Say Hello to Emma

[Colin Southern]

Hi all,

The clouds looked like they might "co-operate" tonight, so I rounded up the kids - chucked a bunch of gear in the car - and headed off to a memorial statue to Sir Ernest Lord Rutherford (who was born just a few hundred metres away from where I live).

I'd planned on just shooting the kids, but found an "old" friend of the family, Emma waiting for someone there. It had been a while since I'd said anything more than a quick "Hi" to her in passing - so it was great to discover a little of the great young lady that she's growing in to - and she seemed totally happy and relaxed posing for the camera.



First image taken with Canon 1Ds3 & EF135mm/F2L @ F4. Lighting was a shoot-through umbrella with dual Canon 580EX II flashes, and dual Pocket Wizard Flex TT5s fired from a Pocket Wizard Mini TT1. 1/125th @ ISO 50 - Manual Exposure.



Second image taken with Canon 1Ds3 & EF85/F1.2L @ F2.4. Same lighting - 1/100th @ ISO 50 - Manual Exposure, plus a portable generator & electric fan for the "hair in the breeze" look.

[Maritimer1]

These are beautiful, Colin. How nice that she is so natural and not trying to "pose". The skin looks wonderful. We can count all those freckles

[carregwen]

...plus a portable generator & electric fan for the "hair in the breeze" look.

You took a portable generator and fan! Colin, you have the photography thing real bad.

Very nice shots. I like the arrangement in #2 best. Nice.

[Colin Southern]

These are beautiful, Colin. How nice that she is so natural and not trying to "pose". The skin looks wonderful. We can count all those freckles

Thanks Myra

[Colin Southern]

You took a portable generator and fan! Colin, you have the photography thing real bad.

You don't know the 1/2 of it ... I actually have 3 of them! (one for each RX1200 head that draws a peak current of around 14 amps @ 230 volts!)

Very nice shots. I like the arrangement in #2 best. Nice.

Thanks Rob

[Alis]

Very nice Colin.

I see you used the Pocket Wizard. I finally got them, both, they are cute babies!

BUT, please give me some ideas to use them. I mean something special that you would do if you were like me (no studio heavy stuff) and had just got them

[Colin Southern]

Very nice Colin.

I see you used the Pocket Wizard. I finally got them, both, they are cute babies!

BUT, please give me some ideas to use them. I mean something special that you would do if you were like me (no studio heavy stuff) and had just got them

Hi Ali,

Being a techno-geek the first thing I did was plug them into my computer and started making changes to their default configuration - spent a day convincing myself that they were faulty - reconfigured them some more - and then finally started to get the hang of them (at which point the configuration was back to being pretty much how they were before I started playing with them!).

They're pretty straight-forward to use, but there are a few "gotcha's" - the main one being that you have to have the 580EX (II)'s in the correct mode ...

... I set mine up so that C1 configuration is used for manual setups, and C2 is used for ETTL operation, so ...

- If you want to use ETTL and have the camera set the correct flash power then of course the flash needs to be in ETTL mode (doh!); if you put the flash in manual mode it won't fire.

- If you want to use manual control then you have to set the flash into manual mode (doh again!) (reason being that in manual mode only the centre pin is used to fire the flash whereas in ETTL mode there is a comprehensive communication between the flash and PW).

- If you want to use manual mode, but controlled from another 580 or ST-E2 master controller then the othe flash needs to be in ETTL mode so it can be controlled.

And contrary to what you might first think, you NEVER put the flash in slave mode (the PW takes care of that).

For the above shots I used manual mode for everything, but to be honest, because the sun had just set and light levels were changing rapidly, I made things difficult for myself - I should have used ETTL (mind you, if I'd used a studio head then it would have to have been manual anyway - and I would have had more power & softer light).

The other "gotcha" is that sometimes the TT1 seems to get confused, and I need to turn it off then on again. If you get "super keen" you might like to consider a lighting rig like mine with 1 or 2 flashes on a removable boom arm, both powered from an external battery for virtually unlimited power and fast recycle times.

