So I will do a seamless transition with the domain name and whatnot once the Blogger site is 100%. In the meantime, take a look at the new resting spot for The inLIGHTin Workshop: http://www.inlightinworkshop.blogspot.com

Thanks to everyone for their support.
Michael

With two kids and a newly built house, I really had no time (or cash) to buck up and build a brand new home studio immediately. However, the weather outside has been getting colder and my portrait shoots were still booking. No one is interested in freezing their butts off outside so I had to think fast. I was left with little to no options so off to Home Depot for some studio triage. I found some remnant vinyl flooring that came pre-cut in a 12′x8′ roll. It looks A LOT like hard wood flooring and but without the hassle of installing it. So I saved myself $30-40 by buying remnant and took it home.
I did try out this setup in my unfinished basement first but didn’t like that backdrop a whole lot:

I closed off part of our living room just by moving some furniture and laid out the flooring for a second time (how nice is it that this floor is portable):

For reference: To the right of this picture I have some great windows for natural lighting in the mornings, and my trusty JTL Versalight studio strobe that I had since 2002. The set screws are stripped but I love this thing. It has a 60″ Photoflex Convertible Umbrella attached to it as well for a nice large, single light source. The light is fired wirelessly through a PocketWizard Plus II Transceiver / Radio Slave.

For my backdrop I just used our walls. How easy is that? The people who built our house put used some matte white paint so that is what is there now. They were also nice enough to install an outlet literallay every 10′ so I did have some Photoshop work to take one out of a coupl images but shooting at f/2 with my Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G Lens helped a whole lot!
This really did the trick and I like the photos a whole lot more (thanks to my daughter, Addison who was my lovely model – and turning one next week)

 






All in all, we have a 14′x30′ living room that opens up into the dining room so I have some room behind me to step back. The best part is that when the clients leave, then I can just roll up my floor and have my house back. All you really need is about 12′x12′ of space and a blank white wall and you should be well underway to making a photo studio on the cheap.

~ Mike

My guesses are that a lot of people will be getting some new gadgets and gizmos within the next couple weeks (maybe that Digital camera or Digital SLRs you’ve been asking Santa for?) and you will probably want to actually learn how to use it properly…

That is where The inLIGHTin Workshop comes in… Simply shoot me an email at inlightinworkshop[at]gmail[dot]com or call me directly at (716) 491-8854 and we can set something up.

These One-on-One Lessons are personalized to meet your particular needs and last two hours. Price: $250 BUY YOUR TICKET HERE

You’ll probably end up dropping well over $100 on photography books and magazines that you’ll never get around to reading so why not just buck up, spend a little more and get hands-on knowledge that you can apply immediately and take better photographs.

The most common topics include:
- Introduction to Digital photography
- How to use your camera
- Photography 101
- How to take better pictures
- Portfolio Review
- Flash Photography (on and off camera lighting)
- and whatever else crosses your mind…

Take a look at some Testimonials and see for yourself. These classes work and will take your photography to the next level.

Remember, life is too short take crappy pictures. Call today and set up your appointment.

Thanks for stopping by!
Mike

This shot was taken at an old movie theater in downtown Albany, NY. I used my generic Smith-Victor video light to illuminate my subject and worked the barn doors of the light to prevent light falling too far off of her. The video light puts out a decent amount of light so my settings were 1/60 sec. at f/2.8 @ ISO 800.

Thanks for stopping by!
Mike

The size of the softbox is roughly 11×9 inches folded and its look and feel is very rugged. It will definitely hold its own and I have confidence that it will not rip or tear even with me beating on it.

I photographed a senior portrait session over at a local park here and my setup was REAL simple. We’re talking just my Nikon D700, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR Lens, PocketWizard Plus II Transceivers, Nikon SB-900 Speedlight, Portable Light stand and the Honl Photo Traveller8 Softbox. I started shooting with a camera strap again which is nice because I can cart around my light stand with ease and throw my camera over my shoulder to free up my hands when working with my flash settings and whatnot.

Since I was using the PocketWizards, I had to shoot with my Nikon SB-900 speedlight in Manual mode. This also meant that I had to conform to my camera’s maximum sync speed (1/250″) and could not do any high-speed sync whatsoever.

I had to work the power of the flash, the distance between the flash and subject, ISO and Aperture to control the effect my flash had in the photo while my shutter speed simply controlled the amount of ambient light recorded. The Honl Traveller8 softbox is small enough to provide a tight light pattern on my subject and didn’t really light anything that I didn’t want it to. Since it is small, that also means that it won’t get knocked over during windy days nearly as easy as my large 60″ umbrella or 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox. Due to the Traveller8′s size and light pattern, I would really only use this for lighting a couple people. Any more and I would move to a larger light modifier like the 28″ Apollo softbox or my 60″ umbrella.

Here are some shots from the portrait session with the Traveller8 Softbox:

The Honl Photo Traveller8 Softbox is $70 at B&H and comes packaged with a Speed Strap so that is an added bonus.

I would highly recommend this product for it’s price, portability and usefulness for on-the-go lighting. I’d love to hear your thought on it if you own one too so comment below and share your experiences.

Thanks for stopping by!
Mike

I think this means I will have to do some giveaways throughout the workshop.

