Studio Flash PS180

Technical Specifications

Output Power - 180w
Guide Number - 48
Power Control - 1/6 to Full, Stepless
Recycle Time - 0.5 - 5 secs
Triggering - Photo sensor, Sync cord, Test button
Model Lamp - 50w
Colour Temperature - 5700k
Built-In - Umbrella holder
Mount - Universal

Trying out my new Studio Flash

Venue
Ma's conservatory

Time
Morning

Equipment
Sony Alpha 200; Tripod; Phoshot 180 Studio Flash; Light stand; Reflective umbrella; Silver reflective; PC sync cable

Comments
I positioned my nephews on the sofa, facing the windows (blinds shut) with the flash to their right reflected off the umbrella. The silver reflector was positioned on their left to bounce light back on their left side. The flash was attached to the camera via a PC sync cable.

The hardest part of this shoot was trying to get them to focus on me and not the iPod games they were playing. as you can see I am not as interesting as killing monsters so I too the shots as best as I could.

The things I learnt most from this shoot was how difficult it is to keep children's focus during a photo shoot and how much brighter a flash with a GN of 48 is compared to my other flashes. When I have a easier to model to work with I will explore fully how to use the power of the flash more effectively as I don't feel the results show the flashes full potential.

To see the photos from this shoot click HERE.

Experimenting with long shutter times

Venue
Linlithgow Palace and Loch

Time
Night

Equipment
Sony Alpha 200; Tripod; Torch (to see what I was doing)

Comments
As it was a crisp night I decided to take the short walk to the Loch to try and get some long exposures of the Palace lit up at night. It was extremely cold but the Palace looked really good all lit up so I set up my tripod and took a few test shots. I was using a shutter speed of a second but the shot was too dark. With my battery life disappearing quickly I extended the shutter speed to 10 secs and then 30secs. With these longer exposure times the pictures became clearer and showed the Palace to its full glory.

This exercise highlighted how much longer you have to have the exposure when shooting at night to ensure that you get an even, full exposure. Also how long shutter speeds are very draining on the camera battery.

To see the photos of this session please click HERE.

Shooting Light Trails

Venue
Friends living room, Linlithgow

Equipment
Sony Alpha 200;Tripod; Black card; 2 x Maglites; Glass of blackcurrant squash; Black cotton

Comments
After reading on article on shooting light trails I thought that it would be an interesting thing to try and so off I popped to the shops to get card and cotton. I lay the card against the wall and placed the glass on the card so it would serve as a background. I tied the cotton to the smallest
Maglite so that my hand wouldn't be in the shot and used the other Maglite to light the drink up from above. I set the aperture to f/9 to reduce the amount of background light into the shot and then played with the shutter speeds between 4 and 10 seconds until my battery finally ran out. The smaller Maglite was swung in circles around the glass during the exposure time to hopefully leave light rings surrounding the glass.

I had to experiment the distance above the glass of the second Maglite to make sure that the scene wasn't too bright, not that easy with LED Maglites but for my first attempt I was pleased with the different results. For contrast there is a shot with no second light source.

On the whole I was pleased with the results although the light from the larger Maglite did reflect off the smaller Maglite and is visible in some of the shots which is a little disappointing but something I can improve upon in future shoots. When I have more battery life I will set this shoot up again and explore a wider range of shutter speeds and background and light colours.

To see the photos from this shoot please click HERE.

Shooting around Linlithgow

Venue
Linlithgow Palace and grounds, Linlithgow

Equipment
Casio Exilim Point and Shoot

Time
Afternoon

Comments
Due to bad planning, forgot to take my battery charger for my DSLR, I was using my point and shoot camera again to shoot the Birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots. Continuing with my building theme I tried again to take interesting pictures showing texture and perspective. I am not totally sure that I captured what I was trying to achieve as I felt a little limited with only 3x zoom with mostly automatic settings. However, I am pleased with the church steeple photo and the doorway to doorway photo. I think that I have used the Rule of Thirds well as I have positioned the interesting aspects of the buildings in the key 1/3 areas.

The photos of the Loch were so I could try and stitch them together in Photoshop Elements which I managed to some degree of success. The blending isn't perfect as each shot was metered differently and therefore wasn't easy to merge without showing the join lines. I'll try and duplicate the process but using my DSLR on manual in the near future.

The Snowdrops were shot as they looked pretty on the roadside and the ducks are for John, hopefully he'll tell me what the unusual black and white one is on Thursday.

To see the photos from this shoot click HERE.

