Many Speedliters are fond of using the ST-E2 Wireless Transmitter in lieu of a master Speedlite. I am not among them. In fact, I discourage people from getting the ST-E2.

The thinking in favor of the ST-E2 is that it is about half the price of a 580-series Speedlite. I concur: about half the price and less than half the functionality.

My experience has shown that the range of the ST-E2 is shorter than a 580EX, both indoors and out. This is due to the fact that the flashtube on a 580EX is much stronger than the small tube inside the ST-E2. Further, the range of the ST-E2 flashtube is impeded by the thick red plastic panel that is there to block the visible portion of the flash. (If it was not blocked, it would add uncontrolled, on-camera flash to the exposure.)

In terms of flexibility, the ST-E2 literally has none. Unlike a 580EX, which can pan 360º, the ST-E2 will only control Speedlites that are within an 80º angle in front of  the lens. In contrast, by panning the head on a 580EX, I can hit a slave that is to the side or behind me. The flexibility of the 580EX is a huge advantage when it comes to creative Speedliting.

A third limitation of the ST-E2 is that it can only control groups A and B. Given the extra steps needed to run Group C, this is not a huge downside. On the positive side, the ST-E2 provides the A:B ratio control quite easily via a sliding lever. So, for novice Speedliters, this trade-off is fine.

A fourth limitation, and one that looms larger as I become more accustomed to controlling my Speedlites via the LCD screen on my camera, is that the ST-E2 (like the original 580EX) cannot be controlled by the camera LCD. When you are starting out, this shortcoming will not seem like an issue. As you become an advanced Speedliter, you will learn to appreciate the convenience of controlling your Speedlites via the camera LCD.

Gear recommendation #1: If economy is a concern, start with a 430EX and an extra-long E-TTL cord. Many people think that they need to spend $250 on an ST-E2 to get their one Speedlite off-camera. I say spend $65 on an E-TTL cord instead. Not only will you save a big chunk of dough, you’ll be able to control the Speedlite via the camera LCD (assuming you have an EX II Speedlite and a compatible, late-2007 or newer camera.

Gear recommendation #2: While you are learning to master your first Speedlite, start saving for a 580EX II. Then, when you want to start shooting with multiple lights, you can buy a 580EX II and use it as an off-camera master (thanks to the extra-long E-TTL cord you bought earlier). Now you have a 580/430 combo for about the same price as two 430s and an ST-E2. I’ve no doubt that you’ll find the versatility and power of the 580EX II + 430EX II + extra-long E-TTL cord to be far greater than a pair of off-camera 430s that have to remain in front of the lens

So what if you already have an ST-E2? When you eventually outgrow it, there is always eBay.

Portions of this article excerpted from my to-be-published ‘Speedliter’s Handbook‘, coming November, 2010.

For a calendar of my seminars and workshops on Speedliting, click here.

When Speedliting, it always gets down to flash power – how much power and how it is set. You can dial the power level in manually. Or you can have your camera and Speedlite work together to calculate the power level automatically via E-TTL. Both modes have their strengths. Both modes have their shortcomings. One is not always better than the other. I routinely switch between E-TTL and Manual — depending upon the situation of the shoot.

A lot of photographers don’t understand the difference between E-TTL and Manual mode. Further, a lot of photographers always use one mode and never explore the other — often because someone else told them to do it that way. A photographer who always uses one mode and never the other is like the carpenter who says, “I don’t need a hammer, I have a big wrench.”

[P.S. If you shoot Nikon rather than Canon, all of the following applies to you as well. Just think "i-TTL" every time you read "E-TTL."]

My Basic Guideline For Deciding Between Manual and E-TTL

When deciding between Manual and E-TTL, I think about the situation in which I’m shooting. In broad strokes, if the distance between the subject and the Speedlite(s) is fixed, then I will work in Manual. If the distance to or position of the subject is dynamic, then I will work in E-TTL.

Why does the distance between the subject and the Speedlites matter? It matters because the Inverse Square Law is always lurking out there somewhere. You already know this simple truth — the closer your light is to the subject, the brighter it appears. If your flash is 3′ from the subject, it appears brighter than if it is 12′ from your subject. Put another way, a Speedlite that is 12′ from the subject needs to fire at a higher power level than one that is 3′ away.

So, if you are shooting in a controlled situation, where the distance between the subject and the flash is fixed, then Manual mode is great. I use Manual for tabletop work (food, still-life, and product). This type of work requires precision and repeatability. Manual gives me the ability to fix the power level so that it does not vary from shot to shot. This is very helpful when you are doing repetitious product photography.

Use Manual: When Learning The Basics Of Flash Photography

I think Manual mode is the best way to learn the basics of flash photography. You make a decision, you take the shot, you see the results. When it does not work the way you expected, you repeat the process and learn a bit more.

When you are starting out with flash photography, the problem with E-TTL is that you have no idea what power level was used for a shot. You can’t read it on the Speedlite’s LCD. You can’t find it later in the shot’s metadata. E-TTL is an automatic flash mode (which I’ll describe in detail in Part 2). If there is too much or too little light, you won’t necessarily know why.

