Cactus

Great news folks! My package from Gadget Infinity arrived in the mail today! Woo Hoo!

Anyway, the contents included the following items:
- 4-Channel Wireless Flash Trigger V2, aka Cactus Trigger
- an additional Cactus Receiver
- Wireless Shutter Release for my RebelXT (350D)

Gadgets abound! So I figured I'd take the triggers along with me, as I was invited to dinner at my best friend's residence. After the initial hellos and whatnot, I immediately broke out the flash+wireless trigger and started messing around. Seeing what I could get out of the ambient lighting etc.

I finally came up with this. A 1/8th powered flash with a CTO Tungsten gel bounced off of a relatively white ceiling. The flash ended up being positions approximately one foot above and one foot to the right of the camera body. Nothing too fancy, just having fun with the new toys.

As for the items now. The wireless shutter release seems to work flawlessly. The 16 channel remote/receiver plugs right into the camera's remote shutter control port. I haven't distance tested it yet, but I can't imagine a need (yet) for being more than 10-15 feet from the camera anyway.

The Flash triggers were a little more iffy. Made of fairly durable plastic, they seem rugged enough. It would seem the pivoting shoe mount on the receiver was replaced with a segmented pivot, having discrete locking positions, rather than a free floating set up. The plus is that the piece actually locks in place. The down side, well, fewer positions. Though I suppose all of that can be corrected with the light stand swivel mount anyway.

The other thing I noticed was a tendency for misfires. In channel 0 (switch 1 and 2 in the Off position) everything works fine, with only an occasional misfire (read: once or twice since I got it). In any other channel pairing, they misfire like crazy, ranging from once every couple seconds to 2-3 times per second. I suppose this would only be bothersome in a large group of people using the same triggers, never the less...

In any case, for a total of about $80 on the flash and camera triggers/receivers, I'd say I'm quite happy with the results. In other news! Lighting 102 approaches! Less than one week to go!

Bleargh!

So, here we go with round two. The general set up was a hair more complex this time.

Just finding a spot was probably the hardest part. Going through each room in the house I was met with obstacle after obstacle. For every one wall that was open and did not have enough room to set up the equipment, there were two more that had enough room with various pieces of furniture obstructing the wall. Grr. Etc. Finally I just decided to go with a wall in my bedroom, some room and slightly more comfortable for the model, aka "The Girlfriend(tm)" than being in front of everyone at home.

Now, for the set up of the background. I already had a fairly white wall, recently painted and whatnot so, the background wasn't much of an issue. I knew I needed fairly bright so as to come out as close to white as possible. After a few tests, I found just off white was a more pleasant tone than pure white, but I digress. It was a pretty straight forward problem. White wall, not enough light. How do we fix it? More light, of course!

So, I grabbed some Halogen Lamps my brother had, a single 500W floor lamp and a pair of 250W lamps on a tripod. The single was placed on the floor to the left of the camera, behind the subject, angled upward and toward the wall. The 250W pair were similarly posed on the right and adjusted to fill in the falloff of the single lamp. All said and done, it produced a fairly even light on the background.

Now, as for the lighting of the subject. Again, the light itself was fairly simple. Getting it all set up was difficult. The best spot for the light stand just happened to be directly below a ceiling fan. Of all the luck. So, I got the umbrella on and all set up and wedged it right up against the blub. Set it up to half power and added the CTO Tungsten to balance with the Halogen Lamps.

Now, the only down side to this whole set up was the close proximity of everything. As such I could not put as much space as I wanted between the subject and the back wall. This caused the halogen lamps to spill a little bit of light onto her face. Also, with the low ceiling, the lamps were also bouncing light all over the place adding to the ambient light a bit.

Alright, now admittedly this is not exactly the most appealing pose a person could strike. But I did have permission as it is arguably the best shot from the entire shoot. Once again, what luck I have. In any case, there we have it folks! Until next time!

Round One!

Light?!

...

