Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

New to the forum. Thanks for any help I can get. I have a Canon 6D. I have a white lighting x800. Say I put a pocket wizard miniTT1 on my hot shoe. Then I have a TT5 connected to a pocket wizard AC9 connected to my x800. I am left with a wireless solution for triggering the moonlight and am also given remote control of flash exposure compensation. So here is the question. Do I no longer need to adjust the manual levers on the moonlight? I believe the answer is no. If I am correct, what position should the levers be left in? Does it matter?

Question 2:
I have a 580ex speedlight that I would like to use as a secondary light source. I plan to put it on a tripod w/umbrella etc. I should be able to get another TT5 and connect it to my 580ex so that my miniTT1 can trigger it wirelessly. The whole point of the TT5 is so that the speedlight can remain in TTL mode. So can I with this setup get what I want? Can I have the 580ex work in TTL model while at the same time using the AC9 to control the white lighting x800?

I hope that makes sense.
Thanks.
John

The levers should be at full power. At least that is how the lights are designed to work with our remote system, and I assume the PW's are designed the same way. However, Pocket Wizard would be able to tell you for sure.

As for using a manual flash and a TTL flash simultaneously, they will sync together and it can work in some circumstances. However, it is not typically advisable unless you really know what you are doing.

The reason for this is the camera sends a known amount of light from the speed light just before the exposure. The camera calculates the exposure from this known amount and tells the speedlite how much energy it needs to create a proper exposure. This typically works OK, except you then add the light from the White Lightning. So you have good exposure, then add more light, you end up with over exposure.

Additionally, in a portrait type setting, manual flash is often preferred, as it is more consistent than TTL. Set manual flash, and it is that power every shot (assuming the light is allowed to recycle). TTL can change exposure from shot to shot based on minor changes even in composition.

If you have a manual flash exposing a large room (reception hall, for example) and a speedlight illuminating localized scenes (close up shots of guests), TTL can be mixed reasonably well with manual flash.