Looking for Some Portrait Lighting For My 4X5

[Pete Gregar]

For the most part I have liked the results with a 4X5 negative. I normally take my 35mm gear with also.. and the 4X5 negative almost always gets used. I usually print 8X10 and larger.

could be a combo of the film I am using.. Ilford HP5+ in 4X5 and Fuji 200 in 35mm.

I have done 35mm and 4X5 prints to 8X10. And the 4X5 is usually the best...

I am doing this for friends and family.. and I they always come back for more.. I have actually gone so far as setting up appointments. but I have been limited to outside shoots (natural light) or inside with the vivitar 285HV. Maybe tonight I can scan and load a pic I shot last week with my view camera.

[Pete Gregar]

I looked on Ebay and searched for some mono lights. Most seem out of my price range... What about the Britek lights? Are they ok for amature use?

Maybe one session a week?

[Wayne_6692]

Speedotron Brownline with M11 heads.

[Ellis Vener]

Working with Novatrons can be a shocking experience.

The Minolta IIIF is a fine meter.

To make a scrim: find some materials: wood, PVC tube, metal conduit that is strong enough too not snap or warp under tension. you want enough to make a simple frame about 5'x5' or 6'x6'. Use a frosted (translucent) shower curtain for the diffusion screen. Stretch it across the frame you built. Voila'! A diifusion screen (AKA: A scrim)!

The bigger the source behind the scrim the smoother the light. i like to use a light bounced into an umbrella . If you don't want a big umbrella a 24" to 32" inch umbrella works well. feel free to experiment with changing the position of the source relative to the scrim for different effects. But I often find it effective to start with the head at the same height as the sitter's head Put one edge of the scrim next to the camera and the other edge whereever you like. Experiment with this angle too.

A decent monolight with a powerful enough modeling light to let you see what the light is doing (Ideally you want a modeling light in the 150 to 250 watt range) should run you about $500.00

[Pete Gregar]

Alright... all this talk about strobes...

I bought a Photogenic 1500 with softbox on ebay. $350. Did I get ripped off?

I have a light stand.. I assume this strobe will work on it...

so now that I made everyone happy and got a strobe and am selling my flashes...

Should I start a new topic? "how to use a strobe with my Large format camera"

thanks!!!!

[Ellis Vener]

Keep your 283s! they can be very useful as hair and other accent lights. It sounds as if you got an okay deal on the Photogenic as long as it isn't too beat up. Enjoy!

For a guide to lighting with minimal equipment (and less jargon) I like Bob Krist's bookSecrets of Lighting on Location.

[kthompson]

Pete, that sounds like a pretty good deal, I had one of those years ago, and it's a rugged light...the thing I remember about it was that it required an adapter to fit onto my regular lightstands...it could just be the model I had though, so don't quote me on this...the adapter only cost $10 or so...I'd hold onto the 283s/285 as well...they'll still be great for the 35mm stuff, and we still use a half dozen 283s or so for location work as well...we slave them & place them in corners etc...they really can't be beat for some things...that Bob Krist book is really good too. Don't worry about your meter either. Once you get used to the lighting setup you have, it all come pretty easy....but, make sure you get a couple of extra sync cords. Good luck.

[mark lindsey]

have you thought of going with a tungsten constant light source? light is light, hell, you could use chicken lights if you had to......

[Pete Gregar]

Well I have to sell the vivitars to pay for the new strobe!!! I am keeping one of the 283's

So now I have this mono light and softbox. Should I stick with the softbox or get an umbrella?

I do some portraits outside, and would like to have some light for fill.

It seems the Vivitar 283 would be useless. I could hook the vivitar to my quantum II reciever. Then the strobe can use its own slave.

[David Grandy]

Why I think that the Minolta Autometer IIIf is the worlds worst flashmeter - and not to be confused with the Minolta Flashmeter 3, which was a very nice meter.:

1) I've bought one IIIf new and had it for a decade. A friend bought one at about the same time. I finally sold my first one and my friend he GAVE me his. Neither of them would consistantly give a flash reading. You'd pop the flash and the meter would ignore it. Maybe one in four pops would give a reading. And this error was for BOTH of these meters. Eventually they both gave up giving any flash reading at all. As an ambient meter they're fine, sort of. 2) When they did work as flash meters there was still no way to plug a synch cord into one. Thus you had to either fire the flash yourself or have someone else fire it. 3) The battery. First it's a very expensive one, and if you leave it in the meter it'll die within a couple of days. There is no on/off switch so you must remove the battery or be prepared to carry a lot of spare batteries with you. Once the battery is reinserted you must then reset the film ISO.

So this meter is unreliable and difficult and expensive to use. The IVf has an on/off switch, a PC terminal and takes a AA batery so it IS robust, dependable, inexpensive to use; and if I may say, the industry standard; but that IIIf is crap.