Flash Triggers: Which One is Right for You? Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show, episode 39. I […]

The post Flash Triggers – From Slaves To Pocket Wizard Mastery appeared first on William Beem Photography.

Flash Triggers: Which One is Right for You?

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show, episode 39. I discussed a number of Flash Triggers in this show, each with their own pros and cons.

Choosing a flash trigger depends upon a few variables. Cost is one of the obvious factors, but you may not even need the most expensive trigger on the market for your purpose. Other factors include which camera and flash system you use, whether you need TTL control to change flash power, and if you're going to be around other photographers using flash triggers.

If you need to fire a camera from a distance, some of these triggers will do that job for you, but most won't.

In this episode, I discuss everything to trigger your flash, from a basic cable and optical slaves to some of the most advanced flash triggers on the market.

Related Links

I mentioned a number of products during this episode.  Below are some affiliate links to the products on Amazon. If you found this episode helpful, I appreciate it if you make a purchase through one of my affiliate links. It adds no cost to you, but does provide a small commission to help with expenses for the site and podcast here.

As always, I stand behind any product I recommend. If you have any questions or issues with a product I've recommended, please reach out to me on the Contact page and I'll help you with it.

 

Note: not “SkyMaster”, as I mentioned in the podcast episode.

Subscribe to The Photo Flunky Show

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show. Make sure you get every episode by subscribing.

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Social Media Links

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Transcript

 

THE PHOTO FLUNKY SHOW

 Episode 39

 

 

Welcome to the Photo Flunky Show, episode number thirty-nine.

 

Today’s topic: We’re going to be talking about flash triggers, from slaves to pocket wizard mastery.  Stick around!

 

Hi, thanks for joining me on the Photo Flunky Show.  My name is William Beem and it’s just going to be you and me today.

 

You can find show notes available at williambeem.com/episode39 and of course there’s a transcript of the show there for free.  Just go ahead and send your email address, tell us where to send it to you.

 

You can find links there or also at photoflunky.com, along with all our other episodes.

 

When we talk about flash triggers we’re talking about one thing, and this is going to be a really basic episode. We are talking about devices that will cause your flash to trigger.  So if we are looking at off camera flash, you need some way to make the flash fire. If the flash is on your camera then you’re going to get a trigger coming from that hotshoe; that’s just by default.  There is a little bit of an electrical signal that says when I hit this shutter, you fire.  That’s it.

 

Improve Your Available Light Photos With 8 Tips to Evaluate and Use Free Light Thank you for listening to The […]

The post 8 Tips to Create Awesome Available Light Photos Every Time appeared first on William Beem Photography.

Improve Your Available Light Photos With 8 Tips to Evaluate and Use Free Light

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show, episode 38. If you want to improve your available light photos, follow our eight tips to make the most of your light.

It doesn't matter if your available light comes from the sun, interior lighting, stage lighting or even fireworks. Light is light. We cover the issues you need to remember for every shot and discuss some ways to bend available light to your will.

Even if you can't bend the light, you may be able to move around it or have your subject change to make the most of your available light photos.

We cover the basics of light direction and quality, but also give you some creative camera options to make something more than a document of your subject. Learn to see possibilities for motion and blur in your available light photos to enhance your creative vision.

Related Links

Here are links to some of the products mentioned in this podcast.

Nikon 14-24mm Lens (my review)

Subscribe to The Photo Flunky Show

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show. Make sure you get every episode by subscribing.

iTunes – http://williambeem.com/itunes

Stitcher – http://williambeem.com/stitcher

Google Play – http://williambeem.com/googleplay

Blubrry – http://williambeem.com/blubrry

Social Media Links

We love seeing your photos and keeping in touch with you on social media. Here's where you can find us.

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Transcript

 

THE PHOTO FLUNKY SHOW:  Episode 38

 

Welcome to the Photo Flunky Show, Episode thirty-eight.

 

On today’s show we’re going to be talking about available light photography tips to help you get a little bit better photos when you’re working without your flash, just with the light that’s around you.

 

William:   Hi, thanks very much for joining us on the Photo Flunky Show.  My name is William Beem.

 

Lee:         My name is Lee Beem.

 

William:   And we just want to let you know that show notes are going to be available at williambeem.com/episode38 and you can get a transcript of the show there for free.  And of course there are links to subscribe to the show at photoflunky.com.

