Best of Strobist: 2013 Edition

The end of the year is a great time to take a moment to reflect on what you have learned and/or accomplished in the last 365 days. Traditionally on Strobist, we take the last few days to look back, to buy a little family time and plan for the next year's adventure.

2014 holds some big changes for me. And because of the format and project changes coming up, this may well be the very last "Best of" post I'll ever write. So let's get on with it…

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Dan Winters: Road to Seeing

I am at a loss for a quick way to describe Dan Winters' just-shipped book, Road to Seeing. That's because it defies nearly any category of photo book I have seen to date.

It's nearly 700 pages long, and is far and away the deepest journey into the photographic process I have ever read. It includes technique, but in the context of the journey covered in this book technique is almost an afterthought. And appropriately so.

Best way I can put it: Road to Seeing is not so much a book as it is a mentorship.

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Without Reservation: A Recommended Gear List

This is something I get asked about a lot, and its inclusion on the site is far overdue. The following is a list of gear in which I have complete confidence, and would recommend wholeheartedly to any photographer.

The Without Reservation list will be kept up to date going forward, so these are all subject to change at some point in the future. But as of now, this is the go-to gear that I rely upon day in and day out.

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Why I Moved Comments to Twitter

The traditional blog commenting format may be convenient, but it is in many ways a broken system.

The last couple of posts have been an experiment of sorts, deigned to help me regain some of my sanity. I have turned off comments and instead created a Twitter hashtag around which to group post-related discussion.

And if the early results are any indication, things are already getting better. Here is why I am not going back.

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Fuji Follow-Up

It's been two years since I fell down the Fuji rabbit hole. It's been a wonderful (and public) experience, and I probably get asked more questions about Fuji than anything else.

So today we're taking a small side trip from lighting and heading into mirrorless. Apologies to the uninterested. I'l be back soon. But for those considering a foray into Fuji, I hope you'll find this helpful.

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The Updated, Essential Strobist Bookshelf

A great photo book (whether lighting or otherwise) is an amazing value. You get to rent someone else's brain for the price of a good dinner. And depending on who's brain you're renting and what you do with the info, the return on investment can be hundreds or even thousands of time what you invested.

Now more than ever, it is a wonderful time to be a lighting photographer. I have long maintained a book list on Strobist, but it has gotten out of date. Today I am correcting that with a tight list of books that I can absolutely recommend for photographers who want to learn.

The list includes just five books on lighting, a book on the interpersonal aspects of photography and a massive, magnum opus that is not even out yet. (But I've seen it!)

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How to Gel a Beauty Dish, v.2.0

One thing I have learned about light and lighting: there's always different—and often better—way to do something.

A few months ago we ran a piece on gelling various soft light modifiers, wherein I listed my go-to ways to color soft light. But someone in the comments offered a different way—a way better way—and I have been using it ever since. Here's what he suggested.

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Low Frequency, High Amplitude

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about the next step in my weird, one-off career. And this tweet, by a man who I truly admire, summed up my thoughts in just four words.

As a photographer, you could hardly ask for better advice. I’m taking it to heart, both for myself and for Strobist.

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Chokra-and-Awe: Loren Wohl Blasts Through The Fog and Noise

On the face of it, music photographer Loren Wohl's backlit photos of performance artist Chokra are themselves a series of cool photos. But dig a little deeper and they are a textbook example of gaining access and building out your book.

And the latter is just as important—if not more so—as the former.

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Pentatonix' Daft Punk Video: Low Budget Meets Awesome Creativity

If you are one of the five people on the internet who have not yet seen the new video of Pentatonix covering Daft Punk this week, you're in for a treat.

And as cool as it is, dig a little deeper and it gets way better. This video is one percent budget and 99 percent pure talent and creativity — the latter of which will trump budget and scale every time.

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We All Screw Up. Don't Worry About It.

Look, no one is born a lighting genius. We all make mistakes. And we are all gonna make mistakes in the future.

And just to make you feel a little better about it, today I am gonna tell you about my stupidest moment as a lighting photographer.

So far.

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Off-Brand LED Studio Monoblocs: Wouldya? (I Did.)

