Ben Cochran
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I like this thread [ch9786] If I may join in; my understanding is that it is a combination of both Zach and Will explanations. A lesser quality/slower lens will not always transfer that same amount of light to the sensor due to the reasons that you both stated plus: The sensor does not capture, nor does the lens transfer lights as a singular whole. It transfers the frequency width of different colors of light, with red having the longest/strongest wavelength. The better prime lenses will transfer a better grouping of the three primary colors with the lesser quality lenses creating a larger bend and drop off in the signal independent strength’s transferred and arriving on sensor. A low quality lens may transfer far more red than blue to the sensor due to extra elements and/or occlusions on the elements, as well the material make up of the elements. A larger front element helps to transfer the strongest frequencies possible into the lens body but the build and make up of the interior of the lens can make a huge difference in the frequency bend between 2 lenses, both at f8.
Thanks Lauren. Hopefully I will find out very soon and if the schedule works out, I will make a post and reservation. Sounds like a great time and I would hate to miss it…
Got to love those mountain streams, love the dry fly box shot! Cools shots Zach! Humm, for some reason I am now craving a cheese bugger with “extra” onions, got to run 😉
Due to some recent events, my schedule has been changed a bit, I am not sure when the reschedule will happen or when I will have to go back over. If I am still stateside, I would LOVE to go to this, is there a deadline for letting you know?
Ah, the true essence of photography, it is all about interpreting, controlling and directing the light.
There are many different ways to handle low light but the first has been mentioned above, fast glass! Other than that, it all depends on your composition and the amount, as well as direction, of ambient light. Once that detail is better known, there are still many ways to light and shoot it. Also, you can move 10′ to the right or left and have to shoot it completely different. This is what makes photography an ongoing and continuos learning process.
I know this doesn’t help much but if it was all that easy, every single photograph viewed would look like cookie cutter photography. First priority for good consistent low light photography, fast glass!
Thanks again guy’s. I don’t write the look or feel that I am going for, as the creative thoughts commingled with imagining the shots will convolute
Nice shots Scott. I drove the route a few years ago, a side track on my way to relocate in San Diego for a couple of years. it was beautiful and I must also say, far much better than the boring Interstate 40 desert highway nonsense, drove that way a couple of times too. I got out of the car and kissed the ground as soon as I saw the mountains in New Mexico or the rolling hills and trees of Arkansas, dependent upon which way I was driving. lol
I agree with you Chad. The second shot has already been proofed and approved so, I won’t be shooting that one again. The wood showed up fine in the larger file but I do wish that I would of repositioned the foliage in the background so that the green was behind the black dubbing. You would not believe how long it took me to get those lights set just right, a real pain in the —, a total of 5 strobes and 2 days of set composition.
A very BIG hardy congratulations to you Aaron!! I don’t get that mag but I have no doubt that you did a great job on it… Feels good doesn’t it?
Thanks Will, that is more along the lines of what I was hoping for. Something still bugs me about it and I am not sure what it is? I have to do the side profile and use this exact fly so, it doesn’t really leave me that much creative room. I think the thing that bugs me the most is, how does one make a Caddis Pupa look artful with out the attached trout 🙂
I really do appreciate everyones eyes and opinions. While I was trying to reset the shot, I kept coming back here and read the reply’s, I agreed with all of you. I was determined to use that red gel as I was enjoying the dynamic range that it seemed want to offer, after reading Zachs’ post I realized that I was trying to shoot a completely different type of shot and it had nothing to do with fly’s so, off came the red gel and on with the more practical CTO. Thanks again to everyone!
Most often, it is best to get a set of fresh eyes and listen to what they see and not what the photographer wants them to see :).
Thanks John, The text should only be at the top but I am not the final decision maker on this. I like the feel of this one better too, I looked at it from a different perpsective and agreed that the red was just to out of place on it and the background did need more fill.
I had to change that last image as I noticed something odd about the bead, seams that the half hitch was coming off so, I replaced the photograph again.. About that Beer? 😛 LOL
This is where I am at so far. I looked at the first photograph and agreed with all of you. I kind of like red gel’s and in advertising, red is a trigger color but in my case… It scared my buddy Zach to much LOL
I will probably crop this one different but I wanted to share the progress so far and see how you like some of the suggestions that you gave me.
Thanks again everyone, at least you see that I do listen LOL
Hey THANKS everyone!! I wanted to write a quick reply and let you know that I have been working on the lighting and composition for about 5 hours so far this morning. I check in here and when I read something, I go back and make the changes that you are all suggesting. MAN! It is a beast trying to get these “tiny” strobes set just right as yes, I am trying to go for a spotlight effect with no to very little spill.
I should of mentioned this earlier and should of also posted a profile angle as this is full page on either A4 or american 8.5X11 so, I do have to leave room for the bleed as well. Text will be in the top section.
