Elinchrom Ranger Quadra Kit

 

Elinchrom Ranger Quadra Kit

 

This is for Ed & Gina:

Yes…it works and expensive. Lot’s have been written about this kit but the quick and easy is right here on Terry White’s Blog.

So my cuz and I were chatting one day about applying some Strobist setups and techniques to his work (travel/lifestyle shooter). I have been doing the Strobist thing with my speedlites for about a year now instead of the old on-camera auxiliary flash. The Canon E-TTL system is amazing when it works. The trick to making it work is lot’s of patience and commitment. I read a bunch on Chuck Gardner’s online tutorials which taught me much more than Canon’s manuals ever did. They should hire this guy.

The problem we agreed, with aux speedlites were recycling time, color temperature stability, light quality and of course, batteries. Shooting at 125 or 25oth shutter speeds is really hard on the battery life. The benefits though is the E-TTL run and gun ability when combined with high speed sync. Speedlites are pretty light and you can carry a three light kit in your gear bag with no worries. If you have line of sight things usually go smooth. I shoot a lot this way with a standard 3 light setup: Main (on-Camera as master), 2nd at 45 degrees of the subject, and one usually above and behind as a hair light. At $400 a pop for Canon’s flashguns, plus hardware such as stands, cold-shoe adapters, umbrellas…yada yada yada, things can get pretty expensive. The last bit is a simple fact that you just have to deal with, Ed put’s it this way: Everyone’s photo has that same look (Strobist) and it gets tired after awhile.

Then there is the Ranger…head not much bigger than a 580EX, color temp of 5300K reliably, power enough to kill mid-day sunlight and lot’s of battery power to spare. The recycling time is so fast that you can shoot like a machine gunner at 1/4 to 1/2 power. I don’t like the short cables, weight and price. Making outdoor portraits is pretty snazzy with this kit. Just set you customer WB to 5300K or thereabouts and start shooting. The IQ is pretty good…but honestly I don’t see that much difference from a Strobist setup with aux flash units, but I gave up portability and wireless setup.

580EXII & Ranger Head

I’m giving the Ranger to my cuz this week, it’s off to Thailand for 3 weeks. I love my speedlites and until I find a better solution to the portability, weight and E-TTL feature, I’m rockin’ on with them. I do have an interest in trying out the Q-Flash system and the ABR800 for studio work, but it’s nice to have part-time use of the Ranger.

Bruce Testones – Fashion Photographer

Bruce Testones – fashion photographer

How I Did It

Final

I took an image shot of James a few days ago and borrowed a 100% crop of his face and upper torso. Starting with an export into PS CS4, I did a variety of adjustment layers following a quick healing brush exercise to arrive at the final image for a punchy desaturated look.

PS CS4 Screenshot

James | Shot

Photoshoot with Nadege in a California dry lake bed Behind the scenes

Awesome little vid

——————-

It’s been said by a few “people” who shall remain nameless, that me and my shooter pals don’t do enough portraits of male subjects. Add James to the “Y” column in case they are still keeping count.

The session started out nice enough; the MUA did her thing and we setup the lighting while James was getting prepped. Suddenly he asks me if I shoot “RAW” and used a Light Meter. I answer yes on both counts but it’s definitely not regular for a model to ask those specific questions. Not unless they are in the shooting end of the business anyway. He proceeds to pull one out…the model “up” from mine and starts taking exposure readings. Suitably impressed and since mine broke and was in for service, it was actually pretty welcomed. We were way off on the BG lights…something like f/13 when it should have been f/11.

We got him warmed up and from stiff to loose over the following couple of hours pulling off some decent “pay the bills” shots. I coached a bit more than I normally do to relax him in front of the lens, adjust his tie, shirt, shoes etc until we got the look he wanted.

As expected, Ed “Mr. Prop Man” gets the model to pose with some sword thingy. Not my thing but when in Rome….and the shots didn’t turn out half bad.

James is a pretty soft spoken guy and we had to rough him up a bit to bring out the “mean”. Ever hear that saying “it’s the quiet ones you have to watch”? Pay close attention the next time someone says it. We got the mean alright, nearly costing us a piece of foamcore we used to flag the BG lights.

Yep…Ed unleashed a monster.

Despite the shenanigans we got the shots James wanted for his portfolio and sent him off a happy camper.

We used a setup that I personally love for this type of shoot: White BG with a 3 light configuration: 2 X Ab400 shot at BG (f/11) and flagged so the light didn’t kick back unto the subject. We lit James separately with an AB800 in a beauty dish at f/8. Ed later added another AB400 in a B.A.S. (Big Ass Softbox) for additional fill. Shutter was at the highest sync we could get the triggers to trip at 1/200th of a second @ ISO100.

