Non-Natural Light

I haven’t been able to get good results using a flash, ever. My photos usually end up too bright, too dark, or just bad with weird reflections. I was inspired at the Shutterfest conference to improve this deficiency, see previous post.

Shutterfest has a ton of hands-on tutorials, light setups, and off-camera flashes. I was working as a vendor at the event, so didn’t get the chance to take any of the great classes, or learn more about the setups; but after seeing such great results I figured it is time to learn more.

So for my Twelves project for May, I’m going to work on getting better with using flash, and controlled lighting. My plan is to follow the great Strobist tutorial as my primary resource.

I use a Fujifilm X-Pro2, and had no lighting gear, so first up was ordering a flash and some basic gear. Strobist lists a basic kit, but a few items were on back order from his vendor and would take awhile to arrive. So I ordered the following on Amazon, for just $150, which saved over $100 off the Strobist basic kit.

• Yongnuo YN560 IV Speedlite Flash
• Yongnuo YN560-TX Flash Transmitter
• Westcott 43-inch Umbrella
• Neewer 7-ft Light Stand
• Neewer Light Stand Bracket

I’ve read good things about Yongnuo, particularly they make good products for the price you pay. I’ll report more here as I learn, I hope to post a few times over the month as I go, first up was a couple issues getting it going.

I initially attempted to use the Yongnuo RF-603CII triggers however I could not get them to work at all with the X-Pro2, which seems to be a common problem. They work fine as a wireless shutter trigger when plugged into the camera; but I could not get it to work as a hot shoe trigger for a remote flash.

Also, the 560-TX has some problems with consecutive shots, it requires to fidget with a setting in between each shot to trigger the next. I guess that’s what you get for inexpensive gear.

A couple of initial shots testing out the gear.