oliver_sharp1

John, a couple of other ideas that might be helpful. The SC-17 isn't

all that long, so you might want to just get a long sync cord (they

are much cheaper and plug directly into your flash). You lose all

the fancy automatic metering functionality, but for studio-style work

you really don't want that anyway. Instead, it is much better to use

a flashmeter and set your flash to manual mode. Then you get

repeatable results, and you can really analyze the effect of moving

lights around rather than firing away and hoping the metering system

does a good job. The SB-28 is very impressive and the automation is

a godsend when you are forced to do grab-shots, but in a more

controlled environment I think you will find that manual mode is much

better.

 

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Another issue is that using the light directly is quite harsh. You

will probably want to experiment with softer light, and a fairly

cheap way to do that is to buy a clamp that mounts on a tripod, has

an umbrella holder, and uses a hotshoe attachment on top. Photoflex

has one, I think, for around $30. A $35 umbrella and you have a very

pleasing soft light for portraits that is equivalent to what

professionals use (except for the amount of power available). You

should also experiment freely with large foam-core boards, available

at your local arts supply house for a few dollars. Start with white,

but you can also try the effect of different colors. They make great

reflectors, and give you a tremendous increase in flexibility for

very little money. Also try crumpling up some aluminum foil and

taping it so that it covers one of the foam boards. That gives you

another popular type of lighting effect and is equivalent to the

expensive silver reflectors you can buy. Those are easier to

transport, more durable, and more convenient, but don't really work

any better.

 

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Have fun,

Oliver

You can do a better job of blowing out the background by using a tube, but not in quite the way that you imply. The tube lets you get much closer, so the depth of field is indeed much shallower because you are moving the camera close to the subject. I routinely use an 8mm with a 150mm lens (in fact, it's usually on the camera). That gives a very nice head/head and shoulders composition. But if you are trying to do full figure, you won't be able to move that far back with this combination (unless you are shooting my 1 year old son :-). So it only helps with the background if you take advantage of the tube to move in tight. A 21mm tube on a 150mm lens is going to have very shallow DOF but it is a bit long for most people shots; in another post Michael Heal calculated that it will let you focus on an object from 7.6 to 15 inches high. So you can do very tight headshots or abstract body-part shots, but a standard portrait won't really fit. I find that the 8 is perfect for that. For your 100mm lens, 21 is much too long for a normal portrait but the 8 is probably about right, depending on how you shoot.