This Is Spinal Tap

Actually, this one goes to 200. And we’re not talking decibels here, we’re talking millimeters. Zoom throw. The SB900 goes to 200 millimeters. You know, on the back of the SB800, you push the selector button for the little trees to the big trees, and you zoom to 105? Well, the big trees just got bigger.

Now to some folks this may matter as much as a single, silly, fictitious, click on the old amp. (You know, all those other blokes are at 10, and where can you go from there? We can go to eleven!) In other words, it might not matter at all. But for the rest of us who mess around with small strobe units, it matters a lot. The ability to control and shape the output of a small hot shoe flash unit is a big deal. It means you get a longer throw, more concentration of light, and perhaps a bit more of a defined edge between highlights and shadows. I told the folks at Nikon that now that you can zoom a 900 all the way to 200, they should do something jazzy to announce it, like program the unit to go off like a Vegas slot machine every time you hit 200. I don’t think they’re gonna do it.

I’ve also been experimenting a bit with the feature that controls the spread of light right at the source. You can input standard, center weighted and even. I’ve opted for even in the early going, hoping that edge to edge spread of even illumination might be handy for a portrait. To play with this feature, I hired a well known, demanding NY super model…….

Brad! Cut it out!

Actually, my friend Vanessa who is one of the more beautiful ballerinas I have ever worked with, came and helped us out. She is not only a lovely dancer, but she has a face that is right out of 1940’s Hollywood glamour. She is posing here at the Red Hat bistro in Irvington, NY, which is a truly beautiful eatery right on the Hudson River and serves food to match the setting.

We did this really simply. There is a 900 on a boomed, shoot through umbrella (Lastolite all-in-one) camera right, just out of frame. And the background is lit with one 900, gelled with a full CTO, again camera right, flying into the area behind Vanessa and giving it some warm glow. That light is zoomed to 200, and has no diffusion. Another thing I am liking is the filter holder that comes with the unit. It is designed to hold the filters that are embedded with chips that communicate color temp information to the camera. (Example: With the camera in auto white balance, you can take the CTO gel and slip it into this filter holder and slap it on the 900. It will communicate to the camera that the light has been shifted to a tungsten balance and the camera will shift accordingly. Camera must be in auto, and it appears to me the light must be on the hot shoe for this to occur. More on this in the future.)

But the fancy filter holder also functions straight up and simple as, well, a filter holder. Cool! Means my flash units don’t have to all gummed up at that end with scotch tape residue and bits of gaffer anymore.

Here’s our basic set.

(Note: The gold reflector material on the bar is from a 3×3 Lastolite kit has a SB200 close up strobe, again with a full CTO, sitting on it. I experimented briefly with putting a little bar glow off to the side of Vanessa but then decided the room had a daylight feel to it and killed it. It was also creating shadows I ran out of time to wrangle. In the grand tradition of all photographers who are outta quarters and whose location meter is about to expire, I just shut it down. (Uh! Light cause problem. Mongo kill light.)

To make sure the far light saw my SU800 signal I ran the SC29 cord off to the right and we clamped it to a stand.

Then, quickly, to take advantage of Vanessa’s amazing red hair (she basically has never had it cut) framing her face, we moved in a hand held SB800 Brad hand held low, camera right, coming through a Lastolite tri-grip diffuser. Instant beauty light combo.

Funny, even with nice light like this, I don’t think Brad would look as good. WAG on my part.

Shot these with my 200 at f2. The background 900 fills the restaurant with glow, which translates to her hair. Limited depth of field emphasizes that. (I mean, Vanessa would look great even if I was using flash powder.) Both up front lights are dialed down a touch, running around minus one EV, and the background 900, again at 200 mm and throwing light a good distance, is dialed up just a tic. Minimal set up, which was great cause the restaurant was starting to jump and we hadda get going quickly.

After that, we hit my favorite desolate corner in Manhattan with a D700 and an SB900.

We ran against type here, shooting wide but zooming the flash to 200. It hits Vanessa’s face with a street quality of light, and then sharply gradates down her body.

Then I just let the camera drive the train on this, auto white balance under street lamps and the result was really clean. Jeez, I just remember being out there with some sort of funky Ektachrome and a stack up of wratten filters of so many different increments and colors I felt like Dumbledore.

And then of course….the ongoing mystery man. Kman. What is he doing out there? Nefarious things about to occur. No doubt….

This is two SB900 units…on the floor stands that come in the kit. No gels. On the street, camera right, aimed up. White light, tungsten balance in the camera. Find two busted up wood pallets and stand them in front of the lights and let fly……more tk…

Note and news: The 700 and the 900 are hot items right now….got this from Jeff Snyder (jsnyder@adorama.com) the other day…

Good morning-
If you are an NPS Member and have not placed your order for the new
D700 and/or SB900 Speedlight, now is the time. Deliveries will begin
within the next 10 days, and being a member of NPS gets you a priority
delivery.

If you have already placed your order, and have not notified NPS (NPS@nikon.net
), then you should email them, and let them know that you have an
order in with ADORAMA/JEFF SNYDER so that your priority can be entered
into their system.

If you have NOT placed your order yet, there is still time….contact
me as soon as you can.

I got a chance to play with a new Nikon SB-900 speedlight over the last few days and I gotta say, it's a pretty sweet flash. Long story short: Nikon has just extended their lead in the flash department.

The only drawback I can see is the "perfectly good" status of the current SB-800. And that $500 price tag, of course.

Should you get one? Swap out all of your SB-800s? Be on the lookout for cheap, used SB-800s and add more?

Hit the jump for the Full Monty review, and a few things you might want to consider.
_________

First impression: It is much bigger than the SB-800. Didn't really seem any heavier, but definitely takes up more space. This is a consideration for a couple of reasons. One, cubic inches matter when on the road. Not so much on a single flash basis, but if you are packing half a dozen SB-900s, you could probably cram seven SB-800's in the same space.

Also, the head is a totally new design and size. This means that your current light modifiers may or may not fit the SB-900, depending on their size and/or mounting flexibility.


So here's that big ol' honker of a head. First glance, it looks to be pretty much the biggest speedlight head going, save maybe the Vivitar 285 HV. It looks bigger than an old SB-26, and certainly bigger than an SB-24.

If you can get past the size, they have done some really cool things with the extra space. The 200mm zoom rocks. Not because I am gonna direct flash with my 70-200 racked out. But because it will concentrate the beam, of light into a smaller area when used off-camera.

Why would you care? Because it effectively gives you a more powerful flash when large swaths of light are not needed. Like doing a hard-light, multi-flash portrait outdoors, for example. You usually would not want to light their feet anyway.

Rather than eat up that needless beam angle with a snoot or grid, you can zoom it in, and get some extra f-stop with the more concentrated beam. This translates into more control over the ambient light level (you can get a darker working f-stop at 1/250th, for example) for more choices in your ambient tones.

Of course, you can get a Better Beamer to stick on just about any flash to do this, but it is not built-in.

The Big Head Advantages do not stop there. It's the most sophisticated refractor/reflector system I have ever seen on a flash. They actually modulate the tube with respect to both the front fresnel and the polished, rear reflector. This gives you the ability to shape the internal qualities of the beam, too.

You can choose a normal (slightly concentrated) pattern, an even more concentrated pattern (again, yet more energy to the center for situations described above) or a near-perfectly even light distribution depending on your lighting needs.

That's a real breakthrough in speedlight design, and brings to a (relatively) small package more of the capabilities of an interchangeable-reflector studio strobe. Big props to Nikon for that.


Other advantages that argue for switching are the new CLS interface. You'll get back the time you spend wading through the CLS menus on your master flash. This would not be a reason to swap out, say, four flashes. But it might be good reason to get one to use as a master.

It's basically a manual switch and a wheel dial -- a very fast an intuitive combo for switching setting in very little time. It took a little digging to find the SU-4 mode, which we like because it activates an awesome built-in slave, but I can confirm it is included and does work it's manual-power slaved-flash magic.

I actually used that mode to sync all of the flashes used to make the shots in this post. More on that later.


Big on the advantage list: Recycle time absolutely rocks at 2 seconds with no accessory battery back. Better circuitry uses the same power source -- with much faster recycling. This is a dream with Ni-MH batts, and the fifth-wheel option is no longer needed for fast shooting. For some, this will warrant swapping out their main, on-camera flash.

The accessory SD-9 battery pack walks that already fast recycle time down to about a second at full power. And it can hobble along on just four extra batts if needed, according to the Nikon guys I spoke with.

Interesting point: The power plug on the SD-9 has two extra nubs which means it will not fit other flashes. But the design looks as if the current SD-8-type plug may fit the SB-900. This is important if you are going to be migrating other existing battery packs to the SB-900.


Thankfully, the PC jack is still there. Big ups to Nikon for including the old-school synching, in addition to the fancy-pants CLS stuff.

One other noteworthy change is that the SB-900 swings both ways -- you can go reverse 180 in either direction. This is especially useful, in that whichever way you mount a remote flash you can have the receiving window facing the master light source.

Before, there were situations in which you had to cheat that angle and lose wireless range as a result. Every flash should have this feature, IMO.


In Sync:

1. It comes with a gel holder, which totally rocks. No more tape and/or velcro. And the dome diffuser fits right over the gel holder, allowing both to be used at once. The bar-coded Nikon gel thing is a little gimmicky -- it sets your camera's WB to the "appropriate" setting. The special Nikon gels could easily be duped with a template and some liquid paper. You will not need to re-up with the official Nikon gels ($$) if you do not want to.

2. Goofy, but cool: At full power, the discharge sounds like a blaster from Star Wars ("pew, pew, pew"). Recycling is almost silent. And oh-so-fast.

