heathorchard

<p>Thanks Garry,<br>

That's a great explanation and helps a ton. I figured shooting with the flat lighting would be best, one because there are a huge number of people and not a lot of time, so quick and easy appeals to me, and two because most of what they will be doing will be a jump or similar type of action shot. I figured the best and safest way to capture that would be through flat even lighting. I would appreciate any other suggestions on how to make the lighting more interesting while still being efficient in handling 120 people ranging in age from 5 to 50.<br>

Thanks again!<br>

-Heath</p>

<p>Hey All,<br>

I am taking some dance portraits for a large school of about 120 people tomorrow. They are asking for a white backdrop. My concern is that many of their costumes have poofy white skirts that are see through. Is there a way to get a pure white background without losing the detail in this kind of clothing? I am using the 1205cx and 805 speedotron packs with 5 heads, 4 large umbrellas and one medium, convertible shoot through umbrella. I had planned on using two lights for the background (overexposing about a stop and a half) and two lights for the subject, keeping the light even. Will this work in this situation? Is there a reason to use the 5th light? Thanks for any advice you can offer. <br>

-Heath</p>

<p>Patrick, I forgot to mention that I'm using the Spyder on a 24" iMac with a backlit LCD screen. Do I still have those options available to me? Maybe I missed something... This is my first time calibrating a monitor so it's entirely possible I screwed up somewhere.</p>

 

<p>Hi Everyone,<br>

I'm wondering if there is another way to check if my monitor has been calibrated correctly. I just used the Spyder 3 Pro last night and now I feel that everything has a bit of a magenta cast to it. I did it twice and got the same results. I figured I might just be getting used to it but was wondering if there was another good way to test if it's correct. <br>

Thanks,<br>

-Heath</p>

<p>That was awesome Ellis. Thanks!</p>

<p>Ah, yes. It didn't really occur to me either for some reason. Answers a lot of questions. I think you might be right about that drop shadow though...</p>

<p>Not sure if this belongs here or in the Digital Dark Room section of this forum but I was wondering if anybody has any insight as to how the photographer got the overall effect in these photographs. I'm wondering about the drop shadow as well as the general look. What are your thoughts about the lighting as well as the post processing. Is it heavy sharpening and saturation? High pass filter? Thanks for your responses. <br>

-Heath</p>

<p>http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/magazine/2009-inauguration-gallery/index.html</p>

<p>Jorge,<br>

I shoot quite a bit of dance myself - just shot a dress rehearsal of the Nutcracker last week. I would highly recommend Dave Haas's D300 set up with both lenses. The 70-200 has VR which helps a lot. You can crank the ISO to max, though I still usually try to keep it around 1600. But don't hesitate to raise it if you need to. Shoot a lot and bring plenty of CF cards. You'll burn through them pretty quick, especially if it's your first time and your worried about getting the shot. Keep your framing a little wide and crop in later to avoid cutting off hands and feet. Not too much of course or you'll get noise. Good luck! <br>

-Heath</p>

<p>

 

<p>Thanks guys, <br>

I thought this might be the response I would get. Sounds like attempting to use the constant lights isn't really going to work. Is it possible to do everything I need with just the two strobes and reflectors? Or do I need to rent two more heads to illuminate the background. I would like to avoid this as they aren't really paying enough to cover extra rental cost. Is there a setup you would recommend? I have very high ceilings and plenty of space to work with.<br>

-Heath</p>

 

</p>

<p>Hi Everyone,<br /> I've been asked to shoot some portraits of a small dance company of 5 or so individuals this Friday. They want to keep it pretty simple and are asking for a white backdrop. I have a 1200w/s Speedotron 1205 cx pack and head kit. My concern is that I only have two strobes with 52" umbrellas. I do have a bunch of video lighting available to me though (I'm doing this for a production company that makes dance videos). The problem of course is that the Arri lights are not the same temperature as my strobes and thus I'm faced with a mixed lighting dilemma. My plan was to use my two strobes on the subjects in a simple cross lighting setup with a 1:1 ratio, maybe a couple reflectors to act as kickers to help separate them from the background, and to use the hot lights to illuminate the seamless white paper. Can I simply balance the background lights with a gel or will the backdrop become that color? Are constant lights powerful enough to mix with strobes? My understanding is that in order to get a pure white background it needs to be two stops brighter than the subject. Any chance I can get away with just using the two strobes and reflectors?<br /> Any advice on how to handle this situation would be much appreciated. <br /> Thanks!<br /> -Heath</p>

Sorry for asking this ridiculous question but I'm just a little confused by how to properly meter the strobe kit I just got. I've already looked

through the lighting themes and haven't found an answer to this specific question. So, it's like this. I have a Speedotron 1205 pack with two

heads and two umbrellas. I took a short three day lighting class where the instructor taught us how to meter using his Novatron monoblocs.

He would turn on the key light, adjust till he got a perfect reading, then turn it off and fire up the fill light, which he adjusted until he got

another perfect reading, and so on until he had 4 lights individually metered. Then when he turned them all on at the same time they were

all set and ready to go. My problem is that since I'm using a pack system and not monoblocs, I can't just turn off a light. To do that I have

to actually unplug it from the pack, which then changes the amount of power going to that light and thus, my exposure also changes. And

then when I plug the second light back in it changes again. If I try simply pointing the lights away from the subject one at a time I still get

bounce off the walls which makes my reading inaccurate. So what I've been doing for now is just tyring to use the ratios shown on the

Speedotron pack and taking one reading with both lights on and reflectors already in place. Is this the correct way to go about this. Sorry

for being such a newb but a little clarification would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

-Heath

Thanks for all your responses everybody. It sounds like I'm gonna have to spend a little

more money that I first expected based on what you all are saying. It sounds like a pack

and head set up is the way to go though. Ellis, you seem to speak highly of the Paul Buff

lights and I'm looking into the bi-tube flash heads as well as the kits recommended by

Shiver. Is there any reason I wouldn't be able to use these same lights for portrait, fashion,

or product shots? I guess what I'm asking is, if I buy a kit specifically geared towards fast

power will I be sacrificing anything on the other end?

 

Thanks again.

Sorry to be yet another newbie asking for advice on my first strobe kit, but I am really hoping to get some

insight as to what I would need in order to photograph fast action in the studio, and on location, mostly in

the form of modern dance, ballet, and martial arts. I would ideally want to use this same kit for portraits

and product shots as well. Of course everyone talks about the White Lightning and Alien Bees kits but I'm

concerned the recycling time may not be fast enough for rapid firing and long hours, and I have to admit,

the price sounds a little too good to be true. Does anyone have any experience with this? Also, if I got the

WLs or ABs would I be able to use light modifiers made by other companies such as Westcott or Chimera?

How do the WL/AB modifiers stand up next to the other big names?

 

I've been leaning towards the new Novatron M600 monoblocs. From what I can tell they have extremely

fast recycling time and can take some abuse but are still fairly affordable. I would likely start with a two

light kit and expand as my budget allows. I'm looking to spend in the neighborhood of $2,000.

 

Thanks in advance, your advice is greatly appreciated.

 

-Heath

Hi,

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Novatron M600 monolight strobes? I'm buying my first strobe

kit and am still learning, although I do have a little experience with lighting. The kit needs to be able to

capture fast moving dance/jumps/lifts, as well as portraits and product shots. A fast recycling time would

be ideal. I've seen these lights in action and was pretty impressed. Any thoughts?

 

-Heath