Studio Lighting Positions
How do I get my 2 Speedlite flashes to behave?
I have a Speedlite 580EXII on my Canon 400D and a 430EXII as my second (slave) unit. Now when I have the 430EXII positioned I kinda hoped they would fire equally without me having to dial anything in. They never do, and sometimes one won’t fire at all (I do wait for the pilot lights to reappear, just in case you wonder). The uneven results aren’t awful, but I would like to able to rely on a metred result. Any ideas guys? I’m tempted to veer towards a couple of full-on Elinchroms with umbrellas, or can I get good studio results with my two flash heads?
You will want to set the 580 as master, group A, and the 430 as slave, group B. Give it a decent ratio like a 1:2. If they are the same group, they will confuse each other. If they ratio is 1:1 the image will be kinda flat (no shadows), and if the ratio is 1:8 you will be really dark on one side or overblown on the other or both.
Try to put one flash on one side of the subject and the other flash on the other side. An off camera shoe cord and bracket can help with that. Radio Poppers and the newest Pocket Wizards can help if your problem is actually caused by too much ambient light confusing the sensor on the 430 (bright sunlight isn’t too great with the current IR setup).
Single Light Studio Portrait Photography : White Card Positions in Single Light Studio Photography
