Quick Dinner Lighting Setup

Just a short blog post to show a quick and dirty lighting setup that gives nice, even, overhead light.

The light setup

The result

The setup is simple - two speedlites firing into the white ceiling overhead. The result is a huge, bright overhead main light. The spill from the side of the bare flashes can provide a fill as well.

This setup was from a crawfish boil in the California desert. Two Canon speedlites at 1/16 power with the camera exposure seasoned to taste.

Using a Monopod to get a different perspective

A simple technique that I like to use from time to time is taking photos with my camera raised on top of a monopod. Usually, monopods are used to stabilize a camera at eye level, but this technique, coupled with a wide-angle lens can give some interesting results.

This technique is particularly useful if you're in a crowd of people and either looking to see over the crowd, or just wanting to give a sense of depth to the photo.

 In the photo above, I was able to see this guy on a unicycle escape from a straitjacket.

One tip is to add some subjects to the foreground of the photo to add more depth and interest.

These photos were all taken with a 6ft. monopod, using a wired trigger to activate the focus and shutter. To get really adventurous, try adding some height with a painter's pole and a Pole Pixie!

The photos above were taken at this year's Deep Ellum Arts Festival in Dallas, TX.

Testing the Radiopopper Nano Flash Triggers

A few weeks ago, I took advantage of the sale on the RadioPopper site and ordered a couple of the new Nano Triggers and a Nano Transmitter. I've been using the RadioPopper JrX transmitters and receivers since they came out in 2009 and they've been excellent. For a basic flash trigger that works reliably indoors and at distance, the JrX triggers can't be beat for the price. The Nanos seem to improve upon the already excellent JrX line for even less money and promise to be compatible with the triggers I already have. Yesterday, I took both products to Fair Park in Dallas to test how well they work at distance.


To recap, let's take a look at the JrX transmitter and receiver:

RadioPopper JrX Transmitter and Receiver

 The JrX system has DIP switches that let you choose between 16 channels and 4 groups, as well as some settings for the three dials and error correcting. The dials allow you to set the level of the flashes/strobes for 3 of the groups when used with the Studio model receiver (now the only receiver available) or the 'Cube' - for use with Canon/Nikon speedlites. The system has a lot of functionality for those using Alien Bees or Canon/Nikon flashes.
The transmitter also has a metal base that slides on to the camera's hotshoe - a nice touch of quality. However, the base is held on by two tiny screws - on one of my transmitters, one of the screws has come off, so the base wobbles a little when on the hotshoe. I've also found that the transmitter doesn't have a very tight grip on the hotshoe and I've had instances of it not firing and needing to be moved slightly when on the camera hotshoe.

One of the screws missing from a JrX transmitter

 The Receiver triggers the flash through an 1/8 inch port on the side of the device, which means you'll need to provide a cable to trigger the flash. Alien Bees can be triggered and controlled via an RJ-11 (telephone) port on the side. The Studio models come with this short cord, but a regular telephone cable is all that's needed. I've made up some custom 1/8" to 1/4" cables for my studio flashes for use with these triggers, but these cables and adapters come with the receivers as well.



Now looking at the new Nano line, some obvious differences can be seen just from the photos.

RadioPopper Nano Transmitter (top) and Receiver

Both the receivers and the transmitters are a completely different housing than the JrX line. The transmitter doesn't have the metal base of the JrX, but it does have a thumbscrew to tighten it down on the hotshoe - a big improvement already! The receiver has both an 1/8" port AND a hotshoe, meaning that a speedlite can be placed on the receiver itself or a studio flash can be triggered from the 1/8" port. Better yet - BOTH the speedlite and the studio strobe can be triggered from a single receiver! With a hotshoe to 1/8" adapter, this means that two speedlites coud be triggered from a single receiver as well. For those using more than one speedlite, especially if they're in close proximity, this could be a big money-saving feature.
The buttons on the Nanos are touch sensitive, so there are no moving parts. I question how well these will work if you have cold hands, and I'm pretty sure they won't work at all if you have gloves on. The receiver can also be screwed directly on to a light stand, making a solid support for flashes placed in the hotshoe.

The Nanos have much simpler electronics. They offer four channels and that's it. No groups or error correcting DIP switch like the JrX line, and no way to control the output level of the flashes. The four channels do correspond to the first four channels of the JrX (and other RadioPopper lines), so they are interchangeable once you stay on the first four channels for all devices.

