Creative Flash Photography - Book Review

One of the things that will always separate the amateur photographers from the more serious photographers and the pro’s is their use of lights and their lighting techniques.  If you consider yourself a photographer then you already know it’s all about the light right?

How many times do we hear people say they prefer to shoot with ambient light only?  I’ve found that quite often it’s because they get intimidated by using flash, especially off-camera flash.  One of my favorite sayings is by Zack Arias.  He says “Did you know I’m an available light photographer? I look in my bag, see that my Vivitar 285 or a Nikon Speedlite is available to me and I use that”.

Don’t get me wrong, we all love great ambient light, but even when I am shooting in beautiful ambient light, a lot of times I’ll still break out a flash just to add a little dimension and punch to my photos. By adding an extra light source, I can create my own shadows and direct the viewer’s eye to what I think is the photos story. Face it, you can have the best composed shot in the world, but if your lighting is crap, it’s a good chance that your shot will be also.

These days if you want to learn more about off-camera flash there are a thousand different websites and books out there to learn from. By far the best resource on the web for getting the most out of off-camera flash is the Strobist website created by David Hobby. David may have started the Strobist, but there are some other biggies out there like Joe McNally who is another master of off-camera flash. Joe and David actually teamed up a few years ago and toured the US doing seminars on off-camera flash called the Flash Bus tour. Another person I’m a big fan of is Neil van Niekerk and his Tangents blog.  Neil’s written a series of books aimed at off-camera flash that I have written about several times on my blog. If you type his name in the Search Box on this site it will bring up those reviews.  These are just a few names of people I admire personally for their work with off-camera flash. But back to my review…..

Back in July of 2015 I was turned on to another photographer, Tilo Gockel, who also does great stuff with speedlights. He was asked to be a guest blogger on the Photoshop Insider (Scott Kelby’s blog)  Tilo himself comes from Germany and has currently written two books on off-camera flash. His first book was called ‘Creative Flash Photography’ and the second is called ‘One Light'.  I have not read the second book but I can tell you from personal experience, his Creative Flash book is great. If you’re new to off-camera flash (or even if you just want to improve your own skills) these books will definitely help.  

In the book Creative Flash Photography, he has broken it down to 40 lessons, he calls workshops. These richly illustrated, easy-to-understand workshops are filled with recommendations and instructions for flash setups, along with detailed lighting diagrams, and tips and tricks for how to achieve professional looking shots using simple accessories you probably already own. He’ll even show you how to easily achieve high-end studio style shots in your own home with easily accessible equipment and even a few tips on creating your own lighting modifiers and tools. Tilo shows you how to make magic by mastering the use of your own speedlights so you too will be able to create these amazing photographs in any situation.

Mastering your flash is one of the best ways to improve your own photography. Maybe you’re ready to take your skills to the next level?  If you’re interested in either of these books just click on any of the links in this post to get you the best possible price online. Look below the main advertisements to More Buying Choices to avoid paying full price. I loved this book and I’m sure you will too!

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

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!

Manual Flash Made Easy

Without a doubt, one of the best features on the latest Speedlights has to be through-the-lens metering, aptly called iTTL on Nikons or E-TTL II on Canons. These flash units fire off a small pre-flash that tells the camera what the distance to the subject is and how much power is needed to get (what it thinks) is a good exposure. This is great when your distance is constantly changing, because it will calculate everything for you on the fly. But what do you do when you’re distance to your subject doesn’t change and you’ll be shooting a number of photos? If you want to get consistent results in that situation, most of the time manual flash will give you the best options. Keep this in mind, when you use manual flash, there are 4 main controls to adjust: 1 - Distance - from the light source to your subject, 2 - Power of your flash (including modifiers), 3 - Aperture and 4 - ISO.

For the most part, it makes pretty good sense why these 4 controls would affect manual flash exposure. You know that if you move your light source in closer you will get more light and you would have to change one or more of the controls - exposure, power or ISO to get a correct exposure right? Now some of you are already comfortable with off-camera flash and this tutorial wouldn’t be for you. But if you are one of those people who freeze up when thinking of adjusting those 4 controls yourself, I’m going to try to help you “make it click”.