3. My seven year-old boy loved the battery compartment: Individual cylindrical battery holes -- like loading a revolver.

4. Thermal shut-down protection -- which can be disabled if you are completely stupid. Cool detail: A "thermometer" in the rear display shows you if you are starting to red-line it.


Out of Sync:

1. Five. Hundred. Dollars.

2. The hot shoe is a new, thicker size that will not fit many current accessory shoes. McNally dropped one out of a Justin Clamp, which is a staple lighting tool. (The Nikon guys mentioned that about 5 times this weekend, Joe. They might be sending the black helicopters after you shortly...)

3. The new AS-21 foot must be used because of the new shoe size. Which would be fine, except for that the metal female 1/4 x 20 insert in the AS-19 has been replaced by mere molded plastic in the AS-21. This will be a problem for people who repeatedly use the AS-21 on an umbrella swivel. That's a design whiff that should not have happened.



Decision Time

So, that to do?

My biggest problem is, I absolutely love the SB-800s. IMO, many of the added features are great. But I do not think I can justify switching everything out wholesale. Buying just one might be a very good idea -- I can see many instances when those extra features would make for a more useful single flash.

My other problem: They may well choose to discontinue the SB-800, which would be a crying shame. It's either that or create a whole new production line for the SB-900. The SB-800 is small, powerful and does everything. Many will continue to prefer it to the SB-900, given price difference and the fact that the core functionality is the same. Seriously, what's so wrong with this current flash?

But of course, that's how my grandmother felt about her rotary-dial ATT phone, too. I am officially old now.

I know one thing -- if they do drop the SB-800, the '900 is gonna sell a crapload of SB-600 flashes. Thats a huge price gap which many amateurs will not be able to rationalize. And the smart move for new CLS'ers might be one '900 and a few '600's. Who knows.

The SB-900s are already pre-selling like crazy. So Nikon is clearly doing something right. My hope: SB-800s go out of vogue with the doctors, dentists, and rich soccer moms and they all wind up in the used dept and on Ebay for $200 a pop.

'Cause if that happened, I'd pimp out my lighting bag like McNally's. (Only, he'd have 72 SB-900s by then...)


Lighting These Photos

For the top photo (shown again here) I set the subject flashes on SU-4 slave mode in manual, at 1/128th power. Since they were only a few inches away from each other this would be my limiting factor, even dialed down to 1/128th. A quick pop-and-chimp, and I was adjusted to the aperture that gave me a good exposure from each other's close-in light.

I shot these with a new Nikon D700, BTW. We were absolutely swimming in new toys this weekend at Shoot! The Day in NYC. Awesome little camera, that '700. D3 guts in a D300 body. Expect iPhone 3G-esque wait times for a while if you want one.

Anyway, once I got the best shooting aperture for the flash-to-flash light from the subject flashes, I manually adjusted the other lights to look good at the chosen aperture, which I believe was f/16. I shot at a 250th, to nuke the ambient away. I put the flashes on a shiny black table and shot low, to maximize the reflection.


Other lights were:


• An SB-800 aimed at the background from under the table, using the frosted diffuser for an even gradient.

• Two SB-800's as rim lights, which edge-lights all of the shiny black surfaces.

• An on-camera flash in a Ray Flash adapter, which gave me the specular highlights on the front surfaces.


You Tell Me

Nikon shooters: Are you gonna get one? Are you gonna swap out your SB-800s? Why? Why not?

I'm on the fence, and looking for feedback...

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

New in the Strobist Reader Gallery is Jonathan Boeke's night shot of a stand of trees.

It's done with multiple pops, during a time exposure. And it is easier than you might think. Keep reading for a few tips on creating shot like this, next time you are alone in the woods at night...

For this shot, Jonathan walked to a spot behind each tree and fired a Nikon SB-600 with a green gel back at the camera while the shutter was open during a time exposure. (You can click on the pic for the comment thread, and his explanation.)

If you have a camera that supports multiple exposure, you can eliminate a lot of noise (and logistical problems) from the frame by shooting the frame as a sequence of higher-shutter speed multi-exposure shots.

But you'd need a shutter cord and a third remote (or a helper and a tripod) to do that. You can see how to do the channel-hopping relay mode here.

If you wanna go multi exposure, you can do it with no remotes at all. Just open that shutter and start running. I've pulled together a few ideas to help your photo, and save some work in post production.
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• Wear dark clothing. Nice to have a dark hoodie, too, just in case you do not have one of those face-hiding ninja masks lying around.


• Snoot the flash just a teensy bit. You still want a nice, wide beam, so just do a half-inch or so. Black gaffer's tape works great. But that little ridge will help avoid blowback in the exposure, which can light you up if you have limbs visible to the camera.


• Mount a very dim light source close to the vertical axis of the lens at the camera. Maybe an LED flashlight, aimed up, mounted to the hot shoe. This will let you know when the tree is hiding you (and your flash) from the camera very precisely as you walk around in the background.


• Consider varying your distance from behind the trees as you pop each flash shot. You can throw light a long distance, and light up big chunks of your background that way. Be sure to crank up the power some (adjust with a few test shots) to account for the increased flash-to-blocking-tree distance. And multiple pops could be your friend here, too.


• If you aim the flash up a little (or a lot) you'll light the leaves in the trees better. Especially in the background, where more height from the trees will be visible to catch the light. This will also avoid the hot spot being visible at your feet.


• Remember that the light behind the far trees acts as a nice rim for the nearer trees, so take that light-to-subject distance into account when planning how far back to get behind the rear light pops. (Remember L102 Position -- evenness increases with distance.)


• Watch your ambient lights, to keep from tracking. Gaffer tape everything that would give off light while you are busy walking around in your frame. Your flash ready light and info panel backlight need to go dark. Ditto anything else that might be glowing or blinking, like a Pocket Wizard status LED.
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If you are gonna try this on your own, tag your shot "strobist" and "backlitforest" (the latter is all one word) so we can see all of them at once by clicking here. I am thinking of trying one myself, and it might be fun to revisit in a future post.

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

I'm up in NYC, gearing up for tomorrow's lighting seminar and Sunday's "Shoot! The Day" classes. But there's still time for a fresh batch of speedlinks!


• Thomas Graves has an excellent real-world review of the RadioPoppers at Light-Shoot-Print.

• Remember Joey Lawrence? He's been in Moldova, shooting cats the King of the Gypsies and has a video which includes the lighting setup. That kid is something. Eighteen frickin' years old and never home.

(Warning: The audio is NSFW, and the video is NSF cat lovers...)

• My friend Kevin Coloton is doing foot race finishes with a quad-speedlight setup, shooting motor sequences on 1/16th power. Knowing some of you are into this, I wanted to point you to his team's blog post -- complete with pix, a diagram and video.

• Chris Claborne has posted a review of the brand new AlienBees CyberSyncs in the Strobist Flickr threads.

• Back in the late 70's and early 80's I spent a lot of times in some, uh, pretty creative darkrooms. And I saw more than one photographer printing on grass. But never like this...

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

Jerry Courvoisier is a good guy. He’s also a terrific shooter, a great Photoshop/Lightroom guy, and a gifted teacher. I love to teach with him cause he’s down to earth and easygoing about everything. We get along, in short. We often teach the National Geographic Expeditions workshop courses offered via the Santa Fe Workshops, and it’s always fun, even when he gets the entire class to pick up buckeyes in the park and pitch them at me when I start a lecture. When we teach an NGS class in Santa Fe for instance, we often assign the class to go to the town square and be adventurous with their camera. We go to one of the benches in the square and sit there, ostensibly to be a resource to the class, but in truth we just talk and toot, doing our own version of Grumpy Old Men.

But boy, did he screw up. Last time I was in Santa Fe, he proposed a bet. We calculate our weight (vetted by our wives, who are scrupulous and honest about this stuff, something Jerry and I would never be) and whoever lost more weight by the time I got back to SF wins. Loser buys dinner at Geronimo, a really tony restaurant on Canyon Road, the heart of the gallery district, a street where a lot of rich folks go to buy really bad art.

I arrive in Santa Fe on Saturday, and man, is he in trouble.

Jerry sent me an email after we made the bet, noting his weight, again, with Julie’s stamp of approval. He evidently has got one of these fancy pants scales at home cause he sent his weight (won’t tell you exactly, but it was north of a deuce), his body mass indicator, his muscle to fat ratio, his shoe size, his favorite cologne, and whether he wears boxers or briefs. This machine calculates all that stuff in one shot. We ain’t got one of those, so Annie and I jumped in the car and headed out on Interstate 95, where Annie pulled off at an inspection station and threw my sorry ass on a truck scale, where I clocked out at an eye popping 211.

Jeez. Who knew. I fell off the gym wagon about 3 years ago, when work kinda sorta took over my life. I got real busy, and real lazy, at the same time. Another unfortunate trend intersected with this development. I tied on the feed bag, big time. There wasn’t a plate of pasta out there I didn’t like, from straight up spaghetti with meatballs to expense account truffle ravioli soaked in squid urine. Not good. I was like a hot air balloon, and 211 wasn’t even my low/high point. I remember after one really bad, excruciating job consoling myself with a beer and a Baby Watson cheesecake. I topped out at 215.

Leave it to Jerry to motivate me. (Geronimo is a really expensive restaurant, and their truffle ravioli in squid pee is excellent.) I’ve been working my ass off, kinda the way I used to. I figure this is a good time to attack, cause I know Jerry’s been working on this book he can’t talk about much, but it will be all about post production, workflow, digital asset management, you name it. Given the depth of his knowledge of these areas, it’s gonna be one of those go-to, gotta-have books that will stay by your computer for a long time. Pretty sure it’s out very soon, like this summer. Track it and sign up now, is my advice.

