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Pixels welcomes Mr. Norm Haughey of Photoflex at our store tomorrow, July 9, 2010. This will be a free studio lighting course held from 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM and will cover a number of exciting lighting topics. Attendees will be eligible to win a free Small Litedome Kit courtesy of Norm and Photoflex. Space is limited and you must RSVP at 801.233.9090 to attend. Ever since the newest Ranger kit showed up at Pixels Foto & Frame I’ve been dying to take it out for a spin. Sure, we played with it in store a little bit, took it to a trade show as a demo, but I wanted to take it somewhere that would really put the kit into its element. I finally had the opportunity to take the kit out for a evening of night snowboarding photos with a local group of riders who specialize (amongst other things) in riding pitch black areas with nothing but headlamps for light.  A back-lit rider prepares an impromptu jump. But first a brief discussion of what the Quadra is and why you, or anyone, who loves lighting should care. The Ranger series has long been Elinchrom’s high end battery pack and head system. The full size Ranger pack will blast out a sun-tanning 1100 w/s of power if you need it to. But like a lot of similar systems it isn’t exactly easy to tote around. This is where the new Ranger Quadra steps in, and what you notice first is the size. This thing is TINY. The pack with a battery attached weighs less than some pro camera/lens combinations. And then there’s the flash head itself: sans reflector the entire head is smaller than my fist. Pretty incredible stuff from a size and weight stand point, but what about power? Four-hundred watt-seconds of power to exact. Stack that little detail next to the tiny size and you have a light system to be truly excited about. The kit I tested was one of Elinchrom’s To-Go flash kits featuring the power pack, two batteries, charger, two flash heads, and integrated Skyport triggering.  Ranger used to light the rider and the trees behind. Added a small SB-80DX as a slight edge light for the left side. Skyport is Elinchrom’s system for wireless firing of their lighting gear. What makes this special is that the pack has the receiver built-in and the transmitter on your camera’s hot-shoe allows for direct control of the pack’s power output and activates the LED modeling lamps on the flash heads if desired. Like the bigger Ranger, the Quadra can run two flash heads simultaneously with an asymmetrical split in power between heads A and B. This means that with both heads attached power is automatically split in a 2/3 (66.6%) 1/3 (33%) ratio. You are locked into this ratio like most packs of similar design. The power split gives you a logical key light and fill light relationship and you will find the power split will not be an issue for your average everyday photo shoot. With the technical stuff out of the way we’re on to the field test itself. Since we were shooting snowboarding photographs in multiple locations I needed a carrying system that would grant mobility and protection to lights while we moved from spot to spot. With this in mind I rigged a Dakine Sequence backpack as the light bag for the evening. The pack tucked safely away inside as did the two flash heads and appropriate cables. I packed a pair of Manfrotto Super Clamps with mounting studs to allows me to make lighting supports out of just about anything. A second Dakine bag carried the camera, lenses, a couple of small Nikon speedlights, and a tripod. On the slopes careful skiing was in order since light was scarce and we didn’t want to put unnecessary risk on the gear. Our first location was a tree lined gully that funneled down for several hundred feet before rejoining a ski run. The top of the chosen line was marked with a fallen tree trunk covered with snow. Using the trunk as a kicker, each boarder could jump as they entered the gully and we had potential for some nice action shots.  Ranger used to light the rider and the trees behind. Added a small SB-80DX as a slight edge light for the left side. We secured some high ground looking down upon the jump as the logical place to set up the Quadra. We knew that we’d need both flash heads going in order to get all the needed light for the scene so we went ahead and connected everything immediately. Having opted not to bring any light stands we used poles and super clamps to position the heads where needed. The light weight of each flash was a real benefit here as we were able to make usable “light stands” out of just about anything without needed to worry about whether or not our supports could hold the lights. Two flashes locked us into the asymmetrical power distribution so Head B (33% power) was directed at the jump where our rider would be and Head A (66% power) would handle opening up the inky black background to give the shot some context. Down the gully 50-60 ft. was camera position: tucked up against a tree and immediately below where the riders would land after hitting the jump point. The Quadra really shined in this situation once we powered up the LED modeling lamp. These things are B-R-I-G-H-T. We were able to accurately pre-focus each shot and had the added benefit of giving the riders some extra light as they took runs. The finishing touch with the setup came with addition of a low-power speedlight rim. Since all the light from the Quadra was camera right in the final shots, the small SB provided a much-needed separation light on the rider’s