Barn Doors and Blue Dragons

After reading Zeke's Nice Photo review of some pretty spiffy $10 speedlight-compatible barn doors, I ordered a set and did a little playing around recently. Probably not using them the way they were intended, of course. I went with on-camera flash on a point and shoot...___________My son, Ben is growing up fast. He's seven years old and playing on...

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A Flash of Inspiration

It's spring, and that means "Athletes of the Year" photos for many newspaper sports shooters. We get that same assignment every year, and with it the challenge to make the photos look new and different. Naples Daily News shooter Greg Kahn came up with a novel way to capture the movement of his subjects this year by using an inexpensive continuous light...

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Now Available: Strobist Lighting DVDs

UPDATE: Are you reading this from outside of the US? Strobist DVDs, now in their sixth printing, are now being shipped from the US, the UK and Asia. This should significantly reduce shipping costs, time and duties from international readers. (Details at the end of the post.) __________What began last summer as an idea over a pair of delicious Chipotle...

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Google Talks on YouTube

Last fall I had the pleasure of visiting Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA, to speak. It's an humbling experience -- not only for who you are speaking to, but for the caliber of people they have brought in as guest speakers in the past.They have a series on YouTube called "Authors@Google," where they have videos of some of the people who have...

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Interview: Platon and Putin

We've featured Platon before, what with the Eliot Spitzer photo, and the cool videos on his site. I love his simple lighting, and even more so his entire approach to portraiture. If you have ever been nervous before a big shoot, you'll really appreciate his video interview about shooting Vladimir Putin for Time's Man of the Year cover. Every time I hear Platon talk it makes me want to re-think my whole approach to shooting people.Thanks much to Rob over at APE for the heads-up._________Related::: Platon Shoots Eliot Spitzer :::: Three Platon Videos...

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A Commenter Calls SB BS...

UPDATE: Joe gives some very good background info and perspective on his lighting choices here.____________"Joe McNally is a great photographer and I respect his work, however that collection of strobes is absurd. Was that really necessary? Personally, I think this was an elaborate hoax to see how stupid most strobist readers really are."Well, yes, actually, they are necessary. Keep reading for the reasons why.Why the SB-800 Arsenal?1. You lose power on every step you go up in FP sync. That is because the pulsing nature of the flash loses a lot...

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Joe McNally Desert Shoot

UPDATE: Joe has posted Joe has posted his version of the day, with his stills from the setups seen below.What do you do when you get the chance to hang out with Joe McNally, shooting in the desert for an afternoon? You go, that's what you do. And that's exactly what happened to me the day after finishing up teaching at Gulf Photo Plus earlier this...

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Talkin' Trash: Free Light Mods

(Updates at bottom)News photographers always keep a trash bag or two in the trunk of their car. They have lots of uses -- waterproofing in the rain, keeping your cold gear from fogging up when you walk outside on a hot day, cleaning out the trash in your trunk (nah)...Enter my friend Aaron, who works at Google. FYI, he's the guy who manually types...

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On Assignment: Controlling Daylight, Pt. 2

A couple weeks ago, in part one of this OA post, we talked about getting a good ambient exposure and knocking it down a couple of stops to use it as fill. This is all well and good if the ambient has the right quality of light to use as fill. But what if the ambient looks like crap?Well, you can always establish use a second flash to establish your...

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Somebody Get This Kid an Agent.

UPDATE:This photo was shot indoors -- Jeff posted a lighting setup shot here._________One of the best things about running a site like this is watching people use light to elevate their family photos. Every day, someone drops a photo of a baby (or kid, or sweetie) into the pool that looks like it could have jumped off of the pages of a magazine.Jef79m...

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Light Fare at The Bar

My favorite part of attending a week-long photo conference is hanging out with the other shooters and students in the off-hours. In Dubai, this meant almost nightly trips to the "Vista," a restaurant on the top floor of our hotel, seen at left.The food, drinks, views and company were outstanding. And if we seemed a little sleepy while teaching the...

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Ray Flash Redux

There were lots of questions following the earlier review of the new Ray Flash Ring Flash Adpater.I have tried to answer them best I could -- and found a video to boot -- after the jump._________Ring Flash Q-n-AQ: This is pretty neat with one exception. The design of it and the way it flops down, won't it block the infrared focus assist on the SB800?A:...

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DIY: David X. Tejada's Beauty Dish

Corporate shooter David X. Tejada has been mentioned enough times on this blog to legally qualify us as stalkers. (Hey, whatever it takes to let him know how much we truly love him. Besides, no one has issued a restraining order yet.) But if we were not following his every move, then how would we know that he has taken a cue from some of the speedlight...

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Just Another Boring Monday at the Office

We wrapped up teaching in Dubai on Sunday, and some of us have a couple days left over for R&R. Having figured out that there was not actually anything in the Dubai stores that we could afford to buy, Joe McNally and I spent the day in the desert shooting.You'd think we could get through this vacation without having to work so much. But, nooooo...

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Lighting 102: 6.2 - Gelling for Tungsten

In the last L102 post, we talked about some of the problems we have to face when gelling to work under fluorescent light. Gelling for tungsten yields similar, but different problems.Fortunately, tungsten is easier -- and more forgiving.First of all, when we gel for tungsten, we use an "CTO" gel, which is orange and converts our daylight-balanced flash...

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Lighting Tip: Neuter Your SC-17

Nikon's SC-17 off-camera TTL flash cord is a great little addition to your kit, and you do not even have to be a Nikon shooter to use it. They are so cheap, I have several. And I recently put one under the knife.Keep reading for he how and the why.The SC-17 is basically an extension cord for your hot shoe that carries all of the various TTL connections....

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