wick beavers photographer

<p>Gobble gobble Happy Thanksgiving!<br>

I want to fire my H2 Hasselblad w/digital back and Profoto Flash packs w/radio control <em><strong>wirelessly and </strong></em><em><strong>remotely</strong></em>.<br>

Specifically, I want to place the camera on a tripod a fair distance (40 feet) from my personal location and fire it remotely and have it fire the off camera flash packs.<br>

Can anybody explain how this can be done? I own Plus 2 Pocket wizards.<br>

Thanks,<br>

Wick<br>

www.wickbeavers.com</p><div></div>

<p>I have what appears to be mold growing/spreading under the IR filter of my digital back. Last year, same thing, and was requested to send it back to Denmark for a factory cleaning. Have YOU removed the IR filter and was it an easy task to do your own cleaning?<br>

I would love to hear from you if you have removed your IR filter.<br>

Thanks<br>

Wick<br>

www.wickbeavers.com</p><div></div>

you're insane, fatuous, presumptuous, conceited, uneducated and stupid. Anything else is personal.

You probably think with a good enough computer program, some smart comments from this forum and an expensive automatic

digital camera you can make a photograph better than Cartier Bresson could in a week.

You and Mozart's monkeys.

You will never understand until you go far east grasshopper.

Hire a pro.

Wick

There's a slaved underwater (to 100ft.) flash by Morris at B and H (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/90063-

REG/Morris_12270_Underwater_Slave_Flash.html) that looks ok.

It;s so cheap, it can't be that good right? I am gonna try it and will post the photo here next week or two.

one other thing is you gotta get your lights parallel to the limb grease you wanna reflect off- set the light evenly on the same plane as

the surface you wanna light. You were using a point source aimed at/closest to the shoulder. Try using a strip or long tube with

narrow reflector aimed even distance from a whole arm, back or leg in same angle, parallel to that limb. Remember light falls off in

the inverse square law, so to get even lighting all the way up or down a limb, you gotta have the light evenly distanced all the way up

or down, right?

So just set the light parallel to your selected limb.

Wick

www.wickbeavers.com

Hello my man:

If I wanted to copy this I would:

1) Grease up the model tons.

2) Those lights are made with light banks/strips really long thin boxes or tube lights. Profoto makes 1x6 collapsible strip boxes or

get some tubes at Home depot.

3) The light is hard, ie undiffused, so you need to use hard light to copy- pull out the diffusion sheets in those light banks/strips. Or

focus the flouros...

4) The light looks both reflective (the grease) and refracted (the non-diffused light banks/strips + skin), you can't control the directly

reflected but you can the refracted with polarizing stuff and output power. Polarizers will cut down glare/flare but they won't kill the

overexposed direct relflections, which is kinda what you want. So, no need for polarizers!

5) Underexpose the shot a tiny bit (I would rather expose right and underexpose in Photoshop cuz you never know what you may

want from the image in 23 minutes or 6 years) and process in Photoshop.<div></div>

Man: set the aperture to your figured flash exposure. Set your shutter speed to your ambient or how much relatively you want of it.

If you need to control your depth of field (how much is in focus), you need to be able to change settings on your flash(es). The

more depth of field, the more power from the flash(es). If the flash is limited in power cuz you cannot afford powerful flash(es), then

you're gonna have to be careful with your focus.

But get this!

If you want more light than you can afford, you can set your aperture high and shutter speed slow enough to pop your flashes

several times to get more light than possible in one pop. Problem becomes a photoshop one if you need to have your subject

stand still long enough to remain sharp.

Also, help out your low powered flashes by setting your camera's ISO at some ridiculously high asa, scuse me, ISO. Then you

play with grain/noise. Soooooooo, you can see there are all these trade offs for being broke. If you can, go rob a liquor store and

get some high powered lights.

Good luck!

Wick

Dude: You just blew the "reading the light meter reading" or "metering the right light".

If you can, have a flash meter on hand and use it to get the exposure at the peoples' noses while you trip the flash with the radio

controlled unit in the meter a la sekonic L somethings. If not, look at the histogram cuz I think your meter is reading the

background and setting your camera to expose the image as if it were 18% grey, Not black as you are seeing it. If the people in

front of the background were lit at 5 stops above black background, you can see how you'd get a really poorly exposed picture. I

would expect to see the black background grey in your picture no matter what the people looked like if I am reading you right?

