Chiseled Light - Fitness Photoshoot

The new year started off busy for my photography. I had 3 photoshoots within 3 weeks, two were pretty run of the mill portrait shoots. The last was a fitness photoshoot and this was the one I was really looking forward to, it would give me a chance to get more creative with my lighting. Sure you might argue that spending a few hours shooting a beautiful lady doesn't hurt either and you'd be right :)

Initially the woman contacted me through my website inquiring about how much I would charge. After thinking about it for awhile I decided to call her and tell her I would shoot it for free with the caveat that I have creative control and use of the images after (ie "time for cd" essentially). She told me she had started training really hard and even though she was a shy person she wanted to get some photos for herself while she was in peak shape. There is also a magazine called Oxygen in which people can submit photos along with a story of their journey which she was thinking of submitting some photos to. I knew right away that if I was going to do this shoot to the level I wanted to then it would be way above most sane people's budgets. My city isn't exactly flooded with jobs that interest me, a few years ago I decided that if it means shooting for free every once in a while so I can work on shoots I actually like doing then so be it.

Enough about the background, let's talk about the shoot. I had the option to shoot either at her gym or my friend's mixed martial arts gym "Way of the Dragon". Since I'd already shot there before and I knew the owner David Mah would be pretty flexible when it came to shooting times I opted to go there.

The gym is quite large with a lot of open space to work with so I decided I'd setup a roll of white seamless along one wall and then setup later in the middle so the light would fall off and give me a black background. The fitness model had also explained to me that for people who compete there are multiple classes (bodybuilding, figure, fitness, and bikini) and that she would fall into the fitness and bikini classes. In light of this we opted for two wardrobes, one being simple "Under Armour" style workout clothes and the other being a bikini. She had shown me reader submitted images in Oxygen magazine as an example of what she was after, these shots while OK were very even lighting and I didn't feel they were highlighting the toned muscles. I told her we'd start with those and make sure we got some she liked and then venture into more dramatic lighting.

Simple even lighting, two softbox umbrellas at 45° with 1:1 ratio

 We were quickly able to get a variety of shots that looked like they'd be quite at home with the photos she showed me from the magazine. She was quite photogenic so this was easy.

As I eased into more dramatic lighting I simply moved both softbox umbrellas so that each one was on either side of her and shooting directly at her. This starts to highlight the muscles much more clearly, having her turn her head to face one of the softboxes kept the nice soft light on her face.

 Side lighting starts to reveal definition, still at a 1:1 ratio

Next I opted to remove one of the softboxes (camera left) and replace it with a gridded snoot. This yields much more contrast, harsh light coming in from the left and soft light from the right. I cannot remember exact power levels but due to the modifiers it's apples and oranges anyway, since I already had the one softbox dialed in I simply had to tweak the gridded snoot to achieve the light I wanted.

 Gridded snoot on camera left, softbox camera right

As we shot I'd show her a few of the shots and explain what I was trying to accomplish with each lighting change. She was quite amazed at just how drastically a few minor changes could shape and change the resulting image.

Before switching backgrounds I wanted to try out some LED "orbs" I'd ordered from China last year. Initially I'd picked them up for a nude bodyscape shoot I'd had planned but ultimately did not happen due to a family crisis that came up a week before the shoot was scheduled. I had no idea how much light these would provide in front of the camera but I knew I'd be pushing the ISO pretty high. The resulting light was incredibly dim and horribly blue :) Cranking the ISO took care of the first issue, white-balance in Lightroom easily handled the second. Canon is known for poor low light focusing and this was no exception but we managed alright.

No flash, just cheap Chinese LED "orbs" from ebay and ISO 1600

 Before switching wardrobes we made use of some of the gym elements that we had at our disposal. When your subject is in a painful position you have to dial in your light quickly, luckily I only had to get her to do a few takes on the pull up bars :)

 Gridded snoot on camera left, softbox camera right

Next we switched to the middle of the gym and the wardrobe changed to the bikini. My softbox umbrellas were yielding too much spill so I setup my 28" Westcott Apollo which is recessed a bit. There was still a little spill that was lighting up support pillars just faintly but that was easily removed in post.

 No backdrop at all yields a nice deep black. Gridded snoot camera left, Westcott Softbox camera right.

We switched back to the white backdrop and she used some oil to really help add to the muscle definition. In hindsight we should have been using the oil from the start because it really helped. As I was editing I started to tire of the plain white background so I started to include variations with a bit of texture as well.

