Portraits with 2 SB-800's

jasonstone · September 8, 2008

Hi everyone,

I am just playing around with Portrait stuff - well actually shots of the kids when they'll stand still - but i 'm thinking if i have a bit of a setup to test then they may pose for me :wink

Question is.... I have a Nikon D80 + SB-800 + Lightsphere 2 cloud
can borrow another SB-800 from a mate
oh and if it helps I have an old Sunpak PZ4000 (from an old canon eos 50e)

I was thinking of kids in front of white wall (not right on it) with SB800 bounced of ceiling with nikon diffuser or bounce card
the other SB-800 with lightsphere at 45deg to the kids out to the right
and if i can find someway to fire the sunpak it could be used at low power to light the wall - maybe with a colour (but I don't know how to get it to fire without buying some gear whcih I don't want to do for it

The question is - where should i start? I have an idea and will experiment but are there any pointers that you could give me to save me clearly wasting time and energy (which are neither limitless :wink )

oh yeah i only have an 18-200 VR lens from Nikon at the moment but could borrow a mates 105mm 2.8 Nikon macro lens which is ultra sharp....

and lastly - can I just leave the SB800's on TTL? will the camera know there are 2 and balance them out???

Thanks all
Jase

Mitchell · September 8, 2008

jasonstone wrote:

Hi everyone,

I am just playing around with Portrait stuff - well actually shots of the kids when they'll stand still - but i 'm thinking if i have a bit of a setup to test then they may pose for me

Question is.... I have a Nikon D80 + SB-800 + Lightsphere 2 cloud
can borrow another SB-800 from a mate
oh and if it helps I have an old Sunpak PZ4000 (from an old canon eos 50e)

I was thinking of kids in front of white wall (not right on it) with SB800 bounced of ceiling with nikon diffuser or bounce card
the other SB-800 with lightsphere at 45deg to the kids out to the right
and if i can find someway to fire the sunpak it could be used at low power to light the wall - maybe with a colour (but I don't know how to get it to fire without buying some gear whcih I don't want to do for it

The question is - where should i start? I have an idea and will experiment but are there any pointers that you could give me to save me clearly wasting time and energy (which are neither limitless )

oh yeah i only have an 18-200 VR lens from Nikon at the moment but could borrow a mates 105mm 2.8 Nikon macro lens which is ultra sharp....

and lastly - can I just leave the SB800's on TTL? will the camera know there are 2 and balance them out???

Thanks all
Jase

Jase,
You are not wasting your time, but you've got a lot of learning to do. You need to learn how to use your D80 to have it fire your two SB800 strobes remotely using Nikon's Creative Lighting System (CLS). I would also suggest some light stands and some shoot through umbrellas with a clamp to hold your SB800 flashes.

Your lens selection is a bit of an issue. I'm not fond of the 18-200mm as a portrait lens. If you can borrow the 105mm, you will find that quite sharp. It may be a little long on your DX body.

I've taken some halfway decent shots of my kids using two SB800 flashes fired remotely.

jasonstone · September 8, 2008

Mitchell wrote:

You are not wasting your time, but you've got a lot of learning to do.

That seems to sum up my life - I'm always trying to learn new things and then forget to go out and use what I've learnt before rushing on to learn something new

Mitchell wrote:

You need to learn how to use your D80 to have it fire your two SB800 strobes remotely using Nikon's Creative Lighting System (CLS).

I've got that working already - well on camera flash firing a remote SB-800 - that's what set me off to try and find out how to push it and get hopefully really good off camera flash shots

Mitchell wrote:

I would also suggest some light stands and some shoot through umbrellas with a clamp to hold your SB800 flashes.

At the moment I'm just experimenting and would have to borrow some stuff from a mate.
If I see this going anyway then maybe I'd start to invest in some gear - but for now I have little time or space but a burning need to learn how to do this!

Mitchell wrote:

Your lens selection is a bit of an issue. I'm not fond of the 18-200mm as a portrait lens. If you can borrow the 105mm, you will find that quite sharp. It may be a little long on your DX body.

