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The Lastolite EzyBox hotshoe is a great piece of portable flash modifier. After being introduced to it, I must say that it’s one of my favorite photographic accessory I carry around frequently. My only complaint is that it doesn’t mount a RadioPopper PX flash easily. However, I have discovered a way how to get your RadioPopper and EzyBox hotshoe to work together here. I also frequently get RadioPopper PX units imported into Malaysia. I love my RadioPoppers.
Above, my RadioPopper PX Receiver mated to my EzyBox Hotshoe and ready to go. Below, some fun shots I just did this afternoon of my niece.
For the shots above, the EzyBox was held pretty close to Julia, just out of the camera frame. Vintage color processing but basically, un-cropped, straight out of camera exposure.
More...Taking family portraiture is fairly straightforward if the family is looking for standard group shots where everyone’s kinda looking at the camera. Nothing fancy and it doesn’t stretch the artistic brain very much. It is however important to the older generation as I’ve experienced. While the younger (read the couple or one or two others) folks might like a more arty kind of portraiture, the older folks would buy a larger (12 x 16) print if everyone was grouped traditionally and looking right at the camera.
So, I had twenty minutes and several combination of people to shoot. First thing is what’s important in the location, in this case, the family home. Obviously, the antique Chinese name plate. Sadly, I don’t read Chinese and I rely exclusively on Google. For the two sample shots I posted below, I had two 580EX II flash units firing into reflective umbrellas to even out the light. It is obvious that everyone is standing in the shade. In order to balance back the light as the outdoor light is obviously warmer than my flash, a half-CTO gel was placed on each flash.
A couple of tests showed that things were fine except that the built in spotlights on the sign board were not bright enough when you’re shooting at noon, f/5.6 and 1/125 shutter speed. I couldn’t drag the shutter any longer as it’s noon. Gel in another flash to hit the signboard. This was zoomed to 105mm to tighten the light being thrown out. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a snoot, as you can see even at 105mm, there was visible spill.
Finally, Malaysian hair is typically dark and the dark brown door doesn’t help things so another flash unit placed behind the group shots and we were good to go. If I’d do this again, would I do it differently? Well, of course. A snoot would have improved the signboard flash. That flash was in group B and one-stop under compared to my group A flashes (in brollies) so I would have probably dropped it down another half-stop. Might also be fun if I gelled that flash red (and maybe the one firing at the door. Again all this wouldn’t be accomplished without my RadioPoppers. Canon’s wireless flash lacks that reliability needed in this circumstance.
Children in some ways are easier to shoot that adults. Of course, there’s a different set of challenges and also not everyone’s the same. Like adults, some are more comfortable in front of the camera. Recently, I was at Camerons and while relaxing and also planning out some big changes ahead — including a large photo seminar for university students as well as the upcoming Shoot4Charity event. My niece Julia was there and she’s a gregarious and rather happy to be in front of the camera. She proudly exclaims “I’m shooting pictures!”.
Most of the shots were flash assisted with my RadioPoppers, even some of the daylight ones as I wanted more directional lighting. I like the ones at dusk (about 7:30pm) where I had to drag the shutter down quite a bit. You can see the slow shutter in the shots — I was going down to 1/30 at f/4.5, ISO 1250 in those shots. Some shots had 3 580EX IIs going off to provide enough light but as I didn’t move my light around, some shots had to make do with a single flash (the others were off position).
Full e-TTL II with the freedom to move around. What’s not to like? Works beautifully with long range and high-speed sync. Just wish Canon would buy out or license the technology and put them into their Speedlights. Would pay more for the feature but actually I need a better ST-E2 transmitter. Come on Canon! I plan to acquire another transmitter and a couple (like 3-4) receivers. Photos to come!
If you’re a Canon shooter, you better be heading over to Syl Arena’s new site and forum if you’ve always wondered about using flash with your Canon system (of course, other DSLR owners are welcome too).
There’s also a big How-to section which will be growing. There’s one interesting post which shares 15 tips for using your speedlite, including this gem below:
“1. Understand that the hotshoe is not the best place for your Speedlite.
I know. You paid good money for your camera and your Speedlite. It’s not that you didn’t get the deluxe hotshoe. You did. It’s just that shooting with a Speedlite in the hotshoe is similar to the lighting used to make driver’s license and passport photos. You cannot create interesting light when the main source of light is parked on top of your camera.”
But if you’ve only got one light… don’t fret. Here’s one article for you too!
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