Light Fare From Martin Prihoda

A little while back I did some surveying on this site. Among other things, the survey told me that the readership of Strobist skewed male. Overwhelmingly, pathetically, ninety-four-percentingly male.

So I am thinking today that roughly six percent of you will react to Hamish's shotgunned beer burp with an "Ewww, gross," while about 94 percent of you will hold up signs with ratings from one to ten.

Vancouver-based shooter Martin Prihoda is back, squeezing a little end-of-day fun out of some lighting gear rental, and walking through the process of shooting a guy in a monkey suit against a sunset.

And when we say "monkey suit" we are not talking about a tuxedo.

(Thanks, Martin!)
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Related, more serious lighting video:

:: Martin Prihoda Shoots Delerium ::

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Mount Your Mods with Speed Straps

Having spent much of my 20 years as a newspaper shooter with sticky-velcro-covered flashes, I have recently become a big fan of velcro speed straps for mounting all of my light mods to small flashes.

Hit the jump for why you want 'em, where to get 'em, and how to make 'em -- plus a whole mess of archive DIY links.
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At one point in the 1980's, I think my go-to SB-24 had so much velcro stuck to it that it looked like a burnt Chia Pet. The problem with the stick-on velcro is if when it wears out, it doesn't hold worth a crap. And it is a pain in the butt to unpeel and swap. To that, add the fact that you have a limited amount of surface area unless you want your flash to look like mine did.

With all of today's lighting mod options, you really want to have some kind of velcro mounting system on your flash. And the speed strap route is the way to go -- you can easily remove them and/or swap out for a new one if the velcro goes. Plus you get a whole lot more mounting real estate, compared to the typical amount of stuck-on velcro.

Truth be told, these little guys are not expensive. They are less than $10, so many of you may well choose to go store-bought in this instance. You can get them from LumiQuest ($6.95 - smaller size) or from HonlPhoto ($9.95 - bigger, w/more surface area and grip).

They are the basis for most light mods mounting systems, including those from LumiQuest and HonlPhoto. Quest Couch from LumiQuest notes that, for larger light mods, you can use two straps (strobe - strap - light mod - second strap on top) for a super strong hold.

If you just use one or two strobes, it probably makes sense to tap the Visa card. But if you are broke have a whole case of strobes and would be buying straps by the half dozen, you might want to consider making them. They are cheap and easy, especially of you wait until the next time your bike inner tube goes flat.


To make them, you'll be using the inner tube as a base. It's cheap, holds well and is nice and wide.

You can make a strap in less than five minutes, using the inner tube and some sticky velcro (available at craft and hardware stores.)


1. Cut your tube into sections long enough to fully wrap around the head of your flash with a full overlap on the wide dimension. Go a little long, then you can cut it for an exact fit when you are done.

2. Cut a length-wise strip from the tube, making a flat piece of rubber about an inch-and-a-half wide. There will probably be injection mold lines along the tube to make for easy, straight cuts. Mountain (and trail) tubes work better than the smaller road bike tubes. If you use the portion of the tube that would come in contact with the ground (if it were a tire) you'll avoid the curve of the rubber that would otherwise make it harder to fit.

3. Very important: Wash the rubber thoroughly with soap and water, and dry it well. It will have grime on it, and a powder residue on the inside -- both of which will cause problems if it is not clean and dry.

4. Totally cover the inside of the rubber section with two long strips of the "loops" part of the velcro. Trim along the edges to fit if necessary.

5. Cover the other side of the tube (formerly the outside) with "hooks" velcro at one end, to a length equal to the width of your flash head.

6. Wrap the strap around your flash, overlapping on the long end, and trim to length if necessary.


That's all there is to it.


Here's a view of the reverse side, which should make everything self explanatory. It's very important to make sure the tube section is totally clean and dry, or your sticky velco won't hold.

Normally, when I run a DIY post I get a few condescending comments from the deep-walleted DIY haters, which serve to offset the comments I get from the starving artists when I mention, say, Profotos. So, as long as they are gonna be pissed off anyway, here are lots more DIY posts dusted off from the archives:
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Selected DIY Posts

:: DIY Cardboard Snoots and Gobos ::
:: DIY Tupperware Diffuser ::
:: DIY Household Sync Cord Extension ::
:: $10 Macro Studio Box ::
:: Two-Cent Micro Studio ::
:: HD RIng Flash Adapter ::
:: $8 Flat-Fold Ring Light ::
:: Coffee Can Point-and-Shoot Ring Flash ::
:: Engineer Lamp Light Stand ::
:: Ball Bungee Softbox/Speedlight Mount ::
:: PVC Speedlight Aqua Housing ::
:: OMG DIY Off-Camera TTL Cord ::
:: DIY Beauty Dish ::
:: DIY Cardboard Grid Spots ::
:: DIY Macro Strip Lights ::

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DVDs Back in Stock

If you missed out on the Strobist Lighting Seminar DVD set, the second printing is in. All backorders have now been shipped, and remaining DVDs are available here.

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Nikon SB-900 Foot: Size 16 EEEE

The new Nikon SB-900 Speedlights are dropping into stock pretty much everywhere, albeit on allocation.

But before you buy, you might want to check this thread for a running update on what the flash shoes the newly designed foot will -- and won't -- fit. Please feel free to add to this list if you find out anything first hand.

