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How to control a 7-foot umbrella modifier and create beautiful ultra-soft light

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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.

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How to shoot outdoor portraits using the sun as a back light

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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.

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Westcott has released a new touchscreen speedlight and 200Ws wireless strobe

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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.

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4 steps every photographer should know to master strobe and sunlight

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Today I’m out here with Chanda AM, and Chanda will help me illustrate how to balance ambient light with strobes. I love shooting in this situation with ambient light and strobe light. I want to be able to combine the ambient light here in this beautiful area with strobes. So the way I generally do this is:

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This is when copying other photographers’ work is a good idea

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No matter if you’re a total newbie or you’ve been shooting for a while, the last thing you wanna be is a copycat. Nobody likes copycats, right? But bear with me. In this video from Westcott, photographer Glyn Dewis shares some situations when copying others’ work will be good for your own photography without harming the original authors. So let’s hear what he has to say.

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We’re not saying the Westcott FJ400 and Jinbei HD-400 are the same strobe, but they sure look similar

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I’ve seen a few posts recently about Westcott’s new FJ400 strobe, with a couple of sites labeling it the “best value strobe” on the market. We even covered the announcement here on DIYP and it looks fairly impressive, holding up to competitors like the Godox AD400Pro quite well in many respects.

But is it really Westcott’s new strobe? Or is it Jinbei’s HD400, released over a year ago, just with “Westcott” stamped on it? WE are not saying that it is, but we are saying that there are some striking similarities.

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Westcott announces FJ400, portable but powerful strobe and FJ-X2m, universal wireless trigger

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Westcott has just announced a new strobe and an accompanying wireless trigger. The Westcott FJ400 is a portable 400Ws AC/DC strobe with less than 1 s recycle time at full power. It’s launched along with the FJ-X2m is a universal trigger which pairs with virtually any camera brand, so you don’t need a brand-specific trigger.

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Westcott’s new Flex Cine lights add full RGB colour to their flexible LED lighting range

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Westcott has today announced a new Flex Cine lighting system. Carrying on from the popular Flex system launched in 2014, the new Flex Cine line gets full RGBW capability. Westcott says they haven’t just added RGB LEDs to their old lights, though. They’ve redesigned them from the ground up. There’s also a wireless DMX Dimmer.

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Johnsons Photopia – UK distributor for Sekonic, Blackrapid, PocketWizard, Peli and more enters administration

Johnsons Photopia have announced through their website and Twitter that they have now gone into administration. There isn’t a lot of information yet about how this came about, or how this may affect staff and future customer support for the brands they represent.

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Westcott’s new portable LED makes using modifiers easy

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The development of LED lights over the last couple of years has been quite interesting to follow. 10 years ago, LEDs were the last type of light I’d use for any kind of serious video work, but since then they’ve come a very long way. They’ve become more consistent and colour accurate with high CRI & TLCI, more powerful, and more versatile.

Westcott’s new Solix LED light, though, has a particularly unique feature. An integrated speedring for connecting directly into softboxes. It’s an interesting design that allows the light to keep a small form factor while still offering the use of modifiers.

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