steve_roark

I didn't see this in the other postings, I apologize if its already been addressed. Most professional portrait photographers I've studied place the subject in open shade created by trees, buildings, whatever and then take a reading of the scene and set the key light and camera for one to two stops over that reading. The result should be a properly exposed subject and a background that is not washed out.

 

I used to work for a TV station and had one reporter who squinted whenever bright lights were on her. My solution was to bounce key lights off a white board to reduce the glare she saw. Later I saw a guy using a large BLACK foamcore board in front of the camera with a hole cut out for the lens. The results were that the board allowed the models to open their eyes wider. Sounds good...

What type of AA batteries are you using? I recently found myself in a similar situation. After researching online, I opted to try 2700 mAh nickle metal hydrate AAs. That cut my recycle time to roughly half what it had been on my SB600 using disposable batteries. There are reports of people frying their flash by shooting at full power in rapid fire succesion, so that's something to consider in your decision. I try to set up my lights so that no flash is firing at 100% if I plan on shooting faster than 1 shot per 3-4 seconds. So far, no apparent problems.

My old Powerlight 1500 will slave to any flash pretty well, so I imagine the newer ones will be at least as sensitive...But, if anybody else in the room has a point-n-shoot, they'll likely trigger your slave strobe. It happened a lot in the gym I shot in, even when people were far away.

I did a similar shoot at a festival hosted by my wife's company last week. Shot about 130 shots in 3 hours and probably didn't get off my knees once. I used Nikon's camera control software to call up the images in Photoshop for some down-&-dirty adjustments before printing out on a portable dye-sub printer while positioning the next kid. Managed to get through it with 4 cartridge replacements, 3 paper tray changes, two computer crashes, one (persistant) camera error, one faulty optical slave trigger, and zero assistants. Have Fun :)

This came up in a post in 2003. The link given back then was to a company that sold reflective material used in pizza boxes.

 

Here is a direct to the page of interest to you:

http://www.ahh.biz/fabric_catagories/vinyl_composites.htm

 

It looks pricey, but still cheaper than a commercial box.

Credit goes to the poster "Timber".

As mentioned earlier, determine your exposure by metering for the club lights. Then, slowly add lighting to the drink. How you light it depends on the drink. Hot lights will most likely match the color temp of the ambient lights, but will quickly melt ice (unless you use prop ice). Flashes or strobes with CTO correction will work, but are not as easy as WYSIWYG continuous lighting. Then there's fluorescent lighting. Lowell makes a new product called the Ego, that looks to be well suited for drink shots.

 

Some drinks are lit underneath by expensive fiber optics. I saw a TV ad that lit a beer similarly, but they simply cut a hole in a board and pointed a kicker light through it. Also, narrow softboxes or strip boxes are popular for lighting bottles and glasses. You can make your own for the SB600/800s easily, but for hot lights you should only use approved modifiers.

Gary, the Wein slave is pretty reliable in my home studio when using my Powerlights or SB600. I usually use it as a hair light on a boom, which means the sensor has a clear view of the key flash. I don't recall having problems when the sensor is behind an obstruction, but I'll double check tonight.

 

I've had mixed results in the field. In a couple of rooms, I've had several incidents where my on camera flash failed to trigger it consistantly. One was a huge convention hall with one wall completely made of glass (facing the sun). The other was a very dark room, but the flash was placed near a very bright light source. I suspect in both cases, that the sensor (which was facing away from my camera) couldn't see the flash over the strong ambient light hitting it.

 

In a side note: I can trigger it with my Surefire flashlight by clicking it on and off rapidly in a completely dark room. Discovered that when I was practicing painting with light.

Lauren,

I'm not an expert on fireworks, but I've done a few for TV and print. I agree that the vegetation gets in the way here. As you said, scouting the area before it gets dark would probably have made your job much easier. Trees tend to sway in long exposures, so if I use any foreground elements its usually a solid landmark (statue, building, etc...)

 

I haven't shot fireworks since I switched to digital. It was more fun to do in-camera tricks before Photoshop took the challenge (and adventure) out of it. But, if I could get off my lazy butt and face hoards of hungry mosquitos, I'd expose each burst individually and combine them in Photoshop, later. That way you could be sure that you won't get one central fireball of 4 or 5 bursts and you would reduce the camera noise and ambient light. It may lack the spirit of the 'olden days' but it'll make those lame shows look more exciting.

Yeah, that is pricey for what it is. Wein makes a similar unit for 49.95 that has the added bonus of coming with 2 slave sensors, one for convention flash sync and the other for digital pre-flash compensation. I got one and it works well in a small studio.

