Sorry for the delay in continuing this, for those of you that have been interested..
Where did I leave off? Oh, yes, wireless and wireless..
So.. there are a number systems which allow photographers to connect cameras and/or flash systems wirelessly. Two of the most popular systems are Pocket Wizards and Flash Wizards by LPA
There are many obvious benefits to these systems – allowing a clutter free environment being one of my favorites, as well as the ability to move without being “tied down” (ie connected via a sync cord to a flash or power pack).. However, there are sometimes situations where the wireless set up can become a bit of a hurdle..
One problem which can occur is if you’re in a situation with other photographers or if you have radio interference. For a reasonable fee, LPA will install a custom channel on your transmitter/receiver units and it’s a worthwhile investment.
Another problem, which is inherent, whether shooting wirelessly or not, is polarity. Each time you plug another light into your set up, you’ve got to match the polarity or it will create a problem as it will prevent the signal from running it’s course – sort of like the older holiday lights where if one light was bad, it would short out the string of lights.. a block if you will. Anyway it’s easy to prevent if you plug in the lights one at a time.. if you plug in a light against the polarity, it will trip the lights (make them flash) and you should simple turn the “male household” style plug around and re-insert it.
A final problem is one that we experienced as we were setting up for our final shot for this magazine piece.. and it was channel related. There was a lot of hurry up and wait and anxiety around this final shot. The subjects were actors from an upcoming new network show, and they were said to be “difficult” (As it turns out, this couldn’t have been more inaccurate, but I’ll tell you more about that in another thread..)
Anyway, due to threatening forecast for heavy thunderstorms that afternoon – the original location was scrapped and we moved to Splashlight Studios on West 35th Street. This was my first shoot at Splashlight, and I couldn’t have been more impressed.. the location was great – plenty of gear to use (they had a choice for every item we asked for) and they re-paint the cyc after every shoot – even painting a portion of it another color for us on the spot!! I strongly and whole heartedly recommend them if you need studio space in New York City.
After packing up at our original location, we made our way uptown to Splashlight. The shot called for our subjects to be “emerging” from a car – a brand new Hybrid BMW (I don’t really like “Beemers but have to admit this was a sweet ride) – Splashlight was a perfect location as we were able to use a studio that had a big sliding wall to pull the car up to which allowed us to place our subjects inside the “doorway” and out of the weather should the forecast hold true..
We worked at a pace approaching frantic, to light the shot and trouble shoot along the way – one big problem that quickly became apparent was that our natural light – the daylight which was to light the car and the street in the background of our shot – was fading quickly.. Between the approaching storm clouds and the evening which was not far off.. we made a decision to light the street as well..
We quickly obtained some garbage bags to wrap the lights in an effort to prevent them from getting wet and shorting out (or frying altogether) and some sandbags and “leashes” to secure the lights from blowing over.. We got everything set up and metered by 4:40 pm – leaving us with plenty of time for a couple of test shots and some fine tuning before the subjects arrived at 5 for make up and wardrobe..
Then it happened..
One of the lights that we’d placed outside – which was to splash some light on the BMW – wasn’t firing.
Thinking initially that it was the sync cord (sync cords may be the single most temperamental items I can think of..) we swapped in another one.. then another.. manually triggering the light it would work.. but for some reason it wasn’t firing on the test shots.. we swapped out the wireless “receiver” still moody.. We swapped out the flash head.. still cranky..
As I said, tensions were a bit high at this point.. it was the final shot on the final day of a four day marathon (or sprint depending on the moment) and every body was tired an cranky.. Cords were pulled.. Bad words were spoken..
Finally, I wondered aloud if a different channel on the receiver would/could make a difference..? David (the photographer) and Jim (his number one assistant) and I looked at each other .. a mixture of “it couldn’t be” and “could it be that simple” upon our faces.. Shrugs all around.. what have we got to lose at this point..?
We switched the PocketWizard “transciever” from Channel A to B and voila! – Jim and I reminded David to switch his “transmitting” wizard (the one connected to his camera that would trigger the lights) to “All Channels” so that we could leave the others alone (they were all working and we didn’t want to cause a problem that didn’t exist) – And suddenly everything was firing and the subjects arrived..
Sometimes you’ve got to break things down and start over and sometimes you can create a fix in one area without upsetting the rest of the picture – the flexibility of the FlashWizards and PocketWizards in this case both caused and solved the problem.
At the end of the day, everything got ironed out, the shoot ran a little late but it was because our subjects arrived closer to 7 then the scheduled 5 – but everybody was cool.
Jim and I were both sorry that the location had been moved, as we had been looking forward to producing that shot, which would have been great – however – at the end of the day, the shoot itself was successful, the magazine folks seemed pleased, and nobody got hit by lightning..
If you have any questions or comments about this or anything else I write about, please let me know.
Stay tuned for Part 4…
If you’d like to read more about the wizards, wireless flash and remote cameras.. These are some threads and forums with a lot of valuable information about the wireless systems:
From Sportsshooter:
FlashWizard vs PocketWizard
Pocketwizards and Strobes Setup
Through The Glass: How to set up a glass remote for basketball by Darrell Miho
Photographer’s Toy Box: Pop Goes The (TTL) Flash – A recent story from my pal David Bergman about the release (finally!) of Radio Popper a very cool new system that allows TTL via radio rather than IR signal – in short, wireless TTL has previously only been possible via IR Signal which requires line of sight, ie your “master” flash would need to be visible from the “slave” flash. With the Radio Popper, you can now shoot with TTL via radio frequencies – which allows for the flash units to be placed pretty much anywhere.. (David’s story goes in to more detail and is worth the read if you’re in to this stuff)
A video from PocketWizard Behind the Scenes with Jack Reznicki
And from Microsoft: Sports Illustrated at the Final Four
My friend Vincent had a related posting yesterday – “Remote Heaven or Hell Depending On The Results” – it features a little video that he shot – of the set up of remotes at finish line of the 100M Final in Beijing – as well as lots of good information in his writing. Good stuff!! here
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