Filtering Camera Flash

[Skyrmy]

:-\ :-\ :-\

Currently using i-slave and firefly 3 slaves to fire remote flashes.  On a recent trip I filtered my camera flash with one piece of the exposed film supplied with the firefly - due to the amount of moisture in the air, most of the images are affected by misting from the camera flash.

Has anyone any idea how many pieces of film can be used to filter the camera flash before the IR light ceases to fire the slaves?

:-\ :-\ :-\

 

[Rob]

No idea about that, but what i do is just adjust the power of my flash to a low enough level that the misting doesn't show up. However this is not always possible unless you have a full manual mode.

 

[footleg]

I use black electrical insulation tape to mask my on camera flash. Works fine with just one layer. I have never seen any sign that the masked flash adds any light to the picture.

 

[Skyrmy]

Rob

Unfortunately I don't have that option with the Pentax compact I'm using.  There is a "soft" flash option but to be honest - I haven't seen a lot of difference between that and full flash

Hmmmm :-\ PVC tape - never thought of that but will give it a go!


Cheers footleg

 

[footleg]

Just one thing to watch out for. A friend tried this with his Canon 550EX flashgun, and the flash put out enough heat to melt the tape (or at least melt the glue on the tape) which made a bit of a mess of his flash. You really don't need that powerful a flash on the camera to trigger the slaves, so you can avoid this problem using a cheaper lower power flash. When I am photographing very large places I often place a flash part way into the scene to trigger the more distant flashes. Here are a couple of examples of pictures taken using this technique. These are composite images made from several exposures. I used the technique of a secondard flash to trigger the most distance flashes for the frames where the distant parts of each location were lit. The second picture was taken with the help of just two people and 3 flashes.

 

[antmcc]

I found unexposed slide film still allowed fogging, so now I use a cut up IR filter (like the one linked here http://www.teamworkphoto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78_289_295&products_id=10678). It works a treat and you can cut several flash gun covers from one sheet of filter.

I've fitted mine behind the lens on a cheap low-power (as footleg suggests) flash, and it hasn't melted yet!.

 

[nickwilliams]

Where were these taken, Footleg?

Nick.

 

[footleg]

Where were these taken, Footleg?

Cueva Llueva (also known as El Biggo) in Matienzo, Spain last August.

Cave description and more photos here: http://www.geography.lancs.ac.uk/Matienzo/descrip/0114.htm

 

[Dave]

Nice photos Footleg  8)

 

[ogofmole]

:-\ :-\ :-\

Currently using i-slave and firefly 3 slaves to fire remote flashes.  On a recent trip I filtered my camera flash with one piece of the exposed film supplied with the firefly - due to the amount of moisture in the air, most of the images are affected by misting from the camera flash.


:-\ :-\ :-\

How far away from the camera are your remote flashguns, as I have never had any problem with my camera underground. I just tape a piece of exposed 35mm film over the camera flash and it always fired the Firefly 3 which is genially held at arms length away from the camera. 

 

[Skyrmy]

ogof

Flashes are at arms length or positioned remotely - Notts 2 was particularly bad the other week, especially up in the inlets but even at arms length or further away, the camera flash lit up the condensation in the air immediately in front of the lens - this led me to thinking about doubling up on the filter - hence my original question.

Footleg - great pictures!

 

[WillDeBeast]

I use a Pentex optio W20 and tape the exposed film over the flash using insulation tape on all sides to prevent light escaping from the sides. This is perfectly adequate as the photos below show (taken in Swildons with LOTS of moisture in the air 

Another tip which helps to eliminate fogging I find is to lower the ISO level as much as possible. I usually use 64-100 ISO in smaller caves and 100-200 ISO for larger caves.

 

[Skyrmy]

Great pics willdebeast

Using the same camera as me then! Similar sensitivity as well.  Only beef with it is the length of exposure available at 4secs.

Things can only get better I reckon.

 

[Burt]

Hells' teeth, there's some TERRIFIC pictures here!
Here's another angle on flash filtering : I have a couple of mates in the theatre business who have bunged me some gel for colouring theatre lights. You can get all colours (hundreds of variations), frosts, glitters etc. and they are all heat proof. I was given a swatch of about 200 sections each about 2"x1", enough to cover the flash window. Try asking at a disco suppliers or similar and experiment!