The Ball O Light - Gary Fong In The Steampunk Era

I am glad that the neighbours can't see me in my little studio. They would ring the department, the men in the white coats would come, and that would be the end of it. As it is, I close the curtains and put on my Mad Doctor outfit and start experimenting...

The current line of research revolves around a steampunk event that will be run in May. I've decided to run a portrait set-up and have been assembling the equipment and the lighting. The get-up is no problem - I've been wearing steampunk outfits for the last twenty years at various events and it has stopped being costume long ago - it is clothing now, and old clothing at that...

The camera is the new Moriarty Portrait camera - supplied innocently by Justin Moriarty and the Fujifilm company. Not that they knew it at the time, mind, but I'm sure they will be charmed by the results in the end. Hey, any company that deliberately gives me a sepia setting in the menu of their digital camera ( the X-E2) must expect me to grab the idea and run with it. If they will kindly put a daguerreotype, ambrotype, and tintype setting in as well I will send them a bouquet of chrysanthemums.

Camera sorted, I have turned to lighting. As tempting as it is to devise a lighting system that incorporates a miniature steam engine ( Saito Mfg.. from Japan), a motorcycle generator, and antique light fittings, the work and oily mess involved would make photography impossible. So I have chickened out and  opted for electronic flash.

The Elinchrom Quadra system would do it on a professional basis - two light stands, two heads, battery controller, Skyport trigger and such, but I don't own one and I don't want to borrow one of the Rental Department's kits. The idea of steampunk is you think it up and make it yourself.

I do own some Nikon SB 700 speed lights so I turned to one of them and the Gary Fong collapsible Lightsphere. In the top the sphere I dropped one of the silver diffusers - up until now I have never been able to make this chrome accessory do anything. Now it is brilliant. It fires the light out into a flat annular pattern while still allowing some of it to exit the top of the Fong going toward the ceiling.

The result is absolutely even lighting and some degree of reverse fill in the shadows to the back of the portrait subject. No hot spot on the frontal planes of the face and no burn-out on bald heads. ( I have found my own pate useful for test purposes...)

I've got the light on a standard light stand and  have found that the legs of it can stand within the compass of my tripod legs - thus reducing the chances for people stumbling over them in the dark of a ballroom. I am thinking of decorating the legs of the tripod to further warn off the punters.

Next experiment will be to reduce the output from the Fong and do a hand-held SB 700 with a snoot or grip for spot lighting. Steam on!

Great Deals From Shoot!

Hop to the phone and get yourself a bargain!

Jonathan Cousins from Shoot Photography Workshops has some specials for the coming Valentine's day - 20% off all photo courses if you book between now and the 14th. What could be more romantic!

As well, there is a 2 for 1 offer for the following courses:

Tonight's 1st Photojournalism course...11th of February

Astrophotography on the 15/16 February

Off Camera Flash Techniques on the 23rd of February

Please give Jonathan a buzz on 9228 8232 or 0419 956 878 and book in for a bargain.

Note: Planets and stars will be provided for the astrophotography course but only at night...

A Money-Making Opportunity On The Road

I couldn't put my finger on it yesterday, but I think I have it now - what was wrong about the British Classic Car Day at Pinjarra.

Don't bristle up - or don't Bristol up, as the case may be - it wasn't the cars, or the raceway, or the visitors, or the enthusiasts, or the food, or the fly-over by the Aero club. It was one of the stall holders who missed out on a good thing. As it happens, he was the chap with the photo business booth.

He did a good job of setting out his booth - a mini studio and advertising for all the services that he provides - weddings, glamour, commercial, portrait, etc. And he had signs and a computer  and printer and a soft box set up and a chair to sit in. And no customers.

I sympathised with him - I've been in precisely that position at other field events where the photo business wasn't what they came out for and the punters walked by as if I didn't exist. Indeed, we had that happen a couple of times when the shop sent out a sales display - at least I was getting paid overtime for that one - overtime and all the lizards I could eat. But the chap at Pinjarra might not have had lizards, so his day would have been long and hot.

The thing that hit me today was he was trying to sell the wrong thing to the wrong people - he had no need of that stall at all, either, unless it was to house a busy minion tending the printer. You see his customers weren't the farmers lurching by unheeding - they were the enthusiasts out in the center field with their cars. He should have been out snapping cars and owners.

I did. Got some great car pictures for my personal blog. Could have posed any number of proud Poms with their cars and passed out my professional card - and would have likely got a number of orders for prints or image files. Didn't, because I went there for my own purposes, but the market is definitely there.

People who spend money on their cars want recognition of their cars and themselves - they have their own audience of other enthusiasts at these things but in most cases that are not good enough photographers to organise good record shots of their vehicles. They ALL secretly long to be on the cover of Classic Cars or 4WD Driver or Car Kulture Deluxe and if you provide them with images that are based upon this idea you have a winner.

The same might be said for boating enthusiasts - remember that yachties may easily forget the ages of their children but they can nail to the day the time they bought the fore-deck wing for Saucy Sue II. If you can stand them, they have money.

Airplane enthusiasts might be the same, but getting to meet them is tougher than the car people. they have to be where the airplanes are and anything that aviates is hemmed round with regulations. Research your venues before you try.

As for me and the chap at Pinjarra - we will be wise little photographers if we get a good little portable field flash rig ( and I do ) and some good cards ( and I don't ) and go schmooze the drivers. Automotive ego ain't a bad thing!

" What do you mean you can't make a decent dashboard, Man. Make it out of wood - we'll tell the buyers it is a luxury item. That stuff doesn't grow on trees, Y'know..."

