I picked up a 430ex today. never had a speedlight before. any good online tutorials out there.
fyi..... i own alienbees strobes.

There's a whole DVD tutorial 'floating' around some of the sharing sites (or so I'm told).

hmm ive been looking for just such a thing. wish we had a name or a site.

there shouldn't be much of a difference between using a speedlite to studio strobes. Studio strobes, you manually set the output and on speedlites you can do the same. If you want auto mode, just hit mode until you see TTL then fire away. If you want more consistent output, set it on manual mode and chimp away until you get the correct settings.

Since you've had exposure to the studio lighting, all you really need to do is check out the quick manual. It's got all you need to know to manually change the settings.

The manual is available here (9.5mb):
http://www.groovydos.com/Tom/430EXManual.pdf

I bought mine in HK, so didn't have the english manual. The better question is whether you are intending to use it on camera, or trigger it off camera (pocket wizards, pc cord, etc). On camera, the TTL system will do pretty much everything for you. Off camera, there are a bunch of options. Strobist is the best site on the net for info on how to do location lighting using just a bunch of speedlights.

It's amazing how versatile the Speedlites are. I've seen the DVD in question, and while it's quite corny, it's also very informative, and shows you just how powerful the little lights are. Have fun with it!

I would strongly recommend using Gary Fong's Lightsphere II to any photographer out there, I've used it on both my on camera 580EXII and my tripod mounted one and I get excellent soft light everytime. I find it *nearly* as good as studio lighting and much more portable. Check out http://www.garyfong.com

- paul

http://www.paulpichugin.com.au

I had a GF LS II but dumped it. It was large and clunky for me. Ended up with a lumiquest softbox on my 580EX and works perfectly!

Post Last Updated:16.06.2007 at 05.50

Pirostitch, mind me asking how much you paid for the Lumiquest? I just did some checking-out on it, and it looks quite amazing, as far as portable strobe lighting goes.