How to know what your speedlight light is going to look like before...

[russellsnr]

Hi, I have seen on a video that there is a way to see what or where light is going to fall before you press the shutter button with a Canon and a Speedlight, it's something like a modeling light from a strobe but more a continues flickering light but unfortunatly the presenter does not go into detail how to actually do this. Anyone can shed some light (OK a pun) on this please.
Thank you
Russ

[xpatUSA]

My Sigma EF-500 has a mode where you select MODEL on it's LCD; then you can push the TEST button while looking at the scene. No multiple flashes though, AFAIK - I've never used that mode myself. By the way, it has to be the actual flash tube that does it because fancy flashes have variable coverage and mine also has a flip-down Fresnel lens for even wider angle coverage.

Hope this helps.

[Manfred M]

I can't say whether or not it is the same, but Nikon certainly has this feature on some of its Speedlights.

You can set up the light in "modelling light" mode and you get a rapidly pulsing, continuous light output from the flash tube. It's not particularly useful for judging what the final image is going to look like, the light drop-off is a lot faster than what you get out of your flash. What it seems to do is to light up the scene a bit so that your camera can focus on the subject. The camera and flash both have built in modeling lights; the in camera one is quite small and weak and the red LEDs on the Speedlight are not much better. The modeling light puts out a lot more light than either of these two lights. An external Speedlight seems to work well, but the built-in pop-up flash puts out a very short (fraction of a second) burst.

I suspect that the Canon implementation is going to be somewhat along the same line.

To activate it, I have to select the "modeling light on" option on my camera's flash menu and then press my depth-of-field preview button and that runs the modeling light for about 1 second, after which it turns off automatically. I can't actually take a picture while the light is pulsing.

[rpcrowe]

Canon Speedlights have a mode called Multi (Stroboscopic) which emits muliltiple flashes that mimic the behavior of a modeling light.

Here is a quick overview of the Multi Mode on the Canon 600EX-RT unit (other flash units from Canon have this Multi Mode also)
http://photography.tutsplus.com/arti...t--photo-11826

"Once the unit is turned on (the lever on the right side) you can access the different modes using the large button on the left. It will take you through the ETTL, Manual, Multi (Stroboscopic), External Automatic and External Metering modes. Some of these modes people never knew about, simply because they were hidden in the submenus under the cryptic functions on the 580 EX II."

I have never used the multi mode because if I really need a modeling light, I will use a studio strobe.

The multi mode is often used when the speedlight is substituted for a studio strobe.

BTW: If you leave the unit firing in Multi Mode too long, it will overheat.

[inkista]

Canon Speedlights have a mode called Multi (Stroboscopic) which emits mulltiple flashes that mimic the behavior of a modeling light. ...

Um. No. The MULTI mode is the stroboscopic mode--multiple flash bursts, where you can specify the number and frequency of bursts.

Modelling light mode is very similar, but you don't set anything--you just hit the DoF preview button and the speedlight will blink like a mofo, and pretend it's a modelling light, and you can then overheat your speedlight really really quickly. And everyone around you freaks because they've never seen a flash go bananas like that.

Personally, I've found the mode to be more of a hindrance than a help, and a very very far cry from a real modelling light on a studio strobe, which is an actual continuous light. It's better to simply practice shooting a LOT of flash so you can visualize what's going to happen, or to consider using LED panels instead to actually get continuous light. But that's just my opinion.

[Dave Humphries]

I wonder if anyone has produced a battery powered LED flash/strobe?

i.e. one that you could use the ('white') LED continuously (at low power) for modelling, but to take the photo, it uses a really short, suoer-bright pulse. For (internal to the LED) heat dissipation reasons, plus the discomfort of the bright light and battery capacity issues it wouldn't be practical to use the LED at full brightness.

There are plenty of continuous LED lights for photographic and video use, but I'm thinking of something a little different.

[dje]

I wonder if anyone has produced a battery powered LED flash/strobe?

i.e. one that you could use the ('white') LED continuously (at low power) for modelling, but to take the photo, it uses a really short, suoer-bright pulse. For (internal to the LED) heat dissipation reasons, plus the discomfort of the bright light and battery capacity issues it wouldn't be practical to use the LED at full brightness.

There are plenty of continuous LED lights for photographic and video use, but I'm thinking of something a little different.

Hi Dave

I'm not sure if this is what you mean but the newish Nikon SB-500 flash has an LED light built in (below the flash light). I have one but I've not tried it as a "modeling light". I think it's primarily meant for video.

Dave