So you're used to using flashes without modeling lights. How about modeling lights without flashes? Yes? No? Maybe?

My project for 2014 is video-based (no spoilers, please) so I found myself shopping for video lights in the form of LED monoblocs. If you've ever considered taking the plunge, read on...

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An All-Nighter at The Vista: Greg Heisler's 50 Portraits

As cool as Gulf Photo Plus is in Dubai is every year, perhaps the very best part of the experience is the late-night conversation over beers at the nearby rooftop bar, the Vista. There, people leave the classes (and instructor/student roles) behind and simply talk photo until the wee hours of the morning.

An assumption is made that all at the table are just photographers. So the f/stops and shutter speed stuff is dispensed with in favor of everything that is the tapestry of photography. The resulting conversations are long, in-depth, very Inside Baseball and often funny as hell.

And a night at the Vista what Heisler's new book, 50 Portraits: Stories and Techniques from a Photographer's Photographer, feels like.

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Your REALTOR® Would Like Some Free Photography, Please

Please pardon the detour today. I need to rant. I'd like to share with you the ballsiest request for free picture use that I have ever gotten…

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BTS/360: Julius Koivistoinen's Terrarium

So you have learned a little bit about lighting. So what. What do you do with it? What's the goal?

What if you were only 22 years old, but you had an idea for a project. And what if you wanted to parlay it into a solo exhibition. What would you do?

If you are creative and resourceful, you could do what Finland photographer Julius Koivistoinen did…

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Q&A: Margo Seibert

You had a lot of good questions after the Margo Seibert shoot last week, even to the point of telling me I was breaking a Scott Kelby Rule. (For the record, I lurve breaking Scott Kelby rules.)

(And who is he to say you shouldn't shoot a portrait with a 50mm, anyway?)

Besides — and believe it or not — that lens selection was totally driven by the light. No joke. That, and more of your Q's answered, below.

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My Week With Heisler, Pt. 3

Editor's Note: Contributor Sara Lando continues her three-part series chronicling her 10-day stint as an assistant/mole with Gregory Heisler in Dubai. This is part three. Part one is here.



Whenever I spend enough time shadowing a photographer, I end up lusting for gear. Don't judge me: you probably wouldn't be reading Strobist if you didn't have the same problem.

A week spent with Heisler had me definitely interested in playing around with gels, made me want to trade my octabank for a strip light, definitely added a tilt-shift lens to my wish list, but what impressed me the most is what he calls "the unsung hero of light modifiers": the narrow beam reflector.

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On Assignment: Margo Seibert

Learning to light with flashes can be liberating or it can be a straightjacket. It can open up countless new doors — or it can restrict you to a small, equipment-based bag of tricks.

The key is to not let your new lighting skills displace your other approaches. And even more important, to learn to let your vision cross-pollinate between seeing great ambient and creating great light from scratch.

Case in point is this shoot with actress Margo Seibert, for which I packed all of my strobes but only brought out a single LP180 — and then only after our ambient had deserted us.

Today we'll be tweaking the sun until it's gone. And only then swapping to flash.

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Super Cheap: Replacement Tubes for Your Broken Speedlight

When it comes down to it, there aren't a ton of things that can go wrong with a speedlight. And if your flash appears to be in working order (i.e., charges, zooms, etc.) but won't fire, it is probably a bad or broken tube.

While you are probably looking at a three-digit repair bill from your OEM manufacturer, you can also DIY the repair for next to nothing.

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My Week With Heisler, Pt. 2

Editor's Note: Contributor Sara Lando continues her three-part series chronicling her 10-day stint as an assistant/mole with Gregory Heisler in Dubai. This is part two. Part one is here.



By Sara Lando -- "Lighting is a lot like cooking. You have a gazillion different instruments and what you use will depend on what you want to eat. Also, you don't learn how to cook by eating at restaurants. You have to cook."

When Heisler was talking about this during his lecture, I thought it was cool and made sense. But it was probably only when we stepped into Cavalli Club that I got to realize how much "having to cook" was going to be put into test.

He was entering the club for the first time himself: for a series of reasons, we weren't able to scout the location beforehand and he only got a glimpse of the place from some cellphone footage. When we stepped into the club, the first word that came through my mind isn't one I'd feel comfortable reporting.

