....and armed only with his trusty 21 Zorgawatt KTiOPO4...
Hi Larry -
Sounds like you've got some pretty big 'guns' there! That's great - just be careful, brother!! I just heard about a high-power accident that happened in Vegas last month - (once I confirm the details and separate the 'tabloid tidbits' from the facts, I'll post for everyones' bene...)
Meantime, in the 'reasonably priced' cat, we've had good experience with the Martin/Jem ZR-33 HiMass, http://www.jemsmoke.com/product/prod...ct=zr33hi-mass (which you can occasionally find on eBay for ~$600.-$700. new)
and more specifically, their "I-Fog" (PS - NOT an 'Apple' product! - these guys http://cgi.ebay.com/DENSE-FOG-FLUID-...QQcmdZViewItem
are not too far from ya and have good cust svc... i-Fog has great density and hang time, even outdoors - indoors, it can be used very sparingly with very good results...
And of course a good industrial 'barrel fan', like http://cgi.ebay.com/36-INDUSTRIAL-FA...QQcmdZViewItem (but these guys are OVERpriced - shop around! .
Bottom line is, seasons (and WIND! have a LOT to do with the success of outdoor beams/fx illumination - in winter/dry times of the year, even the most massive fogger will peter-out after a bit - conversely, in muggy ol' summer (when I assume most of your outdoor gigs will be you sometimes hardly need anything at all, just a good strong fogger (like the ZR33) and fan combo in front to make the near-audience stuff jump out - if you can augment the 'far-field' with some pyro smoke here and there, that is probably your best bet...
But we've had good experience with the ZR33 and iFog... that's it..
jon
....and armed only with his trusty 21 Zorgawatt KTiOPO4...
I have my projector by a window in my house. If I turn it around it points out the window to a privacy fence 50 feet away that I have put a white sheet on. I haven't done it much do to this smoke issue outside. I'm not sure how to keep it where I want it. Right now it is 63 degrees, 94% humidity, and a dew point at 61 degrees. It is becoming perfect outside. The beams almost look shiny. I wish the camera could capture it better. Good ole natural fog works best IMHO now.
Love, peace, and grease,
allthat... aka: aaron@pangolin
Hey Allthat -
RE: "camera"...Two words: Time Exposure, buddy! Most photos - even video - are taken with MUCH shorter exposures/more closed irises than our 'persistance of vision' - Really to be fair, ANY laser pic should be taken with at least a little T.E., to make the pic look at least CLOSE to how it looks live... tricky to get a good balance (ie not make 5mW look like 500mW! but worth the effort...
And 'lucky you', you live in the natural-fog Capital of the World! (well, next to the Amazon... -
But seriously, we've found that iFog to have some really great hang-tme, even outdoors (except in steady wind - nothing beats that peace...
- j
....and armed only with his trusty 21 Zorgawatt KTiOPO4...
Use your fogmachine with a blower:
Works great to set the direction of the smoke, and if its powerful enough you'll be able to blow the smoke approx. 10-15m away in one direction, even with wind.
dsli_jon makes an excellent point: Taking pictures of laser beams is difficult, but the longer you hold the shutter open the better the beams will look.
When I'm taking pictures of beams I always leave the flash off. Of course, this means I need to use a tripod to hold the camera steady for the 1/30th or longer shutter time so as to avoid a blurry picture, but the results are worth the effort. (Sometimes I get lucky by holding the camera still with my bare hands, but more often than not the image ends up too blurry. A tripod is the way to go...)
With regard to useing a blower to move the fog around... Yeah, that works, but blowers are expensive! A cheap box fan from Wal-Mart ($9.99) will work really well too.
However, in an outdoor environment, you need a lot of fog... Even the smallest breeze will blow your fog away almost as fast as you can generate it.
Adam
That doesn't work when you're covering a large outdoor area And I don't think those blowers are expensive. They cost about 200-250 dollars.
By using a blower, you can steer the fog in the right direction, even with lots of wind (it really works).However, in an outdoor environment, you need a lot of fog... Even the smallest breeze will blow your fog away almost as fast as you can generate it.
Almost any fan will work, its all about the correct placement
It takes some time to get a good technique down, but it'll come to you eventually.
Here's a fan I personally like to use! Plus when you use it with oil based hazers, it leaves a nice rust proof finish on it!
65 degrees, 98% humidity, and a dew point of 65 degrees... I may have to go play outside again tonight.
Damn... someone invited the mosquitos.