Lessons

Lesson Info

2:00 pm - Wireless Radio Triggers

First of foremost you do not need any tricking devices to do this technique as I mentioned earlier flashes will do it itself however we're going to get him or into it in the next tomorrow especially when we're doing the hands on when we're going to be doing a lot of photographing so I really want to explain it some of the stuff that we do we use radio popper I don't care what trigger device used I don't I don't get into all that the tech guys going to do that in the girl I don't care we're going explain why we use this on lee because it's it's important for what we going to do tomorrow and I want to understand when we're doing it so we can go back on what we're talking about today when we do it tomorrow the reason why we use the radio popper for us it's more effective for our style it allows us to be completely manual if we want to or t t l or blend manual meeting with t t l meeting together and that's important us because quite honestly the girls like manual they like using an alien b...

e or stroll with a battery pack more than the tl lights because it makes him its power more powerful it puts out bigger light you don't have to be is accurate with the light as we talked about there's a lot of advantages over that but you don't get high speed scene so you don't get that shallot at the field that's a huge disadvantage so for us and push they also have their voice activated like carrying boy cody carrying all the heavy gear that also makes a big difference but for us we like to have a couple of flashes in the car and maybe namely being the car with the bag of on many there about power back and when we get to the location will choose which weapon is right for the for the session in the sense will choose which one we want we go out to the beach and we know we're in a beach where there's not a lot of crap in the background basically will use the niggling because we'll have we use that huge deficit because it's not going to show but again if we're in an alleyway we want that shell of the field will use the shallow depth of field with a high speed state and that's what I talked about the beginning of the class we want to you you don't understand the power of tl the power high speed sync the power of using these canada canon nikon an icon so when you go to a session you can choose the right weapon for the situation these guys will cover anything it's set for the power they don't have enough power pair to your stros and so if you want to stroke you want a big defusing soft box on it, then you'd have to go with the strobe but then you lose your high speed sync you lose your you're tio capabilities so the reason why we use radio popper is it allows us to do both we little bacon trigger an ailing beat an a t t l flash with one triggering device mix and match them together and it really opens up even mohr doors then what we already have and so for me the biggest advantage of radio popper are any time any sort of radio transmitter you get two advantages one is, you know, looking for atlanta site and the other is using extended range well, we talked about before we could get decent range if you understand how they communicate, you understand it's like listening with the black bar talking with the flash to sew on a shoot without a radio transmitter we doing land aside saying y'all are shooting and mike's a subject you're constantly adjust especially you by yourself you're constantly adjusting your lives they make sure that's playing at me and then informant change my pattern I gotta do this all this stuff here I'm filling my equipment a lot the biggest advantage in my opinion with radio poppers are radio device is I'm no longer one of atlanta's side it's just like placement that didn't forget it over here you get is that take my shot take my shot I'm not worried about they see me over there to be a not doing this this stuff and not I can focus on my client it's like that to me is is worth every penny of the rail transport and not really not really extended range because rarely do you need more than four you're fifty feet away from your flash I mean that's your really need any more distance it's really just the lana side issue I'm not worried about it my flash bang it was c this life if you're solo shooter it's even more important like said, if you have a partnership, you'll have someone that can actually help you adjust but if you shoot so it really really helps and so we started using these guys because we can mix the match like I said, we could actually do the high speed sync with these if we wanted to, we could actually use the alien be and what's nice about their product is you can control the power both these lights from your camera, even the alien because I don't have to go over and adjust the power because to me that's that's the other important thing is I don't wanna have to go over to my gear I want to be able control everything from my camera or my master flash because again, I want to sell that experience better to my client. I want to keep that energy level higher. I don't want to have to keep going over. I want like he said, I want to put the light or it's gonna fall properly on my client come back over and I want to worry about posing, interacting and make having a good time and taking shots in time. Look with two powerful turn it down it's not powerful enough. Turn it up that's important to me and that was one of the main reasons why we did this. It was the first product that allowed you complete function anything that this flash can do from groups, power settings, the