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I am a beginning wedding photographer using off camera flash for the first time during a wedding reception. It will be outdoors in a big white tent. I plan to mount my Canon 600EX II-RT on-camera to use for candids, photos of guests, etc. and have my Canon 430EX-II on a stand by the dance floor for toasts, first dance, etc.

My question is, with this setup do I need a pocketwizard or some sort of transceiver attached to the 430EX-II, or if it is set up as a slave will it fire with the 600EX II-RT alone? If I do need a transceiver, do I need one for the 600 as well?

Apologies for the novice question, as this is my first time using a two-speedlite setup.

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  • Hi Hannah, welcome to Photo-SE. I took the liberty of editing the title to be descriptive of your question. I hope I got it right, but if I didn't, please feel free to edit it to be more accurate to your intent. =)
    – scottbb ♦
    May 27, 2019 at 18:59
  • If the 430 is a also RT then no problem. If not you can likely use the 600 as a line-of-sight controller. Personally I would use the smaller flash on the camera anyway.
    – xenoid
    May 27, 2019 at 23:33
  • The 430EX II is not an RT flash. The 430EX III-RT is the first "430 series" flash with RT capability.
    – Michael C
    May 28, 2019 at 6:26

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There are two ways to go about this, depending on whether you need the advantages of radio or whether you can make do with optical wireless communication.

If radio, you need an RT compatible radio receiver to attach to the hot foot of the 430EX II. The 600EX II-RT has a built in RT radio that would communicate with the receiver. The most obvious candidate would be the Yongnuo YNE3-RX.

You can also use Canon's older wireless optical control system. Set the 600EX II-RT into optical Master mode and use the 430EX II as a "smart" optical slave.

The advantages of radio versus optical wireless control are:

  • Radio tends to have a greater range
  • Doesn't require line-of-sight
  • Can operate in very bright environments such as direct sunlight (that gives the optical system a tough time)
  • Has the ability for more than one set of the same type to be used in proximity to one another without interfering with each other.
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  • Optical should work OK in a tent (radio would be better). I would be more concerned with using off camera flash for the first time at a wedding.
    – Robin
    May 28, 2019 at 19:53

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