Hijacking Photopass Remote Flash Units

G

Grumpwurst

Member
Staff member
Here is a really strange question, but after a meal at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel, I noticed that they were using a remote flash setup with their Nikons.

After taking a symposium by Nikon on their creative lighting system, I discovered that it's best to setup your commander and flash units to work on a different group and channel as is standard so you don't accidentally have other cameras setting off your units.

But, I was wondering if anyone figured out what they setup their units to read off of?

I thought it would've been cool, yet shocking to the photopass guys, if I walked up to the character meet at places like Goofy's Kitchen and was able to get their units to fire when I had my camera in commander mode.

On a similar note, I feel stupid because I just figured out that my D300 has an on-board flash. Boy do I feel stupid (can you tell that I haven't read the manual)
 
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Are they using CLS or something else? I thought they were using PC Sync.

Anyway, I guess if they are using CLS it would be only, what 12 different combinations to try?
 
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I've seen them use two types of sync: PC and Pocket Wizards. I've never seen them use the CLS. If I make it for Pixelmania (its over my birthday weekend!), I think we'll have to get all of the Nikon guys together and do some fun stuff with all of our SB's!

(BTW, if you are a Nikon owner (and any brand for that matter) and like to play with your hot shoe flashes, get Joe McNally's new book: The Hot Shoe Diaries. Big Light from Small Flash. It walks you through step by step, why, when and how of pulling off some amazing stuff using the Nikon CLS system. I'm about half way through my first read. Wow do I have some ideas!!)
 
"Roger" said:
Are they using CLS or something else? I thought they were using PC Sync.

Anyway, I guess if they are using CLS it would be only, what 12 different combinations to try?
Click to expand...

Their Nikon had a CU-800 Commander on the hot shoe. They were also using an umbrella setup for that particular character photo op outside Goofy's Kitchen
 
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"mPower" said:
I've seen them use two types of sync: PC and Pocket Wizards. I've never seen them use the CLS. If I make it for Pixelmania (its over my birthday weekend!), I think we'll have to get all of the Nikon guys together and do some fun stuff with all of our SB's!

(BTW, if you are a Nikon owner (and any brand for that matter) and like to play with your hot shoe flashes, get Joe McNally's new book: The Hot Shoe Diaries. Big Light from Small Flash. It walks you through step by step, why, when and how of pulling off some amazing stuff using the Nikon CLS system. I'm about half way through my first read. Wow do I have some ideas!!)
Click to expand...

The CLS sales pitch I went to put on by the Nikon University people really showed some impressive photos with two SB-800's on stands (firing through umbrellas instead of bouncing off) and 1 SB-600 basically sitting on a chair behind the subject bouncing off a piece of white backdrop paper.

I agree. There needs to be a Nikon-shooters event at Pixelmania! plus a Canon-shooters meetup. So some model specific discussions could be had
 
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BTW, if you are a Nikon owner (and any brand for that matter) and like to play with your hot shoe flashes, get Joe McNally's new book: The Hot Shoe Diaries. Big Light from Small Flash. It walks you through step by step, why, when and how of pulling off some amazing stuff using the Nikon CLS system. I'm about half way through my first read. Wow do I have some ideas!!)
Click to expand...

Is there anything in that book for us Canon shooters?
 
"Grumpwurst" said:
Their Nikon had a CU-800 Commander on the hot shoe. They were also using an umbrella setup for that particular character photo op outside Goofy's Kitchen
Click to expand...

Yeah that's hijackable....
 
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"mPower" said:
(BTW, if you are a Nikon owner (and any brand for that matter) and like to play with your hot shoe flashes, get Joe McNally's new book: The Hot Shoe Diaries. Big Light from Small Flash.
Click to expand...

I totally agree... I've read it twice now, and its every bit as good as his last one.

"Paul" said:
Is there anything in that book for us Canon shooters?
Click to expand...

I don't know much about how the canon flash system works as far as how the cameras and flashes interact with one another, so some of the technical stuff may or may not be usefull. But, the techniques would apply no matter what flash you are using. For example, he talks about taking portraits at sunset, and you dial in a -EV into the camera to bring out the colors in the sky, so you dial in a +EV into the flash to make up for it. The techniques should still apply, but you might have to do some translation to figure out the equivalent settings on your equipment.
 
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"mPower" said:
I've seen them use two types of sync: PC and Pocket Wizards. I've never seen them use the CLS. If I make it for Pixelmania (its over my birthday weekend!), I think we'll have to get all of the Nikon guys together and do some fun stuff with all of our SB's!

(BTW, if you are a Nikon owner (and any brand for that matter) and like to play with your hot shoe flashes, get Joe McNally's new book: The Hot Shoe Diaries. Big Light from Small Flash. It walks you through step by step, why, when and how of pulling off some amazing stuff using the Nikon CLS system. I'm about half way through my first read. Wow do I have some ideas!!)
Click to expand...

Got McNally's book last week and just started reading. Joe's the Man with these speedlights. Yes, we need a Nikon gathering if for anything to fire off a bunch of speedlights all at once. LOL How about we circle the Partners statue with SB-xxx's for even lighting all around. :D
 
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"Scottwdw" said:
How about we circle the Partners statue with SB-xxx's for even lighting all around. :D
Click to expand...

How about a SB-XXX on each of these character statues pointing toward the partner statue.

I'm sure we'd get some looks and the Photopass folks would hate us or ask us to keep them setup for their shots :)
 
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If I can work my schedule, I'll be there with 3 SB's!

As for the book, it is purely Nikon centric, but the techniques are there. You'll have to get past the soup to nuts approach, but once you do...Hello World.
 
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