 Keeping with the harsh light of the gridded snoot on the left and the softbox on the right

One of the magazines she had brought along had an image of a girl posting against a brick wall that she quite liked. I laughed because I had shot a virtually identical shot last year during my downtown "guerrilla style" photoshoot. The gym had a cinderblock wall though with an interesting texture so for fun we recreated the shot from the magazine.

 Textured walls are great when side lit. Solo softbox umbrella camera right.

 The gym we were shooting in also had a boxing ring which I initially planned on making more use of. We'd already been shooting for 2 hours though and we were both getting tired so instead we decided to shoot a few jump rope shots with the ring as the backdrop. We managed to get the timing perfect for a few shots with her up in the air as the rope passed beneath her feet.

 Gridded snoot camera left, softbox camera right

All told I wound up with about 400 images which I then pared down to ~100 for editing. In hindsight doing two backdrops and two wardrobes resulted in just too many images I liked and wanted to see how they'd look finished. Normally I try to limit myself to 30 for editing. In total I spent about 40-50 hours editing and retouching the photos, perhaps in a future post I'll walk through my process and explain that a bit more. 

The model was quite happy with the resulting images and so was I. If she winds up sending some photos into Oxygen and she gets published I'll update this post!

Gear:

Canon 5DMKII

Yong Nuo 460 MKII (x2)

Cactus V5 wireless triggers

Steve Kaiser Softbox Umbrella (x2)

28" Westcott Apollo Softbox

Gridded snoot (homemade)

Updated guide to off-camera flash gear

A few years back I made up a bit of a guide for what you need if you're wanting to start shooting with off-camera flash. Since then new products have came out and prices have changed etc. Recently I was writing up an email to a friend who was facing the same situation, getting started with off-camera flash, and as the email started reaching into novella territory I decided I'd also share the info via a blog post.

I'm not going to go into the specifics of what all of the products do, refer back to my older article here if you want that info.

The main things you'll need are Speedlights (aka the external flashes that mount on your camera), a method of triggering them, stands to hold them, umbrellas or some other light modifier to make the light softer, an umbrella swivel to attach the light modifier to a light stand.

All of this can be purchased for under $250

A quick note about where most of these links go to, a site called DX.com formerly dealextreme.com
I'm in no way affiliated with this company and don't receive any kickbacks or anything for promoting them. Though in hindsight I damn well should lol, I buy way too much from them and have turned dozens of people on to their site :) A quick note about ordering from them, they offer free shipping but it takes awhile. In Canada I'd say bank on 1 month between ordering and receiving your package give or take a week, sometimes items are back-ordered and can take longer.

Flash/Speedlights
The first flash I bought was the Canon 580EXII and paid around $600 for it, in hindsight this was one of the biggest wastes of money I've ever made in my photography career. All of the automated ETTL bells and whistles that adjust the flash power automatically are only needed if you're shooting on the fly like a journalist or paparazzi. For posed photography all you need is manual control, which can be had for much much less.

Yong Nuo 460 Mark II $45each (I recommend buying 2)
Best bang for your buck EVER! Decent amount of flash power, built in optical slave, manual control. I have 6 of these :) Also they have plenty of room inside if you want to mod it and add a 1/8th jack.

Yong Nuo 565EX 2.0 $150
If you think you'll really need the automated stuff (ie Canon's ETTL) check out the YN565 (note this is a Canon only model) as a budget alternative to the real Canon 580EXII. I haven't used this myself but the reviews are favourable. I'm pretty sure they make versions for each of the major camera manufacturers like Canon/Nikon/Sony.

Wireless Triggers:
There are now a wide range of budget triggers on the market, I'll recommend 3 different ones and for different reasons. Pocket Wizards are still the "gold standard" in the industry but I simply could never justify the purchase when I could buy multiple sets of budget triggers for the price of 1 PW transceiver and have never had any reliability issues with the budget ones.

PT-04 (~$20 for 1tx 1rx)
These were the first triggers I bought, at ~$20 for a transmitter/receiver pair I wound up buying 4 sets eventually just for redundancy. I also modded them to accept a 1/8th stereo jack to go along with my modded Yong Nuo 460 flashes above. These are sold under a whole host of different names like Jiansi, Fotga, and recently Blazzeo. The only con is that the transmitter takes a more obscure CR2 battery, but these can be found on the dealextreme website for ~$5 for a 5 pack. Here is a link to the triggers on DX but check ebay too, the ones I got were from ebay and had a PC sync socket on the side which is a nice addition. Another con with these triggers is that the receiver is situated vertically so if installed in a hotshoe and a flash is placed on top it is very unbalanced (which is why I modded mine to accept 1/8 jacks).