So I gotta figure Jerry’s been up at night, stressing about this book, writing actions and workflow plans and scarfing Freihoffer’s. Too bad for him, cause I’ve lost 25 pounds, and I’m around 190, cruising for 180. Annie’s been helping, cause she’s super healthy, and a great cook. She’s been preparing all this stuff that probably lives on the underside of mushrooms but tastes like a Delmonico steak the way she spices it. (How does a man get this lucky?) Jerry will get off easy at Geronimo’s though, cause I pretty much consume only rainwater, bark and sprouts now.

Poor Jer. i think he proposed the bet to get back at me cause when we teach together I demonstrate flash by using his head as a fill card. He never gets ruffled, though. That’s why it’s great teaching with him. I always say, he’s got good bedside manner. We’ll have a workshop participant positively melting down, I mean just spritzing about some thing or another, like I lost my files, or where did my pictures go, or I turned on my computer and it’s making a noise like a thirty horsepower milking machine, and I’m ready to go for the defibillator and shout CLEAR! when Jerry walks up and says okay, well, let’s take a look, maybe you have them behind that other file on your desktop, the one with the pictures of the family trip to Niagara Falls and those other almost certainly personal pictures, and, ahh, there they are, underneath everything, just around the corner and down the hallway inside this monster Dell that causes a brownout in most of Santa Fe every time you turn it on. There they are!

He’s calm, in word. Knowledgeable. Along with Reid Callanan and Renie Haiduk, he’s helped build Santa Fe into a powerhouse workshop center, especially in the realm of digital and workflow. It’ll be good to see him. All 200 plus pounds of him.

Phoenix-based shooter Blair Bunting must have been asleep the day they taught the classic portrait lighting styles in school. Either that, or he skipped right past "Rembrandt" and went straight to "Badass."

Bunting is part of a movement of a high-def lighting style that is especially well-suited to subjects like athletes, rock musicians, MMA fighters, assassins, orcs, etc.

Keep reading for full lighting diagrams (hint: lots of sources) and some Q&A on Bunting's techniques and lighting philosophy.
________


The first thing to consider when sculpting light like this is to leave some shadow. The light's edge is defined by shadow, which is what creates the form. The other thing to remember is that the intensity of the surface of the subject also is revealed by specular highlights. And each light source is going to create a specular of some kind.

Placing lights where you want them -- and keeping them away from where you do not -- is the balance you need to strike to make this kind of photo.

To get an idea of what it took to create this look for a portrait of Arizona State running back Keegan Herring, check out the top-view and front-view lighting diagrams, below.


Top View



Looking at this angle, you can see that Herring is lit from just about everywhere except the lens axis. This is what makes the lights define him in such a cool way. Again, you have to leave shadow to get form.

But each of those lights his the subject on a glancing blow, with respect to the lens axis, and that is what creates the cool highlights.

Lotta lights? Yeah. It's pretty much walking into a camera store and asking for two of everything they have. But it is a look. And it's a look that will make a college sports information department do the Happy Dance and call you back year after year. Just like they do for Bunting.


Front View


To look at the top view, you'd think Herring is inside of a cylinder of light, but that does not take into account the varying heights of the light sources, which in this way creates yet more sculpting with shadows.

From this angle, you should really start to see the light coming together.

Height-wise, the strips and small square boxes are doing the heavy lifting, lighting the body and face. But it is the beauty dish (don't call it that in front of Herring) grids and reflector that create the edge everywhere.

"Yeah, yeah," you say. "It's really all done in post. Ten minutes of shooting and two days of Photoshop."


Yeah, well, maybe not so much as you think. In fact, Blair was kind enough to release a raw photo, seen at left, which shows you just how close he gets with light.

From there, it's pretty quick and basic in Photoshop. It always helps to start with the best file possible. And the closer you can get in the camera, they better. That said, Bunting notes that he tends to think of light as expression, rather than as a process. He said he uses light to create opinion and emotion.

He gets the "what light is best?" question a lot, to which he responds:

"Buy what you can afford. The reasoning behind my answer is that I am of firm belief that practice is more significant than any brand name. I have been fortunate enough to use numerous different brands of lights, hot and cold, small and large."

As for tools vs. vision, he says, "I fall into a rhythm where my tools give way to my vision and my eye produces what my mind wants to see. Be it Profotos, Alien Bees, or SB-800's, one can create with all of these."

He particularly worries for the beginning photographer who finds his or her approach inferior to a photographer using more expensive lights. He feels that mindset is a dangerous mental handicap, and wishes it on no one.

Where does he get his inspiration? You might be surprised:

"Often times I find that the music I listen to can determine my lighting approach more than anything else. With my eyes closed, a glass of wine, and a powerful score (or any song that drives you within for that matter) I sit and think of light not as this invisible substance, but a tangible entity."

He goes on:

"Mentally I observe it like wind and smoke and try to imagine how it should form my subject. This is particularly practical when shooting cars as many people hit a road block with the reflectivity of metal."

Bunting also thinks of light as water, using analogies of hard vs. soft, narrow vs. wide beams and hot vs. cold. It's an organic way of describing light that I had never considered, but it has me thinking.

He advises photographers to consider, and learn, the power of a single light source. Know what a single, silver umbrella can do for your subject, and to respect light.

Lest this all get too philosophical, I hit him up with some specific questions:



Q and A

1. The lighting design for the football player is killer. How did you evolve this particular lighting style? Were you influenced by video games? Movies? Other shooters?

Oddly enough, this one was music and visualizing for endless hours. I lived with my Ipod in and would skip lunches to plan (this shoot had 10 shots to be done in 2 hours). For this one in particular I listened to everything from the Gladiator theme (“The Battle” by Hans Zimmer) to death metal.

The idea was to make the scariest person imaginable. So the lighting was based off of discomfort, a lot of lights, a lot of speculars, a lot of chaos. The idea of the lighting came from the countless movies where you can barely see the person, rather an outline; in this case I wanted it carried a bit further with his eyes.


2. Do you find you get hired to do a certain look? Do you feel you still have creative freedom?

I have been especially fortunate in this area. It is often that I get booked by clients that have someone of a concept and want my style to carry it, which in turn lends a great deal of creative freedom my way. Other times I will be booked by a client that maybe wants a less moody image, but still wants my view brought into the shot, either way the freedom is there.

The downside is sometimes all I want to do is think about lighting and would give anything for a set in stone storyboard where I came in, followed directions, lit, shot and went home.


3. That's, um, a lot of light sources. Typically a shooter would not start out with an arsenal like that. What kind of approach were you using when you had fewer lights?

I am a huge fan of shooting one source, and often have usually with one silver umbrella. Another way I saw lighting (when using fewer sources) was making sure that the eye saw a comfortable single direction in the photo, and from there countering that source with a fill to keep the contrast ratio down.


4. Given that many watt-second deployed against a single player, how do you adapt that look to larger subjects -- say, an offensive line?

This is sometimes a task, in all honesty. The football player need a lot of light since the shot was done with a digital medium format system, which requires more than a 35mm.

I will usually try and bring larger packs (preference going to the Profoto D4 4800). However, there are just times when there are not enough lights and the budget isn’t open enough to bring in 20 or 30 heads. (DH note: 20 or 30?!?) In this case I improvise and try to visualize the scene with a single light source and take small steps building off that to a minimalist approach.

5. Is heavy post production an important part of this look? If so, how close do you get with the light and how much needs to be done in post?

In all reality I am not that savvy with Photoshop. Because of this lighting has to be perfect. I have seen guys take snapshots of cars and make them look like a studio shot. I respect this approach, but it’s just not mine and is dangerous if an AD is on set and wants to visualize a shot for placement. Much of the work I do looks extremely close to what is seen in the LCD on set with added contrast, polishing and sharpening. I have included the jpeg for the football player shot for reference as a file that has not seen Photoshop.
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Blair posted a brief video vignette from other parts of this same shoot to YouTube:



Thanks much to Blair for giving us an inside look at both his lighting techniques and philosophy. To see more of Blair's work -- or to hire him -- visit his website.

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

An email from Enlight Photo dropped into my box tonight with some fresh detail on the upcoming Orbis Ring Flash adapter. It's similar in function (if not design) to the Ray Flash adapter, with some key differences:

• The flash is mounted off-camera, similar to many of the DIY designs we have seen.

• From the light source reflections in some of the test shots on the updated website, it appears to be a little softer (bigger) light source than the Ray Flash.

• Price is said to be "under $200".

• No word on efficiency, relative to direct flash. (Ray Flash is minus just one stop compared to direct flash.)


More info, email list sign up, pre-sale info, etc. -- here.

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Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

To everyone who read last week’s blog, and to those who have commented so graciously. As I mentioned, the greatest reward of doing that project has been meeting a very special group of people, and the lasting friendships that have resulted.

Lots of folks asked about contributions. I mentioned Ellen Price, who is the curator, and she can be reached at epriceinc@earthlink.net. She has worked incredibly hard at keeping the pictures on people’s minds, and putting it forward, especially to the folks making decisions down at the Memorial Museum. She also has obtained NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) status for the collection. If you email her, she can give you a link to the Foundation. Any funds accrued there would go to the care and feeding of the pictures. No money comes to my studio. For me, for now, thanks to the partnership at Adorama, the collection and the storage will remain stable for some time to come. Hoping of course, that they actually start building the memorial, which is an emotionally charged, tortuous process. Getting everybody on the same page in NY is a long haul, to be sure.

SIXTIETH AT 5.6? OLD HABITS DIE HARD!

