We began the morning with models in the studio; I had my full Speedlite rig setup and we worked through several lighting variations, ending with a clamshell lighting setup that worked great with our beautiful model:

I got wrapped up in shooting and didn’t get setup shots like I should have, and I couldn’t even begin to tell you what the lighting ratios were – we simply changed camera settings and moved the lights until they worked.  And they did work.

What I can tell you is a couple of points that quickly became clear, through working with the models and through the insight of some of the more experienced photogs present.  First off, when it comes to working with models, you’ve got to keep them in motion – just get them to move in different ways, and have the camera to your eye to capture the perfect moments when they come.   Give them direction, encourage them, get them to repeat poses and movements that worked.  Models – especially inexperienced ones – are usually looking for some form of guidance; you’ve got to let them know what you want them to do, know that you’re engaging with them, otherwise they freeze up and get nervous.

Second, I’ve come to the conclusion that the pop-up flash on the Canon 7D is just too weak; the built-in commander mode is wonderful, but even working in my corner of the conference room, it didn’t gave the power to trigger the slaves consistently.  Suck it up and buy an extra 580EX(II) and slap in on the hotshoe in Master mode and then go to town.  The 580EX throws a ton of light and triggers the slaves every time.  And from my understanding, the new 580EX II will talk to the 7D, giving you control over features directly from the camera.

(And there’s a rumor going ’round that Canon is about to release a new Speedlite…  Something even better than the 580EX II, to counter the Nikon SB-900?)

Finally, if you really want to kick your model shots up a notch, get some motion in them.  A $40 pedestal fan from Lowes got Alli’s hair blowing around and gave a whole other dimension to the photos.  I scrapped the stand that came with the fan and slid part of it’s post over the top of a lightstand – fit perfectly, and gave me an adjustable height range.   The two shots posted above wouldn’t be half as good if her hair was just lying there motionless.

While I was playing with Speedlites, Tony in the next room had his entire studio setup going; we’re talking a massive muslin background, several Alien Bees lights with modifiers, an iMac, everything but the kitchen sink.  I didn’t tap into that setup – big strobe setups aren’t really my thing – but I did step in and shoot a few frames with one of the afternoon models, sort of over Tony’s shoulder.  While he blasted away with the big guns, this is just a 580EX on-camera, bounced off the ceiling, with the 70-210mm f/4 wide open:

It’s warm from the bounce off the tan ceiling tiles, and there’s just a bit of softness that comes from using that particular lens fully zoomed, combined with the f/4 aperture.  Simple, but elegant, and not at all bad for bounce light.  This is the Strobist concept: you can hit a model from all angles, with multiple monoblocs, and get one look; or you can hit them with a single, bounced Speedlite and get a completely different look.  One is no more valid than the other, they’re just different ways of doing the same job, and having both setups on site that day made it really easy to see the ways they differed.

We closed out the workshop shooting outside, which is a story I’ll continue in the next post.

In the meantime, I want to wrap this one up with a final impression – this Strobist workshop was the most fun I’ve had with a camera in ages.  I cannot over-estimate how helpful it was to be there participating, or how fulfilling it was to coordinate the event and see it through to the end.  I can say without any doubt that every single person who attended walked away with killer images, having learned something new, and having met and networked with an amazing crew of photographers & models.  Everyone there interacted and helped each other – we stepped into each other’s setups and traded transmitters, we shared exposure settings & held gear, and the folks not shooting offered suggestions from the sidelines.  You couldn’t have asked for a better crowd!

It’s not a question of if we’ll do this again, it’s a question of when, and we’re already starting to form some ideas there.  For anyone out there who has never attended a photo get-together/workshop, I strongly suggest that you do so.  Both Strobist and DPChallenge.com groups meet up all the time, all across the USA – and even internationally.  If you’re serious about photography, if you’re serious about wanting to expand your skill set and get better, then it’s worth the investment to be at one of these events.  And if you find that there aren’t any near you, then do what I did, and make one happen.

It is completely, without a doubt, worth it.

The main portion of the shoot was studio-based and went pretty much as predicted, although there were some early issues to overcome. The home-office space that I used wasn’t quite as large as I would have liked, but worked better than any other option I had. Ideally the room would have been longer, to put more space between the model and backdrop.

