DP | @ekhoophotography

Children in some ways are easier to shoot that adults. Of course, there's a different set of challenges and also not everyone's the same. Like adults, some are more comfortable in front of the camera. Recently, I was at Camerons and while relaxing and also planning out some big changes ahead as well as a lot of calendar packing events -- including a large photo seminar for university students as well as the upcoming Shoot4Charity fund raiser. My niece Julia was there and she's a gregarious kid and rather happy to be in front of the camera. She proudly exclaims "I'm shooting pictures!". Best part is she's able to tell my 5D Mark II, battery grip, 70-200 f2.8 compared to daddy's 500D and 18-200, "Your camera is much bigger than daddy's!" Size does matter?

The OMF bungalow has a nice open area for kids to run around. It's also a good time to think, reflect and plan for the future. Change is definitely on the horizon. Most of the shots were flash assisted with my RadioPoppers, even some of the daylight ones as I wanted more directional lighting.

Julia found the older kids (another group who was also staying in the bungalow with us) playing football (soccer) but they didn't want her to play plus also they were kicking much harder. The only time we had was later in the evening about dinner time (around 7pm) when the kids went in for their dinner. I kinda of like those shots where I had to drag the shutter down quite a bit. You can see the slow shutter in the shots -- I was going down to 1/30 at f/4.5, ISO 1250 in those shots. Some shots had 3 580EX IIs going off to provide enough light but as I didn't move my lights around, some shots had to make do with a single flash (the others were off position).

My RadioPopper PX transmitters and receivers so far have been functioning great. Stuff that simply works is always a winner in my book. The only problem is that due to its usage of the 900Mhz ISM Band (902-928Mhz to be precise) it's not available outside the US. This is generally due to GSM 900 being in used in many countries outside the US. GSM 900 technically spans from 890-921Mhz. RadioPoppers translate the e-TTL (or i-TTL) signal of your flash over radio instead of IR to allow the signals to go beyond line-of-sight such as behind walls, etc.

Anyways, I've never had problems using my RadioPoppers in Malaysia or Shanghai so... Most radio devices are also capable of working with the noise and I've used my RPs in a filled church hall, 100 feet from master to slave flash clamped above the gallery and they still work with full e-TTL and HSS (High-speed sync).


A friend had some issues with his RPs lately so I got hold of them and obviously, test them before I get one of my friends going to the US to get them sent in. So here's how to check if your RPs are working fine.

Hardware Reset
First thing I do is to reset them. You do that by pressing X and then press P a couple of times until you reach the Reset menu. You'll need to hold down the X till the countdown happens.


After that, powering on the unit will display the firmware version. I then configure them to my usually preferences; Hardware mode: Canon, Brightness Level 1 (those darn LEDs drain power), Channel 9, Feedback Mode 2 (F2 - no feedback to allow 8FPS shooting). Don't ask me why but channel 9 works for me all the time so far. Furthest range I've got is from the road to my backyard, approximately 130 feet with the whole house, truck in the driveway between master and slave.

Feedback Mode (F3)
Since I'm trying to figure out what was the problem, I set Feedback to '3' which shows the the signal transmitted from master to slave. This code is displayed on master and slave. Easy to figure out if anything's messing up or going haywire. This worked fine with numbers matching. So I dug out the rest of my RadioPoppers and then tried both the transmitter and receiver and all units synced up nicely. You will get a number, i.e. 11, 15, etc -- it depends on your shoot settings but that number will be displayed on all receivers and transmitters. If it doesn't match, you might have some issues.

Testing
Finally, the test was to test from 1/160 to 1/2500 with one, two and three slave flash units. Camera A is a 5D Mark II with 550EX as master and camera B is a 40D with 580EX as master. Slaves are 430EX IIs and 580EX IIs. Transmitters and receivers on channel 9. After 200+ shots, I got tired so, case closed. The shot below was taken from outside my house window, into the corridor with three flash units in each room. Distance to the last flash, 60 feet, 5D Mark II, f/6.3, 1/160, ISO 400, 105mm. You'll need to look carefully to see the light from each flash. Anyways, test result shows that all transmitters and receivers work fine.



p.s. sorry about the silly bathroom rug

If you're a Canon shooter, you better be heading over to Syl Arena's new site and forum if you've always wondered about using flash with your Canon system (of course, other DSLR owners are welcome too).

There's also a big How-to section which will be growing. There's one interesting post which shares 15 tips for using your speedlite, including this gem below:

"1. Understand that the hotshoe is not the best place for your Speedlite.
I know. You paid good money for your camera and your Speedlite. It�s not that you didn�t get the deluxe hotshoe. You did. It�s just that shooting with a Speedlite in the hotshoe is similar to the lighting used to make driver�s license and passport photos. You cannot create interesting light when the main source of light is parked on top of your camera."

But if you've only got one light... don't fret. Here's one article for you too!

Took my RadioPoppers into the jungles of Pahang over the weekend and they absolutely rock! One time, I had them on two lightstands at a distance of 400 feet and they still worked flawlessly. With e-TTL to boot! They're so awesome I'll be getting another set next month plus a pair of 580s to go with them.

For me, range is not that important, well, anything up to 100 feet is good enough for me but e-TTL is. The ability to have exposure control plus the ability to remotely control the slaves is important. However, more importantly, reliability is the key. The existing Canon wireless system is too dependent on line of sight and is quite easily confused when in bright areas, especially outdoors. I even had problems one time I did a portrait shoot where the left flash unit was fired through a translucent reflector and the right-side flash was bounced off the right wall and ceiling and one of the flashes wouldn't go off 100% of the time. I shot forty frames with that configuration and ended up with 9 frames where one of the flash units did not fire properly. This is indoors with a full height glass wall on one side. Maybe the infrared beams went through the windows but who knows.

In a wooden shack building 40 feet by 70 feet, I had 100% trigger rate no matter where I placed my two slave flashes. I had them outside the building firing through the side windows, left and right of the main hall, anywhere basically and all seventy frames fired successfully!

Had a three-day working weekend -- taking the dog to the vet, proposals, videos, photos, weddings, house-painting, mowing the lawn and more! I also had the chance to put my RadioPoppers to work in various distances and ranges around the house. Sunday evening was spent working on write-ups and excel spreadsheets while it rained but once the rain stopped, we went ahead to put in a new addition to our home farm -- four-angle beans, cucumbers, peanuts, basil and more. The former two plants are creepers or vines so good thing we had a supply of freshly cut bamboo to construct our new trellis.

Behold!

Have tested round the corners of the house plus from the dining to the living room (approx 25 feet) and still have full e-TTL2. I'll try them this weekend at our Orang Asli Christmas charity event -- full outdoors! The bamboo trellis above was shot with three Canon 580EX II flash units, two RadioPopper PX receivers - first unit sitting 8 feet left of me, second unit right-side around the corner of the house, approx 12 feet away. I'll be adding more Poppers next March!