My flashes have arrived....

[Dusty]

I got both of my e-bay flash steals this week. The Vivitar 736AF has bounce, swivel, and zoom, as well as high and lo power settings.

The Focal (KMart's private brand) KM-3000 has bounce and zoom, and a snap on wide angle diffuser that automatically switches the display's distance settings.

Neither will work in auto mode, a real disapointment especially for the Focal, which bills itself as a "Dedicated Thyristor Bounce". I thought that I would at least be able to use it in thyristor mode, but there is no eye to measure the flash, so I don't know why they put that on there.

Neither has instructions, but the Vivitar came with a box, stating GN 36M/118Ft @ ISO 100. Judging from the settings slider, I'd guess that the Focal is GN 25M/82Ft @ ISO 100.

Both work well in manual mode, and give me a way to extend flash reach and add bounce flash when needed. I surely can't complain, considering the price I paid. Next step is to buy the adapter for standard flash foot, so I can use my old thyristor flashes.

Dusty

[Javelin]

maybe you should pick up a couple of these
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6201" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and an adaptor
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11203" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


As long as the trigger voltage is low on those flashguns you should be ok

[Javelin]

actually I might pick up a set of these myself. I have a couple minolta flahses I could use and I know a shop that has a cabinet fill of 360px's I have a big machine i'm going to have to get brochure pictures of and one flash is not going to be enough. my other problem is going to be a backdrop the machine is 8' high and 12' long

[Dusty]

my other problem is going to be a backdrop the machine is 8' high and 12' long

If it's an industrial type machine, maybe a big, cheap blue tarp. For a nicer backdrop, look for some wide remnants of a bolt of cloth, and if need be, glue the edges of one to another to make it wider.

Dusty

[Javelin]

well it really needs to be white, they have that tarp stuff in white too but it's pretty shiney and reflective which might cause trouble..I'll have to see how much room I even have to do it in, it may have to go to a studio. we have a budget so If I have to order paper for it I will. beyond that it'll go to a studio and get done.

[David Kilpatrick]

I've done many large machines over the years including some very complex ones, cut out manually with Maskit red lacquer on b/w 5 x 4 negs 30 years ago - and other techniques later.

It does not matter what colour of material you can place behind the machine - old bedsheets will do fine. The best way to light large machines is to use tungsten, and time exposure if needed. You can easily get enough tungsten to white out the background even with sheets which may have creases. Also, tungsten light gives better noise levels with current Sony DSLRs. Focus may be an issue but you should be able to stop right down.

David

[Javelin]

I think the problem is These ones are semigloss black mostly and the parts that aren't are nickel plated and bright chrome and the trouble with coloured background is it shows the colour in the chrome bits.

heres an example. this machine is a lot smaller 7' long.. maybe 5' high. The new one has a lot more black and without really pounding the light to it you get no details in the black parts of it. The marketing guys haven't decided whether to let us chrome some of the parts though. and they might be a pretty ugly orange colour instead along with the black

[David Kilpatrick]

Well on a machine with wheels, under 12ft, I'd just buy a 12ft wide white Colorama/Savage seamless paper roll and use fifteen feet of it or so. That sort of machine, new, for marketing purposes fully justifies the cost of the paper which will in any case do maybe four or five shoots. The paper can also be used to light it, by bouncing light off equally large areas of paper to either side of the camera. That provides good conditions for gloss black paint on metal, and chromework alike.

I used to have a spray made by Tetenal which we called 'milk'. It is sprayed on to chrome which you don't want to produce specular highlights. I am not sure of the components in it, but it wiped off other parts quickly when just applied, and did not run or streak on chrome. It always looked a bit artificial, but better than having an artist airbrush the chrome over, which is how we did things in the 1970s.

David

[Javelin]

well i'm pretty sure I can get paper in whatever size I need. The new machine needs to be moved on a forklift though, the little ones like above are easy ytou can roll them right onto the paper and use pencil erasers if theres any marks left. What that photo was taken the papaer had already had 6 other machines on it. This is just going to be one machine which is why I might end up doing it myself instead of getting the pro in for just the one unit.

