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Here’s why you should upgrade your speedlight to a studio strobe

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I’d argue that nearly all of us owned a speedlight at some point before we owned a studio strobe. When we’re looking to dip our toes into supplemental lighting, strobes seem like a big investment. It just makes sense to pick up a cheap speedlight to play with right?

Like many others, I did the same thing. I bought a cheap speedlight (that was ultimately pretty crappy), then I got a proper one, but I was still unhappy, whereupon I quickly bought a strobe. I immediately wished I’d done it sooner. Here’s why.

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How to recreate natural window light with strobes for food photography

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Many photographers love using natural window light, and I must admit I’m one of them. But when the weather just isn’t cooperating, you have to rely on artificial lighting. Still, you can recreate that window light that you like, and in this video, Barry Mountford shows you how.

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This beginner’s guide to using strobes will help you decide what to buy and how to use it

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Speedlights and strobes can be quite intimidating to new photographers who’ve never had personal experience with them before. Particularly strobes. They’re really not all that difficult to get to grips with. There is a learning curve, for sure, but it’s a fairly short one to get going with the basics.

Photographer Mark Duffy recently gave a tutorial on the basics of strobes in a live stream for UK gear distributor, Transcontinenta. Not wanting to limit the information contained within to just the live stream viewers, Mark’s also shared a copy of the stream to his YouTube channel for everybody else to enjoy, too.

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Nine big studio flash lighting mistakes to avoid

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When you first start shooting in a studio, it’s very exciting – but it can also be overwhelming. There’s so much to learn about studio lighting and so many mistakes that you’ll make. In this video, Karl Taylor mentions nine of the biggest mistakes photographers make when they first start shooting with studio lighting. Of course, we all learn from or mistakes, but let’s try and flatten that learning curve, shall we?

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Godox has now officially announced the AD1200Pro – and it’ll cost you $1,599

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The leaks have been floating around for a while, but now the complete specs for the Godox AD1200Pro have been released, including the price – which is not insignificant. Strangely, though, it’s not showing up on the Godox website yet, although B&H now has a listing up with the full specs – although no photos. Pixapro in the UK also has a listing with a price now, which is where the photos in this post have come from.

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Elinchrom has launched two new ELC 125 and ELC 500 studio strobes

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These days, with the amount of battery-powered strobes out there, we often forget that some people still prefer to plug their strobes into the wall. Elinchrom hasn’t, though. They’ve just announced two new ELC 125 and ELC 500 studio strobes, which offer TTL, and high-speed sync.

Elinchrom says that the new lights are designed to “handle creative adventures reliably and consistency” and features a lot of the things we’ve come to expect from modern strobes, like TTL with a manual exposure lock, high-speed sync up to 1/8000th, a bright daylight-balanced modelling light, built-in radio receivers, 1/10th stop adjustments, and somewhat decent recycle times (depending on power and mode).

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More specs on the Godox AD1200Pro released by Pixapro

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In December, word of an upcoming Godox AD1200Pro got out. As usually happens, Adorama popped up a listing almost immediately afterwards. That listing didn’t really reveal much except for a few product photos, though. Now, the UK’s biggest Godox distributor, Pixapro, has also put up a listing for the Pixapro CITI1200Pro, showing off some of the specs for the new unit.

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The iPhone 11 will receive 3rd party flash support built right into future iOS version

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Although not common, flash support is something that quite a few people have been asking for with smartphones. Nobody’s seriously looking to replace their DSLRs and mirrorless cameras with phones, but being able to fire your strobes from your phone can be handy for things like behind the scenes shots.

According to 9to5Mac, though, new specs shared with manufacturers on Apple’s Made-for-iPhone (MFi) licensing programme show that the iPhone 11 may soon support for some degree of native 3rd party flash support.

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Follow these four tips when mixing natural light with strobes

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Shooting in bright sunlight can be tricky, even though there are ways to make fantastic photos using nothing but natural light. Still, you may need to add some strobes to even out the light, and there are some tricks that will make it look more natural and appealing. In this video, Dan and Sally Watson host Miguel Quiles, who shares four helpful tips for everyone who want to mix strobes with sunlight.

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How to balance your strobes with ambient light on location

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Many users of flash feel quite comfortable with it in the studio. The studio makes things fairly straightforward. You expose to eliminate all the ambient light and then you add it back where you want it with your strobes or speedlights. But when many newer flash users struggle when they get out on location, where you can’t or don’t want to completely kill the ambient light, but need to add flash.

In this video, Jay P Morgan at The Slanted Lens looks at how to mix strobes with the ambient light and how to balance them outdoors to achieve a good exposure.

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