The above pix from the bad old days in NY, when I started at the New York Daily News….

Dudley and a couple folks were inquiring on Flickr about recent settings I used in a Kelby Training Video, specifically using 1/60th @ f5.6 as a kind of middle of the road starting point. Speculation was that using a sixtieth could introduce camera shake, and why wouldn’t I go to a higher sync? I think that was kind of the basis of the thread.

There was some further thinking along the lines that I’m an old newspaper dog, and that’s what I grew up with, and…they’re right. Youse guys got it knocked! Sixtieth used to be top end for shutter sync when I first took a camera in my hands. Old habits die hard, what can I say? I’ve always felt comfortable there, hand holding a camera when using flash, especially when I am dominating the exposure with that flash. (Pretty much figure I could throw the camera in the air at a sixtieth with flash and come away with something sharp. Come to think of it, most of my better pictures were made that way:-)

There’s more of course, just a bit of personal history. The Daily News was a real union shop. You went from being a boy on the newsroom floor, a copy boy, specifically, to being a boy in the studio, as what they called a studio apprentice. You weren’t a man until you went on the street as a shooter. Apprentices would do jobs like maintain the Versamats (70’s style processors, sort of like throwing your film into a wood chipper), captioning, filing, all the boring studio stuff. I was running the machines one day and the “Inquiring Photographer” came in with his roll of 20 exposure Tri-x. He was the guy who would ask people questions on the street, like, nowadays it might be, “How do you feel about the Governor playing grab ass with high priced call girls while running the business of the state?” He would write down their comments, take their head shot, and that was that. He had been doing this for, oh, about 75 years.

So he gives me the roll, and I stuff it into the machine, and it comes out blank. (That wasn’t an uncommon result for some of the guys at the News.) I brought it to him and he naturally blamed me, and started ranting and raving. “What did you do to my film?!!” I told him there had to be a problem with his camera, or he had made a mistake. He looked at me and said he couldn’t have made a mistake, he had shot it at a sixtieth @ 5.6!

And then it dawned on me. This guy had been on the streets for a major metro daily for years, and he thought the entire world was set at 1/60th @ f5.6. Okey dokey! That’s what I thought, too!

As boys back in the studio, we never took any of this shit particularly seriously. We would just roll our eyes, and try to have some fun. Passing the time could include inserting old style flash bulbs into the sockets of the boss’ office desk lamp, or tormenting some of the more colorful members of the staff. DJ was still on the street back then, even though his eyes were fading. He was a true NY original, and a dirty old man. Vain to a fault, he also wore a wig. This presented possibilities.

John Roca, still a terrific shooter, still at the News, and I got a small picture out of a girly magazine and taped it to the work desk just below the air intake for the pneumatic tubes that would powerfully suck the plexi containers filled with deadline pictures out to the photo desk. It made a big hissing sound, and you would insert the container, and with a big Thwock! it shot out to editors in the massive newsroom.

The picture was small, as I say, and taped down. Yo, D! Hey take a look at this! He can’t see shit of course until he bends his head over about 6 inches from the image of this young lady, and thus right in the firing line of the tube. BOOM! Roca and I hit the switch. This hairpiece just lifted right off Danny’s head and started traveling to the news room when, Danny managed to slap the top of his head and catch a couple of strands. Those strands held, and he hung onto his rug. All for the best, really, cause out in the newsroom they were waiting on page one, and not a wig to come flying out of the tube.

Anyway, I sort of have this background emotional attachment to that f-stop/shutter combo. Silly, really. I do embrace the faster syncs we have now, for sure. One of the most powerful tools in our bags. Gives us enormous control over difficult lighting situations and moving subjects. Another thing that I should really let go of, is the fact that in the days of radio triggers not being anywhere near as sophisticated as they are now, there was always a danger of clipping the radio signal at higher shutters. For instance, at SI, historically, whenever we would light a court or an arena, we used to drop a hard wire out of the ceiling (they might still do it as backup, dunno) so we could hard sync via zip wire to the Speedos in the rafters. Using a radio to trigger at 250th would often fail, cause the signal would have to travel too far to the packs, and by the time they triggered, your shutter would be closed. Never a problem in the studio, cause the radio signal doesn’t have to go far, but that sort of history lingers in my head, so I’m cautious, I guess you would say.

K-MAN ON THE STREETS OF NY……

Friday night in the meat district…..SB900 on the background, SB200 for the portrait. What is this man doing? More tk.

UPDATE: I asked for a little clarification on the means of off-camera flash trigger allowed for the contest and got the following answer: ANYTHING. That means, PW's, Ebay remotes, sync cords (ironically), Nikon CLS, Canon eTTL, voice-activated test-button-pusher during a time exposure -- ANYTHING.

Yeah, I'm pretty much thinking that headline got your attention. It's Christmas in July, baby, and Santa is bringing the Plus II's. Keep reading after the jump for all of the details...

Flash back a coupla months ago, when the folks at PocketWizard check in to say how much they like what's been going on with this group, and want to know what they could do to help keep the party rolling.

"Weeeell," I suggested, "You could always buy us some beer give away some PW Plus II's to the readers. I'm sure they would like that."

And they're like, "Okay, cool."

And I'm like, "Really?"

And they're like, "Really."

So Strobist and PocketWizard are teaming up to do just that. If you did not know already, there is actually a PocketWIzard blog. And it's not one of those stuffed-shirt corporate weenie blogs, either -- they are having some fun with it. They just ran an SI Swimsuit Issue body painting video, for instance.

(Hey, it's legit. Some of those photos were shot with PWs. Right? Right?)

But they've been watching your Strobist videos, too. And even without the benefit of (technically nekkid) supermodels, they like 'em. In fact, they're looking to feature some of 'em up on the PW blog. So they want to prime the pump more wireless flash videos to show off the cool stuff they are doing and help to educate other shooters.

(As if you guys needed any more encouragement...)


Basically, they are looking for wireless flash how-to -- and show-off -- videos on YouTube. Doesn't even have to be PocketWizard-branded remotes. Just cool stuff done with wireless flash. So you "Poverty Wizard" folks who have been pining for a set of Plus II's might get to shoot your way to a free pair.

Heck, they don't even have to be videos -- still-photo slide shows with voiceovers are eligible, too. Fair warning, you'll probably have to be pretty creative to win one of the sets. But what the heck, you may as well try. You have several chances to win -- the monthly contest runs through November.

To enter, your video needs to be tagged "pocketwizardstrobist" (one word). That's it. Pre-existing videos can be entered simply by adding the tag. (Not yet, Bert, at least finish reading this post first.)


Rules, from PocketWizard:
Once a month, free pair of PW Plus II will be awarded to the best video on YouTube of a photo shoot detailing creative use of wireless triggering. Video can be live video or, a series of still photos with voiceover and clear explanation of how wireless triggering was used.

Creativity with wireless triggering is key to this contest. Show us your best, most creative use of going wireless with radio triggering. And detail, detail, detail! Explain your setup well so everyone can understand what it took to make your vision come alive.

All videos must be tagged "pocketwizardstrobist" to qualify. The judging panel will be David Hobby of Strobist and Phil Bradon from PocketWizard. Awarded PocketWizards will have frequencies appropriate to the winner's location, if winner is in a country other than the US.

In addition, photos may also uploaded to Flickr tagged "pocketwizardstrobist" with link to the YouTube video in the description.

The contest runs mid-July through end of November. Winners will be announced on the 15th of each following month, beginning in August.

That's all there is to it. Good luck!
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RELATED:

:: PocketWizard Contest Details ::
:: PocketWizard Blog ::
:: PW Plus II Product Page ::
:: YouTube PocketWizardStrobist-Tagged Videos ::

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

Like Platon, photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders does most all of his portraiture with one, soft light. So he's an especially good person to learn from if you are still waiting to snag that second flash.

Greenfield-Sanders has made a career out of shooting elegant portraits of people, lit simply but beautifully with one light source. He also uses large format cameras for their extreme detail and lush tonal range. This consistent setup allows him to spend his time exploring expression, detail and subtle subject/photographer interactions.

This Ovation TV excerpt gives a little look into how he works, and how he approaches his interaction with subjects. Hit the jump for links and two more videos: One from a Fashion Week project, and the second a li'l sump'm-sump'm for the laydies...


(Briefly NSFW-ish)







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Related: Sanders' website

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

It's on the sidebar, about halfway down. Starting with the usual suspects, with more to come soon. Stay tuned.

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Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

First off, I just want to thank everyone for the overwhelmingly great response to Joe’s post yesterday.  It’s always great to see a community of people (no matter how far apart we are from one another) join together for a singular cause.

I also want to thank Adorama once again for their gracious support of both Joe and the Faces of Ground Zero project.  Can’t say enough about how great you folks are!

I want to take a second and point out a new addition to the blog for those of you who may not have noticed it… The Equipment Page!  As you’ll see, this is a complete listing of the equipment that Joe uses.  Believe me, it’s as much stuff as it seems.  Even more since we have multiples of a lot of those items.  When we load up the Suburban to go to a shoot, it’s filled from top to bottom and front to back.  Joe and I usually have enough room left for ourselves and a couple of coffees (or lattes, if it’s a highfalutin’ gig!)

For those of you who get the blog in an email or reader, you’ll always find a link to the equipment page at the end of the post, just above all of the “sharing” links.  For those who visit the blog directly, you’ll find a link on the sidebar, along with the link at the end of each post.  Depending on what Joe is talking about (and what kind of mood he’s in), he’ll put specific gear links directly in the post as well (i.e. “So I sparked the fnugy with a pepper, then had him re-adjust the c-stand with the Elinchrom Octa, which produced a beautiful quality of light.”)

