Cross lighting with a Sony A200

[Cas2800]

Hi all im new to the forum and have read all the posts in search for my answer but could not find it.

Im hoping to take alot of photos at my son and 2 nefews highschool basketball games this year. I started a hobby of making photo collages of action shots for the aseball and football seasons that came out very nice. I wanted to do the same for the basketball season but quickly found out that the lighting is terrible and the photos come out very grainy.

After some research i've decided to invest in a couple of flashes to try cosslighting posting two flashes, one on each corner of the court to light half the court.

The question i have is which flash (brand and make) would best suit what im trying to accomplish that would fit my A200?

and what would i use to trigger the flashes to flash together? I've read in earlier posts that i believe the 36 might be able to accomplish something like this but i might need a third flash (hotshoe) to act as the trigger for the other two flashes.

Any advice or articals in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You.

[David Kilpatrick]

You can't wireless synch faster than 1/160th using the dedicated Sony/Min system and it's safer at 1/60th with multiple heads at a distance. If you use plain old flash units (mains operated strobe on stands place off-court) with slave triggering, you can in theory use 1/200th but there are some slight delays involved and you need to test it to find the fastest safe speed. Sony make no recommendations - Canon, in their 5D MkII instructions, tell users to work at 1/30th to 1/60th with all AC powered studio flash units.

I would recommend this:

http://www.alienbees.com/b400.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Alien Bees B400. You need three of them, and a flash adaptor FS-1100 to trigger from the camera. If you try to use a camera-top flash to triggr, it must be either the HVL-F58AM or a Sigma EF-530 Super DG set to manual power and a low setting - but you will use lots of batteries. What I can't tell you about Alien Bees is how many successive shots they can fire at a sensible setting such as 1/4 power, before thermal cutout due to overheating. Most camera top and studio AC flash units can only do a limited number of shots in fast succession, and have safety cutout provisions.

You would need to consult with the school on safety for the position of stands, and you would need duck tape to secure mains cables to the floor safely. Be aware of one problem with use of the built-in slave cells - EVERYONE using flash will trigger the units. You can only do this if you are the sole photographer present. At $288 per head, a three-light rig is affordable. Alien Bees also do a radio triggering system which avoids the problem of other guns triggering slaves, but this adds cost and may need adapting to the Sony hotshoe.

If you can afford it, two HVL-F58AM flash units and two AC mains power adaptors or high power external battery packs will give you a safe, optimal wireless ratio controllable remote setup. The camera's popup flash is the trigger. Alternatively, three Sigma EF-530 Super DG guns can be used, with one on the camera, and the guns set to their non-TTL 'slave' mode. This may be protected from triggering by non-Sigma flashes firing but I have not tested it. All I can tell you is that unlike the Sony units, the Sigma gun does include a dumb 'slave cell' simulation allowing instant firing without TTL-ADI etc handshake bursts.

All a bit technical?

You bet!

David

[Cas2800]

Thank you very much for the quick responses. Im using a 300mm lens from a couple rows up in the stands. Im off to work right now but will post some pics later this evening. The problem is that with the collages (24"x36") im making the shot needs to be clear in in order for it to look somewhat nice.

You can see a few of the colloges i made here:

http://foreveryoungphotos.dotphoto.com/ ... 071&Page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Thanks for all your help.