 

I bought a complete 283 with the foot you wanted for less than $40 on eBay. Guy through in some extras like the filter kit and a slave sensor.

The SB600/lightspere sounds like the most practical idea for someone stepping up from on-camera flash. Bouncing the light off a WHITE ceiling generally produces a respectable overhead lighting. You can see the same effect by putting a transluscent bottle/bowl/milk jug over the flash head if you want to experiment before investing $40 for a 'pro' milk jug. I think the SB600 should be enough for a typical sized bathroom, but the SB800 gives you about a stop more power, which tranlates to a slighter wider depth-of-field.

 

One thing you should be aware of is light bouncing off a surface will pick up that surface's color...i.e. a beige ceiling/wall will reflect beige light into your photo. If the bathroom doesn't have a white surface, you can arrange some white foamcor boards where the light will bounce. Also, you can match you flash's color balance to your household lights by using Nikon's color filter kit, SJ-1.

FWIW: I use one with my old Powerlight 1500s. Works fine.

 

One factor you really may want to consider is how well a 7' softbox will fit in your planned work area. The 7' was really designed for large studios...I have barely enough room to open mine in my living room (never mind positioning it). Some 7' owners said they wish they got the 5' model instead. If you do have the space, its a great soft source, though.

I'm not sure what you mean by not working:

 

If you mean it doesn't seem to fire in sync with the on-camera flash, its because dslrs fire a pre-flash that will fool older slave sensors. If you switch the Canon to manual, it should work. If it still doesn't work, start dialing back your camera's shutter speed until you can see the flash firing in your LCD playback.

 

If you were referring to exposure levels. The 283 has 3 or 4 color coded auto modes and one manual "full blast" mode (GN 120). The dial in the front is the sensor that reads the flash as it reflects off the subject. Its not as accurate as TTL, and I recommend getting a VP1 manual dial to replace the sensor. This will let you dial in the amount of light you want. If you do some extensive testing, you can pre-determmine what a particular output setting/distance will give result in a desired f-stop reading. Chuck Gardner suggests tying a string to the flash to with knots that reference those distances.

 

hope this helps...

I agree with Bill: A tota-light emits 3200k light and a camera set to 3200k should not generate a yellow tint, at least nothing most human eyes could detect. If everything seems fine during window light photography, that would make me suspect that the problem probably exists within the camera, most likely with a setting (or combination of settings). As obvious as this sounds, re-read the manual to make sure you have properly set the camera to 3200k. Also, check for any other buttons/menu settings which may override your 3200k setting. Most cameras have at least one auto setting that negates any manual settings. Also, try performing a manual white balance using a white card under the tota light (make sure there is no other light source hitting the card).

 

A couple of other possibilities that cross my mind: Were these lights on a dimmer? Dimming halogen bulbs will cause a color shift. Is it possible that some of the light is spilling onto white walls that are really off-white?

 

Perhaps you could post an example?

Believe it or not, this is a twenty dollar fluorescent ringlight from a hardware store. The photographer shared his technique on another site. He said its only usable for B&W photos because of the green spike emitted from the cheap bulb. Kino Flo makes some color corrected ringlights at about $100: expensive, but still cheaper than a flash.

I have a free month on their site...While I like the idea of online examples, I wouldn't pay for these. Many of the lessons seem to have been executed by someone who knew the technique but lacked much experience. There's also a lesson on ethics...I find it galling that someone wants to charge us for his personal opinions. It looks to me like somebody had a great idea to demonstrate Photoflex products and then got a little greedy. As free tutorials I think they're okay, but if they want my money they need to do two things: get more credible photographers and drastically increase the number of different lessons.

 

Just my opinion (that'll be 99 cents, please)

Thomas,

I get your point about the Octodome being less portable. I hope its not much harder than a softbox...I don't want to strap a seven foot sail to my VW Polo (unless the wind is at my back). If you find a good rental house in Munich (or Bavaria) please pass it on.

Hello, Thomas. I should be getting a 7 ft. Photoflex Octodome in the mail soon. If you're interested, you're welcome to take it for a test drive some weekend. I'm with the Americans just west of Weiden, but I never miss an excuse to drive down to Munich. The Octodome's are on sell for less than 1/4 of the units you describe. Would be curious to see how it compares to the other models listed above...

