You can see the two blue people at either end of the stage. They are the dancing girls. And the light they are provided makes getting images tricky, particularly since they are dancing. A couple of years ago I decided to bring strobes and wound up placing them on the corners of the small runway they use, right on the floor. Naturally, the light was shooting straight up their noses and wasn't particularly appealing. So this year I decided to begin experimenting with alternatives. The first thing I wanted to do was get the lights up higher rather than shooting from floor level. And since the base lighting is incandescent I also wanted to warm up the flash temperature a bit.
The first problem, getting the light up higher was complicated by the crowd surrounding the front of the stage and the runways. There was no place to put a light stand where it wouldn't get trashed during the crowd dancing ... and by midnight there's barely room to breath! Fortunately I have some experience with remote shooting and the use of Bogen Variable Friction Arms to mount equipment so that's what I decided to use to hold that flash systems. For each of the two strobes I mounted a Bogen Superclamp on the railing that runs down the side of the the runway. Here's what a Superclamp and Variable Friction Arm look like [please note that this is not a Magic Arm which has a lever rather than the knob of the Variable Friction Arm ... the Variable Friction Arm is much superior to the Magic Arm.] When the knob is released, all the joints of the Variable Friction Arm relax so that the stubs at the ends which are on ball heads can swivel and there is a slot in the side of the casing that allows for 90 degree angles, the ball cases themselves can rotate and the joint where the knobs screws through can swing: this all provides a substantial bit of flexibility.
For strobes, I use Canon 580EX II Speedlites [of which I have three as well as a 270EX.]
Since most use I make of the Speedlites is remote which makes them very awkward to access to replace batteries in mid-shoot, I have a Quantum SC Battery for each strobe.
For the purpose of warming up the light from the flash to approximate tungsten, I have a Lumiquest gel kit that includes CTO filters for this purpose. And since I also mount a FlipIt from time to time I didn't want to permanently attach Velcro to the flash so I also have a Lumiquest Ultrastrap for each strobe.
The big issue at this point is triggering the strobes. I have long used PocketWizards. In my studio I have four Plus II's (I often have other photographers shooting and it is much easier to simply have extras rather than passing one around and taking a chance on missing a shot.) But they don't allow you much control, so for remote triggering of strobes I use a TT1 on camera and a TT5 for each strobe.
The USA version of the Canon flavor TT5's are heavily adversely affected by the radio frequency noise generated by the 580EX II's. This caused significant embarrassment for PocketWizard during the birthing of this product. While their system is conceptually miraculous with all the features it provides, the EMP problem has been huge and they have been slow, first to admit the extent of it, and second to provide solutions. But both issues are now pretty much resolved. The fixes for the problem rely on shielding of the strobe from the TT5. Pocketwizard provided the AC5 soft shield initially and now also provides the AC7 hard shield. While the AC7 provides some nice mounting features, it sadly was subject to significant design errors, particularly if, like me, you normally use the units with exterior power adapters. Without detailing the problems, let me just point out that all three of my AC7's have been modified by Gary McDuffy, Jr., to allow external power and to provide access to the swivel release when the strobe is mounted in the AC7.
On a related note, I experienced a similar problem with the Plus II's and my Bowens QUADX Studio Flash generators. Neither Bowens nor PocketWizard would even respond to my request for assistance with the very frequent firing failures. I was very fortunately to discover online another photographer who had the same problem and did get some help from LPA and the problem is resolved by putting a ferrite choke on the cable from PocketWizard to generator. Since I was also told that Bowens was clearly apprised of the issue and simply said, "Buy our remote triggers!" I am way less than pleased with Bowens. You can read about other major failures by Bowens in my earlier blogs.
The AC7 provides two mounting points as well as an umbrella holder. The Lumiquest Gel system must be attached prior to fitting the strobe into the AC7 due to access restrictions.
Once the strobe with gel kit is mounted in the AC7, a stub is screwed in and tightened. Then a TT5 is attached to the adapter mount as shown in the following image:
And here's an image of the whole setup ready to mount on the rail. The stub (round silver post with inside threading and one flat side) is inserted into the Superclamp at an angle that provides solid support.
Here is an image where you can see the placement of the two strobes, the far strobe mounted out from the top rail and the near strobe mounted on the bottom rail and the handrail:
And finally, the image outcome:
While I thought this experiment was a pretty much a success, I had to dial back the flash exposure compensation over two stops while using E-TTL and expect I would have been much happier if I had used my AC3 Zone Controller and manual flash control, but that was one variable too many for this first field experiment.
All images provided for this blog entry are copyright by me so please don't use them without permission/licensing from me. Please do feel free to ask any questions about anything involved with this entry.
1 comment:
great shots and article. Thanks.
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