Testing the Phottix Odin Flash System

This is just a short article / review on the Phottix Odin Wireless TTL Trigger Set. I’ve been using off-camera flash with various wireless flash triggers for over ten years now, mostly for fill flash type scenarios at weddings or on occasional portrait sessions. Every pro or semi-pro photographer has known that for years the Pocket Wizards were always the cream of the crop. For my shooting style they tended to be on the expensive side, but they were ultra-reliable and also one of the first units to offer full TTL functions.

I’ve always been conservative (on the cheap side) when it comes to buying new gear and I need enough gear to trigger at least two flashes. I’m also a Canon guy so when Canon announced their wireless flash triggers, the Canon ST E3 RT and the 600 EX RT Speedlites, I almost went right out and purchased them. I really liked the new function screen on the commander unit, but to be honest, the price was still a major issue because if I wanted to trigger two flash units I was looking at spending well over $1300. In order for them to be fully functional, I needed to upgrade my flashes and get a TCU unit (the ST E3 RT).

When Phottix first announced they were coming out with a totally wireless flash system with TTL capabilities about a year earlier, I really wasn't in the market for a new system. I sort of put their system in the back of my head for awhile. I had been using Phottix Atlas flash triggers for a couple years, and knew they were reliable, but my units had no TTL capabilities so basically all they could do was fire my flashes.

The main feature I liked on the new Canon was that you could change any of the settings right from the camera without having to physically make changes on the flashes themselves. Then I remembered the Phottix Odin system, which could also do the same. Whenever I purchase any new product, I like to wait until they've been battled tested in the real world, so I went online and read the reviews for the Odin system to see how they held up.  Not only could the Phottix do all the same things the Canon could do, I could keep my current flashes and that alone would save over $1000. So that was enough for me to purchase the Phottix Odin system and after using them for awhile, I knew it would be a very long time before anything else came close to these units. 

I’ll be the first to tell you, they just work. Every time, no exceptions. They’re rated at 320 feet range and I believe it. Just for the heck of it I had tested my old Atlas triggers and they fired at over 300 feet. In my opinion, the Odins are just about the best thing since sliced bread. With these units you have access to 4 channels and 3 groups, plus they can sync with your camera’s shutter (high-speed sync) up to 1/8000 second. They allow you to raise or lower the power, switch from TTL to manual, adjust the zoom and set ratios if you want, all from your camera. The screen on the TCU is easy to read and all the units work on AA batteries.  Another feature of the Odin wireless system is the addition of a USB port and a USB cable so you can install firmware updates. The Odins come complete with a 3.5 sync cable, and a 3.5 to 3.5 adapter, a 6.3 adapter for studio strobes and even a lanyard. The transmitter also features a backlit LCD screen for viewing in low-light conditions and modeling flashes that can be activated right from the transmitter. There is even a switch so you can use second curtain sync!

I've been using the Odin system for over a year in the field with my 580 EXII’s and they've been great. To date, these are the easiest and most reliable triggers I've ever owned. The the real benefit is being able to make all my flash adjustments without touching the flashes. Just dial the power up/down for each flash right from the LCD screen and keep shooting. Using the Phottix Odin system couldn't be simpler and I would personally recommend them to anyone. The last time I checked they were available for use with Canon, Nikon and Sony. The prices can’t be beat either. You can get a set-up for one flash for about $329 or a set-up with two receivers for only $399.  If you’ve been thinking about picking up a set, you won’t be sorry.  Great system, great prices……..Remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

New York City trip - 2013

Well 2014 is finally here and right now it feels like we’re stuck in a deep freeze here in New England with about two weeks of single digit temps……brrrrr.  Last month on my blog I mentioned an upcoming trip back to the Big Apple and how I was hoping for a frosting of snow while I was in the city. As luck would have it, I got my wish because NYC got about 8 inches the day before I arrived.  The trip was planned with only about a two weeks’ notice but because of the Internet, I was able to plan out my short time in the city pretty well.