The place was pitch black.

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On Assignment: Kai-Huei Yau's Football Previews

Growth as a photographer is, for me, long periods of muddy struggle punctuated by moments of clarity. Sometimes the moments break new ground. But other times the moments solidify things you already knew —but didn't know know.

Photographer Kai-Huei Yau's shot of a high school football lineman is a great example of the latter.

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Wait! It's Not What it Looks Like!

That's pretty much what I had to tell my wife, the first time she saw this baby in my basement.

And yeah, I do know what it looks like. Doesn't help that it has the words "Wizard Stick" printed on the other side of it, either.

But actually, this thing is a hand-held, AA-powered fog machine. Yeah it is…

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My Week With Heisler, Pt. 1

Let's say for a moment that you found yourself embedded as an assistant with arguably the world's best living photographic portraitist. And let's also say that, beyond your primary duties as an assistant your secondary goal was to be observant as possible and report back on what you learned.

That's exactly what happened to Italian photographer (and occasional Strobist contributor) Sara Lando, who as you can see above was not at all excited about her assignment at Gulf Photo Plus earlier this year. She looks almost bored, dontcha think?

This post marks the first of a three-part series on what she learned from her experience. Today, the intangibles: the stuff you'd never consider because you are too busy worrying about a gridded beauty dish or something…

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On Assignment: Don't Deny the Obvious

We give a lot of attention to light mods around here: big ones, little ones, hard ones, soft ones, umbrellas, soft boxes, grids and the like. But sometimes the best light mod is no light mod at all — especially indoors, with neutral walls.

In that environment, often the smart choice is just to stick your bare speedlights on stands and go.

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Q&A: China Answers!

Upon reading the post earlier this week asking for a male-male hot-shoe-to-mini coiled sync cord, reader Shirley Lu, of Guangzhou, China noted in the comments:

If this cable is 10 meters, maybe it will have a delay on signal transfer. And other point is the cost of a 10-meter cable is much higher than a set wireless triggers.

Great question (er, comment), Shirley. I am so glad you posted it. And especially so, considering a quick look at your screen name shows you work at Pixel Enterprises, a Chinese lighting gear manufacturer. (Welcome!) My answers are below.

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Dear China, Please Make This.

Whoops, my bad. Lemme rephrase that:

親愛的中國，請讓這些長長的特殊的同步線之一。這將讓攝影師輕鬆地使用他們與他們的新相機的遙控閃光燈。

Now, here's why:

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London and Baltimore: Going Out With a Bang

The good news: I just landed what will almost certainly turn out to be the coolest gig of my career. It's a dream project, and I could not be happier nor more excited about it.

The bad news: It will be very time-intensive, so it will have an impact on my life going forward. Which my upcoming seminars in London and Baltimore/Washington are probably gonna be my last. If not ever, then certainly for a long time.

So let's sweeten the pot a little bit for the last go-round...

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On Assignment: Saving Florida's Springs

We spend a lot of time on f/stops, shutter speeds, lighting ratios and the like around here. But none of these things — none — matters when compared against another variable: What can you actually accomplish with your photography?

Long-time readers will be familiar with Florida-based nature photographer John Moran from previous article on Strobist. Always an advocate of nature, he has been one of natural Florida's most eloquent voices for conservation. Now he's taking that fight to the next level, aiming his cannons —and his Canons — at one critical target: saving Florida's natural springs.

What a person with a camera, a few lights and a vision (and help from his friends) can accomplish, below.

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Interview with Burn Magazine

Today, burn Magazine published a wide-ranging interview I did with Magnum (and NatGeo) photographer David Alan Harvey.

David has long been one of my photographic idols/compass points. We met in person for the first time in San Miguel D'Allende, Mexico in 2010 and became fast friends. He is my sounding board for anything photo-journalistic or documentary in nature. And I am always happy to discuss the web and vertical ecosystems with him, usually at about 2:00am, and over drinks.

This interview is essentially one of those free-form discussions, transcribed and uncut. It took place on the back stoop of a hotel in Dubai earlier this year. You can read it here.

