Speedlight Kit

[PeteG]

As mentioned here are a few links for buying speedlights on a budget, with a few images and hopefully tips you'll find helpful.


Yongnuo YN560 III, when ordering make sure you click on the "Flash and Diffuser" option. These lights are manual control, so you can't pop it on the camera and use any auto settings, you have to set your shutter and aperture to correctly expose, but the light output is controllable from full power down to 1/128...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I ... UTF8&psc=1

Then you'll need a wireless flash trigger, you get two in the box.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005 ... UTF8&psc=1

A couple of light stands. These are OK but I would upgrade if I intended put the light in a softbox or attach an umbrella.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001 ... UTF8&psc=1

And for attaching the speedlight to the stand, you'll need a bracket.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006 ... UTF8&psc=1

Here's a group shot I have four of these lights and because they're wireless I can pop them where ever I like without the hassle of cables.
Being manual only and being able to stop the power right down gives you full control.


Here's a few images to give you a little idea of what can be done on a budget whilst having total freedom. You'll see that there's nothing I've used besides the equipment which can't be purchased for a couple of quid, if you don't already have it in the home or workshop.

I chose a toggle clamp because it's small, shiny and just happened to be on the bench. I took this shot with a Nikon speedlight attached to the camera in point and shoot mode.


Here's a few test images to give you an idea of what can be done with the above kit, besides a little cropping they haven't been played with in Photoshop, but in the last image I removed the plastic pipe used as a stand for the toggle clamp.

This is one light behind and to the left, and it's been set to half power. The toggle clamp is sat on a piece of plastic pipe which helps getting the camera angle nice and low, and it'll be easy to remove in Photoshop.


Same as above but now I've added a piece of white card on the right to act as a reflector.


Same as above but now I've added a second piece of white card on the left.


Now I've held a third piece of card to highlight the top.


In the final image I've switched on the second speedlight which is low and behind the table pointing at the background, which is a piece of white contiplas.


And in the final final image, I've removed the plastic pipe.


If you then cut the clamp out of the background you can have three toggle clamps as a group shot.


Or even "Three clamps in Las Vegas"


I Hope it was useful, as you can see it doesn't take much to get a decent image. If I were shooting it for a client I would be using my other lighting, probably three or all four heads with softboxs, and even then
I'd probably have shoot through material [Shower curtain] between the clamp and the lights to soften the highlights.

Forgot to add a set up shot

 

[carlb40]

Excellent and just goes to show you don't need to spend mega money to get great shots.

The 565ex series plus others do offer TTL metering on canon/ Nikon cameras.

 

[Stu_2]

Very cool. What software are you using, and how did you cut the clamp from the original image?

 

[PeteG]

Excellent and just goes to show you don't need to spend mega money to get great shots.

The 565ex series plus others do offer TTL metering on canon/ Nikon cameras.

Hello Carl. The father-in-law has a 565, a very nice very powerful speedlight and less than a third of the cost of my Nikon. Not sure when Yongnuo appeared on the scene, but if I'd only known about them earlier!
I wouldn't be surprised if it's all the same factory.

Very cool. What software are you using, and how did you cut the clamp from the original image?

Hello Stu. I switched to CS6 a few months back, before that I was using various upgrades of Elements which will do most things. To cut the clamp out, I used the polygonal lasso tool, then right click and select inverse. I then wack the levels up turning the background white. Then I click on the magic erazer tool which turns the white background to a transparent one and at this point I'll save the image. Now you can drag and drop the image on to any background, but always remember to click on the defringe button which cleans the edges up.

This again is quite simple to do. All the images are dragged off the white background on to blue, but you then give each image an outer glow. You just play around with the size and strength of the glow until your happy with it.

 

[Stu_2]

Thanks Pete. Impressive stuff, of commercial quality. I've had a go on PS. On other software I've found the lasso tool pretty frustrating to get an accurate cut line.

A mate if mine has CS, so I might have a quick play

 

[Harbo]

Stunning stuff, thanks for the info.

