How to: Wireless flash on the NEX system.

So my mate Wk  suggested I explain how to do off camera flash on the NEX system - so here it goes. As much as I love the NEX system, there's one thing that annoys me so very much, it annoys me so much that i've even thought about changing over to the Fuji X-System. Why you ask? The Fuji X series have something that only the new Sony NEX 6 and older 7 have and that's a hotshoe mount.

Now quick rant, Sony.. why MUST you try and be different and have designs and products that ONLY you use and no one else uses or is even interested in? No idea but it infuriates a lot of photographers who need to buy Sony only products in order to achieve what they want to do - Sounds a lot like Apple, but that's another story.

So hotshoe mount, what's so good about it? What is so good about it, is that it allows you to attach a flash via TTL cable or via wireless flash triggering systems so that you can fire flashes OFF the camera. For those who don't know, off camera flash is the sh*t. It makes photos look nicer and more dramatic. Off camera flash is what I use everyday at work to make portraits just look.. better.

So why should I care if my camera has a hotshoe or not and whether I can do off camera flash? Well, being so used to using DSLR's all of my photographic life, i've always had the opportunity to do off camera flash, from even the most basic cheapo DSLR to the top of the line DSLR, there's always a hotshoe to attach a flash and take it off the camera to do off camera flash either wirelessly or via TTL cable. TTL cable is probably one of my favourites ways for doing off camera flash as it's simple - a cable that connects your flash to your camera - and very very quick to set up. The only draw back is that you can only extend the flash as far as your arm can reach, or as long as the cable is willing to stretch.

So when I was shopping for a new little camera I foolishly forgot to check for hotshoes and ability to do off camera flash. So I ended up buying the 5n and look, 90% of the time I love it, but that off camera flash thing really irks me sometimes. This is how my NEX setup looks like most of the time - With the EVF on. Coming from a DSLR background, looking through viewfinder has always been something i've gotten used to as well as enjoyed. With many mirrorless cameras they don't have built in EVF's, except for the more expensive models. So, as you can imagine I like to have the EVF on 100% of the time if possible. This is where that stupid Sony "smart" port comes in. If you haven't noticed, the 5n does NOT have a built in flash, the flash comes separately and connects where the EVF is connected.

So, the flash goes in the "smart" port and you can't use the EVF anymore, whats that got to do with off camera flash you ask? Well one solution i've found to overcome the off camera flash problem is to use a Nikon speedlight - SB910 to be exact - and have it fire wirelessly as a slave unit every time it picks up external flashes. (Menu > SU-4 mode)

5N with the EVF taken off and flash attached.

So like I said, the Nikon SB910 picks up flash from the camera and that somehow triggers it to fire in sync with the camera every time the camera flash fires. How it works, too technical, but trust me, it works. 

The NEX flash is sh*t. I mean really sh*t. On the very rare occasions that I do use it, I like to use it with a little DIY light bouncer (card wrapped in aluminium foil) The light bouncer bounces the light from the flash to the aluminium foil card and forces the light to bounce of surfaces such as roofs and walls to create softer diffused light. The light from bouncing it off walls and ceilings is ok, but can only be used if there is a ceiling or wall nearby to bounce off, as you can imagine it doesn't do much outdoors.. 

When I do off camera flash with the NEX I use it with the diffuser to ensure that light from the flash is not affecting the exposure or lighting in my picture. (essentially blocking the light)

Again, I have no models to take photos of so have to use myself - sorry in advance. So as you can see, the flash is being fired off from camera right, creating a nicer light on the subject (me). This type of lighting- rembrandt- is pretty stock standard for most portraits and being able to do it on the NEX system really gives me the ability and opportunity to do some more serious portrait work with the NEX. I'm not keen on using the 5n without the EVF as it's something i'm so used to, maybe one day down the track i'll buy a second hand NEX 7 or 6 when the prices drop as they have built in EVF's - wishful thinking.

Anyway, enough of looking at my face, some more real world examples of using off camera flash on the NEX system. PS I know i said i wouldn't do anymore macro photos, but it's not my fault it's been raining!

This photo is similar to the one I shot the other day, the only difference is that this photo was shot at night, not in the afternoon. The flash is on a tripod, behind me to the left and I aimed the flash to illuminate the background, with a bit of spill light from the flash to light up my subject.

With this other photo, I used the flash as my main light source which gives you a black background, good for isolating subjects and keeping the photo quite clean.

Anyway that's about it from me this time, unfortunately I don't have many photos to show because I didn't have much time to take photos after work this evening, so yeah.. hopefully I can show you some more real world examples in the near future!

