Strobing high school gyms

Just a reminder to check out this article from September.


NEW STUFF ADDED:

I've added more info including a strobe clamp review from photographer Dirk Dewachter.
Check out the Cool Vivitar flash Mod I've added.
Price sheet for Radiopopper JRX remotes, $99.00 for a set.

good read on SportsShooter.com

http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_display.html?tid=31267#7

Someone posed the question about strobes in gyms and the new D3 and Mark III, wondering if they were important now that you can shoot at higher ISO's without a lot of noise. Glad to see the general consensus agreed with what we here at MaxPreps believe. Basically that there's good and there's good enough. We would like to see good images, not just good enough. So get out those strobes people, basketball is almost here.

Ghost eye fix

Ghost eye is not quite zombie eye but a flat white/red eye with no pupil. Basically the reflection of the flash off the surface of the eye without the reflection going large and over the eyelid. Most folks have been trying to color those in, not a good idea. I will delete any eyes that look colored in. Here's how you can fix most of those slightly ghost/zombie eye shots. You can click on the image to see a larger version, use the back button to get back to the blog.
I can't remember whose photos these are, but everyone has this problem at one time or another. So thanks to the photog who shot these, hope you don't mind.






Ghost eye, too much white with a bit of red.



Here I used the brush tool in Saturation mode at 50% opacity to remove the red color





Then I used the burn tool at 35% midtones to gradually burn back the detail in the eye, trying to keep the eye looking as natural as possible. I've not added anything that wasn't there to begin with I've just removed what the flash created.

Always carry gaffers tape!

This week two different photographers had flash bracket problems. Equipment will break but you have to think outside the box, my philosophy is WWMD, or what would McGyver do? For the broken bracket my fix would be to find one of the team trainers and beg some tape, then stretch the off camera cord as far as it will go down the monopod and tape that sucker down. Make sure you don't tape over the red TTL dohickey (I hope I'm not getting too technical for you) and you're good to go. Flash can be upside down, it won't matter. I've done this and it works great.
So there's my little McGyver fix, what's yours? Send me some DIY photo projects or down and dirty fixes and I'll post them here.

From Micheal Listner: One that comes to mind is when I was shooting during a wet snow storm (works for rain too.) I forgot my camera's rain cover so I improvised using an empty WalMart shopping bag. It looked corny standing out there with it, but it did the job and saved my camera from damage.

From a thread on SportsShooter.com, a cheap flash bracket for night football from photographer Mark Peters: Another vote for mounting the flash beneath on a monopod. Skip the superclamp. Go to a hardware store, buy a simply L corner bracket with the legs about 2 in. They are predrilled with 1/4 in holes. Two hose clamps from the automotive section is all you need to hold it on. Use a 1/4 thumbscrew to attach an off shoe cord and your set. I mount mine upside down for the additional separation. Your cost = less than $5 and it saves the weight of the clamp/ballhead.

Great article by our own Dirk Dewachter.....

Veteran Maxpreps photographer Dirk Dewachter has an article on SportsShooter.com this month about the nightmare of getting your gear stolen and how we can protect ourselves from thieves. I've had my gear stolen, it was a nightmare I never want to relive. Here's the link to Dirk's article: http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=2105

Here's a few things I do to try and protect my gear:
When I am at a venue that I know I will be leaving some gear in the press room or other area, I pack my gear in a big rolling pelican case and bring a cable with a lock. I get some funny looks from the other shooters who just drop their bags on tables or chairs and walk away, but obviously they haven't had their gear stolen, yet. I do the same thing in hotel rooms, everything gets packed in the pelican case and it gets locked to something sturdy, like the toilet. In the car I have metal rings in my cargo area and the case gets locked to those if I have to leave gear in the car, then the case gets covered up with a packing blanket that lives back there just for that purpose. Last but not least I have an insurance policy that covers all my photo gear as well as my personal computer equipment, whether it's in my home or on a job, I'm covered. What they won't replace are the images shot on the job, so when I finish a shoot my cards stay with me, I don't pack them with the gear, just in case.

sRGB

I just found a great article about shooting in sRGB as opposed to AdobeRGB. I added it to my previous article from April but I thought I'd highlight it again.
http://www.shootsmarter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&acat=16

Strobing high school gyms

f2.8 @ 1/250th ISO 250
Canon Mark II - 70-200mm f2.8
2 Vivitar 285hv's shoe flashes at 1/2 power
White Balance: AWB
I find Flash White Balance tends to shift the image a bit red.


"Any light is available light" W.Eugene Smith

For all of you that think it costs a lot of money to get set up to strobe basketball or volleyball, I give you my cheap gym strobe kit.

You can also do the same thing with nikon or canon shoe flashes, but with my set-up you can build battery packs that will recycle quickly and last an entire tournament on one charge for less than $20 bucks a pack. A charge on my homemade battery packs last longer than quantum turbo battery packs. Here's another way to make the fake batteries from a photo blog by photographer JC Sullivan.

And if you really don't want to make them yourselves, Al Jacobs will do it for you:
http://www.aljacobs.com/gear_talk/vivitar_285_hv_-_the_truth_.html
The cords are all the way at the bottom of his rant about the new chinese 285's not being as good as the older original versions. Although I think he may only make them if you buy one of his black boxes.

