Flash brackets recommendations with ....

[cecilc]

Canon 10D and 550EX flash ....

I'm looking for a flash bracket to get my 550EX off the camera for shooting high school football (specifically) and to get rid of (or minimize) that "demonic" look that a direct flash gives.

The 10D also has the battery grip attached to it. Does anyone have any recommendations for an adequate bracket? I'm using a 300 2.8 lens on a monopod with this, if that makes any difference in a recommendation.

Another question - I've re-read the manuals (camera and flash) trying to find out about "off camera" flash and I can't find anywhere where it tells you "how" the 550EX fires when it's off the camera .....

So - how does the 550EX fire when it's off the camera? I can't find any inputs for a cord other than for an external power source for the 550EX.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated ....

[scottbergerphoto]

The only cord that will maintain ETTL is the Canon Off The She Cord 2. The flash will work as though it is on the hot shoe.

Flash bracket: Stroboframe Pro-RL

Scott

[cecilc]

Thank you, Scott ....

It was driving me crazy trying to figure out how the flash worked off the camera .....

Appreciate the recommendations .....

[JABACo]

The only cord that will maintain ETTL is the Canon Off The She Cord 2. The flash will work as though it is on the hot shoe.

Flash bracket: Stroboframe Pro-RL

Scott

Scott,

Will this, Stroboframe Pro-RL, work with most monopods? Also, what accessories did you have to buy for this frame to work, if you have a 10D with the BG3-ED.

thanks

Bradley

[DaveG]

Canon 10D and 550EX flash ....

I'm looking for a flash bracket to get my 550EX off the camera for shooting high school football (specifically) and to get rid of (or minimize) that "demonic" look that a direct flash gives.

The 10D also has the battery grip attached to it. Does anyone have any recommendations for an adequate bracket? I'm using a 300 2.8 lens on a monopod with this, if that makes any difference in a recommendation.

Another question - I've re-read the manuals (camera and flash) trying to find out about "off camera" flash and I can't find anywhere where it tells you "how" the 550EX fires when it's off the camera .....

So - how does the 550EX fire when it's off the camera? I can't find any inputs for a cord other than for an external power source for the 550EX.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated ....

I use a Stroboframe Pro-T flash flip bracket and it works well for removing side shadow and - with most lenses - red eye. But for what you are planning no bracket will work. With a lens like the 300 f2.8 and in spite of the bracket you will still get red eye.

The factor that causes red eye is when the flash is too close to the axis of the lens. The light goes out, reflects off of the subject's retina, glows red and is photographed as such by the camera. A bracket moves the flash head a distance away from the lens and solves the problem, usually.

If you look sideways at what you are doing you see that you have the flash, the lens and the subject, and they form a triangle. The height of the flash above the camera lens we can call the rise. From the flash to the subject there's an angle and we can call it the slope. If you are making telephoto shots with a flash in a conventional bracket (that is one that is commercially sold and works fine with shorter focal length lenses) the rise is much less significant and the slope much more gradual as the subject get farther and farther from the camera. You would then need to have an incredibly exagerated rise or you will still get red eye, and I do when I use my 70-200 at 180-200 mm in spite of the bracket. The rise is just not enough to get the flash proportionally far enough away from the lens.

More to the point, do EVERYTHING in your power to not use flash when you are shooting sports. A camera mounted flash produces a flat light with significant flash fall off. This usually means that while the player in focus is exposed correctly the background is dead black and looks completely unnatural. If you use a slower shutterspeed to bring up some background you almost certainly will get ghosting.

You have NEVER seen a professional sports image that uses a camera based (bracket or otherwise) flash, and that's because those shots just suck, with or without red eye!

The technique to use is to increase the ISO of your capture until you can get at least 1/500 of a second. You have a 300 f2.8 and you need to take advantage of the 2.8 part that you paid a lot of money for. If you can get to 1/500 @ f2.8 even if it also takes ISO 3200, you will end up with significantly better images than any camera/bracket born flash will give you. Yes it'll be noisy, and it would be lovely to use a slower ISO but sports images with camera mounted flash is just plain awful.

[JABACo]

You have NEVER seen a professional sports image that uses a camera based (bracket or otherwise) flash, and that's because those shots just suck, with or without red eye!

The technique to use is to increase the ISO of your capture until you can get at least 1/500 of a second. You have a 300 f2.8 and you need to take advantage of the 2.8 part that you paid a lot of money for. If you can get to 1/500 @ f2.8 even if it also takes ISO 3200, you will end up with significantly better images than any camera/bracket born flash will give you. Yes it'll be noisy, and it would be lovely to use a slower ISO but sports images with camera mounted flash is just plain awful.

Would it work to shoot in raw and over expose night shots. Would this work when not using a flash????

Bradley

[RichardtheSane]

Manfrotto do a flash bracket that can put some significant distance between the flash head and the camera. I have one and have found it to be very effective when using my 100-400L on wildlife.

But I agree with dave - bump the ISO and use little or no flash unless you have to.

[DaveG]

You have NEVER seen a professional sports image that uses a camera based (bracket or otherwise) flash, and that's because those shots just suck, with or without red eye!

The technique to use is to increase the ISO of your capture until you can get at least 1/500 of a second. You have a 300 f2.8 and you need to take advantage of the 2.8 part that you paid a lot of money for. If you can get to 1/500 @ f2.8 even if it also takes ISO 3200, you will end up with significantly better images than any camera/bracket born flash will give you. Yes it'll be noisy, and it would be lovely to use a slower ISO but sports images with camera mounted flash is just plain awful.

