Alpha Strobe Users Portal

2011 in review – For all of us at Alphastrobist.com

alphastrobist — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:05:02 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 39,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

At the turn of 2012…

alphastrobist — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:06:42 +0000

Here are some shots taken around my home here in Melbourne Australia at the turn of 2012. Shots were taken with Sony Alpha A77 that I current have on hand. This is a unit that will be in-house for some user test and reviews. Stay tuned for some actual user review of the Sony Alpha A77.

Click to view slideshow.

As one of our main goal is to test the Sony A77 out with the wireless flash system, do check back for new updates in the coming weeks…

Regards,

Sulhan @ Alphastrobist

A chance to check out an Alpha Flash Stand Adapter

alphastrobist — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:08:08 +0000

Sold On line…

Just to share some personal experience on a new product that I’ve recently got off Ebay. Its an adapter for use with the Sony Alpha flashes. The photo of the item is shown here. I got three pieces of the adapter – an adapter to mount Sony Alpha flash onto a light stand for setups like wireless flashing This product is an alternative to the flask stand/feet that comes with the Sony Alpha flashes.

I was actually excited to see such product on Ebay and took the dive and ordered three of what look like an adapter that is made from machining a solidpiece of aluminium block.

Room for improvement

As you can see from the side by side photo of the three pieces that I received, there seem to be lots of variation in the workmanship of this item. The depth of the groove in the centre where the contact pins form the flash suppose to be did not have enough clearance on two of them. Resulting in the contact pins actually touching and rubbing the surface of the groove.

Lack of Locking Mechanism

Probably due to efforts in keeping the price of the part own, not much considerations have been put onto the locking mechanism. As of now, the only way to secure the flash – which surprisingly slides in well on to the adapter well on the mounting part – was to use a large rubber band.

Quick Improvement

A quick improvement that they could have done was to implement an open edge for the locking mechanism of the flash to lock on the opposite edge of the adapter. I made a sketch of the idea here…Maybe some manufacturers would like to take this up.

Well…thats all for now. I’ll probably make some modification to the ones I have got and I’ll se if the modifications and maybe post those changes here.

Thanks for viewing…
Alphastrobist….

Fast deployment with the Alpha Wireless during a recent shoot

alphastrobist — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:10:27 +0000

Got a request to do a quick shoot for a set of menu items for an eating place, and did not have the luxury of a full mobile studio setup with our monolights. Had to go with the strobist approach for this one and did the shoot with only the HVL-F58AM on stand with Photoflex diffuser + the HVL-F20AM as the wireless trigger.

Setup was very simple with only a lightstand and the softbox rig. Just like any of our food photography shoot, we used natural light as the main light and the strobes were there to do fill-ins. Here are the list of items that was used for this session:

– Sony Alpha camera

– Sony HVL-F20AM – mounted on camera used as trigger

– Sony HVL-F58AM – On light stand with Photoflex Mini softbox LiteDome XS rig

– Yongnuo Battery Pack for Sony HVL-F58AM strobes

– DIY foam core – booklet type silver reflectors (one of my favorite DIY tool)

– A shoot through round pp-up disc for softening reflections on the shiny plates and bowls.

– Tripod with head

– Other basic food styling props and of course tissue papers to wipe smudges and marks.

Here are some shots of me getting the shot done – thanks to my team mate who was shooting on the Sony A550.

I like to make the shots simple and clean for this one hence no props or such.

Building a wireless USB Link for wireless tethered shoot on Sony Alpha A900

alphastrobist — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:37:00 +0000

Building a wireless USB Link for wireless tethered shoot on Sony Alpha A900
- by M Sulhan Juman

We have been looking out for a wireless data transfer solution for the Sony Alpha to enable it for use in a wireless tethered shooting situation. This setup was to compliment or maybe replace the wired setup that has been used in the Mobile Photo Studio print station solution over at Mobistudios. We have just secured a major event this October that will be a a good platform to try out a new solution – such as a wireless tethered shooting solution for use in the mobile print station setup. After drafting out the plans for the two day event, we’ve decided to go ahead and build a wireless solution for our usage.

We searched the web for wireless tethered solution for the Sony Alpha DSLR cameras and did not find any solution documented for Alpha cameras in any of the technologies – such as USB, Wifi or others. Fortunately we found a write-up by a fellow photographer by the name of Pete Tsai – who have successfully build a USB link using hardware by Cables Unlimited for his Nikon system.

Read the full article here.

A Sony NEX-5 video sample

alphastrobist — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:38:15 +0000

Here is a short NEX-5 video recording samples that was put together. All clips are direct non-edited footage. Original recoded sound and video.

I’m trying to test out the possibility of using the NEX-5 to work together with external strobes. A short video to document the use of the DIY ring-light diffuser will also be made hopefully with the NEX-5. Stay tuned for new updates.

Regards
Sulhan

Review of the NEX-5 by Alphastrobist

alphastrobist — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:23:12 +0000

Well….its been really hard resisting the NEX fever lately. We are now holding on to an NEX-5 with the twin lens kit and putting this little nifty camera a test drive. We really hope to see greater advancement in the NEX line-up in the future to develop itself into a system that could use the SONY alpha flash strobes and support wireless. At this point of time, we know that the Alpha flash mount has appeared in the soon to be released NEX video camera. Well, lets hope and see that the NEX system will grow into a new system that inherits the great Alpha strobe system. Stay tuned for the NEX review!!!

Regards,
Alphastrobist

Automobile Photography with Alpha wireless flash

alphastrobist — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:17:45 +0000

Finally, the short write-up on the Automobile photography has been completed. Check it out now!!!

Topic: Automobile Photography Demonstration
Setup: Sony Alpha Wireless Flash System + Photoflex Litedome XS
Photography by: M Sulhan Juman – Mobistudios
Artwork & Post Processing : M Sulhan Juman – Mobistudio

My daughter using the DIY Ringlight diffuser with the HVL-F20AM

alphastrobist — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:17:50 +0000

He is a short video of my daughter using the DIY Ringlight diffuser with the HVL-F20AM while practicing macro photography. The diffuser is attached to the 100mm f2.8 macro lens.

Check out the Article: Build the DIY Ringlight Diffuser yourself today!!

Mobile Studio On the Streets of Melbourne using Alpha Wireless Flash

alphastrobist — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:25:42 +0000

Mother’s Day has been a wonderful time to have a portrait of happy families with Mom. I’ve just completed a Mother’s Day street Mobile studio shoot here in Melbourne Australia. The alpha wireless strobes setup helped in simplifying the shoot. Space was certainly a constrain but all went well. Here is a shot taken of the “operations” in the field. Note the white line on the floor that marks out the working area.

Thanks to the easy and quick deployment of the Alpha flash with the Photoflex LiteDome XS we are able to overcome the space constraint. Also thanks to the little TWIP BOUNCE on the HVL-F20AM that ensured 100% firing of all the strobes on wireless.