Monolights are sometimes over kill in smaller gyms and all those extension cords can get messy. This kit sets up quickly and discreetly, many of us use this type of set up. Bigger isn't always better! :)

If you want to use lights like Q flashes or Lumydines make sure you find out what the flash duration is for those lights, it's all about a fast flash duration. Not all flashes are made the same, some have a slow flash duration and it will cause motion blur or ghosting. Do your research.

Speaking of research here's a review of my beloved Vivitar 285hv's from Popular Photography.

RADIO TRANSMITTERS: The standard for radio transmitters are Pocket Wizards, but there are some less expensive alternatives that have come out recently. Paul Buff has the CyberSync: Photographer Christopher Kays has pointed out that to use the Cybersync remotes with a Vivitar flash you'll need a special cord, my flashes came with the right cord (vivitar to monoplug) but if yours didn't you can find them at FlashZebra, they seem to be the least expensive source. Speaking of cords if you need a remote camera cord or any type of special cord or connection, check out Michael Bass he makes all kinds of specialty cords, I have several and they are very well made.
Then there's Radio Poppers, they've been hyping a cheaper version called Radio PopperJR for months now, the P1 poppers have gotten some good reviews so keep an eye out for the Jr's.: http://www.radiopopper.com/ Update on these guys, they've cancelled the Jr's and are making some other radio transmitter, I can't really figure out what they're doing. Okay found a price sheet online, looks like the Jr's are a pretty good deal, $99.00 for a set.
And if you really want to go cheap, there are quite a few cheap units on Ebay and other sites that will work fairly well. Enough to let you get hooked on shooting hoops with strobes. :) Here's an example from AlzoDigital.com and another from Gadgetinfinity.com I've never used either of these, so I'm not making any recommendations, just giving some cheaper alternatives if you're on a really tight budget. Do your own research!
And finally there's buying used, EBay is a good source of used PW's, the neat thing about them is that no matter what model you buy it will work with all the other models. The old 16 channel will work just fine with the brand new Transceivers. I have one of almost every type of PW made except the multi-max.

COOL VIVITAR MOD: Okay, I needed another cord or two since I'm adding two more vivitars to my flash kit. So I checked out FlashZebra ( it was the cheapest at $14.00 a cord), but in my search for something even less expensive, I stumbled on something I think is better. A mod to the flash that hardwires a mono plug directly to the flash so a PW can be plugged right into the flash, brilliant!! Here's a how-to video and here's an article. I'll be modifying my stable of flashes in the next few days and will post a report and photos. I love DIY!


HOW TO SET UP YOUR STROBES:
Here's a great photo of one photographer's set up, basically where he placed his lights in a particular gym and what he wanted as a light spread. Thanks to Thomas Witte, check out his other tips too. http://www.gophotography.net/tips/lighting.html Just an FYI though, he wrote this when he was shooting film, digital requires more stops over ambient to freeze the action than film does.  I like to get at least 3-4 stops over to avoid motion blur or ghosting.  Drop your ISO to get enough over ambient.
Here's another example www.candideyephotography.com/HSGymStrobes.pdf

Here's a shot of photographer Joe Boyd's set up, he's using Cybersync's, Vivitar 285's and a homemade battery pack.  His stand is gaffer taped to the stands, but you could also use zip ties.

Thanks for sharing Joe!

GUIDE NUMBERS: I bet many of you are saying "What the heck is a guide number." It's what we old school fully manual shooters use to use to figure out what power to set our flashes. No TTL in the good old days. :) I can go through a lengthy explanation but luckily David Hobby over at the Strobist has done it for me. But why do you need to know about guide numbers? Because it makes it a lot easier to set your strobes close to the right exposure on the first test shot. The more you understand how this stuff works, the easier it is to get good exposures without a lot of guessing and trial and error.

CHEAP SUPER CLAMPS: Bogen super clamps can be quite pricey, I found these off brand superclamps online for $24.19 I haven't used them myself but if I needed another clamp I'd be giving them a try. For clamping my itty bitty shoe flashes they should work just fine.


Dirk Dewachter sent me an email about a clamp he's now using to attach his strobes in gyms.
Here's what he says:
I started to use these to mount my lights at Volleyball and maybe basketball, if I can move them beyond the baseline: http://www.filmtools.com/matendjawcla.html
They have them in 2 inch or 6 inch thread with a standard light stand knob at the end. I shot the Mira Costa – Orange Lutheran game yesterday and was able to use the two inch threaded ones to pipes to attach them to – see attached images. A lot easier to carry than stands and they are out of the way, as long as you can find something to affix them to. The six inch threaded ones and be mounted to items up to six inches thick such as 2X8’s as you can see in the images, that would have been another option. I use those umbrella swivels with a threaded stud to mount the Quantum flashes to it, plenty of knobs to hang your pocketwizard and battery pack to.

Nobody complained despite two Mira Costa photographers saying ambient light is the way to go because the refs won’t go for it. The heck with them, the best advice I received was from David to mount them on the same side as the referee standing on the ladder by the net.

If you click on the images they will open larger in a new window.

I love when someone starts a thread on Sportsshooter and everyone responds with great links to other websites.  Here's an article on the Strobists on using small flashes to help light a college arena.  What I like about the Strobist is that he works with what he has to make great images, not "once I get XXXX I'll be able to make good images", it's not the gear folks!!!!