Re: [photo-3d] Flash and Caves was (For Philip Steinman )

["C. Pflanze" <troggy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 7 Apr 2000, David W. Kesner wrote:

>I have done big rooms where I am all alone (not in the cave - 
>solo caving is very dangerous - the rest of the group explores 
>a ways ahead while I take an hour to get a shot). You just set 
>your shutter to bulb and fire multiple times with the same 
>strobe. If you are lucky enough to have at least one other 
>assistant you can have them cover the camera lens while you 
>move to another spot.

There's a trick you can use to do this without an assistant.  With the
camera on bulb setting, perched on its tripod, open the shutter and
illuminate the area within your immediate range.  Then cover the camera
with a black cloth/drape and turn your helmet light on.  Now you can take
all the time needed to walk about and position the slave strobe units
elsewhere in the room.  Back at the tripod again and using a firefly or
two out there, turn off your helmet light and remove the black drape.  The
"trigger"  flash will be damped way down with some film taped across it,
and now you can set off the slaves as many times as required - if you're
in a multi-acre room with a 100 ft. ceiling, that might be a lot!  If you
wish to move the slave strobes around to different locations to spread out
the light, you just repeat the drill.  I learned this black drape 
technique from a caver friend who got the idea from those 19th
century cameras, only in those days it was the camera operator and not
the camera that was covered with the black cloth.  

>I also use flashbulbs a lot. By leaving the shutter open for 
>the full burn time you get a "warmer" image as it picks up the 
>burn up and down from the bulb. I find the Honeywell Tilt-O-
>Mite folding fan reflector flash gun great for caving as it 
>folds up to a nice small sturdy package. I would suggest the 
>M3B bulb over the Press 25B as it has the same GN and is about 
>half the size.

Well, I'm bidding on a Tilt-O-Mite, but not sure how to hook it
up to a Realist.  If it has a pc cord, it will work fine.  

Charles



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