bellwoods

July 2, 2014

I seek comments on what is optimum printer resolution setting: Lightroom suggests 240 DPI but I wonder if better results would be achieved at other values.

Note that my question here is not about the resolution of the printed image but rather about its darkness.

In particular I question if a lower DPI setting would result in a more “translucent” ink layer that would in turn yield an overall lighter tone (ie by allowing more of the paper white to show through).

Other than DPI setting is there any other setting that regulates the “density” of the ink laid down such that the finished image contains more (or less) of the paper whiteness?

I am printing colour images from Lightroom to an Epson 3800. Original image files is RAW from Canon 5D converted in DxO and imported into LR. Monitor and printer are calibrated. ICC files specific to the paper and printer are used.

April 2, 2013

My apologies to all and esp to Phottix. I have now found that the Odin does in fact provide manual control of the 580EXII and 430EXII Speedlights.

The Odin product is a good lower cost alternative to Canon's own radio control system.

The only drwaback I can see is that while the Odin system will control three groups of flashes (A, B & C), it will only provide ETTL ratio control between two of those groups (A+B). However you can set ratios for all three groups by changing to manual (vs TTL mode) and setting the output of each group individually.

April 1, 2013

Hello

I just purchased an Phottix Odin/2 receiver kit today for my Canon 5D2 MkII. The system works as expected with the speedlights working in ETTL mode.

HOWEVER: I have thus far been unable to control the output of the Speedlights from the Odin TCU control unit. For example if I set all three groups to "M" (manual) mode and then try to vary the power level with the +/- buttons on the TCU the light output of the Speedlights doesn't change at all.

This situation is surprising (alarming) given that the following description of the Odin functionality appears on the company's website:

What makes the Phottix Odin™ unique is the ability to designate groups in TTL/Mixed mode. Individual groups, A, B, C, can also be controlled in TTL mode with EV +/- adjustments. Groups can also be set to Manual mode, adjusting power levels remotely, or turned off. <a href="http://www.phottix.com/en/phottix-odin-ttl.html">http://www.phottix.com/en/phottix-odin-ttl.html</a>

As far as I can see there is no way to manually set the speedlight output remotely through the Odin TCU.

December 19, 2012

FINDINGS B - IR FILTERING OF 580 EX II

I entirely covered the flash tube area of the 580 EX II (ie the clear plastic window) with a Lee type 87C44 polyester infrared filter. I found that with this arrangement continued to provide triggering of the 430 EX II "slaves" even though no visible light pulse was emitted from the 580 EX II. However, the L358 lightmeter continued to register Eu, indicating that it was either responding to the IR or minute amounts of visible light were still being transmitted by the 580 EX II.

CONCLUSION:

1) The ST-E2 will provide optical triggering of Canon speedlights without "upsetting" the L358 lightmeter. However it will only provide ratio control of two groups of speedlights.

2) The 580 EX II cannot be suppressed enough to avoid having its communication pre-flash upset the L358 lightmeter.

3) This documents another fundamental weakness in Canon's optically controlled Speedlight technology and confirms their decision to drop that approach in favor of radio control.

Anyone considering a Speedlight set-up requiring control of multiple groups of Canon Speedlights is advised to avoid the 580EXII / ST-ES / 430EXII altogether and instead purchase either:

- the new Canon radio controlled Speedlight system (STE RT-E3 and 600 EX-RT)

- non-Canon radio control system such as the Phottix Odin <a href="http://www.phottix.com/en/phottix-odin-ttl.html">http://www.phottix.com/en/phottix-odin-ttl.html</a>

December 5, 2012

Mr Rodeo:

What happens is subject is other than 18% gray?

What is the subject is a shiny plastic thing with reflective surfaces?

What if you have 3 or 4 speedlight flashes all on stands inside softboxes?

December 3, 2012

FINDINGS A ST-E2

#1 I obtained an ST-E2 and triggered it aimed at the L358 ligthmeter with NO 430 flashes engaged. The meter changed form F=0 to Eu (Exposure Under) indicating that the meter "saw" the presence of the IR output form the ST-E2 but that the intensity of that output was not sufficient to register a reading on the meter.

#2 Next I engaged the 430 flashes in the "normal way" (ETTL mode, head rotated forward position), before I even triggered the ST-E2, the L358 started to read Eu and continued to read Eu no matter what even after I triggered the ST-E2. No useful reading was ever obtianed form the L358 in this confirguration.

#3 Finally I repeated #2, but this time I rotated the head of the 430 through 180 degress so that the flash unit was being used "backwards" i.e. the controls and the flash tube were facing the subject and the clear red flashing eye (the AF Assist Beam Emitter) was pointing back towards the camera. This time the L358 renedered a useable reading (T 125, f 9.0) and the resulting image was correctly exposed .

