Pierces - Quick Hello

[FinelyCruising]

I have been very into it with 'Studio Lighting". I ended up an ebay maven and have gotten some great softboxes and strobes. I have only had to go to B&H for two things I really wanted.

 

I can't seem to get enough time with "dummies" to assist me in learning about lighting, but I am trying to convince my kids they need to help me as models.

My daughters friends are easy sign ups for photo shoots and I will be using them for practice...they have all sorts of ideas for themselves that I can use.

 

I only have two lights and a reflector so far. I do have a few soft boxes now and I'd still like one more light but I'm not hitting it right on ebay lately.

 

I am really, really enjoying this aspect of photography and I hope by now you have augmented your gear with the goodies you were after.

[pierces]

I have been very into it with 'Studio Lighting". I ended up an ebay maven and have gotten some great softboxes and strobes. I have only had to go to B&H for two things I really wanted.

 

I can't seem to get enough time with "dummies" to assist me in learning about lighting, but I am trying to convince my kids they need to help me as models.

My daughters friends are easy sign ups for photo shoots and I will be using them for practice...they have all sorts of ideas for themselves that I can use.

 

I only have two lights and a reflector so far. I do have a few soft boxes now and I'd still like one more light but I'm not hitting it right on ebay lately.

 

I am really, really enjoying this aspect of photography and I hope by now you have augmented your gear with the goodies you were after.

 

Glad you're enjoying the strobes!

 

Recently I have picked up a PLM umbrella from Alien Bees and I'm using it as a large softbox with the diffuser panel (it's almost 5' in diameter). I also picked up a 22" beauty dish reflector and am very pleased with the results. Most of my acquisitions in the last months are inexpensive backdrops, mostly solids like blue, pink (the little girls insisted), black and white. I'm still deciding on the third light, but am still leaning towards the ringlight since it can also be used on a stand as a regular light.

 

Here's a shot of the little ones with the PLM and a large reflector for fill:

 

Beauty dish with a medium reflector:

 

This stuff is really fun!

 

Dave

[FinelyCruising]

Dave what a great shot of some darling little girls!!! The Pink suits then perfectly! When you and I chatted last about this the PLM's were not in inventory. They do a very nice job, beautiful soft light and very nice warm color. Right now the largest diffuser I have is a 3x4. Larger really makes a difference I see to soften when I look at your results.

 

For backgrounds, I have a white paper background that came with a background stand I bought (the white is not much use to me really) and I have a black muslin that I haven't tried yet and needs a major steaming. I did get an awesome Crimson paper background that I thought would be a fun color. So far only 5 minutes was given to me for practice with that. I hope to get one of my girls to give me some time or I will have to get DH to sit for me so I can work on the lighting with this background for practice.

 

Here's a sample of that color. I took this with two lights, a 3x4 and a strip at 1x4 along with a 45" white reflector. I really like this kind of photography too. I am going to look again at the PLM's now that I see them, thanks for the sample.

 

[pierces]

Very nice! You're certainly getting good results from your setup. (You also may have just triggered the purchase of a dark red background!)

 

FYI I got the PLM64U-S 64" silver umbrella with the white diffuser panel. Iam probably going to add one of the PLM86U-W 86" white umbrellas with the PLM86-BFSPKF black spill-kill cover so I can use it as a huge shoot-through softbox for full-length portraits and a PLM86-BOC black outer cover to use it as a regular umbrella reflector.

 

They are almost always on backorder so just order whichever one you want and they ship first-come-first-serve when they com in. I waited about two weeks for mine.

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

[FinelyCruising]

Well I did order the PLM last night! :D I took the 64" white and the diffuser and the black outer cover since and it was all on back order. Now I might have to go back and order the silver since I was thinking it was the white that you had since it was so soft. I just love the warm golden colors/highlights of the girls skin. I think its a great photo of them and I'll bet everyone in your family thinks so too. Was your reflector white or did you use something else? Right now I have only used white. Even the photo of the Bigger Kids has that nice warm skin color. Your Nikon maybe? Maybe the lights themselves? Both?

