How to use 430EX with strobes on optical slave?

Actually i have been doing it all morning. had the 430EX fireing as a back drop full light for subject seperation and the 2 strobes in front camera left and right. All triggered by the pop up flash.
However after having a break, when i returned, the damn 430 was causing everything to go out of sync. My pictures were either totally black or i would get the light showing from the 430, but absolutely nothing from the strobes. If i turn off wireless function for the 430 then the strobes appear in my pictures.
The only thing i remember changing on the camera was i enabled the wireless remote control (rc-6).
So how do i use my 430EX together with my strobes all in sync. I forgot lol

i'm confused. how are you triggering the 430ex optically? is the pop-up flash even firing when the shutter button is pressed?

- edit -

i reread your question, and i think i understand. is your 430ex in manual mode? i suspect the pre-flash of the ettl system may be your culprit. your strobes may be getting triggered by the pre-flash, of either your pop-up or 430ex, and, as a result, your strobes are firing too early. the solution would be to take the flash system out of ettl mode.

boerewors wrote in post #11911121
Actually i have been doing it all morning. had the 430EX fireing as a back drop full light for subject seperation and the 2 strobes in front camera left and right. All triggered by the pop up flash.
However after having a break, when i returned, the damn 430 was causing everything to go out of sync. My pictures were either totally black or i would get the light showing from the 430, but absolutely nothing from the strobes. If i turn off wireless function for the 430 then the strobes appear in my pictures.
The only thing i remember changing on the camera was i enabled the wireless remote control (rc-6).
So how do i use my 430EX together with my strobes all in sync. I forgot lol

It's not a good idea to mix the Canon wireless triggering (430EX) and dumb optical slave triggering (strobes) in the same set up because of the exact issues you mentioned. What's happening is that the command flash emitted by the 60D built-in flash for the 430EX is triggering the optically triggered slaves prematurely. The bright flash from the prematurely triggered slaves also drown out the command flash from the 60D so the 430EX never gets the instruction to fire, and hence the dark image. The only way to ensure that all the lights fire consistently is to hook up an optical slave device to the 430EX and use the built-in flash of the 60D, set to manual mode, not wireless mode, to optically trigger the lights.

You'll need an EX compatible optical trigger, like the one below:

http://flashzebra.com/​products/0118/index.sh​tml

And a hotshoe adapter to connect the flash to the trigger:

http://flashzebra.com/​hotshoes-shoes/0065.shtml

@pacace:
Ya that will help me alot but my budget has been maxed out on buying my equipment. I was able to shoot over a hundred shots without even a single failed shot this morning. Only when i went back later to continue, i couldnt get the damn thing to sync.
@mizer357:
I think you are right. The speedlight is showing ETTL on the screen but i dont know how get manual mode to function. The red blinking light goes off and it doesent respond when i put it in manual mode. Funny because this morning i was able to do it and now i have gone totally blank. I have a feeling its a setting on the actual speedlight thats causing the problem and not a camera setting. How to set it to manual mode but keep the red light blinking?

mizer357 wrote in post #11911164
i'm confused. how are you triggering the 430ex optically? is the pop-up flash even firing when the shutter button is pressed?

- edit -

i reread your question, and i think i understand. is your 430ex in manual mode? i suspect the pre-flash of the ettl system may be your culprit. your strobes may be getting triggered by the pre-flash, of either your pop-up or 430ex, and, as a result, your strobes are firing too early. the solution would be to take the flash system out of ettl mode.

It really doesn't matter what mode the 430EX is set to. What matters is what the master flash, in this case the built-in flash of the 60D, is set to. If the 60D is set to E-TTL mode, then, yes, there will be an exposure preflash. However, if it's set to manual mode, then there will be no exposure preflash. However, there will still be a command flash which is emitted just before the shutter curtain opens, as long as the 60D is set to wireless config mode.

boerewors wrote in post #11911423
@pacace:
Ya that will help me alot but my budget has been maxed out on buying my equipment. I was able to shoot over a hundred shots without even a single failed shot this morning. Only when i went back later to continue, i couldnt get the damn thing to sync.
@mizer357:
I think you are right. The speedlight is showing ETTL on the screen but i dont know how get manual mode to function. The red blinking light goes off and it doesent respond when i put it in manual mode. Funny because this morning i was able to do it and now i have gone totally blank. I have a feeling its a setting on the actual speedlight thats causing the problem and not a camera setting. How to set it to manual mode but keep the red light blinking?

