Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Light is vital to photography. Without it, we wouldn’t have photographs. Our sensors would just be recording blackness. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of making my own light. Mostly with flash, and mostly on location. This has meant that I’ve had to dip into the world of high speed sync a lot.
But what is high speed sync? And why would you want to use it? In the latest Laws of Light video, Jay P Morgan answers those questions and more.
Pentax users seem to have been neglected when it comes to the world of flash. There’s been very little 3rd party support at all. Pretty much their only option, if they want TTL or High-Speed Sync is to go the Cactus route if they don’t want to go with Pentax branded speedlights. Ok, you could go with Metz, but your options become even more limited with those if you want to combine it with strobes.
It seems, though, that Godox may have listened to the cries for help from Pentax users. According to a listing on the Godox UK online store for the dual AD200 kit, Pentax TTL support is coming sometime in June. Yes, this month. Or, maybe next year.
I wrote about the announcement of the new Rotolight Neo 2 a couple of days ago. Looking at the specs, I wasn’t really all that impressed for my own needs. I have Spekular and Aputure lights for video, as well as Nikon & Godox lights for stills (all of which support HSS). So, for the cost, and limited power, the Neo 2 just isn’t worth it for me. So, I didn’t pay much more attention to it.
Photographer Rob Hall, though, has had a couple of days to really consider the specs of these lights and what they mean for photographers. Are they really the revolutionary product that the fancy marketing would lead us to believe? Or is it all (low powered) flash and no substance? Rob, at least, doesn’t seem particularly impressed, if this video is anything to go by.
This was a bit of an unexpected announcement. At least, it was for me. Although, I admit that I haven’t really followed the world of LED lighting that closely since setting my sights on getting a set of Spekular lights. The LEDs I do tend to look at are generally more aimed toward video than stills. While LEDs can be great for certain photography applications, they’re not that useful for what I want to shoot.
The new Rotolight Neo2, though, designed in collaboration with Elinchrom, is squarely aimed at stills shooters. An industry-first, all in one, High Speed Sync flash and continuous on-camera LED light. The unit boasts compatibility up to 1/8000th of a second and 85,000 full power flashes on a set of AA batteries. It also feature a built in 2.4Ghz Elinchrom Skyport receiver.
We have heard quite a bit about the Godox AD600 and just had to take it for a test. We accompanied photographer Tom Saimon in a sports apparel shoot to see how the strobe performs in a harsh outdoors environment.
Overall, we were very impressed, both with performance and especially performance compared to price point. More sports photos and the full review after the jump.
One of the reasons I love shooting with Sigma camera bodies is the combination of the Foveon sensor that delivers great color and image detail with high quality and large aperture lenses like the Sigma 50-100mm f1.8 “Art.” that let me isolate a subject while turning the background into dreamy bokeh-filled canvas like this shot of my daughter.
Godox flashes have become wildly popular over the last couple of years amongst Nikon and Canon shooters. They’re relatively inexpensive, very well built, and offer a full range of lights from speedlights to 1200Ws of strobe power. What makes Godox’s products really stand out, though, is that they can all be controlled from the same trigger. Mix speedlights and strobes, in the studio or on location, and have complete remote control.
Sony shooters were also given support for these flashes last year. But that’s about where official brand support ended. With the three biggest names. Now, though, Serene Automation have released a new Beta firmware for their RoboSHOOT MX-20 radio triggers. This adds Fuji X camera support to the range of Godox products.
This is something that I know my Pentax, Sigma and Panasonic shooting friends will be pleased with. Nine months after releasing the Cactus V6 II and Cactus V6 IIs, there’s new brand-specific firmware updates coming. These let you get HSS and TTL across different brands of camera and flash. Yes, that’s right, you’ll soon be able to use your SB-900s on your X-T2, or your 600EX II-RT with an A6500.
The firmware is system specific, and they’re releasing it in phases. The first is for Sigma, Sony and Fujifilm. Canon, Nikon, Olympus Panasonic and Pentax will follow. And it’ll work with flashes from a multitude of brands. You’ll even be able to mix and match different brands of flash into the same lighting setup.
Back in 2006 when I first started getting serious about photography, I found Strobist.com and was instantly hooked. I followed every tip and technique that David Hobby had to offer from the beginning and it didn’t take long before I had a set of six Nikon SB-800’s and was lighting everything Strobist style.
Eventually, I saved up enough cash to invest in a set of Pocket Wizards (if they were what David Hobby used – they were what I needed) – and when the Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Flex TT5 were released I upgraded to a brand new set (here is the original review from Strobist).
However, since then I have been using my Pocket Wizards less and less – up to the point that I finally decided to sell them.
Here’s why…
We’ve had a few tutorials showing how to balance strobes and ambient light. Usually we focus on a how the exposure work, adding a strobe, and then knocking 2 stops off the exposure.
In this video Manny Ortiz, does it all without dealing with calculating exposure. (Manny is also not using a light meter). Instead, Manny works his way through chimping the camera, which (at least for one light) may be a faster process.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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