A couple posts ago I mentioned why I like to use speedlights to enhance or overpower the ambient light to get a certain mood or create specific light for my subjects. I personally like to use Nikon’s Creative Lighting System, or CLS, since it gives me some advantages over using a manual flash. CLS works very well when there is a close proximity between the master signal flash, and the remote flash; however, sometimes with more complex lighting assignments the master and remote flashes can’t physically “see” each other (i.e., like when placing the remote flash in a separate room to simulate a fill light and the master flash signal doesn’t actually reach the remote.)
The remote flash depends on seeing the master speedlight’s “pre-flash signal” for it to trigger, so sometimes CLS may fall a bit short in some circumstances. The Nikon flashes (SB-800 and SB-600) have a small window located on the side of the flash as the remote light sensor. If the remote flash doesn’t see this signal, its flash will not be triggered with CLS. In order to be certain that your remote flash will trigger in these cases, you need to use another device. That’s where my trusted radio PocketWizards come in to play.
The PocketWizards are great devices and since they are radio triggers, they have a superior range over the standard “light” triggers that come with the SB-800/600. This also means that you don’t need to have a “line-of-sight” for the master and remote speedlights to work properly. With PocketWizards, I set the remote flashes manually to a specific ratio (i.e., 1/8, 1/16, etc.) and generally base the ratio on a few test shots and then go from there. Here is an example of using the PocketWizards.
Image #1 | PocketWizard Off-Camera Flash
The great thing about using an off-camera flash is that it produces wonderful highlights that you cannot get with a camera mounted flash. You can see the edge detail in the bride’s hair, and also the shadows that are visible makes the image appear more three-dimensional compared to a standard on-camera flash unit. When shooting in an indoor location (like the reception photo above) where the exposure value (EV) doesn’t change, using a manual flash does not have too many issues. However, it’s when you are moving around to different locations is when manual flash can have some drawbacks, and if you have any “line-of-sight” issues then CLS is no longer a solid alternative.
Unfortunately, there has not been a solution for these issues until this year. The recent development is called the RadioPopper (I will go over this device in another post), developed by a professional photographer. This is a great flash addition for those of us who use proprietary flash systems like CLS and want to have a longer-range radio trigger. There are great benefits to this new technology, 1. it works just like CLS – all of your controls are exactly the same, 2. you can use specialty features of your flash/camera like FP or high-speed sync which is great for using flash in high ambient light and being able to control the depth-of-field with a wide-aperture, and finally, 3. the ability to go beyond line-of-sight and high-background light to ensure you get a positive trigger from your master flash. The transceiver essentially captures the pre-flash signal from your master speedlight then transmits that same signal via radio to the receiver on the remote. Ingenious, and really a leap forward for those of use who use flash.
The following image was shot in the evening in San Francisco where the bride and groom would normally only be lit by ambient light. I used the RadioPoppers for this shot. The light was positioned off to the camera left, and used to provide a direct light onto the subjects. We shot all around the city that night, and it was great to be able to make adjustments to the remote flash (SB-800) directly from the master flash (SB-800) located on top of my camera (Nikon D300) instead of having to run over to it and make manual adjustments. Although this is a new technology (and there were some misfires) it did perform well.
Image #2 | Using the new RadioPoppers for Off-Camera Flash
You can see that I was able to get a great directed light to use to highlight the subjects. Since we were constantly moving it was nice to have all of the control at my fingertips and to not miss a specific moment. I’m very pleased with the image.
In the near future I will create another post with more specifics regarding the RadioPoppers. Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the comment area. Thanks for dropping by.
by Michael
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