NASTY CLAMPS

A while ago, I got my hands on couple of Nasty Clamps for review, and I have not been able to put them down since. The Nasty Clamps are a very simple idea that is extremely well executed and also made right here in Oregon.

Setting Up the Shot – Red Sierra 2

 

Camera – Nikon D2X
Lens – Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S
Exposure – 1/250 @ f/7.1
Focal Length – 50mm

Setting Up the Shot – Tim Riley

A while back I had the chance to shoot with Tim Riley again. We have shot together many times over the years and it was a blast yet again.

Here is one of my favorites from the shoot along with a set up schematic after the jump…

The Nikon SU800

My favorite TTL control tool is the Nikon SU800. It is a control unit that is part of the Nikon Creative Lighting System. It acts as a dedicated controller along the lines of the Nikon SB700, 800, and 900, but with out the flash capability.

Setting Up The Shot – Sierra On Red 2

Two light set up.

The key light is a LumoPro LP160 with a Rogue XL Pro Strip Box as the modifier to camera right. I feathered the edge of the light to create a deep shadow on the opposite side of the subjects face.

The second light was another LumoPro LP160 and was set up off to camera left with the flash head zoomed to about 105mm to create a controlled and slightly vignetted spot on the background directly behind the subjects head and shoulders.This second light was needed in order to create some separation between the subject and the background and to provide some depth to the picture.

Set up diagram and camera information after the jump.

Coming Soon: LumoPro LP180!

LumoPro posted a teaser image of the LP160 replacement, the LP180 on their Facebook page. To say that I am excited about this flash is a massive understatement.

For more information on my favorite manual flash unit the LumoPro LP160 here are a few articles that I have written about this great unit.

Lumopro LP160 – Hands on

LumoPro LP160 – Seamless integration

Waves of music in a sea of beer

LumoPro LP160 – This flash should come with a cape!

Two light break down

Here is a photo from a recent shoot that I had with the very talented Portland Oregon based model Dominique Valdovinos.

We went out to a local collage campus with fantastic cement walls for this shoot. By the end of the night we were locked in the campus, watched a hawk eat a small bird right in front of us and found a mock up of a hospital room filled with fake patients. All in all it was a great location shoot!

For this shot I used the following equipment:

2 – LumopPro LP160 flashes
2 – LumoPro LP605 7′ stands
1 – Expoimaging Rogue Grid
1 – Aurora 26″ Firefly Beauty Box
3 – Pixel Opas flash transceivers for Nikon
1 – Nikon D2x (My old workhorse that I still love!)

I placed the Firefly to camera right and a couple of feet above Dominiques head pointed down at her as you can see from the shadow cast by her nose.

I then placed my second flash with the Rogue Grid to camera left and behind Dominique pointed at her head and shoulder to give some separation between her and the background.

It is a pretty simple set up but it works and the second light adds a bit more depth to the shot.

LumoPro LP160 discontinued.

October 9th, 2012 — LumoPro, a leading developer and manufacturer of off-camera flash equipment, announced today that the LP160 Quad-Sync Flash is currently at the end of its life cycle and will be discontinued. When introduced in July 2010, the LP160, LumoPro’s current flagship product, was a huge success. Designed from the ground up for off-camera flash enthusiasts, the LP160 met near universal acclaim. It was affordable. It was loved. It was—and still is—guaranteed out the wazoo.

Kevin Deskins, LumoPro Product Manager, said, “We’re sad to see the end of this era. It feels like yesterday we were beta testing LP160s with the best minds in the industry. It was a time when unicorns danced, angels sang, and all the photons in the world were falling in the right place. But even as we celebrate the bittersweet end of the LP160 era, we’re looking forward to what the future holds. We’re expecting to see crazy amounts of response on this announcement. All we can say is that we’ve seen the next generation of our flash, and we can’t wait for you to see it too.”

Authorized dealers will operate with limited inventory due to worldwide demand, international manufacturing situations and new product development. The sale of LP160 units will end in accordance with the stock supply of each authorized dealer.

