I've just taken delivery of my Subal C-20 housing for my Canon 20-D. I will be using my strobe from my old rig - an Inon Z220S. I will mainly be shooting macro for the time being.
I've always used one strobe, but often on macro shots get unwanted shadows. I've been thinking of an additional Inon strobe to mount on the other side of the housing as a slave to remove the shadows.
Do most folks use two strobes to remove shadows - or use one a try a position it in a suitable place to not have shadows?
Thanks....IAIN
Hi Iain,
I always suggest to people that if it is in their price range to go for two strobes. Sure, good lighting can be created by using just one WA strobe, both WA and macro (Steve Frink is a good example) but i really think that two is the way to go. I would always suggest two of the same strobes as well, as opposed to one that is less strength to the other. THis way you get even lighting across the board and can still create interesting compositional shadows by changing the power of one strobe or the other.
Also, make sure you get a dual synch cord or two bulkheads as the slave function can be somewhat inconsistent and usually means that you need to turn one strobe in further to get the flash synch from the slave sensor, creating unwanted backscatter.
Hope that helps
Mike
...and the second strobe provides nice redundancy on extended trips, if you carry a single sync (or use dual bulkheads).
My vote is for two strobes too. I've used only one for a long time, but after it failed during a trip in the middle of nowhere, I started carrying (and shooting with) two, and I am much more pleased with the results.
Luiz
i'd add one thing to all the good points above specifically concerning the slave synching of the z220 strobes:
the fiber optic connection for slaving one z220 off of the other means that you are not limited in the slave's position and you have reliable consistent synch of the strobes, and also the slave does not go off when other strobes go off...