Yong Nuo RF-602 triggers
I have not used these but have heard about them on various forums etc, I think they could possibly be the same circuit or design at least as the PT-04's but with the advantage of fitting horizontally when installed on a light stand. For these I recommend checking ebay for a set that has 1 transmitter and at least 2 receivers (at time of writing a bundle like this is ~$42). DX does sell them but only in pairs with 1 transmitter and 1 receiver. Like the PT-04's you'll need these CR2 batteries for the transmitter.

Cactus V5's
For a little more money you can get a bit of a more reputable name with the Cactus V5 triggers sold at gadget infinity. Each of these have the ability to function as a transmitter or receiver, extra cables can be purchased to fit a whole host of cameras (Canon/Nikon/Sony/Olympus/Panasonic) so that they can be used as remote shutter releases. Note that these cables are not required if simply using them as flash triggers.

Light Stands ~$75 for 2
Again its ebay to the rescue, because of this I don't really want to link to a listing that will be outdated right away. These range in price and quality, on average though I found sets of 2 on ebay that were listed for a total of $75 with shipping included (often the item was less than the shipping price but that's a common ebay trick anyway). Check your local camera shop just to be safe anyway, here however you're looking at $75 each and up so its better to shop online. You may also find bundled kits which include the stands, umbrellas or softboxes, and umbrella swivels.

Light Modifiers
Shoot-thru umbrellas $6.62
Hands down the cheapest I've seen are these on DX.com, I'm pretty sure they are the same ones I bought way back when and mine are still holding up. All umbrellas are somewhat fragile even the pro ones so as long as you take care of them they'll last. Shoot-thru umbrellas are often preferred to reflective umbrellas because you can get them much closer to the subject (without jabbing them in the eye with the umbrella shaft of a reflective umbrella). As strobist.com has taught us the closer you get the light source to the subject the larger that apparent light source becomes and the softer the light will be.

Umbrella Softboxes ~$35 with shipping
I wrote a post about the ones I bought from Steve Kaeser's store a few years back, I still use these often and they're great. The have more spill than a softbox with a recessed light panel but less than a shoot-thru umbrella would. I looked at the Steve Kaeser store and could no longer find them, I did however find ebay listings and that's where I got the price from.

Westcott Apollo 28" Softbox $129.99
This doesn't really fall into the budget category but I'd recommend using some of your early photography profits to buy one. I've used mine on countless shoots and its basically my go-to modifier. Zach Arias showcases it a little in his Onelight DVD seminar which I highly recommend checking out as well.

Umbrella Swivels
Once you have umbrellas, lightstands, and flashes, you'll need some way of attaching them all together. There are tons of different swivels but here are some from Dealextreme that I either own or are similar enough to ones I own. 

Cheap yet sturdy umbrella swivel $8.07
This will do the trick provided you have actual light stands and are not using tripods.

Slightly less cheap but more versatile swivel $11.40
This swivel includes a 1/4" insert allowing you to use it both with a standard light stand post or with a tripod.

Assuming you buy the following items, it comes to ~$242.18 CDN

YongNuo Flash x2 ($90)

Wireless Triggers - RF602 ($~42)

Spare Batteries for above triggers ($5.80)

Light Stands x2 ($75)

Shoot-Thru Umbrella x2 ($13.24)

Umbrella Swivel x2 (the cheaper ones $16.14) 

Optional extras you might find useful

Studio Grey Card/Focusing Screen $9.93

These are used to give your editing software a reference for white balance, shoot one photo with the subject holding it and then when editing say in Adobe Lightroom you can just click on it with the dropper tool and it'll adjust the white balance automatically. You need to use it every time you change lighting conditions (moving from open sunlit area to say shaded tree etc).

Bounce Reflector $13.97
Great for outdoor available light work but also handy when using lighting.

AA Battery holders $2.36

Once you start using flashes you'll need to have batteries on hand for them, I found these cases are great for carrying them.

Lenspen $2.89

If you don't already have one of these you absolutely need one, the name brand ones run about $12.

Quickstrap $16.60

Its basically a Black Rapid clone, but a clone that is about 20% the price! Once you use this style of strap you won't ever use a standard strap again. At first glance the way that the camera mounts to the strap doesn't appear as elegant as the Black Rapid method, however in real-world use I find its better because the camera can be mounted to a tripod still without having to remove the strap. It also comes in a double version if you have two cameras.

