Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Profoto Pro-B4 1000 Air Announced

By

Profoto Por-B4 1000 Air

Profoto has announced the new Pro-B4 1000 Air with a crazy flash durations down to 1/25,000 of a second (significantly improving on the speed of the Pro-B3).  The Pro-B4 1000 Air can fire up to 30 flashes per second at the lowest power setting and will recycle in less than a second at full power.  Power output is controlled in 1/10 f-stop increments and can be displayed in f-stops or watt seconds.

The Pro-B4’s Li-Ion battery can fully recharge in under 45 minutes and can even be recharged while in use.  The chassis is solid-cast aluminum and is wrapped in a sturdy rubber frame to handle those rough gigs.

 

Speedlight Gels and Softbox Grids with Joe McNally

By

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ihqNAbo6Cs&w=640&h=360]

Here’s a great video from Joe McNally and Adorama TV.  Joe’s working a Nikon D800 with the built-in flash as the commander flash, a Lastolite Ezybox softbox with grid and a red-gelled speedlight for a background light.

If you haven’t checked out Joe’s book, The Hot Shoe Diaries, there’s lots more of great speedlight info like this in there.

[via FStoppers]

Light and Lighting – New Book from Syl Arena

By

Light and Lighting

Light and Lighting is an upcoming book from Syl Arena. His last book, Speedliter’s Handbook, is awesome and takes the cake in terms of Canon Speedlite instruction.  It’s the book that should come with every Speedlite sold – or, at least the book that anyone who wants to learn how to properly use a Speedlite with their Canon camera.

Syl takes a more basic and brand-agnostic approach with Light and Lighting, as he notes below.

As part of Peachpit’s From Snapshots to Great Shots series, it will present fundamental concepts about light and various techniques of photographic lighting at a level accessible to novice shooters.

Syl is a great photographer and author.  Expect this to be a real gem for getting your lighting feet underneath you.  Light and Lighting is due out in June of this year and is available for pre-order from Amazon now.

[via Speedliting.com]

Joe McNally’s New Book: ‘Sketching Light’

By

Sketching Light by Joe McNally

Joe McNally has a new book.  It’s called Sketching Light.  It’s pretty big at 432 pages.  And, it’s all about lighting.

He tells readers what works and what doesn’t via his let’s-see-what-happens approach, he shows how he sets up his shots with plentiful sketches and behind-the-scenes production shots….

I loved his earlier lighting book, The Hot Shoe Diaries, and I’m really looking forward to this new book.  I enjoy McNally’s stories and wit about as much as I do the information he provides.  Expect good stuff.

Sketching Light retails for $49.99; however, you can find it for $29.99 on Amazon at the time of this post.  There’s also a Kindle version of Sketching Light.

Nikon SB-910 Speedlight Announced

By

Nikon SB-910

Nikon has unveiled the SB-910 Speedlight, which now serves as the top-tier Speedlight in its lineup.

The SB-910 adds a new graphic interface and control set.  It also features a new thermal cut-out system that will increase recycle times as the flash heats up instead of shutting down completely while it cools off.

The SB-910 covers a 17-200mm angle of view range and will automatically detect whether it is attached to an FX or DX camera, and then adjust the zoom head accordingly.

Additionally, the SB-910 features new hard-type color compensation filters for fluorescent and incandescent color temperature balancing.  When applied, the SB-910 can change the white balance setting of the camera automatically.  The coverage patterns can be adjusted for standard, center-weighted and even for control over the light spread.

The SB-910 retails for $549.95 and will be available December 2011.  Check availability on Amazon and B&H.

More info the the official press release below. [Read more…]