Last friday down at the creek and more

Here is a behind the scenes look at Long's set.

You can see the two flashes placed to either side (the flash on the right is blocked by Alex).

The flash on the right was rigged up quite fancily with 3 ways to trigger it. We have a sync cord as Long mentioned, a PocketWizard Plus II, and Alex's RadioPopper JrX.

And here's what I got using the same flash setup.

# Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250) [+]
# Aperture: f/5.6 [+]
# Focal Length: 160 mm [+]
# ISO Speed: 100 [+]



And later, we took a few more of Cara. (No flash used on these)

This was taken up in a tree with my camera above my head. This would not have been possible without live view lol.

Weekly meet Friday

200th post!

The weather looks much better this Friday. We will meet at 12PM in the art barn. See you there!

Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 and RadioPopper JrX Range: How Far Do They Go?

Thinking about getting a set of wireless flash triggers/receivers/transceivers? Here are two to check out that have good reliability. Just how far do the latest Pocket Wizard (PW) FlexTT5 and RadioPopper (RP) JrX flash triggers go? About 650+ feet during our test on campus. The two different triggers were able to transmit to the same distance, approximately 660 feet! The receivers were connected via a 3.5mm cable to a Nikon SB-600 flash on a stand about 6 feet high. In between the transmitter and receiver were a few obstructions (trees) and the area was paved and surrounded by concrete buildings and a sky bridge (not sure if these would cause interference).

Normally the FlexTT5 would be mounted on the lightstand to a light, but in this test it was just hung from the light stand while the antennae was pointed up. ControlTL (Canon E-TTL) was not tested since we were using an SB-600.

The Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 units are rated at "30 to 1200 feet for basic triggering" (depending on flash, orientation, environment, etc.)
The RadioPopper JrX system is rated at "300 to 1750 feet depending on conditions and the environment."

Conclusion: They both perform as well for basic triggering. Which one yo should get depends on your needs and current system. If you want E-TTL, get the PW. If you want to save some money, get the RP.

Pocket Wizard Pros:
Works with Plus II units
Works with Canon E-TTL metering (Soon Nikon)
Customizable with new firmware updates

RadioPopper Pros:
Small
Cheaper at about half the price
Can seemingly be mounted in any orientation

I was standing to the north. Flash on the south end, pictured below.

Alex talking to me on the phone confirming the flash fired.

Meeting this Week 1/29

Weekly meet this week. It will be Friday, January 29 at 12:00PM. We will meet in the art barn as usual. Bring your ideas of where you'd like to shoot! ;)

Today's Meet

A large group today. It's good to have new people and the usual members. It looks like Friday's work the best. Too bad campus just isn't as busy on Friday.

Just a couple to share today. This is Sofia (Sophia?) who volunteered to pose for a few minutes right next to the Green Hall building.




Couple more here.

Cameron and His Unicycle

I pulled 10 pictures from today. Here are a couple that I liked best. Cameron mentioned that he also does some fire spinning which I would love to see and shoot. Perhaps like the cover of Joe McNally's Book "Hot Shoe Diaries" The rest are here.

Catching Up

Don't forget, next meet is this Wednesday at 1PM, Art Barn. It will be the last one of the semester.

The following are from two weeks ago.

Linda





Julie




Brandon

See you Wednesday!
ryan

Arboretum Pictures

Here are a bunch of portraits from Saturday.

Photo Shoots This Week

update: Long's photos from the shoot here.

As of now, there are two scheduled shoots this week.

Arboretum - Saturday the 21st. We will be leaving Long's house at 1PM. Send him a message for his address, unless you just want to meet us at the arboretum. Don't forget to purchase your tickets in advance at the comet center in the SU.

Tomorrow Wednesday the 17th at 1:00 PM. We will meet in the art barn.

Wednesday and Thursday Evening's Shoot - UPDATED

So Wednesday, we were down near the gazebo and fountain/creek on the east side of campus. As usual, click the picture for EXIF info and brief lighting blurb at flickr.

Paula

Requisite Long photo:




A few from Thursday evening:











Ryan

Last minute Thursday Evening Shoot

Long is leading a shoot tomorrow evening for anyone interested. It will be for some sunset/evening pictures. If you've never had a chance to try some portraits with off-camera flash, then this would be a good opportunity. No more worrying about shutter-sync speed when it gets dark :). And if you don't know what I'm talking about, shame on you! Just kidding, Long will help you figure it all out!

It will be from 5:15 till about 6PM (Thursday, November 12). The location will be between the Jonsson and Visual arts building.


Long can be reached on facebook, email, or at 214 718 2387.

A Few From Wednesday

Lighting for the break shots:

3 bare speedlights. Fired wtih PW.

Left 1/4
Right 1/4
Back right 1/8






Natural Lighting


Jesse giving the European look


Michelle's Picture setup:

More From Wednesday

A pretty neat shoot Wednesday. We tried something different this week in terms of lighting and location. It wasn't the greatest spot, but we were able to do some neat things. Thanks to Helen, Tripp, Melissa and her friends, Jae and Linh. Short write up at the bottom. enjoy the pictures!




















Make sure both flashes work


Things I learned:

• Find a better location next time, I hated this spot. It only worked well for the break dancing shots, but even then it was kinda cramped.
• Check your flashes to make sure they're firing (we tried to get clam-shell lighting, but only got regular umbrella lighting)
• Move the light closer to your subject and your subject away from the background to make it dark
• Rim lighting as Long pointed out is a hit and miss and must be constantly adjusted

I think that about covers it. Till next time...

Ryan

Past and Present

Last week's Thursday shoot turned out really well. We had a good turn out and shot in some new locations. Thank you to the group that let us take their pictures, Jennifer, and Vicki for posing.







Most of the following shots had 4 lights as arranged above

umbrella right, one flash behind column (back right)

straight on camera flash

Playing with a Honl Grid Spot






And a couple from the previous week of Monisha and Dana.






See you Tomorrow,
Ryan