Anyone reading my blog for any amount of time knows how much I love sharing my passion for photography and I love teaching other photographers things that totally make their day. For the longest time I’ve been sharing lighting tutorials, composition tips, equipment comparisons on small blog posts but I’ve been wanting to share even more and for the last year or so we’ve been working on a new website where I can do just that.
This past fall I launched an Online Photography Education site called Shoot for Love, it is a monthly membership site priced to be as affordable and as accessible as possible. I will be posting more and more premium educational content including classroom style instruction, instructional video from past workshops, posing tutorials, retouching videos and more. I focus on techniques I use to create the images I love to create.
The monthly membership fee ($12.95) allows me to not only put more time and effort into these posts, it also comes with a money back guarantee so if you don’t find something you love simply request a refund! Here are a few of the things we’ve posted within the last couple months, with plenty more to come!
Visit www.shootforlove.com and get started today!
Tutorials now Available at Shoot for Love
Studio Lighting Details and Diagram with a Parabolic Umbrella
Lighting Diagram and walk through of a studio lighting setup using a borrowed studio and borrowed lights.
A Photoshop Layers Walk through (video)
Jake Garn gives a video tour of one of his fully retouched photoshop files, layer by layer. A quick way to pick up on some techniques you may have overlooked.
Demonstration On Directing Models (video)
This is a quick little glimpse into some intense model directing by Jake Garn.
The Importance of Great Models
Heather - Makeup by Danielle Carlsen - Hair by Steven Robertson
Classes available at Shoot for Love
Finding Your Style – A class by Jake Garn
In this class shot exclusively for Shoot For Love Jake Garn discusses his path to finding his photographic style and shares this insight with the hopes of inspiring photographers everywhere to find their unique voice.
Lighting Tools 101 – A Class by Jake Garn
Filmed at the 2011 Shoot For Love workshop this is a great overview of basic lighting principles and available types of lighting equipment along with a slew of sample images showcasing different lighting techniques and equipment. We talk about the first step in learning light and that is understanding yourself. A must watch for any photography lighting enthusiast!
Posing and Expressions – A class by Jake Garn (Coming Soon)
Filmed at the 2011 Shoot For Love workshop Jake Garn shares posing tips and techniques to get the most flattering looks from your models, also a discussion on inspiring (and stealing) the perfect expressions.
Free Content on our Blog!
You don’t have to be a member to enjoy the website, we post plenty of free content including equipment reviews and monthly photography assignments.
Shoot For Love
If you would like additional, premium educational posts and videos by Jake Garn then visit http://www.shootforlove.com where you will find:
- Lectures from Jake Garn about “Finding Your Style” & “Lighting 101″
- Photoshop & Lightroom Video Walk-Throughs
- Detailed guides on various subjects such as posing, social media and lighting tools
- Member only forums where you can ask questions and get critiques of your work
- All this and more – Updated weekly!
www.shootforlove.com
Great lighting is all about the modifiers. Whether it is the clouds that filter harsh sunlight or the light shaping tools that attach to the front of your strobes – the way you control the light can have subtle (or extreme) differences on your subject. I photographed three models using all the same equipment – changing only the light modifier attached to the front of my Elinchrom 300RX Monolight.
The Beauty Dish is a staple, and a favorite, for many photographers, especially those specializing in commercial beauty shots. The Elinchrom Deep Octa is often warmly compared to the Beauty Dish for having a similar light quality, yet boasting the ease and convenience of being both lighter and easier to manage on-set as well as more portable (since it folds up nicely into a bag) – not to mention costing a little bit less money.
So which is better? Looking around the internet I couldn’t find a side-by-side comparison and we all know if you want something done then… well… lucky for me the amazingly helpful staff at B&H Photo Video agreed to let me test drive the two light modifiers so I could make just such a judgment call, for you, my loyal blog readers.
So without further ado.
vs.
