580ex as background?

[queenbee288]

I am ready to order my lights and stuff. I will be placing my order on Monday. I have a limited budget but can add to it next month.

I am ordering:

Genesis 200 2 light kit
background stand and white paper (I already have a black backdrop.)

I already have a heavy duty lightstand, large softbox, shoot through umbrella and 5 in 1 large reflector.

I have 580ex (I not II) I have been using with a synch cord. I also have Sunpak 383.

This I my question: Can I use the 580ex and 383 for my background light. I figure I could use my sync cord for the 580 in manual mode and it would fire the strobes.

Would I need one of those peanut things to fire the 383? Any thing else?
This would give me enough money to get a lightmeter also. I have a shoot coming up of a newborn on white background I need to use this for.

I plan on ordering another 2 light kit next month for my background but though I might be better served starting out with the light meter if I could get by with this set up for my background for now.

I also want to remind Curtis that he said that if I took the plunge and got the lights he would hold my hand though it all.;)

I have been playing around with the flashes and umbrellas for a little bit and I am not quite so afraid of the strobes and I once was.

Thanks in advance for your kind help.

Here is an example of what I have been able to do with the flashes so far. I can't wait to get the strobes and real backgrounds.
http://lanephotography.smugmug.com/photos/365843284_iBQyt-XL-1.jpg

http://lanephotography.smugmug.com/photos/335207497_qBZGx-L.jpg

http://lanephotography.smugmug.com/photos/343836037_KrBnN-L.jpg

[bobbyz]

I like the 2nd shot. Gives me some ideas to try on my 3 & 1/2 month old son.

You can fire 580ex through sync cord and let others trigger optically. Or you can buy something like CyberSync to go the wireles route.

[Curtis N]

Can I use the 580ex and 383 for my background light. I figure I could use my sync cord for the 580 in manual mode and it would fire the strobes.Yes, that would work in a studio environment.Would I need one of those peanut things to fire the 383?There are a variety of optical slaves to choose from. I like the hotshoe kind, since they have a threaded hole in the bottom to mount the light.Any thing else?A good supply of alcholic beverages and a high tolerance for pain.This would give me enough money to get a lightmeter also.That would be a wise investment.I also want to remind Curtis that he said that if I took the plunge and got the lights he would hold my hand though it all.;)Curtis who?

[tim]

To many questions... brain overload. Light is light, so long as you understand it and can control it you'll be fine. The only downside of small flashes is recharge time, and risk of burning them out if you're not careful.

[queenbee288]

I like the 2nd shot. Gives me some ideas to try on my 3 & 1/2 month old son.

you can fire 580ex through sync cord and let others trigger optically. Or you can buy something like CyberSync to go the wireles route.

Thanks.
I can't add the cost of the cybercyncs right away without giving up the light meter but that is definately in my plan for the future.

Yes, that would work in a studio environment.There are a variety of optical slaves to choose from. I like the hotshoe kind, since they have a threaded hole in the bottom to mount the light.A good supply of alcholic beverages and a high tolerance for pain.That would be a wise investment.Curtis who?

Thanks for the info.

To many questions... brain overload. Light is light, so long as you understand it and can control it you'll be fine. The only downside of small flashes is recharge time, and risk of burning them out if you're not careful.

Sorry to overload your brain Tim. I had not considered that my background lights would not be recharging as fast as the strobes. I will have to look out for that. This is a very temporary make do for me. I plan on getting 2 more lights in about a month but I have a couple of shoots lined up and needed to make do. Thanks for the info.

[tim]

Sorry to overload your brain Tim

That's ok, i'm used to it :p I usually find anything too complex for me to understand after a few rums is too complex to use in practice and required further thought towards simplification. Photography's pretty simple, but it takes a few years experience to realise how simple it can be.

[Curtis N]

I had not considered that my background lights would not be recharging as fast as the strobes.At 1/2 power or less, recycle time on most flash units will not be an issue. Even the Sunpak 383 recycles in a couple seconds at half power.

The cool thing about using battery flash units is they don't need cords and can be easily hidden.

In this shot, the flash is behind the model on the sawhorse.

http://performancephoto.smugmug.com/photos/397410505_bY5Ly-L.jpg


In this shot, I put an orange gel on the flash and set it behind the subject.

http://performancephoto.smugmug.com/photos/211497976_QrQhT-XL.jpg

[cvt01]

I used my D-Lite2 combined with a 285HV and an 580exII asbackgorund lights on white background with no problem. The way I overcame the slower recharging is that I dialed down the hotshoe flashes to 1/4 power then dialed in the needed aperture to barely blown out the background. Then I dialed in the D-lite's power to properly expose the subject. At 1/4 power these flashes (especially the 580) recharge plenty fast.
This may limit the range of usable apertures but it works.

[Papa Carlo]

Sure you can use speedlight as a background light with 200 WS lights but not with the white background you are planning to shoot against.
The bakground lights should be more powerful than the main light in highkey shots so I would reverse it. Illumintate the background with the strobes and use 580 as the main light and other flash you have as the fill light.
It also will solve your taks of triggering the flashes. You can connect your cheapest speedlight to the camera via PC cord and put Canon an strobes in the slave mode.
By the way the kid on that black fur blanket looks better if the blanket is not underexposed :-)

[cvt01]

canon speedlights have no optical slave mode... the infrared communication only works between on camera 580 or ST-E2 as master and off-camera 580 or 430 as slaves

[Papa Carlo]

canon speedlights have no optical slave mode... the infrared communication only works between on camera 580 or ST-E2 as master and off-camera 580 or 430 as slaves
So I made a good choice not buying them :-)

[bobbyz]

I won't worry about recyling of flash buring them out in studio enviornment. You not shooting night time sports with flash at 8fps. The studio strobes aren't fast in any respect, they also take similar amount of time to recharge (comparing to your 580ex, not 383).

If you want to use flash as bg for white bg, just use ISO 200 instead of ISO 100. Here is a shot I took my son, I was using 1 AB400 at its lowest setting for the bg.

http://bobbyzphotography.com/img/v4/p905157861-4.jpg

Here is another one where i am just using 550ex in extra-small SB set to 1/16 power at ISO200.

http://bobbyzphotography.com/img/v4/p234597558-4.jpg

[queenbee288]

Thanks to everyone for your input.

[tim]

I won't worry about recyling of flash buring them out in studio enviornment. You not shooting night time sports with flash at 8fps. The studio strobes aren't fast in any respect, they also take similar amount of time to recharge (comparing to your 580ex, not 383).

In the studio you tend to use a lot of power if you're using soft boxes and such. Using the 580EX on full power you do need to let it cool down after you fire a burst of shots so it doesn't burn out.

[bobbyz]

In the studio you tend to use a lot of power if you're using soft boxes and such. Using the 580EX on full power you do need to let it cool down after you fire a burst of shots so it doesn't burn out.

But no one fires flash or strobe in rapid shot mode in studios. Or atleast I haven't seen it. That's is why I was saying one need not worry much.

[tim]

But no one fires flash or strobe in rapid shot mode in studios. Or atleast I haven't seen it. That's is why I was saying one need not worry much.

With a model I can fire off a lot of flashes in a short space of time, every two seconds for a minute or two. A 580EX wouldn't like that.

[cvt01]

If you do that for living, then yes a 580 in the studio is not the best solution. And not even the cheapest ;) The OP question was if it can be used, the answer to that is yes. Is it ideal, no, but good enough.