scott_walton2

Well, we might have to revert back to making glass plates there sonny boy. LOL Seriously, having had to print several hundred glass plates, they a spectacularly sharp!

Shannon, The ceiling girder system works well but if you are short of money, you could use some Bogen Autopoles which mount between the ceiling and floor, put your Super Clamps on the Autopoles and mount your light on the Superclamp by way of the brass screw head that comes with it or by using the Heavy Duty Flex Arm so you have a bit more movement with your lights...

Dan, As Lex stated and yourself were on the right road as far as Diafine and control is concerned... the benefits truely out weight the downfalls! I have used Diafine since the late 70's and other than my not liking the results I got with the t-grained films, the only real time you will run into "the caveat" is shooting on a very dense cloudy day. Otherwise, your negatives will have stunning gradations, fine and very sharp grain (high acutance), your gallon kit will last you over a year with putting LARGE amounts of film through and... isn't temperature effected! I have used it from 62 degrees to 80 degrees with no discernable density or contrast changes... at all! I shoot alot of 4x5 and with doing so, I have found that shooting TXP, HP5+, Agfapan APX 400, PXP, Ektapan, FP4+, APX 100 in 4x5 format I shoot at speed... 400asa film shot @ 400 ect. Medium format my speed gain is around 1/2 of a stop and with 35mm the speed increase (for my system) is 3/4 to a stop. No need for alot of guess work but your highlights are developed to perfection with shadow detail and mid tones that sing! Side by side judgement on your part, you might very well be shocked at the sharpness with Diafine being much sharper than what you thought was sharp in the past!

I have about used up the last of my powder Technidol from the 80's and it is fine. It is the liquid if it is only from 2004 and it will be fine. The previous post mentioned mixing up your own... I have mixed up Divided D76 and used it with an EI of 80 with superb results!

No offense taken at all Michael. Good advice to Heather!

This is a good first step but it is rather lifeless. What you could do to spice it up is put a reflector (an 8x10 or 11x14 piece of foam core works well for me), just out of camera range on the left. This will lighten up the left side giving more dimension and extending the reflection you have on the right, top of the jar. You also want to put a gobo above your product to slightly darken the top which is a bit washed out. I would also put a reflector, the shape of the bottle but a little smaller than the bottle and cover it with foil, to make the tablets have a rim light. This last reflector will be place directly behind the bottle and angled up so that it will highlight the tablets inside. Working with these small reflectors is, to me, is part of the fun of lighting a product and is what I do everyday along with background lights that are geled with colors, for an ad shot or just to spice things up.

Most of the time, a movement of a reflector an 1/8th of an inch will make or break the product. Doing one at a time, standing at camera position/angle is important. This way you see what they are doing albeit very subtle!

Oh, one more thing, you can make a very good working softbox with sheets of foamcore or even just use a large sheet of foamcore as a giant reflector, suspending it over head, and bouncing a light into it from below. Be aware that when you use an umbrella with a product shot, professionally it really isn't acceptable to see the "ribs" of the umbrella in the product as they aren't part of the product. Be also aware that in any visual, your eye (when looking at it) will always end up on the brightest part of that visual which can make or break your product or people shot...

It will serve you but as Phil mentioned... bulky and heavy. 90% of a wedding is shot with on camera or 2 strobes (one held by an assistant). At the most, 10-15 shots, being the groups, are shot with umbrellas or soft boxes. Take a look at the Dynalite 800's or their 1000's. They are so much lighter and smaller but just as powerful and faster!

I do have to agree... if your doing it for money and going to be the only shooter there... I would step very carefully here Heather. Quantum Q's are good flashes and the X2's are even better being they are 400w/s. Don't be mistaken and think that your going to be fine shooting TTL because let me say this, if your shooting inside a church (usually dim to dark) your going to flirt with disaster. I shoot with flash, outside most of the time (bright sun to cloudy) and it just fills in the shadows a bit and keeps the contrast down...and in the cloudy situations it adds a bit of a pop to an otherwise flat and dull scene... but that is how I set the flash.

I realize that everyone has to start somewhere but in this situation, with you not really knowing flash... I would DEFINITELY make sure the bride knows the lack of experience. It is to big of a thing in life to come up (possibly) empty handed and around here in Massachusetts, people get sued for less! I'm just trying to make you aware of the possible consequences. Be up front with the bride and by all means... get something in writing!

