g._armour_van_horn

April 23, 2011

Most of the concentrates aren't terribly sensitive to storage time. If you aren't going to use them up in several months pouring them into smaller containers could help, but it's not that big a deal if you keep them in a cool place. Some here have even reported freezing them, although I doubt that would work with FirstDev. But FirstDev isn't too expensive.

FirstDev will start to turn amber soon after it's opened, which is irrelevant, and it throws crystals after a few months, which is fatal. Reversal will probably last a decade. ColorDev components are pretty stable, I've never suspected they went bad in storage. I don't think there's much problem with Prebleach, but I don't know what's in it, and it's cheap. Bleach lasts approximately forever but might need aeration before use (it's normally aerated in use). Fix should be pretty stable, but it's dirt cheap.

Van

April 23, 2011

While there is reason for the tolerances that Kodak and Fuji publish for the processing steps, they're tighter than you probably need, and exaggerated. The FirstDev really is critical, too warm and you're pushing, way too warm and you'll pucker the emulsion. However, E-6 is run at 38 degrees. Note that body temperature is 37 degrees. Your skin is incredibly sensitive to temperature changes within a few degrees of your target, so a basic thermometer clipped to a corner of the water bath combined with having your fingers in the bath make an outstanding alarm system.

Keep a source of hot water handy. If you sense the bath is cooling during the bleach and the thermometer confirms it, pour some hot water into the bath. I have never seen reticulation, I don't think you really run any risk of that unless you absurdly overheat the water or walk away during the wash and forget about it overnight.

Also note that once you've rinsed the FirstDev out, every single step is "run to completion" and all you have to make sure is that you give it enough time and enough temperature to fully complete. I've always found that the published time for ColorDev was way low, the manager of one of the late pro labs in Seattle (ProLab, actually) suggested six minutes instead of four, and I've never regretted it. I jacked up the bleach from six to ten, the fix from three to four, and added at least one extra wash. I don't think the stabilizer needs any extra time.

The extra time on those three steps goes a long way to compensate for any weakness of chemistry (like using ColorDev that's two weeks old when experience says to only keep it for ten days) or lowering temps. I never had a single disappointing batch after making those time changes, either by hand in SS tanks, in a JOBO, or in my Sidekick.

Van

April 23, 2011

Louie,

The processor drum mounts on three points, one being the snout with the O-ring that is inserted in the spindle, the other two are small spots on the bottom of the tank that rest on the right side of the top of the unit. There is a magnet embedded in the tank at one or both of those corners. Inside the case are matching switches which are flipped by the presence of the magnet. The presence or absence of the magnets is how the system detects which drum is mounted. By using one or both positions they can determine that there is a drum mounted and which one it is, three possibilities, which happily matches the number of different tanks.

Glad you figured out how to switch to the seven-step process, I don't think mine had an option on that. (Hey, E-6 takes seven steps, why even nod to the overpriced wasteful option?)

Have you read the manual? There is a lot of information in there: <a href="http://www.phototherm.com/support.html#manuals">http://www.phototherm.com/support.html#manuals</a>

<a href="http://www.phototherm.com/support.html#manuals"></a>I haven't been in touch with them for quite a while, haven't even turned mine on for a year now, but because they do a decent business in medical equipment they probably will be able to support the machine for quite a while. Last I checked they would program a custom process for you at no charge, although they charged $100 deposit on the PROM until you returned it. (Maybe it wasn't free, but it was incredibly cheap if it wasn't.) I had them do mine with extra wash, ColorDev, fix, and bleach times plus an extra wash cycle.

Great machine. Sadly, I need to get rid of mine, plus a quarter ton of chemicals, a Noritsu that I never used, three slide mounters, ...

Van

December 13, 2010

John, those air curtain doors, combined with the positive pressure applied to the interior of the building, means that though dirt comes in on customer's shoes and clothes, it doesn't blow in. Unless they've really messed up the balance, any airborne particulates passing the door are heading toward the parking lot.

Or at the Costcos around here, toward the pizza and hot dog area.

Van

May 10, 2010

Between about 2003 and 2008 I acquired a staggering collection of E-6 processing gear, none of which has been used in the last six months and only a couple of times in the last year. I need the room.

I'm sure some of it has absolutely no value at all. For example, the nifty Pakon slide sleever works pretty well, but as it is no longer possible to get the sleeving for it I can't imagine anybody is going to want it. So many Noritsu processors have been taken out of production in the last couple of years that I figure anybody who wants one already has two.

I have a couple of Byers mounters. I don't think there are too many parts available for these, so maybe somebody needs one for parts?

The only likely gem in the mix is a PhotoTherm Sidekick batch processor that does a nice job of two or four rolls at a time.

