Point Loma Sunrise (click to enlarge)

This morning I woke up to a sight I’ve never seen before: the sun sparkling from windows on Point Loma, on the far side San Diego Bay, reflecting a fiery shimmer across the water.

Still half-asleep, I grabbed the nearest camera and my 70-200 f/4 L lens, snapped a shot, and went back to sleep.

Later I wondered, why have I never seen this before? (All right, smart aleck, I’ll admit it’s true that I’m rarely up at the crack of dawn.)

But there’s a more fundamental reason. It hasn’t happened before.

I’ve lived in my current apartment for less than a year, and this is the first day the sun has aligned with those windows across the bay to bounce light back in this direction. (Actually, it may have happened exactly 6 months ago, but that day either it was cloudy, or I was asleep.)

Of course, this phenomenon should come as no surprise to me.

Because I know that twice a year, you can stand at exactly that fiery spot on point Loma, at sunset, and take brilliant photos of the city’s buildings reflecting sunlight across the bay.

That photo opportunity is the mirror image of the one I saw from my windows this morning.

And it happens exactly twice a year. It’s so well-known that it even appears in photography guidebooks about the area. And on those magical days you’ll find dozens of photographers setting up tripods and long lenses on the sleepy streets of Point Loma.

And I have even been one of those photographers in the past.

The Reverse Shot (click to enlarge)

The shot nearby was taken from Point Loma last fall, during that brief span of time when the sun strikes perpendicular to the city’s streets and makes dazzling light on the buildings downtown.

What lesson is there in this for us photographers?

We’re all quite good at remembering to take advantage of the changing light over the course of a day. We know there are magic moments at sunrise and sunset, and we often build our schedules around them.

But how often do we forget that the angle of the light is different every single day of the year?

The light you saw yesterday will not be the light you see tomorrow.

Things in your neighborhood, or even your own back yard, may look today as you’ve never seen them before.

So get out there and shoot.

Phottix Odin Transmitter

My Phottix Odin flash triggers just arrived, and oh, man, it’s like Christmas came early at my house.

Finally a gear-maker has delivered all the features I’ve been wanting in a flash trigger for years!

• TTL Metering? – Check
• High Speed Sync? – Check
• Second Curtain Sync? – Check
• Manual Power Settings? – Check
• Multiple Groups? – Check
• Backward Compatibility with cheaper triggers? - Check
• Super Low Price? – Well, um… six out of seven ain’t bad

Seriously, I can’t think of anything that is missing from these triggers. Technology has finally caught up to my fantasy wish list.

So, why is this trigger a big deal?

First of all, it’s one of only a few TTL triggers on the market.  The others, including the Pocketwizard Flex System, and the RadioPoppers, are ridiculously expensive, and in the case of PocketWizard, known to have some radio interference issues with Canon flashes.

So the Odin is newsworthy with its lower price point, rock-solid reliability, well-built construction, and user-friendly operation.   (I managed to set it up and test it without even consulting the manual.)

The price point looks even better when you consider the backward compatibility with older Phottix triggers, like the affordable Strato and Strato II Multi. (You can see my previous reviews of those triggers by clicking those links).

Of course, any flashes attached to the older Strato series receivers don’t transmit TTL information.  But frankly, for me, this is not a problem.  Because in a given lighting setup, I typically want only my main and fill lights in TTL mode, while my rim lights or background lights are locked down in manual mode anyway.

So the Odin gives me a perfect way to use the heap of Strato receivers that I already own—to power my manual back lights, while using my Odin receivers for the front lights in TTL mode.

Odin Test with Speedlites (click to enlarge)

I set up a little test rig just to illustrate this mix-and-match scenario for you.  The moment I un-boxed the new Odin, I attached my two Odin receivers to two TTL Canon flashes (for the main light), and then I put some older Strato and Strato II receivers on two additional Canon flashes in manual mode, to serve as back/rim lights.

In other words, I’m using four different types of Canon flashes, and three different types of Phottix triggers, all at once.  How’s that for mix-and-match?

See the nearby image of my first test firing of the four flashes, on my kitchen counter. Straight out of the box, first shot, and everything is firing.  I love it when stuff just works!

Odin Indoor Test with 4 Flashes

It was raining outside, so I couldn’t do the “overpowering the sun with high-speed sync” shot I had in mind, so, instead I dragged the lighting setup into my living room and bribed my daughter to stand in for a few test shots.

You can see my lighting setup nearby, and the photo that resulted from it. (Mind you, this was not an attempt to create art, it was just me confirming that the gear works and that all the flashes and triggers were firing and doing what they are supposed to.)

It went perfectly,  with no misfires, and accurate TTL metering on the subject in every shot.  It just works.