CONCLUSION: The ST-E2 does not itself interfere with the L358 lightmeter. However the flashing red light emitted from the front of the EX 430 does. I tried setting custom function 8 to disable the AF assist beam but it made no difference. Therefore when using the ST-E2 with the 430 EX the flash head must be rotated backawards so that the flashing red LED is pointed away from the subject (or at least away from the L358 lightmeter). NB: All these tests were done with the flashes operating in ETTL mode.

December 3, 2012

Of course (I expect) all of this is solved by radio triggering - next time I'd just buy the Canon STE-RT-E3 instead of the STE-2 and the 600EX-RT instead of the 580EX II.

I am intrigued by the comment that the L358 flashmeter sensor is not IR coded - I don't think the L358 would respond to IR.

The question is will the 430EX's respond to IR only? I think they must since they work with the ST-E2 which is standard flash tube behind a plastic IR filter. I plan on testing the meter's repsonse to the ST-E2 later this week.

December 3, 2012

I am going to conduct two experiments on this:

1) I have ordered a piece of IR filter material from Lee and am going to try surpessing the main (white) tube of the 580

2) Rent / borrow an ST-E2 and see how the L358 responds to it.

Further comments / input welcome. I am surprised that I cannot find anything else on the web about this. Surely it must vex others...

December 3, 2012

re Suppressing the 580 Pre-Flash:

Just found this re IR vs. visible light pre-flash communication of Canon Speedlights:

From Wikipedia: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_flash_system#E-TTL_II">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_flash_system#E-TTL_II</a>

The Speedlite 580EX and Speedlite 580EX II flashes use modulation of the pre flash from the main flash tube for communicating with slave flashes. The ST-E2 uses also uses a modulated flash tube for this purpose, but it is fitted with a near infra-red filter (it serves no other purpose). It has a quoted range of 10-15m indoors, and 8-10m outdoors.

December 3, 2012

Additional Comments / Questions:

1) Can anyone confirm if EOS Speedlights do their Master-Slave communication by infrared vs visible light? i.e. will the work around suggested by Matt for his Nikon Speedlites work with Canon Speedlights?

2) Re John Deerfield: I have tried my setup with all components set in manual mode. Anytime the 580 is working as a master - I think its going to send out a pre-flash. I think your suggested approach would require NO communication at all between any of the Speedlights ie the power output of each one is set independently on each flash and the flashes are interconected to the camera by a sync cord.

December 3, 2012

Hello all

I want to use a Sekonic L-358 light meter to measure the exposure settings for a three light setup comprised of: Three Canon 430EXII’s (in slave mode) controlled via one 580EXII (master mode) on a 5DMkII. In this setup the 580 master is set to not flash i.e. it is disabled.

The L358 is in the “cordless flash” mode.

My plan so far was to operate both the Speedlights and the camera in manual mode, test fire using the camera shutter button, use the L358 to measure the resulting exposure values and then readjust camera and / or lights to get the correct exposure i.e. set camera for t=125 f=11 and then change the light output until meter reads same.

However, when I try this I find that the L358 reads f-2.5 unless I manually trigger the flash with pilot button, in which case it reads f=32.

I think I have pretty well figured out what’s happening is: meter is reading the “pre-flash” by which the 580EXII “master” is communicating with the 430EXII slaves. Once the pre-flash goes the L358, captures the reading, locks for some time period (90 secs?) and misses the main flash that follows.

I understand that this whole situation could be avoided by either using radio triggers or mains powered mono-block studio flashes – but I’d like to keep my Speedlights…

I also suspect that if the test firing is done by activating the flash using the Pilot button of the 580 EX II, there is no pre-flash and a valid light meter reading is obtained. But this is not as convenient as controlling everything from the camera back LCD.

My questions are:

1) Is there a workaround – for this?

2) Are there “smarter” light meters that know how to ignore the pre-flash?

Thanks much.

October 5, 2011

Hello All:

In the workflow I describe (Camera CR2 > DxO DNG > LR3) , I think DxO becomes in effect the camera and the DNG file that DxO outputs incorporates whatever optical corrections were dialed in in DxO.

I have tried an experiment to confirm this and found that: 1) Applying camera lens correction in LR3 distorts the image. Conclusion: the DxO lens corrections are embodied in the DNG. 2) Camera calibration must be enabled in LR3. I got the best results using Process=2010 and Profile=Embedded. Conclusion: To make full use of the PPRGB data and the colour adjusments made in Dx0, LR3 must be set to reference whatever is contained in the DNG file. 3) The DNG files are 50% smaller than TIFFs for same image: Conclusion: DNG is more efficient.

