D'oh...
Bandicoot
'people' work is available light. If I do do portraits it's almost always
'environmental', so any lighting I use is lighting the setting as much as
the subject. Most of the time I use studio flash I'm either lighting big
interiors, or else doing still life with a need for small apertures and
(often) extra light to allow for extension. And using fibre optics isn't
exactly efficient. So I'm in the habit of needing a lot of light...
But at the weekend I needed to do a traditional studio portrait for the
first time in years. Exhibition coming up of stuff that is a joint project
with a historian who's writing the words, so we needed a straightforward
portrait of her to go with the blurb at the beginning of the show. My
studio is a place where I do still life, it isn't big enough for a portrait,
so off to the alternative venue: normally my dining room. I thought I'd do
two lighting set-ups, one a straightforward butterfly lighting set, and the
second a beauty dish to one side with fill from a softbox at the front and a
profile spot for a hair light. Set up the lights and a backdrop,
reflectors, etc. - and without thinking carted in the heavy packs and set up
the heads I'd normally use. That is, the heads I'd use if I was using
ISO50, some extension, and needing plenty of DoF on 4x5...
So I carry all these heavy flash generators from one end of the house to the
other, set it all up, put the packs on half power and take a test meter
reading: f90.5. Turn the packs right down, and I'm still at f32.7. Great.
Had to take all the lights out and put in 250Ws monolights instead, which
would've been so much less effort if I'd put them in in the first place.
And as a final insult, as I was doing it in a hurry I managed to sock myself
in the jaw with a boom.
D'oh!
Teach me to get into a rut...
*<;-)
Peter
(who hopes this is funnier now than it seemed at the time.)
--
Gordon Moat
> I've mentioned on here before that I don't often do portraits: most of my
> 'people' work is available light. If I do do portraits it's almost always
> 'environmental', so any lighting I use is lighting the setting as much as
> the subject. Most of the time I use studio flash I'm either lighting big
> interiors, or else doing still life with a need for small apertures and
> (often) extra light to allow for extension. And using fibre optics isn't
> exactly efficient. So I'm in the habit of needing a lot of light...
I have heard too often "you can never have too much light". Of course, the last
time that one got me was trying to do small image product shots.
>
>
> But at the weekend I needed to do a traditional studio portrait for the
> first time in years. Exhibition coming up of stuff that is a joint project
> with a historian who's writing the words, so we needed a straightforward
> portrait of her to go with the blurb at the beginning of the show. My
> studio is a place where I do still life, it isn't big enough for a portrait,
> so off to the alternative venue: normally my dining room. I thought I'd do
> two lighting set-ups, one a straightforward butterfly lighting set, and the
> second a beauty dish to one side with fill from a softbox at the front and a
> profile spot for a hair light. Set up the lights and a backdrop,
> reflectors, etc. - and without thinking carted in the heavy packs and set up
> the heads I'd normally use. That is, the heads I'd use if I was using
> ISO50, some extension, and needing plenty of DoF on 4x5...
Wondering why you did not shoot it on 4x5 . . . . . . .
>
>
> So I carry all these heavy flash generators from one end of the house to the
> other, set it all up, put the packs on half power and take a test meter
> reading: f90.5. Turn the packs right down, and I'm still at f32.7. Great.
> Had to take all the lights out and put in 250Ws monolights instead, which
> would've been so much less effort if I'd put them in in the first place.
> And as a final insult, as I was doing it in a hurry I managed to sock myself
> in the jaw with a boom.
>
> D'oh!
>
> Teach me to get into a rut...
>
> *<;-)
>
> Peter
> (who hopes this is funnier now than it seemed at the time.)
>
> --
>
> http://www.bard-hill.co.uk
I have some ultra cheap 100WS simple strobes just for that reason. However,
after reading an article in PDN about a guy that does some interesting lighting
using several battery powered Nikon Speedlights, I am slowly buying up used
items and developing a new set-up.
Ciao!
Gordon Moat
A G Studio
<http://www.allgstudio.com>
Bandicoot
news:42A510F8...@attglobal.net...
> Bandicoot wrote:
>
> > I've mentioned on here before that I don't often do
> > portraits: most of my 'people' work is available light. If I
> > do do portraits it's almost always 'environmental', so any
> > lighting I use is lighting the setting as much as the subject.
> > Most of the time I use studio flash I'm either lighting big
> > interiors, or else doing still life with a need for small
> > apertures and (often) extra light to allow for extension.
> > And using fibre optics isn't exactly efficient. So I'm in the
> > habit of needing a lot of light...
>
> I have heard too often "you can never have too much light".