On the other hand, that would have caused yet more problems, as my roll of background paper isn’t wide enough as it is. In fact, it was causing such problems during the setup test shots done with my assistant for the day, Mandy, that I ended up supplementing it. The quick fix was to cut off the length of paper, then roll out another. I overlapped the two pieces, taping the cut-off piece to the backdrop stand and the roll sheet using painter’s tape. (There was a seam line, but the BG light helped hide it, and a quick use of the Heal tool in Photoshop fixed the rest.)

As we were just about to get started – as in, the model had just arrived – the lightstand holding the BG light took a fall, and in slow motion I watched the flash explode – batteries, battery door, and baseplate all blew off. In an amazing bit of luck, the flash’s internal workings were undamaged, and I was able to jam the battery door back on. The baseplate plastic was broken, however, so instead of mounting it back to the light stand, Mandy became my voice-activated lightstand for the duration of the shoot.

A side note – of my three Nikon Speedlights, the other two already have homemade base plates on them. One I broke after buying and the other I got cheap because of the broken plate. Since I won’t ever use these on camera, it was no big deal to open up the bottoms, remove the hotshoe connections, and glue on a dummy baseplate – a piece of plastic the right size and shape, so they can still mount to the lightstands.

Using the clamshell lighting I talked about in the pre-game post, I shot four different outfits, each in a variety of poses, with some differences in the BG lighting. The BG light varied between 1/4 and 1/16 power, depending on the colored gel or lack thereof. The clamshell strobes were set to 1/4 and 1/8. All were shot with a Canon 400D & 17-40mm lens combo at 1/200th, f/4, & ISO 200.

Clamshell lighting really is a great technique – the effect is smooth and well diffused, and shadows are minimized, especially against a white BG. It’s also easy to setup and work with – the lighted area is actually fairly large, so small movements in the model’s position don’t require resetting of the strobes.

After packing up the studio, we made a quick stop at the client’s grandparent’s house, where we did a few more outdoor shots. We were looking to capitalize on the foliage – aided by the lovely afternoon weather – and we weren’t disappointed. A rope swing in the side yard became the main site, and lit by a single flash, we were able to capture some amazing shots!

The outdoor shots are lit once more by a single strobe with a shoot-through umbrella, held aloft by my assistant. I was shooting at the max sync speed, f/5.6, ISO 200, with the flash on either full or 1/2 power to balance out the afternoon ambient.

I still cannot recommend this technique enough – once you nail down the ratio of strobe to ambient – this took me about a minute’s worth of test shots – it remains constant as long as the light doesn’t change. (And even then, gradual shifts in lighting are easily compensated for on-camera.)

All told, I took over 500 photos during the afternoon. Edited down, the client will only get a fraction of that number – but still, I don’t envy their job of picking the ones they want printed!

The setup I have now lets me light pretty much anything I want. I can setup a studio in my living room and create complex light, or I can walk into a college gym and pump out enough light to shoot sports. I’m comfortable enough with the gear now that I can usually nail down the correct ratios within a few shots. And the whole thing cost me less than a single 580 EX II.

Yet I’m still thinking about changing systems. I’ve flirted with the Canon Speedlite system off and on for a while. I even have a 430 Ex that I use on-camera when the situation requires it. But up to now, using several Canon Speedlites off-camera required either a ST-E2 Speedlite Controller ($200) or a 580 EX II ($450). The ST-E2 uses IR signals to control remote Speedlites, so line-of-sight is essential. Based on its reviews, it works well – when it works. Just don’t try to shoot from too far away, or without good line-of-sight. The 580 EX II communicates through flash pulses; it still needs a line-of-sight, but there’s more flexibility (you can bounce the pulses, etc). But it seems slightly ridiculous to me to buy an expensive Speedlite flash just to use as a controller for other expensive Speedlites.

Enter the Canon 7D, the first Canon camera to finally step up to the plate and match Nikon’s Creative Lighting System by including a commander mode in the built-in flash. For anyone who’s gone Strobist, the built-in flash is just about worthless. But now that it can be repurposed, a whole new set of possibilities open up. Now you can control up to three groups of Speedlites – with several Speedlites to a group – all from the camera. With full use of E-TTL II. With full remote control over the Speedlite settings.

