How to make your Flash wireless.

By Eugene Struthers

Teach yourself how to make your Flash wireless.

How to Make Your Flash Wireless: An Article and Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

Wireless flash photography offers the freedom to place your flash unit away from your camera, allowing for creative lighting setups and reducing the need for cumbersome cables. Whether you're looking to achieve a more professional look or simply want to explore new lighting techniques, making your flash wireless can significantly enhance your photographic capabilities. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of wireless flash photography and provide a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to make your flash wireless.

Benefits of Wireless Flash Photography

1. Creative Lighting: Place your flash anywhere to create dramatic effects, backlighting, and fill light.
2. Improved Mobility: No need to worry about tripping over cables or having them limit your positioning.
3. Professional Look: Achieve more complex lighting setups often seen in studio photography.
4. Ease of Use: Simplifies the process of adjusting and repositioning your light source.

Equipment Needed

1. Flash Unit: A compatible external flash.
2. Wireless Trigger System: Transmitter and receiver units.
3. Batteries: For both the flash and the wireless triggers.
4. Camera: DSLR or mirrorless with a hot shoe or PC sync port.

Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Flash Wireless

Step 1: Choose a Wireless Trigger System

- Types of Wireless Triggers:
- Radio Triggers: Reliable over long distances and through obstacles. (e.g., Pocket Wizard, Yongnuo)
- Optical Triggers: Line-of-sight operation, more affordable but less versatile in certain conditions. (e.g., Canon ST-E3-RT, Nikon SU-800)
- Infrared Triggers: Also line-of-sight and can be affected by ambient light conditions.

Step 2: Set Up the Transmitter

- Attach the Transmitter:
- Slide the transmitter onto your camera’s hot shoe or connect it via the PC sync port if available.

- Power On:
- Ensure the transmitter is powered on and properly secured on your camera.

Step 3: Set Up the Receiver

- Attach the Receiver:
- Connect the receiver to your flash unit. This typically involves attaching the receiver to the flash’s hot shoe or connecting via a sync cord.

- Power On:
- Turn on the receiver and ensure it’s set to the same channel as the transmitter to establish communication.

Step 4: Configure Flash and Camera Settings

- Flash Settings:
- Set your flash to manual or TTL mode, depending on your preference and the capabilities of your wireless system.

- Camera Settings:

- Adjust your camera’s settings for exposure, including shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Remember that most cameras have a maximum sync speed (usually around 1/200–1/250 sec) for flash photography.

Step 5: Test the Setup

- Test Fire:

- Press the test button on your transmitter to ensure the flash fires correctly.

- Adjust Positioning:

- Place your flash where desired, whether it’s on a light stand, tripod, or handheld by an assistant.

Step 6: Fine-Tune and Shoot

- Adjust Settings:

- Fine-tune your flash power and camera settings based on the test shots. Use your camera’s histogram and LCD preview to ensure proper exposure and lighting balance.

- Experiment with Angles:

- Try different flash positions and angles to achieve various lighting effects.

Tips for Successful Wireless Flash Photography

- Check Battery Levels: Ensure both your flash and wireless triggers have fresh batteries to avoid power issues during shooting.

- Secure Equipment: Use sturdy stands and mounts to keep your flash unit stable.
- Practice: Experiment with different setups to understand how varying distances and angles affect your lighting.
- Backup Plan: Keep extra batteries and backup triggers in case of failure during a shoot.

Firstly, you will need to verify if your camera has the built-in capability to go wireless. This will allow you to avoid having to use a sync cable. If you have one of the latest Canon or Nikon digital cameras (Nikon D70 and above / Canon 20D and below) you will have the built-in feature that will allow your camera to operate wirelessly. However; not to worry if you don't. There are ways of making your flash go wireless.

The latest Digital camera brands will have a built-in pop-up flash. Those that don't. You will need to purchase a wireless radio slave transmitter, which slides into the hot shoe on the top of your camera so that you can control the power of your wireless flash and a receiver which is connected to the flash unit receives the signal. So you have two components (transmitter + receiver) attached in two different locations. You will need to set up each individually.

This is how you do it.

1) For this demonstration I will be using the Speedlight SB-800 model (Nikon camera). Turn the flash unit on and then as the LCD screen lights up. Press the centre SEL button, until a menu screen pops up. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the square with the two squiggly S -shaped indicators. Press the centre button again to mark this as your selection. It should now appear blacked out.

2) Use the SEL arrow keys to move the cursor so that it scrolls over to the right over to the subheading called "OFF indicator". Then scroll down to the "Remote" subheading, second from the bottom. Press the centre SEL button to verify that this is the subheading required. You have now made your flash wireless.

Now we need to focus on the camera itself.

3) You will need to trigger your camera's built-in pop-up flash. This triggers the wireless flash. It won't work if you built-in flash has not been popped open.

