Off Camera Flash

These days, I don't get excited about shooting something unless I can light it. It's a matter of preference, but whatever it is, I like it better when its lit.

So, with a bit of free time today, I had to test a lens that I'm selling on eBay. This should enable me to show the difference between lit and natural light shots.

For today's exercise, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with the Contax Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* f/2.8 lens. It's actually a fantastic portrait lens, but I didn't have anybody around, so I'd have to settle for some object.



Here is the natural light shot:


And here are two shots that were lit by a single light. That was a Vivitar 285 at 1/4 power coming from camera left.





These shots were processed the same way. Not a whole lot into it, but I shot these in RAW, so it needed some sharpening and a little tiny bit of adding fill light to bring out some details. I kept the amounts the same though.

So while the natural light shot is not bad (or at least, I think), I prefer the punch of the lit shot and that the background is not blown out.

But that's just me.

Ooh to Be A Gooner ...

Somebody asked me before what my dream job would be. My reply was quick and simple: in-house photographer for my beloved Arsenal Football Club. I pictured it in my head ... taking photos of new signings, shooting portraits for the Annual, editorial type photos for the magazine and matchday programmes, etc. I was mostly likely smiling during the brief silence when I daydreamed all of that. I was then asked if I orgasmed from thinking about it. Actually, yes ... twice.

I am active member of the L.A. Gooners, which is the Los Angeles Arsenal Supporters club. I was tasked to shoot our initial shirts for the 2010-2011 season. The first shirt is a take on the logo of Arsenal Football Club. The second one features fan favorite, Emmanuel Eboue. There will be more as the season progresses.

You can support the cause and be in style by purchasing a shirt or two at: http://lagooners.bigcartel.com/




The shirts were shot on white seamless with the following lighting set-up:


My key light was a Calumet Travelite 750 with a Calumet Soft-Lite Reflector, on camera axis, and high. My two rim lights were Calumet Travelite 750s with strip softboxes. One was bigger than the other. There was no science to this, it's just that I only have two strip softboxes and they were not of the same size. For the background, I used an Alien Bee AB400 with a 20 degree grid. Camera-wise, it was a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 lens.

This was a quick, simple set-up which provides me with good separation, even with the white shirt on a white backdrop. The lighting was primarily for a portrait. In hindsight, I probably needed an on-axis fill such as a ringflash or a speedlite with an umbrella. The light fall-off is discernible around the chest area.

Anyhow, if you're an Angeleno or visiting Los Angeles and wish to catch a match, visit LAGooners.com or our Facebook page for our match fixtures and venues. You can also follow @LAGooners on Twitter. Enjoy the early morning pint (or two) and sing with us as we cheer on the mighty rip-roaring reds!

You can follow me on:
Twitter - geraldgonz
Flickr - Gerald Gonzales

Or view my work at:
GeraldGonzales.com
or my Wordpress PhotoBlog - GeraldGonz

Questions?

I regularly shoot Marianela for her portfolio. I lit this set of photos with a Calumet Travelite 750 with a large (32" x 40") softbox as my key light from camera right. I cross lit her with another Calumet Travelite 750. The rim light had a strip softbox (9" x 36") with a grid. For the background, I used an Alien Bee AB400 with a 20 degree grid.

This was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8. Lately, I've only been using the 85mm lens and my Canon EF 35mm f/2. Right now, I feel like all my needs can be met by those two lenses.

Here is the pull-back shot:


And a diagram:


I set up the lights before I knew I was going to shoot her in lingerie. She didn't mention this beforehand. If I knew, I would've set up the lights differently. I would've gone for a darker, more dramatic, and hopefully sexier feel. I don't really know how to handle a situation like that. She takes a bit of time to relax and I didn't want to unsettle her by re-structuring my lighting set-up. I was afraid she might lose confidence in me, so I stuck with this lighting set-up.

Lesson learned: asking thorough questions is part of pre-planning.