It all started when one of my friends from my camera club started making plans to go in to New York City to hook-up with some friends that she hadn’t seen in quite some time. She knew I really liked New York at Christmas time and asked me if I might be interested in going to New York with her.  I didn’t know if I could get off work on such short notice, but it worked out in my favor and I was able to go. We decided to take the train into the city which was about a 4 hour trip. The train was very enjoyable, plus it took us right in to Penn Station which was only two blocks from our hotel.

This trip I decided I’d travel very light and only took a backpack with a change of clothes and a limited camera outfit, a Canon 5D MkII with a Tamron 28-300mm lens and a single 580 EX II speedlite.

My friend had shopped around for a hotel online and found one with rooms for under $100 on Sundays and it was directly across the street from Madison Square Garden right in midtown Manhattan. The hotel was also only a few blocks walk from Rockefeller Plaza, Bryant Park, Times Square and Grand Central Station so almost every place we wanted to go was within walking distance. While I was there I was finally able to visit the new World Trade Center and also had a chance to spend some time in Central Park (which is one of the reasons I was hoping for snow)  I never knew the horse and carriage rides in the park went year-round so that was another added bonus. Another place I have always wanted to check out was B & H Photo (which is a photographers Disneyland) and I was able to stop by there also.

One of the things we both wanted to do was to shoot the New York City skyline around dusk from the Top Of The Rock but the waiting line was over 2 ½ hours and we weren’t about to wait that long. Overall it was a fast paced little getaway but because I was able to plan my time out, it turned out to be very enjoyable.   


For me, I always enjoy going in to New York City and hopefully I’ll get a chance to go back for a few days there this coming Spring and shoot Central Park when everything is coming alive and maybe visit some other famous landmarks like Liberty Island and Ellis Island. We’ll see?  In the meantime, keep shooting and have some fun!

Going Mobile - On Location Off Camera Flash

Recently, I was talking with another photographer about our different shooting styles and we got to talking about lighting and off-camera flash. I enjoy putting together images as opposed to just taking photos. What I mean is, when the conditions aren’t just right, I don’t mind altering it to create the image in my mind. Usually this can be as simple as just adding some extra fill light with speedlights or reflector panels. In this post, I’ll try to take you through my process of getting the shot I imagined. This day I didn’t have the luxury of light meters or assistants. Hopefully this will show you how to get similar shots quickly and easily without having to lug around a ton of gear.

About a mile from my home is a local bird sanctuary that I like to visit. It has miles of nice trails and lots of waterways and ponds. It also has a few abandoned buildings, some old dead cars and even a small waterfall and a covered bridge. To me, it’s a shooters paradise. I like to go walking / hiking there often and always bring along a camera. For a long time I’ve wanted to get a nice shot of a particular lagoon captured in early October, because I wanted the trees in full bloom with all the Fall colors. I couldn’t find anyone to model this day, so I elected myself.

Trouble is that in New England, once the leaves peak, you only have a few days before they start falling. Because of some nasty weather, I missed the peak by a few days and a lot of the leaves had blown off the trees or had already fallen. I decided to shoot it anyway and I got my gear ready; a couple of light stands, a few speedlights with remotes, a shoot thru umbrella and of course my camera and trusty tripod. Also, I knew that I wanted to blend in a little so I wore some fall colors and put on an orange shirt and some tan shorts. A little planning can change everything.

Check out the before and after shots, labeled Original Scene and Finished Copy. Luckily I got some pretty decent clouds that day, although I did have to punch them up a bit in Photoshop later on. In a shoot like this I have a system that works for me. I usually like to shoot tethered but this day I wanted to rely solely on my LCD and the histogram for creating this tutorial.

I knew I wanted some good depth of field so I started off at  ƒ / 11.  I switched my camera to aperture priority and then set it to ƒ /11, pushed the shutter button halfway to see what the camera wanted for a shutter speed, and then switched over to manual mode and used those settings as my starting point.

