Of course, I actually had the ‘opportunity’ to shoot this house twice, as my original pictures taken at night turned out so bad that I needed to reshoot.  The following is what I learned from this shoot.

First, am slowly starting to get the hang of multiple lights.  I currently shoot with a 580EX and a 580EX II triggered by Pocketwizard MultiMAXes.  I detest most of the HDR real estate shots I have seen and I prefer the more natural look provided by this method.  However, as you can see from the shot below, I still need to work on my technique quite a bit.  The shot below has serious problems with the lighting.

This time at least, I did get quicker at positioning the lights and setting the power on them.  The first time I tried shooting with multiple lights, it took me over two hours to shoot a small condo.  On the latest attempt, it took me about an hour and a half to shoot a 4200 square foot home. 

I am finally realizing that knowing how to position the lights so they provide the desired light and do not reflect into windows and shiny things is something that needs practice – not instruction.  I have read numerous pieces of advice on how to position lights, but in truth you just need to try it yourself and practice.  Unfortunately, I still need to practice some more.

The shot above shows that I still need to look into purchasing a third light.  In previous homes I did not really need one, but that wasn’t the case with this home.  Here, I had one light on the floor below me and another that I bounced off the ceiling above me.  Ideally, I would have liked to have a light in the office so that room wasn’t dark.

I have already reached an agreement with Nelya that if she lists another home like this I can have my third light.  I will most likely purchase an Alienbees light together with a power supply, as I also found that for some rooms I needed one of my flashes at maximum power.  That was OK for this house, but I did realize that with some of these multi-million dollar homes with the sweeping staircases I will need more power (and those homes neighbor this one).

Still, at times I did feel the need for the ‘fake colors’ as Nelya calls them.

Here I had a flash mounted on a silver umbrella behind me, and another one to the left of the room lighting the tub.  This is perhaps another room that could have benefited from three lights.  When I do buy the Alienbees light, I am thinking about putting a very large softbox on it to provide even light.  I would then use my smaller flashes to remove the shadows that necessitate the shadow/highlight feature.

I do think that when I finally remove my reliance on shadow/highlight, I will have turned another page in my real estate photography skills.

By the way, the Pocketwizards really showed their stuff today.  Admittedly I haven’t played around with the ST-E2 much, but I severely doubt it would have worked in many of the situations today where there was a wall or floor between me and the other lights.  Also, I often shot with the light behind me, as in this shot.  The other light here was in the walk in closet.

All in all I had fun shooting this house.  I still have a ways to go with my photography but I can see improvement which is the important thing.  My next goal is to remove my dependency on shadow/highlight and from there the differences are really fine points – the fine points that make the difference between an average photo and an amazing one.  Of course these fine points take a significant amount of time and experimentation to properly learn.

Of course, even nicer is that it appears that the home will sell quickly.

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I’m still getting used to using the lights outside.  While I have found that using lights in shade works decently well, when it is very sunny I still find that parts are overexposed.  I suspect that the answer here is to hold an umbrella or other large diffuser over the kids but that is quite difficult to do when they are constantly moving!

Nelya is starting to get more into photography as well.  She loves taking pictures of the kids so perhaps in the future we can trade places holding the umbrella.  Of course, that becomes another point of interest for them so it’s likely that will have a negative effect as they’ll both want to play with the umbrella.

Here’s one of Nelya’s shots.

Finally, here’s some more bubble shots as promised.

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Real estate photography

I have spent some time researching and found that most of the best photographs I have seen use hot shoe strobes.  This is the main reason that I am only considering Pocket Wizards or Radiopoppers.  The ST-E2 will not work through walls or in other situations necessary for real estate and I have heard of too many problems with the cactus triggers.  This is also the area where I expect the triggers to pay for themselves.

Kids

                                Basically I want to use off camera flash(es) to improve shots of my kids.

Experimentation

                                There are a number of experiments I would like to try such as the strobist assignments.  On a more serious note I would like to use remote flash for background lighting in macro and I would like to trigger the camera remotely.  I have tried using the MT-24EX to trigger my 580EX but found it unreliable outdoors.

So after some research, the following are how I see the two stacking up.

