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lumedyne and grid spots and creative portraits

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mstephan

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Yesterday I browsed through Greccos http://www.greccophoto.com the art of creative portraits

He has awesome examples and most are "on location" shots where he lights with dynalights. He also uses gels and grid spots

So I was once again inspired to buy another lumedyne pack. But it also got me thinking about grid spots for the heads . Are these available or do you just twist the head to control the light area?

Also any opinions on the advantages/disadvantages of dynalight jack rabbit versus Lumedyne?
 
He does interesting work no doubt, but his site is annoying.
Don't you just hate Flash sites?
I find them slow and unctuous.
Just show me the images and write some good text for
Pete's sake, Spare us the slick.
Thad.
mark Stephan said:
Yesterday I browsed through Greccos http://www.greccophoto.com the
art of creative portraits
He has awesome examples and most are "on location" shots where he
lights with dynalights. He also uses gels and grid spots

So I was once again inspired to buy another lumedyne pack. But it
also got me thinking about grid spots for the heads . Are these
available or do you just twist the head to control the light area?

Also any opinions on the advantages/disadvantages of dynalight jack
rabbit versus Lumedyne?
Click to expand...
 
Thad said:
He does interesting work no doubt, but his site is annoying.
Don't you just hate Flash sites?
I find them slow and unctuous.
Just show me the images and write some good text for
Pete's sake, Spare us the slick.
Thad.
Click to expand...
Boy, that site really is off-putting. If I were looking for a photographer, I'd move on to the next one pronto.
Charles
Member said:
mark Stephan said:
Yesterday I browsed through Greccos http://www.greccophoto.com the
art of creative portraits
He has awesome examples and most are "on location" shots where he
lights with dynalights. He also uses gels and grid spots

So I was once again inspired to buy another lumedyne pack. But it
also got me thinking about grid spots for the heads . Are these
available or do you just twist the head to control the light area?

Also any opinions on the advantages/disadvantages of dynalight jack
rabbit versus Lumedyne?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I have a couple of grids for my Elinchrom lights and one for my Lumedynes. The Lumedyne on doesn't actually fit the Lumedyne reflector though, it fits on a Norman one which fits the Lumedyne head.

It's a style that I use sometimes, but it isn't in favour with me at the moment - I over used it about three years ago and got very bored with it. You get very harsh shadows and the pool of light is very precise, so with the flash at three metres (10 feet) from the subject the pool of light is only about 60cm wide (2 feet) so any movement either way from the subject takes them out of the light and means that they are seriously underexposed.

Neil.

-- http://www.dg28.com
 
mark Stephan said:
He has awesome examples and most are "on location" shots where he
lights with dynalights. He also uses gels and grid spots
So I was once again inspired to buy another lumedyne pack. But it
also got me thinking about grid spots for the heads . Are these
available or do you just twist the head to control the light area?
Click to expand...
Twist the head? Do you mean the light head on my personal noggin? Seriously, there is little control over a grid. It simply makes a spot of a certain size, relative to the distance from the subject. There are different degrees, some course, some fine, which will concentrate the light in a different way. Dean Collins points out that one can stack 2 course grids and "dial" the shape of the light within the maximum spread of the finest grid. But grids are really inefficient in terms of delivery of light. One loses a LOT of power with a grid. The best is a focus-able light. like a frensel, that works with a strobe head.

Outdoors, if you are in a situation where you can shoot at a high speed, like with a blad or other lens-based shutter, you can just speed up the exposure to cut the available light. But if you are shooting curtain based shutter, with speeds below 250/th, you'll need much greater power than a Lumedyne with a grid. In the studio, you have much greater control, but lots of his examples are carrying great depth of field, so there is a lot of power in each pop. So start lining up all the packs.

You can get similar results using the newer ettl flash setups like the Canon 550ex. I'm sure there is a Nikon equivalent. This will sync REAL FAST and pretty much kill off the available light. Lots of fun!

But I don't think just adding grids and pack to ones kit will create results like Michael Grecco's. Look at his attention to shape, form, design and composition. Plus a creative idea now and then. Flash site notwithstanding, I'll bet his phone rings a lot more than someone elses who's principle gift is website critique. I might find it too much flash, but this guy has the substance to back it up. Good for him.

