How it works *sometimes*0
Bristol Bikefest0
neil posted in Photos, bikes, Neil, Trails on June 7th, 2011
Brighton Hardcourt Bike Polo Tournament0
neil posted in Photos, bikes, Neil on May 12th, 2011
More here: All Pictures
The Swiss Fast Lane (top speed 1/8000th)3
neil posted in Photos, Neil, phototech, 5Dmk2 on January 9th, 2011
This post has been knocking around for awhile in the dark pipework behind this blog and in the dusty parts of my mind. It is unashamedly technical and really only useful for the folks who have access to an Elinchrom Ranger with an S type head, a pocketwizard TTL for Canon and a 5D (mk2). Other equipment will almost certainly work, but I can’t tell you how well!
About a year ago, Alex Ray from The Flash Center came through Edinburgh riding herd on David Hobby. He mentioned that with a certain Elinchrom Ranger head and the new “tweakable” pocketwizard TTL (mini TT1, Flex TT5) transmitter units there was a possibility of synchronising the flash burst and the open shutter far beyond the normal flash synch speed of a camera. This wasn’t the incremental increase found when using speedlights, but the ability to synch at any shutter speed, no matter how fast. Purely by coincidence I had the very equipment to do this already. All that was needed was to play with the HyperSynch delay on the transmitter.
For the stopping of fast objects with artificial light, the norm is to use a strobe with a short duration in a dark area and use the duration of the flash to act like a very fast shutter. This is limiting for a “location” photographer who only has a single cheap, slow, flash head.
The Pocketwizard and Elinchrom trick ensures the shutter will sample some part of the flash output. The shutter is open for less time than the flash is switched on for. At normal speeds, the flash waveform will be shorter than the time the shutter is open for. This means the flash exposure is not affected by the shutter speed at all. At the high speeds involved in this trick the shutter grabs a portion of the flash waveform. This means that the flash will be less powerful than normal and the flash exposure determined by the power of the flash (in two different ways), ISO, aperture and unusually, the shutter speed.
This is a touch unusual as shutter speed does not affect flash exposure in the normal (sub 1/200th) realm of flash photography. However in this case, it determines how much of the flash output is seen by the sensor. It also affects the size of any unexposed or dark bands, where the shutter is open but no flash is present, or where the flash waveform is rising or quenching.
The flash power not only affects the maximum light output of the flash, but also its duration (and thus shape). At full flash power it is possible to get a solid exposure of all but the very lowest part of the frame. At lower powers the flash exposure drops steadily with shutterspeed and the top of the frame sees a dimmer flash output while the lower part of the frame is cut off. It seems that this trick works at its best with the Ranger dumping its maximum output into your subject, your sensor will only see a small portion of this. That said, an Elinchrom Ranger has 1200Ws of power to burn, so with a bare head it is perfectly possible to work with the lights at a distance while outside.
The fact that it works in the presence of ambient light is probably the biggest advantage of this trick for me. Indeed, when working with a single head, it seemed the more ambient light present, the better. Working at very high shutter speeds drastically limits the contribution of the ambient light. In order to include ambient light with a shutter speed of around 1/8000th of a second, at a reasonable aperture, I was normally forced to abuse the high ISO abilities of the 5Dmk2.
The high shutter speeds means a wide aperture is possible in broad daylight. To make the big strobe look like daylight and to dump most of the full power, I tend to use the flash far away without any reflector. Big lights, far away is the opposite of the normal Strobist thinking but I find the results appear more natural at first glance. The light affects the entire scene very evenly, much like a low sun, however it is completely under the control of the photographer. I borrowed a 50mm f/1.2 lens and made some photos with it set wide open.
The ability to freeze fleeting details that are normally invisibly fast can add additional layer of interest to a photograph. I was struck by the ability of the flash to freeze translucent substances such as sheets of water. This worked best with the flash providing a backlight with fill being povided by the ambient. The reverse works equally well but it can be easier to arrange the artifical light behind a subject and it is easier to control the shape of the flash light with modifiers.
The magic delay value set in the Pocketwizard transmitter seemed to be -2500, the maximum allowed by the software. The reciever was a standard plus 2 Pocketwizard. It would be interesting to see what the optimum delay value was if Pocketwizard allowed a larger range to be set. The drawback is that at this delay value the use of normal hot shoe flashes is limited. A dark band at the top of the frame is observed from 1/250th with the exposed portion of the frame being relegated to the center half of the frame by 1/1000th of a second and closing to a tiny slit at higher speeds.