Use Manual: When The Subject Will Pass Through A Preset Zone

Manual is perfect for situations when a moving subject will pass through a preset zone. For instance, at a wedding, you know that the bride and groom will come down the aisle after the ceremony, so you can preset your lights in Manual mode before the ceremony starts. The dramatic contrast of the bride’s white gown and the groom’s dark suit is better handled in Manual than E-TTL.

Any sport with a net can be another situation where you will know that the subject is going to pass through a preset zone. The net in a basketball game provides the opportunity to preset your flash and adjust the power before the game starts. For instance, climb a ladder at home or climb on the roof and shoot junior practicing his slam dunks. (Just be careful when you do…it’s not the fall that breaks gear; it’s the sudden stop at the end.)

Sports that involve jumping are also good situations for Manual flash. Motocross and BMX racing always have track obstacles that will send the rider into the air. Hurdlers at a track meet provide the opportunity to know where a fast-moving subject is likely to pass. Of course, for safety reasons, it is essential that the event organizer and participants have preapproved your flash work.

Use Manual: To Maximize Your Speedlite’s Power

This is an esoteric point — another consideration in deciding between Manual and E-TTL comes up when you need to get either the absolute maximum or minimum power from your Speedlite.

When you need to squeeze every very bit of power from your Speedlite, switch it to Manual mode and set it to 1/1. In E-TTL, the Speedlite uses a bit of its power for the pre-flash. By switching to Manual, you eliminate the pre-flash and send all the juice straight out in one big burst.

Conversely, if you are shooting in Manual at the lowest power setting and still have too much light, switch over to E-TTL. The pre-flash will suck up a bit of power and thereby reduce the intensity of the flash. The change will be small, but it might be just enough.

Use Manual: To Trigger Off-Camera Flash With Optical Slaves

For all the details on how to use optical slaves with Canon Speedlites, click here. The short version is that the E-TTL pre-flash tricks optical slaves into firing pre-maturely. Manual does not have a pre-flash. So it is the way to go with optical slaves.

Coming soon: Deciding Between E-TTL and Manual – Part 2: E-TTL Flash.

Portions of this article excerpted from my to-be-published ‘Speedliter’s Handbook‘, coming November, 2010.

For a calendar of my seminars and workshops on Speedliting, click here.

Yes. It seems sweetly ironic that three days after I publish the How-To on bolting optical slaves to Speedlites (here), which is old-school technology that should be built-in already, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) publishes a patent application by Canon USA for the wireless control of cameras and Speedlites via wi-fi. Talk about taking a quantum leap forward…

This is the technology that many Canonistas have been praying for — built-in, radio control of multiple Speedlites. The timing of the USPTO publication makes my recent article on controlling Speedlites from the LCD of your camera (here) look downright visionary — although I was writing about technology that Canon introduced in 2007.

I’ll say it straight out — this is not a joke, rumor, or hoax. You can see a summary of the application yourself on the UPSTO site by clicking here. Heck, for $3.00 you can even receive a PDF of the actual 37-page application (which I did) or you can use Pat2PDF.org and get a copy for free.

I’ll also say this is no indication that Canon will sell gear with this technology anytime soon. Last year, Canon was awarded over 2,200 patents by the USPTO — which put it fourth on the list of top patent recipients (behind IBM, Samsung, and Microsoft). That’s an average of over 42 patents awarded per week to Canon. The August 12 publication of the wi-fi application is just one more step in a years-long process of earning a patent. Further, there is no guarantee that the USPTO will agree that this technology should be proprietary to Canon. Still…it’s fun to dream.

^^^ Cover page of Canon USA's patent application.

For a really thorough, yet understandable, description of the technology that Canon has described in the application, read this article over on Photography Bay. Kudos to PB for breaking the story in the first place.

^^^ Figure 4 from the patent application -- diagrams the electronic circuits inside the camera.

I’ve long expected that the next several weeks are going to be quite interesting in terms of industry announcements. There’s the once-every-five-years Canon Expo to be held in NYC on September 2-3. There’s also the once-every-two-years galactic gathering of all things photographic at Photokina in Cologne, Germany on September 21-26. So, certainly Canon and every other camera company is going to be pulling the covers of a few their most-secret projects.

Figure 12 of the patent application -- diagrams the remote control of multiple cameras and Speedlites via wi-fi.

Photographers are notorious for having back issues. I am no exception. Two weeks ago today, I was struck by an acute case of sciatica – a blindingly painful condition that comes about when the sciatic nerve (the body’s largest, running from the lower back to the foot) is compressed either by disc herniation or muscle spasms. Fortunately, most of my pain has subsided and each day I am able to do a bit more. Yesterday, for instance, I sat in a chair for the first time in two weeks. My physician has advised me that it will take four to six weeks to make a full-recovery and that I should avoid extended travel during the interim. So, as much as it disappointed me to do so, I have advised Canon UK and the SWPP that I will not be able to lead the UK Speedlite 2010 tour.

