Blowing the Dust of the Strobes

Just a bit dusty...

With the prospect of a small job that would be greatly improved by the addition of some off-camera flash, I decided to pull the old light kit, wipe off the dust (literally!) and have a crack.

Now the frustration with this kit in the past has been the unreliability of the radio triggers; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't or sometimes the sync is out leading to a black shot or a half a curtain in the frame. So it was with some misgivings that I started to set up the lights; hoping that it would all come together and work.

Yesterday I mentioned the arrival of my captive subject, I mean my daughter and where, in the past I would search around for a hapless stuffed  animal to test the setup, there she was, on her jungle gym floor mat looking innocent and rather cute (well she always looks cute).

The first few we terrible; the lighting wasn't too bad (when it worked) but for the first 10-15 shots only two were a success; luckilly Lilly has learnt that I don't give up till I get a cracker smile so now she just about breaks one out as soon as she sees the lens!

How's that for a smile?!

For those interested in the setup, it was pretty simple: umbrella in front and to Lilly's right and a beauty dish behind her set about a stop brighter to provide a hint of rim lighting. The post processing isn't too crash hot, but in my defense I finished it whilst she was attempting to eat my Wacom tablet...

So, after a bit of fiddling, I think I've managed to solve the failed firing issue. It appears to be a problem with the contacts on the hot-shoe and the trigger. A bit of elbow grease and it is now firing three quarters of the time instead of the 1 in 10 or so before.

I'm hoping to upgrade the triggers before long anyhow. Ideally I would love to get a set of pocket wizards, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens with this next prospective job!