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Hi,

i have never used a flash so far with my nikons and i think that it is time
I want to be able to use 2xsb800 together in 2 situations:

1) 1xSB800 on camera and one off.
2) Both flashes off the camera.

What will i need except the 2 flashes? 2x SC-29 cords maybe or something else?

Many thanks in advance,
theodoros

you only need a sc-29 cable for off camera flash

the master flash can trigger the 2nd one in remote or su-4 mode
you dont need extra cords

many thanks wendell.

The 2xsb800 setup seems to work more than great as a portable light setup
in your hands. Your work is the main reason for this purchase Additionaly, i like your idea for a softbox on the sb800 very much.
The intense light that camera flashes produce was always a big reason that
i didn't want to use them. I thik that i will buy one for the on camera use. Any recommendations?

Many thanks again.

lots of people ask me how i light

this is one technique for even distribution



softbox on the left i gaffa tape my sb800 into the speedring of this softbox as i dont have a proper speedlight attachment, flash is attached to sc29 cable to cam
this sb800 is on master 1/4 power



the 2nd on on the right is on 1/4 power 2 either remote or SU-4 it's a slave flash, i made a strip box just a rectangular cardboard box with tracing paper stuck on one cutout panel of the box

as you can see 2 or even 1 sb800 is enough to do full length shots no need for strobes and battery packs

It is not enough just to say thanks...

Thanks for showing some of your lighting setup Wendell, I appreciate it.

have a look at this site for lots of tips and tricks

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

start with the "lighting 101 archive" from the drop down on the right and also have a look through the "on assignment archive" lots of good stuff in there

he is working through "lighting 102" at the moment

Wendell, also, my thanks for illustrating your set up. One question - was the SC29 cable stretched between soft box & cam? The distance between the two looks like it would have been.

Reschsmooth wrote:Wendell, also, my thanks for illustrating your set up. One question - was the SC29 cable stretuld have been.

yes it is stretched the person holding the softbox also has to hold the cord away

so if you dont want that sort of complication you need to get a pocket wizard but i think for the cost of one, ill just get my assistant to hold it

same goes with complicated attachments to stick a sb800 on a tripod head instead i just gaffa tape my sb800 on anything i can find walls tripods, trees, whatever

and i think stands are over rated too you can change lighting angles/positions easily with an assistant who is much more flexible than any sort of stand

wendellt wrote:

Reschsmooth wrote:Wendell, also, my thanks for illustrating your set up. One question - was the SC29 cable stretuld have been.

yes it is stretched the person holding the softbox also has to hold the cord away

so if you dont want that sort of complication you need to get a pocket wizard but i think for the cost of one, ill just get my assistant to hold it

same goes with complicated attachments to stick a sb800 on a tripod head instead i just gaffa tape my sb800 on anything i can find walls tripods, trees, whatever

and i think stands are over rated too you can change lighting angles/positions easily with an assistant who is much more flexible than any sort of stand

I understand what you mean and appreciate the explanation. I have had my tripod with SB800 fall over when I move the camera too far away with the sc29 attached - the coiled structure of the cord doesn't have a lot of 'give'.

wendellt wrote:so if you dont want that sort of complication you need to get a pocket wizard but i think for the cost of one, ill just get my assistant to hold it

but with PWs you loose all the nice ttl stuff that you get with the SB flashes...

To avoid the "boinginess" of the coiled SC-29 cord you can also use a sync cable (of pretty much any length) to fire your SB800. Sure you lose CLS capabilities but you'll soon get over that  PS - nice work as always Wendell

beetleboy wrote:..."boinginess" ...

WOTY* - I like it, describes it perfectly. The boinginess isn't an issue of the flash is well secured to something which is stronger than the tension in the cord.


*Word Of The Year

Boi-oi-oi-oi-oing!

So Wendell..are you saying you only had one SB800 firing into the softbox in that first shot?

jamesw wrote:but with PWs you loose all the nice ttl stuff that you get with the SB flashes...

You say that as though it's a problem.

I think the SB800 interface and featureset is overdone and overrated. It's good, and it's portable, but just switching back to A mode and using simple trigger methodologies makes things very easy too.

And with the availability of chimping, I believe that the necessity for all of that complexity has been overridden.

Hi,

Wendell gave some recent advice using SB800's which I appreciated as the set up I was using wasn't cutting it. So on Sat Katie (my partner in most things) and I had a no show model and a PM cancellation so we put the idol time to good use. We visited the local shops and purchased some black art board, A4 and A3 sizes total cost $7.00.

So on the Sunday we used one SB 800 with a $1 hand cut A3 snoot and the other SB 800 was using one of those (the name escapes me) small soft boxes that folds up on the flash that was pointed at the model. This was purchased from Vanbar for $55.00. Here are a few of the results.

Note:- Still a long way to go and further experiments but we are Wendell inspired and will do more using off camera SB800 set ups.

very cool

i like the last one best

essentially its not so much about the sb800 its all about light shaping tools

like making snoots and barn door things for the sb800 to narrow the light and then using that in different positions to make things interesting

the sb800 is jut a tool a nice compact portable lighting package

the concept of lightshaping and angle is what people should be thinking about

Wendell,

Agree. The light box strip will be my next project, very interesting...

Mark