I am pleased to report that the UK Speedliting tour will continue as scheduled (details here). Rick Friedman, a globe-trotting photojournalist and corporate shooter, has kindly agreed to take over the tour. Rick is well-versed in the Canon Speedlite system and teaches many location lighting workshops himself. Based in Boston, he travels the world for numerous publications, corporations, advertising assignments and film and television productions. His published work appears in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News, The New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Stern, Discover and many other publications. He has produced over 75 book and magazine covers. After you check out his website here, I think you will agree that Rick is as qualified as I am to headline the program.

As for my US Speedliter’s Intensive tour (schedule here), I am confident that I will make a full recovery before the tour commences in Seattle on October 1st. No changes is the US tour schedule are anticipated.

Thanks to all who have sent their best wishes. I look forward to seeing all of my UK friends some time in 2011.

^^^ Can you spot the photographer in this group?

If I were to announce…

that Canon introduced the world’s best interface for flash control–a Speedlite interface that was big, colorful, and easy-to-understand–you would think it was news…right?  You might also think it was fantasy. Well, it’s real and I’m three years late in making that announcement. It happened in mid-2007, when Canon released the 1D Mk III camera and the 580EX II Speedlite. The world of off-camera flash should have shook back then, but I did not feel anything. Thereafter, with every new Canon DSLR annoucement, there should have been major aftershocks. We Canonistas have had a revolutionary Speedlite user interface in our hands for three years and no one is whooping about it (not even the marketing department at Canon). Are you still scratching your head trying to figure out what I’m talking about? It’s the ability to control every aspect of an EX II Speedlite from the back of our cameras–on menus that are big, colorful, and easy-to-understand.

I discovered this capability quite by accident about a year ago when I bought my first 5D Mk II and paired it up with my then year-old 580EX II. I literally tripped into the ‘External Speedlite Control’ menu while looking for something else on the my camera’s LCD monitor. So, for the past year, I’ve gone from being barely able to find the ‘External Speedlite Control’ menu to thinking of it as an indispensable part of my Speedliting technique. I’m sure once you come to understand the potential, you’ll see it as indispensable too. And, if you’ve never seen a good reason to upgrade to an EX II Speedlite, you’ll likely change your mind about that too. I sure have.

My days of struggling with Canon’s miniscule icons on the Speedlite LCD panel are over.

I’ve not been shy about sharing my thoughts on the challenges of the Canon Speedlite interface. In fact, my July 2009 rant on PixSylated (‘My Canon Speedlite Wishlist‘) has been expanded by the comments of nearly 400 other photographers – which is the record for all of my blog articles. Much of what I discussed in the Wishlist has to do with icons and menus. Well, for the past month or so, I’ve been thinking that it’s time for a re-write of the wishlist. Now that I have the on-camera menu control of my Speedlites, I’m a much happier camper.

Pop quiz #1: which of the above two interfaces do you find easier to understand? Your assignment is to disable the on-camera master Speedlite so that it does not throw on-camera flash at your subject (most often, that’s a very good idea). On the left, you have the 580EX II LCD. You have to look for the three lines coming out of the Speedlite icon and then figure out which of the buttons to push so that the three lines go away (hint: when in doubt, always try the ZOOM/EverythingElse button). On the right, you have the menu choice from the LCD on my 7D. Even without my reading glasses, I can see it clearly.

If the Speedlite has a button or dial for it, you can read it on your camera’s LCD.

So, what Speedlite functions can you control on your camera’s LCD? Every last one. Seriously. You can even Zoom the Speedlite from the back of your camera.

^^^ Change the mode on your Speedlite

^^^ Change the zoom setting on your Speedlite. (This does not change zoom settings on slaves).

^^^ Change the sync mode for your Speedlite.

^^^ Turn the wireless system on or off.

^^^ In Manual mode: set the power level for each Group

^^^ Change the ratio mode (E-TTL) or the number of groups (Manual).

^^^ Set the A:B ratio.

^^^ Set Flash Exposure Compensation for Group C.

^^^ Change the settings for Multi/Stroboscopic Mode: output, hertz, and number of flashes

Custom Functions on-camera. A new way to translate the Dead Sea Scrolls.

If you’ve ever tried to change a Custom Function on a Canon Speedlite, you’ve encountered what is probably the most-cryptic system of digital control in the entire photo universe. Having to pry open a hidden cover and move microscopic switches would be easier than decoding the nuances of 0 and 1 on a Speedlite LCD.

Hidden tip > The one Custom Function that I always want to disable is the one that saves power by putting the Speedlite to sleep. I carry lots of batteries. I want my Speedlite to stay on and vigilent; waiting for me to give it something useful to do. So, on the 580EX II, the 430EXII, and the 430EX, I set C.Fn-01 to 1. On the 580EX, I set C.Fn-14 to 1.

Now, cue the Halleluia Chorus, Canon’s world’s-best camera LCD system also gives you the ability to read all of the details about a Custom Function and its options in plain English (or French, or German, or whatever language you have your camera set to).

Pop quiz #2: which of the above two Custom Function interfaces do you find easier to understand? Silly question, I know. Left: LCD panel on the 580EX II. Right: LCD monitor Canon 5D Mark II. Both screens are asking the same question.

