G2 Remote w/ External Flash

[jmhobbs]

Hey all,

Connected my G2 to my laptop, fired up G2 Remote (Breeze version, not Canon), attached exteral flash using a hot-shoe adapter and a PC synch cord and shot some portraits. Used the laptop to trigger the shutter and flash. Everything worked great.

A week or so later, tried the same setup, but using studio lights with power pack instead of a simple flash unit. Flash will not fire when triggered by the laptop. The shutter fires, but no flash. If I switch the camera to Record mode and press the shutter button on the camera, *FLASH*, just like it should be.

What am I missing? Everything worked beautifully the first time. Second time around, the flash would not fire if triggered remotely. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks!
Jon

[Stoneh]

This could be something to do with studio lights, which hotshoe adapter are you using? There are posts on this forum about this issue, technically you can damage your G2 if the correct hotshoe with voltage protection isnt used.

This depends on the voltage your Studio lights kick back (or thats as far as my understanding goes)

[jmhobbs]

Thanks Stone. I'm just using a generic adapter that slides onto the hot-shoe plate of the G2. I know I'm running a big risk not using voltage protection. That's at the top of my wish list. Hopefully that will correct the problem.

Jon

[jmhobbs]

The curious thing is, the studio strobes work fine if I trigger the shutter with the shutter release button on the camera. They don't work if I trigger the shutter remotely via the computer. If it were a voltage issue, it wouldn't matter how I trigger the shutter, would it?

Thanks!
Jon

[jmhobbs]

Hey Stone, I just read your sig. I've traced my family roots back to Yorkshire. Maybe you know some of my rellies? :)

[Stoneh]

Jon,

Hmm very strange, I must admit I havent tried my stobes firing by remote. I will try it when I get the chance.

What kind of results you getting Jon using ur strobes? Im getting mixed results at the moment but I must confess Im a newbie to Studio lighting.

Re your family roots.... maybe!!

[kiwikeith]

stoneh wrote:
Jon,

Hmm very strange, I must admit I havent tried my stobes firing by remote. I will try it when I get the chance.

What kind of results you getting Jon using ur strobes? Im getting mixed results at the moment but I must confess Im a newbie to Studio lighting.

Re your family roots.... maybe!!


Hi Stone
WB is most important when using strobes witht the G2.
I usually get a custom reading off a white piece of polystyrene first and get good clean light,if a little red..easily desaturated in P/shop..that is with dark backgrounds..high key BG's tend to give a bit of trouble because my home studio is so small..
On another matter..in New Zealand where the light is so strong I find I have great difficulty with high contrast outdoor shots and have started to put the camera away as it seems to blow out the highlights too easily,now just use it for my studio portraits and interior commercial shoots.
From an EX Clitheroe Kid..Lancs.
KK

[Stoneh]

Cheers KK (PS I like the nick)

I've found that if I put WB to Flash then the colours are quite accurate and good, I did try Manual WB with a white card, and couldnt tell diff between that and the Flash WB setting, could depend on the subject I guess.

I have prob too with teh room being too small.... looks like gona have to rent a room.... along with some ahem.... models :)

[kiwikeith]

Wouldnt mind seeing those images..watch out for camera shake..eh!Wink..Wink

[Stoneh]

here are a few of those........ (i wish!! but never mind some good pics I took on my holiday)

:)

http://www.dialasif.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Pages/Photography/Index.htm

[kiwikeith]

That sure aint the Costa Del Sol,great images,what made you head up that way??
KK

[Stoneh]

Inlaws!!! should make any sane man run other way, but free holiday, lots of natural scenary any excuse to get out and take some pics, there were the awesome K2 (8512M) and Nanga Parbat (8100M) to photograph but the roads were well dodgy. New Zealand is one of the best places for scenary ive heard. Would love to go there someday..... (any young girls over there wana marry a briton?) :)

[kiwikeith]

We got too many poms here now :-)
KK

[jmhobbs]

Hey guys,

Sorry I kind of fell asleep on this topic.

I'm still quite a newbie with studio lighting myself. One of the driving factors behind my purchasing a G2 is so I can experiment/learn without burning a whole bunch of film (and cash!).

I struggle a bit with getting the right exposure. I have a flash meter that's been pretty reliable in the past. I find that the flash meter and the G2 don't always agree. I haven't done any real scientific investigation yet, but I find I have to fiddle with the exposure a bit, rather than just going with the meter.