high speed sink, anything the radio proper px system will transmit. And the neat thing about the p a system it's actually a genius simplistic design is it's also the on ly ones when we were growing. Now we have plenty of radio popper sets, but at the beginning we only had the one. We had multiple flashes. So I would put the one radio popper on the one that I knew was going to be the farthest away or hidden because it would go through walls around corners, all that stuff, but then I could still use the line of sight meant that that we've been talking about all day with one's up close because it doesn't, the flash does not know that there's a radio popper on it were all the other systems out there completely changed the entire workings of the tts that we've been talking about. This is the only system that actually flows with night, conner flows with cannon tl system, you don't change anything at all on what we talked about, you change the powers the same, everything you do is the same just now, you don't have to worry about a lot of side, and so that was a huge advantage for us again, I don't care what you use, I promise you, I don't, but my main point areas, if you're going to use off camera lighting, I highly suggest study the trigger devices and in the long run, get one you don't have to, because we up to this point, every image you've seen was a lot of side we didn't use any trigger device at all and that's why? There are a lot of older images because now we use trigger devices, but I wanted to prove, and I want to show to you and hear the class and you're watching you don't have to have a trigger device to make this technique work and make it work very effectively, because I know a lot of people are on a budget and is very difficult, but in the long run it could get into this house just buying one and so reason why we like it is again there's sixteen channels it says six hundred feet we've got a lot farther than that no wise air needed the beauty of this here you want explain how this works is you actually do a better job, right? Pa person ideo ok, so basically if this were my master flash um if you notice we've got a little piece of velcro on top are flashed oops what's great about radio poppers like mike said how simple how simple they work you don't need any cords no nothing to plug in the special attachments the radio popper transmitter sits on top of this flash just like that photo with a piece of velcro just like that and the way it actually works without getting too complicated is as this flashy was talking with this marco who's out there well, every time this flash fires it basically it creates a magnetic pulse that goes along with that this radio popper hears that picks up on the magnetic pulse and decoded as as the flash is often on this is oh, I hear you so it its season magnetic pulse terms that into radio waves sends it over to my other slave flash where it turns that back into my are waves and feeds it into this little black window so some of the other slaves radio transmitter device out there some of needs different chords or different attachments if you forget that you're in trouble but with the radio poppers they like said you just said it on top there this flash has no idea that there's a radio papa on top of it listening and sending out signals and so what's good like mike said early also what's great about that is I could make some match I don't need to have a radio papa receiver on every slave I can have a receiver on one this may be further away or maybe it's behind a pillar behind my bride or something if I want to get creative with that one, I can also have another one here that still does line of sight because it's still going to see these light pulses going hey marco is out there is still going to see it and it's going to fire right along with the radio waves that was a huge advantage that was a huge huge cellar for us. Not only that, we wouldn't have changed anything way still get full one hundred percent use of our flash. Now the new can insist on the new six hundred's they actually kind of have this all built into it as well, so for you cannon users, if you have the six hundreds that's an effective method as well nikon doesn't have any options at this point again since six hundred came out I'm sure they will but for us because of the radio wave that radio public works off of it it's such a clean frequency we've even had some issues with the six hundred's when it comes to going through metal low frequency that kind of a lot of stuff in the air so we always have a rating poppers has just been are back and it's been the most secure, reliable system we have and it's cody said the genius behind it is it doesn't worry about the light where we talked about the morse code alight the pulses of light well simple science is basically when you have a burst of electricity you have a magnetic pulse that comes after it it picks up that magnetic poles that was the beauty genius of this and it's so simplistic there's no wires no anything and again it's triple a batteries so we can get him anywhere in the world it's a very simplistic, very effective method we've used it in downtown stop home we've used it all over the united states all over europe and we've not had any problems with it so it's it's a very effective system and then the other system is I don't have some photos show you how is the juniors? The juniors are basically your standard no t t l know high speed sync but your basic in a sense dummy trigger so you have to control the power for everything except for one great advantage if you choose to use