Cool.

Very cool.

There are two gripes with my current setup: 1.) To adjust a strobe, I have to physically change its settings. This may sound petty, but when your strobes are spread out over a large room and you have to go to each, lower the lightstand, change the setting, & raise the lightstand back, you’ve just sucked up several minutes of time. Time when you model is standing there tapping her foot; time your subject may not have.

Gripe 2.) There is no flash exposure metering. No E-anything. Any time I shoot a scene, I have to judge the light, decide on the proper flash exposure, dial it in, and test it.

A switch to the Canon Speedlites would change both of these issues. As I mentioned before, using the built-in commander mode I could change the settings on any of my flashes from the camera itself. And since all the wireless communication is between Canon units, they all speak the language – E-TTL is back in play, auto exposure metering works, and I can let the camera calculate lighting ratios. Which means that when I do have to adjust the Speedlight settings, it won’t necessarily mean dialing in a new manual level, but simply dialing in a -2 FEV value. And now that value will change with the overall exposure – so when I’m working outside and a cloud passes over the sun, the entire system will dial down. When the cloud passes, the entire system dials back up.

There are the pros. But there are still cons; for starters, there’s still a line-of-sight restriction, especially when working at distances outdoors. And there’s the obvious expense: 430 EXs run $250 each.

I haven’t made a decision yet, but this is definitely something I’ll be thinking about. Got an opinion? Hit me up in the comments.

The plan is fairly simple; equipment consists of the backdrop stand and white roll paper, three lightstands, and three umbrellas (two shoot-through, one reflective). Even though I’m expanding to three strobes, the goal is to keep it simple. The space is limited and time – as always, when working with clients – is short. My model will likely have 2-3 nice outfits, and then will switch over to “interest shots.” In her case, this means shots where she has on a dance costume, shots in her basketball uniform, shots with field hockey gear, etc. At the end, the idea is to do a final shot in which she’s wearing/posing with some element of each of the interest areas – something that she’ll hopefully find fun.

What I have in mind is clamshell lighting. This is something I picked up from the Strobist site; like most things over there, it’s straightforward and uncomplicated. Essentially, it involves using two strobes with shoot-through umbrellas positioned one above the other, with a bit of space in between to shoot through. The bottom strobe is angled up just slightly; the top strobe down just slightly. The overall effect is, like the name suggests, a “clamshell” of light that envelopes the model.

The clamshell lighting setup

The lighting ratio between the top and bottom strobes varies between 1 and 2 stops, with the upper strobe usually being the more powerful. Background light comes from the 3rd strobe, with the reflective umbrella, aimed at the roll paper behind her. To blast a full body-sized area of paper pure white would require at least two dedicated strobes; instead, I’m going to throw a colored gel on strobe #3 and aim it across the paper at a downward angle. This should produce a gradient of light in the background, and the gel will color the paper however we choose (if we don’t like a color, we can easily switch to another this way).

The real trick is to keep the model (foreground) physically separate from the roll paper (background). This is the only surefire way to make sure that the background light doesn’t spill back and cause washout or haloing – or in this case leak background color onto her. The trouble is, as you move the roll paper back, due to perspective it becomes smaller in the scene; if you move it too far back, the models shoulders and arms won’t fit horizontally, or the paper will fall below the top of her head. So the solution is twofold: 1) find a room with taller than normal ceilings and raise the paper roll as high as possible; 2) find just the right distance between model and background so she fits on the paper, but the light stays separate. (The ideal solution would be a large, dedicated studio space, and some really wide backgrounds, but who are we kidding? This is the living room leagues.)

To help you visualize what I’m talking about, I included the sketch up above. Hopefully you can tell that’s a model standing behind the two umbrellas and the camera. (This is why I’m a photographer and not a sketch artist.)

The final thing I’ll keep in mind is the old saying, “the best laid plans…” Just because I laid out this elaborate pre-game doesn’t mean that’s what will happen. It’s just as likely that I’ll get everything setup, fire a few test shots, and decide that it doesn’t work. Or else I won’t even get it all setup before I have to start making changes. So the keyword is flexibility – if I can’t use clamshell lighting, I can switch to 45/45 lighting, or two a main/hair/background setup. No matter what, I’ll get the shots.

