Elinchrom is based in Switzerland and is known for creating exceptional studio lighting strobes and light shaping tools at a reasonable price. I know many pro photographers who use Elinchrom lights and love them.

I decided to give Elinchrom a chance since they seemed more practical for my uses. After spending some time looking at the Elinchrom offerings, I decided to focus on these 3 units.

Strobes Used

• Elinchrom Ranger Quadra “A” Head To Go Set – $1560
• Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS $2449
• Elinchrom Digital Style 600RX Monolight $800

Accessories Used

• Elinchrom Skyport Universal Speed Set – $176
• Elinchrom Rotalux Softbox 24 x 31.5″ – $175
• Elinchrom 27″ White Maxisoft Reflector (Beauty Dish) – $275

I rented each unit to use in a handful of sessions that I had coming up. I wanted to see which one best fit my needs and shooting style.

Elinchrom Ranger Quadra

I probably spent the most time with the Quadra. What a cool little unit! Beautiful light from a package that was so lightweight and portable. I got the A Head, which offers faster flash duration and recycle time (The “A” stands for Action; they do have “S”, or Standard, heads that are a little cheaper).

Pros
- Small, lightweight and portable
- Can be plugged into AC power when in the studio to conserve battery life (officially, the strobe only runs off of battery power, but when the AC adapter is plugged in the battery is charged between flashes)
- Fast flash duration
- Built-in Skyport Receiver

Cons
- Not great build quality. After using less than 2 weeks, the rubber rim around the top of the battery pack was starting to become separated from the body.
- The strap loops are on the top of the unit. If you have the strap clipped on, it’s cumbersome to screw in the lighting cord
- Requires a poor quality mounting adapter in order to use the full-size Elinchrom modifiers.
- The mounting system is poor overall.
- The modeling light automatically turns off each time the strobe fires. In some situations, the modeling light is the only light in the room at the time so it was a pain to have to turn it back on after each shot I took.

If I was already heavily invested in Elinchrom, the Quadra unit would be a no-brainer addition. For the price, it offers a nice quality light in a very lightweight and portable unit. My biggest problem is that this would be my main strobe (at least to start with), and given the build quality it made me a little nervous that this would be my starting point for building my big lights arsenal. Not quite enough bang for the buck, which is why the next unit in line was the Elinchrom Ranger RX.

Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS

This Ranger RX kit had great build quality, terrific light, easy controls from the battery pack, and the mount is much easier to deal with than that of the Quadra.

I had 2 problems with the Ranger RX: weight and power.

Let me address the weight first. After doing a couple of location shoots with the Quadra I had gotten used to it’s small size and light weight; the Ranger RX is a completely different beast. For the type of shooting I do, it would be a little too cumbersome to tote around on location.

As far as power goes, it’s not that there wasn’t enough power; it’s that there was too much! I tend to shoot with large apertures when in the studio and the RX’s lowest setting is 17 watt seconds. I like to get my light in close to the subject, but with my typical light distance the widest I could get my aperture was f/5.6 at ISO 100.

Elinchrom Digital Style 600RX

While I was at it with Elinchrom, I took the opportunity to try out the RX600 monolight. It was a well built unit along the lines of the Ranger RX, but had less of a power ranger and a rather unimpressive flash duration. The quality of light was on par with the Ranger units, but the 600RX was just a little bit more restrictive than I had gotten used to with my Alien Bees strobes.

Skyport Remote Control Speed Set

I had a chance to work with the Skyport remote control system. I was a little hesitant to leave my PocketWizards in my bag, especially since the Skyports didn’t seem to be built as ruggedly as the PocketWizards are, but I liked having the ability to vary the power with the Skyports.

Indoors, the Skyports worked as expected. The only problem was having to hold down one of the power adjustment buttons in order to turn on the modeling light. You tap the button once, and it increases your power. You hold it down for 3 seconds, it supposedly turns on the modeling light. This was hit or miss for me, and maybe I wasn’t holding it down long enough, but I eventually just gave up trying.

Using the Skyports outdoors was where I had a problem. I had several misfires when using at a range of under 30 feet. That doesn’t happen with PocketWizards (unless they are low on batteries), so it frustrated me quite a bit. But for indoor use, I really can’t complain.

