CGeezer the light boy!

Kaouthia

Kaouthia

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John Aldred
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Had a shoot this evening with a local model, Sarah, and John stepped up to give me a hand holding the lights and generally being a huge help and a good laugh. :)

He makes a great light stand extension when I don't want to get them wet.
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No, he wasn't really trying to light her with his popup flash, he was using it as a CLS commander for the little army of SB-900s & SB-600s we had off to the side for some AutoFP high speed sync goodness. :)
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Thanks very much mate! :)
 
We all had such a blast this evening. Here's a quick behind the scenes test shot as we were setting up the lights for the sunset with Sarah keeping wrapped up warm in her dressing gown (it was really kinda chilly when that breeze picked up, and she only had an LBD on underneath that).

Again, 4xSB-900s and 2xSB-600s off to the left. Shot at 1/2000th @ f/5.6, ISO200.
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Looks like fun, and I love the idea of the flash illuminated model at sunset (ok, probably not original, but I love it anyway).

Two questions (I know you didn't really put this thread up for questions but...)

1) Why this?

Kaouthia said:
Again, 4xSB-900s and 2xSB-600s off to the left. Shot at 1/2000th @ f/5.6, ISO200.
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I'm not lighting expert, but surely anything over maximum sync speed and you are into FP mode and your power falls through the floor? Can you explain?

2) Can I see some more from the shoot :D
 
desantnik said:
1) I'm not lighting expert, but surely anything over maximum sync speed and you are into FP mode and your power falls through the floor? Can you explain?
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Indeed, that's why we had 6 Speedlights going (giving us about an extra 2 1/3 stops of light power), so that we could shoot that fast at wider apertures for a shallower depth of field. Just going from 1/250th to 1/320th you can lose about a stop of light, because of the way Nikon's AutoFP high speed sync functions.

Some of the shots we did yesterday were as fast as 1/4000th to really crush the sunlight as it came peaking through the clouds.

Basically in high speed sync mode, rather than just sending out a single flash pulse as normal, it sends out a continuous stream of pulses throughout your exposure to get an even amount of light across the scene as the two shutter curtains do their thing. To achieve this it has to shoot well below its maximum power output on each flash pulse, which is why you lose so much when you go into high speed mode.

This is where we were shooting (I got this one about a month ago), and this image was shot at 1/2000th @ f/16 with a 3 stop ND grad filter.

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desantnik said:
2) Can I see some more from the shoot :D
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Only did one quick one last night when I got back home, I had to get a relatively early night to prepare for today's Ingleton Caves meet. :D

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There is still a lot of detail there in the dress, but it loses a bit in Flickr's auto resizing.

I'll get some more done over the next few days.
 
A quick behind the scenes one of the lighting setup on the high speed sync stuff.

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4xSB-900s and 2xSB-600s to light her up while shooting at 1/500-1/2000th of a second at wider apertures to maintain a narrower depth of field.
 
Kaouthia said:
A quick behind the scenes one of the lighting setup on the high speed sync stuff.

4815865574_535260525e.jpg


4xSB-900s and 2xSB-600s to light her up while shooting at 1/500-1/2000th of a second at wider apertures to maintain a narrower depth of field.
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i obey..:lol:

you gave all your secrets away...:thumbs:
 
Safari's don't do high speed sync. :)

Besides, saving for Elinchrom Rangers.
 
mrcrow said:
you gave all your secrets away...:thumbs:
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Oh no, not all. :D

I always get a kick out of seeing other peoples' lighting setups, and how people achieve some of the effects they get, so I like to share sometimes too. :)
 
Kaouthia said:
Safari's don't do high speed sync. :)

Besides, saving for Elinchrom Rangers.
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What did you do that couldn't be done with the Safaris, I have mains and battery flash but wasn't aware of any difference. I'm quite new to studio tography :)
 
Kaouthia said:
Oh no, not all. :D

I always get a kick out of seeing other peoples' lighting setups, and how people achieve some of the effects they get, so I like to share sometimes too. :)
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well i think yours look pretty good for outdoors...i think the farthest i ever got was thinking about a bowens home studio...and blagging the light box at the camera club on portrait nights..

cool:clap:
 
mrcrow said:
well i think yours look pretty good for outdoors...
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Why thank you. :)

I much prefer the fun and challenge of shooting on location rather than in a studio.
 
cowasaki said:
Unless the subject is moving why would you need to? (Just curious)
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Basically to crush the ambient light (that's the sun behind her in the image below) without having to shoot at high apertures that lose your nice narrow depth of field.

4803286498_8dbb2e5c06.jpg

1/2000 @ f/5.6

I could've gone down from f/5.6 to f/16 in order to get a 1/250th shutter speed, but I wanted the background to be out of focus. :)

Sometimes though you just have no choice (even if narrow depth of field isn't important). Like the shot I did several weeks ago (shown again below), there I was shooting at 1/2000th of a second at f/16, and had a 3 stop ND grad over the lens in order to bring the sun under control.

4696709061_dd3f178785.jpg

1/2000 @ f/16 with 3 stop ND grad on the sky.

If I wanted to stick a person in that scene, short of piling a bunch of ND filters on the end of my lens (which I don't really want to do) I'd really have no choice but to shoot AutoFP high speed sync (although I'd probably need a lot more Speedlights than I used on Saturday, lol).
 
