Digital SLR / DSLR Camera Question / DSLR Thread 2

[TylerW]

http://www.bythom.com/nikond80guide.htm Can't go wrong with Thom's books. They're one of the best resources out there.





I've been doing lighting for a little while, I'm currently running three speedlights (two SB-800's and an SB-900). Sounds like I'm just the opposite of Tyler, I'm okay with the strobes (big or little ones) but lighting for video scares the heck out of me.

Here's about my freshest examples of video lighting that I came away happy with - and this was a shoot where one of my lights had a dead bulb and I had to rim with my on-camera LED light - what with the rim being a drastically cooler temperature.

I think it still worked out.

[youtube]ykU-ogIGKjQ[/youtube]

 

[Cycle61]

Is the rim the one off to the left, making the blue/white highlight on his head? Tough to do a hairlight for a bald guy, I guess.

 

[Joebar4000]

OK, turns out Ana's glamour shots are on her (dead) laptop. Need to yank the HD. Does anyone know if laptop HD's have the same cable fitments as normal hard drives? I have a coupla external cases...

For now, this'll have to do. Ana is on the left.

 

[TylerW]

OK, turns out Ana's glamour shots are on her (dead) laptop. Need to yank the HD. Does anyone know if laptop HD's have the same cable fitments as normal hard drives? I have a coupla external cases...

For now, this'll have to do. Ana is on the left.

If its a 2.5", you should be just fine with this, Ian.

Nick - Yeah, the LED light has a much cooler temperature than the big soft incandescent that's illuminating the right side of his face. Which I'm okay with, I like having a somewhat harsh rim light, but i feel a lot happier when I have a little more control over it, and its the right temp.

I have a slightly better example of the style of lighting I like to do for video, but its under a press embargo, so I can't share it.

 

[Joebar4000]

Feedback from the strobe gurus please!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36078994@N05/sets/72157615197815848/

This was a 30" white brolly on the left at ~45 degrees to camera and subject, shooting through it.

2x2 softbox on the right, at about 30 degrees to the camera, 60 degrees to the backdrop. Ignore the shitty backdrop - it was all I had in the 5 minute child-window I had, lol!

1x 5500K incandescent about 2' to the right and 2' above the heads. I should probably use my camera flash for this, but the batteries went dead after too much play time yesterday I need me lots of them 15-minute rechargeables...

Nick - I really like the band photos...

I'm wondering if I shouldn't get a taller softbox, and some barn-doors for the flash on my camera.

The missus is Okaying more purchases only after I get some jobs that pay money, which at the moment is just a handful of sympathetic family members, lol!


Oh, speaking of which - we have a pretty hooge front room, especially if we dump the kids toys and chaise into the dining room. Probably, 24x16? The only downside is hooge windows, and the curtains are far from 'blackout'. That could be changed with creative sheet-drooping I guess?

I'm in San Jose - Willow Glen. Be happy to host. Have at least Ana as a model. You can borrow my kids, but good luck getting them to stay still...

 

[zypher]

some of the photos are bleached...especially the first 2 i think...the light on your right is too strong...

 

[Ritz]

Did a quick shoot last night

 

[wannabe]

Feedback from the strobe gurus please!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36078994@N05/sets/72157615197815848/

This was a 30" white brolly on the left at ~45 degrees to camera and subject, shooting through it.

2x2 softbox on the right, at about 30 degrees to the camera, 60 degrees to the backdrop. Ignore the shitty backdrop - it was all I had in the 5 minute child-window I had, lol!

1x 5500K incandescent about 2' to the right and 2' above the heads. I should probably use my camera flash for this, but the batteries went dead after too much play time yesterday I need me lots of them 15-minute rechargeables...

Are you shooting in manual mode? If so, how are you getting to your camera/flash settings? Do you have a light meter? Some of the shots are overexposed and some are underexposed. Without the light meter, it takes either time or experience to get to the right flash/camera settings.