Putting the pieces together.

So, what do you need to get this great functionality? You need the right Speedlite (you have 3 choices) AND a compatible camera (you have 17 choices). The reason that I never discovered the on-camera control for the first year that I had my 580EX II is that I used it in a 5D. The original 5D cannot communicate with a Speedlite this way. It was when I parked the 580EX II on my first 5DM2 that the magic door appeared.

For the Speedlite, it must be on of the following:

• 580EX II
• 430EX II
• 270EX

For the camera, it must be the EOS 1D Mark III or have been introduced after the 1D Mark III. Basically every Canon EOS and Powershot camera introduced from mid-2007 on has this capability. Here’s the current list of cameras that will communicate with a compatible Speedlite:

So where do you find it on the camera menu? Good question. It’s not in the same place or labeled the same way on all cameras. Rather than balloon-up this article even more, I’ll do a follow-up post soon. Basially you want to look for something that says ”Flash Control”, ”External Speedlite control”,  or something similar.

^^^ left: Rebel T2i, center: 50D, right: 5d Mark II

Maximizing the power of the Canon LCD-control system.

Obviously, the initial benefits of controlling your Speedlite from the LCD of your camera is that the screen is much easier to read and understand. So, if you have just one Speedlite, the system will remove the obstacles to activating the functionality that you want.

The real magic happens when you turn on the wireless system and move the master off-camera. I’ve written elsewhere how fond I am of using an extra-long E-TTL cord. (Read this article for the basics.) So, think about the power of moving your master Speedlite off-camera and still being able to control all of its functions from your camera. Once you get the hang of controlling the Speedlite from the back of your camera, it will save you valuable time during a shoot.

Here are the three main advantages provided by this unique combination of shooting wireless with the master moved off-camera on a long E-TTL cord.

• You can use an off-camera master to add valuable light to the shot. Normally, if my master is in the hotshoe, I will disable it so that it does not fire during the shot–so that it does not throw on-camera flash at the subject and kill the quality of light. Don’t worry–the disabled master sends the instructions to the slaves. Moving the master off-camera, means that it can now communicate instructions to the slave(s) AND contribute valuable light (meaning the it creates light that has interesting shadows).

• You can position the master in a position where the slaves can see it. The Canon user manual assumes that all the slaves will be in front of the camera and within the 80º spread of an on-camera master. I’ve never found this to be typical of how I shoot multiple Speedlites. Also, if a slave has to look towards the sun to see my on-camera master, it will likely not see the instructions. This happens frequently when I’m shooting high-speed sync outdoors in full sun. So, being able to move the master off-camera means that I can put it in the most advantageous spot for all the slaves to see it.

• You can put the master and slaves inside a softbox. The challenge of using a softbox with a Speedlite is that the Speedlite throws all its light out the front–so there will likely be a hotspot at the center of the softness. In contrast, a studio flash has a cylindrical tube that throws the light sideways. While I am quite fond of the convenience of the Lastolite Ezyboxe Hoshoe (which mounts a single Speedlite at the back), when I need more light, I use the Westcott Apollo. The unique design of the Apollo is that the flash is mounted inside and pointing backwards. This allows the light to swirl around before it flies through the front. So, by using the Lastolite TriFlash and an extra-long E-TTL cord, I can mount a master and two slaves inside the Apollo and control everything in E-TTL or Manual from the back of my camera. Amazing.

Feel free to gloat, just a bit, Canonistas.

^^^ Left: Canon 5D Mark II with 580EX II. Right: Nikon D3x with SB-900.

Now, here is another truly mind-blowing bit of news…the Nikon CLS does not have this full range of on-camera LCD capability. Sure, I’ll say it again. Nikon CLS does not have the breadth of Canon’s on-camera capability for controlling Speedlites.

Last week, I was tutoring a friend about how to use her Nikon Speedlights. At a particularly troublesome point, I said, “let’s pull it up on your camera’s LCD, here like this…”. When we could not find a way to do it, I phoned Mr. Hotshoe’s assistant to ask where to find the on-camera Speedlight menu. He couldn’t think of how to do it and put Mr. Hotshoe on the line. There was some of the usual Canonista-to-Nikonian confusion in our dialogue. I was eventually asked by Mr. Hotshoe “why would you want to do that?” Later, it occurred to me that this question was analogous to being asked by my dog, Ruby, why she would want to see the world in color. Not that my sensei, Mr. Hotshoe, resembles a golden retriever in any way…other than perhaps in his enduring loyalty to friends, but I digress.

Not wanting to doubt the ubiquity of Mr. Hotshoe’s expertise in all things Nikon, I still could not believe that this technology does not exist in Nikonlandia. So, chalking it up to the possibility of one of our lost-in-translation events, I phoned my buddy MD Welch (his Notes-From-The-Field blog here) — who shoots Nikon corporately by day and Canon for his personal work. If anyone could translate my query from Canonista into Nikonian, MD could. So he went to work the next day, fired up the D3x with an SB-900 and went searching. When he came up dry, he phoned a couple of other Nikon pros and asked them. “Nope” was his succinct report. “Can’t do it on Nikon.” I now call him Mr. Bernstein and refer to myself as Mr. Woodward, because I think we’ve discovered something really big that no one is talking about.