Smoke and Mirrors

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the practice of announcing a venue to be smoke-free and then turning on a theatrical smoke machine in front of the stage smacks of hypocrisy? In the case of a dance show that wants photographic coverage it smacks of failure too.

Thus my  last Saturday's coverage of a dance show in a suburban hall yielded photos that were of...less quality than before. It was not the fault of the hall - it had a good big stage with a proscenium. It was not the fault of the dancers who hoofed it and hip-dropped it with great aplomb. It was the fault of he DJ and the damn smoke machine.

I use flash to capture the stage work - because I know that many of the stages of Perth have no lighting worth seeing. Indeed you struggle to see anything in some cases. The Nikon SB 700 flashes I use stop the motion and brighten the costumes from all the way back of the hall if need be - they are powerful. Canon users can use their 430 and 600 -series flashes in the same way - plenty of light at their command. Fill them with lithium AA batteries and you have 600 shots to capture the show.

Not, however, if someone interposes a smoke screen between you and the stage. the light bounces off he smoke, the dancers disappear into a fog, and you might as well be taking pictures through a bed sheet.

I did find a position that was somewhat away from the smoke and got a few shots, but as they are skewed from the edge of the stage, they don't really show the dancers at their best.

Ah, well, onward and upward. Another show at the end of this week and no smoke machine. I might let off a mosquito coil when I leave, but.

Close Encounters of The Fun Kind - Stroboframe

I frequently buy items from our shop upon speculation - I do not know exactly how I will use them but I add them to the armamentarium on the off-chance that they will be just what I need. Here is a tale of one such device.

Stroboframe make brackets and flash holders for film and digital cameras - have done for years. Wedding photographers who used flash in the film era used them to drop the shadow from the flash down behind the subject. The simple geometry of the thing meant that faces looked clean and attractive and even quite small spaces could be utilised for set shots.

In a studio setting, the various flip mechanisms that Stroboframe make let people turn their cameras from landscape to portrait orientation without losing framing. A lot less shifting of tripods.

I had occasion yesterday to discover just how useful one of the larger Stroboframe brackets could be when I covered a model car exhibition. Think of these model cars in terms of close-up rather than macro subjects but stretch your imagination further to encompass your own work - and see if the brackets might be just as useful.

The bracket mounts my Nikon D300 with an 18-200 lens. The wide range of the lens is very useful when dealing with subjects that might be as small as your thumb up to full interiors or landscapes. In the case of the model car show I chiefly wanted clear illustration for my blog - "Here All Week" at hrhoa.wordpress.com. Thus meant accurate colours and adequate depth of field on the small cars - I needed f:22 if I could get it.

No problem with the Nikon flash system - the SB 700 flash has more than enough power for this task. The fact that I could mount it on the cross-bar of the Stroboframe in a TTL extension cord meant that there was absolutely no calculation or adjustment needed for the 170+ illustrations - I just selected a low ISO, a high f stop, and 1/160 of a second. Point, frame, and shoot...

The first wonderful thing about the Stroboframe is that if you need to do a vertical shot you just release the small red lever at the bottom and rotate the camera 90º. The weight of the camera steadies it in the new position and the flash angle does not change.

The second wonderful thing is the top flash bar also swivels down so that it will drop the light - and the troublesome shadow - even if the subject is tiny and close up.

The third wonderful thing is this same rotation can continue upwards for bounce flash and it is a damn sight easier than pushing the rubber button and swivelling the head. See the effect of a light bounce up on the Bonneville Salt Flat model shots.

The forth wonderful thing about this particular bracket is the peculiar rubber-covered handle on the front - it is very convenient as a carrying and support point for the whole rig - it is well balanced.

BEST NEWS - We've been having a Stroboframe sale these past weeks and we will continue it for a little while longer. 50% off is not to be sneezed at, particularly if you are a regular Camera Electronic bargain hunter.

You Have The Power - With Godox

Today is Earth Day. You all know what that means. Time to have your wall sockets and extension cords checked by a qualified electrical contractor.

While you are thinking electrical, consider the Godox power inverter. We have the LP 800-X model in stock right now and the price has dropped from $ 995 to $ 895.

Do you have studio flashes that are locked into your studio? Or a computer that needs mains power to run? Or  hot lights that need 240VAC to operate? Are you sick of having to unreel 25 kilometres of extension cords from your house to the beach for a location shoot - and then having to reel them back up again to go home?

Here is where the Godox inverter is your frend. There are three standard AC sockets on one side and three USB sockets sockets on the other - see images. The power inverter locks onto the top of the dedicated rechargeable battery and pumps out 750 watts continuous or 800 intermittent power. You can draw off 110VAC 60Hz or 240 V Ac 50Hz. There are overload and short circuit protectors in operation. There is even a low voltage alarm to let you know when it is time to change batteries.

The change-over couldn't be simpler - just unclip four safety locks at the sides of the inverter and lift it off the battery. There are spare batteries available and as it only takes three hours to trickle charge one, you can have a spare ready to go.

This is the type of solution that means you can have studio flash power and effective light shaping wherever you have a location shoot - and you don't have to change over your current equipment.

Current equipment. Earth Day. Ooh, they're coming thick and fast today...

Two Heads Are Better Than One - Profoto

Now we're not talking Tasmania or Newfoundland here - this is about the business of getting two portable studio flashes out and about. Specifically the Profoto variety.

The Acute B2 from Profoto is the sort of portable flash generator that you can take out into the filed to provide the power land controllability that pure speedlights cannot do. It is fully integrated with the vast range of Profoto light shapers and has the sort of stopping power for action that sports or advertising people need.

Now it is possible to increase the pattern of lighting with two of the portable heads connected to the generator - Profoto have introduced a split cable for the system. Main and fill. Hatchet lighting. hair and front. Possibilities increase...