To be honest, this is something we’ve had in mind for a while, but just now got around to doing.  I would say that the number one question we get when Joe teaches is some variation of either, “What’s that?” or,”Who makes this?”  Now we can tell them, then point them to this page in case they forget!

And, if I may take a second to make a shameless plug, I would like to point out that I too have a blog.  I’m not as consistent as Joe, but I try to share nuggets of assistant-wisdom when I can.  Be on the lookout for continued stories in my “Mistakes” series, including a multiple-part saga that occurred at the beginning of my stint with Joe.  Part of it involves me in a Mexican ER at 1 a.m. the night before the Baja 1000 (my mom loved getting that text message in the middle of the night!)

Seriously, thanks again to everyone for all of your support.  And, in keeping with Joe’s ending, more tk…

Back in the day, when the earth was still cooling and dinosaurs still roamed the plains, film-shooting photogs used to have to proof on Polaroid backs. Wasn't cheap, or convenient: $2.00 a pop, and two minutes to pull a print.

That doesn't sound too bad until you realize how fast light can change at, say, golden hour.

I was talking today with Grayson Schaffer, an associate editor with Outside Magazine, and the subject of shooting film came up.

He surprised me by telling me that about 20-25% of their photographers still use film. Then he told me that many of the film shooters carry a Canon G9 to use as a Polaroid back.

Makes perfect sense: It has a wide range of lenses built in, can go full manual with aperture and shutter and has a PW-friendly hot shoe. Plus there's that big, juicy screen on the back.

Grayson said the photogs shoot piggyback with the G9, which shows them what they are getting on their (usually) 120 format film. This is especially important when lighting a photo. Seriously, how would you like to shoot film and go without that little helper on the back of your DSLR for a while?

(Me, either.)

Plus, they can email the digital "Polaroids" to the magazine while they are still on assignment, to let them know what's coming. Cool beans. Gotta tell you, the conversation gave me thoughts of dusting off the old Hassy.

I know we have some folks who still shoot film on this site. Any of you using a G9 (or similar camera) as a proofing back for the analog camera? Tell us how it's working for you, accuracy-wise, in the comments.

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Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

UPDATE: Lots of interesting views in the comments, and PhotoShelter has now responded.

Seeing how many of you have photos on Flickr, this is gonna be a topic of conversation around here.

We have one of the largest groups on Flickr, and the quality is such that the photos in the Flickr Strobist group regularly make explore. So this is definitely gonna be relevant.

Main points:

1. They come to you, based on your photos. Not everyone will be involved.
2. It's an "opt in" thing. You do not have to participate.

Full official FAQ, links and your comments, after the jump.
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Flickr/Getty FAQ

What is being announced?

Getty Images and Flickr are announcing an exclusive partnership that allows Getty Images to invite Flickr members to participate in a Flickr branded collection on www.gettyimages.com that will be available for licensing to Getty Images’ creative and editorial customers in the coming months.


How does this benefit my customer?

We know that our customers were already going to Flickr for inspiration and they often would try to license images. This partnership allows them to more easily find the images that are commercially viable, and then to license them with confidence.

It also means customers will have access to even more fresh, authentic and regionally relevant content that expands our best-in-class imagery offering.


Are all images on Flickr going to be in the collection?

No. At launch (which is scheduled for later this year), we will have tens of thousands of high-quality images available for commercial licensing on Getty Images. Our goal is to make thousands more available over time. Getty Images editors will select the most marketable Flickr images and create a Flickr Collection for customers to license at www.gettyimages.com. They’ll select images for the Flickr collection according to Getty Images’ unique understanding of what our customers need, using insights gained from the creative research processes developed by Getty Images. Photographers will have the option to take part, or not.

The images selected will be cleared with their Flickr copyright owners, so that they are ready for license on gettyimages.com.

Their prices will vary, depending on the licensing model assigned to each image and each customer’s intended use.


What license model will the images be under?

At launch, the edited collection of Flickr images will be available to Getty Images customers through the Flickr branded collection on gettyimages.com – which will span across all three licensing models – rights managed, rights ready and royalty free. Prices will vary, depending on the license model, but the pricing will be similar to other RM, RR and RF imagery at gettyimages.com.


When will the collection be available?

The collection will be available to customers in the coming months (it is not available right now). Prices will vary, depending on license model, but the pricing will be similar to other RF, RR and RM imagery at gettyimages.com.


Will customers be able to find the selected images available for license on Flickr?

A “license this image on gettyimages.com” button or function will be enabled on Flickr for images included in the Flickr collection, to enable Flickr visitors to license such Flickr images through Getty Images.


Can Flickr photographers distribute the images they have on Getty Images through any other distributor, or is this an exclusive deal?

This is an image-exclusive deal. If a Flickr photographer decides to have an image distributed through www.gettyimages.com, they cannot distribute that particular image, or any similar image, through any other site. They may, however, choose to distribute other images anywhere else.


Does this deal mean that our customers can legally use images from Flickr?

Yes. When the Flickr collection launches on www.gettyimages.com, customers can be confident in the rights and clearances of any Flickr image licensed by Getty Images.


What customer segment does this deal address?

All of Getty Images’ customer segments: media, agency and corporate.


What is the goal of the Flickr collection on gettyimages.com?

This partnership represents the continued innovation that moves the industry forward to meet the changing needs of Getty Images customers. This relationship offers a responsible way to bridge the world of Flickr’s photo-enthusiasts with traditional photography, offering a customer experience that is different than microstock. Getty Images customers will have even more fresh, diverse and regionally relevant imagery to use for their communications projects, with confidence.


What does the deal mean for each company?

Getty Images will have an exclusive partnership with Flickr to source and license select, potentially marketable photos discovered on Flickr for Getty Images’ creative, commercial and editorial customers.

For Flickr, this partnership gives members a potential entry into the world of stock photography, leveraging Getty Images’ strengths and expertise for their members’ benefit. The Flickr collection on Getty Images is a testimony to the photographers who have influenced the aesthetics of commercial photography with authentic, creative and personal images.

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More reading:

Previous Strobist Series: Flickr and You
Press Release
FAQ
Interview (PDN)
Discussion

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

Long blog. Apologies. This is a history that doesn’t sum up in a couple of grafs. What I am celebrating here is the resiliency of the photo community, and the welcome partnership of Adorama Camera here in NY. They have stepped up to help me shepherd a collection of pictures stemming from the events of 9/11, and we will collaborate via this blog, education and lectures. Please read on…..

Back in 2001, things weren’t great in the photo biz, I tell ya. It was heavy sledding, trying to get work, staying afloat, keeping the studio running. Little did I know that just around the corner the jalopy known as McNally Photography, a sleek machine with a couple of flats, transmission trouble and a top end of oh, about 22mph, was going to get bulldozed by this event called 9/11, which changed all of our lives, forever. Everything after that day became, “the new normal,” a phrase that grew out of just how thoroughly, absolutely, and irretrievably everything was now different.

Like many NY shooters, I had a love affair with those towers, those twin exclamation points at the end of Manhattan. They were in lots of my pix over the years.

In a moment of youthful exuberance, I actually climbed the antenna on the North Tower.

Then they were gone, replaced by this giant dust cloud of destruction that floated out and settled on all of our shoulders, hearts, minds and spirits. “What to do now?” was the oft repeated question. How to deal with the sadness, the rage, the confusion, the uncertainty? How to make a contribution? On some level, no matter how miniscule?

I’m a photographer. Pictures are what I have to offer. (It’s the only thing I really know how to do.) But I did not go to the streets, like so many of my colleagues. Quite a number of them were already at it, in heroic fashion. I could add very little to what they were doing. I stayed at home, hung with the kids a bit, and stewed. First time out with a camera after the day was to shoot Mike Piazza, then the Mets catcher. SI was doing a piece on how athletes played a role in lifting our hearts and minds.

In 2000, I was assigned to shoot pictures for a very small story (which was never published) on a unique photographic instrument called Moby C, which at the time lived on the lower East Side of NY. Moby after the whale, not the musician. (His birthday is Sept. 11th, l965, by the way. Sept. 11th is also my dad’s birthday, back in 1912.) This camera is the world’s only Giant Polaroid camera, invented at the behest of Dr. Land himself. It is the size of a one car garage. Its lens came from a U2 spy plane, according to legend. At f/45, you have about an inch of depth of field. You cannot focus the lens–you have to focus your subject by moving them back and forth in tiny increments. There is no shutter, you have to work camera obscura at the moment of exposure. I used about 25,000 watt seconds of strobe, mostly run through a 12×12 silk. The strobe system was wired to a Mamiya RZ 6×7 camera, bore sighted under the Polaroid lens. We would pose the subject, then wait for the interior workings of the Polaroid to spool up (there are two technicians inside the camera when you shoot, and they have to prepare things, like switch on a Black and Decker wet dry vac to suck the Polaroid film to the giant backplate of the camera). Then I would go dark in the studio, pull the cap of the Polaroid lens, fire the Mamiya and thus render an instantaneous dupe, one a huge positive, and the other a 6×7 transparency.

Huge indeed. What results after the exposure is a life sized image, 40″x 80″. You lay it out on the floor of the camera, wait 90 seconds (it’s the same Polaroid paper that comes in your over the counter cameras) and then peel the chemical backing off. There you have it.

I had convinced the elegant and easy going Jennifer Ringer, a principal with the NYC Ballet, to come and work with me during this first, experimental day with the camera. We made some nice, big pictures of her. (I was chuckling inside during this shoot, harking back to our old philosophy at LIFE magazine: “If ya can’t make ‘em good, make ‘em big and in color!”)

