Adventures in Photography: My Gear

In my last post I talked about a few reasons why I chose the Yongnuo 560 iii as my first flash. I also picked up a set of Yongnuo transmitters so I can get it off my camera and fire it with radio signals. The flash does have optical slave functionality which means your on camera flash can trigger it to fire. It works great indoors but in my interweb travels they almost always mention that optical triggering can have trouble in bright sunlight. Since I'll be shooting senior portraits I know for certain I'll be outside at some point and would rather avoid the complication. The triggers I chose were about $30. They don't support TTL but since my flash is full manual this is fine. What's more is that the flash has a built-in receiver so while the transmitters come in a 2 pack, you only need one on your camera to trigger your flash(es) leaving the other to use as a shutter release (which I haven't explored yet) or at least not eat up more batteries.

I also picked up a shoot through umbrella, an umbrella adapter and a stand. Yes, this is more equipment, but for me it's worth the investment since I won't have to beg a friend to come along that isn't really interested or find and pay an assistant. As this is my first adventure into photography for someone else and it's for family I'm doing it for free and I'd rather have equipment I can reuse for probably less than hiring an assistant for an hour or two.

After watching this lecture I probably would have chosen a convertible umbrella as my first modifier since you can do all kinds of stuff with it. I highly recommend watching that video. He recommends getting a metal umbrella adapter which I agree with but his reasoning is that you have "about $1000 of equipment" up in the air. He also refers to highlights as "spectral" which has the VFX artist and grammar Nazi in me cringing, but he shows you a lot of cool stuff. For those wondering, the proper word is "specular." No way I want a spectral highlight on my forehead. To this point I've spent just over $100 for everything on and including the stand. You do get what you pay for so if you can spring for the heavy duty stuff you won't regret it. Considering this is a favor and quite possibly my first and last "customer" I'm trying to cut every corner I can. School loans, man. Seriously.

In the next post we're gonna take some pictures! About time, right?

Stand with adapter, flash, and umbrella