So there, if you’re feeling puny because you shoot Speedlites rather than Speedlights, strap an EX II Speedlite onto your camera, find the ‘External Speedlite Control’ menu and go to town.

Portions of this article excerpted from my to-be-published ‘Speedliter’s Handbook‘, coming November, 2010.

For a calendar of my seminars and workshops on Speedliting, click here.

So, how do you get a bunch of Canon Speedlites to fire…

at the same time that you fire a bunch of other types of flash? Say you have a Quantum Qflash, a Metz 58 AF-1, a LumoPro LP160, and a Calumet Travelite. Then say that you need to take a group portrait of these guys as they are firing and light it with Speedlites. How do you get everyone to fire at once? You use optical slaves…a whole bunch of them. [If you've heard the myth that Canon Speedlites don't work with optical slaves, mark that person down on your holiday card list as a misinformed Speedliter.]

An optical slave is an electronic eye that will trigger a Speedlite when it sees a large burst of light. Since an optical slave literally works at the speed of light, it will fire an off-camera flash at essentially the same time that your on-camera Speedlite fires. Many brands of flash, other than Canon, have optical slaves built in. Since ours do not, we have to add them externally.

The upside of optical slaves:
+ Relatively inexpensive
+ Eliminates cords from running through the frame
+ Enables Speedlite to be concealed within the scene
+ No batteries required
+ Can mix Speedlites and other flashes

The downside of optical slaves:
– Most optical slaves are not Canon-compatible
– Range limited to about 30’/9m
– Must have clear line-of-sight between on-camera flash/trigger and Slave
– Can be fired by other nearby cameras
– Speedlites must be fired in Manual mode, unless you have a $pecial digital slave

Optical Slaves: The Basics

The triggering burst for an optical slave can come from any flash or an infrared trigger mounted to your camera. So, think of the optical slave as a receiver and the flash or infrared trigger as the transmitter.

An optical slave is an inexpensive way to trigger an off-camera Speedlite when you want to avoid the hassle of cords and connections. Keep in mind that the connection is line-of-sight—meaning that you cannot fire optical slaves hidden on the other side of a wall. For that, you have to use a radio trigger. Also, optical slaves won’t set the power of your Speedlite. You’ll have to do that yourself.

Optical Slaves & E-TTL Don’t Mix

There are two other caveats to using optical slaves with Canon Speedlites. The first is that, unless you use a $pecial digital slave, you’ll have to operate your Canon Speedlites in Manual mode. This is because optical slaves don’t think. They just connect the circuit and trigger the flash when a burst of light comes along. When you are shooting E-TTL or with red-eye reduction activated, there is a pre-flash before the actual exposure. The pre-flash causes the optical slave to fire the Speedlite prematurely. All Canon pop-up flashes always emit a pre-flash—except the 7D when in Manual flash mode. So, to get rid of the pre-flash, switch your Speedlite(s) from E-TTL to Manual mode — and don’t use a pop-up flash.

Canon Speedlites Need A Special Optical Slave

The other issue (and this is the reason for the myth) has to do with the working voltage of Canon Speedlites. An optical slave gets its power from the Speedlite rather than from a battery. With Canon Speedlites there is the peculiarity that the voltage does not drop far enough after the flash exposure to release the typical slave circuit. Essentially, the slave thinks that the Speedlite is still firing. With ordinary optical slaves, the result is that they will fire a Speedlite one time and then lock up. Fortunately, there is an optical slave with an added circuit that is made just for Canon Speedlites. And, luckily, this technology adds less than the price of a venti cup of fancy coffee to the cost of the optical slave (about $16 as opposed to $12).

Sonia’s Canon EX-Compatible Optical Slaves

^^^ Sonia makes optical slaves with orange, yellow, and green bases. Only the green-based slaves will work with Canon Speedlites.

Sonia is a leading manufacturer of optical slaves. As Canonistas, the key for us is to buy the green ones. The standard yellow and orange versions are not for us. The secret to the green slaves is that they have the additional circuit that makes them compatible with the power cycle of Canon Speedlites.
Sonia offers Canon EX-compatible slaves in both mono miniphone and PC-male. You can buy Canon-compatible Sonia slaves here on FlashZebra.com.

^^^ The male PC-jack will plug directly into a 580EX II. For other Speedlites, I prefer a miniphone jack as it provides a more reliable connection into the hotshoe adapter.

Connecting Optical Slaves To Canon Speedlites

580EX II: An optical slave with a PC-male jack can be plugged directly into the PC socket on a 580EX II. This direct connection is the only reason I have slaves with the sometimes-it-works-and-sometimes-it-doesn’t, old-school PC-sync connection. The key to obtaining PC-sync happiness is to carry a little wrench-thingie (a “PC tip conditioner“) that you can use to periodically tighten the flanges on the PC-male fitting.

