# Experimenting With Lighting



## andyclient (Aug 1, 2009)

Got a couple of remote flash triggers off Ebay so thought i would have a play around with off camera flash , reflectors and mirrors , only one flash unit was used in these as my other units don't seem to work with the trigger unit.

Constructive comments are very welcome

Thanks

Andy

Shot with a Nikon D300 fitted with 18-135 Nikkor lens flash is Nikon speedlight camera in manual shot at 30th sec at f5.6 and f8 i think it was for the Omega , Raw images have had a bit of light fettling in photoshop


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## Tom Radford (Apr 28, 2009)

The shadow on the right hand side on the first is very distracting for me, however the light seems pretty even, maybe increase the exposure ever so slightly.

Both seem to be suffering from pretty bad vignetting. Do you have a filter attached to the lens?

If so try removing it, if not, then you might want to either crop it out, or use some software to remove it.

I like the idea of the second, although it would be even better if the reflection was also sharp and not "crinkled" although I know thats tricky to acheive sometimes.

I dont know what flashguns you have, but most are capable of slave mode, which triggers the flash, from another flash's flash, if that makes sense.

So you could use the trigger to fire one, and as that one fires, the others will also fire. In this mode you will need to manually set the output power of the triggered flashes though.


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## andyclient (Aug 1, 2009)

Tom Radford said:


> The shadow on the right hand side on the first is very distracting for me, however the light seems pretty even, maybe increase the exposure ever so slightly.
> 
> Both seem to be suffering from pretty bad vignetting. Do you have a filter attached to the lens?
> 
> ...


Thanks Tom

I take your point about the shadow it does draw your eye , there is a filter fitted and the lens hood was also fitted , must confess i hadn't noticed the vignetting but now you mention it , it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Do you think it could be the lens hood as well ? I had that fitted to eliminate any glare , would i be better off without it ?

What would be the best thing to try to get the reflected image sharp ? Would having the camera on a tripod help ?

Flashgun wise the other one is a Metz 45 ct-1 but i think i have a problem with the trigger as the speedlight doesn't fire on one of them although the signal light shows its receiving the signal

thanks very much for your input , most appreciated

Cheers

Andy


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## Tom Radford (Apr 28, 2009)

The vignette could be the filter or lens hood, you'll have to try with and without both and see which solves it. The hood wont prevent the glare as such, they are mainly used to stop light coming in from the sides and causing flare. If you position the flashes accordingly then you can control this, and could get away without the hood too.

The filter isnt doing anything other than degrading image quality, so Id remove it for shots like this.

A tripod will help with the reflection, as it definately has some motion blur in there, but it also depends on the actual material its on. Some acrylics are "wavy" in thier nature, so you couldnt do anything about it. Again, its just trial and error to find a good refelctive material.

Im not sure on the flashes, its not my speciality. Ive used 3 Nissin Di622's in slave mode being fired from the on board flash at minimum power and got good results, but I havent ever used the Metz ones.


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## andyclient (Aug 1, 2009)

Tom Radford said:


> The vignette could be the filter or lens hood, you'll have to try with and without both and see which solves it. The hood wont prevent the glare as such, they are mainly used to stop light coming in from the sides and causing flare. If you position the flashes accordingly then you can control this, and could get away without the hood too.
> 
> The filter isnt doing anything other than degrading image quality, so Id remove it for shots like this.
> 
> ...


Thanks again Tom ,fiddled about a bit more today firing the Metz through a sync lead and not remote triggers, also removed the hood and filter (i know the black background hides the fact lol)

Shot using a tripod so no motion blur this time but still a wavy reflection !

The only thing i can think is the mirror being quite thick is getting a reflection from both the glas and the mirror back ?

I'm going to have to try a different type of reflective surface

Here is the result of todays trial , probably to dark with using a black background ?

Comments as ever more than welcome

Cheers

Andy


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## Tom Radford (Apr 28, 2009)

I like that with the black actually, works well.

It must be the surface causing the blurryness in the reflection. It works better in this image than the previous one though.


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## andyclient (Aug 1, 2009)

Tom Radford said:


> I like that with the black actually, works well.
> 
> It must be the surface causing the blurryness in the reflection. It works better in this image than the previous one though.


Thanks Tom , this is a shot that i took on a days studio photography course type thing the reflection was in a piece of gloss black acryllic as opposed to a mirror so have ordered an A5 piece off ebay and will try with that and hopefully get a cleaner reflection ?

Will post results when it turns up (apologies for subject matter lol)

cheers

Andy


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## brad4t (Mar 7, 2012)

Thats a great tip using the gloss acryllic.... looks very proffesional!


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## Barryboy (Mar 21, 2006)

Many years ago when I did quite a lot of photography there was a chap at the local camera club who used a gloss black ceramic wall tile as a base when doing his macro work. It used to look quite good.

Rob


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