Working with Speedlites (small, portable flash units), I use quite a few AA batteries. But I don't work with these units quite as frequently as I used to since I have gradually been embracing studio monolights (when weight/size is not an issue).
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I was meeting a friend at a small country house, up north, for some portraits. When we arrived at the location, I realized it was a place that could have found its way in Shelby Lee Adams' work—a rather unattractive setting, to say the least. It didn [...]
I love it when portraits have a warm/cold duality in the light, but it's tricky to find a location where the lights are naturally balanced and positioned to create this look. Easier is to find (or set up) a location where a warm ambient light (a lamp [...]
What do you look for in a flash gun? It depends on your needs, naturally. If you need an on-camera flash with full TTL support and the ability to remotely control other flash units, that's one thing. But do you need all of those features if you're only ev [...]
Your first steps in strobist territory probably involve a variation on the typical basic kit: a flash gun, a small light stand, a bracket, an umbrella (~42") and a trigger (or cable). That works just fine for a simple, one-light kit you can take everywher [...]
Back in 2009 I made a series of head shots of some of my friends.
The first picture I made was a happy accident—the result of fooling around with lights. I immediately liked what I saw: light that made the subject look very serious and gloomy. T [...]
This is a picture I made back when I was testing out Speedlite (small, battery-powered flashes) setups outside . An easy way to get away with the power limitation of those units is to shoot in a darker environment where you don't have the full power [...]
I had been wanting to take a picture of my friend Mathieu for Movember , as he traditionally sports an impressive moustache, but the timing wasn't right. I ended up bringing my equipment to his place a few weeks later to make a tongue-in-cheek portrait o [...]
Until recently, I was under the impression that in order to use a ringflash, one would necessarily need to work with a separate ringflash head and power pack—a solution that would be very costly for someone who, like me, is working with monolights. A ring [...]
One way to give an exterior portrait a moody look is to use flash—even during the day, when the sun is still out. But how much power do you actually need to beat the sun at its own game? As a proof of concept, I decided to go out with a bunch of small, ba [...]
If you've ever shot with off-camera flash guns, chances are you've used one of those brackets:
They allow to mount a flash gun (with or without accessories), angle it at will, and attach an umbrella if necessary as well. To top it off, they are [...]
When working with flash, one has to be aware that the color of the burst might vary slightly as the power is changed. Common wisdom has it that the more you decrease the power of the flash, the more it warms up (with higher end units typically maintaining [...]