radio I mean on alien bees paul buff products which is what we use in track as well a lot of people hate ailing these we use them in our studio is him everywhere the little knobs that are on the side that's the transmitter can actually control the power of that light is well wirelessly and so if you don't want to use tio don't want to use high speed sync you don't need it in this situation I need more light over the shallow depth of field I still you can use this set up with these guys and control the power of my flashes and so that's really nice it's manual nottm nicely saying, so you're sitting in you know he can't get above your one, two hundred one two fifty of your shutter speed flash think speed but you still don't have to go over to your gear to adjust the light. We're going to show you how to do all this tomorrow that's the advantage of not one allegiance to it but it's such an important part that you understand all the all aspect of this because it allows you to be a better photographer if you understand the gear that you already bought you'll be a better photographer period and I can't tell you how many times we've thought workshops and all we've done for week is explain the manual of the flash because they're so hard to understand I mean, first of all the written originally another language and then translated to whatever language there in which it was all over the world but to they don't explain they're not photographers that write these books so they're very difficult to understand the manuals and so we try to break it down in layman's terms but if you understand your gear beat your flash be a reflector being a camera beat whatever wireless tracking device you will be a better photographer and so many people don't put in the effort to learn their equipment they want a shortcut they want that magical appeal and I hate to tell you there is no magical peel assad's hard work and dedication and learning and of course you guys are here and people are watching and so that's that's also because that's what it is but there's no magical film photography you have to learn this technique you have to learn all your techniques to be about a photographer so that's this is what helps us on again it just fits right on your hot shoe and it has the same sixteen channels they will intermingle so my junior transmitter will trigger my p x receiver and vice versa but if you start intermingling, you don't have high speed single tio so if you want high speed sinking tl with this product the on ly ones you go with or the p x in the story and now they have some new ones will be coming out, which I do not have a photo of what they're called the nano's, which are basically your simple, simple triggering device that has four channels that has a huge range of the really reliable and very expensive so even if you don't want control aspect of the alien b's, then you have another option uh just to kind of show you how we do this is again is about old friend jordan shan is out of north carolina these from older images, but he was with try coast for many years and you can see and kind of ironic these images this young lady there were that's on this photo is the wedding that cody and the rest of the crew photograph saturday. So, uh these were on high school senior photos, but you can see the one light stand we're using a softball because it's very cloudy that day just like a sandy on cloudy days will use it and now with this we can actually have everything his off box you don't have to have any lattice sides don't worry about anything he just put the light down figure out what you want and you get simple simple shot so you put her head to the to the light and that's a great simple image one life here we are again so now we have the main light in the soft box and we have a hair light on just a light on a stick just like this but it's a modern pod and so we basically could still under exposed there's one simple shot you under expose here but instead of the sky you're under exposing to get what's through the glass and if you look at the reflection you still see everything through there you even conceive the sky and there's the telephone poles back there so you're still under exposing to get in all that color so even if you're outside and you don't have the skies your background by underexposed and you're still bringing in so much color change the angle we go from there you just go right down a little bit to the balcony were here I mean all this is in just a few little small areas and that's the beauty of how portable the system is. So if you want a more natural light it's kind of a flat light you want just one light so you have a stronger ratio or if you want a strong hairline you bring that hairline and all that with two lights that distance the subject the main light has a soft box on it so it's going to a little softer hair light has nothing so it'll be a little harsher so you can bring it in again you had flashed your taste it's completely up to you at any camera settings I know I keep repeating that but I can't stress it enough that's the beauty of this technique so you go from traditional too edgy whatever you want to do you had flash the taste and you get the image that you want and this is all just with two lights here we are shooting an alleyway and this is another advantage alike so we have our sitting up there there's a lot you see I take the shot and from that angle it really is not flattering to her back side it makes it look large and you're like whoa whoa that's not good so I simply don't worry about the light I change my angle and move over