And remember that they do ship with an AS-21 foot, which can be swapped out if your system is 1/4 x 20-based. But mind that plastic thread if you are swapping out frequently.


RELATED:

:: SB-900 Review ::

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Speedlights, South Africa Style

South African photographer (and Strobist reader) Robert Miller, whom you may also know as "Panascape" on Flickr, has been showing up in PIX African Photo Journal so often he should be paying them rent.

Back in the March edition, Miller wrote and photographed a story entitled, "Welcome to Strobist." He got four pages for his story and another four pages about his photography in the form of a monolith/Q&A piece. Not a bad month.

Then he pops up in my mailbox today with a stitched, HDR panorama with embedded lit portrait on the current, triple fold-out cover -- which is basically a PIX magazine geargasm to the new Nikon D700. (It wraps around to the back cover, too. Craziness.)

We'd never do the ad / cover / fold-out ad thing like that in the States. But seeing that kind of stuff is one of the reasons I love reading foreign photo mags. Even as an old Chinese Wall newspaper guy, I have to admit it is pretty friggin' cool for PIX to announce a long-awaited camera like that.

Links and a diagram, after the jump.


Top Photo: How it Was Lit

Here's the setup for the top photo. Two umbrellas and a ring light. Click the diagram to read more info in Robert's comment stream, where he talks about how he built the flash and ambient ratio for the shot.
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As far as my photo, which pretty much looks like a little turd compared to Robert's stuff, I stuck an SB-800 at camera left and exposed for the flash at about 1 stop above the ambient. Location: My mail box.

For more info (and a diagram) on Robert's tri-fold, high-dynamic-range panorama cover shot, check out his Flickr page for the photo.

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Hands-On Review: Nikon SB-900 Speedlight

I got a chance to play with a new Nikon SB-900 speedlight over the last few days and I gotta say, it's a pretty sweet flash. Long story short: Nikon has just extended their lead in the flash department.

The only drawback I can see is the "perfectly good" status of the current SB-800. And that $500 price tag, of course.

Should you get one? Swap out all of your SB-800s? Be on the lookout for cheap, used SB-800s and add more?

Hit the jump for the Full Monty review, and a few things you might want to consider.
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First impression: It is much bigger than the SB-800. Didn't really seem any heavier, but definitely takes up more space. This is a consideration for a couple of reasons. One, cubic inches matter when on the road. Not so much on a single flash basis, but if you are packing half a dozen SB-900s, you could probably cram seven SB-800's in the same space.

Also, the head is a totally new design and size. This means that your current light modifiers may or may not fit the SB-900, depending on their size and/or mounting flexibility.


So here's that big ol' honker of a head. First glance, it looks to be pretty much the biggest speedlight head going, save maybe the Vivitar 285 HV. It looks bigger than an old SB-26, and certainly bigger than an SB-24.

If you can get past the size, they have done some really cool things with the extra space. The 200mm zoom rocks. Not because I am gonna direct flash with my 70-200 racked out. But because it will concentrate the beam, of light into a smaller area when used off-camera.

Why would you care? Because it effectively gives you a more powerful flash when large swaths of light are not needed. Like doing a hard-light, multi-flash portrait outdoors, for example. You usually would not want to light their feet anyway.

Rather than eat up that needless beam angle with a snoot or grid, you can zoom it in, and get some extra f-stop with the more concentrated beam. This translates into more control over the ambient light level (you can get a darker working f-stop at 1/250th, for example) for more choices in your ambient tones.

Of course, you can get a Better Beamer to stick on just about any flash to do this, but it is not built-in.

The Big Head Advantages do not stop there. It's the most sophisticated refractor/reflector system I have ever seen on a flash. They actually modulate the tube with respect to both the front fresnel and the polished, rear reflector. This gives you the ability to shape the internal qualities of the beam, too.

You can choose a normal (slightly concentrated) pattern, an even more concentrated pattern (again, yet more energy to the center for situations described above) or a near-perfectly even light distribution depending on your lighting needs.

That's a real breakthrough in speedlight design, and brings to a (relatively) small package more of the capabilities of an interchangeable-reflector studio strobe. Big props to Nikon for that.


Other advantages that argue for switching are the new CLS interface. You'll get back the time you spend wading through the CLS menus on your master flash. This would not be a reason to swap out, say, four flashes. But it might be good reason to get one to use as a master.

It's basically a manual switch and a wheel dial -- a very fast an intuitive combo for switching setting in very little time. It took a little digging to find the SU-4 mode, which we like because it activates an awesome built-in slave, but I can confirm it is included and does work it's manual-power slaved-flash magic.

I actually used that mode to sync all of the flashes used to make the shots in this post. More on that later.


Big on the advantage list: Recycle time absolutely rocks at 2 seconds with no accessory battery back. Better circuitry uses the same power source -- with much faster recycling. This is a dream with Ni-MH batts, and the fifth-wheel option is no longer needed for fast shooting. For some, this will warrant swapping out their main, on-camera flash.

The accessory SD-9 battery pack walks that already fast recycle time down to about a second at full power. And it can hobble along on just four extra batts if needed, according to the Nikon guys I spoke with.

Interesting point: The power plug on the SD-9 has two extra nubs which means it will not fit other flashes. But the design looks as if the current SD-8-type plug may fit the SB-900. This is important if you are going to be migrating other existing battery packs to the SB-900.