> Of course, the last time that one got me was trying to do
> small image product shots.
Very true, it was just force of habit that tripped me up. (though the 'you
can never have too many clamps' maxim is true...)
Actually it's often for the small things that I use the most light, maybe
because of extension and small aperture, but maybe also in part because the
light modifiers are less efficient. Whatever, the lens I was using didn't
even stop down to f90, even if I had wanted to use that for a portrait!
> >
> > But at the weekend I needed to do a traditional studio
> > portrait for the first time in years. Exhibition coming up of > > stuff
that is a joint project with a historian who's writing
> > the words, so we needed a straightforward portrait of her > > to go with
the blurb at the beginning of the show. My
> > studio is a place where I do still life, it isn't big enough for
> > a portrait, so off to the alternative venue: normally my
> > dining room. I thought I'd do two lighting set-ups, one a
> > straightforward butterfly lighting set, and the second a
> > beauty dish to one side with fill from a softbox at the front > > and a
profile spot for a hair light. Set up the lights and a
> > backdrop, reflectors, etc. - and without thinking carted in
> > the heavy packs and set up the heads I'd normally use.
> > That is, the heads I'd use if I was using ISO50, some
> > extension, and needing plenty of DoF on 4x5...
>
> Wondering why you did not shoot it on 4x5 . . . . . . .
Hassle, cost, lack of a direct viewfinder... It isn't going to be enlarged
to any great size (all the main pictures in this show are 6x6 anyway) and so
I didn't need the film acreage.
Used 6x6, and shot some 35mm to get her relaxed first.
> >
> > So I carry all these heavy flash generators from one end
> > of the house to the other, set it all up, put the packs on
> > half power and take a test meter reading: f90.5. Turn the > > packs
right down, and I'm still at f32.7. Great. Had to
> > take all the lights out and put in 250Ws monolights
> > instead, which would've been so much less effort if I'd put > > them in
in the first place. And as a final insult, as I was
> > doing it in a hurry I managed to sock myself in the jaw
> > with a boom.
> >
> > D'oh!
> >
> > Teach me to get into a rut...
> >
> > *<;-)
> >
> > Peter
> > (who hopes this is funnier now than it seemed at the time.)
> >
> > --
> >
> > http://www.bard-hill.co.uk
>
> I have some ultra cheap 100WS simple strobes just for that
> reason.
Elinchrom has recently brought out a couple of 100Ws monolights that look
very nice. One of the things I like about pack heads is being able to
control them from the pack, especially if the head is up on a high stand or
a boom, which I can't do with my monolights (EL250s), but the newer
Elinchrom monolights have a remote option, which makes them rather
attractive. Well, better go and earn some pennies first.
> However, after reading an article in PDN about a guy that
> does some interesting lighting using several battery powered > Nikon
Speedlights, I am slowly buying up used items and
> developing a new set-up.
>
I have a case in which I keep three Vivitar 283s, a 285 and a bunch of
slaves, cables, stoffen and lumiquest modifiers, etc. as a lightweight
location lighting rig. Also something I can use when I'm teaching: if I
planned to be outside all week and the weather forces us inside for more
than a day or so it lets me talk about lighting instead without having to
bring a huge lot of bulk and weight with me.
The biggest problem I find with this approach is that full size light
modifiers other than umbrellas are very difficult to use with small flashes.
The mini-softboxes designed for them are good for small scale still life,
but they seem rather limited for bigger subjects.
Peter
Alan Browne
> So I carry all these heavy flash generators from one end of the house to the
> other, set it all up, put the packs on half power and take a test meter
> reading: f90.5. Turn the packs right down, and I'm still at f32.7.
You could have simply draped some cotton or white plastic over the heads
(with clearance) to quickly drop a few stops at the lowest power setting.
For my portrait "studio" I use a 40 W-s AC strobe mounted in a
"breadcrumb" container for hairlights; or the same AC strobe behind the
subject to light the BG (with or without damping material). A couple
200 W-s monos in medium softboxes for fill and key. I have a 'circle'
mask for the softboxes so I can make the key light a little harsher if
needed. Pretty small outfit allows up to f/8 shooting at ISO 100 (or
f/11 or better if I set it up for flatter lighting).
For the portrait you mention, I'd consider available light from a large
window with a reflector up close on opposing side.
Cheers,
Alan
--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.
Bandicoot
news:ZOgpe.84621$a76.1...@wagner.videotron.net...
> Bandicoot wrote:
>
> > So I carry all these heavy flash generators from one end
> > of the house to the other, set it all up, put the packs on
> > half power and take a test meter reading: f90.5. Turn
> > the packs right down, and I'm still at f32.7.