[David Kilpatrick]

I don't blame you for having a go. At one time I used to earn maybe $200,000 US from such work every year. It was only a part of the business, and some of the machines were huge (coal mining face cutting tunnellers) while others were small items (oil industry valves etc - even so, you need to be careful lifting them). Today I maybe get asked to quote for one job every couple of years. No-one issues brochures with the quality of lighting, sharpness and attention to detail they used to get. One young guy set up a couple of units away from us with a full studio, we gave him work to help and tried to use him to help with tests and stuff - he got his 58mm Super Angulon XL from the importers after helping us with a test on 5 x 4.

But, in the end, industry just does not use professional photographers they way it used to. Except at the very high end, where it's all business as usual, and the very bottom end, which always offered shots for $50. The middle ground has disappeared and there is not a single proper infinity cove studio left in my region. The photographers I trained up or employed 'in passing' in the 1980s because they were bright stars did make it (to the top end). My former partner is probably living in a tax haven, somewhere warm. A few years after we parted company running studios, he gave up photography and became a private jet pilot for elite clients, after spending most of his spare money to get his commercial pilot's licence.

I went into publishing magazines. He probably made the saner decision!

If the old world of industrial/commercial photography returned, I'd love to do it again, but doing at 56 is very different from doing it at 26. I did some extremely stupid things, like walking across high girders on construction sites, climbing tower cranes, and once - which I remember as the greatest experience - walking to the end of the flare boom of a North Sea oil rig to shoot the rig from that viewpoint. Without harness and without a second person there. My worst day was when I got locked into a sewage works with my assistant (before mobile phones) and nearly ended up spending the night trapped behind a 4m security fence. The most unique thing I've done, with nothing special to show photographically, has been to walk through the giant water tunnels which go under a power station when the water was temporarily cut off behind huge steel butterfly valves. Draining for maintenance happens so rarely very few people get to visit this environment after it is built. I was also one of the last people ever to explore the tunnels carved under Doncaster by an eccentric Victorian, who mined a complex of chapels with angels and gargoyles as ornaments. I photographed them the day before they filled them with sandbags and pumped them full of grout to prevent buildings from collapsing above them.

Come to think of it, I've walked across the roof of York Minster and been inside the roof of Lincoln Cathedral standing on top of the stone vault arches. I can't think of any better work to be in than photography, especially when you are young.

David

[Javelin]

well I'm not supposed to make any money from this. this machine is something were adding into what we ususally do and there likely will never be a unit in the field with our name on it. it'll mostly be private label for other companies. that why anyone we sell is only black. The guys still want a brochure though to get them started so i'll give it a try.

At the old shop we had a studio next door that had a gimble mounted turntable and other things around I assume for back drops inclusing blue and green screens. they specialized in automotive brochures for everyone from GM to Lamborghini. we had some interesting times at the catering wagon (coffee truck, gut wagon.. I'm sure there is an equivalent over there) because all the models would come out and flirt with the greasy machine and tool guys waiting for lunch. after a dose of that we couldn't trust anything the guys assembled and had a tough time getting them back to work.

[David Kilpatrick]

Vehicle studios need to be huge. I never owned anything large enough so vehicles were always shot on location. We did manage to get a large motorbike up the stairs to our first 'proper' commercial studio in 1978. A lot of studios were upstairs or in basements, upper floors of old mills, etc. A company called Calvert opened purpose built vehicle studios in the 1980s, and were so successful they now own a huge estate in southern Spain including a village, a mountain and many kilometres of dirt roads - it's used by almost all the European car makers as a sort of giant outdoor studio, and they have now added hangar-sized indoor studios in the same location.

David

[Javelin]

I would guess their working areas was 15000 square feet? but the table was pretty big and mostly mounted inthe floor. They must have moved somewhere the place became a fresh flower market for a while. the whole area had numerous markets like that, we were close to the airport and every morniong aboout 3AM the place would come to life with brokers and florists buyers and by 7am it was a ghost town.. like a fish market only smells better