Elinchrom Rotalux Medium Softbox

This was my first time using any softbox other than the Paul Buff foldable softboxes. The Elinchrom softboxes are touted as being quick setup, and this is probably true when compared to softboxes from other manufacturers. But, they obviously haven’t tried the Paul Buff foldables. I could have 3 Paul Buffs setup by the time it took me to setup 1 Elinchrom.

Aside from that, the build quality of the Elinchrom softboxes are great. I was very happy with the light diffusion it produced. I can see why many folks lean toward Elinchrom modifiers on their Profoto lights (and others). Good quality for a good price.

Elinchrom 27″ White Beauty Dish Maxisoft Reflector

The Elinchrom Beauty Dish was also a cool modifier. It comes with a few different deflector discs that can be used to vary color and sharpness of the light. My favorite was the silver.

If I had to find one fault with the beauty dish is that Elinchrom doesn’t offer grids. There are third party solutions that you can use, but again, I was missing the flexibility that the Paul Buff beauty dish was offering me.

Sample Images

Conclusion

Elinchrom is a dependable company making reliable instruments that produce terrific light. The price of these instruments is reasonable and affordable compared to the other manufacturers that are in the same league. The lower price, however, is at times evident in the build quality. And this is apparent build quality I’m talking about. Nothing broke or cracked while I was using it. It was just the feel of it. And this can sometimes be misleading.

If you are wanting good, consistent lighting and don’t yet have a huge budget, then it’s worth giving Elinchrom a closer look. For me, as far as strobes go, I wish I could mix the Quadra, the Ranger RX, and the RX600 monolight together and get the perfect strobe, but as they are separately I felt I needed to keep looking for a solution that better suited my needs.

Coming soon, a test drive with Profoto.

About the Author

Bo Boswell is a Nashville-based portrait photographer. See more work on his website, BoBoswellPhotography.com, or follow him on Facebook or @bo_boswell on Twitter.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my handheld flashes. They’re lightweight, fairly low cost, provide flexibility and are a lot of fun. But lately, I have been looking at transitioning to bigger studio lights.

Whether you do photography as a hobby or career, at some point you will be faced with the decision of what lighting gear to buy. Just be careful about not letting this evolve into, as Zack Arias says, G.A.S., or Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It’s easy to get caught up in the gear that other photographers are using and what is the best equipment to get.

I think the bigger question is, what is the best equipment for me, for my style of shooting or for this specific project.

What Type of Lighting Equipment Am I Needing

My style of shooting and the subjects I’ve been shooting lately work better with AC powered strobes. When I am working with small kids, I need a fast recycle time and I don’t want to worry about a flash’s AA batteries dying on me. I also need a modeling light because the studio space I use is pretty dark. Since I shoot Canon, trying to work with the auto-focus in a dimly lit room is not a lot of fun, so a modeling light is a necessity.

Since I also shoot in outdoor locations, I see the benefit of having more power with big strobes. I’d like to be able to schedule sessions earlier in the afternoon instead of shooting at sunset and missing dinner with my wife and kids. That being said, I want something that is lightweight enough to be easily managed and moved around by myself for those times when I don’t have an assistant and am on my own.

For the past few years, I have been using a set of Alien Bees lights. I did many sessions around the holidays with some B800s and I was continuously having issues with color consistency, or lack thereof. I was shooting a lot of families and kids and was having to spend quite a bit of time in Photoshop afterwards; I was always running into coloration problems even though the individual sessions were shot with the same settings and lighting scenarios.

I’m to the point now where I’d like to upgrade to more consistent strobes. The caveat here is that this can be expensive business, especially since I’ve grown comfortable with the sub-$500 range of handheld flashes and Alien Bees monolights. So, I took a look at my expected upgrade path and figured out what I’m going to be needing.

Current Lighting Gear

- 3 Alien Bees B800 Monolights
- 1 Alien Bees B1600 Monolight
- 1 Canon Speedlite 580EX
- 1 Canon Speedlite 430EX

While I had 6 effective lights to work with, I looked back over the past 2 years and realized that I typically employed 4 lights maximum. So, I’d eventually like to end up with 4 big lights. Now, this number is good for me. Some photographers use more lights, many use less. It all depends on the individual photographer.

