Setting up your lights on your hardware

So now you know what methods you can use to trigger a flash and how to make your camera make those flashes work. Now it's time to set up your gear to some light stands.

After this post, you will know exactly what kind of gear you need to make sure you have a complete kit.

In the world of professional photography and big studio lighting, flash photography (in the sense we are discussing it as) doesn't even exist. All the light stands are much more heavy duty and all take a variety of adapters. So don't take this information as the end all of light stands. If you want to know more detailed info on any types of light stands or how they are used in a more commercial environment, please post a comment and I will go into more detail at your request.

Which lightstand should I pick?

Which light stand you choose is completely up to you. In this section, I'll go over the basic outline of what makes stands different from one another.

I'll go over some of the basic terms that you'll see when looking at light stands and what they mean:

Damped (or air cushioned):

These light stands have an 'air shock' in them. What this means to you is that if you loosen one of the retaining nuts on the lightstand, it won't come crashing down right away. It will slowly let itself down while you hear a small hiss of air. This addition is nice, but can be annoying if you are trying to break down your gear quickly. You have to wait for the air to release out of the chamber before you can completely collapse it.

Free Sliding:

This is the same exact type of stand w/o the 'air shock'. When you loosen a sleeve it comes down with the quickness!

Stud size:

Most common sizes are 3/8" and 5/8". Which size you pick depends completely on what your use for it will be. For all lighting purposes mentioned in this blog, the 3/8" stud will be fine. (As my photography knowledge base and 'goodies' grow, this may change.)

These are just the basic terms. This will be enough for you to make an educated decision on what type of stand you want to buy though.

Folded light stand w/ 3/8" brass stud attached:

NOTE: You always want to make sure you can use your gear w/ new purchases down the road. If you have ambitions to build a big studio, make sure to get the 5/8" stud. The studs are usually fixed to the light stand, so when you buy a 5/8" stud, you are getting the more heavy duty light stand to go w/ it.

NOTE II: A light stand is exactly what it says it is. There are no clamps or brackets to attach anything to. This is why you need an umbrella adapter mentioned in the next section.

Umbrella adapters:

There are a few different types of umbrella adapters on the market. For all intents and purposes though they are the same plastic construction. There is a guy machining them and selling them on Ebay, but these are very hard to come by. I'd trade a piece of glass for three of them though. Since they are built like tanks and parallax corrected for proper light alignment (I'll link to this term when I post that blog).

What this adapter does is connect your light stand to your umbrella and flash. In the image provided, you will see the bottom 'port' that clamps over the stud on the light stand. Then the port on the top will connect to your flash.

WARNING! All of the umbrella adapters I know if have metal shoes where the flash attaches. Make sure to put electrical tape on the 'cold shoe' (the metal piece where the flash attaches) , so that it does not short out your flash contacts and cause great sadness.

In the image below, you see a visual representation of what this looks like and it's functionality.

Umbrella adapter:

With these two items and the flash trigger of your choice. You now have a basic light kit that you can use to light your photographs.

Putting the pieces together:

Here I will briefly discuss and show you how all these pieces fit together to make a light setup (or "light rig")

A side by side view of a light stand and umbrella adapter:

A side by side view of a optical slave about to be attached to a flash:

A side by side view of a optical slave about to be attached to an umbrella adapter and flash:

F.Y.I...You don't need a light stand to use your flash. You can get creative by using bungee cords to hang it from door knobs or branches. Use gaffers tape to tape a flash to the wall or ceiling. This Umbrella stand is just the first step in getting a basic light setup so when you show up to shoot something, you don't look like a complete toolshed!

In the next post.

I'll discuss umbrellas and how they can be used. Along w/ a killer tip to make your umbrella last twice as long for less than 25 cents!

You bought these flash sync items. Now what?

In the previous post here, we discussed the various ways flash can be fired from the camera. In this post we will see how these peripheral devices actually connect to your camera. So when you squeeze on the shutter release. There will be light!

How to connect cables to your flash:

At a minimum you will need the following items:

• PC to PC cord (here's a good place to start looking) {You will most likely need a hotshoe to PC adapter as well.}
• Flash

These cables come in a variety of flavors. You can get a standard PC to PC cord that just sends a simple low voltage pulse of electricity to fire your flash. Or you can go all the way up to a i-ttl (Nikon) or e-ttl (Canon) cable that carries all the 'smart' knowledge from the camera.

What's the difference?

• With ttl technology, you can set your camera on auto and just hammer on the shutter. Every picture won't be exposed with the flash perfectly, but they will be very close to spot on every time.
• With regular PC cables (non ttl) you will only trigger your flash. If you have your flash set on half power, it will obediently flash away at half power, oblivious the the fact whether it is actually doing what you need it to do or not.

Here is an image of connecting a PC cable to a hotshoe adapter. (This is the same exact principal as connecting the PC cable directly to the camera)

PC cable to hotshoe:

Here is an image of connecting the PC cable to the flash. (This is also the same principal as connecting any camera to a light source)

WARNING! With the advent of sensitive digital cameras, there has been much discussion on the web about the danger of using older photo flash strobes on the hotshoe connector. The primary concern comes from the two major SLR manufacturers, Nikon and Canon, listing the maximum hotshoe X-sync voltage being no higher than 250V and 6V, respectively. Many older flashes had a trigger voltage of over 200V on the X-sync contact relative to the mechanical ground shoe connector. This high voltage has the potential to damage or destroy expensive modern digital cameras. If you have questions or concerns about the voltage of your strobe. Just Google your flash name + sync voltage. You should easily find the voltage within the first three hits.

PC cable to flash: (two images of the same thing)

Using an optical trigger:

At a minimum you will need the following items:

• Optical trigger
• Flash

This is by far the easiest way to trigger a flash in regards to setup. All you do is attach an optical trigger to the bottom of your flash the same way you would connect the flash to your camera via the hotshoe.