Thankfully, the PC jack is still there. Big ups to Nikon for including the old-school synching, in addition to the fancy-pants CLS stuff.

One other noteworthy change is that the SB-900 swings both ways -- you can go reverse 180 in either direction. This is especially useful, in that whichever way you mount a remote flash you can have the receiving window facing the master light source.

Before, there were situations in which you had to cheat that angle and lose wireless range as a result. Every flash should have this feature, IMO.


In Sync:

1. It comes with a gel holder, which totally rocks. No more tape and/or velcro. And the dome diffuser fits right over the gel holder, allowing both to be used at once. The bar-coded Nikon gel thing is a little gimmicky -- it sets your camera's WB to the "appropriate" setting. The special Nikon gels could easily be duped with a template and some liquid paper. You will not need to re-up with the official Nikon gels ($$) if you do not want to.

2. Goofy, but cool: At full power, the discharge sounds like a blaster from Star Wars ("pew, pew, pew"). Recycling is almost silent. And oh-so-fast.

3. My seven year-old boy loved the battery compartment: Individual cylindrical battery holes -- like loading a revolver.

4. Thermal shut-down protection -- which can be disabled if you are completely stupid. Cool detail: A "thermometer" in the rear display shows you if you are starting to red-line it.


Out of Sync:

1. Five. Hundred. Dollars.

2. The hot shoe is a new, thicker size that will not fit many current accessory shoes. McNally dropped one out of a Justin Clamp, which is a staple lighting tool. (The Nikon guys mentioned that about 5 times this weekend, Joe. They might be sending the black helicopters after you shortly...)

3. The new AS-21 foot must be used because of the new shoe size. Which would be fine, except for that the metal female 1/4 x 20 insert in the AS-19 has been replaced by mere molded plastic in the AS-21. This will be a problem for people who repeatedly use the AS-21 on an umbrella swivel. That's a design whiff that should not have happened. (More on that here.)



Decision Time

So, that to do?

My biggest problem is, I absolutely love the SB-800s. IMO, many of the added features are great. But I do not think I can justify switching everything out wholesale. Buying just one might be a very good idea -- I can see many instances when those extra features would make for a more useful single flash.

My other problem: They may well choose to discontinue the SB-800, which would be a crying shame. It's either that or create a whole new production line for the SB-900. The SB-800 is small, powerful and does everything. Many will continue to prefer it to the SB-900, given price difference and the fact that the core functionality is the same. Seriously, what's so wrong with this current flash?

But of course, that's how my grandmother felt about her rotary-dial ATT phone, too. I am officially old now.

I know one thing -- if they do drop the SB-800, the '900 is gonna sell a crapload of SB-600 flashes. Thats a huge price gap which many amateurs will not be able to rationalize. And the smart move for new CLS'ers might be one '900 and a few '600's. Who knows.

The SB-900s are already pre-selling like crazy. So Nikon is clearly doing something right. My hope: SB-800s go out of vogue with the doctors, dentists, and rich soccer moms and they all wind up in the used dept and on Ebay for $200 a pop.

'Cause if that happened, I'd pimp out my lighting bag like McNally's. (Only, he'd have 72 SB-900s by then...)


Lighting These Photos

For the top photo (shown again here) I set the subject flashes on SU-4 slave mode in manual, at 1/128th power. Since they were only a few inches away from each other this would be my limiting factor, even dialed down to 1/128th. A quick pop-and-chimp, and I was adjusted to the aperture that gave me a good exposure from each other's close-in light.

I shot these with a new Nikon D700, BTW. We were absolutely swimming in new toys this weekend at Shoot! The Day in NYC. Awesome little camera, that '700. D3 guts in a D300 body. Expect iPhone 3G-esque wait times for a while if you want one.

Anyway, once I got the best shooting aperture for the flash-to-flash light from the subject flashes, I manually adjusted the other lights to look good at the chosen aperture, which I believe was f/16. I shot at a 250th, to nuke the ambient away. I put the flashes on a shiny black table and shot low, to maximize the reflection.


Other lights were:


• An SB-800 aimed at the background from under the table, using the frosted diffuser for an even gradient.

• Two SB-800's as rim lights, which edge-lights all of the shiny black surfaces.

• An on-camera flash in a Ray Flash adapter, which gave me the specular highlights on the front surfaces.


You Tell Me

Nikon shooters: Are you gonna get one? Are you gonna swap out your SB-800s? Why? Why not?

I'm on the fence, and looking for feedback...

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One-Light Night Landscape

New in the Strobist Reader Gallery is Jonathan Boeke's night shot of a stand of trees.

It's done with multiple pops, during a time exposure. And it is easier than you might think. Keep reading for a few tips on creating shot like this, next time you are alone in the woods at night...

For this shot, Jonathan walked to a spot behind each tree and fired a Nikon SB-600 with a green gel back at the camera while the shutter was open during a time exposure. (You can click on the pic for the comment thread, and his explanation.)

If you have a camera that supports multiple exposure, you can eliminate a lot of noise (and logistical problems) from the frame by shooting the frame as a sequence of higher-shutter speed multi-exposure shots.

But you'd need a shutter cord and a third remote (or a helper and a tripod) to do that. You can see how to do the channel-hopping relay mode here.