5D Mark II Video Test

A few months ago, Canon offered an Instant Rebate of $100 for the purchase of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. It's not much, but coupled with a Bing! Cashback of 12%, I got a pretty good deal on a the 5D2. I managed to sell my Canon EOS 5D for $1100, so pretty much I upgraded to the 5D2 for about $1000. This upgrade is pretty much for higher ISO capabilities and video. Other than those two, I find nothing else has improved from my old 5D. Anyhow, three months in, I've hardly shot any footage of video.

But earlier today, inspired by the Chase Jarvis' road test of the Nikon D7000, I managed to get off my butt and do something simple. I looked at my camera gear and looked for what has gathered the most dust. I found the Kirk Enterprises Window Mount and a Zenitar 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens. This will also give me a chance to test my recently purchased PhotoFast G-Monster 16GB 533x Plus Compact Flash card.

This is what the set-up looked like:

The lens is a Pentax screw-mount lens (M42). I have an adapter that lets you mount M42 lenses to Canon EOS bodies. Since this is a non-Canon EOS lens, there is no auto-focus and the aperture is set using the aperture ring on the lens. For this video, I set the aperture to f/2.8 and focused the lens to infinity. The camera was set to ISO 6400 and the white balance was set to Tungsten.

The movie was "edited" via iMovie. All I did was cut it down to 90 seconds. I have no idea how to post process these video files. Oh ... and I had to remove the audio to hide my road rage and filthy language. Just kidding. I was all smiles throughout this drive. Anxious and excited to see the results.

But alas, the end product ... is less than stellar. Its boring, although the fisheye effect is quite surreal in video.

As far as the equipment goes, I am impressed about the low light capabilities. I figure this is quite difficult for video cameras to achieve. The noise was quite visible though. I thought it would be cleaner. I shot three clips. The first one was a minute long. The second one was almost nine minutes long and the third, which contained the original footage in this movie, was a little over five minutes long. There were no pauses or any lag. I guess that means that the PhotoFast compact flash card also performed admirably. The window mount seemed solid. The Saab did quite well too. I was expecting the footage to have a lot more shake or vibration.

It's a lot better than the garbage that my Sony Webbie PM1 produced:



You can follow me on:
Twitter - geraldgonz
Flickr - Gerald Gonzales

Or view my work at:
GeraldGonzales.com
or my Wordpress PhotoBlog - GeraldGonz

NYC Gear Recap

Here is my report card for the gear that I packed for my New York trip:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS - This proves my point that f/2.8 will always be better than f/4 + Image Stabilization (IS). It was fine in the daytime, but proved limiting shooting handheld at night. I should've taken a f/2.8 lens. The reach was nice though, but I did carry a longer lens and changing lenses would not have been much of a bother. I might end up selling this lens and just stick to my Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L as my mid-range lens.

Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L - No regrets here. I shot a lot of bridges and it was quite nice having this lens handy. I didn't get a chance to shoot a time-lapse with it though.

Canon EF 17-40 f/4L - I also shot a lot of cityscapes. Always good to have an ultra-wide angle lens around. No complaints here.

Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye - While it is a novelty lens, it never wears off on me. Shot a lot of random fun shots with this - wide open at ISO 800 or 1600. Good Stuff.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 - I hardly used it, as I opted for the fisheye for shots that I would usually use the 50 for. Still, you can never go wrong with one of these in your bag.

Canon EF 80-200mm f/4-5.6 - As suspected, I wouldn't need it much. I'm glad I took this lens instead of my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L. Lugging that big white lens around for eight days would not have been fun if I didn't get to use it much. I'm actually tempted not to sell this lens anymore. It fetches around $100, but for that much, I might just keep it for traveling purposes.

Canon EF Extender 1.4x - I actually forgot I took this. I only saw it when I was unpacking. For the size and weight vs. purpose, I think I would bring it on my next trip too.

The speedlight and other things ... didn't see much action either. Batteries on the other hand, were quite useful. With the cold weather dropping down to the 20s (with the wind-chill factor), batteries didn't last long. I'm glad I took four with me.

While I'm at the subject of gear, I paid a visit to the Mecca - B&H. I had no shopping agenda, but I didn't want to walk out empty handed, so I bought a Black Rapid RS5 strap. Its fantastic.

Thanks for reading, my next post will include photos from this trip (other than iPhone photo).