It was never my intention to buy all my lights at once. I wanted to start with one or two that suited the majority of my needs and then slowly add on more lights as needed.

Profoto vs. Elinchrom vs. Einstein vs. …

I did a lot of searching around online to help decide on which quality lighting brand to go with. Of all that I read, I kept coming back to 2 typical brands: Profoto and Elinchrom. In fact, I had a hard time finding photographers that I admired who didn’t use one of those 2 brands. I was also curious about the bold claims of the Paul C. Buff Einstein, so I narrowed my search down to these 3 manufacturers.

I made a list of the lights I was interested in by each of these manufacturers and set aside a small budget for renting each of lights so I could have some workable experience with them. It was a very fun and informative experience but it helped me make, what I feel, is the best decision for me.

I did a lot of reading in online forums about people who had experience with either Profoto or Elinchrom (or both). Profoto is, without a doubt, the most highly recommended brand. It seemed that the majority of folks who were using Elinchrom were doing so because they couldn’t afford Profoto. Yet others still swore by Elinchrom so I knew they were worth a look.

Continue reading my experience with Elinchrom strobes…

About the Author

Bo Boswell is a Nashville-based portrait photographer. See more work on his website, BoBoswellPhotography.com, or follow him on Facebook or @bo_boswell on Twitter.

It’s sometimes easy to underestimate the importance of a good tag and filtering process. If done right this can be a huge time saver. It’s also handy for archiving; when you return to these photos after weeks, months or years have passed you are immediately able to see the original tags you applied.

1. Loupe View
The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure you’re in Loupe view of your photos. This allows you to easily view each individual photo as you scroll them. To do this, simply hit the E key on your keyboard, or go to View > Loupe. Now, starting with the first photo in your series, you can simply use the left and right arrow keys to scroll through the Filmstrip (the scrolling list of photos at the bottom of the screen).

2. Flags, Stars and Colors
Lightroom offers you several options to tag and filter your photos. One thing to keep in mind when sorting through these filtering options is whether or not the tag is global. If it is global, it will be recognized by Lightroom regardless of what folder, collection or catalog the photo resides in. If it’s not global, the tag you apply will only be visible within the folder or collection that you are viewing at the time.

• Flags – Quick and easy way to indicate whether a photo is to be kept or deleted. Not global.
  • Flagged (Hit P key) – Marks photo as a keeper
  • Unflagged (Hit U key) – Removes any previously applied tag.
  • Rejected (Hit X key) – Marks photo as rejected
• Stars (Hit 1-5 on keyboard, or 0 to remove stars) – Fairly straightforward way to indicate whether a photo is “meh” or if it’s “AWESOME”! Stars are globally recognized.
• Colors (Hit 6-9 on keyboard) – Nifty way to assign a group to a set of photos. For example, all Green photos need to be cropped, all Red photos need to be changed to black and white, etc. Colors are globally recognized as well.

One thing to keep in mind is that Photoshop can also recognize global tags. So, if you have just flagged a photo in Lightroom and opened in Photoshop for editing, when you save the photo it is automatically added to your Lightroom catalog but it will not retain the Flag that you had previously applied. Photoshop does retain all Star ratings and Color labels that you have applied, but not Flags.

3. Filtering Fun!
Now that all the “hard work” is done (bless your soul), it’s easy to use the filter options in the toolbar to display only certain sets of photos. Simply click on the filtering method of your choice to display only the photos with those tags.

Tagging and filtering has become the very first thing I do with my photos after they are imported. It’s especially useful if you are importing a large amount of photos at one time as it helps you narrow down the best photos to a manageable list.

Other articles in this series

• Adobe Lightroom Workflow – Part 1 – Importing Photos

Many people deal with white balance by simply setting their digital camera to Auto White Balance (AWB). While cameras do fairly well at achieving good white balance automatically, there are a few steps you can take to insure more accurate depiction of colors.

The absolute easiest way to get accurate white balance is incorporating a gray card into your workflow. With a gray card, you simply take a photo of the gray card in the lighting scenario you’re working with; you then have a solid reference point for middle gray, usually defined as 18% gray (though some claim that camera and light meters see closer to a 12% gray).

