The heavily anticipated Paul C. Buff Celestial Light has given photographers who shoot on location and on the move a compact, reliable, and affordable lighting solution for their work.
Canon has delayed the launch of the Speedlite EL-5 due to production issues that prevented it from being able to make enough of them.
Westcott has announced FlexiGels, a new custom-made silicone color gel accessory for its FJ400 strobes.
Nikon Japan has announced that it will discontinue the production of the SB-500 Speedlite and is also temporarily suspending new orders for the SB-5000 Speedlite due to difficulty sourcing parts.
While there are a multitude of lightweight portable strobes, few are powerful enough to compete with the sun or have enough juice to double as a studio strobe. Those are exactly the problems Elinchrom looked to address with its FIVE system.
Paul C. Buff has announced a new 500Ws compact and lightweight battery strobe called the Celestial, which features a bright LED modeling light, a built-in wireless receiver, and support for high-speed sync (HSS) and TTL shooting.
Elinchrom has announced the Elinchrom FIVE, a new 522Ws active-charging, battery-powered, portable, off-camera monolight that lets users work equally well in the studio or on location.
Canon has announced the new Speedlite EL-5, a powerful and portable flash unit for advanced photographers that's the company's first flash designed for the Multi-Function Shoe found in the latest EOS R mirrorless cameras.
Godox has announced the Lux Senior on-camera flash, a retro-inspired strobe for Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, and Sony Cameras.
Godox has announced the Lux Junior on-camera flash, a $69 retro-inspired strobe for Fujifilm, Canon, Nikon, OM-Digital (Olympus), and Sony cameras.
During the dark ages of digital photography, also known as the early 2000s, I was spending an awful lot of time trying to get my Canon 430EX Speedlite to work as an off-camera flash. Speedlites, by design, were clearly never meant to be used that way.
Camtraptions has announced a solar panel that works in tandem with its speedlight for use in long-term, off-the-grid camera traps. The compact solar panel allows the flashes to be deployed for extended or even unlimited periods of time.
Rotolight, an award-winning LED lighting company based in the UK, has recently released the $1,399 AEOS 2, a circular LED that can be used as a constant video light as well as a strobe for still work and has zero recycle time. As an added bonus, the light features a series of built-in filters and gels that allow users to create nearly any look and mood imaginable and a mobile app for controlling and changing settings when the lights are in awkward and precarious positions.
What is a photograph? There are many different ways to answer this simple question, but in basic abstract terms through the lens of lighting, every photograph is a combination of highlights and shadows. The only reason we see depth and dimension is in fact shadow. Understanding shadows is crucial in growing as a photographer.
The Profoto B2 is a small, seemingly-"underpowered" light that was released back in 2015 and that has been with me for the past two years. Having bought it used and taken it on trips, shot in-studio, and photographed on-location, there are a lot of good things to say about it.
Light and Motion made some lofty promises when it announced the Reflex LED lighting system. Designed to be both a still and video light, it can certainly do both, but we wanted to see if it truly could replace standalone classic strobe systems like the Profoto A1X.
When Profoto released the B10 and B10 Plus, they made headlines for how portable and powerful they were. That was 2018. In 2021, Profoto takes the concept of a portable powerful battery-powered strobe further by launching the B10X and B10X Plus.
Just about a year ago Westcott expanded on its new wireless flash lineup that started with the FJ400 by offering new sizes and power outputs. After listening to user feedback, it launched the FJ200 as a more compact and travel-friendly light system... and it's awesome.
There have been a lot of interesting light solutions for creatives released in the last few years, but they were either a slight improvement over a previous generation (like the Profoto A1 to A1X) or something to serve a niche corner like the Lumee from Spiffy Gear. Nothing has been really groundbreaking... except perhaps for the StellaPro Reflex from Light and Motion.
Sony has launched two new shoe-mount, speedlight-style strobes for the Alpha system: the HVL-F60RM2 and HVL-F46RM. Both are capable of continuous 10 frames per second flashes or have sub-two second recycle times at full power.
Diffused and soft light are often used interchangeably among photographers. Indeed, to an untrained eye, the two can sometimes appear to be the same. Furthermore, modifiers such as softboxes that give both soft and diffused light make it hard to spot the difference. Nonetheless, diffused light is not necessarily soft, and soft light is not necessarily diffused.
Why is it so difficult to compare one light to another? It would be bad enough to say that watts, LUX, watt-seconds, and guide numbers aren’t directly comparable. And unless you’ve been around lights for a long time, these measurements won’t even make intuitive sense.
Photography is evolving -- Dramatically! I am talking about advances with smartphones, mirrorless cameras, and AI technology -- this is an exciting time to be a photographer. But there must be a better way than watt-seconds to compare lights.
If you’re just starting out with strobes, there’s more choice than ever to overwhelm you with! In this guide, we will help you systematically narrow down which lights are going to work best for your type of photography.
Profoto has announced the B10X and B10X Plus strobes that are designed to be multipurpose lighting devices. While the strobe power remains the same, Profoto has increased the modeling lamp's output by 30%.
Elinchrom has announced the Elinchrom One, its new portable off-camera battery-powered monolight that the company says has been requested for a long time. It features an integrated battery, 725 full-power flashes per charge, high-speed sync, and 131 watt-seconds (Ws) of power.
Hong Kong-based LightPix Labs has launched a FlashQ system called the X20 for Sony mirrorless systems that is both an on- and off-camera strobe and LED video light.
Profoto recently announced a revamped version of its Camera App and with ample new features and a new file format, it certainly sounds promising for smartphone photography.
Godox has announced a new flash system that the company says is the most powerful pack it has ever produced: the pack and head P2400. It promises a 1/17,800 second flash duration, 0.7 second recycle time at full power, and clearly targets the high end where Profoto and Broncolor reside.
I’d argue that nearly all of us owned a speedlight at some point before we owned a studio strobe. When we’re looking to dip our toes into supplemental lighting, strobes seem like a big investment. It just makes sense to pick up a cheap speedlight to play with, right?