Event Photography

I just want to talk about shooting settings that I use.

I used to shoot almost exclusively on aperture priority.  I guess it's the topic or subject.  I set the aperture which controls the opening of the lens and let the camera take care of the rest.  Back in film days that's the setting I used the most and that's the only auto mode my Nikon FE has anyway.

When I picked up my camera again about a decade ago I faced with more varieties and more flexibilities.  When you shoot film you almost always got stuck with a single ISO and single WB film unless you really shoot professionally and change film back when you see fit in the middle of the shoot.

When I shoot cycling I tend to shoot with shutter priority and let the aperture float and sometimes even let the ISO float.  I don't bother so much as white balance.  Auto white balance is or was my friend.

When I shoot event I'd like to shoot manual, i.e. I fix the aperture and shutter speed and let the ISO float.  I set the base ISO the lowest first or some ISO I think won't go lower.  If I need to freeze people who are walking, 1/250 is the minimum, 1/500 should be ideal but then if you are shooting indoor with low light, you are lucky to get to 1/250 of a second.  If people are just standing there talking 1/60 or 1/125 can certainly freeze the subject.

If I shoot with flash or strobe, I tend to shoot manual but with fixed lowest ISO possible, it could be ISO64 or ISO400 but I'd like to have it fixed.  If the ISO is auto, it's essentially auto exposure and with the flash going off the picture is gonna overexposed for sure.

Event photography can be challenging as it could be outdoor, it could be flash and then it could be indoor with lots of tungsten and mixed lighting; all in one event.  I don't know other brands of camera, but Nikon tends to not auto white balance that well when it's indoor tungsten.  I tend to manually white balance it otherwise it comes out super yellow and orange.

With indoor, outdoor, flash, invariably something is going to screw up.  Like I forgot to set the ISO to not auto.  Or I forgot to set the white balance to auto when I went outside in the middle of the shoot.  I think it's then I appreciate on RAW or NEF format.  The file is certainly savagable even if over or under exposed and with the wrong white balance.

So event photography can be a challenge even I carry two cameras with a combined focal length between 16 to 200mm.  Thanks to high ISO and LR noise reduction, a f/4 max aperture is not as limiting as possibly ten years ago.  I am no Light Room and certainly not a Photoshop wizard but even armed with minimum knowledge I can savage a problematic picture.

Sunpak 120J full blast on silver reflective umbrella on light stand on camera left and right.  1/100s and f/8 at 25mm WB at 5500.  I don't think the skin tone is that great but I tried.  No Photoshop.

Note: as a photographer, there should be no excuse as you should really take control and ownership of the situation. That should be in theory as well as in practice.  Ultimately you are the one responsible especially when things go bad.
Control the situation:
Make sure both eyes can see the camera
Do not use a wide angle setting, I think 35mm should be the widest used as people look wider on the sides if the focal length got wider.  If you can shoot with a 85mm for group go for it but rarely can you shoot like this indoor with that much space.
Keep the camera focal plane parallel to the plane of the subjects.  Use a tripod if you can.
Keep the subject in a straight line across the focal plane or just mildly curved if you must.
Do not mix lightings.  If you can shut off ambient use 100% strobe, do it.

Often times, I don't heed my own advice.

Godox or God Ox PB960, Sunpak 120J, Nikon SB-800

The Chinese name is actually literally God Ox.  What a strong brand.

As a owner of two good old Sunpak 120J's, I always want some power pack.  Even I have the original pack in form but not in substance.  I use some rechargeable battery to power the pack.  It's a bit cumbersome I have a separate branded charger to charge the battery and when fully charged I put it back into the holder.  You probably don't know what I am talking about.  I am too lazy to take any pictures.

Universal Smart Charger.  Not just phone could be smart.

Not all sync cords are created equal.  Some are obviously better.  The one on the right is better, which is a Paramount cable by the way.  The one on the left is the original Sunpak cable that has bad contact with the PC outlet on the D810 camera.  Bad.  I think the locking one is the best but I have yet to try one.

My SB-600 is kind of broken, the battery door has bad contacts when I don't use reputable branded batteries.  I think there is some play to the battery door which can result in bad connection with some batteries.  The hot shoe is cracked and the knocking pin is ruined.

