HELP! ASAP! Speedlite studio setup firing too quickly.

So I recently purchased this kit: http://www.amazon.com …age_o00_s00?ie=​UTF8&psc=1

The purpose was to use the trigger on camera and the two speedlites off camera with the receivers to set up a portable studio. I'm shooting with a Canon Rebel t3i.

Let me start by saying that the trigger works great as an off camera remote trigger. The speedlites work great on the t3i's hotshoe. Hell, they both actually fire "perfectly" on their receivers while OFF camera... the problem however is that my camera never sees the light. It seems that the speedlites are firing too soon, prior to shutter even going off. Now I know like most tech support everyone is about to say the equivalent of "did you turn it off and on again?" Yes. I slowed down AND for the hell of it sped up the shutter speed. I still couldn't catch a glimmer of light.

I'm at wit's end on what to do. I've emailed Neewer's support to ask them what's going on and if the product is somehow faulty, but I'm honestly hoping that it might be some simple fix that I'm missing.

mmm, your camera knows it has a "Flash" on it right? It still has to sync with the transmitter. Maybe it doesnt, so it sends a signal just as you press, as opposed to the shutter flipping.
When you have the trigger on the camera, does your camera allow you to change the shutter higher than sync speed? If it does, then it isnt considering sync.

That may very well be the problem! I hope this doesn't come to as much of a n00b question as I feel it does, but would there be a way to TELL the camera that a flash is in existence... since the trigger is on it's hotshoe with a PC cable plugged in?

Im not familiar with that make of triggers, but its possible that its not communicating to your camera as a "flash"

Why is there PC cable plugged in If I may ask? its a radio trigger? The cables are only meant to be used between the receivers and the flash units.

No no! The PC cable is plugged from the transmitter/trigger (which is on the hotshoe) to the camera itself. That's sending the signal when I take the picture and the flash fires at that moment. The flash itself is on a receiver (hotshoed) with no cable.

Is there a reason you using the sync cable? Thats what Im asking. Isnt the hotshoe doing the triggering?

Ah sorry, tired brain. haha That might actually be the problem... Hrm. When the sync cable isn't plugged in, the receivers aren't getting the signal that I've pressed the button...

If you have access to another camera, test it. Then you can eliminate if its your camera or the transmitter.
As its a completely manual system, the trigger only needs a signal really.

There are menu options in camera where you can set what kind of lighting you using, and sync speed etc... Try finding that, removing the cable and trying with the transmitter on the hotshoe.

I'll see if I can try it out... though it shouldn't be the camera since the speedlites themselves work via the hotshoe, right?

The trigger on the hotshoe should tell your camera to go into flash/sync mode. Thats why I said you should try it on another body.
Otherwise, see what other overriding functions there are. i remember on my older camera I had to enable it manually (olympus)

Are you trying to fire the camera remotely and trigger the flashes remotely with this kit? If so I don't think you can do that with this kit (please note that I do not have this kit.) You would need two transmitter/receiver sets, one set to fire the camera and one set to trigger the flashes. The two sets of transmitter/receiver also have to be on separate channels.

CupcakePaparazzi wrote in post #17476948
So I recently purchased this kit: http://www.amazon.com …age_o00_s00?ie=​UTF8&psc=1

The purpose was to use the trigger on camera and the two speedlites off camera with the receivers to set up a portable studio. I'm shooting with a Canon Rebel t3i.

Let me start by saying that the trigger works great as an off camera remote trigger. The speedlites work great on the t3i's hotshoe. Hell, they both actually fire "perfectly" on their receivers while OFF camera... the problem however is that my camera never sees the light. It seems that the speedlites are firing too soon, prior to shutter even going off. Now I know like most tech support everyone is about to say the equivalent of "did you turn it off and on again?" Yes. I slowed down AND for the hell of it sped up the shutter speed. I still couldn't catch a glimmer of light.

I'm at wit's end on what to do. I've emailed Neewer's support to ask them what's going on and if the product is somehow faulty, but I'm honestly hoping that it might be some simple fix that I'm missing.

Try setting everything to manual and your camera has the external flash enabled. Camera at 1/60 wide open. Flash mounted directly on camera hot shoe only, set for full power. Take a pic and see if the camera sees the flash. Replace the camera with a trigger, and put the flash on another trigger. Make sure the triggers are set to the same channel. Try again. If that doesn't work, send it all back.

Let's start at the beginning, rather than going off half cocked:

Why are you remote triggering the camera?

Phil V wrote in post #17478437
Let's start at the beginning, rather than going off half cocked:

Why are you remote triggering the camera?

Not sure if I worded this incorrectly? The trigger, which is mounted on the camera's hotshoe, when I press the shutter button down completely, is what's putting out the signal out to the 2 receivers which are holding the speedlites. The speedlites are TTL, not E-TTL II, so the need for the trigger/receiver setup is there.

bumpintheroad wrote in post #17478391
Try setting everything to manual and your camera has the external flash enabled. Camera at 1/60 wide open. Flash mounted directly on camera hot shoe only, set for full power. Take a pic and see if the camera sees the flash. Replace the camera with a trigger, and put the flash on another trigger. Make sure the triggers are set to the same channel. Try again. If that doesn't work, send it all back.

Well as I said, the speedlites themselves work perfectly on the hotshoe. The trigger, when off camera works perfectly to trigger the camera. The trigger when on camera works "perfectly" to trigger the speedlites... they however go off before the camera has time to catch the light.