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Bojanglesworth posted:This is probably a pretty stupid question so be warned. I attempted today to use my alienbees with the standard reflector on both of them and now one won't fire off of the other. I have a cycbersync transmitter, but only one receiver. Is there any way (short of buying a second receiver) to make it work? I generally use umbrellas so it has never been a problem before.
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| # ? Jun 11, 2010 06:27 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 22:19 |
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notlodar posted:use a phone cord or one of the wires that came with them to connect them to each other. (whatever the cybersync does't use) Can you connect them together that way? That is what I was getting at but I didn't know if it was possible and I already made myself look like a huge idiot earlier in the thread.
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| # ? Jun 11, 2010 12:13 |
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Bojanglesworth posted:Can you connect them together that way? That is what I was getting at but I didn't know if it was possible and I already made myself look like a huge idiot earlier in the thread. That's the main point of the phone plugs. Just go buy a 50 ft length of phone cord and you should be fine.
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| # ? Jun 11, 2010 13:19 |
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I used to not be messy with my lighting stuff, now I just connect things together until it works 
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| # ? Jun 11, 2010 15:52 |
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I have a fairly newb lighting question. I'm supposed to shoot a season premier/grand opening for a "NJ anthropology reality show" monday (First paid gig!). part of the shooting is models in a "surfing machine". I'm not sure if it's the type that's a wave simulator, in which case I think I'd have to go telephoto and hope the SB-600 has the power to reach them, or like a mechanical bull-style simulator, where i could probably get close enough for some better action shots. My question mostly pertains to flash for the models' portrait & promo shots: It's a shoot from 10am to noon, and the weather report says it's supposed to be party cloudy, should i use an off-camera SB-600 for fill flash, or a reflector? furthermore, what kind of reflector should I use, if that's the case? i have a silver car windshield reflector that I think will work in a pinch, but I'm debating getting a gold reflector just in case. Does anyone have any suggestions for white balance? I think i should shoot a white card for broad daylight, and another for clouds, and swap between them. Basically, it's my first gig for this company, and want to make a good first impression so i can work for them more often as a photographer. I was a part time PA, until they noticed my camera gear in my car. Help me dorkroom, you're my only hope.
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| # ? Jun 11, 2010 23:28 |
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So I finally managed to assemble my 30x60" softbox. Took 3 people. Most dangerous thing I've ever done in my life.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2010 05:48 |
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JizJizJiz posted:So I finally managed to assemble my 30x60" softbox. Took 3 people. Most dangerous thing I've ever done in my life. It's usually much like pitching a tent, only I find the tension in the rods is usually much greater. This is why I gladly paid extra to get the quick set-up version that works more like an umbrella.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2010 17:56 |
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red19fire posted:My question mostly pertains to flash for the models' portrait & promo shots: It's a shoot from 10am to noon, and the weather report says it's supposed to be party cloudy, should i use an off-camera SB-600 for fill flash, or a reflector? furthermore, what kind of reflector should I use, if that's the case? i have a silver car windshield reflector that I think will work in a pinch, but I'm debating getting a gold reflector just in case. Flash vs reflector is an aesthetic choice. If it's cloudy that's probably the best possible situation because the light will be directional but diffuse (like a softbox). My preference in that kind of situation is to build off the ambient light with strobes slightly over it, but at noon I don't know if you'll be able to do that with a small flash unless it's really overcast. Shoot a gray card at the beginning but don't stress about color, shoot RAW and worry about it in when you process. quote:So I finally managed to assemble my 30x60" softbox. Took 3 people. Most dangerous thing I've ever done in my life. New softboxes are such a pain in the rear end to put together. If you think a 30x60 is bad, I just recently had to setup a 18' (yes, feet) parabolic. It was like wrestling a stingray in space.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2010 18:29 |
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I bought a Paul C Buff 30x60 softbox. Theirs are easy as hell to assemble.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2010 01:15 |
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dakana posted:I bought a Paul C Buff 30x60 softbox. Theirs are easy as hell to assemble. Really? I wonder if mine was an older version? I found it odd that the poles just jabbed into the side of the cloth. I ended up wrapping the ends in two zipties each because we were afraid it was going to explode and poke out someone's eye. Do you have a picture of yours (preferably showing how the arms go into the corners?)
