Using a 580ex2 or any canon flash to fire a slave

We'll I'm migrating over to strobes and I'm wondering if I can fire the strobes like alien bees or something with a optical slave built in with an on camera canon flash.

Well the 580 can optically fire other Canon speedlites, if that's what you're asking. But the 430 and the built-in flashes cannot.

Doesn't the pre-flash trigger other strobes early?

I don't mean through the infrared system.

If you set the Canon 580ex2 flash to manual mode you will be able to trip the Alien Bee's optical slave just fine.

Enjoy! Lon

You can use the Canon 580EX2 in Manual to avoid the pre-flash and thus emit just one flash at the time of exposure, which can then trigger other flashes / strobes. However, I haven't been able to get the 580EX2 to respond in manual mode to another non-580EX2, non-ETTL strobe like a normal "dumb" optical slave would.

Specifically I wanted to have the two AlienBee 800's as key and fill and pop a 580EX2 from behind as a hairlight and another as a background wash. I had to ditch the hairlight and trigger the 580EX2 with the PocketWizard and leave the AB800's as slaves. But that's not always possible, as the slave sensor for the AB's is only on the rear, and if using a softbox it might not see the flash from the 580EX2. I had to spin the AB's around and use bounce umbrellas to get the sensors aimed at the subject area... if I could trigger the AB's off the PW and get the 580 to respond in "dumb" slave manual mode, this would be more versatile. How do I get 580's to play dumb? Or will I need individual PW receivers for each light in my setup?

Chris Rakoczy
http://rakocyzphoto.co​m