Odin Indoor Test Lighting Setup

The next day the weather cleared up, so I again bribed the offspring to stand for a few shots, this time out on the deck in bright sunlight.  This was the test I wanted.  Can I overcome the sun with a speedlight in High-Speed sync while using a wide aperture for backgrdound blur?

Odin Outdoor Test (1/1000 sec) HSS

You bet I can.  See the shot nearby.  She is rim lighted by the sun.  Note the blur on the buildings in the background from a f/4.5 aperture.  That required a shutter speed of 1/1000.  Try doing that with your manual flash triggers!

All right, you may be saying, but I could do that with the Canon or Nikon built-in wireless flash system.  But you couldn’t. Not in this configuration.   See my lighting setup shot.

Odin Outdoor Test Lighting Setup

From my shooting position, I was standing nearly beside my main light, too far forward for the flash to see a master’s signal.  And the fill light was hidden behind a concrete wall!

With Canon or Nikon wireless, no line of sight means no communication.  With the Odin, I don’t have to worry about line-of-sight between my master unit and my flashes.

Now I’m free to move around and put my lights wherever I like.  This is liberation.

I think you can see now why I’m excited about these triggers.

Early users are also reporting that the Odin works with many Canon-compatible third-party flashes, but you’ll have to do your own research there, as Phottix makes no promises (and who can blame them?)

Nikon shooter?  Be patient, your Odin is coming soon.

Now that I think about it, there is one thing Phottix left out of the Odin that would be handy. The infrared focus assist beam that you get with an on-camera Speedlite or a Canon ST-E2 transmitter can be a lifesaver in low-light situations.   (Of course, that beam still shines from your remote TTL flash, but it won’t do much good if it’s firing into an umbrella.)  For some shooters who do a lot of low-light work, that could be a problem.

But for me, even without that little feature, these are simply the best flash triggers I’ve ever seen.

Check Odin pricing at the Phottix Store

P.S. If this techie stuff seems over your head—or beyond your budget—you might want to start with my beginner off-camera-flash course which teaches you the basics of how to get started with off-camera-flash on a shoestring budget.

Thankfully he hasn’t made a liar out of me with his second book. Off-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Photographers fully lives up to that earlier praise, and more.

In a richly informative yet admirably concise 125 pages, Off-Camera Flash provides a wide-ranging look at its subject without becoming lost in the technical mire—and believe me, with this subject, it can be easy to get bogged down in the details.

Modern hot-shoe flash units have become so complex—in many ways more complex than our cameras—that some less-technically-minded photographers have simply thrown up their hands in despair (this has been known to lead to a newfound “artistic” viewpoint that adamantly defends natural light as the only true light).

But have no fear. Neil van Niekerk rides to the rescue with this well-organized and lavishly illustrated guide. Sure, it requires some technical knowledge of f-stops and shutter speeds, and there is hardly a page without at least one acronym like TTL, ISO, or occasionally even a CTS, but he truly makes the subject about as painless as it can be.

Best of all, he illustrates his principles abundantly with photos—so abundantly that a flip through the pages reveals more photos than text. I particularly like his frequent use of an ambient-light photo next to the equivalent flash photo, so your eye gets trained in making the leap from, “If this is how my subject looks in a natural light test shot, then I can add flash to get this result…”

The case study photos reflect the basic workload of a commercial photographer: weddings, models, fashion, and portraits, plus a smattering of travel and street shots to show that you can still do OCF when you don’t have time for a careful setup or the help of an assistant.

Many of you will be interested to know that this book makes an ideal companion to my own off-camera-flash portrait photography course, because van Niekerk and I tackle the subject from different angles. Where my course gives you a basic introduction to the subject in easy-to-digest video format—with heavy emphasis on beginner’s equipment and the technical details of flash settings—van Niekerk’s book takes a more advanced working-photographer’s view of the subject, focusing less on the equipment and more on the art of creating the environments, and the lighting, that yield particular artistic or commercial results. It’s the perfect Advanced Course to follow up my beginner’s video series.

Best of all, despite the professional-looking results of his work, van Niekerk’s approach does not require a lot of expensive gear. Most of the photos in the book were taken with a single Speedlite flash and one inexpensive modifier, because, as the author elegantly puts it, “In my opinion, that intersection between ‘best light’ and ‘simplicity’ is around the point where you use an off-camera flash in a softbox.”

That focus on simplicity informs the entire book.

Highly recommended.

Check pricing on Amazon

As always, if you shop from my Amazon links, you help support this site (and you add a few pennies to my beer fund, providing essential fuel for producing more free tutorials).

“We don’t have a budget for photography, but we’d like to use your photos. We will offer you credit.”

Before I go on, check out writer Harlan Ellison’s video rant below (caution: strong language). It applies to writers, photographers, or any creative person being asked to deliver their goods for free:

Early in your photography career it can be tempting to accept these freebie requests in order to get “exposure.” After all, you want to get seen, build a reputation, get links to your site.

