pocket wizard nini tt1

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Picture of the day. Close up and still Photography.

My dear friend Jeff got my this fabulous flower arrangement. When I first saw it I got amazed by the looks and attention to details not to mention the fragrance was just incredible as well. Since flower look great for so long I decided I wanted to make them the subject of a photo shoot. My first thought was to take a few pictures of it but the few pictures turn out to be over 100 pictures and a bit over 3 hours. I started shooting the base only and then I got inspired and started to shoot individual flowers, different lenses angles and lighting scenarios.

Equipment used

The pictures were taken with a Canon 7D set at ISO  160 speed at 250 F8 and white balance fixed at 5800K for most images. Later during the shot I started using F16 for the close ups so I switched to ISO 200 and 250. I mostly used a Canon EF 24-70 2.8L and Canon EF 100Macro 2.8 also some pictures were done using a Canon EF-S 10-22 to get some different perspectives. As far as lighting this time I did not use strobes. I took all the pictures with a Canon 580EXII and a Lastolite easy box 2×2 and a white reflector to bounce some fill light on the opposite side. Later during the shoot I added a Canon 430EXII with an umbrella. I controlled the lights with a Pocket wizard mini TT1 and the AC3 controller (both lights were in manual mode on independent groups)

Thanks for looking and don’t hesitate to ask should you have any questions.

Regards,

Alex Elias

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Indoor family pictures.

Last week’s  family shoot went out very nice nicely. Everyone was ready and very willing to make this work, specially the 6-year-old that  turned out to be a star. She sure had a blast modeling and working the camera. She tried a few different looks and also did her own make up, which by the way I think she did pretty good for 6 years of age; For sure better than I would have done.

The equipment I took with me for the shoot was my Canon 7D and although I took about 5 lenses the Canon EF 24-70 2.8 L was the one that I used all the time. Lighting was done with 2 Travelites 750 triggered via pocket wizards Mini and Flex and I fitted the lights with one 48×60 photoflex Softbox for the main, and an umbrella using the bouncing side as a fill. I shot everything at F9.0 and a few at F11 for good depth of field and ISO set at 200. The one thing I must confess is that I left the white balance on auto, I forgot to lock it and now I’ll have to spend a bit of extra time in CS5 with the color correction.

Overall it was a great day and I enjoyed the session a lot.

 

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Outdoor Family portraits

I haven’t posted for a while. Life has kept me busy with good things plus I was practicing a bit on my procrastination.

Here are some pictures I just I took at the park. I could not have asked for a better day and and nicer family to work with, the kids were awesome and everything went just right.

The equipment I used:

Camera was a  Canon 7D. The main lens was a Canon EF 24-70 2.8L  follow by Canon EF 70-200 2.8  IS L  and I took a few using a Canon EF-S 10-22 . As far as lighting I took two Canon Speedlite a 580EX II and 430 EXII with 1/4 CTO on each one 1 2×2 loastolite Easybox  and a 5’x3′ reflector/difuser. The flashes were triggered with one Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and an AC3 controller and 2 Flex TT5. Using the AC3 controller is nothing short of great, I had one light in group A the other one in group B and controlled each one at will from power up and down to turning on and off or go from E-TTl to manual. They are pricey but they are great.

 

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Outdoor Portraits.

Recently I went to visit my family and the place where they live features a great outdoor fireplace. Focal points like this make up for a great backdrop so I took my lights and shoot some pictures.

The camera was a Canon 7D outfited with a Canon EF 24-70 2.8L I used a Travelite 750 with a 36×48 Photoflex softbox to the right of the  people as the main light source, as a fill light I used a second Travelite 750 fitted with a shoot through umbrella to the left of the camera, the lights were triggered by a Pocket Wizard Mini and 2 Flex TT5. The ratio between the lights was about 1:3.

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Kids playing with leafs.

The other day I was about to mow the lawn and noticed all the beautiful leafs laying arround. The light was awesome it was hitting pretty low and it had a nice warmth to it making those leafs glow.  That was a great excuse to postpone my duties and pick up the camera and have some fun.

I use the Canon 7D along with the Canon EF 24-70 L 2.8 here I also use a Canon 580EX II with a 1/2 CTO gell and triggered it using the Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 and a Mini TT1. I was going to use my Lastolite 2×2 but the wind did not agree with my idea and I had to take it down so I use the bare flash on the stand.

As usual my son does not make taking nice, cute pictures easy; he makes me work for the pictures. like most 2 yrs old I have to chase him all over and every time he sees me pointing the lens at hims he stops doing what he is doing or turns arround.

Here are a few pictures of that afternoon.

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Kids portraits with Canon 7D and Calumet 750 with Photoflex large soft box.

After a few months of not posting, here I am. Recently I got some new lighting equipment (Culumet Travelite 750 made by Bowen) along with a large softbox (Photoflex 3′ x 4′  )

While testing the lights, my daughter decided to join and not long after my son did too. The set up was quite simple. One light Travelite 750 at about 1/4 power with the Photoflex 3’x4′ soft box to camera right and a large white bounce reflector to camera left. I did not bother with rim, background or hair lights on this shot since it was meant to be a test shot only. The setting on the camera ( Canon 7D ) was speed 250th the lens ( Canon EF 24-70mm F.28L ) was set at F9 and the white balance was fixed at 6400K with a white balance shift to +3 green.  The flash was triggered with a Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5.