Although the following sample images are labeled, keen eyes should be able to discern which is which just by looking closely. See if you can spot the dead-giveaway. I’ll give you the hint, it’s in the eyes. (click the images to greatly enlarge)
One thing to keep in mind is that all of these images are directly out of the camera, absolutely no post-processing work has been done to any of them. Since the Beauty Dish puts out a bit more light the power was adjusted up slightly for the Deep Dish shots, that is the only difference.
Brynlee
This was the first test and as you can see the difference is distinct, yet subtle. The Beauty Dish (left) seems to flatten Brynlee’s features just a bit while the Deep Dish Octa (right) carves out the structure in her cheek bones and eyes a bit more. Keep in mind that Brynlee has a very unique face structure (which I’m semi-in-love with) and while your preference on lighting may vary I very much prefer the image on the right.
(click for a larger view)
Demi
She also has an amazingly unique face with perfectly rounded features. You can see how the beauty dish seems to make her face glow from within while the Deep Octa seems a little too specular. Notice too the softness of the shadow under her chin along with more shadows carving through her collar bone and upper chest. However, the Deep Octa does seem to add a softer highlight on the tip of her nose along with brighter lips. Overall my preference is for the image on the left.
Jillian
Jillian has a more angular facial structure which the Beauty Dish compliments so perfectly. Notice how the image on the left simply seems to have more dimension on almost every feature. The Beauty Dish just seems to carve the light around her angles making for amazing shadows and highlights. Again, I prefer the left image, by far.
Jumping to a Conclusion
I used both of these modifiers extensively beyond these three tests to help round out my thoughts and I’ll be honest at first I thought both were quite interchangeable. Initially I definitely had a preference for the Deep Octa mainly because it was a bit easier to take on and off, all you had to do was twist it off of the strobe. The beauty dish wasn’t much more difficult but the weight made using it on a boom-stand a bit cumbersome and I always seemed to forget to take off that little reflector from the front before un-twisting the dish.
It was only after “getting to know” them a bit better that I started to discover the subtle differences – differences that are difficult explain without sounding like a nut-job – but overall I found myself being drawn to the quality of light produced by the Beauty Dish for probably 3 out of 5 set-ups. If I had to choose one then it’d have to be the Beauty Dish since I can see myself wanting to use it more often, however, both of the modifiers get a ringing endorsement from me – especially since the Deep Octa happens to be a bit more convenient and a bit better under certain circumstances, such as photographing unique faces like the amazing Brynlee!
If you don’t already have one of these I’d definitely recommend saving up some pennies and picking one up!
Complete Equipment Used for this test
AquaTech Underwater Housing
Canon 5D Mark II
In a previous post I reviewed underwater point-and-shoot cameras. The cameras from Olympus and Panasonic were a lot of fun but lacked the control most serious photographers would want.
Point-and-shoots are easy to carry and easy to use and that portability comes at a price though, they have relatively slow shutter reaction, no detachable lenses, can’t shoot in RAW format… I could go on.
So how do you shoot underwater and still keep the control? Well the solution is simple – take the Canon 5D Mark II under water with a case from AquaTech. I decided to take one out for a test-drive!
It was a sunny weekday afternoon when UPS unexpectedly dropped off the underwater casing so I called Brynlee and asked her how well she could hold her breath, ”I can do it! But, can I keep my nose plugged?” she asked.
“Unfortunately you cannot touch your nose,” I explained.
There was a long pause, “I can do it!” she promised.
So off we went to shoot in an outdoor swimming pool and just try some things out.
When we showed up we realized the pool was extremely cloudy from a recent water treatment. The water was completely safe, just cloudy for another day or so. This technical problem is easily solved when you have control over your equipment and the AquaTech underwater casing allowed me to have access to nearly EVERY necessary button on my 5D Mark II while underwater. The water visibility was less than 6 feet, give or take, so the camera controls got a very good test since I had to change everything from shutter speed, aperture, ISO, auto-focus point and pretty much every other setting you can think of.
