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How many lights does it take to change a photographer?

LJL

New member
It is an interesting device. The idea of also being able to use it as a large softbox is interesting. This could provide the kind of coverage that one needs from something like the more expensive octodome things. Just looks a bit harder to manage for that kind of use due to its size and construction, but for the price and versatility, it is interesting.

The video clips on the Lastolite site are decent to get an idea of its deployment, use, and what things look like in shots.

LJ
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Anyone else using Alien Bee's or are they too mundane for you lot? :p:p

I'm a wedding shooter, I have 3 AB800's. Not the most powerful but with a translucent brolly (shot into not through) I still get f5.6 @ iso 100 for large groups indoors and that's plenty. I use two as main/fill and the thrid for background or accent. For modifiers I use two 40" translucent brollies from Calumet. In a room with a white ceiling half gets bounced from the brolly and the other half shoots through, spreads and bounces of the ceiling for an incredibly soft and even effect, far softer than regular silver or black backed brollies which I hate, far too harsh for me. I also have two of the Lastolite umbrella soft boxes (36" I think), basically an small octobox which folds and stores as a brolly. Great for when I need more directional light, lighting the background or accent. Also great for product shots though I don't do much of that anymore.

Reason I like the AB's are that they are truly tiny, I carry two in a tiny backpack, they are very efficient with fast recycle and loads of features and although at the very much lower end of the power they aren't as consistent as our studio bretheren may like, on location and with digital (not trannies) a difference of a 1/3 of a stop isn't enough to worry about, certainly at that price!

I usually shoot with a simple 1:2 ratio for indoor wedding portraits or switch off the fill entirely for effect. Nothing too complicated and turn the subject towards or against the main depending on whether you want broad or short lighting. I don't go for more complicated than that simply because with wedding photography you need to work very very fast with a fool proof (the fool being the assistant) setup that you can repeat again and again without having to test the setup. Nothing is more unprofessional at a wedding than taking a long time setting up and then doing test shots with the bride as subject!

In the reception hall I use both my AB's and Wireless ETTL (always in C mode) in conjunction with on camera bounce. It provides lighting where I want it to truly replicate as far as possible the natural lighting, i.e. to achieve with flash a look that is similar to what the eye saw. To that extent I use the lights bounced to bring the ambient light level to the level of the lighting on the subject (if that is what it looked like, candlelit is very different). You can of course do this by using the flash only as fill and exposing for the ambient but most of the time I need more DOF and a higher shutter speed so I try to achieve the same effect, or close by using judiciously placed strobes bounced. I hate false sidelighting or backlighting from direct off camera flashes during a reception which although so beloved of most people shooting in my small sector of the market, I prefer it to look like it did on the night unless using the natural light for a specific effect. It's one thing to have sidelighting on the brides face as she looks at the groom lovingly during his speech (shoot without flash using the videographers hotlight!), it's another to have weird sidelighting in a impromptu friends shot during the meal!

I've never used anything other than on camera fill outdoors and then rarely for effect, more just for even lighting or because I want the subject backlit or sidelit. I would love to use off camera wireless flash diffused and held high but I'm yet to find an assistant good enough for this to work seamlessly on location in limited time.

If I had the time I would love to take 6 months working for an excellent fashion/people photographer in studio and on location to learn how to achieve truly great lighting to achieve a specific effect, but with the minimal amount of faffing around. I have a huge amount of respect for the talent that uses just one light and a reflector plus possibly an accent light to achieve real greatness. I understand light, I can use light, but what I want to learn is how to choose a specific look and then use the lighting, whether natural or manmade, to achieve the effect. I have a small understanding for it, I use a lot of natural sidelighting and backlighting in portraiture and 15% of any wedding album is shot without any flash at all using the direction of the light to tell the story, but there is an entire world out there that I would love to learn till the point it became subconscious and I truly believe that only working day in day out with someone whose grasp of lighting you admire can to do it properly just as when I apprenticed before I became a wedding photographer.
 