Get a Gray Card
My favorite gray cards are the WhiBal range of cards from RawWorkflow.com. When I first started practicing photography with a gray card, I got a 4×5″ card that didn’t fit in my camera bag so I always forgot to take it on location sessions. To remedy this, I picked up a card that I keep on my keychain for $18. Now I’ve got a handy gray card with me wherever I go. I simply setup the scene and then snap a photo of my subject/model holding up the keychain-sized gray card.

Balance It Out
After you’ve captured a gray card in your photo, it’s incredibly easy to set the white balance inside Photoshop. The easiest way is to open the photo inside Camera Raw.

Simply choose the White Balance Tool in Camera Raw (the eyedropper icon toward the top left corner of the window) and click on an area of the gray card.

As an experiment, I purposely messed up the white balance so that the gray was wasn’t anywhere near actual gray:

One click on the WhiBal gray card instantly corrects the color of the image:

This illustrates the effectiveness of the gray card and shows that it works even if your camera’s white balance setting was inaccurate.

This method works great with both RAW and JPEG images, so regardless of your shooting preference you can be sure to end up with accurate color through custom white balance with a gray card.

The thing about black and white conversion is that one process doesn’t always work the best for every photo. There are several different methods because sometimes certain methods work better than others for the picture in question.

What we’ll cover here is a quick way to to create an Action that will automatically add the most popular black and white conversion techniques to your photo. We’ll combine this action with Layer Comps to give you an easy way to run through each of the conversion options to get a glimpse of what works best with your photo. I tend to lovingly refer to this technique as, Not Yo Mama’s Black and White Conversion.

1. Document Setup
The first thing to do is open your photo inside Photoshop and then go to the Actions panel (Window > Action). If you haven’t played around with actions before, you may only see the Default Actions set inside this panel. Click on the little folder icon in the bottom right corner of the panel to create a new set and give the set a name. I named mine “Bo’s Actions”.

2. Create Your Action
Click on the little paper icon to the right of the folder icon to create a new action. This will bring up a dialog box where you can name your action, designate which set you’d like to store the action in (make sure the set you created in step 1 is selected) and assign a keyboard shortcut and color to the action if you wish. These last settings are optional, so once you are ready to continue hit the Record button.

It’s worth noting that Actions are not time-based recordings; the action will only record changes you make to your document. So, no need to rush through this. Take your time and focus on getting the steps setup correctly.

3. Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer
We’ll be adding on a series of adjustment layers. First up is a Hue/Saturation layer. In the Layers panel, click the icon at the bottom of the panel to create a new adjustment layer and choose Hue/Saturation from the list.

In the settings for your Hue/Saturation layer, simply drag the Saturation slider all the way to the left (-100) to completely desaturate the image. That’s all that is needed for this adjustment layer, so return to your Layers panel and click on the eye icon next to the Hue/Saturation layer to hide it.

4. Gradient Map
Still in the Layers panel, click the create adjustment layer icon again and choose Gradient Map from the options. Simply make sure that the gradient is the black to white gradient which is the default. Now like you did before, return to the Layers panel and hide the Gradient Map layer.

5. Black & White Adjustment Layer
In the Layers panel, click the icon to add a Black & White adjustment layer. There’s no need to change any of the settings or options for this layer as it does a pretty decent job on its own. Simply return to the Layers panel and hide the Black & White adjustment layer.

6. Channel Mixer Layers
Back in the Layers panel, click to add a new Channel Mixer adjustment layer. From the main drop-down menu you’ll see an few preset options. For this first layer, select the Black & White Infrared option. Then return to your Layers panel and hide the layer.

Repeat this process for each of the Channel Mixer presets:

• Black & White with Blue Filter
• Black & White with Green Filter
• Black & White with Orange Filter
• Black & White with Red Filter
• Black & White with Yellow Filter

This may seem a little tedious right now, but keep in mind that you’re only going to have to do this once and your action will do all the heavy lifting from here on out. Simply make sure that after you create each new adjustment layer and select a preset that you return to the Layers panel and hide that layer. When you are done, your Layers panel should look like the illustration to the right.

7. Layer Comps
At this point, we’ve got all of our adjustment layers added to our document. However, it would be tedious to have to flip through each of the layers one at a time to see the effects of the adjustments; this is where Layer Comps come in.

