Photokina 2016

Here it comes, folks. The biennial German trade fair, Photo Kina, for all things photographic. Clatter down off the fire-step into the dugout and hunker down...expect gas...

If you are an fan of the forums and the rumour sites you will know exactly what the new gear coming out will be - and I'll bet you have debated it at length at your camera club... championing the brand name or system that you own over all others whilst covertly calculating how much you'd get as a trade in if you swapped to something else. The answer to that is simple; not enough. But that won't stop you...

If you have wangled a leave pass and a European plane ticket and a fold-up cot in the corridor of some German hotel, you can be off this coming week to the show with the gleeful anticipation of a dose of jet lag, beer lag, and sore feet at the end of it all.

The smug superiority that you used to be able to exhibit when you came back is a little dimmed these days as most of the big exhibitors hold press conferences that go world-wide in a flash. You won't be able to bring back secret world-shattering news as it will have preceded you by days - but you can bring back brochures, pamphlets, trade samples, souvenir pins, throwaways, and as many images as you can cram onto the cards in your cameras. Also gastro and scammed credit cards, so beware.

Cameras? You're going to take three - one for just happy snaps, one for serious work, and one for insurance in case the others fail. This will involve taking three chargers and leads and an enormously complex plastic plug that almost fits into continental light sockets. You will lose two of the chargers and one of the cords, but that damned converter plug will remain with you for the next 15 years...

One thing to consider: for years you have puzzled at the instruction manuals that are packed with the cameras and at the way they use English. You have wondered whether the people who write them can actually speak English at all. Well, you're about to find out. If you have some spare time and can find a person who speaks Greek, you might take them along to the trade stand of a Chinese manufacturer who is trying to sell at a German trade show and get them to ask a technical question in their native language. It's mean fun, but it's still fun.

Note: All of the above is powered by a strong sense of jealousy on the part of this hack writer. Perhaps in two years time...

Our directors are on the ground at Photo Kina this week so see all the news on the Camera Electronic Facebook page as it rolls in!

The Influencers

Watch as Elliot Mess and his elite force of "Influencers" clean up crime and corruption on the streets of jazz-age Chicago...*

A recent posting in DP Review seems to suggest that the role of the "Influencer" in social media marketing is going to decline. Apparently it is going to get more difficult to rock up to a major manufacturer and shout out "Stand and deliver!".

I'm not surprised - with the various natural disasters and manufacturing mishaps that the photo trade is susceptible to, it is getting hard to get them to deliver anyway. That may seem cynical, but that's one of the good things about cynicism - it never disappoints.

I was drawn to the article because I currently occupy the position of "Influencer" for the shop. In winter months it becomes " Influenzer" and the sales of Codral and tissues climbs but that is another story. When I go viral, I go viral big time.

But I'm afraid I am a little sceptical about the status of "Influencer" if there is little evidence apart from barking coughs that I really do make people do things. The readers of this weblog column use computers, phones, and tablets, and are smart enough to operate them far more efficiently than I. That means they are smart enough to make up their own minds about what photo gear to use and what programs to follow. They also know what they like, and can generally achieve it without me telling them what to do.

I have my own likes and dislikes. I have used this column to bruit the things I prefer but it is not because someone has left me a Gladstone bag of money - it is because I genuinely like using certain items and programs. As for the dislikes, well, I am sensible enough to write without making too many enemies. Besides, there is always the chance that the manufacturer of the Dudoflex D will have a better idea next time and the new camera will be wonderful.

There is also the distinct possibility that I can be wrong about things.

My hands are not pretty enough to allow me to act as a product poser for goods and the pictures that appear in this column are taken by me anyway. You try to make your hands look good if you are trying to hold the camera in one of them and the product in the other. It rarely works.

So  -  the end result is that this column is reasonably impartial in its reportage. Only reasonably - I have my limits. If the Sun Star Model Car company of China wants me to plug their products and are prepared to send me a sea container of the 1:18 stuff, I am prepared to abandon all pretence to morality.

Uncle Dick

* Frank Nitti was just misunderstood...

