Finally!

I’ve figured out a way to integrate my Flickr into my blog.

Strobism has got to be one of my favorite photography techniques. “What is strobism?” you ask? Well… Let me tell you!

“Strobism refers to the use of small flashguns (often referred to as speedlites or strobes) to create effective lighting for all kinds of photographs.” - Digital SLR Guru

Basically what this means is using typical detachable camera flashes to light up a photo in dynamic ways. Because you can’t always be in the studio (or, if you’re like me you don’t have one). Being a strobist also enables you to create a scene out of something simple. Take the photo above… Without the strobe set up it was a dreary, cold, and very very rainy day. But, with strobes you can turn the shot into an almost unreal scene. The rain freezes and sparkles vibrantly. Her dress lights up and the environment takes on a new life. You may wonder how much editing went into this and I’ll tell you it was no more than what you can pull off with free image editing software. No Photoshop, no air brushing, no dodging or burning. That photo above is untouched aside from editing basic brightness, colors, curves, things like that.

Strobism can turn a simple photo into something with life and imagination. However, there is some special gear you need to pull this off. You need strobes, umbrellas/softboxes/reflectors, wireless flash triggers, lighting stands, and more. To help you out let me show you what I use right now:

Canon 430EX Speedlite Flash (Older Version)

Yongnuo Flash Speedlite Yn-460ii GREAT flash if you’re on a budget!!

Foldable Light Reflector

Cowboy Studio Flash Stand and Umbrella Really not top of the line at all, but very affordable and does the job well.

Cowboy Studio Soft Box This thing has given me great results over and over again. And it’s stood the test against Alaskan rain storms! Absolutely a must for the basic strobist setup.

Cowboy Studio Reflector Umbrella I eventually got a pair of these because the umbrellas I got originally didn’t reflect back enough light. And hey, an umbrella is an umbrella, and for it’s price it’s actually pretty nice.

Yongnuo 2.4GHz Wireless Flash Trigger/Receiver As far as wireless flash systems go this cannot be beat for it’s price.

Long exposure photos are fun. They take planning, patience, and a little bit of  skill.

This photo was done in my front lawn. I attached a bit of steel wool to the end of a wire and spun it around. I tried using a bit of rope I found in my garage, but the steel wool apparently gets very hot; it burnt through the rope and landed on top of my mom’s brand new truck. (Woops!) This photo also presented other problems on a more technical stance…

When doing long exposure photography you end up with more noise in the picture than usual. And you have to keep the camera perfectly still to avoid camera shake. A tripod and Lightroom were essential here. After setting up my tripod on some steady ground and spending a few minutes in Lightroom editing some aspects of the photo I finally got what I was looking for. Smooth lines from spinning the steel wool wouldn’t have been possible without a tripod, and the picture would have generally been less awesome without some noise reduction in Lightroom.

Other things I find helpful in long exposure photography are knowing how to manually focus. This especially is important if you have an older camera, and more budget lenses. Practicing good manual focusing on a subject during the daylight helps loads. Something else that helps a lot is understanding what that little F/1.8 (or whatever) is. The lower the number of your f-stop the more light let in (your aperture opens up), so that’s good if it’s dark out, but that presents a technical challenge because it makes for a very shallow focusing area (blurry back ground and blurry foreground, but a very small area in focus). This means you absolutely have to be precise in your focusing or else the photo is blurry. Now, if you make that f-stop a larger number your aperture closes up, or gets smaller. This will allow the camera to have a larger focus area; you can have a larger area of the photo in focus. The trade off? It’s going to be darker. You can compensate this by using a flash, or in longer exposure like I did. Also, another pro tip for long exposure photos… Remote trigger!

P.S. tripods can get EXPENSIVE. When I first started getting into photography I realized that I needed a tripod. After going through about 3 or 4 cheap-o tripods it came to my realization I just needed to drop some good money on a tripod, but then I found this… Best tripod I’ve ever had:

Is amazing. What started as a bland photo with bad color and contrast that was shot off the hip is turned into this. A fun and creative shot.

Just finished putting together the website today and settled on a theme and idea for the whole gig. Right now things will be slim and a bit un-done until I figure out concrete plans for the website and exactly what I want it to be and what I want it to represent for LevelOne Photography. Until then I will occasionally post photos and maybe a few words about them.