I think that the incandescent is throwing some harsh light onto your family there. I think you would have been better served to use the incandescent to light the backdrop and move the family a little farther away from the backdrop.

I hope this helps.

 

[Joebar4000]

Are you shooting in manual mode? If so, how are you getting to your camera/flash settings? Do you have a light meter? Some of the shots are overexposed and some are underexposed. Without the light meter, it takes either time or experience to get to the right flash/camera settings.

I think that the incandescent is throwing some harsh light onto your family there. I think you would have been better served to use the incandescent to light the backdrop and move the family a little farther away from the backdrop.

I hope this helps.

Hey Aris, thanks for the input. One thing that's weird, is the color balance on Flickr looks TOTALLY different to how it looks on my PC. A friend of a friend, who's a semi-pro photographer, tells me my monitor color balance is way off.

Not that you aren't right, but that's giving me red-herrings.

Don't have a flash meter yet - and I don't really want to cheapen out in that department, nor can I justify the expense of a decent one just yet. I figure I'll stay in manual and get more practice - it's all learning. I'm at the very steep portion of the learning curve right now...

Here's what happened when I moved the incandescent hairlight to be pretty much behind and only just off-frame to the right, and I lowered the power of the fill from the left. I think I need barn-doors for the hairlight, as that was blowing out the highlights on the right (left of the persons face) with only tiny changes in pose.

The histogram on this one still sucks, however - part of the issue might be that I'm in the garage, so reflected light is almost nil - the softbox is only 2x2 and the brolly is only 30".

EDIT - interesting, same thing is happening to the colors in the uploaded version, must be a browser issue. In the original, the colors look far richer and the highs aren't nearly so blown-out - something born out in the histogram (which is very predominant in the darks, almost no whites). Odd.

 

[Cycle61]

EDIT - interesting, same thing is happening to the colors in the uploaded version, must be a browser issue. In the original, the colors look far richer and the highs aren't nearly so blown-out - something born out in the histogram (which is very predominant in the darks, almost no whites). Odd.

Here's a thought...nerd alert)

When you shoot, are you using aRGB (Adobe) or sRGB? And are you shooting in RAW? Adobe RGB is a larger color space, and can reproduce more of the colors we are capable of seeing. Especially purples, which sRGB tends to really compress. If you shoot aRGB, your colors will look more muted, but more accurate, and most browsers will absolutely mangle the image because they don't understand that color space. Firefox (?) is color space aware, and does a better job rendering them, but when I export jpegs to upload I always convert them to sRGB for better compatibility. If I'm going to be printing, I stay in aRGB since the place I print with can give better results with it.

It looks like your red and purple tones in the above images are really getting compressed.

If you're shooting jpegs, I guess you should stay in sRGB because you'll lose something when you convert, but if you shoot RAW I'd suggest aRGB and then convert to sRGB when you export images to upload to the web.

 

[Joebar4000]

Here's a thought...nerd alert)

When you shoot, are you using aRGB (Adobe) or sRGB? And are you shooting in RAW? Adobe RGB is a larger color space, and can reproduce more of the colors we are capable of seeing. Especially purples, which sRGB tends to really compress. If you shoot aRGB, your colors will look more muted, but more accurate, and most browsers will absolutely mangle the image because they don't understand that color space. Firefox (?) is color space aware, and does a better job rendering them, but when I export jpegs to upload I always convert them to sRGB for better compatibility. If I'm going to be printing, I stay in aRGB since the place I print with can give better results with it.

It looks like your red and purple tones in the above images are really getting compressed.

If you're shooting jpegs, I guess you should stay in sRGB because you'll lose something when you convert, but if you shoot RAW I'd suggest aRGB and then convert to sRGB when you export images to upload to the web.

Wow, lots of great info

Well, I'm shooting in sRGB, so, it shouldn't be so mangled in a browser, right? It's already pre-mangled...

