Review: Singh-Ray Vari-ND Filter – The Best ND Filter
Neutral-density filters are a mainstay of landscape and travel photographers desiring long exposure for specific effects like the motion blur of water. However, outside their utility with outdoor photographers, the ND filter has immediate uses for anyone shooting portraits and working with flash photography. The Singh-Ray Vari-ND is a unique kind of neutral density filter. [...]
Portraits: Breathe Electric
Hanging out in the hot, hot sun on Warped Tour 2010, Chris and I met up with electro-pop wiz kid Grant Harris – AKA the brainchild of Breathe Electric – slapped a Nooka watch on him, and snapped these portraits.
Review: Yongnuo RF-602 Wireless Flash Triggers
As you may know, I’m a big fan of Nikon’s “Creative Lighting System” of wireless flash (CLS) for my portrait work. And with wireless TTL control of up to three remote flash groups without any additional hardware beyond your Nikon speedlights, there’s a lot to love. However, there are lighting situations and setups where IR [...]
Portraits: The Devil Wears Prada
Before their performance at the Pageant supporting Killswitch Engage, Alternative Press’ 2009 band of the year, The Devil Wears Prada, got a taste of the bright lights.
DIY Speedlight Grid: Video Tutorial
After my first DIY photo project, I decided to tackle something easy. Here’s the video tutorial for my DIY speedlight grid, which uses black straws, a beer koozie, and a few other common materials for a simple and effective light modifier.
DIY Beauty Dish Video Tutorial
But wait, there’s more! While Chris and I were building the Mark II edition of the “Chinatown Special,” we also shot video during the whole process. Got four minutes? Here’s the walk-through of how to make what Chris and I think is the best DIY beauty dish.
The Best DIY Beauty Dish
For anyone doing portrait work, the term “beauty dish” is bound to crop up sometime or another, whether it’s reading Strobist, looking at the technical notes from shoots, or simply surfing for more gear you don’t need. Over the last year, there’s been a lot of interest in DIY (do it yourself) beauty dishes, made [...]
DIY Beauty Dish Portrait
Here’s one portrait for you that was lit by the “Chinatown Special,” my DIY Beauty Dish, and made with the Nikon D3 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8.
DIY Beauty Dish Examples: Portraits
You may have seen a tweet or two over the last month about a little project I’ve been working on: building a DIY beauty dish. The full details and how-to on my design are ready to go, but first, here’s a look at a few examples shot with the homebrew light modifier for speedlights.
Lastolite Cold Shoe Mod for Nikon SB-900
Any photographer using the Nikon SB-900 speedlight knows that flagship flash has a problem playing well with others. Specifically, Nikon changed the clearance between the flash body and the foot of the flash, such that the flash doesn’t fit into the cold shoes with a fatter design. Here’s a super easy mod I did to [...]
Catchflash
A guitar solo at the edge of the stage is just the sort of act that encourages fans to put down their beers and raise up their cameras. No frontlighting? No problem. You’ve probably seen the effect – a serendipitous contribution of flash in one of your photos from some kind stranger who happened to [...]
Lighting Techniques: Backlighting for Band Portraits
In this shot of The New Heathers, I superclamped an SB-600 just out of frame in the elevator shaft for accent lighting. Love it or hate it, backlighting is a effective way to punch up music photography, whether it’s on stage or off. Here’s a look at getting the most out of a limited number [...]
The Dillinger Escape Plan: Portaits
I caught up with the guys of The Dillinger Escape Plan on their 2009 tour for a quick portrait shoot. With my newly built DIY beauty dish and two trusty assistants, we banged it out Strobist-style.
VersaEmerge: Portraits
47″ octabox boomed over the band, reflector camera left, two speedlights for rimlighting behind the band. I caught up with Blake, Sierra, and Devin of VersaEmerge on the Love Drunk Tour for a portrait shoot. We shot with a handful of Nikon Speedlights and one Alien Bees B800 with the 47″ octabox – here are [...]
Warped Tour 2009: Portraits
13 bands, 10 bottles of water, 8 speedlights, one brother, and zero live shows later: Backstage portraits from Warped Tour 2009, featuring TAT, Escape the Fate, Forever The Sickest Kids, We the Kings, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, and more.
Preview: Warped Tour Portraits
Hey guys, just a preview of some of the portraits that I did with my brother Chris at Warped Tour. TAT here was one of our favorite groups to work with during the day – the three-piece brought a lot of enthusiasm and energy to the shoots, and we all had a blast.
Attracted to Gods: Behind the Scenes
Here’s a quick behind-the-scenes video my friend Dave shot while assisting on last week’s promo shoot with Minneapolis rockers Attracted to Gods.
Portraits: Semi Precious Weapons
Just before their headlining performance at the Blender Theater in NYC, Semi Precious Weapons took some time out to to do a set of promos with the Owyoung Brothers. What do you get when you throw together New York’s glam rock saviors and your very favorite pair of Asian brothers? All the damage after the [...]
Band Promos: Options for Location Lighting
It’s hard to find good help these days. Speedlights? Monolights? Powerpack setups? So many ways to go strobes, so little time. Let’s talk about options for flash photography on-location shooting band promos.
The Upright Animals
October 26, 2008 – This past weekend I did a shoot with The Upright Animals, a great group who I’ve had the pleasure of working with several times in the past. However, in contrast to the live work we’ve done before, the task for this shoot was a set of promos to coincide with the [...]
. 