I’ll post images of my progress, if I feel that I am getting close to what I am going for (which is much like what Phil had mentioned). After I get this one, I only have 10 more similar shots to go after this one… I quit drinking a long time ago but would anyone care to join me for a late Beer lunch LOL!!
Thanks again guys and this truly is why I love this site so much!!!!!!!
Here are a few quick questions that I thought of Zack, hope it helps. I think this is a great idea for the magazine!
After fighting and landing a trout, how long does it take for the toxic quantity of lactic acid to subside back to safe levels? Also, how long should one spend in forcibly reviving a trout, before releasing it?
Can you briefly explain the characteristic abilities of the 4th cone, in the trout’s eye’s, and the relationship of their IR vision ~vs~ Ultra Violet Vision; as they age?
Is there a relationship between the telescoping cone and color frequency of this same cone, in the eye of the trout?
When is the best time to catch large trout and is it due to an acquired survival trait or an anatomical change in the older trout?
How do the trout stack up in a current pattern, larger older trout in front section of the faster currents or the younger juvenile trout up front?
Does color effect the feeding behavior of trout and if so, which comes first; color or shape?
If a fly pattern is tyed and color matched under ultra violet light, will it yield more strikes than a fly colored matched under natural light?
Is there a relationship between drastic and abrupt cold water spikes (such as in tailwater fisheries) and scaring of the otolith bone? If so, what other effects would this have on the trout’s metabolism?
On oligotrophic water systems, can human introduced elements be introduced in order to increase the insect populations for trout?
You post a great shot of a great fly like that and it is hard to respond on why one would want to use flash [ch9786]. First off, that is a great shot so, don’t let anything that I write take away from it.
There are many reasons for using flash and why it is a better approach, but not any of the reasons mean that one has to use flash in order to get great shots, like yours. First off, WB. Similar strobes will have a set Kelvin temperature, something that multiple light bulbs will not have. Strobes fire in a mille second from the time that the shutter opens and closes. This is important because the sensor only picks up light frequency and that mille second of light from a flash controls what, where and how the frequency hits the sensor. This is where the saturation, definition (sharpness), depth and exposure values are captured, along with other things. Natural ambient light delivers longer light which means that potential distortion in many areas, including the feathering (outlined areas) of objects. The feathering from ambient lights, will most often be greater than compared to strobes, this is where objects appear soft or out of focus. With a quick shot of flash, the frequency of light is more defined and controlled as it hits the sensor. All color is a frequency of light returned to either the eye or, in this case, the sensor. Digital sensors are much more sensitive so light sources and frequency are even more important in digital.
Also, flash isn’t all about light as much as it is more about controlling shadow. It also allows the photographer greater control on how light hits and object so that the color of the objects are not spiked out with white from the light source. And finally, there is a lot more but these are some of the reasons, one can better control the amount of light and/or frequency spill onto other object’s. If you look at your vise head and gap, you will notice some frequency spill from the hackle. I don’t want to point out any other things on your fly as it really is both a great fly and a great shot!!
These are a couple of quick shot’s with strobes, granted they are typical tutorial type shot’s, as I am using them in another project, and not meant as an artistic image but it display’s some of the differences that I mentioned. Chad Simcox has some great artistic shots that he shot with single strobes.
LMAO!! Neal, it was the stool samples that made me think of the 105 LOL!! I see that you are having a great time with the new lights, pictures quality is looking very good. Your fun has just begun though as a whole new world opens up once those strobes leave their little nest on the lens 🙂
Along with what both John and Zach wrote, you are going to LOVE those SB200’s, with the SU800, as it is with the SU800 that you control the exposure values of the SB200’s and getting them off camera opens a whole new world to you. As you may have noticed, you can set them all independently to A, B, or C and have 4 channels to choose from, they all have to be on the same channel though. This gives you more control over not just the light but more control over the shadows.
I too decided to post and example and I know that you can shoot this exact same shot better than I did. There are many things wrong in this shot and to help you out, I will point some of them out. One SB200 (Set to A group) on a point and shoot tripod set camera right and just above the forward fly. Second SB200 (Set to “B” group) on the provided stand and placed under the rear fly, pointed up and stepped down. Due to this, I have a terrible shadow crossing over the tail of the back fly. Way too much light on the driftwood, under the primary fly.
If I were shooting it for any other purpose again, I would put a home made girded snoot on the “A” SB200, to help create a gradient flow on the driftwood and raise “B” SB200 and perhaps a small snoot on it as well. Set the SB600 to group “C” at 105mm, step it way down and point it towards the candle stick (would probably need a snoot or flag as well).
