Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/12/08

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Subject: RE: [Leica] the usual raft of 20 year old half-naked goth girls in PVC dresses - but better this time!
From: "kyle cassidy" <kcassidy@asc.upenn.edu>
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 13:02:49 -0800

Dave Myers asked:

>Mostly I just lurk and look, but I can't just sit here without
>congratulating you on these wonderful photos -- some of the best I've seen
>on the LUG.  May I ask some questions?  What film did you use?  Lenses?
And
>please tell us your flash technique.  Great lighting!  Inquiring minds want
>to know.

Hi Dave --
  I have my flash equipment listed on my "studio lighting on the cheap"
page --
http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/pix/studio/ it's a couple of $99
monolights
with no real control over their power -- that's managed by either a) moving
them
forward or backwards, b) bouncing them off of something, or c) hanging
bedsheets
over them -- i can't say i recommend it for versitility, but i did only pay
$300 or so
for a pair of lights, softboxes and a slave. i need to figure out some
better way
to trigger them -- i'm still learning, and not terribly quickly, but it's
the bit about
getting down there in the studio and snapping away that helps. my studio is
only
about seven feet deep, which leaves usually about 4 feet between model and
photographer, so i have to use at least a 35mm lens if i want anything close
to
full length shots. i can use a 50 for closeups or torso shots.

for these shots, i had two basic setups, first one softbox aimed at the
wall,
away from the model (the softbox was actually about a foot away from her,
pointed at a wall about 3 feet away) and i had the slave taped up in the
rafters (the ceiling's only about seven feet high, so i need to recruit
short
models) and then i had some paper taped underneath it to cut down on the
light, hopefully giving the background some illumination

and in the other series, i had one softbox aimed at the opposite wall and
nothing overhead (cause i couldn't get the slave to trip actually, not for
any
artistic reasons.

i realized, and george day articulated, that i need at least some reflectors
to
bounce a little more light into the model's face. actually, i need a lot of
work, but
i'll figure it out eventually.... keep plugging along, right?

thanks for your interest,

kc



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