If you wanna go multi exposure, you can do it with no remotes at all. Just open that shutter and start running. I've pulled together a few ideas to help your photo, and save some work in post production.
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• Wear dark clothing. Nice to have a dark hoodie, too, just in case you do not have one of those face-hiding ninja masks lying around.


• Snoot the flash just a teensy bit. You still want a nice, wide beam, so just do a half-inch or so. Black gaffer's tape works great. But that little ridge will help avoid blowback in the exposure, which can light you up if you have limbs visible to the camera.


• Mount a very dim light source close to the vertical axis of the lens at the camera. Maybe an LED flashlight, aimed up, mounted to the hot shoe. This will let you know when the tree is hiding you (and your flash) from the camera very precisely as you walk around in the background.


• Consider varying your distance from behind the trees as you pop each flash shot. You can throw light a long distance, and light up big chunks of your background that way. Be sure to crank up the power some (adjust with a few test shots) to account for the increased flash-to-blocking-tree distance. And multiple pops could be your friend here, too.


• If you aim the flash up a little (or a lot) you'll light the leaves in the trees better. Especially in the background, where more height from the trees will be visible to catch the light. This will also avoid the hot spot being visible at your feet.


• Remember that the light behind the far trees acts as a nice rim for the nearer trees, so take that light-to-subject distance into account when planning how far back to get behind the rear light pops. (Remember L102 Position -- evenness increases with distance.)


• Watch your ambient lights, to keep from tracking. Gaffer tape everything that would give off light while you are busy walking around in your frame. Your flash ready light and info panel backlight need to go dark. Ditto anything else that might be glowing or blinking, like a Pocket Wizard status LED.
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If you are gonna try this on your own, tag your shot "strobist" and "backlitforest" (the latter is all one word) so we can see all of them at once by clicking here. I am thinking of trying one myself, and it might be fun to revisit in a future post.

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Speedlinks, July 18, 2008

I'm up in NYC, gearing up for tomorrow's lighting seminar and Sunday's "Shoot! The Day" classes. But there's still time for a fresh batch of speedlinks!


• Thomas Graves has an excellent real-world review of the RadioPoppers at Light-Shoot-Print.

• Remember Joey Lawrence? He's been in Moldova, shooting cats the King of the Gypsies and has a video which includes the lighting setup. That kid is something. Eighteen frickin' years old and never home.

(Warning: The audio is NSFW, and the video is NSF cat lovers...)

• My friend Kevin Coloton is doing foot race finishes with a quad-speedlight setup, shooting motor sequences on 1/16th power. Knowing some of you are into this, I wanted to point you to his team's blog post -- complete with pix, a diagram and video.

• Chris Claborne has posted a review of the brand new AlienBees CyberSyncs in the Strobist Flickr threads.

• Back in the late 70's and early 80's I spent a lot of times in some, uh, pretty creative darkrooms. And I saw more than one photographer printing on grass. But never like this...

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Rembrandt Lighting? Um, No.

Phoenix-based shooter Blair Bunting must have been asleep the day they taught the classic portrait lighting styles in school. Either that, or he skipped right past "Rembrandt" and went straight to "Badass."

Bunting is part of a movement of a high-def lighting style that is especially well-suited to subjects like athletes, rock musicians, MMA fighters, assassins, orcs, etc.

Keep reading for full lighting diagrams (hint: lots of sources) and some Q&A on Bunting's techniques and lighting philosophy.
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The first thing to consider when sculpting light like this is to leave some shadow. The light's edge is defined by shadow, which is what creates the form. The other thing to remember is that the intensity of the surface of the subject also is revealed by specular highlights. And each light source is going to create a specular of some kind.

Placing lights where you want them -- and keeping them away from where you do not -- is the balance you need to strike to make this kind of photo.

To get an idea of what it took to create this look for a portrait of Arizona State running back Keegan Herring, check out the top-view and front-view lighting diagrams, below.


Top View



Looking at this angle, you can see that Herring is lit from just about everywhere except the lens axis. This is what makes the lights define him in such a cool way. Again, you have to leave shadow to get form.

But each of those lights his the subject on a glancing blow, with respect to the lens axis, and that is what creates the cool highlights.

Lotta lights? Yeah. It's pretty much walking into a camera store and asking for two of everything they have. But it is a look. And it's a look that will make a college sports information department do the Happy Dance and call you back year after year. Just like they do for Bunting.


Front View


To look at the top view, you'd think Herring is inside of a cylinder of light, but that does not take into account the varying heights of the light sources, which in this way creates yet more sculpting with shadows.

From this angle, you should really start to see the light coming together.

Height-wise, the strips and small square boxes are doing the heavy lifting, lighting the body and face. But it is the beauty dish (don't call it that in front of Herring) grids and reflector that create the edge everywhere.

"Yeah, yeah," you say. "It's really all done in post. Ten minutes of shooting and two days of Photoshop."


Yeah, well, maybe not so much as you think. In fact, Blair was kind enough to release a raw photo, seen at left, which shows you just how close he gets with light.

From there, it's pretty quick and basic in Photoshop. It always helps to start with the best file possible. And the closer you can get in the camera, they better. That said, Bunting notes that he tends to think of light as expression, rather than as a process. He said he uses light to create opinion and emotion.

