Ben (from folio32.com) called over to me the other day, buying my ‘not used since I got Quadras’ Tronix Explorer. We were talking about beating daylight using the Quadra and the Maxispot 29º reflector. So despite still being crippled, I set it up by the door to show him..

First shot ambient only, underexposed. ISO100 f22 1/200sec

2nd shot with Quadra added at 5.0 (half power)

For a laugh I bumped the shutter speed to show what would happen once you went past sync speed. I was explaining that the ambient exposure would still work, but the shutter curtain would block the flash exposure. Below we can see the shutter is blocking the bottom third of the flash. Also Ben is in the feather of the light here, rather than being in the full direct light of the flash. The shot still serves it’s purpose. We’re at 1/400sec now.

Knowing this, we can cheat a bit to keep our sync speed up. This next one is at 1/400 sec and looks okay? How is that?

Well that’s easy. Let’s see the original uncropped and unrotated original.

You see, knowing the curtain is coming in 1/3 of the way from the bottom means that if we go wider and shoot upside, we can still get our subject fully light if we have them in the bottom 2/3rds with the camera UPSIDE DOWN!

The final thing we did for a laugh was to put a 10X filter on and shoot at f2.8, changing the other settings to suit. This filter is susceptible to infrared and has a pink cast to it.

Now none of these were serious shots. I literally shot out of my back door as I was to sore to go anywhere. My exterior wall is cream, so Ben was getting midday sun reflected onto him, making him squint. Still I think he enjoyed seeing the tricks performed!

Finally, I’d like to point out that bar white balancing on the last one, no exposure etc has been added, so the images are as out of camera (except where noted). The aim wasn’t perfect, it was showing what could happen in the 10 minutes we were messing with gear.

I dragged Quays colleague John Mullen out today for some quick tests shots with a mix of new and old gear. I’ve done a few shoots with the small reflectors and the 18cm reflector and easily overpowered the sun using my Ranger Quadras, but I was interested in seeing how I fared out with a beauty dish. I had also intended trying the Maxispot, but forgot to pack it in the unexpected rush to pink John up (I lost track of time!).

So here’s the silver Minisoft 44 on the Quadra (with El Adaptor) at full power (6.0). Exposure is 1/200,

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While I’ve only completed a beginners course in makeup, I know from experience in other fields that buying cheap tools, means buying more. I have a large range of MAC brushes (129, 190, 187, 266, 239, yada yada), and a few NYX ones (the better, silver, range). I needed an angled brush, so I just bought an Avon model. I paid €7.50 for it, but I see that it’s only €4.25 in the current catalog (Brochure 7 2010, page 29, number 5, code 10926). Well, what can I say about such a cheap brush? I’ve used it for contouring and I have to say: Perfect. It’s exactly the right size and shape, and doesn’t shed. That last bit is what clinches it for me. Now with the price dropped that low, it’s an even better buy. I also got the foundation brush and the kabuki. The kabuki is much smaller than I expected. I may just use it for falloff, and the foundation brush is much smaller than the MAC 190 (like a 189 maybe)-good for fixing under the eyes, etc.

And now for the photographers. Would you believe that the shot about was done with one old battery flash at 6:30am? I used a modified 540ez (I’ve added a sync cable) in manual mode at 1/128 power into a Micro Apollo micro softbox from the rear right. This then bounced off a white sheet of paper on the left held up by a book (Makeup by Rae Morris to be exact). On the right I had another sheet of paper filling in, held by my makeup case (it’s okay, it’s a small flight case). Finally I had the cover of the softbox, turned inside out over the top, to fill in the top hairs. It’s silver on the inside BTW, hence being good for fill. The setup shot is below. I’ll also mention that there was no background. You can kinda see the mess in the room in the setup shot, but at the higher shutter speed I shoat at, combined with the distance to it, it’s gone black in the shot.

Next time, I’ll do a better job cleaning the brush, the static from it was attracting dust after I rubbed it clean!

Some recent shots of Alex with the Elinchrom Ranger Quadras

These 2 were shot using a tilt shift lens:

When dropping a friend home this evening, I took him up on his offer of flowers from the garden for my missus. As I got in about 3:30am and all was quiet (in from working for the record), I dragged out some gear and got shooting.

Strobist Info: One 540ez at 1/4 power into 16X16 softbox, triggered with Elinchrom Skyports, from camera left.

The background is white card with its top curving towards us. The softbox is feathered past the flowers, allowing only a small bit of spill on the background. Because of the curve, the light falls off nicely, giving a graduated look.

One of the most popular items I have on Flickr is my 540ez Mod set. I got a 2nd one, so I videoed the process of modding it. How could I pass up the change to rabbit on for 13 minutes?

Canon 540ez Flash Mod from Sean McCormack on Vimeo.

While I did get an inkling last night on the SWPP forum, I got a call from Jon Jenkins this morning informing me that I had won the SWPP Family Portraiture and Groups award. Jon had volunteered to collect for me if I won anything (just in case-I’ve had a few golds during the year after all!). He’d forgotten about it until he heard my name called, and then his for collecting it! I’d love to have been there, but weekends are very busy at the moment. I’ll make time to go next year though, just for the networking!

Now that I know what the award is for, let me talk about the shot. This is a shot of local band Disconnect 4 (you can check them out on MySpace). Martin from Bar No. 8 kindly allowed us to shoot around the bar one evening. We did a number of different setups, but I really like this one because of the expressions. Bands against a wall are a bit cliched and I usually avoid it, but this just worked for me. This is a Strobist style shot, with a single shoot thru umbrella, from over my head to give some ‘butterfly light’. Nikon SB28, probably at 1/2 power, triggered with Skyports. Processing was done in Lightroom.

My weekend was pretty eventful, at least from a travel point of view. I was booked into the Saturday Strobist seminar in London. Travelling on Saturday itself meant flying from Shannon rather than Galway, so I left the house at 4am for my 6:25am flight. I got in around 5:20 and headed for the gate. Flight was painless fortunately bar the constant Ryanair advertising onboard. Despite the huge queue for tickets, I still made my 8:15 Stansted Express. That meant that I was in time for the 9:30 start. Phew! I should say though that I hadn’t managed to sleep Friday evening, although I did sleep a bit during the day (until 6pm).

The seminar was good fun and educational, but for me it was mostly about reinforcement. That said there were nuggets along the way, making it all worthwhile. We did 4 different practical setups at the end, and I was dragged in as Subject #1. If I get Davids permission, I’ll embed it in the post! The picks from the day are shown here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157608622721266/72157610761038681/.

One thing we did get to see was the new Orbis Ringflash. It was also one of the lights used on me, so I had a unique look at it, you could say. Obviously it’s a ring, and in this case David had it attached to a flash on a stand for convenience. The fact that you need to hold it would put me off it, vis the Rayflash which connects to an on camera flash. The Orbis is narrower at the top than the bottom and features curved internal channels to bounce the light about. Also at the flash end there is diffusion in the plastic, which then becomes clear with a semi circle boundary. The internal design is so simple that it would be easy to incorporate into DIY design (but far from as pretty).

Later we raffled a California Sunbounce Micro Mini with coin toss. I got down to the last 4. Huy was a deserving winner, especially with his great Hi Key posing! The class ran late, so I had to cancel my original dinner plans (Sorry Martin). I wouldn’t have made it anyhow. I did enjoy the banter after though.

Verdict? Well worth the trip. There are those asking that next time there be an advanced practical class. I’d be well up for that, although in fairness, applying the lessons learned in assignments and jobs should be enough.