Made seven successful images that day, which is a lot of production for this behemoth of a camera, and found I had a bit of an affinity for working it. (Try anything once, right? Just have faith and remember the Lord looks after a fool.)

Hmmm. Things stick with you, right? A week after 9/11, I sent an email to the only guy I knew who had a bunch of cash and would give me a quick decision; the editorial director of Time Warner, John Huey. John’s basically an old Southern newspaper man who kind of looks at you sideways, lets you babble, and then tells you what he thinks. He’s smart as a whip, quick off the mark, and does not suffer fools or photographers gladly.

I sent him the email on a Thursday night. He gave me money for the project Monday morning. The pressure was on. He was taking a huge gamble with his company’s dough, $100,000, to be direct about it. He looked me in the eye and drawled, “Joe, you spend $20,000 and get me no pitchahs, that’s okay. You spend $100,000 and get me no pitchahs, we got a problem.” He kind of drew out the word, “prrroblem.” I gulped and left his office.

My notion was that this camera was made for people of stature, a heroic instrument, if you will. You have to literally stand for your portrait. You collect yourself in the dark, holding still, waiting for the strobe explosion. And then you are done. One shot. (90% of our subjects we did in one exposure. Each sheet of Polaroid cost $300. I dreaded blinkers.)

It became a document known as Faces of Ground Zero. It toured through seven stops, opening at Grand Central Station, and coming back to NY a year later. For the anniversary show they threw a huge tent over where they usually put the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. It was seen by lots of people. The Polaroids and the resultant book(s) helped the sponsors, Time Warner and Morgan Stanley, to donate close to $2 million dollars to the relief of downtown public education. In the tent at the Rock Center show, we sold about $40,000 worth of books in 3 weeks. All of it went to the downtown PTA’s.

It also acquainted me with an extraordinary group of people, many of whom I stay in touch with to this day.

Danny and Joanne Foley. The Foley’s are one of the most giving, decent, loving families I have ever met. A firefighting family. Danny promised his folks he would bring his brother, Tommy, home. Tommy was on Rescue 3, one of the first responders. Eight men were on that truck. None came back. Danny stood for this picture a few days after finding Tommy’s body. In the year after 9/11, he stepped up and took his brother’s place at Rescue 3, in the Bronx.

Joanne, about a year later, at the family farm, with Tommy’s cowboy hat.

Jan Demczur, a Polish window washer who scraped through 6 inches of sheet rock with his squeegee blade and thus saved the 4 people he was trapped in an elevator with. His squeegee is in the Smithsonian.

About a year after, Jan didn’t go outside much, and was living very quietly.

Mike Wernick, who survived the 93 bombing, and 9/11, now retired. His story of the day is powerful and moving. When he came into the Polaroid studio, the shock of it was still on his face.

Mike and his wife Nuri are one of the most loving couples I know. They survived that day quite simply because of that love. Together they run a motorcycle garage in Manhattan called Rising Wolf (one of the only bike garages in NY) and I managed to shoot this from the back of my assistant’s Jeep a couple years ago.

My good friend, Louie Cacchioli. Louie saved a lot of people that day by keeping his head and telling them to follow his light. Out on West St., running from the second collapse, he was overtaken by the cloud of ash and soot. Blinded by the smoke, he felt along the ground and stumbled onto a discarded oxygen mask. He clapped it to his face. He estimates he had about 30 seconds left.

Later that year, he looked at the skyline from the Staten Island ferry.

Years later, he posed for the prototype D3.

I always describe Louie as a firefighting Robert DeNiro. He tends to make women swoon. He’s retired now, and gives lectures and tours at the WTC site. He was the cover of the book (go figure) and it is one of the blessings of my life that having a camera in my hand enabled me to meet this man.

Joe Hodges. A veteran firefighter who could have easily retired after 9/11, but chose to stay on. “The older guys have to stick around and show the younger guys the way,” was how he put it.

Joe works now at at the Governor’s Island house, and I shot this on July 4th a couple of years ago.

I’ve always been convinced the project worked quite simply because it was photographs of a bunch of really, really good people. We had luck, to be sure. The camera never broke down. Good thing, as it really has no spare parts, and is finicky to work at best. Most guest shooters would make, maybe, 5 images or so (you rent the camera on a daily basis, at that time $2000 per day, plus $300 per sheet). There were days (and nights) we pulled over 40 images out the machine. It kept working.

So we kept working. Our last subject was Rudy Giuliani. He finally came on the last night. We were out of money, out of time. We shot 2 Polaroids of hizzoner, and closed the doors.

Things you don’t think about while you are in the throes of a project like this, are, what happens next? When the Rock Center show closed, I became the owner, lock, stock and metal framework, of about 10 tons of photography. (The framed pieces, which form the traveling core of the show, are 4′x9′ and weigh about 300 pounds.) They reside currently in museum quality, climate controlled storage in a warehouse in New Jersey.

That’s a lot of pictures.

That’s also a pretty sizable storage bill every month, which I have handled pretty much on my own for the last 7 years. Sometimes I just shrug and think of it as a second mortgage. Other times, when there has been no work and less grace in this business, it has veered close to breaking the studio. There have been nights I have woken up and simply thought, well, I’ll just get a permit from my buds in the fire department and set the whole thing ablaze and be done with it.

Together with Ellen Price (epriceinc@earthlink.net), who is the curator of the collection, and has worked more pro bono hours on its behalf than I can remember, we have plied the hallways of corporations and spoken to many about its survival as an important record of that time. Jan Ramirez, now the Chief Curator & Director of Collections at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, has been a champion of the collection since early on, when she was at the NY Historical Society. Along with Alice Greenwald, the Director of the Museum, they have issued a letter of intent to acquire, which has been a huge blessing. It means that sometime down the road, these pictures will find an appropriate home.

Many powerful people came and spoke powerful words while standing in front of these pictures in the days after 9/11. So powerful, they are not the kind that return the phone calls of a freelance photographer. No surprise there. (Or, I’m sure to any who have made their living over any period of time with a camera. I write occasionally to my alumni magazine at Syracuse, to the section which details the comings, goings and achievements of past graduates. I simply say, “After 35 years, Joe McNally is still jobless, and living around New York City.”) Funny, they’ve never published that.

This was impressed on me even further at the 5th Anniversary of 9/11. We staged the Polaroids again, this time at the NYC Fire Museum. We had no money… not a dime. We made entreaties, asked around as best we could. Nothing. I have a loose affiliation with Getty Pictures, so I wrote to my editor at the time, David Laidler, a good guy, who’s no longer there. Came back with a no. Alright. I’m nothing if not tenacious. I wrote again, more, shall we say, pointedly. Getty coughed up $10k. I chipped in five grand of my own dough, and we had enough to pull off a show.

The crates weigh about 2,000 pounds, and we had no funds for a forklift. So groups of off duty firefighters would come in shifts to pull and haul. I tried helping, but Keith Johnson of Ladder 6 just turned to me and said, “Joe, stay away from the crates. We’re firefighters. We’ve got lifetime disability. What happens if you throw your back out? You’re a freelance photographer. Nobody gives a shit about you.” True enough.

So, they sit now in crates, once again. I spoke recently at Adorama, and had a great, fun audience. I presented a few of the Ground Zero images. Memories of that time are still powerful. Jeff Snyder, who came to Adorama from Penn Camera, and I have been friends a long time. We started talking. He set up a meeting with the administration of the store, which was not held over a conference table the size of a football field on the 60th floor of a midtown tower. We sat in a small room over a camera store. It was like meeting the family. In fact, it was meeting the family. We shook hands. There were no lawyers, no contracts, no clauses with subsections 1 through 17, paragraphs D, E and F.

Adorama now is a partner in helping me keep this collection together and finding it a safe harbor. The people in these pictures trusted me with their images, thoughts and feelings in those tortuous days after 9/11. They made the effort to come to a camera that sounds strange, despite best efforts to describe it over the phone. They have formed their own, informal, emotionally connected community. I owe it to them to see this through. Adorama, will now help me do that.

There’s a reason they call it “the photo community.” Because it is.

Again, many thanks to Jeff Snyder, Monica Cipnic, and all the folks at Adorama.

In part one of the Night Chopper shoot, we talked about some of the problems that had to be overcome in preparation for an interior-lit, ground-to-air shot of a police helicopter.

Today, we are going to walk through the shoot itself, see what unexpected problems popped up and look at some of the edits from the take.
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Perry, the pilot, landed the helicopter in 50-acre field next to the Howard County Fairgrounds about 45 minutes before sunset. This ensured that we would have time to plan out shots and light the interior. After a quick flight around the area to get some interior pilot shots, we landed and began to set up the light for the main shoot.


As the ambient light started to drop down, I placed a single diffusion domed SB-800 in the rear cabin, clamped to the back seat and set on 1/8 power. You can see this light at camera right.

This would give me plenty of light in the rear of the aircraft. It's a bit of a location cheat, but it would give me omnidirectional light -- similar to a car's dome light. I lowered it because I was worried I would see the actual strobe in the photos if I didn't.

Quality-wise, this would have been fine (for the back) by itself, but I decided to stick a second strobe in the back as well -- on the armrest between the two rear facing seats. You can see this light at camera left. Both of these strobes were gelled with a 1/2 CTO for some added warmth, as was discussed in Part 1.

The reason for the second light is another layer of redundancy for the sync. It gets its own Pocket Wizard, which improves the odds that at least one of the flashes will fire. Remember, I only need one good reception and all of my flashes should fire, thanks to the SB-800s' built-in slaves.

Since I added a second light, I dropped them both to 1/16th power to bring the total output to a level equal to one strobe at 1/8 power.

