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bob jr.

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Posts posted by bob jr.

    Military Ball Lighting Set-up

    in Lighting Equipment

    Posted

    Bob,

     

    How would you orient the umbrellas? Would you shoot the light into the inside of the umbrella which then bouces back at the subjects? Or would you shoot the light through the umbrella? If you do shoot through the translucent umbrella, which way would you have the umbrella turned?

    Military Ball Lighting Set-up

    in Lighting Equipment

    Posted

    Russ,

     

    I already know enough about lighting to get the job done...and I will find a way to get it done well...please don't interpret my open and honest questioning as ignorance. And I am creative enough to be able to utilize what little I can get here to enable me to do the job. Maybe you need to go to weeks or months of classroom instruction before you can do anything like this. I don't think I need that.

    Military Ball Lighting Set-up

    in Lighting Equipment

    Posted

    Hi, I will be photographing a military ball in a few days, and I wanted to get

    your advice. It will be in a hotel, and I will be setting up in a long

    corridor outside of the ballroom. I will be at the non-entrance (dead end)

    side of the corridor. If the hotel can't turn it off, there will be ambient

    light from the ceiling. I have an Interfit system with two strobes. I will be

    putting a softbox on the one and I am debating on whether I will be using the

    other (I have an umbrella that I could hook onto the second if need be). The

    subjects will be standing in front of a Westcott "Storm Cloud" mottled grey

    muslin background. I intend to use a slave light behind the subjects for

    background light. My 580 ex will be pointed at the ceiling; it will be set in

    manual mode in the weakest pulse to trigger the strobes(s) and the background

    slave. I also have two Photoflex reflectors (a 42" on and the smaller one)

    with brackets and light stands so I can use them if need be. I have two

    cameras, a 20D and a 5D.

     

    My questions are:

    (1) Can I use the aperture to effectively make the ambient light "disappear" or

    appear to not be there at all so that I can make it look as if the shot was

    taken in a dark studio with only my strobe/slave lighting? Someone told me

    that the smaller the aperture the more the ambient light will not be a factor.

     

    (2) Has anyone out there had a similar situation, and were you able to make the

    lighting look nice and what did you do?

     

    (3) Does anyone have any advice for me given my set-up and equipment?

    Group Shot

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    I will be doing a group shot in front of this building:

    http://www.blackgate.net/gallery/v/travel/Hawaii_2003-12-02/100_1990.jpg.html

     

    It will be 10:00 AM; there will be 40 people, all behind and around the rock

    wall-type sign in front of the building. The eight dignitaries will be

    standing directly behind the wall on ground level. Most of the others will be

    standing on a foot high riser just behind the dignitaries. The sun will be

    shining in the subjects' faces and to their left a little.

     

    Any thoughts on a preferred set-up for a picture like this? I will be using a

    20D and a 17-35 L lens. I have a 580 and two 430's and a STE-2 transmitter.

    Could or should I position these flashes directly in front of me to illuminate

    the subjects for some fill flash? Today I went there to do a test shot with

    the flashes in place, and only one of them fired dependably (one didn?t fire

    at all). What shutter speed/aperture combo would be preferred? I assume that

    I should go with ISO 100...correct?

     

    I think I will take three shots with flash and three shots without. That

    should give m,e enough pics to choose from in case of closed eyes or yawning

    or something like that. And a small enough amount of pictures so that the

    dignitaries don?t get indignant.

     

    Help with suggestions please...

    What to Charge?

    in Accessories

    Posted

    I wrote the following message a couple of months back. For the most part, the

    shoot went well (although it was raining around most of the island; was only

    able to shoot during about 40% of the trip):

     

    *****************************

     

    Hi!

    On Friday I will be meeting with a local helicopter tour company (I'm in

    Hawaii). They are thinking about using a photographer to promote an up-coming

    event. Actually I cold-called the company, telling the man that I spoke with

    that I was a new photographer looking to expand my portfolio. I told him that

    my rates would be very reasonable, since I am just starting out; additionally,

    I told him that I would give him an opportunity to test me out at no charge to

    him. If he likes my pics, great; he can use me. If he doesn't, no harm done.

     

    Assuming at some point in the near future that he likes my work, please give

    me an idea as to rates and pricing so I know how to propose/charge him.

     

    Thanks in advance for all of your replies!

