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The peak power at work when a flash is being discharged is extreme.
Example: a classic Metz 45CT (a large but still handheld unit) on full manual power delivers around 90 watt-seconds of electrical output to the flash tube in 1/300s. That means there are 27000 watts at work for a short time.
A 27000 watt lightbulb (BTW, your flash is much brighter than ...
47
I think you've answered the question yourself pretty well, with citations and everything. There's little real risk, and the flash manufacturers are erring on the side of caution in order to protect themselves from litigation. To add to the background, here's a quote from the website of a neonatal intensive care unit — if there'd be a case where it might ...
19
The idea is I will be down below, looking up at them to take the photo, so a flash would be useless.
Only if you limit yourself to a camera mounted flash.
The key to such a shot is to get the lights off the camera and onto the subjects from angles other than the optical axis of the lens. You'll probably need at least a couple of off-camera flashes with ...
17
Maybe the picture is already overexposed because of the sunlight? Then you do to the flash settings what you want, and it won't help you. Verify this first.
1/200 with 2.8 ISO 125 seems to be very bright for a sunny day. If you want the aperture open, and cannot go with shorter times because of the flash, you need to find another way to get rid of the extra ...
16
Ruined? That's a great photo! (If you were going for a sort of Halloween effect.) The position of the key light – off to the side and elevated – was perfect for this subject, and is typical of how beauty dishes are used.
Now, if you didn't want the shadow here are things to consider:
Using a single source you can't have the subject against a ...
15
I want to know the needs/thinking in photography that leads to it
It starts off with you needing more light in a given situation. Either you getting extremely grainy photos due to low light, or you are in need of a wider lens but can't afford the slower maximum aperture, or you are struggling to eliminate camera shake with slower shutter speeds.
However ...
14
Not only do you need new batteries, but what you want is low self-discharge NiMHs. Like the name says, they have a better not-in-use retention of charge, reducing frustrations like this. They generally have lower capacity than "regular" NiMHs, but unless you're planning to recharge and then use them up immediately, it's worth it.
The common brand name here ...
13
There is a very real danger of producing a very low quality photograph of your baby while disturbing them at the same time if you use a flash from less than 1m away.
Bounce the flash off a white ceiling or a large reflector to avoid the danger of having to shake your head every time you look at these pictures 10 years from now.
13
I'm not sure if there is a checklist or algorithm, but here are some givens when working with flash:
Shutter speed is not the tool you use for stopping motion. Flash duration is. And, flash duration is normally so brief as to be faster than your fastest shutter speed.
Longer exposures will allow ambient light to be more of a factor in your exposure. ...
13
No question: adding an external flash. See previous question Prime lens or flash: which upgrade will most improve baby photos?, which covers some of this. A flash can freeze motion, and makes it easy to get enough depth of field to get the whole scene in focus. And when you can move the flash off camera, you can create nice light where it doesn't exist ...
13
You're shooting with a shutter speed faster than your sync speed (most likely 1/200 or 1/250). Your camera's shutter consists of two curtains -- the first one opens to begin the exposure, and the second follows it -- closing to end the exposure. At speeds slower than your camera's sync speed, these two curtain movements allow at least a tiny fraction of ...
12
Sheesh — how to find something I'm looking for: write up the question carefully on Stack Exchange, at which point the keywords to search for will be clear in my mind, and I can quickly Google up the answer myself:
It's the Frio Universal Cold Shoe Adapter. It's exactly designed for what I need, and at a little over ten bucks it fits under my price limit, ...
12
You could use an ND filter or even a polarizing filter (which you probably already have) to give yourself another couple of stops.
12
So, what you have here is a mixed lighting situation. The background and star notes are being lit via flash (check out their shadows. Nice and soft and from top to bottom. The main bulb cluster is on the left and yet it has no impact on those shadows) and the bulbs themselves are being lit...by themselves :-).
(There's probably a speedlight with a soft box ...
11
Generally speaking for 'photobooth' style photography the number one priority is for a lighting setup that will work for every single person who sits in front of the camera without having to fiddle with the lighting at all for the entire time the photobooth is set up. Not having to monkey with lighting is what allows the camera operator to get as many people ...