At this point I was getting a little worried. It was just about time to shoot, and I still was not sure where to mount the front light. I needed three things: Low, hidden, and omnidirectional. Which meant using a diffusion dome on this one, too.

But the gauges were right where I needed the light to be, with no way to mount it. There was really no way to do it even with a Bogen Magic Arm. The problem was both the angle and a lack of a suitable mounting surface.

That's when Mark, the copilot, saved my butt: "I could hold it," he said.

Of course he could! Never even thought of that -- and likely would not have. But looking at Mark's seating position it quickly became obvious that he could hold the light in the exact place it needed to be, and move it if they needed to see the instruments.

This light was set on 1/32nd power, BTW, with a dome and a 1/2 CTB cooling gel. So even with the pilot catching a direct flash, the equivalent was somewhere around 1/256th power. Barely a wink. And at that point, Mark became what as far as I know was the world's first VAL-CP (voice activated light stand copilot.)


I quickly walked around front and chimped a few frames from closer to the actual shooting angle. Looked great -- we were good to go. I backed way up, shooting test frames as I went. We were golden, getting a 100% synching rate, even way back form the chopper.

We waited for the ambient light to drop down to our desired shutter speed range for good-looking rotors. (You can't just shoot those at a 250th, or they look silly -- frozen in mid-air.)

When the sky dropped a little more, they took off and we began shooting. At first, I was overexposing the sky a little, just to get a good rotor shutter speed. I could always fix that in post. No worries.

After two passes we realize that the front flash is not firing. Damn. Our ambient window is very tight, and now we have to land the chopper to see what is wrong. As it turns out, the front flash (hooked to an older PW) was likely not getting a radio signal and was relying on the slave.

That would have been fine, except that it turns out that Mark was holding the flash in such a way that his finger sealed off the light from reaching the little slave receiver window. That's not Mark's fault -- it's mine. Too many things on my mind, and I neglected to explain the importance of that little window.

So, the tech is working pretty well. It's the processor between my ears that is a little obsolete. But that is a quick fix and we are off again.


Now, as the ambient drops well into my range, I can vary my shutter speed to get different densities in the sky. Typical ambient balancing -- just like a sunset portrait. There is no right or wrong -- it's rather like BS'ing your way through a term paper in Comp 101. You decide what tone you want in the background and go with it.

Because I am shooting raw, it is easy to move that sky color around a little in post, too. Since the helicopter body is near black, it is a piece of cake to find a selection area where you can preserve the cockpit and shift the sky. Moving the color balance around gets you a wide selection of moods.

Mind you, I am shooting from the ground in this photo. Perry could buzz past with that nose way down, which gave the illusion that we were both in the air as long as I did not include a horizon for reference. He got it down so far on some runs that it looked like I was actually above the chopper. Visually, we had created a chase chopper for free. Sweet.

(Note to self: Next time, remember to bill the higher-ups for the second chopper and split the money with the pilot...)


As the sky dropped down, I switched to a 17-35/2.8 and tried to keep my shutter speed from going below 1/40th of a sec. The sky just continued to darken, so my exposures got richer. This just affected the sky, mind you, as the chopper's interior was lit by flash. And flash only cares about the aperture.

I could darken the sky by dropping my shutter, as I did in the photo above by going to 1/125th of a second. It as all happening pretty fast, but you still have a little time to experiment if you keep making frames. They are all gonna look pretty good -- just different. You don't really need 200 frames of the same look, right? Right?


For the last few frames they turned the spotlight on my car as they flew by. I would have loved to have something better in the foreground, but we were out of warm bodies. And we only got a couple of passes before the light went bye-bye.


Looking Back

I am very happy with the way this shoot turned out, especially being it is the first time trying something like this. Was it perfect? Nah. But I learned a lot, and the we came away with some cool photos.

Given a second opportunity I would like to think we could erase our screwup-induced delays and get maybe 3x the shooting time for the short ambient window. But I'm not complaining.

Next stop for photos in the HCPD: Tactical, I hope.

I have me some ideas. But that's for another day.
___________

Related:

:: Planning for this shot ::
:: Sunset portrait ::

More posts like this: On Assignment Index Page

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

UPDATE: Adds a second video, with lots more detail, after the jump.



I find myself completely mesmerized by Gregory Crewdson's photos. The light, the narrative, the light, the tension, the light -- well, you get the idea.

When you look at his photos, bear in mind that he puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like you do. Only then he spends the whole day taking over entire city blocks, directing his technical folks, manipulating casts of "figures" and, well, never actually "holding the camera," as he notes.

Gregory does not work "in a studio". He works "on a sound stage. He has a set designer, an art director, a lighting tech and, um, a director of photography. Who is not named Gregory.

But he sure does make facilitate some amazing photographs. This stuff in this video is just about the polar opposite from the low-impact, minimal gear ethic that is embraced by photographers who do not happen have access to, say, an entire town and James Cameron's lighting truck.

But the results always makes me think about how I could adapt some of his techniques to my dinky little SB's. (Note that the video is briefly NSFW, but in an artsy way.)

Second video, after the jump.


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More Crewdson photos here. (Some also NSFW.)

Further reading:

:: Gregory Crewdson: Beneath the Roses ::
:: Twilight: The Photographs of Gregory Crewdson ::

Special notice for Email/RSS subscribers: The second printing of the Strobist DVD Set is back in stock and shipping. (Announcement will go up on the main site next week.)

That’s what the 54 house calls themselves. They are unquestionably the most popular and photographed firehouse in NYC. Literally millions of tourists are spread around the world, at home, with pictures of this house and “the guys.” In terms of runs, they are the busiest fire company in all of NY.

The guys are incredibly patient and easygoing about the constant stream of pedestrian traffic that flows in front of their doors, and the resultant, endless requests for photos and a smile. They are a great bunch. I got to know a few of them right after 911. One of my friends is Rich Kane, the driver of 4 truck. Rich is a veteran firefighter, good guy, terrific photog, and resident firehouse sex symbol. Mike Corrado of Nikon is also his good friend (they shoot a lot of sports together). So a few weeks ago, Mike, Rich, Brad and I got 4 truck together with a D700.

Strategy wise, it’s good to do this with a ladder truck and not an engine, cause as you will see, the up top ladder gives you a base of operations and a sturdy, extended platform to hang your rig off of. The gear needed to do this:

4 Bogen Magic Arms, each with 2 Bogen Super Clamps; 1 heavy duty Gitzo monopod; 1 SC-29 cord; 1 D700, 1 14-24mm f2.8; SU-800 trigger; 3 SB800 flashes; Justin Clamps; gaffer tape; gels; ball head; metal cable lanyards; zip ties; Pocket Wizards. (Couple notes later about ball head and PWs.)

Okay. Get what you figure will be the main light positioned first. That pretty much is standard placement, something on the dashboard, affixed with a Justin Clamp, and a warming gel. The flash from here, muted and adjusted properly, simulates instrument panel glow, at least in theory, though these shots have been done so often, everybody knows a strobe is down there. Okay, first result.

Would you let this man drive a fire truck? Hmmm….

Okay, one light is not enough. The cab of the that truck is large, and black. More punch is called for, or the driver will look like Dracula on a high speed run to the blood bank.

Had the notion I could maybe hide a light behind and somewhat obstructing the rear view (which is okay, given the way Richie drives:-). This light got a heavy red gel, and then some gaffer tape treatment, and a series of zip ties to make sure it didn’t go missing during a run.

All the while, you have to finesse camera placement and angle. I’m racked out to 14 mil on the zoom and the camera is upside down for convenience sake. (Hey, it don’t know.)

First few tests showed we had to bury a third light in the cab, filling the passenger side just a touch. Again, trying to avoid the big black hole in the photo type of deal. But, the system is running CLS/TTL so the 3 receivers have to see the impulse from the SU800. We hot shoed it–no go. This is where the SC29 is invaluable. Pop the SU trigger onto the 29 cable and hook it to the camera, then run that puppy out along the monopod, lock it into place with another Bogen Super Clamp, and boom, the strobes see the signal and you still have full wireless TTL. I could have locked the strobes into SU-4 mode and popped ‘em with PWs, but then I’ve got 3 units to ratio manually, and I’m crawling all over the truck, sometimes in the street off a run. Rather play with the values from one source, the SU800, and program strobe punch from there. It’s talking to the camera, and vice versa, so there will be a natural variation to the feel of the light as the truck zooms from light to dark areas of the street.

The camera’s out there, right? I’m pretty nervous, cause NYC streets ain’t exactly the autobahn. More like a donkey cart trail. Lots of bumps. But then I relax. It’s Corrado’s camera! I use the Manfrotto Hydrostatic Ball heads pretty religiously, but opted here for the Really Right Stuff system, cause I was unsure of whether I would go horizontal or vertical, and the RRS L bracket seemed to make sense. Mistake. (It’s the little things you don’t think of , ya know?) The L bracket I had for my D3 didn’t configure to the bottom of the D700. Man I had to give that set screw a pretty good, well, screwing, to get it to lock and then it was still kinda fragile looking and cattywampus. That’s where more zip ties and cable lanyards came in. I didn’t want the camera disappearing under the wheels of the rig, or, worse, flying through Richie’s windshield. (In the interests of safety and given the fact this was a live fire vehicle, Mike, Richie and I rehearsed getting the clamps and the monopod off the ladders. We got it down to about 30 seconds, within limits in case of a call.)

I tell ya something that saved me. The big LCD in the back of the D700. I had to check angle and exposure periodically, out in the street, and looking at a small, dark monitor whilst standing on the bumper and arching backwards hanging onto the wiper blade of the truck would have made for a long night. Also, perfect type of shot for full frame. Nuff said.

