chazfenn

You could even shade the gel for a shift from white to the color of your choice (or maybe even 2 from opposite angles.)

Oi!;)

While grey is great for exposure & neutral to the colors of the subjects it can get a bit depressing. I've found that blues or even reds are kinder on the eye & give a more "upbeat" feeling to the images.

I'm not sure I've never had that happen to me! I usually resize the originals to 1280 & paste via the insert photo buttons, maybe there's some kind of size limit & anything over it drops to thumbnails?

Light backgrounds don't play well with glass. Maybe a black tent (build one from large garbage bags?) with cuts for side-lighting will do well though. Basically your thinking of using "high key" when what you need is "low key". Personally I use a lot of foamcore in various colors because its self-supporting with just a tab of tape here & there.

I'm not quite sure if this is what you're looking for & even worse I have no actual experience with it. Because of that I can't vouch for quality & so on. "JF-G Series" is a 3 in 1 remote control device. A wireless studio pc sync flash trigger. A wireless cobra hot-shoe flash trigger. And also a wireless remote control for DSLR camera. Kit including a transmitter, a receiver and cables. All-in-one, for the studio, indoor and outdoor shooting. Trigger a connected camera and an off-camera flash (with a receiver) simultaneously. Control studio headlight, hot-shoe Speedlight and camera shutter. Ultra-fast micro-chips enabling sync speeds of 1/250sec. Reliable and long distance control using frequency 2.4 Ghz. Transmitter distance: 100 meters (open area). Multi-channel: 16 different channels. Sync-speed:1/250 sec. Dimensions receiver: 79.9x37.8x33.2mm. Power supply : 2x 1.5V AAA batteries (included). Dimensions transmitter: 62.6x39.2x27.1mm. Power supply : 1x 12V compact battery (included). Included: 1x JF-G transmitter. 1x JF-G receiver. 1x Studio light cable. 1x Shutter release cable. 2x AAA alkaline battery. 1x CR2032 battery. 1x Manual in English. Compatibility: Cable-K: Replace Fujifilm RR-80. but it may be worth a look here: Remote Control Flash Trigger Fujifilm FinePix S9000 S9100 S9600 S100FS S9500 | eBay This exact version is for Fuji, but many others are available.

There's an old trick with ringlights that are "too flat". Cut a semi circular ND acetate or gel 2X or 4X & attach where you want with small bits of sticky tape. You can cut several different ones covering more or less of the tube.

This may explain it (or not) The regs changed last year. https://www.ups.com/media/news/en/ca/intl_lithium_battery_regulations.pdf

One of the various dri lubes or silicone sprays should help.

"simple lens filters that hopefully will also be safe." Somehow that doesn't inspire me.:eek: After all you are staring directly into a very large, unshielded nuclear fission/fusion hybrid furnace.

You can create such a filter too & its cheap & easy! Get an old uv or skylight & a tube of crazy glue. Make a pattern of small dots of superglue & let it harden. Start with a cross, one line vertical another horizontal. Depending on filter size make each "line of dots" about 1/4" apart. check for effect which will change as you open/close your iris so its adjustable. If its not enough add a second diagonal "X" in the same way. :D

If you think about it for a moment you should be able to use the same exposure that you'd use for a sunny day right here on earth. There's no atmosphere, or clouds so its always sunny on the lit side. The sun is effectively the same distance from the moon & the Earth percentage wise. Its way, way brighter than the surrounding night sky, but that's not what you're photographing is it? The sunny sixteen rule should work fine!

IIRC its good up to some high speeds (800th or so) but not all the way to the max. I have upgraded to a 9100 now & It is definitely good "way up there", they actually warn you that it may drop flash exposure on some (slow burning, relatively) studio units.

Avoid the stores they are very hit or miss. The drill with its NiCads was shipped UPS ground with no problems if that helps any.

I'm guessing you may be getting a sort of double image effect from the modelling lights because they are too close in power to the actual strobe?