(If I have any luck left at all, my 7D will be here by Saturday. Right now I’m being to told to expect it on Friday, but this is also the third arrival date I’ve been given, each one later than the previous. In the more likely event that the 7D doesn’t appear on time, I’ll be shooting with the trusty 400D, and either way with the 17-40mm lens.)

This was a new approach for me.  My usual MO when lighting a scene is to start setting up lightstands and strobes until I run out of them (that would be at four, currently).   And for some shoots, especially my university work, that works quite well – I basically light the hell out of the room.  But then there’s the other side of the coin – usually portraiture shoots – where I find myself growing frustrated trying to juggle multiple lights around a single model.  Frustrated by the complexity of it, frustrated by the logistics of adjusting four strobes, and frustrated by inconsistent results.

For several months now, I’ve been following Atlanta-based photographer Zack Aries through his blog.  If you’ve never checked out his work, you should.  Not only is he an excellent photographer, he’s a true inspiration for those of us trying to make it in this business; he’s the guy who decided to become a real, working photog, and did it.  With a single Vivitar strobe.  Hence,  Zack is also the creator of the “One Light Workshop” series, which highlights this style of lighting.

What I know about One Light comes from the website, and from studying Zack’s photos.   Sadly, due to logistics and expense, I haven’t been able to attend a workshop (although I’d love to!).   But you’ll notice that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about the idea, or trying to recreate it.  One light to make a photo, instead of many.  It’s an idea elegant in its simplicity.  And I believe the results speak for themselves.

So back to my senior portrait shoot the other night.  Instead of juggling multiple lights at a new outdoor location, I took a single SB-25 on a lightstand with a shoot-through umbrella.  We started shooting at 7 pm, with the flash at the correct exposure, and the ambient 2 stops under.  My assistant held the extended lightstand, usually up over her head to get into the right location (note – buy a lightstand with a boom before my assistant quits).

The results rocked!  The light is good and a little edgy.  The background falls off enough that it doesn’t compete for attention, but still does its thing.  And  I was free to move about, instead of being tied to a spot because of too much gear.  That’s really what it comes down to – too much gear.  I think that at some point early on in learning photography, we all decide that the answer to our problems is “more gear.”  And while it may well solve the problem of the moment, it also bogs us down, both in terms of logistics and in terms of style.  It’s a hard thing to break free from, and goodness knows this is just the first step in that process, for me.

This is definitely a technique I’m going to spend more time with, and I strongly suggest that you give it a try.  I don’t know that I can make it my primary technique, much less build a reputation out of it the way Zack has, but I do know that I’ll be pulling it out of my bag of tricks more often.

What do these two photos have in common?  (Hint: the fact that neither is very good isn’t the correct answer.)  Hopefully you’re able to see the relationship; the photo on the left is a snapshot of a massage room at a medical school, while the photo on the right is a shot of my bathroom.

My bathroom?  Yep.  The massage room is one of the probable shooting locations I was shown during a tour the other day.  It’s a small room with dim, environmental lighting.  Such a small room, in fact, that I had to stand in the hall and shoot through the doorway just to fit most of it in (the G10 is many things, but it is not a particularly wide-angle P&S).  My bathroom is also a small room, and with the lights off and an amber gel on a flash (I realize that the light in the room is more orange than amber, but the color is just for visualization – slap on any gel you want, the end result will be the same).

The point here is that shooting in tiny spaces makes me nervous.  Stick yourself in a closet with two models, some lightstands, umbrellas, and a prop, and then try to make a photo that doesn’t show the equipment.  It’s hard!  I could have thrown the Speedlite onto the camera and bounced it off the ceiling, of course.  That would have lit the room, and pretty much killed that spa-like warm light.  And if I stuck the amber gel on the Speedlite and bounce it, everything would be bathed in warm light, including my model.

The solution?

Heck if I knew for sure.  Which is why I came home and setup lights in the bathtub.  Now my bathroom isn’t shaped quite the same as the massage room; the indents for the shower and washer/dryer mess with the overall lighting, and of course there’s no massage table.  But the point is, it’s similar enough to practice lighting it.  And as it turns out, bouncing an amber geled SB-25 off the ceiling – coupled with another SB-25 in a reflective umbrella aimed at the models – gets about the look I wanted.  Look at the photo on the right again.  It’s rough – very rough – but it shows that yes, I can light it that way, and it will probably work.