TESTING

For my test, I set up a Nikon SB-26 speedlite on the Nano receiver hotshoe and a Canon 580 EXII speedlite on a hotshoe to 1/8" adapter plugged in to the JrX receiver. I took a photo with each transmitter, increased the distance, and repeated.
Set up photos and test shots are below:

Nikon SB-26 on RadioPopper Nano receiver

Canon 580 EXII on hotshoe connected to RadioPopper JrX receiver

RadioPopper Nano transmitter on Canon 5D mk II

RadioPopper JrX transmitter on Canon 5D mk II

Both flashes set up side by side

Testing

Still works

Still working

Getting harder to spot the flashes now, but still working

At this point, only the JrX transmitter worked.

The view from the flashes

A panoramic view of the test area - because I seem to always have to take at least one panorama shot wherever I go

Initially, I was surprised that the antenna for the Nano receiver pointed backwards, away from the front of the flash. The JrX receiver needed to be secured to the light stand, so the antenna can be pointed any way you choose. I put the JrX receiver vertically on the front side of the flash. I wondered if the antenna orientation would effect the distance of the reception, but from this initial test, it didn't affect it at all.
I did find one dead spot - at the first tree in the center of the photo above - where the Nano transmitter would not work, but the JrX transmitter did. I thought I had hit the limit of the transmitter's range, but when I backed up another 20 feet or so, the Nano transmitter started working again. Maybe a wavelength anomaly? Not sure. I did hit a point where the Nano transmitter stopped working, but the JrX transmitter worked. Backing up a few more feet had the same result - only the JrX transmitter worked. I wasn't able to get to the end of the JrX transmitter's range as I would have been outside the park at that point, but it seems the JrX transmitter is the stronger of the two. Both still worked at a great distance, though, as you may be able to see in the photos above.
Some people might question the usefulness of being able to trigger a flash at a distance far greater than you would need for a photo. However, this test shows the power of the trigger signal. It's that power that ensures that the signal will be able to work through obstructions, walls for instance, that you are likely to encounter in real world situations.
When you take into account the fact that these triggers can also be used to trigger cameras, then their range opens up new possibilities of camera placement.

I'm looking forward to using the Nanos in upcoming shoots. For use with speedlites, I think the Nano is a much neater approach as it can be placed directly on a light stand and the flash placed directly in the hotshoe. No need for a cord or a place to secure the receiver. With the JrX receivers, I use small bungies to attach them to the light stand. Being able to tighten the Nano transmitter to the hotshoe should guarantee a good connection, as well as allow the transmitter to withstand being bumped while moving the camera.

That's it for my initial test with the Nano triggers - stay tuned as I'll be updating after I've used these in some actual photo shoots!

Adventures in High Speed Sync

Just back from a weekend in Chicago where I shot the river being dyed green and the St. Patrick's Day parade. I changed things up a little this time around, relying more on the cameras to make exposure decisions; a little bit outside my comfort zone!

For gear, I kept it (relatively) simple - Canon 5D and 1D Mark IIn bodies, 17-40 f4 and 70-200 f4 lenses and one 580EXII flash with TTL cable. I knew that I'd want to get wide shots of the river dyeing and close-ups of the boats, so the lenses were in the right ranges. Looking back, an even longer zoom would have been useful, but I don't need one enough to have bought one!

Normally, Chicago is cold and overcast in March for the river dyeing. This means one has to bundle up against the cold, but the lighting is soft and even - perfect for shooting the river. This year, however, Chicago was sunny and warm - great for being outside, but the harsh sunlight cast shadows across the river. The Mark IIn made short work of this, however. Instead of my usual Manual exposure mode, I switched it to Aperture Priority at f4 (and ISO 200 for a faster shutter speed) and AI Servo mode for focusing. The camera was in its element, capturing perfectly exposed and in-focus shots in both sunlight and shade at 8 frames per second. It was almost too easy!



For the parade shots, I wanted to use the flash to single out people and their outfits and under-expose the ambient. In bright sunlight, that means high shutter speeds and a fill flash with High Speed Sync. High Speed Sync lets you shoot flash above the usual sync speed. It comes at the cost of 1 to 2 stops of light as it uses pulses of light instead of a single flash, but the 580 EX II has enough power for most situations. I put the flash on the TTL cord so I could aim it at the subject and set the exposure in Manual mode to under-expose the sky by about 2 stops. This ended up being about 1/2000th at f4 (ISO 100). Shooting at 17mm meant the flash would only cover a portion of the frame, which is what I wanted. In fact, I zoomed in the flash a little, to 50mm, which made the flash coverage even smaller but gained a little more output. I shot into the sun, using it as a rim light and filling in the shadow with flash.