Michael Grecco is what I call a picture maker, as opposed to a picture taker. Every result is planned, shaped and crafted, with the odd happy accident. The ability to deliver consistant results, in a creative way, is how he earns his well-deserved money.

p--www.paulmbowers.com
 
Paul M Bowers said:
mark Stephan said:
He has awesome examples and most are "on location" shots where he
lights with dynalights. He also uses gels and grid spots
So I was once again inspired to buy another lumedyne pack. But it
also got me thinking about grid spots for the heads . Are these
available or do you just twist the head to control the light area?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Paul M Bowers said:
Twist the head? Do you mean the light head on my personal noggin?
Click to expand...
Sorry for not being clear with a lumedyne head you can twist the head for normal vs wide settings but there are only the two settings
Paul M Bowers said:
Seriously, there is little control over a grid. It simply makes a
spot of a certain size,
Click to expand...
This much even I know :-)
Paul M Bowers said:
But I don't think just adding grids and pack to ones kit will
create results like Michael Grecco's.
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree. I was thinking of scenarios where I want to light multiple subjects say a model in the foreground and a bouncer standing outside a club behind the main model.

The main model I want "high key" the bouncer I want just his face lit (hence the need for a grid spot).
Paul M Bowers said:
Look at his attention to
shape, form, design and composition. Plus a creative idea now and
then. Flash site notwithstanding, I'll bet his phone rings a lot
more than someone elses who's principle gift is website critique.
I might find it too much flash, but this guy has the substance to
back it up. Good for him.

Michael Grecco is what I call a picture maker, as opposed to a
picture taker. Every result is planned, shaped and crafted, with
the odd happy accident. The ability to deliver consistant results,
in a creative way, is how he earns his well-deserved money.
Click to expand...
Yes this is why I found his book inspiring
Paul M Bowers said:
p
--
http://www.paulmbowers.com
Click to expand...
 
I find my Lumedyne grids a little too small and hard for a face. Doesn't quite cover a face enough to look right.

You might want to consider the size of the grid. I love using a 22" round, but an even better choice is a Chimera or Plume with the LightTools grid. Beautiful, directional with that same soft but hard quality. And no spill. I'm just too cheap to fork out for the fabric grid.

have fun!

p
--www.paulmbowers.com
 
mark Stephan said:
Sorry for not being clear with a lumedyne head you can twist the
head for normal vs wide settings but there are only the two settings
Click to expand...
I've never really noticed much of a difference once the grid is on. BTW, the grids are not made by Lumedyne, and I understand they will fit norman and maybe Dynalites.

And I apologize for being preachy. I was out of line.

p--www.paulmbowers.com
 
Flash is challenging -- in computer lingo its a "fat" client
This site is particularly offensive -- the design firm obviously
did not test with a 56K modem or even DSL.

There are a few sites that are well designed with flash, but they are very few. If you browse http://www.pdn-pix.com you can find them.

But also remeber this is the business of "slick" -- it's all desing, branding and image. Just have to make sure that it is usable too.
Thad said:
mark Stephan said:
Yesterday I browsed through Greccos http://www.greccophoto.com the
art of creative portraits
He has awesome examples and most are "on location" shots where he
lights with dynalights. He also uses gels and grid spots

So I was once again inspired to buy another lumedyne pack. But it
also got me thinking about grid spots for the heads . Are these
available or do you just twist the head to control the light area?

Also any opinions on the advantages/disadvantages of dynalight jack
rabbit versus Lumedyne?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
mstephan said:
This site is particularly offensive -- the design firm obviously
did not test with a 56K modem or even DSL.
Click to expand...
People visiting a site like this with a dial-up or DSL are neither clients nor target market. Clients seeking his level of work and willing to pay his fees will have a very fat pipe, ISDN or better. Even my own lowly site was written with direction to disregard 56k folks.

A website is best used as a sales, not marketing tool, and therefore his site is used as reference for existing clients and prospects, not the casual web surfer looking for naked ladies.

