Stretch that Shutter

I had the chance to photograph the beautiful Aly this weekend.  She's a co-worker now but was a cheerleader back in college.  I asked her to do some gymnast-like jumps for me.  She had some reservations, as she was one of those shy-types but after a few shots, she loosened up and started having fun with it.

As with my concept shoot a few weeks back, I started planning a few days before the shoot.  The plan was have Aly do her jumps and light her from the sides and one soft light upfront.  I think I was able to get as many ideas I got on the actual shoot.Unfortunately, I inadvertently threw it away with the other garbage i my pocket, so I can't show you how I visualized it. :(

update: here's how the set-up looked like for most of the shots:

Sketching what  I think the final photo will look like and how I would light it really helps out the process.  For example the top most image took only one shot (I was very lucky).  This also saved Aly from doing multiple jumps, which saves her some energy for the next shot. She was surprised that she could stretch like this, as she never saw herself stretching that much before. Here are some more shots:

About the Title

Except for the up most shot, Aly did need to take multiple jumps for the shots.  As much as I would like to get it with one frame,  it would be very difficult to time each jump and get what you want.  So what did I do?  I shot it hi-speed and did multiple clicks (burst mode) in each jump.  The flash trigger I used was a YN-04II, and my camera having an electronic shutter (D70) I was able to use a fast sync speed than most (some camera's only have a 1/250 sync speed).  The shots above were in the speed range of 1/500 to 1/1000 with the flash units on 1/4 power.  Having that speed enabled me to maximize the 3 frame per second limit on my camera. 

Also, my  camera's shutter is about 43,500 and counting, really close to the manufacturer's claim of 50,000.  To those who don't know, a DSLR life ends when it reaches the maximum number of shutter clicks (or on how many times you click that shutter to take a picture).  After that you would need to have your camera serviced and replace the shutter mechanism.  It's not cheap, mind you. It could be just a manufacturer's claim so they'll get more profit from repairs.  I kinda hope mine wouldn't die on me after 50,000 clicks, as I have a friend who has a camera that has more that 100,000 clicks and it's still working.  Then again, I have another colleague who's D40 died on him at 50,000 clicks.  So who knows?

Weekend Gear Test: Softlighter and Nikon CLS

This test has been overdue for a loooooong time.  I purchased a Photek Softlighter II back in August, and I have been looking to make a review of the product ever since. You see, I haven't really tested it on another person except for myself.  I thought of using on my recent shoot, but the bad weather didn't give me the chance.  So when my pal Daryl came over the weekend, we took it out, dusted it out (literally) and took it for a spin.

What came in the box? There's the 46" inch umbrella (removable backing), the white cover and, not in the picture, 2 disks (1 silver and 1 gold) that you put inside the umbrella to add more light (silver) and warm up your light (gold).

The umbrella construction is quite solid, and sports 10 spokes rather than the traditional 8.  The shaft is removable at the end, so you don't poke your models eye out. This means you your light can get  as close (and as soft) as possible.

The umbrella can be used 3 ways.  It can be a black reflective umbrella, a shoot through umbrella (with the black cover removed) and lastly a umbrella box (reflective umbrella with the white cover added upfront). 

The silver disk that came with it gives you a stop (+1) more of light as Photek claims, which is to compensate for the light it eats up when the light is bounce to the umbrella and when it goes through the white cover (which is why the light is soft).

Here's how it looks like from the front.  The flash in this case is a Nikon SB-800.  It is totally inside the Softlighter and is totally covered.  It would be difficult for the SB-800's power menu to be changed, as you need to take off half of the cover, so we just used CLS to trigger it and control the power from the camera (I used a D80 in the test).  The good news, the black back cover and the white in front lets the CLS signal in.  Yes, even the black backing lets the signal in. If you're just using the slave feature of the SB-800, it also let's that light in to trigger your flash. In my test, it triggered the flash from 15 feet away, but unfortunately, I didn't go beyond 15 feet, but I think you can go up to 30 feet and still trigger it (I was just using the pop-up flash of the camera, more on that later).  So I adjusted the power from the camera and clicked away.  The light is really soft, and being a "round" softbox (the "experts" say it's not an Octabox) the light is controlled compared to a shoot-through umbrella.  Here are the other shots for the day.

 

And the setup shot :

Here are other Photek Softlighter II Reviews (much, much reliable than myself)

Strobist Softlighter Review

DIYP Review

Not a CLS Review

I'm not a CLS expert (please ask Joe), but we kinda tested it anyway since we were using CLS that afternoon.  So, we found out that it worked even in a Softlighter and even from 15 feet away (or  possibly more) with just the pop-up flash (at pop-up flash "--" power setting), but we wanted to see how far we can go with just bare flash and the pop-up.  We tried at around a distance of 70-80 feet, with the pop-up power of the flash at Full, but no luck.

We moved a little closer at about 50-60ft with Full pop-up power and.....TADA!

This is very impressive, I should say.  I've been hearing from others who have tested it, but all of them have used another SB-XXX flash attached to the camera, adding more power to the signal.  I haven't seen any test with just the pop-up flash. This means you can use your CLS from 50ft away while maximizing your pop-up flash.  To see how far (and it is way, way farther as you might think) you can go while using a flash unit on-camera, check this out (he used a SB-900).

Also, we were using CLS and were also using the trick FP-mode thing which allows your shutterspeed to go as high as you can.  Too bad it's not available on my Nikon D70, but it is available on  Nikon D80 models and up (I think).  See more details here.