>
> You could have simply draped some cotton or white
> plastic over the heads (with clearance) to quickly drop a
> few stops at the lowest power setting.
I wondered about that, or putting an ND on the lens. But the light quality
from the beauty dish would have changed a lot if I'd used something
diffusing in front of it, and I didn't have a big enough piece of scrim to
do the job without adding much diffussion. I guess I could have done it for
the softbox with some diffusing material, bat as I'd still have needed to
switch to a monolight in the beauty dish if they were to saty in proportion,
I just did both. Better buy another roll of scrim anyway, since that would
hae been the quick solution if I'd had some handy...
(Rejected the ND idea because of dimming the viewfinder - was using SLRs.)
>
> For my portrait "studio" I use a 40 W-s AC strobe
> mounted in a "breadcrumb" container for hairlights; or the
> same AC strobe behind the subject to light the BG (with or
> without damping material). A couple 200 W-s monos in
> medium softboxes for fill and key. I have a 'circle' mask
> for the softboxes so I can make the key light a little harsher
> if needed. Pretty small outfit allows up to f/8 shooting at
> ISO 100 (or f/11 or better if I set it up for flatter lighting).
That sounds pretty flexible. What's the 'breadcrumb' thing like? Sounds
like we'd call an egg-crate (if large) or a honeycomb (if smaller).
Using 250Ws monolights turned right down (1/8 power) in the setups I
described I was getting f8 - f11 on ISO160. The beauty dish, in particular,
is a very efficient reflector, and of course I had it in close (with a
reflector opposite and a softbox for most of the fill). For the butterfly
lighting I put a smallish softbox (about 20"x30") almost at ceiling height,
and used the nearly white ceiling to add some slightly warm fill, with
reflectors to either side and in front of the sitter. The hair light for
both was a profile spot - turned right down to 250Ws it seemed fine, black
paper backdrop.
>
> For the portrait you mention, I'd consider available light
> from a large window with a reflector up close on opposing > side.
>
I like that lighting, and use it a lot for still life. However the light
hasn't been right here all week and I needed to get the shot - and in any
case, the most convenient time to do it was after dark. Ain't that always
the way?
Peter
Gordon Moat
> "Gordon Moat" <mo...@attglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:42A510F8...@attglobal.net...
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . after reading an article in PDN about a guy
> that
> > does some interesting lighting using several battery powered > Nikon
> Speedlights, I am slowly buying up used items and
> > developing a new set-up.
> >
>
> I have a case in which I keep three Vivitar 283s, a 285 and a bunch of
> slaves, cables, stoffen and lumiquest modifiers, etc. as a lightweight
> location lighting rig. Also something I can use when I'm teaching: if I
> planned to be outside all week and the weather forces us inside for more
> than a day or so it lets me talk about lighting instead without having to
> bring a huge lot of bulk and weight with me.
The lighter load is what first attracted me to this idea. The other issue is
reliable electrical power, not a problem with battery power, though sometimes a
problem plugging in, or watching for tripping hazards.
>
>
> The biggest problem I find with this approach is that full size light
> modifiers other than umbrellas are very difficult to use with small flashes.
Umbrellas are okay, but shooting through a diffuser works nicely. An umbrella
is almost portable, depending upon size.
>
> The mini-softboxes designed for them are good for small scale still life,
> but they seem rather limited for bigger subjects.
>
> Peter
I never liked those mini soft boxes, though the mini bounce style works okay. I
also have some StoFen plastic, which I like in every way other than the high
price for a small bit of plastic.
Bandicoot
Peter
Gordon Moat
Alan Browne
Peter started it...
(Or I'm missing something, no surprise there ... )
Matt Clara
> Gordon Moat wrote:
>
>> See what you started . . . . . . . . :-D
>>
>> Ciao!
>>
>> Gordon Moat
>> A G Studio
>> <http://www.allgstudio.com>
>>
>
>
> Peter started it...
>
> (Or I'm missing something, no surprise there ... )
>
Ummm... the fact that Gordon was replying to Peter?
--
Regards,
Matt Clara
www.mattclara.com
Alan Browne
> Ummm... the fact that Gordon was replying to Peter?
Shows up in my newsreader as replying to me ...
Matt Clara
> Matt Clara wrote:
>
> > Ummm... the fact that Gordon was replying to Peter?
>
> Shows up in my newsreader as replying to me ...
>
So I assumed. (And that's what you get for using that lousy
Mozilla...)(Actually, it's most likely your news service hadn't picked up
all the posts.)