Hundred Metre Club: Promo shoot2
neil posted in Photos, Neil, phototech, 5Dmk2 on November 2nd, 2010
They are well worth a listen: http://www.myspace.com/thehundredmetreclub/
Shooting a band portrait is a new one for me. I am happy doing lit work and I can light groups, however band photos are another realm of art. There are some rules such as No Brick Walls & No Instruments. However the main aim is to allow the band to carry some message through the photo.
I went about this by not directing the shoot at all. Setting the lights into a safe but interesting configuration and waiting for a moment. John, John, Dean and Hugh were comfortable enough chatting amongst themselves. I made sure they didn’t stray out of the lit zone or form a straight line and waited. I made quite a few frames. Waiting for 4 people to have interesting expressions similtaneously with a 7 second recycle time is a long game and light and patience was slowly falling. To get ‘insurance’ I finished off getting the band to look at me and working through some deliberately goofy poses. The idea being they would settle out of the poses and I would get a second of relaxation in which to shoot.
We then moved to a tighter and more posed arrangement in some rockpools. The wind prevented deploying a soft source as planned so I worked though some arrangements until I found a three light cluster to the right could fake a soft source and some on axis fill gave me some shadow control. The light was fading quickly now and a 1/10th second shutter speed let me put some camera shake blur into the image.
Holiday snaps0
neil posted in Photos, Travel, Neil, 5Dmk2 on September 12th, 2010
Travelling to Rome I was unsure of wether to bring my camera. I’m glad I did. There was a folk festival in a field out by our hotel, people of all ages were dancing and singing. I like the Cartier-Bresson quote: “Wherever enough goes on so that I could approach them on tip-toes and take my photographs without disturbing them”. There was noise, excitement and several other photographers. People were unusually gracious (ushering me to the front of the stage!) and it was easy to turn up and shoot with only a few words of Italian.
These are snapshots, there is no story or underlying reason to make them bar that photography is fun and people look awesome when they dance.
Also it seems Italians know how to light. They remembered to push light out into the crowd so people weren’t dancing in a black pit. This made capturing the atmosphere of the festival a lot easier!
Portraits over 3 years0
neil posted in Photos, Neil, phototech, 5Dmk2 on July 31st, 2010
I have been shooting headshots of Edinburgh University Sports Union’s committee for three years now. Often I’m shooting the same people in different committee positions. Meanwhile my lighting has been evolving. I have more kit available and considerably more know-how. Here is a comparison of my shoots over the three years:
O Me of Little Faith0
neil posted in Photos, bikes, Neil, Sports, 5Dmk2 on March 16th, 2010
Samhuinn 20090
neil posted in Photos, Neil, phototech, 5Dmk2 on February 28th, 2010
Its freezing cold, breath is misting in the air and I’m sweating profusely. On my back is my biggest camera bag, chock full and on my front is another sack full of rope and metal. Behind me is the registry office and I’m meant to be inside it. Halloween revellers pass, glimpsing at us with our painted faces and finding us photographers still as freaks in a melange of wierdness. Time goes on and the other photographers in our team head into position, cameras in hand. I’m not in position, my camera is’nt near my hands and the kit I’m carrying does’nt allow me to make a good backup plan. I’m to be on the third floor, flashes rigged, tripod up and harness on ten minutes ago. Dan and Ania, my last companions have to move soon. The day of packing and checking, the practice shoots and careful organisation are sliding down the drain because someone, somehow got the time wrong. Soon the Samhuinn procession will come down the Royal Mile, surrounded by spectators and I’m going to miss it.
The man with the key appears, sometime after eternity (subjective I suppose) and I’m in. Racing for the wedding chamber on the second floor. I dump my sacks and run through the kit, assembling it as fast as I can. I’m muttering “Do it like you practiced, just faster, same order”. Its pitch black outside so the flashes get rigged first. Three all sliding home onto one light tripod. The tripod and each flash clipped to a rope, the rope clipped to some stout plumbing. Full power, full zoom, the throw from the second floor out to the stage outside St Giles is long and right at the edge of what my kit can do. The time-lapse camera is prepared, the cable release is shorted, meaning that when the camera is switched on, it will motordrive for the entire event. 10s exposure on shutter priority, the light goes from dim to blinding during the performance and that’ll give the camera a chance to cope with the flares. Focus checked, double checked and triple checked. The camera is clipped and placed next to the flashes on the huge windowsills. Last but not least is my two hand-cameras. 5D bolted onto a titanic 500mm F4 from lensforhire.co.uk and a 1D with a 70-200mm for some flexibility. The 500 goes on a borrowed tripod and all the gear is clipped back to the building. I’ve dumped all my insulating layers and in only a long-sleeve t-shirt I’m out on the ledge in the chill October air. The crowd have gathered but the main procession is’nt in place yet. I plan to use the time to dial in my aperture for the flashes, around f/5.6. The pocketwizard on my 1D can’t reach the flashes, just two windows down, its AA batteries are somehow kaput. The TTL1 on my 5D is fine but there is no time to swap. I push the 1D to its highest usable ISO, 1600, crank the lens as wide as it will go and machinegun the procession, trying to pan with my subjects between the slaps of the shutter.
