I was outside taking some outdoor portraits earlier this week and had more lights than I had radio receivers to trigger them with. While all the strobes had the ability to trigger with optical slaves, the sunlight (even though I was positioned in the shade) prevented the optical slave from seeing my command flash (no matter how close it was to the slave cell).
This was one of those oh-crap, on-the-fly moments…
So, I made a little gaffer tape sun-brella (à la David Hobby), which you can see in the above photo, in order to get rid of whatever light waves were interfering with my optical slaves. A couple of pieces of gaffer tape saved the day again.
After constructing the gaffer tape sun-brella, the strobes popped every single time. Thank goodness for gaffer tape. It’s only $4.50 for a roll, so there’s really no excuse for not having some in your bag.
Jeremy D. says
that looks like some blistering strobe work
Ed Lee says
Nice trick to save the day! I appreciate the tips and lessons provided each time. Thanks!
Ed