I wanted to figure out how to fire my mono-lights wirelessly. I knew the flash from my speedlite (420EX) would make the mono-lights fire, but because the TTL feature uses a pre-flash, the mono-lights would be firing too soon. What to do? Looking down on the hot-shoe attachment, there is one big contact and four small contacts. The big contact is the one that makes the speedlite fire; the four small contacts make the TTL feature function. I took some electrical tape and covered the four small contacts—no more TTL pre-flash. I played around with the exposure (without using a flash meter) until I got something I liked. The speedlite is pointing straight up at the ceiling, one strobe with a silver umbrella is to the camera left above my head, one strobe is behind her with a homemade barn door (cardboard box), and a white reflector is to the right of the camera. This was a quick shot after taking a formal portrait of both of us. If I could have taken my time, I would have moved the light that is behind her so it would have pointed more to the back of her head. I also posted this shot in the “post your best wife shot" thread.
