Info on EOS wireless flash setups

[wolverine]

Hey Guys:

I have decided to go with a mutiple EX flash setup for use with my D60 for wedding photography and on-site family portraits. Mainly because of its portabilty and affordability. I am having a hard time finding info on lighting setups using this system. I would love to see some sample photos and positioning information. Does anyone know of any websites that can provide this info?


Thanks in advance,
John

[raymond_anthony]

i am also interested in this. i am also interested in regular lighting setup. any pictorials wiill help.

[Dans_D60]

wolverine wrote:
Hey Guys:

I have decided to go with a mutiple EX flash setup for use with my D60 for wedding photography and on-site family portraits. Mainly because of its portabilty and affordability. I am having a hard time finding info on lighting setups using this system. I would love to see some sample photos and positioning information. Does anyone know of any websites that can provide this info?


Thanks in advance,
John



Dear John:
I haven’t done wedding photography. But, have done a good number of indoor and outdoor sessions with flash. I found the 550EX a wonderfully flexible on camera flash unit. The combination of the 550EX and a Stroboframe is ideal for outdoor fill flash. For more controlled and formal setups, I have attempted to use two 550EX units and could never achieve the results I wanted. True, these two units work automatically together and can be moved and re-setup quickly, but I never got great results. Even the infrared remote control seemed to work well in bright light, which was a surprise. My preferred method for a mobile outdoor shooting is two JTL 300 W/S monolights with JTL battery pack and the Pocket Wizard wireless RF remote controllers, and small silver umbrellas. 300 W/S is not a huge amount of light for outdoors, but the JTL 300 monolights and battery pack are pretty light and can be moved easily. Of course, camera is in manual mode but with digital and the ability to review the histogram makes manual strobe lighting a snap. In studio, I still prefer the Novatron power-pack. If you already invested in the 550EX’s, my only suggestion for setup is to start with the standard 45 degree on subject to reduce harsh shadows. This may require the ST-E2 which is the remote transmitter that will allow you to place the two 550EX’s anywhere you want. In manual mode, you can also setup the 550EX’s for “ratio” lighting. In other words, you can have one unit set at ½ or ¼, or so on as a ratio. This will allow you to better define shadows or other effects you may want. Good luck! Let others chime in with their thoughts. Just my two-cents.
Dan
http://www.pettusphoto.com

[Uffe]

John,

I can't point you in any generally good direction either, but I noticed that you didn't mention *which* EX flash you aiming at...

There I have one important comment: You can *not* set manual exposure on the 420 EX... I have a couple of 420's, 550's and an ST-E2. It works miracles with E-TTL, but you can't really get consistent results in a series of shots with the 420's.

The ideal situation would be to let you set exposure once and for all for a shoot/setup, but the 420's *only* do E-TTL, meaning that exposure is measured for each shot. A slight recomposition gives a whole different exposure. And the exposure is based on the active focus point, and you have only three on your D60... The only way around it is to use FEL before each shot, putting the active focus point over the same spot. Imagine putting a wedding couple through that: Before each shot, you will have to blind them with a preflash...

A FEL memory/lock would have taken care of that problem, letting you FEL once for a session and remembering exposure values, but there just isn't any such function on the camera...

Good luck!

/Uffe.