3 sb800's

[wendellt]

hi

thought i should share some technical mumbo jumbo on my recent fred bare kidswear fashion shoot

on the last afternoon of shooting i foudn myself without a outdoor studio strobe light that i was using for most of the shoot it had to be returend to the rental place before the end of the day, so in a haste to take advantage of the afternoon light my lighting guy and assistant Bozidar Dimovsky devised a 3 flash system to mimic the light output from a bigger strobe light

we used manual mode set to 2 metres max output and 2 of them slaved to 1 master then taped up the 3, even arranged in parallel
all units sensed each other and all fired at the same time, but i think there was slight lag
as demonstrated here

ta da...


one of our members kevin kopson(Mitedo) came along to take candids
as you can see this properly exposed photo shows the time of day as it were with a blue sky around 5:00pm

theres Boz holding the units

now credit goes to member MCWB, Thankyou trent and i think someone else i can't remember for suggesting to use ND filters to darken the scene without upping f stops
otherwise i would have to shoot at f16 or higher and use a higher shutterspeed than the sync speed on the sb800's which is 1/250 otherwse i would of got dramatic flash output dropoff

in order to get the moody shot i wanted at that time of day i used a Neutral Density x8 to darken the whole scene shot at f8 ISO100 and used a shutterspeed of 1/250 in sync with the flash units, the units were set on max output, the nd filter neutralised the background the high output of the flash compensated for the lighting on the model(close range) and I got this

later in post i changed the colour balance to 5700K to get the warmer feel

this is another one shot available light no flash metered for the model background overexposed but stil llooks moody and nice


there were probably easier ways to get the same results but this was our way.

[Nnnnsic]

But the last shot doesn't work and it would take a hell of a lot of curves control to get it anywhere near right.

[rokkstar]

Interesting Wendell. Nice effects - i should get some ND filters.

Wouldnt you get the same effect by underexposing the background by 1 or 2 stops and using the d2xs FPS setting to sync at higher speeds, allowing you to open up the aperture?

[wendellt]

Interesting Wendell. Nice effects - i should get some ND filters.

Wouldnt you get the same effect by underexposing the background by 1 or 2 stops and using the d2xs FPS setting to sync at higher speeds, allowing you to open up the aperture?

yes

but i wanted to keep the depth of field high at f8
and even if you set the d2x to ignore the 1/250 flash sync barrier you will get flash output drop off so either Boz would have to get into frame hold the flashes closer to the model or i had to add more flashes

i wanted to minimize differential focus effects for this shoot

so no wide apertures used for the entire shooti kept it around f8

when i used the strobe the ir trigger for thed2x could only sync at 1/125 shutterspeeds over that did not trigger the strobe remotely, this caused lots of technical constraints

[Raskill]

Wendell, great images mate. You have the reputation on this board that you deserve.

Thanks for sharing your techniques also. Ithink you might be the only member who owns 3 Sb800's!

[birddog114]

Thanks for sharing your techniques also. Ithink you might be the only member who owns 3 Sb800's!

I think he has two and lost one recently!

I have 4x SB800s + 01 x SB80DX.
And not too often use them, I shoot with fast primes mostly.

[Raskill]

Yeah but Birdy, your spoiled and have WAY to many toys.



I like fast primes, but you don't have a spare 200-400 VR do you?

[wendellt]

Thanks for sharing your techniques also. Ithink you might be the only member who owns 3 Sb800's!

I think he has two and lost one recently!

I have 4x SB800s + 01 x SB80DX.
And not too often use them, I shoot with fast primes mostly.

thanks raskill i share my technique becuase lots of people on this forum helped me outi'm trying to give back the knowledge

anyway birddog

i have 3 sb800's i lost one
bought another for the fred bare shoot - retail, sorry i didn't go through you brdy but i needeed one post haste

i knew i may need one as soon as i foudn out rental hire closed 5pm on the friday and that was the last day of the shoot, otherwise we would have had to rent lights over the weekend just to cater for the friday afternoon

[Nnnnsic]

No such thing as "way too many toys".

[Raskill]

No such thing as "way too many toys".

