In need of some disection here...

[Alpha]

But the point of shooting in lower, even light is that you can get buy without the flash and take care of the rest in post.

 

[THORHAMMER]

there is no such thing as "naturally occuring lower AND even light, "

noon time is the most bright and also most even light. Where is your shadow at noon ?

noon light is even vertically, although its more even landscape with dusk light,
So youll be trading head shadows on neck for a nose or chin shadow that goes into the eye or forehead. same thing

Dusk might have less overall shadow to light contrast but its still waaay too much contrast for a camera to even out the shadows,
--its just a lot easier near dusk to fill in the shadows due to the lower power of the light and also the golden red color is nice looking , thats all. youll proably get worse shadows at dusk,

instead of tendency to blow out highlights during noon but still retain exposure in subject, youll get the highlights exposed but the subject will look very dark and the shadows will be longer and darker.

I know what your saying in theory makes some sense, its just not how it works in practice due to things you cannot control like orientation of the sun vs background stuff and elevation of land, youll have the almost perfect shot and then the sun dips below a hill, or you have to use iso 1600 destroying the clients ability to crop in and adjust much light in PS ,

it just doesn't work to have zero lighting @ dusk for a commercial shoot. Or if it does work its very rare, why would a client hire you when so many things could go wrong and you have no way to fix the problem, that why you use lights and reflectors, its more for the unseen things that change and happen. you have to make the shot happen not be at the mercy of the sun and moon.

 

[Richard]

Woah woah woah!!! Haha.


So is there a cheap way to get my flash off-camera?

You can use a sync cord http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/375157-REG/Interfit_INT657_PC_Male_to_PC.html

Your flash and camera need a pc sync terminal. Even if you flash doesn't have a pc terminal you can buy a hotshoe adapter.

OR

If you want to go wireless I would wait till the radiopopper Jr. comes out. They are going to be very affordable.
http://radiopopper.com/products/view/radiopopper_jr

OR

If you can't wait you can go to ebay and buy a Catus Trigger set for around 50 bucks, but they are not really realiable, even though they do work better and go further distance when you do a DIY MOD.

 

[Alpha]

there is no such thing as "naturally occuring lower AND even light, "

noon time is the most bright and also most even light. Where is your shadow at noon ?

noon light is even vertically, although its more even landscape with dusk light,
So youll be trading head shadows on neck for a nose or chin shadow that goes into the eye or forehead. same thing

Dusk might have less overall shadow to light contrast but its still waaay too much contrast for a camera to even out the shadows,
--its just a lot easier near dusk to fill in the shadows due to the lower power of the light and also the golden red color is nice looking , thats all. youll proably get worse shadows at dusk,

instead of tendency to blow out highlights during noon but still retain exposure in subject, youll get the highlights exposed but the subject will look very dark and the shadows will be longer and darker.

I know what your saying in theory makes some sense, its just not how it works in practice due to things you cannot control like orientation of the sun vs background stuff and elevation of land, youll have the almost perfect shot and then the sun dips below a hill, or you have to use iso 1600 destroying the clients ability to crop in and adjust much light in PS ,

it just doesn't work to have zero lighting @ dusk for a commercial shoot. Or if it does work its very rare, why would a client hire you when so many things could go wrong and you have no way to fix the problem, that why you use lights and reflectors, its more for the unseen things that change and happen. you have to make the shot happen not be at the mercy of the sun and moon.

I really am at a loss to understand what exactly you're talking about. I have done more shoots than I can count in the few hours after sunrise and before sunset, where the light has been even and, compared to the rest of the day, low. Aside from the fact that what I proposed most certainly can work for landscape photography, that's neither her nor there. This is a shoot in a warehouse type area. Whatever variables you think are problematic can easily be addressed by scouting the location beforehand.

 

[THORHAMMER]

I'm talking about how the sun moves low as it gets later and the shadows go from top to bottom to sideways a little. not landscape shooting !! LOL

If you can get good commercial work using no lights or reflectors at dusk, more power to you. Congrats thats amazing. Id love to see some of it sometime !!

 

[Alpha]

I'm talking about how the sun moves low as it gets later and the shadows go from top to bottom to sideways a little. not landscape shooting !! LOL

If you can get good commercial work using no lights or reflectors at dusk, more power to you. Congrats thats amazing. Id love to see some of it sometime !!

Personally I'd use strobes since I own a set. However, if you took away my strobes I'd have no problem getting good even light and taking care of the rest in post.

 

[butterflygirl]

[So is there a cheap way to get my flash off-camera? If not, how can I utilize it as-is?
Would a reflector help in a situation like this?
And would a tripod help me get sharper images, maybe while using my 85mm as opposed to my 70-200mm?[/quote]

Do you have two flashes where one can act like a slave?

I use a Smith-Victor stand for my 430ex flash that I can mount onto any stand - it's here http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/48817-REG/Smith_Victor_401935_Stand_Flash_Shoe.html

It's really cheap!

Then I use my 580ex on camera which triggers by 430ex.

If not, there must be a way to connect your flash to your camera with a cord. It just might not provide much mobility.

 

[THORHAMMER]

if you have that setup, you can use one hot shoe cable to extend the reach of the 580 and place the 430 wherever you want within 30 feet or so like your allready doing. Just do that for now unless you want to spend 200$ + for proper transmitters and recievers that are not IR but RF will go further and around corners and through things. pocket wizzards, elinchrom skyports, these are both the only ones I receommend from personal experience.

get the cable I think the expensive one is 40-50 bucks, maybe there is a good 3rd party one out there a little less, even if you get the transcievers you can always use the cable to mount the main flash high up on a bracket.

try a tripod when your shooting dusk, itll help you plan more ,
and make sure your shutter speed is below 250 or youll get black bars the synch speed on the 20D is 250 for most flash units

Bring a ND#4 filter or higher with you, if your having problems getting your shutter speed below 250. But try using narrower Fstop first, like F5.6 - F9 if still not able to get shutter down to 250 then make sure your at iso 100, then if still not slow enough put on the ND, you might also need that if you want to use external flash and also small Depth of Field at the same time.

Whatever you do, in my opinion dont get the optical triggers that go for cheap on ebay. If you need to rely on this really they will malfunction sometime when you need them, and other camera flashes can set them off, and the distance is not too far. Save your money and pick up real transmitters wether you decide to go canon IR, or PW RF type setup get a decent system itll last you 30 times longer and you can also use it to shoot events, parties, and weddings.
You cant rely on optical slaves when you have other cameras around shooting off flashes too..