RSS FeedGee Please will be back Shortly
Dear Gee Please readers and subscribers, sorry for yet another long stretch of break in the Gee Please updates. We have been reorganizing our staff, from writers, editors, testers and guest writers list.
Rest assured that with these changes, Gee please will be more current and streamlined. Check out the list of upcoming contents on this site after the jump.
We are also making some server-side updates and still doing it as we speak. We are also redesigning a bit of the whole appearance of the site to make it more reader-friendly. We employed some changes in the internal pages to make it easier to scroll and read. Including easier follow of comment replies from the staff.
THE NEW LOGO
On our list of coming contents are:
- A review of the Nissin Di866
- Field Test of the Nissin Di866
- Review of Kimstore Gadget Shop
- First Look on Nokia 5800 Xpress Music
- First Look on SAMSUNG Star
- NOKIA 5800XM Review
- SAMSUNG Star Review
- Shield for your gadgets
- Basic Lighting Tutorial using the Nissin Line-up
We are also looking for additional contributing writers, if you have articles to share, do share it with us by using our contact form.
If you’re a Merchant and you want your products tested as well, we can also do that per your request and arrangement.
To our readers, if you need us to review something, please dont hesitate to send your suggestions to Gee Please and well make sure to put it on the queue for review and testing.
Thank you for continuing to support Gee Please!
The Tricky Flash Sync
What is the Flash Sync? How do I use it? And how do I achieve a high-speed sync?
These are a few questions you ponder about after getting your first ever external flash. First let’s clarify the meaning of “Sync”. Sync is actually a shortcut of synchronization, and synchronization is the way two objects function, move, execute at the same time in it’s simplest sense.
Now Flash Sync is all to do about the Flash Shutter. The Shutter is like your eyelids. It closes and opens much like your eyelids does. However for the Flash Shutter, the wider it is open and the longer it stays open, the more light is captured by the camera sensor. Basically, the camera sensor only sees light, that is why photography in it’s simplest description is a means of capturing light. If the shutter is blinking fast, which is a fast shutter, the sharper the image and the quicker your camera sensor captures the image while sacrificing the amount of light it captures as well.
Therefore, slow-shutter speeds are good for low-light conditions, making fast moving objects blurred, making running water from streams and waterfalls appear silky-smooth and taking night photographs and especially useful on time-lapse photography.
Fast-shutter speeds is good for fast targets to make them appear like you stopped time, or freeze the moment. Good for pictures of sports, racing, active kids and the like. However, you need ample amounts of light to get proper exposure at fast-shutter speeds. You can hand-hold your camera and take sharper images. For slow-shutters, a tripod is absolutely needed.
This answers your questions about high-speed sync and flash sync. It is the relation of your camera shutter with your your camera flash.
The shutter of your camera has its own rating for maximum speed which you can use the flash. Thus your camera also has a limit as to how fast the shutter curtains (eyelids) can be made to move. At higher speeds, a second shutter curtain which is rarely noticed also move to increase the speed capacity of the camera.
The secondary shutter is released before the first curtain has finished moving. This will appear like your camera sensor is shooting through moving strips.
Thus the higher the shutter speed, the thinner the strip is. This affects your flash reliability to properly expose or light up your subject. If the flash fires while the curtains are about to close, the the proper flash exposure is not taken. Thus the timing between the flash and the shutter, which is your sync speed, is essential. They must thus work in harmony.
Fast Sync, notice how the action and the crowd is captured
Slow Sync, notice that the crowd is now blurred by panning the shot.
The maximum shutter speed where the camera sensor is properly exposed when it is wide open is called the “Flash Sync” or “X-Sync” speed. It usually ranges at about 1/200 - 1/500sec. However this varies depending on the SLR/Camera.
Your external flash needs to cope with this value. That is why your reliable on-camera flash fails at higher sync speeds or your camera won’t allow you to shoot at higher sync speeds at all. Most external flash has a “High-Speed Sync” mode, allowing your camera to use any shutter speed. Notice that without your external flash attached to your camera, the camera shutter speed option is limited. Your external flash does this nifty little trick to synchronize with your camera shutter. Your naked eyes cannot see this, but to achieve high-speed sync flash, your dedicated external flash fires a series of several flashes as opposed to what your eyes can see which is a single fire of your flash. This is timed to match the period where your camera sensor is exposed. This multiple fire at high-speed sync reduces the intensity of your flash considerably, so most high-speed sync shots is done best for fill-flash at close range.
