rahullele

Link below. By first 7 mins he kind of explains it. Couple of points. 1. I bought this before zach arias tutorial. As i said in earlier post, there is no comparison between him and zach arias. 2. But Zach is white seamless guy .. my liking kind of lies in exact opposite color for background. 3. All i've is at the moment is 18x18 and 7 foot high hall of condo .. All i'm trying to do is .. darken background .. which i love. in the set up I've. and i'm snuggling and trying to see what i can do.

While going through off camera tutorial by Matt Granger (The nikon guy or the intimate portraiture famous) .. He repeatedly explained one technique he followed. When you are going to add flash (or additional external light) to image (or composition) .. if you are clear what you want .. then change camera setting to make background appear total dark. Example.. Correct background exposure is .. F/1.4, ISO 800 1/30th sec. Then you change setting to F /8 , ISO 100 , 1/120th .. There by losing 8 stop of light and your picture becomes total dark. Histogram goes total dark on left side. Then you add flash and put on subject of interest ... and adjust your exposure to it. .. Flaw on plan is .. usually single flash never gives you enough power to light up correctly and add 8 stops only to subject ... so you have to pull light settings for more exposure and the background is never more than 5 stop less light .. Now when .. by the technique when you pull exposure and shadows sliders to correct position, background shows up. Question is .. what Matt is trying to explain .. is that practice adjustment and treat is as such and use other means to achieve total black background... or its fair to use this technique as the means to achieve no background ? Treat exposure and shadows sliders to achieve your means instead of doing by the book ?

Thanks as always Brian. I tried to buy a beer for you. I hope that went successful. Appreciate your continued support.

Over weekend i was trying Zeiss Milvus 85 mm ($15 for weekend rental) and i couldn't get manual focus working. (Although it was pretty interesting to try it out.) When i returned it, i was asking if there is any old manual focus nikon glass they have to where i'd get those DOF lines and get more hang of it. They had 3 and i just bought them. Nikon 50 mm 1.8 AI - $60. (https://kenrockwell.com/nikon/50mm-f18-ais-pancake.htm) Nikon 105 mm 2.5 - $20 (https://kenrockwell.com/nikon/105f25.htm) Nikon 55 mm 2.8 micro - $20 (https://kenrockwell.com/nikon/55f28ais.htm) Did i overpay ? Was that stupid purchase? i want to try these lenses for fun. And test images (JPEG out of camera) are not looking bad at all. Just want to ask out of curiosity. Also I kind of started liking macro and i've 200 mm F/4 as wishlist. But there is rumor new one is coming and i don't want to spend much on stopgap arrangement. Hence i'm thinking of buying Nikon AF 105 mm 2.8 Micro for $300 tomorrow. (Older version) and continue to wait for new version of 200 mm macro. Just wanted to check with you if there are any caveats to it ? and if $300 is fair pay? i'm not considering latest 105 micro as option because I rented it to try and anyone would love it if they did not try 200 mm earlier. So i'm determined to buy new 200 mm Macro and not want to shell out $900 for that one. Greatly Appreciate your experienced inputs ..

Focus check please. i think the frame is in focus but not sure about the eye. Not sure if this is keeper.

Hey Brian .. I did stick with it ... completed One light 2.0 as well as Studio light. To be honest with you, i'd to muster every bit of patience i'd to finish it but .. when i started actually shooting, and making mistakes .. i realized there were just lot of tricks that guy was giving away... Slowly i started appreciating him more. I taken off camera flash and few other courses by Matt granger and no offense to Matt, that was just immense more learning with Mr Arias. Thank you for recommending that class to me .. Thank you for all the support in 2018 .. Wishing you and your family happy new year !!!

Ahh Got it. Thank you Damien..

Hi Damien, I'm using bridge for more than year for now, but this is one thing i miss from lightroom, (A Lot) . Can you please help me with "How to do it in Bridge ?" I often to retrospective, before i delete pictures, i look at them on summary basis. Lightroom helps me achieve this, However I can't do this in bridge effectively. Here is screenshot from Lightroom. I can check my keeper images across, various levels like .. how many keepers for a lens .. for a Setting more than ISO 4000 or f stop. This kind of helps me identifying areas i need to work on while taking pictures. Somehow .. when i try to do that in bridge, count doesn't update. In case of 7 files, it doesn't matter much, i can calculate and manually keep track. But for my 50 mm there are total 168 images, Lightroom gives me report in few clicks. 24 one star - Blurred, off focus, beyond argument, delete now. 44 two stars - argument can be made but delete.. 81 three star - group that will go into 4 or 5 stars. 19 four star - candidates for five stars. clearly above rest of the set. I simply can't get this out of bridge, is there simple thing i'm missing ?

Brush tool is behaving funny i guess ? on PSD file, it works fine .. absolutely fine. If i'll try something on JPEG ( No good reason to do it, i was just wanted to compare edited file against Out of Camera, wanted to increase brightness of JPEG at selective portion.) it started giving me this .. Only rim will be selected response. Screen shot attached. when i came out of quick mask, only green portion was selected. Any clue ?

Hi Brian, You recommended L-358, there is newer version out there in form of L-478. I rented L308 U. There is newer version L308X available for that as well. looking at the price points as of now, Plain L-478 (not specialized for any flash system) is available $299, L308X-u is for $218. For beginner like me, (for someone not going to push limits and do flash duration analysis etc,) does it makes sense to spend extra bucks and go to 478 ? or just L308X will do ? Thanks again.