To my eye on my monitor, the that appears in LR3 when the DNG file is used is appreciably better than one based on a TIFF of that same image.

October 5, 2011

Francisco

I think you're on to something here and I want to understand it. Are you saying that way to preserve ProPhoto colour space when transferring images from DxO to LR3 must be:

1) Export from DxO as DNG

2) Import DNG into LR3

3) After opening the DNG file in LR3, re-apply the camera profile for whatever camera was used to take the image to that DNG file.

It is step #3 that I am not certain about. AND when you do that which set of lens optical corrections is in effect - the one that you applied in DxO or LR3's?

PS: One advantage of this workflow (transferring DNG's instead of TIFFs) is that the DNG is about half the size of the TIFF (for CR2=25MB DNG=70MB vs TIFF=140MB).

October 5, 2011

Hello Again,

This discussion has evolved somewhat above my knowedge level, but based on Francisco's argument it would seem that in fact the only way to get an image out of DxO with a ProPhoto ARGB colour space is to export a DNG and not a TIFF. Is that correct?

October 4, 2011

Just for clarity here :

I beleive the both my monitor (NEC PA241) and my printer (Epson 3880) have sufficent spectral response to cover the entire ARGB space. If anyone disagrees I'd be pleased to learn more about that assumption.

October 4, 2011

Thanks to all above; a few comments for further discussion:

Francisco:

Does your comment about DXO outputting in ARGB hold even when the ProPhoto ICC is set in the output template?

Anyone:

Is it correct to say that if all the work is done in LR (meaning the raw file is opened directly in LR), then LR derives its output from that raw file. For example if you crop, white balance and S-curve a raw file in LR and then export it to a JPEG from LR, is that JPEG generated by applying your edits directly to the raw file in the conversion process?

October 3, 2011

Hello All

My workflow is : Convert RAW to TIFF in DXo then use LR3 to fine tune / crop / print. Print output is generally to an Epson 3880. All of this is being done in WinXP pro. At present I have DxO set to export its TIFF images in a ProPhoto RGB colour space using ProPhoto.icm (Copyright Eastman Kodak 2003) which I downloaded from Dodgecolor. LR3 is set to use a ProPhoto working colour space. I seek advice with respect to maintaining colour spaces in these various environments, specifically:

<ol>

<li>Is the RAW (.CR2) image coming out of my Canon 5DMkII encoded with a colour space? I have the camera set to ARGB but I wonder if this applies to raw images or just JPEGs?</li>

<li>I understand that as a general rule of thumb you can go from a large colour space (PPARGB) to smaller one (ARGB) but not the other way around; Is this correct? </li>

<li>So if the RAW image file indeed comes out of the camera in ARGB raw, why not set the whole workflow in ARGB instead of ProPhotoRGB?</li>

</ol>

All comments welcome. Thanks in advance

April 10, 2011

I use Canon 5D MkII with 580 EX II and 430 EX II speedlights. Over the last year or so I have been delving into artificial lighting and am trying to learn more about the otpimum use of this equipment.

So far it appears to me that the best may to use the speedlights in automatic mode is to put the camera in manual mode dial in a moderate setting (e.g. f11 1/125) and let the flash light the scene to give the ocrrect exposure.

So two questions:

#1 While I grasp that the "purist" way to use the flash is to set meter the subject with an exposure meter and adjust the flash output manually, can anyone tell me any disadvantage to putting the camera in manula mode and letting the flash set itself automaticaly as compared to using the camera in some other mode (program, or aperture)?

#2 Is there any disadvantage to leaving the flash always set in the high speed sync mode all the time and setting camera manual ? Doing so would seem to give the best of all worlds - providing you's got enought flash energy on tap (I have 4 speedlights to work with) and the scene is not huge, it would seem that you could get almost any range from f11 / 125 out to f2 / 800?

April 9, 2011

After all of this and much experimentation, I have concluded that the root cuase of this problem was that some of Sony 2500 mAH NIiMH batteries (all of which I had putchased new) were "weak" i.e. while they seemed to function when first charged, certain units self discharged much more quickly than others. I purcahsed some of these batteries at a camera store and others on eBay. I suspect that the units that suffered this problem, were ones that were factory rejects or possibly even counterfeit. I cannot say whether the sub-standard units were those that I purchased at the camera store or on eBAY.

January 1, 2011

Thanks all, some additional info:

I am using Sony 2500 mAH NIiMH batteries. I have tried all the obvious like swithching different batteries into different Speedlites etc.

I suspect the issue is in some way connected to some custom function setting - possibly having to do with how a Speedlite in slave mode "waits" for a command from the master.

I have asked Canon Canada support for help on this but as yet have received no usefull except for a list of the three custom functions. VERY disappointing.

