New Lighting Toys :)

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crycocyon

Senior Member
Calumet Travelite Kit w. 375 and 750 strobes. Arrived today and so I went through the setup and basic testing of the system. 46" umbrellas. The stands go higher than the 8' ceiling in my living room (!). Funny how they call it the travelite when the kit is anything but light. This is like Christmas, hehe.

NewCalumettoys.jpg
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
Thanks, the 750 is seriously bright when it goes off at full power. Imagine when your Speedlight goes off and you see it by accident directly. Imagine that, only the light is coming from the entire room, so that the reflections are as bright as the light that would come directly from a speedlight. :eek:
 
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STM

Senior Member
I trust it you have a flash meter, right? I think you are going to find a 750 w/s head is going to be A LOT more light than you need. I have two 550 w/s heads I use in softboxes and even with them both set at 25% power, they are often still require an f/11 @ ISO 100. I can't put ND gels in front of them because the modeling lights would melt the gels. I usually wind up needing to use an ND filter.
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
Well I was planning to shoot TTL but yes I should get something like a Sekonic flash meter. For now I'm just using the histogram and setting aperture and shutter speed in manual based on test exposures, and running a flash cord from the camera to the primary flash. Yes, I noticed the power is unreal. For the first time I'm using ISO 100 and even with that I was using f14, f16 on the 50 mm. So I actually went to the Lo ISO settings, although base ISO on the D800 is 100 so won't really gain anything with that. I bet you could get some cool effects with an ND filter. BTW I did take quite a few test shots of my wife but seeing as she was not really presentable and in her pjs I didn't really feel like sharing, hehe. She was occasionally using her own camera (Samsung Galaxy) to trigger the flashes, hehe.
 
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STM

Senior Member
crycocyon said:
Well I was planning to shoot TTL but yes I should get something like a Sekonic flash meter. For now I'm just using the histogram and setting aperture and shutter speed in manual based on test exposures, and running a flash cord from the camera to the primary flash. Yes, I noticed the power is unreal. For the first time I'm using ISO 100 and even with that I was using f14, f16 on the 50 mm. So I actually went to the Lo ISO settings, although base ISO on the D800 is 100 so won't really gain anything with that. I bet you could get some cool effects with an ND filter. BTW I did take quite a few test shots of my wife but seeing as she was not really presentable and in her pjs I didn't really feel like sharing, hehe. She was occasionally using her own camera (Samsung Galaxy) to trigger the flashes, hehe.
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I use my strobes purely in manual and use a Sekonic L-358 flash/ambient meter to set my exposure. Trial and error is a very time intensive way to do things. It is much better to set your lighting ratios based upon what the meter tells you.
 
RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
crycocyon said:
Calumet Travelite Kit w. 375 and 750 strobes. Arrived today and so I went through the setup and basic testing of the system. 46" umbrellas. The stands go higher than the 8' ceiling in my living room (!). Funny how they call it the travelite when the kit is anything but light. This is like Christmas, hehe.

View attachment 41495
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Congrats on the new toys!! Xmas in June is good!!! (How do I know, a 7100 and an Ultra Wide! :)

Look forward to seein the results! Enjoy..

Pat in NH
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
That L-358 is cool, and no batteries. Did you find you had to calibrate it against something? How's the accuracy? But it can't trigger the flashes, correct?
 
RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
crycocyon said:
That L-358 is cool, and no batteries. Did you find you had to calibrate it against something? How's the accuracy? But it can't trigger the flashes, correct?
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Actually it can but you have to get an optional transmitter for it and as far as I know, it is only compatible with Pocket Wizards.

Pat in NH
 
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Geoffc

Senior Member
crycocyon said:
That L-358 is cool, and no batteries. Did you find you had to calibrate it against something? How's the accuracy? But it can't trigger the flashes, correct?
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I got some pocket wizards and a sekonic 478dr. No wires and I can even set the power on speedlights.
 
