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Westcott has announced their new wall-based Float (buy here) device for storing your light modifiers. It allows you to get them up on the wall and out of the way instead of littering the floor or filling up cupboards.
Storing modifiers on walls isn’t a new idea, but Westcott and photographer Lindsay Adler have made a solid effort with this one. As well as holding your modifiers, it’ll hold your lights, too. And v-mount batteries.
Westcott has announced its new Pro Light Mods range (buy here). These are softbox covers which simulate the Hollywood-style light banks as well as stadium lighting. Their goal is not to modify the light hitting your subject so much as turn your softboxes into background lighting in your scene behind your subject.
The new Westcott Pro Light Mods are available in six different sizes to cover a range of different softboxes. While they’re obviously designed based on the sizes of Westcott’s own softboxes, they should fit on just about any brand softbox that matches the same dimensions and has the depth to add a grid.
Westcott has launched a new set of FlexiGels for the Westcott FJ400 strobe. Interestingly, though, they’re not made of your typical gel material. These are an 8-pack of reusable gels made from silicone rubber. They’re designed to fit right over the bulb of the FJ400 and colour the light with red, orange, light orange (which they say is similar to a CTO), yellow, green, blue, purple or pink.
The great thing about silicone rubber “gels” is that it should make swapping them out on a whim fairly easy. It’s a great insulator of heat to prevent you burning yourself. And as it goes over the bulb, Westcott says it’s compatible with umbrellas, softboxes and whatever other modifiers you want to use. But there may be potential negatives.
It’s December again, which means lots of us are sitting there wondering what to buy for ourselves or the photographer in our lives this holiday season. We’ve been saving up all year to get that something special, but we don’t want to deal with in-store queues – or maybe we’ve just slacked on our Christmas shopping this year. We want to stay at home where it’s nice and warm and see what we can find online that gets delivered straight to our door!
So, this means it’s time for the 2022 DIYP Holiday Gift Guides. We’re on Day 3, so it’s time to look at lights. These are some of our favourite new LED lights and flashes that have been released over the last year. Keep visiting back this week as we release our other guides, including cameras, lenses, tripods, sliders & gimbals, and accessories and gadgets.
Westcott has announced its newest flash trigger, the FJ-X3. There are two version of the trigger, the FJ-X3 M for Nikon, Canon, Sony (with an adapter), Fuji, Panasonic and Olympus and the FJ-X3 S specifically for Sony – because Sony likes to be special and different when it comes to their hotshoe.
The FJ-X3 comes with a new removable lithium-ion battery, allowing photographers to swap out and charge as needed without the hassle and cost of single-use AA batteries. It has an all-new button layout with an enhanced user interface with a new multi-selection pad for easy adjustment of power settings, modelling lamp, audible beeps and more. Westcott says the new interface design allows for multiple group settings to be displayed at once so you don’t have to dig through multiple menus to adjust each one.
Westcott has recently announced the L60-B Bi-Color COB LED (60W), a continuous light for photographers and videographers who need both power and transportability.
The new light is apparently 20% lighter than any other COB LED currently available. Sized at just 3.2 by 3.2 by 5.5 inches and weighing 1.45 lb, it still packs quite a punch.
What’s the most versatile piece of equipment you own? Aside from something like clips, I’d venture that it could be the umbrellas you have sitting in the back of your closet. It’s pretty usual when we start to learn studio lighting and off camera flash that we start out using umbrellas as modifiers, for a number of reasons. Then you decide to get a bit fancy and they are relegated in favour of things like octoboxes, parabolic softboxes and the like.
But the humble umbrella really can create remarkable portraits. In this video from The Slanted Lens, Jay P. Morgan shows us how he uses giant seven foot umbrellas, and tells us why they are a great modifier.
Flash can be a difficult topic to figure out for a new photographer. You know you need more light but which one do you get? Do you even need only one or should you get several? What type of photography flash should you get? How much power do you need? What are modifiers? Which one do I need? Do I really need to spend all that money on one or will the cheap ones do the job? Is there not just one light out there that I can use for everything? How do I connect everything up so that it all talks to each other?
All of these questions and more can make it pretty overwhelming if you’ve never used flash before. So, in this guide, we’re going to try to answer some of them and take a look at the variety of different flashes and strobes on the market. We’re going to try to help you figure out what light or lights you might want to get to start your flash journey and how different types of light might be better suited to different genres of photography.
When you’re outside shooting on location you don’t always want to heft a lot of gear around with you, particularly if you don’t have an assistant. So how can you shoot dramatic portraits with just one light? Simple! Use the sun as your second light source. It’s relatively simple to do, requires no battery packs and creates a beautiful slightly cinematic look. In this video, Ashley from Westcott shows you how to do it.
Westcott has announced their new FJ80 universal touchscreen speedlight and FJ200 200Ws lithium polymer battery-powered strobe, expanding on the FJ400 & DJ-X2m kit they introduced last year. Like a number of popular speedlights these days, the Westcott FJ80 features a round head, but the touchscreen is new – sort of.
The Westcott FJ200 boasts 0.05 to 1.3 second recycle times, HSS up to 1/8000, TTL and compatibility with just about all camera systems via its universal wireless trigger. It’s also compatible with Canon’s RT transmitter – which is quite unique amongst strobes.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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