Whats with the Grey?
Getting the right color temperature, white balance and the true feel of a photograph is difficult to achieve even for seasoned photographers. Auto White Balance is a hit and miss affair, any PRO photographer you ask will tell you to set your white balance (WB) manually yourself. There are many ways to do this, and one effective method is to use a Photographic Grey card.
A Grey Card is used as a baseline of the level of White Balance the camera should apply. It balances the color of your photos much better. It is letting your camera choose a better exposure level to match the current lighting situation.
One of the best Grey Card is the “Douglas Card”, I am trying to look for the newer version, but there is none available in my area. The Douglas Card is from Douglas Photographic. The Latest version is called the Douglas Mark II. It offers better color balance in many kinds of lighting conditions. At around 20USD, the Douglas Mark II or Mark 2 contains no artificial brighteners which could distort your dSLR’s’ exposure readings.
Douglas grey card
Tay Hua Trading Review
I have been scouring the web for some new light stands as the ones I have are rusty and old. Those set I decided, is ready to retire as they have served two owners already; My Cousin who used it to light up his artwork, then me whom he decided to sell it to.
Anyway, I was assuming that I would easily find affordable yet quality light stands online. For a month I was trying to find those light stands I wanted, but most of what I found are included on studio sets or packaged as a kit with some of the things I did not need.
For a while I was almost fixed on getting these strobist sets/kit which included a soft box, or an umbrella. Then one day, I was reading through the archives of a strobist topic that mentioned a reliable shop in Manila who was established long before I can say my A-B-C’s.
It was Tay Hua Trading Corporation. I asked around about them on some web forums I am in, then I figured that in this time and age, they must already have a website. I found out they did at www.tayhua.com. I then started to go thorough their listings, I tried to look for a search function on their website, but there was none. I resorted to build my own widget to scan through their site and look for, as you might have guessed, “light stands”.
Tay Hua Trading
I first found the “Kits”, they also have strobist kits which included a strobist softbox and a strobist umbrella kit with some options to upgrade, like adding radio triggers with the package or changing the size and types of stands or umbrella. After reading through these kits, I found out they also sell the items individually.
It took me a week to decide which one I would purchase. Then I decided to contact them through the e-mail address they provided on the site. At first I tried on Yahoo Messenger, waited for a while but it is constantly offline. So instead I e-mailed them. A few hours later, I got a response. Few more queries, and Tay Hua’s e-mail reply is fairly fast. I found out some of the kits are out of stock and then I finally knew who was responding to me. It was actually Sir Ackerly Chua of Tay Hua himself.
Mr. Chua is pretty responsive and amicable. He suggested some items to me and asked for my planned usage of the items. He suggest what he thinks is the best option and added some tips here and there. You can seldom find a merchant who is willing to discuss how your ordered items can be useful and suggest things to make the desired result of your purchase plan, a success.
I decided to make my own Kit. After a few exchanges and tips from Mr. Chua, I finalized my order and asked for the invoice. He gave me the invoice with some discounts on the items, then he gave me details on how to pay for the items, and informed me that If I could pay that day before three in the afternoon, he could ship the items immediately.
Before I finalized my order, Sir Chua had to be specific about the shipping expense which the buyer covers. He was open to any courier suggestions you may have and I opted for LBC. Although LBC is a bit expensive, at least they deliver quicker based on my experience.
Sir Chua had my proposed orders weighed and shipping was then calculated with LBC. He then e-mailed me the shipping charge. After I agreed with the total fees, he gave me his mobile number and banking details. After lunch I went to the bank and sent the payment to Sir Chua’s account. I then sms’ed him to confirm that payment was done, he readily replied an informed me that he will send the tracking number after he has shipped the items.
Later that afternoon, I received the e-mail of the tracking number and we thanked each other for the successful transaction. I mentioned that I’ll let him know when the package arrives. To my surprise, Sir Chua later mentioned that he changed my light stands to a better model as opposed to the ones I ordered for the same price. I bought a couple of other accessories for the light stands, aside from the light stands themselves. This item upgrade came as a surprise.