There are a few other minor pieces in the corners, waiting for me to get enough energy up to throw them out. All this is on Whidbey Island, northwest of Seattle. If you have any potential interest, or know anybody that might, I would be delighted if anyone wanted any of this and would remove it in a way that didn't take much of my time or energy. I know there's no monetary value for anything other than the Sidekick, and probably not much for that. Mail sent through Photo.net gets to me, or take a chance on my spam filter and use vanhorn@whidbey.com.

Van

May 10, 2010

My understanding has always been that Astia is the latest and greatest formulation while Sensia is the name they put on the previous version of Astia. Color differences between the two have always been just tiny.

Regarding pro packs, they are a minor convenience on the shelf, but the last few times I bought film they were actually more expensive than buying 20 loose rolls. I.e., the single roll price was $4.99, the brick price was $99.95, so you saved fifteen cents by buying loose rolls. In a declining market, it makes little sense to offer the same product at the same price in two different packages, tends to irritate distributors and retailers.

Van

May 30, 2009

I have the Lester Dyne dental setup which combines a razor-sharp Kiron 110/2.5 (manual focus) lens with a ring flash. Like the Canon mentioned above, the power unit is shoe mounted on the camera. For 1:1 shots where the lens would cast shadows from normal lights, it's very good, but I haven't really found that many uses for it other than documenting problems on circuit boards. It's probably the greatest thing ever for intimate portraits of individual insects or rodents, but very few preying mantises have asked for portfolio shots recently and even fewer gerbils can afford my fees!

No, they aren't absolutely necessary for great macro shots, but there are macro shots where they are great. And for the shots at which they excel, they are incredibly easy to use compared to anything else I can think of.

Van

May 30, 2009

While the room lights are on, get out your screwdriver, chainsaw, axe, whatever and remove the acrylic front of the case. When you get enough light on the subject to shoot that panel will be nothing but blinding glare. Then turn the room lights and probably the display lights off. (You may be able to leave them on, they may not make any difference once you get your lights on.)

Have them give you a goodly supply of extra food and labels. Some of those should be unwrapped and the labels slapped right on the food. Matte spray might do it in some cases. If it's important to show that the food is wrapped, you'll want to provide most of the light from big diffusers (like 4x6 feet) and then provide a couple of near-point sources (small reflectors or bare bulbs) to pick up some small specular reflections that show there is a wrapper without obscuring the content.

I'd bring lots of heads with snoots, maybe some mirrors, and a fair pile of black and white foam core board. Plus a bunch of styrofoam blocks to cut up for wedges to hold things at the desired angle.

And I wouldn't even think about this if I couldn't shoot it tethered. I normally just shoot from my laptop, but in this case I'd seriously consider spending a couple of hundred bucks extra to bring a 22" LCD to make sure everything was actually lit reasonably.

And what the heck is that immediately below the "new" sign? It looks like somebody ate most of a caramel pudding and put it back on the shelf.

If you pull this off and get a great shot you can congratulate yourself, it's a bear.

Van

May 30, 2009

With the tiny little bit of light you're using, estimate the range the kid has with the spatula and put the lights one inch further than that. When I was still shooting with fluorescents I used half again more watts that that for shooting 18x24" artwork, and I could use long shutter times because the art didn't suddenly swat something with a spatula. Note that in the studio we tend to work in "watt seconds". I might dump 400 or 600 wattseconds into a set that's smaller than this, but I shoot at 1/250 because all that energy is delivered within about 1/1000 of a second. To get 240 watt seconds you have to hold your shutter open for the entire second. If you've got a white ceiling you could buy any shoe-mount flash that can be pointed straight up to dump a bunch of extra light into the room. Color balance won't be perfect, and that's a very flat general light, but it might help keep the general level up if combined with moving the softboxes in way closer. But I don't think I've ever run into anyone that had shot with continuous and flash who continued to shoot with continuous lights. Power is just too valuable. Van

May 30, 2009

Bill, The second of those two links is one I've read any number of times, and was probably most clearly in my mind as I set about to shoot these cakes. The problem is that I didn't notice the ratios, I was dumping almost all the power into the overhead softbox, while Brooks had the overhead softbox 1.5 stops below the light from the right side. I guess I should have put a 16" reflector to the rear right, and lower than I had it, and dump most of the power into it.

I couldn't very well have put a grey card in place to reflect in the pie server, that's the main light it's reflecting, but if I'd dropped that a couple of stops while bumping the other lights it might have looked better. We'll see next week. I was actually very happy with the reflections off the tops of the cakes, that's what they looked like, and the pistachio cake was that much shinier than the coffeebean cake.

Lowering the second light and giving it more power would have run the risk of flare in this case, but there's no reason I couldn't have increased my working distance by switching from the 60mm to a 90, 105, or 110. (I seem to be well covered in that range.)

