Low cost off camera flash tutorial for beginners

Axton wrote in post #4923946
I must say, this particular optical slave has been fantastic! I've never tried it outdoors, but in studio it has not failed me yet.

The optical slave has a simple hotshoe mount, so it is not necessary that the flash have a built in PC outlet. This optical slave also has a PC socket on the side so you can link it to aother flash and trigger two flashes with it (or you could just get another optical slave).

Great. Thanks for the info. If you do try the optical outside please update us.

Excellent stuff. This is exactly what I came up with trying some two-light strobe setups at home, but used a lightly painted tan wall (and I mean light) as the background (works well for only head and shoulder, or upper torso shoots). I have a Photovision target in the mail to me for delivery this next Monday and provides a 34" white reflective surface I can hange on my light stand to get a similar effect.

This example truly shows that those that understand the principles of lighting can make setups on the cheap work like those in high end studios. In fact, the high end studio look comes from the back light aimed at the back of the subject and lighting that hair up. Really classy!

Perhaps the next step could be is to describe all the settings you had on your camera, and flashes to get the sample shot you posted (which was excellent, by the way).

Keep em cummin!
IO

One more thought. I am sure you have frequented strobist.com for all kinds of information on how to setup.

Have you tried to shoot through a plant or something with your backlight to get a cookie effect on your background to break it up? Just a thought.

I tried this one evening with my wife. I shot through a fake orchid plant from the floor up to the wall behind my wife and when I zoomed my main light (bare 580ex II) to 105mm to restrict it from spilling onto the background, the effect was wonderful. The great thing is you can alter this so much as to never have the same effect for two different poses and definitely for different customers. Gelling the flash as well can provide some wonderful color accenting.

Thanks for clearing this up Leo - much appreciated. This approach seems like a very inexpensive option to start playing with studio lighting.

Michael

I agree - Bravo! I was starting to think I was crazy - you know, when you start to learn something new and you're sure there is an easier or less expensive alternative and everyone is telling you there isn't, so you really start to think you are naive (and wrong) - This is proof - it can be done!

How did you find the background?

Mightykhoa wrote in post #5660048
How did you find the background?

Link below. Also available in 107" (9 feet) rolls...

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …yds_Paper_Backg​round.html

I have this set up as well. I also thought about getting a third flash, but I didn't have any extra to spend, so I did the reflector thing as well. I also have a big window so I can also at time use natural light.

Thanks OP for a great tutorial.

I need the reflector. Do cheap ebay ones in theory work fine right? Right now I am just using foam board.

Axton wrote in post #4565175
The following few pics are the main ingredients to my off camera flash set up.

I know it is a bit dated; but, can the pictures be fixed ?
Thanks.