But each time you deliver free photos to a for-profit business, you are actually destroying the photography marketplace that you one day hope to succeed in. You are helping to spread this pernicious idea that photography, and other creative work, should be free.

Many of us have become so tired of responding to these inquiries that we simply reply with a link to one of these web pages:

Reasons Why Professional Photographers Cannot Work for Free

We Have No Budget for Photos

Sometimes I even get requests from individuals or organizations who want to view (or distribute!) my flash photography portrait course or my Photoshop training course for free. You can probably guess my answer.

Of course, demanding fair compensation for your work does NOT mean you should never do free photography for friends, organizations, or causes that you choose to support, as a charitable contribution. You should! But just make it 100% clear to the client, and to yourself, that that is exactly what you are doing in those cases.

And next time a magazine, organization, or business asks you to provide free photos or accept a cheap token payment—no matter how tempting the “exposure” seems — Just Say No.

Otherwise, when you finally develop your skills to the point where you can make a living at photography—there won’t be a photography business left to make a living in.

How To Photograph Nudes Like a Professional

This guy knows it all, and he reveals it all in this book that goes WAY beyond nudes to cover almost everything involved in a photography career.

If you have ever dreamed of working in any way with models, fashion, beauty, or glamour photography, you’re going to want to download this book right now.

Karyl spills the secrets of his 25-year career, telling you everything including: how to find models, choose the right gear, light your shots,  retouch in Photoshop, handle the business side, and much more.

He even describes his own struggle and rise to success, a story I found both fascinating and inspiring. (I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I spent a whole day reading this book because I was so intrigued.)

Here’s a small sampling of chapter headings to give you an idea of what’s contained:

Some General Thoughts on Photography

And of course Karyl includes dozens of case study images from his own portfolio to illustrate the principles throughout.

One bit that I found eye-opening was his breakdown of the difference between Beauty Models, Fine Art Nude Models, and Glamour Models (did you even know there was a difference?) and his advice on how to locate and work with each.

The chapter on retouching alone is with the price of the book, in my opinion, offering concise, straight-to-the point guidance (illustrated with Photoshop screenshots) for the practical problems encountered every day by a portrait or glamour photographer.  

And Karyl’s thoughts on legal issues, working with assistants, hair and makeup, and simply working with models, all reflect the kind of wisdom that can only be gained over the course of a career.

I consider this book a steal at $29, and you get the instant gratification of an immediate download.

You can download it here

Plus, if you buy it from my links on this page, a portion of the sales goes toward helping me produce more free tutorials for you.  Double win!

Phottix Strato II Multi

If you follow my product reviews at my photography training website, you probably know that the Phottix Strato has long been my favorite radio trigger for off-camera flash photography.

(If you want to learn why, you can watch my video review of the Strato.)

Well, the geniuses at Phottix have just improved on perfection by creating the new STRATO II MULTI flash trigger.

The Strato II Multi has everything found in the Strato, plus these additional features:

- 4 Groups (A,B,C,D) for more easily setting up different lighting zones
- Increased range (from 100 meters to 150 meters)
- Power switch on transmitter
- Locking ring on receivers
- Test buttons on all units
- Backward compatibility with earlier Strato receivers

New A,B,C,D groups

I’ve been testing the new Multi’s and I love them.  The quality of the construction is as solid as ever, and the new group selection buttons on the rear of the transmitter look and feel more like the controls on a high-end Danish stereo system than a Chinese radio trigger.  This is top quality gear.

And the backward-compatibility with older Stratos means that I now have approximately enough triggers to light a small third-world country.

Nice work, Phottix!

You can price or buy the new Strato II Multi at the Phottix site here.

And as always, if you shop from my links, you help support this site and make my free videos possible.

This was supposed to be a sunset shoot on a gorgeous rooftop of a high-rise downtown.  We had the perfect angle to place the setting sun behind the models for dazzling backlight effect.

Everybody ready? Lights, camera, action…

Clouds.

Oh well. I’m on a roof with several beautiful models, so we’re going to make the most of it.  Switch to plan B.

Since we had a gray day I tried to create dramatic lighting and dramatic effects in post-processing to make the best of the situation.  Underexpose the sky (oops, missed that in some shots when my camera got bumped into Av mode instead of Manual. How did that happen?).  Add some vignette in processing and punch up the blacks, etc.

I’m not sure I really succeeded, in getting exactly what I wanted, but do I like some of the shots.  And more importantly, I learned some things from my mistakes.  Sometimes that is more useful than getting exactly what you planned for.

This was all lit with Speedlites. The techniques I’m experimenting with here are all part of the preparation for an upcoming course on “Advanced Off-Camera Flash.”

I’ll keep you posted on that.

The other day I went in for a $5 lens cap and came out with $75 worth of stuff, including the book ON CAMERA FLASH: Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography by Neil van Niekerk.  I should know better than to even peek at the book rack.