This is really awesome of Honl Photographic to support the inLIGHTin Workshop like this so please check out their website at www.honlphoto.com and show some love.

Look at all the merch:

I hope to see you all on the 25th of October!
Mike

One of the features many have is the ability to zoom the flash head. Take my Nikon SB-900s for example, they can zoom from 12/17mm up to 200mm (on my DX/FX camera) which can give me a lot of variations of light. It is almost like a built-in snoot. Here’s why: When the flash is mounted to the camera, it automatically zooms to match up with the lenses focal length and sends enough light to spread across the entire scene. Therefore, a wide-angle lens needs a lot of light spread out in order to light up everything properly. On the other hand, light needs to get thrown out, more like a “beam,” when using a telephoto lens because it has to go further and cover less of the scene.

The beauty of this really comes into play when you are shooting off-camera with your flash. Take a look at the example image below:

example of a nikon sb-900 off-camera flash zoomed to 200mm.

This picture was taken at a recent wedding. I used high-speed sync to darken the background and used my flash off camera to illuminate both the bride and groom. I set the speedlight to zoom all the way up to 200mm so that it would shoot a beam of light directly on the couple’s faces and fall off fairly quick. This flash was held as far out as I could in my left hand as I held my camera with my right. I used my Nikon D700′s pop up flash as Commander mode only to trigger the off-camera flash for me. I believe the flash was set to +1.3ev as well. My 24-70mm lens was used here because that wide angle allows me to get in close so the flash can be close enough to hit my subjects (inverse square law 101).

Moral of the story, you don’t always have time to set up and light a scene the way you want to when it comes to weddings. You have to prepare and pre-plan for these things and roll with the punches. No light stand, no softbox, no assistants holding reflectors. Just me and my flash.

Thanks for stopping by!
Mike

Shooting with available lighting is great and all and can really do the trick. As a matter of fact I made a career out of it for a couple years until I could afford some flashes myself.

STEP 1 – BABY STEPS:
You have to crawl before you can walk and definitely before you can run… The same goes for flash photography. It is a whole new ballgame that can really mess with your current understanding of ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed and how they work with one another. With that in mind, start off with your flash mounted on your camera. Practice fill flash techniques and practice bounce flash techniques. The good news is that you should be able to start shooting in darker locations with better results. This is true even if you have inexpensive variable aperture “kit” lenses. Simply play around with TTL mode and work on riding your flashes’ exposure compensation. Not enough flash? Increase the exposure compensation. Too much flash? Dial it down and try again. I would definitely suggest using manual mode for setting your ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed… Using Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or Program Mode will introduce other factors that can complicate things.

STEP 2 – HIGH SPEED SYNC (AKA Auto FP)
High speed sync is something that you may have to enable on your camera and/or flash unit. Refer to your manual on how to do this. Once enabled, you will notice that you can use shutter speeds faster than 1/200″ or 1/250.” This is high speed sync and it removes the limitations of having to otherwise being forced to use your camera’s maximum sync speed or slower (refer to your manual for this value — it’s typically 1/200″ or 1/250″). High speed sync is a life saver and is what allows you to dial down intense ambient light (like the sun) and also to be able to use wide open apertures. If you didn’t have this capability then you would have to bring along a studio strobe, portable AC Power Pack and triggering device so you can shoot at like ISO 100, 1/250″ at F/16. High speed sync is a lot cheaper and a lot more portable!

STEP 3 – OFF-CAMERA FLASH (MANUAL MODE)
Using your flash off-camera is a great way to learn lighting. In TTL mode, the camera does it all for you and the flash output will change from shot to shot. By switching your flash to manual mode, you are essentially treating it like a studio strobe and your flash will now only fire at the output you selected. This means your light will be consistent from shot to shot to shot. This setting is great for when things are not going to move (e.g. studio, portraits, etc…) Good luck if you are shooting sports (or a little kid on the move) this way. This is also where you can try incorporating a second (or third flash). The best part here is that you do not need the top of the line flashes, or even flashes from the same brand for that matter! You can get 3-4 cheap flashes for the price of one new model, brand name flash.
Just look for flashes that can shoot in manual mode. Bonus points if it also has a PC Sync port. Otherwise, you will have to purchase some additional items like special hot shoe mounts that have a pc sync port.

You could still fire the flashes using the Nikon wireless but your flashes have to be in direct line of sight with one another in order for it to work. Consider using a PC sync cable, IR triggers or Radio triggers for added reliability.

STEP 4 – HIGH SPEED SYNC OFF-CAMERA
Take all the techniques mentioned above and roll them into one! Incorporate a couple different flashes and play around. Try setting the flashes to different exposure compensation values and experiment.

For some extra fun, throw on some light modifiers like a softbox, gel, gobo, snoot or honeycomb / grid for added effects.

Share your flash stories by commenting below.

Thanks for stopping by.
Michael

I am hosting a Super Monday Workshop for the PPA and they have chosen to feature me on their website:

Click here to read the entire article: http://www.ppa.com/ppa-today-blog/super-monday/super-monday-instructors-flash.php

Super excited about this one!
Enjoy.
Michaelpro

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Thanks!

Michael