Stinky Tofu, a traditional Taiwanese snack food.

Don’t let the name or smell turn you off, stinky tofu is in fact delicious. Long a favorite of people in Taiwan, this fermented tofu dish is found in night markets across the island and the iconic dish is capable of eliciting a wide range of responses. Some can’t get over the smell while others salivate at the thought of eating some. But what has all this got to do with a softbox?

Food photographers traditionally prefer to use natural window light where possible in there setups and for good reason. It can produce a nice even light most of the time that is well-suited to photographing food. Notice I said most of the time. That’s right, there are times when the light coming through the window is not what you want. For times like those, you need to give it some help and the newly released Phottix Easy-Up Umbrella Softbox 60x90cm is just the thing.

With a large 60x90cm (42″) surface, the umbrella softbox can easily be used as a substitute for quality window light whenever and wherever you need it. It folds away like an umbrella and opens out in a matter of seconds to give you a decent-sized softbox. No annoying speed rings or metal rods to deal with. From removing it from it’s carry bag and opening it to positioning it on a light stand and attaching the front diffuser, it can be set up in about half a minute.

Phottix Easy-up Umbrella Softbox

It weighs next to nothing and could easily be placed on a boom if necessary and as long as you use an umbrella holder like the Phottix Varos Umbrella Holder, you can manipulate the softbox at a range of angles. Great for getting in close and creating a big, soft light source.

So how does it compare to window light? Take a look below and see. The shot on the right is window light as it was at the time I was shooting. Sure, I could have waited a few hours until the light had improved but that’s a luxury you won’t always have. Being able to use something like the Phottix Easy-Up Umbrella Softbox 60x90cm dramatically extends the time available to you for photographing with nice light.

Easy-up Umbrella Softbox on the left. Window light on the right.

The Phottix Easy-Up Umbrella Softbox 60x90cm is available at the Phottix online store or your nearest Phottix retailer. At only $57, this makes for a very affordable and highly useful light modifier option.

Direction Light in the Market - is it front, back or side light?

After yesterday’s phototip that talked about the quality of light, it’s time to move onto the direction of light. Once again, I’m using the sun as my lightsource.

Frontlight

Front light is a term that sometimes causes confusion for novice photographers. By front, we mean the subject’s front, that is, behind the photographer. When you position yourself so that the light is coming from behind you and is falling directly onto the subject, you have front light. It tends to be quite safe and a little boring – it’s often worth looking for other options if you can.

Backlight

This is when the sun is behind the subject, and often creates a kind of rim light. This is often used when shooting near sunset, but not shooting the actual sunset. It can minimize texture and shape of the subject, adding an air of the unknown, as it separates the subject from the background.

Sidelight

We often seek out sidelighting as it tends to give a more dramatic, dynamic look. With the sun coming from one side, one half of your subject is brightly lit and the other half is in shadow. Texture and form are emphasized here.

When you come across a good subject, it’s often good to at least visualize if not actually shoot it at different times of the day in order to see which direction of light works best. Sometimes, simply waiting for the sun to move a few degrees can make all the difference.

That was the 136th Daily PhotoTip. If this post was useful to you, why don’t you subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and share it with your friends. You can also get access to exclusive content and special offers by subscribing to my newsletter. Sign up today. Thank you.

Boys in a Boat, Chong Khneas, Cambodia

For this post, I’m discussing outdoor, natural light. No strobes, no candles, no streetlights, no neon. These principles translate to the artificial, but for now, let’s look at what the universe provides.

Before we continue, professional photographers as well as those who aspire to be shouldn’t miss out on portfolio consultant Selina Maitreya and her audio series The View From Here. It’s available at a 50% discount using the code FOSCFI.

There are two essential types of light; diffuse and specular. Diffused light is soft light with little to no shadow. Specular is hard light with strong shadows. Which is preferable for photography is dependant on the scene or subject being shot. There’s no good or bad light, just appropriate light.

Diffuse

Nature provides us with two common diffused lighting scenarios; overcast and heavy overcast. Heavy overcast, including conditions such as fog and dense cloud cover, is the softest of all, with no shadows at all. It’s excellent lighting for mysterious forests and streams or moody atmospheres but it can be difficult to work with and may appear a little washed out.

Overcast on the other hand adds more ambient into the mix, giving rise to light shadows. This is great when you don’t want highly directional light, and if it’s bright enough can be a great light for outdoor portraits.

Specular

At its hardest, specular lighting is what exists at noon on a cloudless day. Strong, direct, bright light that produces hard-edged shadows, it’s difficult (but not impossible) to work in. Less specular is bright and partly cloudy skies. There’s plenty of light, the scattered clouds help to produce moderate shadows and it’s often perfect for photography during the golden hours.

Planning your naturally-lit subjects to suit the time and day’s weather conditions will save you endless frustration as a photographer. Shooting your subjects in the appropriate light will make you a better photographer.

That was the 135th Daily PhotoTip. If this post was useful to you, why don’t you subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and share it with your friends. You can also get access to exclusive content and special offers by subscribing to my newsletter. Sign up today. Thank you.

Portrait of Tina, a young Swedish student.

