hehe, I got that as part of a kit when I was first getting started. It served me well, especially considering the price, but after stepping up to a big kid tripod I can't imagine using it now. But sometimes I bongo-strap a speedlite to it, like here, and it's great because it's so much lower than either of my light stands. I used the same samsonite+285HV+bongo strap combo to make the shadow in this:
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@phamster, yes, I would love to jump to the alienbees setup
. All of the shots were at f/22 (minimum aperture on the 85 1.8, I believe), 1/200 (max flash sync on the 5D II), but I forgot to stop down the ISO and ended up shooting at ISO 200. Although ISO 200 certainly doesn't produce any appreciable noise on my camera, setting it at 100 or even L (50) would have let me add more power to the lights. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that would have helped black out the background as well, right?
Also, from looking at these and the rest from that set, I think I probably should have increased the power on the lower light, put something on that to diffuse the light, so as to better illuminate the front of my face, and maybe repositioned it just four inches or so to my right and maybe a little closer to my face. I'll have to try again... maybe I can get girlfriend to let me shoot her like this
How do you all focus in these? I put a light stand on the chair with a piece of tape where I thought my head would be and focused manually then checked with live view at 10x. I guess at 85mm, f/22, full frame, subject about 4' from lens, my "acceptably sharp" range was about ten inches, and I didn't really feel like any of these were soft because I must have been well within that range...
This is definitely breaking the bounds of the "People" forum, but I really don't know enough about how the different settings on my speedlites work. Need to learn when it's proper to extend from "wide" to "tele," what the ISO numbers really mean there, etc. When I get a better handle on exactly what I'm doing here then I'll consider jumping up to the Alienbees units. I almost have a bad taste in my mouth from jumping from the XT to 40D to the 5D Mark II all within just a couple of years. Some of my best shots came from the XT + 28-135, and I look back often and wish I'd spent more time mastering the art than money on new equipment. Not to say I don't love my new body, but sometimes I feel like I'm trying to perform brain surgery having only learned how to properly apply a band-aid. In any case, I am very happy to have so much room to grow
Finally, I need another pocketwizard and that flashzebra motor cord! Although, I wonder if that would just make me want to do more three-light shots and find myself in the same place, stretching to reach for the short RS80-N3 cord...
