On Assignment: Dance Class Manager
A while back when I made a huge career move and quite on the high-tech job, I set a goal of developing a photography business. I did warn you about the occasional "on assignment post" and this is just one of those posts.
At the place where I live there is a dance class for kids 4-16 years old. The manager of that class wanted some pictures to provide the local newspaper for an upcoming article. We talked and decide to take the pictures at her house where there is a nice decorative brick wall. This should eliminate the need to battle the harsh sun on one hand and provide both indoor and outdoor locations on the other.
Enter Calanit Ziv
Ever had that conflict with a subject? They know they need to have their picture taken, but they tell you that they "look bad" and "hate having their picture taken". So they'll pose, but still be very camera aware. This is just the thing that was going on in this session (I am always surprised when good looking people are so camera shy). So we talked quite a bit while I was setting the lights. Actually, we kept talking a bit even after I was done setting the lights. This is how I learned that Calanit's mom was one of the famous dancers a generation ago and this is how Calanit got into the dance business, it was all around her while she grew up.
Photograph 1 - head shot
I came equipped with 3 Nikon Speedlights, 2 bazooka light packs, 1 "big" light stand, a Nasty clamp, gels and some CPU Cooling gridspots. I am still not 100% sure about my on location gear list, but those seems to cover most scenarios.
My plan was to light Calanit with a shoot through umbrella for key. We got quite a bit of contrast so Calanit moved a few steps to the left which got her closer to a white wall. Kill me if I had ever seen a more conveniently placed reflector.
Calanit has a great tanned skin and I used a 1/8 CTO gel to bring this color out.
The brick wall backdrop was lit with another SB, this time gridded (and gelled with a full CTO).
Photograph 2 - Chair
Calanit did not feel all that comfy with doing any dance poses so we settled on a chair photograph - the idea was to bring a different pose while she still felt 100% comfortable.
The key lighting here did not change. However, The light coming from the single umbrella did not provide details on the chair and Calanit legs were left almost completely at dark.
Now to make the legs pop out and add some details on the chairs back I added a third SB gridded and pointing towards the chair legs.
We added a bit of separation in the form of bare SB behind her (hidden by the chair).
Wrap Up - Outdoors Shoot
For the last picture we went outdoors. I was morning so we headed to the western side of the building where there will be shade. We were lucky to have some wind to give us a different, more naughty look. more about this in a bit.
For this shot I used a CPU cooling gridspot, I love those little attachments as there are pretty cheap compared to the Honl alternative. (About $6 each) and the look of them is polished enough to a client (not that Calanit cared if I used coroplast, she was pretty cool about the whole lighting thing).
This photograph was the reason I brought the bigger lightstand. It will enable me to go pretty high and the added weight should provide more stability, though I did not anticipate the strong wind.
I mounted the SB on the big light stand and placed a gel and grid on it. The nice thing about the Saxons is that they can be stacked (as seen on left) to provide tighter beam. So I stacked them.
The wind did good to Calanit's hair, while the Light from the Nikon SB helped direct attention to her face against the blinders.
There is a very good Strobist reference for this kinda setup here.
Lessons Learned
The outcome of this shoot was OK, however, I learned two valuable lessons.
Lesson 1 - I've been working with the Poverty Wizards for a long time now, and did not mind the occasional misfire. I hacked them, modded them and took really good care about their batteries. But lately something has changed between us, They just don't pop as they used to (see image on left). The low cost can no longer justifies the amount of misfires that I am having anymore. As the image on the left will indicate. I am considering a change very positively. PocketWizard and Elinchrom Skyport are the two obvious options. If anyone knows of another options to consider, I'd love to know.
Lesson 2 - Wind will knock your heavier lightstand, even if it only carries a Nikon speedlight. This was no umbrella, softbox or any other sail-resembling modifier - just a gridspot. Still the wind knocked it down. On the grass (thank you Karma). Happily the flash came down unharmed. But, a sand bag will now go on every lightstand even at the slightest wind. This is definitely a +1 for strobes against big monoblocks, as I doubt any monoblock would have survived such a fall.
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Comments
portable lighting equip
When shooting outdoors with speedlights on stands I've seen a hack using Frisbees with a hole drilled in the center and mounted under the speed light on the stud. If the stand just happens to fall the Frisbee will absorb some of the shock. Better than landing on the light. I've also used plastic paper plate holders you can find at the dollar store. Frisbees are expensive and you can get a pack of four plate holders for about $2, that is about equal to the thickness of a Frisbee.
I also use those shot filled weights for exercising that attach to your wrist or ankle, two 2 1/2 lb weights for the wrists and 2 5lb weights for the ankles. They are fixed with a velcro belt so they will attach to any light stand or boom arm easily. You can find them on sale sometimes for about 50 cents a pound.
re Frisee and Sandbags
Thanks for the mention, I assume you are talking about this hack. it will definitely help absorb some of the impact.
While I did not have any "real" sand bags in this trip, I could have used lots of round the area items to add weight to the stand, I just did not think I'll have to with the small foot print of the stand and strobe. once it fell once, we had it tied to a heavy chair. and it never fell again. I just wish I had done this prior to the first fall. Thanks for the ankles weights tip, I'll keep an eye for those.
Nice to see that you're
Nice to see that you're getting some working doing what you love.
