Tangents

photography tutorials, reviews & workshops

tangents photography blog
learn : discuss : share

How to set up wireless flash with the pop-up flash

Leave a Comment

How to set up wireless flash with the pop-up flash

In starting to use off-camera flash, there are some minimum pieces of gear we need. Such as this gear list – starting out with off-camera flash. We don't necessarily need to buy radio triggers immediately. Many new cameras with a pop-up flash, has the ability to have the pop-up flash be a master to optically trigger a slave flash. This is especially helpful if you are on a budget. Later on, when the limitations of optical slaves start to hamper us, can we look at buying radio triggers. Radio controlled wireless triggering of a  Read more inside...

Video tutorial: Manual flash settings

Leave a Comment

?

Video tutorial: Manual flash settings

One advantage that the larger speedlights have over the smaller speedlights - aside from more power - is that they show the distance the flash can reach for the specific settings. This video is a continuation of the off-camera flash tutorial series. What is described in this video is also written out in more detail in this article: Practical tutorial: Controls for manual flash exposure. If manual flash seems confusing, then I would recommend checking that article out as well, and then look at this video tutorial on manual flash settings again.  Read more inside...

Video tutorial: TTL fill-flash

3 Comments

?

Video tutorial: TTL fill-flash

This video tutorial on TTL fill-flash settings, is the visual counterpart to this article - Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC). Whether you use on-camera bounce flash, or off-camera TTL flash as in this off-camera flash tutorial, you will need to adjust your FEC to control the amount of TTL flash you get. Adjusting the FEC allows you varying degrees of fill-flash. This video and the article on flash exposure compensation explains a sequence where you get to compare how different levels of fill-flash affect your final photograph. Also check out  Read more inside...

Off-camera flash tutorial – Off-camera flash on location

3 Comments

Off-camera flash tutorial - Off-camera flash on location

Continuing on from the previous off-camera flash tutorial, we explore balancing ambient light with off-camera flash. With this video tutorial, we use a speedlight in a softbox, and we look at using TTL flash. There is a certain simplicity when we work with TTL flash in a non-static situation - we allow the technology to help us get to proper flash exposure quickly. More about this in the article on Manual flash vs TTL flash. We start off just using the available light for a few headshots of our model, Anelisa. The next step  Read more inside...

Off-camera flash tutorial – Balancing flash with ambient light

Leave a Comment

Off-camera flash tutorial - Balancing flash with ambient light

In the previous off-camera flash tutorial, we started at the elemental level where we did not have to consider ambient light. This helped us in understanding a few of the basics. Ultimately though, where off-camera flash will be used most, is on location where you have to consider the ambient light as well. With this tutorial video, we look at how we would go about balancing flash with ambient light. With this segment, we cover the essentials such as: ·  Using maximum flash sync speed. ·  Flash exposure  Read more inside...

Off-camera flash tutorial – Flash with no ambient light

1 Comment

Off-camera flash tutorial - Flash with no ambient light

This tutorial about off-camera flash, is one of the segments in a series on how to use off-camera flash in a simple scenario - where there is no ambient light. This is a good introduction to the topic. In the next tutorial video, we will consider how we go about adding off-camera flash when we work with ambient light. With this introduction, we cover the essentials such as: ·  Basic gear you would need for off-camera flash. ·  How we decide on our settings - in this case, it is really easy. We decide what aperture and ISO  Read more inside...

review: Spekular LED lighting kit

7 Comments

review: Spekular LED lighting kit

The most adaptable and versatile continuous lighting setup currently might well be the Spekular LED lights (B&H / Amazon). They come as a set of four LED sections (11.8" x 1.57") that can be connected in different ways - as panels or strips or geometric shapes. You decide. The Spekular website shows some of the options. The specifications of the Spekular LED kit only gives a dry idea of what these are capable of.  Therefore, with this video review of the Spekular, I wanted to show some of that adaptability, and how these lights might be  Read more inside...

review: Profoto A1 flash

75 Comments

review: Profoto A1 flash

Profoto has a very strong reputation in the industry for making gear that are reliable, easy to use, powerful, and, well ... looks really good. When Profoto entered the market a few years ago with the portable Profoto B1 flash (affiliate), and then the Profoto B2 flash (affiliate), it was inevitable then that at some point they would make a grand entrance with a speedlight style flash. With this review of the Profoto A1 flash (affiliate), I wanted to show more how I would use it, than just cover the specs of the flash. I met up  Read more inside...

A home-studio setup with speedlites

18 Comments

A home-studio setup with speedlites

With the article on lighting a white seamless studio backdrop in the studio, the question came up how you would do that in a home-based studio where there is less space. The answer? In pretty much the same way. This tutorial video on how to set up a small home studio using speedlites, will show you that the techniques remain the same, whether it is a speedlite, or a powerful studio light. A few notes about this video: For this video, I ended up going with B&W images only of our subject, Matt. I liked the result. It worked very well with  Read more inside...

Profoto: How to use gridded strip boxes as the main light

18 Comments

Profoto: How to use gridded strip boxes as the main light

My favorite light modifiers when working with studio-type flashes like the Profoto B1 and D1, are gridded stripboxes. In the studio where I have space, I tend to prefer the larger Profoto 1’x6’ strip-box (affiliate). When I have to travel with gear, or work with kids, then the Profoto 1’x4’ strip-box (affiliate), is my preference. Both of them with a grid on them. That egg-crate grid on the front helps control how the light spills. This video explains how I use them as the main light, and what makes gridded stripboxes such  Read more inside...