Lighting options for a full day

I've got a pretty long, multiple location shoot coming up for a local dancer / musician, and we're planning a bunch of different locations, across a bunch of different lighting situations - some of which are going to be new to me - and I wondered what others would do in the same, or similar, situations.

Location 1) Middle eastern dance studio - this should be fairly easy - I'll bring two Genesis 200's for some cross lighting, and use my 580exII as a back or fill. I'll be shooting one dancer, and possibly two musicians together. I'm not too worried about this one - I'm familiar enough with the strobes to play around and it's a controlled environment.

Location 2) Outdoors - somewhere. This will be my first shoot outdoors with speedlights. I have a 580exII and will have a 430exII by then. I will also have a Qbox 24 - possibly a second softbox if I can get a mount for it in time. I want to get more comfortable with ETTL shooting for this one (7D can trigger the speedlights).

With all that being said -

Anyone got any good resources for learning how to better control ETTL?
Thoughts about how to light a couple of musicians, and a dancer, when outdoors?
Advice or guidance in general?

thanks,

Don't use ettl, especially outdoors. Even though the 7d can trigger the speedlites it is not reliable. It's an IR trigger and tough to rely on outside.

Do you have wireless triggers? Using wireless triggers and your speedlites in manual mode will be much more reliable.

I do have a set of ebay triggers, so thats not a problem. I also use the 580exII in manual mode in the studio - I've just never taken it outdoors.

Does the wireless infrared trigger fail that often? I've never had problems indoors

The sun messes with it outdoors. Your eBay triggers at least are RF which is more reliable, especially when you haven't worked with your equipment/IR outdoors.

And with manual mode, you can meter your lights and get a consistent exposure until you change set up. Ettl could change every time you click.

CosmoKid wrote in post #10499170
The sun messes with it outdoors. Your eBay triggers at least are RF which is more reliable, especially when you haven't worked with your equipment/IR outdoors.

And with manual mode, you can meter your lights and get a consistent exposure until you change set up. Ettl could change every time you click.

Gotcha - thanks for the feedback!

Flash, is, manual.

ETTL is only for on camera walk-around candid.

I disagree, of course using wireless triggers and your flash's in manual will give reliable results (although not so reliable with ebay triggers from my experience).
ETTL can also be used very effectively for outdoor shooting.

I'll steer you in 2 directions for resources of ETTL, first and formost is Joe McNally, although he shoots Nikon, the principles are the same.

If you dont mind paying (an absolute bargain at $25 a month (or just $20 dollars if your a member of NAPP, then check out joe's lighting tutorials at kelby training) they really are worth their weight in gold.

www.kelbytraining.com and www.joemcnally.com

2nd resource is for canon speedlights and you should check out Syl Arena.

www.pixsylated.com and www.sylarena.com

But basically, take both. I would start off with using ETTL. It should work outside as long as the sun is not too bringt. try it out and see. If it doesn't work out, go for your triggers.

hope that helps.

Sorry, www.speedliting.com is where you may want to head first.

Thanks Puzzle! I'll be checking all those links out this week.