Had a little fun with bathtime the other day with Andrew, and pulled out my Westcott Apollo softbox. That thing really puts out a great light. It doesn't take much either. I think I had the Strobe set to 1/16th power (maybe it was 1/8th, I don't remember). That power is perfect for shooting portraits at F/2.8 or so. Nice shallow DOF, clean crisp focus, nice soft yet directional light, and recycle time is nonexistent.
I did have a little scare with my Elinchrom El-Skyport radio triggers though. Hooked everything up, went to shoot, and then my flash didn't fire. Checked the channel, sync cord, everything looked good but it wouldn't trigger. Luckily I keep my good old trusty fallback home-made sync cord around. That thing always works, and I always have it in my lighting bag just in case!
Turns out my trigger (that goes on the camera, as opposed to the receiver that plugs into the flash) had a dead battery. 10 bucks and trip to Radio Shack later and it's working just fine and I know have a backup battery in the bag. I still think the Elinchroms are a great alternative to the more expensive Pocket Wizards.
So hopefully I'll be pulling my lighting kit out a bit more often again, and I'll try to sneak in a subject or two that isn't a child of mine. What can I say though, I'm blessed with cute kids that love the camera :-)
4 comments:
Brilliant lighting for being so simple. The clarity and catchlights are amazing.
Gorgeous light!
By the way, Andrew has really intense eyes. Nice.
Thanks! My wife and I keep trying to figure out how we had such cute kids. Must be all in the mix (Though I think it's mostly her) :-)
Thank you for sharinng this
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