Don't worry I already know it's not an ideal portrait lens - but have to work with what I have for now.

Mitchell wrote:

I've taken some halfway decent shots of my kids using two SB800 flashes fired remotely.

Nice pics - any info on how/where the flashes were place and what setting you used?

I really like the one of the three kids shooting from above - how did 2 lights help here??

Thanks for your tips and info - it all gets me a step closer

Did a bit of experimenting tonight and damn it's hard to get my kids with a decent sharp exposure when they won't stay still!!!!

Cheers, Jase

ipduffy · September 16, 2008

Strobist
Jason:

One site that I have found immensely helpful in my quest for flash photography knowledge is Strobist. The author of the blog, I believe, is a former staff photographer for the Baltimore Sun and he knows a TON about how to use the flash to take incredible pictures. I'd highly recommend watching the video on flash basics, as well as going through the lighting 101 and lighting 102 tutorials; the lighting 102 archive is where the meat of the training is, IMHO, but it builds on the basics he covers in lighting 101.

Cheers, and I hope to see some of your results soon.

--Ian

jasonstone · September 17, 2008

ipduffy wrote:

Jason:

One site that I have found immensely helpful in my quest for flash photography knowledge is Strobist. The author of the blog, I believe, is a former staff photographer for the Baltimore Sun and he knows a TON about how to use the flash to take incredible pictures. I'd highly recommend watching the video on flash basics, as well as going through the lighting 101 and lighting 102 tutorials; the lighting 102 archive is where the meat of the training is, IMHO, but it builds on the basics he covers in lighting 101.

Cheers, and I hope to see some of your results soon.

--Ian

Thanks - I've started going through Strobist 101 and yeah it's clearing some things up for me

Mitchell · September 17, 2008

jasonstone wrote:

I really like the one of the three kids shooting from above - how did 2 lights help here??

I've taken that shot 4 years in a row as a gift for my wife. I fire two SB800s into my ceiling while the kids are laying on the floor. I take the photo from a ladder.

The two flashes gives a nice, soft light. With only one light on the ceiling I seemed to get more shadowing with a less diffuse effect. Lots of trial and error here.

Travis · September 17, 2008

Mitchell wrote:

I've taken that shot 4 years in a row as a gift for my wife. I fire two SB800s into my ceiling while the kids are laying on the floor. I take the photo from a ladder.

The two flashes gives a nice, soft light. With only one light on the ceiling I seemed to get more shadowing with a less diffuse effect. Lots of trial and error here.

Mitchell, if you don't mind me asking, what was the lighting setup on the first image. I'm doing a shoot in a few weeks and am in the process of determining lighting setups. I really like that image! Thanks,

Mitchell · September 17, 2008

Travis wrote:

Mitchell, if you don't mind me asking, what was the lighting setup on the first image. I'm doing a shoot in a few weeks and am in the process of determining lighting setups. I really like that image! Thanks,

Travis, that first image was taken with a single SB800 fired into a a Photek Softlighter II off camera right. Basically just a brolly box type of umbrella. I used a white reflector on the left to soften the shadow and provide a bit of fill.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Travis · September 17, 2008

Mitchell wrote:

Travis, that first image was taken with a single SB800 fired into a a Photek Softlighter II off camera right. Basically just a brolly box type of umbrella. I used a white reflector on the left to soften the shadow and provide a bit of fill.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Just what I was looking for! I have a softbox but also was interested in something more portable. Thanks.

MarkW · September 19, 2008

Travis wrote:

Just what I was looking for! I have a softbox but also was interested in something more portable. Thanks.

I used a Photek Softliter II for the first time on a location shoot last month on some models. I put two Vivitar 285HV's inside it and got some fabulous shots. It was so fast and easy to setup compared to using my 28" Westcott Apollo. The photek is a great item to have in your arsenal. If you get one I don't think you'll be disappointed!!

pathfinder · September 19, 2008

Mark, can you describe, specifically, how you mounted and triggered your 285HVs inside your Softliter II?