Hot Lights A Go Go

What is the appeal of the hot light? What? How can anybody love a lighting system that makes a studio hotter in January? That needs specially-ventilated light shapers to work. That makes the metal snoots so hot they smell like the grille at Alfred's Kitchen? What is the deal with hot lights?

Well it is June and the weather is getting colder, and if you are in a studio right now the constant light can be a bit of comfort. It is not as good as a reverse-cycle Fujitsu set to 27º but it goes a little way to heating the place. And the metal snoot? Well, you can heat that to welding temperature with the modelling light of at the average mono block anyway - learn to direct the head of the light by using the handle at the back instead of grabbing the light modifier at the front.

The real deal with the hot/constant light is that you can see what you get. If you are training students to see what their lighting is actually doing, or if you yourself find the leap of faith between a modelling light and the end result is a little too far to make, then the constant light is the answer. It pours out through whatever modifier you choose exactly as it is. You change your ISO and white balance to match the output - about 3200º to 4000º Kelvin - and your camera is happy.

There is the fact that other sources of illumination will also make themselves felt in the final exposure...much more so than with the fast impulse and brightness level of the electronic flash...and you may have to take them into account. Hot lights work best in a darkened studio.

But here is the delightful kicker - continuous lighting is perfect for videos. If you choose a set of lights that have no noise associated with them, you can film and record sound at the same time with no interference. Even with the lights that do have some sound - they may have a slight buzz from the internal transformers or whirr from cooling fans - it is generally kept down to such a low level that professional microphones can be positioned to ignore it.

Constant light sources can be large halogen lamps, incandescent lamps, fluorescent tubes, large LED panels, and banks of smaller LED lights. In some cases the housings are fitted with dimmers or rheostats that allow you to vary the brightness of the light without changing the basic white balance. Or there are arrangements in the multiple panels to turn on and off different portions of the bank.

Note that I may have inadvertently led you astray...and that is a pun...because the LED panels can run even cooler than strobe lights while maintaining a daylight balance. The nice thing about many LED panels and large single LED lights is that they are also operable upon battery power - the ubiquitous rechargeable lithium-ion batteries can be banked up to provide full constant lighting in the field.

Camera Electronic has always had some examples of these lights - whether they are Profoto, Elinchrom,  Jin-Bei, Metz, Lume-Cube or LEDGO, there is a variety to suit most purses and light outputs, from full studio high-intensity mono blocks shooting through dedicated soft boxes to tiny banks of LEDS that attach to cell phones.

It's cooler weather now - time to come in and experiment. Video students especially welcome.
www.cameraelectronic.com.au

Mousetrap

I called into the shop yesterday to place mousetraps on the toilet seats and as I was waiting for the ladies loo to be vacated, I got to chatting with one of the professional photographers who was standing at the rental counter. I noticed he was taking out a set of studio mono lights - a very good quality item.

The odd thing for me was I remember him taking out these same mono lights with various light modifiers all last year, and, I think, the year before. Weekday rentals mostly and some weekend rentals. Lotsa rentals...

At this stage of the game I am not at all certain whether or not his rental charges have equalled or surpassed the price of the lights when new. If so, I think he has sort of shot himself in the foot.

Rental of professional equipment is a wise move for many reasons - not all of them financial.

a. If you cannot afford the gear to do the job, but have enough money to rent it for a day or so, do so.

b. If someone else is paying the tab...ie. an actual client...go for it. The cost of doing it is buried in the fee you charge.

c. The gear is sound, and working, and you have the guarantee of the shop on this.

d. The gear is up to date - clients who base their buying decisions on your gear will look more favourably on you.

e. If the gear breaks down and it is not your fault, you are free of the worry of repair costs.

f. You can rent exotic stuff that you'll never need more than once in your career. No storing junk in the studio shelves.

But the whole system breaks down if you have spent more on getting it out than you get back for the job or if you find that at the end of the day you have spent far more renting than buying. Plus each rental and return is two trips into the shop from your working location - time is money. Rental is also  bond and insurance money paid out. You have to have that money tied up at each rental. And you can't take the rental stuff out of the state, either.

