The Calumet Wireless Transmitter In The Field

The location was the Filoli estate, and I was photographing a possible cover for Parenting On The Peninsula, a monthly journal on parenting and parenting resources on the San Francisco peninsula. When these photos were taken, the cover candidate was already "in the can" and approved by the editor. Since I was just "off the set", I was looking for some fun photos for my subject's personal use.

Since the cover photo was to be taken outdoors, I opted for a much bigger flash than my preferred Nikon speedlights. In this case, it was a Quantum QX2 flash head powered by a Norman 200B battery pack. The Quantum was mounted on a paintpole held by Cissie, my assistant, and shot through a Ziser Zumbrella.

I decided to use a Calumet Wireless Flash Triggering set to fire the flash instead of an Eilenchrome Sky Port. But how was the Calumet unit going to give me an advantage over the conventional Eilenchrome? In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Calumet unit had adopted one important feature that made it really special: You could mount a Nikon iTTL speedlight in the transmitter's built in hotshoe and maintain full access to all of the iTTL controls. Think of it this way:

• If I used an Eilenchrome Skyport transmitter, I could control an off-camera main flash only in the manual mode. It would have to be adjusted manually. If I added a fill light, it could be triggered optically or with another Eilenchrome receiver. 

• If I used the iTTL commander/remote configuration with several Nikon speedlights, I would have wireless flash control and could regulate the flash output of both the key and the fill lights from the camera position. But I would have to deal with the lower outputs and longer re-cycling times associated with the small speedlights.

• If I used the Calumet unit, I could have the best of both worlds. I could wireless trigger my main light, which would be manually adjusted anyway, and use the TTL speedlight in the the transmitter's hotshoe to provide the fill light.

 Since the light to subject distance would constant, I was free to move in and out and vary the perspective and the composition while the TTL metered out a proper exposure to fill the shadows. This would give me the freedom to experiment with different distances and compositions and not worry about variations in the fill light. In this case, I dialed in minus 2 2/3 stops underexposure so it would not compete with the main light.

  

The key light was a single, full power blast from the Quantum/Norman set at full power at a distance of 8 feet. My exposure settings were F 13 @ 1/200 of a second, ISO 200, in a Nikon D300. I found out the while the D300 should have allowed for a maximum synchronization speed of 1/250 of a second, I was getting less than full light output due to the long flash duration of the Quantum QX unit. Essentially, the flash was still "burning" when the second shutter curtain started to close, clipping the light at the back end. This is not the fault of the Calumet unit, simply a limitation imposed by the Quantum flash. Incidentally, the new Pocket Wizard Flex unit has an adjustable offset that allow for a slight pre-trigger of the flash, something like "M Synchronization" on the leaf shutters of yesteryear. But I digress.

The lead photo turned out well. If you look closely, you can see the shadow of the nose on the subject's upper lip. The on-camera TTL flash filled the shot nicely. If you want to see what the shot would look like without any additional flashes, look under baby Nolan's hand. You'll see a dark, not black, shadow with very little detail. But the position of the on-camera speedlight was relatively close to the lens axis, so this shadow was minimal. There is one tiny drawback. If you look at this unretouched portion of Nolan's eye, you'll see two catchlights: one from the main light, and one from the on-camera fill. My father had always told me to avoid twin catchlights, and I suspect that he himself used Spotone to remove catchlights from more than a few images in his day. I did remove the secondary catchlight, just as I'm sure my father would have done.

The assignment was finished just as more and more visitors started to arrive. From our arrival at 8:45, we spent 45 minutes establishing the primary location and one hour for the cover shot and some additional supplimentary images.  Cissie and I managed to get a sandwich before the cafe got crowded, and left at 11:30.

Judging from the lead photo, everybody seemed to be comfortable with the shoot, including Dad. The outline of his nose shadow is easily seen because in this shot the light was coming from a relatively high position. And you can see the effects of the on-camera TTL fill had on evening out the exposure.

  

While I could have easily used 3 speedlights to achieve roughly the same light output, the faster recycle of the Quantum/Norman combination proved very useful when capturing this delightfully wiggly 6-month old baby. 

Update: October 3, 2016. For all intents and purposes, Calumet is no longer in sales. An equivalent radio trigger with on-camera  iTTL capabilities can be found here. 

Multiple Flash Indoors

You have to love wide angle lenses. The "stretch face" curse has become so commonplace that viewers look at these images without giving it a second thought. Unfortunately, the challenge of incorporating key visual elements within the confines of a photograph often forces me to choose the widest lens I have and live with the curse.

