KevinL
Flashlight Enthusiast
So, what do we mean.. taking photos of flashlights or using flashlights to take photos, or using flashlights to take photos of flashlights.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
If you guessed the latter you're right on track. While shooting some pictures of the collection, I discovered that the light of a U2 is perfect for illuminating the subject in addition to the flash on my Canon 350D.
For those who say "Get a real Canon 550EX or macro ring lite", I take both cash and CC Paypal, please send money to my EOS slush fund /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif
The interesting thing is that not only do my eyes perceive the LED light as "white", the camera's 8MP sensor, auto-white-balance and autofocus agree with me. I shot these pictures in AWB mode lit by both the U2 and the flash. If I use the flash alone, the image is very much darker and there are shadows, but the smooth light of the U2 and L4 help brighten it up and eliminate the shadows. To test further, I even extinguished the room lights and took a photo.
I've tried illuminating macro subjects like this in the past before using some of my other lights but the results have been dismal. I tried with my Lux3 4D Mag, well, imagine holding a camera in one hand with the gigantic club in the other. Plus, the hotspot shows up in the picture as way too intense. Whereas, in this case, the creamy smooth Surefire flood illuminates the entire object evenly. And it has none of the drawbacks that incan lights have, because all my other incans show up as yellow. Adjusting AWB to Tungsten makes the image too blue. Sure, one can clean it up during the postprocessing stage, but my philosophy is "why clean it up after when you can get it right the first time?" (also in line with the reasoning that the more you mess with the image, the more damage you can potentially do).
Additionally, I discovered that at short ranges of up to 15ft, the U2 can add quite a lot of those precious fractions of a second to your shutter speed to combat handshake blur. Ain't gonna help much for group photos though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif to Surefire and yet another extremely useful tool to add to my arsenal. At this rate, the U2 and L4 are going to save me lots of $$ on dedicated macro lights. The U2 - it not only helps you avoid cracking your shin while maneuvering for low-light photography, it helps you get the shot too!
If you guessed the latter you're right on track. While shooting some pictures of the collection, I discovered that the light of a U2 is perfect for illuminating the subject in addition to the flash on my Canon 350D.
For those who say "Get a real Canon 550EX or macro ring lite", I take both cash and CC Paypal, please send money to my EOS slush fund /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif
The interesting thing is that not only do my eyes perceive the LED light as "white", the camera's 8MP sensor, auto-white-balance and autofocus agree with me. I shot these pictures in AWB mode lit by both the U2 and the flash. If I use the flash alone, the image is very much darker and there are shadows, but the smooth light of the U2 and L4 help brighten it up and eliminate the shadows. To test further, I even extinguished the room lights and took a photo.
I've tried illuminating macro subjects like this in the past before using some of my other lights but the results have been dismal. I tried with my Lux3 4D Mag, well, imagine holding a camera in one hand with the gigantic club in the other. Plus, the hotspot shows up in the picture as way too intense. Whereas, in this case, the creamy smooth Surefire flood illuminates the entire object evenly. And it has none of the drawbacks that incan lights have, because all my other incans show up as yellow. Adjusting AWB to Tungsten makes the image too blue. Sure, one can clean it up during the postprocessing stage, but my philosophy is "why clean it up after when you can get it right the first time?" (also in line with the reasoning that the more you mess with the image, the more damage you can potentially do).
Additionally, I discovered that at short ranges of up to 15ft, the U2 can add quite a lot of those precious fractions of a second to your shutter speed to combat handshake blur. Ain't gonna help much for group photos though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif to Surefire and yet another extremely useful tool to add to my arsenal. At this rate, the U2 and L4 are going to save me lots of $$ on dedicated macro lights. The U2 - it not only helps you avoid cracking your shin while maneuvering for low-light photography, it helps you get the shot too!