Now I've rented a lens or two in my time, for specific jobs. It was good, but I must say I was glad to give it back. It showed me that I did not want to buy it...and that negative was a good positive from a business angle.

So where this post is going... is to drive you to the rental counter for certain, but to get you to do some figuring...if you really like the stuff you rent, consider buying it. In some cases you might get some of the rent back in the purchase price.

The Curious Case Of The Dark Grey Filter

Those of us who use cameras to take pictures in the bright noon sunlight get what we deserve - brilliant colours in the main subjects, overexposed skies, and deep shadows under overhanging objects. These overhangs can be eyebrows, noses, lips, chins, and bosoms. And that's just on cars - people are worse...

Well, it comes with the climate, and some days the climate picks people up and beats them against the lamp posts. It is different in cloudier or hazier places - if you have an atmosphere that you can stack for use later it will cut out a lot of the sun and diffuse the rest so that shadows are naturally filled in. In some cases it is a real boon to the outdoor shooter who deals with close and medium subjects. But for the Western Australian at 12:00 we need some artificial fill.

Reflectors are a good traditional idea - people can carry them, erect them. position them to advantage and bounce the ample sunlight pretty well where it is needed. Camera Electronic sell a variety of them from dinner-plate size up to Insanity-On-A-Frame size. Lastolite, Promaster, and Glanz are three brands to look for. You'll need a spare hand or two to use them to best advantage.

If you don't have a spare hand, you can fire an electronic flash from the camera position to do the fill. The business of balancing it to match or run slightly under the prevailing light is the tough part - tough even though TTL mechanisms in camera and flash take out a lot of the mathematics. But as the WA sun is bright and frequently cameras cannot go under 100 or 200 ISO, the exposures at synchronising speed frequently demand an f stop of 22 or even smaller. That's a tough ask of the average small electronic flash - you'll see professionals going the expensive step further of taking out field mono-block strobe heads to try to match or overpower old Sol.

The users of the  Fujifilm X-100 series of cameras or any others that use leaf shutters can cope better, as these cameras will synch their shutters up to 1/1000 and thus the aperture needed is wider  and the flash has a chance to supply enough light. But what of the mirror-less cameras that have focal plane shutters? 1/180 synch at the best and that means f:16 at noon.

Well, help is on the way - we mentioned a press release for a new Fujifilm flash later in the year. Re-reading the DP Review spiel says that it will have a high-speed synch that will up the speed, lower the f stop, and pump out more light as well. We can only hope that this promise is fulfilled because the chance of friendly and controlled cloud cover in WA in summer is pretty darn remote.

Note: Cheating by putting an ND8 in front of the lens and imagining that you have dropped the ISO by three stops is like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.* If the TTL circuit is activated in the flash it just thinks it has to pump out three more stops of light and you've adjusted nothing. The circus trick only works if you have a manual flash out there or one of the old film types that depends upon its own thyristor to quench. Whether you do it or not depends:

1. Upon whether you own an old pre-digital flash or one of the new ones that will avoid TTL.
2. Upon the amount of tootling and fiddling you are prepared to do to add more light into the fill. Consider the fact that even the most basic image editing programs allow you to boost shadow exposure...
3. Whether you can be bothered to stand there and do the photographic version of high-school algebra before every shot. I know people who do, and do it gladly, but then I know some pretty random people...Hey, Guys...

And a sop to the management. Guys and gals, you CAN buy Profoto and Elinchrom units that will pump out more light than you can use. All it needs is money, and the gear is easy to use. If you want to do this lighting you need this gear. Come in and talk to Dom or Carlos. They know, you know. Also see our on-line shop.

* And I am prepared to admit that I tried it. Hell, I tried sea slug at a Chinese banquet and lived. How much dumber could anything be...?

Generic Studio Equipment vs The Well-Known Brands

We have a great deal of studio equipment here at the shop - lights, stands, backdrop materials, clamps, accessories, etc. Some are very well-known brands - Manfrotto, Profoto, Elinchrom, et al. Some are surprises - Kupo, JinBei, and Plain White Box.