Kaouthia said:
Basically to crush the ambient light (that's the sun behind her in the image below) without having to shoot at high apertures that lose your nice narrow depth of field.

4803286498_8dbb2e5c06.jpg

1/2000 @ f/5.6

I could've gone down from f/5.6 to f/16 in order to get a 1/250th shutter speed, but I wanted the background to be out of focus. :)

Sometimes though you just have no choice (even if narrow depth of field isn't important). Like the shot I did several weeks ago (shown again below), there I was shooting at 1/2000th of a second at f/16, and had a 3 stop ND grad over the lens in order to bring the sun under control.

4696709061_dd3f178785.jpg

1/2000 @ f/16 with 3 stop ND grad on the sky.

If I wanted to stick a person in that scene, short of piling a bunch of ND filters on the end of my lens (which I don't really want to do) I'd really have no choice but to shoot AutoFP high speed sync (although I'd probably need a lot more Speedlights than I used on Saturday, lol).
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Thanks, I like to understand these things :)
 
mrcrow said:
do all dslr's synch at this or can they go higher
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All Nikon DSLRs will sync happily up to 1/250th with pretty much any flash. Canon DSLRs varies from camera to camera and light to light, from what I've seen. I've heard people shooting anywhere from 1/60th to 1/250th with regular studio lights in order to not get dodgy lighting effects because the shutter curtains move too quick for the flash.

Nikon DSLRs require Nikon speedlights in order to utilise the AutoFP high speed sync feature. I may be wrong, but I think Nissin might have a compatible flash now. Some Nikon DSLRs, like the D70, have hybrid shutters, that will allow them to work with various flashes all the way up to 1/8000th.

You can lose 1-3 stops of light though on any of the Nikon DSLRs when you go beyond 1/250th into AutoFP high speed sync mode.

There are ways to trick out a Nikon DSLR in order to get it shooting faster than 1/250th of a second with pretty much any light if you have an SB-900 on the hotshoe, with an RF-602 trigger going to the SB-900's sync port, although with varying degrees of success. I managed to get my Yongnuo YN460-II flashes working great all the way up to 1/1000th of a second using this method, but I've heard of some people managing to go all the way up to 1/8000th with other body/light combos.
 
Kaouthia said:
All Nikon DSLRs will sync happily up to 1/250th with pretty much any flash. Canon DSLRs varies from camera to camera and light to light, from what I've seen. I've heard people shooting anywhere from 1/60th to 1/250th with regular studio lights in order to not get dodgy lighting effects because the shutter curtains move too quick for the flash.

Nikon DSLRs require Nikon speedlights in order to utilise the AutoFP high speed sync feature. I may be wrong, but I think Nissin might have a compatible flash now. Some Nikon DSLRs, like the D70, have hybrid shutters, that will allow them to work with various flashes all the way up to 1/8000th.

You can lose 1-3 stops of light though on any of the Nikon DSLRs when you go beyond 1/250th into AutoFP high speed sync mode.

There are ways to trick out a Nikon DSLR in order to get it shooting faster than 1/250th of a second with pretty much any light if you have an SB-900 on the hotshoe, with an RF-602 trigger going to the SB-900's sync port, although with varying degrees of success. I managed to get my Yongnuo YN460-II flashes working great all the way up to 1/1000th of a second using this method, but I've heard of some people managing to go all the way up to 1/8000th with other body/light combos.
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thanks Kaouthia...
i do remember problems with my earlier slrs till i got the nikon EL2 bodies...they seemed to synch higher..and of course the in lens shutters of the bronica and fuji mf rangefinders

what do you use with studio...that cant be a problem...light boxes and lamps etc

finally ...and i cant remember too well the older jobs...are there any dslr type bodies and matching in lens shutters...or is that not really a practical solution
 
Whenever I use a studio, I rent the studio, haven't sorted one out of my own yet (just not worth the expense for me yet). Usually they're a mix of Bowens, Lastolite and damn can't remember the other manufacturer, but yeah, i an a studio, I have no problem syncing with any of 'em all the way up to 1/250th with my RF-602 radio triggers.

Haven't tried doing the SB-900 sync port trick to see if I can get higher than 1/250th with studio strobes (but only because I haven't been back to a studio since I learned that trick, lol).

Most of my work done with people is on location, so I tend not to be in a studio that much.

I'm not sure about DSLRs with in-lens shutters, but it's not something I've heard of. I have thought about picking up a D70 though due to the hybrid shutter, just to have a play with.

Oh, and one of the images that was a result of John freezing his feet off in the water. Just a normal shot this one, regular 1/250 shutter speed, no high speed sync stuff. :)
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My 1d has a CCD sensor and electronic shutter, it can sync all the way to 1/16000 with sync cords (wireless triggers can't keep up). Haven't tested anything beyond 1/1000 myself though :)

Only 4mpx though but they're Good Pixels :D
 
wow, the 1D shoots all the way up to 1/16000? O.o
 
You're only my bitch during the week, CGeezer has to babysit because it's the summer holidays. ;)
 
CGeezer said:
SIX weeks of it. I won't make it :(
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Just play hide and seek with them, wait for them to hide and go off and do your own thing for three hours then come back and tell them that they are really good at it :) :thumbs:
 
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