Speedlight Tricks and fun with the Phottix Atlas Wireless Flash Trigger

Once you take your speedlights out for a walk and shoot photos outside, even if you don’t go further than your own garden, then you will feel the need for wireless flash triggers such as radio remotes. Yes, they open up a whole new world of lighting. But these hot babies also might burn a hole into your wallet. Before you reach really deeeeeeep into your “Pocket“ and invest in “Wizards” of the well known brands you should have a look at the alternatives. You really should.

I learned this in an expensive way. Here’s what happened: One year ago I purchased a US$1600 set of cutting edge radio triggers with truly amazing features. It was a set of 5 [Insert a product that a bunch of “reputable” photographers endorsed in videos and blog posts]. I bought them  only to find out that they are useless for my photography. They turned out to be horribly unreliable and thanks to their design (and the unadvertised fact that you have to put an extra 3cm radio noise cancelling foot underneath the speedlight) they can’t be used with lightformers. I contacted the manufacturer which is [insert company name, very reputable, at least in the past]. They refused to fix their design flaws. Having imported the product to Germany I could not even get back my money. Their local service here in Germany even refused to answer any questions. However, they did have the time to point out to me that importing such radios to Germany was not exactly legal. Thanks guys, why not suing me for buying your shit product? 

I learned from that. Now I’m more critical and I buy only from dealers that are happy to take back their products if it turns out that these products fail in the field. 

The field, yes, that’s also the stage for the little flick I have for you in this post. I filmed a couple of tricks that I do with my NEW wireless flash triggers, the Phottix Atlas. Most of it can be done with pretty much any radio remote trigger. That’s why I’m sure there will be some tips, takeaways and inspiration in there for you when you see me playing around with the new Atlas.

Since I did not use the Phottix Atlas before, this video also documents my first impression of this gadget. With that said, here’s how you use radio remote triggers to make the light of your speedlights rock. Let it roll:

Want to see the Atlas in the shop? Go check this out:

==> http://smokingstrobes.com/phottixatlas 

How to setup your camera and speedlights? Have a look at some examples from today’s photo shoot. I did not photoshop the photos because I’d like to show you the light exactly how it turned out. So please don’t be surprised to find tons of flaws in the photos. I posted the lighting diagrams with the complete settings along. 

Try it out yourself and post the links to your results over here in the comments section.

If  you have aditional cool idea for using wireless flash triggers please post them in the comments. If possible,  add a link to examples. Or if you saw some cool photos using remote flashes online, let all of us know, post it into a comment.

I wish you good light!
-- Michael

Related links:

http://smokingstrobes.com/phottixatlas