With the former you can get quite detailed catalogs, both in print and on-line. There are always new things coming out and catalogues need to change to reflect this - some are on the ball, like Manfrotto, and some are tardy. If in doubt, try to trace it on the web - despite the Chase-Me-Charlie nature of some internet research, there are good companies out there.

If you are contemplating the big part of the studio - the lights - you need to think ahead. You might start with a small space and small ambitions but find that your scope widens and the space you need to light gets bigger. When you essay to go bigger, the power you need from your flashes grows exponentially. Plan ahead so that you have some reserve now - for later.

Also plan what sort of light modifiers you'll use. The big makers make accessories for everything so you can start out with basics and gear-up as you find a need. Some of he no-name makers do not have this variety, and you can run out of choices early.

Likewise you may find that your use of a set of lights gets to be heavier and heavier as you discover how to light. If the set you start out with is a just-barely-makes-it choice based upon price, you can find reliability issues when you do regular work.

The same might be said of background stands and other structural equipment, but oddly enough this is not quite so critical. You can construct an entire studio with professional-quality structures and use the stuff for decades. But you can also make some of he lighter structures yourself out of lighter grade components and find that you get a good long time out of it. It all depends on how often you decide to strike a set and rebuild it elsewhere.

Likewise there is the fact that one simple casting or machined part may be as good as another if the engineering is simple enough. Sometimes cheap enough is good enough.

And remember that there is always Mr. Bunnings who does pine timber, welding clamps, and sheets of Laminex. If you can have the strength of character to visit the local store without necessarily buying a new Makita router or a sausage in a bun,...a difficult task in many cases...you can find a whole raft of helpful bits.

Letter To The Camera Designers - The Wireless Trigger

Dear Camera Designers,

Thank you for the new features on my camera. I appreciate the Automatic setting, the Intelligent Automatic setting, and the Disturbingly Prescient setting. Last night my camera got out of its bag, went down the street, and took a picture of the showers at the Nurse's Quarters all by itself. Tonight I am deadlocking the door.

Thank you also for the smile recognition feature, though I must admit that mine seems to have died - I turned it on at it to the last family picnic and the camera refused to fire.

The little pictogram in the special settings menu is my favourite - the one that has the cocktail glass. I look at it fondly every afternoon about 5:00. I feel you have come to understand me.

Now that we have these ideas realised, I would like to suggest a further improvement in your design - the provision of a small and effective wireless flash trigger in the accessory battery grips of your DSLR and mirrorless cameras.

Already one manufacturer has pursued this in red-and-white terms for one model of their DSLR. They have provided a wireless link to their high-end speed light - thus leapfrogging aftermarket units stuck onto the top of the hit shoe. I would like all of you to consider the next step - come to an industry agreement with one of the professional flash system manufacturers: Bow---s, Elin----m, Pro---o, or whoever - and put a transmitter for their STUDIO flash into a handgrip that bolts under the camera.

This is a good place - you can combine it with a spare battery if there is enough room, but if not you can at least link it to a shutter button and fire the studio strobes in synch - without having a big 'ol box and a rubber antenna waggling away on top of the pentaprism. Doesn't have to broadcast far in a studio and shouldn't take more power than a wifi connection.

Come to think of it...would a little firmware fiddling with the wifi do it? If there was a receiver module that you could plug into the studio strobe dedicated to your camera's wifi signal and just go with that? Wish I knew...but as camera designers and masters of electronics, I am sure you will consider it favourably.

Yours sincerely,

 Uncle Dick

Stand Up For Your Lights! With Kupo And Promaster!

Studio light stands come in many sizes but only two types; too flimsy or too massive.

The former are usually cheaper than the latter but you tend to spend more money on them - they fail early and drop your expensive lights or backdrops onto the studio floor. Sometimes they drop your expensive lights or backdrops onto your even-more-expensive studio models and clients.

It is wise to remember the old studio maxim: Be prepared to either light carefully or to light out...for Queensland.

