paul_duerinckx

<p>Firstly, I use Lightroom and think it's excellent. Lightroom and Apple's Aperture are the two all-in-one solutions (database, library, process, book, print, export etc.) but many photographers prefer to separate out some of these functions. Press and photojournalists often use Photo Mechanic as the fastest way to sort, caption and output images, they would need Photoshop/Camera Raw (or similar) to do the image editing though.</p>

<p>One option - other than buying Lightroom - is to use Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Photoshop in combination to do most of the sorting, editing and output you'd need. You can sort images in Bridge, open and batch process them in ACR (whether raw, jpeg, tiff etc.) and finish if necessary in Photoshop. The Camera Raw engine is pretty much the same as Lightroom. I prefer Lightroom for its userfriendliness and easy ability to catalogue all my images.</p>

<p>The Innovatronix Explorer is an inverter that will work with your heads. Battery storage sufficient for at least a couple of hundred flashes on a charge.</p>

<p>http://www.innovatronix.com/</p>

<p>Paul</p>

<p>Keep them if you shoot with manual flash. Indoors, as Ian points out, the built in slaves will work with the other lights. They might even work outside if the slave sensors are not being hit by strong ambient light (you can use them with radio slaves anyway). On the other hand, due to the interest in strobism, you might get a better price for them on Ebay than you would have a few years ago when the 80DX was just a fairly obsolete flashgun. I speak as someone who uses 2 SB-80s with my Canon cameras and flashguns.</p>

<p>If you don't like products made in China, look at the Elinchrom range. The D-Lite and BXRi are made in India. Makes a nice change, doesn't it.</p>

<p>I use the CP-E4 with 580 EX (Mark 1) and the 550EX and it works fine (and very well!). So good that I decided not to repair my elderly Quantum Turbo which is larger and heavier. These packs have come into their own because modern batteries like the Sanyo Eneloop rechargeables are excellent.</p>

<p>In this situation with the camera in a vertical position, I would bounce the flash off the ceiling if it's white and use a bounce card to direct some light forward. The bounce flash gives soft light (and fills in the shadow from the card), the card kicks light into the eyes and fills in other shadows caused by the ceiling bounce. If the background is white, reflective or otherwise, you may get underexposure, so it's a good time to use flash exposure lock or flash exposure compensation. A glossy background could cause problems with specular highlights so try to shoot at an angle to the wall to reduce this effect.<br>

A bracket can help to throw the shadow low behind the subject. I use a Custom Brackets CB Mini RC that places the flash to the right side of the camera. With a bounce card too, horizontals throw the shadow just behind the subject and verticals, considerably below and behind the subject.</p>

<p>There are enough Canon users who use converted Nikon 14-24f2.8s on their cameras to persuade Canon to bring out a 14-24f2.8L or maybe go one better with a 12-24f2.8L. It would have to be as good as the Nikon though; no easy task!</p>

<p>The Elinchrom Ranger Quadras, BXRi and D-Lite ITs have a built in receiver for the Skyport radio trigger system. Some kits will come with the transmitter. They all have, like most studio lighting sytems, built in optical slaves and sync. cable ports.</p>

<p>Seems like you haven't looked at the Strobist blog. Lighting 101 (link below) goes through all the requirements in easy steps. You could do with a book like Syl Arena's very comprehensive 'Speedliters Handbook'.</p>

<p>http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html</p>

<p>As you are using Canon, Syl Arena's 'Speedliters Handbook' is excellent. Very comprehensive but clearly written and although he, like most authors of books about using flashes creatively, advocates off-camera flash, he supplies plenty of information about using flash on or at least adjacent to your camera.</p>

<p>Why not ask him: he must have a company email address?</p>

<p>Most photographers using digital cameras with flash on camera use TTL, so why not do the same with your Lightsphere? Other than the convenience of not having to constantly adjust your aperture if flash to subject distant changes (manual) or not having the refinement of your camera rather than a sensor on the flash read your exposure (auto), there is no reason why you can't use either of these alternatives. If using auto, I would suggest opening your aperture by one stop over the setting on the flash, just as you would if using regular bounce-flash. And don't use auto with the dome facing forward (Fong's recommendation for outdoor fill-in) because the sensor will react too much to light spill from the device. Manual will give you shot-to-shot consistency but you will have to meter the light or work out a working aperture for a range of distances with the Lightsphere that you then apply to an estimated subject to flash distance; not overly convenient. On TTL it is worth using the camera's flash exposure lock function to give yourself more control over the outcome of the exposure.</p>