All other Speedlites: You will need a hotshoe adapter for the flash into which you plug the optical slave. Be sure to get an adapter that has a threaded socket in the bottom so that you can connect it securely to your lightstand (these are called “flash hotshoe adapters” as opposed to “camera hotshoe adapters”). I prefer adapters that have a miniphone socket over those that have just a PC-sync port. The miniphone is a much more reliable connection than the ancient PC-sync. Flash Zebra has a good selection of miniphone hotshoe adapters here.

Infrared Triggers

An infrared trigger is an alternative to firing optical slaves with an on-camera flash. Infrared waves are just below that part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we see as red. While we can’t see infrared, optical slaves can. Infrared triggers work much like a manual flash in your camera’s hotshoe—except that the flash is not seen—which is great if you want to avoid the pitfalls of on-camera flash.

The two downsides to infrared are that infrared is not reliable outdoors on bright / hot days and that infrared has a limited range—approximately 15 to 30 feet. At least the infrared triggers themselves are relatively inexpensive—when compared to the cost of radio triggers.

Flashpoint and Wein are two manufacturers of infrared triggers. The Wein (about $60 here) is roughly twice the price of the Flashpoint and offers more robust construction. If you are just getting started, the Flashpoint (about $30 here) will get the job done nicely. Both activate optical slaves with reliability.

^^^ Infrared triggers -- left: Flashpoint right: Wein.

This article excerpted from my to-be-published ‘Speedliter’s Handbook‘, coming November, 2010.

Photo courtesy of Houston photographer Kris Fulk (click photo to see her review of the Speedliter's Intensive.).

It’s going to be a busy fall for Speedliting (and my frequent flier account). I’m scheduled to do 16 half-day seminars (all in the UK), 15 full-day seminars (all in the US) and a week-long workshop here in Paso Robles. Here is the calendar (click on the city name for details on a particular event).

Canon UK / SWPP Speedliting Tour

Details on Canon UK • SWPP Ticket page • Details on SWPP site • EOS Pro Network dealers (my hosts)

London: Wed 1 Sept, The Flash Centre London

Burgess Hill: Thu 2 Sept, Park Cameras

Southampton: Fri 3 Sept,  London Camera Exchange

Caerphilly: Mon 6 Sept, Walters Photo Video

Liverpool: Wed 8 Sept, Wilkinson Cameras

Manchester: Thu 9 Sept, Calumet

Leeds: Fri 10 Sept, The Flash Centre

London (Kennington): Mon 13 Sept, Fixation UK

US Speedliting Tour

New format: Speedliter’s Intensive v2.0 description

Seattle: Fri/Sat, Oct 1 & 2

Portland: Sun/Mon, Oct 3 & 4

Philadelphia: Fri/Sat, Oct 22 & 23

New York / Adorama: Sun, Oct 24

Boston: Sat/Sun, Oct 30 & 31

Austin: Sat/Sun, Nov 6 & 7

Costa Mesa (San Diego-LA): Sat/Sun, Nov 13 & 14

San Francisco: Sat/Sun, Dec 4 & 5

Week-long Speedliting Workshop

Paso Robles (halfway between LA & San Francisco): Mon-Fri, Oct 11-15

Photo courtesy of Houston photographer Kris Fulk. (Click photo to see her website.)

It’s no secret that I abhor the use of a hotshoe. Even when using a single Speedlite, I typically move it off-camera on a long E-TTL cord (details here). I’ll admit, though, that there are situations where the hotshoe is a perfectly fine place for a Speedlite. My third location shoot with cartographer David Yun on the streets of downtown San Luis Obispo for San Louie magazine was one of them.

Sometimes you don’t have the time or room to light like you should. Between the traffic, the pedestrians, and an unusually hot day, this had to be a run-and-gun shoot. I did not have the time or the space to set up an off-camera Speedlite on a stand. The goal was to make a few quick portraits of David with his ultra-modern GPS system standing on top of a cluster of century-old solar tubes that illuminate a part of subterranean SLO. We had just a few minutes and then had to move on to our last location. 

Your Camera Does Not See The World The Way You See It

The challenge with this shoot was that my camera (and your camera and every other camera out there) cannot record the entire range of light that the our human eyes can see. Take a look at the photo below to see what I mean.

^ Daylight - sun high and behind David, fill from sidewalk and adjacent building.

This is how my camera (a 5D Mark II) recorded the excessive range of brights and darks in the scene. In order to preserve the details in the brightest parts of the photo, shadow details were compressed. To be concise, there is way too much contrast here.

The Super Duo: On-Axis Fill & High-Speed Sync

^ Left: High-Speed Sync from on-camera Speedlite. Right: daylight.

The difference between the two photos above is a Speedlite and two seconds of button-pushing. For the left shot, I turned on my Speedlite, pushed the HSS button on the back (the lightning bolt-H button) and fired away in Aperture Priority (Av) mode. I wanted to shoot wide open to take the edge off the background elements. So, f/2.8 at ISO 100 under noon sun meant that my shutter needed to be 1/4000″. I did not figure all that out. The camera did the heavy math — I just shot in Av mode. HSS gave me the ability to shoot at virtually any shutter speed. E-TTL figured out how much fill flash was needed. (Click on the photo to see the details of the hi-res version.)

