Lens Flair

You just gotta learn how to tame natural light. The sun was giving me great back lighting so that sorted that, had one strobe camera right to light the front of the car and one strobe camera left to light the models, all bare flash ...

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New page, new photo !

IMG_3876.jpg
 
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Gotcha, gotcha. I assume you refer to an external flash when you say strobe. Just how much different are they from the built in ones? That is, apart from the stronger illumination, detachability, etc. Do they illuminate the scene any differently? Did you use iTTL to control them or did you set the power manually?

I have so many questions and feel so bad about asking them... like i'll be told to "go out and try it out, i ain't telling you squat.." :(
 
Jesus dude, don't ever worry about asking me anything :)

I use a Canon 580EX II, Canon 430EX and a Nikon SB800 as my slaves. I use a wireless remote system and set the power manually as until the release of 'radio poppers' over here no system can use ETTL.

Does it light things differently ? Hell yeah ... ;)
 
Hmm... i've read that my onboard flash can act as a master. How does that work? Optically or radio signal? I haven't been able to find that information anywhere... I'm still a bit confused about how the whole master/slave wireless flashing works...

And if you don't mind, i'd very much like to know the aperture and focal length used in that shot. Aperture seems very slow, there's no DOF at all (focus is on the front of the car and the girls, but the roofs of the tents are still razor sharp).
 
Don't ever make the mistake of trying learn numbers, rather learn what the extremities of each do and understand how they all relate to each other. Because the technology limited my shutter speed to a max of 1/200th (Any faster and the flashes firing and the shutter opening and closing wouldn't synchronize together) I needed to stop down to prevent the image from over exposing. I never go 'Gee, the sunlight is a bit harsh, think I'll use f16' I just experiment and check my histograms and work from there ...
 
I see... I hope you didn't experiment on the girls, they tend to get quite annoyed if you keep flashing them. :p
 
And just what is that? ;)

EDIT: also: What technology slowed you down to just 1/200? Is it the response time of the slave flash? If it's any faster, it fires too late?
 
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Hmm... i've read that my onboard flash can act as a master. How does that work? Optically or radio signal? I haven't been able to find that information anywhere... I'm still a bit confused about how the whole master/slave wireless flashing works...

since you mentioned iTTL I'll presume you're referring to Nikon here. A Nikon D70 or better can act as a master over at least one channel (I think the D80 can do two? The d200 and d300 can handle more still.. and the sb800 or su800 can do pretty much anything). Check your manual to see what settings you need to use on the body for it to act as a master.

iTTL works using optical preflash commands... so it's all line-of-sight (though you can often get by with the preflash being bounced off of surfaces when it's not too bright around you. The master flash will fire one quick and small flash to tell the slave flashes how to fire. Once this happens the flashes will know how and when to fire to expose the shot the way the body specifies. You can actually use any of the flash modes (manual, iTTL, etc.) and control any slave flashes right through the body.. it's pretty cool.

If you do ever get serious with flashes though you kind of end up having to go with radio transmitters, since optical flashes obviously have their limits (makes it kind of hard to have a flash sitting behind you, for instance). This then limits you to shooting manual.. unless you buy 'radio popper's when they come out :)
 
^ I really like your grafitti pics :thumbsup:
 
And just what is that? ;)

EDIT: also: What technology slowed you down to just 1/200? Is it the response time of the slave flash? If it's any faster, it fires too late?

You can overcome that if you use pre-flash on the Nikon systems. But that is not the best way because it means waiting for flash recharge. I prefer to use a PC cord to make sure my camera doesn't detect a flash is on the camera, you could use eletronic shutter giving you 1/500 sync time easily (not all camera's has it, especially the pro ones). Head off to strobist.blogspot, you would learn all you need to know
 
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