The idea is to get the BG to perfect white with enough light bouncing back to create a little wrap. The foamcore was added to flag the two BG lights to keep the wrap in check, otherwise the exposure on James would have been something like f/13.

I used two lenses for this shoot, the 70-200 and 50mm. I prefer the 50mm in this application. It’s not coming off my second body until it breaks again. Ed shot with his usual setup, long lens on one body and wide angle on the second as well.

Absynthetika in the Studio

Megan & Angela

We promised the ladies a reshoot of some of their outfits that we didn’t get to out in Pickering last month due to time and weather. Fotunately we managed to get three perfectly shaped models, two of which are professional dancers. The stuff they can make their bodies do had me feeling phantom pain in my joints. I can’t even bend over low enough to touch my toes. I could probably jump a fence if I was running from some dudes trying to jack me for camera gear though…but that’s all I got in the trunk.

Rhiannon, Nicole & Monica

The shoot rolled from 7PM to just after midnight as we cycled through the outfits and models. I didn’t take a setup shot so a description will have to do:

AB800 in B.A.S. (Big Ass Softbox) as main light on a boom overhead of subject. AB400’s for fill and hair lights, and shot against a grey background which I didn’t particularly love. It looked better on the camera LCD but go biggie on the 32″ monitor at home and it wasn’t so lovely. Of course I shot with my recently resurrected EF 50mm 1.4 USM glass. Shot settings varied from f/6.3 to f/11 at 1/60th – 1/125th shutter. ISO 100 for me and ISO 200 for Ed (Nikon).

Rhiannon W/funky processing in Adobe Lightroom 3.0 Beta

Despite the wild settings we pulled off some nice shots of the ladies. I’ve never worn a corset (yes they make them for men too) so I don’t know how comfy they are for 5 hours at a time but hat’s off to everyone for hanging in there.

Nicole on 3-2-1 pose...so athletic!

 

Monica, check my photostream for previous shoots with her

 

Angela, Sandy & Megan

Special thanks to Sandy Erdemir, our MUA for the evening for coming out to the studio on such short notice. She did a great job on everyone…well except Ed & I. Look her up on Model Mayhem #231916 and hire her before she gets too big/busy.

Sandy's handiwork with Monica's pretty face

Ed's big moment in front of the lens

 

Making a face

Thanks for the emails on the previous post. Sherry-Ann of SAJ Beauty is definitely talented. I’ll reply to those who asked with her Model Mayhem # as soon as I get it from her. To answer the main question: NOPE…didn’t do much in the way of post processing. Christine has nice skin to start with and when you combine with good makeup work 90% of the shooter’s work is done right in camera. The only thing I had to worry about was lighting and composition. That was easy enough…I shot wider than usual (for me) and cropped in to where I wanted it.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Booyaaahhh

Finish

As mentioned in the prior post, I shot with a 50mm lens and 580EXII speedlite in full E-TTL mode. In most cases I bounced the light up and behind me. Camera was set between F/4 and f/8 at ISO 400 which kept my shutter speed somewhere around 1/125th depending on the shot. I like to shoot a bit faster at 1/250th for human subjects to keep things sharp but I didn’t want too much noise in the final images and didn’t want to sacrifice the nice ambient light streaming in from the windows and balcony door. The walls of the space are white so no color drift. Somtimes less is more.

SAJ Beauty | Beauty Shots

I did some portfolio work yesterday for Sherry-Ann of SAJ Beauty. Love those portfolio building days. I’ll try just about anything for a new technique success and the session worked out very well. Sherry-Ann helped me out for the shoot in Durham County a few weekends ago and I was very happy to return the favour.

Working with Models Christine & Malina made the session easy, they are naturals in front of the camera. In fact you will see Christine show up pretty regularly in my Flickr photostream and Blog. If your in the GTA area of Ontario and need a model, holla at her because she is awesome.

After her set was done, we snuck away to the balcony for a natural light shot at the middle of the “Golden Hour”. I love making pictures during that time, the setting sun saturates everything with a golden orange colour which I’ve tried to recreat with my Adobe Lightroom preset…Orange Haze.

The Golden Hour

Sherry-Ann also invited a 24 year old natural poser, Malina for the second set.

Once we finished up with the portfolio stuff for Sherry-Ann, Malina came up with a few sets for herself. I like to give the models some free rein after the “business” work to try some things of their own.