It was a weird experience changing these without actually toughing the camera and I realized something interesting…
I actually don’t consciously know how to change many of the settings use all the time. I actually couldn’t remember how to change the shutter speed… my hands just knew how to do it when I was holding my camera but at this second I wasn’t actually holding my camera directly so I had to stop, and think hard about how I normally changed the shutter-speed. After I got over that barrier the controls became much easier, but it gave me some food for thought about the necessity of really knowing your equipment. I think it’s a good sign when you know your equipment well enough that you work with it on a completely sub-conscious level… reserving the rest of your brain-power for the idea at hand.
I do have two (very, very small) complaints, one, you can’t manually focus and two the casing makes the camera a bit bulky but there is a very nice bonus – if you drop the camera, it floats!
Here are a handful of finished images from the shoot (retouched in Lightroom and Photoshop).
This was just a preliminary test but I am seriously, seriously tempted to add one of these to my permanent collection of equipment, I’ll be posting some additional results in the coming weeks! If you’re interested on current pricing and additional specs visit B&H Photo online.
What is the most important Purchase?
Some sort of Data Backup, any sort!
This is an educational announcement, no inspiration here just wisdom. If you already have an automatic backup system in place skip this blog post and look at my gallery instead. If you don’t have an automatic backup system then keep reading.
I just purchased this one week ago after my 1TB version was all filled up. This won’t be a technical review of hardware… so if you’re looking for that look elsewhere.
So why is this the most important purchase?
You will suffer a hard drive failure at some point in your life, unless you’re ridiculously lucky. When it happens it will either be the biggest stress that you’ve faced in a long, long time or it will be a minor inconvenience… YOU get to decide what it will be RIGHT NOW!
Common Types of Backup Available
- Online Backup Sites (like Carbonite or Intronus or Mozypro)
- Internal Raid (duplicate harddrives with mirrored data)
- External Harddrive (Using Apple Time Machine)
- Manual backup onto CD/DVD/Microdrive
So of all those I opt for option 3. External Harddrive. Is it as secure as other backup options? Well it does not always protect data in the case of rare events like war, floods, hurricanes, or Dick Cheney hunting accidents… things like that, but it does protect against a much more common form of data loss – unexpected and unannounced harddrive failure.
Backing up with a Mac is about the easiest thing you’ll do in your life. To start automatic backups all you do is open your system preferences, click on time machine, select the backup drive, turn the BIG switch from Off to On.
You’re finished.
You can tweak the settings if you want but the backup starts immediately, once backed up it continually updates the backup file. And it really does work like a time machine, you can open a folder and choose whatever version of a particular file you want to back up to within the last several days… distance of time in the past depends on the size of backup space available.
Why do I Use G-Technology?
I like these external hardrives from G-Technology for a couple reasons. Not only do they look sleek they also run nearly silently, they are pretty durable (I haven’t broke one yet) and work right out of the box with Mac (and work well).
I’m going to be honest, I don’t know a ton about hardware… but this is my third or fourth drive from G-Tech and I’ve had no problems with any of them. They also get good reviews… if you find a better external harddrive I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
In the mean-time do yourself a favor and pick one up… here’s the one I bought (August 2010), you may need much less or much more space than me… look around and find a solution that fits you!
G-Technology 4TB G-Raid External Harddrive Array
Whatever you do, don’t wait until you learn the hard way!
Once the first backup of all your data finishes and you have two copies of everything you will sleep much better at night… trust me.
Shooting Underwater is something I’ve never done before, not really sure why… I don’t really have the fancy tanks that a lot of the great underwater photographers have and I guess that kind of always kept me from messing around with it.
But then the other day I realized, I didn’t used to have most the equipment I use today and that never, ever, never stopped me from experimenting and having fun.
