Normally I shoot in studio with monolights or on location with ambient and/or speedlight fill – single portrait to family. I’m tackling a larger group/space (recording session mentioned in another thread) and for some shots, may want to control the light rather than shoot ambient. Not sure how many light sources I may need so am considering bringing all available gear.
I use Elinchrom in the studio triggered by Skyports and am thinking if a combination of speedlights and monos, I’d manage the speedlights with an SU800 and trigger the monos via the optical slave – which I’ve never done before.
In your experience, how consistently will speedlights optically trigger moonlights – specifically SB910/700s and Elinchrom 600RXs?
I can only speak to Canon flashes and Alien Bees lights, but it certainly should work. On my setup, I have to make sure the speedlight is in manual mode. In ETTL there is a pre-flash that will trigger the optical sensors before the shutter is open. Can be very frustrating until you realize what is happening as it appears the lights are going off normally.
The caution about the pre trigger communication also applies if you have any remote speedlights that are being communicated to via optical messages. Even if you are controling the remote speedlights to set fixed flash power levels, the master speedlight will send out pre flashes, and they will very likely trigger the monolights early.
You could consider getting small optical triggers to use with each speedlight, and then use the Skyport system as your main trigger like you are used to. The speedlights should then be triggered by the strong flash of the monolights. You will not have any remote power setting of the speedlights, but setting them manually at the unit should still work fine and be practical for most shooting.
