Introduction to remote flash options

Remote flash basics:

If you want to improve your lighting ability,one of the most helpful methods is to move the flash from your lens axis and by that you will create more 3 dimensional photographs.There many many ways to control your off camera flash,in this post I’ll cover the basic three,each one of them will deal with a different situation,the basic assumption is that you have a digital camera and an off camera flash unit.

Your camera don’t have a hot shoe adaptor and no pc sync output:

in this situation you can attach Infrared Flash Remote Trigger for Digital Camera.This remote trigger will trigger your flash any time it “see’s” a flash fired in its direction.

ir-remote-trigger

  • Pros:costs less than 8$,size is small and wheights nothing.
  • Cons:in many digital cameras,the fires a series of pre flash flashes in order to help the camera focus on the desired object.This simple remote trigger see’s those flashes and then trigers the off camera flash unit.
  • Tips:you can buy a more expensive remote trigger like this one (it is called Wein) wich can notice if the flash fired by the camera is pre flash(and ignore it).If you still go for the cheaper remote trigger,after you focus the camera,wait a couple of seconds for the off camera flash to recharge and then shoot the picture.

Your camera has an hot shoe adpter or pc sync output:

in that case you could go two ways:

  • connect the flash to the camera via a pc sync cable.Thats the easiest and cheapest way to do the job.If your flash don’t have a pc sync input,you could get an pc sync (input) adaptor for another couple of bucks and you are fixed.
  • The other way is to use an “expensive” Wireless Flash Remote Receiver Trigger and that will fix you for long distance remote flash too.wireless-flash-remote-receiver-trigger

Method number three is also the most expensive method in that group is using two flashes that have the ability to work  master/slave couple.You could do it with canon speedlite flashes (550EX,430EX,580EX and more) or Nikon units (SB800 SB900 and more).

If you have any questions,or want to share your thoghts about that post,PLS COMMENT!!!

2 thoughts on “Introduction to remote flash options

    1. Hey nasya, Thanks for visiting.
      Yep, those can work with almost any type of flash.
      There are althought better devices today (thats an ols post), like the RF602/3 (search on ebay),
      but the little cube trigger is the cheapest type and works good!
      Enjoy.

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