Comparing HSS Fill to the Fill Light Slider in Lightroom

^ Left: Daylight +30 Fill Light move in Lightroom. Right: As shot with on-axis high-speed sync fill

There are photographers who say they can light on a laptop. Some of them are good friends of mine. But why would you want to light in post? I’ll say it again — I’m a photographer, not a retoucher. Yet, just to see what would happen, I took the straight daylight shot and moved the Fill Light Slider in Lightroom to 30. Sure, it’s a bit better than the unadjusted shot. (Click on the photo to see the details in the high-res version.) Still, making a slider move in Lightroom is no substitute for lighting on location — esepcially when then entire lighting set-up involved:
> putting the Speedlite in the hotshoe
> turning it on
> pushing the High-Speed Sync button on the Speedlite
> firing away in Av mode.

Also in the Mapping The Cartographer series: Part One and Part Two.

Speedliting Workshops

Spend a week with me in October going as deep into Speedliting as anyone can go. Details on the workshop here.

There are a lot of photographers who say sincerely, “I don’t need to use flash, I just turn the ISO up.” To these legions, I say “crappy light at ISO one million is still crappy light.” My second location shoot with cartographer David Yun is a good example of where I’m coming from.

[To read about the first location, click here.]

On approach to our location.

The amazing thing about human vision is that we can be outside in brilliant sunlight one minute and then walk into a tunnel and see details in the shadows the next minute. Such was the case for the tunnel through which the San Luis Obispo Creek flows underneath SLO’s downtown plaza. This was the location that David suggested when I shared the vision of my art director at San Louie Magazine. She wanted a shot of David in a location that showed the layering of the city as a metaphor for the the layering of information that is at the heart of modern cartography. As soon as we walked in, I understood why David drug me down there — the tunnel was 20′ tall, 40′ wide and meandered for several hundred feet underneath a series of art galleries and restaurants. It was dark enough at noon that I could hear bats flying. Just my kind of location for a bit of Speedliting.

Ambient light only - 1/3", f/5.6, ISO 400

Buck Rogers has his ray gun. Dick Tracy has his radio wrist watch. Some day we photographers will have cameras that can record the full range of light that we can see. Until then, the shot above is how the 5D Mark II recorded the ambient light inside the tunnel. Regardless of the ISO, today’s camera technology falls far short of the mark. So, I stand by my disparaging statement about ambient-only photographers.

I’m A Photographer, Not A Retoucher…Usually

I’m a photographer who shoots with the end in mind. I’d much rather take the time during a shoot to set things up right than to have to fix something in Photoshop later. Still, there are times where a round of Photoshop is necessary. So here’s a secret — the hero shot that opened this story — the shot that was selected by the magazine — is a quick composite of two shots. It took me about 10 minutes in Photoshop to sort this out. An experienced retoucher/Photoshopper could have done it in two minutes. Let’s take a look at the steps.

One Speedlite zoomed to 105mm - 1/25", f/5.6, ISO 400

To create interesting light, you have to create interesting shadows. You’ve heard me say that a thousand times if you’ve been following my adventures for any period of time. So the shot above is close to the shot I wanted to create — a portrait of David holding the trident of modern cartography (his GPS). This is bare Speedlite. I tipped the 580EX II on it’s side so that the head aligned with David. I zoomed the tube to 105mm to create the silhouette on the wall. The light stand is out in the creek, about 15′ from David. I love almost everything about this shot — except the way that the camera failed to record the detail in the shadows. There is no sense of the space. If this was the only shot you saw, you might not even figure out that David was standing next to flowing water.

One Speedlite zoomed to 105mm - 1/6", f/5.6, ISO 400

“SAAF – Shutter Ambient, Aperture Flash” — say that 1,000 times. To get more ambient light into a flash photograph, you use a longer shutter speed. You don’t open the aperture because that let’s in more flash as well. I anticipated that the camera would not see into the shadows. So I shot a series of shots over a wide range of exposures. The only difference between the two shots just above is the shutter speed — 1/25″ vs. 1/6″. That’s a two stop difference. As you can see in the second (brighter) photo, the detail in the steel beams is more apparent. There is also a greater sense of the cavernous quality of the tunnel in the background. Yet, the lighting on David lacks drama. You don’t know where to look because you are looking everywhere.

Sometimes you have to light and sometimes you have to Photoshop. My solution was to merge the best parts of the two photographs. I did this by layering the light one on top of the dark one and then creating a layer mask. You can see the portion of the light image that I used below.

The portion of the light image used in the hero composite

In case you’re wondering why not just jack up the Fill Light slider in Lightroom? Take a look at the dark, dramatic shot with a big fill light move. It just sucks the drama out of the flash in the same way that changing the shutter speed did. Could I have applied local corrections in Lightroom rather than layer in Photoshop? Sure. Probably. But LR does not export to CMYK — the color space used by magazines and catalogs — so I had to head into PS anyway.

The dark shot with a big Fill Light move in Lightroom.

