Lesson 4 Speedlie 600EX-RT and Speedlite ST-E3_RT

Speedlite lighting an umbrella

Production Stills by Shannon Phipps

Cheat Sheet for Canon 5DMII Using the Speedlite ST-E3_RT and Speedlite 600EX-RT with Radio Wireless and Manual controls on both camera and lights.

Set the camera on manual and pick an f-stop and shutter speed of your choice.  The highest shutter speed will be around 1/125 due to lag in radio transmissions.  (Some people say they have shot up to 1/250 shutter speed without seeing the curtain in the bottom of the frame).  

Speedlite ST-E3-RT transmitter needs two AA batteries.  Put it on the hot shoe of the camera.  Turn it on and press the mode button several times until you see an M on the upper left corner of the screen.  In the lower right corner you should see MENU 1.  Press the button below it to cycle through the 4 numbered choices i.e. MENU 1, MENU 2, MENU 3, and MENU 4.  Next press the ratio button until A B C ratios are showing.  Press Gr button until one of the letter is lit.  Use the scroll wheel to change letters.  When the letter you want to adjust is lit put the SEL/SET then use the scroll wheel again to adjust the power setting you want.  You could start by setting each group at 1/16 power and that way you can go up or down in power.  

Next put 4 AA batteries in each 600EX-RT and close the door carefully.  It has a weird fit so go slowly and try not to break it.  Turn on the flash and you will see the menus are the same as the transmitter except that you can set the flash as a slave.  That’s how we will set all of our flashes by pressing the lightning bolt button until you see SLAVE lit.  Make sure you stop when both the SLAVE is lit and the radio symbol in the upper right corner shows.  (There is also a lightning bolt symbol that we don’t want) Next press the Gr button repeatly until the group letter that you want is set.  Now you can set your lights where ever you want and all further adjustments can be set on the ST-E3-RT.

Best AA Battery and Charger:http://www.metaefficient.com/rechargeable-batteries/best-rechargeable-batteries-battery-chargers.html
System

John Alton using his testlight from his book Painting with Light. http://www.amazon.com/Painting-Light-John-Alton/dp/0520089499/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329747617&sr=8-1

 

 

 

Here are the parts needed to build your own test light.  Grand Brass has most of the parts.  The air hose that we used for the handle came from McMaster-Carr for finding lots of hardware items.