Photographer Doug Gordon has posted an eight minute video showcasing his use of basic off-camera flash. Watch Gordon explore three simple, yet beautiful portrait lighting setups using PocketWizard wireless technology.
Gordon explains and demonstrates the importance of lighting ratios and how PocketWizard radios help him create the light he wants quickly and easily. “Just by being on the PocketWizard,” he says, “I can set and turn down my light to be be two stops under [my main light] from wherever I am.”
Watch the video to learn why PocketWizard radios are Doug’s “newest and most favorite toy in the world.”
See more of Doug’s work and learn about the photography workshops he offers by visiting his site.
We love seeing people use PocketWizard technology in unanticipated applications. The following is one which made us smile.
Jakob Schiller has written a fascinating story for Wired on photographer Billy Hunt. For a series of portraits, Hunt felt he wanted to shake up his subjects, getting them to step outside their usual poses when getting their portraits taken. He used audio to make this happen, bringing a new dimension to the silent art of photography.
Hunt had a karaoke boom box wired so when a certain volume level is hit, a PocketWizard Plus II is signaled, which then triggers a camera, creating a portrait of a person screaming.
Schiller’s article also includes a strange, two-minute video of people screaming for Hunt in slow motion. Be sure to read the full article, and also check out Billy Hunt’s portfolio on his site.
As the amount of imaging hardware and software grows exponentially—along with the number of features in both—it’s exciting to see what photographers do with minimal set-ups. Well-known photographer Tamara Lackey recently was shooting in Las Vegas, where she got to work out with the PocketWizard Plus III radio triggers to demonstrate what can be done with a the sun and one speedlight.
Armed with a diminutive gear set-up including a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a Canon Speedlight 580EX II, Lackey demonstrates how she uses window light for her main light and a Plus III-controlled 580 acting as her backlight. Explaining different settings and positioning, Lackey controls settings from the Plus III on her camera.
The piece ends with sample photos from the session which detail camera settings so you can see the difference from shot to shot.
What do you get when you put Melody Hood of Innamorata Photography in the desert outside of the Hoover Dam, throw in some new PocketWizard Plus III radio triggers on a bridal session?
You get some state of the art portraits at sunset, with seemingly each sporting a unique look and tone in lighting. How does this well-known photographer from Chattanooga, Tennesse augment her talent and tweak lighting on the fly? With Plus III technology, of course.
“They’re incredible—they’re my absolute workhorses,” she says of the latest radio triggers from PocketWizard. “They are amazing and so versatile. They allow me to turn my lights on from wherever I’m at.”
As with the other videos in this series, this one ends with sample photos from the session, including camera settings and all lighting gear used. The video can be seen on Vimeo and YouTube.
Check out the following resources to see more of Hood’s impressive work.
A new video has been posted featuring photographer Dane Sanders. Known for his photographic education almost as much as he’s known for his photography, Sanders walks viewers through a simple outdoor portrait session utilizing the PocketWizard Plus III.
Sanders demonstrates how he can control multiple light sources all from the Plus III radio trigger on top of his camera, all without having to walk to different lighting rigs. The video ends with sample photos Sanders shot, along with camera settings and lights used for every single one.
The commitment Sanders makes to photography education and social media is well-known. Novice and established shooters can learn from his online resources and presence. To see more of Dane Sanders work, please check out his site and the following media:
Flashmaster David Hobby over at Strobist has published Part 1 and Part 2 on his wildly-popular blog detailing a portrait session he did for mezzo soprano Alexandra Rodrick.
Hobby used a Profoto Acute2 1200 60 feet away as a fill light and an Acute2 2400 120 feet away as a rim. It was keyed with speedlights in a Japanese silk lantern. PocketWizard Plus III units were used to trigger the lights furthest from the subject.
Hobby explains he wanted to “push against the boundaries a little more, both creatively and technically.” He educates readers about the relationship between lighting distance and depth of field, and how he wanted the light to disperse evenly throughout the scene. The text of these posts are as enlightening as the photo is beautiful. Don’t miss both fulltexts on Strobist.
In high school, Bry Cox took every possible photography class he could to the point the teacher made up a new one so the budding photographer could continue learning. He began his college career by studying photography, and thought taking one business class would help. Cox quickly realized being a photographer means running your own business, so he switched his major and got a degree in Business. He credits this with helping him have a successful career as a photographer.
After college, he got a job at a lab, and learned to print perfect images from his negatives. Cox stayed long enough to save up for his own Hasselblads and lights. At that point he left to start his own studio.
Last month we wrote about Neil van Niekerk’s review of the PocketWizard AC3 ZoneController. Neil shows no signs of stopping his informative posts. Most recently, he’s posted a great behind-the-scenes article about a recent shoot at the Steinway Piano offices. Robert Wyatt, a pianist affiliated with Steinway, was the subject of this portrait session.
“I used multiple off-camera speedlights and different light modifiers to get portraits with impact,” van Niekerk writes. Two lighting set-ups are documented in his post. The photographer used three Nikon SB-900 speedlights, triggered by PocketWizard FlexTT5 units, including an additional one on his camera.
Ending his article with the following paragraph, van Niekerk explains a psychological benefit of using PocketWizard gear, along with total control over his desired light shaping:
“I chose to work with speedlights… because of how much control the new PocketWizard FlexTT5 allows me. Being able to change the power of each flash from my camera, made the shoot easier … and it makes me look so much more in control and cool in front of a client, when I’m not moving around, hurriedly adjusting my flashes’ individual outputs throughout the session.”