If you notice the background to some of these production pix, you’ll see it is a memorial. Engine 54/Ladder 4/Battalion 9 lost 15 men on 911. It was a rough time. Firehouses are resilient places, though. They bounce back. Lots of banter. They hang together and love each other like brothers, and just like brothers, cut no slack and take no prisoners when it comes to dishing out grief. If you are short, or bald, or have a big nose, and maybe are packing a few extra pounds, it’s well, noted. The operative phrase here is, “Don’t limp.”

Especially true for probie firefighters, who join the house and have to jump to for everything during the course of their probation. One of the things I did that night for the house was shoot new head shots for a bunch of the guys. We had a recent addition to the house in front of my lens, and see the shadowy figure in the background, high on the truck, bucket in hand? It is called, no mystery here, “bucketing.”

He smelled the prank and stayed dry. But a firehouse is not for the faint of heart, or the easily damaged. Guys will be guys. A veteran of the department I know pretty well used to go fishing to pass the time. To do this he would affix a dollar bill to a well worn wallet and attach the wallet to fishing line, crack the firehouse door, slip it out on the sidewalk and see what he could reel in. Most folks got a laugh and appreciated the joke, though he did say there were some interesting reactions when he did this at a house right next door to a methadone clinic.

Probie’s get lots of attention. Witness the power sit up. At some houses I’ve heard about, the competitive and eager to please new guy is told it is a strict house workout routine to push out sit ups while being restrained via a towel over the forehead, held by another guy. Invariably, the towels slips momentarily over the fnugys eyes, while he continues to try to power through the situp. While blinded by the towel, another firefighter, usually the biggest guy in the house (one house had a guy so big they called him “double date”) strategically locates himself in a squatting position over the hapless probie. He of course is buck naked. The towel intentionally slips and the new guy does an accelerated face plant into a butt crack. This is called fun.

Back to the streets. Had lots of misses, but a couple of real good hits. The other reason to work with 54 house photographically is that their zone includes Times Square. Talk about Friday night lights! The streets are almost daylight bright, except it’s neon.

I’m in the cab behind Richie, driving the camera with a Pocket Wizard. Lots of frames, cause you never know. You’re making what is hopefully a series of educated guesses. And depending on lots of variables to hopefully tip your way.

I can’t comment all that intelligently on the D700 (Pipe down right now, Mike. Corrado will read this and shrug and say, what else is new?) because I had it in my hands for only a few minutes until I put it at the end of a pole and hoped for the best. But, strategically, it was a great solution because you have the bright LCD, 12.1 megapixel FX (full frame) CMOS sensor, terrific metering system…in short, a package that gets most of the way to D3 in a smaller, lighter body. That played huge in my head as I watched the camera dropped into space on the end of a boom pole that was waving around like a swizzle stick.

We’ve made big prints of these shots for the house, though, as one of the guys riding in the truck commented, “Oh, yeah, that ’s my wife has been asking me for, big prints of Richie Kane driving the truck. She’ll be so pleased.”

They’re a good bunch, and I certainly represented myself better that Friday night than I had in our most recent encounter. I had gotten one of those contracts, you know the ones, that tell you they are not going to pay you any money, but they are taking from you all rights to your intellectual property, in perpetuity, in the known and yet to be discovered universe (I tell ya, the reprints rights on the moons of Jupiter are going to be a gold mine, hang onto those.), for all time, yet again, and furthermore, and by the way, we own your house, too. Instead of fire bombing that particular publication, I went to Times Square and stripped down to my u-trou with a couple of pithy things written on sandwich boards.

Just when I’m at my most undignified (a not infrequent condition) 4 Truck rolls through Times Square. “Hey Joe–what the f^%%$#(*&^%%k are you doin’?” Oh well….

Hey there’s links like crazy to the D700 and SB900 out there. Those links will give you more technical skinny than I can. I just feel lucky we have tools like this. I mean, I started with a Nikkormat, and then my first motor driven camera was an F. As Marty Forscher used to say, “you can hammer a nail with that camera.” True enough, but that wasn’t what it was for, was it?

Availability is always an issue in the early days of stuff. Got a call yesterday from Jeff Snyder, who I mentioned in my blog yesterday. Jeff is one of us. He is in the trenches, shooting and experiencing all the ups and downs of shooting that we do, so he is, IMHO, the real deal. He is just about single handedly responsible for taking his (relatively) new posting at Adorama and using it to catapult that operation more into the forefront of our industry. Witness the Sportsshooter site. More on Jeff and Adorama in a day or so. But he advises contacting him direct via his email—jsnyder@adorama.com. He’s like the man behind the curtain, pulling levers, making connections and working his butt off to get gear to people.

More tk……

Along comes the 900. I’ve had two for a few weeks now, and the unit is, well, smooth. What can I say? Ed Fasano, a General Manager at Nikon, asked me what I thought after handling it, and I told him, “Well, if the SB800 is a real nice Chevy, this baby’s a Cadillac.”

It’s bigger, stronger, sturdier. It has crucial additional features that will go a long ways to making CLS a more complete system. It has a guide number that is the equivalent to the power of a thousand suns! It will retail for $33.95 after mail in rebate! I’m lying!

Smooth light. The unit has three light distribution patterns, standard, center weighted and even. So, for the first time we can really address the quality of the light we are getting at the source, in addition to the zoom control. Have I done the old flash against the wall test to check for the distribution pattern? No. That would be waaayyyyyy too thorough for me. I kind of took it and thought I would see how it interacts with the human face in the way I often approach portraiture.

I prevailed upon my daughter Claire to take a break from the non-stop pool lounging she is currently engaged in since school let out and come out for some pictures with her best friend, Amanda. I suggested they do something to illustrate the closeness they feel as friends. Overhead is two SB900 units, bounced into umbrellas (Lastolite All in Ones) and then running through a Lastolite 3×6 Skylite Panel. The panel is diffusing light and blocking sun, as we shot this in my driveway, with some black paper hanging from the overhead door.

But I like the light. It wraps, and it is, again, smooth. It’s tough to articulate about light in a reasonable way. I use terms like smooth, rounded, harsh, angry, voluptuous, poppy, dreamy, soft, rich, evil…sounds at the end like I’ve described your average afternoon on All My Children.

But then I decided to not give the unit a break with lots of softness and went to a simple, reflected umbrella, which is not generally my light of choice. Just keep it basic and see what it can do. Amanda here is holding up the wall.

Same deal here. Umbrella camera left, up high, middling distance from Claire.

Simple is the way I might describe this. Easy, even. Running aperture priority at minus 2EV to keep the wall a bit dense and below middle gray. Claire is lit with the 900 in group A, the only light in the mix. Put a little extra power in the strobe to compensate for the muted nature of the frame.

OTHER COOL STUFF!

You know the selector button in the back of the SB800. They key to the kingdom? The button that allows all? The one that was reluctant to respond when punching it in a frenzy? The one when crunch time is happening on the job and your lights are completely set but you gotta make a change and you are pushing and pushing on the button so hard you feel like you’re that kid in Gary Larsen’s cartoon about Midvale School for the Gifted? Cause nothing’s happening? Or, you happen to have a thumb the size of a ham hock, and you can mash that baby all day long and it’s giving you flat line, no response? That one?

Ugh! Mongo make flash work now.

Well, say goodbye to that puppy. See the wheel above, in the middle. Key in virtually any function with a tap on the appropriate button and spin that wheel. Plus/minus EV, groups, channels, the whole deal. Once you get yourself set, see the lock symbol? Yep, you can lock it so you don’t thunder thumb it to group 9 or something I am often prone to do. See the temp scale? Cool! Burst away! The unit will tell you when it’s heating up. It gets to the top of that thermometer, a klaxon horn sounds and a pre-recorded voice screams “Emergency Blow!” Kidding of course.

See the on/off/remote/master switch? Thank you, strobe wizards! Do you realize if you multiply how many times you use this unit over the course of your life by the number of seconds it would have taken you to punch through the SB800 4 box grid and get to the options menu and drop the 800 into either master, remote or SU-4 (let’s say, 15 seconds) that you will be given back probably enough time to watch all of the Rambo movies and seriously ponder the nuances of characterization and subtleties of the human condition that define those movies? And how much richer your life will be because of that? All due to the simple on/off/remote/master switch. No more punching through the menu. Go click, you’re there.

The unit zooms to 200. Which means it can throw light from a good distance.

The light here is TTL, zoomed to 200mm, blasting at Claire from maybe 40′ or so. Not artful, especially for Claire, but good indication of things to come, and things that might now be possible. I’m speculating I can maybe make a 900 a master, and zoom it and get more reach for the signal to my remotes. Just a hunch, and as I get cranking better with these guys, I’ll report back. Check out the shoes. I always joke with Claire that her first word was, “Chanel.” She is a fashion plate, along with her friends

Tried another simple umbrella approach on this, and thank goodness for TTL, cause I’m shooting one handed and holding the stand on a rocky incline with my shoulder and other hand. Managed to get it pretty close, and it is wavering around up there, but the exposure stuck with me, and I came up with teenage girls and their sneakers. I always remember a Time cover story on Diane Keaton, shot by Douglas Kirkland I believe, many years ago, where Diane is on the rocks of Central Park with goofy shoes and a wide lens. Nice frame, as I recall. I’m always harking back to work, footnotes in the random stock files of my brain.

And….TA DA! The unit swivels 180 each way for a total of 360! Yep! It is the Linda Blair of strobe units. Swing that light head. It comes to a click stop of course, and then you go back the other direction. But it is a full 360 which means we just got away from the angling the unit to maximize sensor reception but at the same time