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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
09-21-2022, 06:39 AM
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Hey, I tried that.
I think the important bit where I say that the front flash works has been overlooked. Today I also noticed that the main flash actually triggers every so often but rarely.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
09-20-2022, 09:11 AM
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It must have been 2-3 years since the last time I wrote on this forum, exactly the time since I stopped photographing. Now that I wanted to try it again, I went through all my gear and tested them. Of course, I forgot/didn't know what flashes must be used every now and then.
Luckily all my cactuses are still working, even a super cheap yongnuo it is. My semi-broken Metz 58 af1 is still working too, but unfortunately, my Metz 58 af-2 is not firing anymore.
I thought to ask to someone good to swap the Af2 capacitor with the AF1 one, but then I realised that the front light is still working.
Does the metz 58 af-2 have two separate capacitors for the front and main light or do I have to search for the reason for the failure somewhere else?
Another clue is that even with fresh batteries, the gun shows the low battery warning.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
04-01-2018, 01:51 AM
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Thanks for the reply! The backdrop is double faced, with a white face too, I just thought that making a grey white was easy, as it is stated by many youtubers. You are right, I still get confused with the concepts, but I didn't mean TTL, I meant to use manual with remote control. The godox slaves don't have a power control and they are not super powerful either, so the only thing I can do is too move them around, but of course the distribution of the light changes.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
03-31-2018, 02:34 PM
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Hello,
long time I don't write here, it's because I moved house, it took a while to settle down, but finally I can work on my studio. So I started the first experiments and I already know it will take a while to master everything. I am not sure if the difficulties I currently have are related to some of the cheap stuff I use or it's just because I have to work out how everything work together.
I have several questions and quite random, I hope you can help. First a look at the studio:
 IMGP9329.jpg by sebafoto, on Flickr
 unnamed by sebafoto, on Flickr
I am using a 2m wide gray vinyl. I am pretty pleased by how the backdrop works, I will write an article about how to setup a studio once I finish.
I don't make money out of photography, therefore I have no intention to pay big money, just the bare minimum essential to have good results without swearing. I have give lights. 2 old godox slaves that I use to lit up the backdrop, 2 manual flashes and 1 metz. (actually the metz are 2, but 1 is broken and can be used only in manual, therefore it's manual).
I use also the cactus trigger together with aputure triggers if I need to use more than one light. I will start keeping everything simple of course.
Random questions:
- I have some troubles in making the backdrop white, because of the falloff of the light, it's never pure white on the border, even when I use both the slaves. I am not sure if it's normal or I can make it better. I tried with the slaves behind the subject or on the sides. Behind the subject is obviously better, but I have seen some setups with the light on the sides, not sure how it works for large backdrops. Advices?
- I would like to use the metz with TTL. Just because it's inside a softbox every time is a pain to open the panel to adjust the settings manually. However if I use the metz with TTL the slaves do not fire!!!! Super annoying because I can't figure out why, any suggestion?
- do you suggest something for me in general to buy that is not too expensive? Light modifiers, different lighting system (I Would like to buy a beauty dish but they are quite expensive). I use also reflectors, I will need to buy a grid for the softbox. I will experiment with a bit of everything, but I wonder if there is something I should not absolutely miss.
- working with the speed lights may be a bit of a pain. I am used of shooting outdoor without flashes and waiting for the recharging time will modify my shooting styles, thoughts?
- I need more batteries, I always bought eneloops and powerex, but I see now there are more brands around...are they any good? Specifically I am talking about the EBL, but I am not sure if there are other brands
- I need a charger like this: EBL 12 Slots LCD Battery Charger for 9V Li-ion Ni-MH: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics is it a good investment?
- this sounds silly, but a cheap wind machine? I know there are fans, but I am not sure if they are powerful enough :)
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
03-11-2018, 11:25 AM
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Need your help.
I am finally spending time in my garage and I am almost done. I mounted the backdrop arms like seen here:
https://www.manfrotto.co.uk/product/045?gdffi=49a58e497aa64eee8c69ef155ee6fb...hoC5eQQAvD_BwE
I purchased this backdrop which I already had a look at and it seems great:
Vinyl Background - 2m x 4m White+Grey Double Sided Photo Backdrop - B Grade | eBay
The backdrop comes with an aluminium 50mm diameter tube. From the instruction, it appears to me that it was meant to be on another tube.
With the insight, ideally, it would have been better to buy three separate mounts and put them at the distance necessary for each backdrop.
50mm diamater (inside is around 48mm) is perfect for those wall mounts. However I say ideally, because for how the wall is made, I cannot put them closer than 2.5m between each other.
Therefore I had to find a solution to be able to mount the backdrop. This has been a pain, the reason is that obviously pipes come in standard size. Optimally I would have needed something between 45mm and 48mm but the closest was 40mm!
40mm is too small for those wall mounts, so I had to buy another 50mm pipe and join it with the 40mm to use as inside pipe for the backdrop.
It was a lot of work to reach a solution that didn't look flimsy, however I rather use a proper solution. What am I missing? Was the backdrop assuming that the wall mounts were at 2 meters between each other? Is there a standard pipe to use in photography for there cases? Or they assume that people mount these backdrop in those flimsy and cheap stands?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-02-2016, 11:18 AM
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worked for me first try on my 17-70.
The only doubt I have is if I screwed the SDM screw too tight. after I screwed clock-wise/anti clock-wise 3-4 times, I wasn't able to turn it again (too tight?).
The lens now works again (it wasn't work at all before), but I think it's a little bit louder. It squeaks like a not oiled old hinge.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
01-22-2013, 03:23 AM
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I have a metz 50 (If I remember corretly :P), I can use the auto mode. At first it seemed to work great for me, than I realized that was not the best solution in many situations. In P-ttl mode though the results are often not balanced, while the k30 manages the flash way better in most of the situations.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
01-21-2013, 08:50 AM
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according my experience k5 and metz do not like each other in p-ttl mode, however k30 exposure works great! It is like using another (working) camera! I actually hoped that k5 II was using the same algorithm that k30 uses.
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Forum: Pentax Q
01-03-2013, 02:17 AM
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Forum: Pentax Q
01-02-2013, 03:37 PM
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Hi,
I am new here, hope you do not mind if I start directly with a question.
I bought a pentax af260 flash that works as it is supposed to work on the k5 (it changes the aperture of the lens according the exposure), but it does not work on the Q (the same automatism does not actually work). I suspect that it is because the Q needs the flash to be disabled by menu to let an external flash to work. Does it make sense?
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