Lighting Equipment
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A Monolight Buyer’s Guide; Find A Versatile Strobe That’s Right For You
Lighting Equipment
Jack Neubart • Oct 01, 2008 • 0 comments

A monolight (or monobloc, in some circles) is a self-contained strobe--and possibly the best way to get started in studio lighting. Self-contained means it does not require an external power pack to control its various functions with all the controls housed in the body. Most monolights plug into an AC outlet, although a few are driven by a separate, external battery pack. You...
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A Tabletop Lighting System Sampler; We Work With The Lowel Ego, Interfit Pop-Up Light Tent, Sharpics D-Flector, Samigon Internet Photo Studio Pro, And Sunpak eBox
Lighting Equipment
Jack Neubart • Oct 01, 2007 • 0 comments

Selling collectibles, used cameras, confections, and a myriad of other items online is an exploding phenomenon, but to sell effectively you have to show the product off to advantage. Of course, tabletop photography extends beyond the world of eBay. You may want to document small valuables for insurance purposes or have loftier goals in the still life world. Any way you look at it...
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Add A Little Light; Flash Tips For Digital Photographers
Lighting, Lighting Equipment
Peter K. Burian • Jan 01, 2005 • 0 comments

All Photos © 2004, Peter K. Burian, All Rights Reserved

"This excerpt was taken from Mastering Digital Photography and Imaging © 2003, SYBEX Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Flash has come a long way from the old days when photographers were required to make complex calculations to get a good flash exposure. Almost all digital cameras...
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Adorama Monolights
Lighting Equipment, Test Reports
Joe Farace • Oct 01, 2004 • 3 comments

Photos © 2004, Joe Farace, All Rights Reserved

Light, as they say, "is light." The most important characteristic of monolights, or any kind of lighting system, is the quality and the quantity of the light they produce. Other stuff like recycling time, power...
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AlienBees Flash Units
Whats The Buzz
Lighting Equipment, Test Reports
Jay Abend • Jan 01, 2002 • 0 comments

Could you grow to love the yellow and black bumblebees on the "AlienBees" logotype? You better--it's plastered on everything. Each monolight has three bumblebees and two different logos. The bees are everywhere--stitched onto the...
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AlienBees’ Ringflash; An Attractive Lighting Option
Lighting Equipment
Ron Eggers • Oct 01, 2007 • 0 comments

Ringflashes, or ringlights, are specialized pieces of equipment that work great in certain situations, but they're not the right choice for others. These circular units have a center-mounting bracket that allows the lens to extend through the ring of light. When the flash is triggered, light explodes around the lens, lighting up the subject somewhat like an on-camera flash.
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Aurora Orion 400: Taking It On The Road
Equipment Reviews, Lighting Equipment
Steve Bedell • Apr 18, 2012 • Published: Mar 01, 2012 • 0 comments
The Aurora Orion light kit arrived on my doorstep at the busiest time of the year for me. At the end of the summer I take hundreds of high school seniors and thousands of “one shot” photos of the underclass students at high schools. So while it has taken me a while to get around to writing the report, I have used these lights to take thousands of pictures, and I was really glad to have a light kit that I could just pick up and walk out the door with and have all I needed in one really nice travel bag.
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Aurora’s Mini/Max; Affordable On-Camera Flash Light Modifiers
Lighting Equipment
Joe Farace • Oct 01, 2009 • 0 comments

The Mini/Max family consists of two light banks that fit on the front of your shoe-mount flash.
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Back Yard Studio In A Bag; A Kit Full Of Location Light Modifiers
Lighting Equipment
Steve Anchell • Feb 01, 2007 • 0 comments

Let's face it. Not every photographer has a loft in the photo district that includes a studio space in which to photograph. Heck, not every photographer has a back yard. Don't let that stop you from reading this review. Even if you don't have a back yard or studio space you have something just as good, Central Park, Herman Park, some park.

At any...
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Balcar's AQ Lighting System
An On-Location, Battery-Powered Strobe
Lighting Equipment, Test Reports
Jay Abend • Oct 01, 2004 • 0 comments

Photos © 2004 Jay Abend, All Rights Reserved

When it comes to heavy-duty pro lighting gear, Balcar has long been a name synonymous with high-end studio strobes. This French company has been at the forefront of a number of trends in photography. Started in 1952, Balcar...
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BKA’s Studio System Pro Starter Kit; Two Lights In One
Lighting Equipment
Ron Eggers • Oct 01, 2006 • 0 comments

The Studio System Pro Starter Kit distributed by the Brandess-Kalt-Aetna (BKA) Group includes two components--a professional studio setup and a smaller, more portable unit. The first component is a good solution for experienced photographers who want to get more serious about studio lighting. It includes the SP Excalibur 3200 Monolight, a full-sized strobe head with...
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Booth Photographic Parabolic Umbrellas: Everybody Needs An Umbrella, The Bigger The Better
Lighting Equipment
Joe Farace • Nov 18, 2011 • Published: Oct 01, 2011 • 0 comments
Gene Kelly had an umbrella while dancing to “Singin’ in the Rain” but he didn’t use it much, preferring instead to get wet. Photographic umbrellas won’t keep you dry but are the simplest to use and most inexpensive form of lighting modifier available, and that makes them the most popular as well. These umbrellas look and act like the kind of umbrella that keeps “raindrops from falling on your head” except that in a studio lighting situation they are usually reflective and light is bounced into them, creating a big, soft light source that’s directed toward the subject. Sometimes an umbrella is covered with translucent material and instead of mounting the umbrella so light is bounced into it, a light is fired through it, turning it into a direct source. While some light is lost shooting through an umbrella, it produces more direct light, and since more light is being directed at the subject it gives you the ability to shoot at a smaller aperture than when bounced into the umbrella. If you compare the apertures produced in the illustrations you’ll see what I mean.
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Bowens 9Lite System
Hot Portraits With Cold Lights
Lighting Equipment, Test Reports
Joe Farace • Oct 01, 2003 • 0 comments

The Bowens 9Lite is designed specifically for digital photography and gets its name from the nine fluorescent pigtail tubes that screw into its main housing. Like Bowens Tri-Lite (see sidebar "Photographing Small Products") these are cold hot lights and each lamp head contains nine...
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Bowens Espirit Monolights
A New Line Of Solid Performers From A Trusted Name
Lighting Equipment, Test Reports
Joe Farace • Jan 01, 2001 • 0 comments

Like many professionals, my first studio lights were from Bowens. My original lights were the black 800B models that proved to be indestructible over the almost 20 years that I used them. The new Bowens line of monolights appear just...
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Bowens' Pulsar Radio Trigger System
Work Wirelessly...On Location And In The Studio
Lighting Equipment, Test Reports
Joe Farace • Oct 01, 2004 • 0 comments

Photos © 2004, Joe Farace, All Rights Reserved

OK, I'll be the first one to admit that I'm a klutz. I like to work with long lenses (an 85mm lens is short to me) and am constantly backing up into whatever boyfriend, husband, or hanger-on that models feel...
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