|
|
|
Timothy Armes' blogPhotography as I experience it…
Posts Tagged ‘flash’
Monday, May 25th, 2009
I’m a heavy flash user, and typically I like to travel light (excuse the pun) with a set of hot shoe flashes – Strobist style. However I have a number of upcoming shoots planned that’ll be best served with a portable, battery powered, higher performance flash kit, one with enough oomph to overpower sunlight through a decent sized softbox.
To this end, over the course of the last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of research into the various options that are on the market. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any resources on-line that grouped all facts together to help make the decision easier, so I’m sharing the fruits of my labour in the hope that it’ll serve other photographers.
(more…)
Tags: 7b, Acute, B2, battery, bowens, comparison, Elinchrom, Explorer, flash, Hensel, Porty, Profoto, Ranger
Posted in Gear, Lighting, Studio | 16 Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Update January 2010: I’ve revisited this topic following my switch to Nikon, and the newer posts gives a more “concrete” comparison.
Neil Van Niekerk has just written a very interesting comparison between Canon and Nikon flash systems. Neil’s a very experienced TTL flash user, and uses both Nikon and Canon extensively, so there’s really no better person to discuss the subject.
His conclusion is that for on camera TTL (including bounced flash) the systems are just different. That’s all.
We often hear that Nikon’s flash system is better than Canon’s and being the curious fellow that I am I’ve tried many times in the past to get to the bottom of this question by searching the net. Until now I’ve never seen a decent comparison – probably due to the fact that there are so few people who are intimately acquainted with both systems.
I personally use Canon’s ETTL-II flash extensively, and I’ve never had an issue with it. It’s always worked extremely well for me. Clearly understanding the system is key to getting good results in either case.
However, I was very interested to note Niel’s thoughts concerning the better ease of use of Nikon’s off-camera TTL, so I took a peek at the SB-900 manual…
Here’s my own feature comparison based purely on reading the Nikon manual, my own experience with Canon, and the things that are important to my own use of flash.
(more…)
Tags: canon, ETTL, flash, iTTL, nikon, off camera
Posted in Gear, Lighting | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Not long ago I blogged about the latest RadioPopper annoucement; the ability to control my flashes using radio is something that I’m desperate for.
Well, PocketWizard haven’t been sitting on their laurels either. Oh no – they’ve done everything possible to make me lust sinfully over yet another piece of gear.
The new controlTL system is just insanely brilliant. Whereas RadioPopper transmits the flash sequence verbatim over the air and then repeats it back to the slave flash, PocketWizard have chosen to interpret the TLL communication between the camera and the flash and then send it directly themselves.
The PocketWizard solution carries many advantages, but Rob Galbraith tells the story well so I won’t bother reiterating it.
That all said, I’m in the same sad place as I with the RadioPoppers – there’s no date annouced for the European version…
Tags: flash, pocketwizard, radio, radiopopper
Posted in Gear | No Comments »
Sunday, December 14th, 2008
Recently a friend of mine asked me how I took my family snapshots ‘to the next level’. He has a DSLR and a good eye for composition but he couldn’t get the look he was after. So we went through the images that he liked and there were two things in common – I thought I’d share them here (with help from a small person).
(more…)
Tags: aperture, bounce, depth of field, flash
Posted in Gear, Lighting, Photo Technique, Photos | 4 Comments »
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
 One of the great things about living in France is the great food. France is renowned for its cuisine, but it’s not until you spend some time here that you really appreciate just how engrained it is into the very fabric of French culture.
Each region of France has its own specialities to offer, a tradition that brings water to this photographer’s mouth just thinking about it…
A village a few kilometers from here, Chabeuil, is known for its Caillette, a sort of ball of pork based paté (I daren’t ask more) that’s served warm with bread and salad. Believe me, it’s delicious…
Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is that Chabeuil holds an annual Caillette Fair where the different farms get to show off their Caillette making prowess, and each year the local camera club is asked to put on a small exhibition of pig photos (as you do). For a bit of fun I thought I’d offer my services.
(more…)
Tags: caillette, flash, pigs
Posted in Lighting, Photos | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
“I don’t like flash, I only take photos under natural light.”
I keep hearing this phrase at the moment, and it drives me nuts. There are many times when natural light is just great, but refusing to use flash at all is senseless on many counts.
(more…)
Tags: flash, natural light
Posted in Lighting, Photos | 6 Comments »
|
|
|
Follow me on Twitter,
connect with me on LinkedIn,
join my Facebook page,
come see me on Flickr or
subscribe to my newsletter.