robert_meador

<p>I borrowed my wife's G9 for a backpacking trip last weekend and discovered a serious problem with exposure.<br>

With the camera set to "P" mode, everything came out totally blown out. I had to set exposure compensation to -2 to bring it into range. Once I made that change, as I panned around the scene the screen preview appeared "about right" exposure-wise. When I pressed the shutter slightly to focus/exposure lock, the screen became extremely dark (as one would expect with that much negative exposure comp). Pressing further to take the shot, the post-shot playback appeared similar to the pre-focus preview - "about right".<br>

I also tried manual exposure. Same situation - set the dials so the preview (and meter) are in the acceptable range, press the shutter slightly to focus and the screen gets very dark. Take the shot and the playback looks normal.<br>

So considering the three steps for taking a shot:<br>

1. Pre-shot composing - screen is blown out unless negative exposure comp<br>

2. Press the shutter to focus - screen looks good unless negative exposure comp, in which case is very dark.<br>

3. Take shot and review - screen is blown out (if no exposure comp) or normal (if negative exposure comp).</p>

<p>To further confuse me, I went to analyze the problem today and - it isn't doing it. Composing vs. focus-press looks the same. No negative exposure compensation needed.</p>

<p>So is this thing broken, or did I somehow set something wrong (and then magically set it back to right) to create such a huge offset between preview/review and focus-lock brightness?</p>

<p>- Bob</p>

I've been using the Cactus v4s with very good results. Inexpensive. Not super robust but very reliable in my

experience.

<p>...and noisier. Might just be a little noisier, might be a lot depending on the camera/sensor.<br>

A good way to think about it - aperture controls depth of field; shutter speed controls freeze or blur of motion; iso is like a volume knob that lets you turn up or down the result (along with any noise that happens to be there). "Turning up" a dim image by using high ISO is like turning up a weak radio station - you also turn up the static.<br>

Things can get a little irregular at the ends of each control's range, especially in digital. For instance, with aperture there is a limit to how stopped-down you can go with a digital camera before diffraction starts softening up the whole image. Google it - lots to read about diffraction. And with extremely slow shutter speeds, heat from the internal electronics in a camera can introduce noise (though a lot of cameras have compensation methods for this).</p>

<p>I like the striped straws - good for shooting circuses, or clown-themed parties :)<br>

I managed to find black straws at a party supply store. I bet it makes no difference in end result though. And I probably spent more time hunting down parts that I could have used to - take pictures...?<br>

Are you thinking you could make a variable grid by sliding the straws in and out of the OmniBounce? Hmmm...</p>

<p>My approach would be to first get the surroundings looking good, then mess with the flash to bring the subject into line. If you lower the exposure of the background a stop or so the colors will get richer and darker. Since the subject will also be darker, you can now add flash and it will help them stand out from the background more. Though it can be a little scary, I suggest the following:</p>

<p>1. Shoot in RAW mode if you aren't already. That gives you a lot more flexibility in post-processing. For instance, you might want to push the white balance to the warmer side - that'd help these images. Shooting in RAW mode makes it easier to adjust this after the fact.<br /> 2. Shoot in manual mode. This lets you set shutter speed and aperture independently to control depth of field (less is good when shooting portraits, unless you want the background in focus). And it lets you underexpose the scene in general, which is what you want.<br /> 3. Use your camera's screen to determine when the scene in general is dark/rich enough. Then turn on your SB600 and set it to manual mode. Use the power up/down settings to experiment with different amounts of fill flash. You want enough to light the subject without making them look like they're caught in a spotlight.<br /> What's interesting about this approach is that you can change the shutter speed (up to the sync speed of your camera anyway, which is probably 1/250) and change the brightness/darkness of the background without affecting the amount of flash lighting the subject (flash is so quick it doesn't really care about shutter speed). Or you can change your aperture and affect both background and subject together.<br /> This is a great general technique when using flash - manual for the surroundings, then add the flash manually until it looks good. You don't have to be at the beach to practice it - just head out into the yard with your victim/husband (give him a beer so he'll stop grumbling) and experiment. It should start to make sense pretty quickly. Also check out strobist.com - they have some great Lighting 101 instruction that talks about some of the same techniques.<br /> Here's an extreme example of my own - in this case I also set the camera white balance to "really blue" and put gels on the flashes (one on me, two on the grass) to make them more warm in compensation. But the darker background is a result of lowering the exposure, and lighting myself to compensate. This was taken about 4 in the afternoon in February - so it was dark, but not this dark.</p><div></div>