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Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Have to admit that that Lastolite HiLite thingy does look very good for location photography. I know someone who has one but to date they've been a bit too small for a shooter who needs to be able to provide both 2:3 and 4:5 ratio images, they have one on their website though that is 7X8' and that would be sufficient. I phoned up my supplier to ask why no one seems to have this size, he told me it's brand new and it hasn't hit the stores yet. When it does I might well take a serious look at it.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Have to admit that that Lastolite HiLite thingy does look very good for location photography. I know someone who has one but to date they've been a bit too small for a shooter who needs to be able to provide both 2:3 and 4:5 ratio images, they have one on their website though that is 7X8' and that would be sufficient. I phoned up my supplier to ask why no one seems to have this size, he told me it's brand new and it hasn't hit the stores yet. When it does I might well take a serious look at it.
7X8 could well be a 2 person operation. I can barely handle the 6X7 alone.

Opening it is no problem if you have enough room ... closing it is a bit more difficult.
 

LJL

New member
Ben,
I actually have a similar device, the Photek SoftLighter II or something like that. It too is an umbrella, but it is solid reflector. However, it has a diffuser that goes over the entire opening, and with the flash pointed in, provides a very soft wrapping light also. They are 46" or so, and easy to set-up umbrellas. Little bigger than what you describe, but not quite the size of other larger things. (They have them in 36" and 60" sizes also.) I use them with my DynaLite pack and heads. Easy to set up, good consistent light that I can control, and plenty of power. The cables and stuff are still a pain at times. My biggest worry is folks tripping over them. No matter how careful, taped, marked, etc., somebody always seems to want to cut through the wrong place.

LJ
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
LJL, sounds like the Lasotlite brollies http://www.lastolite.com/umbrellabox.php

Have to admit I do like the idea of getting the 60" and using it as a single light on location for the bridal portraiture, use it behind and slightly off to the side, plenty light to wrap around from that big brolly but enough direction to provide some modelling.

I'm trying to go as easy and fool proof for my location work as possible, fed up with complicated. I do a lot of winter weddings (more than summer, this is the UK where it always rains!) where I'm expected to shoot bride and groom portraits infront of a backdrop. Not to make everything boring I used to cart loads of backdrops around. Then I started taking one grey backdrop and a packet of gels to colour it with. Too many people didn't like it, and now I've cut down to just one backdrop with a white 'fantasty cloth' drape that is going over very well.

Please excuse the rather formal style of portraiture, it's what my extremely conservative clients expect:



Plain backdrop and some plant pots they insisted were included,



Using coloured Gels on a grey backdrop



The new simple one colour fits all solution with drape. Boring but works!

BTW, here's two from the last wedding just to show you that I'm not tied to the above style, it's client dictated! :grin:



 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Marc, I always use an assistant, bloodly useless most of the time (what intelligent person has random days free during the week?) but I don't think that would be a problem. Got to be careful opening those things though if you want to keep all your teeth! Almost killed my wife first time I opened my giant reflector in an enclosed space...

LJL, Gaffer tape! I go through rolls of the stuff trying not to ever have to use my liability insurance! I should really sandbag my light stands as well, one day I'll get round to it...
 
T

tetsrfun

Guest
Marc, I always use an assistant, bloodly useless most of the time (what intelligent person has random days free during the week?) but I don't think that would be a problem. Got to be careful opening those things though if you want to keep all your teeth! Almost killed my wife first time I opened my giant reflector in an enclosed space...

LJL, Gaffer tape! I go through rolls of the stuff trying not to ever have to use my liability insurance! I should really sandbag my light stands as well, one day I'll get round to it...
Nice Bentley with the premium package.
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
It was bleeding awful, broke down in the park and we ended up driving the couple back to the hall in my little Peugeot! I think the driver was older than the car which didn't help.

That is my 'show off' package, only twice ever been taken for it. The most popular are the middle two with the Graphistudio package becoming much more popular.

They do look good, I design them myself, hate their in house design but I just had to send one back, they had put the front cover on upside down! I have another 4 to design if the clients ever supply me with the required filenames...

If anyone wants access to the slideshows let me know, my clients are extremely private about their photos but I don't mind showing to other photographers. Have to update them with this summers photos when I have time.
 
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tetsrfun

Guest
LOL..My brother-in-law, who loved old Jags, told me that if I ever bought an old Jag or Bentley that I needed to keep a second car.

Steve
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
It's a shame, some of those old Jags are so very beautiful. I know of a company that restores old Jags, strips them down and builds them how they should have been built at the beginning. A decent E-Type - how much better than the bling supercars of today!
 
A

aprillove20

Guest
Anyway, I'm also interest in artificial light as well. Awesome thread.
 
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