I attended the Raleigh, NC session of the Flash Tour on 4/4/2011. More information on the tour and it’s dates can be found by visiting http://www.theflashbus.com/
. The following is a short snapshot of what they day looked like and my personal review of the tour.
First off, I find David Hobby and Joe McNally completely polarizing figures in the world of off camera flash photography. They are simply amazing and I truly enjoy their blogs and inspiration. David runs http://www.strobist.com/ and Joe blogs at http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/. If you do not visit those regularly, you are missing out.
The day began with David Hobby. For those that do not know, David is very keen on using Nikon off camera flashes in manual mode. He tends to use less gear than Joe, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that his photography is less dramatic. David walked the crowd through the importance and differences in 4 types of light. Ambient, Fill, Key, and Accents. He spent time on each one of these subjects and discussed what each meant and what getting them correct would give to your photos. I loved the way he incorporated his Lighting in Layers methodology from his DVDset. This involved starting with the base ambient light, exposing it for the effect you looked for, and then layering in multiple lights to obtain the final photo. It was very cool to see the steps involved and what each light did to the overall final image.
David then went into discussions around using a one light setup, a two light setup, and discussed how moving to 3 or 4. He talked about the benefit and challenges involved in One Light photography and how it was not really his style. He spent more time on two light setups. He walked through multiple photos as examples. He would discuss the benefits on one, two, or 3 lights, and why he thought a certain one was right for that specific photo and location. When he was finished with his discussion and all of the photo examples, we broke for lunch.
After lunch, Joe McNally took over. For those that do not know, Joe is sort of the opposite of David. As mentioned, David goes for less gear. For example, David would probably shoe up at an event with a small camera bag containing a body and a couple of lenses, a few SB-800 flashes and pocket wizards, and a couple of light stands on his back. Joe would show up to that same shoot in a SUV with a couple of assistants and enough gear to take up the rest of the SUV and then some.
Joe is a Nikon TTL photographer. He rarely put any flash in manual mode and said that’s normal for him. Once the assistants setup the stage with some tether tools gear, a laptop, a large GOBO to block the sun from entering the overhead windows, several light stands, and an assortment of modifiers, it was time to begin. Joe walked the room through a great discussion on TTL and why he loves it. He discussed the benefits and fully admitted the limitations and frustrations it can sometimes bring. He made a very good statement about the camera and the shooter. “The camera is a machine. It does not take risks. YOU do. “ That’s pretty much his take on shooting and it shows. He will try many things in the mix of getting to his final image. His DVDset covers his approach too. It was awesome to watch him bring in different modifiers and watch the photo evolve. At one point, he took the same model and showed the difference in on camera flash, bounce, off camera, a Lumiquest Softbox III, a Lumiquest LTP, and using multiple Lastolite trigrip’s as shoot through modifiers. I enjoyed seeing the immediate differences in the quality of light from each of those. As a side not, he and David both enjoy the 2 Lumiquest modifiers mentioned here. They use them very close to their subjects and I have to admit I was impressed and will be adding them to my bag shortly. Joe then went on to other larger modifiers and showed multiple examples of adding different types of light to your images. Once again, he also showed the layering process as he would start with a single flash and then add more and more until he got the look he wanted.
Personally, I found this event well worth the money and would pay even more to go see these guys in the future. I am only covering the high level overview in this review and can assure you there was plenty of commentary and crowd involvement. It was a really good building exercise for each photo. David and Joe covered many best practices and some other gadgets not mentioned here. I just wanted to give anyone on the fence a good idea of what the tour was all about and help them decide on attending.
For me, the value was watching two brilliant photographers with different approaches go through their process of building a photo. They go about it with different technologies (IE Manual vs TTL), but they both arrive at very creatively layered images. I did buy both DVD sets and will be reviewing them in the next weeks. If they are coming anywhere near you, do not miss it.
