Studio shoot with Miyu - Testing the Speedlight ProKit Beauty Dish

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS 1/160@f4

My second studio shoot in Japan during this trip was with Miyu from Model Mayhem.  We did several setups, and I tried to keep the lighting very simple since we only had a few hours to work with. 

One of the first things Miyu and I worked on was a series of headshots.  For this I went with 2-SB26 flashes triggered with a Pocket Wizard.  Each flash was mounted on a lightstand with a Westcott white shoot thru umbrella in an over-under clamshell style lighting setup. I used the 70-200mm L alens and shot in between the two umbrellas.

I had Miyu standing pretty close to the front of the umbrellas, so I really dialed down the power on the flashes. The top strobe was set to about 1/8th power and the lower one to about 1/16th power.   This allowed me to not have to worry about recycle time.  Also, I only needed to use two Pocket Wizard tranceivers - one on the 5D mkII and one on the upper SB26.  The nice thing about the SB26 flashes is that they have a built in optical slave, so the upper flash triggers the lower one.
This two umbrella clamshell lighting setup is one of my favorites - it's relatively quick to setup and it produces a really clean look on models, which they like.  You can adjust the strength of the shadows by simply dialing down the power of the lower flash or by bumping up the power of the upper flash.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS 1/160@f4

Also tried adding some motion to the hair by fanning it with a reflector, but it's really hard to do it and fire the camera at the same time without an assistant and without knocking down the umbrellas in the process (forgot the sandbags again).  I did try using the DSLR Remote Pro app on my iPhone to fire the camera which I had tethered to my Macbook Pro, but it was hard to get the timing just right.  An electric fan would have been easier, but unfortunately the studio didn't have one.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS 1/160@f4

Miyu did a quick restyling of her hair and we did a couple more headshots before moving on to the next setup.  I also had her do a series of different expressions just for fun.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS 1/160@f4

The next setup was on the bed, and for this I went to a new addition to my traveling lighting kit - a collapsible beauty dish by ProKit.

I really like using a beauty dish in studio when doing model photoshoots.  It has a very nice quality of light that is different from using an umbrella or a softbox.  The main problem with the beauty dish is that because of the size and shape, it is impractical for me to take it on trips to Japan.

I first learned about the ProKit line of flash modifiers via the Strobist website.  The collapsible beauty dish is one of their newer products and although it seemed a bit pricey at $100, it looked like it would travel very well. It packs completely flat, so I could store it in the front pocket of my ThinkTank Airport Security 2.0 rolling camera bag.

Setup was relatively quick, if a bit fiddly.  It reminded me a lot of those "build-your-own-starship" paper model making kit books they used to have, you know the ones where you punch out the cardboard pieces and assemble the model by folding and bending, inserting tab A into slot B etc.

Basically you put a thick rubber band around the head of the flash, mount the dome diffuser and reflector onto that, then insert the assembly into the center of the beauty dish (which itself is basically two large semicircles of white plastic that snap together into a shallow cone).  You then secure the dish to the flash with a strip of velcro and congratulations, you have just built the starship Enterprise - er, I mean the ProKit Beauty Dish.

 

  

Canon 5D mkII 24-105mm f4L 1/50@f4 

I was originally going to bring some silk Hawaiian flowers to Japan for this shoot, but totally forgot about getting it until the night before our flight. So I went to WalMart at 1am and found these silk rose petals in the wedding decoration section.  Think it worked out for the better as the color matched her lingerie top.

I also brought a couple other reflectors that ProKit makes.

 

These reflectors also snap together and are secured to the flash by rubber bands and velcro.  Here I have it mounted to a Justin Clamp on a C-stand.  I used this behind the model as the edge light. The beauty dish is the main light.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II 1/160@f4 

 For these last few shots, I added a CTO and a 1/8 CTO gel to each light and set the white balance to tungsten to add a bluish tint to the background.  Had some difficulty trying to get the rim light to give a good edge to the dress and also highlight the hair.  Next time will have to remember to use 2 rim lights instead of just one.

 Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II 1/160@f5.6

 Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II 1/160@f2

I really like the shallow depth of field look you can get with the 85mm.  I'm seriously considering getting a second 5DmkII just so I can use different lenses on it.

I almost forgot to mention, on this shoot I used version 2.0 of Shuttersnitch on the iPad to collect the images from the WFT-E4 transmitter on the 5Dmk II and am happy to report it worked much better than version 1.1.9.  Didn't crash at all during our session together.  I think the next thing I want to try is to have the WFT-E4 send images to both the iPad and my MacBook Pro running Lightroom at the same time.

Studio shoot with Kayo and Yasuko

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso800 1/60@f2.8

Kayo is a model in Japan that I have wanted to work with for a couple of years now, but everytime we tried to setup a shoot, our schedules just would not allow it.  We caught a break and were finally able to do a studio shoot together this past December.  We shot at the White Studio near Edogawabashi station, which I used on a previous shoot with model Stephanie Kei.

Kayo also brought along another model, her friend Yasuko.  Having a second model on the shoot who could also assist made setups go much quicker.

I also got to give my dream lens a proper workout - the Canon 85mm f1.2L II lens. I picked it up secondhand the day before at Map Camera in Shinjuku along with the first generation IS version of the 70-200 f2.8L. I had originally planned to pick up the IS II version of the 70-200 f2.8L, but by trading in my older versions of these lenses and using my saved up points, I was able to get two lenses for less than the cost of the 70-200 IS II lens.

For this shoot I used the 85mm for about 99% of the images. I only swapped it out on two setups- one where I used a 24-105mm f4L to get just a little wider and then for the 70-200mm f2.8 L IS when I needed to compress a background.  Using a prime lens really helps you think more about setting up a particular shot and working out angles.  You have to "zoom with your feet" as opposed to just standing in one spot and moving the zoom in and out.  In run and gun wedding situations, a zoom lens is still essential IMHO, but I think in the near future (when I can afford it), I might switch to using just primes for model photoshoots.

For the first setup we kept it pretty simple, and just used the large softbox light provided by the studio.  I positioned this off to camera right and we started shooting, alternating between Kayo and Yasuko.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso200 1/80@f2.8

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso250 1/100@f2.8

While we were changing to our next setup, I noticed the light from a window near the bed cast a nice streak against the wall.  Working fast, I had Yasuko switch outfits and positioned her in the path of the light.  Unfortunately the angle of the light from outside did not cast enough light on where she was, so we had to cheat it a bit.  I setup an SB26 with a cardboard snoot to camera right and raised it as high as I could on the light stand.  I then had Kayo angle it down so that the light came down onto Yasuko's face, mimicking the angle of the light coming in through the window.  We were trying for the look of early morning light coming in through a bedroom window.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso400 1/160@f8

Once we finished with this, we started with Kayo's second look - an open men's shirt with a tie.  I had her lean against the wall and lit her with an SB26 in a Prokit beauty dish.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso200 1/160@f5.6

In order to clear this section of the wall, I had moved a table that had a mirror on it.  While shooting Kayo, I happened to notice her reflection in the mirror.  With a few more positioning adjustments, we were able to get this shot using the mirror as a frame.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso200 1/160@f5.6

For Yasuko's next look, we moved back to the first area.  This time, instead of using the large studio softbox, I used the SB26/beauty dish combo, and another SB26 with a ProKit reflector as a kicker/edge light.  I added a CTO gel + 1/8 CTO gel to both flashes and set the camera white balance on tungsten to add a bluish tint to the light coming in from the window while keeping the model's color normal.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso200 1/160@f4

Also tried adding a bit of motion with a hair dryer.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso200 1/160@f3.2

For this next look, I used the SB26/beauty dish as the main light.  A silver California Sunbounce Micro mini below was added to help fill the shadows.
The studio did have a white backdrop, but it was not a roll of white seamless.  It was a slightly off white canvas with some folds in it.  To help hide that, I put another SB26 with a Stofen omnibounce pointed at the backdrop to blow it out to white. I also used the 70-200mm f2.8L IS racked out to 200 to compress/blur the background and hide the edges of the backdrop (which wasn't very wide)

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS Lens iso200 1/160@f4

We then did some shots back in the area of the studio we first started in.  For these I used just the natural light coming in from the window.

