I recently had the privilege of Beta testing the new Cactus V5 Duo Wireless Flash Trigger during its development phase. Now that the veil of secrecy has been lifted, I’m happy to report that this new trigger is a big leap forward over its predecessor, the V4, and it gives a good run for the money to any other flash triggers on the market.
Lighting Equipment
Review: Phottix Strato Wireless Flash Trigger with TTL Pass-Through
Phottix sent me a pre-release set of these new triggers to test, and now that the product is on the market I can finally talk about it.
I love this trigger. It’s got all the 2.4 GHz reliability of the Yongnuo RF-602 (previously my favorite in the low-budget trigger market), but with the added advantage of a TTL-pass-through hot shoe.
If you don’t know what the heck that means, or why it might be useful, then watch the video!
And if you buy a Strato from the link below you’ll help keep me fueled with beer (which leads directly to an increase in the quantity, if not always quality, of my photography and tutorial production).
Flash Photography Tips (video)
Gotta love YouTube for always coming up with a splash screen where I have a funny expression on my face. They must have a special filter that searches for those frames.
If you’re interested, here is my course on Off-Camera Flash Photography.
You can also view this Flash Photography Tips video on YouTube.
Wireless Flash Triggers Compared
Here’s my breathless 10-minute rundown of all the current contenders for radio-triggering your off-camera flashes.
This is an update of the information contained in my course, “How to Shoot Professional-Looking Headshots and Portraits on a Budget with Small Flashes.”
This technology is changing fast, practically daily, so I’ll make periodic updates available as things evolve.
I hope you find it helpful, and I welcome your feedback or stories of your own experience with any of this gear.
Off-Camera Flash Photography – How and Why
If you own a detachable Speedlite-style flash, and you are shooting with it on your camera, you are wasting your investment in that expensive flash.
Face it, on-camera flash sucks. It drains the life out of your subject and makes everyone look like they are posing for a police line-up or a driver’s license photo.
You gotta get that flash off your camera!
The video above is my YouTube “commercial” for my off-camera flash course. Frankly I don’t know if it’s cheesy or if it’s cool, but I had fun making it, and people seem to love it on YouTube, so I thought I’d share it with you here.
Choosing the Best Canon Flash for Your Needs
Choosing the right flash can be intimidating to beginning photographers. It’s easy to find lots of jargon-laden technical specifications, but hard to find a simple analysis in plain language of which flash is the best one for your needs.
I’m going to make the choice easy for you.
If you are a Canon shooter, you basically have three options at the time of this writing in 2010: the Speedlite 270EX, 430EX II, and 580EX II.
We’re going to immediately simplify it by eliminating the little 270EX right out of the gate. In my opinion it just doesn’t make economic sense. (more…)
Hard Rock Model Shoot (Video)
It’s not every day you get to have this much fun. Photographer Brad Mahler booked a suite at the Hard Rock Hotel, lined up some great models, and invited me to join him for a day of shooting. How could I say no? Check out this video for a behind-the-scenes look at the whole process.
By the way, if you’re a gear geek you’ll notice the difference between our lighting setups. Brad is using his big Alien Bees studio lights, while I’m using my favorite small-flash setup, shooting Canon Speedlites through umbrellas. You’ll see me using both the Canon wireless (master/slave) system, when I need one light, and radio triggers when I need two lights.
If you’d like to know exactly how all this works, you can get the full story in my new 9-video course called “How to Shoot Professional-Looking Headshots and Portraits on a Budget Using Small Flashes.”
That’s my first video product, and I’m pretty damn excited about it, so if you think it sounds interesting, check it out, or at least hit one of the social media links below and share this video with your friends!
Flash Photography with an Off-Camera Shoe Cord: Film Festival
In a previous post I wrote about shooting an indoor event in a dark warehouse with the Lumiquest 80/20 with on-camera flash. Today we’re going to look at another option for event photography: using an Off Camera Shoe Cord to get the flash off the camera.
If you want to view the photos before reading about them, see the gallery here.
Last night I attended the San Diego Burning Man Film Festival at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. You can always count on the Burning Man community to turn out in fanciful costumes that make great photos.
Since I knew I’d be holding the camera in one hand and the flash in the other hand all night, I chose my gear based on weight: the super-light Rebel 350D and the 430EX flash (each considerably lighter than carrying my heavier DSLR and 580EXII flash). Unfortunately, my workhorse lens for indoor photography, the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS, is a monster, so the camera is still quite a brick to hand-hold all night. Not to mention front-heavy as hell on the tiny Rebel body. But these are the trade-offs we make. (more…)