He gets the "what light is best?" question a lot, to which he responds:

"Buy what you can afford. The reasoning behind my answer is that I am of firm belief that practice is more significant than any brand name. I have been fortunate enough to use numerous different brands of lights, hot and cold, small and large."

As for tools vs. vision, he says, "I fall into a rhythm where my tools give way to my vision and my eye produces what my mind wants to see. Be it Profotos, Alien Bees, or SB-800's, one can create with all of these."

He particularly worries for the beginning photographer who finds his or her approach inferior to a photographer using more expensive lights. He feels that mindset is a dangerous mental handicap, and wishes it on no one.

Where does he get his inspiration? You might be surprised:

"Often times I find that the music I listen to can determine my lighting approach more than anything else. With my eyes closed, a glass of wine, and a powerful score (or any song that drives you within for that matter) I sit and think of light not as this invisible substance, but a tangible entity."

He goes on:

"Mentally I observe it like wind and smoke and try to imagine how it should form my subject. This is particularly practical when shooting cars as many people hit a road block with the reflectivity of metal."

Bunting also thinks of light as water, using analogies of hard vs. soft, narrow vs. wide beams and hot vs. cold. It's an organic way of describing light that I had never considered, but it has me thinking.

He advises photographers to consider, and learn, the power of a single light source. Know what a single, silver umbrella can do for your subject, and to respect light.

Lest this all get too philosophical, I hit him up with some specific questions:



Q and A

1. The lighting design for the football player is killer. How did you evolve this particular lighting style? Were you influenced by video games? Movies? Other shooters?

Oddly enough, this one was music and visualizing for endless hours. I lived with my Ipod in and would skip lunches to plan (this shoot had 10 shots to be done in 2 hours). For this one in particular I listened to everything from the Gladiator theme (“The Battle” by Hans Zimmer) to death metal.

The idea was to make the scariest person imaginable. So the lighting was based off of discomfort, a lot of lights, a lot of speculars, a lot of chaos. The idea of the lighting came from the countless movies where you can barely see the person, rather an outline; in this case I wanted it carried a bit further with his eyes.


2. Do you find you get hired to do a certain look? Do you feel you still have creative freedom?

I have been especially fortunate in this area. It is often that I get booked by clients that have someone of a concept and want my style to carry it, which in turn lends a great deal of creative freedom my way. Other times I will be booked by a client that maybe wants a less moody image, but still wants my view brought into the shot, either way the freedom is there.

The downside is sometimes all I want to do is think about lighting and would give anything for a set in stone storyboard where I came in, followed directions, lit, shot and went home.


3. That's, um, a lot of light sources. Typically a shooter would not start out with an arsenal like that. What kind of approach were you using when you had fewer lights?

I am a huge fan of shooting one source, and often have usually with one silver umbrella. Another way I saw lighting (when using fewer sources) was making sure that the eye saw a comfortable single direction in the photo, and from there countering that source with a fill to keep the contrast ratio down.


4. Given that many watt-second deployed against a single player, how do you adapt that look to larger subjects -- say, an offensive line?

This is sometimes a task, in all honesty. The football player need a lot of light since the shot was done with a digital medium format system, which requires more than a 35mm.

I will usually try and bring larger packs (preference going to the Profoto D4 4800). However, there are just times when there are not enough lights and the budget isn’t open enough to bring in 20 or 30 heads. (DH note: 20 or 30?!?) In this case I improvise and try to visualize the scene with a single light source and take small steps building off that to a minimalist approach.

5. Is heavy post production an important part of this look? If so, how close do you get with the light and how much needs to be done in post?

In all reality I am not that savvy with Photoshop. Because of this lighting has to be perfect. I have seen guys take snapshots of cars and make them look like a studio shot. I respect this approach, but it’s just not mine and is dangerous if an AD is on set and wants to visualize a shot for placement. Much of the work I do looks extremely close to what is seen in the LCD on set with added contrast, polishing and sharpening. I have included the jpeg for the football player shot for reference as a file that has not seen Photoshop.
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Blair posted a brief video vignette from other parts of this same shoot to YouTube:



Thanks much to Blair for giving us an inside look at both his lighting techniques and philosophy. To see more of Blair's work -- or to hire him -- visit his website.

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Orbis Ring Flash Adapter Details

An email from Enlight Photo dropped into my box tonight with some fresh detail on the upcoming Orbis Ring Flash Adapter. It's similar in function (if not design) to the Ray Flash adapter, with some key differences:

• The flash is mounted off-camera, similar to many of the DIY designs we have seen.

• From the light source reflections in some of the test shots on the updated website, it appears to be a little softer (bigger) light source than the Ray Flash.

• Price is said to be "under $200".

• No word on efficiency, relative to direct flash. (Ray Flash is minus just one stop compared to direct flash.)


More info, email list sign up, pre-sale info, etc. -- here.

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Win a Free Set of PocketWizards

UPDATE: I asked for a little clarification on the means of off-camera flash trigger allowed for the contest and got the following answer: ANYTHING. That means, PW's, Ebay remotes, sync cords (ironically), Nikon CLS, Canon eTTL, voice-activated test-button-pusher during a time exposure -- ANYTHING.

Yeah, I'm pretty much thinking that headline got your attention. It's Christmas in July, baby, and Santa is bringing the Plus II's. Keep reading after the jump for all of the details...

Flash back a coupla months ago, when the folks at PocketWizard check in to say how much they like what's been going on with this group, and want to know what they could do to help keep the party rolling.