While your action is still recording, go back to the first Hue/Saturation adjustment layer you created in the Layers panel and click on the eye icon to show that layer–your photo and the Hue/Saturation layer are the only two layers that should be visible at this poing. Bring up the Layer Comps panel (Window > Layer Comps) and click the little page icon in the bottom right corner of the panel to add a new layer comp. Type in “Hue/Saturation” as the name of the comp and hit OK.

Now go back to your Layers panel, hide the Hue/Saturation layer and then click on the eye icon for the Gradient Map layer so that your photo and the Gradient Map are the only two visible layers. Return to your Layer Comps panel and add a new comp called “Gradient Map”. Return to the Layers panel and hide the Gradient Map again, then repeat the process for the rest of the layers. By the end of the process, your Layer Comps panel should look like the illustration to the right.

8. Top It Off With Curves
Just one last adjustment layer to add for a bit of flare. In the Layers panel, click to add a new Curves adjustment layer and choose Medium Contrast from the presets drop-down. Now return to the Layers panel and hide this layer.

9. Stop and Play!
At this point, you can stop your action from recording by returning to the Actions panel (Window > Actions) and clicking on the stop icon at the bottom of the panel.

Now you can review the benefit of your hard work by pulling up the Layer Comps panel and clicking on the little box to the left of your comps to make that comp visible. You can easily scroll through each of the comps to see which black and white adjustment looks best for the particular photo you’re working on at the time.

10. Fine Tune with Curves
If one of the adjustments gets close but not quite there, there’s some fine tuning we can do. You can now make your Curves layer visible at any time. Since we added the Medium Contrast preset, it will intensify the shadows and highlights in your black and white layer. If it’s too much contrast, simply lower the opacity of the Curves layer. Still not satisfied? Pull up the Curves adjustment panel and choose another preset or manipulate the curve on your own.

If you’re looking to make some photos that are more natural and pleasing, check out the following tips. If you’re just now starting out, check out our 10 tips to get started in photography.

1. Get to know the sun
The best natural lighting will occur the hour or so before the sun sets and after the sun rises. To get exact times for both sunrise and sunset, check out the USNO Sun and Moon Data site.

2. Look for shade
If you’ve got to shoot a portrait when the sun is out, look for some shade. The shade will soften the light and make it easier for your subject not to squint. There’s bound to be a tree or building nearby that you can use to escape direct sunlight.

3. Watch where you meter
When you take a meter reading of the scene, typically your camera will adjust the exposure so that the brightest areas (areas in direct sunlight) are well exposed. This will sometimes underexpose the shady areas and can be very challenging when shooting an outdoor portrait.

Try focusing on a shaded area (a shadow on the ground, or have your subject turn their back to the sun and focus in tight on their face) and take a meter reading. Now take the photo; you might blow some highlights in the bright areas, but this will keep your subject well exposed and will create a bright, dynamic surrounding for them.

If you’re wanting to create a silhouette, reverse this technique. Focus in on a very bright area (a big white cloud or the sun itself) and take your meter reading. Take the photo and the bright sun or clouds will be well exposed, but your subject will be thrown in the dark creating a nice, crisp silhouette.

4. White balance
Your best bet here is to use a gray card. However, if you don’t have one (or forgot yours at home), then your best bet would be to put your White Balance setting on Cloudy, even for direct sunlight or shaded areas. The Cloudy WB setting makes things a little warmer and gives you some nice, pleasing tones.

If all else fails, you can correct your White Balance settings afterwards using Camera Raw. I mean, you are shooting in raw, right? Right?!?

5. Use a reflector
A reflector can help bounce and direct light into areas where it might not normally go. You can use a wide range of objects such as a white bed sheet, a white shirt, a white wall, or you can opt for a good collapsible reflector.

If using a translucent material, the reflector can also double as a diffuser. If you’re in an open area without any shade, you can use the material to shade your subject from direct sunlight.

6. Be aware of your surroundings
When photographing outdoors, you have limitless possibilities of interesting elements that can benefit your photos. There are also a large number of elements that can be distracting.

Watch out for parking lots, traffic, street signs, power lines, etc. Depending on the type of photos you’re taking, these things can be distracting.

