Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category

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Manly Dam Remote Flash and Video Tests

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Today’s goals were to test some mountain bike set-ups and remote flash set-ups. I am hoping to put in a good display at the MTB world champs in September with both stills and video snippets.

VIDEO TESTS
The main test here was sound. I am using the JCV 3CCD HD camcorder because of its compact size, but the on board sound is none too crash hot. I’ve made a lead that goes from the 3.5mm stereo jack to 2 x XLR connectors. These are attached to RODE M3 9Volt Powered Microphones. I wanted external sound and to exaggerate the stereo affect by spacing the mics well apart.
The first example is with runners….


Then MTB’ers….the set-up is at the end of this one.

FLASH TESTS
I’ve still got quite a bit of work to do on this, but getting there. My main problem is the lighting and location. Full sun is not too good, full shade or heavily backlit are good, but you need to get a location of the course that has these conditions, and a descent spot.
The Dual flash is working well. Shot most of today at 1/1000 sec and f5.6. The PocketWizards work really well with the high speed sync. Hypersync is ok from 1/400 – 1/800, but over that it’s not all that good.


Heres a video of the last setup I tried….

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Posted in Flash, Mountain Bike, Pocket Wizard, remote, Sport, Video | No Comments »

Swimming Remotes with Duane at SportingImages…

Monday, April 20th, 2009

I had a great week last week with Duane, Lucas and Matt from Sporting Images.Duane has a great attitude towards trying remotes and he let me give some shots a go.

The first shot we tried was from the under-pool port holes. I’d never been down under the Sydney Olympic Aquatic Center, so this was a great thrill.

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This shot was not without it’s problems. My camera (1DMK2N) worked ok, but had to shoot at a challenging ISO3200. Duane’s amazing 5DMK2 was shooting at ISO6400 and the shots were amazingly clear, however, I couldn’t stop that set-up from falling asleep after a few minutes. My remote cables are home made and I hadn’t tried them on a 5D MK2, so they were likely the problem.

The second shot was a high shot of the starting blocks. It was a 1DMK2N at ISO3200 in TV Mode at 1/400th Second. The shot is part of an image montage product that Sporting Imagessell. This shot worked well……when I had it focussed correctly (I’ll get to that issue in a later post).

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Images are from the 2009 Australian Age Championships. Images for sale through Sporting Images.

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Posted in Pocket Wizard, remote, Sport, swimming, Video, Workshop | No Comments »

Light Beam Trigger – MTB Testing Session….

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Some time ago I built a light beam trigger for cameras. I have sold these to some mates and they have been working ok. I wanted to test a few things today, one was to run the beam switch from a 9Volt standard battery. Some feedback, was that the 12V lead acid battery was not that easy to move around (Point Taken), the second test was to find Mountain Bike positions to suit to the beam switch.

The First thing to do is to test the theory in the comefort of your own home.

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The first test in the field was a horizontal Front 3/4 with a 16-35mm…..not a bad shot, but there was some motion blur as the subject passes across the frame. I moved the shutter up to 1/800th and it was better, but still not great. If it’s dark and in the morning, use a flash and 2nd curtain, or in full light use a high shutter speed.

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Next was the same idea, but in portrait. 16-35 portrait. The problem with this one was that the position on the track made a great difference to the framing of the subject. i.e. far more out of frame shots….This is not a keeper.

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Third was Fish-eye in Horizontal. Again, not really all that crash hot, as you get the beam switch in the frame, and you need to shoot so close to the target it will make identifying them from their race numbers far tougher.

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Fourth was more like the shot I might be after. The theory is the opposite to before where you shoot the wide shot with a hand held camera and the long shot with the beam switch remote. Problems here are with set-up time and location. If you have the time to get this right, it’ll be really nice.

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This next one is the same as before but in portrait…not bad either

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Same ideas the the two above, just lower and in horizontal. The might be the easiest to set-up overall. Camera on a tripod, entire track in the frame (minus beam switch stands and me). As with the other remote shots, metering is the key. As you may be in the location for some time, the light will change.

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So what’s the best solution?? From this set of tests, I’d say use a wide hand held lens up close so you can move with the subject, and a long remote shot in Horizontal across the entire track. This all depends on the location and the light conditions, so It’ll have to be trial and error.

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Posted in Mountain Bike, Pocket Wizard, Sport, Video | No Comments »

Using Flashes on Mountain Bike Photography…

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

This time was the same, but different. On the JetBlack 24hour mountain bike event, the conditions were poor, but the expectation of results was high. Due to the continual rain I had to shoot at ISO1600 all day and sadly the aperture was low at f4-f5.6 for most of the day. this meant using flash for basically the the entire event.

I can’t post any photos of the competitors as that breaches my contract, but they are at www.cycle-photos.com

I had to cover the race start, and 6 locations in 8 hours, so being mobile was very important. I was on the MTB course in difficult locations in rainy and muddy conditions so everything had to be rain-proof, and able to work all day without interruption.
To achieve this I used the Canon 580EX with a CP-P3 battery pack (both inside zip-loc bags), a mini tripod and clamp mount, and my “custom” 15 Meter off-shoe cord.

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As the flash is closer to the subject, and using ETTL, it works as if it was on your hot-shoe, but saves power, batteries, melt downs etc….

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The idea behind this, is that the flashes output power Guide Number (GN) is a function of aperture and distance to the subject (GN = distance × f-number). Lets pretend GN is basically flash power. To use this set-up all day you need the flash to use low power all day. Your aperture (f-number) is set as part of your main exposure (In my case it was ISO1600 f4-f5.6 and shutters from 1/800 to 1/10 for the arty shutter-drag shots).
To keep the power as low as possible all day, I have moved the flash closer to the subject, meaning it needs far less power to illuminate the subject than if the flash was on the camera.

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I know the flash is in a stream….it wasn’t when I started!!!

Other benefits of this set-up is that you can have the flashes almost anywhere. The photo below, the flash was in a tree over my left shoulder. The same principles apply with ETTL sending it’s pre-pulse and then firing…..only the flash is off the camera.

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With the saving in power, I had 660 odd shots from one CP-E3 and one set of flash batteries. Makes a wet day far easier if you don’t have to change batteries!!!

As always there is a down side. I was lucky with this event that the competitors were spread out. The 580 does have the ability to melt down if you drive it too hard. While this set-up will save power, I’m not too sure how it would go if you have lots of shots close together. We’ll see later I guess…

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Posted in Adventure Race, Flash, Mountain Bike, remote, Sport | No Comments »

Using Flashes on Adventure Racing Photography….

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

I covered some adventure races late last year, and I experimented with using ETTL infra-Red flashes. I wanted to get the main flash off-camera to give a deeper light affect on the subject.

Here’s an extreme example…..

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The flash off to camera left is the main light source with the on-camera (on flash bracket – on-camera) flash is acting more as fill. This type of light gives the subject more depth and makes them look more natural.



So what’s the benefit of this in reality…… Well I found the greatest aid was speed in the field. You’re not shooting in a studio with a fixed subject and hours of time. you have 40 seconds to get your shot. With ETTL the remote flashes are already set.

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All you need to do is place the remote flash, rotate the flash head so the IR sensor is pointing at the camera (to receive the ETTL Signals) and the head is pointing at the subject. The shoot away.

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So Here are the settings :

Camera – I like to shoot in manual, so set your aperture, shutter and ISO to what you want. Remember that you can do ANY shutter speed as the ETTL will do High-Speed Sync. I generally try to shoot the ambient under exposed by 1-2 stops. This creates more depth to the image and brings the subject out of the shot.

Main Flash (On Camera)- you can have this flash on the camera’s hot shoe, but I like to have it on a flash bracket and use an OC-E3 ETTL cable. I’ll explain why later. I set this flash to Master and to channel A. Read the manual for how to do this bit. On the Main Flash you can set the ratios of A:B, i.e. A is 2 x as bright as B or vice-versa. The fact that you have this control on-camera (or on-flash) saves a load of time.

2nd/3rd flashes – I generally use 1, but you can use 2 or more to increase the flash intensity. Set these to Slave and to channel B. Make sure they are in the line-of-site of the IR transmitter of the Main Flash….more later.

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So what are the problems; Basically to need to have the flashes in line-of-site of one another. If they can’t “see” each other, they can’t send ETTL flash info. This is why I use a flash bracket. This way I can move the MAIN flash around so the head is pointed at the subject and the IR transmitter is pointed to the remote flashes. It’s the same with the remote flashes. The IR receiver and the head may be pointing in different directions to work.

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I have found this method fast, accurate and controllable when in the field. To have all the flash setting under your fingers is a great asset. Go and give it a go…..

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Posted in Adventure Race, commercial, Flash, publishing, remote, Sport | No Comments »

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