We need more info and maybe you need more gear or more understanding of how your meter works?

Cheers,

\Wick

hey man: go to one of those finish it yourself wood products joints and buy a rolling table with a cutting board/laminated top on it.

The $25 model even has casters for moving the table around your kitchen or living room. Home depot- get some clamps, the kind

that you squeeze to open and get maybe 10 of them at $1.95 each. Then go to plumbing and get the round face plates you can

screw into the table sides and screw a 1/2 inch black galvanized (for lo reflections) pipe into. Get 2- 6" straight pipes to go out

from table edge and 2- 36 inch pipes to go up for height, threaded both ends, 4- 90 degree elbows, and 1 long straight piece that

measures the width of your table plus the 12 inches PLUS the length of the elbow you got. So, basically what you have is a

perfect, heavy, attractive $45 shooting table on which you can hang any things you want. The clamps are to hold the seamless

background down to the back edge of the table, and to hold necklaces, leather bags, motorcycle parts or shrunken heads to the

top pipe (call it suppoprt, please!). Since it's all screwed together, you can easily make it higher, lower. Email me off list and I can

explain better, but I use this set up as much as my $3500 Foba shooting table and it always makes me laugh.

Wick

www.wickbeavers.com

Hey Nathan, please let me know what the system is will you? Appreciate it.

Wick

I want to shoot a well lit model underwater in a pond.

I want to light the model from underneath as well as from sides and above.

I would love to hear suggestions as to which strobe with slave capabilities you suggest?

Thanks,

Wick Beavers

dude:

I am using the 2400R to be exact. With the 2000i Honda generator. Ultra quiet...

We just shot on a city permit- they sent in decibel counters and cops and returned

aghast. Nothing showed up on the meters and we were working full tilt with 6 heads

(2 Acute B 600R's along with the D4 w/ 4 heads on Honda generator 2000i) and

maybe 12 in crew. Large looking, TINY footprint. Tres cool!

FROM this experience, I gotta say you don't need 3000 watts, the 2000i will do.

Updates here as necessary or mark-ED.

Wick

got a honda 2000i. thing of beauty and wondrously quiet. ran the D4 on full max with

modeling lights on. All plugs in nice and tight.

Red Overload lite comes on for no more than 1/2 second as the gen outputs to the pack.

Blast another and another. Really really excited about this and will definitely get another

2000i and run them parallel to get the 3000kW recommended by Profoto. Might run 1

pack conservatively on both or maybe stretch it to 3. Ought to rule the sun dang nearly

now.

Look out snoozing bears and perching night owls deep in the dark night forest. I'm a-

comin' to light up your habitat!

Cheers,

Wick

another thing you might do is drop down your shutter speed and let the subject, assuming

it moves, blur. the halo you might be hunting for can be seen on blasted out with flash

ambient light pix. IE shutter set at 1 sec and f stop for flash at greater than 50% ambient.

you'll still get some nice ambient light, you'll freeze your subject with the flash, but there

will be a slight halo or blur around them cuz you shot the picture so slow.

If you use other lights with or without gels for fill or halo (from behind) type lighting, and

this slow shutter speed technique, you will get some cool halos as well.

Here's a link to a picture using method above: http://www.wickbeavers.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=6&p=0

fiddle with shutter speed for ambient lighting exposure, fiddle with your aperture for flash

exposure. f8 at 1/250th at 50 iso and sunset is a good starting place. slow down the

shutter speed to get more ambient.

Wick

I really thank you all for your advice.

Profoto D4 manual, as stated above, does suggest a 3000kw generator, although they

mention nothing about sine waves, pure or not.

I'm gonna try a Honda 2000i which has ultra quiet operation and inverts to pure sine wave.

The receptacle reads 13.3 Amps, and since I can use a D4 plugged into household plugs

circuit broken to 15 A, I'm hoping to get away with just one. If not, I'll run two parallel.

And certainly make sure the plugs are taped and locked together.

Anybody actually run the D4's with a generator and can offer advice?

Thanks again,

Wick

Hi fellow Photo.Netters:

If I wanna run 1 PROFOTO D4 powerpack full power and as fast as possible recycling times on location:

WHAT SIZE GENERATOR DO I NEED?

IF I WANN RUN 3 PROFOTO D4 powerpacks same as above:

WHAT SIZE GENERATOR DO I NEED?

