Glassboro Auto Show

These are a few of my favorite pictures from the Glassboro Auto Show held August 29, 2008. More of the pictures can be seen by following the link to my Flickr Photostream at the bottom of the page.

Capturing your Setup Shots

After looking at many of the millions of Flickr photostreams that make use of off camera flash, I've decided to start including some captures of the setups I used for pictures displayed on this blog. I'm starting to see the benefit of doing so. It gives you a much better idea of where the light is actually going. This is something that's hard to predict when you're tightly focused on your subject. These setup captures act like mental notes of what worked and what didn't in a lighting setup at the time you were doing it. I've added a second umbrella since my last post. I was happy with the results, but I still have a lot to learn. Practice! Practice! Practice!

Quick Studio Style lighting

I had an idea for a little off camera lighting project. The entire setup took only 15 minutes. I borrowed a guitar from my son and decided to shoot against a bright background (my dining room) for some contrasting colors. Here are a couple of the pictures. I especially liked the contrast between the bright guitar and the darker orange wall and so I also did a few captures in black and white.

The setup: Guitar was suspended from an overhead shelf using a bungee. I used 3 strobes, one mounted on camera, but pointed away from the subject it was the trigger for the other flashes. I used Vivitar 285HV with optical trigger and pointed into a shoot-thru umbrella at camera right and an SB800 in SU4(Slave mode)was positioned under the guitar and pointed upward.

Added more strobes to my collection

I recently won a bid for a set of strobes which will add support for my off camera flash work. I purchased a Vivitar 285HV and a Promaster 1700 Flash. I am looking forward to using these to help light my subjects better.

I recently built a DIY soft box for shooting small items. I'll be putting the pictures up on EBay for household items we wish to sell. I identified the need for the additional flash units based on some testing that I've done. I've also seen a lot of photographers list the 285HV as an inexpensive go-to flash possessing the ability to change the output power level.

I'll be posting some of my pictures with descriptions of the setup.

Philly Photo Equipment Resource

I work in Center City Philadelphia and have recently discovered a great camera store that's withing walking distance of my work. Webbcam, LLC is located at 241 North 12th Street Philadelphia, Pa 19107.

I was trying to find some hardware to allow me to use my older Canon 199A flash with my newer digital equipment. They were very helpful and knowledgeable and I purchased a Wein H-Prong receptacle and Micro Slave. Total cost was about $70 and will allow me to optically trigger the flash up to 120ft.

I'll be testing it out tomorrow for some Prom shots of my son and his date. The folks at Webb said that it shouldn't be a problem triggering it even in direct sunlight. My idea is to move both the SB800 and 199A off camera and trigger them remotely using the D80's built-in flash. I'll be posting some shots to my Flicker photostream.

I recently stumbled across the Strobist Blog with David Harvey. Wow, what a great site to learn off camera lighting. David has many years of experience that he's more than willing to share with all who wish to learn and at no charge!

I experimented with the D80 and SB800 in iTTL mode using the on camera pop-up flash in Commander mode. The IR suffers a bit in direct sunlight, but if you move into the shade and keep a clear line of site to the sensor it worked fairly well. I posted a few shots of my dog Niki to my Flicker photo stream. All of the shots were taken mid day with full sun. I was trying some of the suggested tips from the Strobist by using the flash in manual mode and adjusting the power settings or the aperature for some dramatic lighting.