Friday 30 March 2012

Bird Bath - Speedlite 52 - Week 11 Using Aputure Trigmaster Plus


Bird Bath - Speedlite 52 - Week 11

Today my Aputure Trigmaster Plus  radio triggers arrived, after i unpacked them i took this shot as a trial of the triggers and for my speedlite 52 project which is now on week 11.

The triggers come with everything you need to get started, the batteries the units and all the cables you are likely to need to connect your speedlites or studio strobes to the triggers and your camera.

As you can see from the image below i was indoors about 20 feet away and both triggers fired without problem.

My only gripe is i am used to changing the flash power output from my 7d menu system, when i connect these triggers it will not allow me into that menu as a result i have to change the power output and zoom manually on the speedlite concerned, this is a bit of a step back but the extra possibilities of radio triggers will make up for it ....i hope.



Wednesday 28 March 2012

Canon Speedlites




If you are new to the world of off camera flash and you would like to learn more about it this is a great video i found from Syl Arena. Well worth a watch to pick up a few tips.


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Saturday 24 March 2012

Cocktail Night - Speedlite 52 - Week 10




Cocktail Night - Speedlite 52 - Week 10
This week i wanted to try some food colouring shot. As usual my make shift studio is my kitchen table! The trouble is its just not big enough, the white background is a A1 size piece of mounting board and the glasses are sat on a A1 size piece of glass laid over more mounting board.

This is right on the limit of what i can do with this space to get the full reflection. Ideally i should have more space between the subject and background but if i moved subject i would not be able to get the full reflections. So trying to control the light is a challenge.

After laying out my background i assembled the glasses which i had measured out with equal amounts of water and added a few drops of food colouring to each glass, bit to much in the yellow really!

I also had two reflectors, one left one right, these reflected light obviously, and help block stray light from my back door !

Camera Info:-

ISO           160
Exposure  1/200
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Aperture   F/8.0
Focal        43 mm

Strobist Info:-

Speedlite 430 exii at 1/64 power
Speedlite 580 exii at 1/64 power

Both speedlites fitted with stoffen diffusers, on speedlite stand one left one right both fired towards the background.

I used Adobe lightroom 4 to make a few highlight adjustments and colour luminosity adjustments.

Set up
I am a little disappointed with the large martini glass as the dark shadows don't look nice. This i think is due to the fact there is not enough separation between subject and background. Really need my own studio!!


Thanks for looking and i welcome your comments and feedback.






Thursday 22 March 2012

Saturday 17 March 2012

Reflections - Speedlite 52 - Week 9



Reflections - Speedlite 52 - Week 9

Found myself right at the end of the week and still had to produce a shot, luckily i had recently purchased a A1 size piece of glass, some grey card and some mounting board.

The mounting board i used as a background and placed the glass over the top of the grey card as my base.

These items i purchased from Hobbycraft apart from the glass which i had cut by Ramsgate Glass.

Strobist Info:-

430 ex ii with Stoffen Diffuser fired from camera left onto background at about 1/4 power
580 ex ii with Stoffen Diffuser fired from camera right towards glasses and background at 1/4 power

Made very few adjustments in photoshop just a bit of contrast and tidied up the background slightly.

Next time i will pay more attention to detail such as aligning the wine glasses better to align the rear crossover better.

Really need more space as my kitchen table is just to small to work on really but we all have to work with what we have.

Comments welcome here or Flickr

Thanks for looking


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Friday 16 March 2012

Crab Bay Dover, Chalk Fall


Crab Bay, Dover Chalk Fall

Following this weeks huge chalk fall at Crab Bay Dover, a friend and fellow photographer Barry Stewart, and i decided, to visit the area ourselves.

We drove to Dover and parked up in the National Trust car park at Langdon and paid our £3.00 daily parking charge, national trust members i assume would be free with your badge. On arrival we made straight for the well equipped coffee shop and enjoyed a beverage while we contemplated our walk ahead.

After we finished we made our way to the car for a quick change of footwear and gathered our equipment. We made our way along the cliff top footpaths and to the slope which zig zags its way down the white cliffs to the beach below.

This is a fairly vigorous walk and defiantly got the heart pumping....fast! If like me you have never visited the area i would highly recommend it. Lovely walk along the cliff tops and very nice coffee shop for food and drinks, alternatively take a picnic and use the picnic tables that are dotted around, just try to avoid the ones close to the edge!!!

Once down onto the beach below we still had a walk ahead of us to the fall site which was over large boulders and seawead which was very slippery. I was also very aware of the possibility of another chalk fall. We remained vigilant and as far away from the cliff base as possible,

Once i had composed this shot and made my way around to the fall site Barry activated my camera for me, if only i had purchased those triggers!! Soon :-)

The walk back was as vigourous if not more so on the return journey up the zig zag path to the cliff top. We once again made use of the facillities before we headed home.

On the plus side France is now slightly further away!


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Friday 9 March 2012

Ben Usain Bolt Pelling - Speedlite 52 -Week 8




Ben Usain Bolt Pelling - Speedlite 52 -Week 8
The weeks are just flying past! Yet again this was not the original shot i had planned this was a back up shot which as it turned out i preferred to the planned shot.


Strobist info

CameraCanon EOS 7D
Exposure0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperturef/8.0
Focal Length17 mm
ISO Speed200

 The background was underexposed by about three stops and i then used two speedlites, one high camera left the other was low camera right

The high left was a 580 exii in a Westcott 43-inch Optical Satin Collapsible with Removable Black Cover which was on manual mode fired by 7d built in wireless system,at about half power.

The low right was my 430 exii in a shoot through umbrella at about a quarter power and again fired by the 7d wireless system.

I am fairly happy with the result but would have liked more colour in the sky but there is always next time!

Any comments or constructive criticism welcome here or 500px or my flickr account

Thanks for looking

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Saturday 3 March 2012

New Canon Speedlite 600ex-RT and ST-E3 RT



Found this video on the new Canon speedlite and radio transmitter system tested by Syl Areana



Its new so i need one or three !

If you want one you better start saving !
Available from Warehouse Express or the ST-E3 RT

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Friday 2 March 2012

Angel - Speedlight 52 - Week 7


Angel - Speedlight 52 - Week 7



This week i found myself in Ramsgate Cemetery.The cemetery in Cecilia Road, Ramsgate, opened in 1871. There are two chapels, one of which is in use for funeral services, the other serves as a memorial chapel. Both are listed by English Heritage.

This shot was taken at 11.18am and so the sky was very bright. I wanted to make the background darker and light the Angel with my speedlite, so i set the camera as follows

Shutter 1/250th sec
Aperture F/16.0

The camera was on manual mode and these settings actually under exposed image by about two stops. The speedlite was my 580 exii on auto ETTLii mode connected with a hot shoe sync cord and a lumiquest softbox iii attached, positioned high left.

The camera was mounted on tripod fired by ir remote and the flash was then handheld.

Graveyard shots can be very atmospheric and in my opinion always look better in mono graphic form.

Please feel free to comment here, 500px or my flickr account thanks


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