I hate flash. I've always hated flash. Either too bright or too dim, or red-eyes or washed out, overexposed centers. But I'm just beginning to learn that that is not the way it has to be. I've been reading Strobist and starting to collect flash-related gear. First purchases, at my uncle's direction, were a couple of Vivitar 283 flashes. Workhorse for a lot of amateurs, they have all kinds of options, and they're cheap! I bought a sensor on a cord for one, allowing you meter within the scene (the cord is 2 metres long), a power-setting dial that replaces the sensor for the other - so that one may use it as a fill flash with a set power value, and the piece de resistance - a wireless remote trigger setup.
Basically, one installs the transmitter on the camera. Little thing about the size of three or four matchbooks stacked on top of one another. Then one connects the receiver/s (up to five or six I believe) to a special hotshoe with a 1/8" mini-plug jack in the side. Then mount your flash in that special hotshoe on a lighting stand or a spare tripod.
You now have an off-camera flash.
But even cooler.. I use film. I have an old semi-pro digital with the capability to be programmed (it was very sophisticated for the stone age of 1999) and it is capable of turning off its internal flash and using external flash. (Not revolutionary now, I know, but so tomorrow in 1999. Plus the darn thing has a scripting language so you can write programs for it and talk to it via USB. State of the frigging art in '99).
So I plug the transmitter into my little digital, work through the menus to set the aperture at f4 and then bang away. I can see the results immediately and change the angle and intensity of the flashes as necessary to light the scene properly.
Then transfer the transmitter to my film cameras, match settings, and have guaranteed good exposure and lighting control. I love being able to use the old tech with the way older tech.
With lightboxes or a Stofen bounce unit on the flashes, or umbrellas, it should be no problem to properly light most smaller indoor scenes.
I'm even comtemplating using three triggers and flashes to light outdoor scenes - say in the redwood forest in a few weeks.
Posted by artandscience at August 10, 2006 08:46 PM