(this is part 2 of my “buying your first flash” post) In my previous post, I suggested buying the following equipment: Godox TT685 speedlight Godox XPro radio trigger Godox 60x060cm softbox kit with S-type bracket Godox 260T lighting stand or similar In this post I’ll discuss setting up each one so that you can get …
If you’ve always described yourself as a “natural light photographer” plunging into the world of artificial lighting can be very confusing. What gear should you buy? This guide will attempt to answer that question. I’d like to think it’s reasonably objective about what’s good and affordable but of course it’s influenced by my biases. As …
Lighting stands are usually the simplest part of a lighting setup. They’re not asked to do much except deal with the consequences of gravity. You could say they play a supporting role (ha!). Most people will buy a stand based on price. If you’re more discerning you might worry about how tall it is or …
In terms of gear, there aren’t a lot of new ideas in photography. Sure, certain gadgets or techniques may go in and out of fashion but it’s rare to find a piece of gear that does something radically different to light. This can mostly be blamed on the physics of light being a reliably constant …
Earlier this year I picked up a Godox s-type bracket softbox kit and it impressed the hell out of me in terms of design and value for money. A friend then bought a Godox AD600 flash unit and when I saw what it could do, that impressed me too. Then I bought some of their …
It’s always dangerous for a photographer to walk into Vanbar. You may go in with a plan to purchase a specific item but then all kinds of other toys catch your eye and your original plan promptly goes out the window. I recently walked in intending to buy a lighting stand suitable for supporting a …
I’ve only started paying attention to Godox gear this year and I’ve mostly been impressed. They may not be a big brand name but they’re putting some thought into their gear and their pricing is pretty reasonable. With this in mind, I thought I’d try their 80cm and 120cm umbrella octagon softboxes for speedlights. On …
I’m not usually a fan of making my own lighting modifiers because they tend to be not as durable as a commercial product. A few years ago I made a speedlight grid out of some cardboard and black straws but I then destroyed it when I dumped a heavy bag on it in the boot …
If you want to get into off-camera flash using your speedlight, one of the first problems to solve is how you’re going to trigger your flash when it’s moved off the camera. For many Nikon photographers, it’s just a simple matter of diving into the in-camera menus to activate the pop-up flash as a commander …
Canon 90EX flash – small, cheap & kinda fantastic Read More »
A friend recently asked me to help on a commercial shoot of some apprentice jockeys. She had been given a fairly clear brief consisting of a range of varying shots and I realised it would be helpful for the client to be able to see the shots as we shot them. This would be straightforward …
