SB28 with omnidome shot through 86" white PLM. It's naturally hotter at the center, but as you can see it feathers off and still fills most of the umbrella., albeit at a reduced output. It gives a beautiful catchlight as well. I didn't notice any spokes in the catchlight. The umbrella is very sturdy and well made. Might want to try mounting a second strobe lower on the stand with a superclamp to really fill it.
A bare bulb AB would be best, but it works just fine as a giant diffuser with a shoe-mount strobe as well.
Looks cool. If you're gonna use speedlights on a white 86, you'll probably want 3 to fill it evenly. Most of the time you'll be better off with a 64. 86'' is so big that it's impossible to make it perfectly even as a shoot through due to how much closer the center is (12'') compared to the outer edges(30-40''), if you're following the oem mounting instructions. That's not the modifier's fault, that's from people continually assuming that bigger is always better. :-)
I had some address issues with my order so I won't get it till Wednesday, but I suspect that the ideal mounting position for the white as a shoot through with a speedlight will be to mount the umbrella on an umbrella adapter at 12'' and then put the speedlight on the end of the umbrella shaft, which should fix the evenness issues without breaking the unit.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cdembrey/ScottShelly1040-copy.jpg
The light has been moved around front, just a little side angle, also it has been raised about 3 feet, and tilted down to center on her face. I like the light being higher, but they liked the PLM at the lower position.
So far I like the two PLMs (sm & lg) I have used. Nice flat wall of light with a crisp look. If you shoot portraits (I seldom do) I'd get the 86" white as well.
Profoto lights powered with a 1200ws D4. The head for the PLM had the frosted dome removed.
Camera was a 1Ds MkII tethered to a Mac Mini running Capture One 4. No color correction required, so the PLM is color neutral.
Maybe some more when my camera gets back from Canon, Irvine.
BTW all equipent except the PLM belong to AHA Image Studios.
I like the third one with the PLM up higher much much better, the side of the face shadows with it in the wall of light position just bothers me. Did you end up having to put it on a grip arm or could you get it angled down enough just attached to a head without interfering with the stand?
That's the silver 86" PLM right? I would guess you had the D4 head in the focused position, can you guess the subject distance to the mod in that third shot?
shatterkiss wrote:
Translate that into real-world numbers for those of us that are math-challenged? Assume the 84" PLM is the item in question.
well, we know that D is 84", all we need to know is how deep the parabola is, I dont' have one, if anybody can tell me the depth, measured by laying a straight board or string across the diameter and measuring to the bottom.
Jammy Straub wrote:
I like the third one with the PLM up higher much much better, the side of the face shadows with it in the wall of light position just bothers me. Did you end up having to put it on a grip arm or could you get it angled down enough just attached to a head without interfering with the stand?
That's the silver 86" PLM right? I would guess you had the D4 head in the focused position, can you guess the subject distance to the mod in that third shot?
Thanks for sharing examples!!!
All the lighting set-ups ,except for the last one are the same. Center of light about five feet off the ground and mounted at 90 degrees to the floor (vertical). The center of the light is aimed behind the people several feet. They are being lit by the bottom left quadrant of the 86" PLM. The camera position determined where the PLM would sit (an 86 " PLM can get in the way). The large circle of flat light makes this possible. Doesn't make any difference whether you are in the center or out by the edge, the stop's the same.
The last shot the center of the PLM is seven plus feet up. Tilted down 30-40 degrees. And almost behind camera. BTW the camera was mounted on a Foba Studio stand, sorta like they use to mount view cameras. Not small. So between the PLM, the Foba and an air conditioning outlet we were a little cramped for space
About eight foot (center of light) and tilted down, seems like it would be about right for my style. Anywhere from behind camera to about 30-40 degrees off center.
The 86" PLM was mounted on a Matthews C-stand and as long as you are pointed from verticle to straight down the will be no interference with the stand. This is one advantage over a big octa
From the catch lights in the subjects' eyes, the main light seems far way from the subject(s). I can use a 45" umbrella to achieve a similar size of catch light. Can you try to have some other shots with a much closer PLM placement?
c.d.embrey wrote:
All the lighting set-ups ,except for the last one are the same...
The 86" PLM was mounted on a Matthews C-stand and as long as you are pointed from verticle to straight down the will be no interference with the stand. This is one advantage over a big octa
Awesome, thanks for the info! 8 feet to the center of the PLM, definitely not an indoor residential sort of setup.
I'd love to see what light patterns this thing generates (fall-off etc). I wonder if somebody would be willing to shoot some photos of this thing pointed into a large white wall...
vicina.info wrote:
From the catch lights in the subjects' eyes, the main light seems far way from the subject(s). I can use a 45" umbrella to achieve a similar size of catch light. Can you try to have some other shots with a much closer PLM placement?
First photo the subject (white t-shirt) is about four feet from the PLM. Because of the shape of the PLM and the angle it is to the subject, it appears that only about half of it is lit from his position. BTW to get a 5.6 took only 19ws. Seems to be as efficient as Paul Buff sez.
The second, third and forth are from 6-8 feet away.
The last is from about fifteen feet. Can your 45" umbrella produce this kind of light from 15 feet
Don't know when I'll next be shooting people. Next job is to shoot portraits of some historical racing engines.
The photos look like they are shot with a Nikon or canon speedlight with a defuser dome on.
Not good lighting at all.
Very bad examples so far.
Would love to see some photos shot using the PLM from someone that knows how to use it,,
This is how umbrellas should have always been. (How many millions have been sold in the history of photography?) But nobody till now had the brains to figure it out.
I really like the light quality at this point. I guess this will obligate many umbrellators to think about light direction.
I don't share your enthusiasm. At this point, there hasn't been anything posted that makes this modifier distinctive from your average $18 umbrella. I would really like to see someone take Simon up on his offer and let him have a go at it at his studio... Um, no pressure there, Simon.
Deezie wrote:
I don't share your enthusiasm. At this point, there hasn't been anything posted that makes this modifier distinctive from your average $18 umbrella. I would really like to see someone take Simon up on his offer and let him have a go at it at his studio... Um, no pressure there, Simon.
Deezie, I'm in Huntington Beach. I'd be more than happy to loan you a sm, med and lg PLM for a few days. My Camera won't be back from Irvine before the end of the week. Let me know today and you can have them tomorrow.
Deezie wrote:
I don't share your enthusiasm. At this point, there hasn't been anything posted that makes this modifier distinctive from your average $18 umbrella. I would really like to see someone take Simon up on his offer and let him have a go at it at his studio... Um, no pressure there, Simon.
No pressure received! I'm in the studio tomorrow and Wednesday shooting model tests, would be happy to have someone come by with one and we can shoot a few samples between setups.
I agree with you, though...c.d.'s results remind me of the light produced by a Westcott Soft Silver umbrella, though obviously on a larger scale and with better output over distance. This isn't a bad thing, as that's nice light and being able to cast it over distance is a good thing. I'd be worried about the utility of that, though: as people have mentioned, the best use I can think of for it is overpowering daylight on a bigger scale, but are you really going to use an open 86" umbrella outdoors? Even on a heavy stand with multiple sandbags I'd be worried about turning it inside-out in a light breeze.
I've been tempted to order one just to satisfy my own curiosity, but I'm not convinced my curiosity is worth $90 - I've already got enough modifiers kicking around that seemed like good ideas at the time but rarely get touched now.