<p>Not totally on-topic, but I bet your shots will look sweet printed monochrome with a little sepia, some vignette, more on the low-key side. Less of a "record" but a lot moodier and with a nice historical feeling.</p>

<p>- Bob</p>

<p>Check out the <a href="http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,12662.html">Cactus V4</a>. $45 for transmitter plus receiver (I bought 3 more receivers for other flashes I have). You'll want to electrical-tape over part of the receiver hot shoe where it contacts the pins on the SB600, otherwise it triggers kinda funky. Also I found the default channels didn't work as well as flipping two switches up, the other two down. Also not super duper robust, construction-wise. But they've worked flawlessly for me - not a single failure to fire.</p>

<p>I recently did a shoot using Profoto Acutes and we just used 2 wooden clothespins to clip the gels to the rims of the reflectors. Worked great, easy on/off, cheap :)</p>

<p>And the winner is/was...<br>

http://www.custombrackets.com/scripts/prodViewnew.asp?idproduct=122<br>

The price was right and it worked like a charm. Great service from the company too. The guy I spoke to initially told me I could remove the end detents so it wouldn't latch in at either end of the arc. But the one they sent me was the newer model without removable detents. He cross-shipped me the older version, with detents removed but stuck in a bag so I can replace them.<br>

It worked great for the first half of the day, but at some point it decided it didn't like the balance of the camera - Hasselblad body was heavier than the lens, even with a long-ish zoom on - and started to grind a little. I compensated by pushing down on the lens or lifting up on the body while rotating. Considering we shot probably 1500 exposures, rotating the camera during every one, I think it did pretty well. Got the client to cover half the cost too...</p>

<p>High ISO is probably a must. So that means either a) a big(ger) sensor (bigger sensor pixels tends to mean less noise), or at least one with lower noise, and/or b) good noise reduction, like that in Lightroom 3 (currently still beta, but free) or Noise Ninja.</p>

<p>Btw - the sky was much brighter in real life than it appears in the shot. I exposed it down a couple of stops I believe.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how to get the result you're after at mid-day, but I did something similar in later afternoon on a cloudy day. I did end up using 3 flashes though - one on the subject, two on the grass from either side. To intensify the blue I set the white balance manually to a low setting (i.e. incandescent), then put CTO gel material over the flashes to warm up their light back to "normal". The grass is not all lit however - some dark areas.</p><div></div>

<p>Unfortunately software won't work - it'll blur the strobed portion of the image as well.<br>

That CRD looks awesome. Unfortunately it's $780, which is pretty tough to justify for one 2-day shoot. Anyone got one they want to rent...? RRS suggested they might be willing to loan me a blemished one, if they have one. Or perhaps there's someone near Seattle who owns one and is a little hungry.. :)</p>

Longer exposure + rotation = blur. That's what we're after. We're using continuous lighting and firing strobes mid-exposure to get a faint crisp image in the middle of the blur, but need to be turning the camera while firing.

I'm doing a shoot in June using a rented Hasselblad digital setup. We'll be doing some longer (1/8 sec) exposures

where we want to rotate the camera around the lens axis - imagine holding a steering wheel and turning quickly

from left to right. I am thinking this would be a lot easier if we could run the lens through a ring or sleeve

that could be tripod mounted - similar to what I have on my Nikon 80-200 f/2.8. This would keep the lens on-axis

and require less physical grunting to do all day long :)

 

Any thoughts?

