Top Our Group Shot: German Edition

UPDATE: See the very cool improvised camera boom they rigged for the shot.Frequent contributor Bert Stephani, who blogs at Confessions of a Photographer recently popped over to Frankfurt to lead a little lighting meetup.Bert, who is recovering from getting his camera bag stolen in Spain, decided to riff a little on the meetup group shot theme. For...

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LumiHarold? LumiBob?

Betcha didn't know that LumiQuest (makers the folding light modifiers since way back in the day) was named after its founder, Quest C. Couch. In fact, Quest has been answering lighting questions from readers for over a decade. My kinda guy.I've mentioned their fold-flat UltraBounce before. And I am also a fan of their LQ-104 "Big Bounce," which can ape a small soft box in close and is a fave of run-and-gun event shooters.Please join me in welcoming LumiQuest as a sponsor. Midwest Photo Exchange has even whipped up a sale (up to 25% off) to welcome...

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"Moment it Clicks" Back in Stock Again

For those of you who missed out on the first printing, Joe McNally's book, "The Moment it Clicks," is now back in stock at Amazon. (The first run was gone in just a few days.)In the meantime, Joe has posted a video on YouTube from the making of a shot featured in the book: Changing the light bulb atop the Empire State Building.FWIW, I can barely even watch this thing. I do not like heights. Dude is crazy, IMO.:: Moment it Clicks: Full Review ::-...

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Who'da Thunkit Backdrop: Roofing Panels

Photographers Joe Daylor and Joe Stern can get that industrial look any time they want, after creating a sectional background from inexpensive plastic roofing panels and some spray paint.Honestly, without good light, this stuff would probably look pretty goofy. But the 3-d quality of this stuff makes it fairly versatile as a backdrop, depending on how it is lit. And if you can control both your light and your background in any location, you are pretty much good to go.Thanks for the idea, guys. When I think Home Depot backdrops, I almost never make...

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Jamie Squire, on That Killer Daytona 500 Shot

Remember the amazing USA Today sports front from the the Daytona 500 we blogged last week? Hit the jump to read about exactly how Jamie Squire (along with Matthew Stockman) conceived and shot it.____________There was confusion in the comments on both the technical stuff, and on the seemingly similar photos made by fellow Getty shooter Matthew Stockman....

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Who Are Your Photos Really For?

(By Olaf Blecker, via The F STOP)When you make a portrait of someone, who are you trying to please? The subject? Yourself? The editor of a publication? All three? (Heaven forbid.)As an editorial shooter, I was always trying to please me first and the publication second. And if I made the subject happy, too, that was fine. But I never expected to please...

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Road Trip: Heading to Dubai for Gulf Photo Plus

If you are reading this from the Middle East, and/or looking for an excuse to get to one of the most exciting cities on the planet, I'll be teaching at the 2008 Gulf Photo Plus seminars in Dubai from April 29 - May 4. Classes will be at the Dubai Knowledge Village, seen above.We'll doing it long-form this time, so no more squeezing stuff into a single...

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RadioPoppers in the Wild

The guys from TriCoast Photo have gotten a chance to play with the new RadioPoppers, and dropped a juicy comment in tonight just to make all of you short-range TTL'ing chumps jealous.Their comments, and a link to full post with pix, after the jump.____________From TriCoast comment:Hey we just tested out the Radio Poppers first hand at our Wireless...

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Reader Question: What Zoom Setting for an Umbrella?

Reader Jmolli asked the following question in the Strobist Flickr threads. Given that there was no single correct answer, I thought it was worth a little bit of discussion:"I have 32" and 43" convertible shoot thru/reflective umbrellas. I usually set the zoom on my SB-26s to 24-28mm when shooting thru the umbrellas and at 50-70mm when bouncing off...

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Meetup Assignment: Group Shot

For those of you attending meetups, here's a thought: Why not take the opportunity to try a cool group shot?That's what the folks at the South Bay (SF / Silicon Valley area) did.You have a roomful of lighting gear, subjects and (presumably) thinking photographers. What more do you need?As line-em-ups go, the above example is pretty cool. But you can...

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Westcott PhotoBasics: Learn to Light, the Arthur Murray Way!

UPDATE: The flashes are available now. Also, a promo video has been added after the jump.FJ Westcott, makers of our much-beloved double-fold umbrellas, has announced a new series of reasonably priced monobloc strobes.(Yeah, yeah, Dave -- them and everybody else at PMA this year...)But no, wait -- Westcott is including with the lights an instructional...

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The Simple Light: Platon Videos

UPDATE: Apparently, Platon's site is not equipped to handle the inbound traffic level you guys are generating. Long story short, we sorta crashed it. That was certainly not our intention, and they are working on it as we speak.UPDATE #2: He's back up!__________If you aren't familiar with the work of British photographer Platon (pronounced "plah-TOHN")...

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Jamie Squire Finishes Strong

UPDATE: A USAT photo editor reports that Jamie shot this with a remote cam, available light, set to shutter priority at -1 stop to catch the strobes.I woke up in my hotel in Orlando to find this USA Today sports section on my doorstep from last night's Daytona 500.On behalf of my pal (and Getty sports shooter) Jamie Squire, I would like to thank the...

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Lighting 102: 5.2 - Assignment: Double-Duty Light

Today's Lighting 102 assignment is simple, in theory. Your job is to create a photo, using just one flash, that makes use of reflective surfaces to create light coming from multiple directions.Sounds easy enough. But there is a little twist. More after the jump.____________________Technique-wise, this assignment is just as simple as it sounds. You'll...