When the slave flash, ie. the 430EX, is set to E-TTL mode, it is automatically set to manual mode if the master is in manual mode. But the slave will fire at the same power level as the master. In order to set the slave to manual mode and have it fire at its own power level, you have to hold down the mode button on the slave flash until you see the letter "M" flash on the upper left corner of the LCD display. You'll then be able to set the power level on the flash.

However, just know that this is not going to fix your problem since the problem has nothing to do with the slave flash. As I said in a previous post, the issue is the mixing of triggering types. The results will always be inconsistent so just because you got it to work at some point does not mean that it's always going to work.

I have turned off ETTL on the camera settings. It is manual mode. So how do i stop the command flash from messing things up. I clearly did something rite since it was working flawlessly the whole morning. I dont see how it can not miss a single shot out of a hundred and then later in the day, not even work for a single shot out of a hundred. That is not inconsistency

boerewors wrote in post #11911668
I have turned off ETTL on the camera settings. It is manual mode. So how do i stop the command flash from messing things up. I clearly did something rite since it was working flawlessly the whole morning. I dont see how it can not miss a single shot out of a hundred and then later in the day, not even work for a single shot out of a hundred. That is not inconsistency

It all depends on the set up. If you, by chance, happen to get the set up just right, you'd be able to take a million shots and have it work. Change the set up a little bit and the next million will not work. That's all there is to it. Trust me. You don't want to be mixing intelligent and dumb optical triggering modes in the same set up.

Some strobes have a setting that allows them to ignore the preflash and fire on the second, main flash.
I cannot explain how it worked for your earlier. You just got lucky or the 430ex was not firing like you thought it was. This is a common question/problem. Leo explained how the two triggering systems do not play well with each other and being out of sync is the normal outcome.
Do like he suggested and pick up some inexpensive wireless triggers or you will be fighting this battle forever.

Ok then. So is it better to get triggers for the speedlight or for the strobes? Well i should actually ask which method is cheaper because i already maxed out my budget on my equipment. My strobes came with sync cables but im not sure what to do with them.

($0) The cheapest thing is to use the 430EX on the camera in manual mode to trigger the strobes optically.

($10) cheap ebay optical trigger for the 430EX off camera in manual mode to trigger the strobes

($10) cheap ebay radio triggers to fire the 430EX off camera in manual mode to trigger the strobes

($55) ETTL cord and use that with the 430EX off camera in manual mode to trigger the strobes.

http://flashzebra.com/​products/0125/

Ideally you would have one transmitter and a receiver for each light. Since your strobes have optical triggers built in you can get by with one transmitter and one receiver. Place the transmitter in the camera hotshoe and connect the 430 to the receiver. Since the remoted 430 will be in manual mode it will not emit the preflash that is giving you problems now. When the 430 flashes it will trigger the strobes optic triggers.
The sync cables are used to connect your strobes to your camera sync port. For whatever reason, Canon decided not to include a sync port on the 60D so you would have to get a hotshoe adapter that includes a sync port to be able to use these cables. Even if you use the cable to connect to the strobe, this still leaves you without a way to fire your 430. As you can see, just get the wireless triggers and make your life simple.

Would any of the stuff on this page solve my problem?
www.focusnusantara.com​/product_store/wireles​s_trigger-page-3.php
I have to find locally sourced stuff so its a local supplier. Sorry, im a newbie at this and really confused lol. I really thought i had everything to begin with.

Yes, most of those will work. All you need is one transmitter and one receiver.

This one for R220,0000 ($25USD) will work:

http://www.focusnusant​ara.com …reless_triger_p​t-04tm.php

msowsun wrote in post #11915133
Yes, most of those will work. All you need is one transmitter and one receiver.

This one for R220,0000 ($25USD) will work:

http://www.focusnusant​ara.com …reless_triger_p​t-04tm.php

Thank you !! Ok so how does this thing work? Do i disable wireless flash and just set my camera to manual flash and then this thing will send the signal to my speedlight which will trigger the strobes?