Areas where they are the same

                Both support rear curtain sync

                Canon wireless supports 3 firing zones.  Multimax supports 4.

                Both allow you to set flashes in manual mode (often overlooked in Radiopoppers)

                Price

                                If I go the Pocketwizards route, I plan to purchase 4 multimaxes 1 580 EX II, and 2 Vivitars. 

                                If I go the RadioPoppers route, I plan to purchase 4 radiopoppers, 1 580 EX II, 1 ST-E2, and 2 430EX.

                                (note: I am ignoring umbrellas/light stands here because they are the same for both solutions)  In these cases, the difference in price is around $100 which is negligible given the total cost.

Advantages of the RadioPoppers

                TTL, so in some cases I will not need to manually set my flashes

                Remote manual configuration.  I will not need to walk to each flash to configure it.

                Supports high speed sync mode

Advantages of Pocketwizards (Multimax)

                Increased range of 1600’ (more with relay mode) vs 100’-300’ of Radiopoppers, though I doubt I would need the extended range

                Can trigger the camera

                Can connect to strobes (Alienbees, etc)

                Intervalometer, so I can take timed pictures – useful for star trails and change over time shots

                Known to be dependable.  Radiopoppers have had good reviews but are not battle tested.

                More channels – 32 vs 1.  However the Radiopopper P8 shipping later this year will close the gap.

                Sequential triggering, though I don’t see it being useful for much more than experimentation.

                Longer battery length (150 hours vs. 10 hours)

                Unit firmware is updateable using USB cable

Summary

                The main allure of the Radiopoppers is the ability to set the flashes without going to each flash.  When shooting a room, this should let me get things done faster.  The TTL isn’t as important, as I will likely still set the flashes manually.

                In terms of the Multimaxes, the main feature I find useful is being able to trigger the camera, but other features also make a difference.  Other than high speed sync, the Multimaxes offer far more possibilities for experimentation.  Being able to connect to strobes also may prove very important, as if I find myself shooting a very large room I may have to bring in a large strobe.  The longer battery length is also something to consider.

Right now I am leaning towards the Multimaxes do to the feature set.  I am very tempted by the time savings with the Radiopoppers, but the increased flexibility of the Multimaxes is hard to turn down right now.

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Currently our budget is locked down, but with the real estate market getting better here (my wife had two sales this week) it looks like somewhere at the beginning of May the funds will be released from my stock photography sales and I can go ahead and make some purchases.  However, again it comes down to what things I want to focus on.  With bird and wildlife photography removed, the following are the avenues I can take.

Macro photography – I will certainly make investments here.  Primarily my focus will be to expand beyond insects and very small things.  There are amazing tidal pools on the coast here, but the MP-E 65 isn’t the best lens for them as things like crabs and other marine life tend to be bigger.  I also would like to start photographing flowers, most likely using a tripod rather than the MT-24EX.

Travel photography – Nelya thinks that sales will be good enough to allow us to take a vacation this year.  I remain a bit skeptical as both kids start private school next year, which will really wallop our pocket books.  Still, if we are going to take a vacation there are some investments I can make here to improve my shots.

Real estate photography – Last week I blogged about my efforts in real estate photography and the wall that I have run up against.  Clearly there are some investments I can make here, though I am still uncertain whether I want to start working with realtors other than my wife.  Also, Nelya has mentioned she is happy with the shots as is.  Her concern is that I can do wide angle – which is easy with the 16-35 2.8L II on a full frame sensor.  However as she does higher priced homes we will likely start doing custom tours and print advertising, so I will need to improve my craft here anyways.

The following is the equipment I am looking at for each.

Macro photography

Canon 180L – This will allow me to greatly expand my macro photography.  This will for certain be on my list, so there is no dilemma here.

Canon TS-E 90 – I have long been interested in tilt shift lenses and this lens will be of great use for flowers and other interesting depth of field experiments.  I also plan to use it for product photography (though I don’t do a lot of it).  Right now I am heavily leaning towards putting this on the list – I would say about 90%.  The current dilemma is about everything else besides these two lenses.

Gitzo lateral arm – For shooting flowers and other macro subjects, I have already noticed that it is very difficult to position the tripod exactly where I need it.  This will significantly help the effort.

