skywolf

I had a hell of a birthday present....an Alienbees 400 and an 800 studio strobes, which sync up nicely with my Nikon D7100. Softbox, four Smith/Victor stands, umbrella and cabling. I also got an old Vivitar 285HV speedlight. Will this flash work with the D7100? It has one contact point dead center. It also has a Sonia Multi Terminal Slavettach. Plugged into one of the ports is a clear plastic piece with electronics in it and a suction cup on the side. I haven't worked with studio lighting since my film days some years ago. All of this equipment is used, as it was given to one of my daughter's boyfriends. I use Youngnuo wireless triggers, which work with the Alienbees heads. I don't want to mess up the camera, which is why I ask. Any wisdom on all of this? In the stuff I was given is a Westcott 30" gold/white reflector. How the hell do you fold it back up to get it in the pouch? Any resources I can check?

Leitz Loc: Solms

.

WAKD Loc: Cincinnati

Look for 'how to coil a band saw blade. Works the same way. Twist and fold.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

The Vivitar 285HV is supposed to be safe for use on digital cameras. It should be fine with any of the wireless remotes too.

Something you might want to check out is the Paul C. Buff Cybersync remote triggering system. You would want 1 each CSR+ Receiver for each Alien Bees strobe, and 1 each CSRB Receiver for the Vivitar 285HV; and then 1 each CyberSync Commander unit to trigger them all with. You might want also get a CyberSync Trigger too, which would be used on the camera to actually trigger things when shooting, while the CyberSync Commander would be a hand held device for setup configuration and metering (it has a built in incident flash meter). The convenience of all that grow as you add more flash units... which you probably will!

It's not a big deal with only two Buff strobes, but with four or more it is really useful. You can enable and either measure or take a test shot with any one strobe, or any group of strobes. And then you can increase or decrease the flash power of all of them at the same time. That last is where it makes a difference, because once you've put the hair light up about 10 feet in the air, and have a main light about 8 feet high with a fill light on the other side somewhere close to that too, it isn't easy to go around and tweak each of them. With the CyberSync Commander it's a breeze (once you figure out the very complex menu).

Consider a few things... the Vivitar can be used to light the background. But you need another strobe for a hair light, and it probably needs a snoot with a grid. The background light doesn't need much of a stand, but the others should have an air cushion release to protect your strobes. The main light can have a large softbox on it, and the fill light might use a fair sized beauty disk. Then eventually you'll want two other lights for the sides. They need to have regular reflectors but with barn doors. That adds up to 5 strobes and a speedlight, which is what makes the CyberSync triggering system nice.

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

Grab that reflector at 3 and 9 and twist (opposite directions) as you bring your hands together.
Some of the older flashes use a trigger voltage that is too high for modern DSLR's, you need some isolation.