Strobe light

Las Vegas based commercial photographer Michael Herb recently got his hands on Westcott's 59 inch Zeppelin to test out on location in the Nevada desert. The photoshoot featured three models in an apocalyptic theme at a salt lake bed. In the behind the scenes video he shows just how difficult it can be to put together the Zeppelin on the separately purchased speedring. Even with the problems at set-up Michael still quite enjoyed shooting with the Zeppelin and plans to use it in the future.

Over the years Yongnuo has built quite a reputation as an affordable and competitive product to the big names. Now nearly a year after their last trigger update, Yongnuo is announcing its latest version the RF605 trigger, which comes with some nice features that may pursuade you to upgrade if you are holding on to the old versions.

We’ve all been there, stuck with bad light and fresh out of ideas. I may spend up to an hour pre-lighting before a model or subject steps onto set, I work out the kinks and make sure everything is how it should be. But, despite my best efforts to make it right, every now and then I run out of time and have to wing it. We all have our “go to” lighting scenarios, but when you’re standing in unknown territory, keep the following tips in mind and you just might make it through the storm.

Ever since Benjamin Von Wong took a leap of faith and left his successful career as a engineer to persue his artistic passions, he has kept a legion of die hard fans enchanted by his ability to turn the ordinary into epic. Whether it be organizing complicated pyrotechnics, photographing surreal scenes of ultraviolet models, or chaining models to a shipwreck 25 meters below the surface in Bali, Benjamin has never been interested in being ordinary. In his insanely creative mind, his thought process of "If it's not epic, than what's the point?" has led to some of the most memorable photoshoots in the last several years.

Throughout my career so far I have failed over and over again. Although it’s the successes that I'm remembered and known for, it’s the failures that are always the catalyst. At the end of the day, the key to success lies in failure. This improvisational beauty shoot was only a success because I set myself up to fail.

Sometimes we have the luxury of being at an entire game or tournament or match to get action shots of athletes performing their best. Yet occasionally, if we're like Brett Wilhelm, we are asked to cover the World of X Games Cam Zink Mammoth Flip that only happens once and lasts all of a few seconds. Under that kind of pressure with no "redos," Wilhelm takes us through a refreshingly in-depth BTS video that covers everything from basic composition to gear and how one man can cover three cameras.

In this video, Karl Taylor and Urs Recher experiment with and demonstrate the uses of a Parabolic reflector. Using a model who is wearing white against a white background, they produce a number of portraits demonstrating how to shape the Para light to separate the model from the background. The versatility of this practice is quite astounding as the photographer is able to stand in front of the light and have it still perfectly illuminate the model and is a simple one light set up.

Ever since I started diving into studio photography the term “V-Flat” has been a big mystery to me. Google and YouTube have been the quintessential resource for photography knowledge and for whatever reason there isn't much detailed information on how to construct a V-Flat or what purpose they actually serve. It took time to sift through the noise of nonsensical DIY fabrication and even more time to unfold the enigma of this studio essential.