"Weeeell," I suggested, "You could always buy us some beer give away some PW Plus II's to the readers. I'm sure they would like that."

And they're like, "Okay, cool."

And I'm like, "Really?"

And they're like, "Really."

So Strobist and PocketWizard are teaming up to do just that. If you did not know already, there is actually a PocketWIzard blog. And it's not one of those stuffed-shirt corporate weenie blogs, either -- they are having some fun with it. They just ran an SI Swimsuit Issue body painting video, for instance.

(Hey, it's legit. Some of those photos were shot with PWs. Right? Right?)

But they've been watching your Strobist videos, too. And even without the benefit of (technically nekkid) supermodels, they like 'em. In fact, they're looking to feature some of 'em up on the PW blog. So they want to prime the pump more wireless flash videos to show off the cool stuff they are doing and help to educate other shooters.

(As if you guys needed any more encouragement...)


Basically, they are looking for wireless flash how-to -- and show-off -- videos on YouTube. Doesn't even have to be PocketWizard-branded remotes. Just cool stuff done with wireless flash. So you "Poverty Wizard" folks who have been pining for a set of Plus II's might get to shoot your way to a free pair.

Heck, they don't even have to be videos -- still-photo slide shows with voiceovers are eligible, too. Fair warning, you'll probably have to be pretty creative to win one of the sets. But what the heck, you may as well try. You have several chances to win -- the monthly contest runs through November.

To enter, your video needs to be tagged "pocketwizardstrobist" (one word). That's it. Pre-existing videos can be entered simply by adding the tag. (Not yet, Bert, at least finish reading this post first.)


Rules, from PocketWizard:

Once a month, free pair of PW Plus II will be awarded to the best video on YouTube of a photo shoot detailing creative use of wireless triggering. Video can be live video or, a series of still photos with voiceover and clear explanation of how wireless triggering was used.

Creativity with wireless triggering is key to this contest. Show us your best, most creative use of going wireless with radio triggering. And detail, detail, detail! Explain your setup well so everyone can understand what it took to make your vision come alive.

All videos must be tagged "pocketwizardstrobist" to qualify. The judging panel will be David Hobby of Strobist and Phil Bradon from PocketWizard. Awarded PocketWizards will have frequencies appropriate to the winner's location, if winner is in a country other than the US.

In addition, photos may also uploaded to Flickr tagged "pocketwizardstrobist" with link to the YouTube video in the description.

The contest runs mid-July through end of November. Winners will be announced on the 15th of each following month, beginning in August.

That's all there is to it. Good luck!
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RELATED:

:: PocketWizard Contest Details ::
:: PocketWizard Blog ::
:: PW Plus II Product Page ::
:: YouTube PocketWizardStrobist-Tagged Videos ::

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Light We Like: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Like Platon, photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders does most all of his portraiture with one, soft light. So he's an especially good person to learn from if you are still waiting to snag that second flash.

Greenfield-Sanders has made a career out of shooting elegant portraits of people, lit simply but beautifully with one light source. He also uses large format cameras for their extreme detail and lush tonal range. This consistent setup allows him to spend his time exploring expression, detail and subtle subject/photographer interactions.

This Ovation TV excerpt gives a little look into how he works, and how he approaches his interaction with subjects. Hit the jump for links and two more videos: One from a Fashion Week project, and the second a li'l sump'm-sump'm for the laydies...


(Briefly NSFW-ish)







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Related: Sanders' website

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New, and Long Overdue: Blogroll

It's on the sidebar, about halfway down. Starting with the usual suspects, with more to come soon. Stay tuned.

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Canon G9: The New Polaroid?

Back in the day, when the earth was still cooling and dinosaurs still roamed the plains, film-shooting photogs used to have to proof on Polaroid backs. Wasn't cheap, or convenient: $2.00 a pop, and two minutes to pull a print.

That doesn't sound too bad until you realize how fast light can change at, say, golden hour.

I was talking today with Grayson Schaffer, an associate editor with Outside Magazine, and the subject of shooting film came up.

He surprised me by telling me that about 20-25% of their photographers still use film. Then he told me that many of the film shooters carry a Canon G9 to use as a Polaroid back.

Makes perfect sense: It has a wide range of lenses built in, can go full manual with aperture and shutter and has a PW-friendly hot shoe. Plus there's that big, juicy screen on the back.

Grayson said the photogs shoot piggyback with the G9, which shows them what they are getting on their (usually) 120 format film. This is especially important when lighting a photo. Seriously, how would you like to shoot film and go without that little helper on the back of your DSLR for a while?

(Me, either.)

Plus, they can email the digital "Polaroids" to the magazine while they are still on assignment, to let them know what's coming. Cool beans. Gotta tell you, the conversation gave me thoughts of dusting off the old Hassy.

I know we have some folks who still shoot film on this site. Any of you using a G9 (or similar camera) as a proofing back for the analog camera? Tell us how it's working for you, accuracy-wise, in the comments.

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Getty to License Flickr Images

UPDATE: Lots of interesting views in the comments, and PhotoShelter has now responded.

Seeing how many of you have photos on Flickr, this is gonna be a topic of conversation around here.

We have one of the largest groups on Flickr, and the quality is such that the photos in the Flickr Strobist group regularly make explore. So this is definitely gonna be relevant.

