2 Godox FLashes as a commander and 1 As a slave in TTL how to connect?

[A_SCY]

Hello guys, I have a shoot in two weeks and I will use one of my flashes as a rim light, one as the main key light on-camera, and I will keep one extra flash as backup. I have a Godox V1, a TT685 (first version), and a TT685 II. I want to use the Godox V1 as my main flash on the camera acting as the commander, and the TT685 (v1) as a slave rim light in TTL mode. I will keep the TT685 II as backup. In case the V1 fails, I want to quickly mount the TT685 II on-camera and continue shooting without reprogramming anything. The issue is that I am having trouble getting the TT685 (v1) to stay consistently connected as a slave. I set the TT685 (v1) to slave mode, set it to Channel 1 and Group A. On the V1 and also on the TT685 II, I go into the wireless menu, select Channel 1, and set Group A to TTL. Sometimes it connects and fires correctly, showing “Nikon” on the slave screen which means it’s synced, but it only works if I press the test flash button on both flashes nearly at the same time, and even then not always. I also tried turning off one commander flash when using the other, because I read that having two commanders on can cause issues, but still the connection is not reliable. What I really want is a stable connection where the TT685 (v1) slave stays paired and ready, and most importantly, I want it so when I turn off the flashes and turn them back on again, they automatically reconnect without me needing to press buttons again or set anything up. I need this to work smoothly because I want to focus on the shoot, not troubleshooting flashes. Any help or tips would be appreciated, especially if someone has experience with mixing Godox V1, TT685 v1, and TT685 II in the same wireless setup. Thank you!

 

[tugwilson]

So, ultimately, the most effective approach is to use the slave TT685 flash as a rim light in manual mode. I plan to set it to a low power, around 1/64, and position it a few meters behind and slightly to the left of the main scene. Additionally, I’ll angle the flash away from me and my camera to prevent any direct light from hitting the lens and causing flare. I will take a few test shots on site and see how it works in practice.

What are your thoughts on this setup?

That songs OK. You should be able to do a few test at home too. Just experiment with position and power

 

[Gato Amarillo]

---------

So, ultimately, the most effective approach is to use the slave TT685 flash as a rim light in manual mode. I plan to set it to a low power, around 1/64, and position it a few meters behind and slightly to the left of the main scene. Additionally, I’ll angle the flash away from me and my camera to prevent any direct light from hitting the lens and causing flare. I will take a few test shots on site and see how it works in practice.

What are your thoughts on this setup?

Sounds good to me. I would set the zoom a bit wide to make the aim less critical and experiment with the power.

To minimize the chance of flare keep it well outside the frame. I often us Neil van Niekirk's black foamy thing to keep direct light off the lens

Black foamie thing - Tangents

Black foamie thing / Black foamy thing Also be sure to read the article on how to bounce on-camera flash. The results with the Black Foamie Thing and proper bounce flash technique, can easily give you portraits like this with flattering light, where there is no hard flash shadow...

neilvn.com

Gato

 

[DirkPeh]

Just in case people run into the same issue as I and others: the Godox have two range settings: up to 30 meters or up to 100 meters. If you set them to 100 meters, you can run into connection issues if the trigger and the flash are too close.

Found this thread having a simple question and need to double-check here: So it is possible to fire up the same flash from 2 different cameras with different Godox triggers as long as they are set to the same group and channel?

 

[tugwilson]

Just in case people run into the same issue as I and others: the Godox have two range settings: up to 30 meters or up to 100 meters. If you set them to 100 meters, you can run into connection issues if the trigger and the flash are too close.

Found this thread having a simple question and need to double-check here: So it is possible to fire up the same flash from 2 different cameras with different Godox triggers as long as they are set to the same group and channel?

You can fire the same light(s) from any number of cameras as long as the triggers are using the same channel. We do this all the time in group shoots.

What can be both useful and confusing is if the triggers have different power settings for the groups. Current Godox triggers have a SHOOT menu entry. This has three options

Single shooter (one head) in this mode any change to the settings of a group are immediately sent to all the lights in the group. No setting is sent before the fire command is sent.

Multi shooter (three heads) in this mode the settings of each group are sent every time the trigger is fired.

The third setting is called APP or L-858 depending on the model of the trigger and the version of the firmware (early versions of the X3 firmware lacked this setting) In this mode the settings are never sent to the groups. This is useful if you are setting the lights by hand or you are using a separate trigger to change the settings or if you have a L-858 meter which has the module installed which lets you change settings from the meter.

