26 July 2008

Wireless flash system

PT-04 Receiver.

Yesterday i was rather sick and have to rest myself on the bed the whole day (watching anime XD), so i couldn't get this topic posted at the right time. This is the continuation of the last post, imitating figure pose with figma. You might wanna ask what are those 2 things in the photo above? Look back at the title of this post and guess what are those.

It's actually a wireless hotshoe and the remote. It used radio frequency to transmit the signal to fire the flash. The thing with the button is the remote, and you put that on your camera hotshoe. While the other is the receiver, you put your external flash on it. As the name implies, it's a wireless flash system, and it enables you to fire the external flash in different place from the camera.


This is the environment, i don't have to carry the whole camera+flash.

I used this system for photos in last post. You may find that there are no significant effect in the photos. The real use for this system is to create a studio lighting effect using cheap / standard DSLR equipment. There won't be any different if the flash used only 1 unit. Recommended number for studio lighting effect is 2-4 units. That way you can create a beautiful effect in your photos.

Why do you need so many number of flash? Have you ever use normal desk lamps for figure shooting? You can use 1, 2, or maybe more of them, depending on the background you use. Brighter background needs more lighting, because you'll need to make the background as bright as your normal eyes saw it.

If we're talking about lighting, whether it is flash or it is desk lamp, there are 4 lightings you'll need, and those lightings are placed in different place.
- First is main object lighting which will light the main object. This light is the real deal, you might want this light to be diffused so the shadow won't be hard.
- Second is secondary object lighting which will light the object from a different side. This light can be a weaker light, or reflector, or whatever. It's used to reduce the shadow but that doesn't mean you have to make the shadow disappear.
- Third is hair light. This is just for support, to make it brighter and gives a natural feeling.
- Last is BG light. You have to make this light strong enough, in order to make the shadow in the BG disappear. You won't need this lighting if you use a black background, but you'll need this light if you use a bright background.


The flash wasn't on my body, but on the tripod.

This setting is basic and standard setting for studio lighting. You might want to experiment with these lightings first, and try to get the lighting at your own preferences. Well that's it for today.

8 comments:

  1. Ah I recognise them, they were used in my friend home studio softbox and it look exactly the same.

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  2. This thing is really hard to get. It easily gone out of stock everywhere.

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  3. Pretty nice.
    You don't need to be even near the camera. That's a cool little device...

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  4. Do you mean "near the flash"? I still have to hold the camera.

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  5. Expensive looking set up you got there.. lol

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  6. Tripod and that PT-04 set isn't that expensive. Tripod is only USD 25, and PT-04 is also only USD 25.

    The DSLR camera and the external flash is the real deal. The whole set (DSLR body, lens, flash, and misc. equipment) already took me around USD 1500++ and increasing XD.

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  7. I don't think I need wireless flash system yet, the desk lamps is currently more than enough :)


    my current flash (SB600) supports wireless tho, but my camera doesn't (doesn't support commander mode). I need to use SB800 to get wireless working with my camera heh..

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  8. So you're still using those desk lamps. Maybe you need a device for wireless transmitter, like Canon's ST-E2.

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