AboutJohn Wilson Expertise Over 25 years specializing exclusively in professional wedding photography. I can answer most questions relating directly to wedding photography concerning the business, film, digital, traditional & digital labs, marketing, effects, pricing & packaging, shooting outdoors and in-studio with multiple flash, color management and creating magazine style wedding albums. I can't answer questions regarding other fields of photography. I am a full-time self-employed wedding/portrait photographer. I can comprehensively answer most questions regarding portrait and wedding photography. I've operated a custom color and black & white photo lab processing films and photographic prints. I now shoot digital exclusively and process in Photoshop CS3.
Experience I have over 25 years experience working as a portrait/wedding photographer.
Education/Credentials School of hard knocks. Self-study. Purchasing all books I can find about portrait and wedding photography and attending photography seminars over the years.
Expert: John Wilson Date: 5/2/2008 Subject: flash outside
Question hi there!
im wanting to take my photography to the next level and use exterior flash units.
Im wanting to take pictures both indoors and outside "field" locations.
I visited my local photo shop, who said it would be too expensive, and suggested i research "strobists" in google.
Just wondering what equipment i'd need, especially in terms of lack of mains electric supply in the field?
could you suggest what equipment i should look for in EBAY?...or a company that does a basic beginners kit for what im wanting?
Many Thanks
David
Answer Hi David,
Thanks for your photography questions.
You're wondering what portable equipment you would need without a main electric supply. This depends on the camera you have now, how much you are willing to spend on the flash and you may have to see if certain flash kits have adapters (if necessary) to make them work with your particular camera.
Are you shooting with a film camera or digital? Do you already know how to work with lighting ratios? Knowing how to achieve the lighting ratios you want can help you to better decide what lighting you will need, at least for certain set-ups.
If this is people photography you have in mind, you will need flash sync of at least 60th. If you are shooting still life or other motionless subjects you might be able to get by with sunlight itself for the cheapest "multiple" light - by simply arranging mirrors reflecting the sunlight through various home-made diffusers and other light modifiers. I've known a few different photographers who would simply use sunlight and home-made light modifiers for lighting control to get just the light they needed for their work. Of course, cloudy days and rainy days you're out of luck. But then most of the time, on days like those so are photographers with the most expensive and best multiple flash equipment. That's where I use digital backgrounds in my studio. My customers pay me well enough to make digital backgrounds a great option on bad days. See my website digital backgrounds at http://www.weddingphotographics.net/digital and some of my galleries featuring digital backgrounds.
I've been doing business with B&H Photo-Video in New York for over 25 years. I personally have never had a single problem doing business with the people there. Their link http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ and you will find flash kits for various levels of skills & budget. I don't keep up with Ebay. You can email B&H Photo and tell them more specifically what you are looking for and need to go with the particular camera you will be using. But I strongly recommend using flash for a lot more flexibility, faster to work with, doesn't put out a lot of heat except for possibly the modeling lights if you leave them turned on. You can work faster with people and keep them from getting impatient which can start showing up in their facial expressions.
Personally for outdoors of people, I shoot with a Canon 580EX flash on my camera with a Gary Fong Lightsphere attached and an assistant hand holds a 2nd Canon 580EX flash with diffuser attached and set to "Slave" when I need a 2nd flash. I simply set my on-camera flash to "Master" and have full dedicated flash operation of the 2nd flash as well. Simply switch to manual flash control if I want to do some creative flash effects.
Hope there is some information I've provided here which may be useful to you. Thanks again for your photography questions.
