Technique Tuesday: Big Results From Small Flashes

Good Late Afternoon/Early Evening Everybody,

It's been one of those days! We have everyone scrambling like crazy  to get the five volumes packed up and shipped out to our bookbinder so our clients can have and enjoy their albums by Christmas.

LaDawn and Jennifer were putting the finishing touches on the albums and being sure every image looks perfect.  They even talked the UPS driver into making a late pickup so everything would be ready to go. Happily - it looks like everything is going to ship out today. Hip hip hooray!

Don’t You Love Computers?

That brings us to today's Technique Tuesday. Today's post is quite an ambitious undertaking – lots of information, lots of props,  lots of additional video editing – but I think you're really going to enjoy it.

As usual, every time I expect things to really run smoothly the Camtasia software gives me a major hiccup. I had the entire video ready to go but then I couldn’t get it to render. It seems that my screen grab video – 1920x1200 - was much larger than my live video capture and Camtasia couldn't mesh the two together.

That meant downsizing the 1920 x 1200 video down to a more manageable size of 1280 x 720. Anyway once I got it figured out it was easy sailing. The third try was a charm and the video rendered beautifully.

As you may have noticed, I have been making the extra effort to get the videos posted as HD. I think it just makes him more enjoyable to view and the added detail enhances the learning experience. My fast new computer is the main reason I'm able to pull it off. No more two or three-hour renders.  Now I can render the video in a matter of minutes.  I have to say, fast is good. Anyway let’s get right to today's post.

Technique Tuesday: Big Results From Small Flashes

Nobody said you had to "break the bank" when making beautiful photographs. In this video I'll walk you through key points that will help you take dynamite portraits with a minimum amount of equipment. This isn't to say that I'm condoning the use of inexpensive equipment – I'm not. As a pro I need to use topline equipment to get the job done efficiently, reliably, and minimalizing any problems due to unreliability. But, that said,  if you’re new to this whole off-camera flash technique, I can at least point you towards some gear that will help you get up and running in no time.

Check out my buddy, Kerry Garrison’s website, Cameradojo.com – it's a great website all by itself – but in his online store he offers the two items I referenced in my video today. Check out the video below and if you like what you see than I suggest you check out Camera dojo.com.

My Favorite Flash Gear Is Still Quantum Gear

My top choice for lighting gear is Quantum’s T5d flash head powered by the Turbo 3 super power pack. I still believe the most reliable radio slaves are Quantum Freewires. They're still the gold standard for me and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Anyway, check out the video, see what I'm up to, and enjoy the show.

We have to remember that light is light and light doesn't care if it came from an expensive flash or an inexpensive flash. Light is still light. Why not hit the PLAY button above and watch my in depth presentation on how to get big results with your small flashes.

Enjoy!

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. It's been another long day DigitalProTalk and at David Ziser Photography. Hope you guys and girls are gearing up for the holidays. LaDawn has four trees up with 4 or 5 to go ;~)  We’ve got a short day tomorrow so, because of today’s late post, I'll plan to get tomorrow’s post up midday. If you don’t get chance to read it tomorrow maybe you can enjoy after your Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday ;~)

Anyway, have a great rest of the evening and I'll see everybody tomorrow.

Adios, David