People cooperatively shooting events sometimes want to use Multi shooter mode because they have different camera positions.

In our group shoots in the studio all the triggers are set to APP/L-858 and either the lights are set by hand or a separate hand held trigger in single shooter mode is used to set the lights.

 

[fotowbert]

DirkPeh wrote in part:

.....

Found this thread having a simple question and need to double-check here: So it is possible to fire up the same flash from 2 different cameras with different Godox triggers as long as they are set to the same group and channel?

In addition to Tug's explanation on the "shoot" setting there is also the "Wireless ID" setting involved in addition to channel and group.

Wireless ID is normally used to keep other shooters who happen to be using your channel from interfering with your flash gear. To share flash gear with other shooters either set the same ID on all the gear being used or have Wireless ID turned OFF on all the gear.

• John

 

[A_SCY]

DirkPeh wrote in part:

.....

Found this thread having a simple question and need to double-check here: So it is possible to fire up the same flash from 2 different cameras with different Godox triggers as long as they are set to the same group and channel?

In addition to Tug's explanation on the "shoot" setting there is also the "Wireless ID" setting involved in addition to channel and group.

Wireless ID is normally used to keep other shooters who happen to be using your channel from interfering with your flash gear. To share flash gear with other shooters either set the same ID on all the gear being used or have Wireless ID turned OFF on all the gear.

• John

I just finished shooting the christening today. The good news is that I managed to get some really nice shots in terms of framing and focus, and overall, I’m happy with the lighting. But unfortunately, I had issues with the rim light flash setup.

I had positioned the rim flash about 30 degrees behind and to the right side of the scene — just slightly to the left of where the baby’s mother and father were standing. My goal was to create a soft rim light for separation without having the flash visible in the frame. I also avoided placing it further back to prevent flare or interference with the composition.

During testing at home, I had the slave flash set to manual at 1/64 power, and the results looked good. I then switched to TTL mode to compare, and the output seemed even more accurate — around 1/64 to 1/128 — so I decided to trust TTL during the event.

However, during the actual shoot, I noticed that the TTL rim flash was too strong compared to the on-camera main flash. It caused noticeable overexposure on the side of people’s faces. The rim flash was about 4 meters farther from the subjects than the main flash, and I think that distance may have affected how TTL calculated the power.

What still confuses me is how TTL behaves when using a commander flash on-camera and a TTL slave flash off-camera. I assumed each flash would calculate its own exposure and balance together, especially if one is used as the main light and the other as fill or rim. But in my case, it seemed like the rim light overpowered the main flash, throwing off the balance and making the lighting too harsh.

Since I didn’t have time to troubleshoot during the ceremony, I quickly deactivated the slave flash. I exited the group settings and went back to using only the on-camera flash in TTL mode. That gave me more control and avoided further exposure issues.

In the end, I’m glad I reacted fast — it saved the shoot. I still got solid results, and the experience taught me something valuable. I just wish I better understood how TTL balances exposure between multiple flashes in a commander/slave setup.

 

[Gato Amarillo]

------
In the end, I’m glad I reacted fast — it saved the shoot. I still got solid results, and the experience taught me something valuable. I just wish I better understood how TTL balances exposure between multiple flashes in a commander/slave setup.

I don't have a solid answer for you, but do have a couple of thoughts --

First, the rim light flash has no way to know it's a rim light. If it is calculating exposure separately from the other flash it's probably working for an overall exposure as seen from its position.

Second, If both lights are on TTL I'm not sure the exposure for the individual lights is calculated separately. Seems like that would require each light do a separate pre-flash. I think it more likely that the system calculates an overall exposure with the balance determined by the plus/minus compensation settings under the group settings. But possibly I'm wrong here and the system is more sophisticated.

Just my thoughts. First chance I get I'll try some testing to see what I can figure out.

Gato

 

[tugwilson]

What still confuses me is how TTL behaves when using a commander flash on-camera and a TTL slave flash off-camera. I assumed each flash would calculate its own exposure and balance together, especially if one is used as the main light and the other as fill or rim. But in my case, it seemed like the rim light overpowered the main flash, throwing off the balance and making the lighting too harsh.

That isn't how TTL works. The flashes don't decide the power It's all done by the camera. the camera test fires each group and meters the result. The camera then calculates (more accurate to say it guesses) the power needed from each group sets the power and takes the photo. Note that the camera doesn't know anything about the positioning or function of the lights.