david_altmann

has anyone ever compared PC notebook displays ?

i have compared some sony vaio with several other non business class

displays and they are always much brighter. sadly i dont like

anything else in theese notebooks.

i was looking for a HP NX 8220 with a WXGA or WSXGA screen. i found

the WXGA screen was not very good. have not seen the WSXGA screen yet.

any information on that ?

D.

start with a mirror. this will undoubtedly show you in wich direction the light will go at a certain angle. then mound a white foamcore on a stand, in the same angle as the mirror.

always remember: angle of incidence= angle of reflection

if i translated it correct.

the light leaves the mirror in the same angle that it reached it. same goes for any material, but due to the rough surface some light gets spread around.

if you have too many assistants they can hold it by hand, if not a stand will happily take care of this.

move the backdrop closer to the subject and the lights farther away from the subject. this will increase the brightness of the backdrop. (and vice versa)

because: twice the distance half of the light (or one stop less light). go figure this out ! this is the most important thing to know about light.

its not impossible for you.

D.

60-80 hours a week is great ! but in my first year i worked less than 60 days a year. that sucks.

D.

it doesnt depend on your education. it depends on you.

>Is the family life good? is the pay good? Can you make a living?

if your wive has a steady income it would be good. what a question :-)

the pay is good, if you have jobs. and that depends on YOU.

im self employed since 2004. i starved in 04, i survived 05, and until 06 i call it a job. im still not working too much, but i earn more than people who work twice as much, and the equipment cost more than their suvs.

>Is it hard to break out and be successful?

yes. mentally and financially. if you dont have to do it, dont do it. if this is YOUR job, well, best luck youll do it !

>Are the hours hell?

the hours where you havent worked for two weeks are hell. the work itself is crazy sometimes. i like it.

as i said im into ad/fashion not wedding sports. and im in central europe.

the "go guess" would be a good advice.

cokin says the z-pro was tested at 20mm on 135.

but did you see that the z-pro filter holder is reversible ? so the filter goes in the mounting ring slot and the mounting ring in the first filter slot.

i think your main problem here is the filter touching the front element, not vignetting.

if you "go guess" at your camera shop, always use the lenses SMALLEST apperture for test exposures. and use a evenly lit surface and underexpose it a little, so it is not blown out. (would be difficult to see vignetting then) and check the images in ps.

D.

thanks for the reply. the hensel strobes that i use are not on their compatibility list, but ill talk about that with my technicien.

the hensel porty is just too expensive for an occasional outdoor use. normally i use up to 100 meters of extension cords, so its really not that often that i need battery powered strobes.

D.

i was about to buy a bowens gemini, because of the travel pak

(battery) option. wich is pretty pointless, since im pretty deep into

hensel gear already.

yesterday i heard about an option called "inovatronix explorer 1200".

ill give the information i have so far and would be happy if someone

can give me additional information. especially if you already used

the device.

they say you can run any analog flash from the battery. i thought

digital strobes were the ones with less power, so you can use them

with prosumer cameras with max apperture of f8.

so my guess is the old contra e 500 and e fly are analog strobes. ill

talk to the hensel technicien in a few days.

for european adapters they told me:

"The Explorers are actually provided with two universal adapters

since the

regular socket is of North American. You can plug these adapters to

the

Explorer sockets and plug in your German plugs to the adapter."

the german schuko adapter can be used in many european countries.

(ask wikipedia)

the explorer has to be ordered from the phillipines (249$ plus 45$

shipment worldwide), but they have a distributor in the netherlands

who unfortunately sells the same thing for 474 EURO !!

Regards D.

phtoshop chanel mixer in monochrome and 30 red 60 blue 10 green or somethign like that.

D.

i consider buying a bowens strobe for some reasons. what most

disturbes me besides of not having a protective dome is the

scrim/wideangle reflector. how can this tiny mount on the reflector

hold a heavy 150cm scrim ? what happens if it is windy ?

has someone ever broken the mount with a heavy (or not so heavy)

scrim ?

regards, David

i already posted it but seems like it got lost somewhere...

im looking for a mobile accu powered strobe system. i think a metz 45

will do sometimes, but will limit me in many aspects (power,

recharging time, light modifyers, no pilot lamp...) so im looking for

something bigger. i worked with hensel porty and pro7 units. nice,

heavy and too expensive.

the price range im looking at is 1000-1500�. what are my options ?

i also need more info on bowens travel pak, and bowens pioneer. seems

like good equipment.

regards D.

i like my main neutral.

congo blue is interesting, but if you look threw it theres so much red in it.

same with moonlight, too much green.

David

Anyway - thanks for the suggestions on the gels. I'll probably get some CTO's to start. Maybe an 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 to try them all out and have the flexiblity as mentioned. I guess I could stack them also.

yes you can stack them. but 1/8 is intendet for minor color corrections. you know the 80ies, color meters, 810 slides... but today, no need for that anymore.

just get 1/4 orange, for skin tones.

full blue, for blue effects.

just for fun also try red and green. you wont use them often.

i use them for still live work, just to see what reflection komes from wich strobe.

Would stacking two 1/4 CTO's be the same as a 1/2? Same effect and loss of stops?

yes

Anyone ever use "Straw" filters in place of a CTO? The descriptions I've seen say they are less "red". Would having a couple of these be useful or should the CTO's cover it?

straw is very very close to 1/2 ct orange.

