flash

Indoor photography is always challenging. But standing head and shoulders above the rest in difficulty is the challenge of photographing large indoor events well. Rare is the well-lit auditorium, cafeteria or high school gym. Even most college sports venues aren't lit well enough to make life easy. In this article, I'll give you some tips on how to record events indoors effectively, whether they are your kid's sports, a concert, an exhibit or tradeshow that you need to chronicle...

 Thank you for all the reads on our “Bare Tube Flash Head 101” article. This one is the obvious follow-up story. Without the power pack component, the flash head has no fuel. The pack’s the control panel for the system.

  When we’re out meeting our seminar attendees, we know that many of you are total newbies when it comes to AC flash. So this is the first in our series of explorations into what some call “studio flash”. That in itself is an outdated term: Many professional photographers use these AC-powered flash units and shoot entirely on location. Admittedly, there was a time in history when about the only AC-flash units that were available required a great deal of amperage to power, and the physique of a body-builder to transport.

There is no doubt about it; India is a photographer’s carnival. The colors are kaleidoscopic; the scenes are cinematic; and the light is luminous. I’ve been traveling to Rajasthan for the past few years to lead the National Geographic Expeditions India Photo Tour—a tour that has focused on light and lighting.

Many photographers try to break down the concept of flash photography into what they think are the understandable elements: the numerical values of the settings used. They want numbers, they want the f-stop. However, the scenarios we encounter as photographers vary so much that it becomes meaningless for anyone to “give you the f-stop.”

LED lights produce very little heat and they’re powerful, lightweight and thrifty when it comes to power consumption. While a continuous light source and a flash unit are typically two separate devices, the Litepanels MicroPro Hybrid, specifically designed for DV and HDSLR cameras, is a portable LED light panel with built-in flash capability. 

In our last newsletter we covered a number of products designed to lighten your load when heading out the door with photo gear in tow. Based on your feedback (quite positive, thank you!), we decided to poke around the store a bit further to see what other items we carry for light & compact photo trekking. Compact flash guns and small tripods sturdy enough to use without cussing topped the list, so here goes.