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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Flash slave questions
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Showing posts 1 - 6 of 6, (reverse)
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 12/02/2010 10:14:37 PM · #1
I'm hoping someone out there tonight can help me out with an issue. My goal is to get my 430EX (off camera, cabled) to fire my 2 Alien Bee strobes. I'm almost there, but I seem to be missing something important. I'm at the point where I shoot, the 430EX goes off and the 2 ABs also go off (seemingly simultaneously), but none of the light from the ABs end up in the shot. Even with a long exposure. So, it seems like the ABs are firing before the shutter opens. I know they slave off of other flashes and IR pulses, so my best guess is that the 430EX is firing something before the actual flash+exposure. I'm going to bust open the ol' manual now but I figured I'd ask you guys in the meantime, too. Oh, and I get the same behavior if I use the on camera flash in auto mode as the master, so I imagine it's flashing before the actual exposure as well?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks!
 12/02/2010 10:22:54 PM · #2
The eTTL fires twice... once to get the exposure and the second time to light the subject... The AB's see the first one and fire and cannot recycle fast enough for the second flash.

Switch the flash to manual... mixing eTTL and optical will just make you die a few months earlier :-)
 12/02/2010 10:42:17 PM · #3
Concur. The focal pre flash is a killer. Manual settings on everything, flash, aperture, exposure, focus. And make sure you are shooting at 1/200th or slower.

Message edited by author 2010-12-02 22:43:12.
 12/02/2010 10:42:28 PM · #4
Well, you the man! I started playing with the setup before coming back to the thread and discovered that putting the flash in manual fixed the problem, but I still didn't know why. Thanks a bunch for the info! I guess I'll have to read that manual a little more carefully one of these days.
 12/03/2010 12:17:18 AM · #5
Originally posted by freakin_hilarious:
but I still didn't know why.


Your ABs are set on optical triggering. When your flash fires it's pre-flashes, it triggers the ABs. Then when the flash fires for the exposure, the ABs have already fired and the only light you get is from your hotshoe flash.

You can see the ABs firing from your peripheral vision, but the timing is off to make your shot.
 12/03/2010 08:52:59 AM · #6
I was expecting something else from the thread title. Nevermind.
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