Optical trigger sliding onto the hotshoe of the speedlight:

Using wireless transmitters:

At a minimum you will need the following items:

• Wireless transmitter x1
• Wireless receiver x1 (you will need one receiver for each flash you want to trigger wirelessly)
• Cable to connect the wireless receiver to the flash (this cable comes in almost all wireless kits)
• Flash

While this is the most complicated way to sync your flash. It's still pretty easy. There are certain proprietary steps that belong to each wireless transmitter. The images you see below are using Pocket Wizard's (PW's). I won't go into these steps unless your having a difficult time with a certain type. If you are, make a comment on the bottom requesting additional posting and I will add it within a day or so.

The wireless transmitter will have a hotshoe attachment on it that fits directly onto the camera. I'm not going to show an image of this at this time unless it's requested later. It's pretty straight forward.

The wireless receiver is where it can be a little confusing. There will be a sync cable that connects from the wireless transmitter to the PC port on your speedlight. This image should do a good job explaining how this connection works. Although, some wireless setups connect directly to the bottom of your flash via the hotshoe and don't need this cable at all.

Wireless receiver hooking up to flash: (I made this third image a little larger so you can really see what's going on here)

I'm not going to go over Infrared Transmitters due to the proprietary nature of them. I strongly recommend just cracking open that hardly been used owners manual and finding out the best way to use it. Just remember, the transmitter has to 'see' the receiver for IR technology to work. It MIGHT work around a corner since the signal can bounce off walls. But never through walls and things like that.

In the next post. I will discuss how this gear attaches to light-stands and what options you have.

So you want to start using an off camera flash...

In this tutorial. I will go over all the basics of off camera strobe lighting and how everything works together. While this may seem rudimentary for most photographers, this is a major contributor to why allot of people don't buy lighting gear. After the next few posts, you will see how easy it is and hopefully be ready to dive in head first.

The term "flash" will always imply the light source is a speed light not physically atached to the camera.

This is a great learning experience for me since literally less than a year ago. I didn't own a single off camera light source. I have had the pleasure of learning from some really talented photographers. I will try my best to make mention of all these people at one time or another and give you a link so you can check them out yourselves.

There are three ways to trigger a flash:

Wired connection:
This method is achieved by connecting a physical cable from the camera to the flash. There are a few ways to do this:
Using a 'PC' port on your camera to connect to the 'PC' jack on your flash. (the PC out jack is usually only an option for higher end DSLR's)

A standard PC to PC cable:


If your camera doesn't have a PC jack. You will need a hotshoe adapter that essentially gives you a PC jack on your camera. All you have to do is slide this adapter into your hotshoe and then plug your PC cable into the adapter.

A PC to hotshoe connection: (Nikon model AS-15)

Pros: Inexpensive. You can 'cheat your camera into thinking there isn't a flash attached (depending on the connection) and sync your flash at speeds up to 1/4000 or higher.
Cons: Cords to trip over, limited by length of cable, can only transmit ttl information to the flash w/ a specially designed cable (which are neither cheap nor long)


Optically:
Most of the time these devices are referred to as 'optical slaves' they can also be called, 'peanuts' or 'optical triggers'. These devices have a light sensing diode on them that triggers a flash when it 'sees' a pulse of bright light. The easiest and most basic way to use this is set up your flash w/ a peanut and just fire your on camera flash to trigger the peanut.

A 'Peanut' (Nissin Brand w/ PC connection on the back)

Pros: Inexpensive, simple to use, no cords to trip on.
Cons: Almost impossible to use in a bright light environment, has to 'see' the pulse of light to trigger a flash, cannot transmit ttl information to the flash.


Wireless:
This is the preferred method for professional photographers. There are two types of wireless transmission. Radio frequency & Infrared Transmission.

Radio frequency:
The Gold standard is Pocket Wizards (PW's) which we will discuss in a later post along w/ more cost effective wireless setups. You connect a transmitter to your hotshoe of the camera, then connect the receiver to a flash using a sync cable (provided w/ wireless package)

Pocket Wizard II's (this model is both a transmitter and reciever {called a transciever})

Pros: Maximum range of 1600' (I've triggered a flash at over 2200' w/ PW's), no cords, multiple radio channels in case you are working w/ multiple photogs in the same proximity. You can also trigger flashes around corners and through walls.
Cons: Certain brands (namely PW's)can be very expensive (you get what you pay for though), cannot transmit ttl information to the flash, max sync speed of 1/500 (even though I frequently sync at twice that speed reliably).

The Infrared transmitter:
This is usually built into most pro level DSLR's. It is a cost effective way to start up your lighting setup.
I consulted w/ a Photographer that goes by the alias of LiquidAir. He mentioned the following about IR transmitters:
"Canon, Nikon and Quantum each have a wireless system which transmits TTL metering information. The Canon system is optical and proprietary to the Canon cameras and flashes. The Nikon system is similar and also proprietary to Nikon gear. The Quantum system is radio based and proprietary to Quantum flashes, but it works with both Canon and Nikon cameras."

Sorry no picture right now.
Pros: You CAN transmit ttl information to the flashes, no cords
Cons: Your flash has to be in a "line of sight" w/ your camera to trigger the flash, limited range, you HAVE TO buy your companies proprietary gear and can't easily migrate over to a third party flash solution.

In the next post, I will show you how to physically connect your strobes using the three types of connections I just mentioned. This will also show you what components you need to set up a basic lighting kit so when youorder your equipment, you'll know you didn't forget anything.

If you would like to see anything on this or future posts in more detail. Just shoot me an email and I will add it to my blog list for future publishing.