This is photo-a-day project is less than 1/4 done, but it's already been a tremendous learning experience for me. While I'm not yet convinced that I'm learning the right things (like composition) I'm getting something out of it.
I figured I'd wait until the film and digital shots were posted to do a recap of what I learned shooting film with off-camera flash.
The first thing I learned is that my flash trigger doesn't work with the EOS 620. That's not as a big a deal as you might think, because the receivers can work in either wireless mode, or, in photo slave mode. To work around the issue, I mounted one of the 430EZ flashes to the hotshoe on the 620, applied a modifier (where needed) or pointed it off to the side (when I didn't want on-axis light) and put the receivers into "light" mode.
When the on-camera flash popped, it popped the off-camera lights. Because my lighting setups normally include light all around the subject, this worked fine.
I learned I need to remember some fundamentals when I'm working solely with strobes. Not least of which is the fact that, by and large, shutter controls ambient, and aperture controls intensity of the flash. For that reason, my bracketed shots didn't show much variation in exposure. It's entirely possible that the variations I did see were due more to the cheap flashes than any real change in exposure.
Does it bother me that I wasted two out of every three shots on the film? A little, but, not near as much as it bugs me to think I might make the same mistake when it counts. Hopefully this is a lesson I'm going to remember. To do this right, I should start at f/8, and then bracket at f/5.6 and f/11. Dropping the shutter speed to the fastest possible sync (1/250 on the 620 and 60D, 1/200 on the Rebel) should completely black out my backdrop.
One positive thing I learned is that I'm getting better with the flashes. Perhaps it's just that I have a good "recipe" in my head for these types of shots (which are, essentially, all the same) but my first shot on the digital with Pig Noir was pretty much dead on. I had to adjust the barndoor a bit, but the camera settings and flash power were right out of the gate, so, there's that.
My film developing process is still undergoing a lot of refinement, but I'm finding that the standard developing method (as posted in the Massive Dev Chart) for my film and developer combination works well enough for now. I'll probably try more adventurous techniques when and if I know I've got a good digital copy of the same shot.
I also learned that a stuffed pig with a pony clamp on its back (to hold on the bandanna) will tip over at the slightest touch.
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