Canon XSi and using two Canon flashes

[kistorey]

I have a Canon XSi/450. On it I am using the Canon 580EX II. I also have a Canon 430 EX II.
Now I have read all of the manuals on how to set up both flashes so that I can shoot photos using both flashes on the P, TV, AV etc. settings.
But I'm not doing something correctly. The 580 is setting off the 430 but I'm not seeing the extra flash in my photos. I guess I'm saying they are not in sic with the camera.
Any ideas of what I have missed?

I have since did some research and set my master/slave settings. Set the Ratio, and channels. The 580 sets off the 430 but there is a less than a second delay. I was hoping to get a faster response from the slave.

Any ideas?

[kistorey]

After more research and trial and error I figured out what my problem was.

I was testing the flashes off camera. The master had to be connected to the camera.

[S Popovski]

Hi Kistorey,

You are the person who can solve my question.
I have always wanted to know if i can use the combination of flashes your talking about in high speed sync mode. Could you check if you put both flashes in HSS would they work?
I have a Metz 50af-1 flash, and I wanted to know if I should buy a Canon or Metz commander flash, even a Nissin commander flash maybe since it's the cheapest. Hopefully you can help me out. Thank you.

[kistorey]

I have been away from my computer most of the weekend. But I will get back to you on this tonight or tomorrow.

[kistorey]

I did a test last night with camera and both flashes.

Had both flashes set to the ETTL mode. Both to the H-icon for high speed sync and the slave chain set up.

On the 430EX II I first had to take off the slave setting so I could get the H-icon to show up. Then add the slave setting back on.

Everything seems to work out fine. I had my camera on M shooting at 1/200 and at F6.3. Both flashes went off and the camera caught the full effect of both flashes. But one thing I noticed was that after I made a shot the H-icon on the 430 turned off. Not sure why.

Of course now I need to make a daylight (high noon) shot to make sure the H setting is working like it should on a subject.

I will try that in the next couple of days.

[S Popovski]

Thank you for letting me now.
But, 1/200 isn't high speed sync. That's the max sync of the camera. Let's say if you set the shutter speed to 1/1000 would it work?
Cheers.

[ianganderton]

I havent got 2 speedlites to check this but I'm confident they will work together in HSS. I'll check the book later for info

I've just brought Sly Arena's book the Speedliters Handbook and got to say its a great resource and has lots of ideas to play with.

[kistorey]

Yes I know 1/200 isn't HSS. It was just a test to see if the slave would cooperate. But if the HSS setting on the slave turned off after the first shot it stands to reason that it would do the same at 1/1000.

I will try it out tonight.

[kistorey]

Last night did some more test.

Camera on tripod. My subject was this pumpkin.

Both flashes, one from each angle.

Had both flashes set to the ETTL mode. Both to the H-icon for high speed sync and the slave chain set up.

On the 430EX II I first had to take off the slave setting so I could get the H-icon to show up. Then add the slave setting back on.

Everything seems to work out fine. I had my camera on M shooting first at 1/100 and at F10 using an EFS 10-22mm lens. Both flashes went off and the camera caught the full effect of both flashes.

I repeated the test but set the camera at 1/2000 at F10. The camera again caught the full effect of both flashes. Both times the H-icon on the 430 stayed on.

I'm trying to attach both images for reference.[/img]

[kistorey]

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir? ... feat=email


This is a link to those images I hope.

The first one is at 1/1000 and the second at 1/2000

[S Popovski]

Thank you very much!

[kistorey]

So you were able to see the two images I hope.

Glad to help. Now it's got me thinking about the best way to apply this knowledge.

Most of my shooting is in caves.

[S Popovski]

Yes I did see the images. I've seen some great pictures in caves in a book. Don't remember which one it was but this was the setup:
There is a guy climbing up a rope in a cave. There is one flash at the top of the cave giving a nice flare in the lens and the other flash is zoomed out set in the cave to give the cave some light and illuminate the person climbing to rope.