Not shooting RAW yet, but I think it's time to changeover to that, and aRGB. Did me sum readin last night, Photoshop has some nice dynamic range enhancement tools (apparently - have yet to try them) for RAW.

Although, I'd rather get better at lighting and taking pictures than touch-up, lol!

Thanks for the great info!

So, who's up for a lighting social day at my place?

Oh, and where can I get a cheapie boom arm? I saw a rather nice (well reviewed) one made by Impact at bhphoto, but would like to support local shops... San Jose Camera and Kamera Korner were a bust, and that snooty place in Palo Alto - I think he was going to have a seizure when I mentioned the brand.

 

[Cycle61]

So, who's up for a lighting social day at my place?

...that snooty place in Palo Alto...

I see what you did there.

 

[BrassPremier]

I'm always up for learning/practicing with lighting.

 

[Joebar4000]

I see what you did there.

Lol! Don't tell me you work at Keebler and Suchat? Every time I've called there, and I'm looking for some 'thing' that I can get for $40 for just-ok-quality, they fire back with, 'Well, our budget range starts at $400 for that thing...'


Maybe it's just cooincidence for the things I've called them for.

Think I'll just get the 5' boom from bhphoto. But the missus says I have to get at least 1 person to pay me to take their pictures first...

So, we have:

Me (Ian)
Nick
Steve
Tyler?
Aris?
Bueller?


Bueller???

 

[BrassPremier]

im planning on going up to oregon tuesdayish and being up there for a week or so, so if you set it up for anytime soon i won't be able to make it. just a heads up.

 

[Cycle61]

Lol! Don't tell me you work at Keebler and Suchat? Every time I've called there, and I'm looking for some 'thing' that I can get for $40 for just-ok-quality, they fire back with, 'Well, our budget range starts at $400 for that thing...'

Oh gawd no. That place is incredibly snobbish. I was making a joke. Snooty. Snoot. Lighting geekery.

I try very hard to avoid shopping there. Overpriced, rude elitists. I always feel like I wandered into a BMW dealership or something.

 

[mosquito]

Really? Hmm. I've been assuming that they were all just even nerdier than i am. I like 'em better than sj cam, sill ain't cheap tho.

any thing else down here besides kam korner?

 

[Cycle61]

Not really. There's one or two good photo shops in the city, but I'm almost never there. SJ Camera and K&S are about it for the southbay, and I prefer SJ Camera for their prices.

Calumet and Gasser's are good if you wanna ride up into town. I was going to stop at Gasser's before my shoot this afternoon for some gaffer's tape but I got caught in a 20 minute backup at the toll plaza.

Actually used my small softbox for the first time on a shoot today. The ambient in this room was about 1/10th at ISO 1600, but I really wanted to keep the red lighting and metalwork in the background. Clamped the SB above and in front of the subjects, just out of frame, and set up a light behind them for a rim/halo/silly effects light.

 

[TylerW]

Calumet and Gasser's are good if you wanna ride up into town. I was going to stop a Gasser's before my shoot this afternoon for some gaffer's tape but I got caught in a 20 minute backup at the toll plaza.

Interesting that you praise Gasser's so highly. I work near there, so I always feel tempted to poke my head in there, but I'm always so amazed at their price inflation - sometimes literally double what you could pay online for the same gear. And if you challenge them on it, they use some of the very same tactics that the skeevy brookyn shops will, telling you that the stuff you buy online (from B&H!) will be cheap foreign export goods and counterfeits, and that's why they're so cheap.

I've done business with K&S before but only rentals. I thought they were pretty stellar on that front - of course, I had little choice - apparently they're the only shop in town with a canon 100-400mm with a lens hood.

 

[Cycle61]

I'm not hugely thrilled about Gassers, but brick and mortar shops are hard to come by. My major purchases pretty much always happen online. I've never rented from K&S, but their selection is pretty good. I use Borrowlenses.com when I need something out of the ordinary.