joe_rych

I am thinking about purchasing some new monolights. The whitelightnings came recommended from a friend with the

alien bee's as a close second. Seeing as how the alien bees are a little cheaper and more within my budget for the

new purchase I was strongly considering them. I hear also there customer service and service dept are also

awesome. What has your experience been with alien bees? How have they worked out for you? I am thinking of

getting a set of 4 of the AB1600's with 60" shoot thru umbrella's on 13' stands (reception halls)

 

 

thanks,

 

Joe

I have this exact set of "studio lights" in my basement right now! In fact I recently found out how great these"studio lights really are when I ran out of light while installing new brake pads and rotors on my wifes car! they really are fantastic, and wow what a great deal he has on craigslist. Man I remember how thin my wallet felt after laying out like 40 bucks brand new for these things at walmart.

 

JUMP ON THAT, IT'S A STEAL!!!

 

LOL

I have a few questions about upgrading my wedding lighting. I am wanting to expand and think I have the ceremony

and formals figured out, lastly I need to figure out the reception.

 

For this setup I will be using the following:

 

 

Ceremony:

 

2 camera bodies on my person one with 24-70 and on with 70-200 (assume d3's) each fitted with an sb900 for the

presessionals only, after that the flashes are removed and fitted with pocket wizards to take a shot on the remote

each time I press the shutter on each

 

1 camera body behind the alter fixed to a pocket wizard multimax for remote firing

 

1 camera body with my assistant

 

 

Formal portraits:

 

Using the tripod from the remote camera I setup my camera for the formals. The formals main camera (D3) has a

miltimax fitted to it on a tripod, flanking to the left and right are sb900's on lightstands with umbrellas and multimax's.

Each flash unit has a quantum turbo battery on it for power. I have a spare 900 in the bag with another quantum

powerpack

 

 

 

So far you can se what I'm working with. This question is mainly about lighting. I am going to the reception and am

ready to set up. let us assume a reception that is somewhat lit during the day but gets very very dark after sundown.

 

I have at my disposal for lighting

 

3 multimax transievers

3 sb900's complete with battery packs

2 lightstand setups with umbrellas

 

What would you do with the above recources at the reception?

 

I was thinking about putting one sb900/quantum battery on my camera with a gary fong lightsphere and a multimax.

that leaves me with 2 sb-900 pole mounted wireless setups to place wherever I want. I know this has alot to do with

room layout but as a starting point what might you do with them?

 

Most of the action is probably around the center of the room, cake cutting, dancing, introductions and so on.

 

Where might you place them? would you do the umbrellas, lightspheres or might you just go with a sto-fen on both

or just naked ceiling bounced?

To that effect in expanding my lightkit I was thinking about a set of 3 multimaxes and a set of 3 900's and for each 900 a quantum turbo sc battery. That should probably cover most of my scenario's. I hope.

I was not aware that the 800 has a commander only no flash mode.

First off does the D3 have the flash commander as does the D300 so you can operate off camera flash units without

the use of a pocket wizard?

 

Secondly, on either camera (assuming they both have it) does the flash unit have to be out in front of the camera

somewhere? I am asking because I plan on using the flash commander mode with one of these camera's with

sb800's or 900's flanking off to the left and right about 8ft from the camera at about 80 degrees. Would it work or

would I have to bring them more front to allow triggering.

 

 

Additionally I plan on using quantum sc packs to power the flashes for the formals and for a modifier either a

lightspere on both or maybe a reflective umbrella or a shoot though umbrella, If you want to comment further help me

choose the proper diffuser. My current way of doing things is just a flash on a bracket with a lightsphere.

Wow that really does not look the way it did when I typed it.

First off does the D3 have the flash commander as does the D300 so you can operate off camera flash units without

the use of a pocket wizard?

 

Secondly, on either camera (assuming they both have it) does the flash unit have to be out in front of the camera

somewhere? I am asking because I plan on using the flash commander mode with one of these camera's with

sb800's or 900's flanking off to the left and right about 8ft from the camera at about 80 degrees. Would it work or

would I have to bring them more front to allow triggering. reference the diagram below for what I mean

 

 

------------------------

Altar

-------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

/////////////// Subjects posed here\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

@ Flash position left @ Flash poition right

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------- \/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Camera position *

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

In building my digital kit I am looking at some lenses I was first considering the 17-55 Nikkor but then saw the 17-50

Tamron. How well is the tamron by comparison. I read a few reviews online but I thought I would have a more detailed

response here. Does it focus pretty fast, do the images look good. I know you get what you pay for, but is it possible

that Tamron lenses offer pretty good quality, build quality and features for the price?

 

Additionally are thier any other tamron lenses that you might suggest in lieu of Nikkor?

 

I was considering the 18-200 for walkaround but then saw the Tamron 18-250. I also see that tamron has thier own

70-200 2.8

Heres a quick question. If you had sitting in front of you a D3 and a D300 and a good telephoto lens but needed to

reach farther than FX would let you which way would you go, lets assume night fast action sports.

 

1) Take the telephoto and slap it on the d300. I know I am giving up the low noise high ISO shooting of the d3 but

then I have all 12 megapixels for the picture which might help with enlargments.

 

2) Take the lens and put it on the D3 and put the D3 in DX crop mode. I know I will lose half the megapixels but I will

have the high ISO persormance and low noise.

 

Has anyone done really big enlargments in the DX mode? What can I expect in terms of image quality and detail

when I enlarge. I am not saying I need it to look great as a 40x60 but if someone wanted to order a print as large as

20-30 inches or 24x 36 can I do it without it looking horrible?