Next I needed to see what I’d get without any flash and I took a test shot of me on the rock. See the No Flash shot. These days all cameras have a self-timer and I set mine at 5 seconds so I could get in my shots. By looking at my LCD I could see I needed to add quite a bit of light on me. I set up my first bare speedlight on a stand to my left and took another test shot. I usually stretch my arms out straight and make that my distance between me and my main light. For me, that’s roughly 6 ft. away. Then I switch my first flash to manual and set it at ¼ power as a starting point.


As you can see in the 1^st Test Shot, I needed a wider spread of light so I re-adjusted the speedlight and added a shoot thru umbrella. Then I could easily move my light stand or adjust my speedlights power up or down to compensate. 


   

Next, I put a light stand in the place where I would sit and auto focused on it. See the Focus Shot. When I achieved focus, I switched the lens off of auto-focus so all my shots would be set.

After looking at that shot on my LCD, I saw the shadows under my leg, behind my arm, and on the sides of my face.  See the 2^nd Test Shot.


 

I knew I’d have to add another speedlight into the mix on my right hand side to lessen up those shadows. I set my second light about 8ft. away, bare bulb, and set it at ¼ power.  See the Add Second Light shot.
    


 

Check out my Lighting Set-Up diagram to see how I placed my gear.


 

Now I still had some shadows to mess with but by rearranging the speedlights a few more times and taking some test shots, I got to a place where I got the least amount of shadows and I knew I could easily fix those in Photoshop afterwards.  See the Tweaking Photo.



 
I could also see from my LCD that I wanted a darker sky. I dropped the ambient a little more by raising my shutter speed and adjusting the power of my speedlights until I was happy with the light on me. I knew I was going to punch up my colors on the trees in the background and on the sky some more in post so it was time to pack up and head home to edit and put the final touches on my shots.

Because I was only using my 3” LCD that day and mainly paying attention to the lighting on me, I didn’t notice the other stuff on the rock beside me until I opened the shots on my PC at home. You’ll notice the plastic bag and the white tube socks on the rock. Just for the record, I wrap my speedlights in tube socks to help protect them in transport.

The final steps were relatively easy. After downloading the shots, I opened up the last shot I got after tweaking my lights, duplicated the layer, and then removed the stuff on the rock beside me with the clone stamp and content aware fill.  See the Remove Clutter shot.


   

If you look close you’ll notice on the Remove Clutter shot, I still had a few more shadows that I had to remove (above and below my hands). So I duplicated that layer and edited the shadows out.  See the Remove Shadows shot. 

Next, I duplicated that layer because I needed to darken the tall grass and the ground in front of me and I grabbed the burn tool to tweak those areas.What I like to do when dodging and burning is to add a new layer, fill it with 50% gray, switch it to Overlay mode and then dodge and burn on that layer, all non-destructively……Nice huh?

Pressure sensitivity on my Wacum tablet helps with that.  I still wanted to darken my sky a little more so I used a new Gradient adjustment layer for that. Here I press and hold the Shift, Control and Alt buttons and tap the E key to create a flattened version of all my layers on top of the layer stack, then proceed to the next step.

Finally, I punched up the saturation on the island and the trees in the background with the sponge tool. I made sure it was set to saturation mode with the vibrance box checked and brushed it in until it looked good to me. Keep in mind, all my adjustments in post are made on adjustment layers or separate new layers so I can always go back and change things if I want. That's a huge reason I’m a huge fan of Smart Objects and Filters. Plus all my work is shot in RAW on my camera. This post wasn't meant to be a lesson in Photoshop, so please bear with me.
 

Because I’ve done this a few times, the whole shooting time was about a half hour or so and counting the practice shots, I probably took somewhere between 50 – 75 shots total. 

If I had a model, that time would be even less because I wouldn’t have had to jump up from the rock and move the light stands or adjust the power on my speedlights after every shot. In the end, I probably spent another half hour or so in Photoshop.

Obviously, your first time will probably take you a while longer, but with a couple speedlights and some practice, you too can make great shots under all conditions. I hope you enjoy this article and you get a few useful tips out of it.

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!