And if you have any interest at all in documentary photojournalism and on the off-chance have not yet discovered burn, OMG are you in for a treat. Dave's compass point is absolutely pure, which is why that web magazine has quickly become the place to go to learn about documentary photography and documentary photographers. Enjoy.

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On Assignment: Radiance

"What should I wear?" asked Funlayo Alabi when we were touching base the day before I was to photograph her for the Howard County EDA.

"A white shirt if you have one," I said, wanting to distill the photo and feature her skin given she that she runs a boutique beauty products company.

Twenty years ago I might have said, "anything but white." But the more you work with lighting, the easier it is for you to control not only the contrast range but also the specific tone of a person's skin.

Even darker skin against a white shirt.

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Check Out the RoundFlash Ring Flash Adapter

See this little bag? It's about six inches across, yet it contains a ~17", collapsible ring flash adapter.

Curious? I was too. So I ordered one and had it shipped over from Poland. Full test drive, inside.

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Announcing: All-New Lighting 101

By the time you read this I'll be on vacation with the family. We're taking a road trip north into New England and Canada, where none of us have ever been before. (The above is in Maine, on the way to Prospect Harbor on Saturday night.)

That doesn't mean Strobist is closed. In fact today we're announcing a completely updated Lighting 101, among other things…

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On Assignment: Scout and a Shoot Pt. 2

Okay, so we're back shooting at the MCE after our scout a couple of days ago. The weather is hot, so I am glad I choose speedlights. Much less to lug.

Leading off is entrepreneur Biplab Pal, of Zreyas Technology, whose company facilitates product development and manufacturing for other companies.

Let's walk through this and the other shoots...

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On Assignment: Scout and a Shoot Pt. 1

Gonna do something a little different today.

If at all possible, before a job I try to get to the location a day or two in advance and do a quick scout. This helps me to think a little in the interim and to anticipate any problems I might have during the shoot. It also helps me to decide what gear to bring — i.e., not to overpack.

So let's do a quick scout together. In the next post, we'll walk through the shoot itself.

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Disney's Invisible Flashes

While visiting Disneyland Paris, long-time reader Paul Mason of Hartlepool, UK watched a Disney staff photographer work a room doing shots of kids with the characters.

He noticed a remote on the photographer's camera, but saw no flashes anywhere — until they went off.

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Phottix Mitros [Nikon] Review: The Real Deal

Big changes continue to ripple through the high-quality, 3rd-party flash industry this month. To wit: I've been testing a new $299 Phottix Mitros [Nikon] flash for several weeks now.

Here's the five-word short version: "Nikon, you should be very afraid."

Why? Because this solid, Manual/TTL/CLS/HSS flash delivers all of the punch and practically all of the functionality of your flagsship Nikon SB-910 for about half the price. With twice the warranty.

Put differently: as soon as word gets out, the days of the high profit margin OEM speedlights are numbered.

(More words, getting out, below…)

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QA: Lighting a 1,300-Person Group Shot [Magnum Opus]

Reader Albert Yee asks, via Twitter:

Ever shoot a group of 1,300 before? Trying to wrap my head around a possible assignment: Teachers and staff in a basketball arena.

1,300? 1,300. Hmm.

Lighting 1,300 people indoors is a Herculean task, no matter how you slice it. Can you do it? Do you wanna do it? How would you charge for it? Lotsa questions.

Let's jump in.

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On Assignment: Evoking Expression

Tuesday was reasonably tense. I photographed a breakup, a drug intervention, a high school cafeteria fight and a few other iffy situations.

All told, an enjoyable afternoon. And it will probably change the way I approach my portraiture going forward.

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On Assignment: Cookie Ride

Having lit a full-sun outdoor group shot with a Fuji X100s and a couple speedlights, I had been itching to see what a couple Einstein e640 monoblocs would do.

Way too much, as it turns out. The leaf shutter of the X100s and the insane t.1 times of the Einsteins are a match made in heaven. We had to dial them down quite a bit for this shot of a local food truck scooter operator...

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LumoPro LP180 Speedlight: Full Walk-Thru

The $199 LumoPro LP180 quad-sync, all-manual speedlight has arrived. I have been shooting with a couple pre-production units for several months now, so have had ample time to formulate some thoughts.