Canon 5D mkII 24-105mm f4 IS Lens iso800 1/60@f4

The studio is quite small.  To get a wider shot of Kayo from this particular angle, I had to switch to the 24-105.  Thinking a 50mm 1.2 L lens is next on my to-buy list.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso250 1/80@f1.8

We switched to the bed set next as we were starting to run out of time on our studio rental.

For Kayo's set I used the SB26/Beauty dish for the main and another SB26 with a ProKit reflector for the backlight. Yasuko added motion to Kayo's hair by fanning her with a California Sunbounce Micro Mini reflector.

 Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso200 1/160@f4.5

For Yasuko' set, I added some silk rose petals and used a shoot thru umbrella on the main light for a softer feel.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso200 1/125@f4.5

We ended with a few headshots.  I used 2 SB26 flashes, both with shoot thru umbrellas stacked vertically in a clamshell configuration.  California Sunbounce Micro Mini reflector used again for adding motion to the hair, although a couple of times it almost knocked over the lightstands and umbrellas.  Need to remember to sandbag the lightstands next time.

 

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.2L II Lens iso200 1/160@f4

This was a really fun shoot to do, and there was not enough time to do everything we wanted.  Looking forward to the next time I'll be able to work with Kayo and Yasuko.










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Field Test - Canon 5DmkII+WFT-E4+iPad

In order to do a quick field test of the 5D mkII to iPad wifi setup I mentioned previously, I met up with my friend TJ who lucky for me happened to be in Tokyo last month.

We headed up to a park near the NHK building.  Being from Hawaii, I don't normally get to see trees with colors other than green.  We came across some red trees lining the back of one of the NHK buildings which I thought would make a good background.

I had TJ stand up on the wall and I fired up the 5D/WFT-E4/iPad combo.  I used a 70-200 f2.8L lens on the 5D to throw the background out of focus.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 70-200 f2.8L IS 1/80 @ f2.8

It was pretty overcast that day, so I setup an SB26 and a shoot thru umbrella on a stand to get some directional light.  This let me use a faster shutter speed which darkened the background and made the red leaves pop a bit more.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 70-200 f2.8L IS 1/125 @ f2.8

We got a couple of shots in before building security came by and said we could only continue shooting if we took down the lightstand.  Doh!  Time to change locations.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 85mm f1.2L II 1/200 @ f2

We next setup on the steps of a nearby bridge.  Here I tried out the 85mm f1.2L II lens that I had just picked up that morning.  A bit of a mistake to buy this lens, because ever since I put it on my 5D mkII, I haven't wanted to take it off. ;-)  It takes a bit of getting used to the extreme shallow depth of field you can get with this lens - you really have to be careful where you focus.  I've found I get the most success rate from using the center focus point, locking it on the eye closest to me, then recomposing.
Once you get the hang of this lens though, it's amazing what it does to backgrounds.

 Canon 5D mkII iso200 85mm f1.2L II 1/200 @ f2.8

Keeping an eye out for security, I decided just to use an on-camera flash this time- a 580EX dialed down about 1-1/3 stop.  Just enough to lighten the shadows a skosh and put a little sparkle into TJ's eyes.

We moved to a spot under the bridge where there was a lot of colorful grafitti art.  First tried using the 85mm, but because the wall was not wide enough I ended up using the 70-200 to compress the frame and make the wall fill the background completely.  Since we couldn't see security anywhere and figured that under  the bridge was far enough away from the NHK property, I took a chance and setup the SB26 again, this time without the umbrella.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 70-200 f2.8L IS 1/125 @ f2.8

Lucky for me, TJ is the kind of model that looks great no matter what kind of light you throw at her, and she was able to take the direct flash pretty well.  This gave us some much needed directionality of light.

We had hoped to shoot some Christmas lights in Shinjuku, but we finished too early in the day and they had not turned on the decorations yet.  We decided to just grab some Starbucks and chat while looking through the images on the iPad.