 

- Bob

<p>We did a test shoot the other day and the PW did indeed work perfectly. Thanks for the tips!</p>

<p>Check out the Cactus V4 radio triggers. I bought a set (transmitter/receiver) plus 3 additional receivers for about $120 from Midwest Photo Exchange. Not super robust but they work. Did a session using 3 remote flashes the other day and out of about 400 shots only one failure to fire on one receiver in the whole batch.<br>

<a href="http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,12662.html">Here's a link</a> - lots of reviews out there too.</p>

<p>I'm using Phottix Cleon (I think it is). Something like $30, and it's wireless RF. Also has a switch to hold the shutter open for bulb shooting. Pretty cheaply made but it works just fine. The main unit has a coily cord about a foot long, so you can use it as a nearby wired remote. The wireless seems to work at a fair range.</p>

<p>Overall I like it. I find the horizontal shadow bars on the face a bit distracting though - are you trying to suggest light coming through a multi-pane window - or am I seeing the shadow cast by the crossbar of the chair? But nice and moody. Like the way the shirt front catches the light too.</p>

<p>Just did my first shoot with them. About 120 frames over about half an hour - not a single misfire!<br>

I'd say that's acceptable...</p>

<p>Try one of the Westcott or Photoflex convertible shoot-thru umbrellas. I just used two of them on a remote shoot (I flew so need the absolute minimum of gear). The convertibles let you remove the black cover to shoot thru, or leave it on for a basically shiny-white-lined umbrella (not as harsh as silver). The shoot thru is just about as soft as a softbox - well, no second diffuser panel but still pretty decent. The 32" size is bigger than your softbox and I think the domed shape (when using as a shoot thru) is easier to get close to someone's face without being quite as oppressive.<br>

Even using an umbrella reflectively (non-shoot-thru) is going to give you a dramatic improvement over bare flash - especially if you get it off-axis. And the shoot thru is even softer. I think you'll be pretty impressed.<br>

Personally like the build quality of the Westcott a little better than the Photoflex, but they're almost identical.</p>

<p>Well, I found a post or two talking about the hotshoe shorting the TTL pins on the SB600. So I electrical-taped most of the hotshoe and it seems to be reasonably solid now.</p>

<p>I just got a Cactus V4 transmitter and 4 receivers - to trigger my 2 SB800s, 1 SB600 and 1 SB24 from my D300.<br>

Doing a few experiments, sitting on the couch with the four flashes about 4 feet away on the floor (so I can shoot them to see that they fire).<br>

It seems that frequently, if they haven't been fired for a while, the first shot just wakes them up out of standby, the second shot actually fires them. OK, that I can live with. Or set the standby to Off on the SB600 and 300 sec. on the SB800s.<br>

The bigger problem is that they don't seem to be firing the SB600 reliably. I took a lot of shots where the 600 didn't fire at all. Then, a short while later, it starts firing all by itself, a bunch of times - maybe 10 times, at irregular intervals. Could be the same intervals I fired the camera at when it wasn't triggering - some kind of time machine delay...?<br>

Tried changing the channel settings from all 4 "up" to just 1 and 2 "up", other 2 "down". No obvious difference.<br>

Any known issues with the V4 and SB600? Are they just "not all that reliable" in general? Would I be better off springing for, I dunno, Skyports (thinking about some Elinchrom lights in the future)? A lot more dough, especially vs. what, $28 bucks to make my SB24 usable? The whole kit - transmitter/receiver plus 3 extra receivers - was about $130.<br>

I almost feel like the Nikon CLS is more reliable, at least indoors or on a cloudy day, at closer range. Plus, when using the Cacti I get no recycle beep like I do with the CLS.<br>

Guess I have to ask myself why I went with these. I wanted something more reliable in all conditions - outdoors, longer range - than the CLS, and less hokey in terms of using the popup flash to trigger remote flashes (in the interest of impressing paying clients - hey, I'm already using speedlites - every little bit helps).<br>

Any thoughts or suggestions?</p>

<p>The PW sounds promising. Anyone actually tried the delay feature?</p>

<p>I'm going to be doing some longer exposures with hot lights and would like to trigger strobes somewhere in the middle of the exposure. Doing so at either end is easy with front or rear curtain sync. Any way to delay a front-curtain trigger somehow, to have it happen in between the ends?<br>

Will be using a Hasselblad 39MP camera and some kind of power-pack strobes - think they'll be Profoto Acutes.</p>

<p>- Bob</p>