The too massive ones will not collapse on the customers nearly as often, but will take their toll when you try to move them up and down stairs. Chiropractors and physios love massive equipment, particularly if it has no handles or wheels to move it around. It is good business...

All the above said, consider the middle road for studio light stands - the "C"stand. It is a large and heavy device that has a standard 1'2" spigot on top, about 2.5 metres of height, and a set of three metal legs that can be splayed out at 120º each to secure it. The legs are different lengths, but finish up able to hold the central shaft upright - whilst tucking into the corner of the studio.

The central shaft unplugs from the legs for storage and handling.

You can get the stands in black or polished silver. The former is a help when you want to avoid unwanted reflections in a dark studio, but the latter is easier to avoid running into in that same studio. Walk into a lamp post at full-stride on the street and see what I mean.

Some stands are available with an adjustable boom arm that can hold a pretty substantial head and light shaper on the end. This can be the way to do product down-lighting when you want the effect to come from directly over the subject but do not have overhead suspension for the lights. Just suspend it over the set like a building crane.

Kupo and Promaster both make "C" stands that are well worth considering for your studio - you may not want to replace all your folders with them but there should be a space for at least one in the lighting setup.

New Flash Rental Flash

The new Profoto B2 kits are available for experimenters - the Rental Department here has  two combo's ready for hire:

1. Profoto B2 Off Camera Flash 250 Air 2 - head Location kit. This is to go out at $ 110 per day or $ 165 per weekend.

2. Profoto B2 Off Camera Flash 250 Air 1 - head To Go kit. this will be for $ 88 per day or $ 132 per weekend.

Sales supplies will be arriving later, but you can whet your appetite now with a rental.

B2 Or Not 2B - That Is The Question With Profoto

There's nothing quite like a B2 arriving at night...

So last night we had a Profoto B2 plus pilot here at the shop for a demonstration of the new system. Over 50 photographers attended the session and the mission commander...Saul...gave us all a briefing about what it is and what it is going to cost.

The pilot - Stefan Gosatti - had taken the new equipment for a spin at a red-carpet affair, on a fashion shoot, and out to do twilight coverage of a sports event. He had examples on screen and printed out to show what the coverage and power of this new unit can do.

The flash is the even-more-portable off-camera flash solution from Profoto. They make a great battery-powered monohead called the B1 that can fire out 500 watt/seconds from an on-board lithium-ion battery. Heart-stoppingly short flash duration and takes all the big Profoto light shapers.

The new B2 is a battery pack system that supports the use of two small portable heads - much smaller in overall size than the B1 heads. Surprisingly, they have been moulded to still take the large Profoto light shapers....but the makers have also provided a new range of lighter-weight shapers and modifiers to match the portability.

Make no mistake - this is a pack system that you can carry round on your belt or shoulder all day but is capable of firing 250 watt/seconds - divide it between two heads as you like. It dials down to an incredibly small amount of light as well so it would be suitable for lab as well as studio use.

Okay - how did Stefan fire it? He used a Profoto Air TTL with his camera - Profoto can supply the Air TTL controllers for both Nikon or Canon DSLR cameras. If he had chosen the Profot Air without the TTL provision it could have been used on any brand of camera - I'm sure he would have been fine because he knows what light can do and how to set it for his results, but even he said that it was helpful in fast-moving situations to have the TTL to help out.

Note: we suspect other camera manufacturer's TTL system requirements will also be addressed in the coming months with Profoto Air TTL versions - don't know which ones but we'll find out eventually.

The heads have standard 1/2" light stand mounts or can be unscrewed from these for even smaller specialised applications. they are small enough to mount above the DSLR on an arm - this is the deal for he gunadrun event photographer. One head on 250watt/seconds is about 10 times the light of a speed light so you can work brighter in darker spaces...

The Profoto light modifiers for the new B2 are deliberately lighter than the studio ones - there is a new range of grid sets, barn doors, soft boxes, and beauty dishes. the soft boxes have been designed with integral diffusers and rods for very fast set-up.

Stefan found that he got nearly 200 shots from each battery charge - had he turned the power down on the lights the number of flashes would have been very much greater. Note that the charger will fill up the battery in an hour - and you can get a car charger as well if you need to top-up between jobs on the road.