Now when I walk into that massage room during the shoot, I have a place to start, instead of standing there like a monkey trying to do a math problem.  Would that setup be the perfect solution?  Maybe not, but at least it’s a starting place – a logical starting place at that.

Of course, it turns out that we shot the massage part of the gig in a classroom anyway…  But it was still worth the 15 minute investment at home, to be prepared later on.  I highly suggest that you do this sort of exercise.  Any time you know you’re going to have to light a room for a gig, go home and practice on a room of similar size & shape.  It doesn’t have to be fancy – just throw some light around a few different ways and see what it looks like.  If it works, great – you know how to start when you’re on the job.  And if it doesn’t work, then you have time to come up with something else, without a client standing behind you tapping his foot.

How it was done:

The ceremony took place outside, amid a small orchard of apple trees (at least, they looked like apple trees).  There was strong afternoon sunlight dappled with the shadows of the trees, and the wedding party moved in and out of the shadows at times.  I shot with both the 50D + Sigma 70-200mm + Cokin Circular Polarizer and the 400D + Tokina 12-24mm, switching between them as needed.  The 400D had a 430EX Speedlite on it, dialed down to provide fill; the 50D had my radio slave Tx unit and was triggering a single SB-25 at 1/2 power, set at about a 45 degree angle to the ceremony.  I shot the 50D at f/4, 1/250, ISO 100. 

The flash let me underexpose the background by about a stop while throwing just the right amount of light on the subjects.  The polarizer was a godsend, as it cut the ambient down enough for me to maintain a large f-stop while remaining within sync-speed of the camera.  It also heightened the color contrast of the scene.

The reception was shot with the same camera setup, except the 50D was now controlling three SB-25s (and later two SB-25s and an SB-27 after one of the ’25s took a spill and the hotshoe foot broke off – the only casualty of the day).  The Speedlights were all set to 14mm via their diffuser panels, and were angled up at the roof of the reception tent.  I had them spaced in a triangle around the perimeter; the combination of spacing and bouncing gave me good, even light coverage over most of the tent.

The real problem under the tent was the white balance, which was skewed by the ambient bouncing off the grass and into the tent, giving everything a real good greenish cast.  I set the 50Ds white balance by hand, adjusting the Kelvin setting until it was right.  The 400D got a custom setting, but it tended to vary a lot by location, and required a bit of tweaking later.

What was learned:

Each gig is a learning experience, and I don’t expect to ever leave a session without having come across some new bit of info.  Frankly, if I ever do leave without having learned something, I figure I’m not doing my job right.  The goal is to keep pushing to improve, and the only way to do that is through experience and reflective analysis.

First, more memory!  I shot all five CF cards to within 10 shots of being full.  That’s 14 solid GBs of memory.  It worked out to be just enough, but next time I’d prefer to have a buffer.  My next order to B&H will include at least two new 8 GB cards.

Second, the Tokina 12-24, amazing lens that it is, is almost too wide for this kind of work.  At the wide end distortion becomes a real concern, and at the long end, it’s often not quite long enough.  I prefer to work with some distance between myself and the subject, as I feel it makes them more at ease; sticking a lens up someone’s nose is going to make them tense, and even at 24mm, I had to get close.  This isn’t to say that a wide angle doesn’t have it’s place at a wedding, because it most certainly does – I’m just thinking that a 17-40mm range might be more in line.

Third, more lights.  Outdoors in daylight, I could have shot under the reception tent without any strobes at all.  But I like the mix of strobe and ambient better, and three was a good number this time.  But next time, more would be better – at least two more, for better blanket coverage.  Also, with more lights I can hopefully turn the power down a stop on each, and get a little more speed and battery life out of them.

Overall:

I had a lot of fun and am pleased with how the images turned out – I think the bride and groom will be too!  Shooting a wedding is a lot of work, both the day-of and in post production.  But if you enjoy the intense kind of shooting, the creation of intimate portraits and once-in-a-lifetime moments, then it is wholly worth it.  I can’t wait for the next one!

