ProAM Imaging - every time

Calibrated monitor, calibrated printer profile from ProAM and the colour is accurate every time
(You really do need full Photoshop to use this though. It is possible in Elements, but pretty tricky )
Matt

This Wikipedia entry is useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyristor
Look under "Switching characteristics" and 'forced commutation'
Matt

Found this link: http://pttl.mattdm.org/feature:contrast-control-sync

You know, the more I read this, the more I'm confused
Think I'll have to go and experiment!

EDIT: and here http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/camera-studio-accessories/58723-wireless-cont...

It's where you have multiple flash guns all firing. You probably don't want them all at the same level - so contrast control allows you to set the ratio of each flash to give some contrast to the scene (rather than being totally flat and lifeless).

Matt

Another Photium user here
Will is extremely helpful and very knowledgeable!
Matt

The red eye setting fires off a flash about one second before the main flash. The irises of the subjects should contract in time for the main flash.

However, you may find your subject just blinks In fact, I have tried taking flash photos of people who blink immediately after the P-TTL - so fast they have their eyes nearly closed for the main flash!

Personally I don't bother with red eye reduction on the camera. My choice is:
1) As Kris says, use bounced or off camera flash
2) Just take the shot and de-red-eye in Photoshop
3) Don't use flash at all

Matt

Barrie,
I sliced it out for you using Topaz Lab's ReMask v2
Took a couple of minutes, including adjusting the resulting mask to cope with the transparency of the droplets. The mask could do with some tweaking - but there's only so much I can do at this low resolution.

(You can get demo versions of the plugins from Topaz... do a Google before buying as they have several discount codes going on )




Hope that helps!
Matt

My memory may not be recalling this 100% correctly, but I seem to remember, from a thread here long ago, that some studio lights have negative trigger voltages - and that caused issues.

(Not sure, but I think reversing the connections on the PC sync lead sorted it out. Personally, I would use a volt-meter to check the trigger voltage on the studio lights and check that the centre pin is positive with respect to the outer shield of the PC sync lead.)

Can anyone remember exactly?

Matt

Pixelmator is a very nice piece of software.
However, its editing capabilities are geared towards web-graphics at the moment. I found it was ok for editing large TIFFs, but struggled a bit with what I needed to do.

If you want to use the Apple Composer filters etc then it's great. However, there's no support for Photoshop plugins (IIRC), and I have a fair stack of those. Trouble is, I've been using the full Photoshop for too long

If I was going for a budget package, then probably Elements would be it. But Pixelmator is definitely a great tool (and there are some excellent tutorials on their web site). I'm sure it'll grow... given time.

Matt

Mongoose,
It's not Argyll that's 'at fault', but the type of profile you choose
A "Matrix" profile will not compensate for a poor black point on the display.
Using a "cLUT" colour look up table type profile will work wonders, but takes longer to produce.

Do also note that not all software can handle cLUT profiles. Some fall back to treating them like a Matrix profile. So your mileage may vary depending on the app you are using.

dispcalGUI is a very nice way to wrap everything up. It also includes the necessary startup process to load the profile on Windows etc

Matt

Gareth,
Please re-read the sentence
It is the distance scale that will be incorrect, not the exposure.

Of course, if the flash says the maximum distance is 4m, your subject is at 3m and you are using a Stofen then you'll probably get an underexposed shot because the flash won't have the power to 'throw' the light that far

Does that make more sense? (Will send the e-book when I get home!)
Matt