Always remember, the smaller the light source, the harsher the light! That goes for softboxes, Octagonals, umbrellas reflectors ect. I would go for the 47's and take it one step further... Photek's as you can reverse them to make them a "shoot through" making the light even softer...

I have done tests with the divided version of D76 (DD76) which is a 2 bath developer like Diafine with great results! It is a "compensating developer" which the highlights will only develop so far. The only other developer I would use, after trying many, would be POTA. TP is inherently a high contrast film and needs to be toned down a bit by using a very soft working developer.

I have tried almost all of the above as Kelly wrote about. There is one that wasn't mentioned... an inexpensive UV filter with varying size dots of clear or slightly tinted nail polish. If you leave the center clear, you will get a sharper center than the outside. After getting my Imagon, and knowing that doing something in camera is better, the softness from the variable Imagon (with the disks that you use in front of the lens) is stunning! Doing the softening in the darkroom, one school of thought, is good because you have an untouched and sharp negative... but the effect is very different. All approaches work it's just a matter of what look your after.

With whatever developer your comfortable with... take at least 20% off your usual time for TX and you should have some decent negatives. What you want to be aware of is if your under 3 minutes development... this tends to be a "danger zone" as far as risking uneven development of your film. -25% might be better but if your that uneasy, just do a "clip test" where you take the first several inches of your roll and develop that portion. This way you have the rest of the roll to make a decision on.

If you cannot turn off or turn down the LED's... a small piece of black tape over the readout will still allow you to listen to the beeps of the metronome.

Jon, if I'm not missing something here with you want maximum DOF and all, have you thought about a pinhole? A pinhole with an addition drop of water on it?

Just found the other page I wanted to send:http://www.skgrimes.com/compound/index.htm

The compounds and old copals that the Linhof lens are typically in are some of the easiest to do a clean and lube yourself... if the shutter isn't working great any more. Several screws and your on the inside and with a little alcohol and a brush and they work like new! Go here: http://www.skgrimes.com/products/index.htm for exact thread sizes and speaking of Grimes, they have done some amazing work for a few of my lens a very good prices, well for the New England area anyway!

I have a 360mm Linhof 5.5 and yes, it is a tiny bit heavy but it is a great lens and is why I use it alot. I love the compression and the 5.5f makes it really pretty bright! Todays "tele" lens usually have just a few elements making them lighter by nature but you do sacrafice light. My 360mm has an outer, thick mount tube that is installed on the outside of the lens board making my bellows draw a bit shorter so when I do shoot with it, my bellows isn't overly stretched giving me the addition of bellows factors. Admittedly, teles aren't know for their close focus abilities but they are very fun to use and once you get shooting with it, you'll wonder why (other than the money thing) you didn't get one earlier!

I also recommend the Dynalites! They are rugged and you just can add onto an already great system... look at the 800 pack which is lower cost than the slightly more powerful 1000. The only other low cost system that is very rugged also are Novatrons...

Or use a reflector/foamcore to kick some fill into the scene.

As the above have stated, foamcore is a great reflector and is easily found in office stores, craft and art stores. If you need very large pieces, they make different thickness, the thickest is called Gator Foam.

If you want less headaches, Shoot Fuji Reala... if it is still made. It had a magenta layer built in and I had great results balancing with it! The other alternative, if you are totally indoors is to shoot with a FLD filter with daylight film, without flash.

Alan

I use one hard everyday. The spot is right on and small enough to isolate things. I have used it both incident and spot in and out of the studio, with strobes and ambient and I have never had a problem in the 2-3 yrs I've had it! Calibrate for your shooting is really easy also.

Neal, the beauty of Super clamps is that you can add heavy duty flex arms, articulated arms and even use a tripod head with them. I regularly carry 3-5 of them... and they are cheap!

Damian, Painting the walls black or hanging black velvet is the first step. It will cut down on color shifts (if stray light hits a brown wall) from spill light. For head and shoulder work, the combination your thinking of will be good but don't buy cheap off brands if your wanting to go into this work! Dynalite, Speedotron (Brown line) and Novatrons you will be able to find out on the used market. Years ago, I assisted a commercial shooter who used Novatrons and used them very hard! They kept on going after drops, huge sets of multi pops and daily grinds. You can get by with 3 lights by using foamcore as a reflector (main light, background light and a hair light...) but get a system that you can build on.

Dino, If you increase exposure (giving you a more meaty negative to work with), increase agitation and increase development time... your result will be contrasty and grain. Yes, the negative will be a bear to work with but it will replicate the look that your showing.