What China Doesn't Understand

Earlier this week, Chinese manufacturer YongNuo announced a new flash: the YN-565EX.It's got full manual mode, a built-in slave, a PC jack, a modeling light -- and is compatible with both Nikon and Canon's proprietary light-based TTL triggering systems. It may well be a great flash -- or it could be a piece of crap. But it won't get any kind of a serious...

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Guest Post: Brad Trent's Ocean Master Session

I'm back in Maryland, decompressing from a 12,531-mile road trip and getting my next few shoots lined up. Fortunately (and to give me a few days to get back into the swing of things) we have one more guest blogger: Brad Trent, who is pictured at left.Not only was Brad the subject of the most widely read post on Strobist in 2010, but he has uncorked...

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Threadless T-Shirts BTS

Grover over at Photoshelter did a cool behind-the-scenes look into the one-man photo department at Threadless Tees, AKA Strobist reader Sean Dorgan.Sean is self-taught and does all of the cool, better-than-they-have-to-be T-shirt shots for the site. (Most sites just import the design files into the web page, or at best shoot the empty shirts on white paper. Bleh.)I have corresponded with Sean occasionally as he has grown from a newb flasher into someone who is doing some pretty neat stuff in the name of hawking cool, community-designed T-shirts....

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Chris Crisman on Self-Investment, Reinvention and Reductive Lighting

It's Monday, and that means another guest post while I'm out on the road. This week's entry is from Philly-based photog Chris Crisman, whom I finally got to meet a few days ago during our stop there.Kinda psyched, as Chris is writing not only about going out on a limb to add a new branch to his portfolio but also about changing up his lighting process....

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Detailed DIY Ring Flash Tutorial

If you are one of those people with more hours than dollars (we've all been there) you are gonna like this DIY ring flash video courtesy Roy at Motley Pixel. It's a variant of the design I first saw done by David Tejada. But the video (two, actually) lays it out in very nice detail.Of particular note, and an evolution on Dave's design, are the multiple layers of diffusion at the flash end. This evens out the light around the ring. Nice touch.First part is above, hit the jump for the second video. Read more...

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Winters on APE

If you are a fan of Dan Winters (big fan here) make sure to check out Rob's interview with him on A Photo Editor. In Part 1, they cover Dan's early career as a newspaper shooter and a fateful trip to the very first Eddie Adams Workshop. Very much worth a read. Part 2 coming soon, apparently.__________See also: From 2009, a two-part Dan Winters Vid...

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John Keatley's "Best in Show" Christmas Card

Ed. note: Today's guest post is from Seattle-based photographer John Keatley, who will shortly suggest you give yourself permission to blow $50 building your own set...__________I know by now many of you are missing David while he’s off driving around the country, flashing people from a bus.  Not sure how he convinced his wife to give him the...

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How To: DIY eBay Beauty Dish Speedlight Mount

As noted last week, the 16" eBay beauty dish kit I got has seen much more time on a speedlight than on a big flash. It is small, and thus ideally suited to lighting from in close -- especially when using the included grid spots.Today, how to securely connect it (or any thing else with a speedring mount) to a speedlight. Read more...

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Flash The Bus

So we find out a few days before the TFB_Austin stop that we might actually be able to park the bus inside the venue if we were interested.(Um, heck yeah, we're interested…)Within about 5 seconds, it was decided that McNally would light and shoot it as part of the afternoon class. And I knew that Mr. Heinz 57 Speedlights would come up with something...

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