c.d.embrey wrote:
BTW what do you light with those Mole-Richardson softlights ?
Nothing, actually - those belong to the guy whose studio I'm sharing and who works exclusively in video. You can't see it, but the 15' to the right of those frames is a green-screen cyc with a bunch more softlights and Arri's hanging from the grid, bunch of fresnels hanging out in hot-storage.
Simon, nice "clean" shots. I noticed those lights on the side also. I thought they were Illumitrons. When I first got into the business, I assisted a well known still life/food photographer(Stouffers frozen food packaging, Sealtest or Borden's Ice Cream...can't remember which one) and he used those to shoot ice cream with an 8x10 Deardorff
Thanks Carmen, I appreciate it. I guess the sun does count as a 2nd light... dang... I'm disqualified
Thanks Hatch!
Thanks Jon. I used an AB1600. First shot is with an AB 47-inch Foldable Octa without the outer diffusion. Second shot I used a Mola as fill. The rim on the first of the set is from a silver reflector. Third shot I used an AB 47-inch Foldable Octa with the outer diffusion. I've seen threads asking about the AB foldable boxes. I really, really like them for location shoots.
Here's a few more, same shoot/same model. We shot 2 days, 5 hours each day (10AM-3PM), 10 clothing changes each day. Each shot at a different location (on the same property)... so with the nasty bright sun, one light comes in handy... as do reflectors.
1 - Silver reflectors
2 - Silver reflectors
3 - Mola, reflector
4 - Silver reflectors
5 - Silver reflectors
6 - Mola, reflector, diffusion panel to block sun
7 - Silver reflectors
8 - 47-inch AB Foldable Octa and the harshest sun you could possibly ask for. I used 5 stops of ND filters at 50ISO so I could get 1.6.
Simon - good conversions! I'd be careful about using a bungee as a make-shift "sandbag" hanging on that arm though... If the grip head failed for whatever reason, that bungee would snap and the hooks would rocket around the room. A blinded photographer is an unhappy unhappy photographer. A small boa bag or a length of non-elastic parachute cord would be a safer bet.
You're talking about a bungee with about 10lbs of pressure on it - it's not supporting the grip arm or suspending a sandbag, it's just adding resistance to it to take a little pressure off the other head. Additionally, with the combined weight of an Acute2 head and octabox being well under 15lbs, even a sudden drop isn't going to snap an athletic bungee cord...the reasonable worst-case scenario is one of the hooks bending or the sandbag's strap tearing through its seams, in which case the boom is dropping and the cord is going to flop around a bit. This after a grip head has to fail suddenly and immediately lose all tension, as opposed to gradually losing it. After 17 years of production work I'm the first to say that a bungee shouldn't be used on-set with any significant tension on it, and it's one of the first things you'll learn as a grip dept. PA (right after "don't touch anything with a power switch or the electrician's union will kick your ass"), but I have no problems with putting them to light-duty.
Still, I'm not extremely worried about taking a bungee that can support my own weight and using it as a backup for about 12lbs of weight.
Here's my go at HS senior photos. Used a single 430EX through a 24" Photoflex softbox. Placed the light just out of frame ~2 feet from subject. 1/4 power with a 1/4 CTO gel. 70-200 2.8 at f2.8 through a 3 stop ND filter - trying to hold back some of the daylight.
