Canon ST-E3-Rt vs. Yongnuo YN-E3-RT

©John Parmley

When I first migrated to the Canon 600EX-RT flashes, I purchased 2 ST-E3-RT transmitters. (as a wedding photographer, you need back ups!).

This simple and light weight transmitter gave me everything I needed (so I thought) at a premium cost.  The build quality is as expected with Canon and works flawlessly unless you are standing under or very near a Wi-Fi hot spot.  The bigger problem I had was the lack of the infrared focus assist that you find in your flashes.  In shooting weddings, you often find your self in dark locations.  With out the assist beam, getting focus in these situations was a challenge.

I happened to participate in a seminar put on by Bob Davis, international wedding photographer, and learned about the Yongnuo YN-E3-RT.  It is a knock off of the Canon design, it is less expensive and has built in infrared focus assist. 

But would I trust it in the middle of a wedding?  The bottom line is I do now.  I started off in the studio making sure it worked as the Canon, and it does.  While the build quality is a little less than the Canon, especially in the thumb wheel, it has worked just as I need.  You can see from the picture that I have one of each......just in case a firmware upgrade goes south on one of them.  I can also use a second shooter connected to all the 600EX-RT flashes.

If you are on a budget and not shooting professionally, get the Yongnuo, If you are pro and need multiple transmitters, mix it up.  This way you can save some expense and have one that has the assist beam for those darker locations.  As of 9/26/2015 the Canon version is $263 and the Yongnuo is $84.

Back Lighting with Flash

©John Parmley

One way I try to create a image that has some depth is to add a back light to rim light my subject.  By doing this, you can create some separation and dynamics to your picture that otherwise is not there.

In this picture, I am shooting with a Canon 5D MIII and a 24-70 2.8L.  There is a light stand directly behind me with 600EX-RT Flash set at 1/4 power with a plastic light diffuser to insure the front of my bride and groom are exposed correctly.  My wife is knelt down behind them with a 600EX-RT at 1/4 power with no modifier.  She is holding it sideways so that the light is sent mostly up and down.  I have that flash manually set to 35mm so that the light spills out onto the dance floor.  I am using the Yongnuo YN-E3-RT transmitter to control the flashes.

While I admit the light coming off the veil is too hot, I think it actually works for the creative look I was looking to achieve.  

The light behind the couple is being held in this orientation, is set at 1/4 power and 35mm

Adding Clouds to Pictures

©JP Parmley

Adding clouds to images can add drama and an effect that a clear blue sky lacks.  I have created a short 12 min video tutorial on one way that you can do this.

Here are the before and after image.  Watch the video to see how this was done in Photoshop Elements or CC.   

Enjoy!

Before

After