The full Rig…

When it comes to flash photography it’s not done with just a flash and a few batteries.

I recommend to read my review on Naturescapes. It shows you what hardware parts you really need. LINK

here’s a list what you additionally want to have:

 Better Beamer

Camera Flash Cord

Rechargeable Batteries

And a Battery alá Quantum Turbo 2×2

Today I wanna talk especially about the latter two. I explained the Better Beamer already and the camera cord it pretty much self-explanatory.

To run my flash is use POWEREX 2700 mAH Batteries: LINK

They last quite long and I use the same batteries for almost 3 years now without having them lose much capacity. Additionally you can purchase a great charger that loads 8 batteries at once. I own 4 set of the POWEREX, which is enough for 2-3 days.

So why do I need an additional Quantum Battery ?

When we are shooting with cameras that easily make 5 or more fps we are facing the problem that the flash cannot keep up with that high frame rate. So only every third images or so is flashed. That’s not necessarily bad, but can be pretty annoying, when shooting under conditions that require flash. At below 1/160 the POWEREX will do the job just fine and almost all images will be flashed, even without additional power supply. However, when we reach greater shutter speeds, we definitely need an extra source of power. Even with the strongest Quantum (Turbo 2×2) we will not be able to have every image flashed, but the vast majority. At 1/800 you can shoots 5-6 fps and the flash will fire in every frame. At 8 or 10 fps the flash just cannot keep up with the reloading time. I would highly recommend the Quantum Turbo 2×2, it’s strong, expensive and heavy, but worth it. At least for me. Doing serious flash photography without additional power doesn’t do it for me. With a turbo battery you are able to influence your images to a great degree, without it’s just a matter of luck, whether the “perfect” pose was flashed or not.

If someone found a good way to mount the Turbo 2×2 to a Gitzo let me know ! 🙂

It’s late so enough for today. I hope it has helped a bit 🙂

Tastes

Everytime I post an image to a US Forum and to an EU Forum I know that I will receive the exact opposite comments depending on what I post.

My latest image showed this phenomenom very clearly. Here in Germany it was received as one of my best images, where as in the US the female was found to be distracting….

In general in Germany to get many “wow” comments an image has to be an action shot. Whereas in the US a nice clean BG with a singing songbird on a fine perch will give you much more nice comment than two flying ducks….

Why is that?

I guess many of you posting in both “world” have experienced the same. But can anyone explain it?

Why is such a clean BG shot in Europe seen as boring?

Looking forward tó your comments.

I post two samples