Today I'm going to show you three different ways to get your flash off
camera wirelessly if you're thinking of buying a wireless system for your flash
there are a few different options to choose from from the cheapest at around
about twenty-five dollars to an integrated system built into the flash
itself there are the ones that you can get that are the same brand as your
camera but these are quite expensive and with all of the third-party options out
there you can get ones that have a lot more power for a lot less money flash
photography is good fun but if you only have a flash head that sits on top of
your camera you are quite limited in how you can control the light source so the
best way to advanced in flash photography is to get your flash head
off the camera you can get wired systems but this can be awkward and give you a
trip hazard if you have cables all over the place so nowadays you can get
wireless systems from the really cheap ones to the more expensive ones
depending on your budget so I'll show you the three different systems that I
think a really good value and will really drive your flash photography
forwards if you have a flash already but you don't want to spend too much the FC
16 from godox is a little gem it costs around about
$25 for the trigger and receiver and works well with most flashes also if you
have a Sony a cannon or a Nikon DSLR this doubles up as a shutter release
trigger so potentially it's a good all-rounder if you do have one of those
cameras now this is a really basic system so it's a fully manual system so
there's no option for TTL technology for the camera to work out the flash power
through the lens also there's nothing but a test fire button on the trigger
that sits on top of your camera so if you want to change the power of your
flash heads you'll have to go over to them and change them individually but if
you're okay with this you can get your flash off camera wirelessly for very
little money so if you're not sure about getting into Wireless flash photography
but what to give it a go this is the one to get so the way to set
this up is put the trigger on top of your camera attach the receiver to the
bottom of your flash make sure they're both on the same channel with these four
switches set the flash to one-quarter power set my shutter speed to one to
hundredth of a second or whatever your fastest sync speed is set your aperture
to f/8 your ISO to 100 and then take a test shot and then I'll add all the
settings in from there now if you're not sure how to set up the flash and the
camera for flash photography click on the I in the corner or the link in the
description to my basics in flash photography tutorial the next option is
the young nuo system I've used this for years with the young nuo flashes I have
and even on some professional jobs and it's worked really well this is more
expensive than FC 16 from godox but if you have flash heads that have
the 5 pins on the bottom you can then control the power of your flash heads
from the trigger that sits on top of your camera which is fantastic and it
means you just stay behind your camera and you can control everything from it
you can also set them into three different groups which is great for
three-point lighting setups or any kind of multi lighting systems this trigger
system is designed for Canon cameras as it has those 5 pins on the bottom but
you can use it as a trigger on your Sony cameras and I've found there's not much
of a problem in using it this way the only downside is that you can't use the
TTL system now with the Sony cameras with the multi interface hotshoe it does
only send a flash signal to that trigger then from that trigger you can control
how much power you have in that flash so it's a little bit of a Cobbold system
that goes together if you are using the Sony cameras but I think it works really
well I always recommend using the flashes in manual mode anyway so if you
do shoot that way this wouldn't be a problem and it's a very good system
whenever anyone asked me about flash photography
I always tell them to use manual mode this means you can set the power on your
flash manually you set all the settings on your camera man you
and you have control over them all if you do shoot in TTL the camera tends to
do what it wants to or the flash does what it wants to and it might not be
where you want the shot to get to manual mode is such a good way to start
understanding how they all work together and how those settings interact with
each other and if you have any problems it's easier to troubleshoot and find a
solution to the lighting issues you may have to set this up attach the receiver
to the flash and the trigger to your camera and then turn them both on with
the trigger hold down the zoom CH button until the
channel number is flashing make sure this is on channel 1 then with the
receiver press the channel set button if it's on C 1 it's okay but if it's on any
other scroll through by keeping on pressing this button until you just see
the C 1 light on now they're both on the same Channel and will talk to each other
next on the receiver make sure it's in the right group if you only have one
flash just keep it on a if you have multiple flashes you can have different
sets for three different groups next on the trigger make sure the arrow is next
to a as that's the group I put my flash into press mode and get it into M which
is manual this will give you total control of your flash now if you press
left or right you'll change the power of the flash by one stop increments and up
and down will give you 1/3 increments if your flash has high-speed sync the sync
button will select that and if you want to zoom your flash head use the zoom
button it basically puts all of the flash controls on the top of your camera
if you have more than one flash you can keep them in the same group and have the
same power on all of the flashes or you can separate the groups to have
different power in different flashes and that's basically what the group system
does one other thing if you're using the Sony mirrorless camera system and you're
using this flash trigger make sure live view display is off so you can see
what's going on when you don't have much ambient light about
now if you haven't bought any flashes yet or you're looking to upgrade your
flash heads buying an integrated system is a really good way to do it go Docs
and a lot of other brands do have some great systems I have the godox 8200 with
the x1 trigger and this system is fantastic you can choose to shoot in
manual mode or TTL and the power of the 8200 is great for a relatively small
price compared to say the branded sony flash heads now if you are thinking
about this system just make sure you get the right trigger for the camera that
you have they make different triggers for the different cameras but they'll
all fire the same flash heads this system gives you the option to split
your flash heads up into five different groups so as you build your flash kit
you can add things to it and all of the more modern godox flashes well work with
this system and that's what's great about them they're very much a modular
flash system also if you have any other flashes you can now buy receivers that
will talk to the x1 and it will make sure that different flashes from
different brands can sort of be built into this modular system which is great
I have 280 to hundreds at the moment I'm looking to get the 8400 and maybe an 80
600 and I'll be able to control all of these from the x1 trigger as well also
if I wanted to upgrade to the x2 trigger or the X Pro trigger they could also be
controlled by these as well again I keep my 82 hundreds in manual mode so I have
complete control over these flashes attach the trigger to the hot shoe and
turn on the camera the trigger and the flash on the Sony camera system it will
detect this flash and it will automatically turn off live view display
and put a flash logo on the back of the screen press the gr stroke CH button on
the flash and put your first flash in group a press gr on the trigger to
select that group then press mode until you get em and the flash power amount
this means that that flash is in manual and once again you have control of your
flash now when you select a group on the trigger and scroll through the power it
will changed the flash power by 1/3
increments then it's the same as before set your flash power to one-quarter set
your shutter speeds of one 200th of a second set your aperture to f/8 and your
ISO to 100 and take a test shot and then tweak and tune your settings to suit the
8200 does have high-speed sync so you can take your shutter speed faster than
1/2 hundredth of a second and it will automatically go into the high-speed
sync setting now there is a lot more to this flash but these are the basics and
this will give you everything that you need to take some photographs with your
flash the other great thing with this flash is that it has a lot of power and
you can change the flash heads to this bulb to give you a different look to the
flash whenever I have the flash in a softbox
I use this bulb over the Frenette but for around about three hundred dollars
you can get a really powerful wireless flash where you can control everything
from standing behind the camera because with that excellent trigger again you've
got all of your settings that you can change from this little display on the
back now do you use off-camera flashes if so which ones do you use and how are
you getting on with them let me know in the comments below and if you want to
learn more about flash photography click on this next tutorial here and for all
of my flash photography tutorials click on this link down here and if you
haven't already be sure to subscribe for weekly tutorials in photography I'll see
you next time