Let me start by saying, if you don’t own an off-camera flash, I always recommend getting the best one available for your brand of camera. Granted it will cost more, but it will always pay off in the long run. Getting a speedlight that is cheaper limits you in features and its overall ability. With a Nikon it would be either the SB-800 or SB-900 or the new SB-910, and with the Canon (my own gear) it’s the 580 EX (I or II) Not only do they pump out a little more power and have some other nice features, but they also have a distance scale on the LCD panel (this will help you get consistent flash results) and we’ll need that for this tutorial. Some of you have probably wondered why that was even there in the first place?

I was recently checking out some photos that a friend of mine had taken at a small pageant / festival. The show was set on a stage inside of a local theater. Because people were in the seats all around him he couldn’t just get up and move around so he had to stay stationary and try to get the best shots he could from where he was. He already knew he couldn’t use additional lighting because the theater was filled with people and he couldn’t use bounce flash because the ceiling was about 40 ft high and black. So he attempted to use his speedlights TTL system, but he wasn’t getting consistent results. This is definitely a case where using your flash in manual mode can come to the rescue.

In this case, he knew he wanted some pretty good depth of field, around ƒ5.6 or better, and because it was fairly dark in there and he wanted to keep the quality good, he needed to use at least ISO 400 or higher. The key part of this was that he knew he was staying 20 ft. away the whole time.

Understanding Manual Flash = Distance, Power, ISO & Aperture

When trying to understand this, remember that the ISO and the Aperture are set on your camera; the Distance and Power are set on the flash unit itself.

1. Right from the start we know we have four controls that we’re going to need to adjust. As long as you are shooting under your flash units max sync speed your shutter isn’t going to make any real difference, so we’ll set it at 1/125.
2. We know we want some pretty good depth of field and we’ll set that at ƒ5.6.
3. Now we’ll set our ISO at 400.
4. Finally, we know we will be about 20 ft. away from the stage all evening.

Keep in mind our flash unit is going to be pointed straight forward all night, no bounce flash etc. Remember, you can’t tilt the flash head up or down or our distance scale disappears from the LCD screen. Now switch your flash to Manual exposure with the Mode button.
 

When you turn on your flash unit it will be set to whatever settings it was in the last time it was used in Manual exposure mode. Chances are it’s not set to 20 ft. We know we have to adjust the flash power to give us the distance we want, in this case, 20 ft. Remember; we just set the shutter speed, the aperture and the ISO.

On the Canon 580 EX I or II, tap the center button of that dial, and rotate the dial. (You will have to continually tap the shutter button to activate the distance readout on the back of the flash.) Now adjust the power of the flash until you get a distance reading of 20 ft.

On a Nikon SB-900, hit the button just below the ‘M’, which appears on the back of the speedlight and adjust it until you get a reading of 20 ft. Now to test it out, take a test shot of something around 20 ft. away from you. Because we’re using direct flash it won’t be the best lighting but we’re looking for consistent light. The shot will be well exposed, judging by how well you guessed the distance, and usually within a third stop or so. These little units are very accurate so if it isn’t on the money, you probably guessed the distance incorrectly.

Now at this point think about what you just did. First you set your cameras aperture and ISO then you reached the specific distance you wanted by adjusting your speedlights power setting. Try this out, change the aperture up or down and watch the distance scale change. The same thing would happen if we changed our ISO.

So what this tells us is that if we changed one of our controls (aperture / ISO / distance) we’d also have to change our flash units output to help us retain the correct exposure. Remember though, you might have to raise the ISO to get a fast enough shutter speed to control movements, but with a little practice this should become almost second nature. Try it out in different scenarios for yourself. Once you try this out a few times it will help make your speedlights more user-friendly. When you get away from using your camera’s pop-up flash and start using a larger flashgun, it gives you tons of new possibilities in lighting. I hope this helps you to better understand your equipment.

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

Super Rechargables - How to get the most out of your batteries!

I’m a big fan of using off camera flash (Speedlights) and love experimenting with various lighting set-ups. My goal is to get my lighting down to a science, unfortunately when your using Speedlights you will quickly find out that they can really drain batteries in difficult lighting set-ups. For example, if you’re using your flash unit as a main light and have to shoot at f/8 or better to get decent depth of field or when using high-speed sync at full power you can easily eat up the charge in your disposable batteries in no time.