My friend James had a similar idea, it seems. He and shot the parade on Greenville Ave in Dallas. In his photos, he kept his 580 EXII on the hotshoe with a Sto-fen Omnibounce and shot in Aperture Priority mode at f2. He set exposure compensation at -1EV which underexposed the ambient and made the flash-filled subject stand out. The softened flash blended well with the soft ambient - he had the benefit of cloud cover for his shots! At f2, focus can be tricky, but the background will blur nicely and James used this to great advantage, particularly in his close-up portraits.

Interestingly, if James had been shooting Nikon, this setting wouldn't have given him the same results. Nikon couples the ambient and flash exposures, so a -1EV setting in aperture-priority mode would under-expose both the ambient AND the flash exposure. To get the flash to fill in a correct exposure, a +1EV flash exposure compensation would have been needed. This changes with the new Nikon D4; the exposures are separate in the new flagship body.


High Speed sync can only be achieved using proprietary flashes and can be quite an investment, but for getting great results in a short amount of time, it can be invaluable. Photographer Nick Fancher shows this off very well in this video, an inspiring look at speedy workflow and a must-see for high speed sync shooters.

The rest of my Chicago photos are here.


more later soon

Waiting on my Lytro

Back in September 2011, I started reading about Lytro, a company making a plenoptic or "light field" camera. The camera captures images in an entirely different way to conventional cameras. Instead of capturing the light on one focused plane on the camera's sensor, the light field camera uses a mico-lens array to capture 11 million light rays at every distance. This allows for refocusing of the image after the fact and a much faster capture time as the focusing step is removed.

In October, the company invited the public to pre-order one of these cameras - the first consumer light field camera. I weighed up the pros and cons of ordering one of these and after a little self-deliberation, I decided to take the plunge. I did so because I think that a technology like this, that could revolutionize the way we take photos, should be supported. While the advances of a second iteration of any product usually come as a result of the investment of early adopters' purchases, I wanted to be on the ground floor of this technology! I wanted to be one of the first plenoptic camera photographers! Why not?

Months later, the vague "February/March" shipping date for the new cameras is here and I eagerly await its arrival. The company recently sent an email stating that the cameras should start shipping later this month. Another batch (presumably only to fulfill pre-orders) will ship in April/May, which makes it sound like it might be June before these will be widely available. That's assuming there's a demand, of course. By then, I plan on having a detailed review of the camera on this blog and a healthy collection of photos taken with the camera.

Nest Of Scorpions 2011

I recently headed out to the desert in California with some friends and took some time to take photos of the great sunsets out there. Of course, I brought some flashes and thought I'd share how a simple one-flash setup can make for some good-looking shots!



In this first shot, I got the exposure right for the sunset in the background. It was slightly underexposed to bring out the colors in the sky, but it made the foreground completely black. Not to worry, I brought a Vivitar 285 flash (my favorite!) and a 43" silver reflective umbrella with me.





With the flash on a stand just off to camera right, and set to half power, the foreground suddenly comes to life and you can see the people on the swing. The light from the silver umbrella has a great soft look to it. Also, the silver gives you a little more output than a shoot-through or a white reflective umbrella, which is useful when shooting outdoors. By balancing the two light sources - the sky and the flash, you can get a very natural shot that captures all of the colors that you would see if you were there.

Another trick I use is to gel the flash with either a CTO or CTS ("straw") gel and change the white balance on the camera to tungsten. (I use a full straw and set the white balance to 3000K a lot of times) This renders the sky a nice shiny blue and is a great look for shooting people.

Happy Belated 4th!

I hope everyone had a great time watching fireworks this weekend! I'm sure some great photos were taken and the folks over at American Color Imaging are counting on that. They're having a 25% off special from now till the end of July. It's the perfect time to order a nice big print on metal!

Google+

Like many people that use social networking sites to promote their businesses, I am very curious about Google+ and anxiously await my invitation to join!
In the meantime, here is a great article about how photo sharing looks and works on Google+.
It sounds promising!

Technique: Vans Warped Tour Pre-Party Shoot

Recently, I was asked to shoot an event for the Dallas Observer and I shot it in a way that I had been wanting to try for a while. I was shooting the Warped Tour Pre-Party and it involved shooting bands on stage and people in the crowd, so it meant that I would be moving around a lot. My go-to setup for shooting stages is two Vivitar 285s on either side of the stage. For shooting crowds, I've been using an on-camera Canon 580EX II through a ring flash adapter that triggers a handheld Canon 430EX II.
The 430EX acts as the main light with the ringflash as an on-axis fill. The nice thing about using the (expensive) Canon flashes is that exposure is controlled by the flashes and ratios between the flashes can be set on the 580EX. It allows for easily setting up different looks. I usually don't like relying on the flash/camera to determine exposure, but this setup works surprisingly well.

