workshop view: Jersey City and Manhattan - July 2010 « Neil vN

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workshop view: Jersey City and Manhattan – July 2010

July 23, 2010

Aleona caught in mid-air during the recent flash photography workshop. As part of an explanation of High-Speed Flash Sync, she patiently vaulted into the air numerous times for everyone who attended the 2nd day of the workshop. As before, the 2nd day is the on-location fun practical segment of the workshop which takes place in Manhattan.

The first day of the workshop still takes place in Jersey City at a hotel where we have a grand view of Manhattan …

A few more images from the workshop in progress:

Just before lunchtime on the 2nd day, we had a massive rainstorm, so we continued under the awnings for a while until we finally broke for lunch at a nearby Thai restaurant. And yes, I did stand in the middle of the road in the rain to get this shot. I switched the transceivers to the same channel so I could fire both the flashes at the same time. A thank you to the group for cooperating for the shot. : )

I want to thank everyone who attended. It was really nice meeting everyone, and I hope the workshop was a huge benefit to your photography. A big thank you to our four models, Aleona, Anelisa, Catherine and Sana. And thank you to Jessica, Robert and Richard for helping out and assisting again.

If anyone is interested in attending a workshop, the final workshop for the year will take place on Sept 13-14, 2010. The next workshop is tentatively slated for May next year, so this will be the last opportunity for a while to attend. More details about the workshop, as well as registration, can be found on this page.

Finally, a few more images from the workshop, and technical details (incl the image at the top):

settings: 1/2000 @ f3.2 @ 400 ISO;
Manual flash at full power from a Slaved speedlight, controlled wirelessly with the on-camera flash set to Master.
The speedlight was still mounted on the softbox, but we had removed the two baffles to ensure enough light reached her from the flash. Going to HSS kills at least half the power from your flash, so you have to adjust for that. The easiest is usually to move the flash closer. Or add more speedlights.

Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S .. set to 30mm; 2x Nikon SB-900 (B&H)
Lastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox (B&H); Quantum SC battery pack (B&H)
Manfrotto 680B monopod (B&H);
brass stud to attach softbox to monopod (B&H)

settings: 1/200 @ f3.5 @ 200 ISO; TTL flash at -0.7 FEC.
The Slaved flash was in a softbox, fired by the on-camera flash set to Master.
The Master flash’s output was disabled.

Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S .. set to 50mm; 2x Nikon SB-900 (B&H)
Lastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox (B&H); Quantum SC battery pack (B&H)
Manfrotto 680B monopod (B&H);
brass stud to attach softbox to monopod (B&H)

settings: 1/125 @ f2.2 @ 800 ISO;
on-camera TTL flash (+0.7 FEC), bounced off the outside wall of the hotel to our right.
Nikon D3; Nikon 50mm f1.4 AF-S (B&H); Nikon SB-900 (B&H)

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23 Comments »

i still cant understand, how d3 can get HSS.

i thought 1/250th is the highest sync speed with flash, 1/320th with SBs

can my d700 achieve that hss?

thank you

Comment by Briand — July 23, 2010 @ 9:47 am
Brian … custom function e1 on your D700.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 23, 2010 @ 12:43 pm
Hi Neil
I am waiting for your next workshop in Bay Area.
For the above shoot I understand that you used Quantum Battery pack with SB900 for faster recycle time. Is it safe to use SB900 with this battery pack, and what cord we need to connnect this.
Thanks.
-MP

Comment by MP Singh — July 23, 2010 @ 1:38 pm
Is it safe to use a Quantum battery with any speedlight? Nope, not if you machine gun it. But if you use it with common sense, you should be fine. The cables are listed on this page of Quantum goodies.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 23, 2010 @ 1:50 pm
MP .. the likelihood of the workshops being taken on the road again in the USA is low. The logistics and costs of it all means that I would have to substantially increase the attendance fee for the workshop to make it worthwhile. By the time I’ve paid my assistant, the flights, taxi rides, hotel, venue, catering, models, etc … I make surprisingly little money.

For that extra cost I’d have to charge to make the traveling workshop financially viable, someone who wants to attend the workshop might as well fly out to New York and make a weekend trip of it.

There is more to this, but it all just adds up to making it less feasible for me to fly around the USA for workshops.

Now, the UK and Ireland and Europe is another story .. I’d still like to get another UK / Ireland workshop series going next year, and possibly the Netherlands, and also Prague. I’m really going to try and get these running for next year, but we’ll see.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 23, 2010 @ 1:56 pm
Hey Neil,
I just bought my second Sb-900 to shoot into my Lastolite box because using PW’s became a chore having to hoist down my light stand to adjust power. I thought that the 900 set to master with the output disabled would not flash at all. I thought it would be like the SU-800. I can swivel the 900 to point away from my subject when it triggers the other 900 but I was a little disappointed that even when the master’s output is disabled it still puts out light. Am I doing this correctly?

Comment by Alfred — July 23, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
Alfred, if you have disabled the Master speedlight’s output, ie it shows up as: M —
then you are doing it correctly. What you are seeing there as flash of light, is just the communication signals to the Slaved speedlight.

To avoid this you would have to use the SU-800 (for Canon shooters this will be the ST-E2). However with a speedlight as the on-camera Master, you have the ability to point it directly at the Slave.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 23, 2010 @ 4:02 pm
Wow! Love that first image!