Now granted, if you are familiar with lighting and power ratios, you know that by raising ISO you can lower your flash output to one quarter or one eighth power and then you can get hundreds of pops out of your flashes, (check out the diagram) But at the end of a typical wedding, you will still go through a lot of batteries and that can get expensive. Usually, we tend to think getting rechargeable batteries, Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) to cut down your costs, but the average (NiMH) rechargeables really don’t hold up that long. You’ll find that after they’ve been recharged 20 or 30 times, the recycling time between pops is much slower. When shooting a wedding, I usually try to get all my batteries charged the night before, but you’ll find that they will lose quite a bit of power overnight. What to do now?

Well, I read a lot of blogs and wanted to see what the Pros use out in the field in their flash units. I knew I needed a better solution than the plain rechargeable batteries that I had been using. I found one of the most popular products on the market today is the slow-discharge type battery. I personally use the Sanyo Eneloop hybrid Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiHD). Unlike plain rechargeable batteries, these batteries actually come pre-charged when you purchase them. Plus they maintain over 80% of their charge even after sitting around for over a year! Another nice feature is that they can be recharged up to 1500 times. What that means to you or me is, even if you recharge them twice a week it will take 10 years to reach 1000 cycles!

Now your probably saying to yourself that these must be expensive, but get this, a 4 pack of pre-charged batteries is only around 10 bucks or about the same price as a 4 pack of Energizer rechargeables! But you do have to be careful with how you charge them, some chargers can hurt these batteries and shorten their life span. I dug around online again and found a really highly rated charger, the Maha C801D made by PowerEX. I purchased mine through a company called Thomas Distributing because they actually had great customer reviews and the best prices around. PowerEX puts out their own line of batteries but I found that the Sanyo’s were rated even higher. The model I purchased can charge up to 8 batteries at the same time in under an hour. Plus each battery can be at a different level of charge and the charger actually knows this and charges accordingly! So it will charge your batteries correctly each and every time. You will never over or under charge your batteries again because the Maha will shut off that cell when the battery is fully charged. The charger also features a slow charge setting. The slow charge will automatically drain all the juice from your battery then fully recharge them. The rapid charge does exactly what the name implies; it fully charges your batteries in under an hour! So you can load the charger with 1 battery or up to 8 batteries and it will charge them all perfectly. On the front face of the unit are little power level guides so you know when your batteries are all charged up and ready to go. This charger even recognizes alkaline batteries and won’t try to charge them and risk hurting the unit. With the Maha C801D you can even charge both AA’s and AAA’s at the same time.

Now I aimed this article at off-camera flash fans, but these batteries can be used for all sorts of devices ranging from flashlights to digital cameras, basically anything that uses batteries. The Eneloop batteries are available in all sorts of sizes, not just AA or AAA’s. You can get C, D and even 9V batteries and you can purchase combo packs that come with their own charger if you prefer. If you’re like me and use batteries a quite a bit, maybe its time to check into some of these slow-discharge batteries and save yourself some money in the long run. These days I’ve always got fully charged set of batteries when I need them...........Nice huh?

Hope you find this article useful and remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

The Digital Field Guide by J. Dennis Thomas

These days more and more people it seems are getting into photography. Really, if you think about it, the cameras are getting so sophisticated that even people with no experience can take good photos. Granted, not everyone knows how to compose their photos or has a good eye, but these days the new cameras can take most of the guess work out of getting good shots and do most of the work for you. My personal photos have evolved quite a bit over the last 5 yrs or so. I’ve learned new techniques and tricks, have improved my composition, and now I slow down and take my time. With my style of photography, mostly landscape and portrait, I’ve found if I take my time and “set-up” the shot, my photos improve ten-fold. I wrote an article back in December 09’ about a book I was all excited about, On-Camera Flash by Neil van Niekerk. What I didn’t realize was, quite a few people really don’t understand their off camera flashes units that well or know what they are really capable of.

Like a lot of people, when I get a new camera toy, like a Speedlight, I’ll usually skim through the owners manual and then jump right out and start shooting. But you know how that works, I’ll run into a situation where I don’t understand why I’m not getting the results I was expecting and then I go back to square one, the owners manual. This is why I always recommend having your manuals in your camera bag or on your person when you’re out shooting.

This brings me to the topic of this article, a book called the Canon Speedlite System – Digital Field Guide. For those of you shooting Nikon, there is also a book called Nikon Creative Lighting System – Digital Field Guide by the same author, I would definitely recommend these books to help improve your knowledge of these powerful, yet very compact lighting systems. The Canon book came out shortly before the new 580 EX II came out, but the only thing really different on those units is the hotshoe footing and a very slight increase in power.