Rod

 

[ColeyS1]

This is really useful info- thanks for sharing I guess for bigger things like furniture you'd just scale up your setup ?- bigger reflectors etc

Coley

 

[Eric The Viking]

I save bits of flat polystyrene packaging too, as it's great for bounce flash (indoors!), You can also carefully scrunch up kitchen foil, then smooth it out again and glue to board (a bit brighter). Vary the amount of 'scrunch' for spot versus soft.
i've also tried thin "natural" yoghurt pots for cheap diffusers in the past (invercone-style). they work, but split easily.

I'm wedded to one of these though:

Love mine (on Canon) and wouldn't be without it. I have an elderly CT1 as a slave (and a bunch of smaller units).
Flash triggers are these:

They're very adaptable but I'm saving for the digital ones (they count and discard pre-flashes).

 

[PeteG]

Thanks Pete. Impressive stuff, of commercial quality. I've had a go on PS. On other software I've found the lasso tool pretty frustrating to get an accurate cut line.

A mate if mine has CS, so I might have a quick play

Appreciate the comments Stu. The polygonal lasso tool is much easier to use than the just the lasso tool. With the polygonal, and I really enlarge the image, you keep clicking as you draw around the object, takes a little practice just be careful not to double click or it'll think you've finished and join the marching ants up.

Stunning stuff, thanks for the info.

Rod

You're very welcome Rob

This is really useful info- thanks for sharing I guess for bigger things like furniture you'd just scale up your setup ?- bigger reflectors etc

Coley

Hello Coley. The general rule is, the bigger the light source and the closer to the subject it is, the softer the light, so ideally you want really big softboxes, and probably quite a few of them.
But you could put together two large reflectors, say polystyrene sheets although something more reflective will always help, face your light in to the reflectors and then cover with something
like a white shower curtain. You may need a couple of lights inside something this size, but the light is going to bounce at around at all angles and will be nice and soft by the time it hits the
subject. The problem is having enough power in the light. When I get chance, I'll re-do the clamp with my other kit and I'll show you the set up.

 

[PeteG]

I save bits of flat polystyrene packaging too, as it's great for bounce flash (indoors!), You can also carefully scrunch up kitchen foil, then smooth it out again and glue to board (a bit brighter). Vary the amount of 'scrunch' for spot versus soft.
i've also tried thin "natural" yoghurt pots for cheap diffusers in the past (invercone-style). they work, but split easily.

I'm wedded to one of these though:

Love mine (on Canon) and wouldn't be without it. I have an elderly CT1 as a slave (and a bunch of smaller units).
Flash triggers are these:

They're very adaptable but I'm saving for the digital ones (they count and discard pre-flashes).

Hello Eric. It's a while since I've used a Metz45, was my standard flash gun as a press photographer 20/25 years back. Loved it to death I did, had a big battery clipped to my belt
to keep the little baby happy You're right about reflectors, tin foil, mirrors, anything that reflects, they all have a use and varying effects. I have even use black reflectors, but
I'm not going to get to technical...

 

[PeteG]

I wanted to mention the angle of the camera to the clamp earlier but forgot. As they're almost in line, you can do other little tricks in Photoshop like reflections.
The image is flipped and the opacity is knocked down to 50/60%, giving the impression of being photographed on black acrylic. Although it can be any colour you want.

 

[novocaine]

photo gear of a reasonable quality has become surprisingly cheap over the past few years. 2 brollies can be bought from amazon for under a tenner. perfect for flash reflectors or shoot though to diffuse the light. the cheap flashes are fantastic with a bit of practice to learn settings etc. pop up multi reflectors are so cheap it is almost stupid not to have one in the bag.

my biggest issue these days is having somewhere to setup a picture.

dont forget that the best light source is still the big burning thing in the sky, natural light backed up with a flash and a few reflective aids is as good of a way to approach the problem as multiple strobes.

oh and pizza from most supermarkets come on a sheet of polystyrene that makes a great reflector.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Hello Eric. It's a while since I've used a Metz45, was my standard flash gun as a press photographer 20/25 years back. Loved it to death I did, had a big battery clipped to my belt
to keep the little baby happy You're right about reflectors, tin foil, mirrors, anything that reflects, they all have a use and varying effects. I have even use black reflectors, but
I'm not going to get to technical...

