Last Sunday, we went to Santa Monica's Pacific Park, a small amusement park at the famous Santa Monica pier. I took some shots Strobist-style (i.e. with off-camera flash). In this post, I would like to share some samples comparing on-camera flash, off-camera flash, and no flash.
The Nissin Air Di700a, a radio-based wireless TTL system which I wrote about here, is apparently now available for Sony cameras. According to another ebay listing, it uses the new Multi-Interface Shoe.(used in the a6000, a7 series, etc.), not the Minolta hotshoe.
The seller describes it as a "pre-sale" (pre-order) although the seller's specified release date has already passed, so it appears to be readily available. You should probably contact the seller to confirm. Also please note the price of this combination is significantly higher than the price of a similar kit for Nikon or Canon, which is around $300. Hopefully, it becomes available at a lower price for Sony as well.
One of the often-repeated rules of thumb for flash is that "aperture controls flash, while shutter speed controls ambient." In this post, we'll see why this adage can be misleading.
It was time again for us to renew passports for my daughter and myself (note that children's passports expire after only five years). As before, I wanted to do it myself so that I could have photos I would at least be satisfied with for ten years (the passport duration for adults).
For the passport photos in this post, I used the following:
Chinese lighting products have been steadily improving while offering incredible prices, and studio strobes are no exception. Godox's e300 is a monolight that has pretty good specifications on paper, including 300 watt seconds of power. The kicker is that it's available at under $100 - comparable to the cost of an inexpensive speedlight, making it attractive to hobbyists and casual shooters, especially first-time strobe buyers.
I just got a Godox e300 and in this post, I provide my first impressions.
Is it possible to get a decent monolight for the price of a speedlight? The Godox e300 is a monolight that seems to promise just that. Check out the specs:
300 watt-seconds of power
150 watt modeling lamp
compact size (20.3 cm long) and light weight (1.45 kg)
radio-based wireless remote adjustment capability with separate FT16 accessory (~$30)
available for less than $100 on eBay
For comparison, the Alien Bee B800, already one of the most affordable monolights, has 320ws of power and costs $280.
I ordered one last week and just got it yesterday. Here is the unboxing:
I conducted preliminary tests last night and will post my first impressions soon.
The Godox Ving is a unique speedlight that uses rechargeable Lithium batteries instead of AA batteries. As a result, you get a far greater battery life (650 full power flashes -- claimed to be the equivalent of 12 AA batteries), and you have faster recycling times. It's almost like having an external battery pack, but built-in to the speedlight itself! Check out this demo video by Gadget Infinity:
The Ving currently has three variants: the V850 is a manual flash, while the V860N is for Nikon i-TTL and the V860C is for Canon E-TTL. Godox has its own wireless radio system: the FT-16, which can adjust flashes remotely, and which is compatible with the Ving and several other Godox products, such as the Witstro and their extensive monolight lineup.
SALE
The good news is the Godox Ving is on sale: buy 1, get the 2nd at 50% off, through eBay seller "zeniko_online_store":
This sale applies only to Zeniko's U.S. eBay stores (they have items listed from their stores in China, which have a lower price per unit but aren't included in the sale). To avail of the discount, just select "2" under quantity. The price will be updated automatically.
Note: I'm not affiliated with Zeniko or eBay, and we receive no commissions on this. I'm just passing along this tip!
When Mohammad posted his review of the YN-560TX, there was a question from one of our readers about whether you can trigger a camera and a flash at the same time with the Yongnuo RF603. The question has been asked on DPReview previously .This capability can be useful for sports (to capture multiple angles of the same shot), or architecture / real estate, for example. I have tried several combinations of Yongnuo triggers and flashes without success, until finally I got a combination that did work. It was so simple that I was kicking myself for not having thought of it previously.
What you see above is the result of a lot of spare time. Almost every year, me, my brother, my cousin and my cousin's cousin gather in a deserted flat in the countryside for two days, for no other purpose but to spend some "male" time together, and do a lot of photography. Let me take you behind the scenes.
Writing this post required strong will power, I don't know why, but this is one of the more "daunting" posts I've written. So please forgive my delay, normal service will be resumed next week, or the week after.
Today I will give you a glimpse of my Yongnuo flashes and triggers. This won't be a detailed technical review describing every function and button, there are better reviews out there, instead, this will be a more "functional" review, with lots of product pictures. Ready? Let's go.
In one of the comments on my Quick Light Setup post, a fellow blogger Dave asked me to post about a small photography game I played with my friend and my brother. This will be the topic of this post.
Remember my recent Abstracts post? It was during the same day that me and my friend found a dead gecko on the bathroom floor. It was tiny, but it presented a good photographic opportunity and allowed us to occupy some of the long free boring time we had on hand, hit the jump for the full story.
Today I will talk for a bit about my recent experiences with my OMD, and I would like to start with the image you see above, this was taken during an auto-cross event that I attended last Saturday, it is a wheel of a Mitsubishi Evo wearing a slick tire as you can see, the car was stationary for a moment before starting the race.
I captured the image you see above @ 300mm equivalent with my Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6 lens wide-open, I like the lighting, the grooves on the brake disc and the worn out slick tire. That lens is quite sharp and incredible considering the $100 price when purchased as a kit.
I was looking for a silver umbrella, but found out they are pretty much obsolete. That's because of the Westcott Orb and similar octagonal softboxes on eBay, Amazon, and elsewhere. In this post, I review the CowboyStudio version of this octagon softbox. In a first for me, the review will be in video form.
The video will cover these topics:
- Why you might want one for your lighting gear.
- Comparison with other octagon softbox designs.
- Demonstration of how the octagon softbox is mounted with a regular umbrella adapter, a speedlight bracket, and an Alien Bee.
- Advantages of the octagon softbox.
- Disadvantage of the octagon softbox and how to remedy it.
- Demo of its usage.
With most subjects, the form and its texture is revealed by shadows. With black or very dark subjects, the shadows blend into the subject, therefore the shadows don't show its form as easily. Instead, we see the form through the specular highlights and reflections.
I took some photos of a pair of black leather shoes. In this post, I discuss how I lit the shot.
I want to share with you a few flash pictures I took during my second trip to Fayoum desert, you might remember my three-part post about my visit there four months ago. I repeated most of what I did before, but challenged myself not to take a single picture similar to the ones I took last time.
In a first for me, the review will be in video form.