I found the design of his site awkward as well, but who am I to argue with his level of sucess and talent?

Do you think it costs him clients?

I doubt it.

p --www.paulmbowers.com
 
Thad,

I must disagree. Flash, done well (I really like Grecco's site, not to mention his images), enhances the experience. A photographer's site shoudl be about great images first, but we are visual artists, so a little panache is accepted and expected. I just redesigned my site in Flash, and it's a huge pig of a site, but it's not aimed at the common street-walking guy, it's aimed at graphic design companies, ad agencies and magazines who are savvy and have broadband connections.

Flash adds the fact that images cannot be taken from the site without considerable effort, and when they are, malice is easily shown and infringement easily prosecuted.

I guess if you're on a 56k connection, Flash is annoying. So are quicktime files, any reasonable res files, poorly designed sites with tons of large images or unnecessarily large files, etc.

If you don't like flash sites, for whatever reason, just like television shows you don't care for and radio programs you dislike, don't tune in. Find other sites you like instead.

My .02 + 8%

Tony Donaldson
http://www.tdphoto.com
 
I do agree that well designed and engineered flash can help, but I also believe you can design this for DSL.

Any user even with a T1 will tend to "tune out" of any web site if it takes

2 to 5 seconds to view. It does not matter if this person is a CEO a retired woman, or an ad exec. In fact I would imagine that Ad execs are under consiferable time pressure. I have been designing UI's for 15 years and that is a fact.

I like your pictures but to be honest your site it too slow. You can take this as just my silly 2 cents. I found it to be unusable from a T1 at work. Also the "flash" features you use could be easily done with DHTML technology.

It also appears that stuff is "loading" every time you hit the page, this should be unnecessary -- I would get on the guy who coded the action-script it is very inefficient code.

Check this site it is flash it is cool and it is Fast!
Great use of "growing thumbnails"
http://www.pdnonline.com/cobrand/nikonnet/masters/jodi_cobb/

I guess my point is that you can have it all Flash, cool, and speed (on DSL)

But you need to get people who are designers and decent coders. A difficult to find combination.
Tony Donaldson said:
Thad,> > I must disagree. Flash, done well (I really like Grecco's site, not> to mention his images), enhances the experience. A photographer's> site shoudl be about great images first, but we are visual artists,> so a little panache is accepted and expected. I just redesigned my> site in Flash, and it's a huge pig of a site, but it's not aimed at> the common street-walking guy, it's aimed at graphic design> companies, ad agencies and magazines who are savvy and have> broadband connections.> > Flash adds the fact that images cannot be taken from the site> without considerable effort, and when they are, malice is easily> shown and infringement easily prosecuted.> > I guess if you're on a 56k connection, Flash is annoying. So are> quicktime files, any reasonable res files, poorly designed sites> with tons of large images or unnecessarily large files, etc.> > If you don't like flash sites, for whatever reason, just like> television shows you don't care for and radio programs you dislike,> don't tune in. Find other sites you like instead.> > My .02 + 8 > > Tony Donaldson> http://www.tdphoto.com
Click to expand...
 
personally i think the lumedyne is more versatile as a light ive been using one for i think 6 or 7 years now never had a problem with them i use em with umbrellas set up as studio lights when i am on location also slaved as the slaved light when im doing candids

also if you check out their catalog they list adapters that allow you to use grids and accesories from most manufacturers like elinchrom and speedotron

i dont remeber their web site they are located in florida

b&h photo has a link to their web site and also has pictures and their stuff on their own web site
mark Stephan said:
Yesterday I browsed through Greccos http://www.greccophoto.com the
art of creative portraits
He has awesome examples and most are "on location" shots where he
lights with dynalights. He also uses gels and grid spots

So I was once again inspired to buy another lumedyne pack. But it
also got me thinking about grid spots for the heads . Are these
available or do you just twist the head to control the light area?

Also any opinions on the advantages/disadvantages of dynalight jack
rabbit versus Lumedyne?
Click to expand...
--beam me up scottyim giving it all shes got captain
 
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