I also have to give a major shout-out to my girlfriend Mandy, who not only came along to work as my assistant and help with setup, lights, etc., but during the reception took up the 400D and assumed the role of second shooter!  She got some great shots, and I’m wildly impressed.  Thanks Mandy!

So what does it take to do a gig like this?  The simple answer is, I’m bringing everything.  I’m a very strong believer in the concept of “It’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.”  Whatever I don’t use will be fine in the trunk, and it’s on hand if the situation arises.

But for basics, I plan to be rocking with both camera bodies; the Sigma 70-200mm on the 50D and the Tokina 12-24mm on the 400D.  The 28-135mm will be nearby if I need to make a quick switch, although I’m really hoping to do most of my work with the other two lenses.  Since we’re working 1300-1700, there should be plenty of light, so I won’t really be needing IS anyway.  And since it’s outdoors, there should be plenty of room to back off an go long with the Sigma.

Also packing the Speedlights and stands; the plan is to use one Speedlight off-camera, and likely the 430EX on-camera for bounce fill when I’m shooting under the tent during the reception.  My girlfriend, Mandy, is coming along to act as Sherpa…voice activated light stand…assistant, and will be in charge of holding the excess gear and positioning the light as I move.  All in all, that should make my life a lot easier.

She and I were out in the back lawn yesterday doing a little practice, mostly letting her get a feel for aiming the Speedlight.  While we were out there, I took a few test shots myself – I like how they’re looking!  (Except for the whole squinting part, of course – but what do you expect from a test shot?)

For the full run down, check back Sunday evening – by then I hope to have most of my editing done, and be able to discuss how it went in some detail.

Enter Joe McNally and his “Hotshoe Diaries.”  McNally is a well known name in the photo circles – the man has done some really cool shots and is well known for his own obsession with Speedlights (at one point he used 47 of them on a single shoot).  If you want to work with Speedlights, if you want to kick your work to the next level, or if you just want to be wowed – buy the book, read it, then read it again with a notebook at hand.

McNally starts with the basics, and he’s not afraid to repeat himself as many times as he feels is necessary to really get the point across.  The format of the book is unique; he shows you a final shot, then spends anywhere from one to several pages talking about how he did it – the setting, the reason for the shot, the thought process, and the technicals.  It is never boring, and more often than not it leaves you thinking “geeze, would I have thought of that?”

Which isn’t as depressing as it sounds, since he shows you the tools you need.  Half the book is given to scenes lit by a single strobe!  The overall point is, we can do this – any of us (maybe not for big clients like McNally, but certainly for ourselves).

Even as a religious Strobist reader, I finished “The Hotshoe Diaries” with new understanding and new ideas.  Things that had been murky before – simple things – are clear in my mind now.  And techniques I hadn’t considered before I’m now itching to try.  But most importantly, at least to me, I never felt like I was about to step in over my head – there’s no complicated magic, just simple, straightforward techniques.

A final note – McNally makes use of the the Nikon CLS system (which makes sense, as he shoots Nikon).  There’s a lot of mention of this system, but it doesn’t detract from the overall content.  And it would be easy enough to convert the ideas to the Canon wireless flash system, or to the PocketWizard/Radio Popper systems.  Or even to manual flash settings (although if you’re a manual flash Strobist, you may start to think that having wireless communications between your flashes might be worth the investment!).

For even more cool stuff, including a complete and highly impressive gear list, check out McNally’s blog.

I use the Strobist system of lighting.  For anyone who’s been living under a rock for the past two years and doesn’t know what Strobist is, check out the link and prepare to learn a ton.  Strobist is the brainchild of former photojournalist David Hobby, who started blogging about the wonders of using off-camera flash.  His system is centered around hotshoe-style Speedlight strobes (by any manufacturer), used off-camera in manual mode.

The perks of this system are huge.  Speedlight strobes are smaller, cheaper, far more mobile, and easier to use on location or in the studio.  Consider this: when I was working as the assistant university photographer in Binghamton, going on-location with the studio gear involved taking two suitcase-sized bags for the lights alone, plus another for light stands and accessories – we used a folding luggage cart to carry it all.