 

You see I am trying to figure out if I need a dx body at all. It's kind of like this have a few FX bodies and a D300 as

the dx body (if needed) or no DX body since the D# will do just fine to get me the range I want.

 

3) As a third option would you just leave the D3 in FX mode and pop on a TC-14e instead to get the extra range?

Hats off to Patrick for the offer. May I please be considered as well?

I am a wedding photographer and am upgrading to a D300 with a grip. Can you please answer the following battery

life questions for me?

 

1) camera battery life with just included battery (rough shots in raw +jpeg)

 

2)Camera battery life with MB-D10 grip in place no battery in camera grip only EN-EL4a in the grip

 

3)Camera battery life with EN-EL3 in the camera and En-EL4a in the grip

 

4)Camera battery life with Dual EN-EL3's (one in camera one in grip)

 

I am trying to figure out if I need to go the enel4 route for the batteries. If you shoot weddings or events could you

kindly reply with whay you generally see as to battery life with the setup you run? With whatever setup you run do

you need to keep spares in your pockets or is the life in the camera already overkill?

 

Thanks,

 

Joe

I agree, The 17-55 is an amazing lens. If you have a chance to get one for a song, do it. There are always good deals on flashes around. I dont think the D80 can take full advantage of the SB-900 might be just as well to save a few bucks and get an SB-800.

I do know that you are trying to get your monitor to display exactly what will print but how is this done? Can anyone

explain the tools and procedures to properly do this?

yea that works out to about 4.5 megs per picture he has to be in jpeg.

Do you remember the fee (or ballpark it) from the different shows?

So its about that time agian and It looks as though I will be attending my first bridal show very very soon. I am not

sure of the costs involved though I am sure it wont be cheap. Anyone care to share what thier bridal show vendor

fee's were, details about how the show and how it went as well as pictures of your booth?

That ad almost had some hope. I only live in pa not far from Jersey. I was almost interested till I got to seeing what he was offering. My first though then was "No wait, No I think he is serious"

Ok here's the question. While I would love to have a D3, I cant afford one yet so the D300 will be my camera body

choice. What contingency plan do most of you non D3 photographers use to ensure you will have most if not all of

the wedding photo's in the event of card failure. I have heard arguments on both sides of the fence on this one.

 

Some people say swithing too often wears out the parts and you could lose it (the card). On the other hand alot of

people say it would not be wise to entrust a single card with your entire wedding.

 

A word on my shooting style. I usually wear 2 bodies when shooting, one with the 17-55 and one with the 70-200 so

than I can cover a large range of focal lenght.

 

 

Let us assume that for this wedding I did not have a second shooter, only me. For the ceremony I am wearing 2

camera bodies as described above, most of the shots for the ceremony are probably on the camera body with the 70-

200 though. For the formals I have one body on a tripod in the aisle and a second on a nearby pue and with each

pose I take on the tripod camera I shoot another with a similar lens on the backup camera just in case. Formals is

the only place I will have this kind of true rednudancy. Same deal as with the ceremony for the reception, 2 camera

bodies with different lenses and occasional switching out to a fisheye on one.

 

When would you change cards? What size cards would you use? 4, 8 or 16?

I was just reading on the WPJA website. They seem like an extremly picky bunch. I can appriciate thier position wanting to represent truely talented photographers but I don't like to be told how to run my business and thats pretty much what happens when you read the terms for application and acceptance.

While were on the topic of zombies and photographers, just play the xbox 360 game Dead Rising. You'll get all the zombie photography you need to become a true expert in anticipation. Thats what I call building true skill; lol.

I recently saw this on another local photographers site. I am glad this question got so many responses. Just from glancing at it for a few minutes and as easy as the interface is for customers I was sold. The fact that so many pro's on here are happy with it further reinforces my faith in thier service. This will be an essential part of my operation once my site is ready for launch.

How do you generally present the proofs to the couple for selection and approval for the album?

I saw in another thread about canvasondemand.com Does anyone have any preferred suppliers for printing and

wedding albums?

Ok, I know we have covered lighting before so I will keep this short because I have read some of the other theads on

this and still wonder. Here it goes.

 

 

I had a whole bag of nikon film equipment which I sold to go digital. None of the lenses I had were very fasy anyway

so its no big deal. I have since Settled on which equipment I can afford to make the jump into nikon digital with some

good pro lens choices. I am still stumbleing over lighting requirements though.

 

Here's what I am planning on camera and lens wise.

 

2 D300's

1 70-200 2.8

1 17-55 (dx only)

1 10.5mm fisheye

2 vert grips

tripod, monopod , custom bracket, cards and all that.

 

I was planning on using a single sb900 on the cam atop a custom bracket on a tripod for formals then I had this

thought that I would use a monolight to the left and right as well. After that thought I decided that cords were just to

much and stumbles across an artical that said it could be possible to do softboxes with sb800's.

 

Bottom line heres a few ways of doing lighting that I was thinking about, pick the one you think the most of and

please tell me why.

 

1) single sb900 atop a custom bracket

 

2 twin sb900's (or 800's) to the left and right of the camera with softboxes as key with the D300 acting in commander

mode

 

3) Options one and two combined with the sb900 on the bracket acting in commander and the 2 softboxed sidelights

as slaves.

 

4) you got it all wrong and here's why...

 

 

I know its already a long post but one more question, I will have one quantum pack to run around with all night at

least. if I do something like option 3 do I need a quantum pack for each light or can the sidelights just use a pack of

batteries? Dont wanna have to buy 2 or 3 quantum batteries at 400 a pop unless I really need to.

 

 

Thanks very much in advance,

 

 

Joe