Multiple cameras fire off camera remote flash

I have a wedding in a few months in which the church is very large and dark with wood ceilings and walls. I want to flash two off camera 580EX II on stands shooting into umbrellas positioned on either side of the balcony. I will set the flash guns to manual and dial in the output I want after testing. This will nicely light the room up. I also want to use an 580EX II on-camera to light faces just a tad.

How can I fire the flashes in the balcony from more than one camera? My assistant will not have on-camera flash but needs to trigger the balcony flash units. I will have on-camera flash and I also need to fire the balcony flash units.

I'm not a flash guru, but suspect you'll need either a ST-E2 on the second camera, or an onboard 550ex or 580ex to trigger the balcony flashes.

Each camera will need a radio transmitter, and each balcony umbrella flash will need a radio receiver.

Michael
www.MichaelBassDesigns​.com

jmb4370 wrote in post #3654958
Each camera will need a radio transmitter, and each balcony umbrella flash will need a radio receiver.

Thank you. Pocket Wizards will work but I was hoping I could do it with
Canon's equipment only. Is this not possible?

The assistant's camera would need a 550, 580 or the ST-E2 to trigger the balcony flashes, but since they are shooting into umbrellas, you might (probably) have an issue with the remotes "seeing" the Master units on the cameras.

You could always go the wired route, although it sounds like a big setup job...

Michael
www.MichaelBassDesigns​.com

jmb4370 wrote in post #3655307
you might (probably) have an issue with the remotes "seeing" the Master units on the cameras

I don't know what you mean. Could you elaborate?

pcunite wrote in post #3655429
I don't know what you mean. Could you elaborate?

As long as you can point the IR "eye" of the slave to point towards the direction of the master so that the slave can see the command pulse from the master, you'll be fine. If you are shooting through an umbrella, you may not have an unobstructed line-of-sight to the master but that won't really matter as long as the light from the master makes it through the umbrella (which shouldn't be a problem unless the master is really far, far away).

If you are, however, shooting into an umbrella and bouncing it back towards the subjects, then make sure that the umbrella doesn't get in-between the slave and the master.

The Canon wireless system uses IR transmission to communicate between the units. If you set a 580 on camera as the Master, the 2 balcony flashes will be set to Slave. You should test this setup somewhere, as with your TV remotes, many of them don't work around corners, and the same is true with the Canon wireless system. The red lens of the flash (the front) has to be in view somehow of the Master flash for the communication signal to get from the Master to the Slaves.

If the assistant will not have an on camera flash, then the assistant can only fire the Slaves using a ST-E2 unit acting as a Master.

Seems like if you are already shooting manually, the radio systems might be a more reliable way to go.

Michael
www.MichaelBassDesigns​.com

PacAce wrote in post #3655709
As long as you can point the IR "eye" of the slave to point towards the direction of the master so that the slave can see the command pulse from the master, you'll be fine.
...edit...
If you are, however, shooting into an umbrella and bouncing it back towards the subjects, then make sure that the umbrella doesn't get in-between the slave and the master.

jmb4370 wrote in post #3655711
Seems like if you are already shooting manually, the radio systems might be a more reliable way to go.

Thanks forum members. Pocket wizards is going to be the only reliable way for this particular setup..

Once last question to all who where following this thread. This may sound like backtracking but...

Can I use two 580EX II, each one set to master to fire a single 580EX II set as slave?

pcunite wrote in post #3667293
Once last question to all who where following this thread. This may sound like backtracking but...

Can I use two 580EX II, each one set to master to fire a single 580EX II set as slave?

That should work, as there are no channel settings in Canon's flash systems to differentiate one photographer from another to the slaves.

I have just had an interested read through this post. I would like to ask as a person starting out using master and slaves and owner of a 430EX speedlite how do I set up a simple master and slave system? As far as I know neither my Canon 400D nor the 430 can act as a master. What would be the cheaper option to set this up? Do Pocket Wizards act as masters?

Pocket Wizards are completely separate from Canon's Wireless system, all they do is trigger a flash; reliably, without fail, through any obstacles (short of lead shielding), upwards of 1600 feet away. To use them with your 430EX, you'd need a hot-shoe adapter for it, and two Pocket Wizards,

Oh, and PCunite, I've actually tried using Canon's IR triggering system with one flash up on a balcony; this was when I came to realize exactly how horribly limited it is. Basically, if you don't have a line of sight, don't count on your flashes going off. Pocket Wizards will probably be the only way out of this one.

Thnx bieber! Would the 430EX act as the master then? Is the hot shoe adapter for the 430EX off camera? Sorry got a bit lost - could you spell it out for me? ;P Cheers!

Talk of master and slave is wireless E-TTL. You don't have E-TTL when using Pocket Wizards - they just provide a signal that says 'go off now'. As such, you'd be using a 430EX in M mode with Pocket Wizards.

What you'd have is a Pocket Wizard on your camera to act as a transmitter, and a Pocket Wizard acting as a receiver plugged in to a hot shoe where your 430EX was mounted.

David