ST-E2 lighting question

I've seen this touched on, but I'm still puzzling over it. I'm using an ST-E2 to trigger a 550ex main and a 420ex fill... as well as a background strobe and hairlight monolight. I have the 550ex set on manual so the ETTL doesn't fire a preflash. However... I believe that there's still some sort of preflash going on because when I did a test of this setup without the flashes (and had just the background and hair light on), they were firing, but the picture came out black. I expected to see some light from these strobes in the picture. I've also done tests with the flashes -- both with and without the background/hair lights on and see absolutely no difference in the lighting.

I've poured over the ST-E2 manual, but it only talks about ETTL--- there's no mention of using this with the 550 in manual mode. Is there another way to disable the preflash?

This whole thing is driving me crazy. I'm about ready to scrap the use of the 550/420 for portrait lighting in my home studio and go with strobes. But, I already have the flashes, so I'd really like to get this set up to work, if it's possible. Any help or suggestions on this would be much appreciated!

The ST-E2 will definitely set off some slaves. And I don't think it's a single pre-flash, because I couldn't get it to sync with a (now sold) digital slave either. You will either need to go with an all-ETTL setup (more 420s for your bg and hairlight) or all-strobe, but it's really tough to mix and match.

You did not identify what Canon flash units you were using for background and hairlight. The STE2 should be able to trigger either 420EX or 550EX for that purpose.

On the other hand, if you are not using a Canon flash unit for them, then exactly how are you trying to trigger them? (A) plain sync cable, or (B) optical slaving?

I know you can get good results with one system, or you can get good results with another system, but mixing together two flash systems can leave you stuck.

---Bob Gross---

That answers it for me.... thanks guys! I am definitely mixing and matching here. ST-E2, 550ex for main, 420ex for fill, a photogenic monolight for the hairlight and 2 JTL S-20s for background lights. While I'm disappointed to hear that this set up won't do what I want, I am relieved to hear that I'm not crazy.

Any suggestions on what to substitute for the 550 and 420 in terms of strobes? I figure I can still use the 550 and 420 for location shots, but will probably need to invest in something else for the studio.

Thanks again for the help...!
Holly

I hear some folks use Pocket Wizard wireless systems to drive non-ETTL lights, instead of using them as optical slaves. If I recall correctly, though, the Pocket Wizard stuff is pricey, so you might find it less expensive to get a couple of ETTL-compatible slave strobes and let it go at that.

I know this is dragging out old wood but after searching all over the web and seeing this posted here with incorrect information I felt it necessary to save others from mistakes, headaches and misinformation.

I was having this issue and there is nothing in black and white to tell you how to set this up.
It can be done though so all the rambling about cant is just that, rambling.
Set ST-E2 as you normally would, I t just turn it on and press high speed synch to allow for a greater shutter range.
Now for the part that makes it work without the pre flash. You have to set all slaves to manual, me I am using only one. Why cannon did this is beyond me but to set a slave to manual you have to hold the mode button down for 2 seconds instead of just pressing it like in single or master. The M light starts to blink then just set your flash as needed for compensation and zoom. I pulled for hair out for a few days on this one and could find no answer on the net other than it wont work or I did it before but cant remember how.
I have my 580ex set at 1/4 and 24mm and optical slave firing of 2 alien bees AB800 monolights.
After a lot of cursing and finally figuring it out it works great indoors, this hasnt stopped me from ordering some Pocket wizards though.

Wow, that was a old thread.

While setting the 580 to manual mode will eliminate the preflash firing on the flash, but the ST-E2's 'command preflash' still can trigger the AB's optical salve. If you place a Ab800 between the ST-E2 and the 580, with its slave sensor facing the ST-E2, you will see what I mean.

Justin_Thyme wrote in post #6844409
I know this is dragging out old wood but after searching all over the web and seeing this posted here with incorrect information I felt it necessary to save others from mistakes, headaches and misinformation.

I was having this issue and there is nothing in black and white to tell you how to set this up.
It can be done though so all the rambling about cant is just that, rambling.
Set ST-E2 as you normally would, I t just turn it on and press high speed synch to allow for a greater shutter range.
Now for the part that makes it work without the pre flash. You have to set all slaves to manual, me I am using only one. Why cannon did this is beyond me but to set a slave to manual you have to hold the mode button down for 2 seconds instead of just pressing it like in single or master. The M light starts to blink then just set your flash as needed for compensation and zoom. I pulled for hair out for a few days on this one and could find no answer on the net other than it wont work or I did it before but cant remember how.
I have my 580ex set at 1/4 and 24mm and optical slave firing of 2 alien bees AB800 monolights.
After a lot of cursing and finally figuring it out it works great indoors, this hasnt stopped me from ordering some Pocket wizards though.

I'm curious to know how your strobes and flashes were set up because, under normal circumstances, there's no way you'd be able to get your setup to work* using the ST-E2 to wireless trigger an EX slave (even it the slave is in manual mode) and at the same time optically triggering the AB strobes unless the AB strobes were positioned so that they were hidden from the ST-E2 IR light, both direct and bounced, and could only see the flash from the EX slave. As Lotto said above, the ST-E2 will still fire a command flash before the shutters open and this would set off the AB strobes which, in turn, will drown out the command flash and prevent the EX slave from firing.

* NOTE: When I say "work", I mean firing the strobes in sync with the shutter.