I waited as long...

as I could until it was evening here to do my infrared tests with the flash. Closed the curtains, turned off all the lights. Very dark. Could hardly see my hand in front of my face. I picked up the camera and looked through the viewfinder - and then it struck me: I don't know about you but I can't see much and definitely can't focus in absolute darkness. I need night goggles. Duh. For test purposes, I stuck on the 28mm without an IR filter (since I wanted the poor film to get all the IR light it could from the flash), and then started at f2.0 & 1/30th (speed doesn't matter); and would turn on a light, focus on something, turn off the light and then shoot. I wasn't sure the flash was even working. The cat didn't seem to react one way or another. So I did a shot pointed towards a mirror just so I could see if anything was going off - and it was. You would have to be looking directly at the flash - in the dark - to see it go off, and even then you probably wouldn't know what the hell it was.

So the first half of roll I played around with bouncing the light off what are pretty high white ceilings, and the second half I added the lowest amount of tungsten light so that I could at least see what I was aiming at. I think that's a more realistic test since I don't expect to be shooting in total darkness. The film is washing now. I took a peek at the last two frames and there was stuff on them. (Oh, the other mistake I may have made in the beginning - not waiting for the flash to recycle before shooting again - but I'll know which ones those are since they will be clear leader). Maybe the whole rest of the roll will be clear... dunno what to expect.

* * *


it may be as ugly as an undercover police shot - but this was done in absolute total darkness. the floor lamp was behind me. i turned it on. focused. and then turned the lamp off and took the shot. the extreme drop off is most probably from the way the rig i have cuts off the spread of light. if you want to do this without the flash drop off (and still keep the gel from melting) - you (I) need to use more of a cone shaped for the gel holder.

bounced flash was very underexposed although i tried to compensate by shooting wide open. so that's going to be out.

i'm going to study the negs. and compare them with my notes such as they were. btw, nothing in this photograph looks remotely like anything in my apartment. i'm not kidding. for example i look at the thing hanging on my door - and it looks like pajamas. i looked at what was actually hanging on the door and i still wasn't sure how that had turned into white and black pajamas. turns out its a green shirt with black strips.

my floor, which i can say has seen better days - it doesn't look like this. it's like only the dirt and stains showed up.

i won't draw any conclusions about this yet.

i should get to the central park zoo soon to try it out in the bat house (very little light), and the tropical rain forest enclosure. it may turn out to be the most awful look i've ever produced or the most beautiful. i don't know.

* * *

After looking at the negs. and my notes, I'm starting to think that I'd do better by just sticking a glass deep- or light- red filter over the flash and let it mix with what ambient light there is. The flash will be visible in the dark - but the idea here was never to be invisible - though that might be a nice side effect. The idea was to get the same look I was getting with the red filter over the lens in daylight in a location with little infrared light. I'm going to do another series of tests tomorrow with the red filter. Ugh, that freakin' film is costly.

Beckerman Workin'

By Special Arrangements with Matt Weber, i.e. he sent it to me. Matt suggested framing the Chrysler building in the rectangle (as he did here) - and sure enough I said - nah. That's just my natural obstinancy at work. Sometimes, if you tell me that my name is David I'll tell you it's Dave and visa versa. That sort of stubborness is a blessing and a curse. But it is related somehow to tenacity - and that's something you can't get by without if you want to be creative.

More Infrared Flash Tech Stuff

First I placed the Lee 87 Polyester Gel Filter over the Sunpak Auto 383 (guide 120 ft) and did one flash. Looking at the side of the filter closest to the flash you could see a touch of buckling, and what I'd call heat damage. So for sure the filter has to be further away from the flash. I used an old diffuser, cut the head off, and taped the gel to that. Lot's of black duct tape around to keep it in place and a touch of curl to the gel. This is going to cut down on the light output, but if you place the gel right up against the flash I don't think it will be useful for very long. You've got to give the heat that's collected by not emitting visible light a place to bounce around and disipate between the gel and the flash unit.

I also decided to use the Bessa R2A as my infrared camera -- I was getting some peculiar effects with the M3 where one half of the frame would seem to have a motion blur and the left side was perfectly fine. Maybe this happened once or twice on each roll. I suspect the Bessa will be better and of course has a higher sync speed - not that that matters for dark stuff.

Anyway - only thing with the Bessa is that the little plastic window on the back showing what film is in the camera had to be taped over.

Now I'm waiting for it to get dark outside so I can do some stuff in the apartment.