opposing side. The whole setup was simple to strip down and re-pack for the next location. Since we now had shots in a pretty stationary setting we switched it up to prepare for some quick and easy moving shots. I took the lighting pack and after riding the lift up immediately connect a single flash head to the pack in the ‘A’ position giving me access to the full 400 watt-seconds if needed. With pack on and the flash connected I threaded the cable up and over my shoulder so I could wear the pack and hand-hold the flash tube. Shooting partner Nate King took the camera pack and in this way we could ski and shoot quickly and efficiently. The Skyport allowed Nate to control the flash power from his shooting location while the pack remained safely protected on my back at all times. We were able to work with 100-150 ft. of distance between the camera and the lights with reliable results the whole evening.  A single back-light from the Quadra lights up the flurries of snow from the riders. The biggest crutch for shooting the action shots came down to the long recycling times on the Quadra. Shots were repeatedly missed because the pack couldn’t recycle fast enough to allow a rapid sequence of photographs to be taken (a Broncolor this is not). Each pass made by a rider would yield only one shot making careful timing and quick reactions on the camera end a must. In all fairness, the Quadra is not a particularly slow pack, recycling times are well within what should be expected; it was simply not quite enough to keep up with rapidly moving snowboarders. That being said, the flash durations on the Ranger Quadra are excellent and provided fantastic action-freezing flash pops all night. Coupled with the LED lamps for focus assist and we were getting consistently sharp photos all night even as the riders were hucking themselves off various make-shift jumps. The final setup was orchestrated around a simple roller tucked against the bottom of a dark tree grove. With the lighting still geared up for fast and simple we went with a single-light back lit approach. I placed the Quadra above the camera position with the jump right smack between us. As a rider would go airborne, we could freeze them mid-air with the snow plumes they kicked up giving us a dramatic action shot. Which brings me to my final gripe with the Quadra as a whole: cable length. I’m talking about the cables the run power from the battery pack to the actual flash head; they’re simply too short for a lot of two light setups. It is possible to purchase special extension cables to help negate this problem, but you lose some power when you use them. And that brings us to this report’s conclusion and what we’re left with is a pretty amazing piece of equipment. For the size and the weight there is NOTHING out there that can match the Quadra on power or convenience. Sure the cable length is a little short and the recycle time can be on long side sometimes, but seems hardly enough to condemn the system. LED modeling lamps, built in Skyport, 400 watt-seconds heads the size of my fist? Quadra’s got it in spades and the result is a pack that is easy to work with and all but the biggest and most demanding shoots it’ll fit the bill nicely. Addendum (2/22/2010): Mark Astmann was kind enough to stop by in the comments with a couple of points regarding the Quadra. The recycling time of the pack can be significantly increased by changing the unit into its fast recycle mode. This cuts recycle times in half with a 40% decrease in battery life. This is great if you need to work quickly, but at 2.1 seconds for a full recharge action photographers will still need to plan their shots carefully (no Spray & Pray here folks). Finally, I was critical of the Quadra’s cable length but mentioned that extensions were available to allow greater working distances. The cables included in the box are 8′ in length; Elinchrom offers additional cables in 5′ & 11′. A new, almost 33′ cable will be available next month I am told. The trade off with adding extensions comes in the form of a roughly one stop power loss for every 10 feet of cable. Its amazing what you can do with some simple household items in the photography world. Product photography is a great avenue to explore the usefulness of these items. With product photography, you subject matter can be set up in a controlled environment; the ideal place to try out new lighting techniques and gear.  Finished bike photograph. Today we’ll discuss what went in to producing a shot of my old mountain bike. In addition to the final shot you’ll see a lighting setup shot that you may refer to as you read through the article. To start things out, take a basic assessment of your shooting environment. In this case I was utilizing my living room. Any room with enough space for you to work can be made to function as a makeshift studio. I also knew that I would be achieving the shot with artificial light from camera flashes; this saves me from having to spend time worrying about the amount/quality of the ambient light. With a space picked out you can begin to set up your shooting environment. The key to this shot lies in a common household item: bedsheets. There are two in this shot. First is a plain black sheet anchored to the bookshelf behind the bike and allowed to gently slope down to the floor. A second plain white sheet was anchored to the ceiling and stretched out above the black background anchored to a pair of lightstands. This white sheet forms a sort of awning over the area where our subject will be placed.
