Black&White

The new radio-trigger is working good and I’ve been experimenting a lot recently. Previously, I was a single flash guy, but now I’m exploring two flash photography and thinking to purchase the third unit. The fiberstrobe adapters allowed me (especially the V3) to use a single flash to achieve complex lightings. For example the effect of the rim light adapter is usually achieved by 2-3 flashes by other photographers. However, one thing I couldn’t really manage was the white background macro photography. I tried it with the V3 adapter but I failed miserably (see my previous blog post).

Therefore, the first thing I tried was the white background macro. A diffuser sheet attached to a frame cut out from a big paper box (left from Christmas delivery boxes) served as the white background and it was lit by a yongnuo flash. A DIY soft-box with the main flash (minolta 5600HSD in manual mode) provided the main light. Actually it was a bit too strong. It was triggered from the WanSen adapter attached to nex-5 on a tripod. Everything was on manual. It was a bit tricky to set the light ratio but after a bit of try and error I achieved the effect I was looking for:

Of course the technique can be used for black background photography but it required some trick. I put the nex on manual mode after setting the focus and using short time the LCD became pitch black. So this will be the exposure for the background. To make the backroung homogenous dark I put a black shirt on a box. I only had to illuminate the subject fit my flash to achieve the effect I wanted. Here I used restricted light mainly by using the V3 adapter with 2 arm snooted and one arm with a flag. The 4^th arm was turned away. Sometimes only one snooted light arm was used:

This is the set-up I used. You can see the box with my shirt on the table:

I also tried the rim light adapter with the nex-5:

I'm eagerly waiting for spring the two-flash set-up in the nauture. I still have to find some solution for the portable background. Any good suggestion??