First Shoot with Strobist

There's a sharp learning curve when it comes to shooting with a Strobist kit.



1.) Make sure you have something heavy to weigh down the stand. Even the slightest fart can send the stand flying. Besides a broken umbrella, you can have a broken flash which is a no-no.

2.) Be clandestine... or ask for permission before setting up. Having an umbrella on a stand attracts unwanted attention. A Fire Fighter asked if I had a permit to shoot since we were on private property. Thankfully playing dumb prevailed.

3.) Know how your flash works. I was going for a darker ambient affect while having the flash light my subject. The ambient lighting was too bright after lowering the ISO and shutter, so I had to turn down the F-stop. Well, if I knew what I was doing then I would have known that the effectiveness of the flash decreases as the aperture gets smaller. If I have to crank down the F-stop that much, then it's probably too damn bright outside.

4.) Black colored material soaks the living crud out of a flash. It made such a difference when I asked Nick to turn his hat around.



I started the session trying to light my car with a single flash. That did not work at all and I gave up frustrated. Not wanting to waste the backdrop and time invested setting up, Nick obliged to be my model. It turned out pretty nice. With a little editing magic, the pictures turned out nicer than I expected.

I learned quite a bit during this brief photo shoot and I can't wait until my next venture. I'm so stoked that I can't stop thinking about what and where to shoot.



Props to Nick for being my model, Aaron for being an awesome assistant, and Vince for the recap info.