I bought a cordless drill from a friend several states away. The UPS & USPS refused to ship it by air even though it had NiCad, Not Lithium Ion batteries! This ReArt stuff is getting silly. Everydarnthing is becoming ReArt , HazMat, or both.

You all might fine this of use: FOV Tables: Field-of-view of lenses by focal length

Put a snoot or barn-doors on a standard reflector head. Put the head on a boom. Leave enough room between the subject & backdrop that it only strikes the seamless. Swing the boom over & behind the subject adjusting the doors to shad the subject. Position it angled back & down onto the seamless at a sharp angle. What you're doing is angling a shaded beam down & back so the beams cross section strikes only the seamless.

Partly its because of Fuji's oddball pixel system. That "paired low & high sensitivity" arrangement extends the dynamic range a lot. http://www.guillermoluijk.com/article/superccd/superccd.jpg

When I traveled by air a lot as a sports photographer the cameras & even the lenses had to be "proven" by removing lens caps, working apertures & winding & firing the shutter. Some even insisted the lens be dismounted so they could look through it & the same with the mirror/shutter. Oddly enough I dumped the 2 Vivitar 510v High sped battery packs in the x-ray bin.(I wasn't worried about x-ray damage to them.) Years later I saw the image of one. I've never seen anything that looked so much like a "MacGuiver TV Bomb"! Coiled wires mysterious dark rectangular shadows & obvious printed circuit boards! Yet I was never, ever asked to open them for inspection, or explain what they were. :rolleyes:

If you can't find them there is an alternative. Project the image on to a white-painted metal sheet & view the image with regular sunglasses. Pointing most cameras at the sun directly will wreck them.

Certainly. I did before the internet & I see no reason not to even now.

I disagree. He didn't ask for 1:1 just "close up of flowers". The high end stuff is fine for us with all the experience, but its too much for a confused beginner in my mind. Same with tubes & other stuff. My 2 macro capable lenses are nothing like you describe "are nothing more than close focussing, and rarely give enough magnification to class as anything like a real macro lens." They actually change internal configuration for macro, which still allows the full zoom range to be used & keeps auto-focus, or Super macro which locks you into w/a only, but keeps a/f. Normal: Wide angle: Approx. 40cm/1.3 ft. to infinity Telephoto: Approx. 2.0m/6.6 ft. to infinity Macro: Wide angle: Approx. 10cm - 3m/3.9 in.- 9.8 ft. Telephoto: Approx. 90cm - 3m/3.0 ft.- 9.8 ft. Super Macro: Approx. 1cm -1m/0.4 in.- 3.3 ft.(Wide angle only). This translates into single sub 1" blossoms, pretty much meeting his requirements. Both of these are under 1" across, which seems to cover his original requirements nicely without all the extra "stuff" to confuse him even more!

Actually subject distance for a given size subject is dependent on angle of view & so focal length is indirectly involved. You're right about the smaller CCD though I forgot the Nikon was a 23.5 mm x 15.6 mm one. I think he specified retaining auto focus though? The point here is that he admits to being a beginner who is already confused. Perhaps some of the high end (macro bellows & so on) ideas although very versatile are a bit beyond the ken with things like manual focus, bellows extension exposure compensation & so on? One reason why I suggested a short zoom with a macro ability is simplicity of operation for someone at his experience level!

Electro-pencil (vibratory engraver) is 100% permanent. Unfortunately its always 100% permanent. High tech adhesive inventory tabs are semi-permanent, but can be removed if the equipment is to be legitimately sold later. Unfortunately the ungodly are aware of this & some know how to do it even though the average person isn't. Serial numbers from the manufacturer are not as secure as many think. I worked for a major camera manufacturers import agent & we offered a "100% rebuild to like new" service to our professional customers. What did we do? We dissolved the glue holding the separate serial number plate form the beat to heck old cameras, removed the serial number plate from a brand new piece of equipment & glued it back in place on the new body. The cost for this service was the low dealer net for a new camera.