But in this case I’m really glad I did.  Because this book kicks ass.

Now, I consider myself a fairly advanced flash photographer.  After all, I sell a course on off-camera flash photography on my own website.  I know a thing or two.  But of course, the more you learn about photography, the more you discover there is to learn.

That’s why I’m always thrilled to find a book like this one.

This is a serious book for serious photographers.  But unlike many serious books, it’s written in friendly, concise, easy-to-understand language, with plenty of photos to illustrate the points, and with an intuitive feel for areas that may be confusing to beginning or intermediate shooters, and may therefore need extra explanation. Neil van Niekerk turns out to be that rarest of things: a great teacher.

The book is divided into four sections:

1. Where Do We Start?
2. The Technical Stuff
3. The Techniques
4. Taking it Beyond On-Camera Flash

The bulk of the book lies in Sections 2 and 3, with 1 being essentially an introduction, and 4 being a pointer to the vast world of off-camera flash that can be explored elsewhere.

I consider Section 2, The Technical Stuff, to be well worth the price of the book alone.

If you want to thoroughly understand the interplay of Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, and Flash Exposure Compensation, you can’t find a much better or briefer explanation than this.

I actually found myself pulling a white shirt out of my closet and taking test photos while reading his explanation of how to use the histogram to set your exposure.  How often does a photography book actually inspire you to take camera in hand and try to recreate the author’s examples?  For me, all too rarely.  But I found myself doing it several times in Section 2.

Section 3, The Techniques, is also jam-packed with useful information.  From simple flash modifiers, to bounce flash, to outdoor techniques van Niekerk provides case study after case study using his own wedding and portrait photos to drive the points home.

When I pick up a book like this, on a subject that I’m reasonably familiar with, I’m usually happy if I get one or two “Aha!” moments out of it.  I probably got five “Aha!” moments in Section 2 alone.  I’ll be reading, and re-reading, and re-reading this book for a long time.

Highly recommended.

Buy it on Amazon

As always, if you buy using my Amazon links a wee bit of the proceeds goes toward helping me produce more free content for you.

Click to enlarge

Last week I participated in a “Models and Photographers” Meetup event where I took the photo at left. If you’re an aspiring photographer, or even a pro looking to meet new models or experiment with new techniques, I highly recommend using Meetups (www.meetup.com) as a low-cost, low-stress way to get out in the field and work with like-minded people.

In my city there are at least a dozen photography Meetup groups, many of which hold events at least once per week. Some Meetups charge a small fee to help cover administrative costs, but usually everyone involved is working for trade to build their portfolios (called TFP).  At last week’s meetup I found half-a-dozen would-be models and a similar number of photographers all working hard to create great images together with no financial pressure, and no expectations except that any good photos would be provided to the model afterward.

My photo above got some attention from the group, because other photographers who shot the same model in the same location did not get equally good results. They asked me to explain how I made the shot, and I happily obliged (sharing our techniques is one purpose of this group).  I thought you might enjoy the explanation as well.

This was shot with natural light in the mid-afternoon, with sunlight striking the model directly from the high left side of the frame.  I usually try to avoid direct sunlight on a model’s face, because it’s too harsh, but we were shooting fast and I couldn’t get a better position, so I worked with it.  I had an assistant holding a silver reflector at camera right to bounce in some fill light.

Unretouched original - Click to enlarge

Back at home, after importing the photo to Lightroom, my first concern was the harsh sunlight on the model’s face. (See the original, un-retouched photo nearby.) This kind of hard, raking light is almost always unflattering, and the model deserved better treatment.  After all, it’s my job as the photographer to put her in flattering light, not her job to be flawless in harsh light.

So, to correct for the hard light, before doing anything else I decided to apply some softening to her skin. I took the photo from Lightroom to Photoshop and applied what I call “glam blur” softening to her skin.  (I won’t detail the process here because I cover it in both my headshots course and my Photoshop course.)

After that softening, I returned the photo to Lightroom, where I increased the Exposure and Fill Light slightly, then increased the Blacks to regain lost contrast.

I wanted to crop in fairly tight, because this photo is all about the expression on the model’s face.  But I also wanted to keep enough of her clothing and body to make an interesting composition, and I wanted enough of the railing to keep the interesting triangular effect, so that set the boundaries of my crop.

Finally, since the background was a boring gray wall, I applied a slight vignette to de-emphasize the wall and bring the focus forward to the model.

This all took just a few minutes in Lightroom and Photoshop, but it made a huge difference in the final photo, which now looks like something planned and created, rather than just another snapshot.

That was just one of several worthwhile shots I got from this Meetup, not to mention spending a few fun hours with other photographers and models. An afternoon well spent.

And if you don’t have any Meetups like this in your area yet—anyone is free to create one and become an organizer. Even you.