I was reasonably happy with the fill from camera left, but I could have easily bumped it. What kept me from doing that is that the cakes are made right on an 8-inch circle of cardboard, and I was hoping not to make that any more prominent than necessary. Unlike in Brooks' example, where they bought enough burger makings to feed the regiment to get the one shot, I had one of each cake and was not allowed to touch them. If they hadn't been going to be sold as food this weekend, I would have done some surgery on the edges of the cake at the very bottom, up to and including spray enamel, at which point I would have been much more willing to poke some more light at the edges!

Many of the "whole cake" shots I saw, most of them if you don't count wedding cakes, actually had the first slice cut out and visible to show the interior of the cake. That might have made it more challenging, but it also might have made it more forgiving as there would have been extra interest and contrast. I don't think I'm going to get to go there.

And yes, it's probably time to reread Light: Science and Magic. It's probably been six months now.

Van

May 28, 2009

And another on one of our dinner plates.<div>

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</div>

May 28, 2009

And this is the one with pistachios.<div>

00TUzB-138801684.jpg.929d5d72c1c024f40fb86c9652f9c09b.jpg

</div>

May 28, 2009

I shot my first cakes today, thought I'd see what everybody has to say about this first effort. The set is a 32x48" chunk of plywood on two stacks of cardboard boxes with an Amvona graduated background running from the front edge back and up the wall a bit. A 36" square softbox with a 300ws head is directly above the tabletop, about two feet up. There is a head with a 9" reflector and diffuser about arms length to the left of the camera, right about lens height, and another one high to camera right, both of these heads are set to 50ws.

As props I found a couple of resin cutting boards at the local store that specializes in fancy stuff, in colors I thought would set off the chocolate icing. I bought a "pie server" as a prop, even though I detest this particular brand because of their big clumsy handles — I thought it looked good.

I e-mailed about a dozen of these small images to the client who thinks they're wonderful. (He'll be over tomorrow to pick the cakes up and can make final choices based on full-res images, but I wanted him to see what I had before I started washing things up.) This weekend the winners will be at <a href="http://www.chocolatesbygeorge.com">Chocolates by George</a> , along with just about all the other food I've ever shot. But this isn't the end of the cakes that he will be offering, so I wanted some feedback before the next session.

Here's the one with coffee beans.

Van<div></div>

May 28, 2009

A softbox doesn't eat up that much more light than an umbrella does, in fact it may deliver more light because you don't lose any backwards. That said, my usage of umbrellas has fallen precipitously since I got my first softbox, they seem much more useful to me.

The speedring has to match your heads, but a lot of vendors will be able to match Speedotron. I suspect that you could actually use any speedring that fits your heads although you might have to trim the length of the rods in the softbox or accept a little less tension if the rods are too short. Or maybe you can figure out where to get suitable raw stock to cut your own. That level of surgery doesn't entail a lot of risk.

If the pack dumps all it's power into a single head, plug all four heads in and point three of them in another direction, or two of them. Otherwise a 2-stop ND filter can't cost that much. Remember that you'll probably want your softboxes very close to the subject, so moving them further away is not a good way to cut the power.

Van

May 28, 2009

Point the dome straight at the light sources individually (i.e., once at the ceiling and once at the camera) to gauge your ratio, making changes to power settings and distances to get the ratio where you want it, then with both flashes on, point the meter at the camera.

Van

May 28, 2009

Another vote for a sack of speedlights here. My sack has six "old" Vivitar 285HVs and at least a dozen sets of recently-charged AAs and cheap optical or radio slaves. Hand 'em to bystanders, lay 'em on the ground, put 'em on lightweight stands or really lightweight tripods.Put the sun anywhere other than within 75 degrees of straight in their faces so they don't start to squint.

Van

May 17, 2009

Lex, if you have a way to look that up, it would be great. If there's something relatively easy that can be tried, I've got all the tiny screwdrivers I could possibly need, but I obviously don't want to get too carried away over this one.

Paul, I hope it doesn't sound too rude, but read the message. I'm hoping to sell this, not use it. I switched to a CP5400 ages ago. Then I switched to a DSLR. It's Springtime. I'm cleaning house.

Van

May 16, 2009

I have a CP990 that I haven't used for a couple of years, having moved on to more potent gear, but it was always a great performer within its parameters. I finally decided it was time for it to go to a new home while it still has some value, so I got it out and took it to the studio to shoot some pictures. I'd done the basics and thought I'd see if I could show the menus and flipped it on. Nothing. Uh, right, batteries. I opened it up and discovered that there was a set of NiMH cells in there, checked to make sure there was no trace of leaks or corrosion, and put in another set. Nothing. And another. Still nothing. Pulled out a speedlight, fired it up to make sure the batteries were charged, put those in the 990. Still nothing.

