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Reviews of photography products that enhance the enjoyment of taking pictures. Published frequently but irregularly.
On Assignment
25 January 2013
We're packed and parting for a pleasant assignment this afternoon shooting a group of coworkers wishing one of them well as she turns a page in her career. But we've been away from the keyboard for a day assembling our kit (and rearranging the studio).
We don't know the venue so we packed a good low-light camera and a strobe. But we do know we don't want to intimidate anyone with a portable photo studio. We want to be mobile and light -- but functional.
So here's the setup:
- Any camera with a strobe and a sync speed of 1/125 second or faster will do, frankly
- Any strobe that can meter and adjust its own output with a bounce angle and a diffuser (we're using a Nikon SB-800)
- A FlashFire radio trigger set (one to sit under the strobe another to sit in the camera's hot shoe)
- A bracket to hold the flash and camera together so we can rest with one hand free (ours is an antique Vivitar pistol grip)
You could certainly cable the camera to the strobe if you prefer but we prefer to hold the strobe in one hand and the camera in the other as we shoot (depending on the geography) so they can stretch quite a bit apart.
The bracket is mainly to have a way to hold the strobe. Being able to connect it securely to the camera means we can drop the combined unit to our side and relax now and then.
And it all fits into the old Domke (which tempts no one on public transportation).
Setup is pretty simple. Set the ISO on the flash, note the recommended aperture and set both on the camera.