4) Now turn your camera around, to the LCD screen. Press the menu button on the back and then go to Custom Settings Menu and then choose Bracketing/ flash. Switch your camera to “Built-in Flash Mode” - setting Commander Mode. As shown in the second image. Scroll down to the heading titled:- Built-in Flash and highlight this field. Then use the dial on the back of the camera to input the setting until it indicates a reading of“--”. This indicates that the pop-up flash has been turned off and that now only the signal will be sent. This will allow the flash unit to only send a signal to your wireless off-camera flash unit to trigger a flash, and not fire off a flash directly from the camera itself.

5) When you press the shutter button, the Flash unit's sensor will now send a signal and the remote flash will fire.

How do you control the brightness of your wireless flash?

Go back to point 4 as above. The menu, but this time just scroll down to Group A. Make sure under the Mode heading the box has an input of “TTL” (Through The lens). Next to this value is another box. This is where you will be able to lower (use a negative:- -1.0) or increase (use a positive:- +1.0) the brightness power output to make the flash brighter.

The flash-to-subject distance doesn't affect our f/stop with TTL (as long as we're within the area of the flash's power), we can maximize and manipulate aperture and shutter speed to our advantage. In the instance of flash key, we can manually set the shutter speeds to correctly expose for the ambient light.

We can also set the shutter speed to underexpose the ambient light. This can be as little as one stop to make a busy background disappear. Even in bright daylight, we can make the photograph have the appearance of being shot at night by underexposing two or three stops by using the shutter speed. This whole time, the flash is providing us with the proper exposure for the subject. We can do this only because TTL provides us with the proper exposure for the aperture selected regardless of the flash- to-subject distance!

6) What is the function of the Flash Groups?

As I explained in the “How to create a studio from scratch” section. There will be circumstances when you will need to have full control of how each wireless flash unit operates. And each needs to be done independently to achieve the desired result. A perfect example would be if you are in a studio doing a bikini photo shoot with a gorgeous model.

You have a flash to the left of your model, another positioned behind the model lighting the background, and another slightly to the right.

Your main aim, is to be in full control of your lighting and the power strengths given off by each light source. So, if one is too dim or too bright. You can alter it independently without affecting the other two flashes. We can do this by allocating one flash to Group A, then another flash which may be weaker in strength to Group B and the third which we need to be on full power light strength to Group C.

So each is not disturbing the other. We can also have two or more light sources in each group. This is useful if you want to have two flashes lighting the background on either side of the model - Group A, another two flashes lighting the model in front on both sides – Group B and another two above and below to eliminate shadows – Group C. To make sure they are all working you may want to do a test first. This is done by pressing the red test button on the back of your master flash unit.

Each will then fire a flash individually first to verify each is in fact working to the desired requirements. You must remember if you want to have a balance in light between your flash and natural light. Your goal is to make your flash look like natural light – so you will need to have your power setting at about 1/8 or 1/16 very low.

7) What is the purpose of the Channel's function?

If you are working in a studio by yourself, you will not need this. However; if you attend a studio, and another photographer is using the same area as you but with another model in a separate section of the studio. You may find that the other photographer's camera will trigger your flash, and this can cause problems for both of you.

The same can happen to him. So if this happens to you. You will need to set a parameter so that only your radio transmitter slave is received only by your flash unit and not by any other camera/photographer in the same area as you. We do this by using different channels. I will set mine to channel 1, and they can set theirs to channel 2. This will allow us to have full control over our own, flash units whilst working in the same area together.

Conclusion

Making your flash wireless opens up a world of possibilities for creative lighting and professional photography. By freeing your flash from the constraints of being camera-mounted, you can experiment with various lighting angles, distances, and intensities to achieve the perfect shot. With the right equipment and a bit of practice, setting up a wireless flash system can be straightforward and highly rewarding.

Follow the steps outlined in this guide, and you'll be well on your way to mastering wireless flash photography. Whether you're shooting portraits, landscapes, or action shots, the flexibility and control offered by wireless flash will enhance your photography and help you capture stunning, professional-quality images.

An extra resource to help you understand the requirements to go wireless.

External Speedlite Controls:
Click here

Quick Start to Off-Camera Flash with Canon Speedlites

Topics to be covered -

Why Off-Camera Flash Matters

- How to Control Your Speedlite On Your Camera's LCD

- Flash Modes: When to Use ETTL, When to Use Manual

- Sync Speeds and Sync Modes: 1st

- Curtain, 2nd-Curtain, and High-Speed

- Creating Soft Light, Creating Hard Light

- Where to Position Your Speedlite

- Off-Camera Triggers: Cord, Optical, and the New Radio System

- Set-ups for Creative Lighting with One Speedlite

- Set-ups for Creative Lighting with Multiple Speedlites