Thursday 21 May 2009

The masks we wear


Its been an eventfull week for me. No details but I have not had a camera in my hand for a few days, and that allways gets to me. I have a raft of new projects, ideas and just stuff I want to do.
I tried a few ideas out and one has stuck with me. This is just a test shot but it will give you a feel for part of the image I hope will come together this week.

Saturday 16 May 2009

Lost Light

Well the beginings of the portfolio site are now live. You can see the initial site before its moved to its dedicated server

HERE
Much to do,
Cheers,
Mart.

Thursday 14 May 2009

High Speed Sync

Hi Speed sync off camera,

Ok I found this by accident and it has become a very useful tool in my lighting. Tricking an off camera flash, be it a small hot shoe or a larger power pack strobe into high speed sync. I only know this works with Nikon, sorry all you Cannon shooters.

What you need:-

Camera, obviously!! Works with my D700 or D300 no problems and should work with any Nikon that has the Auto (FP) setting option in the camera.

SB800 Flash. I use the SB800 because, I have one and it’s got an external PC port.

A pair of pocket wizards. This does not work with the cheaper Chinese radio triggers, sorry but it just doesn’t.

An external flash that could be another hot shoe, or an AlienBee or an Elenchrom Ranger (if you have one I either hate you or love you, but only if you’ll lend it to me!!)

Ok, put your Nikon into High speed FP sync mode in the menu (that’s the flash, bracketing menu)

Put your SB800 on the camera in TTL mode and it will tell you it has gone into FP mode automatically.

Now comes the trick bit!!

Connect a PW via the camera flash port to the SB800. Take another PW and attach normally to the off camera flash you want to fire. Set your off camera flash to full power and bingo!! It syncs at whatever speed you want it to!!

I find it a great addition for adding some nice fill on a very sunny day, or stopping some fast motion. I know Nikons CLS will do the same, but it just does not have the range or work that well in very sunny weather for me.

Don’t ask me how it works, I don’t know.

Disclaimer- I have used this method on my cameras and not had a problem. If you fry a camera, flash or anything else trying this, don’t blame me.
Set up pics and test pics to follow.

Cheers,
Mart

Saturday 9 May 2009

New Direction

We are splitting the blogs!!!
As part of our direction for the next year, we are splitting the blogs and soon to be web sites in two. MS photoraphy blog will keep you up to date with out comercial and sports orientated work and we are launching Lost-Light as a pure people photgraphy endeavour. Its going to be a fun 12 months or so pushing the boundries of what we can offer.
Catch the Lost-Light Blog HERE

A big thanks to tallented photographer Glyn Dewis for mentioning me on his Blog HERE Glyn asked for opinions on his new site and for those that know me, if you ask you will get an honest reply. For all you Nikon users Glyn has a very good description of using multiple exposures in camera to get some great effects.

Now down to work,
Cheers,
Mart.

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Strobist Meet

Last week I organised a quick introduction to off camera flash for some FlickR members local to home. Got a good response and a few turned out at the marine lake in West Kirby for a brief intro to off camera lighting. I think it opened a few eyes as to the benifits of getting the flash off camera and using some light modifiers.I only took a couple of shots as I was talking alot (not like me, honest!) and giving a few pointers

Great backdrops of the Dee estury and the views into North Wales. Will be holding another in the not to distant future.

Monday 4 May 2009

Lee & Natalie



Congratulations to Lee and Natalie on there wedding. As a guest I was not photographing, but could not resist getting a few shots in. Lee is also a very good photographer and could not resist texting me from there honeymoon in New York fron B&H photo.

DownHill Fast



A recent product shot of a friends downhill mountainbike, part of a series on downhill riding we are completing as a personal project.
Welcome to the new blog of MS photography. This is where we will publish some of the images and behind the scenes view of our work.