I've had Metz in various forms since around 1985. The new Lithium batteries are brilliant - seem to last for a very long time and charge fast, and don't die like the old NiCd ones did. I've re-batteried them in the past - not fun. For portraits and social events (I still do a little), I like being able to set up the off-camera distance, and I love the bounce + fill of two tubes. The new 'digital' one is even better than the old CT-4 for that, although the interconnections to Canon are a bit clumsy and tend to be unreliable. I used to use a Pentax LX (still have it), and the front contact on that was iffy, too, but as long as you kept a protective finger on it all was good. The hotshoe was worse - that bit itself was fine, but there were four poorly-designed contacts in front of the pentaprism that came loose :-(

I haven't done much underground photography for a while, but I still have quite a good stock of flashbulbs . The Firefly slave units will fire both bulbs and electronic, which is pretty unusual. You can even fire the bulbs themselves underwater, as long as you keep the slave unit itself bone dry.

 

[Eric The Viking]

photo gear of a reasonable quality has become surprisingly cheap over the past few years. 2 brollies can be bought from amazon for under a tenner. perfect for flash reflectors or shoot though to diffuse the light. the cheap flashes are fantastic with a bit of practice to learn settings etc. pop up multi reflectors are so cheap it is almost stupid not to have one in the bag.

my biggest issue these days is having somewhere to setup a picture.

dont forget that the best light source is still the big burning thing in the sky, natural light backed up with a flash and a few reflective aids is as good of a way to approach the problem as multiple strobes.

oh and pizza from most supermarkets come on a sheet of polystyrene that makes a great reflector.

I agree about Pizza 'plates', but sunlight can be a bit tricky. For Macro stuff you need soft everywhere. I have a 3ft cube tent, with
a front (often put a sheet of polystyrene there), and even then it's extremely hard to get enough light on things without shadows. For any object around 6" across or bigger, the background is still too close for infinity shots - I find I end up working just inside the front edge of the cube, which is dreadfully awkward. If it's shiny, the problems are multiplied up.

A couple of years ago, I tried to make a rig to shoot jewellry for an online retailer. If I'd succeeded it would have been lucrative, but after several months of experimentation (on and off), gave up. I could get excellent results on a one-off basis, but couldn't systematize the rig to make it into an *****-proof production line process. The tiniest things would ruin the shot - dust and unwanted reflections being the worst. I found exposure was absolutely critical, to within 1/3 stop (that wasn't a nice discovery, either!).

I like shooting on a glass surface, as it's slightly more forgiving than dark perspex, but both are really tough.

Has anyone here tried ObjectVR sequences? I played with it (for the upmarket end of the jewellry stuff), and got passable results with a turntable, but again, a cheap rig was not going to happen.

 

[Racers]

I fished 3 big studio flashes from the skip a while ago, must get them out and play with them.

Pete

 

[PeteG]

dont forget that the best light source is still the big burning thing in the sky, natural light backed up with a flash and a few reflective aids is as good of a way to approach the problem as multiple strobes.

Sunlight is far to inconsistent for my work, I need total control over each light source, I need to know what each one is doing and the be able to repeat the process the following day if needs. But fill-in flash outside to make someones eyes pop, and/or soften shadows created by natural light, I totally agree

For Macro stuff you need soft everywhere. I have a 3ft cube tent, with
a front (often put a sheet of polystyrene there), and even then it's extremely hard to get enough light on things without shadows. For any object around 6" across or bigger, the background is still too close for infinity shots - I find I end up working just inside the front edge of the cube, which is dreadfully awkward. If it's shiny, the problems are multiplied up.

I realise it might be a pain setting up, but have you thought of putting a 4 foot tent over the 3 foot one, or one large diffuser over the 3 foot one. That should help soften the shadows.

I know what you mean about jewellery photography, especially if it has to be on a pure white background. I took this shot a few months back of a £2.50 bracelet using focus stacking, I did get carried away and take 27 images which I then nailed it down to 9. This was shot on a piece of 5mm clear acrylic a foot square surrounded by polystyrene boards, the front one being low enough to get the lens where I wanted it, and I had one light in a softbox right about and slightly angled forward. After Photoshop had finished knitting all the images together, I cut it out dropping it on a pure white background and adding a drop shadow.