This camera was about as solid a performer as you can ask for in anything beyond the complexity of a hammer, and it was working fine when I put it away. Is there anything that could happen to it in storage? Any odd thing related to having the batteries dissipate completely while in the camera? Any tricks that might wake it up?

Or should I just list it for parts and try to forget about it?

Van

May 14, 2009

Two of my eight 285HVs will not fire from the hot shoe but will fire from the synch cord. They have heavy blue rubber bands around the heads to indicate which ones they are.

I recall seeing replacement feet for the 283/285/285HV on eBay from time to time, I gather that this is a pretty common failure mode. As long as the blue rubber bands don't outnumber my Vivitar synch cables, I'm happy. In fact, my main camera has a dead hot shoe but a working PC socket, so using one of the Vivitars with a dead hot foot on the camera with a dead hot shoe is a good match.

In this case, it sounds like the synch cable doesn't work either, so this unit may have more severe problems. I haven't ever tried to open them up to see if anything in there can be cleaned up or not. The fact that the test button works means that the problem definitely is in the foot rather than in the connection through the hinge or any of the actual circuitry in the flash.

Van

May 14, 2009

I would expect Costco to continue processing film for some while to come, but not to maintain wet labs at every location. Costco's logistics are right up there with Wal*Mart's, possibly better, so they won't have any problem providing very nearly the same service throughout the Seattle area even if they pull the processing equipment back to ten or five or three stores.

Now if they tried to handle all of Washington and Oregon at one location, I would expect turnaround to suffer. But I would expect that to be some time in coming.

Van

May 6, 2009

Right now I'm using a couple of cheap 4-cell Radio Shack rechargers that never get the batteries too hot and recharge in 1-2.5 hours depending on the capacity of the cells and how dead they were. I've got cells from 1200mah to 2700mah, depending on what year I bought them in. I probably have about 20 sets. If I notice a set seeming to not hold much charge I toss it. (Yes, there's a dedicated bucket in the corner of the studio for battery recycling.)

I bought a hundred 3x3" zip-lock poly bags and keep all the batteries in them. With the opening of the bag viewed as the "top", if the batteries have the positive anode at the top, they're charged. If the positive is at the bottom, they're discharged. So when I go out on the show floor to do a booth shot with my half dozen 285HVs I always throw a half dozen sets of charged batteries in the cart. It's easy to tell which ones are which depending on the direction of the cells.

I probably should move to a more intelligent charger some day. I'm sure I've thrown out some sets of four when only one was bad, and that might have been saved by a charger that understands conditioning, like a Maha. But the system has been working for me, and it's been cheap.

Van

May 6, 2009

You've got what you need, really. You'll have to do a little more of a shuffle as you can't put all six solutions in the water bath at the same time, but that's no big deal. For one thing, it's only the first three steps that are really temperature-critical.

Put some water in the tempering bath and put your bleach and fixer solutions in place so they come up to temperature. Set them aside and put the First Dev, Reversal, Color Dev, and Pre Bleach in the four slots, and get everything back to temperature. Start your process with the First Dev and put your Bleach in that slot as soon as it's available. (It will have cooled down a few degrees, but not that much.) When you pour the Reversal into the tank, that makes room for your Fix. Then step through the rest of the process. The Bleach and Fix should be back to temperature by the time you're ready for them, and if everything isn't perfectly up to temperature you can just add a little time.

I strongly recommend you run the ColorDev for six minutes anyway.

As to the rinse, if the water feels like a tepid bath, it's fine. As long as you don't shock the emulsion with a dramatic change, the wash temp is not a big deal.

Don't even think about a three-bath process. If you're tempted, search the archives for Tetenal.

Van

May 6, 2009

Why not upgrade to a pair of 285HVs? I shoot that way all the time, only with dirt-cheap (~$20) eBay optical slaves, and sometimes I'm using a half dozen of them at once.

Incidentally, there is no voltage mismatch. The slave doesn't use volts at all, it just shorts the contacts when it detects the master flash going off. The only question is whether or not the voltage in the strobe is too much for the Wien to handle, and I wouldn't expect it to be a problem.

Van

May 6, 2009

Sell for more money?

Van

May 6, 2009

Somewhere I read about a guy that shoots jewelry using Ikea multi-gooseneck lamps. These apparently are sold with small halogen bulbs at the end of each of five goosenecks that rise up from one base. What this shooter did was cut the cord off and then mount a small mirror on the end of each gooseneck instead of the original lamps. Then he made sure one of his strobes was hitting the mirrors and used the mirrors to get the light he wanted on individual facets.

Power and flexibility are good things.

Van

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Posts posted by g._armour_van_horn