Very true mate, as they say, "he who dies with the most toys, wins"

[birddog114]

Yeah but Birdy, your spoiled and have WAY to many toys.



I like fast primes, but you don't have a spare 200-400 VR do you?

Yes, if you want to have a play with it (200-400VR), I can loan it to you few days on my way to Mudgee next week, subject to a suitable meeting point.

Condition: You have to show me your insurance policy with it on incase your other half misunderstood and thought you're going to play with fire

[smac]

Wendell, I'm gonna get me one of those triple SB800 units and strap it to the front of my 4-wheel drive to use when I go off-road......shooting kangaroos......

Oh....that's right I have never been off road with my 4-wheel drive.......might scratch the rims. Scrub that idea

Perhaps I could strap it to my roof and scare the shit out of all of those P-Platers doing 80km/h in a 50 zone.......

Stuart

[Nnnnsic]

You could strap it to the roof and fire it randomly and people might think they've been caught speeding.

[birddog114]

Wendell, I'm gonna get me one of those triple SB800 units and strap it to the front of my 4-wheel drive to use when I go off-road......shooting kangaroos......

Oh....that's right I have never been off road with my 4-wheel drive.......might scratch the rims. Scrub that idea

Perhaps I could strap it to my roof and scare the shit out of all of those P-Platers doing 80km/h in a 50 zone.......

Stuart

Stuart,
Have you seen this thread?

http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?t=17772

Good time to try out your X5, on the sand, nothing harm to it. and the road is very cleared of bushes and plants.

Yes, get few of the SB800 and mount it to the X5's bumper bar, great spot lights heh?

[wendellt]

Wendell, I'm gonna get me one of those triple SB800 units and strap it to the front of my 4-wheel drive to use when I go off-road......shooting kangaroos......

Oh....that's right I have never been off road with my 4-wheel drive.......might scratch the rims. Scrub that idea

Perhaps I could strap it to my roof and scare the shit out of all of those P-Platers doing 80km/h in a 50 zone.......

Stuart

stuart you are implying the light output form those 3 units must f been mega bright, butit wasn't it just provided enough light for that time of day, model wasn't dazed or anything that's why i had her close her eyes just in case

[losfp]

Nice one, Wendell - I really like it (first shot, the second one made my eyes hurt!!!)

I need to get a darker ND filter. I made the mistake of getting a 4x filter, and then discovering that in most cases, I'd like it darker

[rokkstar]

I see.

So were you using iTTL metering for the flash or did you set the output manually? I would have imagined that 3 sb800's together could be bounced off the moon and still light up Telstra stadium. THose bad boys are bloody bright.

[wendellt]

I see.

So were you using iTTL metering for the flash or did you set the output manually? I would have imagined that 3 sb800's together could be bounced off the moon and still light up Telstra stadium. THose bad boys are bloody bright.

not during the daylight, most ofthe flash was drowned from the bright daylight and the ND8x

i shot in manual mode 2 metres fstop f2, there was a slight delay on the slaves so i think flash output was reduced slightly because the 2 slaves did not fire exactly at the same moment the master oen did and a 1/250 i think some light was clipped, but the results show, we tested with 1 sb800 same settings light output was lower

[sheepie]

How come you didn't make use of the iTTL?

[wendellt]

How come you didn't make use of the iTTL?

because that woudl of normalised the exposure

i was taking a styled shot i wanted it to look a certain way i had to control falsh output to get the desired result not rely on the camera automatic metering to get what you see is what you get sort of shot

[gstark]

Nice one, Wendell - I really like it (first shot, the second one made my eyes hurt!!!)

I need to get a darker ND filter. I made the mistake of getting a 4x filter, and then discovering that in most cases, I'd like it darker

Fold it in half, Des.

[losfp]

Fold it in half, Des.

Well Gary, in the meantime, I AM stacking it with a CPL, which gives about the same result... Not so flash at 12mm on my Tokina 12-24, but that's the price you pay

[tarotastic]

That third shot is awesome. Great lighting and a sublime expression you have caught on the face of the little lady. Nice one, geezer.

[MATT]

Thanks for this insight, interesting how you achieve your results.

Thanks for sharing

MATT

[Grev]

Nice little tutorial.