This isn’t my video, but it’s well worth watching, for anyone that uses off-camera flash.  Yep, that’s me, on a “bounceflash” blog.  But, hey…

This warrants a really long post, but I may be interrupted by the demands of raising children, so I’ll start out with some brief facts….

• 9 foot roll of white Savage paper at Ball Photo – $90
• One white umbrella – came with a set of Smith Victor lights that we have but NEVER use.
• Tall tripod to mount the umbrella and flash – free gift from a friend at work.
• 2 Nikon SB-20 speedlites – about $90.  Almost the greatest flashes known to man.  Working SB-24s are a little better.
• Tripods for SB-20s – unknown cost
• PVC stand  for paper – cost uncertain, probably about $40, plus a couple hours of time.  (Used the “stick in a bucket” method…)
• Fotodiox optical slave – $15 at www.mpex.com
• Umbrella bracket – $15 at www.mpex.com
• Ebay triggers for SB-20s – maybe $40??
• Nikon SB-24 – $50, but the doggone thing went haywire and didn’t work for the shoot
• Bowers SFD35C flash in full power only mode, shooting into and through the umbrella.  $80 or so.
• Lots of AA batteries.
• One 4×8 sheet of white tile board from Lowe’s.
• Spring clamps
• Cardboard gobos
• Willing subjects

Karma manned (womanned???) the camera; my job here was lighting and setup.  We set up the studio in our living room – I should have taken some setup shots, but there was one overwhelming lesson to be learned.  The lighting grip should ALWAYS verify the time of the shoot.  I somehow got it in my head that we were shooting at 7 pm, so I left work at 5:30 and breezed home and began the setup.  Only then did I learn that the shoot was at 6 pm.  Oops.  So, the “clients”, who are good personal friends of ours, had to wait a few minutes.  Luckily, we were still shooting by 6:15 or so, and all went really well with that. 

The friends are a local couple who have five children – four girls and a 1 year old boy.  Or is he two?  I can’t remember.  He’s walking, but he’s LITTLE.  The girls are extremely energetic – the oldest is ten or so?? – but they were a MARVELOUS group to shoot.  Maybe we can get permission to post a couple shots.  We couldn’t have possibly had a better group to guinea pig our studio.  Thanks so much to the Sisks.

The key problem we have had with this setup is spill from the background “hazing” over the subjects.  We still got a few shots that show some of it, but the use of the umbrellaed key light definitely solved the majority of it.

Another key lesson is to always shoot some shots with the kids on the floor looking up, so that the catch lights get in both eyes and are clear and bright.  I consider good catch lights to be a definite indicator of professional photography, so we will continue to work on this.

We really liked the results.  Using the tile board as a “floor” is an AMAZING idea – thank you SO much, Zack Arias!!!  We’ve still got “techniques” to perfect, but this was a really good start.

Camera was a Canon 30D.  All shots in RAW, processed with Canon DPP and PaintShop Pro.  That, too, is Karma’s job.  We use SmugMug for print sales, and I couldn’t possibly recommend them any higher.  They are fantastic. 

I’ve recently swapped backpacks with my wife, who is REALLY the photog in the family.  For a work related trip to Washington, DC, a few months back, she had purchased a nice Tamrac camera backpack with a laptop slot. 

Then, she bought a 70-200mm f4L, and that piece of glass doesn’t fit. 

There are also a couple of smaller backpack cases around here, one of which had been my mainstay, and another laptop backpack that was “mine”.

With the advent of the “L glass” the duffel bag that I had once converted to be a camera case for all my junk – I have more stuff, she does more real work – became “hers”. 

So, we worked out a trade.  I gave her the laptop backpack I had been using, and she gave me the laptop / camera combo backpack that she had NOT been using. 

I loaded and arranged.  It weighs a ton with the laptop in, but such is life.

Today, out romping around, I came upon a chance to take a shot of a full rainbow.  Full arc.

Pull over.  Grab camera.  Ooops, 28-135 is too tight.  Need my “kit” lens, the 18-55.  Grab it.  Remove the Tamron 28-135.  Aw, man, this is the 75-200 (the old junky one from WAY before the “L”)…  Find the kit lens, replace the 75-200, mount the kit, remove the lens cap, turn on the camera… 

Daggone, the rainbow is gone.

Always know which lens is where. 

Always.

Tonight, I neutered my SB24.

Somehow, in the process, I apparently repaired the malfunction.  My only guess is that there were small gaps between critical pieces of metal somewhere in the foot that had been compromised by handling, age, or even heat. 

Taking the foot off was a matter of seven screws total.  I removed the TTL pins, taped them up and stowed them inside the plug compartment, and reassembled.  It took two tries, because the first time, I failed to properly tighten the three internal screws. 

There’s a nice little tutorial over on Sean’s site for removing the unnecessary TTL pins.  Maybe it helped with my problem, but I bet it was the dis-assembly and reassembly process that made it happen.