Life seen through the lens of photographer Phil Steele
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. (more…)
Cactus V5 Wireless Flash Trigger Set
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.
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).
Sunset, the big travel magazine devoted to the American Southwest, contacted me today asking to buy this photo from the Burning Man festival. It will run in an article called “Amazing West” in their November issue. And they offered me the biggest fee I’ve ever received for a single image. Now that’s a nice way to start the day.
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.
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.
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 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.
Speedlite 270EX
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…)
