Advice/tips wanted for a new project

[allenlennon]

Hi all, im thinking of starting a project that photographers of all skills been doing on flikr to which i believe is from another site called 100 strangers. The reasons for me wanting to give it a go is as follows:

To help improve my photography

For something to do

To get me out there

And i was thinking of packing a flash or two in my camera bag, two if i have an assistant of sorts, if not just the one on the camera. Or i could bring a light stand or two, wouldnt be too hard to bring, especially if i dont bring my tripod and put a light stand in its place. Or use the tripod. And i think i can pack an umbrella with my camera back pack.

Now what i was wandering is that anyone can give me tips/advice on this adventure and the fact that my flashes dosnt have ettl. I have a few yongnuo yn-560ii/iii's. So if i decide to go on the lighter side and forget about the stands, what type of diffusion set ups i should get(budget, up to about $100) to attach to the flash to help me with this project.

Any tips/advice will be appreciated.

[Manfred M]

I'm off on a trip and asked for some advice for some similar shooting conditions Lex (RustBeltRaw) and Andrew (Andrew1) suggested the Expodisc Rogue Flashbender (Large). http://www.expoimaging.com/product-d...&product_id=21 . It is certainly in your price range (about $40). That will be arriving early next week so I will start playinig with it next week.

I tend to shoot my flash on manual for outdoor work, so don't see having non-ettl as a disadvantage. I fiind the biggest downside of the speedlights is the limited power that they have. I've been playing with a technique where I underexpose the background by 1 - 3 stops and use the flash to properly light the subject; but have nothing to post yet. I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to shoot these shots near sunset or sunrise unless I want to drag some more powerful studio lights along. The speedlights don't have the power to do what I want when it is brighter out.

The other lightweight and cheap technique (if you have an assistant) is to get a reflector.

[xpatUSA]

I've been playing with a technique where I underexpose the background by 1 - 3 stops and use the flash to properly light the subject; but have nothing to post yet.

Pardon the hijack, Manfred, but by coincidence I used that very same technique last night. Ambient lighting was from a 17W CFL reflector lamp about 10ft away, so not many lux. The SD9 was not equal to the low-light task so I put the flash on it.

[drjuice]

Mebbe this is today's dumb question, but what is this project anyway? I gather it involves learning to use your flash gear, but beyond that I have no clue. Please clarify.

Thanks.

virginia

[allenlennon]

Manfred thank you, im thinking of getting a few gels like the cto gels so i can mat h the ambient light better, and a few different kinds of diffusers. Also thinking getting a small reflector/diffuser for sheer portability.

Virgina, this project, "100 strangers" is about getting out if your comfort zone and approach strangers and ask to take their photograph, and in doing so you learn by doing it, and learn from mistakes. Kinda like what phil(dubiphil) does.

Here a couple of links to sites:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

http://weiry.com/100strangers/

http://digital-photography-school.co...s-project.html

[GrahamS]

Craig Nelson has been doing this for a long time - see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nelsonf...7604123142870/

[allenlennon]

Graham, i seen his work, really inspirational. I have an idea of how i want my set to look, want them uniform in composition so thinking a squarish crop and mostly head on positions, which may vary depending. Also i made a decision to use a reflector so i will be purchasing a 80cm 5-in-1 reflector and purchase a reflector holder for a light stand to which i can easily carry on my backpack.

[drjuice]

Thank you, Allen.

I do that all the time. I submitted one of the LA Piano pictures to one of the CiC competitions about 15 months ago. It was a little kid playing one of the decorated pianos. When I do little kids, I always ask their grownup's permission. I also ask their grownup for an email address where I can send a copy of the image (and then I do that). The third thing is that I always take the pictures so the faces can't be identified.

Just as a count of what I did, on the three days I took to take a pictures of all the decorated pianos in Los Angeles (30 of 'em), I caught about 70 different individuals who were playing one or more of them. Two kids from the Colburn School, a really good music school that seems intended to be for kids who are interested in music as a career, were trying to play a longish piano duet on every one of the pianos over a three-day weekend which I found interesting.

Thanks again.

virginia