7. Freeze the action
Being outside in the daylight can allow for faster shutter speeds, which makes it easier to “freeze” motion. If shooting sports or action, use a shutter speed for at least 1/250 second to stop the action.

8. Sunny Day 16 Rule
For quick reference to exposure, remember the Sunny Day 16 rule. On a sunny day, set your aperture at f/16. Now your ISO speed will be relative to your shutter speed. For example, setting your ISO at 200 will mean that setting your shutter speed at 1/200 or 1/250 will result in an accurate exposure.

If shooting in the shade, simply change your aperture to f/8 and the rule still applies!

9. Narrow your depth of field
When shooting portraits, try opening up your aperture to f/2.8 or f/4. This not only helps to separate your subject from the background, but can also make something as drab as a line of trees into an interesting and beautiful backdrop.

10. Don’t forget the water!
One of my first outdoor shoots was during the middle of summer. The session was meant to last 30 minutes but ended up going an hour longer. I was hot and sweaty and extremely thirsty, but we were nowhere near a water fountain or gas station, so I just had to deal with it. Ever since then, I’ve made sure that there was a water bottle packed in my bag.

The basic principle of a softbox is the same as an umbrella: it provides a layer of diffusion that increases the effective size of your light source. Where softboxes differ is that their construction only allows light to pass through the diffusion material in the front. The sides and back are blocked, minimizing the spill of light.

Some softboxes contain a smaller inner layer of diffusion material. This helps to cut down on the “hot spot” that may occur in the center of the main layer of diffusion and provides a more even distribution of light.

Like umbrellas, softboxes are available in a wide range of sizes and shapes. Small to medium softboxes are ideal for headshots, small product photography, food photography, etc. Your larger softboxes are typically used if you’re going to shoot full-length portraiture or small groups of people.

Some different shapes that are available:

• Square Softbox – Most of your smaller softboxes are square in shape.
• Rectangular Softbox – Most softboxes are rectangular and can have the longer size turned vertically or horizontally, depending on your needs.
• Strip Light Softbox – Long and thin, these softboxes are typically used as a side light, rim light or hair light.
• Octabox – An 8-sided softbox that increases the effective size of your light source more so than a typical softbox.

Most softboxes attach to your studio strobes by a speedring. However, Nashville, TN-based company, Alien Bees, offers foldable softboxes which are much easier to transport and assemble than the speedring softboxes I’ve used in the past.

Some softboxes are made for portable flashes:

• Lastolite EZYBOX
• Westcott Apollo
• Chimera Maxi Softbox
• Photoflex LiteDome

Another benefit that softboxes give you over umbrellas is the ability to restrict or feather the light. You can attach a grid to a softbox to control the directionality of the light and to further limit the spill of light to the sides.

Angling the softbox slighting away from your subject, a technique known as feathering, will give you even softer light.

The ability to have more control over the light is why many photographers prefer using softboxes over umbrellas. Those benefits do come with a price, however, since softboxes are typically more expensive than umbrellas. Most small softboxes can range from $30-$80 while medium and large softboxes will cost upwards of $100.

An umbrella is a light modifier; it modifies the size and intensity of light emitted from your flash and gives you more control. Over the next few articles we’ll be looking at different light modifiers and the benefits of each. Let’s start now and look at the benefits that umbrellas give us.

Low cost
Probably the best news about umbrellas are the low cost. You can get a good umbrella for around $20 depending on the size and type you need.

• White umbrellas – This is the most versatile type as you can shoot through the umbrella or bounce the light off the umbrella (see illustration below for explanation).
• Silver umbrellas – These can only be used in the bounce configuration, but because the material is shiny silver you can typically get a stop or two more light than you get with a white umbrella.
• Gold umbrellas – Same benefits as the silver, but will give you a warmer tone. These are typically more expensive than the silver umbrellas.
• White umbrellas with removable back – These umbrellas give you the versatility of white umbrellas, but have a black removable back that can be used to provide a more efficient return of light when used in the bounce configuration. You can also reverse the backing and encapsulate the flash. This helps control the spill of light and is what most call a true “brolly” configuration.

Ease of Use
Basically open the umbrella up, attach it to the strobe or umbrella adapter and you’re all set.

Positioning
With any umbrella setup, you aim your flash away from your subject. This way the light hits the open umbrella and a wide spread of light bounces back toward your subject.