These books will give you practical knowledge of your Speedlights as well as tips and techniques on Wireless shooting with your 580 EX or 430 EX units as well as using the ST-E2 remote master unit. He gives useful tips on setting up portable portrait studios and on location lighting set-ups. Very useful for anyone trying to get the most out of their off camera flash units. The author also explaind the various types of portrait lighting, like broad or wide lighting, (also called wide or short lighting). He explains the difference between High-key and Low-key set-ups as well as various posing techniques.

One thing great about these books is everything is described in detail and is loaded with diagrams and full-color photos to make learning these techniques even easier. ( I know I need all the help I can get ). He gives tips on photographing pets and children, plus wedding and events tips, how to compose groups and even how to shoot macro, all done with your own Speedlights!

I really can’t say enough about these little books (they easily fit in your camera bags too) These days you can pick these books up right here at Amazon for under $15 dollars. Do yourself a favor and pick one up and remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

What's In The Bag?

For some people who frequent my blog, you’ll notice I refer to a few different sites often, and I have a list of my favorite personal blogs that I check out regularly (on the left hand side of this page) and I also reference some of the equipment that I use personally. Every photographer will find the equipment that suits him or her best. Some times I’ll find a piece of equipment that “I can’t live without” while out shooting with friends in the field.
I personally have my own little set-up that covers just about everything I might need while out shooting. I’ve hinted around that I shoot with Canon gear, but that doesn’t mean I have anything against the other brands, its just what I use personally. Every manufacturer has its strong points. I got into Canon totally by accident after joining a camera class, but that’s a story for another blog post.
In my camera bag I have the “stuff” I use regularly. Here is a list of the gear I carry in my bag most of the time. My main camera bodies and four main lenses:

• Canon  5D Mk II
• Canon  17 - 40mm   f / 4
• Canon  24 - 105mm   f / 4
• Canon  70 - 200mm  f / 2.8
• Canon 40D
• Tamron 17-50mm  f/2.8

For each of these lenses I always have a clear UV filter on the end, for safety reasons mostly. I’ve seen expensive lenses get scratched or broken too often, and having one of these on your lens could possibly save you in the case of an accident.

I also have Polarizing filters for each of these lenses as well. These are definitely my most used filters. They are great for reducing reflections (like on water or glass) and for greatly enhancing your colors especially in skies, making your blues deeper and richer.

Another great piece of gear is my Graduated Neutral Density filter set-up. There are a number of different manufacturers that make them, I find that Cokin has the best set-up for me. They are great when shooting landscapes with the sky in the frame. The filter goes from dark at the top to clear at the bottom so you can compensate for the difference in the light. If you’ve ever taken a photo of a beautiful landscape and have either gotten blown out skies or the background had no details, you know what I mean. They can range from one to three stops usually. Here is more info on that: Graduated Neutral Density filters

Sometimes I like to shoot some “poor mans Macro” so I carry a set of extension tubes for that. They help to get really close up details of plants, insects, coins or any tiny objects by allowing you to focus closer. They fit between the camera body and the lens and are made by several manufacturers.

I also carry at least one external flash with a off-camera shoe cord with me. Being a Canon shooter, my main flash is a 580EX II speedlight. These are really useful to help you to take better photos by getting your flash off the camera. On my favorite websites on my blog list is the Strobist, and I check that out regularly. It was created by a man named David Hobby and it is all about shooting with off-camera flash, check it out.

Another few things you should always carry are a small air-blower and a bottle of lens cleaner solution and a micro-fiber lens cloth for cleaning the ends of your lenses and filters without scratching them. I watch people all to often use their shirt or a napkin to clean these and they can actually ruin your expensive gear!

Last but not least is my trusty Hoodman Loupe. These are great for checking out my LCD on the back of my camera. They come in handy when you really need to make sure you got the shot. Often when shooting outside on a sunny day you really can’t see your LCD without one. They are a little rectangular piece of gear that you put up to your eye and then put over your LCD to get complete glare free viewing. They even have a cord to hang around your neck which is very handy. Check them out here: Hoodman Loupe .

Well, that is just a little tour inside my camera bag, hopefully you got some good ideas out of it. Remember it really helps to think smart and travel light. You don’t want to be lugging around a ton of gear with you all the time. A little planning can go a long way.
These are just a few little tips and I hope you find them helpful.
Oh yeah, and last but not least, have some fun!