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| # ? Jun 17, 2010 02:38 |
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I just want to take a second and say, gently caress Paul C Buffs shipping department. $8 to ship a hot-shoe adapter? Are you loving kidding? Anyway, If I'm shooting with a B800, what do I need to shoot from my car? AtomicManiac fucked around with this message at Jun 18, 2010 around 00:17 |
| # ? Jun 18, 2010 00:09 |
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A pure sine-wave inverter. I actually put one together for my wife and her two B800s using this inverter (get it at Fry's electronics, it's a lot cheaper there). Rather than being tethered to a car, though, and because I've already made some investment into the care and keeping of R/C car lithium polymer cells, I set it up so it runs off of a 5000 mAH 3S lithium polymer battery pack. It's a fraction of the size and weight of the inverter itself, yet it seems to hold up rather well. I got the idea from a guy on fredmiranda who did the same thing but on a smaller scale, with a 10-cell NiMH pack instead of lipos. I will say this, the only time we ran into issues with it was when we had both B800s running off of it, modeling lights on, and trying to snap rapidfire exposures with both set to full power; the modeling lights put you at half the load of the inverter right there. Technically all but the smallest pops of the B800 cause the inverter to spike overload and beep / max its load meter out, but for such short periods of time that everything stays running and the fan doesn't even kick on. Modeling lights + full power pops did cause the inverter to shut down to protect itself. I still have some finishing work to do with the whole setup to make it more self-contained - I may yet buy a new case instead of the one I'm using with it, but I eventually want to make it like a more affordable, more flexible Vagabond. When I'm done with it I'll throw some photos in here.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2010 00:33 |
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IOwnCalculus posted:A pure sine-wave inverter. I actually put one together for my wife and her two B800s using this inverter (get it at Fry's electronics, it's a lot cheaper there). Rather than being tethered to a car, though, and because I've already made some investment into the care and keeping of R/C car lithium polymer cells, I set it up so it runs off of a 5000 mAH 3S lithium polymer battery pack. It's a fraction of the size and weight of the inverter itself, yet it seems to hold up rather well. I got the idea from a guy on fredmiranda who did the same thing but on a smaller scale, with a 10-cell NiMH pack instead of lipos. What was your total cost? I had looked at building a DIY battery pack but it looks like it'll cost about the same as the Vagabond.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2010 01:29 |
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bung posted:What was your total cost? I had looked at building a DIY battery pack but it looks like it'll cost about the same as the Vagabond. Higher than it should have been, largely due to buying my first inverter on eBay, getting a dud model, and getting screwed by The Inverter Store - I'd already tossed the original box and modified one of the $0.50 cables that came with it, and they refused to RMA the inverter itself. Unfortunately in that case, Paypal/eBay can't do a drat thing, so all I could do was leave negative feedback (their comment to it already got removed, gently caress those assholes, and they've already racked up more negative since my deal-gone-bad). So barring dealing with those jackasses, costs thus far have been: Inverter - $180+tax at Fry's Electronics Batteries - two of these came to $84 shipped. Case - bought one for under $20 at Fry's, might switch to a similar priced one from Harbor Freight. AC cable - one of these that I'm going to cut up (after I test this time, though I fail to see how a cable wouldn't work) and wire to some outlets directly on the exterior of the case To be fair I already had some of the smaller parts laying around (extra wiring, Deans connectors, etc) from my own hobbies of R/C cars and actual cars. I also already have a charger setup for these batteries so I didn't see any need to integrate it like the Vagabond does. If you don't already have a charging setup to work with 3S Lipos, I'm using the DC-only version of this charger, along with a converted ATX power supply since my R/C setup needs to be able to run without AC power as well. We haven't done any proper load-testing yet regarding how many pops we can get out of one charge of one battery. The nice thing is, though, batteries are cheap, I can literally swap them out in under 10 seconds mid-shoot, and if the 5000 mAH packs are ever insufficient, I can start running them in parallel pairs and get 10000 mAH capacity. One nice bonus with using 3S Lipos and a nice inverter like this is that the inverter has a built-in 10.0V low-voltage cutoff. Lipos can be safely discharged down to a resting voltage of 3.0V per cell - so the 9.0V pack voltage cutoff is never actually reached, so I don't need to worry about her over-discharging a pack (which will definitely ruin the pack and can potentially be a safety hazard). My wife would also like me to mention that it cycles faster than a Vagabond, and that we will be painting it pink, to match her Bees, of course  With the original inverter I was planning on using (which is a dead brick sitting here on my desk right now), this would have been nearly $100 cheaper. As it stands, a Vagabond would have been about the same amount of money, but this is in my opinion a far more flexible solution. It means we can swap batteries instead of waiting for a recharge, and if you run out of those batteries / want to tether to your car anyway, you could easily fab up a heavy cable with ring terminals on one end and alligator clips on the other, and power this directly from your car battery.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2010 03:32 |
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I was kind of hoping to get lucky and only spend like ~$50 bucks if it's gonna cost more than $100 I'm probably just going to get one of the manual flashes Strobist talks about. I just don't have the money right now, but I need at least a little portability.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2010 06:38 |
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Here's a pretty comprehensive look at how different modifiers affect light: http://www.zarias.com/modifiers-fro...tivelive-class/
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| # ? Jun 18, 2010 19:10 |
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IOwnCalculus posted:Portable power stuff Once you get everything finalized and tested, it'd be awesome if you post a thread about the construction.
