Hi Chuck,
Thanks again for the two additional explicative e-mails: they are
great and I shall save them for having them as back
reference. These e-mails make the exact problems, and paths for
solutions very clear; excellent explanations!
So then, to summarise matters somewhat, I agree that it is more than
worth a go to use the OM gear I already have; that also gives me a
very, very good feeling, as it pains me to see it all unused in the
closet.
It does mean, however, that I need to work on the set-up. I have two
semi-broken video camera (rather light) tripods which I can use to
improvise umbrella stands, if I can find the custom made ones again.
If not, other things could be improvised, such as firing through a bed
sheet (possibly clumsy due to the size) or through the paper that
clothes designers use (I don't know the proper English word for it) in
order to diffuse the flash. I'm leaning towards the idea of giving
both a go, see what works best, and then create some two wooden frames
with the material of choice in between, so as to be able to more
easily put them in place, without having to suspend them from
something. As a beside, a thing I forgot to mention is that when I did
some home-studio-experimenting, I used to tape off the windows with
that type of paper too, so as to prevent outside light coming in
harshly, and having it diffused.
Indeed a BIG advantage of the digital era is that the exposure can
directly be previewed for being more or less correct. Actually
downloading a picture to the computer and checking it full size (as
the LCD seems to give a brighter display then what I see in the end
results!) should very quickly give a good indication for good
settings, distances, etc.
I may choose to not go for three flashes, but rather to just use the
two T32s, at a 45 degrees angle from both sides of the object in
question. I think I can then get away with it. I did at one point in
time experiment a little bit with the T28 directly on the E-500 firing
t manually. Even when fully stopped down that gave me an almost
completely white picture. Totally overpowered. This then directly
makes clear that one or two layers of diffusing material will be
needed, so the bed sheets or transparant paper might be a better
alternative than having it bounced in my custom made umbrellas. The
semi transparent ones you mention sound good though. Particularly if
they come cheap and complete with stands. A thing I shall be keeping
my eyes open for.
With that as intended set-up in mind, I can put the T32s in the T20
autoconnectors for easily mounting them on the tripods. Hooking both
up with the OM TTL cables (i.e. not the manual cables, which I don't
have) to the three socket distribution block should then take care of
the simultaneous firing of the both. I think, and that is, I'm just
about 99.99% sure that I also have the proper hot-shoe cable to hook
the distribution block up to the camera (IIRC, when using the 4Ti for
this, I used to hook it up to the socket on the front, so as to be
able to use a longer cable for that).
Then, both T32s could be set to half-power (a thing achieved on the
back of the flash with the switch panel, IIRC) and the camera should
then probably be set to force flash usage (which setting is best? you
mentioned something about the highest sync speed possible... is that
something like 'lightning x4' or so?). Once configured correctly, the
set-up could be tested, using a variety of ISO and aperture settings.
The camera could then possibly be set to aperture preferred mode,
hence getting a more consistent DOF too.
Then, if the above is correct, a thing I'm still not 100% certain
about (exposing my noop knowledge of the fine details of digital
photography ;) ), is the theory behind proper WB setting. My reasons
for wanting to switch to a white background would be that it tends to
be more reflective than 18% gray (i.e. on the often round-shaped lying
down items it helps to light somewhat from below, hopefully preventing
side shadows (perhaps this is a flawed theory, as shadows shouldn't be
an issue if the light is diffuse enough) and also to be able to more
easily do the digital post processing, by having the pictures work
towards getting a completely white background, as easy visual
reference. Sounds good or flawed?
Then, as for setting the WB properly... How can I best do that? Does
this get done once in some custom mode, against a 100% subject (such
as the intended backdrop?), and can that be locked into the camera for
all subsequent shots?
Once I have gotten all those techniques mastered, and once I have a
suitable set-up going (a thing which I may not get around to until at
the very least this weekend, and then there's TOPE too to finally get
launched soon...), I will undoubtedly have some follow up questions as
to how to best use Paint Shop Pro for the digital post processing.
I've been a long time user of it, and I tend to like it better than
the de-facto bloated and over-expensive Photoshop. In fact, PSP
supports plenty more advanced features than I will be likely to ever
need for the post-processing. All the stuff like tweaking curves,
brightness, contrast, colour balances are there; possibly a bit less
flexible than in PS, but it should be possible to get this figured out
correctly too. IIRC one can also record some macros (or otherwise
create pre-defined bulk processing options) which would be really
great: I could then work on defining a standard set of tweaks, which
can then simply be applied in bulk to possibly hundreds of pictures
per shoot, after which the only manual work would be to possibly tweak
rotation, cropping, and actual image selection.
Sounds good -in theory- so far? :P
Cheers,
Olafo
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