Special thanks to Sherry-Ann’s mom for hanging out with us and helping with posing suggestions. The girl knows how to groove. I love my Jamaican peoples.

For the session I kept it light shooting with my Canon EOS 1Ds MKII, EF 50mm 1.4 USM attached with the 580EXII flashgun. I could have used the 35mm F2 given the close quarters and low light but the devil in me wanted to flaunt the recently fixed 50mm prime. Prior to wrecking it in Mexico, I had it attached permanently to the 1D, excepting the odd switchout to the 70-200 every now and then.

And ya…I know. Shooting an assignment with one speedlite…heretic, right?!

Don’t care…less is more sometimes and I knew that I would be able to bounce the light around pretty well inside the confines of Sherr-Ann’s place. The 580EXII has more than enough power to lift the light levels enough to make things bright and contrasty at ISO 400-800.

Next weekend I get to put my Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit thru the paces for another shoot…outdoors. I’ve been putting off an engagement session for a friend due to other pressing matters. Plus my cousin had possession of the lights for the past month. This bad boy may replace my 580EX’s for location shooting if they work out as I expect.

I fixed my 50mm 1.4 USM lens

There I was in paradise…Playa Del Carmen. It was late in the afternoon and I was changing lenses from the 50mm to the 24-70 to catch a wide angle shot of the beach. I missed the bag and dropped the lens unto the sand from about waist level, can’t recall exactly. The hood split in two so I figured that it absorbed the shock and spared the lens itself from damage. Nice theory…for about a day when I finally mounted it for a group shot. The manual focus ring felt rough and I attributed that to sand getting under it. The sand on that beach was so fine…I still have tons of it embedded in the fabric of my gear bag.

EF 50mm 1.4 USM

Aside from the ring issue, I noticed a terrible screeching sound as the AF moved the lens module in and out. Add to that injury it would get stuck at the infinity mark and would have to be manually adjusted to free it loose. After a few hours of using it like that the AF ceased working at all, effectively leaving me with a manual focus-only lens. Considering how much Canon wanted to charge for a fix I was happy to keep using it as is, despite my lack of ability with manual focusing. I got much better over 6 months. Along the way though I tried a few copies of the Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX DG lens…which was pretty good but had spotty focusing. They are sharper than the Canon wide open but after F/2 the Canon starts shinging brighter, better colors, contrast and sharpness. It’s edge to edge better at f/2.8 onwards, where the Sigma needs another stop to catch up. I also tried the 50mm 1.2L..too much money for only a slight improvement. Eventually I talked myself into sticking with the Canon.

Attached to my 1D body

I ordered a knock-off hood from an eBay seller at a very low cost. It stays on the lens permanently. I’ve only taken it off for the fix I’m about to describe.

After searching for weeks on the internet I found a site describing how the author fixed his 50mm 1.4’s AF issue. Click here: http://www.fotomozaic.ro/artikel.php?idstory=225&s=1

Following the instructions to the letter, I took my unit apart right down to the circuit board and got all the fine sand out, or as much as I could. Some are still ground into the oil in the gears and nothing short of a full replacement of the internals will solve that. The main relief came in gently bending the cut-out tracks that make the AF work. After bending them ever so slightly back into spec, I reassembled the whole thing and cleaned the elements with a micro fibre cloth to get rid of my greasy fingerprints.

Popped the lens unto my camera body and fired it up…boooyyyaaaaaaaaaahhhhh. It works, albeit not as good or even as quietly as before the accident. It now fosuses to infinity and is still sharp, sharp, sharp. Prior to the fix I couldn’t trust it wide open at 1.4. By default it’s usually stopped down to f/2 to be safe. Now it seems reasonably sharp, but very accurate. I nailed the focus on subjects 10ft and beyond without a problem.

I used it right after the fix in the studio:

Studio shot

And on a recent trip to Picton, Ontario:

At the beach in Picton, Ontario

Now it’s attached 90% of the time to one of my camera bodies as before the accident…DIY baby.

Studio Day

A quick shoot last Thursday with a couple of friends and our regular models Christine & Lesly. This time we threw in some clothing from designer Jordan de Ruiter for Sui Generis, a twenty-something talented gal from “Up North”.

Jordan de Ruiter

Makeup was done by Ms. Juliya Adamenko.

Juliya preps Christine

We messed around with the lighting setups quite a bit in two separate stations: Three Light ( AB800 W/Gridded Beauty Dish, AB400 Hairlight and AB400 W/Small softbox as fill), and AB400 in B.A.S on station 2. A large softbox lit with an Alien Bee usually does the trick for me for simple images.