So, I decided to give some underwater images a try. What better way to start out than with some relatively inexpensive, easy to use point-and-shoot cameras? Both are 14 megapixels, both can go underwater for up to 33ft, and both retail for around $300 or less at B&H. 14 megapixels for $300? Just five years ago I would have had trouble wrapping my head around that… my how times have changed!
Versus
What’s in the Box
The Panasonic Lumix comes with a couple cool little extras, like a rubber camera case, a plastic battery case and a CD that I’d never look at. Other than that they come with almost identical offerings.
There is one difference in how the batteries recharge though. The Panasonic Lumix comes with a separate battery charger, however you have to plug the Olympus camera TO the battery charger with the USB plug. To me the Olympus design is absolutely unacceptable. For one, if you’re traveling with it you need to remember to bring the chord AND the battery charger that plugs into the wall… two, you’ll have to remember to bring the chord home with you… three, and this is the big one, you cannot buy an extra battery and charge it while the camera is in use.
Score one BIG point for the Panasonic Lumix.
Specs
The Olympus comes with 2GB built in memory, which is really cool, but the Lumix comes with an LED light for video, which is also really cool. I can’t really say which one is better because both of them would be AMAZINGLY convenient during that one or two times in your life when you filled up all your memory cards and you NEED a few more picture. Or when you’re 12 feet under water and you want to throw a tiny bit of light onto that eel you’re videoing.
I’m giving them a TIE.
The Test
Anyone interested in purchasing an underwater P&S isn’t going to be extremely picky about minor differences in technicalities, so I’m skipping those.
What really matters to me for a P&S camera is whether or not it’s easy to carry around, there is an intuitive interface and button layout and biggest of all that it is FUN to use… and it should take decent pictures.
So, I decided to jump into a pool a few times with both cameras and see what I could come up with just messing around!
I assumed I would be writing a review about how both of them are great, fun little cameras. I also thought I probably wouldn’t be able to tell much of a difference between them. On this I was very surprised to find out I was VERY wrong I was.
I preferred using the Panasonic Lumix much, much, much more and it all came down to how short of time there was between me pressing the button and the camera taking the picture. The Olympus seemed to take an eternity! As a photographer I want INSTANT responsiveness.
Score a BIG point for the Panasonic Lumix
The Photographs!
After shooting with both cameras on three separate occasions I went through the images and picked some of my favorites. NONE of these results are straight out of the camera, I’ve taken all of them through my standard development process in Lightroom.
It should be noted, for all of you purists out there, that this sort of tweaking has gone on in the darkroom long before a computer was invented… in my opinion a photo is not finished until it’s been tweaked.
So tweak I did! Here are the results, grouped by camera.
Results From the Olympus Stylus Tough!
Results From the Panasonic Lumix!
The Verdict
I had a blast shooting underwater. If you live anywhere near a source of water I think the $300 for either of these cameras is well worth it, if nothing else just for the fun factor! I got plenty of useable images from both cameras, one wish would be that they could shoot in RAW format rather than JPG but for $300 I can’t complain too much!
That said this was just a warmup, in a week or so I’ll be taking my Canon 5D Mark II beneath the ripples while trying out the Aquatech Underwater Casing and let you know how the experience compares to the more spontaneous feeling Point and Shoots…
I’m very excited for that, but until then back to the results.
The clear favorite!
Overall the Panasonic Lumix‘s response time made it much more fun to use and I was able to catch the decisive moment much more easily. Also, since it was quicker I could get an extra shot or two off while holding my breath.
The runner up…
So how do I rank the Olympus Stylus Tough? Well, it took great pictures but the slight delay from pressing the button to opening the shutter was very annoying… that loss in “fun-factor” and ability to capture the “decisive moment” gets it a solid luke-warm rating.
Special thanks to the models: Ashlé Hansey, Chloe Roberts and my beautiful wife Jenny!
