Flash galore (58, 20 and old 132)

[sury]

This shot of my daughter taken with Tokina 28-70 on A900 with HVLF20AM on A900, HVLF58 to the left of the camera and an old Minolta 132X+$10 optical coupler to the right of the camera with a tissue paper overlaid for diffusion.
HVLF58 was set to 1/8th power. Only reason I took the shot is to see if I could get all the three flashes fire and get reasonably even lighting. Just a (mad) science experiment. I know there are some shadow and overexposed areas (on her right hand from the end of the palm to bit of an arm, her left hand fingers are overexposed etc).

Any suggestions on how the lighting should/could be arranged if I were to do it right are most appreciated.
It may be obvious to the experienced, but I was tickled pink when the combination worked as I expected.

With best regards,
Sury

[aster]

Hello Sury,

Now, please do not think I'm an expert with using several flashes at the same time because my views will come from observation of this photo of your daughter's.

But I do have a tiny studio at home that I created on my own and use white boards to bounce the light off of the white surfaces evenly to light my subjects with no apparent shadows around them. I never direct the flash or the lamps onto the subject which always results in dark or distictive shadows appearing in a distractive manner or overlapping of shadows like the one you see on your daughter's left upper arm.

I think that you can have the flash on the left of the camera not directed to her with low power but instead turn it towards the wall behind her and bounce the flash light off of that wall onto her. This will definitely eliminate any unwanted shadows that trail your daughter's right arm on the back of the couch.

Put simply, the best lighting in this photo can be attained with indirect flash light that bounces off of from other surrounding surfaces onto your daughter. But of course if the surroundings changed and the ceiling was to high to bounce the light off, other arrangements must be considered; places like inside of a church where ceilings are high and walls are too far standing from each other require different arrangements while small room with low ceiling and closely situated walls like yours is easier.

Leaving the ground to the experts now...and gladly! They will have some good advice.

Yildiz

[sury]

Yildiz,
Thank you for the suggestion. Bounce was farthest from my mind as I was more caught
up in the excitement of getting all the three flashes fire simultaneously . I believe Bounce
would work eminently given the room height and the distance. I need to get Bounce into
my psyche as a first thing to try in rooms with low ceilings.

With best regards,
Sury

[aster]

I'm glad, I was able to offer an other option, Sury...

Yildiz

[pakodominguez]

Hello Sury,

This shot of my daughter taken with Tokina 28-70 on A900 with HVLF20AM on A900, HVLF58 to the left of the camera and an old Minolta 132X+$10 optical coupler to the right of the camera with a tissue paper overlaid for diffusion.

I think your experiment wont work, at least for the 123X, because the optical slave. You are triggering the flashes using the 20Am as a wireless controller, right? Well, with the wireless system, the Controller will fire a series of flashes in order to communicate with the slave(s) (REF: http://www.friedmanarchives.com/flash.htm) so, the first flash will make your optical slaved flash fire before the camera actually take the picture...
In any case, I don't see the effect of 3 lights...

HVLF58 was set to 1/8th power. Only reason I took the shot is to see if I could get all the three flashes fire and get reasonably even lighting. Just a (mad) science experiment. I know there are some shadow and overexposed areas (on her right hand from the end of the palm to bit of an arm, her left hand fingers are overexposed etc).

You can get to work as many flashes as you want, but stick to one system: optical or wireless or wired.

Any suggestions on how the lighting should/could be arranged if I were to do it right are most appreciated.
It may be obvious to the experienced, but I was tickled pink when the combination worked as I expected.

Gary's article is a good example of what you can do with a couple of flashes. Otherwise, the principals using any artificial lighting is reproducing natural light (yep...)

Regards

[sury]

Pako,
You could be right about premature firing. I have seen that in one of my previous experiments using A700
to trigger 58 and the 132X. But in this case: Her left hand side is illuminated by 132X.
Her right hand side was illuminated by 58. The 132 was triggered by 58 firing and not by 20 due to the way
I was positioned. How would the image be illuminated if all the flashes fired when they are supposed to?
Could you describe what you would have expected?

Thank you,

With best regards,
Sury