Off-camera flashing

For a few years now, I've been a fan of Strobist.com, David Hobby's web site dedicated to using a flash off-camera as opposed to mounted on top of it.  I'd highly recommend it if you're thinking of getting into the world of semi-pro lighting.

This week, I bought my first proper shoot-thru umbrella and stand.  Although it takes a few minutes to set up, it's an amazing piece of equipment.  It wasn't particularly expensive (£54 delivered) and I know I'm going to get a load of use out of it.

I've been taking pics of our son Samuel for months with a flash now (when he was a very small baby, I used a high ISO and fast lens, the latter of which he is too quick for nowadays), but I've wanted to get into using a shoot-thru umbrella with a speedlight - a Canon 430EX - for a while.  I don't have the space, budget or inclination to buy expensive studio lights at the moment, so the speedlight is fine.

A few years ago I bought some Yongnuo wireless triggers, so I can control the flash when it's not on top of the camera and with a very simple set up, I took the shot of Samuel, above.

At first glance, you might say that it just looks like a shot taken with a flash or with good room lighting, but I think it looks so much better than the flash-on-camera shots I've been taking recently.  The light it balanced across the shot, there aren't any harsh shadows and the quality of the shot overall is much more pleasing.

This was shot #1 taken with the umbrella set-up.  After reading the Strobist Lighting 101 series I was able to set up the shot and get this result (well, an incorrectly white-balanced version of it, until I fixed it in Lightroom).

The next challenge is doing all of this with the Mamiya medium format film camera...

Step back in time... again.

It's mad - I've got a Canon 5D mk II and several fancy lenses, but for some reason, when my Dad gave me his Pentax K1000 which he bought in Boston in 1977, I got more excited than ever.

As a boy, I remember my Dad having this mechanical, complicated looking contraption, snapping away with a shutter which let out a satisfactory 'clunk' when it fired and wind-on crank which now brings back memories of a happy childhood.

He told me that it cost him $25 for the kit, which included a 55mm f/2 lens and a case.  It's still in perfect condition and after I got the light meter working again (it required a 357 battery, whatever that is), I loaded it with a film and started shooting away.  Cautiously.  (I say cautiously because with only 36 frames, you don't want to 'waste' any, right?).

I know that shooting film these days is slightly pointless - the Canon can reproduce shots which look much better than the Pentax results in a matter of seconds.  In fact, in just about the time it takes to shoot off a reel of 35mm film, I can take a shot on the Canon, process it on the computer and print it off on my parents' printer 400 miles away using Google CloudPrint.

But wanting to dip into a piece of nostalgia, I've bridged the gap - our old scanner (which I bought YEARS ago) isn't compatible with Mac OS 10.6 so I've bought a new one which can scan film.  Instead of getting prints, I'm going to get films processed only, then scan them in to be edited digitally.

Watch this space.