Impromptu

Trusty (well... not entirely) wireless triggers in hand, I was off and about in this world of ours. On todays agenda, helping "The Girlfriend(tm)" prepare for a move!

As we were rummaging about I came across this pretty snazzy full finger `ring' as it were and thought, "Hey! That's pretty snazzy!" Keeping tabs on it while we were working, it became the object of my attention the first break we took.

The initial setup was fairly simple. We had plenty of boxes laying around to use as a platform and a box lid for the back support. The background itself was simply a sheet of printer paper ramped up against the box lid, and a second sheet across the lid itself to give me a semi decent bounce surface from behind.

As for the lighting, the room lights were fairly low, so it wouldn't be too hard to over power them with the small strobe. I tried a couple of different angles and positions for the flash holding it in hand but all of them produced rather hard shadows, even the the diffusion plate down. So, I looked about and found an appropriate place to situate the flash for a bounce off the ceiling.

The one thing I didn't consider was how close the flash was to a the wall. It added an additional bounce surface but also a much smaller point of light. If you look closely, you can see a faint yet rather sharp shadow under the arch, caused by the offending wall.

In the end, it took me all of two minutes to set up, maybe 5 minutes to shoot, and another minute to break down. After a couple of test fires, I ended up shooting a 1/8th powered flash at f/11 and ISO100. In retrospect, I probably could have upped the power another notch or two and used an even narrower aperture as well as upped the ISO to 200 or 400.

Never the less! Practice practice practice! *hurls a chair*

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!

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