Best flash upgrade for us

Me and my mate have just started doing weddings and we have assembled a fairly good amount of kit for doing them (3 bodies and decent lenses) but I think one area were probably lacking is in flash. If we get stuck inside for a lot of our shots (quite likely this time of year in the UK) then I think were gonna struggle.

At the moment we have a 430EX each, what would be the best upgrades from this? a 580EX so we could conceivably have that on camera and 2 remotes firing at once ? Is there a better way to go without blowing a massive hole in a budget thats already been blown to bits and if a 580EX is the best way to go what extra bits should we budget for as well, umbrelas stands etc ?

Cheers in advance for any advice.

580 is great in that you can now have simple off camera flash with your 430's. The pull-out white card on the 580 is nice too, but a flip-it on the 430 is just as good and cheaper. I have found the 430 to put out enough light for indoor use. I even use it on my 70-200 bouncing off a 25 ft ceiling.

If you aren't planning to get into off-camera flash, then the 430 is great. The part I like the most about the 580EX is the wheel... much easier to change settings.

580 is great for
- power
- built in white card
- master/slave
- tilting head

Definitely a good investment. Lighting is the key to dramatic shots. That and shadows.

i have the 580 and i never looked at getting anything else

Look into quantum flashes. In many aspects better than the 580s

I looking for a flash. I love to take family, children and baby portraits. When I am shooting outdoor shots, I need more light. What do you guys suggest? I was thinking about the 430 ex. How difficult is it to sync with my camera? I am new to digital photography. Please help.

Janae, take a look at this faq in the lighting forum. Questions are best asked there unless it's wedding specific photography.

If your on a budget: 2 x 550EX from ebay.

If you can stretch to an ST-E2 as well, you have a whole lot of control and creative options with this set up.

Reviving an oldish thread.

Still not upgraded our flash, mainly because we havent had any weddings to shoot for the last couple of months (got 6 booked for next year now though) so we have had some time to look at the options and with the benefit of increased knowledge (lots of reading and a college course I am doing at nightschool) but I am still a bit unsure what to do.

I think its a given that the 580 would be a good step forward for us and allow us to to do off camera flash which I think we definitely need for some of the stuff were booked for next year (first dances in v dark rooms) but I am a little concerned about the reliability of its triggering method given some of the threads I have read here and the number of people who seem to be using radio triggers.

I dont see any sellers of pocket wizards in the uk but theres these guys that look like a similair sort of thing and at a decent price. http://www.studioflash​.co.uk/products.asp?ca​t=13

But with radio slaves we lose a couple of things that are quite handy compared to a 580, such as AF assist beam and E-TTL .... which then kinda gets me back to the other point of .... why do so many people use radio slaves given the draw backs..... unless of course the Canon method of firing flashes is very unrelaible. Or is it just a case of people using radio slaves to fire their studio lights ?

Any input on what you guys use for wedidngs would be very much aprpeciated, a lot of the stuff previously posted is people using alien bees and pocket wizards, neither of which are sold in this country but would their equivelants be a better step forward for us ?

p.s This was a great read for flash photography http://photonotes.org/​articles/eos-flash/

Pocket Wizards should be available in the UK, i'd be very suprised if they weren't.

Canon wireless system: Ettl, focus assist beam, but not so much power, and triggering isn't reliable.

Radio slaves: reliable triggering, but metering takes a bit more work on your part. The idea is you set them up, use your flash meter to work out the exposure for different parts of the room, then change your camera settings depending where the subject is. You might still be able to have a flash and AF assist beam if your radio triggers use the PC socket, just set the flash not to fire. If you go with this you HAVE to PRACTICE.

Personally I see huge advantages of off camera flash, but it's not always practical, or very useful in the venues I work in. As I get better and move to higher end venues i'll hire an assistant and do this more.

tim wrote in post #2306789
Pocket Wizards should be available in the UK, i'd be very suprised if they weren't.

Canon wireless system: Ettl, focus assist beam, but not so much power, and triggering isn't reliable.

