Extra flash unit, what to do?

After going to Digital, I have my old 35mm system pretty much sitting in my photography equipment chestbox. However, I would like to do something with my 550EX Flash. Can we use it in a combination with my new 580EX for something? Will it work as a slave/master unit, etc? Any hints on what I can do with it (beside on eBay)?

The 550EX works just fine as a slave or a master to the 580EX.

Thanks for the quick response. Will ETTL-II still work when using my 580EX as the master? I want to do some portraits (using Stofen bouncers on both flash units, one unit on the right and left of the subject). Or must all this be done on manual settings? Keep in mind, I don't have a lightmeter.

ETTL-II will work fine with the 580 as master and 550 as slave, or vice-vera since it's a camera function. First read the manual (which is not a whole lot of help ), then check the EOS flash sticky up top.

snibbetsj wrote:
First read the manual (which is not a whole lot of help )

Yep. Not too much help.

Thanks for the confirmation. Going to try it out this weekend.

Have you seen that thing? It's like in a foreign language. I've never know a flash to have so many instructions. I tried reading mine.

SuzyView

The manual does cover this, but it's not the easiest to read. Stick the 2nd flash on channel B, set the ratio as you like, set FEC if you need to, and fire away!

As always Tim, you have been helpful! What's been your most successful setting for a "studio" like portrait? i.e (FEC on the camera? or lower the flash power via ratio setting)

The flash ratios and the FEC do two different and independent things. The flash ratio is used to control the flash strength of the slave relative to the master. The master can be stronger than the slave or the slave can be stronger than the master or they can both be equal in power. But in any case, the actual flash exposure setting is determined by the total combination of all the flashes in the wireless configuration.

The FEC is used to control the overall exposure of the flashes in the wireless configuration. If the total flash output is not bright enough, you would add + FEC to increse the flash output. If the total output is too much, then you would decrease the output by dialing in - FEC. But no matter how the FEC is set, the ratio between the master and the slave still remain the same.

There is no one standard or "best" ratio setting for studio portraits. The ratios used depends entirely on the look you are after. What I would do in your shoes is to try all the different ratios (from 1:1 to 1:8 and 1:1 and 8:1) to see which ratios you like the best for the look you are after.

Thanks PacAce for the explanation. So much easier to understand than the manual.

My most succesful studio work has been with studio lights. I don't mix speedlites and strobes, mainly because I don't need to. Speedlites by themselves do quite well, but the amount of light strobes put out is huge, along with the light modifiers and the control you get. I do mean to try using strobes and speedlites together soon, using a speedlite as fill, i'll just stick it on manual and use it as fill.