Recommended tutorials/DVD workshops:

Onelight by Zach Arias
Great on location shoots with walkthroughs. The strobist dvds below are amazing as well but I found Zach's style of shooting and the location type work that he did resonated with me more than David Hobby's stuff. If you can afford only one I'd recommend this one, especially if you're just starting out and only have "one" light :)

Strobist - The Blog

This is basically the main resource I used to teach myself off-camera lighting, all the info is free you just have to do a lot of reading :) Go through the Lighting 101 series first.

Strobist DVD

All of the info the blog's "Lighting 101" series has to offer but presented visually. Some of the concepts are much easier to see than to read so this might be a good option.

Strobist - Lighting in Layers DVD

The follow up to the first DVD listed

Hope this helps some of you and ideally saves you from wasting money on stuff you don't really need so you can put it to better use like buying Prime Lenses.

Urban Guerrilla Shooting Take 3

 A dilapidated cage elevator proved an amazing backdrop during my latest shoot

Who needs a studio anyway?
Eventually my basement renos will be done and I will have a proper studio to work in but chances are I'll try to avoid using it in favour of location shoots as much as I can anyway. For my latest shoot I once again set out on an urban exploring mission, shooting wherever the backdrop looked interesting, ducking into cool old buildings and busting off shots until asked to leave. Despite leaving my innocuous X100 in my camera bag this time and touting my 5DMKII in its stead I wasn't hassled once about shooting anywhere. In fact people were apologizing for getting in my way. 

Let me backtrack a little. May 1st my gallbladder decided it was going to throw a temper tantrum, it started becoming unruly about a week after my Cuba trip and landed me in the ER a few times. This time however it really outdid itself and a simple trip to the ER turned into a 3 night stay and date with a scalpel. I then had an unexpected two week holiday to recover. After going stir crazy for a week and a half I was feeling pretty good and since my camera was under my 10lb weight lifting limit I figured I'd set out on a shoot. The very pretty and incredibly photogenic model, Deanna Alyse, had just contacted me through model mayhem wanting to work with me sometime. The timing was perfect so I contacted her and made plans to shoot that upcoming weekend.

I had just had lunch that week with a photographer buddy of mine, Krystian Olszanski, and since our last co-shoot was such a blast I invited him along as well. Shooting with another photographer is great for two reasons: one you have a knowledgeable lighting assistant two: while you're lighting and they're shooting you get to see how another photographer approaches the same subject.

We all met up at a mall downtown and set off without really having a set destination in mind. We happened along a small patio beside a coffeeshop/bistro so I snapped a few quick portraits there just using available light.

 

Shooting as we go

At this point Krystian mentions that a pub on the next corner actually has a seldom-used (or known about) patio out back and that it might be an interesting location.

As we turn into the back alley  we both notice a nicely painted brick wall with some pallets stacked up which are screaming to be used as a backdrop.

 

Cutest hobo ever

Lucky for us our model was willing to get a little dirty in order for us to get our shots. Even before we busted out the flash and umbrella the subdued light of the alley was great to shoot under. It was also quite windy that day but it worked and gave some of the shots a nice dynamic.

Below is one of my favourite shots from the whole shoot, something about it just has that vintage pinup vibe to it and her innocent yet coquettish smile just completes the pose. This one was lit with off camera flash, a 580EXII triggered with Cactus V5's shooting through a 48" white umbrella. Krystian acted as my voice activated lightstand.

  A definite fave from the shoot.

We probably shot at this location for a good hour, exploring every idea we could think of. While one of us was shooting the other was lighting and constantly coming up with new ideas for when it was their turn again. Often one of us would pose the model in a certain way or shoot from the a unique angle and the other would groan and say "ahhh I was going to do that on my turn". Ultimately though we both have our own style, especially once the images have been processed, so I don't think we overlapped too much.

As I stated this alley was a goldmine, turning 180 degrees the opposing wall was interesting too as you can see below.

 

 Every part of this alley was dripping with character.

Having tapped this alley for every angle we did eventually make our way to the back patio we'd initially set out for only to find it quite lame photowise.  Just across the street was a building I'd shot in during my last outing, since we had off-camera lighting with us this time I figured we should check it out.

Right off the bat I wanted to try a shot I'd done last time but felt I could improve upon with some added backlighting.