Equipment used to achieve these images
First of all, I have no idea why there isn’t a standard name for octagonal softboxes, every company uses their own name – Elinchrom Octa, Photoflex Octodome, Hensel Octaform… it gets confusing! That said the Octagon shaped soft-box is one of my favorite light modifiers. Not only does it make for beautiful catchlights it also wraps around the face and body in a way other soft boxes just can’t seem to pull off.
I wanted to get a new one but I couldn’t really find any good reviews on the differences between brands, so I asked B&H to send me a couple to take for a test drive, thanks so much! A few days later they arrived and the match was set!
Versus
I’m not a professional reviewer so I set out to simply experiment with both softboxes and report on which one I liked best. I selected the Photoflex for the very simple reason that Photoflex soft-boxes have speed-rings that will adapt them to several different brands of strobes and I chose Elinchrom because that is the brand of strobe I currently use in my studio. For this particular test I used the Elinchrom Style 600RX.
In order to keep the results between the two soft-boxes as fair as possible I used the same settings on the strobe without moving the light stand at all between shots, I also kept all the camera settings exactly the same. I had Bailey (the beautiful model) try to hold the same pose between shots. We did this a few times with slightly different styles to get as broad of results as possible.
I didn’t have any expectations going into it, I have used Elinchrom and Photoflex soft boxes and have had great success with both brands. What I found out surprised me.
What’s in the box
Rotalux by Elinchrom Midi Octa
Click for B&H Listing
- Octa Softbox with textured silver lining
- Removable Inner/Outer Baffle
- Tent poles
- Speed Ring
- Case with shoulder strap
Photoflex Octadome
Click for B&H Listing
- Octadome Softbox with white lining
- Double sided lining, gold or silver
- Octagon lining for back of softbox
- Removable Inner/Outer Baffle
- Speed Ring
- Case with small handle
Thoughts after opening the boxes
Photoflex comes with a lot more stuff, but Elinchrom’s design eliminates the need for a lot of the extras. For instance, the octagon shaped cover for the back of the softbox isn’t needed by Elinchrome simply because the design of the softbox fits perfectly snug with the Elinchrom strobe. This may be because Photoflex is designing their light for maximum compatibility across multiple brands of strobes.
The double sided lining that comes with the Photoflex box is kind of a cool idea. Why you would use a gold reflector? Well if you ever shoot in the shade on a bright sunny day you’ll notice that there is a blue-ish color cast. The reason you get a blue color cast is because the ambient light is blue – mainly because it comes from the blue sky. Since gold is a yellowish color (yellow is opposite Blue on the RGB color wheel) the gold reflector can help correct the blue cast in shadows. If you’re shooting the octa mostly inside a studio (like I am) then the gold reflector is pretty much useless… it is cool to have but it’s also a little bit of a pain to put on.
The texture of the two inner linings is significantly different, the Elinchrom has a raised, pebble like texture that you can see and feel. The Photoflex lining is completely flat (both gold and silver). I’m interested to see if this has any affect on the final images.
Also, the baffles are made out of markedly different material. The Elinchrom material feels more cloth-like whereas the Photoflex baffle feels more plasticky. The cases don’t really affect how they’ll shoot but it’s worth mentioning that the Elinchrom case is much cooler and better quality.
Assembly
I hate putting together softboxes, especially big ones. It’s a hassle.
As far as hassles go the Photoflex was much less stressful putting together, even though I had to put on all the linings the built in tent poles were much easier to manage during set-up. It’s a trade-off though, once finished the Elinchrom had a smoother front to it, all the edges were crisp, it was much, much lighter, and the back of the softbox fit snuggly to the light which eliminated all the nasty spill light. Also, the Elinchrom has zero velcro on it and the Photoflex feels like it was born in a velcro factory.
The Photflex does sell a mesh grid which fits the front of the softbox. An equivalent option is not available from Elinchrom. For this review I both soft boxes without a grid the entire time, I’ll do a separate review on the mesh grid in a later post.