Really Right Stuff flash bracket – In order to easily put one of the MT-24EX flash heads above or behind the subject, this bracket would help greatly.  Unfortunately it is also extremely expensive, so I’m not sure right now whether it is worth it.

Books on insects – I went through a number of books on Amazon.com last night and picked out ones that will help me identify insects.  Currently it has been quite difficult identifying things.  However the price of the books came out to be quite high, so for now I will probably just ask on various web sites.

Reflectors and diffusers – This would greatly help me funnel available light in macro photography.  Even with the MP-E 65 I often wished that I had a large diffuser so I can see easier in the viewfinder.

Travel Photography

My current lenses actually do a pretty good job here right now.  On the next vacation I will use the 70-200 4L IS and the 16-35 almost exclusively, so I have no desire for another lens here right now.  However there are some things that could help.

Canon 1.4x teleconverter – This would increase my 70-200mm to reach to 280mm, which would likely help significantly.  I can also use it on the 180L and the TS-E 90 to increase magnification.

Singh-ray vari-ND filter - As you can see from the shot above, I love shooting water shots.  However I rarely get the opportunity except on vacations.  There is still a lot of water around the Pacific Northwest in case I wanted to take local water shots as well.  Note that the above shot is of Snoqualmie Falls, for those who are not familiar with it.

Singh-ray blue/gold polarizer – A friend of mine has it and it does a very nice job.  I already have a polarizer but I like the effect of this one.  The only problem is they do not yet make it in 82mm, so I can’t use it on my 16-35.  Granted, it’s not the best idea to use a polarizer on a wide angle lens due to even light but I would still like to have the opportunity.

Real Estate Photography

Canon TS-E 24 – For interior work this lens certainly interests me, not only for its ability to correct distortion but also because it can help me get shots without appearing in a mirror.  I would also use this for architecture shots when traveling.  However, it currently appears that my biggest issue with real estate photography is lighting, so I am unlikely to purchase this lens at this time.  If I were to purchase this lens along with the 180L and the TS-E 90, my entire budget would be spent.

Strobists approach – This itself is a dilemma.  How many flashes should I purchase?  What remote trigger should I use?  I currently own one Canon 580EX flash.  Most likely the other flashes would be the Vivitar 285s that the strobists site advocates so highly.  The following questions are currently pending.

1) Should I use speedlights or strobes?  Right now speedlights seem to be the obvious choice.  They are far more portable and I can use them for a variety of purposes – such as taking pictures of the kids.  The only question is whether they will generate enough light.  From researching the web the answer seems to be yes as long as I am not shooting huge interiors of multimillion dollar houses.  However I suspect for those rooms I can just use ambient light anyway.

2) What remove trigger should I use?  The ST-E2 is too unreliable so it comes down to the following possibilities.

    a) Pocketwizards.  These are well known and very well reviewed.  What I like about these are the advanced configurations possible and the ability to trigger the camera as well as the flash – something which I will likely try for some types of bird and dragonfly photography. The only drawback is all flashes must be manually set.

    b) Radiopoppers – These have not shipped yet but I have seen several blogs about them and they appear to be the real deal.  The main disadvantages I see with them are that they can’t fire strobes and can’t fire the camera itself.  The Pocketwizards also have far more advanced features.

    c) Cheap Hong Kong triggers.  I know of a number of people that use these and they do appear to work.  They are far cheaper than the other solutions, and can enable me to fire the camera as well as the flashes.  Of course, they are far less feature rich and I may find them not to be dependable in demanding situations.

So there is the dilemma.  I most definitely will purchase the 180L.  If I do not purchase the TS-E 90, I can probably get 4 Pocketwizard multimaxes, three Vivitar 285′s, and some umbrellas/reflectors, etc.  On the other hand I can go with the TS-E 90 and then either purchase the reflectors/diffusers, 1.4x teleconverter, and vari-ND filter, or I can purchase the reflectors/diffusers, lateral arm, and flash bracket.

I have changed my mind several times when making this decision, and I have until May to change my mind several times again.  However any feedback or suggestions will be greatly appreciated, as the advice given for my previous dilemma greatly affected my decision.

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