Shots around Edinburgh

Venue
In and around central Edinburgh

Equipment
Casio Exilim 12.1mp Point and Shoot Camera

Time and Weather
Shots taken between 1100 - 1500 hrs; cloudy day with sun trying to break through

Comments
As I was travelling into Edinburgh on the train I decided not to take my DSLR as I wanted to travel light. I took my Casio point and shoot as it is versatile as well as being small and easy to fit into my pocket. Although the Casio has some manual setting it is shoots predominantly in AUTO mode so I tried to control as much as I could.

As Edinburgh has some amazing buildings I decided to focus my shoot mainly on the buildings to try and capture the historic feel of the city. I also took some shots of things that are typically Scottish, like the Bagpipers. I also tried to experiment with some of the things that I had read about recently like composition, perspective, silhouettes etc.

As I have been shooting in manual recently I found not having full control a little frustrating at times as I didn't have full control over the creative process. That being said I tried to use this limitation to my benefit by trying to bit more flexible in my approach to framing, composition etc.

The position of the sun trying to come through clouds seemed to hamper some of my shots as I wasn't able to position myself due to terrain so that the light was in a favourable position. This did lead to two good silhouettes (well I like them). After the session with Steve on the Rule of Thirds I tried to use this theory when positioning the items of interest in the picture. I feel that I have been able to do that to good effect on a number of the building shots.

Steve also spoke about using items in the photo to frame other things within the picture. I tried this on a couple of occasions and I like how it draws the eyes into the shot. I will be experimenting with this on future shoots. I also tried to use lead lines on a few of the shots to lead the viewer through the picture, hopefully to some success.

Overall, I had an enjoyable day around Edinburgh and loved how using a point and shoot camera made me think differently about my composition and style. I will look forward to returning to Edinburgh with my DSLR to see what I can do using manual settings.

To see the album to pictures from Edinburgh please click HERE.

Portrait Take Two Update

Well last night play around with my flash equipment went a little better but still had some dark images. Will put full review on later when on laptop and will put pictures up too. Hoping to do a more detailed shoot later.

Slow progress is being made, I think. Am looking forward to picking Steve's brain Thursday and having a studio tour.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Took a set of images last night playing around with flash power setting using my off camera flash cable. Was interesting to see the difference that the amount of flash has on the shadows and exposure. Was only a impromptu session so to see the images click HERE

Portrait Take Two

I am going to set up my equipment again today and try and improve on the nightmare that was Monday nights shoot.

I will be using my Sony Alpha 200 with my portrait lens and one of my flashguns. I will position my model in front of a light backdrop with the flash coming from over my left shoulder.

Hopefully I won't find this session as frustrating as earlier in the week and my results will be an improvement. I'll blog later my result.

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Completed the shoot with mixed success as to start with the photos were stil dark without even an outline of my model but suddenly after taking 4 or 5 shots the images became clear and I was suddenly able to see images on playback. The only thing that I can think could be wrong is the wireless flash signal. Will have to ensure that the wireless flash trigger is connected properly before I start shooting.

The images haven't been edited other than coverted from RAW in their shot format and the model wasn't dressed up properly as I didn't know if the photos would come out.

To view the photos from this shoot click HERE

A photo session using my reflector

Last night I had my first frustrating session of the year so far. I was trying to duplicate a photo shoot that I had read in this months Practical Photography about setting up a small studio in your home.

I used my friends conservatory as it is a nice space to set up a shoot and has enough room for my equipment. The set up went well. I hung my cream background on the french doors for my model to stand in front of, had my flashgun behind me and to the left of me to help play with shadows and my camera with my new portrait lens, Sony 50mm f/1.8 SAM, to try and get used to using it. As I was following an article out of my monthly magazine I had to choose the most relevant equipment from what I own to match as closely as possible that of the kit used in the article.  I do not possess a soft box or a flash light powered by electricity so I had to use my flashgun with a diffuser.  I only have one reflector so tried to use that in the most beneficial way to try and duplicate what I had read in the article. 

The set up turned to be the only part that went well. I set my aperture to f/2 to get lovely clear shots of my models face, shutter speed to 1/160sec which is my camera shutter sync speed and my ISO to 100. I used my flash on manual set to 50mm zoom, ISO 100, aperture to f/2 and on full power to start with. I positioned my model in front of my background and took a test shot. The result was completely dark, I could not see any of my model in the review. I tried a few more times and only had the same disappointing results. I decided to add my second flash attached to the cameras hot shoe and although it was a little brighter it was still a very poor shot. I experimented with different flash power but with a very frustrated head I gave up as I was unable to understand why it wasn't coming out with 2 flashguns.