Can somebody with experience and a little knowledge of sine waves and inverters please tell me?

I am looking at Hondas, EU2000i, at 2000 Watts or waddya think?

I have looked for this discussion and am not finding good answers.

Wanna go mobile with my studio packs and avoid battery chargers. Have the B600 R's and love them, but

need to blow up the sun now.

Thanks a lot,

Wick

start at 1 under. if you want the shadows, that's close. if no shadows, start at even. be

careful not to burn the edges. or do!

wick

its the best thing since digital.

i have 3 R's and love love love them.

if you already own profoto accessories, they are ideal for fast editorial and location work.

wick

you should scrim the light which is making this reflection. put a small black card between

your light and the bag. move it back and forth to find the correct distance to basically shade

this glare.

you may also use a polarizing filter.

remember your exposure will need to be a little longer with the polarizer.

wick

wickbeavers.com

sure, easily. i use profoto heads. a little hardware which you probably have will get the head

on the focusing rod. maybe $6 if you don't have it.

wick

Udo: save files in fff format. You can also in dng, but it's a whole lot easier making jpegs to

quick view them from flexcolor>jpeg than dng>jpeg.

#1 simple nice setup:

<br>

Put your keylight in a large umbrella (reflecting back at your back/subject) behind you.

Meter it for your exposure.

<br>

Put another light in a softbox 90 degrees to the "good" side of your subject. Meter it for 1-

1.5 stop less.

<br>

Add lime and stir (shoot!).

<br>

<br>

#2 simple nice setup:

<br>

Keylight in umbrella to left 45 degrees 1.5- 2 feet above head of subject. Meter for

exposure.

<br>

Fill softbox 75 degrees right face high. Meter -1.5 exposure.

<br>

add lemon and stir (shoot!).

<br>

<br>

Older people and softer look, substitute umbrella for softbox. Unless you're loving those

wrinkles...

<br>

You can use a third light for hair or background rim lighting. If hair, set it behind to the

side aiming down at head/shoulder. Set at 1 stop under key. If rim, set it below and

behind subject aimed at background head high. Set at 1-1.5 over.

<br>

Remember lighting square rule (light falls off at inverse square of distance), plus it's softer

closer. This rule will dictate how light or dark is your background. If you want it dark,

move subject and lights forward (away from background). Opposite if you want

background rendered light.

<br>

<br>

And don't forget you really really want those catchlights (usually), which will happen unless

you have your key too high or too far off to the side.

<br>

Tried and true!

<br>

Wick

Hi:

To make your shots interesting, you should maybe avoid doing the generic thing.

Try putting your key light low and aft, just "skimming" the top of the product, or rake it

through the set. You'll need mirrors, scrims and some good lights/modifiers. If you are

new to this, make sure the lights you have/get will give you strong high wattage modeling

light and set up with studio dark. Use scrims/cards to make shadows and throw parallel

black lines on reflective surfaces. Fill in unwanted shadows with light or reflectors/mirrors

and get those eyeballs moving- with light- to the label/product!

Using a softbox over the product is fairly generic. It works but will make your work look

like it was shot cheap off Broadway (I hate light tents/tunnels!), kinda like those pics you

posted. Be bold and try using hard lights on soft products. If you can make the light fall in

a way as to bring the eyeballs to the product label that's really great. Try burning edges,

tops or bottoms for

another effect. If you meter (whcih you should), try getting ranges of 6 or more stops in

your lighting... for effect. The better the ccd, the more range, but blow it out judiciously

and see if it helps to make a better more creative image. This is not snap shooting, we try

to get an emotional response to the

image from the viewer, who hopefully lusts for/connects to the product. "Stop Page

flippers!" is a mantra of sorts!

I agree with the poster above who said kids are easy compared to product. They have

spirit which often far surpasses the enhancing effects of lighting and selective focus. You

have to CREATE spirit in your product shots with light, perspective and focus.

If you do not shoot Greytag macbeth color cards for perfect color rendition, you should

definitely shoot Raw. That way you can choose a color temp/tint and save the setting to

process all your shots in one fell swoop to give the shots a consistency that your

company/employer will appreciate. I'm not sure if you can or can't bulk neutralize using

the camera you are, but if you can, shoot that Greytag card every time you change your

set. That

way you'll get perfect color each time.

Finally, get the full range of extension tubes. You'll need them!

Cheers,

Wick