Main points:

1. They come to you, based on your photos. Not everyone will be involved.
2. It's an "opt in" thing. You do not have to participate.

Full official FAQ, links and your comments, after the jump.
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Flickr/Getty FAQ

What is being announced?

Getty Images and Flickr are announcing an exclusive partnership that allows Getty Images to invite Flickr members to participate in a Flickr branded collection on www.gettyimages.com that will be available for licensing to Getty Images’ creative and editorial customers in the coming months.


How does this benefit my customer?

We know that our customers were already going to Flickr for inspiration and they often would try to license images. This partnership allows them to more easily find the images that are commercially viable, and then to license them with confidence.

It also means customers will have access to even more fresh, authentic and regionally relevant content that expands our best-in-class imagery offering.


Are all images on Flickr going to be in the collection?

No. At launch (which is scheduled for later this year), we will have tens of thousands of high-quality images available for commercial licensing on Getty Images. Our goal is to make thousands more available over time. Getty Images editors will select the most marketable Flickr images and create a Flickr Collection for customers to license at www.gettyimages.com. They’ll select images for the Flickr collection according to Getty Images’ unique understanding of what our customers need, using insights gained from the creative research processes developed by Getty Images. Photographers will have the option to take part, or not.

The images selected will be cleared with their Flickr copyright owners, so that they are ready for license on gettyimages.com.

Their prices will vary, depending on the licensing model assigned to each image and each customer’s intended use.


What license model will the images be under?

At launch, the edited collection of Flickr images will be available to Getty Images customers through the Flickr branded collection on gettyimages.com – which will span across all three licensing models – rights managed, rights ready and royalty free. Prices will vary, depending on the license model, but the pricing will be similar to other RM, RR and RF imagery at gettyimages.com.


When will the collection be available?

The collection will be available to customers in the coming months (it is not available right now). Prices will vary, depending on license model, but the pricing will be similar to other RF, RR and RM imagery at gettyimages.com.


Will customers be able to find the selected images available for license on Flickr?

A “license this image on gettyimages.com” button or function will be enabled on Flickr for images included in the Flickr collection, to enable Flickr visitors to license such Flickr images through Getty Images.


Can Flickr photographers distribute the images they have on Getty Images through any other distributor, or is this an exclusive deal?

This is an image-exclusive deal. If a Flickr photographer decides to have an image distributed through www.gettyimages.com, they cannot distribute that particular image, or any similar image, through any other site. They may, however, choose to distribute other images anywhere else.


Does this deal mean that our customers can legally use images from Flickr?

Yes. When the Flickr collection launches on www.gettyimages.com, customers can be confident in the rights and clearances of any Flickr image licensed by Getty Images.


What customer segment does this deal address?

All of Getty Images’ customer segments: media, agency and corporate.


What is the goal of the Flickr collection on gettyimages.com?

This partnership represents the continued innovation that moves the industry forward to meet the changing needs of Getty Images customers. This relationship offers a responsible way to bridge the world of Flickr’s photo-enthusiasts with traditional photography, offering a customer experience that is different than microstock. Getty Images customers will have even more fresh, diverse and regionally relevant imagery to use for their communications projects, with confidence.


What does the deal mean for each company?

Getty Images will have an exclusive partnership with Flickr to source and license select, potentially marketable photos discovered on Flickr for Getty Images’ creative, commercial and editorial customers.

For Flickr, this partnership gives members a potential entry into the world of stock photography, leveraging Getty Images’ strengths and expertise for their members’ benefit. The Flickr collection on Getty Images is a testimony to the photographers who have influenced the aesthetics of commercial photography with authentic, creative and personal images.

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More reading:

Previous Strobist Series: Flickr and You
Press Release
FAQ
Interview (PDN)
Discussion

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On Assignment: Night Chopper, Pt. 2

In part one of the Night Chopper shoot, we talked about some of the problems that had to be overcome in preparation for an interior-lit, ground-to-air shot of a police helicopter.

Today, we are going to walk through the shoot itself, see what unexpected problems popped up and look at some of the edits from the take.
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Perry, the pilot, landed the helicopter in 50-acre field next to the Howard County Fairgrounds about 45 minutes before sunset. This ensured that we would have time to plan out shots and light the interior. After a quick flight around the area to get some interior pilot shots, we landed and began to set up the light for the main shoot.


As the ambient light started to drop down, I placed a single diffusion domed SB-800 in the rear cabin, clamped to the back seat and set on 1/8 power. You can see this light at camera right.

This would give me plenty of light in the rear of the aircraft. It's a bit of a location cheat, but it would give me omnidirectional light -- similar to a car's dome light. I lowered it because I was worried I would see the actual strobe in the photos if I didn't.

Quality-wise, this would have been fine (for the back) by itself, but I decided to stick a second strobe in the back as well -- on the armrest between the two rear facing seats. You can see this light at camera left. Both of these strobes were gelled with a 1/2 CTO for some added warmth, as was discussed in Part 1.

The reason for the second light is another layer of redundancy for the sync. It gets its own Pocket Wizard, which improves the odds that at least one of the flashes will fire. Remember, I only need one good reception and all of my flashes should fire, thanks to the SB-800s' built-in slaves.

Since I added a second light, I dropped them both to 1/16th power to bring the total output to a level equal to one strobe at 1/8 power.

