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Field Instructional

Reader Question: How to Trigger a Flash Wirelessly on a Canon DSLR

Chris Gampat
No Comments
06/01/2011
2 Mins read
Lens with gaffers tape on it-600x400

We recently had a question posed to us on our Facebook wall asking us how to set your Canon 60D to trigger wireless flashes like a Canon 550 EX. To do this, we’re going to borrow a bit from our intro to Canon Wireless Flash posting. Since I don’t have a Canon 60D, I’m going to use my 7D and show you how to trigger a 430 EX II (the flash closest in functionality to the 550 EX) wirelessly using infrared control.

Hit the jump to check out the instructional video.

Gear Used

Canon 7D

Canon 35mm F/1.4 L

430 EX II

Olympus EP-2 with 17mm F/2.8 (used to shoot this video)

Triggering Your Flash Wirelessly

Results

You can read more about this particular shoot here.

This photo was also done by wirelessly triggering with the Orbis and 430 EX II coupled together. Part of the secret though is the amount of light that the Canon 35mm F/1.4 L can help the sensor soak up. You can read my review of that lens here. By angling the light in a specific way combined with your exposure settings and the way you’re posing your subjects, you can create some really nice light with an off-camera flash, flash modifier and great subject matter.

I shot all of these photos at last year’s Comic Con. Walking around with the 430 Ex II and Orbis allowed me to essentially turn anywhere I went into a mobile studio. It opened up so much potential for better photo opportunities since I was swimming in fun subjects.

Something that you often need to keep in mind when using wireless flash is the fact that the sensor on the front part of the flash needs to “see” the pop-up flash on the camera going off. With that said, the side illumination on my subjects would not have been possible if the flash’s infrared sensor wasn’t facing my camera. As an additional pointer, it’s always a great idea to quickly test that out before you get into shooting and posing your subjects seriously.

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430 EX II 60d canon canon 550 ex ii canon 7d comic con trigger video wireless flash
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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