10
Are you planning to shoot indoors or outdoors? Umbrellas are difficult to use outdoors as they act like a sail and it only takes a slight breeze to send your umbrella - and flashgun crashing down. You either need a serious stand weighted down, or someone holding the umbrella. Even so I'd go with the smaller size for shooting outdoor.
A larger umbrella gives ...
10
I would never use my flash on full power less than 1 metre from my face, for the simple fact that it's so frikkin bright. The issue isn't that it's only as bright as daylight, but that it can be miles brighter than the surrounding light, so your eyes will not be accustomed (the aperture will be fully open) and the light will be far more than your eyes can ...
10
In article "Flash Photography and the Visual System of Birds and Animals", Dennis Olivero, DVM, and Donald Cohen, ophthalmology MD, speak of studies performed on humans and animals where it has been found that to cause permanent damage, bright light has to be focused (quite likely for an on-camera flash when subject is looking at camera) for extended period ...
10
You need something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/DL-0418-Tripod-Female-Thread-Adapter/dp/B0049UPNV8
Or maybe this one, for a lot less money:
http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Stand-Adapter-4-inch-Tripod/dp/B005HTZJBY/ref=pd_cp_p_2
There are lots of other models. Some, like the top one shown here, provide a hot shoe so that you can trigger the flash using a ...
10
Editing out the eyes removes a metric tonne of information that might have been helpful in answering your question — please don't do that if you're asking about studio lighting problems — but there is still something to be seen in the photos you have posted.
Apart from the makeup and post-processing that have already been mentioned in the comments, it's ...
10
Despite the name of your modifier (Profoto White Softlight 20.5" Reflector), this is no soft light at all. The light source is far away and small enough to produce hard light on the subject. The most common property that makes light hard or soft is how smooth the shadows are. This can be seen from the shadow under the chin on the neck. The shadow has a sharp ...
10
One good solution is to get a Hot Shoe Flash Adapter so you can use your old external flash right on the camera, or get a smaller Manual only flash to trigger your external optical slave flash.
$10 Amazon Hot Shoe Flash Adapter MSA-10 for Sony NEX 3
An even better solution is to get this Wireless radio transmitter/receiver:
$10 Wireless Flash Trigger ...
9
Good radio wireless remotes, like PocketWizards, fire extremely fast, well within the time the shutter opens; I pushed mine a long ways past 1/1000 before I saw problems with a black bar beginning to creep into the image.
I think they're both adequate for normal situations. It's when you get into adverse situations that you'll see one work better than the ...
9
One other thing - don't mix your batteries with different specs. In your case, mixing 2500mAh batteries with 800mAh batteries will be causing you problems.
9
Refer to page 19 of your ST-E3-RT manual. It specifies that when used with camera models released prior to 2012 (so, anything but the 1DX and 5D mark III at the time of this post) you lose high speed sync and your max sync speed is "one increment slower" than whatever it would normally be.
The flash sync speed is 1 increment slower
Check the flash ...
9
I got a Frio as a freebie in a photography class grab bag. Its a nice option: it mounts directly to the tripod mount stud, and since its all plastic, it doesn't harm your flash contacts at all. It is about the size of a thumbdrive, so it fits in your pocket. Its overpriced as a piece of plastic, but quite affordable compared to other more complex options.
...
9
Two things seem apparent to me looking at this setup.
First, the position of the subject appears to be a little further from the camera than the lights. Before you fool with the position of any equipment which can take hours to do or : ( re-do, move the subject slightly to and fro.
Once you get the optimal contrast in the edges, you could move your lighting ...
9
I'm shooting in Manual on bright, sunny day. ... Settings: 1/200 SS, f2.8, ISO 125.
Did you look at your meter? It was likely telling you that you were overexposed. Purely on the ambient. If you were shooting in sunny-16 conditions, with these settings, you'd be overexposed by four stops even without the flash. Throw the flash in, and you're overexposed ...
8
I think an updated answer is called for. :)
When integrating studio strobes with speedlights, there are two things to consider. Whether you want more control than manual-only triggers give you for either the strobes and/or the speedlights, and how robust you want the triggers to be.
Are there OEM/3rd party triggers to command the studio strobe?
Some ...
8
Easy. Strobist website Lighting 101
For specifics to Nkon CLS - Nikon CLS Practical Guide
For systematic assessment of ambient vs flash and other things, Neil van Niekerk's books
On Camera Flash and Off Camera Flash
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