Messages

646

Lighting / Re: Anyone used a LED ring light for macro?

« on: August 03, 2012, 06:26:19 PM »

I have used it in commercial shoot under cabinets, down bannisters, in cabinets, in all sorts of cars, ect. I have also made some panels with it. Since the ribbon is adhesive backed I have mounted it to white coroplast and made very shallow units. Put you favorite diffusion and gel on it and instant light panel. I have one that is roughly 4"x8" that has 8 or 9 feet of ribbon on it. Its incredibly bright and it runs off of a small battery pack. They are very useful.

How about for video use? Plenty of light for video? Or do you need to gang lots of the strips together?

Hmm...this would be pretty cool (but expensive!) to have a micro-controller controlled light show using gelled strips & such.

647

Lighting / Re: Anyone used a LED ring light for macro?

« on: August 03, 2012, 01:50:41 PM »

I would use light ribbon to make a ring light. You can buy a 16' roll daylight balanced for about $130. Then just pick a power source. I have run a whole roll from a AA battery pack for about an hour. That would be 8 AA batteries. Have a look at www.litegear.com. For some reason he doesn't list just the roll of LED's on the website but I do know he sell it.

Had to re-read the post a couple of times since I don't see it on the website, but wow, that's pretty awesome. How can he do a 16' for $130 when his shorter ones are so much more expensive?

The stuff on the website is his new stuff and those prices are for a kit. So, a AC to DC power supply, a dimmer, some extension cables, and some different connectors for the ribbon. All you really need from him is the lite ribbon and the connectors, and maybe the dimmer.

Ahh...that makes sense to me then. Very cool, something for me to think about should I decide to try and get some continuous lighting for some video. Could be a very cool rollable light source that fits into a cardboard tube and yet produces plenty of light for video. Have to figure out how to use it with the usual lighting modifiers (barn doors, etc).

648

Lighting / Re: Anyone used a LED ring light for macro?

« on: August 03, 2012, 12:54:27 PM »

I would use light ribbon to make a ring light. You can buy a 16' roll daylight balanced for about $130. Then just pick a power source. I have run a whole roll from a AA battery pack for about an hour. That would be 8 AA batteries. Have a look at www.litegear.com. For some reason he doesn't list just the roll of LED's on the website but I do know he sell it.

Had to re-read the post a couple of times since I don't see it on the website, but wow, that's pretty awesome. How can he do a 16' for $130 when his shorter ones are so much more expensive?

649

Lighting / Re: Anyone used a LED ring light for macro?

« on: August 03, 2012, 10:58:10 AM »

That is innovative! Could you share pics of your engineering? Also how do you power it? I'd love to do this project.

Main problem is, that I went a little bit tricky with it, I didn't just use White LEDs, but I got hold of some RGB Superbrights, so that I could change the colours if I wanted too (I was mainly thinking, at the time, that I'd use it with my Lensbaby and/or film for some lomo-esque lo-fi shots.)

First incarnation was using 4 potentiometers, 1 for each colour and 1 for brightness. Worked well at prototype stage but the pcbs were so big (using normal through-hole resistors etc) that I could only get 4-6 LEDs in each ring, so wasn't actually too bright. If i'd designed a proper surface-mount PCB then I could have gotten a lot more LEDs in.

Instead, I'm now trying for a digitally-controlled version, using an Arduino board (freetronics even sell a controllable RGB LED module, although it's probably not bright enough so I'll use the superbright 5mm ones from the first incarnation. (Long term project is to write an app with a colour wheel, click the mouse on the colour wheel and the LEDs will change to that colour. It'll probably never happen).

But then work and buying a house and whatnot got in the way, so it's sort of on permanent hiatus, I'll resurrect in in a few months maybe when I get time (and the new house). But I can probably share shots of it this weekend.

The first ones were powered by either a 6V Sealed Lead Acid battery, or from a DC wall-charger from any number of transformers i've got floating around. The Arduino-based one I did have in mind to power from USB, once i get to that stage at least...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't LED's be continuous light, not a 'flash'? So would it be more correct to say a ring LED light? Or are there actual LEDs that are used to 'flash' like a traditional ring/speedlite flash?

AFAIK there's both. The reason I started building my own (besides the fact that that's what I do, even though probably more expensive than ebay), is that they all seemed to be 'flashes', and as I said, I prefer monolights. If you count my attempts as a monolight version, then there's definitely at least one of each type in the world...

Awesome engineering   Arduino's are so cool, aren't they? I keep meaning to try and play with them, but I'm not much of a hardware guy (yet).

650

Lighting / Re: Anyone used a LED ring light for macro?

« on: August 02, 2012, 08:47:15 PM »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't LED's be continuous light, not a 'flash'? So would it be more correct to say a ring LED light? Or are there actual LEDs that are used to 'flash' like a traditional ring/speedlite flash?

