Day 181 - Heat Wave

Twitter | Facebook | Blogger | Flickr

View On Black


ISO 200 f/9 1/1000s. 1 SB-26 @ 20mm full power inside of mini softbox high camera left 2.5 ft triggered with pocket wizard plus IIs

It's really hot in the south. I was supposed to photograph a skateboard competition this afternoon which got cancelled due to the extremely hot temperatures.

setup shot


until tomorrow,
enjoy

Day 180 - The Driver

Twitter | Facebook | Blogger | Flickr

ISO 200 f/13 1.6s 1 SB-26 @ 20mm 1/4th power behind steering wheel and 1 SB-26 @ 20mm 1/2 power inside of open glove box triggered with pocket wizard plus IIs.

View On Black


I had the idea for this shot months before every owning an ultrawide angle lens. Months ago I had planned to do a similar shot using my 18-105mm kit lens at 18mm with me sitting on the car photographing the driver. I never could set the shot up with someone, so I decided to make it a a self-portarit.

setup shot


until tomorrow,
enjoy

Day 179 - The Bike Rig

Twitter | Facebook | Blogger | Flickr

ISO 200 f/16 1/1000s 1 SB-26 subject right mounted on the handle bars @ 18mm 1/4th power, and camera mounted on the bicycle down tube. All synced with Pocket Wizard Plus IIs.



Late post this. I stayed out later last night than I expected. I was not quite sure about the results of this shot at first, but now I really like it. I know it's really weird because of the extremely wide angle, but bicycles are a huge part of who I am; and my 366 project would not be complete without them.

setup shot


results from 1st attempt using spring clamps that couldn't support the additional weight of the radio trigger


Until later tonight,
enjoy

Day 178 - Rim Light

Twitter | Facebook | Blogger | Flickr

ISO 200 f/2.8 1/30s 1 SB-26 @ 85mm 1/64th power bare behind me (It's the big white ball below my left ear). Triggered with Pocket Wizard Plus IIs.

View On Black


Started off the night with another multiple exposure shot that I trashed. The shot that didn't make it was of me looking into a mirror before my hair cut and another an hour later after cutting my hair looking into the camera. I then layered the shot so both images of my face would be looking into the camera. It didn't turn out well, and I think my bathroom is too small to pull off that kind of shot.

After caning the first shot I drove to a local outdoor shopping center to shoot, but I was then kicked out 20 seconds after setting up my tripod.

After being escorted out of the shopping center, I then went to Big Spring Park to take this shot. It is actually a composite of two exposures. The first was with my flash firing, and for the second; I locked the focus and turned off the flash. I then blended the two layers in photoshop after I had imported them into Lightroom. I then made several adjustments in Lighroom of the composite. Once all of those tweaks where made, I then exported the image back to Photoshop to add in Scan lines, only to import back into lightroom a 3rd time to add a grain effect.

Flash


Ambient


until tomorrow,
enjoy

Happy Hour

Twitter | Facebook | Blogger | Flickr


 ISO 200 f/16 1/1000s. 1 SB-26 fired at poster board behind subject @ 35mm 1/4th power and 1 SB-26 @ 20mm 1/4th power in mini-softbox to fill in foam.

  Larger on White as it should be viewed

It has been far to Hot in Alabama to shoot outside for long. I hope you enjoy this shot, and I promise I'll have more to say tomorrow.

setup here


until next time,
enjoy

Day 176 - Don't Play with Fire

Twitter | Facebook | Blogger | Flickr

ISO 200 f/10 1/25s

1 SB-26 @ 35mm 1/1 power with a CTO Gel (to match the color temperature of the flames) in a partially collapsed umbrella triggered with pocket wizard plus IIs
View On Black

setup here

Day 175 - After Glow

Twitter | Facebook | Blogger | Flickr

1 SB-26 on each side of the glow in the dark ball @ 85mm full power triggered with Pocket Wizard Plus IIs and a Sekonic 758-DR.

View On Black


To start lets see what this shot looks like with all light turned on in aperture priority.

ISO 100 f/22 1/2s (pretty boring image)


Let's cut the lights off and add a stop to the shutter.


Not enough light! You can see a faint glow, but not what we want.

Now for the inspiration behind this shot. Years ago, film cameras had flash sync ports with the settings "M" and "X". M for Flash Bulbs, and X for electronic flash. So what's the deal, and why should you care. Before electronic flash, people used flash bulbs for extra light in a shot. The problem was that flash bulbs took awhile to reach maximum brightness; therefore the M setting would trigger the flash bulb just before the shutter opened, and the X setting would fire the flash the moment the shutter was fully opened because electronic flash duration reached it's maximum power much quicker than flash bulbs. Years ago I read of a hack where film photographers would use the flash bulb setting to fire electronic flashes to light phosphorescences before the shutter opened, and flash itself would not appear in the final exposure. I found this exciting, but I was never willing to risk the 120 film to try it.

Now for the process of how I did this.

setup shot first.

I have a special trigger cable that allows me to trigger my camera using my Pocket Wizard Radio transceiver. In this case, I used my Sekonic flash meter with built in transmitter because I only own 2 Pocket Wizards. Setting everything to channel 1, I press the test button on my meter. This will fire the camera and flash simultaneously, the problem is the flash is so fast that the exposure is over before the shutter ever opens. Pocket Wizard worked around this by having the camera trigger receive the input on channel 1 and then transmit on channel 2 allowing the camera to trigger all flashes on channel 2 allowing everything to sync properly. In my case I left everything on channel 1. The flashes fired charing the ball, and then the shutter opened when the glow in the dark ball was at its maximum brightness.

What I did, was basically simulate the "M" mode used for flash bulbs to allow me to do phosphorescent photography with a digital camera. The most interesting part is, I came up with my exposure settings out of nowhere; and I was right on 1st shot with no adjustments to ISO, aperture, or shutter speed.

Just for fun! Let's set my flash trigger to channel 2 as intended.


what a mess!

until tomorrow,
enjoy