 

Alright, we’ve been going through our lighting month.  We’ve had a couple of conversations and a couple of blog posts already about shooting with light and how you’re going to get and make the most of the light available for your photography.

 

Today we are going to be talking about tips for photography and available light.  By that, it doesn’t just necessarily mean sunlight. Available light can come from any kind of source, so whether you are shooting in sunlight, whether you are shooting in an area that has illumination around it – maybe you are doing concert photography; maybe you are shooting fireworks – whatever the source of light is doesn’t really matter.  All you know is that the light is going to be outside of your control.

 

Lee:         Yes. Just whatever is there.

 

What Types of Light Modifiers Do You Need for Off Camera Flash? Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky […]

The post 6 Types of Light Modifiers for Your Off Camera Flash appeared first on William Beem Photography.

What Types of Light Modifiers Do You Need for Off Camera Flash?

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show. This show continues with Part 2 of our discussion of Off Camera Flash.

One of the most important decisions you make with off camera flash is deciding which types of light modifiers you need to use. Lee and I discuss several factors for your decision.

* Different types of light modifiers

* Why you should choose a given light modifier for your photo's needs

* How light behaves with different light modifiers

* Some examples of using light modifiers with available sunlight

At the end of the show, we also have a bit of discussion whether or not off camera flash is right for you.

Related Links

Here are some of the items we mentioned in the podcast. I mentioned that the fresnel light was not an inexpensive choice. It's included here so you can get an idea of what it is and how much it costs.

If you'd like to see some other light modifiers that I'm currently using, please check out my Resource Page.

Subscribe to The Photo Flunky Show

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show. Make sure you get every episode by subscribing.

iTunes – http://williambeem.com/itunes

Stitcher – http://williambeem.com/stitcher

Google Play – http://williambeem.com/googleplay

Blubrry – http://williambeem.com/blubrry

Social Media Links

We love seeing your photos and keeping in touch with you on social media. Here's where you can find us.

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Transcript

 

THE PHOTO FLUNKY SHOW:  Episode 37

 

Welcome to the Photo Flunky Show, Episode thirty-seven.

 

Today’s topic: We’re going to be talking about light modifiers; those little things that you put between your subject and your light source and make it change and shine and all that fun stuff.

 

William:   Hi, thank you for joining us on the Photo Flunky Show, episode number thirty-seven.  My name is William Beem.

 

Lee:         Hey, I’m Lee Beem.

 

William:   And today, like I said, we are going to be continuing on with our discussion about lighting and today’s topic is Light Modifiers.  When you think about it, why do you need light modifiers if you’ve got a flash?

 

Well, basically light modifiers allow you to shape the light and make it so that you can match the mood of what you want to photograph by changing the quality and direction of the light.  That’s really all you’re doing.  You’re changing the quality.  It comes out harsh, you want to make it soft or maybe you want to turn it into something harsh.  There are ways to do that as well.  Maybe you don’t want the light to go  everywhere and you just want to focus it in a certain place.  Light modifiers allow you to change that quality and direction of light.

 

Does that make sense so far?

 

Lee:         So far, yeah.

 

William:   You know what I mean by quality?

 

Lee:         Yes.

 

William:   With quality we are talking about hard versus soft and everything in between.

 

What you need is something that goes between your light source and your subject to make those changes and we are goin...

Off Camera Flash for Complete Beginners Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show. This episode is for anyone […]

The post Off Camera Flash – What You Need to Know appeared first on William Beem Photography.

Off Camera Flash for Complete Beginners

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show. This episode is for anyone who wants to begin working with off camera flash. We discuss some basic concepts and differences between flash and strobe.

Off camera flash doesn't have to be expensive, complicated or hard. Yet, you can make it all of those things if you dive in without some basic concepts that we discuss here.

My advice is to take it easy and slow. I'll share tips that I've learned from other photographers and my own experience with lighting my subjects.

Related Links

Here are some of the products I mentioned on this episode. Please bear in mind that the Yongnuo flash products below are geared toward Nikon shooters. There are other versions for Canon, etc. Before you buy, please verify that you have the right version of the product for your camera equipment.