Regarding remote radio triggers, Phottix is about to lauch the Atlas, which are very similar and supposed to work with PWs.
re: Atlas
Yes! how could I neglect this one. definitely a valid options. Price is anticipated to be around 100$ a piece definitely in the budget for 3-4 units.
Thanks for mentioning it
My pleasure! By the way,
My pleasure!
By the way, don't you have a link badge to here? I wanted to permalink DIYPhoto...
The alternatives
As far as alternatives are concerned for pocket wizards and skyports, you also have the radiopoppers, which I have (they will allow ou to control the power settings of your nikon flashes with something they call a cube) and then the alienbee cybersyncs for paul bluff. Both IMO are good alternatives and slightly cheaper.
Nice shoot, down with Poverty Wizards
Good job & explained very well! Thanks Udi!
The first non-DIY investment for me was my PW+IIs. I too was getting along well with poverty wizards until they started to become very unreliable despite mods & batteries.
DH was right. Eventually, if you're serious, you'll go for Pocket Wizards. Nice to not be hoping my flashes will pop now. One less layer of stress to deal with on a shoot.
On a side note, I have big hopes for those PW compatible Atlas triggers.
Trigger
I've been using Cyber synch for several months, and I can't think of any misfire so far. and much cheaper than PW's !
Love your blog. Keep it up !
I don't mind the "on
I don't mind the "on assignment" posts. They are really usefull I have to say. It's always good to see what other people learn from their shoots. So thanks for that :)
Poverty Wizards
I've never tried any of the earlier versions of the poverty wizards like the cactus or other poppers, but the latest version, the Yungnuo RF-602, has worked really well for me. They're vastly improved from what I've seen. They're solidly built, have great range, and I've yet to have a misfire after about 500 pops. I love them and they fit quite nicely into my budget which is pretty much nonexistent.
Wireless Aliens
Have you looked at the Paul Buff remotes? They are about half the price of the PW's and have some controller options that are pretty good. I am still working the PovWiz's myself, but the Aliens are on my wish list.
re: Triggeres
Thanks everyone fr your kind suggestions on radio slaves.
I'll be making a purchase and a post about it pretty soon. but here are my guidlines for making the selection (in order of priority) - this is also a partial and temporary answer for my reasoning for getting or not getting some of the suggestions above.
1. Reliability - I mean no point in buying something new unless it will be 100% good. It is throwing money otherwise.
2. Backup - I am leaning towards one of the systems that uses transceivers (PW, Atlas). This way I only need 3 units to assure I have proper backup. (otherwise, I'll need 4 units - 2 transmitters, and 2 receivers). that said, you can get 2 Paul C Buff units for the price of one PW.
3. Price - I am just starting on my pro career, the blog is providing some income, yet it is not like my pockets are endless. I would need to find a good sweetspot where I am getting satisfactory results on one hand, yet not investing more that I need to on the other. I will need 1 transmitter and 2 receivers (not including backups) so unit price is definitely in the calculations.
4. Range - With current jobs (and what seems like most future jobs) anything at 50 meters and beyond will do.
5. TTL - I mostly work with manual flash. and I do see monoblocks up the road too. The only time I used TTL till now was when the Slaves did a no-pop on me and I needed some way to pop my SB800 without adding light from my on camera flash. (Only later I learned that the D300 has a master mode where you can control the flash "manually").
So there you have it, I am preparing the wife for expenses.
Similar Learnings
I have made many of the same learnings as you recently. I now use Alienbees Cybersyncs exclusively (100% reliable for far cheaper than PW's), inexpensive flashes (I love the Youngno's) so that if they do fall I'm not out very much money, and I carry ankle weights in my truck all the time. I've had far too many stands fall over in the wind and ruin my Canon Flashes. The ankle weights prevent this most of the time, and the cheaper flashes save me the rest of the time.
Poverty Wizards vs PW
Hi Udi,
I would second the poster above. Four PW +IIs were my first major non-DIY investment, and I have never regretted it. I modded the poverty wiz, messed with batteries, held my mouth just so when shooting, etc., to no avail.
I cannot remember a single misfire in 3 years with the PWs. They are worth the money, despite their relativelly simple skillset. No TTL, no remote settings, they just make your flash pop and they do it very well in single-shot mode or 5 fps.
PW Clone
Have you heard about the new PW clone? The Phottix Atlas is supposed to a cost effective alternative. I plan on getting 3 soon.
WIreless triggers
I recently bought a set of Phottix. One transmitter and three receivers. In Europe (Greece to be exact) costed 45 Euros, that should be about USD60 give or take. They also have a pc-like connection and cables included in the package, so they can trigger studio flashes as well. Very cool feature for such a price. They work just fine with only a few missfires. The other set (25 USD from eBay) I had didn't have the studio flash option and most time it missfired 1 out of 3 times. Especially working with (medium format) film, this is an aditional cost. I think it's great value for money. Don't know about the Atlas, but I'm pretty sure they 're great.
alt?
http://radiopopper.com I've seen youtube vid of it. I seen people's result. No experience with it.
I am looking for something better than Poverty but everything is over 100.00... I'll look into Atlas.
Radio Remotes
I just upgraded my "poverty wizards" to the Cactus V4s. They have an advertised range of 100 feet - I think they are even firing further than 100.
I shot a wedding with them last weekend (first real test of them). I used 4 strobes to light up the inside of a tent and later again at the reception hall. I fired off at least 500 shots using flash and had less than 5-6 misfires.
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