 

Steve Roark

I've found that most on-camera softboxes are way too small to have any desirable impact. For me, anything less than 8"x8" is a waste of time (and money). I built a few using foamcore, velcro & a sheet of Rosco diffusion from B&H Photo (total cost about $7). My latest one is about 12"x12" and the flash head bounces off the rear foamcore sheet before the light is further diffused out the front. It takes very soft close-up (less than 8') portraits.

 

I also use a rubbermaid 500ml bottle as a 50 cent omnibounce. Its not as opaque as the actual bouncers, so it transmits more light. I've used similar items such as bowls, milk jugs, etc...the 500ml bottle is my current favorite because of its compactness and its survivability.

 

Steve

According to my out-of-practice calculations:A=GN/D, You must be shooting at less than six feet from your subject at full power. Even if that's the correct exposure for your subject, I'm pretty sure your ambient levels are no where close to f22 at 1/60 sec. I don't think you're going to like the results.

 

To get a good fill a flash should hit the subject with 1 to 2 stops less than your meter reading for the subject. Determine your ambient level first, then adjust your camera power output (or its distance to the subject) to make your GN formula indicate one or two stops less than the ambient reading. Hope that helps.

Steve

Even if you only use the SB600, I encourage you get a small softbox for it. I built one out of foamcore and a sheet of Rosco frost filter. You can get them at B&H for about 6 bucks. Mine mounts on top of the SB600 so that the flash head shoots strait up and bounces off the back wall of the foamcore. It looks a lot softer and more natural than typical on-camera flash photos. I also have the sc-28 cable ($55) which allows you to move the SB600 off-camera. You can also do this wirelessly with the D70 and SB600, but I found the sc-28 to be more idiot-proof. I have "hot" lights and a couple of nice monolights, but because I don't have a dedicated studio area, I have to assemble, position, and meter them each time. If you want good kid shots you gotta be able to keep up with them and their constantly changing moods, so I keep the SB600/softbox mounted on my camera at all times, just in case...

Funny, I've been toying with the idea of putting one of those plastic fresenel sheets in front of my strobe to see if I could replicate some 1930's styles. These are lightweight and it should be easy to construct a supporting frame that can be mounted over a monolight.

Heres a link to a site that sells some big ones:

 

http://www.alltronics.com/lenses.htm

 

I saw another site that mentioned Office Depot having 4"x5" sheets for a dollar.

 

http://medfmt.8k.com/bronfresnel.html

 

Another site has 7"x10" sheets.

 

http://knowledgepublications.com/index.htm

 

Apparently, people like to use these things to burn stuff, but at least one company is using them as telephoto adapters for flashes.

 

http://www.kirkphoto.com/brackets.html

 

hope this helps.

I was actually talking about the very narrow softboxes, such as Photflex's HalfDome2. Here's a link:

 

http://www.photoflex.com/photoflex/products/default.asp?product=HalfDome2

 

I saw a photo of a Playboy photographer using a tall one close to the camera. It created a soft main light, with more light fall-off on either side of the model than a traditional softbox. The fall-off helped define the model's curves with a soft darkening of body parts as they curved away from the key light. This probably helps slim the models as well. Vargas illustrations look similar, but more 'blown-out', so that's why I suggested the fill lights. I hope I explained this right. It sounds much simpler in my head.

 

Another technique I've seen that might lend itself to Vargas style shots is known as painting with light. The simple explanation is you lock the camera down, completely darken the room, and hold the shutter open while a flashlight (or similar source) is painted over the subject. Its a learned skill, but the results can look more like a painting than a photograph.

Kevin Ames has a book called Photopshop CS: The Art of Photographing Women. It might be of some help because the author applies liberal amounts of photoshop to turn models into plasticy Barbie dolls. Taken a little further, I think you use the techniques to simulate Vargas drawings.

 

I haven't tried the Vargas technique myself, but it looks to me a narrow strip bank as a key for the contouring, combined with enough fill light so that the contouring shadows are visible but not very dark. Just a guess.

 

Good luck and don't forget to post the results. I'd like to see the Hurrell style shots, myself.

 

Steve

Are you talking about pin-ups as in Vargas illustrations or Hollywood style B&W photos?

I have Hicks' book, too. I think the title is misleading as the authors only speculate on how classic photos were made. There are no attempts to reproduce them. And at least a couple of the simplistic diagrams obviously aren't correct. Its better than nothing, but if you have an eye for lighting, you could get just as much from studying the photos yourself.

 

BTW: Purist may insist on using only fresnels, but I've seen convincing results from spot grids over modern strobes. I think it boils down to the photographer's skill and the model's face, and as mentioned earlier, a whole lotta retouching.

 

Steve