 

As for the dark red background, YES....Savage Paper, #6 Crimson usually in stock at B&H. And thanks for the compliments on the photo. :) Again, I am having a blast with this stuff. I'll look forward to the PLM getting here and I'll share some results with you when I get a chance to test them.

 

I can say one thing I am really pleased about the the amount of use I am giving the 70-200 lens. It's good for the head and shoulders of one person, I might be able to pull off two people but I have to make a bit more room so I can move back a few more feet in my small space. I have not used the 17-55 yet for these set ups and I am anxious to see how that works out. I am thrilled that I don't find that I need/want another lens for this kind of photography.

[pierces]

The silver with the diffuser panel is just like a softbox. The advantage of the silver is that you can use it without the diffuser and the parabolic shape can focus the light output so it is bright for the upper body and falls off towards the feet. The white with a back cover and be used the same way but will produce softer light. As a shoot-through the white can be used as a Japanese-lantern source for very soft light.

 

The color is a result of two things. First, the Sony A700 shares a unique color "look" with it's Minolta ancestors. I have always liked it and it was one of the reasons I went with that camera instead of the 40D or the D300. The second is a trick to warm up flash which tends to be blueish on auto. My Alien Bees pop at 5500K so I set my white-balance at 5600K to warm the light up slightly.

 

Because of space restrictions, I shoot with the mid to long end of my 28-75 f/2.8 Minolta zoom. I use the 70-200 f/2.8 for head-shots but not too often. I really want to pick up either the Zeiss 135 f/1.8 or the Zeiss 85 f/1.4 for portraits but at $1200+, I will have to work on deluding myself that "want" is actually "need" before I light up the credit card for one.

 

One note: Be careful with the short end of the 17-50. You can make noses look very prominent with wide angles. Most subjects won't find that to their liking. :eek:

 

Happy strobing!

 

Dave

[FinelyCruising]

Ahhhh...its a Sony!!! Thank your for the correction and the notes on the color balance. These will be very helpful to me as I have set a custom color balance and was not using any presets, so I will utilize the presets and see what the results are. Again thanks for your insight on this.

 

I went ahead and ordered on backorder the Silver PLM too. They are so reasonable its hard to feel guilty about buying the two.

 

I just read the reviews on B&H for your Zeiss 135. Hard to not want. Thankfully for me, I don't own a camera it will fit on.:D

[pierces]

Thank your for the correction and the notes on the color balance. These will be very helpful to me as I have set a custom color balance and was not using any presets, so I will utilize the presets and see what the results are. Again thanks for your insight on this.

 

I'm not sure which Rebel you own and I'm unfamiliar with the white balance settings available to you. If you have an option to set your white balance for a specific temperature, use that. Start at 5500K°, which is the bottom end of the typical 5500K°-6000K° range of electronic flashes and work up 1000K° at a time until you get the color you want.

 

Dave

[FinelyCruising]

Dave - My choices are described...I will have to match with temps. I did the Manual WB with the grey card for the photo above. I have no qualms about the turn out of the colors and the effect, they appear to my eye to be quite true, but am sure I don't want that tone for all photos I take with this kind of lighting set up so I am thrilled I know what I have to do now to achieve a different result.

 

http://www.usa.canon.com/content/rebelxti/EOS%20Digital%20Rebel%20XTi%20Spec.pdf

[pierces]

Dave - My choices are described...I will have to match with temps. I did the Manual WB with the grey card for the photo above. I have no qualms about the turn out of the colors and the effect, they appear to my eye to be quite true, but am sure I don't want that tone for all photos I take with this kind of lighting set up so I am thrilled I know what I have to do now to achieve a different result.

 

http://www.usa.canon.com/content/rebelxti/EOS%20Digital%20Rebel%20XTi%20Spec.pdf

 

I looked at the manual and you don't have a straight temperature setting option for white balance. Try manually setting your WB for "Flash" and get a 81A warming filter. It will warm up your flash by about 200K°.

 

Dave