Really Stupid OCF -optical firing question

Saturday I co-shot a wedding. The other photog shoots Nikon. He had a sb800 that we used off-camera to create rim light during dance shots. Nothing surprising there. However, when he said I was welcome to use that flash, too, (in the same manner he used it) that puzzled my little pea brain. Would any flash be able to trigger a flash optically? I would have thought they would need to be compatible flashes to work. Does is just have to be a master/slave combo?

TIA

(try not to laugh to hard. )

assuming the flash is set to fire NOT on the pre flash but on the actual flash, and you are both using modes/flashes that emit a pre flash, then yes it would work fine.

same answer if everything was set to manual with no pre-flash.

light is light, right?

not sure your canon flash would communicate right with a Nikon flash

abbadon31 wrote in post #17185947
not sure your canon flash would communicate right with a Nikon flash

correct, in any sort of TTL capacity.

manual mode would work fine.

Nope provided they are using a simple optical slave system you are good to go. A simple optical slave fires when it sees another flash fire. Those are still used in studio strobes. They became a bit less effective with the advent of ETTL which uses a preflash to measure flash power. That preflash would trigger the slave. Fortunately there are slaves, like those built into many YN models that ignores the preflash and fires in response to the main flash. So the only question that i would have is how were you able to shoot without triggering his flashes before?

Be very careful with leaving a remote flash set up at a wedding in optical slave mode. Since weddings are usually where lots of guests are also using flash on their P&S cameras/phones/etc, they can set off your remote flash as well. Because of this the risk of overheating the flash increases.

hes gone wrote in post #17185941
=he's gone;17185941]assuming the flash is set to fire NOT on the pre flash but on the actual flash, and you are both using modes/flashes that emit a pre flash, then yes it would work fine.

same answer if everything was set to manual with no pre-flash.

light is light, right?

Cool. good to know.

gonzogolf wrote in post #17185959
Nope provided they are using a simple optical slave system you are good to go. A simple optical slave fires when it sees another flash fire. Those are still used in studio strobes. They became a bit less effective with the advent of ETTL which uses a preflash to measure flash power. That preflash would trigger the slave. Fortunately there are slaves, like those built into many YN models that ignores the preflash and fires in response to the main flash. So the only question that i would have is how were you able to shoot without triggering his flashes before?

I don't know. Perhaps I was a few times. But since it's line of site, I'm figuring I wasn't in the right position too much.

JustinL wrote in post #17186015
Be very careful with leaving a remote flash set up at a wedding in optical slave mode. Since weddings are usually where lots of guests are also using flash on their P&S cameras/phones/etc, they can set off your remote flash as well. Because of this the risk of overheating the flash increases.

Also good to know. I typically use rf triggers. This was the first time encountering someone using optical.

Brenda, I think you have the answer to your question. But I use this method on an old flash I used in my Pentax K1000 days. I bought the class in probabyl 1990. It is a manual flash and I have used the optical slave mode on it to give me a second flash while I use my YN622's on my YN565 flash. It works just like it did in 1990. It simply looks for a flash and flashes in response.
So use it when you can. Put the subjects in a position that will allow you to back/side light them with the other photogs flash and get some free light. It is pretty cool as long as they are using optical slave mode.

sirquack wrote in post #17186060
Brenda, I think you have the answer to your question. But I use this method on an old flash I used in my Pentax K1000 days. I bought the class in probabyl 1990. It is a manual flash and I have used the optical slave mode on it to give me a second flash while I use my YN622's on my YN565 flash. It works just like it did in 1990. It simply looks for a flash and flashes in response.
So use it when you can. Put the subjects in a position that will allow you to back/side light them with the other photogs flash and get some free light. It is pretty cool as long as they are using optical slave mode.

Yes, thanks. Now just to figure out how to put my flashes on Master mode. lol

NewCreation wrote in post #17186066
Yes, thanks. Now just to figure out how to put my flashes on Master mode. lol

please take this as encouragement and not strictly criticism.

You gotta do some reading on this subject, actually, a lot of reading. I used optical slaves for many years but at this point and time there is no practical reason to use this dated technology (this goes for Canon's proprietary optical TTL triggering too). Okay, if you have it, know how to use it, and are in a controlled studio environment sticking with it isn't a bad option. But if you plan on doing anything other than that, find something else.

this is a great starting point. http://flashhavoc.com/​gear-guides/

i have the YN 603 II, the YN 622 and the FT-16 that go with my CL-360

hes gone wrote in post #17186279
=he's gone;17186279]please take this as encouragement and not strictly criticism.

You gotta do some reading on this subject, actually, a lot of reading. I used optical slaves for many years but at this point and time there is no practical reason to use this dated technology (this goes for Canon's proprietary optical TTL triggering too). Okay, if you have it, know how to use it, and are in a controlled studio environment sticking with it isn't a bad option. But if you plan on doing anything other than that, find something else.

this is a great starting point. http://flashhavoc.com/​gear-guides/

i have the YN 603 II, the YN 622 and the FT-16 that go with my CL-360

Thank you for this.

I have 603s and 622s that I use when I'm calling the shots. As a second shooter, I don't do ocf as it's not my gig. My question was only brought about by my experience this past weekend. I was looking for further understanding of flash.

NewCreation wrote in post #17186291
Thank you for this.

I have 603s and 622s that I use when I'm calling the shots. As a second shooter, I don't do ocf as it's not my gig. My question was only brought about by my experience this past weekend. I was looking for further understanding of flash.

oh gotcha. I'm not a sig line reader

i still would put the idea of putting your flash in master mode out of your head. For old school optical master/slave there is no such thing as master MODE. The first flash to fire is the master, so long as you are not using ETTL you are fine.

hes gone wrote in post #17186312
=he's gone;17186312]oh gotcha. I'm not a sig line reader

i still would put the idea of putting your flash in master mode out of your head. For old school optical master/slave there is no such thing as master MODE. The first flash to fire is the master, so long as you are not using ETTL you are fine.

Well that's simple enough.

i was on my way out to pick up the boys at school, but there is a master mode for Canon Optical Wireless that is proprietary to their speedlights (i think Yongnou has reverse engineered it, maybe).

http://pixsylated.com …al-wireless-fundamentals/

frankly, your 622 should do as well or better in many situations.

pssssst....I shoot an indoor concert once a month and am the only photographer. (I supply pics to the band and host).

Especially since my studio system (Dyna-Lite) is broke right now, I use a variety of flashes with 3 RF units. That still leaves me an old Morris AC Slave that can be used on old fashioned Optical Slave if I run out of Triggers. With today's higher ISO's, a 25 Ws unit is far more powerful than in the days of ISO 100.

Another danger of optical slaving at an event like a wedding; besides overheating, is the P&S crowd will simply drain your Flash and it won't be ready when you are. Triggers are really cheap nowadays.

All questions are good questions!