My conclusion as a staff member lounging behind the counter was that the new flash is a clear winner in this class of photography. This in spite of my brand loyalty. It will become the standard of the industry for portable shooters.

Profoto B1 - Industrial Safety Hero Product

You all know the Profoto B1 500 Air - the monohead that has the lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack clicked to the side of it - the one that fires incredibly short bursts of light. The one that takes all the Profoto light shapers and sits on the top of a standard light stand.

Well I want one. No. I want four of them.

I shoot in a darkened studio so that I can see the effect of the light positioning on the models. It does not have to be stygian in there but it is dim - as is my eyesight these days. Currently I have a set of lights that run off the mains power, with proper three-core AC cords and plugs. Because of the power socket position in the studio there are two feed points an two distributor blocks to split this electricity.

That makes six power power cords in total. Yesterday I managed to unplug, tangle, and trip over all six at some point in the afternoon. One occasion nearly brought down a main light stand on top of me- fortunately the model's assistant caught it. Thank goodness. Nothing would say "professional" like sitting on the floor in a pile of broken equipment...

The Profoto's on the other hand are cord free. There is no synch cord to deal with either, so your chance of clotheslining yourself is nil. Of course you have to go charge the batteries later but the darn things will fire over 200 shots full power anyway and my studio uses lights at their lowest settings so I cannot imagine running out of power.

I also want a camera that i can find in the dark after I have set it down somewhere - oddly enough this will probably be easy to do - a small LED and a tiny battery attached to and accessory bar will signal it. If I get two LED packs I can attach one to a coffee cup and life would be perfect.

Wireless Connections VS Connectionless Wires - Hahnel et al.

A general rule of military operations is to keep things as simple as possible - if there is less to go wrong less will go wrong. It will still go wrong, mind, but the area that you'll need to fix will be smaller.

For years I have suggested this to people who want to fire flash guns somewhere other than on the hot shoe of the camera. The choices have been:

1. PC cable from the camera to the flash gun. PC Socket or hit shoe adapter.
2. Infrared transmitter on the top of the camera and infrared receiver in the flash gun.
3. Infrared code from the on-camera flash and infrared receiver in the flash gun.
4. Radio transmitter on top of the camera and radio receiver into which the flash gun plugs.
5. Radio transmitter built into the camera and radio receiver built into the flash gun.

Old hands will recognise the proprietary system their camera operates on - some Nikon cameras  will work with No.3 and the Canon EOS 5D Mk III will do the No.5 with the appropriate flash gun. These people are catered for so they can go to the coffee shop now and wait.

The rest of us have to choose a system that will be simplest and most reliable for our circumstances:

1. If you are in a studio that has fixed lights and camera - and there are such things - and you can route a PC cord to all the lights, then do so. As long as you are not going to clothesline yourself with the wire you have a foolproof hard-wired connection.

2. If you are always moving about your studio in the half-dark and the lights are also being shifted, opt for an IR or radio trigger and make your life easier and safer.

3. If you are going to shoot outside with the flash gun at variable distances and positions choose a radio system. The IR might work but might be blinded and/or intermittent in bright sunshine.

4. If you are faced with the choice of using a system that gives a go/no go signal to the flash gun or one that has a radio frequency TTL conversation going on between the camera and the flash gun, consider whether TTL is going to be absolutely necessary.

The price you pay for it is extra complexity and increased battery usage - but sometimes the extra control that you can exercise from the camera position is worth it.

It will be larger and pricier than the go/no go wireless version.

Note: for any of the electrical systems take note of the battery requirements - opt for the ones that use commonly-available batteries. ALWAYS carry spare batteries - reliability of these systems is fine if there is enough voltage.

If you can do what you want to do without flash or with a folding reflector then you have eliminated one more complexity. Mind you, ask the photo assistant who is tasked with holding a 5' x 6' reflector at the beach when the sea breeze picks up what they think of your decision....