Our sheet set up, two softboxed Alienbees strobes go up on stands. Placed up high and angled down, these two lights pass through the large white sheet to illuminate the bike below. You might ask why use the softboxes if the bedsheet is diffusing the light for us? Double diffusion baby. The softboxes give the light some direction to keep from shooting unwanted spill everywhere, but they also provide their own soft light which will make the final output through the sheet even better for our subject. Lights up, its time to bring the subject in. With the bike positioned on our black background, position your big lights where you think appropriate and shoot some test shots. Play with aperture and power levels of your strobes to get the desired amount of light on the subject. The final lighting issue on the bicycle was the seat. The black seat on a black background disappeared into nothing. To solved it I placed a small hotshoe camera flash with a narrow grid on it directly above and behind the bike (but below the big white diffusing sheet). The flash provides a little kiss of light to the top edge of the bike seat and the spot grid prevents the light from spilling to other areas. The final problem with this shot was the limitation of space in my room. My black bedsheet background was almost too small to accommodate the bike on it and when shot with a wide angle lens, I was left with a lot of distracting background elements in the completed picture. In photoshop I painted out the unwanted background images leaving me with a simple, clean, black environment for my finished bicycle shot. Scott Kelby has written a great article addressing some of the differences, advantages and disadvantages of studio strobes versus small off-camera flashes. He writes, “I finally got around to covering a question that I get asked so often from readers here on the blog, and that is:
 Photo by Scott Kelby “What is the difference between off camera flash (like a Nikon SB-800 or SB-900, or a Canon 580 EXII), and a Studio Strobe?“ If I have time, I sometimes answer people back with a direct email, but I’ve gotten this question so many times, I haven’t been able to answer them all. So, I thought I’d put together an example to show you my typical response to the question, which is purely my own opinion on the subject. What I usually say is something along the lines of: “Whether you use a small off-camera flash, or a studio strobe, what you get is a bright flash of white light aiming toward your subject.” I know that sounds pretty simplistic, but that’s what it is. For example, two of the shots below were taken with a Studio Strobe with a small softbox, and one was taken with a Nikon SB-800 with the same small softbox.” Continue reading Studio Strobes vs. Small Off-Camera Flashes. Fun video from David Hobby (aka The Strobist) on lighting with small flash in the deserts of Dubai. The shooter is the very talented Joe McNally. If you pay attention you can pick up some pretty cool information about how they were able to tame the very harsh Dubai conditions using relatively low power speedlights (albeit, a veritable forest of them). Ben
 Nikon D300, 50mm f/1.8, ISO 200 Today we’ll be looking at the lighting design that went into getting a single photograph (pictured right) in the hopes that you’ll be able to learn a little bit about how to approach a portrait shoot and what goes into creating a shot like this with small shoe-mount flashes. First things first with a portrait shoot: you need to assemble the necessary people and gear at your chosen location. If you’re shooting on site somewhere, location is a big consideration that defines a lot of later decisions regarding gear and lighting. This particular shot was being done on a simple black background which only required having a room big enough to work in comfortably. So with a space at a friend’s house determined and a model picked for the shoot its time to move on to on-site preparation. Try to think through what you want to shoot while packing your gear and bring more stuff than you anticipate needing. Since I knew I’d be using artificial light, lighting accessories were the primary concern for packing. My packing list for the shoot looked something like this: 6 Speedlights (3 SB-80DX, 1 SB-28, 2 SB-26) Your gear list will differ based on the requirements of your shoot but you will likely find that you have a list of items that you always bring regardless of the type of shoot you are doing. Frequently my light kit for a day of shooting is stripped down to two flashes and the essential gear to fire them; sometimes traveling light and working fast are more important than bringing your whole kit with you. Once on location get right to work on setting up your shooting environment. It doesn’t hurt to be there before your model so that you have something ready to go when they arrive. Since this was just a shoot for fun I didn’t have