Gear Basics: Choosing and Using Soft Light Modifiers

With the gazillion or so soft light mods out there, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the choices available. And while I have probably shot with more of them that I would care to admit, there are four soft mods that I go back to again and again.

As it happens, these four are reasonably priced, too. (Which may well be what attracted me to them in the first place, of course.)

Keep reading for four good choices for soft light that won't break the bank.Read more »

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BC3 Assignment #1: Profile

Welcome to the first assignment of Boot Camp 3. While this is of course a lighting boot camp, the light itself will be secondary to the photos. And the photos will be secondary to the purpose.

The purpose for BC3 will be to force you out into you community in search of well-crafted photos that actually have something to say about your community.Read more »

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Brad Trent for Barron's

Brad Trent shot the mid-year Barron's roundtable issue, this time with a global investing theme. He shot the montage separately, using segmented backgrounds from … Ikea? It gets the full On Assignment treatment, with lighting setups, etc. on his blog.

Classic Brad: he turned in his lighting setup shots to the paper. And they ran them…
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See also: Brad Trent's Fake Reality Portraits

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Finn O'Hara: Wayne Gretzky's First Skates

Toronto-based photographer Finn O'Hara was assigned to shoot The Great One's first skates for ESPN The Magazine, and his take included this shot on pure white.

O'Hara used light rather than a Photoshop cutout to get the pure white background in-camera. His blog post gives a good look at a textbook blow-away white setup on location for a three-dimensional object.

But O'Hara doesn't go into any how-and-why detail. So let's do that here. Read more »

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BC3: Introduction

Welcome to Boot Camp III. It has been two years since the last boot camp, so I thought a little background and intro was in order before the first assignment drops next week.

If you are thinking of participating (and I encourage you to do so) keep reading for info on how to participate, rules, prizes, etc.Read more »

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Air Profoto

©Claes Axstål
No, not Profoto's proprietary Air-sync remote system. But rather photographer Claes Axstål's using twin 7b's with Magnum reflectors to shoot air-to-air photos of planes in flight. Just a little 2400 watt-second Friday fun, courtesy Ron Egatz on the RSS-worthy Profoto blog.

Having lit aircraft in flight while shooting from the ground using only a few low-power speedlights, I'd love to see a combination of the two techniques. After all, Axstål is certainly driving enough power to set off some slaved interior lights, too…

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A Flash in the Pan: Bare-Bulb DIY Beauty Dish

From the south of India comes a new take on the DIY speedlight beauty dish, courtesy Strobist reader Sinu Kumar.

Unlike studio flashes, most speedlights have a tiny, captive flash tube with a reflector already built into the housing. And if you want a true beauty dish design you'll need an omnidirectional light source. So you first have to convert the beam light from a speedlight into a more omnidirectional bare bulb.

Most people do this by diffusing the speedlight with a dome, or scrambling the light with a convex mirror. Both of which, of course, eat light.

Not so Kumar's design. He actually removed the bare flash tube from inside a speedlight and mounted it in the dish. Bonus points for the material chosen for the tube-holding assembly, too.

Before the link, a warning: DO NOT try this project unless you know what you are doing. Here, there be dragons -- or at least some very high voltages. And if you do, please insulate the flash tube leads. It scares me just to look at them exposed like that, Sinu.

Warnings given, the sub-$10.00 bare bulb beauty dish is here.

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On Assignment: Mathieu Young, Moonlighting in Cambodia

When I first saw Mathieu Young's photos of rechargeable Moonlights from Cambodia, I admired both the photos and the lighting. And then I thought, how exactly does a commercial/advertising photographer from L.A. end up in a fishing village with no electricity halfway around the world shooting solar LED lamps?

Both, ahead.Read more »

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Robert Caplin's Light Fare

So this is turning out to be a foodie-themed week. What a great idea, above, from NYC-based photog Robert Caplin. I am so stealing this, like, right now.

I'm eating my way through Howard County, shooting as I go (somebody's gotta do it) and it doesn't get much simpler for shooting food than a macro lens and a palm-sized LED light. I think my 3x6" LitePad just earned it's way into my regular kit.

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(Via ISO 1200)

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On Assignment: Hi-Def Asparagus

If you ever get to Barcelona, you owe it to yourself to go to the Picasso Museum. I never really understood the guy's work until I visited there in 1996. I wish every major artist had a museum like Pablo's.

As a photographer, it resonated with me because it was all about finding your style. Which, by the way, is exactly how the Picasso Museum relates to the asparagus photo above.Read more »

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Wanted: EU and Asia Correspondents

UPDATE: Applications are now closed. I am reviewing them now.

Thanks,
DH
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Strobist's readership is worldwide. But its coverage is … too Americentric. That's going to change.

Strobist.com is looking for two enterprising correspondents, one each in Europe and Asia, to find and profile/BTS photographers doing kickass light. If you are the right person for this gig, you probably already look up photogs' websites from photo credits and/or have an inspiration folder in your browser -- without even being paid to do so.

If this sounds like you, keep reading.Read more »

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Today's Lunch Special: Refired Beams*

Just a little out of the box thinking for your Thursday lunch break.

Hollywood-based photographer David Myrick [website|twitter] had a pretty cool idea when shooting stills for the electronic group, The Glitch Mob: Strobe them on white, then dress them in white -- and then rephotograph them while projecting them … onto themselves.

I can't quite put my finger on why I like it. I just like it.

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*Yes, I do realize that may be the single-worst headline pun ever spawned by this blog. Apologize? Never. I live for bad puns.

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Rethinking the Freelance Model

I'm guest posting on over on Scott Kelby's blog today, about evolving the traditional freelance model into one that is more proactive and entrepreneurial.

For those of you interested in that sort of thing, it is here.

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