The procession reaches the stage and its game on for my flashes, the 500mm lens ultra-tight on the performers. The 5D can’t focus the big glass at the dim start of the ceremony so I’m manually focusing. Its a BIG focus ring but a nice tight lens so I do ok. Its VERY tight for the fire-dances so I switch to the 70-200mm, VERY time consuming with all the ropes, straps, tripod set about me. The 70-200mm is finally in the tripod and the flashes are doing OK. I’m hoping the time-lapse camera is still shooting but I can’t move to check it, even as the chill begins to settle through my shirt.
Fire dances and swirls, flightless birds are driven off by painted men and the stage goes red. The Red-Men are showstealers, stacking human beings to the beat of battling drums. The pyro guy is on the stage and the flare goes off, I expose a few frames at 1/20th before zapping the shutter to the maximum 1/250th I can squeeze from my strobes. A second flare backlights the performers and the hags are on the stage. Hags tear the hearts out of the red men and the Wild Hunt starts to encroach upon the stage. Somehow I find time to trade ISO for flash power, dropping each flash to half and throwing on a warm layer. Giant insects are battling a tree and I’m switching up for my 500mm for the fight of the kings.
The Kings are huge with recurved legs, I can’t include all of one in the frame. They duel with flaming swords and staves, posing and finally one is set ablaze and they fall. The Cailleach is onstage revealling with shockingly white hair and bloody teeth. She revives one (or both..) and friends and performers begin to mob the stage.
The drummers flank proceedings and the crowd surges in. The dancing begins and slowly dies down, my work is over. The gear goes into the bags and I meet my escort home outside, we work late pulling together an edit for the BBC website and other news outlets before slinking off to the after-party at Three Sisters.
Sheer bloody persistence0
neil posted in Photos, bikes, Neil, 5Dmk2, Night on February 25th, 2010
I had this photograph in my head for months. Every time we rode to this staircase on the way out to the Pentlands, I would poke myself about it. I was certain there was a good picture to be made. I tried a few times to get myself and another party out there for a shoot, but it was only last night I succeeded. This is a pretty frequent occurance, finding a location or visualising a photograph long before it can be taken. They don’t always work out, angles don’t always fall the way you remember them and locations can lose their magic in the wrong light. This was’nt quite the photo I originally imagined, the light was far better than I had remembered and fell perfectly for the lighting technique I used.
I used my big Elinchrom Ranger pack, tucked into my bag with the head on a tripod on a steep and greasy slope. The final photograph used a gridded reflector to allow the Exposure Enduro on the bike’s handlebars to fill the bottom of the scene. I got focus by getting Simon to shine the light in his face until I managed to dial in the manual focus (using live view). The staircase was otherwise pitch black, preventing the orange sodium lights contaminating the bike’s light or the flash light.
The thing that really made the photo possible, however, was the titular persistence. Simon rode the staircase about twenty times, tirelessly wheeling his bike back up the staircase, stopping halfway so I could check focus and then cheerfully repeating. Only once did he stumble on the descent, but that landed him nearly over the wall. Each time I needed to change the power of the flash I had to run a steep marathon of brambles, thorns and a slick slope which could only be climbed by lunging for tree stumps near its summit and clawing up through the snow and mud. This process took around five minutes, the flash power was changed three times and its pocketwizard ran out of battery once. The exposure was made by bending backwards over the wall and tucking the camera hard onto my left shoulder. It was only marginally possible to see through the viewfinder. We tried triggering the flash while Simon was partway down the descent, but it seems easier to find him in the top image. One hundred and fourty eight exposures were made over two hours for the images you see here. I’m glad we made them, it is good to get them out of my head.