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| # ? Jun 19, 2010 05:12 |
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I bought two cheap wireless triggers, that kind of look like the Cactus-style ones sold on ebay. Both fail to trigger the flash. I see the little receive light go on when it's triggered but apparently the hotshoe pins don't get connected. Being cheap Chinese imports I expected one of them to fail... but both? So for you Cactus guys, is there something I might be missing ?
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 07:33 |
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Cross_ posted:So for you Cactus guys, is there something I might be missing ? Have you tried putting the Cactus into the trashcan?
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 07:40 |
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I've read very positive reviews about the Yongnuo rf-602 - and have a set on the way. Might want to try those?
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 07:55 |
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Cross_ posted:I bought two cheap wireless triggers, that kind of look like the Cactus-style ones sold on ebay. Both fail to trigger the flash. I see the little receive light go on when it's triggered but apparently the hotshoe pins don't get connected. Being cheap Chinese imports I expected one of them to fail... but both? Tape off the contacts and use the little pc cables.
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 07:58 |
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rawrr posted:I've read very positive reviews about the Yongnuo rf-602 - and have a set on the way. Might want to try those? Seriously, do this, I don't normally buy cheap hong-kong plastic but these units are a real exception, they're sturdy, simple, functional and last a fair while on one set of batteries.
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 09:56 |
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I understand trying to save money, but drat... it really is worth it to save up and get better triggers. The Cybersyncs aren't all that pricey and they are rock solid. $60 for the transmitter and if you're just setting off a hot shoe strobe then $70 for the appropriate receiver. $130 for the set, plus shipping. You can get a universal Skyport set for one flash for $195.50 on Amazon plus shipping. So yeah, you can get five or six cactus triggers for what you'd spend for the above, but those things are pretty drat near disposable.
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 15:03 |
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squidflakes posted:I understand trying to save money, but drat... it really is worth it to save up and get better triggers. The Cybersyncs aren't all that pricey and they are rock solid. $60 for the transmitter and if you're just setting off a hot shoe strobe then $70 for the appropriate receiver. $130 for the set, plus shipping. Some of us are/were just messing around with triggers and seeing if they are something we need. $30 is a hell of a lot more practical than $130-$200. I think they are great to learn with and can be sold if/when you need higher end triggers. After reading about so many problems with the Cactus triggers I decided not to get them. I picked up a couple of the Yongnuo triggers and have been very pleased.
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 16:10 |
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Cross_ posted:I bought two cheap wireless triggers, that kind of look like the Cactus-style ones sold on ebay. Both fail to trigger the flash. I see the little receive light go on when it's triggered but apparently the hotshoe pins don't get connected. Being cheap Chinese imports I expected one of them to fail... but both?
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 17:31 |
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brad industry posted:edit: also you know what makes poo poo look like night? fog machines / atmospheric hazers. you can rent them for pretty cheap. Any recommendations to use indoors and outdoors? My studio is mostly carpet, and rented.
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| # ? Jun 22, 2010 22:03 |
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I'm trying to figure out how to put a nice starter kit together for studio photography, though I might want to take it out doors in the future (or at least have the option). After some cursory research this seems like a good deal: http://www.amazon.com/PBL-PHOTOGRAP...E/dp/B002N7P64S Anyone have any experience with JBL? As far as I read, it just seems I should stay away from Britek which had the cheapest strobes. Otherwise, Alienbees seem too pricey for me. e: doh JBL is the speaker company. of course. guidoanselmi fucked around with this message at Jun 23, 2010 around 14:48 |
| # ? Jun 23, 2010 05:49 |
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guidoanselmi posted:Anyone have any experience with JBL? As far as I read, it just seems I should stay away from Britek which had the cheapest strobes. Otherwise, Alienbees seem too pricey for me. I just googled "JBL" and did not see any results for a flash-producing company. I would steer clear and start with a smaller, more reliable kit. Like this: http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,12312.html
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| # ? Jun 23, 2010 13:36 |
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It's PBL, not JBL.
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| # ? Jun 23, 2010 13:40 |
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evil_bunnY posted:It's PBL, not JBL. Hah, thanks. Yeah it looks like other people have bought it before.. just don't be surprised if stuff starts breaking after a few months.
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| # ? Jun 23, 2010 13:46 |
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Besides recharge time/portability/power are there any functional difference between the monolights like I listed & off camera flash units like the LumoPro?
