 Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Strobe Sync Issue Hi! Studio question. After 2 years of using the same strobe lights, I have suddenly developed a problem....one of my backlights won't fire about 1/3 of the time. Here's my set-up. I have 2 Photogenic 1250s for my main and fill and 2 Studiomax IIIs for backlight. I angle the backlights so the light streams cross over each other a bit to evenly light my white background. This has been working great until a couple of weeks ago when I realized that the left light wasn't always firing. It has gotten worse. I changed the bulb (no difference). It works fine when I turn the light "in" to the wall more, thus exposing the sensor more, but now the backlight leaves a gap in the middle of the white paper which turns blue, so that isn't a good option. My husband taped a white piece of paper on the light "case" so that the sensor would hopefully pick up the flash instead of it going by the sensor. This worked perfectly for a few shots, but it doesn't work anymore. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Tara, Are you connected via a sync cord or using a pocket wizard type transmitter trigger for your lights? I think it may be the angle of the back light but if you attached a receiver to that light and use a transmitter, it should work. I have Alien Bees and I bought their transmitter and receivers for each light and they fire every time. John Siskin raves about these cheap radio slaves he gets from China off of eBay. Maybe he will chime in here or look him up and ask him. Until mine quit working, I dont have a need for anything else. Hope this helps!
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
I'm connected with a sync cord. I was wondering about needing transmitters/receivers. It's a small studio and I hate to keep tripping over my cord. Do you think this would help solve the problem? I would like to hear more about the eBay radio slaves. If Mr. Siskin doesn't chime in, I'll e-mail him.
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Tara and Carlton, Sorry for the delay in responding. Anyway, first here is the URL to an article on sync: www.siskinphoto.com/magazine/zpdf/sync.pdf I use the Chinese radio slaves they are cheap and effective. You can get them with several connectors, and now you can get them with multiple receivers. I would get two senders and two receivers if you have two lights. Run a search on eBay for digital radio slaves. Slaves, the thing that triggers your background light, just stop working sometimes. I wish that wasn’t the case. So it is always good to have back-up!
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Bruce A. Dart |
Hi folks, Obviously, the radio slaves work best in many situations and are wonderful in that you are not tripping over synch cords. Good info here from all. You are likely tripping the one light (usually the fill) with the suynch cord and the others trip from the built in slaves? If you changed your style of lighting or you power down the lights, there may not be enough light to trip the sensor. Also, once in a while I find I put something blocking the light going to the slaves and that keeps them from firing. I have radio slaves but they don't trigger all the lights. the transmitter triggers the fill which triggers the other lights with built in slaves. If this is not the problem then John's response that once in a while the slaves do burn out is relevant and you would need them replaced/repaired in your units. Bruce
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Hi All, just wanted to let you know that I ended up going with some litelink radio slaves. So far, they seem to work very good. I have 1 set (1 for camera and 1 for the back light I was having problems with). Right now I've been moving the slave to another light when I don't use my backlights, which is a pain, so I may end up buying a second set afterall. But having the liteline receiver on the light that wasn't firing makes all the difference so far! Thanks so much for all your responses!
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