Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips
In these videos, Joe McNally walks through the basics of TTL flash, including lighting ratios and high-speed sync. He’s specifically talking about Profoto’s Air TTL system; however, these principles apply to smaller speedlights from Canon, Nikon and other manufacturers. [Read more…]
In this short video, Jared Platt shows how to freeze motion using high-speed sync with the Profoto B1 and B2 heads, which work with TTL flash systems on Canon and Nikon DSLRs.
While he demos the Profoto kit, the same rules apply to smaller speedlight kits and other TTL monolights and flash heads. With purely manual flash communication, however, you are limited to the sync speed of your camera (often around 1/200s) and won’t be able to freeze that motion.
Yesterday, I shared a video from Profoto that discussed the benefits of high speed sync when shooting in high ambient light outdoors. In this video from Profoto, we get another look at the differences between shooting with ambient light only and adding layers of light using TTL lighting outdoors mixed with available ambient lighting.
Again, the video highlight’s Profoto’s high end AirTTL system using B2 and B1 lights but the same high speed sync can be achieved with smaller and more affordable speedlights from the likes of Canon and Nikon, or even cheaper third-party speedlights.
This short video from Profoto shows how shooting with high-speed sync flashes in daylight can help bring back details in the sky. The advantage of high-speed sync is that you can shoot at much higher shutter speeds than the x-sync rating of your camera. Most systems allow you to go up to 1/8000s, which means you can bring ambient light down without needing a ton of light from your flash.
In this case, they used a single B2 head in a softbox to balance the flash and ambient light. While the Profoto kits can be very expensive, the same effect can be achieved using smaller and more affordable speedlights. If name brand speedlight kits are still too expensive, third-party speedlights are available with the high-speed sync feature for less than $100.
Profoto unveiled this week its new B2 250 AirTTL Off-Camera flash system, which follows the popular B1 from last year. The compact B2 250 battery pack runs off a lithium ion battery. It can be purchased in a kit with one or two B2 250Ws flash heads. [Read more…]
In addition to support for Canon TTL systems, Profoto has announced a new Air Remote TTL-N transmitter for using the Nikon i-TTL system with Profoto B1 Air lights. [Read more…]
Profoto introduced a new B1 TTL monolight today, which is paired with the new Air Remote TTL unit (available for Canon E-TTL II today and Nikon i-TTL in 2014) that attaches to your camera’s hotshoe. [Read more…]
Check out the below BTS video for Profoto Master Series with Greg Heisler as he talks his way through the his approach to shooting Bill & Melinda Gates and Bono for the cover of Time’s Person of the Year cover for 2005.
Lots of good pre-production thoughts and then curve ball adjustments once people started arriving on his set. [Read more…]
Profoto RFi softboxes are a new line of easy-to-use softboxes that are available in 12 different sizes across 4 models – rectangular, square, octagonal and strip. The RFi softboxes are not limited to use with only Profoto strobes thanks to speedring adapters for at least 26 other brands. [Read more…]
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.