 

 Krystian lit this from behind while thinking thin thoughts.

I always love shooting in stairwells when I have the chance, there's just something about them that always yields a good shot. In the photo below we had to resort to some rather crazy lighting since we only had the one flash. Krystian stood behind the model at the top of the landing on the camera right, I held a reflector below and left out of frame which he then aimed at. The result actually looks naturally lit as if window light is providing the rimlight with ambient fill. 

Strobist Trick Shot. 

While shooting on the main floor I had lamented that it would have been awesome if the elevators were the old-school style ones with the cage and attendant. At one point between poses Krystian disappeared down the stairwell and when he finally resurfaced he had a big grin.  

This is what he'd found:

Looks like a scene straight out of Silent Hill

What a cool find! Not only was it a cage style elevator but it had the most amazing grunge texture on the walls from the stripped paint. Shooting with ambient left a little to be desired though, two CFL bulbs lit the elevator, one regular and one daylight balanced. For the above shot I only had to push the ISO to 400 since I was shooting my 50mm at f1.4 but for other shots I pushed the ISO to 1600. Its for this reason that I love the full frame goodness of the 5DMKII though I have to give props to my X100 that handles high ISO nicely too. Its amazing how far cameras have come with respect to ISO noise and in 10 years I'll probably look back and wonder how I ever managed with only being able to push it to 1600 :)

Love cage elevators

The last photo I'm including proved very tricky, I knew I wanted to light through the cage but it was extremely difficult to light the whole face. Initially we were shooting bare flash from a distance to get those nice crisp shadows but eventually wound up using and umbrella quite close to the cage.

I apologize for the extra long blog post (which I tend to do often) but I felt this shoot warranted a full walk through. This was my third "guerrilla shoot" this year and I'm finding them to be an excellent way to shoot. By wandering around and exploring you find new cool locations, push yourself creatively to adapt to each new location, and ultimately wind up with a diverse range of photos from a single shoot. You simply can't do the same thing in the studio.

Softbox Umbrellas from Steve Kaeser

Two 40" softbox umbrellas from www.skaeser.com

I picked these up a little while ago and have been meaning to write a review for a while but haven't had a chance.

I'll start by saying that I love softboxes, especially ones that I can use my speedlights in. Last summer (or was it the summer before?) I took the plunge and picked up the 28" Westcott Apollo softbox for speedlights after watching the Onelight Workshop DVD. Since then I've almost totally abandoned my umbrellas ;)

Obviously I was quite stoked to come across these softbox umbrellas while surfing the web, at the time of purchase you could get 2 for a measly $29.95 on sale. Unfortunately their site only listed UPS for shipping and living in Canada I've been gouged all too often by UPS's exorbitant brokerage fees. I decided to email the company and see if they'd ship USPS instead, to my delight they said they would and they sent me an invoice. They wanted$25 for USPS shipping ($5 less than UPS) and while I thought that was a little steep for a $30 item I realized the box was probably oversized so there wasn't much I could do. Fast forward a few weeks and UPS knocks on my door, no that was not a typo they still shipped UPS! I ended up getting charged another $20 for brokerage even though I went out of my way to get a USPS quote! So now I've paid $45 for shipping on a $30 item. Not pleased with this I emailed the company and have yet to get a response (about a month ago at time of writing). Thats the end of my rant, I'll get on with my review and sample images now. I just couldn't in good conscience write a review of this product without explaining some of the extenuating circumstances.

On with the review!

Shot with a 580EXII in Steve Kaeser Softbox Umbrella

The umbrellas came with nice carrying bags for the umbrellas, an extra that I wasn't really expecting for such a low priced item. My next surprise was the build quality which was in fact quite good! I've bought some cheap umbrellas in the past and regretted it when they nearly fell apart in my hands, these however I see sticking around for quite some time.

I couldn't wait to test them out so I arranged a quick test shoot with a girl I had actually just done a shoot with the week prior. Like the previous shoot we just did it in her apartment using a nice large section of blank white wall as a backdrop. Since the area we were shooting in was relatively small I opted to just use a single softbox umbrella.

Initial impressions:
Right off the bat I noticed that there was a lot more spill with these than with my Westcott Apollo, I'm not sure if it was due to the larger surface area or the fact that the Steve Kaeser boxes don't have a recessed panel like the Apollo. If you put a gun to my head I'd say it was probably the lack of recessed panel. This does limit you a little if you're working in a small environment but its definitely not a dealbreaker.

