So you dropped the cash, did the time waiting in line, and now you love those little Radio Poppers like they were your own kids (except every time you have to unscrew them to pop in a new battery - ahem). The only problem (besides having to unscrew them to change the battery - did I mention that already?) is they don’t want to play nice with your non TTL flashes or your powerful studio strobes. It’s not their fault. They speak a different language. Blame the US public school system! Or… find a way to make them talk. It’s way easier than you think.

This may not be as clever as the Radiopopper mod, but it’s just as effective and adds a completely new feature.

This image was taken in a mirror - then flipped horizontally so the text would look all purty. In it you can see the umbrella is lit by the 580ex II triggered from the master flash via Radiopopper and the gridded studio strobe is lit too at the exact same time. How the heck? Hmm. What else looks strange in the photograph? Gee, I can’t think of anything. That is unless you notice my on camera flash is wearing a glove!

Let me lay out the how to for you nice and easy. If you want to use your TTL flashes along with non TTL or studio strobes this is how you do it.

1. Set your on camera master flash to manual mode. Yes, you’ll lose TTL but tough titties as my grandma likes to say. If you’re bringing studio strobes to the party I’m guessing you are comfortable figuring out the correct power settings on your own.
2. Make sure your studio strobe or non TTL flash has an optical trigger to set it off. Many studio strobes already have this built in. And there are all kinds made for hot shoe flashes. At any rate, they are inexpensive if you need to pick them up.
3. What? A third step? Yep. You see, even when you shoot in manual mode, the master flash blips out a preflash to tell the other flashes how bright to flash. That preflash will sometimes set off your optical trigger and end the party faster than poop in a punch bowl. So what’s a boy (or girl) to do? Just like the punch bowl: Cover it up. Just cover the master flash so the optical trigger won’t see it. You can use a paper bag, fun foam, a beer cozy, clown wig, WWI MRE’s, cardboard and gaffers tape, you can even use a glove. It doesn’t really matter. Just get to covering. Now, you want to make sure, whatever you use, it’s not touching the actual strobey part as it gets hot and you could turn your beloved flash into a door stop. Just leave a bit of room for the business end to breath. When it comes to making your flash cover you can get as elegant as you like - or the job requires. Just make sure you optical slaves don’t see that sneaky little preflash coming out of the master and you’ll be drinking punch in no time (BTW: Don’t drink the punch).

That’s it. I told you it was simple. Now your master flash will trigger the Radiopopper. He’ll tell your TTL flash when to go, and the light from Mr. TTL will set off the optical to fire your studio strobe or non TTL flash. Happy New Year!

Why might you want to do this? Well, on what would normally be a studio strobe only shoot, maybe you want to stick a flash somewhere that a studio strobe won’t fit, or up high on a boom and you want to be able to tweak the settings without having to reset the whole contraption. Now you can without giving up the power and machismo of your studio strobes. Doesn’t that sound nice?

Nice!

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