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The Strobist offers up some advice for those starting out with flash

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David Hobby is the man who started off the whole strobist movement. He literally is the Strobist. It’s been a while since we’ve seen him on video, and he took a bit of a break from the site for a while, too. He is now back, with a new free Lighting 103 course, focusing on colour.

The Phoblographer caught up with David recently at the Fujifilm Festival in New York City. Naturally, out came the camera, for David to impart some of his wisdom. Specifically, it’s aimed at those thinking about, or looking into getting their first flash.

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Watch 3 photographers shoot the same model with off camera flash

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After seeing Jessica Kobeissi’s ‘3 photographers shoot the same model’ video, where she and fellow photographers Irene and Ruby challenge each other to photograph a model with a time limit in several locations, I was inspired and motivated to say the least. It was such an interesting concept that I decided to give the challenge a go with my friends Eli Infante and Jeff Antons . I was excited for several reasons; It was going to challenge us as photographers, I was curious how the photos turn out, and, most importantly, because we’d be doing the challenge using off camera flash (OCF).

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How To Create Completely Fake Yet Totally Authentic Ski Chalet Fire Light Photos

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We recently spent some time skiing at Mont Tremblant in Quebec Canada.

One of the highlights of skiing is, of course, the apres ski. For me that means sitting by the fire with a good book / coffee / scotch.

In this post, I will share all of the details (technical and aesthetic) that went into creating this series of completely fake yet totally authentic ski chalet fire light photos…

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The Strobist is back with a free flash lighting course focusing on colour

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David Hobby, aka “The Strobist“, was the original Internet trailblazer when it came to using small hotshoe flashes. At least, if you wanted to use them for more than just giving your subject red eye. Inspiring photographers to get their speedlights off the hotshoe, David created a free Lighting 101 course way back in 2006.

I learned so much from that first course. So, when David released Lighting 102 the following year, I dived right in. Speedlight technology and variety has come a long way since 2007, so David updated Lighting 102 this year to reflect some of those changes. Now, David has announced an all new Lighting 103 course coming in January 2017, which takes things even further.

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Pouring rain is your shot at spectacular portraits

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Pouring rain can be an excuse to stay home and do nothing. It can also be a great opportunity to go outside and use the elements at your advantage. Japan based photographer Ilko Allexandroff (interview) is maybe the master of shooting stunning portraits in the rain. You know what, it only takes perseverance and some knowledge to turn a rainy night into your playground.

Ilko uses a very consistent 2 lights setup, a soft(ish) front light and a hard backlight. The front light – a Nissin MG8000 with a 60×60 foldable softbox – lights the model, while the backlight – another Nissin – does a double duty. It freezes the rain drops and provides a kicker light. Both lights are triggered using a Cactus V6 trigger.

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It takes less than 100$ to move your strobe off camera. Definitely worth it

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If you already own a hot shoe strobe you already have one of the most powerful tools for shaping light. Now, if you only took it off camera it would do a great deal to the final image. And you’d be surprised at how low of a cost it actually takes to move a hot shoe strobe off camera.

Photographer Manuel Ortiz  (previously) shows how with only $100 worth of gear you can take your strobe off camera and add another layer of light to your photography. (See what I did there?).

Now, Manuel uses a Flashpoint R2 speedlite, but the cost of a transmitter (godox X1T here), a generic brolli, swivel and a generic stand is just about $100 for many 3rd party brands.

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This short video shows how one soft light can make a huge difference in final result

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There is a lot of power you can master once you go from available light to even using one strobe. Photographer Manuel Ortiz demonstrates it in this short video where he compares two shots right out of camera (of course the photos can be later enhanced, but for the sake of this experiment, it is better to show them SOOC)

All photos are taken with the Sony A7RII and a Sony G master 85mm 1.4 lens which really gives great color and a wonderful bokeh, so the starting point is very similar.  The first shoo in all the demos below is set to available light. Note how Diana (the model) is correctly exposed in all of those, but the background is very distracting and it really takes away from the photo.

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How to shoot off camera flash portraits on a budget

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Lighting gear can get really expensive really quick. $500 for a speedlight, $300 for a softbox, $100 for a light stand and mounting device. Already, that’s almost a grand for one of the most simple lighting setups out there.

Not all strobes shots need to be big budget though. Photographer Matt Granger has shared a video showing how it’s possible to achieve an impressive off-camera flash portrait for only a tenth of the above example.[Read More…]

Make your own 3D printed speedlight grids

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As somebody who owns what some would describe as a ludicrous amount of speedlights (although, nowhere near as bad as Joe McNally), and regularly grids some of them to provide a selective rim light or to throw a little splash of light in a dark corner of an environment, Chris Cameron’s project intrigued me.

3D printers are becoming more and more affordable, with technology advancing so quickly, getting faster and more accurate with each rapidly released generation, that I would bet most of us know at least one or two people who own one of some form or another.

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