Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a super week! This week I want to talk about something I don't think I've talked about much. Off camera flash and the mechanics on how to hook up your camera to shoot off camera. I was recently on a workshop that my club had on Portrait Photography and using off camera strobes. You may not know but I used to do a lot of portrait work and shot weddings and the such. But as I've got older I haven't done as much. You can use off camera flash to do all sorts of photography from table top , macro, real-estate and yes portraits. Attending this workshop got me thinking about the past and the tools and the mechanics on how to set up off
camera flash even if you shoot film instead of digital. Honestly I haven't shot much off camera flash with film but have recently and it works pretty well you just have to figure out how to get the flash to sync with your camera when you push the shutter button. Now most camera's have a hot shoe on top of your camera that you can put a flash and through the connection when you push the shutter your flash goes off. This is a very flat and not flattering light and to improve it you must get the flash off of the camera and to the side somehow. Thats what this blog is about the mechanics of OFF Camera Flash. 

Sync Cord: The easiest way is with a sync cord. This cord goes from a port on your camera (usually covered by a little plastic cover) to a port on the flash or strobes that you have. This is how it was done in the old days and cords and cables were strewn all over the place. This is a cheap way to do it and it works. The drawback is the cord you can only go as far away from your flash with the length of your cord.

Infra Red triggers: Infra Red triggers are built into some camera's. They allow you to trigger the flash through an infra red signal that comes from your camera to the flash. The trick is that it is proprietary. You must use your camera's brands flash. With Nikon you must use Nikon flash , Canon you must use Cannon flash. Which makes this a very expensive endeavor as brand name flashes are very expensive. Also you must have line of site with these triggers . Much like the remote control of your TV you can't have anything get in-between the camera and flash or it doesn't work.

Radio Triggers: These triggers use radio waves to transmit a signal from your camera to the flash or strobe. You hook a transmitter to your camera's hot shoe and receiver to your flash or strobe light. Then through radio waves you can trigger the flash to fire when you press the shutter button. These are very popular and come in many price ranges from 40 dollars to hundreds of dollars. Pocket wizards were the industry standard many years ago but you can have all sorts that work great. The biggest thing with these is to make sure that you are not on the same frequency as another nearby photographer or your flashes will work off of his press of the shutter too. These triggers do not need line of site and can be placed almost anywhere and the radio waves will reach them witch is great for back lighting where the light is placed behind the subject. These types of triggers only trigger the flash they do not work with TTL of your camera they are used on manual flashes and strobes.

TTL Radio Trigger/Controllers: Then there is the Controller trigger. It takes all the info from your camera and transfers it to the strobe and makes the proper power flash off of these calculations. It can shoot TTL and High Speed Sync. It can control from your camera many flashes at one time and have them flash at different powers to each flash. These triggers are proprietary to the brand of camera you have. So if you have a Nikon you have to get a controller that fits a Nikon. The controller mounts to the hot shoe and you can dial in what you want and what channel each flash is on. You can have external receivers or they are built into the flashes themselves. The flashes/strobes have to be compatible with the controller used. Godox brand is the most popular but there are others also. The controllers cost about 70 bucks but you must also purchase the flashes and or strobes .

Slaves for Multiple flashes: If you have more than one flash that you want to trigger but only have one trigger and one receiver or only have a sync cord going to one flash you can use optical flash slaves that hook to the second flash or strobe. When it sees a flash from the first flash that is synced it goes off instantaneously . You must manually adjust these flashes but the system works well and I used it for years before I got newer trigers for my flashes. 

Being able to control the light really makes you a great photographer and shooting off camera flash and strobes is the first step in really being able to CONTROL the light. Not just react to it. Hope this was helpful until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link