Sunday, February 14, 2010

Enablements: Portable studio - Flash photography

An enablement is PDML (Pentax Discuss Mailing List) slang for new equipment. The usual excuse for buying photo equipment is "this will enable me to ..." You get the drift, don't you?

I haven't been much of a portrait photographer. There is several reasons for this, but most of them are mainly excuses. The real reason is probably that I haven't been to keen on intimidating people with my camera. I like people, but I generally don't like to force myself into their lifes. Just some silly ideas of mine, I guess.
Silly or not. I think I need to work on this, partly to improve my photography, partly because I wont to grow on a more personal level.

Anyway, back to the topic. Being limited by my equipment has been one of the excuses.

So now I've ordered another speed flash, some flash stands, umbrellas, reflectors etc. In short, the basics of a portable studio.

I will probably complement with some soft boxes and some backgrounds later. Maybe some radio triggers to, because IR-trigger system (Pentax has IR-trigger system integrated in their cameras) is a good starting point, but it isn't very reliable in outdoor environment.

The good thing about the IR-system is that it allows me to use TTL flash metering. In some situations TTL flash metering is good. Unfortunately most automatic flash metering systems aren't very sophisticated. In general they tend to wipe out all available light. But it is ok to have TTL-flash metering as an option.

Anyway. Indoor, IR-triggering of the flash system usually works ok, as long as I don't rely 100% on the metering.

I've also ordered some literature on the subjects of studio lighting, outdoor lighting, posing, etc.

Some more books are coming too. Will probably tell more about this later. It's a premature crazy idea I have with some fellow photo club members.