Canon 5D mkII iso200 70-200 f2.8L IS 1/400 @ f2.8

Field results from this session:

Setup was relatively quick.  It was much easier to get the 5DmkII/WDT-E4 to transmit to the Shuttersnitch app on the iPad via the wireless router than it was with my 1DmkII/WFT-E1 setup.  The extreme portability of the iPad made it simple to show the model the images as we were shooting.

During this shoot I was using version 1.1.9 of the Shuttersnitch app and 4.2 iOS on the iPad.  Unfortunately the Shuttersnitch app crashed several times while transfers were taking place, so several images only half-downloaded to the iPad.  When the app crashed and I restarted it, it was very unstable so I had to shut down the iPad and restart it.  In between crashes, about 50% of the images made it to the iPad successfuly during the shoot.  The rest of the images I ended up having to transfer to the iPad while we sat at Starbucks after the shoot. I've heard that 2.0 is much more stable, and I hope that the app is updated on the iTunes store soon.

For reviewing images, it's pretty good.  You can set star ratings for each image and zoom in to check focus. I wish they listed the filenumber in the header (right now it only shows exposure info).  Right now in version 1.1.9 the only way to see the filenumber is to press and hold the tiny thumbnail images on the bottom of the interface.

I think once the app developer gets Shuttersnitch to a more stable version, I'll be using this setup more often.  As it stands right now, I can't recommend it for serious work yet.

***Edit - the developer of Shuttersnitch has released version 2.0 of the app which seems to be a LOT more stable.  You can now see the filenumber in the header and while testing it out on a later photoshoot, it did not crash.  Reviewing the images was still a bit wonky - sometimes when swiping through the images, it would jump back to the first image.  But it's way better than the previous version.

Canon 5D mkII wireless transmission to iPad

When Apple introduced the iPad at the beginning of this year, I knew immediately what I would want to use it for - viewing images from my camera during a photoshoot.  While there is a camera connector kit available that allows one to plug in a memory card and transfer images to the iPad, I wanted to be able to do it wirelessly during the shoot.  It just feels more productive to have the crew and myself to be able the view the image on a large screen seconds after it is taken, instead of viewing it on the LCD on the back of the camera.

I previously did this with a Canon 1D mkII, a WFT-E1 transmitter and my Macbook Pro.  While it did accomplish what I wanted it to do, the setup did have some drawbacks.   The WFT-E1 was Canon's first attempt at doing wireless transmission, a big bulky unit that screwed onto the bottom of the camera and plugged in via firewire or USB.

It also had an external antenna that got in the way sometimes (and eventually broke). Setting it up for networking was also a major pain in the tuckus and sometimes it would just refuse to behave. At one point I went back to using a long USB cable and shot physically tethered to the computer, but long cables and my clumsy feet are a disaster just waiting to happen.

I also tried a similar setup last year with the Eye-Fi card and a Dell Mini 9 hackintosh.  However, I had heard on the Eye-Fi forums that other people were experiencing corruption problems when using the Eye-Fi SDHC cards in CompactFlash adapter cards in their DSLRs.  The newer X2 series that are 8GB seemingly do not work at all with the CF adapters in cameras like the 5D mkII, which really sucks.  I personally never came across the corrupted image problem with the hackintosh setup, but since I also shoot weddings, that was something I was not willing to take a chance on.

The Eye-Fi/Dell Mini 9 hackintosh setup is still being used for family gatherings and other things, but without the CF adapter. I'm currently using it in a Canon G9 and might upgrade to the current G12 or the EOS 60D which now uses SDHC cards.

I really wish Eye-Fi would make a CompactFlash version of their product.  Apparently I am not alone in this - on the Eye-Fi customer support forums there are a lot of requests by their users to do so.  Why they continue to ignore this request, I have no idea.

Yo Eye-Fi, HELLOOOOOO?

Thankfully Canon has incorporated their WFT transmitters into vertical grips for their newer cameras making it MUCH easier to use than the WFT-E1.  They also brought down the price - still expensive at about $700, but remember, they USED to cost around $1500!

One minor gripe about using the WFT-E4 transmitter - while it replaces the vertical grip and takes the same kind of battery as the Canon, the battery only powers the transmitter and not the camera itself.