Today price for that class dropped to $50. Buying it. This guy really test patience .. (Based on studio class i'm going through. ) . Thank you for the tip.

seriously, can you have tax deduction on these things? I did not know. Is there any cheaper alternative.. its $200 .. from creative live ? .. how about this? https://www.creativelive.com/class/seeing-and-shaping-light-lindsay-adler or some other ? Brought it, going through it right now. Thanks again Sir !!

I rented Sekonic L308s. I did not ask for specific model, they just gave me this one. I found it to be hit and miss (In some cases it just did not give me reading even though flash was going off.) I'll specifically ask L-358 this time. But i was able to set 2:1. Yes. I metered light and tried to get 2:1 ratio for this shoot. Already have one. You helped me with it. Thanks for that again.

Hi Brian, i recently rented 2 B1X and tried to use my godox flash in optical slave (Which did not work) i was kind of trying to use it as 3rd light for background separation. That got me in thinking. Like camera and lens, light set up is system and given how inconsistent my Godox is, i'd like to put my money wisely. My expectations are really really high only fully satisfactory thing in my bag is latest 70-200 E Nikon). i'm thinking of using home and whatever ambient light i get, mix it up with flashes (couple of them.) to gain 8-9 stops total of light. I do not know if i should get 2 flashes and 2 umbrellas. or start systematically investing in gear per like what i was thinking in the topic. This is catch 22 for me. After lot of practice, i'll get better, but that will come at some messed up shoots and although there are some sessions (with my friends) which are ok to be mess, Some are not.. ( like Misericordia events). Can you please help me with strategy .. steps by step process, which will help me to have good system. One that will reduce components in renting for functions (Something that is not to be messed up) and at the same time, will give me 8-9 stops extra light for messy experimenting shoots with friends. At one point in my life, i see myself having small studio and i'm fine if it takes me years to get there, i'm more like .. not thinking to put any money which is not going to stay with me long term. Any input is much appreciated.

Thank you Brian, i'll stop complaining about the gear and noise. I got the point. I need to set realistic expectations and figure out some other means if i want to take better pictures in similar lights. Please let me know if any simple addition of gear would help. I'm definitely going full on for that party with totally un compromised gear. .

Naive Question. Why do they pair lights with same power ? After using it for first time (I rented 2 B1X 3" beauty dish as key set at around 8.5 and 3" octa set at around 7 to 7.5 at a bit different nights) I was kind of thinking, 1 B1X as key light 1 B10 enough for low power fill light, and even flash would do at the background for separation ? Is this line of thinking stupid ? Why the kits they make are of same power lights ? BTW, i could use some suggestions for low budget portable options. Profoto is wayyyyy tooooo much expensive.

i guess, i was kind of putting too much pressure on me to get those shots to perfect. i want to print those pictures and give them as holiday gifts. Nope. Far worse. There is party coming at Misericordia home and i'm going to take 2 profoto B1X, one with Beauty dish and one octa. Brought them home and did practice shoot. I've wayyyyy long to go but video's you provided with zach arias helped. Also rented them and got a pair at home for practice shoot. Asked friend to pose. Here is example (This is kind of first shot. Didn't get angle right.) Susana 1 I was going to frame that question to you next. What optimum light i can take there. (At party hall) i talked to organizers. They did photo booth set up there (had kind of compact camera paired with instant printer. ) I'm going to take proper backdrop there and couple of friends to guard the lights. Any input is much appreciated.

Hi Brian, I finally got chance to shoot at low light after turning off that High ISO automatic noise reduction set to off. I don't know if i'd touch day or i was off from my form or something but things felt a bit worse than earlier. That i kind of felt the best shot of the bunch. Misericordia Fall party 1

Focus check please.

Thank you Brian. I’ll contact store again. The one i got, had autofocus. I’ll also check if anyone knows anyone (from relatives or friends) who could get this lens tested at airport for me. Or if there is any formal procedure related to it. When i talked to them, store owner was going to contact nikon to get those elements removed if there were any.

I'll go and double check in the store. That salesman would probably curse me ... but that lens is totally worth it in my opinion. If its produced in 1993 or onwards then it is safe right ? Or i can continue waiting for hope that nikon would release VR version of it soon. i really wish there would have been easy way to find whether this would set off alarms on airport .. (without going to jail)

ohhh i returned it for no reason ? i had AF Micro - Nikkor 200 MM f/4D IF -ED .. ? i can go back to store and double check ... Is there any way in US to go and check these things ? or go to TSA and get it approved ? i'll pay that price .. I've no clue about US legal things. Appreciate any help i can get it here.

i hope so. if i'd have been US citizen, i'd rather sue TSA than return that 200 mm f/4 micro lens back to store. (which i returned and they gave me back my money. ) or just keep it with me forever in the lead container to contain possible radiation. If you are focusing on Ant ... then most likely Ant would be on next leaf by the time focus will reach on to the leaf ant was on ... (This literally happened with me .. and i was laughing about it and people were wondering why i was laughing about .. ) But .. if and when the focus would reach .... and ant would be there .. that would be THE ANT picture. Anyways .. when i'll settle, wherever i'll settle, this is the first item i'm going to buy before anything else. But ... If Nikon can come up with updated version, that might be mistake, but i'm ordering that lens before anything else and hope there won't be thorium oxide in it.

Thank you as always sir !!!

Focus check please.