This article will explain the importance of knowing what your flash sync terminal voltage is, and show you how to measure the voltage to make sure your flash is safe to use with your digital camera.
Vivitar 285 'Zoom Thyristor' Flash Head |
Ever wonder why your pictures of little items like statues, money, a speaker set, a glass of water, or pretty much anything else in the world that doesn't move often look so washed out and flat? I'm betting that the reason is that you are setting your camera to 'nuke' mode (i.e. blast everything with light from the flash).
Well, I have a quick, and most likely free (if you own a tripod) solution to this problem. And it's pretty darn easy to implement. Here's how you do it:
My brother, Joel, who went to Saint Louis University a few years ago, made two Flash animations about some of the humorous decisions and actions done by the University employees and administration. It's not meant to be an entirely negative presentation, but rather a lighthearted look at some of the crazy bureaucratic policies enforced during Joel's time at the University.
Note from Jeff Geerling: The following video and post was created by my brother, Joel, while he was a student at Saint Louis University (which is where I received my bachelor's degree in Philosophy!). I'm reposting his content on my blog since SLU no longer hosts student content on their website. See also: SLU for U (The Original), The Making of SLU for U.
Note from Jeff Geerling: The following video and post was created by my brother, Joel, while he was a student at Saint Louis University (which is where I received my bachelor's degree in Philosophy!). I'm reposting his content on my blog since SLU no longer hosts student content on their website. See also: SLU for U 2 (The Sequel), The Making of SLU for U.
Note from Jeff Geerling: The following post was created by my brother, Joel, while he was a student at Saint Louis University (which is where I received my bachelor's degree in Philosophy!). I'm reposting his content on my blog since SLU no longer hosts student content on their website. See also: SLU for U (The Original), SLU for U 2 (The Sequel).
To make this little animation, I used an application called Flash (version 4) from a company named Macromedia [note: Macromedia has since been bought by Adobe, who now sells the Flash animation program]. The Flash multimedia technology had become very poplular and nearly standard (Netscape, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc. come with the Flash plug-in preinstalled) on the Internet over the past few years. Besides creating animations like mine, Flash can even be used to create crisp, interactive websites (when used tastefully).