You can avoid flickering in LED lights by plugging them into an Uninterupible Power Supply (UPS), which is then plugged in to house current. A small unit is good enough because you are using the constant voltage battery to power the lights. A small unit may not have enough receptacles for all the lights you need, but you can plug a power bar into one of the receptacles to expand the system and still be flicker free.
Caught up a bit and watched this one. Informative as ever and well worth seeing. I haven't done enough extreme close up macro to have put it all into practice yet so I am refreshing my memory which seems to have forgotten a lot of what I watched last year. Looking forward to giving it all another go. Thanks again Allan. :)
allan: quick question on flash vs LED continuous on your macro work. with deep stacks (100-200) shots, how concerned are you with one or more of your flash batteries dying on you mid-stack? or do you bite the bullet and always start with an entirely new set of batteries for all units? (which can get slightly spendy). i’ve got 3 SB900s i can use w/ my Z7 and stackshot rig and candidly i’ve never tested to see how many flashes they’re good for at, say, 1/64th or lower power. for this reason alone i’ve been using LED continuous with multiple units, all on wall power (with its own set of issues, which i had not appreciated, but you’ve pointed out). your video has convinced me to move to flash. but i also don’t want one of my flashes to fizzle out 180 shots into a 200 shot stack:( thanks very much for any guidance you can offer.
Great question Walden. I do prefer flash, for a lot of reasons, but the battery issue is a real concern. At low power (you will seldom need more that 1/32) a fresh set of batteries will easily get me through four or five 200-image stacks. But there is always a risk of missing frames as the recycle time increases as the battery drains. But if you have SB900s, you can use the SD-9 external battery pack ($200) to add a lot more mAHs. The SB900 is rated for 190 full power flashes on a single charge, if using NiMH batteries. That is more than enough. The next set of speedlights that I buy will have the option of powering them from a wall plug.
Yes. If you have a clean environment with no unwanted ambient light, you can use as slow a shutter speed as you need for the lighting you have chosen. Just be aware that at a shutter speed as slow as 1 second, any unwanted ambient light will probably show up in your image and may interfere with your strategy.
Thank you Allan. Your talk is very informative.
You can avoid flickering in LED lights by plugging them into an Uninterupible Power Supply (UPS), which is then plugged in to house current. A small unit is good enough because you are using the constant voltage battery to power the lights. A small unit may not have enough receptacles for all the lights you need, but you can plug a power bar into one of the receptacles to expand the system and still be flicker free.
Thanks Wayne - very useful information and advice that I will follow!
so insightful, thanks for sharing Allan!
Caught up a bit and watched this one. Informative as ever and well worth seeing. I haven't done enough extreme close up macro to have put it all into practice yet so I am refreshing my memory which seems to have forgotten a lot of what I watched last year. Looking forward to giving it all another go. Thanks again Allan. :)
Ty ☕️👍
allan: quick question on flash vs LED continuous on your macro work. with deep stacks (100-200) shots, how concerned are you with one or more of your flash batteries dying on you mid-stack? or do you bite the bullet and always start with an entirely new set of batteries for all units? (which can get slightly spendy). i’ve got 3 SB900s i can use w/ my Z7 and stackshot rig and candidly i’ve never tested to see how many flashes they’re good for at, say, 1/64th or lower power. for this reason alone i’ve been using LED continuous with multiple units, all on wall power (with its own set of issues, which i had not appreciated, but you’ve pointed out). your video has convinced me to move to flash. but i also don’t want one of my flashes to fizzle out 180 shots into a 200 shot stack:( thanks very much for any guidance you can offer.
Great question Walden. I do prefer flash, for a lot of reasons, but the battery issue is a real concern. At low power (you will seldom need more that 1/32) a fresh set of batteries will easily get me through four or five 200-image stacks. But there is always a risk of missing frames as the recycle time increases as the battery drains. But if you have SB900s, you can use the SD-9 external battery pack ($200) to add a lot more mAHs. The SB900 is rated for 190 full power flashes on a single charge, if using NiMH batteries. That is more than enough. The next set of speedlights that I buy will have the option of powering them from a wall plug.
Allan have you got a link to the 11 inch articulating arms and clamps cheers.
(edit, found them)
Sorry I didn't get to this message in time. They are on my blog, with a link.
Thank you can I put low shutter like 1 second to overcome lightining setup ?
Yes. If you have a clean environment with no unwanted ambient light, you can use as slow a shutter speed as you need for the lighting you have chosen. Just be aware that at a shutter speed as slow as 1 second, any unwanted ambient light will probably show up in your image and may interfere with your strategy.