About three in the afternoon the next day, my package arrived from LBC. It was well-packed and all items are plastic wrapped individually, it was also boxed pretty tight. Packaging was superb and items quality is A-plus. It’s only been a week that I have been toying with the new stuff. I’m sure to order more things from Tay Hua in the future because of this positive experience. I hope they hire a better web developer for their website though, to make it more user-friendly. I was just wondering, where my Free Tripod is At? Lol!
So are you ready to order at Tay Hua? I highly recommend them; tell Sir Chua you found the info on this site.
Wait for my review of the individual items I ordered on future posts.
Congratulations Tay Hua Trading for achieving the Gee Please Gold Standard.
If you have any feedback for Tay Hua Trading, don’t hesitate to leave your comments below.
Camera Cleaning Essentials
Whether you are using a point and shoot or a high-end dSLR, these cleaning essentials must not be missed. Conventional Microfiber cloths are not really friendly to your lens and camera surface, because if a debris is trapped within it’s folds, then it would scratch any surface it comes in contact with. However I am not totally putting down any anti-static and micro fiber cloths in general, I just want to let you know of the fact that what I mentioned above could happen. So if you are using one now, be careful when using it.
What I would suggest however you use is the Lenspen, it is a fairly nifty little device. It uses carbon technology to clean glass surface, the way people before use newspapers to clean you windshield or window glass is the same principle. However, it is synthesized and combined to a new pen lookind device. An added bonus is at it tails end (the lenspens’) is a brush that could gently pull out any debris first before cleaning with it’s patented carbon tip. However before using the lenspen, the first thing you should do is blow up the dust and debris off your device, and the Lenspen can’t do that, nor your mouth could. So you need my next tip, The Rocket Air Blower.
Lenspen LP-1
Sounds like it came from NASA right? What I am pertaining to is the Giottos Rocket Air Blower. It’s rubber component and design including the air inlet is specifically engineered for supreme air blowing performance(pardon the pun). Yes it blows the hell out of dust and debris. It has an inlet valve at the bottom (one-way valve) that takes clean, filtered air in from the bottom so you can blow out a clean air at the tip. So no debris being accindentally blown in to your device. Just to be sfe, before use, try to blow it a couple of times before pointing to the surface to be blown. Aren’t you tired with all the blowing already?
So keep in mind, in your arsenal, you need a lenspen and a blower. No go clean your stuff!
Giottos Rocket Air Blower
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LumoPro, Yong Nuo and Cactus
Still Looking for the most affordable Flash/Strobe for your strobist setup, you already are familiar with the Nissin Di622 right? Since I already reviewed it here before. I’d like to review a couple more affordable alternatives, but I can’t get my hands on them yet. So this is just a primer of the new sets of flashes. They are all ranging below the USD150 price line and seems to be a good alternative for your flash needs. The review at The Strobist Blog is updated every time they get new info on these set of flashes, so I trust that there reviews should be the first hand look on these new set of flashes.
Affordable Flashes
LumoPro 120 (around USD130), Yong Nuo YN460(USD50 below) and Cactus KF36 (USD100 below). The Complete Review and updated feedbacks from first-hand users are located at the Strobist Blog.
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Gary Fong Lightsphere 2
If you don’t know what it is, it is generally called a lighting modifier in photography. It is often called though as a Flash Diffuser.
The Gary Fong Lightsphere 2 is the newest version of Gary Fong’s Lightsphere series. It comes either in Clear and Cloud versions. The clear one for slight softness of light and the Cloud one which I recommend adds moderate softness to your flash light, making photos appear like it was taken using natural lighting not the harsh one a regular flash produces. It has a top attachment if you want to use those, it is actually a lid to close the dome to be able to point the Lightsphere directly on your subject . Imagine it looking like a Tupperware attached to your Flash. Most version fits the Nikon and Canon Flashes, so to make it fit a third-party flash like the Nissin Di622 reviewed before, slight modification and cutting required to fit.
