Strobing test #1 and #2(half strobist)

As promised, here are some of the better test shots from my new strobe set up. I present to you, strobing test #1 and strobing test #2. The first one was shot inside my house, in the proposed makeshift studio room. The second one was shot outside in the greenhouse, and around the area. I had to shift to a reflector-white board set up when the battery of my trigger ran out. It might get too expensive to buy disposable CR2 batteries all the time so I bought 4 rechargeable CR2 batteries and a charger from ebay. Hopefully, it gets here soon so I can experiment more.

IMPORTANT LESSON.. Never open the umbrella with flash and RF receiver when there's a strong consistent wind. I was getting the chair for a possible shot, then boom, down went the umbrella, my 285hv and my stand, aside from the damage minimal damage in the umbrella skeleton, my other gear were still A-Okay.

Anyway, critics are always welcome.

Here are the lessons that I learned, lighting-wise. I shall provide examples.

1. Despite being able to sync at almost all speeds, because of the RF wireless trigger and receiver, I should not abuse the shutter speed, especially when there is only one strobe on site. This will make the photo bright on one half and very dark on the other, much like a gradient.

Vivitar 285hv @ 1/16 or 1/4 power on the left, very high shutter speed (I was taking advantage of the   high sync speed)

2. Don't always shoot at 1/16 power, even to conserve power. Sometimes, it is still too weak, especially when there's a diffuser or a shoot through umbrella, or a reflective umbrella. The model pose was really good, in my taste. It was just that my flash was either too far from her, or was emitting very low light.

Vivitar 285hv @ 1/16 or 1/4 power on the right, higher than 1/200 of a second shutter speed.

3. Reflectors are very useful when you run out of battery for the trigger. I was able to use a reflector and a white board for the remainder of the second shoot. Although even with this, the light redirected might be too harsh. It might cause your model to squint or close his/her eyes.

Reflector below-left

4. Just because something might look good as a stand alone subject, it might not necessarily be a good background. I thought the branches looked cool, and I imagined how they would look like if I shot them as a subject. For me, it became too busy, or too messy a background. lol.

Vivitar 285hv @ 1/16 or 1/4 power on the left, around 1/200 of a second shutter speed.

5. Write down the settings used for each shot. Evident in how unsure I am about the apertures and shutter speeds used.

Here are the better ones from the two shoots. Enjoy :)

First strobe test

Details:

First photo - At around 3pm, ambient light to the back left, Vivitar 285hv @ 1/16 or 1/4 power on the upper-left with reflective umbrella.

Second Photo - Same setup as the first one.

Third photo - Ambient light, kinda diffused to the left, Vivitar 285hv @ 1/16 or 1/4 power on the mid/upper-right with reflective umbrella.

I shot using 1.8,8,11 apertures.

Second strobe test

Details:
First photo - At around 12pm, Reflector lower left, white board lower right (I did not have an assistant to hold it).

Second Photo - Same setup as the first one.

Third photo - Under the sun, Vivitar 285hv @ 1/16 or 1/4 power on the upper-right, around 1/200 shutter speed if I remember correctly.

I shot using 1.8,8,11 apertures.

Check out more of my photos in my flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/franciscogmm/

For more photos of the first and second shoot - http://www.flickr.com/photos/franciscogmm/sets/72157623909750514/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/franciscogmm/sets/72157623785271329/ respectively

Korea and a special Birthday Project

Ok, so, I just came home from a week-long visit to Korea. All I can say is that Korea=COLD. Anyway. I had fun taking photos there, which will be posted soon btw. Also, I learned that Korea is not a shopping country. lol. There was one street there which had the same stuff being sold for almost all the stores. We stayed in the COOP Residence in Jung-Gu in Seoul. The room was kinda small but it was able to provide me a comfortable living environment for the week. Among the places we visited were Nami Island, Seoul Tower, the Palace, and many more. 


I especially liked walking in the streets. They were very clean and organized, not like what you would probably see here in Manila. Also, motorcycles were abundant, and not just the scooter types and the underbones, but real sportsbikes and cruisers, which appealed to me a lot because I intend to get a 200cc-400cc bike soon. Anyway. Photos will be up in a few days.. gotta fix my finances as I have been spending a lot for my new project...

Which i will discuss now.

I am planning on converting our drums/guitar/ex-piano(before it got destroyed by the flood) room into my very own studio. I have already gotten a Vivitar 285HV flash, YongNuo RF602 flash/shutter triggers, a flash stand + detachable umbrella set, and batteries. All I need to do now is to get a sufficient background and to cover the entrance with black cloth. Tada, my very own basic studio. 

There will be two sources of ambient light, a drum set(as i dont know where to put it), and the strobist equipments there. 

I'm pretty excited to try it out.. which I will probably do tomorrow.. And again, test pictures will be up in a few days.. depending on how much money I will have left. . . I used almost 200$ for the everything.. I know it's quite big for a student on a budget.. but hey, my birthday's coming up.. This is what my friend and I call "justified GAS". Lol. after this, all my photography spending will be on films. :) I am happy.

I will post a before and after pic of the room too.

On top is a photo of a sign above some fruits in a street vendor's stand taken using my sister's digital camera.


Down here is a photo of what my set up will look like. Image from http://www.Tayhua.com. That's where I bought my triggers and umbrella set.. all for Php3700. 

If you want to see some of my photos..

Check them out in my flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/franciscogmm/

The Solid Gold 200 Film

Since it would take a long time before I go back to Hidalgo, to buy Lucky 200s in bulk, I decided to settle for the Solid Gold 200 Asa, which I got in the Mitsubishi photo store in Ali Mall for 60php/24exp. This was the film that I used when I went Batangas, with my girlfriend's family. It produced really good results in daylight and fairly well results indoors.

I'm very pleased with my tripod as it let me take a photo at 1sec. lol.

Anyway here are samples of photos taken using this film.

This one's a bit grainy, but then again, who does not like grain? (Ok, I know I know. There are people who do not like grain. As for me, I love it, just as long as it does not cover the whole photo and takes away the focus from the subject.)

This would've been better, in my opinion, if the shadow in front was not there. Oh well.

But as you can see, the colors look pretty good in daylight, outdoors, compared to the paler ones in the indoor shot.

Lucky Color 200 135 film and a Medical Mission

Today, I came from a medical mission, that consisted of various doctors here in Sta. Maria Bulacan, nurses, newly graduated and old, and a group of doctors from UST, that aimed to help those who were hit by the flood caused by Ondoy.

It was about 2pm when I decided to go there to assist in guiding and keeping the order in the tents. The first thing I noticed was that thre were so many people who needed our help. They needed medical, and I think, psychological, help. Everywhere, you could hear people coughing, children crying, because of the hot weather and/or any sicknesses or injuries that they had.

I saw this small kid who had a large gash on his foot. It already had puss coming out and it really alarmed me. How many people must have experienced the same thing?

This was a very touching experience because by merely guiding the people to the vital sign stations, I was able to help them go closer to much needed help.

One thing that I also noticed that amidst all that was happening, I realized how great the photo opps can be. I regretted leaving my camera, and my last film, the delta 3200, in manila. Oh well.

Anyway, I've been scouring the net for a nice film to use. I needed something that as cheap but which produced good results. I did not want to get expired films anymore. Anyway, I came across this cheap film named Lucky Color 200. I'm currently for the lookout for this type of film. I've heard they can go for as low as Php65 (1.sumthing dollars)

Here are a few examples of photos from this film. From merelyok, jamaican_jazzer, and bnoman in flickr.