<p>And if you are asking this question because you are considering buying a Lightsphere, consider other, simpler devices before you make Gary Fong even richer with his ever-expanding empire of tupperware. I use the Demb Flip-It and it does every bit as good a job (better as it gives less fall off at 16mm with a full-frame camera). There are many alternatives that will look less ridiculous stuck on the business end of your flash.</p>

<p>Preferences for Lumedyne? Can't remember the reasons, but the Lumedyne is still very much a valid choice. New, to copy the kit from Elinchrom with Lumedyne, it would cost you more. TFC did grids for the Lumedyne that clip onto the standard reflector so I would ask them. The umbrella box style modifiers are excellent but I have found that they behave more like brollies than soft boxes. By this I mean that they provide quite a wide and therefore less controllable spread of light. The Apollo offers more control, especially with it's recessed front, allowing the user to feather the light and adjust fall-off. Having said that, a brolly or umbrella box is useful for when you want a greater spread of diffused light.</p>

<p>Chimera do grids for many of their softboxes. I'm assuming that's what you mean by larger softbox and honeycomb. The SP looks like the Lumedyne octa that TFC sell. It looks okay for a tight shot but to get wide coverage with a 19" box, the light will be fairly contrasty (as you'll have to place it a distance from subject). The 28" Westcott Apollo I use gives a really good light out to say, a half-length portrait and will do three quarter and full-length if you don't mind the considerable fall off of light. It's about £120 and collapses like a brolly. They do a 50" version that would be better for full length portraits but it's a fair bit more, doesn't take a grid and, judging by the 28" version, will not be nearly as well made as a Chimera.</p>

<p>I would think it likely that before too long, TFC might stop doing Lumedyne. I don't think Lumedyne were too happy when the Elinchrom Quadra came out and that it is being distributed by the same company that exclusively deals with Lumedyne in the UK! Last time I spoke to TFC, they said that some photographers were looking at the two systems and opting for the Lumedyne over the Quadra. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.</p>

<p>Hi James,<br>

Whatever you've heard, and it is true that The Flash Centre is very much committed to Elinchrom (as the UK distributer of this highly successful brand, it should be), they still sell and service Lumedyne products. I own a Lumedyne system, bought used but have added new accessories from TFC. The Flash Centre also stock Chimera and the speedring adaptor for Lumedyne. I don't use Chimera myself, but I do have a Westcott Apollo and Lastolite Umbrella Box, both of which are much cheaper than Chimera but work well.</p>

<p>I use the Elinchrom Skyports with Canon 580s and it works well. For me non-ttl is the better option with off-camera flash because the exposure, shot-to-shot, is consistent. I also use a Nikon SB80 as my third light and that would not work if I was using an STE2. I have never had an issue with reliability.</p>

<p>It is perhaps worth adding that if the outside ambient, the city-scape in the background, is reasonably bright (without being over-exposed) any stray reflections in the glass will be less noticeable. Dark glass is like a mirror. Matt's advice is all good and the point about a longer focal length is especially useful for containing what may be intrusive reflections.</p>

<p>His clients love him like some people are happy to eat at McDonald's. In his case it's like paying $100 for a Big Mac.</p>

<p>They do vary a little but all have that stark, direct look. I have seen him on TV working with a Pentax 67 with an assistant holding a Lumedyne flash close to the camera to mimic that snapshot feel (but with greater quality). The Lumedyne has the output to allow smaller apertures and therefore decent depth of field with that large camera. They could all be flash on SLR or compact camera but he can afford to use one of his 87 assistants as a VAL to do his bidding and hold the flash where he wants it. An expensive 'flesh bracket' as a flash bracket. The first image, thanks to his reflection, is so obvious it could be reverse-engineered by Sarah Palin. And despite his success and money, he is, let's be honest, pretty mediocre.</p>

<p>If you have D lite I would stick with it. The Bowens units are good but their long term reliability is suspect whereas all my experience with Elinchrom is positive. If you are having problems, speak to your supplier about this.</p>