David

Steve, do you mean that you just use the diffusion infront of normal reflectors or fresnels ?

of course you get more output then. but the light isnt any softer than with just the reflector. and unless you use mola thats not very soft.

softer light always means less output. there is no way to change physics.

David

its not a seamless or something. mor like turning the furniture in the background blue. and its also possible that a bit of the main light reaches teh background. so i need really strong blue. more than two layers of ctb.

David

there are color correction gels, that shift color temperature. blue and orange. they are available from lee filters in full 1/2 1/4 and 1/8.

the "206 1/4 ct orange" is nice for skin tones.

the full ct orange converts strobes to tungsten (5500k to 3200k)

if you need a blue gel for effects, take the full ct blue (converts tungsten to daylight 3200k to 5500k).

i have asked for a stronger blue filter one thread down. so maybe you should read that too.

and as you mentioned the NDs. but i rarely use them. if you have very powerful powerpacks and small rooms and need shallow dof... you need them. if you like soft light, better buy neutral diffusers.(lee 216)

for effect filters... you can use them in layers to increase intensity, or to mix in another color.

dont buy packs with various colors, they are insanely expensive. rather buy a meter from each color at a pro store.

David

if i want to light something blue i use one or more lee 201 full ct

blue filters. but i found that theese are just not blue enough. the

moonlight seems to green to me. now my question, is there a blue

filter, stronger than full ctb that is still "neutral" ?

with neutral i mean just a color temperature shift but not in any

other direction (magenta or cyan).

David

Miles i also think a 180 is simply too short for close headshots. i can recognise pictures taken with a too short lens easyly. i know in the art scene people love to take portraits with shorter lenses. its _interesting_. interesting is not commercial (sadly).

Marc its not a matter of focussing, you simply use one or more extension ring.

David

thanks for the answers so far, the problem is not the focussing, actually this gets worse with longer lenses. but i would never ever use a 75mm lens on a 35mm camera for a headshot. even a 85 is very short. but everyone uses the 180 on the RZ, this is exactly my observation. i could use the 180 and crop 50% of the slide but thats not the way to use this camera.

David

wich RZ lens do you use for beauty shots ? (im talking about very

close headshots) on a 35mm i would use a 180mm at least. that means i

had to get the 360 apo or the 500. the 500 is not fun to use anymore

(not talking about the price), i dont know about the 360. i also dont

know many people who use the 500. what do you PN people use ?

250+TC ? cropping ? a digital back ?

David

at the moment theres not much work for me in my country (austria) so

i think about leaving to polland. i think its bette to fail elsewhere

than to stay and do nothing. i just started my research an found PN

would be a good place to start.

i have no rep at the moment so i have to do all the management

myself, wich isnt too much. but i have no contacts to the industry in

polland. so what are the big names there, ad agencies, customers,

reps... ?

any piece of information will be greatly appreciated.

regards, David

Garry, i just happen to speak more german than english. so maybe i come across as impolite sometimes but its not intentional. ill try my best. thanks for posting to anyone.

David

Ellis,

if that was in answer to my question, if you have models, muas, assistants, stylists, customers, ads, and some friends running around the studio it absolutely makes sense to use pocket wizard. but for a beginner that uses two lights in a small room thats overkill.

we once lit a really large room, like a whole opera. we used 9000ws for the main light alone. 5000ws for the overall fill 3000 as effect light, 1000 for another fill, 9000 for the rest of the room. and im sure i forget something. dont ask how many stands we used :-)

but still one pack was close enough to plug a cord in it.

David

>And my point is that it's perfectly reasonable that one might want a >black or nearly black background in a flash situation, outdoors, to >simulate night or something like it.

yes, but my point was that you can achieve that with 1/500 already and you dont need to sync at 1/4000 for that.

>well, golly gee, you don't say? While I realize you may have taken >my questions as being rife with attitude, they were not. I was >honestly confused about why you were saying what you said. No need >to be sarcastic and condescending in return.

i dont like the pentax 6x7. i find a max sync time of 1/30 is ridiculous. but there are still very good pictures made with that camera. so it was meant to be fun to show that there are cameras with such a slow sync speed that still produce good results. i did by no means try to be condescending.

>that's weird. I know lots of pros that make use of creative features >such as high sync speed. And while you may choose to regard them as >useless, it doesn't mean that they are. I know people who don't use >autofocus or light meters too.

of course its cool to photograph the moon with a 8000mm lens but its more interesting to be there and shoot pics on the moon with a... light tight box. not really a good example maybe.

>And I think Jon pretty effectively answered that question with his >second example photo. That shutter is open all the way on that one. >Plus, if that first example were open only 1/4 way, how would that >1/4 have been in the middle...?

yes in the case of the d70 there seems to happen something else. if you use most other cameras with strobe at 1/4000 only about 1/4 of the picture will be exposed correctly or at all.

David

true, if you are in the us then there may be better options than hensel.

i do not reccomend to buy pocket wizard, buy another strobe instead. if you have 5000ws you can think about buying somethng like that.

David

if you work long enough with the holga you get predictable results.

buy a pocket wizard and set your strobes so that the film is correctly exposed. meter the distance to the object and make a mark on the floor. hide the camera from light or expose it for more or less light leakage. glue a camera plate to the bottom and attach it to a tripod. no excuse to rape the RZ in this case :-)

David