so why am I trying to kill the sun when I have been missing it all winter? Long cold, snowy winter which = mostly shooting indoors, yuck! But the birds are chirping and the mercury is a rising so tried out a new technique with hotshoe flashes and trying to deal with the horrendous 1/180 sync speed of my Pentax K-7.
So for the first trial I knew I'd need to close up the aperture since I'm limited to 1/180 shutter speed. As I didn't want to try the "sledgehammer of light" or Joe McNally's Desert Shoot with 7 hotshoe flashes just yet. I thought I'd try 2 flashes first and maybe move up in the summer but it's not even spring yet :P
The setup:
I don't like the idea of my flashes, especially 2 of them, being supported by a $10 piece of flimsy plastic, that easily breaks as I have found out last summer, so I have made different rigs to have the weight of the unit more supported, in this case at least one, for this trial. This bracket also helps to align the flash head more toward the center of an umbrella when I opt to use one. So you can see I use Cybersync wireless system which here I just have attached by velcro but am making a caddy for when I shoot in the water again. Based on the iShoot dual flash hotshoe adapter there are only 2 ways to attach the flash bodies and multiple ways to adjust swivel heads.
My logic for this trial was to use the bottom flash for the body so it's aligned vertically and for this shoot, zoomed wide. The top unit I zoomed in tight for the hair/head/shoulder area. At least in thought that was my idea for this test. I shot hard light knowing I'd need every bit of light as it was just a trial. Shot at x 1/180 sec sync speed, f/16 ISO 100. When I have a full undiffused sun I will shoot at f/22-32 and try to get a starburst effect with the sun.
I needed an area with plenty of sky toward the west so I went to the top floor of a parking garage and in this case the one right next to Camp Randall Stadium home of the Wisconsin Badgers :)
oh and for legal reasons I guess I should point out to not stare at the sun lol