651

Pricewatch Deals / Re: Big Lexar Memory Card Deals at B&H

« on: August 02, 2012, 01:24:58 PM »

I was going to replace all of my SanDisk Extreme Pro cards with these Pro cards from Lexar but my local camera dealer told me that because their is some behind the scenes conflict between Canon and Lexar that Canon does not support their cards and that they may not work in my cameras. Anyone have any information on this or know if there is any truth to it?

I've heard nothing but good things about the Lexar 1000x from people in general, and on this forum with 5d3/1DX.

652

Pricewatch Deals / Re: Big Lexar Memory Card Deals at B&H

« on: August 02, 2012, 12:53:30 PM »

*sigh* This is a fantastic deal, but the 32GB is still more than I can afford since I don't really need the speed.

653

Portrait / Re: Portrait Feedback Please!

« on: August 02, 2012, 01:16:54 AM »

The other issue I have with the 3rd one is you're at a pretty wide of a focal length, all the way wide at 18mm. Generally for portraits it's better to go a bit longer if you have the room to back up and get the framing you want. If you look, you can see the perspective distortion a bit between her feet and her body and her head. Also the truck body seems a bit of a distortion if you look. Some of that may be the lens, which Lightroom 4 can generally correct, but some of it is just what a wider focal length does to the perspectives.

Also, what the others said. Watch out for having the back of the camera tilted at a significant angle off of perpendicular to the ground (meaning pointing the lens up/down in relation to the ground). You should also often put your subject towards one side of the frame or the other.

Some general guidelines (rules are made to be broken, right? But you gotta know them first) for composition can be found at http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/10-top-photography-composition-rules/ and http://www.ephotozine.com/article/12-top-photography-composition-rules-17158. These are by no means comprehensive, but bring up topics/ideas that you can easily do more research on. Do you have a nearby community college or camera shop? Check with them about intro to photography workshops.

Don't let all of the above discourage you, you have a great start and obviously a willing model. As long as she can be patient with you, you'll get better and better! Really, only way you get better is shooting, looking at your photos, and getting feedback like from us. I look forward to seeing more!

654

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: Speedlite help?

« on: August 01, 2012, 06:56:41 PM »

I am using a 5d2 and I heard that the 600ex-rt's do not work with the 5d2 (sync speed).

I can't believe that. The 5d2's sync speed is 1/200, just like the 5d3.

Would you believe if you read it on p.51 of the 600EX-RT manual?  With pre-2012 bodies, the 600EX-RT loses one stop off the max sync speed when triggered wirelessly with the RF system (e.g. 1/100 s max with the 5DII), and HSS and Group control are not possible via radio trigger, either.

Seriously? Wow. I guess I should have RTFM before I opened my big (proverbial) mouth on the internet. This actually shocks me. Anyone have any idea why it does that? I have a hard time believing it's nefarious, not something as important or odd as that.

655

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: Speedlite help?

« on: August 01, 2012, 04:06:05 PM »

I am using a 5d2 and I heard that the 600ex-rt's do not work with the 5d2 (sync speed).

Hmm. I think I will just be continuing to use the 580exii with the Gary Fong system (maybe get another 580exii and a set of rf transmitters) until I get a 5d3. Then probably go with the 600's.

I can't believe that. The 5d2's sync speed is 1/200, just like the 5d3.

656

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: Speedlite help?

« on: August 01, 2012, 01:53:55 PM »

You can also use the 3rd party RF ETTL/triggers to fire studio strobes or what not as well, just in case that comes into your future. Not sure that any of the built-in 600RT will, and I haven't heard of any receivers for the transmitter/600RT coming out anytime soon.

657

Canon General / Re: Insurance for Camera gear

« on: August 01, 2012, 11:25:25 AM »

i just added it to my home insurance attaching the information and the value, seemed the lowest cost

I've done the same, even had a claim for dropping my 5d2 recently and no problem with the claim. Just know, if you are actually making some money off of it, I would get real photographers insurance which will also cover set injury/liability and other things like that. The valuable personal property rider likely won't cover equipment if your using the equipment in commercial/paid usage.

658

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Buy 7D now or wait for 7D mark ii?

« on: July 31, 2012, 09:26:23 PM »

Okay well will the 70D have those specs or is that the full frame? What is your estimate on when the new 7D WILL be officially updated?

Read the link I originally replied with. According to CR guy, August 2012. In terms of the 70D, no specifics, but an announcement might come at Photokina in September.

659

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Buy 7D now or wait for 7D mark ii?

« on: July 31, 2012, 08:58:06 PM »

Well all I want in a new 7D is APS-C dual digic 5 at least 8 fps and super tough build quality like the 7d and an auto focus system better than the one in the current 7D. If anyone could let me know if these specs are a possibility. Thanks!

There isn't going to be a new 7D soon. It's 70D which M.ST is talking about.

660

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Had my picture taken with the President today...

« on: July 31, 2012, 06:00:32 PM »

Congrats on the award! Looks like a really good one. I was looking down the names trying to figure out who Mr friedmud is, but couldn't figure it out

Still using 5d2's? That's kinda a surprise. I would have figured 1D's, or 5d3's by now. Interesting.