I know that your shot would turn out better as I purposely did everything wrong on this shot for a reason. I give little to no credence to the camera critics as I know the levels that they go to for finding fault in equipment, then others take a piece of this and then the internet is full of bad information. According to all of the information available, this image should be terrible (Way beyond the fact that I set the lights wrong). It should be full of terrible noise and extremely soft all over, if one was to believe the reviews on this equipment.
I shot this a long time ago and promise you that there is absolutely no post processing, not even white balance of this photograph. I used the 105VR at f 29, suppose to be terribly soft from what is written about this lens. Shot it with a D200 at 1/25 (yes very slow but it was done so that I could set everything to completely sabotage this shot with the terrible ISO rumors) EV value -2.33 and the ISO set at 1600, according to everything written, the black background should be full of noise and the rest of the image should be extremely soft.
Like Zack and John were talking about though, if you are strobing from the side and have little light splash, the background does not have to be far behind. Direct flash directly down range, move the backdrop back. In this image I clamped a solid about 2’ behind the subjects and the amount of light on the candle shaft illustrates how little splash the SB200’s give off, that and also the fact that the candle light is not spiked out.
Seriously though Neal, you can shoot this much better than I did and the image will look much better from your equipment. Just don’t use the same camera settings that I did LOL
Hey Carter, It is kind of hard to answer the question completely because almost everything in digital can be proven correct or wrong. The main thing is the fact that more mp does provide more data. For large poster size commercial applications and larger 28-50mp is more logical and also justifies the $39,000.00 price tags. As you know, 10mp is going to provide more data than 6mp but not to long ago, many cover shots, full page spreads and even double truckers were shot with 4mp (They looked great!). In the case of 6-10mp, very little to no stretching is required. Both would have to be stretched to reach a 20X30” print though and dependent upon the bicubic softening tool used, little to no difference would be noticed. A plugin tool like “Genuine Fractals” is great for this purpose and even an enlargement up to 700% is most often very clean and crisp. Laying the 2 20X30” prints, side by side, it would be very hard to notice any difference between the 2. The bad thing about all of the reviews and analysis by many on the internet is the fact that they will blow an image up by 700-1000% and then compare them to each other, with out any use of bicubic softeners so, of course there will be a huge variance but to the naked eye, I don’t think anyone would be able to tell which camera shot which print.
The other thing about prints is the fact that printers only print up to 300dpi or ppi. You are absolutely correct that your cousin would not notice any difference in normal sized prints and if the Internet images were in SRGB, again, no difference would be noticed. Take a look at the new pictures that Neal Osborn posted in the Macro thread, I think they were shot with a D40 (my mistake, it is a D50) but instead of upgrading the camera, he invested in much better off camera lighting, made all of the difference in the world and that is where the art of photography really is, in the use and understanding of lighting. I strongly recommend to anyone new to photography: A decent entry-level body, good to prime lenses and most definitely off camera lighting and intense study of lighting before ever thinking of up grading, which would not be necessary.
I also agree with the sensor cleaning feature, just more that can go wrong with the camera and it actually functions from a vibration caused by an introduce low frequency.
Caveat to all of this: For professional use, the mp and size of the individual mp’s are very important, as they store more real data and less interpreted data when stretched beyond 100%. Fashion photography is very demanding for very sharp, crisp and true data so, more mp is very important for several reasons. Currently; Getty, Almay and several of the larger publishers have a 12mp minimum but keep in mind that many of these images may be used in very large print and some are even used in derivatives (which demands even more true data to be present), the other thing is that the Art Directors and GA’s desire more data as it makes it easier for them in post edit and design applications. I would submit this though: If one photographer took the exact same shots with any of the DX format cameras and was allowed typical digital darkroom post processing, then printed all of the shots at normal magazine full page size, I don’t think any person would be able to tell which print had the less mp’s and which had the most.
IMHO Carter, your advice is very sound and also allows your cousin the leverage of both purchasing and learning lights to capture some amazing shots of the newborn[ch9786].
In reference to the “Genuine Fractals” plugin. I got a D80 for a girlfriend in the Baltic and decided to test it here first, before taking it to her. An authorized Adobe Training center was interested in it and it now hangs on their wall @ 17” x 35” with no distortion. The different light sources created different Kelvin, hence the title of the photograph [ch9786]
That was a great and extremely cool idea and shoot. Very innovative and congratulations to both you and Lauren. 🙂
Congratulations Neal! Good shots and love the dog shot, shame about the wood brace in it but now you see first hand that you have more versatility, plus you have much better images that you would not of had if you just went out and purchased an upgraded body.
Don’t forget that you can also take the R1C1, or just the R200’s off camera and fire them remotely as well. The included defusers work great too!! 🙂
I will be more than glad to help you out in anyway that I can. If there are a lot of questions, we can do it by phone as well.