One thing I had read on some forums was that light distribution was not equal across the whole umbrella. I really didn't find this to be that much of an issue, if there was a hotspot at the center I didn't notice it very much at all. I found the quality of light to be on par with my Westcott. As you can see from the shots my 580EXII didn't seem to have any problems filling the softbox.

I've yet to try them out with my studio strobes but would imagine they would work pretty well. I would imagine the region blocked by the head might be a little darker but I'd have to see whether it is negligible or not. The nice thing is that you don't have to go out and buy a specific speedring to use them with your equipment.


The breakdown:

Pros:

• Cheap (provided you don't have the shipping hassles I did)
• Well built
• Fairly even light (some sticklers might disaggree)
• Versatile in that either speedlights or monoblocks can be used

Cons:

• Diffusion panel is not recessed and results in spill
  
• Diffusion panel is not removable for cleaning etc

Conclusion:
For the price you'd be crazy not to have at least one f these in your bag. They're as small and portable as a regular umbrella yet give you the effects of a softbox. I still like my Westcott better but when you think you could get 8 of these for the same price I'd say start with a set of these instead.

Improvements:
If there were ever a rev 2.0 made I'd suggest making this unit convertible so it could be used as a shoot through as well, if they also made the diffusion panel removable it could then also be used as a reflective umbrella making it one of the most versatile pieces of gear ever!

A few parting shots ;)

Guide to getting into off-camera lighting

**Originally written for the camera club at my work**

So you took the plunge and bought a digital SLR, you've been having fun shooting in available light but you want to start playing around with studio lighting, this is your poor man's guide to getting started. If you're not poor you may want to look into starter studio lighting kits (starting around $600-$700) however this guide only covers speedlights which are cheaper and more portable & versatile than a full studio setup.

Requirements:
Camera with a hotshoe or PC Sync socket
Internet Connection (optional but you'll want to be doing lots of reading)
Budget:$100-400 depending on how far you want to go

1) Flash - $50 and up depending. You'll need a flash to start off with, we'll be using them like studio strobes so we don't need the fancy "auto ttl" style that cost big $$ (I made the mistake of buying the fancy ones and I never use any of those features). Look on ebay or kijiji for older flashes, it doesn't matter which brand because we'll be triggering them wirelessly. I snagged two Nikon SB-26's off kijiji for $100 each which was a good price, I wish I would have just bought these instead of my fancy ones and saved hundreds of dollars. Make sure that have the following features:

• Manual power settings - most are adjustable from 1/1 (full power) down to 1/64th or 1/128th in 1/2 or 1/3 F-stop increments

• Adjustable head that tilts and pan

• PC Sync Socket – Not completely necessary but a very handy feature to have

• A standard hotshoe - Some older Vivitar flashes as well as others have an oddball hotshoe that require an adapter to fit in a normal hotshoe, its best to simply avoid these ones.

• TTL trigger voltage -ie 5 or 6V, anything below 12V or so should be safe. Some older flashes can be up to 600V and can fry equipment so never use older flashes directly on your camera. You can check this with a volt meter by charging the flash to fire (set it to the lowest power incase you get zapped) then use the DC setting on the meter to check between the side pin and the center pin. Its kinda hard to describe in text, hopefully this picture makes it clearer. If you're buying on ebay make sure to ask about the trigger voltage if it is not listed, don't risk buying it if you can't be sure. If you're buying it off of kijiji then bring some batteries and a meter along to test it out yourself

Some suggestions on decent older flashes to look for would be Nikon SB-26's or 28's (Nikon flashes are great because they have built in optical slave triggers*), Canon 540EZ, Vivitar 285 (be careful as older model 285's have high trigger voltages). If you want to buy new flashes but don't want to break the bank checkout www.bhphotovideo.com and look at 3rd party brands like Bower or Nissin, $150 will get you a Nissin that is comparable to a $600 Canon EXII and still has all the ETTL-II auto features. *More about Optical Slaves in the next section Triggering Options

2) Triggering Options – Prices vary

Alright so now you have a flash but still no way to trigger it remotely, there are a few options that can be done cheaply:

• Wireless triggers – Starting at $20-30

  This is the method I'd recommend hands down. The “gold standard” in photography for triggers are Pocket Wizards but they cost around $300 for each transceiver and you need at least 2 to start. Lucky for us our friends in China have made affordable versions for $20-$30 a pair (includes transmitter and receiver). The triggers I recommend are the PT-04 model, some manufacturer makes these and various companies put their logo on them (YongNuo, Jiansi etc). At the time of writing this article you can pick up three (as show in the image below) for $34.99USD with free shipping on ebay. People sometimes jokingly refer to these triggers as “Poverty Wizards”, some say that they're not as reliable as their pricey alternative but I've never had any issues. I have 4 sets and I use them on professional jobs without any worries, I normally only use 2 at a time and the other 2 are backups. With a bit of modification you can even extend the range by adding an antenna to the transmitter although even un-modded you'll get 50-100ft.

