Pocket Wizard Plus II

[LensBaby]

Does anybody that is into doing studio work use these. I am thinking about buying them, but I am not sure. Also, my light meter (Sekonic L-358) has the module that will fire those. I just want something that will work with the RT-32 module. Any input anybody? Thanks!

[dkippen]

Sue - can't help you here. I know nothing about studio work, other than it's probably inside.

[jerryph]

Sue, you miss my posts about the Gadget Infinity receivers? Let me give you the short story... Pocket Wizards are $185 *EACH* and you need a minimum of 2. For $112 plus shipping (a little over half the price of a single PW!), I received 1 trigger and 5 receivers from Gadget Infinity!

For pro use, you cannot beat the PWs, but do you really need to trigger your flash from 1600 feet away? From the factory, the GIs are good for 30 feet which is enough for most, but with the addition of a 12.39" wire and 15 second solding job, my range rose from 30 feet to 358 feet.

That wire is the entire mod:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2640927216_d860d35cb0.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2680526375_75617b5301.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3241/2680526333_8f9d0b52cb.jpg

For a pro, I'd even go Radio Poppers over the PWs, which are good but highly over priced, and the Radio Poppers do things that the PWs can only dream about (wireless TTL anyone?)

For an amateur, the Gadget Infinity triggers do me 100% fine.

My GI modifications page (http://jerryphpics.blogspot.com/2008/07/004-cactus-v2s-modifications.html)

GI Website page (http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=16766&cat=0&page=)

Really the only thing you cannot do is trigger the strobes via the light meter (but if you had a GI setup, what is stopping you from hitting the TEST button on the transmitter or just pressing the shutter on your camera?)... but here is a truism... there are tens of THOUSANDS of photographers out there not even using a light meter anymore! You can tell, via some chimping, understanding histograms and a little experience how you will want to have a scene lit within a few test shots, or even better, a little experimentation and writing down the resutls.

For example, I know that if I place my SB-800 flash on a lightstand 6 feet off the ground, using an umbrella in bounce-off mode and my flash is set at 1/4 power, that if the umbrella is within 4-5 feet of the subject and angled anywhere between 90 degrees (to the side of a person) to 0 degrees (right in front of a person), I have a perfect exposure of a 1/2 body portrait of a single person at ISO 200, F/8 and 1/250th... each and every time. I use the light meter to confirm it once, and then can basically leave it at home as I play on location.

I know that if I set up a shoot through umbrella setup in a clam-shell formation and the top strobe is set at 1/16th power and the bottom one is set at 1/32nd, and the subject is within 3 feet of the umbrellas, I can use F/8 at ISO 200 and 1/250th for perfect exposure.

In either situation, I can then slow down the shutter speed and vary the visibility of my backgrounds from near total black to a lot of ambient if I hit 1/60th (see my blog article about using flash to adjust DOF). If I really want to get fancy, just place a strobe on a mini tripod behind the subject and give them a halo effect that goes from mild to intense... or get really different and use lighting gels and change the colour of the background! ;)

As you can tell, this now leaves me free to be creative. ;)

Sue, I highly encourage you to go visit the strobist site, and read up on Lighting 101 and 102. Its a true eye opener!

[LensBaby]

Yeah 30 ft for me is fine. I just have a cheap generic set now, and they fire my strobes off on their own..even with new batteries. I want something more reliable. Do you have a web address for those?

[jerryph]

Yes, its in the post above yours... but in case you missed it:

www.gadgetinfinity.com