At this point I was getting a little worried. It was just about time to shoot, and I still was not sure where to mount the front light. I needed three things: Low, hidden, and omnidirectional. Which meant using a diffusion dome on this one, too.

But the gauges were right where I needed the light to be, with no way to mount it. There was really no way to do it even with a Bogen Magic Arm. The problem was both the angle and a lack of a suitable mounting surface.

That's when Mark, the copilot, saved my butt: "I could hold it," he said.

Of course he could! Never even thought of that -- and likely would not have. But looking at Mark's seating position it quickly became obvious that he could hold the light in the exact place it needed to be, and move it if they needed to see the instruments.

This light was set on 1/32nd power, BTW, with a dome and a 1/2 CTB cooling gel. So even with the pilot catching a direct flash, the equivalent was somewhere around 1/256th power. Barely a wink. And at that point, Mark became what as far as I know was the world's first VAL-CP (voice activated light stand copilot.)


I quickly walked around front and chimped a few frames from closer to the actual shooting angle. Looked great -- we were good to go. I backed way up, shooting test frames as I went. We were golden, getting a 100% synching rate, even way back form the chopper.

We waited for the ambient light to drop down to our desired shutter speed range for good-looking rotors. (You can't just shoot those at a 250th, or they look silly -- frozen in mid-air.)

When the sky dropped a little more, they took off and we began shooting. At first, I was overexposing the sky a little, just to get a good rotor shutter speed. I could always fix that in post. No worries.

After two passes we realize that the front flash is not firing. Damn. Our ambient window is very tight, and now we have to land the chopper to see what is wrong. As it turns out, the front flash (hooked to an older PW) was likely not getting a radio signal and was relying on the slave.

That would have been fine, except that it turns out that Mark was holding the flash in such a way that his finger sealed off the light from reaching the little slave receiver window. That's not Mark's fault -- it's mine. Too many things on my mind, and I neglected to explain the importance of that little window.

So, the tech is working pretty well. It's the processor between my ears that is a little obsolete. But that is a quick fix and we are off again.


Now, as the ambient drops well into my range, I can vary my shutter speed to get different densities in the sky. Typical ambient balancing -- just like a sunset portrait. There is no right or wrong -- it's rather like BS'ing your way through a term paper in Comp 101. You decide what tone you want in the background and go with it.

Because I am shooting raw, it is easy to move that sky color around a little in post, too. Since the helicopter body is near black, it is a piece of cake to find a selection area where you can preserve the cockpit and shift the sky. Moving the color balance around gets you a wide selection of moods.

Mind you, I am shooting from the ground in this photo. Perry could buzz past with that nose way down, which gave the illusion that we were both in the air as long as I did not include a horizon for reference. He got it down so far on some runs that it looked like I was actually above the chopper. Visually, we had created a chase chopper for free. Sweet.

(Note to self: Next time, remember to bill the higher-ups for the second chopper and split the money with the pilot...)


As the sky dropped down, I switched to a 17-35/2.8 and tried to keep my shutter speed from going below 1/40th of a sec. The sky just continued to darken, so my exposures got richer. This just affected the sky, mind you, as the chopper's interior was lit by flash. And flash only cares about the aperture.

I could darken the sky by dropping my shutter, as I did in the photo above by going to 1/125th of a second. It as all happening pretty fast, but you still have a little time to experiment if you keep making frames. They are all gonna look pretty good -- just different. You don't really need 200 frames of the same look, right? Right?


For the last few frames they turned the spotlight on my car as they flew by. I would have loved to have something better in the foreground, but we were out of warm bodies. And we only got a couple of passes before the light went bye-bye.


Looking Back

I am very happy with the way this shoot turned out, especially being it is the first time trying something like this. Was it perfect? Nah. But I learned a lot, and the we came away with some cool photos.

Given a second opportunity I would like to think we could erase our screwup-induced delays and get maybe 3x the shooting time for the short ambient window. But I'm not complaining.

Next stop for photos in the HCPD: Tactical, I hope.

I have me some ideas. But that's for another day.
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Related:

:: Planning for this shot ::
:: Sunset portrait ::

NEXT: On Assignment: 50 Years

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Light We Like: Gregory Crewdson

UPDATE: Adds a second video, with lots more detail, after the jump.



I find myself completely mesmerized by Gregory Crewdson's photos. The light, the narrative, the light, the tension, the light -- well, you get the idea.

When you look at his photos, bear in mind that he puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like you do. Only then he spends the whole day taking over entire city blocks, directing his technical folks, manipulating casts of "figures" and, well, never actually "holding the camera," as he notes.

Gregory does not work "in a studio". He works "on a sound stage. He has a set designer, an art director, a lighting tech and, um, a director of photography. Who is not named Gregory.

But he sure does make facilitate some amazing photographs. This stuff in this video is just about the polar opposite from the low-impact, minimal gear ethic that is embraced by photographers who do not happen have access to, say, an entire town and James Cameron's lighting truck.

But the results always makes me think about how I could adapt some of his techniques to my dinky little SB's. (Note that the video is briefly NSFW, but in an artsy way.)

Second video, after the jump.


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More Crewdson photos here. (Some also NSFW.)

Further reading:

:: Gregory Crewdson: Beneath the Roses ::
:: Twilight: The Photographs of Gregory Crewdson ::

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