I had purchased YongNuo RF-603 triggers a few months back, whilst I was on holiday in Thailand. I literally only purchased them as I had to spend the last of my Thai Baht.

For months they either sat in my bag, or were used as a remote shutter. I never actually used them to trigger any of my flashes, as I’ve been quite content with Nikon’s CLS (Creative Lighting System).

I decided to head out and give them a go!

They were very easy to setup, as it was merely plug and play.

How I Shot It

I wanted to capture the sunset in the background, but keeping the subject exposed.
I had to expose for the sky by lowering the ISO and maximizing the shutter. The maximum shutter speed for my Nikon D800 is 1/8000sec, but to allow my flash to sync correctly as I was using the YongNuo RF-603 triggers, I was limited to a maximum shutter speed of 1/250sec. To compensate for the slower shutter, I had to close down my aperture to f/11.

The flash was set to the left of the subject, my right, fairly close to the subject and just out of the frame.

The Nikon SB900 was set on top of the YongNuo RF-603, and manually set it to full power (1/1). Aperture controls flash exposure, so with a small aperture of f/11, I knew I needed a lot of power to compensate for that. I was also shooting through an umbrella to spread the light, so I began at full power to test the exposure, and it turns out, it was the perfect exposure. Thankfully I didn’t more power from my flash, as I was maxed out. Opening up the aperture or increasing ISO would’ve boosted the flash exposure, but it would’ve boosted the ambient also.

How I Edited It

If shot in camera correctly, there’s not much post-production needed.

I imported this image into Lightroom 4 with the “01 Standard Import (w/ PC) +” preset, from the SLR Lounge Lightroom 4 Preset System, and then increased the white balance to 5500k and Clarity to +25.

I wanted to shoot with the YongNuo’s as not everyone has the luxury of using Nikon CLS, and therefore cannot flash sync at 1/8000sec. The YongNuo RF-603’s can be picked up quite cheaply, and there are plenty of 3rd party manual flashes which pump out just as much power than the Nikon SB900. So to anyone looking to step into off-camera lighting, you do not need the most expensive gear to get started, and the YongNuo RF-603’s are very affordable.

For the price, I would recommend them, but if you don’t want to take my word for it, take Gene Higa’s word for it! ;)

Basic Information

1) Camera: Nikon D800
2) Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.4G
3) Flash: SB900
4) Flash Trigger: YongNuo RF-603
5) Settings: ISO100, 1/250sec, f/11

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