<p>The Gemini 400 is the equivalent of the D Lite 400, you need to go up a model in the Bowens range to match the RX although the BXRi is the next model in the range with the more dated RX at the top of their monolight range. If the D lites are overheating, it could be a problem or maybe you are driving them too hard. They are designed for amateur or occasional pro use but not to work really hard over a prolonged period.</p>

<p>The older EL500s were designed for pro use and could run hot but rarely broke down. They were the equivalents of the BXRi and the RX really so you are not comparing like with like. Between the Elinchroms and the Bowens I would pick the Elinchroms every time.</p>

<p>You can feather hard and soft light but much depends on the choice of modifier. Modifiers that provide harder light will provide fairly obvious changes to the look and where the light falls whereas controlled softer light modifiers such as softboxes and, to a lesser degree, beauty dishes, provide a more subtle transition as you feather them. Because umbrellas splash light all over the place feathering is more difficult as you can't be as exact. Some photographers use softboxes aimed or 'feathered' away from their subject because they would argue that light from the edge of the modifier is softer than light from the centre and this will advantageously change the look of the picture, albeit in a fairly subtle way.</p>

<p>Either we need more information or you need to ask yourself some questions. Do you either have a high enough turnover or level of profitability to justify a make that is about twice as expensive for monolights? Do you have the cash to currently invest in this kind of kit? In other words what do you do? A photographer getting paid for editorial portraits or event photography may not be able to justify as big an outlay for equipment as a high-paid fashion, corporate or advertising photographer. How much work do you need to get to recoup this outlay? Take into account the fact that although the Profoto monolights are more than the Bowens equivalents, they are pretty good value for that particular make, compared to a generator with heads for example, but the accessories are also significantly more expensive than Bowens. Both are professional makes but Profoto have a reputation for being bulletproof. Many photographers use Bowens or, say Elinchrom, as standard kit and hire makes like Profoto when they need extra light or the portable battery-powered equipment that Profoto is best known for. It is also available in hire shops all over the world. </p>

<p>Decide what you need, both lights and modifiers, and cost the different systems. Look at Elinchrom or Multiblitz (a German make as are Hensel, so should be available in Germany, Elinchrom are Swiss and sold throughout Europe and widely throughout the rest of the world) or maybe Broncolor (also very expensive and Swiss!) and compare them by visiting shops that sell them. Any of these systems will provide professional levels of light quality, durability and reliability. Profoto D1 monolights are, as I've mentioned, pretty good value and therefore a great way of getting into this excellent system. If you need four or five monolights however, the cost difference will really start to bite. </p>

<p>This image looks like it was taken with one direct light to camera right. As the model is close to the backdrop there is plenty of fill from this although there could be a little fill in the non-sunglasses shot from camera-left (light or reflector). The shadow is yellowish because it is illuminated by under-exposed tungsten-balanced available light either from the modeling light on the flash or other room illumination. You will not get as harsh a look from a brolly unless you move it much further away. If you move it away, you will also lessen the fall-off you're trying to avoid and get closer to the stark, open look Teller achieves.</p>

<p>The Skyport does not have a PC connection so you will need to use a minijack to minijack connector (which Skyport Universal receivers come with).</p>

<p>If you do want the background but want the shadow less obvious, reduce the amount of flash in the image. I can see that this is a strong amount of fill-in exaggerated by the fact that the dog is in shadow. You title your question '... using fill flash outdoors' yet your ambient to fill ratio seems close to 1:1. 2:1 would be quite strong and 4:1 or more even better to get a subtle, natural effect. For TTL use the Flash Exposure Compensation and try taking at least a stop out of the flash. With more ambient light, the shadow would be less intrusive.</p>

<p>It seems to be an issue with Rotalux softboxes and my 53 inch octa is peeling slightly but this is seemingly having no adverse effect on performance so far. The large Elinchrom Octabank has a different construction that does not appear vulnerable to wear in the same way as the Rotalux. I've heard it said that newer Rotaluxes (they have grey piping on the outer skin) are more durable in this regard. The design generally of both Rotalux and Lightbanks is excellent; it's a shame that the silver material chosen by Elinchrom is a bit cheap!</p>