All-in-all, if I were choosing soft-box that I was going to take apart and put back together often I’d probably go with the Photoflex, though if I had the option to leave it constructed most of the time (which I do) then the Elinchrom’s light weight and more solid construction make it a bit more convenient moving around the studio.
Shoot One: Beauty Portrait
On first glance many of you will notice one difference between the two images, the Photoflex seems to be brighter – especially near the center of the image (right around the middle of her face). I think the brightness has to do with the different fabric on each of the softboxes, the Elinchrom’s cloth baffle simply disperses or absorbs the light more than the Photflex.
Brightness aside the Photoflex seems to be a more specular light source than the Elinchrom. Specular vs. diffuse is one of the main principles in the quality of light and generally speaking the smaller the light source the more specular it is, and the more specular a light source is the harder the shadows and highlights are. That’s why an overcast sky (the biggest light source of all) creates nearly zero shadows.
What’s confusing to me is that since the Photoflex soft box is bigger it should be putting out a more diffuse light, but that’s not what is happening.
It’s a very, very subtle difference though, so we’ll take a closer look at what I’m talking about.
Look at the shadows just below her cheekbone on each of these completely un-retouched images. Notice how the edge of the shadow on the Photoflex is just a tad bit more defined than the edge of the Elinchrom? I’m not talking about darkness of shadow, I’m talking about the edge where it transitions from shadow to light. You may need to squint to see it but you’ll notice that the bottom edge of the Elinchrom is very soft, whereas the Photoflex is a little more defined.
This is the exact opposite result of what I would have expected since Photoflex should be the more diffuse light source. I’m not saying that a more diffuse shadow is better in any way. Many jobs call for more defined shadows, in which case a more specular light source is ideal, but a 5′ foot octagon softbox is designed to modify a light into a diffuse source. Certainly this difference is not a major one at all, though it is noticeable to me.
Also, the Elinchrom seems to have slightly yellow color cast to it, again, easily corrected before or after I took the shot – but I wanted these to be with identical settings.
I think both would be an excellent choice for a beauty headshot. I do prefer the Elinchrom mainly because of the subtle hot spot from Photoflex in the center of the image.
Shoot Two: Full Body Side Lighting
Again, the Photoflex appears brighter overall. Both create very useable results. It was only after very careful observation that I realized something really strange. It has to do with the light hitting the model’s left thigh.
On careful inspection (you have to look at how well the light reflects off the top of the thigh) you’ll notice that the light on the Elinchrom image is brighter than the Photoflex image. Which is strange for a couple of reasons, first of all the Photoflex softbox is larger so her leg should be closer to the light source, and the closer the subject is to a fixed intensity light source the brighter that light will appear. Of course spreading the same amount of light across more surface area would definitely decrease the intensity slightly but we already know the Photoflex is producing brighter images overall. Maybe it was just because her leg is bent slightly more towards the light-source in the Elinchrom version – that would definitely cause a brighter light… but I don’t think the difference would be this much. I could absolutely be wrong though, I decided to do another experiment to find out.
Like any 5th grade science teacher will tell you, in order to create a successful experiment you need to develop a hypothesis and then create an experiment to test your hypothesis.
I developed a theory, even though the Photoflex was larger I figured the strobe was not actually spreading it’s light very equally across the front baffle. To test the theory I came up with a plan. I set my aperture to as high as it will go (f32) and shot the front of each softbox directly, at three different power settings. 1.5 | 3.0 | 4.5
The results are below (Elinchrom is on the left, Photoflex is on the right)
After converting these images to black and white I used the eyedropper tool along with the info tab in photoshop to measure the amount of black present at similar points in both lights. I labeled each of these as seen above. This test verifies my theory and explains both issues I was having with the Photoflex soft box, there is a ring of more intense light (with a darker center) in the center of the Photoflex softbox and as the light goes out it stays brighter for longer but then drops off much faster than the Elinchrom.