I took a test shot with the built in flash and it was crystal clear - I had done nothing different with the camera setting so was at a complete loss as to what had gone wrong with using the better flashguns. I set up the 2 guns again but the results were the same. I will be asking Steve on Thursday for some ideas as to what I was doing wrong.

To rescue the session so that I had some shots showing the effect the different surfaces of my reflectors I positioned my model in front of the background and took a test shot using the ceiling light to light the scene and no flash. I then took a series of pictures using the silver, black, gold and white sides of the reflector.

To see the photos showing the effects reflectors have on shots please click HERE

Looking at the photos I feel you definitely see the effect the different reflectors have at either lifting or increasing the shadows. I cannot see a lot of difference between the silver and the white reflector other than the fact the silver has a slightly shinier look. The black one seems to increase the shadow of the left side of the model whilst the gold reflector gives the models skin a much warmer feel.

I am looking forward to experimenting with the reflectors and will try and do an outside shoot using the different reflectors to see if using natural light has a similar effect than that of ceiling lights.

Reflectors

Reflectors in photography are simply any item used to reflect light towards your subject. Reflectors can be used with a flash or in lieu of a flash.  If you do not have the option of using an off camera flash, or a flash with swivel head, reflectors are an excellent way to achieve a professional lighting effect without professional equipment.  Reflectors are either placed on a stand or other support, or held by an assistant to direct light onto a subject.  Reflectors are generally held at an equal angle from the light source and the subject.

Reflectors vary in size depending on the amount of light needed and the size of the subject.  There is also no set shape of reflectors.  Some are round and some are square or rectangle shaped.  Although there are numerous reflectors manufactured for photography, many photographers use homemade ones.  These can be as simple as a piece of white paper.

Reflectors are also used to change the quality of light in photographs.  The colour of the reflector will show up in the light reflected onto the subject.

Reflectors and Light

• Gold - creates warm tones
• White - neutral colour effect
• Silver - creates neutral tones but brighter than white
• Black - reduces the amount of reflected light

These changes in light tones are based on colour temperature and white balance.

An example of how to use a reflector can be seen by clicking HERE

Please click HERE to view an album of photos that show examples of using reflectors.  They will include a few examples from the internet but mostly examples of my own.

My New Reflectors

Having just received my free gift of a 5 in 1 reflector set from my magazine subscription I have looked online this morning to see how best to use them. After the initial research it says that experimentation is one of the best ways to learn how to use the different colours.

I am looking forward to testing this new piece of kit, especially as it was free, and will record my experiments later this week.


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Practicing with Two Flash Guns

I tried using my two flashguns for portrait shots today for the first time and am not sure if I'm doing things right but some of the shots look well lit upon first inspection. I will post some of the results once I've had chance to edit them as they are saved in RAW. Hopefully when they gave been processed they will look ok. I have to admit that although I have read about using two flashguns in my shoot I feel a little lost and unsure if what I am doing is right or producing well lit shots. Any comments for development will be gratefully received.


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Lens Usage

DSLR cameras enable you to change lenses to achieve a variety of effects. The camera's standard lens will give an angle of view roughly similar to that we perceive with the naked eye, a wide-angle lens enables you to get more into the frame, while a telephoto magnifies distance objects.

Uses for Standard Lenses

• Standard Prime lenses are good for full-length portraits, because you stand far enough away to prevent distortion but not so far away that you run out of space when working in small rooms.
• The large maximum aperture of a standard prime lens will make it ideal for taking pictures at parties and celebrations where you don't want to use flash, which could disturb the subjects
• A standard 28-90mm zoom lens (or its digital equivalent) is perfect for everyday photography, because its compact and light and you will seldom need focal lengths outside this range
• Standard zooms are perfect for travel photography as well, in situations where there is often little time to change lenses or viewpoints. For this kind of work, a slightly longer zoom range (28-135mm, for example) can be an advantage

Uses for Wide-Angled Lenses

• Huge sweeping landscapes can only be captured with a wide-angled lens. With longer focal lengths you are restricted to picking out interesting details
• Domestic interiors can be quite cramped, making photography difficult. A wide-angled lens will make a room look larger and enable you to get more people into the shot
• Landmarks and tourist attractions are often hemmed in by other buildings, leaving you no room to stand back to take the picture unless you have a wide-angled lens
• The big difference in size between close and distant objects enable you to produce surreal compositions in which everyday objects take on a monumental and dramatic appearance