Radio slaves: reliable triggering, but metering takes a bit more work on your part. The idea is you set them up, use your flash meter to work out the exposure for different parts of the room, then change your camera settings depending where the subject is. You might still be able to have a flash and AF assist beam if your radio triggers use the PC socket, just set the flash not to fire. If you go with this you HAVE to PRACTICE.

Personally I see huge advantages of off camera flash, but it's not always practical, or very useful in the venues I work in. As I get better and move to higher end venues i'll hire an assistant and do this more.

Your correct they are available in the UK, searches werent turning up the results I was after but a flick through the photography retailers in the UK turned them up ..... very silly prices though when compared to other tranceivers ... do they have advantages over other brands or is it purely a quality thing ? When they are 6 times the price yah gotta be getting something extra.

I think what I will do is get a 580 and a set of cheap radio triggers from the link I posted above and play around with them and see what the advantages/disadvantag​es are ... no harm in having 2 different options/backups is there.

Our next booking is in April so we have some time to play and learn before we have to use it in earnest, unless of course we have a short notice booking

If you use remote flashes do you shoot into umprellas or through softboxes etc tim ? I know I have seen posts where you have used your studio lights also but if you just use flash guns do you use them bare ?

cheers for your help as always.

I've not yet seen anyone in UK offering pocket wizards - but then I haven't gone looking for them anyway.

The guy who runs studioflash/hotshots is a forum member here - but I can't remember his username. We bought an Elinchrom-fit snoot from them off ebay.

We use Canon 580 and 430, but we do also carry studio flash in the car just in case we need it. ETTL works just fine for us, and battery life with fast-charge Nimh is also fine. Every now and then ETTL gets it wrong, but a quick review of the LCD/histogram should immediately show when this has happened.

If 2 of you are using compatible Canon flash, 1 person can temporarily switch their flash to be a slave for the other shooter without having to remove it from the camera - which can be very handy.

Rob

I also hadnt found anyone who supplied them in the uk by googling Rob, but then found em by looking at where I usually buy gear, www.warehouseexpress.c​o.uk very pricey though with a starter kit that will fire just one flash remotely costing £300+ Think I will start with some from studio flash for £60 first and see what the limits of those are, £60 aint much of a risk and I bet they would sell second hand for not much less .. if not maybe more on ebay

Tis a good point about using a slave on top of a camera with the canon system and given that we always shoot as a pair I think we would defoo use that, see what nice effects we can get with our "mobile flash stand" so thanks for that one.

Gonna start off with a 580 and some cheap radio tranceivers from studioflash as our next investment.

Banbert wrote in post #2306838
..... very silly prices though when compared to other tranceivers ... do they have advantages over other brands or is it purely a quality thing ? When they are 6 times the price yah gotta be getting something extra.

If you use remote flashes do you shoot into umprellas or through softboxes etc tim ? I know I have seen posts where you have used your studio lights also but if you just use flash guns do you use them bare ?

The reason why pocketwizard is so much more expensive is partly the name... but the name has been built up because of it's excellent track record. Triggering is VERY reliable, and the range is 1600ft or so... which is probably 20 times the range of those MiniMagic triggers you posted. The current Plus2 units are transceivers so they can send or receive, and can also act in a 'relay' mode. So it can simultaneously be used as a remote to trigger your camera, and once it triggers your camera it switches back to transmit mode and then fires your slave flashes too... all with the one unit attached to your hotshoe. I trigger remote cameras using my Sekonic L-358R light meter. It's kinda neat!

Those triggers look a lot like the ones floating on ebay. If you want to go that route, I'd just buy the ebay version for cheaper. I've heard they are hit and miss in reliability, but if you get a good set then it works well. In a wedding setting, I'd rather be sure than gamble.

I rarely use my umbrellas. I usually shoot with them bare. But that's a personal style thing and not really a technical rule. Often I'll bounce the on-camera flash and use the slaves direct. I like mixing things up.