Monday, November 21, 2011

Learning to See Light


As photographers, we are pretty intuitive about recognizing interesting ambient light when we see it. But stick a flash and umbrella in our hands and we tend to default to much more standard styles of lighting -- especially at first.

In the real world, great light rarely comes from 45 degrees up and to the side. So if you want to be able to create more interesting light with your flashes, you should work to better recognize how ambient really works. This way, you can recreate those different looks when you are in control of the light. Read more »

Friday, November 18, 2011

Sony Users Finally Get Some Remote Trigger Love

I don't do a lot of reviews or gear announcements on this site, but I think the Sony version of the Strato II is notable just for the frustrating gap it fills for Sony users.

Sony's deciding to go with perpetuate Minolta's nonstandard hot shoe after purchasing the company has always left me scratching my head a little. As a result, there has been precious little third party gear support for plug-and-play off-camera lighting.

That just changed with the release of the Sony-specific version of the Phottix Strato II Multi remotes. By all accounts the standard hot shoe version of the remote is a decent performer, which bodes well for these units.

If you are a Sony user, hit the jump for specs and links. Read more »

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Bucket List: A Visit to San Francisco and TWiT


This week I enjoyed my first-ever visit to the city of San Francisco, which is truly an amazing place. On the agenda was lots of hiking, plus trips to Google and Flickr. But I also traveled north to the picture-perfect small town of Petaluma, home of This Week in Tech.

I drove up there on Tuesday to appear on the TWiT Photo show. For those who missed it live (sadly, also missing the chance to heckle via the live chat room, heh) the archived video is after the jump. Read more »

Monday, November 14, 2011

Christian Colberg's Orchestrated Coworker Portraits


If you get the chance to visit Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, take a moment to view the collection of portraits of BSO musicians on the wall. (Pictured above is violinist Yasouki Tanaka.)

The photos were done by one of their own, violist Christian Colberg. Shot with minimalist gear over the course of a summer, the project is a template for any amateur photographer with a day job doing something else. In other words, this is what can what can happen when you allow your vocation and your avocation to cross-pollinate. Read more »

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Nick Fancher: Run-and-Gun with Hard Lights



Columbus, Ohio-based photographer Nick Fancher shoots for JackThreads, which means manic spurts of product, apparel and shoe photos. To that end he shoots guerilla-style, scrounging multiple locations and setups on the quick.

Which is no problem, as he travels light with RadioPoppers and speedlights, preferring to work without modifiers. This means he can light at modest ranges and easily match or overpower the sun as needed.

Check out the vid above, in which we follow Nick through a typical multi-product day of shooting. Neat stuff -- I like the multi hard-light look. He tends to crank the flashes to 105mm for extra punch, which also restricts the beam for a cool fall-off.

And if the name sounds familiar, Nick was featured a little ways back for his Mad Men-themed engagement shoot. If you haven't seen that, it's worth a look.

(Thanks, Mark!)

-30-

Monday, November 7, 2011

A Flash of Inspiration: The Accidental Backlight


Strobist reader Philip Rasmusson, from Göteborg, Sweden sent me the above photo, along with a tweet asking:

"This totally happened by accident, with someone else's flash going off in the back. What do you think?"

Well, I can tell what you think, Philip. I think you like it, 'cause you were happy to claim it and stick a logo up on it. (Smart man.)

And any time a happy accident like this happens, bells should go off in your head. In particular, I can think of at least 5 bells going off right now… Read more »

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Heinz Maier's Insanely Beautiful Water Droplets


For those of you who like to tinker around with the art of water droplet photography, the bar has just been raised. Significantly.

Using the hydraulic setup you see above, German photographer Heinz Maier captures the tiny slices of time in which multiple drops of falling water interact with each other.

The lighting tools, which are not shown here, are very simple: a small DIY cardboard softbox with two flashes (cutting the already fast t.1 times in half) some sample gels (complete with spindle holes, no less) and a lot of creative thinking.

The results look like complex glass sculptures… Read more »

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