Advantages of Telephoto Lenses

• Wildlife photography is difficult or impossible without telephoto lenses, since animals and birds frighten easily if you get too close
• Many sports are impossible to photograph successfully without a telephoto lens because spectator areas are a long way from the action
• Telephoto lenses can produce striking landscape shots, since they enable you to pick out distant details and 'flatten' perspective
• Portrait shots can be improved by throwing backgrounds out of focus. This requires shallow depth-of-field, a characteristic of telephoto lenses

Disadvantages of Telephoto Lenses

• Telephoto lenses appear to 'compress' perspective. Unlike wide-angles, they reproduce subjects and their backgrounds at their true relative sizes, or at least closer to them
• This effect will become obvious if you attempt to photograph a tree, for example, against a distance mountain. If you fill the frame with the tree in both cases, the wide-angle lens will make the mountain tiny, while the telephoto will make it look much larger
• Telephoto lenses also make objects at different distances look closer together

Uses of Extreme Lenses

• Due to its scale, architectural photography can be quite a challenge. An ultra-wide-angle lens may be the only way to capture the subject in its entirety from the viewpoint available
• It is very difficult to fully capture the interiors of buildings - whether they are small or large - without an ultra-wide-angle lens. Other lenses can only capture sections or details
• In the case of sports that take place on a large pitch, such as football, you will need an ultra-telephoto lens to fill the frame with individual players
• At air shows, the public is kept well back from the display areas, so if you want to photograph aeroplanes in action, an ultra-telephoto lens will be essential

My Tripods

I have two tripods that I use. The first is a very basic one which I use to attach one of my flashguns to. It has limited adjustments but does what I need for mobile lighting.

My main tripod is a Camlink TP2100 which I use to keep my shots steady and also allows me to use slowing shutter speeds in low light.

Camlink TP2100 Features
* 3 section channel legs (21mm)
* Three way friction pan-and-tilt head
* Bubble level included
* Includes carrying handle and hook
* Geared, braced central column
* Maximum height 145cm
* Folded length 55cm

I have only used my tripod a few times when shooting portraits and I am looking forward to finding more creative ways of using it within my photography shoots.

Tripods

You should use a tripod to prevent camera-shake in poor light or when taking photographs with long exposures. However, tripods have other less obvious but equally important uses. They keep the camera locked in a fixed position while you make careful adjustments to the composition and arrangements of subjects in the frame, and they leave your hands free for adjusting props, handling accessories or directing your model.

Tripods come with either ball-and-socket heads or pan-and-tilt heads. Those with ball-and-socket heads are the lighter and more compact of the two types, and very much quicker to use. However, they are not very good when you need to make careful adjustments, or if you need to pan the camera to follow a moving subject.

My Jessops 360AFD Flashguns

Specifications

Guide Number (ISO 100) - 36m at 50mm position
Flash Zoom Head - 24 / 28 / 35 / 50 / 70 / 85mm
Power Source - 4 x 1.5v AA batteries
Flash Duration - 1/1000 ~ 1/20000 seconds
Recycle Time - 0.5 ~ 9 seconds (depending on battery condition)

Finance was a deciding factor in my choice of flashguns and again I went for ones that had very good reviews and gave me the most flexibility in use. I have two of these flashguns to give me as much creative lighting options as possible. The flashguns work with my off camera cable and wireless system and connect with my light stands and tripods giving me even more creative options.

I am really looking forward to learning how to use my flashguns in my photography to enable me to produce quality portraits.

Flash Power Values

A flashgun's power is quoted as a 'Guide Number' (GN), usually set at ISO 100. This offers a useful, standardised measurement of flash power, and this number can also be used for exposure calculations. To work out the lens aperture to use, you divide the Guide Number by the subject distance, in metres.

A typical built-in flash might have a GN of 12, so for a subject 2 metres away the aperture should be 12 divided by 2, or f6. If this sounds complicated, the good news is that in practice modern flashguns carry out these calculations automatically.

Flash

A separate flash has more creative options and advantages over the built in flash option.

Built in flashes have to be used with care. When set on auto the camera will be using the flash in all kinds of pictures whilst it tries to produce the uniform 'normal' picture every time - not helpful when trying to be creative. The 'fill in' flash does work work well in automatic when it supplements the existing (ambient) light.

