400bpm

I'd be interested in more experienced responses to your question as I have similar resources (20D, a pair of manual electronic flashes).<p>

 

I would recommend setting the actor near one of the walls and bouncing one of the flashes off of that wall for your primary light, at something like a 45 degree angle or less. After getting the lighting proper for that flash, I'd set the other one up behind the subject and opposite the first light as an accent light or hair light and dial it down until it looks like an appropriate complement to the first main light.<p>

 

Good luck! I'd be interested in seeing your results as well as more responses in this thread.

I dropped the same lens from my bag onto a concrete floor in 2004. The back end came loose and one of the elements was completely separated from the housing. I sent it to Canon for repairs. I can't remember the final cost, but I'm disappointed in the craftsmanship. The lens has not performed the same at fast apertures since the mishap.

Correction: it's Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary

Use the Measure tool to set your line for what should be level, then do Edit > Rotate Image > Arbitrary and the box will magically be filled in with the corrective angle. Hit ok and you're done.

This would happen to me every time I did the "save for web" function/optimization feature.

<p>

Turns out the culprit was Photoshop's "proofing" settings (it's under the View menu in Photoshop CS2). I assume it's the same in Elements. By default the proofing setup for me was CMYK which has a wider gamut. Switching to "Monitor RGB" gave me the exact same colors as my output JPG.

<p>

Hope this helps!

I've collected a handful of various Polaroid rollfilm camera models

with the intent of hacking and modding them to use conventional film

types. I've decided to purchase a power tool (a rotary Dremel) to

assist in the hard labor, cutting, and detailing.<br><br>

Does anybody here with experience in hacking these kinds of cameras --

say the 700, 800, 900, and 110* models -- have some advice for what

kind of Dremel tool I should seek out? I figure something with a good

amount of power and a few cutting discs would do the trick, but

because of all the different power ratings I don't know what's most

suited for this work; there's 7.7V and 10.5V models, and some weaker

than these.<br><br>

Thanks in advance!

Thanks a lot for these examples, Ellis. Very, very helpful.<p>

 

One request: can anybody post an example of a scene lit by shoot-through umbrella vs a scene lit by reflected umbrella?

The sportsshooter link has already been posted - that's where I <i>learned</i> about these beasts. I don't know anything about electronic engineering, so I decided to look at the auctions. I just received a modified barebulb 283 in the mail that I won on Ebay.<p>

 

<center><img src="http://brian.orangemile.com/web/283barebulb.jpg"></center><p>

 

I'm assuming that <a href="http://brian.orangemile.com/web/bulb.jpg">this is a Norman bulb</a>? I'd like to acquire a backup bulb before I go to Austin TX for SXSW. Anybody know where I can pick one up?

Thanks for the input, everybody.<p>

 

Timber, my lights will dim when my portable oil-filled radiator-style heater kicks in (1500W, no mention of amperage), but otherwise is pretty stable. A breaker will flip in the seasonal extremes when I'm running a heater or AC window unit, my home theatre/stereo, and computer simultaneously. Is this something to be wary about (when I only have 3 20amp breakers in this place)?

I'm about to invest in my first studio lights and after months of

deliberation I've settled on monolights. I've got a $1200 budget, I

know that I want about 1000w/s total, and I think I've narrowed my

choices down to two product families: monolights with transformers,

and monolights without transformers.

<p>

From what I understand transformers "massages" and cleans up the

current fed to them. I'm concerned that the electricity in my

apartment (an ancient house that's split into units) might be

unsuitable for transformerless systems like White Lightning and Alien

Bees. Not to mention that transformerless systems cannot be powered by

gasoline generators... Paul Buff's sites make specific notice about

the capacitors in his units necessitating uniform AC current and that

"dirty" current from generators are unhealthy for his units.

<p>

Are my assumptions correct?

<p>

Secondly, the kit I'm leaning toward purchasing (if I don't buy White

Lightning/Alien Bees) is <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.

com/bnh/controller/home?O=&A=ShowProduct&Q=&sku=242225">this Hensel

kit at B&H</a>. None of Hensel's literature specifies a transformer,

but I am again assuming that most monolights house transformers in the

casing. Being that I've never used studio lighting before (or even

touched lights like I'm planning to purchase - I'm in a rural Georgia

town) I'm wondering if this board has any comments about my finalists

- Hensel and Paul Buff. Thanks in advance.

I've seen some killer modeling shots done outside in full sunlight

where the strobes are the main lighting and the backdrop looks dim and

almost artificial.<p>

 

Now, I'm totally new to studio strobes and am shopping around for a

kit. I know nothing about brands or what features to look for. All I

know is that I want something that can eclipse the sun for a shoot

like I described above. What kind of (effective) watt/seconds output

am I looking at here? 400? 1000?<p>

 

Does flash output even matter here (is this just a trick of

shutter/sync speed)? Thanks.