Pros:

Cheap, no wires, flashes aren't likely to get accidentally triggered by other photographers, does not need line-of-sight.

Cons:

The cheap “poverty wizards” may have quality issues (though I haven't experience it), batteries will eventually need replacing (but last over a year at least)– AAA's in the receiver are easy to find but the transmitter takes 23A 12V which are harder to find – Here's a link to a 5-pack for $3.48USD http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.475

• Optical Slaves
  I mentioned optical slaves earlier, some flashes come with built in optical slaves but you can also buy little adapters. This is a very cheap method of firing flashes off-camera however they have some big problems with digital cameras!! These triggers were great back in the days before digital however the new flash systems do not work well with them. The reason the flashes on new cameras fire a pre-flash before the main burst of light, this pre-flash lets the camera's sensor determine the proper power required for a good exposure. If you're trying to trigger the slave with your camera's built in flash the pre-flash will trip the slave and by the time the main burst comes the slaved flash will have already fired.
  
  There are ways around this however. Buy a specially designed optical slave which accounts for this (Wein Digital Peanut) for around $100, OR the cheaper route is to trigger it with another flash that is in manual mode and therefore will not emit this pre-flash. Often I'll use only one wireless trigger on my Canon 580EXII and use it to trigger my Nikon SB26's which I've set to slave mode.
  

Pros:

Wireless, No batteries (for the basic ones, not sure about the advanced ones), very simple

Cons:

Doesn't play nice with digital flashes using ETTL (pre-flash), needs line-of-sight, will be triggered by any other flashes present (ie other photographers in the area)

• PC Sync cables (oldschool)

  $5 or less for very short cheap ones to $50+ for longer brand name ones

  Last on the list is the wired solution. Its not a bad idea to have a few of these cables around as a last resort but I wouldn't suggest using them as your primary means of firing your flash. The cables aren't that cheap (even though they should be) and the connector they use is very poorly designed, I don't know why its even still around when a simple headphone jack would work better and is abundant. These cables have a lifespan and become intermittent over time, the connector doesn't lock in place so they often slip out. All in all the worst of the options.

* I'd still recommend buying a few short PC sync cables especially if you get the PT-04 wireless triggers that have the socket, as crappy as they are they can still save your a$$ is a pinch ;)

Pros:

Simple and straightforward

Cons:

Not really that cheap especially for longer cables, connections deteriorate over time and become intermittent, connection is not secure and can fall out while shooting.

3) Light Stands & Adapters

Now that you have a flash or flashes and can trigger them remotely you'll need to put them on something. Investing in at least one proper light stand is recommended but cheap tripods can fill in as well depending on your needs. If you're wanting to special softboxes etc a light stand is the way to go but if you just want to mount the flash or even add an umbrella or two a tripod will suffice. Places like XS cargo or the various liquidation centers often have tripods for around $20. With that said you can find cheap ones at www.bhphotovideo.com starting at $20 USD + S&H as well. Cheap swivels can be found for ~$10 each online, “normal” ones are about $30 each. Post adapters like the 1/4” receiver can actually be pretty pricey so just try to buy a swivel that comes with one ;)

Shown here is an umbrella mounted on a tripod using an umbrella swivel. Note that if you are using a PT-04 wireless trigger it will add more height to the flash and it won't hit the center of the umbrella, this is where a small PC Sync cable between the receiver and flash comes in very handy.

4)Basic Light Modifiers (Umbrellas, Softboxes, Grids, Snoots, “Stoffen”etc)

If you're getting into off camera flash chances are the look you're going for isn't going to be produced with just a bare flash. Flashes emit light from a small source which means harsh shadows. The sun is a small point of light high up in the sky and you see how harsh mid-day shadows can be however on overcast days the whole sky becomes the light source because the clouds are “diffusing” the light. The most common light modifiers are trying to do the same thing, turn a small light source into a larger one.

