Hollywood Style Lighting – Grid Spot Assignment – UCM – Jerry Schmidt

Hollywood Lighting

We looked at the work of George Hurrell and Listened to “Dancing in the Rain”

These are student portraits delivered this week in my Advanced Portrait Class.  The assignment was to recreate the look with grid spots on our studio lights.

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Proshow HD took all night to upload!!!

This is a Proshow gold slideshow made in HD as you can see below.  The stills were made by Tom and Jerry this wedding season.

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Hypersync setup – Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 – CarrilloPhotography.com

CPJM0045

Originally uploaded by Carrillo Photo

From: Joe Miller [mailto:Joe@CarrilloPhotography.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 10:10 PM
To: Jerry Schmidt
Subject: RE: What Flash Offset settings did you use??

Hi Jerry,

I’ve made hypersync work with two distinct setups. The first one is using a MiniTT1 on my 1DmkIII, and a FlexTT5 on the flash. This works out of the box with an AB1600, an AB800, and a Vivitar 28HV. I haven’t tested specifically with my Sunpak 120j.

The other setup uses the MiniTT1 as the transmitter, with Plus IIs as the receivers. This required firmware adjustments. The first step was to check the “High Speed Sync Disable Mode) box in the sync timing tab. My offset is -1900. I can only get 1/4000s clean.

Basically, when using ControlTL channels, I don’t need to configure anything. It works to 1/8000 out of the box. Using the legacy Plus II channels, I have to customize the firmware, and I can only get to 1/4000, clean. I should also note that I haven’t tried this with my 20D yet.

I shot formals for a Quinceanera yesterday, at noon in the blazing sun, using lots of hypersynced lights. It’s definitely usable. I’m going to post some on Flickr shortly.

Joe Miller
Carrillo Photography
(760) 473-5399
http://www.carrillophotography.com/

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Carrillo Photo Playing with Hypersync Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 transmitter and Flex TT5 and Plus II reciever!

CPJM1004

Originally uploaded by Carrillo Photo

Strobist:
AB1600, umbrella’ed, to camera left.
AB800, 7 inch reflector, to right, filling in the background.
1/4000s @ f/2.8

Flickr post describing how he used the new Pocket Wizard in Hypersync Mode to trigger his Pocket Wizard Plus II units.

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Nick Turpin street portraits for Mens Health – Strobist Alert

Check out the snooted Canon strobes used to shoot fashion, looks interesting.

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Pocketwizard Mini TT1 and Flex TT5: TTL Radio Triggers 1/8000s Shutter Speed Flash

Here is a quick shot with the new Mini TT1 Flex TT5 used to trigger a Canon 580exII flash on a stand to the right.  I had to adjust the flash exposure to -1 2/3 to fine tune the High Speed Flash exposure.

High Speed Flash by Jerry Schmidt

2009:04:15 12:20:34
70-200mm @ 200mm

1/8000 sec, f/5.6

Mode: Manual
Metering: Evaluative
ISO: 400
AF mode: One-shot AF
Drive: Single frame shooting
White balance: Auto
Flash: External E-TTL High speed sync
Flash exp comp: -1 1/3
File size: 11.5MB
Image size: 2912 x 4368
Color space: sRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: 0
Contrast: Normal
Custom Functions:
Default settings

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Canon calls it “High Speed Sync”” – Nikon calls it “Auto FP High-Speed Sync.”

High Speed Flash Diagram from Canon Flash Work

Normal flash requires a synchronizing shutter speed or below.  In a synchronizing shutter speed, the first curtain travels to a fully open position, at this point the flash is triggered and extinguishes before the second curtain follows.  When a photograph is taken with a high shutter speed with a normal flash the result will be a partial picture.

Flash is possible with extremely high shutter speed with a setting on Canon Flash that is called – High Speed sync.  High speed sync modes actually are a very fast strobo cycle that paints the exposure as the narrow slit of the focal plane shutter curtain races across the sensor.

Here is an excellent resource for Canon Flash

I just order the new Pocket Wizard

Mini TT1 and Flex TT5: TTL Radio Triggers

These radio slaves will open up a world of radio controlled High Speed TTL flash in bright ambient lighting situations where the built in optical communication between flashes would be difficult.