Would it work to shoot in raw and over expose night shots. Would this work when not using a flash????

Bradley

I'd enable the H for high speed ISO (that's ISO 3200) and shoot large jpegs. The jpegs should be read by the card more quickly than RAW files and you'll get more shots per CF card. Now I love RAW but for some things jpegs make more sense, and for sports, clearing out the buffer quickly is one of those things.

If you can get 1/500 @ f2.8 with ISO 1600 then do so. The lower the ISO the better, but don't be afraid to shoot with 3200 if that's all you can do. The down side of all of this is what you do if you can't get to 1/500 or even 1/250 even with ISO 3200 in that particular stadium? And the sad answer is NOTHING. I mean you can make those bad shots with the flash but that strikes me as mere ticket punching. Sometimes you just need to walk away.

DO NOT OVEREXPOSE - ever - with digital imaging. While digital capture handles underexposure to a certain extent it's very unforgiving with overexposure.

[cecilc]

Dave...

I certainly appreciate your passionate posting about not using flash for sports .... and I will take your advice to heart and give it a shot. I've never shot a football game at ISO 3200 - mainly because I just hate the noise from ISO 1600 and I figure that I'll hate shots at ISO 3200 even more ..... but, hey, there's a first time for everything, right ??!! Maybe it's time I shot a game at ISO 3200 just to check it out ....

Dave, do you have some shots that you've taken at ISO 3200 that you could show to us - and not necessarily from football. Just any sport that you've shot at 1/500 at 2.8 at ISO 3200 ? You speak very strongly against flash vs. ISO 3200. And I'm sure that opinion comes from success with what you're preaching ..... and I'll thank you in advance for sharing any of your shots with us.

Dave, thanks again for your input. I'll even promise that I'll give it a try ....

[DaveG]

Dave...

I certainly appreciate your passionate posting about not using flash for sports .... and I will take your advice to heart and give it a shot. I've never shot a football game at ISO 3200 - mainly because I just hate the noise from ISO 1600 and I figure that I'll hate shots at ISO 3200 even more ..... but, hey, there's a first time for everything, right ??!! Maybe it's time I shot a game at ISO 3200 just to check it out ....

Dave, do you have some shots that you've taken at ISO 3200 that you could show to us - and not necessarily from football. Just any sport that you've shot at 1/500 at 2.8 at ISO 3200 ? You speak very strongly against flash vs. ISO 3200. And I'm sure that opinion comes from success with what you're preaching ..... and I'll thank you in advance for sharing any of your shots with us.

Dave, thanks again for your input. I'll even promise that I'll give it a try ....

If you email me directly (dgrandy@grandyphoto.com) I'll send you a police chase shot that I did at ISO 1600 and some Taekwondo at 3200. Yes it's grainy, painfully so. But sharp trumps grain/noise, at least in my opinion.

[Mthorpe_Davies]

Well since you are using a 300 f2.8 I think there is only one serious option avaliable to you if you want to do the job properly, you want a Really Right Stuff B85-B. Check out this link

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/flash/index.html

Use one of these and don't piss around with cheaper alternatives. As it attaches to the lense rather than the camera it the way to go when using big guns. They have a user guide for flash with long lens here.

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/tutorials/telephoto/index.html

These guys also make the most amazing ball head I have ever clapped eyes on.

[rodbunn]

I looked at those brackets and they look VERY hard
to use, especially the "Portrait-Perfect" one. It looks
like when the camera is vertical there would be no way
to get a hand on the lense to zoom, or even hold the
camera from underneath??? Also, it looks like it might
block access to the pc flash plug on the side, which I
use to fire a pocket-wizard along with my 550 on the camera.

I'd have to see and play with that flash bracket before I would buy one.

Rod

[DC]

FWIW I use a wimberely flash bracket witth all my lenses 300mm and up.

I have a Wimberely QR clamp mounted on a monopod and a Wimberley lens plate for all the lenses. The flash bracket attaches to the lens plate and gets the flash way off the lens.

http://www.tripodhead.com

[Mthorpe_Davies]

No I was thinking about the system they have for telephoto lense which is what the question was all about, a flash bracket for use with a 300 f2.8. Here is a photo of what it look like

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/media/full_size/B85-B_both.jpg

[Perfect_10]

I use a Vivitar flash bracket and grip .. the flash is coupled to the camera using the Off Shoe Cord 2. The Vivitar bracket allows the flash to be decoupled from the camera at the press of a button. I can't remember the model #s off hand .. but I see them for sale all the time on ebay.

[photography By Evangelos]

I use the Stratos Brackt works great. How do I post a PIC of it here???


Angelo 8)

[ohenry]

I have a RRS bracket and it's a piece of cake to work with. Very well built and smooth. The portrait mode works just as easily. Just twist a knob and move to the position you want.

[RichardtheSane]

That really right stuff bracket doesn't look like it does a very good job of lifting the flash that high above normal position.

Personally I like more distance between flash and camera.

[ohenry]

That really right stuff bracket doesn't look like it does a very good job of lifting the flash that high above normal position.

Personally I like more distance between flash and camera.

They have 3 sizes and also offer extension bars if you want it even higher.