     

    - bob

     

    *****************************

     

    I didn't charge him anything for the shots - the understanding was that I

    could use the pictures for my purposes and he could use them for his. Now the

    owner (or manager) wants me to do another round of shots, except this time

    they will be taking the door off. (I think I will be shooting in conjunction

    with a Japanese movie-making crew or something like that.) What should I

    charge him? How much per hour? Or should I charge by the job? What if they

    want to use my pics for a motion picture or something like that? Is it

    customary for photographers to sell all rights to the photos from the get-go,

    or should there be some sort of royalty every time the picture or pictures

    appear in the mass media?

    EF 24-70 loose mounting plate?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    Did you recently take a trip on a passenger jet plane? I borrowed a new 85 1.2 from a friend a couple weeks back. It went real rough onto my 20d - in fact, I think I remember it didn?t go on at all. When I looked at the mounting plate, all four screws were VERY loose; in fact, they were about ready to just fall off. It was bizarre...it was almost as if someone had unscrewed all of the screws to where they just about fell out. I screwed them all back in with a jeweler?s screwdriver. When I later asked the owner, he said that he recently took a trip to California (with a few days of my borrowing the lens). The guy at the Ritz camera shop in Hawaii here told me that airliner trip can do that to lenses (something about the high frequency sound from the engines)...

     

    Hope this helps...

     

    - Bob Duren

    2nd curtain sync with EX580 and 20D

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    yes, thanks!

     

    Now I know why some of my pictures at my last gig were completely blown out. I had broblems at a Christmes party for some submariners and at a hula dance presentation. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Now I remeber that I had set it to second curtain sync using the menu on my 20D during a night-time parade in Honolulu; and I forgot about it 'till now. I guess that if the second curtain isn't set on the 580 but it is on the 20D the second curtain will screw things up a bit. Question: if set on the 20d but not on the 580 unit, will the second curtain work properly? My guess is "no".

    WMA to OGG

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    Please recommend an audio converter that I can download from the Internet that

    converts WMA sound files to OGG sound files. This is aggravating. I have Pro

    Show Gold, and P.S.G. doesnt recognize the sound files that my audio recorder

    records (WMA). It also doesn't recognize the sound files that iTunes

    generates from converting the WMA files; it also doesn't work with the sound

    files that are converted from Windows Media Player when I do the BURN option

    to a disk from WMA to CDA.

     

    I really would think that P.S.G. would accommodate more sound file types. Can

    anyone else out there relate?

     

    I just want to create some simple slideshows! Jeesh!

     

    - bob

    Cumulative Light?

    in Lighting Equipment

    Posted

    I now have 2 430's and 1 580 and a ste-2. If I were to use all three flashes

    in relatively close range of my subject, is it true that each flash would have

    to work 1/3 as hard as if it were the only flash in the shoot? In other

    words, three flashes provide three times the light; so, if all of the flashes

    were to fire off with the strength needed in a one-flash situation, the

    picture would be over-exposed, correct?

     

    ( I am asking this because I am wondering if the recycle time would decrease

    in a multi-flash situation like this, since each capacitor would be drained

    less) (assuming my assumption is correct above)

     

    - bob

    Helicopter Proposal

    in Accessories

    Posted

    Hi!

     

    On Friday I will be meeting with a local helicopter tour company (I'm in

    Hawaii). They are thinking about using a photographer to promote an up-coming

    event. Actually I cold-called the company, telling the man that I spoke with

    that I was a new photographer looking to expand my portfolio. I told him that

    my rates would be very reasonable, since I am just starting out; additionally,

    I told him that I would give him an opportunity to test me out at no charge to

    him. If he likes my pics, great; he can use me. If he doesn't, no harm done.

     

    Assuming at some point in the near future that he likes my work, please give

    me an idea as to rates and pricing so I know how to propose/charge him.

     

    Thanks in advance for all of your replies!

     

    - bob

    proshow gold

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    Bob,

     

    Earlier in this post.....

     

    (Bob Donlon - Albany, NY , oct 16, 2006; 01:57 a.m.

    Never had the problem, but had a few problems with the burn process locking up, so I burn to ISO, then to the disc and it solved any issues I had.)

     

    .....you mention about burning the ISO file onto the DVD. I did that, but the DVD doesn?t work in the DVD drive. What do I do now? I currently got the ISO file burned onto the DVD -R disk.

     

    - bob duren, Hawaii

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