Comment by sandy redding — July 23, 2010 @ 6:04 pm
HSS offers amazing possibilities (geez I thought you Nikon people called it FP) This is my first try at it, yep flash @ 1/6000 sec.

http://www.briancareyphotography.com/People/Portraits/12182276_gDBka#879012530_9VWUz

Needed the shutter speed to keep the sky!

Comment by Brian Carey — July 23, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
Brian … cool shot! Unusual angle, and I love the urban feel of it.

I would have to disagree with your comment though about needing the shutter speed to keep the detail in the sky. You simply can’t away from the fact that high-speed sync reduces the efficiency of your flash. So while you may be successful at a higher-than-max sync speed, the flash *is* working harder to give you correct exposure.

And quite often, you will be out of the range of what the flash can do, but you would’ve had correct exposure while staying within normal sync (max sync speed and slower).

Ultimately, to keep detail in the sky, you need to expose specifically for the sky – whether you control your shutter speed, or aperture or ISO .. or a combination of those.

So the point is that your shot worked and you kept detail in the sky, but you would’ve been equally successful using your aperture .. with the added benefit that your flash has an easier time.

best

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 23, 2010 @ 6:20 pm
This is a shot a buddy of mine took with an Alien Bees at 1/8000 sec. Worth a look and a read!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevor303/4801318257/

BTW love your work Neil!

Comment by Brian Carey — July 23, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
aaaah, I think he did something similar to this – syncing at higher than max sync speed.

(Incidentally, the photo in that link is also of Aleona.)

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 23, 2010 @ 6:30 pm
Neil ,
I have 2 sb600 and 2 shoot thru 42inch umbrellas, can I do the same without the power of the sb900′s.

Also, what is your work flow after a shoot.

Comment by Jerry — July 23, 2010 @ 6:52 pm
Jerry, you certainly do the same. I might be a stretch though when working in bright light where the SB-900 and 580EX II speedlights are struggling.

Regarding my workflow – there is a series of posts that are nearly ready. Check back in.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 24, 2010 @ 7:21 pm
Dear Neil
First off a BIG thanks for what you have done to improve my photography.
Q.What is your prefered master unit when using HSS flash outside=SU-800 SB-900 SB-800.I have all three and would be interested to know your prfered master unit.
Many thanks Paul

Comment by Paul Keith Dickinson — July 25, 2010 @ 6:12 am
Paul, I really like the simplicity and compact size of the Nikon SU-800 and Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitters. Outdoors though, I prefer the actual speedlights as Masters, since I can swivel and rotate the head to point to the Slave flashgun which might be to the side of me or behind me.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 25, 2010 @ 11:25 am
Spectacular shots, glad I was a part of it.

Comment by Robert Gordon — July 25, 2010 @ 4:27 pm
Hi Neil,

Thank you so much for all you’ve done to teach us at the seminar. I would recommend it to anyone. I learned so much, it was worth every penny! I thought I’d share a couple shots from the workshop. (hopefully this lets me post them)

http://tinypic.com/r/fjf1p3/3
http://tinypic.com/r/1oq8gn/3

Comment by Danielle Finley — July 27, 2010 @ 2:38 pm
Hi Neil…thank you so much for a wonderful workshop (Day 1 for me) in Jersey City…Wow did you put your heart and soul into it it…You were truly concerned that we were getting it…I did get some and I now have had an “ah ha” moment when I came home and practiced for properly metering for a white dress (in my case bathroom towel)

I am so glad that I bought your first book….knowing that you were following your book at the workshop made my life a lot easier when I came home….it is starting to make sense.

The models were great…both girls worked so hard in less than perfect conditions….my hat is off to them….

Your assistants were great….your investment in your workshop was obvious….we each had our own “pocket wizards” to use….we each got our very own “black foamie thing” too courtesy of you….

Don’t want to say too much more because i am afraid when I go to sign up for next May there will not be any openings….I am seriously considering contacting you at some point for some personal tutoring…just to nail some of the concepts….

To everyone who has not bought Neil’s first book….”what are you waiting for?…” It is a MUST read…..and finally I can’t wait for your second book in early 2011.

Neil….again thanks for everything…the workshop was truly money well spent…$500 for about 11 hours of teaching….Anthony

PS…a LOL moment due to my stupidity….when we all went outside to take pictures as it was getting dark….the lighting was perfect…we had the building to bounce our flash off of…the model was perfect….and what did I inadvertantly do…I switched from “RAW FINE” to “JPEG BASIC”….silly me!!!!!!!!!

Comment by Anthony — July 29, 2010 @ 1:18 pm
Neil, love your work. You’re the best $500 one could ever spend (on training). Are you going to use or demo FlexTT5′s from Canon. I’ve been using them of late and still getting use to them but I love the radio ETTL. The funny thing I didn’t realize was I went beyond the 250 synch speed on my canon 5d and it automatically took care of HSS. No extra buttons, no functions it just worked! But since your the mentor of many of us, please take up the TT5 and make us better. Kind regards,

Comment by Barry Davis — July 29, 2010 @ 4:23 pm
Barry … thanks! I did try out the mini TT1 and Flex TT5 units when they were released, but I wasn’t too impressed. Perhaps things have been improved since then.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 31, 2010 @ 1:26 pm
Hi Neil,

I missed your San Francisco workshops, do you think you’ll be back any time soon? I would jump at the chance to do an all day workshop in San Francisco. Hopefully will see you soon.

Regards,

Richard

Comment by Richard Selby — August 1, 2010 @ 2:59 am
Richard .. check my comment #6. : )

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — August 1, 2010 @ 3:03 am