Going to put together a shoe flash studio setup

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[Boxxerace]

How often do you use your surefire flashlight?   

[darkvibe]

I carry it whenever I leave the house and will be out in the dark.  I also use it all the time for work when i'm looking at stuff in mechanical rooms and above ceilings.  It uses 2 batteries and you only get like 60 minutes of use out of it but 60 lumens rocks.

[darkvibe]

I screwed up.  2 of the receivers came today.  The batteries are CR2.  I use CR123A batteries in my flashlight.  oops.  I guess i'll have to do the AA mod afterall.

[darkvibe]

well since my last post i picked up a background stand and a muslin background.

holy crap muslins can get expensive.  I got a brown one but it has an orange tint to it.  I hope it's not too orange.  It was the best color I could find that was on the cheap but still decent quality.

Last piece of the puzzle is 2 flashes.  I want sunpak 383's but they're sold out everywhere.  I could also get the vivitar 285's for the same price.  I'll borrow my dad's if he doesn't mind till I decide.

[epatt250]

I certainly like the pros and cons over the sunpak vs the vivitar. The vivitar is short one of the power settings in the middle of the range.

Check ebay for Canon 540EZ's. I got mine pretty cheap and love it. Only drawback is the lack of a jack for triggering other then the hotshoe and no built in slave like the Sigma.

Where did you get your muslin?

[darkvibe]

I got the muslin from Amvona.  I went with them because my dad has one of their muslins and it was pretty good quality. 

[epatt250]

 Do you have it in hand yet? I would really like an in depth review of it. I was thinking of getting one myself but was a bit scared since I know jack about that kind of thing.

 A muslin is kind of like a burlap sack in that its like a cross weave right? Just a bit tighter nit?

[darkvibe]

I have the tracking number in hand, that's it.  It'll be here tomorrow.  I can tell you what I think of it but I have no experience with any other muslins so I don't have much to compare it to.  My dad liked the one he got from them which was also a civichrome brand.

All I know about muslin is that it's made from cotton and woven and it's used for photo/video because it hides what's behind it even with bright lights on it and you can paint it.  It's like canvas almost but not as stiff.

Speaking of tracking #, I wonder why I have one for the background but not the stand which I ordered earlier?

[Boxxerace]

Side note, www.dazian.com has some very inexpensive, wide, theatrical and photographic fabrics including Muslin's.    I work with them perodically on a professional level and they are great!    One other company to look at is RoseBrand for similar types of products.   

You could do your own painting on many of these products, and several of the light scrims might make good light diffusors for a homemade softbox...

[darkvibe]

Did you know that an old school vivitar 285 puts out more light than a Sigma EF 500 DG Super?  Weird.

Anyhow... got stuff set up finally.  It takes a LOT more room than I thought.  Good thing I have one long room for my combined dining room/living room.  That background stand has one more 3' horizontal bar that I left out. 

My model (a.k.a. girlfriend) needs to come over for some torture now

[darkvibe]

you know... i could use a real doll about now.  (To photograph I mean)

[epatt250]

 I smell a subwoofer in the lower right corner of that pic.

 I got my light meter in and did some interesting calculations yesterday.

 A 540EZ on 35mm zoom setting, fired into a shoot thru umbrella (43"), iso100, 1/200th. The center of the umbrella was 45" from the meter.

Full power = f8.0 1/10
1/2= 5.6 6/10
1/4= 4.0 7/10
1/8= 4.0 0/10
1/16= 2.0 8/10
1/32= 2.0 2/10

On bounce with the center 60" away , which was as close as I could get in the bounce config.
Full Power= F8.0 1/10
1/2= 5.6 6/10
1/4= 4.0 6/10

The Sigma 500 was just a hair behind the 540 at some settings. Near identical numbers in shoot they as bounce.

I also have a pair of brollies that I got from ebay for dirt cheap. Which are outstanding build quality. They are just a shoot thru umbrella with a snoot to put the flash head in and then fabric over the back thats black on the outside and white on the inside to bounce light thru. The brollie was about 1/3rd of a stop brighter with all the flashes.

Just for kicks the AB800 in the shoot thru umbrella was
1/1= 16 1/10
1/2= 11 1/10
1/4= 8.0 2/10

 These tests were done in a fairly small living room and I would have to believe that if they were in a much larger room or outdoors with out all the spill and the room returning the bounced light to the meter that the brellas in bounce config would indeed be a tad more efficient. Indoors in a relatively small room... not so much, AND you cannot place the light nearly as close.

[darkvibe]

I can post the same sort of info for the flashes I have and my co-worker said I can borrow his 580EX II to do the same.  It'll be sometime after the weekend though.

what are the 1/10, 6/10 etc... in your post?

And yes, thats a subwoofer   Part of the theater in a box system.

[epatt250]

The fractions are tenth stops. So if it says f 8.0 3/10 it would be essentially f9.. I assume it does tenths like that b/c it does not know if your camera is adjustable by full stops, half stops or thirds stops, so you can figure the best setting for your particular camera.

[darkvibe]

Thats a lot of math

Is your meter digital?  The one I borrowed just has stops numbered with 2 tick marks between so it's set up for 1/3 stops.