Portrait lighting using compact camera's flash

It's a long story but I need to take some indoors portrait and full
length pictures using someone's compact camera.

Other than the ambient lighting in the room, all I will have is the
compact's own tiny flash.

I was thinking of getting a basic standalone flash and firing it
using a light-sensitive trigger. What sort of cost is a basic flash
trigger for that sort of job?

Is there any ingenious way to block the direct light from the camera
flash hitting my subject but still let the light trigger the
standalone flash.

jones

On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:54:44 GMT, jones <> wrote:

>It's a long story but I need to take some indoors portrait and full
>length pictures using someone's compact camera.
>
>Other than the ambient lighting in the room, all I will have is the
>compact's own tiny flash.
>
>I was thinking of getting a basic standalone flash and firing it
>using a light-sensitive trigger. What sort of cost is a basic flash
>trigger for that sort of job?
>
>Is there any ingenious way to block the direct light from the camera
>flash hitting my subject but still let the light trigger the
>standalone flash.

Unless you have other uses for the flash, why not just pick up some
clip-on utility lights from Home Depot and illuminate the area? Four
lights, as shown here <
http://hubsphotographytips.blogspot....to-studio.html
> Much cheaper than a new flash, and something with future uses.

If the light needs to be diffused, just hang a piece of lightweight
cloth over each one. Make sure you don't leave the lights on long
enough to start the cloth burning, though.

Combined with room lighting, you might have a white balance problem.
That's correctable in most post-processing programs.




--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

tony cooper

jones <> wrote:
> I was thinking of getting a basic standalone flash and firing it
> using a light-sensitive trigger. What sort of cost is a basic flash
> trigger for that sort of job?

There are various "peanut" and hot-shoe optical slave triggers
available from Wein and other manufacturers. I think they usually go
for about $20.


> Is there any ingenious way to block the direct light from the camera
> flash hitting my subject but still let the light trigger the
> standalone flash.

Sure - use a bit of aluminum foil or white card to deflect the light
from the built-in flash sideways or something. The slave triggers are
pretty sensitive _if_ everything is happy working together. (I had
endless problems with my optical slaves until I discovered that they
really hated being under-volted by even a tiny bit. Proper voltage and
they were happy.)

--
Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression
and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me
anymore.
-- William Cowper, 1731 - 1800

Jeremiah DeWitt Weiner

Jeremiah DeWitt Weiner <> wrote:
> jones <> wrote:
>> I was thinking of getting a basic standalone flash and firing it
>> using a light-sensitive trigger. What sort of cost is a basic flash
>> trigger for that sort of job?

> There are various "peanut" and hot-shoe optical slave triggers
> available from Wein and other manufacturers. I think they usually go
> for about $20.

But those will only work if you turn off both the red eye reduction
pre-flash and the metering pre-flash in the compact camera. I suspect
few compact cameras permit you to turn off the metering pre-flash. In
which case you'd have to get one of the more expensive kinds of
optical trigger which is capable of ignoring the appropriate number
of pre-flashes.

--
Chris Malcolm

Chris Malcolm

Chris Malcolm wrote:
> Jeremiah DeWitt Weiner <> wrote:
>> jones <> wrote:
>>> I was thinking of getting a basic standalone flash and firing it
>>> using a light-sensitive trigger. What sort of cost is a basic flash
>>> trigger for that sort of job?
>
>> There are various "peanut" and hot-shoe optical slave triggers
>> available from Wein and other manufacturers. I think they usually go
>> for about $20.
>
> But those will only work if you turn off both the red eye reduction
> pre-flash and the metering pre-flash in the compact camera. I suspect
> few compact cameras permit you to turn off the metering pre-flash. In
> which case you'd have to get one of the more expensive kinds of
> optical trigger which is capable of ignoring the appropriate number
> of pre-flashes.

FWIW, the Wein Peanut Slave Digital goes for 35 bucks or 3 for 75--I'd buy
it somewhere where I could try it though unless I had specific feedback from
someone with the same model of camera as I had--it works fine with my FZ20,
but doesn't work with my Coolpix 990 for example.