 So you have to have one battery in the camera, and one in the transmitter.  If your camera battery runs out, you have to unscrew the WFT-E4 to access the battery compartment of the camera body.  Not something you want to mess with when you're pressed for time during a shoot.

I'm hoping in the future  Canon will figure out a way to put 2 batteries in the WFT transmitter and have it power BOTH the transmitter and the camera.  I mean c'mon if Eye-Fi can do wifi transmission from a freaking SDHC card for less than $150, Canon SHOULD be able to figure out how do this at more than 4x the price and with much more space to work with (Hey, I can dream, can't I?).

Yo, Canon!  HELLOOOOOOO?

When the iPad was released, I started looking into ways that I could shoot wirelessly tethered to it.
One of the obstacles is that like the iPhone, the iPad does not allow creating an adhoc network unless you jailbreak it, something I was not brave enough the mess with.   Yet.  ;-)

Fortunately, I came across this article by Rob Galbraith which made it much easier to setup. It incorporates the use of a battery powered router, such as the Aluratek CDM530AM.

Yes, I know - lime green.  Yeek. But hey, it works and it works very well.

So this is now my current Canon to iPad field setup:

Canon 5D mkII
WFT-E4 wireless transmitter
iPad 64GB wifi version with Otterbox Defender iPad Case
Shuttersnitch app for the iPad
Aluratek CDM530AM battery powered router

Thanks to Rob Galbraith's excellent article, I had the setup working in about an hour. I have two configurations for the WFT-E4 - one field setup which sends the images via the Aluratek router to the iPad running Shuttersnitch, and one studio adhoc setup that sends the images directly to my MacBook Pro and importing into Lightroom, like I did previously with the WFT-E1.

The networking setup on the WFT-E4 is a little easier than with the WFT-E1, but it can still trip you up if you're not familiar with networking (and the included manual is basically worthless).  I found this guide by Julian Love Photography very helpful in setting up the ftp connection to my Macbook Pro.

In testing this setup (meaning me chasing our two cats around the house with my camera), the delay between shooting and viewing the images on the iPad is about 5-8 seconds, similar to what I was getting with the Eye-Fi and my hackintosh.  I have the 5D set to shoot RAW + Med JPG. Since I only plan to use the iPad for image review in the field, the WFT transmitter is set to transfer only the JPEGs, which is much faster than trying to send the RAW files (Plus the iPad's storage space is only 64GB and much of that is devoted to games and training videos).

The router's battery is said to last several hours, and the iPad's battery lasts pretty much all day, so I'm thinking this might work well in the field. The iPad fits into this case I picked up in Japan and the router fits into the side pocket. I'm thinking I can have this in a shoulder bag during a wedding and have the iPad collect images as I'm walking around shooting, then pull it out at the end to show the images to the client.

I'll also be taking this setup with me to Japan next week as I have several model photoshoots lined up.  I will try to post the field results in a later blog entry.

Headshot session with April

A few weeks ago I did a short studio headshot session with model April Boone and makeup artist Kahulani.
Because we were working in pretty tight quarters in the studio (there were two other sets that were being built for an upcoming TV production), we kept the lighting setup relatively simple - 2 AB800s, a large softbox above and a small softbox below for fill. A Nikon SB26 was used as the backlight.

 We kept the background mostly dark, but added some color with an AB800 with a 40 degree grid and a blue gel.

Later we added 2 AB800s in gridded strip softboxes behind the model and swapped out the upper large softbox for a beauty dish.  The image really started to come together once we brought in a Vornado fan to add motion to her hair.

This was our last setup of the day and one of my favorite shots.  April had the perfect outfit to go with these guns.




Just to try something different I added a blue gel to one of the edge lights to throw some color into her hair, to sort of give a nighttime feel to the shot.  Kind of like a glow from a nearby neon sign or something. It's very faint, but you can just barely see it on the left.  An idea to play around with more in future shoots maybe.


I also just heard from the makeup artist that with the help of this final image, April was able to get a part on an upcoming episode of Hawaii Five-0 .  Congratulations April!