Umbrellas – Starting around $10 and going way up from there depending on brand/size/type

These are one of the most common and most basic light modifiers, they are simple and they work well.

They come in a few different flavours: Reflective, Shoot-thru, and Reversible

• Reflective umbrellas are normally white on the inside and black on the other side, you shoot the flash into them and use the reflected light.

• Shoot-thru is just how it sounds, you shoot the light through the umbrella.

• Reversible umbrellas are basically a hybrid, they have a covering that can be removed so they can work as reflective or shoot-thru

Softboxes – Starting around $100 and going way up from there depending on brand/size/type

These are similar to umbrellas but give a slightly more even light, in addition they are more directional so you have finer control to avoid spill. If you're shooting with speedlights (ie flashes that are designed to mount onto your camera's hot shoe) your best bet for a softbox would be the 28” Apollo from B&H for $114USD. If you plan on getting one there are two items that B&H sells, for reasons unknown to me one item is cheaper AND it comes with an umbrella swivel for mounting your flash. Look for B&H item #WEASLK

Grids, Snoots, and Gridded Snoots ;)

These modifiers are used for restricting light, they're used various circumstances like back/edge lighting where you want to light up just the back of a person's hair without having the flash produce glare in your lens from spill. Other uses are for lighting backdrops behind a subject to create a spherical gradient. Basically any time you want to light a specific area without having light spill into other regions you'll be reaching for one of these. If you're the crafty type these can be easily made from commonly available items (hint use this as an excuse to go to your local pub to find black straws).

Stoffen aka Omnibounce

Stoffen is actually a company but just like “Kleenex” its become synonymous with this light modifier. For a simple piece of plastic the actual Stoffen Omnibounce is ridiculously over priced, you can find knockoffs that will do just as well or you can find ways to make your own by searching online. If you do buy a knockoff make sure you get the proper one for your flash as they are shaped differently depending on the brand and model.

These are used to simulate a “bare bulb” flash, they produce close to a 360°x360° light source. It is best used in smaller rooms where it bounces around off walls and ceilings to illuminate the whole room. Often you'll see paparazzi and journalists using them in completely the wrong way ;) They'll use them outside where there is nothing to bounce the light off of, in this instance they are just wasting 2-3 stops of light and overworking their flashes.

5)Resources for learning to light better

Having all of this gear means nothing if you don't know what to do with it, in this section I'll outline some great on-line resources for learning how to light.

• www.strobist.com

  A blog created by former newspaper photographer David Hobby, a few years ago he quit his day job to try his hand at blogging and now has one of the most visited websites for photographers on the internet. To say this site is a goldmine of knowledge is an understatement, David has been kind enough to create FREE course material. TheI suggest starting with his Lighting 101 series and going from there. The lighting 101 material starts off essentially where this guide does, with the equipment you'll need. From there it goes on to cover lighting basics onward to more advanced techniques. Thousands of people have got their start in lighting by visiting this blog.

Strobist DVD Semimar: If you can afford it (or if you can find someone willing to lend you a copy) this 8 DVD set covers all of the Lighting 101 information. If you find the online written material hard to follow then this DVD will help a lot by showing you visually.

Strobist on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/) With nearly 70,000 members the strobist group on flickr is a very active cult community of fellow lighting enthusiasts. The group showcases other strobists work, mostly as they progess through the various assignments on the

strobist material, all shots posted are required to include information (settings) on how they took the shots so its a great place to learn and be inspired. There is also a discussion portion where topics range from troubleshooting equipment to “how would you edit this photo” to building your own DIY gear. Everyone is eager to help and seem nice enough (unlike a lot of other online forums) so if you get stuck along the way to learning how to light like a pro you should stop by here and get some help.

• Onelight DVD Seminar (www.onelightworkshop.com) by Zach Arias

  Inline with the strobist “movement” Zach has put together a 2 disc seminar that follows him through various types of location shoots while explaining lighting concepts. He got his start shooting bands in Atlanta and one day decided to quit his job at Kinkos to got at it full force, the gamble paid off in spades. This seminar doesn't “hold your hand” as much as the Strobist dvds but it has a higher energy to it and he does shoots that are more exciting. Definitely worth a watch if you can afford it or can borrow a copy from someone who has it.

  Zach also has an online blog that is worth checking out at www.zarias.com

• www.diyphotography.net

  This is a neat little website (or blog rather??) that collects tidbits of great info from around the net. Normally geared towards making your own gear on the cheap this site is worth checking out periodically to see whats new in the DIY world.