Reception lighting 101

[photoflux]

excellent shots JC!

Thanks for imparting your wisdom as well.

[nicksan]

Wow, thanks for all the insider information!

So you prefer to bounce your flashes off a side wall rather than say the ceiling?

[jcolman]

Originally Posted by nicksan

Wow, thanks for all the insider information!

So you prefer to bounce your flashes off a side wall rather than say the ceiling?

Yes. Bouncing off the ceiling can give you "raccoon eyes". The human body is basically a cylinder. Round cylinders typically look their best when lit from the side. Bouncing or aiming your light from two sides will give you a very nice light on the body as well as give you a nice area of coverage.

[nicksan]

Originally Posted by jcolman

Yes. Bouncing off the ceiling can give you "raccoon eyes". The human body is basically a cylinder. Round cylinders typically look their best when lit from the side. Bouncing or aiming your light from two sides will give you a very nice light on the body as well as give you a nice area of coverage.

Good tip.

I only have speedlights so I suppose what I can do would be limited by the size of the venue. What kind of mono-lights do you use for the bigger venues?

[jcolman]

Originally Posted by nicksan

Good tip.

I only have speedlights so I suppose what I can do would be limited by the size of the venue. What kind of mono-lights do you use for the bigger venues?

Speedlights can work in a larger venue. You may have to compensate for longer recycle time unless you use some external battery packs.

The whole idea of using any sort of light isn't necessarily to overpower the ambient light and light up the entire place, rather you are supplementing the existing light and putting the light where you want it. Even with speedlights I rarely use them at anything more than 1/2 power. The advantage of speedlights is that they are small, cheap and easy to move around.

Any kind of mono light will work. I use Photogenics. The advantage of mono lights is a larger reflector head and almost instant recycle time.

[S-Man]

Coleman, how are you triggering your OCFs AND your On-Camera 580?
I use Cybersyncs for the OCF's at a low power to get quick and rapid pops, but have recently run into the problem of not being able to fire my on camera 580 with the OCFs without at least one of them mis-firing. The method used is a mini-sync cord with the trigger mounted on my 580 on camera. Input?
And, thanks for sharing so much thus far.

[jcolman]

Originally Posted by S-Man

Coleman, how are you triggering your OCFs AND your On-Camera 580?
I use Cybersyncs for the OCF's at a low power to get quick and rapid pops, but have recently run into the problem of not being able to fire my on camera 580 with the OCFs without at least one of them mis-firing. The method used is a mini-sync cord with the trigger mounted on my 580 on camera. Input?
And, thanks for sharing so much thus far.

I use pocket wizards. I love them and own 8 of them. I have my 580's hotshoe modified to accept a pocket wizard sync input. Lon at Flashzebra (great people!) sells them.

This is a pic of my setup. Excuse the color. I didn't bother to correct it.

[nicksan]

Is that a mod on your 580EX flash? Why not just use the PC Sync port?

OK, I see it's this product: http://flashzebra.com/canon580ex_footassembly.shtml

But again, why not just use the PC Sync port?

**OK, nevermind. The 580EXI doesn't have a PC Sync port...duh.

[Foto-graphy]

I also use a 5Dmk and a 1dmk3
Never had problems using 580ex & 580exII + pw's firing multiple ocf's

Do people really have problems with this? I have no idea why....

The reason people modify their 580ex1's is so that they can use them as ocf's.
Using it as on camera flash connected to hot shoe + using pw at the same time is like wtf.

Maybe your PC ports are damaged, I have had that happen with one of my 5D's when a cord got snagged, I had to send it into cps and was about $100 if I recall correctly.

Actually now that I think about it my 580 does misfire sometimes, but that's only because it takes a while to recycle if I'm discharging a lot and not using a turbo pack.

[S-Man]

Originally Posted by Foto-graphy

...Using it as on camera flash connected to hot shoe + using pw at the same time is like wtf.

I don't understand this. Could you expound on that a little bit?

Are you asking why someone would want to use this configuration?
Or why it behaves like it does when using this configuration?

[jcolman]

Originally Posted by Foto-graphy

I also use a 5Dmk and a 1dmk3
Never had problems using 580ex & 580exII + pw's firing multiple ocf's

Do people really have problems with this? I have no idea why....

The reason people modify their 580ex1's is so that they can use them as ocf's.
Using it as on camera flash connected to hot shoe + using pw at the same time is like wtf.

Maybe your PC ports are damaged, I have had that happen with one of my 5D's when a cord got snagged, I had to send it into cps and was about $100 if I recall correctly.

Actually now that I think about it my 580 does misfire sometimes, but that's only because it takes a while to recycle if I'm discharging a lot and not using a turbo pack.

The main reason I don't use the PC ports is that I don't like having a cable coming out the side of the camera. I've had PC cables come loose too many times because my hand is trying to hold the camera at the same place as the PC port. It's much easier just to plug into the hot shoe base and the cable stays out of the way.

I like to use a touch of on-camera flash for fill light while firing off camera lights for my key lights. That's why I will use the above mentioned combo.

[Foto-graphy]

Originally Posted by jcolman

don't like having a cable coming out the side of the camera. I've had PC cables come loose too many times because my hand is trying to hold the camera at the same place as the PC port. It's much easier just to plug into the hot shoe base and the cable stays out of the way.

ahh i see, yeah I understand why you did it that way now.
The pc port location is definitely a little inconvenient.

Originally Posted by jcolman

I like to use a touch of on-camera flash for fill light while firing off camera lights for my key lights. That's why I will use the above mentioned combo.

I know how to use ocf, been doing it for at least 2 years now.
I just never used umbrellas like you, don't know if I would want to do that, I think it would be too distracting.

A couple untouched photos from one of the latest weddings that I have had time to put up on my blog

[RazorbackSam]

The Cactus V5 has a hotshoe on each transceiver and can be used to fire OCF and the flashgun sitting on your camera... They're not near as expensice as PW's either...

[jcolman]

Originally Posted by Foto-graphy

ahh i see, yeah I understand why you did it that way now.
The pc port location is definitely a little inconvenient.




I know how to use ocf, been doing it for at least 2 years now.
I just never used umbrellas like you, don't know if I would want to do that, I think it would be too distracting.

Nice shots!

You have a good point about being too distracting with umbrellas, but honestly, I've never had a complaint yet. I tend to use them only in larger venues, but I did use some smaller umbrellas once in a pretty small venue. No one seemed to mind and they were certainly not in anyones way.

[Foto-graphy]

Originally Posted by jcolman

Nice shots!

You have a good point about being too distracting with umbrellas, but honestly, I've never had a complaint yet. I tend to use them only in larger venues, but I did use some smaller umbrellas once in a pretty small venue. No one seemed to mind and they were certainly not in anyones way.

Thank you
To get more light coverage do you find that you have to increase the flash output to compensate for the diffusion when using umbrella vs bare bulb ocf in larger rooms? When doing bare ocf, do you bounce off the ceiling or use direct flash?

I do a little bit of both (direct flash pointed at the dance floor and sometimes bounce.)
Also I use sto-fen diffusers for my ocf's occasionally.

Soo many options