LumoPro will continue to repair and replace LP160 units covered under the 2-year international warranty. Any customer backorders will be managed directly with the authorized dealer where the unit was purchased.

While striving to maintain quality product and superior customer support, LumoPro will continue to bring lighting and support equipment to the photographic community such as grip equipment, stands, and modifiers. LumoPro products can be found at Midwest Photo Exchange in the United States, CameraTools in Europe, PhotoFreak in Israel, and Shanzhuoboshi in China.

LP160 Quad-Sync Flash and LumoPro equipment questions can be directed to support@lumopro.com.

LumoPro LP160 – This flash should come with a cape!

I have often talked about how much I love the LumoPro LP160 for its dependability and its durability. Once again it has not let me down.

The other day I was shooting with a small octobox out on location. There was no real wind in the area and since I was not using an umbrella I was not thinking all that much about the wind tipping over the stand. But as it would go a gust of wind came and down went my softbox and stand. The set landed right on my flash and trigger.

The stand went down hard and I thought the flash was a goner for sure. I did not have the time to tinker with the unit right after it fell as I needed to finish out the shoot. I changed out the flash with another and completed shooting.

Later on once I was home and the dust had settled I was able to get back to the fallen unit and check it out. I cleaned of my trusty LumoPro LP160 and replaced the batteries for good measure. I then hooked it up to a trigger and gave it a go. The LP160 was back up and running with only some cosmetic damage to the housing, or a few character marks as I like to think about it.

Now this is the second time that I thought I lost one of my LP160s to a gust of wind and this is the second time that I was wrong. I have said it before and I will continue to say it until it is no longer true: The LumoPro LP160 is one hell of a flash and it has never let me down.

Waves of music in a sea of beer

I have written before about how much I love my Lumopro LP160 and I am going to do it again. Another location that I love shooting in is a nice and dark bar or small club. I was shooting a local band named In Repose last night and I needed to throw in some flashes to help out lighting. I asked the band if they had a problem with lighting the playing area before I did anything. They did not have any problem with it so I went around and placed some flashes around where they were set up.

I love shooting in environments like this when the bands let me light the area as needed. I know that a lot of photographers look down on concert photography with flashes, but when there is not any real stage lighting going on I don’t think it’s a big deal. I just do what I need to in order to get the bands the images that they are looking for.

I set up three lights around the area that they were playing and set each one to a different group so that I could add them or subtract them from my shooting area. I had a Nikon SB900 set in the very back behind the drummer, another gelled blue with an Expoimaging Rogue lighting filter bounced off a large Rogue Flashbender, and the last one I had on the floor at the front of the playing area aimed up. As I shot the set I was adding and removing the lights via my Opas camera mounted trigger.

As the set went on I was able to turn my flashes on and off as needed from my camera position. If I had not set the flashes to different channels I wouldn’t have had this as an option. All of the flashes would have fired every time I shot a frame. The main benefit of shooting this way is that when you change camera position sometimes you will get a flash aimed toward your lens and get an over powering lens flare, so using the channels feature is a great way of controlling this.

The crowd was really into the performance, it was getting rowdy to say the least, and the drinks were flowing. Now what normally happens when a great show is going on along with lots of drinks? Someone ends up spilling something. That’s exactly what happened to one of my flashes. I placed my LP160 on the ground pointed up at an angle to under light the singer and guitar player. What looked like a sea of beer came crashing down and around the LP160 and I thought it was a goner for sure.

It turns out that not only did it survive the waterfall of beer but it also kept on going while it was adrift in the sea of beer that claimed that section of the playing area. No sparks, no burning out, and no misfires.

I have no idea how it survived, but it did. When the show was over I pulled out the batteries, gave it a good cleaning, and let it dry out over night. In the morning there was no evidence of the mishap.

So this and a million other reasons go on the list of why I love the Lumopro LP160 so much. I cannot recommend this flash unit enough to photographers. It has a low price and fantastic connectivity and reliability.

Pick one up and do your best to keep it out of beer tsunamis but if you can’t, you have a fighting chance of it making it through.

For more information on this flash unit you can read my review of the LP160 here or head on over to the Lumopro website at www.lumopro.com