Some help with multiple Canon speedlites...

[splproductions]

I've been reading everything I can about using multiple Canon speedlites, but I'm still a bit confused and want to make sure I'm buying all the correct equipment and understand how everything is going to work.

I want to use two 580EX IIs off-camera. One will be connected to my camera via that OCF Gear 33' cord, and will be my master. The second 580 will have an optical slave from FlashZebra (the green one for Canons) plugged into it. Because E-TTL uses a pre-flash, I will work only in Manual mode with this setup.

First, is this setup going to work? Am I missing anything?

Second, I've read that when using an optical slave, you "must have a clear line of sight between the on-camera flash/trigger and the slave". What exactly does this mean? Does "line of sight" mean that putting one of the 580s behind an umbrella ruins that? Or one 580 being in a softbox? Shouldn't the slave fire as long as it sees a burst of light?

Third, when it says "between the on-camera flash...", my flash connected via the 33' cord counts as "on-camera", since it's technically connected to the camera, right? You just need a flash to trigger that slave, correct?

(ETA: The reason I'm contemplating the optical slave route is because that seems to be the cheapest method to get up and running with two speedlites. I can't afford the Pocket Wizard.)

 

[o hey tyler]

Cactus Wireless Flash Transceiver V5 Duo - Gadget Infinity

Get a few of those. That's what I started with. They work great, and they're fairly inexpensive.

The optical slave route will be cheap, but I see it being more limiting. Plus, with Cactus triggers, you could have a speedlight on camera, and still fire the other one having it plugged into the jack on the side (assuming your camera has one).

What body are you using?

 

[splproductions]

Plus, with Cactus triggers, you could have a speedlight on camera...

Does the 580 connected via the cord count as "on camera"? I'm still confused about that. I really don't want any flash on-camera (since I'm going to all this trouble to get them off-camera).

My body is the T1i.

 

[Rephargotohp]

IF you don't want to do E-TTL why are you buying a $65 E-TTL cable?

Like O said, get Cactus triggers (one transmitter, two receivers) and run it all wireless, full manual flash

 

[Rephargotohp]

If YOu do want to do E-TTL You could use the cable and make the 580 Connected to that set to master and the other 580 EX set to Slave, No optical Trigger needed, They have IR triggers built in...But it is not as reliable as Wireless (Radio) triggers. Sunlight can affect both Optical and IR working well

 

[Tiberius47]

I've been reading everything I can about using multiple Canon speedlites, but I'm still a bit confused and want to make sure I'm buying all the correct equipment and understand how everything is going to work.

I want to use two 580EX IIs off-camera. One will be connected to my camera via that OCF Gear 33' cord, and will be my master. The second 580 will have an optical slave from FlashZebra (the green one for Canons) plugged into it. Because E-TTL uses a pre-flash, I will work only in Manual mode with this setup.

First, is this setup going to work? Am I missing anything?

Second, I've read that when using an optical slave, you "must have a clear line of sight between the on-camera flash/trigger and the slave". What exactly does this mean? Does "line of sight" mean that putting one of the 580s behind an umbrella ruins that? Or one 580 being in a softbox? Shouldn't the slave fire as long as it sees a burst of light?

Third, when it says "between the on-camera flash...", my flash connected via the 33' cord counts as "on-camera", since it's technically connected to the camera, right? You just need a flash to trigger that slave, correct?

(ETA: The reason I'm contemplating the optical slave route is because that seems to be the cheapest method to get up and running with two speedlites. I can't afford the Pocket Wizard.)

You don't need no optical slaves. The 580 has them built in, and they are awesome.

Here's what you do.

You have a master flash that is connected to the camera via a cable (and yes, this is considered to be on camera, as there is a physical connection between the flash and the camera that functions identically to the way it would if it was mounted in the hotshoe. As far as the camera is concerned, there's a flash in the shoe. However, as far as the light is concerned, it is off camera because the flash is physically moved away from the camera). You have the slave flash which is sitting somewhere by itself.

Put the master into master mode and the slave into slave mode. make sure they are both on the same channel.

Now, the master is in group A, and set your slave to be in group B.

Set the power for group A and the power for group B.

You don't need an extra optical slave. The 580 is capable of picking up the control flashes from the master by itself. In fact, an external optical slave won't work, for a few reasons. First, it will be triggered by any preflash from the on camera flash (so unless you ar shooting in manual, your slave will be going off early.) Secondly, Canon flashes triggered by optical slaves tend to freeze after one shot, and you need to turn your flash off and on again to clear it. Now, there are optical slaves out there that correct these problems, but still, using the built in system has one huge advantage that optical slaves don't have. namely, you can control your slave flash from your camera. So, using the Canon built in system is like optical slaves on steroids.

Line of sight doesn't mean you need to make sure that there's nothing between your master and your slave. it just means that the slave needs to be able to see the flash from the master. This can mean either seeing the flash tube itself, but it will still work fine if the slave only sees the master lighting up a wall. I use a 580 shooting through one of those hotshoe flash softboxes, and as long as I turn it so the receiver is facing towards the on-camera master flash, it works fine.

Have a read of my "Canon Wireless flash" tutorial in my signature. That will give you more information how to set this up. It's really easy, and very flexible.