Shoot 3: Front full Body
Even though the Photoflex appears brighter throughout the entire image you can see that the transition from the tones in her face to the tones in her legs is more drastic than in the Elinchrom version. Not much, but when I look for it I can definitely tell.
Of course I could have shot still images of cubes and cylinders for this light test and we could have eliminated the tiny movements of the model in between tests but overall I think the best kind of test is a real life one. That makes the beautiful Bailey a perfect choice for this experiment and I would like to thank her for her patience while I yelled at her to hold still while I swapped out lights.
The Conclusion?
All in all both, of the soft boxes performed well. If I’m being honest I prefer the Elinchrom. Not only does the light transition more smoothly (with a less-pronounce center hot-spot) but the lighter weight and tighter construction makes it something that is just easier to move around in the studio.
One big complaint about Elinchrom though – I’d really love it if the Elinchrom softboxes weren’t nearly IMPOSSIBLE to remove from the Elinchrom 600RX!
However, it needs to be said that I am certain I could get very useable results from the Photoflex.
Final Retouched Images
Other Equipment used to achieve these images
Review: 2 Light Kit for Less than $400
About a month ago I received an email from B&H asking if I’d be interested in reviewing photo equipment on my blog, all I had to do was tell them what I wanted to review and they’d send it out.
Well, I could have done the selfish thing and found something ultra expensive that I’ve been dying to use (for free) and asked for that, but then I remembered how many people ask me about what lighting equipment I’d recommend for someone that is just starting out, without a big budget. My stupid bleeding heart got the best of me… so I requested to see some lighting kits with these qualifications.
- It had to be at least two lights
- Include EVERYTHING needed to get started
- Cost had to be less than $500
My very helpful marketing rep from B&H gave me some choices and a few days later UPS dropped a single (big) box on my doorstep.
Here are all the fully retouched images… see if your eye is keen enough to spot any tell-tale signs that they weren’t shot with more expensive lighting equipment.
I used the following equipment to make all these images.
The Lights!
Impact Qualite 2-Light Soft Kit. $369.99 at B&H Hot light kit (meaning the lights stay on all the time and don’t flash).
Pros
- Hot lights are fantastic for learning about how light falls on your subject.
- This kit was very easy to setup, and take apart.
- The kit comes with two good quality soft boxes that you can definitely use even when you upgrade your lights (about $80 each to purchase separately)
- Lights are very light and easy to move around and small enough to be used in a spare bedroom of your house!
Cons
- You can’t adjust the power of hot lights, so if you need to change their intensity your only choice is to move them closer or further away from your subject.
- The hot lights are not as powerful as strobes so you need to shoot fairly wide open with a slower shutter speed.
- Light stands in the kit are pretty cheap and probably won’t support much heavier lights/modifiers.
- I generally prefer to use larger softboxes, so to fake a large softbox I placed these side by side for a couple shots.
Overall
This kit is EXACTLY what I wanted it to be, a very inexpensive, easy to use set-up that is perfect to learn and experiment with. Are there lots of technical limitations? Yes. But the biggest limitation on getting started with using any studio lights is not starting your experimentation, and this will be a good way for you to jump right in, for not very much money, and start experimenting with studio lighting in a spare room in your own home!
Lighting Diagram and walk through of a studio lighting setup using a borrowed studio and borrowed lights.
Jake Garn gives a video tour of one of his fully retouched photoshop files, layer by layer. A quick way to pick up on some techniques you may have overlooked.
Filmed at the 2011 Shoot For Love workshop this is a great overview of basic lighting principles and available types of lighting equipment along with a slew of sample images showcasing different lighting techniques and equipment. We talk about the first step in learning light and that is understanding yourself. A must watch for any photography lighting enthusiast!
Filmed at the 2011 Shoot For Love workshop Jake Garn shares posing tips and techniques to get the most flattering looks from your models, also a discussion on inspiring (and stealing) the perfect expressions.
