Boston POTN Meet (2)

Mistabernie wrote in post #15194591
Brendan, Westcott makes some nice softboxes that fold up as umbrellas. I'm trying to find the information on them, I saw a few of them on Sunday as demonstrated by Syl Arena (I bet if you check out his gear section on pixsylated.com they might be linked)

Yeah but then i have to get the rings and such, umbrella's are just easier. That and i already purchased the PLM's. I'll rough it out with them and see how they go. Thanks for the link.

20DNewbie wrote in post #15194730
As for umbrellas I picked up these ones, cheap on the construction but for the amount of times I'll use them they'll do.

http://www.amazon.com …ef=oh_details_o​04_s00_i00

Edit: Only $21.50 through cowboystudio.

Those are very similar to the Softlighters i was considering getting. The PLM's in white a just overglorified umbrella's, because you aren't really making use of the parabolic qualities if you aren't bouncing light. But i got them because they fold small and the construction quality is quite good, hopefully holding up from airlines baggage crew's handling.

At $35. it's hard to complain or be picky.

DiMAn0684 wrote in post #15194620
the week prior to March 15th works best for me, (carried over PTO expires on the 15th). If we can get a couple more people to sign up we might be able to start planning.

Hmm, i could be convinced to go sooner. Didn't Scott say he couldn't make it before the 15th though?

symbolphoto wrote in post #15195077
Hmm, i could be convinced to go sooner. Didn't Scott say he couldn't make it before the 15th though?

I think he said he could because I remember thinking "Oh, this should work for me." Scott, any input?

Shutter Island with Bernie:

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aka Bernie The Hutt...

Ooh, sunglasses photo, you could put this over in the Tuppers thread like two weeks ago when we were talking glasses.. well, when you guys were talking glasses..

^ that is right, I should have!

Ok, question for those of you that are using speedlights and bouncing with umbrellas. I haven't played around much with them yet and was wondering if you set the flash zoom wide trying to illuminate the entire umbrella(silvered) to bounce or zoom the head a bit to concentrate the light more?

I suppose I could just get off my lazy a** and give it a go myself tomorrow to figure it out.

You basically want it zoomed out as far as you can (wihout the diffusion panel down if your flash has one). If you zoom it in to the max pointed at the center of the umbrella, you're going to minimize your coverage.

Cool, thanks Bernie. I've been watching some youtube videos lately and some of them get a bit contradictory with the others.

To add to that, opposite of popular belief.. results show that there is a sweet spot which is about 14" away as opposed to as far away on the shaft as you can get it. About a 1/4 to 1/2 stop difference.

That's definitely true, but I think the distance matters based on the size of the umbrella used and the number of lights in the umbrella. For example, the sweet spot on a 72" umbrella may be further away so that the widest parts of the flash spread to just about the edges of the umbrella, whereas on a smaller umbrella it may be even closer.

Thanks B, good to know.

● OCF kit - ✔

● Plenty of spare batteries - ✔

● Plenty of sick time left to bang in at work so I can figure out how the hell to use it all - ✔

● Finding smokin hot chicks from the likes of Inked Girls Magazine(FB page) to shoot - ...


Yeah, I suck.

The girls can be easy to find. Try Model Mayhem, do some TFP. Check out the tips and tricks to make sure you find the girls that aren't flakey / won't shows / etc. In my opinion, it's almost harder to find a good place to shoot than it is willing participants to shoot.

Mistabernie wrote in post #15195831
That's definitely true, but I think the distance matters based on the size of the umbrella used and the number of lights in the umbrella. For example, the sweet spot on a 72" umbrella may be further away so that the widest parts of the flash spread to just about the edges of the umbrella, whereas on a smaller umbrella it may be even closer.

Of course. That's an example for the umbrella i'm getting. Not all.