Bleach bypass is often used in cinema to achieve a look something like Saving Private Ryan (though technically that's ENR). They call it "bleach bypass" but it's not normal to bypass the bleach completely. Usually done with a diluted bleach or shortened bleach time. I tried it once with a snapshot roll of film and the result was increased grain and muted colors. It kinda looked like old faded photos from the 70s.<p>

 

there's a few in <a href="http://majestic.coe.uga.edu/photos/">this directory</a> if you're curious.

With no experience in doing so, I hazard to guess that a green filter would do the trick.

my procedure: first developer @ 14min (+/- according to temperature), water wash, fix for 5min in Kodak Rapid Fixer (without the H2SO4 hardener), develop again for 2min in used developer (agitation every 30sec), constant wash again for 30min under tap. I figured the fixer would be fine without the hardening agent. Hm...

I regularly shoot Tri-X at 800 and develop in Acufine for 5 minutes @ 70F. This is still my favorite film/developer combo, though Tri-X @ 1250 in Diafine could easily trump it with more use.

Really? Yellow-green? Might I be doing something wrong? I mixed everything with distilled water and measured out the developer with exacting care. Could it be that I'm exceeding the capacity of the developer? The insert very clearly states that because of how dilute the developer is 300mL per 36-exposure roll should be used. My stainless tanks don't quite take that much, maybe 280mL for the single and 550 or so for the 120/2x35.

Yeah, that sounds about right to me. Here's a crazy scan of a negative (as a positive with no retouching):<p><br>

<center><img src="http://brian.orangemile.com/PMK000.jpg"></center><p>

<br> Not so much green, but it looks about right, you think? It's old Tri-X 135.

I routinely clean my super8 films with "Kodak Film Cleaner" before spooling them for the first time, and again as the reel rewinds onto its original spool. It smells like acetone and the bottle looks really old-school. I think it's been discontinued.<p>

 

There's some pictured here: <a href="http://www.bocaphoto.com/products/new/accessories/cleaning.htm">http://www.bocaphoto.com/products/new/accessories/cleaning.htm</a>

Yeah, I'm not sure how to judge the intensity of the stain since I've only held one stained nevative: this one. It certainly doesn't look anything like these: <a href="http://www.coxblackandwhitelab.com/pyro.htm">http://www.coxblackandwhitelab.com/pyro.htm</a><p>

 

My film has a slight green-brown cast with much of the black silver halide intact. The images aren't overly dense and appear to be low-contrast... leading me to believe that they'll print pretty easily.<p>

 

Now regarding my printing procedure, I <i>still</i> don't own my own enlarger and I stopped going to darkrooms altogether after acquiring my Nikon film scanner. However, after some cheap medium format cameras caught my eye I'm considering once again investing in my own personal print-room. Is it true that cold-light diffusion heads are preferred for PMK negatives?

Thanks guys. For each scene I shot I would visualize the scene and pick what I wanted to be 18% gray and I metered to that spot (a darker cloud when I wanted the sky to be the focus, asphalt for more down-to-earth scenes, etc). Sorry for not being more verbose regarding the ISO setting, the camera automatically sets it according to the DX markings on the canister so this roll was metered at ISO400. It's not a critical roll and my impatience discourages shooting a test roll. I'm basically looking for dev times for PMK with a 1-stop push.<p>

 

I went ahead and developed the roll at 79F for 9m42s (4% time decrease from 14m for each degree over 70F) and the negatives look spectacular. My first experience with PMK and I'm quite impressed. I'll post results after everything's dry and scanned.

I forgot to change the ISO setting on my camera when I shot a roll of Tri-X with Photographer's Formulary's PMK Pyro specifically in mind. So here I have a roll of nice exposures of clouds and interesting scenes with pretty highlights and I don't know how long to develop it for in the Pyro.<p>

 

Suggested developing time?<p>

 

Or is this roll shot for PMK and I should tackle it in a different developer (I've got mostly speed/push developers at my disposal, though I do own some Rodinol and D-76)?

That's a great idea, Lex. I'll have to do that sometime.

<i>They say you should get two packages and use one to replenish the first bath of your working solution. Do people do this?</i><p>

 

What I did was mix up the 1 quart packages and store the stock solutions in 563mL bottles. The other 300+ mL of Diafine A is now kept in a "replenishing" bottle and I dumped the remainder of Diafine B (no storage bottles!). Because Diafine A is absorbed into the emulsion and therefore empties out faster than Diafine B I'll use my remainder bottle to cap off the primary stock.

The effects of cross processing are attributed more to the print media (paper) than the negative itself. That's your problem.

I forgot to also inquire how best to clean one's storage containers.<p>

 

Let's say I have a nice glass liquor bottle that I'd like to store some developer in. What's a good way to clean it?