Thursday, October 3, 2024

Watch The Edges

I don't do art well. If there is anything that governs my selection of subjects, it would be how I respond to their coloration. or how subtleties of in lighting reveal some form or texture. Other times, the subject is visually amusing. And that doesn't take much.

Lately, my primary "morning walk" camera has been a Fuji X-70. It has an 18mm lens, the equivalent to a 28mm lens on a full frame camera. The camera has a leaf shutter that allows me to synchronize flash at exposures of 1/1000 of a second, sometimes less if the conditions are right. It also has a  tilting LCD panel which comes in handy when photographing from high or low camera angles. I also own the dedicated Fuji eye-level optical viewfinder which I could use, but don't from fear of dropping this relatively expensive accessory.


My biggest thrill has been the the X-70's ability to create images where the sky could be exposed to an ominous level of darkness. By adding a small flash, I can properly expose a foreground subject. The ambient exposure for the left image was 1/1000, F11, ISO 400. I needed the small aperture to keep the yellow rose in sharp focus. The one on the right  was shot at 1/1000, F5.6, ISO 100 because I needed a more open aperture to minimize the depth of field, which was a gesture in futility when using an 18mm lens. Still I liked both images because of the color, a bias to which I freely admit.

Halloween: In my neighborhood, Halloween is a big thing. It's a chance to buy plastic garden ghouls and create one's own Danse Macabre in the front yard. One nearby home displays a plastic skeleton that must stand fifteen feet tall.

In years past, I would haunt the Cole Valley neighborhood where the decorations appeared to be seasonal art projects created by local children. It appears to be a very desirable neighborhood for young families due to the proximity of Grattan Elementary School. Way back then I usually carried a camera with a manually focused prime lens, and this required an attention level 110% and both hands on the camera. With the autofocusing X-70, I now had a free hand to hold a small off-camera flash. This, along with my purchase of a Lightpix Q20, made flash-enhanced images so much easier to create.

1/1000, F 16, ISO 100
By way of comparison, this photo was made without flash at the ambient exposure of  1/1000, F 16, ISO 100. These settings are under the standard "Sunny Sixteen Rule" by more than three stops, which is the darkest I can make the sky without resorting to a neutral density filter. The flash (output unrecorded) provided enough light to properly expose my ghostly friend, although the highlights are a bit hlt. Without the camera's autofocusing capability, I could not have used my free hand to hold the flash, a definite disadvantage. By contrast the second shot was made at 1/125, F 11, ISO 100. Compared to the first shot, I added three more stops of exposure to get the details in the sky and the house in the background (below right). It also becomes very clear that if there was to be any foreground detail at all, it would have to be provided by the off-camera flash. 

1/125, F 11, ISO 100
From here on out, the little remote flash did all of the heavy lifting. Working in the digital universe has definite advantages. The instantaneous feedback provided by the LCD screen allow for on-the-spot adjustments to exposure and composition, and when working with a manual flash at close range, one can simply move the flash in or out to achieve the desired exposure.

One problem that comes with the tiny Q20 flash is the coverage. It was probably designed to cover the frame area of a 35mm lens, or longer, a presumption I've never been inclined to test empirically. When working with photos like these this limitation isn't too bothersome if I take the care to "aim" the flash directly at the center of interest. If you look at the skeleton photo, you can see the light fall-off at the lower half of the frame. The only correction is to move the flash farther from the subject and suffer the subsequent loss of light intensity.

So What's The Beef? If one forgives the vapid background and the totally unthreatening blue sky, what's not to like? Well, for starters, the bat-like creature near the upper right hand corner. Had I framed it more carefully, I could have included the entire silhouette within the frame, adding some tiny bit of relevance to the image. 

I normally don't  re-shoot images that proved unsuccessful when viewed in post production. This all points to one revelation that I can't escape: I need to pay closer attention to the overall content of the frame and not concentrate solely on my momentary euphoria that bright colors so often elicit.

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Filling The Pelican: Lighting

In The Beginning: For me, flash photography has always been an evolutionary process. When I first started experimenting in the early 1970s, I lined an old umbrella with aluminum foil and used it with any flash I was able to scrounge up. I was also the first kid on my block to own a $40.00 Wein Flash Meter, which essentially made the immeasurable measurable. Later on, I was helping a biology professor at City College create an audio-visual tutorial on how to properly adjust a microscope. I created two softboxes I needed by starting with a cardboard box lined with aluminum foil. Then I suspended a flash on a narrow piece of plywood and aimed it towards the interior. Finally, I covered the front with some tracing paper. In effect, my "softbox" was in actuality, a box.