PS those photos of the NEX were lit with.. you guess it, off camera flash! Except with the D3s and with 2 flashes. One bouncing off the wall on the left and another flash set up behind the camera (nex) to create some rim lighting. Off camera flash FTW!

HOW TO: Macro on the cheap.

I know i've done my post for the day for my 365 project, but I was thinking to myself, since i've been doing so much macro lately, I may as well explain how I do it.

There's a lot of different ways you can do macro photography, bellows, macro lenses, extension tubes, tripods, ring flash, no flash, hand held, etc etc. I do it the simplest of simple ways - The cheapest too!

              1. Camera

              2. Extension tube

              3. Lens that has an aperture ring to manually open and close the aperture.

And that's pretty much it.. told you it was simple. I've always loved doing macro photography, something about noticing things that people often ignore or overlook - Kind of the same feelings I have towards news/documentary photography and perhaps why I love them both so much? 

--------back to my how to-------

I used to do macro work with the D3s and i'd use extension tubes as well, however as those who are familiar with sensor size and all, I'd essentially lose magnification in my images due to the fact I was shooting on a full frame sensor. Macro is pretty much the only time I hate having full frame. The good thing about the Nikon was that I had all my fancy equipment that allowed me to do macro "properly" using flashes and such to illuminate the subjects better. Not only does flash illuminate your subject and potentially isolate it from the background, it also has the ability to 'freeze' an image in the frame. Now I know that sounds stupid cos you're thinking "hang on mate, images freeze action anyway." well yes, you are correct - to a degree. Flash freezing (not food) basically keeps your subject frozen in the shot even if there is a little bit of motion blur due to shakiness from the user or not a fast enough shutter speed. - Quick run down - Images are gathered on a digital sensor and exposure is determined by amount of light hitting the sensor as well as how much time is given to the sensor to expose a frame. How the flash works - in this case macro - is that, by pulsing out a beam of light at phenomenally fast speeds, you are essentially able to freeze an object in your frame regardless of your shutter speed. 

To prove how fast i'm talking here's an example. My camera, D3s has a max shutter speed of 1/8000 - 1/8000th's of a second.. that's, one EIGHT THOUSANDTHS OF A SECOND, flash speeds make that look laughable. On a Nikon SB800, depending on your power output, you're getting.. 

1/1050 sec.   at M1/1 (full) output 1/1100 sec.   at M1/2 output 1/2700 sec.   at M1/4 output 1/5900 sec.   at M1/8 output 1/10900 sec. at M1/16 output 1/17800 sec. at M1/32 output 1/32300 sec. at M1/64 output 1/41600 sec. at M1/128 output

source: http://www.scantips.com/speed2.html

So as you can see from that, that's INSANELY quick time durations. So long story short, if you can 'freeze' a subject at 1/41600th of a second, you can see how that will eliminate blurriness in your moving subjects. 

So like I was saying.. I used to use flash and all that on my D3s, yeah it looked a bit better but it was cumbersome, I'd use a TTL cable (basically a cable connecting the flash to the camera) and hold out approximately where I thought it'd be effective and fire away. 

There's a flash, bottom left of the frame illuminating this hover fly(?) making it pop out from the background as well as freezing him properly in the frame. How I fluked this image I have no idea, D3s + extension tubes. 

So, how am I doing it today? well like I mentioned earlier, I do it on the cheap. I use my trusty NEX 5n and there's a few reasons why I like it more than my D3s for macro. Basically it's smaller and lighter, has a 1.5x magnification due to the smaller sensor and the EVF with real time camera settings is handy for composing and seeing how the image will turn out. The BAD thing about the Sony is that it has this STUPID smart port thing that the EVF connects too, thus getting rid of a normal hot shoe, so NOONE can attach useful things like - A FLASH to it... however, if you DID want to use flash, you can use the flash from the 5n (which you have to attach and therefore lose the EVF) and fire it to set off a flash like an SB-900/910 wirelessly - Down side is that you're limited to a 1/160th shutter speed, so variable ND filters are needed if you want to shoot in the bright bright sunlight. 

As you can see from that, it's a lot of work using flash with the NEX to do macro, that's why I don't even bother. 

Enough talk, my setup. NEX 5n, Minolta 58mm f1.4 + cheapo eBay extension tubes. 

As you can see the extension tubes along with the lens and adapter make this camera look stupidly out of proportion, however, the results speak for themselves!

The extension tubes are made up of 3 sections, 1, 2 , 3. They don't line up like this I just did it for effect. Also, they're not in order because I tightened #2 too tight to the adapter that it now wont come off.. so... yeah... So how it works is, the more sections you have, the more "macro" you get. I like to shoot with all three cos I like to get in as close as possible. 

