how to get speedlights to slave with studio lights

[morlia]

This is my second post here in a week...I must be growing up!:) Anyways, I want to use one of my speedlights as an accent in my background, but it wont fire when set to slave. The studio lights are on master. (well the one is), so I thought all I would have to do is set my 580 to slave and bob would be my uncle. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? (yes the ir can see the flash):)

[e r y k]

what kind of studio lights are these? i may be wrong, but i thought canons IR system was specific to only canon?

[Lotto]

Use the 580 as the trigger flash, the strobes will fire by their own optical slaves.

[FlashZebra]

If you use he Canon 580EX as Lotto indicates above, you must put it in manual mode so there will be no ETTL preflash.

Enjoy! Lon

[morlia]

Use the 580 as the trigger flash, the strobes will fire by their own optical slaves.

okay that makes sense.., I tried it and it seems like the studio lights are firing too late....it's really dark..can you think of a fix?


I didn't think the ir was only for canon...I may have to do some reading..

[morlia]

If you use he Canon 580EX as Lotto indicates above, you must put it in manual mode so there will be no ETTL preflash.

Enjoy! Lon

I tried it earlier...but it didn't seem to work. Come to think of it, I should maybe check to see if there is something wrong with the flashes...hmmm

[Curtis N]

The flash needs to be in manual mode (no E-TTL).

[morlia]

The flash needs to be in manual mode (no E-TTL).

i did do that. I will try again..

[FlashZebra]

You will not be able to get a garden variety studio light to act as a master to Canon's proprietary infrared triggering system.

The root of the problem here is just slinging the word "master" in a very unprecise manner.

Canon uses that word to have a very specific meaning, only with regard to their own proprietary infrared flash communication system.

If you have some sort of "master" function with your studio flash units (it would help if you would declare what those are) it has no relationship to the term "master" as used by Canon.

So, the nut of this is Canon "master" and studio strobe "master" do not have the same meaning.

Enjoy! Lon

[morlia]

You will not be able to get a garden variety studio light to act as a master to Canon's proprietary infrared triggering system.

The root of the problem here is just slinging the word "master" in a very unprecise manner.

Canon uses that word to have a very specific meaning, only with regard to their own proprietary infrared flash communication system.

If you have some sort of "master" function with your studio flash units (it would help if you would declare what those are) it has no relationship to the term "master" as used by Canon.

So, the nut of this is Canon "master" and studio strobe "master" do not have the same meaning.

Enjoy! Lon

That's alot of "masters"! :) Initially I thought I would set up one of my studio lights as the master. (it's pluged in and the slave is shot off. The other studio light (opus) triggers optically. I wanted to add the speed light (set to manual and slave) and the baby just won't fire.

Then I thought I would use the 580 on camera (switched to master) and trigger the studio lights optically. they all fire, but the photo is so dark. Darker that the same settings with just the studio lights. I don't get it. I am probably frustrating all of you. Sorry, I must be missing something super simple.

[Lotto]

oops, I thought the OP already know how to use the 580 off camera.

To use the 580 on camera as the "master", switch the 580 to manual mode (master/salve switch to OFF), set power to say 1/32, the 580 will trigger the strobes.

To use the 580 off camera, you need a sync cord/adapter, or a radio trigger like the Pocket Wizards or eBay trigger.

The 580EX can not be used as optical slave to the strobes by itself because it has no build in optical slave sensor.

[morlia]

okay, I got it to work somewhat. I set the 580 on camera (manual) then set the 430 in the corner on slave (manual and gelled so I could definitely see it). I had to reset them but it works like it should. Then I added one strobe optically. The photo was darker than previous photo. Same settings. Then I plugged in the strobe, and it worked like a charm. It took forever for the speedlight to recycle. So I think I maybe with some more fooling around I may get it.

Thanks to everyone for your super fast help!