How to foil the un-hired "help"

[Village_Idiot]

I just remembered this from the first wedding I shot at. I had an AB B800 setup on a lightstand to light the wedding party for formals in an entirely under lit church. There were several people standing behind me and the other photographer. Every time they'd try an snap photos of the wedding party, the optical slave on the AB would fire the strobe. I bet all their photos were white.

Is this a viable solution for those photographers that follow the hired photographer around every where? Carry around a strobe with an optical trigger to flash when they fire their on board flash? :D

[tim]

You could be an arse (a funny arse) and do that, or you could just quickly and politely explain the problem their taking photos causes and ask them not to. I refuse to have other cameras around when the bridal party go on the shoot after the wedding, they cause too many problems.

[Mark1]

Not a wedding.... but I did that last weekend. I was doing informal portraits at a fall festival. I had a fancy background with real corn stalks pumpkins, and stuff. People would want to take a picture of the set. Well I was running the sync cord to one and useing the eye on the other. I had a great time watching people chimp and not understand why they dont have a shot. It was bright enough in the room that the the flash was not that obvious. I almost started to joke on them that it was a form of copy protection.

[Papa Carlo]

Not a wedding.... but I did that last weekend. I was doing informal portraits at a fall festival. I had a fancy background with real corn stalks pumpkins, and stuff. People would want to take a picture of the set. Well I was running the sync cord to one and useing the eye on the other. I had a great time watching people chimp and not understand why they dont have a shot. It was bright enough in the room that the the flash was not that obvious. I almost started to joke on them that it was a form of copy protection.
If I see this setup I will try to take an advantage of using somebody else's strobes :-)

[picturecrazy]

Most cameras have a preflash that fools optical slaves. Also, when you set the shot up and give them a count or whatever as to when you'll take the pic, everyone else will shoot too. You'll have like 15 flashes going within 5 seconds. The strobe will not be able to respond to all of those flashes. You're fighting a losing battle. The best strategy is just to roll with it and don't let it upset you and accept their presence as a standard part of the job.

[Tammy Powell]

You could be an arse (a funny arse) and do that, or you could just quickly and politely explain the problem their taking photos causes and ask them not to. I refuse to have other cameras around when the bridal party go on the shoot after the wedding, they cause too many problems.

Yeah, I hear you on that. I've actually had the white strobe problem myself.

[tim]

Yeah, I hear you on that. I've actually had the white strobe problem myself.

Problems are solved with knowledge. Ask Yoda.

[Mark1]

Problems are solved with knowledge. Ask Yoda.

I have heard Stealthy Ninjas can help with problems as well!!