When you buy one, it comes with the Cloud White dome lid, but other lids can be bought separately like the Amber Lid and the Reflective Silver Lid. The Generic version of the Gary Fong Lightsphere2 if you want to save some cash is called a Lambency Flash Diffuser. Some are named even crazier, but the best replicas are the Lambency ones.
Gary Fong Lightsphere 2 Clear
Gary Fong Lightsphere 2 Cloud
One downside when attaching it to a Nissin Di622 is that the weight added to the flash head makes it bow down to 90 degrees, so you either just point it up instead or rest it at 90 degrees, anywhere in between will drop down the head, unless you put in some fitter to the head to lock it tight.On Nikon and Canon Flash systems, it works pretty well as it is designed for those, the locking mechanism of those flash units are better. However, there is a Universal Lightsphere now available for all types of external Flashes.
The Gary Fong Lightsphere2 is really good to use on portrait photography, you need to practice a lot thought to get a hang of the proper settings to use when using an external flash and the Lightsphere 2. First thing I learned is to make sure you set a custom White Balance when bouncing the flash using the Lightshpere to achieve optimum results.
Gary Fong Lightsphere 2 Universal
Here are a couple of my observations:
- When there is insufficient light, the best distance would be around 6ft. from the subject bounced upward with the Lid at f11 and iso400 1/125. Flash power set at TTL. Bouncing at low light, it is best to set your White Balance to Tungsten.
- Pointing the Flash with the lid, you just need minor adjustments. For good all around flash strength, set at TTL and add +1 to the flash assist power.
I tried it on my SB-600 and it works like a charm, on the Nissin Di622 after slight modification, it works even better, I think it is because of the flash rating of the Nissin Di622 being higher than SB 600. Sample shots Below.
Regular Flash Left with Lightsphere 2 on the Right
Using the Amber Dome
If you have other observations on the Gary Fong Lighstphere 2, please suggest it by commenting and I will gladly test it and add the notes if confirmed.
Do you need to know more? Comment below and I’ll try to answer all your questions.
You can actually make a DIY (Do It Yourself) version of the Lightsphere.
Get one, I highly recommend it, tell Mr. Fong you read it here.
GP Gold Achievers
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- Rock-Paper-Scissors Playing Glove Learns Your Weaknesses [DIY] March 10, 2010
- Staring Directly At the Artificial Sun [Image Cache] March 10, 2010
- We Think Google Reader Play Is Perfect For Tablets, But What About TVs? [Google] March 10, 2010
- It Only Gives You 32GB, But the OCZ Onyx Is Still An SSD Under $100 [Ssds] March 10, 2010
- In This Horror Movie, the Call Comes From Inside the Theater [Interactivity] March 10, 2010
- The Faces That Belong To Famous Hands [Hands] March 10, 2010
- Sony Motion Controller is Called PlayStation Move, Launches Fall 2010 (Hands On!) [Playstation Move] March 10, 2010
- Sex, Blood, and Post-Its: A Short Film Shot Entirely On a Scanner [Film] March 10, 2010
- This Fuel-Injection System Might Increase Fuel Efficiency By Up To 50% [Cars] March 10, 2010
Recent Comments
- Chris Administrator Gee, Please...: Hi Worried. Yes, most Nissin Di866 depending on where you bought it from has some...
- Chris Administrator Gee, Please...: Hi Ricky, Not unless your Metz Manual flash is set to trigger at TTL, then it...
- worried: i just bought mine last saturday, to shot for my brother’s wedding… it was very noisy...
- Ricky: Hi, firstly, good job on this informative review. I’m looking for a 2nd slave flash for my Pentax...
- Chris Administrator Gee, Please...: Hi Sorry for the long wait, as you can see we haven’t updated the site yet,...
- Migs: Sir! I have two questions. 1) I have a Canon 430EX II, planning to buy Di622 which will serve as my slave....
- Jack: Hi, I just bought a Nissin Di622. When I try yesterday the unit with my Canon 7d as slave the di622 work but...
- Chris Administrator Gee, Please...: @Michael: It will work off-camera via ttl triggering. @Long: The red glass...
- benting: hello newbie here. which do you think is a best buy? two nissin di622 or 1 nikon sb-600? and i really...
- long: my red glass have broken and scattered to pieces…do i need to buy a new flashlight or can change the red...