Lesly

After Lesly finished her set, I got her to throw on her jeans and pose up on that old day bed couch in the studio. I lit her with an AB400 and a big ass softbox at about 1/2 power. By the way, I want to thank my buddy Danny for turning me unto some new triggers from Yong Nuo. Those bad boys work just as good as my Pocket Wizards at a fraction of the price. A big sigh of relief because I was going to replace a pair lost after a shoot in July. I’ve since found one unit under the seat of my car, but that still leaves me a transceiver shy. By comparison the Yongnuo set cost $60 taxes in and work at ridiculous distances. They tripped the lights every single time with no issue. Unlike other generic units, I managed 1/250th of a second shutter speeds, totally killing ambient light on a few shots. I’m sure they can be pushed higher though…this shot was done at F/8, 1/320th of a second. I must have turned the shutter dial up by accident because I initially set it to 1/250th. My 1D has an electronic shutter which maxes out at 1/500th so that probably sealed the deal. Why Canon did away with that feature I’ll never know…so handy for strobist projects.

Christine

This shot of Christine was done with an AB800 in a beauty dish at F/8, 1/125th of a second shutter speed. The light was positioned directly above her at about 3/4 power.

Christine W/AB400 in a big ass softbox

This one is my setup with the B.A.S. and AB400. Sure I could have dropped in a fill or harlight, but the fade to black adds a little drama to the image IMO.

Lesly in the 3 light setup. AB800 above, AB400 as fill, and out of frame AB400 hairlight.

Just as with the Yongnuo triggers….many ways to skin a cat with lights. By the way, before I get an email asking about gear; all were shot with my 50mm or 70-200 glass. I prefer the 50mm on FF bodies when working in close quarters like this studio. The 24-70 barely left the bag and I only popped a few shots off before switching to the prime. I can’t dial down these lights low enough to shoot anywhere close to wide open but it’s sharp edge to edge from f/2.8 onwards.

Absynthetika got shot

I’ve logged an incredible amount of time in the studio this year. On average spending one day a week shooting just about everything I could get in front of the lights. Nothing beats shooting on location and I wanted the last outdoor gig to be extra cool. My original plan was a victorian themed concept using the derelict properties on the Pickering Airport Lands. Timing and weather sorta tamed that but we still had fun and came away with amazing shots.

Wardrobe was provided by local designers, Angela and Megan of Absythetika who were willing to help out. Their stuff is pretty awesome and we were grateful to have them on-board. Sherry-Ann of SAJ Beauty did the makeup honors, from the back seat of Ed’s car no less, while her husband waited in his car under layers of blankets.

Shooters were a cool bunch that I’ve met over the past year. Special thanks to:

• Georgette: http://www.flickr.com/people/georgie_grrl/
• Edwin: http://www.flickr.com/people/salsavaders/
• Gina: http://www.flickr.com/people/ziggy478/
• Steve: http://www.flickr.com/people/23194800@N04/
• Joel: http://www.flickr.com/people/jterron/

So the plot went something like this:

7:30 AM: Tracy leans over and asks if I’m getting out of bed. We google the weather on the laptop and I know we are in for a little rain and chill. I pack the gearbag while she heads out for coffee…I rocked a Chai Latte.

8:30 AM: Our bunch set out for the Pickering Airport Lands near Claremont.We roll in about 9AM and as expected for late October, the weather was a bit nipply. Everyone was trying hard to stay warm and motivated…that is except for me. I love cool weather but I probably should have worn some pants. Seeing me in shorts made it seem colder I think.

Mach Pelah Cemetary

 

Edwin and Steve shooting with the Ranger

Steve

Georgette

Worse for the models though. They had to stand around in corsets and thin dresses while we took light readings and worked out exposures.

Megan fits a corset on Lesly

Christine shivering while we get the lights ready

If your thinking about shooting out there on one of the abandoned homesteads…think again. The federal security officers patrol the area very aggressively. The gentleman that kept watch over us was pretty nice and allowed us a bit of leeway but don’t expect to get too close to the old barns and houses. Years of neglect combined with the theft of antique wood leaves the structure unstable. When it gets bad enough the feds go out a raze them. Also the locals don’t really like outsiders wandering around too much as we found out.

Things took a little longer than we had planned but it was worth the wait.

Mach Pelah Cemetary

Megan fits a corset on Lesly

Christine shivering while we get the lights ready

Steve

Georgette

Edwin and Steve shooting with the Ranger