J. Clarke

In article <>, J. Clarke
<> wrote:

> >> There are various "peanut" and hot-shoe optical slave triggers
> >> available from Wein and other manufacturers. I think they usually go
> >> for about $20.
> >
> > But those will only work if you turn off both the red eye reduction
> > pre-flash and the metering pre-flash in the compact camera. I suspect
> > few compact cameras permit you to turn off the metering pre-flash. In
> > which case you'd have to get one of the more expensive kinds of
> > optical trigger which is capable of ignoring the appropriate number
> > of pre-flashes.
>
> FWIW, the Wein Peanut Slave Digital goes for 35 bucks or 3 for 75--I'd buy
> it somewhere where I could try it though unless I had specific feedback from
> someone with the same model of camera as I had--it works fine with my FZ20,
> but doesn't work with my Coolpix 990 for example.

there's no preflash on a coolpix 990 so any slave will work, or just
use a sync cord.

for cameras that use a preflash, there are slaves that are compatible.

nospam

On 7 Nov 2009 16:38:23 GMT, Chris Malcolm <> wrote:

>Jeremiah DeWitt Weiner <> wrote:
>> jones <> wrote:
>>> I was thinking of getting a basic standalone flash and firing it
>>> using a light-sensitive trigger. What sort of cost is a basic flash
>>> trigger for that sort of job?
>
>> There are various "peanut" and hot-shoe optical slave triggers
>> available from Wein and other manufacturers. I think they usually go
>> for about $20.
>
>But those will only work if you turn off both the red eye reduction
>pre-flash and the metering pre-flash in the compact camera. I suspect
>few compact cameras permit you to turn off the metering pre-flash. In
>which case you'd have to get one of the more expensive kinds of
>optical trigger which is capable of ignoring the appropriate number
>of pre-flashes.

WRONG. You ****ingly useless troll. Stop handing out advice for which you
have no knowledge. You're wasting the time of people far more valuable than
your pathetically inexperienced and ignorance-filled life will ever be.
Unless you have FIRST-HAND knowledge of what you speak, keep your ignorant
and inexperienced "suspicions" and assumptions to yourself.

Many P&S cameras have manual flash modes with no pre-flash events. If there
is a Manual mode on their P&S camera, chances are very high that it also is
equipped with a manual flash setting, often having 3 or more different
fixed-output levels.

And here's one of those "more expensive" slaves that handle cameras that
don't have manual flash modes. With a very nice tilting bracket that allows
you to angle any inexpensive (or expensive) flash unit for bounce-flash
lighting.

http://www.adorama.com/SZ23504.html

For just one of many models available out there.

$33.50, wow, an extra $13.50! Nobody can afford something like that! That's
so much more expensive! <eye roll>

I personally own two of these. The bracket is extremely sturdy, the locking
mechanism to hold the flash at the angle of your choice is very secure and
locks down solid. Build quality was surprisingly much better than I had
ever expected for that price. When the slave unit is switched to
digital-camera mode it adequately ignores all pre-flash events on all
camera settings that have tested it with, with a variety of P&S cameras. I
only have to remember to turn that off when I switch my cameras to manual
flash output modes. (Now, you might ask, why on earth would he buy a slave
that fits into a hot-shoe for his P&S cameras? Because all my P&S cameras
have hot-shoes, but not all my flashes are of the lower trigger voltage
limits of today's digital cameras. I also like firing the flashes held on
extension brackets or mounted on tripods further away from the cameras,
situation dependent. Mostly when photographing more distant wildlife at
night with focused strobes so as not to impart red, blue, orange, or
green-eye in the images. Rare is red-eye ever a problem in wildlife flash
photography.)

Educationg Trolls Is An Endless Task

Educationg Trolls Is An Endless Task <> wrote:
>On 7 Nov 2009 16:38:23 GMT, Chris Malcolm <> wrote:
>
>>Jeremiah DeWitt Weiner <> wrote:
>>> jones <> wrote:
>>>> I was thinking of getting a basic standalone flash and firing it
>>>> using a light-sensitive trigger. What sort of cost is a basic flash
>>>> trigger for that sort of job?
>>
>>> There are various "peanut" and hot-shoe optical slave triggers
>>> available from Wein and other manufacturers. I think they usually go
>>> for about $20.
>>
>>But those will only work if you turn off both the red eye reduction
>>pre-flash and the metering pre-flash in the compact camera. I suspect
>>few compact cameras permit you to turn off the metering pre-flash. In
>>which case you'd have to get one of the more expensive kinds of
>>optical trigger which is capable of ignoring the appropriate number
>>of pre-flashes.
>
>WRONG.

Go away, asshole troll.

--
Ray Fischer

Ray Fischer