If you’re using a white umbrella, you have the option of shooting through the umbrella material. In this configuration, you aim the flash at your subject. The light hits the umbrella and spreads before reaching your subject.

Quality of Light
In lighting, the bigger your light source, the softer the light. If you want really soft light, then you want to get the apparent size of the light source as big as possible. Setting up your flash so that the light bounces off of your umbrella will give you a nice big light source, though you will lose a stop or two which may be crucial if shooting outside in daylight.

If shooting through the umbrella, the spread of light isn’t as wide and soft. However, you can get your umbrella and flash very close to your subject and conserve more power than you could if you were bouncing the light off the umbrella. Depending on the size of your subject, getting the umbrella closer could provide an effective increase in apparent size of the light source resulting in nice, soft light.

Ready to buy?

• Westcott 43″ – White
• Westcott 43″ – White w/ Removable Backing
• Westcott 43″ – Silver
• Westcott 45″ – Gold

I pretty much had to eat my words this past weekend. I had a portrait session coming up and realized I was a sync cable short for connecting my Pocket Wizard to my Alien Bees AB-1600. I usually order my sync cables from FlashZebra.com, but I knew I wouldn’t have time to get it delivered. I couldn’t trust Walmart or Target to have the cable I needed. Thus, my only hopeful source: the local neighborhood Radio Shack.

The mini plug sync cables that I use look exactly like 1/8″ mono audio cables. When I first started using Pocket Wizards to sync my lighting gear, I tried using a stereo audio cable to no avail. That’s what made me think that there was something technically different about the sync cables I’d bought online. I’d read online where many people said that an audio cable worked for them, so I figured I’d give a mono audio cable a try.

Radio Shack did not let me down. They had a 3′ mono audio cable for $2 cheaper than the 6″ cable I’d bought online. I got it home and plugged it in and it worked great.

So, a few lessons I learned.

1. Radio Shack is still of some use to me.
2. Stereo audio cables ARE NOT reliable when syncing Pocket Wizards to a strobe that has an 1/8″ mini phone sync port.
3. Mono audio cables ARE reliable when syncing Pocket Wizards to the aforementioned strobes.

If you aren’t sure how to tell the difference between a mono plug and an stereo plug, please refer to the main image for this article. See the one black ring around the tip of the plug? That means it’s mono. If it had two rings, it’d be stereo.

* I trust that someone will pick up on the somewhat obscure reference?

I’ve got so much gear which I use with my DSLR that when I get the point-and-shoot in my hands, I feel like it’s not even worth taking out of the bag. On many occasions, such as holidays or family functions, I’ve neglected to take any pictures because the only camera I had was my measly little point-and-shoot.

Then something happened. You see, every December I’ll compile a photo album of stuff that’s happened the previous year. This is for personal use only; just to take around to family as we visit them for the holidays. The first few years I did this I crammed in mostly my serious photographs with only a handful of family snapshots. I did this mostly because the family snapshots were just that; snapshots. I took no time composing them, no time setting up lights or hauling my gear around. I just gathered the family together, set the auto-timer on my camera, and that was that. A monkey could’ve taken those pictures.

Then I began to notice that these snapshots were what my family was thriving on. Sure, they love to see what I’ve been up to professionally all year. But, to them, the important thing is family. It’s being able to see how children have grown or how hairstyles have changed over the year. To them, there’s not a seriously composed portrait that I could shoot that would replace that.

After I realized this, I started using my point-and-shoot more. I started taking more snapshots to capture a family moment instead of thinking how it was going to fit into my professional portfolio.

In a way it renewed the thrill of photography for me. Sometimes we have to stop taking ourselves so seriously and remember the real reasons we got into photography in the first place. This isn’t to say that you can’t be creative with family snapshots or put more thought into them. What better way to impress a family member than to give them the full-pro treatment? Just don’t be afraid to pull out that old point-and-shoot, turn on the on-camera flash, cast away all pretension, and take a snapshot.

In The Moment It Clicks, legendary magazine photographer Joe McNally pretty much sums it up when he says, “In my helter-skelter pursuit of big pictures, I ignored too many quieter, close-to-home moments. As I look back, I wish I had more of ‘em.”