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One-Minute Lighting Tip: Lighting on Two Planes

Quick, what color is the tile that this Turkish candy is sitting on?If you said green, you should probably hit the jump to learn about how lighting on two planes gives you more control over your photos.________________First things first: The tile that the candy on is actually black.Second, let's walk through the light reader Nionyn used for the shot...

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No Direct Flash, Please. We're British.

UPDATE: Swapped to a better version of the video. Runs smoother and has more stills.The folks in Seattle know they are cool. They work their big-bucks day jobs and then meet up at night to flash each other in airplane hangars. But across the Atlantic in Croydon (near London) at The Croydon Advertiser, they get to do this small-flash lighting stuff all day long and get paid for it. In Pounds Sterling, no less. Never heard of the Croydon Advertiser? It's where "SitBonzo" (AKA David Berman) works. And if anything could be cooler than British TV,...

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RadioPopper Photos Posted

Kevin has just posted a series of photos of the upcoming RadioPopper wireless piggyback units, which are designed to vastly extend the range of wireless TLL flash systems such as those used by Nikon and Canon DSLRs. Still in the ugly-electronic-guts stage are the new dumb (non-TTL) radio triggers, which promise a four-digit range at a two-digit price.Or,...

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Lighting 102: 5.1 -- Refract and Reflect

Okay, show of hands: How many people have been trying to do this Lighting 102 stuff with just one flash?Don't feel so bad. Back in the day, lighting guru Dean Collins was only allowed to use one light source for his first year of studying his craft at school. And he did just fine, thank you.Whether you have one light or twelve, the trick is making...

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Phoenix Lighting Seminar Registration Opens

UPDATE: The March 15th and 16th lighting seminars in Phoenix, AZ, are both sold out. The discussion thread for this seminar is here. Full info on the seminars after the jump.__________________________Seminar Info and Registration DetailsLOCATION:The class is to be held at the Hilton Phoenix Airport. The address is 2435 South 47th Street, Phoenix, Arizona. You can find a Google map here. WHAT WE'RE ABOUT:With these seminars, my goal is threefold: To refine your approach to creating light, to fill you with as many ideas as possible in a day's...

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Robert Rodriguez: Master Cheapskate

UPDATE: For those of you with Netflix, the cult classic, full-length movie is now available to stream on demand.__________Everybody on the bus -- and make sure you have your signed permission slips ready: It's field trip time.Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez directed "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" and "Sin City," among other things. But before that he directed a little film called "El Mariachi," a feature-length flick made for just $7,000 in Mexico. Picked up for release in the US, it grossed over $2,000,000.00.Why do you care? You are a still photographer,...

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Phoenix, AZ Seminars: Registration Opens This Sunday

Registration for the March 15th-16th lighting seminars for Phoenix, AZ, opens this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time. I originally hoped to be making the I-10 desert drive to open an additional LA date for this trip, but time constraints have me too hemmed in to do so. It is spring break, and we are coming out as a family to visit the Southwest. (I still hope to get to LA sometime later this year, but have no solid plans yet.)Please note that all of the previous seminars have sold out, some within just a few minutes. And I never know how fast they...

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Readers Making News

Strobist reader Gary Cosby, Jr., who is a staff photographer for The Decatur (AL) Daily, had a nice "on assignment-style" post about using small flashes to create this illustrative portrait about a local low-budget movie director. Click on the pic, or here to read more.On a sadder and more timely note, if you happened to look at nearly any major paper...

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Newest Reader Hot Shots

I see lots of cool BMX MTB (oops) pix coming through the Strobist Flickr pool, but every now and then one stops me cold. This one, by Sylvain, AKA RazorImages, breaks a lot of rules. But it totally works for me.Click the pic to see it bigger, and find out how it was lit with two speedlights. And if you want to see more, click here for a slideshow of...

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L102: 4.3 -- Cross Balance and Sculpt Discussion

Report from the assignment given on January 18th, in which you were asked to shoot a photo predominantly lit in one direction, and partially filled by restricted strobe coming in from another direction. This concept proved a tad elusive for many of you, but there were some cool photos made, all the same. Pix and more, après le jump.__________________This...

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2008 Southern Short Course Now Registering

If you are planning on attending the Southern Short Course in Charlotte, NC (March 27-30) you'll want to register pretty quick. It is an absolute killer deal, at $95 for four days of gettin' your learn on.I'll be teaching two, two-hour breakouts there on Thursday and Saturday. One is for newbs/students and the other for experienced news photographers....

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Newb Catch-up Day

Is all this off-camera light stuff making your eyes glaze over? We get our fair share of fnugy's (as McNally would say) around here. And we can sometimes lose track of how far we have come as a group since the site began back in 2006.Fortunately, Paul Duncan (the guy who did the Bogus Artificial Ring Flash and the strobe spotlight thingie) has put together a very nice slideshow video that really nails the basics.Take a look if you are new. Or even if you are old. And if you haven't yet hit Lighting 101, you'll have a bit of a head start after seeing...

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Joe McNally: The Moment it Clicks (Verdict: Awesome)

UPDATE: Be sure to read Scott Kelby's post on how this book was born. And I finally figured out what makes this book so different, in terms of pacing and personal touch: It's basically a blog, bound up and printed on pretty paper. McNally has been blogging for the past year, without knowing it.UPDATE #2: You can hear a great interview with Joe about...

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