My kit is much easier to manage.  All four of my strobes fit into an old Army shoulder bag, plus my radio slaves, gel pack, roll of tape, and spare batteries.  An old tripod bag holds two light stands, two umbrella adapters, and two umbrellas.  If I need the third light stand and adapter, I use ball-bungies to attach it to the bag holding the others.  That’s all there is to it.

Granted, if I am taking the entire studio setup with me, it gets a bit more complicated, as I then have another bag for the backdrop stand, the roll of seamless, and the beauty dish & softbox.  But more often than not, I try to work with what I have on hand – in my university days, that was easy.  If I was shooting in the gym, I put three strobes on stands in a large triangle around my subjects and bounced off the ceiling.

Shooting in the pool was the same idea, except I lined all 3 strobes up along the side of the pool and bounced again.  At f.4 and ISO 800 I had enough light to shoot at 1/60th or better, depending on which dark cave I was in.

This is why you need to take the Strobist system seriously.  If you’re never, ever going to leave your studio then perhaps AlienBees or White Lightings are the way to go.  But if you’re going to be working on location, especially by yourself, you need mobility.  I can take my kit anywhere, indoors or out, and light anything.  If I can’t bounce off a wall or ceiling, I can place the stands and throw on umbrellas.  I don’t need outlets; I have a dozen sets of rechargeable AA batteries that I cycle through.  And if I were ever to burn through all of those, I carry some regular AAs along just in case.

And now the part that should really get your attention – cost.  A single studio strobe (never mind light stand or anything else) runs $200+.  In my kit, not a single strobe cost over $100; the average is closer to $70.  That’s because I buy older model Nikon Speedlights off eBay.  (These used to cost about $25 each on eBay, until Strobist hit the scene and drove the prices back up).  Instead of the obscenely expensive PocketWizards, I use Cactus 16-channel studio slaves (also an eBay unit, from Gadget Infinity).  And I finish it off with light-duty light stands and umbrella adapters; I’m only putting a Speedlight on there, after all.

The Cactus radio slaves (sometimes known as “Poverty Wizards”) are a mixed bag.  Their V2 models are built for Speedlights , but don’t usually work well (in my experience).  The 16-channel ones work much better, but are made for studio strobes and come with studio jacks.  What do I do?  I cut the studio jacks off and use some simple crimp tubes to splice on PC adapters, which plug into all my flashes.  Finish it off with some shrink-wrap tubing or electrical tape, and the receivers are good to go.

Likewise with the Cactus transmitter units – out of the box they have really bad range and tend to mis-fire or not fire at all.  But order $5 worth of parts from an electronics store and open the transmitter up (which involves removing a single screw), and you’ll see that there’s a spot on the circuit board for an antenna.  So you drill a hole in the top of the case (very easy), solder a single wire from the marked spot on the circuit board to the antenna you bought (easy), put it all back together, and you suddenly have great range and a dependable transmitter (very, very cool).

Total cost: $30 for a Tx & Rx set, plus $20 for each additional Rx, plus $15 for all the extra parts.  My ENTIRE radio slave kit cost me HALF the price of a SINGLE PocketWizard unit.  And I’m no electronics genius; I had never soldered anything before in my life.  But it was easy – really, really easy – to perform all the mods.  Consider the price and how well the whole kit works, and it’s a no-brainer.

For all the details, take a look at the following links:

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Strobist - again, if you want to learn to light, check this guy out.  Start with the Lighting 101 tutorials and work your way up to the current posts.

Rants of a Well-Meaning Madman – this is where I got the directions for the Tx antenna mod.  I ordered the parts from the shop he suggested and followed the steps.  It took about an hour and was easy.  Only the soldering worried me, but my uncle lent me his soldering iron and gave me a 5-minute crash course, and I did just fine.

Another Tx mod – this guy takes the prize for simplicity!  Apparently he simply soldered a longer, firmer length of wire to the circuit board and ran it directly through a small hole in the case, and viola – instant antenna.

Gadget Infinity – the eBay store that sells Poverty Wizards.  They’re based out of Hong Kong, so shipping can take a few days longer, but the stuff still comes quick.  Don’t expect the units to work great out of the box – the mods listed above are required to get great results.  I use the “16 channels wireless studio flash triggers” – NOT the ”16 channels wireless studio flash triggers 220V” model.