Hi,
Here's a setup that's not perfect, but it will work, for a very small
investment.
You could get the Ikelite Lite-Link ($79.95 at Adorama) www.ikelite.com
This is a wireless TTL Flash Repeater on which you can put your present
flash, and you would use this with the built-in flash in your camera, which
would then control the 550EX on the Lite-Link, so you have a two-flash detup.
You could put a Lumiquest www.lumiquest.com Promax or SoftBox on your flash
to soften it, and also soften the built-in flash so it just gives enough
light to put a catch light in the subject's eyes.
This can also be used with a reflector, such as the LiteDisc from Photoflex
www.photoflex.com to create a third light source from reflected light from
on of the flashes.
And all this in full TTL control.
Pierre
At 09:43 1/26/2001 +0200, you wrote:
>Hi guys & gals!
>
>Does anybody have experience about using the 550EX or rather 420EX flashes
>with umbrellas or softboxes (like the ones from Elinchrom for example)?
>What are your findings?
>
>What I'm thinking about is a small (very small) home studio kind of setup
>with one 550EX and 420EX flash (or two if I ever have the money :-). But
>lighting from 2 or 3 flashes is still quite harsh... So I think I'd
>need/want at least one umbrella for the 420EX. So a few quiestions:
>
>1) Is 420EX really powerfull enough for umbrellas and/or softboxes?
>
>2) How do you direct your EX flashes as there is no continuous modeling
>light? Do you just aim everything (flashes, umbrellas, reflectors) and
>hope for the best, or to you make everybody blind by constantly using the
>modeling light from Camera? What do you guys do? (I can now see how those
>studio flashes are easy to work with...)
>
>3) How about the off shoe extension cord 2 - or what ever it is called,
>can't remember now - you know, the 60cm long extension that takes the
>flash off camera and still retains all E-TTL and wireless functions. How
>is it for "general studio work"? (As opposed to macro work with flash
>brackets...) I.e. is it too short and too stiff to be used so that the
>flash would be on a tripod pointed to an umbrella and the camera would
>otherwice be handheld (still in that home studio enviroment)? See, I'd
>rather buy that than another 550EX (that I would use with flash off) or
>ST-E2, which only allows A and B groups (Canon, if you are
>listening... why would we buy that as it only controls the two groups?
>We'd need the background too!), as it's quite a bit cheaper solution and I
>still can control all A, B & C groups.
>
>I'm not going to make money with these shots. This is just something for
>me and my family. The motivation for this approach is that I have 550EX
>already. I can get my hands on 2 420EX' currently, but it's not easy... so
>I'll need to buy something. Buying 420EX would be the cheapest way to go,
>and no, I don't have much money to spend on this (I can get the other
>420EX later on). Also, I can not go the way of good studio flashes as they
>are just too expensive and also too large. There is serious
>size/portability restrictions here. EX flashes and umbrellas/softboxes
>(and some refletors) are quite optimal in terms of size even if they are
>not in the operation. Also, I'd rather have all 550EX's, sure. After all,
>they are more powerfull and have manual settings (if I ever need that).
>But 420EX is so much cheaper.
>
>I think somebody else was just asking about similar stuff, but I don't
>think he got any answers. So if you guys have any experience with this,
>please help let us know about your findings. Is it impossible to get even
>near studio kind of lighting with just EX flashes?
>
>Best regards,
> Hugo.
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