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| # ? Jun 23, 2010 21:09 |
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The monolights have actual and usable modeling lights. There are a (seemingly) larger number of modifiers and accessories available for mono/heads than for the small strobes. The flash tube is a ring instead of a bar. You'll get more girls with a monolight.
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| # ? Jun 23, 2010 22:38 |
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guidoanselmi posted:Besides recharge time/portability/power are there any functional difference between the monolights like I listed & off camera flash units like the LumoPro? The big reason I went, is because other than the Sunpak 120j, you canīt get a real barebulb effect from a hotshoe flash. This can make a big difference in filling modifiers evenly and efficiently. You can always aim a monolight, but to turn a hotshoe into a barebulb you need a stofen or something that has already eaten up half to one stop of light.
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| # ? Jun 23, 2010 23:25 |
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Cross_ posted:I bought two cheap wireless triggers, that kind of look like the Cactus-style ones sold on ebay. Both fail to trigger the flash. I see the little receive light go on when it's triggered but apparently the hotshoe pins don't get connected. Being cheap Chinese imports I expected one of them to fail... but both? Found the answer on the German minolta-forum: The PT-04 receiver circuit uses a rectifier (i.e. 2 diodes in the path) for reverse polarity protection. Therefore when triggering the flash the terminals are not brought to the same potential as you'd get from shortening them. Instead there's a ca. 1.5v potential difference. With a flash providing a 5V trigger voltage on the center pin only 3.5V would actually reach the other terminal. If that's too low for the flash it won't fire. Simple solution: connect the hotshoe ground to battery ground thus bypassing one of the diodes for a loss of only 0.7V. Apparently that was good enough for my flash and it's working now. Cross_ fucked around with this message at Jun 24, 2010 around 08:41 |
| # ? Jun 24, 2010 08:03 |
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Anyone ever use a Metz 45-CT on a digital compact with one of those hotshoe -> sync adapters? I got a used Sigma DP1 yesterday and I'm thinking about getting one of those adapters, they're only like 10 bucks, been using it on my d200 without problem but i don't want to end up frying a new camera and I can't find any info about it on google.
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| # ? Jun 24, 2010 11:03 |
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Just ordered a PCB einstein and a PLM (parabolic umbrella thingy). I put off ordering cybersyncs for triggering and I'm going to try optical sensor/cables till I get enough cash/desperation for em. I'm excited about the short flash times letting me do some interesting flash stuff with moving objects. I'll write up a mini review once I get it, but the PLM is out of stock and I'm not sure if I'll use it tons till that comes in too.
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| # ? Jun 24, 2010 23:19 |
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Ubergoat posted:Just ordered a PCB einstein and a PLM (parabolic umbrella thingy). I put off ordering cybersyncs for triggering and I'm going to try optical sensor/cables till I get enough cash/desperation for em. I'm excited about the short flash times letting me do some interesting flash stuff with moving objects. I'll write up a mini review once I get it, but the PLM is out of stock and I'm not sure if I'll use it tons till that comes in too. Those have been out of stock for a while. I heard a rumor that the original run had some defects and they are redesigning or retooling for something slightly different. However, this is just a rumor.
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| # ? Jun 25, 2010 15:30 |
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squidflakes posted:Those have been out of stock for a while. I heard a rumor that the original run had some defects and they are redesigning or retooling for something slightly different. However, this is just a rumor. I'm pretty sure that problem was before it was actually released. It's why it wasn't actually sold for months. The problem with the backorder is that they has a ton of them pre-ordered so they weren't really able to stay on top of new orders after it went on sale. They also gave people who pre-ordered the AB-Max lights that they ended up not releasing a discount of 20% if they wanted to get a PLM. I had pre-ordered both, but ended up not getting the PLM because I wanted the lights sooner so I ordered B800s and an octabox.
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| # ? Jun 26, 2010 01:13 |
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rockcity is right. The Einsteins are shipping now (mine already shipped) but there is a massive pre-order queue before they fill regular orders. I was somewhere in the 900s out of over 2000 (or so I hear). I think they are going at the rate 100-200 built per week.squidflakes posted:Those have been out of stock for a while. I heard a rumor that the original run had some defects and they are redesigning or retooling for something slightly different. However, this is just a rumor.
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| # ? Jun 26, 2010 05:58 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 22:19 |
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Thanks to squidflakes I got my DIY quadra cable up and running. http://mr-chompers.blogspot.com/201...adracables.html  There was no way I was going to pay for the official 10 meter cable at 140 USD without shipping, so I hunted down the connector supplier and made my own. It's tested and solid and works great. Hit the full blog post for the full details on how to make your own.
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| # ? Jun 28, 2010 11:49 |
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