I’ve been running some test with the Travelite’s to determine their color temperature. The bulbs are the clear ones and are rated @ 6100K +/- 300k I’ve done some test shots with the camera set from 5600K to 6400K.  I think that setting the camera anywhere from 5800K to 6100K gives me a decent result with except that I noticed a bit of a magenta cast on light flesh tones and that was the reason I set the +3 green on the shots here. Next time I’ll try a custom white balance and see if that proves to be more effective.

So far my overall felling about the lights is great. The recycle times are fast  and the flash output it’s pretty consistent. On the other hand the lights are rather large to be taken all over town but I can live with that. The modeling lamp is a 250W this much power is good to see the effects of the light placement. The unit also has a tracking feature that makes the modeling lamp adjust it’s power according to the power setting of the flash therefore when using multiple strobes at different power settings one can easily see where and how the shadows a placed.

Thanks for looking and feel free to ask me any questions.

Alex Elias

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Photo of the day. Macro photography flowers part 2

I wrote something about macro and close up photography a while ago here https://alexephotos.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/macro-photo-of-the-day-feathers/  this talks about the set up I used to take pictures of feathers. The ABC’s are the same.

Tripod is almost a must first for the obvious reason of steadiness and second to find the composition that better suits your eye and third so every thing remains the same if you like to play with the lights to get different effects, so a tripod is paramount for this kind of images.

Use the mirror lock up function if your camera has one (it helps reduce or eliminate vibrations created by the mirror when it flips up)  If you don’t know if your camera has that feature or not this would be a good time to get something call owners manual, it’s a little book that came inside the box and most likely was tossed aside 🙂 if the camera does not have a mirror lock up feature use a self timer.

Cable release or wireless trigger also helpful to reduce vibrations.

I used a Macro lens Canon EF 100mm 2.8 but it is not a must if you don’t own one work as close as the lens will let you. There are some accessories one can use as well such as close up filters, or extension tubes to increase the magnification.  Now that we are mentioning the lens it is best to focus manually to get the best possible focus and use a small appeture with ironically is the larger number this images were taken at  f20 although this will add to the Depth of filed it might not be the best f stop due to something call diffraction, f11 to f16 depending on the camera and lens could be safe.

As far as lighting  I used mainly one Canon 580EXII on a stand with a 24″x24″ lastolite soft box. The flash was trigger via  Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 on the camera and a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 on the flash. The flash was set to manual (find your own exposure and flash distance to subject) and shoot away.

On some of the pictures of the Poppies you’ll noticed I used 2 Flashes, the main one and on the center post of the tripod I attached at second unit (Canon 430EXII) also in manual mode connected with a Pocket Wizard FlexTT5. Since the poppies are rather thin I wanted to see how it would look like with some light coming from behind the petals.

Reflectors could be helpful to fill in shadow areas on the opposite side of the main light, depending on the look that you are after and the lights available to you, a reflector allows you to shoot with only one light. Even if you don’t have any lights available, place your subject next to a window with diffused light coming through and use the reflector on the other side.

I shoot this pictures with a Canon 7D set to manual mode. the speed was set at 50th of a second (although I’d recommend 250th) I guess I was not paying enough attention when I did my set up shame on me 🙂  ISO for most pictures was set between 100 and 200 and for a few where I needed more light instead of cranking up the flash too much I gave the camera a way to go with a 400 ISO (that is one way to conserve a bit of batteries and get faster recycle times) not that is so important for still photography to have a fast recycle time anyway.

Here it are some of the pictures along with pictures of the set up.

Thanks for reading this and don’t hesitate to comment, ask questions of post your own experiences.

Regards,

Alex ELias

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Picture of the day. Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Flex

Back in December 2009 Pocket Wizard run a US meet up tour hosted by Mark Wallace. First of all, thanks to Pocket Wizard for showing firsthand how capable this devises are; it was great being able to use them in real life scenarios. As expected this little creatures did not disappoint anyone within the over 100 photographers that were there.

Mark Wallace is a top-notch instructor. His demonstration was outstanding, with plenty of information and knowledge not only about the use of Pocket Wizards but lighting and other techniques in general. The 6 or so hours of the class went by really fast shooting live models in a great studio location. The lay out was nothing but perfect, there were 5 stations with models and different lighting and backgrounds.

Pocket Wizards are not Pocket Change, but are worth the investment. I just got one Mini TT1 and two Flex’s and I’m looking to buy a third Flex as soon as budget allows it to end up with a 3 light set up. It is great being able to set  stands with light modifiers in a matter of minutes without the need of plugs or wires, indoor or outdoor and maintain E-TTL, the freedom and features that this system allows keeps on going on and on.

Here is a link to some highlight from the class http://www.youtube.com/snapfactory#p/a/u/1/Ea2PLp74b6E