Flash indoors should have become obsolete with the advent of high ISOs on our digital cameras. But available light isn't always the most flattering. Indoors, light almost always comes from above, making for deep-set eye shadows and extremes brightness variations between the shadows and highlights. Sure, you could expose for the shadows and have completely blown highlights, or expose for the highlights and let all shadow detail disappear. But in the end, a photo that compromises one for the other will never reproduce well when it is finally printed.

Now there are many who might say that adding artificial lighting while making a photograph is "altering" the environment in an unethical manner. I agree that it does alter the look, but not necessary the content. I consider lighting as a tool to reveal, not conceal.

Supplementing exiting light gives me a chance to present to the viewer a scene that more closely resembles how the mind recorded it. The human eye, coupled with the human brain, is capable of compensating for the extreme variations between the highlights and the shadows. All the additional lighting does is make the image closer to what we remember, giving back the detail that was lost to the shadows. I consider this as "moral" as the flash bulb fired by a Speed Graphic, or the Vivitar 283 attached to a Nikon F. Now the bother of setting up additional lights? That's another story.

The event was "Fashion For  Compassion", and fundraiser for the Peninsula Humane Society. The animal fashion show was a bit if kitch, but always challenging and fun. As in all fund raisers, the tables closest to the stage are a bit more expensive, and to insure the highest returns on this prime real estate, packed closely together. This limits one's choice of shooting positions, so looked for a spot as close to the stage as possible to gain maximum control of the photo. When shooting up close at a low angle (don't block the view of the paying guests!), you get a lot of ceiling to contend with. The beautiful chandelier identifies this as the Airport Hilton, a detail that improves the local angle.

Now for the key light. I mounted an SB-800 on a light stand after I gelled it with a full CTO to match the incandescent lighting in the room. I placed the light stand right next to the mounted speakers to protect it from being bumped. I extended the stand as high as I could so the light would travel over the heads of the guests nearest the stage. This can be checked by simply standing or kneeling on the stage and looking for the light. If you can't see the light from the stage, you'll know that your subject won't be lit in that particular location.

Here's the view from the stage. You can see the flash in the background, next to the speaker box. At first, the balloons were actually casting shadows on the stage. Luckily for me, the balloons would be popped as part of a raffle.

The next test shot showed that my key light was casting a shadow on the ceiling. I added a Rogue Grid to the flash, and with the light now concentrated away from the ceiling, the shadow disappeared. That being done, I adjusted the exposure by photographing my hand while standing on the "mark", or point of focus. I programmed the key light to 1/4 power manual, based on this test. Finally, the fill light. I simply dialed the on-camera commander to a minus 2 stop output, gelled it with a full CTO, and I was ready. Here again is the selected shot.

This was my favorite from all of the runway shots. Making the photo was a bit difficult since the dogs really don't care about photographers and usually don't stand on their marks for very  long. Close inspection will show that I was a bit off focus, as the nearest dog is a wee bit soft. But sometimes a photo opportunity is a gift, one that you take as it is presented and simply say thank you, even if it's not what you really hoped for. 

The fill light is a bit strong on the near dog, something that is going to happen, no matter what. But the highlights are quite salvageable, and a few quick passes with the Burn Tool will fix this right up. The significant advantage to the off camera key light is in the shadows. Notice how they extend from camera left to right, just discernible on the runway carpet. The fill light does cast its own shadow, but you would have to really look for it. The chandelier on the ceiling maintains a textured appearance, and there is enough light to clearly see the audience. Yes, it's a flash photo, but the ambient light is certainly given its due.

Since it was a secure location, I frequently left the main presentation area and went looking for photos. I was now free to use ceiling and wall bounce by simply changing the output of the on-camera commander to plus 2/3 of a stop, my normal output for bounce flash. I do this because I prefer a slightly overexposed image when bouncing since it is "safe" light and doesn't block up the highlights as direct flash often does. 

I wanted to use bounced flash for the shot, so I positioned myself with my back toward a light colored wall, and asked these dog lovers turn so that they faced me. By using an ISO of 1600 and a relatively slow shutter speed, I was able to keep detail in the background. It was all a matter of waiting for Joey, a black chihuahua mix, to give a "look", which he eventually did.

Ceiling bounce was used in these two photos. The young woman on the left was speaking to somebody just outside of camera range. Just then Charlie looked up and I made this shot.

Poor Cupcake is feeling a little hot and tired. I found out the she was born deaf, and was trained to respond to hand signals. She had an incredibly sweet disposition, and the few minutes I spent with her reminded me how much I missed having a dog in my life.