Small Photoshoot

Hello everyone!

I'm going to do a small school photoshoot in the following conditions:

-Well lit room (daylight)
-Sky blue walls (not really in the shot, but for flash bounce reference)
-16ft wide and 10ft height (max with backdrop)

I was going to rent some flashes, but I've been reading a lot about some cheaper small flashes and many people seem to have success with them. I figured why not purchase them, try them and own them. I realize that they aren't hi-end gear, but maybe they'll be good for this first shoot.

So I was thinking the following:

-Yongnuo YN-565EX - on-camera
-Yongnuo YN-560 -on the sides through umbrella or their own diffusers

I'm shooting with a Canon T3i and I know the 565EX cannot be a master flash, but I believe I can use the wireless to fire all 3 flashes?

Have I paired up the wrong combination? Have any better suggestions - I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

you are better off with a cheap manual trigger system and get both flashes off camera.

Errr - Sorry CosmoKid I meant..

1 -Yongnuo YN-565EX - on-camera
2 -Yongnuo YN-560 -on the sides through umbrella or their own diffusers

The one on camera maybe angled up used for bounce

clickfinish wrote in post #14434978
Hello everyone!

So I was thinking the following:

-Yongnuo YN-565EX - on-camera
-Yongnuo YN-560 -on the sides through umbrella or their own diffusers

I'm shooting with a Canon T3i and I know the 565EX cannot be a master flash, but I believe I can use the wireless to fire all 3 flashes?

Have I paired up the wrong combination? Have any better suggestions - I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

If when you say wireless you are talking about the use of the popup in your t3i as a master, that is not going to work with the YN 560. The YN 560 is a manual flash only and will not work with the Canon wireless setup. The YN 560 does have a simple optical slave trigger but if you activate the Master/Slave setup in your T3i there will be too many preflashes for it to ignore even is S2 mode.The Yn 565 can be a slave in that system, but you are going to have trouble if you try to mix the two trigger methods.
Take the excellent advise from the CosmoKid and get some inexpensive RF wireless triggers.

Hey dedsen thanks for responding...

Any suggestions on those RF wireless triggers? I've never used them, but willing to learn if this simple setup seems feasible

Thanks for your help dedsen and CosmoKid

I just finished reading this blog by one of our members. It covers wireless triggers very nicely.
http://flashhavoc.com/​which-radio-trigger/
What you are going to find is that triggers depending on light are good in some setups and non-workable in others. Radio triggers take away that possibility of problems.

You can get 4 RF603s for @ $60 and that will eliminate triggering problems.
I've not experimented on how far away 560s will react to slave triggering but I imagine umbrellas and distances will make the pop up flash unreliable to sense. I have used a 460ii on top of my camera bounced off the ceiling to trigger a 460ii with umbrella as well and worked fine, but wasn't really far away, so triggers are the best option for reliability.

BrickR you are speaking of exactly what I'm looking to do..

I wont be far away at all.. all 3 flashes will be lateral to each other something like this

[-----------[---------------Subjects-------------]------------]

8-10 ft between me and subjects

[---------------16ft wide ---------------]
YN-560 w/umbrella --- YN-565EX on camera --- YN-560 w/umbrella
(Me w/ T3i - no pop-up)

So I was going to put the 565ex on the camera bounced off the ceiling and that should trigger both 560 units. So the RF603s sound like they might be what I need.

Thoughts?

yes

CosmoKid wrote in post #14437627
yes

To?

So I purchased the YN-565EX on Amazon, have to love Amazon Prime (yes despite the mix reviews) and so far so good.. I purchased it since so many folks here recommended it. Hopefully my stunt to save on buying a Canon Speedlite succeeds and I didn't get a dud. I've shot nearly 100 shots so far and I'm very pleased with its performance.. I have a shoot coming up this weekend - lots of action shots, low light and close to 1500 shots expected.. If it doesn't perform, I'll just ship it back and get the Canon Speedlite..

Next are the YN-560 or YN-560II and the RF-603s .. I'll keep you guys updated on how it all works out.. Thanks again for your help!

Just an update ..

Triggers (RF-603) are awesome! and both my Yongnou flashes (560 and 565ex) have been great in my testing so far!

Thanks again for the help!