When is wireless trigger range is important?

[Ace55]

I have been looking at wireless triggers and receivers. No matter what the brand, nearly all emphasize their long range. I have looked at a number of videos that specifically test the range of the triggers. I am curious to know under what scenarios a photographer would need to fire a flash that is say 100m away from the camera. What kind of photo would they be looking to capture?
I can understand sports photographers having a remote camera and flash next to each other and firing the camera from some distance away ... but when would you want the flash/camera difference to be up to 100m away?
I have thought maybe highlighting a tree well into the background of a shot?
I can understand the advantages of being able to fire strobes that do not have a line of sight and are some distance away ... but there seems to be a selling point focus on huge distances that the triggers can operate over.
Thanks for enlightening me.

[rellik666]

Light Painting/Graffiti?

[JM Tran]

type of trigger method is more important than the range at first, followed by frequency then range last:)

infra-red simply lacks the range and consistency of radio, especially outdoors. Frequency is also important too, the safe frequency to use in Aus and certain countries for products such as Pocket Wizards are at 433Mhz, the American models are at 300Mhz - I and a colleague were using his American set in Sydney and we faced the problem of a non trigger every few minutes while indoors surrounded by other electronics and appliances, he said it was fine outdoors in a big open space though. A lot of stuff these days like the Yongnuo are at a 2.4 gigahertz range so it can be used anywhere in the world without interference.

anyway sorry for going sideways a bit there - the long range of such triggers are mainly for things like sports and wild life and even security usage.

for example, at soccer matches the cameras placed behind the goal lines are controlled by a colleague sitting somewhere in the stands behind, as the other photographer already has his hands full shooting the sports without having a hand on the remote to take the shot. Its great for wild life because you can set the camera in an enclosure or bush and wait for the animal to come by at a safer distance etc. For security it can be used for clandestine activities in recording what is going on with discretion, and you can sit in your car 100m away if you want. Sports shooters at NBA games also mount flashes to be triggered up higher on the roof rafters to give them better ambient fill.

I have my Yongnuo at a long range before, like mounting the camera on the 2nd level of the church and occasionally using the remote in my pocket to take a shot with the camera when something happens. Or placing 4 flashes in each corner of a big dark church and triggering it to creating a much more lighter ambient feel than a dark background.

[Ace55]

Yes ... I understand the advantages of being able to control the camera and flash from some distance away but the videos I looked at made a big deal of having the camera and the flash separated by as much distance as they could. I was trying to figure out what kind of image would need the flash some 100m from the camera.
Your large church/cathedral scenario would be a good example.
Your lightpainting would be another.
I have been given an example from one photographer who was photographing a helicopter from the ground and had a flash inside the cockpit to light that up.
Another photographer had set up a flash near the nest of a bird and whilst he was some distance away with his camera in a hide.

Thanks for helping me out

[crf529]

Yes those are some good examples. But it's a bit of an open ended question, the possibilities are truly endless and the need for a certain maximum range is probably only limited by your imagination.

[Ace55]

LOL! That's the trouble when you get to my age ... my imagination takes longer to wake up these days! The examples that people have told me though have opened up a whole stack of new possibilities.

[crf529]

The largest object iv'e seen lit, and from the greatest range was an entire village/town in Europe somewhere.

I can't find the link at the moment or remember exactly where I saw it. But it was a group of 10 or so strobists that met up and placed dozens and dozens of speedlights all around town and the surrounds for a massive shot.

[Ace55]

Well that's something I would not have thought of! Definitely need good range and signal strength to pull that of. Thanks for opening my eyes (and imagination) just that little bit wider.