I currently use an assortment of Godox / Flashpoint units. For the record, Flashpoint was Adorama's house brand until Godox imported their products under their own name. Originally, Adorama offered the Flashpoint Zoom Li-on Flash, a manual output speedlight that could be controlled using an external dedicated receiver coupled with a hotshoe mounted commander. The hot new thing was the dedicated Lithium ion rechargeable battery which delivered short recycle times at full output. In 2016 I purchased four on sale for $99.00 each, along with the receivers and commanders to keep them all going. Unsurprisingly, this tribe of non-TTL configurations has been discontinued. However, I still use them frequently.

Godox AD200 flash. Full Post here.
Power Upgrade: When the Godox AD200 hit the market in 2018, my location approach to location lighting changed dramatically. Up until this point, big flash was a Norman 200B flash, complete with it heavy power pack and separate head. This and the Graflex IV were the real workhorse flashes for the event and wedding photographers of the 1960's, and being of the Flower Power generation, I automatically assumed that this permanently stooped shoulders would a fact of life.

The AD200 seemed to be a combination of all the newest innovations wrapped up in one compact product. It used a dedicated lithium-ion battery unit that recharged quickly (relatively), provided enough juice for sustained, full output pops, and was reasonably priced. The output to volume ratio was amazing. The flash required about 1.5 times the space to store, but could produce over three times the output of an SB-900 speedlight. It was also self contained, and small enough to fit inside of the Westcott Halo softboxes, eliminating any chance of light accidentally spilling onto the background. It was capable of TTL exposure automation, but in adding this feature, Godox adopted a different wireless protocol from the earlier Zoom Li-on flashes.

Pocket Wizard on AD200 Controller
I was able to bridge this technology gap by using two radio triggers. In this image you can see the AD200 controller mounted directly to the camera's hot shoe to control the AD200, while a second controller mounted in the controller's built-in hot shoe could be used for anything else. In this photo I used a Pocket Wizard transmitter, but it could have been replaced with one for the Zoom Li-on flash. That hot shoe was a bit of genius, as it has "straight through" circuitry that allows one to attach an OEM flash in the controller's hotshoe with full TTL control.

On my last assignment I carried only three flashes: an AD200 (for use in a softbox) and two Godox speedlights carried in my camera bag. Since the were all compatible with the AD200 controller, I had no issues. There could have been problems if I had added an older Zoom Li-on unit to the mix. In a pinch I could  have converted that maverick flash to trigger using its built-in optical slave, or I could have include the dedicated controller. Either way, I could have made it work.

Nikon Redeploy: Obviously I'll need to anticipate the lighting solution I am most likely to use, and equip myself accordingly. However, I am considering a compromise. First off, I usually have two Godox speedlights riding in my camera case. These will respond to the same R2 controller as the Godox AD200. By adding a my seldom used Nikon compatible Godox V1 to the Pelican, I now have my requisite three speedlights for a complete "Krist List". While the flash is designed to deliver TTL exposure automation when mounted in a Nikon hotshoe, it behaves like a dedicated remote when communicating with the R2 controller. Since this is a "round head" flash, it will accept all of the magnetic gels kept in the Pelican.

Umbrellas and Soft Boxes:  The easiest and most portable solution is to use shoot-through umbrellas. They can produce very soft lighting with huge catchlights when you subjects are relatively small subjects (example: half-length portraits). When you use the "double fold" versions, they have an overall collapsed length of only 14", making them almost pockable in a photojournalist's vest. Bob Krist's checklist includes two such umbrellas. Now I need to be clear:  Using umbrellas or softboxes outdoors can be an invitation to disaster if there is even the slightest of breezes. I've crashed several shoot-through umbrellas when they went "Mary Poppins" whenever the wind came up.

Buy yours here.
For the moment, I'll permanently add that third speedlight to the case and I'll be ready with three lights mountable on three separate light stands whenever the Pelican is in the trunk. If I know I'll be working indoors and need some soft, flattering light, I'll throw in the AD200 and a Glow 31" x 31" Softbox (with its dedicated bracket). Since the softbox and AD200 combination are heavy, I'll just sling a suitably stable lightstand over my shoulder. 

Squeezing both the AD200 flash and the collapsed Glow Softbox may be a tight fit, but the Glow Softbox could be strapped to the extension handle with a bungee cord if necessary.

So far as I can tell, I've covered all of the necessary lighting basics, and by the time my next location portrait comes around, I'll be ready to go.