 

Subscribe to The Photo Flunky Show

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show. Make sure you get every episode by subscribing.

iTunes – http://williambeem.com/itunes

Stitcher – http://williambeem.com/stitcher

Google Play – http://williambeem.com/googleplay

Blubrry – http://williambeem.com/blubrry

Social Media Links

We love seeing your photos and keeping in touch with you on social media. Here's where you can find us.

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Transcript

 

THE PHOTO FLUNKY SHOW:  Episode 36

 

Hi, welcome to the Photo Flunky Show, Episode thirty-six.

 

On this show we’re going to start a series of shows about off camera lighting tips.  This is part one.  Welcome!

 

William:   Hi, thanks for being here.  We really appreciate you. My name is William Beem.

 

Lee:         Hi, I’m Lee Beem.

 

William:   And like I said we are going be talking about off camera lighting tips and this is really going to be a fundamental show. It’s going to be for beginners. If you’ve never done off camera lighting before, we’re going to go over some of the basic concepts and things that you need and why you actually want to do it in the first place.  Show notes are going to be available at williambeem.com/episode36

 

You can find a transcript of the show there for free, and of course there are links to subscribe at photoflunky.com if you want to subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Play Music or Stitcher Radio.  We would really love to have you!

 

Alright Lee, are you ready? Because I know this is one of your favorite topics.

 

Lee:         Yeah I know. It shows up my ignorance.

 

William:   You don’t use any off camera lighting.

 

Lee:         No.

 

William:   Why is that?

 

Lee:         It just seems like more hassle than it’s worth. I think learning how light works – available light – and how to control that kind of made sense to me. There was nothing really expensive about learning that.

 

I have got a flash. I think it’s broken now! It’s something equivalent of an SB600, maybe? I don’t recall.  I enjoyed using that, but I found I never liked to use it without a huge diffuser on it, otherwise it was just always too harsh.

 

I just found that it gets very complex and complicated.

Create Social Media Photos With These Four Apps Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show, episode 35. We […]

The post Mobile Apps for Editing Social Media Photos appeared first on William Beem Photography.

Create Social Media Photos With These Four Apps

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show, episode 35.

We discuss four of the most popular mobile apps for editing and creating social media photos.

* Word Swag

* Typorama

* Font Candy

* Adobe Spark Post

All of these apps are available for free, but most of them have an in-app purchase of about $5 to unlock all of the features.

Lee and I discuss our favorites, which apps can create images for the social media platforms that you want, and some of the unique features of each app. You may want to get more than one to cover all the bases.

There's also a stinker in this pile that really disappointed us. We'll talk about the problems it has and what could be done to fix it.

Related Links

Word Swag – Cool fonts, typography generator, creative quotes, and text over pic editor! – Oringe Inc.

Typorama – Typography Generator, Cool Fonts Design and Instant Creative Caption Text over Photo Editor – Apperto Ltd

Font Candy + Typography Photo Editor – Easy Tiger Apps, LLC.

Adobe Spark Post – Create stunning graphics – Adobe

Subscribe to The Photo Flunky Show

Thank you for listening to The Photo Flunky Show. Make sure you get every episode by subscribing.

iTunes – http://williambeem.com/itunes

Stitcher – http://williambeem.com/stitcher

Google Play – http://williambeem.com/googleplay

Blubrry – http://williambeem.com/blubrry

Social Media Links

We love seeing your photos and keeping in touch with you on social media. Here's where you can find us.

Facebook

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Instagram

Pinterest

YouTube

Transcript

 

THE PHOTO FLUNKY SHOW:  Episode 35

 

Thank you for joining the Photo Flunky Show, Episode number thirty-five.

 

Today we’re going to be talking about mobile apps for editing your social media photos.

 

William:   Hi, thanks for joining us on the Photo Flunky Show, episode number thirty-five.  My name is William Beem.

 

Lee:         Hi, I’m Lee.

 

William:   And we really appreciate you being here.  You can find show notes available at williambeem.com/episode35  There’s a free transcript of the show there and, of course, you can find links to subscribe at photoflunky.com.

 

Today we are going to be talking about mobile apps; things for your smartphone and sometimes they will work on tablets as well, like iPads or other kinds like Samsung Note or things like that.  But primarily we have iPhones and we are going to be looking at them on iOS devices and what we are talking about with mobile apps for social media editing are those things...