That being said, once I get the lighting and exposure nailed, the G2 is delivering some pretty good results. I have printed a few 8x10's on an old Epson 870 and the results are quite nice.

I have some examples on my family website: http://www.lonestargopher.com/portraits.html

Cheers!

[kiwikeith]

Hi Jim?
Put your bleeping meter away!The whole idea of a digital camera is WYSIWYG what you see is what you get.
Use the histogram on playback to tell you whether you have nailed the exposure or not..you want to have signal right accross the graph but not all bunched up on one side or 'tother.
Your camera does not meter the same way as your meter..but you can maybe get the exposure right on the camera..then take a meter reading to give the Fstop plus or minus variations.
Hope that helps..sorry about taking over your post,it was pretty boring before we highjacked it..

[jmhobbs]

Hey Keith,

Don't mind being hijacked at all. Better than being ignored :)

The LCD gets me closer to the correct exposure than the meter. I've not found it good enough to get spot-on though. I haven't used the G2 meter for measuring exposure with external flash.

I've used my hand-held meter with a Fuji S1. I set the S1 to the settings read by the meter. Opened the pix in Photoshop, fired up the Curves, hit auto, and the picture barely changed, if at all. I've used the same meter with a couple film cameras and the meter gives perfect exposure. Just kind of curious that the G2 is so far off from my meter. Even when I use the LCD to set exposure settings, auto-curves makes pretty significant changes.

Not a big deal once you know to adjust for it.

Jon

[kiwikeith]

Hi Jim
The LCD on the G2 is too small and contrasty to give a true exposure indication..you are better off using the histogram function in palyback mode..dont know why it is out but I have heard that it can be up to 2 stops difference than with an incident flash meter..
Careful with curves as it can really give colour shifts on Auto..
KK

[SkipD]

Hi gang, this is my first post here, but I've been lurking for a while.

I have a G2, and recently jumped into full-fledged studio type flash lighting for the fun of it. I got a Wein safe-sync hotshoe adapter to plug the lights into. Pleasant surprise is that there is no double-flash when I'm on any of the three manual exposure settings. It's just like my film cameras.

I use a cable to the first of several stand-mounted flash units with umbrellas, and the rest of the flash units trigger with their slaves (either built in or a Wein Peanut, depending on the location).

I'm using a Sekonic flash meter, and things seem to work out very well. It's just like using my (1966 vintage) Nikon F's or the Pentax PZ-10, only better because it's digital from the get-go.

Skip

[kiwikeith]

Hey Skip
Great to hear you are all set up for studio flash..have you also noticed that you can use faster shutter sync speeds..I can go up to 500th sec..I guess it is fooling the cameras' electronics because normally it will only sync up to 250th.
I dunno how experienced you are at studio work but have you tried portraits with just a main and reflector or are you using fill flash as well?
KK

[SkipD]

The first thing I tried was using the 420EX flash on an extender cord, and in front of a reflector, with another reflector for fill. I built a couple of portable reflector rigs so that I could put silver car window shades anywhere I want to, mounted to light stands. That works great as long as you are in really close to the subject (table-top stuff), but lacks a little bit in flexibility. The flash extender cords are short and expensive.

Then, I latched onto a couple of slave flashes (maybe 40 watt/second), stands, and umbrellas for next to nothing. These work OK, but I see the need for more power and flexibility. I'm going to order a couple 200 watt/second monolights soon, and use the other units I have for extra lighting (background, hair lights, etc.)

The whole rig will be portable. My "studio" is a hunk of the basement or garage, or someplace on site like our local Historical Society building. Another intention of the lighting system is to make it work with all the film cameras I have too, and I think it's going to work out well.

[jmhobbs]

Good info guys.

Keith - I'll try using the histogram more. Having to switch back and forth between shooting and reviewing modes every time I tweak exposure settings is a minor pain. That's one of the reasons I had hoped to use the G2 Remote software; I get a larger review image and a histogram every shot without fiddling with the camera.

Skip - glad to hear your getting good exposures. I plan to do some testing to get a better handle on my setup.

It's good to know that the G2 will synch at faster shutter speeds with external flash. I've found that the F8 minimum aperature combined with my strobe set-up required some compromise. Being able to shoot faster than 1/125 will add some flexibility.

Thanks!
Jon