And so I bought a SB-800 which is similar but better than the SB-600.  It accepts external battery pack.  It provides more option and plays.

I did some research and in the end, I bought the Godox PB960 pack with a cable for Nikon.  The connection as I understood it is a Quantum cable connection.  Though I can't find any affirmation online that the Godox PB960 can work with the Sunpak 120J I decided to give it a try.  Lucky me I was able to find a Quantum CS4 cable connecting the PB960 to the 120J.

The items arrived and everything just works.

Moving on to some other distractions.

Recap: now I can power two 120J with external powerpacks which definitely provide more flashes and much faster recycle time.  Or I can shoot my SB-800 using high speed sync with instantaneous recycle time, almost.

UPDATE:
7/23/2018
Something is not right when the power pack is attached to the Nikon SB-800.  Initially I thought it just worked.  But I guess it's iffy actually.  Because the SB-800 needs 4AA even when it's supposed to be powered by the pack, so even when the SB-800 is not getting the power from the pack I wouldn't know or it wasn't obvious when the AA are in good power.  Many months ago when I knew the 4AA were running low and then it became apparent that the pack was not powering the SB-800.
My feeling is it's the cable or the ProPac NX cable.  I watched a YouTube video which was similar to what I experience.  Though initially I thought if I power the ProPac and then the SB-800 in that particular everything would work.  It does work but then it is iffy.  Sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't.  I tried 1/1 manual mode so the SB-800 which uses the most power and more noticeable in the cycling time when it draws from the pack or when it draws from the 4AA.  When the SB-800 actually draws power from the pack, I can see the cycling time is faster and the pack's red ready light actually goes dark for a second when it's getting ready for the SB-800.  When the SB-800 is drawing power from its own 4AA (even when it's attached to the pack), the cycling time takes much longer and the ready light on the pack doesn't goes dark at all.
I am debating if I should buy a quantum cable or paramount cable or simply take a chance with another Godox ProPac NX cable.  There is a possiblity that the SB-800 is the culprit but I doubt it.

Sunpak 120J, Vivitar 283 and 285 from March 1993 Popular Photography

According to Popular Photography 1993, here are the specifications of three of the most popular flashes on earth.  Both Vivitar 283 and 285 have impressively short flash duration which make them uniquely suitable for fast action photography, I think--just to cover my behind as I have absolutely zero flash fast action photography except knowing a bit in theory.  I thought the 285 is the more powerful one but with a guide number of 70 while the 283 is clocked at 118 I guess the 283 is the more powerful one.

I suppose Popular Photography is pretty reliable.

update 8/14/2015
February 1995, Popular Photography has totally different spec for the two Vivitar models, which seem to be more reasonable.  As far as I know, which is not a lot actually, the 283 and 285 are almost the same.  So the below specifications make more sense.

Sunpak auto 120J

Every so often, I got myself into some photographic gear obsession.  My latest infatuation is the bare bulb flash from Sunpak from many many years ago.  I got one with a hair line crack which turns out a bit worse than I thought or led to believe on the listing.  Whenever I pivot the head, the casing moves and the crack actually expands.

So I got myself a little project.  I got myself some epoxy.  I could have just applied it on the crack.  But I thought it would be cool and more thorough to disassemble the flash to apply the epoxy.

I know I am not a handy kind of man when it comes, actually everything.  Still I go ahead.  Because I need to desk adventure or maybe I secretly wish I would screw up.  The moment I opened it was the moment I regretted it.  But I never learned.  I applied the epoxy when inhaling the toxic fume and got my fingers glued together.  Next time if there is a next time, I will wear gloves.  I waited for the following day before I put the casing back together.

A picture is worth a thousand words.  So here we go.  A bunch of iPhone pictures.

I only disassembled the base and mostly the top half.  Lucky that there wasn't any electronic part to fix.  But just to open it up and putting it back together is such an ordeal, for me, anyway.

I was pretty much sure I couldn't put it back together.  But lucky me.

Well I hope the pictures will be of some help to some folks.  I did try to search on service manual or repair manual or any diagram or pictures but to no avail.  I dare not nor do I need to open the head.  So I guess the pictures won't be a lot of help.

Do it any your own risk.  You may get electrocuted by simply opening the case.