Photo Set Up

Re: Photo Set Up

JamieDonaldson

>This works OK for digital because you can see the finished results, but shooting slides would be a guessing game for exposure. At least the light source would give a known color output as long as you don't repaint the room!

Re: Photo Set Up

Jorge Castaneda

>Hi Jamie.

It works for slides too, eons ago I used this same set up with bigger caliber equipment to make slides of food and wines, measuring the distance from the strobe to the ceiling plus the distance from ceiling to subject will give you a guide for a basic exposure and from there you bracket, once you find the sweet spot, you can keep making good pictures everytime, like you said, as long as you don't paint the room.

Jorge

Re: Photo Set Up

David Galloway

>Jamie did an awesome presentation at AAW in Orlando. As I am finishing a bunch of bowls, I just went to my notes to build a light box to capture my work. Thanks Jamie for some great practical advice.

David Galloway

Re: Photo Set Up

John Lucas

>I'll agree with both Jamie and Jorge. Ive use hand held flash for years but usually in manual mode. I found automatic flashes are just simply too hard to predict the results. I did all my nature macro work with manual flashes. If anyone wants to know the technique e-mail me. It's too hard to explain in something like a forum. I basically use them in the same way I use studio lights.

The problem with using flashes in automatic mode for craft and art photography is the diffent color of the work. The flash just gives an average and this is rarely accurate. With Bracketing sometimes you get pretty close.

I agree that using a digital camera lets you preview and get closer but it can still be difficult with auto flash because it will change exposure if you simply switch from a maple bowl to a walnut bowl. Using the flash in manual mode means you get the same exposure every time. This reduces one of the variables. Now you can use the camera controls to change the other variable, exposure.

Please consider that Jamie and my tolerance for accurate exposure is probably much more ccritical than most. Clients can be pretty demanding and our reputations rely on dead on slides. not close or good enough. Most of the techniques that appear in these forums do work with a little experimentation. The main thing is to try. Shoot something and see how it goes. If it works for you then that's all that really counts. If it doesn't post a photo and ask a question. As you've already seen there are some really sharp folks on this forum so you will usually get some answers.

Re: Photo Set Up

Jorge Castaneda

>Hi John and Jamie,

I use the flashes as studio lights too and like you use them in manual mode, I failed to mention that. On the white balance controls in the digital camera, choose cloudy and that seems to get you close, then slight variations moving the main strobe closer or further away gives extra control, there is also a provision on the camera to over-underexpose, so it is easier to arrive to a correct exposure with a digital camera and once you are happy with a pic, yo can have slides made from your digital file. I still have to try this path, but a pro around here uses it for both slides and prints and the results are very good, he does not say what lab he uses, but a search using "slides" brings out many. It is worth trying, around here photo labs are dissapearing, B&W labs are totally extinct, so as I cannot fight that trend, I will join, doing my own developing, much as I would love to, is not an option.

Nature work is another interest of mine John, if you have anything published, I would love to know about it, thanks.

Jorge

Re: Photo Set Up

John Lucas

>Couldn't figure out how to e-mail you personally. Write me at johnclucas@charter.net and I'll be glad to tell you about may past photography. John

Thanks

Jorge Castaneda

>John,

I just send you an email.

Re: Thanks

JamieDonaldson

>I have had several pros recently suggest that www.slides.com has been doing good work converting digital files to slides for them. I haven't tried it myself, so this is a sideways recommendation!

Re: Thanks

John Lucas

>I tried them. I have mixed emotions. They were good to deal with and the slides looked good, if you didn't have an original slide to compare with. I did a photo shoot and shot slides and digital. I sent the digital images off to have slides made. They looked good. Then I projected the original slides and compared them to the digital slides. The originals were sharper and the digitals were low in contrast.

It could have been me and my monitor however and not necessarily them. I would not feel uncomfortable using them.

Re: Thanks

Jorge Castaneda

>John,

I think that is going to be a while before digital can equal film, unless you can afford to go to medium or large formats, I will give it a try to that place Jamie, thanks for the link, as I don't have anything to compare to, I may like it.

Thanks again

Jorge