Ok... that was terrible, I admit it. Never the less, here we have it folks! The results of my first attempt at using my strobist equipment properly.

My best friend came over and I some how managed to convince her to pose for me. Really it was quite free form. She sat down and we started talking, all the while her moving about trying different poses. Etc, etc, etc.

My own critical review says I probably should have used a little more strobe and a little less background light. Also, a narrower aperture to capture that little bit of the elbow that didn't make it. Otherwise, I'd say I'm ok with this being my first attempt.

As for the set up, the background light is that of a bare CFL blub approximately 10 feet from the camera/background to the camera's right. About 10 feet to the left is my 430EX at 1/16th shooting into a 43 Inch Silver Umbrella with a CTO Tungsten for fill. Nothing too fancy.

More to come as `The Girlfriend(tm)' heads over to try her hand at it. And more complex setups too!

Starving Student Strobist Kit

Well, today was the big day! My Starving Student Strobist Kit (SN2) arrived today via UPS! It's looking like good times ahead! And many thanks to Midwest Photo Exchange for providing quality equipment to the starving masses. Getting it all set up was a snap and the only thing I have remaining to do is get some adhesive Velcro to jury-rig attachments on my flash for the Color Correction Gels.

Next up in the mail are my triggers! I realized that I just got the flash kit and whatnot, but the cable is already starting to get on my nerves having nearly tripped over it a couple of times. Life can be a drag when you wear a 14 4E shoe. Never the less, I picked up a pair of receivers and a transmitter from Gadget Infinity. Also may be referred to as the "eBay Triggers." These are Version 2 (Cactus) and are supposedly more reliable over all as well as with Canon Brand Flashes, which I just so happen to have. In addition, I also snagged a wireless shutter release for my Rebel XT (350D). I figured it would come in handy when I don't have a stand-in for setting up a portrait shot. Evidently, it works on the same frequencies as the 16 channel and 4 channel wireless flash triggers and, as such, can trigger them as well. It's a bit more convenient than the standard Canon Infrared Wireless Remote in that it doesn't require line of sight, has a 30 foot range, can "half press" to activate auto focus and can operate in bulb mode.

In any case! More reviews and whatnot when the equipment arrives! Coming up next (at a more earthly hour) will be my first test shots with the new equipment

Equipment

So, a good starter would be the equipment I will be using throughout the course of these assignments.

The mainstay of my arsenal consists of a Black Body Canon Rebel XT (350D) with just about 1 year's worth of wear and tear. Pretty much in pristine condition.

My primary lens is a Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical [IF] (boy was that a mouthful...).

My sole, non-natural light source is a Canon Speedlite 430EX.

Accessory wise I have the Battery Grip for the Rebel XT, allowing me to throw in a pair of batteries that will let me shoot pretty much all day. The down side is that it tacks on an extra inch or two between the body and the ground so it makes it a tad harder to shoot low. The advantage is that it adds a second set of controls that can be used when consistently shooting with a vertical frame.

In addition, I have a Sto-Fen Omni Bounce that spends just about as much time off my flash as it does on the flash.

Other equipment I have available, that may or may not find use throughout these assignments, is a Tamron AF 2x Teleconverter, as well as a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM.

That covers the equipment I have on hand. Other equipment I have en route is a Starving Student No PC Kit (SN2) as well as Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting.

And that's about it! Further updates as they become available/acquired.

Action!

Alright, so here's the deal. I'm a Software Engineer by day and moonlight as a semi-decent photographer. I recently developed a bit of an interest in more advanced light and have taken it upon myself to further my knowledge of photography and lighting in general. As such, I will be following along with the Lighting 102, the successor to Lighting Boot Camp, a set of Group Assignments put forth by the wonderful folk over at the Strobist Blog.

Herein you will find the details of my feeble attempts to conquer these assignments, the highlights (haha... pun intended), the pitfalls, and everything in between. To all those participating, "Good luck!" and to those that are but spectators, I hope you enjoy the show.