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I have a 430ex that I trigger using a canon infra-red trigger.
If I wanted to use other lights in my setup, how would I trigger them? I can see that if I bought other canon speedlights, the trigger would work but what about other lights (non canon)? When I use my 430ex it has to be in slave mode to work with my current trigger - I'm just wondering about other lights and how I would get them to fire.
Cheers.
Well that is a pretty open question. You could go radio trigger from your camera just to your new light and let the speedlite still be triggered with IR. If you're talking a studio type light like alienbee ect then those all usually have built in optical triggers that go off when another flash hits it- but those are pretty tricky to use outside especially with bright light. Then there's always a reaaaaaaaaally long sync cord ;)
What sort of light are you looking into? You going to be the next Joe Mcnally and shoot with 30+ speedlites ;)
Ha - nah, just wondering what my options are. Portrait photography really excites me and I've also got a wedding or 2 coming up this summer - hoping to get some shots with decent lighting setup. I know you can use just 1 softbox and that's probably what I'll stick with for a while but I'm always into experimenting with new stuff (budget allowing).
Thinking some back lighting would be cool and some lighting from below. Might try to build my own ring light as well.
So - in theory I could trigger my 430ex with my infrared and then other flashes would fire when they detect light from my 430?
Also - how does a radio trigger attach? Wouldn't it be attached to the hotshoe which my infrared would be on?
Yes most radio type triggers are attached with the hot shoe. You can also get a cable to hook a lot of them up through the pc sync cord as well though. Never tried to make both go off though but don't see why it wouldn't. I'll try a similar setup when I get home from work. I'll have my 430 on the hotshoe since I don't have the IR trigger but in theory if it does go off then it would obviously trigger the IR one as well.
What DIY ring light you looking into doing? There are so many.
Well I may give this a go to start with: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jedrek/239141592/sizes/o/
But then look into building a circle of wood/board with a number of lights on.
I suppose an alternative to using multiple flashes is to use a constant light source - any recommendations for that? Is it the 'done thing' to combine a continuous light source with a flash?
Continuous light sources are usually to weak to compete with a Flash, and they often have different light temperature, so it makes it hard to fix the white balance in post.
They also get very warm and still dont get you decent shutterspeeds imo.
I use a radiotrigger , Cactus V4 and revievers,. They are cheap but has worked fine for me. This way I can use Nikon, Sigma or Canon or most brands and models. Its good because there are a lot of used flash to be bought cheap.