Short version: The LP180 is rock-solid, with a near-perfect feature set for lighting photographers. It's the first flash that I actually prefer over a Nikon SB-800.

Long version: below.

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Readers Shoot Back: Sergey Zaytsev

You can easily kill an afternoon scanning the excellent work that readers upload to the site's Flickr group. Every now and then one will really stop you in your tracks, as did photographer Sergey Zaytsev's homage to Georgia's Queen Tamar, seen above. Very cool that it was done with more creativity than dollars (or lari, I should say?) and with a strong historical inspiration, to boot.

Would it surprise you to find this was done with a Nikon D300s and a few bare Cactus KF36 Vivitar 285 knockoffs? 'Cause that's what he used.

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Gulf Photo Plus PopUP is Coming to London

One of the coolest things about Dubai is coming to London this fall. No, not the tower—although it would make a nice little spear for London's gherkin, dontcha think?

Nope, even cooler: Gulf Photo Plus is coming to London on Sept. 28th and 29th. I'll be there. So will Zack and McNally. And Heisler. It's gonna be a nonstop firehose of a weekend.

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Did You Know You Can Cheaply Mod Your AlienBees B400 to be a B1600?

But that doesn't necessarily mean it's a great idea. A DIY cautionary tale, inside.

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Frio v2.0

Just a quick heads-up that the frio double-locking cold shoe, which I consider to be the safest way to mount your speedlight to your swivel adapter, just got an upgrade: the female socket on the bottom (shown here) is now ¼" to 3/8" adaptable. This should make some of you Euro folks happy, as 3/8" is more of a standard there. They are shipping now.

Also, they have those little double-male posts you need if you are gonna swap out your Justin Clamp cold shoes to frios (or any other shoe.)

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On Assignment: Speedlights, Sync and Sun

It's a bit of a leap of faith, the first time you head out on an assignment with just an X100s and a couple speedlights. (Ask Zack.) And truth be told, I had a DSLR and a couple lenses with me as backup, just in case.

But I never brought them out. And with the crazy sync speeds offered by the X100s, a pair of speedlights is all you really need to do battle with late afternoon sun as it turns out.

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The Google Reader Apocalypse is Upon Us. Here's How to Migrate.

Despite much weeping and gnashing of teeth in the online world, Google is unceremoniously killing what many consider to be the best RSS reader on the planet. If you are one of the 300,000+ readers who access Strobist through Google Reader, here are three good choices to keep the party rolling.

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In Camera Veritas

Show of hands, who knew that the cameras we use every day are named after a room?

The latin word for room is camera, which makes sense when you realize the first objects for recording light were cameras obscura.

And in this case instead of the room being the camera, the camera is in fact the light modifier.

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How to Keep Your Old Flash from Exploding

Have a flash that's been sitting, unused, for a long time? Or did you buy a used flash with an unknown history? Turn it on the wrong way and you may be in for a bit of a surprise.

Doesn't matter if it is a speedlight, an Alien Bee mono, a Profoto pack-and-head or whatever. Keep reading for a nifty little tidbit of info that may help you avoid seeing that "magic smoke" escape from your babies.

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On Assignment: Dahlia Flute Duo

Whenever possible, I scout not only location but also time of day when planning an outdoor shoot. Especially if that shoot is in the evening.

When does the sun set? Where does the sun set? When is golden light? Where will it come from?

So in this case, the I knew the ideal pop of tree-filtered backlight would happen at about 7:22pm. And at that time we were ready and in place, waiting for the light.

Shame about the sun not showing up.

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Quick Hands-On: $100 "Polaroid" PL135 Bare-Bulb Flash

UPDATE: The Polaroid PL-135 (AKA the rebranded "Triopo TR120") has been unceremoniously pulled from the market just a week or so after it launched.



Has the venerable Sunpak 120J bare bulb flash been reincarnated? By a world-famous company, no less?

Well, no. Not exactly. It's no Sunpak 120J (doesn't have the extra stop of power) and, strictly speaking, it's not really a Polaroid flash per se. Keep reading for the bare facts (rimshot!) on the Polaroid PL-135.

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