I am thinking about a 580 flash mounted in a softbox used in full TTL – HS flash at 1/4000 sec at f/2.8.

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Flash Duration for Studio Flash – Jerry Schmidt

Flash Duration for Studio Flash – Monolights

Flash duration is measured in two different ways. These methods of describing flash duration define the time as the flash begins to glow and then dims at the end of the flash. The methods are referred to as t.5 and t.1. As you can see the t.5 describes the duration above 50% of the maximum brightness, and the t1 describes the duration of above 10%.

The t.5 duration is generally the method used by manufactures in specifications of their lights. This t.5 reference is not the best indicator of stop action capabilities of a flash. The t1 method gives us a better indication action stopping of a flash. T.1 durations are generally 3x the duration of a t.5. For example a monolight  flash that is rated at 1/900 t.5 will have the action stopping of a 1/300, not really much action stopping.

Here is something that many photographers are not aware of, most every manufacturer of monolight flash units vary the power delivered by “varying the voltage to which the flash capacitors are charged.”

This has the result of making the flash duration about twice as long at 1/32 power than it is at full power. In our example above of a monolight with a t.5 of 1/900 is in effect a 1/150 at 1/32 power.

Flash duration of 1/150 is not much action stopping, problems may become apparent when shooting a fast moving shoot handheld with a 200mm lens.

• T.5 designation is a bit misleading

• Monolight systems generally produce longer durations as the power is reduced.

Monolight are the favorite of lots of run and gun shooters, like wedding and location portrait shooters.  We love the fast pack up and go that a monolight offers and also the ability to finely adjust the power to each unit.  This flash duration issue does however cause us to think twice about selecting monolights for our work.  Lets take a look at a popular and well respected system the Calumet Travelite 750.

Calumet Travelite 750

This is a powerful flash that has a t.5 flash duration at full power of 1/600.  That means that it has a t.1 full power duration of around 1/200s.  Now if we use the flash at 1/32 power the flash duration is about 1/100.  If you are shooting this flash at a shutter speed of 1/200 you are clipping the duration of the flash.  My guess is that the common user is not aware of the facts about this flash.

In a given product line say alien bees you will see that the lower power units always offer the the fastest flash duration.  I have included a screen grab and a link to the Alien Bee Site.  There is a ton of great reading and learning there.

http://www.alienbees.com/specs.html

The latest cameras have incredible high ISO performance, so why do we need so much power?  The low power choice of a monolite gives us CHEAP and FAST DURATION.

I am really impressed with the Alien Bees, they just look a little dumpy.  I guess you just have to keep a sense of humor about yourself.

I am thinking about a B400 and a Vagabond II kit.  Ok, the 400 is $224.95 and the Vagabond II is $299.95, that means for $525 you can have can have lot of fast duration flashes with out plugging in.  Now, just what color??

http://www.alienbees.com/b400.html

Here is a look at the Vagabond II, It looks like a together product and cheap.  The B400/Vagabond combo would produce 2400 full power flashes with a .7 sec recycle!!

http://www.alienbees.com/VIIsystem.html

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UCM Lighting Demo Lumedyne 400ws Flash – Jerry Schmidt

This was a quick demo of overpowering the ambient light. I held a regular Lumedyne reflector at 400ws as close as I could and stay out of the picture. We dropped he ISO to 100 and cranked up the shutterspeed and aperture to cut the ambient light. I included some of the exif data below.

Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D
Camera serial number: 0820501629
Firmware: Firmware Version 1.1.0
Date/Time: 2008:07:10 13:23:52
Shutter speed: 1/250 sec
Aperture: 18
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Single frame shooting
ISO: 100
Lens: EF17-40mm f/4L USM
Focal length: 28mm
AF mode: One-shot AF
Image size: 2912 x 4368
Rotation: 90 degrees CCW
Image quality: Fine
White balance: Auto
Picture style: Standard
Color space: sRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: 3
Contrast: Normal
Sharpness level: 3
Tone: Normal

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