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Getting to M and Off Camera Flash
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<blockquote data-quote="WayneF" data-source="post: 601385" data-attributes="member: 12496"><p>SU-4 mode is a regular optical slave, but IMO, a spectacularly sensitive one. It does seem to take a real flash to trigger it, it seems to know a slower light pulse is not a flash. Nikon SU-4 originally was an external slave unit for a flash foot, and then starting with SB-800, it was built into the better flash models.</p><p></p><p>Commander is more touchy, line of sight is important. I don't put the flash inside of anything, but with umbrellas, it always seems possible to rotate the flash body so that the slave sensor has a view of the camera commander. Commander also seems to always work just being close to the camera, like up to 4 or 5 feet behind it even.</p><p></p><p>A remote with commander has to see the commander on camera, but an optical slave can instead have a view of another slaves flash. If using multiple slaves, the camera can trigger the easy one, and it can trigger the others. But generally, indoors, my experience is that it doesn't much matter what we do in that regard, the SU-4 optical slaves are gonna trigger, from reflections back from the subject, or from walls, etc. </p><p></p><p>There is an (old) test of some Ebay slaves at <a href="http://www.scantips.com/lights/slaves.html" target="_blank">Optical slave triggers for speedlights</a></p><p></p><p>Using a camera internal flash at lowest 1/128 power as the trigger (directly aimed at the remote flash), I determined the triggering range was:</p><p></p><p>Nikon SU-4 slave - 132 feet (and I was out the door and across the street with my back against a fence. It might have gone further, but I couldn't.</p><p></p><p>Alienbees internal slaves - 43 feet</p><p></p><p>The other slaves, mostly Ebay, and were triggered from 9 to 29 feet. We are talking cheapies, and they vary. These are external slaves, where the SU-4 and Alienbees are internal slaves.</p><p></p><p> Of these external slaves, the Wein Peanut WEPN slave was the best and most sensitive I saw (29 feet from 1/128 power internal flash), however it simply will not work at all on the newer Nikon speedlights with a 3.6V sync voltage (like say the SB-600). It works great on the others (like Yongnuo) with a 5V sync voltage. The sync voltage powers the externals. Those slaves internal to a flash have battery voltage on them. And often are triggered by much higher working level of the other flashes (instead of 1/128 internal).</p><p></p><p>But when using the Alienbees slaves (four flashes), I simply pay no attention at all to the slaves or how they are aimed, they just simply always work (indoors in a portrait situation). The background light is "hidden" behind the subject (Commander will NOT work there), and the hair light is high and behind, and sensor is aimed the worst possible direction, directly away from subject and other lights. They simply just always work (room reflections, etc). My experience is if it is in the same room, it's gonna trigger (from wall reflections I assume)</p><p></p><p></p><p>Back to the multiple manual flash.. TTL is a quick setup which works well for two flashes, as main and fill light. Fast and easy.</p><p>But the Commander only handles 2 flashes, or some are 3 flashes. And when you go to four flashes, probably that adds background and hair lights, and TTL is simply unusable for those. See <a href="http://www.scantips.com/lights/setup/" target="_blank">45 degree Portrait Lighting Setup</a> ... the four pictures about mid page of the individual lights shows why TTL can't be useful for those.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="WayneF, post: 601385, member: 12496"] SU-4 mode is a regular optical slave, but IMO, a spectacularly sensitive one. It does seem to take a real flash to trigger it, it seems to know a slower light pulse is not a flash. Nikon SU-4 originally was an external slave unit for a flash foot, and then starting with SB-800, it was built into the better flash models. Commander is more touchy, line of sight is important. I don't put the flash inside of anything, but with umbrellas, it always seems possible to rotate the flash body so that the slave sensor has a view of the camera commander. Commander also seems to always work just being close to the camera, like up to 4 or 5 feet behind it even. A remote with commander has to see the commander on camera, but an optical slave can instead have a view of another slaves flash. If using multiple slaves, the camera can trigger the easy one, and it can trigger the others. But generally, indoors, my experience is that it doesn't much matter what we do in that regard, the SU-4 optical slaves are gonna trigger, from reflections back from the subject, or from walls, etc. There is an (old) test of some Ebay slaves at [URL="http://www.scantips.com/lights/slaves.html"]Optical slave triggers for speedlights[/URL] Using a camera internal flash at lowest 1/128 power as the trigger (directly aimed at the remote flash), I determined the triggering range was: Nikon SU-4 slave - 132 feet (and I was out the door and across the street with my back against a fence. It might have gone further, but I couldn't. Alienbees internal slaves - 43 feet The other slaves, mostly Ebay, and were triggered from 9 to 29 feet. We are talking cheapies, and they vary. These are external slaves, where the SU-4 and Alienbees are internal slaves. Of these external slaves, the Wein Peanut WEPN slave was the best and most sensitive I saw (29 feet from 1/128 power internal flash), however it simply will not work at all on the newer Nikon speedlights with a 3.6V sync voltage (like say the SB-600). It works great on the others (like Yongnuo) with a 5V sync voltage. The sync voltage powers the externals. Those slaves internal to a flash have battery voltage on them. And often are triggered by much higher working level of the other flashes (instead of 1/128 internal). But when using the Alienbees slaves (four flashes), I simply pay no attention at all to the slaves or how they are aimed, they just simply always work (indoors in a portrait situation). The background light is "hidden" behind the subject (Commander will NOT work there), and the hair light is high and behind, and sensor is aimed the worst possible direction, directly away from subject and other lights. They simply just always work (room reflections, etc). My experience is if it is in the same room, it's gonna trigger (from wall reflections I assume) Back to the multiple manual flash.. TTL is a quick setup which works well for two flashes, as main and fill light. Fast and easy. But the Commander only handles 2 flashes, or some are 3 flashes. And when you go to four flashes, probably that adds background and hair lights, and TTL is simply unusable for those. See [URL="http://www.scantips.com/lights/setup/"]45 degree Portrait Lighting Setup[/URL] ... the four pictures about mid page of the individual lights shows why TTL can't be useful for those. [/QUOTE]
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