Hope this helps! (just let me know if you have any other issues - they do take a bit of getting used to) (and to be honest, although the ETTL mode is good, overall they're still not as bullet proof as the older plus IIs).

[Antonio Correia]

I specially like the first one for the posture of the young lady and for the beautiful lighting !

[Colin Southern]

I specially like the first one for the posture of the young lady and for the beautiful lighting !

Thanks Antonio

In retrospect I should probably have put the lighting a bit higher, but it worked out OK. I printed that shot on an 22 x 15" canvas - framed it - and gave it to her as a present last night - hope she likes it (it was a bit dark so she wouldn't have been able to see the detail at the time) - and of course the other benefit of doing nice things for friends of my kids is that it REALLY annoys my kids

[CNelson]

Very nice Colin, especially the first one. I have been thinking of trying more portraits and this is more inspiration in that direction.

I bought a second 580 and an ST-E2 and some, how should I say this, not so expensive stands and umbrellas. Now I need to earn them.

Here's a photographer I have been following and I really like his work. There are a lot of tutorials on his site. His specialty, if not obsession, is to take flash pictures that don't look like flash pictures. To do this, he has bounce flash down to a science. Of course, outside at night with nothing to bounce off of the best you can do is use an umbrella or diffuser. Here's a link for anyone who is interested: http://neilvn.com/tangents/

Chuck

[Colin Southern]

Thanks Chuck,

The "nub" of outdoor portraits is to simply find some shade next to some sun - plonk the subject in the shade, and then use a reflector to put some light on them. If you can get the light to reflect to give a loop lighting pattern on the face then so much the better. Job Done.

A big diffuser is also great for dappled lighting. What I did in this thread might be of interest to you?

[CNelson]

Thanks colin, those are some nice shots. That diffuser looks like a handy thing to have for direct sun shots.

Chuck

[Alis]

Hope this helps! (just let me know if you have any other issues - they do take a bit of getting used to) (and to be honest, although the ETTL mode is good, overall they're still not as bullet proof as the older plus IIs).

Thanks so much, Colin, for the detailed reply. It was working fine for about a day, then I made some changes to the flash, and to the devices, and not it does not trigger the flash. I do have the 580EXII. I am not sure which change I made has done this but I will try to restore the original setting and start again in a more systematic way to find out how it works. Then I will probably come back with more questions

[Colin Southern]

Thanks colin, those are some nice shots. That diffuser looks like a handy thing to have for direct sun shots.

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

Thanks again

The "funny" thing about diffusers / reflectors is that they're dirt cheap - absolutely essential - and yet hardly anyone uses them. Must be one of those "best kept secrets"

You can buy 5 in 1 diffuser / white / black / silver / gold all-in-one "hoops" that are about 1m across, and "fold" back to around 30cm and pop into a little bag; B&H also have lastolite brand called a tri-grip that can be held with one hand.

[Colin Southern]

Thanks so much, Colin, for the detailed reply. It was working fine for about a day, then I made some changes to the flash, and to the devices, and not it does not trigger the flash. I do have the 580EXII. I am not sure which change I made has done this but I will try to restore the original setting and start again in a more systematic way to find out how it works. Then I will probably come back with more questions

Hi Ali,

Been there - done that

Biggest things to watch out for are (assuming ETTL mode) is flash set to ETTL & NOT in master or slave modes (sorry, I should have mentioned both of these above) (by the way, if the 580EX II IS set for master or slave, you won't be able to reconfigure this part whilst it's attached to the TT5).

Other than that, the defaults should work fine. If you get stuck let me know and I'll post be exact config for you.

[Alis]

Hi Colin,

The problem was that I changed the flash setting (from inside camera) from 1st curtain to Hispeed. Apparently doesn't like it, although I do not know the meaning of this conflict. I changed it back to 1st curtain and now change to HSS if I need to by pushing the button on the flash itself.

So, what is this thing for exactly? I know it is a trigger, and one great benefit of using it is to detach the flash from the position of the camera, as the worst place for it is to be "on top of the camera". But when I move it to any other position, obviously the other side becomes dark. If I had two of these it wouldn't be a problem but is there anything I can do with just one.