High Speed Synch - Profoto Flashes Onto the Stage

We've just had a heads-up from the wholesalers of the Profoto flash range that something new is here. They launched  a High Speed Synch for the Profoto B1 Off-Camera Flash on the 15th of this month.

It opens up the ability to shoot in many new areas with any aperture and any shutter speed up to 1/8000 second. This means you can shoot wide open even in bright sunny conditions ( like Western Australia in the summer...) without getting blown-out skies.

If you're using it to capture movement in mixed lighting you can get super-stopping power without motion blur that might have been occasioned by ambient lighting. The HSS works for Nikon and Canon and has been tested for all common camera models.

The launch consists of firmware upgrades for the B1 and Air Remote TTL-C/N.
 the firmware will be made available on:

www.profoto.com/myprofoto

and can be upgraded by the customer via USB. There are no hardware upgrades involved and the same flash tube can be used.

What a nice present for Christmas! And what a stunning flash system!

Double Your Days With Our Rental Department

The Rajah Of The Rental Department has sent through a decree:

" Rentals customers can hire any rental gear from the 24th of December through to the 2nd of January  - that is a total of 8 days - and pay for only 4 days rental..."

This is a terrific offer and not to be missed.

Please also note that it is a very good idea to get your photographic equipment cleaned before the holidays begin. You'll receive 10% off all Sensor Cleans or Full Cleans until the 24th of December.

Please note all gear booked in for cleaning needs to come to us by 5:30 PM on the 23rd of December at the latest to get back in time for Christmas - we close at 3:00 on the 24th of December.

Shaping Light With Profoto

Tonight there will be a wonderful exposition of light shaping with the Profoto studio and field flash system - lots of their distinctive accessories to illuminate studio models and products. The staff here had a chance to see this yesterday and it was rather eye-opening.

There are a lot of things that you miss when you just stack the shelves here - the peculiar and specific construction of the Profoto reflectors was one that escaped me. Oh, I knew that you could slide the reflectors fore and aft on the studio heads to narrow or widen the beam of light, but I had not realised that a great deal more was happening inside those reflectors because of the surfaces of the items.

Some of the surfaces were faceted and highly polished - and the light shot out with great intensity. Some were dulled with an aluminium coating and wrinkled rather like a paint finish - in these cases the light was very much softer and wider.

In all cases there was a close correlation between the surface and the final shadow intensity on the subject - and behind the subject.

And this was just with bowl-shaped reflectors - add on all the effects from umbrellas, softboxes and softlight reflectors, and you would be amazed at the variety of illumination you have at hand.

Now, you should ring through to the shop if you haven't done so already if you'd like to see the show tonight. It will be at the Terrace Studios in East Perth and I believe it commences about 6:00 PM - runs through to about 8:00.

You won't be bored.

C Me Jimmy...

The interesting object in the alley-way is an indispensable accessory for the modern photographer. Whether you are shooting products in the studio, political riots in the street, or ships at sea, you need this. Wedding photographers will want two*.

It is a Kupo "C" stand. Made of aluminium castings, steel tubes, and the sweat of honest North Asian labour. It weighs a lot, and therein lies the charm. It is heavy-duty gear for when you need to suspend something over a set or a subject.

The legs swivel out from the center column and snap-lock into position. You can position it close to a wall and still have stability out at the end of the arm. If you put the boom over the long leg you have enough stability to swing even a large flash head and softbox out there.

Of course it always pays to use a counterweight at the short end of the boom, and to secure the legs with sand bags as well, Steve Sint makes a point of the safety aspects needed in the studio in his book on still life photography and Steve Sint knows!

Please note that the center column shafts do not have air brakes inside the structure. If you release the clamp carelessly the only thing that arrests the drop of the boom is your fingers or head...be careful.

But look at all the clamp attachment points there on the assembly - there are more than enough possibilities there for the inventive photographer to swing lights any way they want to.

* Romance. Nothin' says lovin' like a pair of intertwined studio stands.

Saul Sez

A quick note in from Saul regarding lighting:

The Profoto people will be adding another controller to their system in mid-September.