The cartography adventure will continue. This was the second location during our three hour shoot. In the final installment, we head out into the brilliant noon sun, where I use — oh my goodness, really? — my Speedlite parked right in the hotshoe. Yes, I’m talking about on-camera flash.

My assignment yesterday, for the soon-to-be-launched San Louie Magazine, was to do an full-page portrait of David Yun, the head of Geographic Information Services for the city of San Luis Obispo. David supervises a team of mapmakers who plot everything from bicycle traffic and storm runoff to creating three-dimensional maps of all the buildings downtown. Like most of us, modern cartographers spend far more time at their computers that they do in the field. I was given carte blanche with a few loose guidelines… “think about layering of information, think about layering of the city.” I was given a rough draft of the story that my photo would accompany and David’s contact info.

So, in three parts, I’ll take you through the three different location shoots that we did over the course of three hours. Seems like three is today’s magic number.

How It All Started

There are shoots where you have time to think, scout locations, develop ideas, and plan. This was not one of them. I had a quick phone call with David to set the appointment and then showed up at his office with a backpack full of Speedlites, a couple of stands, two cameras, lenses, and… oh man, I left my tripod at home (30 miles away). I always head to a shoot with the attitude that I can deal with anything. So, I grabbed a larger light stand that I had in my truck and decided that I could jury-rig a camera stand if needed. [As you'll see in Part Two, this was a total lifesaver.]

You never know what your subject is going to give you — in terms of time, energy, or involvement. So I always ask right up front “how much time do we have?” I always hope that it’s at least 15 minutes. David said “two to three hours.” Cue the Hallelujah Chorus!

I then asked about his ideas for locations that would suggest layering — of information, of the city, etc. It is so important to get your subject’s buy-in to the shoot. Who better to ask about locations than a cartographer? David suggested two spots: a large vintage map at the county courthouse and a tunnel under the downtown plaza through which the San Luis Obispo Creek flows.

Lastly, I asked David about the icons of his trade. I wanted him to have a symbol of modern cartography to help anchor his profession to the scene. “A long time ago,” I said, “a cartographer would have a compass, pen, and parchment. What do you carry today?” David said simply, “my GPS.” So, as we walked down the hall to get his GPS, I’m thinking about how I will frame up some handheld tricorder-looking thingie to make it say “cartography.” Well, to a modern mapmaker, GPS must mean something like “Greatly Pronounced Size” because when David showed me his GPS, all I could think was that my Neptune had just picked up his trident. I had my icon of modern cartography. So off we went to the county courthouse.

.

Turning Out The Courthouse Lights

The first thing to know about going into a courthouse these days is that it’s like heading through TSA screening, except that you don’t get the critique of your driver’s license photo or the plane ride. So imagine David with his GPS and me with my bulging backpack heading up to the courthouse metal detector. The security guard and sheriff’s deputy did not bat an eyelash. Long story short…they would not let David in because he had a eency-weency pen knife on his key ring. Absolutely nothing was said about the big, spiky electronic thing that was leaning against the wall. So, while David returned the security threat to his office, I chatted up the deputy about how wise he was to get reassigned to courthouse security after realizing that, after years on patrol, he was “getting cranky out on the streets.” Note to self: do not make any sudden movements during the shoot.

To a cartographer, a century-old map is a thing of beauty. To a photographer, who just discovered that it’s behind a huge pane of glass along a well-trafficked atrium walkway underneath big skylights, well let’s just say that I reminded myself that “I can deal with anything on a shoot” and that I had my Speedliter’s combat pack pulling at my shoulders.

Reflections, glare, and passers-by be damned. If you act like you own the place, most people will assume that you do. So I went right to work with the mindset that I was going to have to turn out the courthouse lights. Problem was… there’s no turning out the skylights. Fortunately, I’m a Speedliter and high-speed sync is my friend.

This was a two-light shoot. Here are the details:

• Master 580EX II Speedlite connected to my 5DM2 by an extra-long E-TTL cord so that I could control it from my camera’s LCD. I positioned the Speedlite to create a bit of rim light on David and throw light onto the map.
• Slave 580EX in front is the key light.
• Slave is flagged on left side with a Honl gobo card so that it does not hit the map. Master is flagged on camera-right with same so that it does not hit the camera (when I zoomed in).
• Both Speedlites are turned vertically so that they match the orientation of what I am lighting…I’m lighting David, not the whole scene
• Rather than fight the glare from the back Speedlite, I eventually moved into a spot where it created a halo around David’s head.
• Aperture was selected for the depth-of-field that I wanted (f/8).
• Shutter was selected based on desire to kill the ambient. The hero shot above was 1/800″. A shot fired without the Speedlites came up pure black — proving that I had killed the ambient entirely.
• High speed sync enabled me to shoot at any shutter speed I wanted. Even with the 2.5 stop power hit you take when switching into HSS, the two Speedlites had all the horsepower they needed for this shoot.
• I controlled the Speedlites in E-TTL, which is to say that the camera calculated the flash power and I used Flash Exposure Compensation to increase or decrease it to taste. The hero shot had +2/3 FEC.

.

More Cartography Adventures To Come

Here’s a peek at the location for Part Two.