Light set up help

[allenlennon]

Hi. As some of you know, i am interested in having a go into portraits. Now i want to know bout triggers for flash. Now, im thinking of starting out with a couple of umbrellas, and perhaps a softbox. Now, I want to is if i have all of the lights set up, with about 2 flash's per unit for an example, how do i get them to go of at once? I herd somewhere bout master and slave units? What are they, how do they work? Are they, or should i say, can i get some cheap, like ebay.

What im going to buy(ebay):
4x shoot through umbrella pack
2x reflectores with changeable surfaces
1x flash(already have one)- just gonna start with 2 flash's.
1x wireless trigger with 2 recievers(I can get more recivers)

All up, about %70-$100

Im still going to make my own softboxes

[Mark von Kanel]

Try this site http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html a font of info for a new stobist

[CougarFool]

Yep, that's a great website. I learnt all my strobist stuff from there.

[allenlennon]

thanks mark, that site is great! Now gotta wait till new years. Ah christmas + big family = alot of $$$$

[Dizzy]

Hi Allen,

I've been using the Yongnuo RF-603N wireless triggers (Nikon version), and have had excellent
performance from them. They are "transceivers", in that a unit will act as either a transmitter
or a receiver. Well built, and at less than $40 per pair you can buy 4 of them for about 50%
the cost of a single Pocket Wizard.

http://www.amazon.com/Yongnuo-Wirele...pr_product_top

These do not do TTL, but in a Manual setting they do a bang-up job. Make sure to get the
correct version for your particular camera.

What camera body are you using? Do you have a TTL flash?

Mike

[inkista]

Just so's you know, there are some cheap softboxes out there, too. I got a Cowboy Studios 24" softbox for my speedlights for about $45. I'd save DIY energy/bucks/ingenuity for a beauty dish.

To get both flashes to go off at once, it depends on the flashes and the triggering system, but the easiest way is to simply have two receivers and one transmitter, and set them all to the same channel. You can, of course, also use optical slaves, or have a receiver on one light, and use the optical slave on the second one. There's all sorts of different combos to achieve this. But the one thing you probably don't want to be doing is mixing manual and TTL triggering schemes together.

Trigger-wise, if you're on a budget, I'd go for Cactus V5s or Yongnuo RF-603s. Preferably the V5s, since they have locking feet and the RF-603s don't, and having your flash fall to the ground is not a feeling you ever want to know. In addition, channel selection on the V5s is done with a dial, not dip switches in the battery compartment, and the on/off switch is placed somewhere you can actually access it when the flash is mounted.

Master/slave or commander/slave terminology is typically used to describe the proprietary TTL-capable triggering systems used by a specific camera brand and (mostly) requires OEM (i.e., brand) equipment. Nikon's CLS, Canon's wireless eTTL-II, etc. Some 3rd party flashes can understand this signalling, but generally speaking, any flash under $100 won't be capable of doing this. It's near-IR light-based signalling, and requires line-of-sight, unless TTL-capable radio triggers are used to bridge the signal. Master units typically mean another on-camera speedlight unit, or a master in the camera's pop-up flash (Canon 600D, 60D, or 7D. Nikon D90 or above).