Lighting and Strobing Sites

It’s amazing how many sites talk about lighting for photography!

I was introduced to the strobist a few months ago, but not for the amazing lighting series he does, but for the information regarding how to promote yourself through photo forums.

But today I went around in a wide arc from the Strobist through a whole bunch of interesting sites that also talk about the perfect lighting for any situation.

Somehow I found the “MidWest Photo Exchange” (based in Columbus, Ohio in the U S of A). They stock an interesting device ‘Manfrotto Justin Clamp – 175F‘. I’m sure I could find this in Australia, but giving a free plug for an obviously well-stocked shop is easy enough to do.

The Justin Clamp looks most interesting: Basically, it “clamps onto bars up to 1.6″ (40mm). Supplied with a positional miniature ball head with a flash shoe attachment to allow it to clip and position a flash unit wherever it is needed” (quoted from thefotogeeks.com) This is a great device for any Manfrotto tripod owner to have, particularly for shots where you require much more lighting!

So then I found the Sports Shooter site. Initially I thought this was about gun-toting deer-hunting army wannabes … thankfully I was very wrong! The best page lists all the regular contributors and gives a quick heads-up on the history of their photographic skills and how the site came about. Plus there are heaps of stories and articles about photographic events. I didn’t find anything regarding strobing or lighting, but all the contributing photographers have their own sites where you can see and read more about professional photography. I plan to go through a few of them, slowly over the next few weeks.

Thanks to the strobist, I found lightingmods, another blogspot site that excels itself! This article is about making your own Light Panel quickly and easily – and ensuring it lasts a lifetime of photography. It’s a three part series, each going through the components and use thereof.

Then I found another blogger site that yet again has some great stories and information about photography: Bryan Mitchell, (no relation that I know of!) who tells about his thirteen years of ‘sometimes funny, sometimes silly, sometimes interesting‘ freelancing career.

This took me to the flickr group who call themselves ‘Lighting Mods‘. With just over three hundred members, there is a myriad of interesting photographs whereby the artists have built their own lighting rigs and gear. Good stuff for those of us on a monetary-diet (low budget)!

Via flickr.com and a twist of turns, I found this post from Bert Stephani regarding their recent trip to Paris for a strobist-seminar. Now there is a another type of seminar I’d pay money to attend. Maybe we’ll have to set-up something like in Adelaide. I wonder who’d we choose to have as speakers. We’d have to pay them in Coopers Beer, but it’d be worth it all round! Bert has another great article regarding the use of backgrounds in our photography. as well as a few great photographs of a somewhat beautiful model. (Remember to roll your tongue back in after you’ve scrolled down the page!)

Somehow this brought me round in a full circle wherein I re-found the lightingmods site and landed on this article: Paris Strobist Seminar on 27 Oct 2007. These guys know how to write a great story, integrating the photographs of the event effectively and appropriately. Although they don’t talk too much about the seminar itself, an amazing amount can be gleaned throughout the article. I’ve figured out that I need two external Flash that will work via remote, two white umbrella’s and a whole lot of patience. More money to save, but it will be worth it!

And now I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!