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STM

Senior Member
crycocyon said:
That L-358 is cool, and no batteries. Did you find you had to calibrate it against something? How's the accuracy? But it can't trigger the flashes, correct?
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The L-358 does need a battery, a CR123, but it will last for a very long time. It is extremely accurate and requires no calibration. I also use it a lot in the ambient incident mode. I use it to trigger the strobes for measurement with a 12' synch cord, but use wireless on the camera and the strobes for taking images. It could work wirelessly, but it would be a little cumbersome with something hanging off of it like that. I guess you could use it in the "non-cord" mode and trigger your strobes wirelessly from the camera, but that is not really useful, as I use it to check all the lights and ensure their lighting ratios are correct.
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
More goodies..... :)

Just got the Yongnuo's today. Worked like a charm out of the box. Now I can have the camera in one hand and the flash in another....so cool. These can also be used to trigger the Calumet lights. Pictured below with the D800 and SB-800.

YongnuoFlashtrigger1.jpg

YongnuoFlashtrigger2.jpg

YongnuoFlashtrigger3.jpg

I read this recently:

"The YN-622C will almost certainly be cheaper than the PocketWizard FlexTT5, which is an industry leader. While the FlexTT5 is much more advanced on paper, some photographers have to put a sock on their flashes for it to work reliably in practice due to radio interference. This is unlikely to be the case for the 2.4GHz YN-622."

And...

"High speed sync is enabled by default. If your flash doesn’t support HSS then the maximum sync speed is 1/250s or less, depending on your camera.

There is also a mode called ‘Super Sync’ for manual flashes with long durations (e.g. studio heads). Set your camera to HSS mode and plug the flash into the receiver’s PC sync port. Yongnuo warns that Super Sync results may vary depending on your camera and flash combination."


I ran around the house just doing random test shots with different flash angles.

planttestshot.jpg
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
So I did some further testing of these radio triggers and find something baffling. I can hold the SB800 with my left hand and the camera with the right hand, and shoot with the flash held out to my left at arms length while pointing at the subject, and I'm shooting in TTL on the units, A mode on the D800. I've got the SB800 at -1 1/3 just to reduce the light a bit. But when I take a series of photos without even moving the flash or changing anything, the first image is dark as if no flash went off, then the second one is fine, good exposure, then the third image is way to bright and the flash almost seems like it goes off full power. I can repeat this strange behavior every time I change a setting on the camera or just move to another subject. The flash itself is set to TTL and shows all the correct settings on the camera, so the communication is fine. And if I angle the flash away from the subject, oftentimes the images look as if there is no flash. Yet if the flash is on camera without the triggers, there's plenty of light and correct exposure. Flash settings in the menu of the camera are all on TTL. I fail to see what is causing this inconsistency in the exposures for sequential and otherwise identically set up images. I'm shooting at 1/250th second (AP) sync setting in the menu, but when the triggers are on, the camera shows 1/60th of a second on the LCD readout on the top. Really strange.

Might be time for pocket wizards. :confused:
 
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RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
crycocyon said:
So I did some further testing of these radio triggers and find something baffling. I can hold the SB800 with my left hand and the camera with the right hand, and shoot with the flash held out to my left at arms length while pointing at the subject, and I'm shooting in TTL on the units, A mode on the D800. I've got the SB800 at -1 1/3 just to reduce the light a bit. But when I take a series of photos without even moving the flash or changing anything, the first image is dark as if no flash went off, then the second one is fine, good exposure, then the third image is way to bright and the flash almost seems like it goes off full power. I can repeat this strange behavior every time I change a setting on the camera or just move to another subject. The flash itself is set to TTL and shows all the correct settings on the camera, so the communication is fine. And if I angle the flash away from the subject, oftentimes the images look as if there is no flash. Yet if the flash is on camera without the triggers, there's plenty of light and correct exposure. Flash settings in the menu of the camera are all on TTL. I fail to see what is causing this inconsistency in the exposures for sequential and otherwise identically set up images. I'm shooting at 1/250th second (AP) sync setting in the menu, but when the triggers are on, the camera shows 1/60th of a second on the LCD readout on the top. Really strange.

Might be time for pocket wizards. :confused:
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I know this may sound stupid... but it is almost as if you are set on Bracket mode....

Pat in NH
 
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crycocyon

Senior Member
Actually not stupid, I can check that, thanks for the suggestion. I did notice at one point I was getting the pre-flashes for TTL, but then I wasn't so I'll have to play with it a bit more.
 
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