Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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Flashes (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by LedZepGeezer@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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I am returning to photography after a couple of decades down period focusing on other activities. But a lot has changed! When I needed a flash before, I’d always buy Metz because they were work horses that never let me down. But, from what I can tell, they are no longer in business. Wow, mind blown! So what are the better brands of flash and lighting equipment now?

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[–] Bodhrans-Not-Bombs@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Are you looking for speedlights or bigger studio lighting?

If you've been out for that long, everything has gone to monolights instead of separate power packs and heads. Sinar Bron doesn't seem to have the same distribution it once had in the US, so Broncolor stuff seems difficult to find. Paul Buff makes a pretty good line that's more affordable than Profoto or most Elinchroms, the White Lightning line is as no-frills as you'll get today. Or you can get a fancy setup with built-in remotes, control everything from an app on your phone, etc.

[–] LedZepGeezer@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wow. Monolights. I had no idea. I feel like I need some refresher training. I had been looking for a speedlight now and portable studio a bit later.

I’m an old dog but I can learn new tricks. So do you have a reference, book, website, etc about lighting with new technology and techniques that may be helpful to me for catchup purposes?

Thank you!

[–] Bodhrans-Not-Bombs@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Strobist gets recommended a lot to beginners, but they're more speedlight-oriented than the bigger strobes.

Honestly I'd start looking through the manufacturers recommended here and getting an idea for the tech. I personally don't mind setting power manually and running off of AC power, but others with more complicated setups might want to automate that or at least make it more streamlined. Some lights (like Paul Buff Einsteins) stay color-temp accurate throughout their whole f-stop range, this may or may not be important to you.

And in a turn of events, you see people using LED "hot lights" more than ever now with the rise of YouTube creators and vlogs. A world of difference from the old Lowel tungstens that would heat the studio on a winter day.

[–] LedZepGeezer@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Great idea, thank you all!