For this shoot, though, I really didn't want to bring light stands and four different flashes - too much gear. I knew I had to use flash, but I wanted to use as little gear as possible.

The setup I had been wanting to try was one I saw in the Bill Cunningham New York documentary. In the movie, Bill uses a single Vivitar 285 attached to the camera by a flash cord to shoot events. The 285 has a sensor on the front that can be used to automatically control the flash output. You set the aperture on the camera according to a calculator dial on the side of the flash and every exposure comes out close to that aperture. It's definitely low-tech, but the 285s have been used since the 70s (then with film cameras, obviously) to make some great photos. I ended up pulling out one of my 285s and after briefly testing this setup decided to try this out in the field.
I have sealed lead acid (SLA) battery packs for my 285s, which allows me to shoot thousands of uninterrupted flash photos and greatly improves recycle times. Coupled with a wireless flash trigger, my setup was complete. A sort of modern update for the single 285 setup.
The sensor on the front of the Vivitar 285 is surrounded by a dial that is used to control the flash output. There are manual settings that put out a set amount of light and don't use the sensor, and there are automatic settings that rely on reflected light hitting the sensor to determine when to shut off.
The automatic settings are chosen by color. I used the yellow setting, which uses the least amount of flash output, so I could use a nice wide aperture. At ISO 200, it outputs at f2.8. For my EF 24-70mm lens, this was a good setting, allowing me to shoot with the lens wide open. However, 24mm wasn't wide enough for me, so I switched to my EF 17-40mm lens. This lens only opens up to f4, so switching the camera to ISO 400 meant that the flash settings didn't have to change.
I would use the 285 handheld and point it to whatever I wanted to light up in the frame. The light from the 285 isn't wide enough to cover everything captured at 17mm, so it allowed me to light certain areas of the frame and not others. Trying to light everything in the frame means having to get creative. Fortunately, I like the selective lighting look that is necessary with this setup.

The setup was a complete success with very few exposure surprises. I would definitely suggest this simple setup if the single flash look is the look you're going for. The nice thing about using the 285s, other than the fact that they're relatively inexpensive, is that they can be used for up-close portraits, but are also powerful enough to light up entire rooms. This versatility made the pre-party shoot a breeze, as I was doing both of these things.

Here's an example of a shot where the 285 lit up the whole room.

Since the flash is handheld, it can be placed below the face to light up under the brim of a hat.

Here, only the subject on the right is lit by the flash

Shooting the crowd up close

This is the very recognizable 'single-flash-up-high' look

For shutter speeds, I usually stuck around 1/40 - 1/60. For a certain look and to allow more ambient light in to the photo, I would slow it down, sometimes as much as half a second. The 1/60 setting is a comfortable one, though, since this was the fastest that most film cameras could sync with the flash. It's the X-sync speed, so it brought back memories of when I only shot film.

This light and easy setup worked really well and is one I'll be using again in the future.

I don't know if anyone even reads these posts, but if you do and find it interesting or have learned anything, please let me know!

Lytro

If, like me, you've been waiting for the next 'big thing' to happen in photography, well, this might be it!

500px

I just set up an account at 500px.com. It's just getting off the ground, but it looks like it will steal a lot of people away from Flickr. I've been on Flickr for a while and it's a great way to share photos, but it has stagnated, in my opinion. The look hasn't changed much over the years and the 'uploadr' utility is outdated, buggy and downright frustrating at times.
So far, 500px seems to be a lot more social and the portfolio I built on there looks good. For now, I'll be using it to showcase some of my favorite (best?) photos and keeping the number of photos low.

We'll just have to see how well the site does, but so far, I'm impressed!

Creativity

Today's quick blog post is about staying creative. Here is a cool video with some ideas for sparking creativity.

For me, it can be daunting coming up with ideas for things to shoot. I read a lot of different blogs on the web in order to keep up a barrage of visuals and ideas. I particularly like collections of photos, so blogs that specialize in this always grab my attention!
Here's one that is a collection of photos of tiny animals.
This one is one of my all-time favorites - a set of photos of 70s rock stars with their parents shot in their living room!
Here's one of famous people hanging out with their vinyl.

It goes to show that sometimes individual photos can take on a more special meaning when they're part of a collection of similar photos. I find it off-putting to try to go out and shoot a collection of photos at one time. Sometimes a good collection can be made from photos shot in different places at different times. It's just important to get out there and create!

Mavs Celebration Parade

Mavs Celebration Parade, a set on Flickr.

This morning, I got up early and joined most of DFW at the Mavs Parade downtown. It was an amazing experience and I managed to get a great spot for photos. MFFL!