Its interesting to note that in a pro shoot-off between Nikon and Canon published in the Oct 2010 issue of UK magazine Digital SLR Photography, various Speedlite problems (including poor support specifically on Speedlites) were cited as the deciding factor to put Canon the loser.

December 27, 2010

Helo All

I have three 430EX II and one 580EXII speedlites.

I use the 580 as the master and the 430s as the slaves.

I have been in the habit of leaving the batteries in all my units between jobs - sometimes for several days at a time. Although I always turn the power switches on all speedlites to "off" -- when I go to use them again I find that some of the 430s have dead batteries while others don't. The 580 never does. I have tried all the obvious things like swapping the batteries, new batteries etc - and it makes no difference.

I am thinking that some of the 430s are turning off automatically while others are staying powered on waiting for a master signal.

Is there some custom function that controls how long the 430EX waits before totally turning off or that controls the automatic shut down? If so how should it be set for maximm battery life?

Thanks

November 16, 2010

Zack makes a great point (where is that store in upstate NY anyway?) : Case study example to illustrate the towing concept: A few years ago I bought a Canon G10 as a travel camera . Lumionuous Lanscape reviewers tested it and said its images were almost as good Hasselblad P45+ ( <a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/kidding.shtml">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/kidding.shtml</a>). I've made some great shots with it over the years that have made me very happy. BUT - and here's where the towing analogy comes in -- I just recently discovered that the G10 (and all Canon G series cameras G11 etc) can only produce images in the sRGB color(colour) space. So even though the G10 will deliver very high quality CR2 raw images, those images will be hobbled in terms of post processing printing and output on state of the art color printers. The 20D on the other hand spits out CR2 raw files in the Adobe RGB space.

Now if I could just get someone to answer my post on Prophoto RGB under DxO I'd be ecstatic!

November 16, 2010

Zack makes a great point (where is that store in upstate NY anyway?) : Case study example to illustrate the towing concept: A few years ago I bought a Canon G10 as a travel camera . Lumionuous Lanscape reviewers tested it and said its images were almost as good Hasselblad P45+ ( <a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/kidding.shtml">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/kidding.shtml</a>). I've made some great shots with it over the years that have made me very happy. BUT - and here's where the towing analogy comes in -- I just recently discovered that the G10 (and all Canon G series cameras G11 etc) can only produce images in the sRGB color(colour) space. So even though the G10 will deliver very high quality CR2 raw images, those images will be hobbled in terms of post processing printing and output on state of the art color printers. The 20D on the other hand spits out CR2 raw files in the Adobe RGB space.

Now if I could just get someone to answer my post on Prophoto RGB under DxO I'd be ecstatic!

November 16, 2010

Chuck

In my view the most important thing you mentioned in your orginal post was that you have a Canon 50 mm 1.8 at your disposal. This is everything. Follow Mike's comment re (hebay) - grab yourself a 20D, mount that 50 on it. Set the dial to deliver raw images at 200 ISO. Bin the rest of it. Use any money left over to buy a spare battery and / or meory card. Here's an example of an image taken with that exact kit.

PS: Here's an apocraphyl (sp? help me out) story about the 50mm 1.8: About a week before this image was taken I was sitting in a little parkette in London near the Tate. I had the 50mm EF 1.8 mounted on the 20D and it wouldn't autofocus. Given that I'd only paid $40 for this lens in 1998 or so, I took it off and was going dump it in nearest bin. Than I saw a flower that looked like it needed to be photographed so I took the 50 in the plam of my hand and wacked hard on the side the bench. Put it back on the 20D and have been using it ever since. DOn't know if the 20D would have taken that, but the lens did.

November 7, 2010

I seek information on using ProPhoto RGB color space in DxO In my workflow I use DxO ver 6.2 as the “raw converter “ for Lightroom 3.2. I use DxO to output TIFF’s which I then “finish” (sharpen, crop etc.) in LR. Knowing that LR operates native in ProPhoto RGB, I am wondering if I should be configuring DxO to output in that rather AdobeRGB as I do now. Based on what I’ve read in other forum posts here, DxO uses its own proprietary wide gamut working space for internal operations (develop etc.) and then makes the conversion to a standard “open” space in the process operation. So my questions are: 1) Is DxO’s internal working colour space sufficiently large to “map” all of ProPhoto RGB? 2) Is there anything to be gained by using a ProPhoto RGB profile instead of AdobeRGB in processing DxO? 3) Assuming the TIFF images are always going into LR – is there anything to be lost from doing so? 4) Does anyone know where to download a reliable “known good” ProPhoto RGB ICC that can be used in DxO Thanks in advance for your assistance on this issues.

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