In addition to the built in flash there are separate dedicated flashguns available. 'Dedicated' means that when they are attached via the cameras hot shoe they can be controlled from it, working with the Through The Lens (TTL) automatic exposure. It is important to look through your cameras user guide to find its maximum shutter sync speed. Using slower speeds will be fine but exceeding the maximum speed will reduce the quality of the image.

The very short flash duration is so quick it will freeze almost any moving subject. The flashgun has its own power source so is more powerful than the built in ones which drain the main camera battery. The movable head can be angled to bounce the light off walls or ceilings which can help produce lovely soft lighting. Be careful to use neutrally coloured surfaces to bounce the light off otherwise there is a chance that the colours will be picked up and cast onto the subject.

Accessories like diffusers, reflectors and colour filters are available for most flashguns. These accessories help turn your flashgun into a creative, flexible and adaptable light source. It becomes even more adaptable when you use an off camera cable which connects the flashgun to the camera through the hot shoe, which enables the subject to be lit from different angles with the flash still dedicated to the cameras automatic exposure.

When confidence grows with using the dedicated flash you can experiment using the flashes manual mode. Using the flashguns user guide and its guide number you can calculate which f- number to use. You can also change the power setting on a lot of the flashguns giving more creative control.

Cleaning Equipment

You must take care to keep your equipment protected from dirt, water and abrasive substances like sand. A simple carrier bag is a cheap (if not free) item to have in an emergency.

I always make sure that I carry at least one carrier bag with when shooting outdoors.

A dirty lens covered with fingerprints and grime can act as a diffuser and hamper the quality of your images. Ideally keep your lens protected from harm using a UV filter, much cheaper than having to buy another lens. The UV filter doesn't affect exposure but will reduce haze.

At present I do not have a UV filter but having done this research it will be added to my wish list.

To clean the lens, use a blower brush first to remove any dust and grit and then carefully clean it with either a lens cleaning pen or microfibre lens cloth. You can use dedicated lens cleaning solutions if required. Never scrub the lens, only use gentle strokes to avoid scratches.

Since having my lens cleaning pen for Christmas I have ensured that I keep both my lenses clean by regularly making sure they are clear of dirt.

The image sensor is vulnerable to dust spots. When changing the lens always ensure the camera is turned off and do your best to stop dust getting into the sensor area. There are specialised sensor cleaning equipment available to allow you to clean your own camera sensor. If you are not confident about cleaning your sensor you can always take it to your local camera service department.

As of yet I haven't cleaned my sensor. I don't think it needs cleaning yet but I will keep my eye open for any spots on my images that may mean there is dust on the sensor. My cameras sensor does repel dust automatically so hopefully I'll be ok for now.

Usings the Kit Lens That Came With My Alpha 200

Having my chosen area of interest being Portraiture and having done a little research I was a little worried that my lack of a dedicated portraiture lens, with a very open aperture, would lessen my results. I was really pleased that in my february issue of Digital Photo there was an article on using your kit lens for different photographic genres. I have tried to summarise the advice from that article below.

Portraits taken with a kit lens

The key to a successful portrait is isolating your subject from the background, so it doesn't become a distraction. This is normally done with a 'fast' lenses with large maximum apertures, allowing lots of light through the lens and ensures that the plane of sharp focus drops off very quickly. This makes it possible to keep the subjects sharp whilst blurring the background.

Shoot at 55mm

Kit lenses do not have large apertures but that doesn't mean it isn't possble to isolate your subject - you just have to approach it differently. Getting your model to stand as far away from the background as possible and then shooting at the long end of the focal range - 70mm for my kit lens - the background will be far enough away so not to appear sharp in the shot. The further away from the background the subject stands the more defocused the background will become.

Shooting at 70mm also has the effect of compressing perspective in the shot a little and that will further help to blow the background out of focus. The longer focal length also ensures your subject's featues are kept in proportion, too, so you won't get the distortion that occurs when shooting portraits using lenses at wider focal lengths like 18mm.

Step by Step Guide

1. Zoom in to the longest focal length setting - 70mm in my case - to compress the perspective and help blur the background. Now in Aperture Priority Mode, set the lens aperture to its maximum setting - f/5.6 in my case

2. Get your subject to stand as far away as possible from the chosen background, but make sure you leave enough room to actually include the background in the shot! The greater the distance between subject and background, the more blur you'll get, but aim for around three metres as a minimum.

3. Now compose your portrait and shoot. If you've not been able to position the subject very far from the background then a good trick is to try a tighter composition with the model close to the lens. This will crop out some of the background and the closer you can focus, the softer it will appear.

After all this advice all I need to do is to give it a go. (results to follow)