It will be the Air Remote TTL-N for the Profoto B1. This means the Profoto B1 will be able to do TTL with both Nikon and Canon cameras. Right now you can do this with the Air Remote TTL-C for the Canon system.

It's not only for the B1 - the literature states that it will also synch and control any Profoto unit that is compatible with Air. There will be long operating range - 300 mtrs.

Nikon shooters will want to try this one out as soon as they can. Mid-September.

Thinking Of A Different Temperature

No, I don't mean just waiting for summer to roll around. It'll roll around of its own accord without us wishing for it. Then we'll wish for winter...

What I mean is the business of lighting one way, seeing another, and ending up with a third option. And how to cope with it all.

I use studio flash units made by Elinchrom. They are fine items and have served well over several decades. Were i re-equipping the studio with someone else's money I might wish for Profoto, but as I have 5 lights already and a cupboard full of light shapers, I will stick to the Elinchroms.

They all have modelling lights to allow me to see what the pattern of light coming out of the front will be. That is all I can really tell with a modest degree of accuracy, though - the pattern - because the modelling light is a tungsten light bulb that is in aslightly different position from the flash tube.

What comes out with the modelling lamp is yellow light - it is quite different from the clear 5000º Kelvin output when the flash tube goes off. If I am looking at the setup in the studio my eyes and the LCD screen on the Fujifilm X-E2 see that yellow light and imagine that is what will go with the final exposure. Nope. Fortunately there is instant replay to let me see what happened, but there has to be a mental off-set to think of what the result might be.

A suggestion has been made that there might be an improvement if you put an LED lightbulb in place of the modelling lamp. Try it and tell me - my Elinchroms are 250EL and 500EL models.

I should not complain - I used to use sheet film and had to do a Polaroid sheet film test beforehand. Then I had to meter for two different ISO's and apply all the rest of the imaginary offsets as well. Each finished negative was a surprise and each finished print a version of reality that could never be repeated...

Aww, Come On....

Bag and a bar. Six bucks.

Money goes to the school - digital bag goes into your camera outfit - chocolate goes to your hips.

How good is that?

PS: The strawberry and mint ones come in a two-pack, so you can share. As if you would...

The Humbrella - The Mary Poppins Of Light Shapers

Having occasion to shoot 18 dancers dressed in Middle eastern outfits on Tuesday at their dance studio, I opted to take along three speedlights, a background stand, and bags of  muslin drapes. I found out several things:

1. The studio had far better a backdrop than I could have set up. I should have sussed it out beforehand and I could have saved carrying the kit.

2. Several speedlights set to different powers and under control of the CLS system on a Nikon are capable of dramatic light ratios. 18 dancers are too many faces to try this on. Down came two of the lights and one SB 700 shot into an umbrella...and the even light got all 18.

3. The TTL system works perfectly  all the time except when it doesn't. Then the M system works all the time.

Moving on to Wednesday night and the 15 Japanese Geisha dancers in their studio...I discovered that their place has no adequate backdrop. Fortunately I had not unpacked the car from the night before.

1. A standard backdrop stand set doesn't stretch to 15 people, even if they are Japanese and you can stack them like cordwood. If you gaffer tape the legs of the backdrop stand to the studio floor  you can stretch the muslin drape sideways...makes 6 metres...and if you use welding clamps to attach it to the uprights it will work. The center section needs propping up with a pole and there will be wrinkles but these can be overcome by...

2. Lighting soft. Again the umbrella with two SB700's firing into it for extra power. Spectacular makeup jobs and colourful costumes lend themselves to pure illustrative light and this is what worked.

Note that the common factor in these two nights is the humble umbrella. In my case it was a small Elinchrom packed as an afterthought, but in future I am going to deliberately take the big Redwing  I own. Bigger really is better.

Bigger is also available here in the shop. Promaster, Profoto, Elinchrom, all make bigger brollies. There are cheap and cheerful Promaster light stands and umbrella adapters that fit together perfectly and take up little room in the field pack. I think that they will be the better answer for a lot of out-of-studio experiences in the future.

Also please remember to pack gaffer tape and welding clamps.