I like that large umbrella with diffuser, but have not tried using speedlights, as opposed to studio strobes with it. I think lots of readers will be interested in how you mounted the 285HVs in the opening in the center of the diffusion fabric, and whether they were triggered with PC cords, or PWs, or optical slaves or just what.

ziggy53 · September 19, 2008

pathfinder wrote:

... I think lots of readers will be interested in how you mounted the 285HVs in the opening in the center of the diffusion fabric, and whether they were triggered with PC cords, or PWs, or optical slaves or just what.

Count me in with the interested.

Thanks,

MarkW · September 19, 2008

pathfinder wrote:

Mark, can you describe, specifically, how you mounted and triggered your 285HVs inside your Softliter II?

I like that large umbrella with diffuser, but have not tried using speedlights, as opposed to studio strobes with it. I think lots of readers will be interested in how you mounted the 285HVs in the opening in the center of the diffusion fabric, and whether they were triggered with PC cords, or PWs, or optical slaves or just what.

Describe... I can do even better! Ask and you shall receive!

This is a picture of the customer bracket I made. Just a couple of wing nuts and L-brackets from home depot to get the flashes to swivel. They are mounted to a standard umbrella bracket. Instead of putting the hotshoe mount on top. I screwed two brass studs together to mount them side ways.

Here's a shot of the Softliter mounted. I don't have a pic of the diffuser attached but it's just a matter of putting the diffuser on the umbrella first, mounting the umbrella and sticking the two flashes through the center hole.

[URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/markwphoto/2749884965" ]

[/url] Here's a shot with the softliter attached. I don't have the diffusion material on in this shot but it's just a matter of attaching it first and then poking the flashes throught the center of the hole. Sorry I don't have a pic of it yet.[URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/markwphoto/2749885075/"]

[/URL]

Why use two flashes you may ask?? One Vivitar is powerful enough to balance with the evening sun but you will have sloooww recycle times. Stacking two flashes allowed me to shoot one flash at 1/2 power and the other at 1/4 power without much delay in recycle time. Here's a few sample shots from the shoot I mentioned.

ziggy53 · September 19, 2008

Mark,

That's awfully inventive of you.

clap

I was thinking of just "piggy-backing" one flash onto the other with a couple of heavy duty rubber bands. Yours' is a much better way of doing it.

Thanks,

Travis · September 19, 2008

Nice setup Mark. Thanks for sharing. Now I see myself making a trip to Home Depot......

pathfinder · September 19, 2008

Very inventive and appreciated.

Sweet light from your Softliter on those ladies, too

jasonstone · September 22, 2008

Mitchell - could you share the settings you used to create the frame in this photo - I really really like it - it's simple yet very effective - I was thinking of trying to create a photoshop action for it - if i can work out how to do that

Cheers, Jase

Mitchell wrote:

sweet caroline · September 25, 2008

ziggy53 wrote:

Mark,

That's awfully inventive of you. clap

I was thinking of just "piggy-backing" one flash onto the other with a couple of heavy duty rubber bands. Yours' is a much better way of doing it.

Thanks,

I just got my softliter today, in time for outdoor school photos next week. My Sb600 works wirelessly in it with my D300 in commander mode, even with the diffuser on. I'm pretty excited about that. Anyway, the tripod mounting bracket that came with my flash has three positions for the flash to be mounted. So I'm thinking I could mount two flashes on it, rather than rig something myself.

Caroline

MarkW · September 25, 2008

sweet caroline wrote:

I just got my softliter today, in time for outdoor school photos next week. My Sb600 works wirelessly in it with my D300 in commander mode, even with the diffuser on. I'm pretty excited about that. Anyway, the tripod mounting bracket that came with my flash has three positions for the flash to be mounted. So I'm thinking I could mount two flashes on it, rather than rig something myself.

Caroline

Have fun with the softliter! It's one of my favorite modifiers to use on location!

Portraits with 2 SB-800's

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