and then you get a shot there's a little more unique and not so unflattering so again it's very portable you can get in tight corners you can get anywhere you want with his technique so it's really really fun if you're doing just walking along and you stop and you start finding locations and that's what we were going to be doing tomorrow so it's just literally anywhere you want to go you'll be able to make images um and find to him as you go. And finally, this is a really big step. This is the other reason why we like using this. This is like overkill. This is when cody and I got really, really geeky is the first time ever that you makes manual on tl together. This is quite a few years ago, but basically, just to kind of explain how powerful this system is. So off on the far left down here we have an ailing before hundred, which is manual inside a rolled truck. This is in our backyard. Are aldo portrait session garden inside the truck we have a flash it's got a green jell on it in the shed where I keep my lot more and stuff there's actually only be sixteen hundred around the corner on the fence hidden is a little cannon for twenty and then for bain we have a cannon five eighty two so the five, eighty all the five eighties in the four. Twenty zahran tio all the alien bees are on manual, so we're blending manual and t t l meeting together in the same image and you get stuff like this. This is a real senior session doing the exact same set up this with a blue jail to match it when you conduce stuff like this in your mind and pull it off you can do in me type of lighting you want anywhere there's nothing that's limiting you because you have full functionality of your camera with high speed sync you could go in any shutter speed and he have stopped you could do manual you could do a t t l you could do just manual just gtl or blend of both together there's no limitations when you get get this advanced and lighting and that's what this concept khun do I'm not saying you're going to do it over not it's not gonna happen overnight but this is what it can do when you start getting advance and learning this concept and continually working at it makes sense all right a few trips to the trade and then we're going to kind of in this segment of go to the next one this is what we talked about our uzis that we use these air the other ones we used to be over not to try to point out anybody it's old mauldin remember the old flap risk braces you got as a kid you could slap on your hand that's what these are I got him off like ebay twenty a m for like five dollars and I put him in my camera bag and when I want to see newt I literally just snapping around my flash and a lace flat so it works great as a cheap little diffuser. It's very, very simple to do it's very easy to do. We talked about the omni bounce. This is exactly what I'm talking about with a line of sight were able to cut that front of a nominee, bounce off and you see how that image where the red circle is, you can actually see it firing that flash well, it's not defusing it it just showing it up on the side. So when those bright, bright days, if you used a line of sight and don't have any radio transmitting device, you'll be able to see that it's communicating extremely important and the question that we had earlier from one of the people do we actually use extra flashes? That's just a simple band we used two or three all the time on bright, bright days when I do want shallow depth of field in t tl and high speed sick was that some of the bigger, bigger ones that we do and in jails in that looming quest kit that they gave out that have jails in it, we love jails, and you can use little jails you could use big jails you can even use from old crime scene days. You can buy really cheap, online colored led flashlights that are very, very inexpensive especially with the high rise. So and we, jill, so many of our little detail shots all the time in our in our clients and weddings and stuff, still using tl, still using that. But we use jails a lot. And the flashlights are really, really great, because sometimes I'll forget my jails, whatever. But I always have my flashlight's on my camera bag, and you get him in purple, you get red, you're getting great and giving any color you want. And we just use the flashlights is our jails and then the duct tape. I know it sounds stupid, but this is probably the best tip I can give any of you guys. This is their several models, but this is the model. The duct tape. Eighty nine, seventy nine it's. Actually a three on product. It leaves zero residue on anything for six months. Like a lot of the regular deck table. Believe all that nasty residue. This is waterproof. It's. You read uv resistant. It doesn't leave. I know you guys live on the coast. We live on the coast, gets really human, sometimes hear some of your gaffer state will lose its adhesive nissen inhumanity areas, this won't it's cheaper. Lots of times when we get stuck out in the rain will actually just tape up everything when we're out shooting with this stuff and a water, protect our gear until we get back in and you could just pull it right off. Take up wedding gowns on windows with it. I've done everything. So we always have a role of this tape with us everywhere we go, and it works really, really well, and you, khun, get it online. Sometimes you can get it at your local home, um, home supply store. Most time, maybe they could special order for you, but it's, usually right around ten to fifteen dollars a roll. And I think the two hundred yard role, but really, really allows a lot of freedom.