to worry about wasting my model’s time and squandering my good rapport with them. The first thing set up for this shot was the black bedsheet backdrop tacked to a bare wall. Background in place move on to your lighting. I’m not going to go in depth here with the in and outs of lighting design but consider attending the Pixels Small Flash Lighting Course on March 17th if you want to really get into this stuff. Without going into too much detail, when I start to shoot a model with lighting I usually begin with a simple setup utilizing one or two lights and slowly work towards something more complex. If you can get started on making shots right away you can work on creating a good vibe with your model and slowly work up to the more complicated setups. After shooting for awhile we arrived at the lighting scheme for the shot above. The layout was as follows: Five flashes total. One pair of SB-80DX’s camera left on a stand just slightly behind model gelled one full cut CTO. Two more flashes (SB-28 and SB-80DX) fired bare on the opposite (right) side. Finally, one DIY beauty dish with a bare SB-26 inside providing some hair and face fill from my trusty VALS (Voice Activated Light Stand). SB-28 fired with Cactus V2s, all other flashes synced with their optical slaves. In plain english that means: two lights with orange gels lit the model from the left while two more ungelled flashes lit her from the right. An additional flash in a beauty dish was held by my assistant providing fill light for Jennifer’s hair and face. The gelled/ungelled light combination gives a nice duotone seperation to the light and adds interests. You can play with this idea with a whole range of gel colors to get some cool styles. Hopefully that gives you a little insight into what goes into creating a picture like this. There’s plenty more to talk about when it comes to lighting and I hope some of you will attend my lighting class on March 17 where we can get more in depth with some hands-on lighting techniques. For further reading, add www.strobist.com to your bookmarks and start soaking in the wealth of great lighting information to found there. Ben. If you shoot a lot of off camera flash like me, you know that Pocket Wizards have long been the standard among professionals for radio frequency triggers. Simply put: the just work. Every. Time.
So when Pocket Wizard announces a whole new system for its radio triggers, naturally it gets people’s attention including my own. The big news with the new triggers is full ETTL (Canon) or iTTL (Nikon) support. Pop your flash on the FlexTT5 receiver, put a MiniTT1 transmitter on your camera shoot wireless TTL flash without the line-of-sight limitations of infrared systems. If that wasn’t cool enough, the new system claims to be able to buy you a FULL STOP more shutter speed sync out of your flash setup WITHOUT switching your flashes into FP high speed sync mode. The way it pulls this off is incredibly cool, not to mention incredibly complex. Think of it like this: to the human eye, a flash burst is essentially instantaneous. But if you talk about it in very small increments of time (try milliseconds) a flash burst is actually three separate events. The “ramp-up” is where the flash begins to fire and come up to full power, followed by the actual time the flash is at full power, and finally the trail-off. The traditional 1/250 second sync speed on cameras is designed to capture the entire life of a flash burst. So what if your radio trigger could fire your flash BEFORE your camera’s shutter opened? The new pocket wizards do exactly that. Before the shutter snaps open, your flash(s) have already finished the ramp-up portion of their firing cycle, buying you a stop extra of shutter speed and only a 5% loss in flash power. When you consider that a stop in camera terms is a doubling or halving of available light, a full stop extra with the new Pocket Wizards effectively makes your flashes TWICE as powerful. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. Canon shooters get lucky too, the new Pocket Wizard system is being released for the Canon system first. Check out the links below for more good information: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/02/pocketwizard-flextt5-and-minitt1-full.html http://www.pocketwizard.com/inspirations/technology/ Ben. |
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The purpose of this white sheet is diffusion. The white fabric will transmit light through it, but it the process it will spread out, or diffuse, the light we use. Diffused light equals soft light. Soft light equals flattering light that will illuminate our subject evenly and avoid bright reflective hotspots on the metal bike frame. As far as the camera is concerned, the sheet becomes one giant light source even though we may actually be firing multiple lights through it.
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