and when Flash A gets hot or over cycled flash b instantly takes over and starts firing. So if I'm shooting multiple shots a second I would have coverage?


Thanks a lot

There isn't a way to run with just one flash until it gets too hot and then automatically go to another flash... but there IS a way to "cluster" several flashes so that each only fires a fraction of the power but combined they all produce the same amount of light. This clustering means they don't get as hot.

Here is just one example (there are many):

Westcott Triple Threat Speedlite Bracket 2223 B&H Photo Video

Your speedlites allow you to create "groups" (e.g. put several lights in "group a" and all flash in that group will fire simultaneously. But if you group 3x flashes on the same group, they'll all fire at about 1/3rd the power they would use if they were solo (which means they don't draw as much power and they don't get as hot.)
 
You can also use a PIXEL Battery pack for your flash, its a lot cheaper than the Cannon option (own brand accessories tend to be very overpriced to make them high profit items as cameras are relatively low profit despite their high price).

I have two Pixel battery packs and use them with my flashes and most certainly get increased recycling speed. The only worry then is heat-buildup though most newer flashes like the ones you are using, tend to have built in heat sensors that cut out the flash it if picks up that its building up too much heat (if you want a good idea of the heat put the flashhead to your leg/arm and fire it at full power - you can feel the heat).
 

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