Who the heck uses 5,000ws flashes???

But the customer think it is flattering to see their planes against a red sky with the sun behind the plane, then I bet most people would look around and wonder how many Ws they could come up with.

pwm2 wrote in post #16097292
But the customer think it is flattering to see their planes against a red sky with the sun behind the plane, then I bet most people would look around and wonder how many Ws they could come up with.

It clearly works for someone, you sure as hell don't get involved with all that unless you've got a good reason to!

pwm2 wrote in post #16096905
So how do you shoot an airplane against the sun without a flash?

Simple, you turn so that the sun is behind you and use other interesting backdrops instead.

Colorblinded wrote in post #16097218
but it's not "flattering" light based on what I've looked through there so far.

Bingo. It looks horrible. The equivalent of those wedding photographers that use direct flash with their on camera speedlites.

Sorry, i call a spade a spade.

symbolphoto wrote in post #16097553
Bingo. It looks horrible. The equivalent of those wedding photographers that use direct flash with their on camera speedlites.

Considering the distances involved and the size of the flash heads I saw in some of their behind the scenes shots, that's a pretty apt comparison.

I was being snarky with the response. But seriously, it's ugly as hell. My opinion, at least.

Foodguy, do you remember Arthur d'Arazien? I remember reading about a job he did for Fed-Ex some years ago. He only had a short window of time when there would be the number of planes he needed on the ground at the same time. Naturally at night. He was shooting 8x10 transparency film with time exposure and flash. He rented every huge Broncolor unit he could find. I don't remember the output but there were only five of these units in the US at the time IIRC. It was a spectacular photo especially considering he did it on one sheet of film.

He was one of my favorite photographers when I was starting out. Unfortunately I couldn't find much of his work on the net.

Here's a link to a book about his work with a preview. He tells a great story about his time as an assistant to a photographer who shot Broadway productions.

http://books.google.co​m …MN0&dq=Arthur+d​%27Arazien

After shooting some family stuff outside in overcast daylight today, I could easily use another 2400w/s. Having the headroom of 7200ish would have been even better.

Man its surprising how fast you ramp up to full power even when the ceiling is so high- I used to think I would occasionally use full power...

breal101 wrote in post #16098600
Foodguy, do you remember Arthur d'Arazien?

I definitely know the name...a little foggy on specifics. I'll check out the link, thanks.

Interesting how many of these 'old timers' have faded from sight. If you want an exercise in frustration, try searching for information about Aaron Jones (Hosemaster) or Gary Perweiler.

I guess it's just the passing of the torch. I often read the names in this forum of the new 'big guns' in photography and they mean nothing to me

Foodguy wrote in post #16099370
I definitely know the name...a little foggy on specifics. I'll check out the link, thanks.

Interesting how many of these 'old timers' have faded from sight. If you want an exercise in frustration, try searching for information about Aaron Jones (Hosemaster) or Gary Perweiler.

I guess it's just the passing of the torch. I often read the names in this forum of the new 'big guns' in photography and they mean nothing to me

True, it's just the passing of the torch. For years I searched for images by Jay Maisel and found practically nothing. Many of his best images are still not available on the net.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jay several times and Aaron once due to ASMP. Both are great guys and equally great photographers. Aaron sold a Hosemaster to one of my friends. My friend wouldn't let me play with it so I made my own. It was a lot of fun and I even used it on a few jobs. Last I heard Aaron was living in New Mexico, but that was several years ago.

I'll do a search for Gary Perweiler, a little frustration doesn't bother me after all these years of dealing with art directors.

Art d'Arazien was an inspiration to me early on and I still find ways to incorporate some of that inspiration into my current digital work.

breal101 wrote in post #16099807
I had the pleasure of meeting Jay several times and Aaron once due to ASMP. Both are great guys and equally great photographers. Aaron sold a Hosemaster to one of my friends. My friend wouldn't let me play with it so I made my own. It was a lot of fun and I even used it on a few jobs. Last I heard Aaron was living in New Mexico, but that was several years ago.
.

I spoke with Aaron briefly once and asked him where he saw himself in 20 years. He smiled and said "Sitting on a warm beach somewhere with guys like you sending me checks."

I think you're right though that he's in NM. Not sure if you had the opportunity to see his light painting technique translated to motion, but he did some really unique work that was used in a few commercials....and then it seems as quickly as he got hot, he slipped away.

As an aside, I couldn't afford a Hosemaster at the time, but eventually picked up one of the knock-offs -LightBrush. In fact, traded a bag of Canon lenses and an F-1n even for it. Over this past winter, I refurbished the Lightbrush; the fiber optic had deteriorated but I managed to find a suitable piece that's normally used in landscape lighting...also managed to find a replacement Gemini 300 watt daylight bulb. Maybe if I actually start doing it, it'll be seen as some new photoshop trick

Foodguy wrote in post #16100110
I spoke with Aaron briefly once and asked him where he saw himself in 20 years. He smiled and said "Sitting on a warm beach somewhere with guys like you sending me checks."

I think you're right though that he's in NM. Not sure if you had the opportunity to see his light painting technique translated to motion, but he did some really unique work that was used in a few commercials....and then it seems as quickly as he got hot, he slipped away.

As an aside, I couldn't afford a Hosemaster at the time, but eventually picked up one of the knock-offs -LightBrush. In fact, traded a bag of Canon lenses and an F-1n even for it. Over this past winter, I refurbished the Lightbrush; the fiber optic had deteriorated but I managed to find a suitable piece that's normally used in landscape lighting...also managed to find a replacement Gemini 300 watt daylight bulb. Maybe if I actually start doing it, it'll be seen as some new photoshop trick

Weren't you accused of extensive digital manipulations when in fact... You just light really really well?

pyrojim wrote in post #16100493
Weren't you accused of extensive digital manipulations when in fact... You just light really really well?

I don't think that was me...not that I'm aware any way. If it were the case, I'd take it as a compliment!

Foodguy wrote in post #16100110
As an aside, I couldn't afford a Hosemaster at the time, but eventually picked up one of the knock-offs -LightBrush. In fact, traded a bag of Canon lenses and an F-1n even for it. Over this past winter, I refurbished the Lightbrush; the fiber optic had deteriorated but I managed to find a suitable piece that's normally used in landscape lighting...also managed to find a replacement Gemini 300 watt daylight bulb. Maybe if I actually start doing it, it'll be seen as some new photoshop trick

That sounds like a plan, multiple exposures and layer masking can get close to the Hosemaster look but it never looks quite the same. Not as much fun either.

I did some searching for Gary Perweiler, the name didn't ring a bell but his book did. I had it a long time ago, about the same time I discovered Dean Collins videos. My memory is fuzzy because I was doing a lot of learning then.

Interesting that some of the photos attributed for Gary by Google were actually done by a guy named David White.