I know that one other benefit is that i can be farther away from the subject, have the flash still close, and trigger from the long distance, while zooming on the subject. Anything else?

Sounds stupid to buy something and then see if you have any use for it but that is me

[Colin Southern]

The problem was that I changed the flash setting (from inside camera) from 1st curtain to Hispeed. Apparently doesn't like it, although I do not know the meaning of this conflict. I changed it back to 1st curtain and now change to HSS if I need to by pushing the button on the flash itself.

So, what is this thing for exactly? I know it is a trigger, and one great benefit of using it is to detach the flash from the position of the camera, as the worst place for it is to be "on top of the camera". But when I move it to any other position, obviously the other side becomes dark. If I had two of these it wouldn't be a problem but is there anything I can do with just one.

I know that one other benefit is that i can be farther away from the subject, have the flash still close, and trigger from the long distance, while zooming on the subject. Anything else?

Hmmm - not 100% sure what you're getting at here Ali, so let's see if I can "cover all the bases" ...

HSS (High-Speed-Sync) allows you to use flash with shutterspeeds above x-sync speed (the highest speed that both shutter curtains are fully open at the same time). With a flash directly on the camera it was a case of physically not being allowed to go above x-sync unless HSS was turned on (at which point you can use a shutter speed as high as you like, but at the expense of reduced flash power output (in HSS mode it actually pulses the flash around 50,000 times per second). With the older Pocket Wizards you had to do everything manually - and you can't use HSS in manual mode - so you were limited to 1/200 -> 1/250th max, but the NEW pocket wizards raised the bar by not only supporting HSS, but they also figured out a way to get them to work in a new mode they calley "hyper-sync" where the flash doesn't go into HSS mode (and lose efficiency), but allowing you to sync at higher speeds (up to 1/400th by default). You can change this in the setup - I had some success, but in the end I just put it back to the default (since I typically use 2 heads into a shoot-through umbrella, power isn't usually a problem).

2nd Curtain sync means that the flash goes off as the 2nd curtain is about to close, not just after the first curtain has just opened. To be honest, it would have been a great default as it doesn't leave ghost trails running through your subject - but - pocket wizards don't support it - game over, end of story.

I'd suggest making a little checklist - so when things don't go right you can run through the settings on the list and find the offending item (it's ALWAYS a setting!)

Sounds stupid to buy something and then see if you have any use for it but that is me

I have a similar approach: "buy first, justify later" (works like a charm for me!)

Hope this helps!

[Alis]

Thanks again, Colin. This is very helpful. I never had the old version (I actually bought it once and then realized I need two of them and I had to return it so the comparison was very useful.

But my more general question is about the freedom that you get with using this device. What are the type of things I can do with this (using just one flash though) that I could not do before? May be there is nothing special that people can do, I am just asking to make sure I am not missing anything

I have a similar approach: "buy first, justify later" (works like a charm for me!)

Works for me too. I have to use it first and then investigate the problems. Can't concentrate on reviews of the products I have not bought yet But I do not buy just anything. I bought this since I read a while back what you wrote here on it when it came out and sort of liked it. And I trust people on this forum!

[Colin Southern]

But my more general question is about the freedom that you get with using this device. What are the type of things I can do with this (using just one flash though) that I could not do before? May be there is nothing special that people can do, I am just asking to make sure I am not missing anything

Hi Ali,

In short it allows you to get the flash off the camera (VERY important) without using wires (convenient) ... especially when you'll end up with more than one 580EX (because I recommend it, and you trust me!). "Wireless freedom" is the term they use I believe!

[Dave Humphries]

~ especially when you'll end up with more than one 580EX (because I recommend it, and you trust me!) ~

Ali,

Resistance is futile

Having gone this far, if you're into portraiture, "Key" and "Fill" are important things to understand and control. While you can do Fill with a (carefully placed or held) reflector, this may get into shot occasionally - and needs an assistant, or more running back and forth for you.

So as I see it, having two flashes; one a bit further away, or 'dialled down' a bit, is probably a better way to go for Fill, especially now you have 2/3 the wireless kit to go with it.

Make sense?
I love spending other people's money

Cheers,