Unlike macro lenses - which are a lot more expensive - when you use the extension tubes, you can only focus SO far, I mean a few centimetres. Because the lens has been taken off the camera body, you've basically messed up the whole flange distance (distance to sensor from lens) so the lens can no longer focus from X to infinity anymore. With a macro lens you can focus from macro alllll the way to infinity,  whereas if I see something cool in the distance and try to take a photo with the extension tubes on - it's a no go. It does get annoying trying to change magnification sometimes when certain insects or such look too big in the viewfinder, so changing and swapping sections is a bit of a guessing game in how much macro I will get with different combinations of sections. 

So now that you see how my setup looks, how do I use it? well, it's simple. When using extension tubes you basically rock back and forth into focus like you're using a magnifying glass. It's as simple as that. This rocking back and forwards motion puts a little bit of stress on my back and such as it puts me in awkward situations sometimes, as well as making me hold in those sometimes awkward positions for long periods of time while I TRY DESPERATELY to hit focus quickly - PS the wind is NOT your friend when shooting macro.

Look, so that's about it. Pretty dry blog post but just thought i'd share with you all on how I do what I do. I'd post some examples but i'm sure you've all seen too many macro shots lately. ( -_-') 

Anyways hope you enjoyed my HOW TO: Macro on the cheap, and hopefully I can come up and write a few more in the future!

24/365

This will be my last macro photo for quite some time. I promise.. i'm sorry..

Sony NEX 5n, Minolta 58mm + Extension tubes, 1/400th, 800iso @f8

23/365

I feel like it's just going to be macro week as it appears that's all i am shooting. Granted the weather is restricting me. Oh well. it's my 365 so deal with it. I'm failing with this one photo a day thing, can't just have one, I have too many to pick from.

PS I actually have no idea what insects i'm photographing, so if anyone knows what they are that'd be awesome!

Little trees. Sony NEX 5n, Minolta 58mm + Extension tubes. 1/400th, 800iso @ f8 

Sony NEX 5n, Minolta 58mm + Extension tubes. 1/160th, 1600iso @ f5.6

Sony NEX 5n, Minolta 58mm + Extension tubes. 1/1320th, 1600iso @ f5.6

Rain rain, come and stay!

Ahh yes, wet season. Back in Melbourne I don't think we had a "wet" season per se'. It was either, raining cos it's winter, or hot cos it's summer. Now that i'm a Queenslander, it's completely opposite. Summer days are hot and muggy with rain while winter is blue skies and beautiful.

As some of you may know, it's been raining a LOT in Central Queensland which is kind of good for me, as I hate the heat, so all this rain certainly keeps it fairly cool. When it comes to work though, it sucks. Getting wet, not just wet, I mean SOAKED. Think torrential rain, then times 2. Horizontal rain with rain drops the size of marbles (slight exaggeration). I get wet, clothes get wet, car gets wet and smelly - sucks, but fun. 

Anyways, all this rain is obviously affecting my 365 project. The skies are dull and bleak, no texture, no 'oomph' just 'bleh' so like i mentioned the other day, macro photography is a good way to cheat and focus on the little things (pun intended). 

22/365

Damsel Fly. (maybe) Sony NEX 5n, Minolta 58mm + extension tubes, 1/250th, 800iso @f8.

I was lucky enough to get so close to this guy, he literally just sat there and DID NOT move, I was pretty much in his face with the lens and absolutely no f*cks were given by this guy. Even in the rain, just sat there getting rained on. I figured if he could take a little rain, I could too, I think the photo turned out quite nice. Shooting macro is good fun however DOF is a killer, every movement seems like an earthquake through the lens (EVF for sony) and nanometers are the difference between sharp and unsharp focus.

Really I should use a tripod, but whatever - too lazy, don't like to feel restricted when doing macro, things move so fast and situations change that I find tripods more annoying that useful when macro-ing insects. 

The image quality is quite sharp out of that old Minolta, really needs to be stopped down to get sharp focus. My go to macro lens. I had another photo I really liked but didn't know which to go for, i'll put it up anyways and see which you like more. 

20-21/365

When it rains and you're forced to be creative, there's not a whole lot you can photograph without getting soaked or having your gear ruined - Unless it's weather sealed - NEX is not. Generally when I see rain I like to do macro work, so no surprises that's exactly what I did.

 Sony NEX 5n, Fujian 35mm + Extension tubes, 1/250th, 100iso @f8

Drop. Sony NEX 5n, Minolta 58mm + Extension tube, 1/640th, 1600iso @f4

6/365

Photosynthesise. Sony NEX 5n, Rokkor Minolta 58mm f1.4 with extension tubes, 1/2500th, 1600iso @f11