When using some form of strobe lighting, there are five basic elements that go into determining the optimum settings for your exposure. Knowing and understanding these variables is essential for any photographer who wishes to achieve accurate, repeatable flash exposures with a minimum of fuss. If you can master these, everything else becomes a matter of minor tweaks and adjustements. The five elements are:

1.Shutter Speed
2.Aperture
3.Flash Power
4.Flash to Subject Distance
5.ISO

Before we continue, professional photographers as well as those who aspire to be shouldn’t miss out on portfolio consultant Selina Maitreya and her audio series The View From Here. It’s available at a 50% discount using the code FOSCFI.

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed controls the ambient light. By ambient, I refer to any light that is already present in the scene. This could be light from the sun, moon, streetlights, candles, volcanoes, room lights and so forth. Basically any light that is already there and will affect the image in some way. Adjusting your shutter speed will govern how much or how little of this light is allowed into the scene. One major limitation however is the camera’s sync speed, usually 1/200 or 1/250. This will be the limiting factor when working with flash (in this case manual flash without any high-sync speed settings). We will be restricted to 1/250 (1/200) or longer. Not great for bright sunlight at midday but not a big problem indoors, in shade, in the evening etc. The following bears repeating because it’s an essential concept to grasp.

Shutter Speed Controls Ambient Exposure

Aperture

The aperture, or f-stop, is what controls the light output from the flash. Light from the flash happens at a very short duration – a fraction of a second. Adjusting the shutter speed has no effect on it because the flash is of such a short duration that shutter speed is always longer. We can adjust our flash by controlling the aperture on the camera. If we need more light, we can open up the lens, for example going from f5.6 to f4 to f2.8 etc. Each stop we open up represents a doubling of light reaching the sensor. The reverse applies equally – if we need less light, we stop down (f2.8 to f4 for example). This will halve the amount of light. As with shutter speed, this should be repeated for clarity.

Aperture Controls Flash/Strobe Exposure

Flash Power

To adjust flash power, you firstly need to set it into M mode (the flash, not the camera). We’re not relying on TTL or any auto modes because we want the consistency that manual gives us. TTL and its varieties (iTTL, E-TTL etc) works fine but we want to know that our flash is behaving in exactly the same way, shot after shot. In manual mode, we can adjust power. Full power is 1/1. This squeezes every bit of juice out of the flash. Half that and we get ½ power. Then ¼, 1/8 and so on. Most modern hotshoe flashes go down to 1/128, older models and studio lights may only go to 1/16. Each change in power represents 1 stop of light, as shown in the example below (it’s hypothethical – 1/1 won’t always correspond to f16).

Flash Power 1/1 ½ ¼ 1/8 1/16
_______________________________
Aperture 16 11 8 5.6 4

Essentially, what this means is that if you are getting a proper exposure at f16 and 1/1 but want a shallow depth of field (f4), you need to change the flash power to 1/16 to keep the proper exposure.

A further consideration is battery life. The lower the power setting, the less drain on the batteries meaning the faster the recycle time. Typically when I begin a shoot, I set my flash to either ¼ or 1/8. From here I can go either up or down depending on the situation. It just a personal preference – starting at 1/1 may work for you.

Flash To Subject Distance

This is the part that a lot of people hate. It can get technical if you let it. To determine the optimum distance, we need to use the inverse square law. You probably learned it in high school physics and probably promptly forgot it the day after the exam. In a nutshell, it says that if you double the flash to subject distance, you reduce to light to ¼.

So what does this mean? Well, for someone who’s doing this strictly for fun and not money, not a lot. Having a vague sense of it is enough. You don’t need to carry a calculator and measuring tape with you – in most cases near enough will be good enough, and you can always check the exposure on the LCD and adjust as necessary. If you’re doing this for a living, then this should be second nature to you anyway. If you’re making the step from hobbyist to working photographer, hire a model or two (or beg your family) and spend a few hours working through different distances until you have an intuitive grasp of the concept.

ISO

The fifth element is ISO. Changing the ISO changes the light sensitivity. Going from ISO100 to ISO200 doubles the amount of light. We get an extra stop of light to work with. From ISO100 to ISO400 gives us two stops of light. So how does this apply to a strobe-lit exposure?

Well, say you find that ISO100 and a 1/1 flash power means you need to shoot at f8. Changing the ISO to 200 (400), and the flash to ½ (¼) will keep you at f8 but you be putting a lot less stress on the batteries, getting quicker recycle times and hence being able to shoot much faster.

That was the 88th Daily PhotoTip. If this post was useful to you, why don’t you subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and share it with your friends. You can also get access to exclusive content and special offers by subscribing to my newsletter. Sign up today. Thank you.

Today’s theme image is from a photo shoot on depression. Don’t forget to leave your guesses for the theme in the comments. Hint – it’s not depression.

There’s nothing illegal in this shot – it’s a prepped studio shot. It’s not even alcohol in the glass.

Strobist – 550ex into shoot-thru umbrella (camera left – 90deg) triggered with ST-E2 (ETTL exposure), gold reflector camera right (90deg). Optic slave 45deg behind (left) glass. Exposure 1/200 @ f11, ISO100

Some more studio shots, this time of some Buddhist texts, malas and a Guanyin statue. Lighting was a 550ex @ 1/8 camera left into a reflector and a 540ez @ 1/32 camera right direct. RAW files were processed in Lightroom. The dharma text is the 8 Mahayana Precepts in Tibetan.