Day 153 – Discovery

I got my five-year service award bonus check in the mail today, and while perusing the reviews for the Speedlite 580EX II, I discovered that the EOS 7D pop-up flash can act as the master to my current 430 EX Speedlite.  Actually, I know that many DSLRs have this capability, but I did not have it with my EOS T1i and so it slipped my mind that I should have it with the 7D.

So I played grabbed my flash manual and the 7D manual and did me some learnin’ tonight.  I set the pop up flash to the lowest intensity so that if it were the only flash firing it did not expose anything. All I wanted was enough light to fire my off-camera 430 EX.  It worked!  And then I had to practice.

Once again, the cats were cooperative.

Jezebel lit with flash to camera right and bouncing off the ceiling.

 Maya framed by dog paraphernalia.  Flash to camera left and bouncing off ceiling.

Jezebel again.  Diffused flash to camera right (on floor).

So, for now, the 580EX II can wait. I’ll spend my bonus check on sorely needed clothes.

This entry was posted in 365 Project, Animals, Flash photography, Lighting, Pets, Photography and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

11 comments

    • Thank you, Joanna! Jezzie is Maya’s kitten and has not known any place but our home. She is a talker who can drive me to distraction sometimes, but I love her (and Maya) to pieces.

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  3. If I am reading this correctly, you are setting off the other flash by it “seeing/detecting” the on-camera flash.

    I’m no flash expert, but if the new flash you were considering is anything like my SB-900, it can integrate with the camera a little better than that. On mine I can control the mode and compensation of the off-camera flash right from the camera. And I can do that for up to four flash units (four different channels).

    You can do that manually, of course, by physically changing the off-camera flash settings.

    One other option is to buy remote triggers. This is much less expensive than a new flash, and it has the advance that a line of sight in not needed.

    You might consider these:
    http://blackbeltlighting.com/support/blackbelt-wireless-trigger-instructions/
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkbVCWaSigQ

    Unfortunately, right now I think they are out of stock (found out yesterday when I was going to read about them – I think three triggers were something like $50).

    These are fairly popular as well, and I bought it at Amazon:
    http://www.amazon.com/Yongnuo-Wireless-Trigger-Shutter-Transceiver/dp/B004YW79F4

    http://www.zwphoto.ca/yongnuo-rf-603-review

    But while they work great, I think the Blackbelt triggers offer more versatility (disclosure), I’ve not used the rf-603 much.

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    • I’ll answer in order. Yes, I can set my flash settings for all flashes from my camera. I learned about this in my lighting class but at the time did not have a camera capable of doing so. I can create groups as well, and control each group’s settings from the camera, so that Group A can have one intensity, Group B a different, and Group C a different one as well.

      The EOS T1i cannot do this using the pop-up flash as master. The T3i can, and I did contemplate it when I upgraded. The 7D was my choice, however, as it has so much more capability than the Rebel series cameras.

      Before I got the 7D I had already purchased two remote triggers for “in the meantime” but will continue to be used as well. They are okay, but appear to change channels without being touched, which can be a real pain, so that the transmitter is still on 1 but the receiver has mysteriously jumped to channel 2. It isn’t me as the button to change the channel is very hard to get to when the trigger is attached to the flash.

      Thanks for the links.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts!