Posts Tagged ‘Bracket’

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.

1dn_4090-small.JPG

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….

1dn_3959-small.JPG

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.

1dn_4420-small.JPG

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.

1dn_4128-small.JPG

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…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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…..

20081122_urbanmax_syd_0228-small.jpg

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.

20081213_tough-bloke-challenge_0089-small.jpg

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.

20081122_urbanmax_syd_0208-small.jpg

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.

20081213_tough-bloke-challenge_0001-small.jpg

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.

20081213_tough-bloke-challenge_0082-small.jpg

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…..

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