A DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS. I photographed this male white-tail deer with a Nikon D610 and Tamron 70-300mm zoom, shooting handheld at 300mm with VC engaged. Direct on-camera flash resulted in a red-eye-like effect in the eyes. That aside, the flash brings out considerable detail that’s lacking in exposures made by available light. In Lightroom, I edited the image in Nik Silver Efex Pro, filtering out cyan in the eyes to lessen the “red-eye” effect. (ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/125.) ©Jack Neubart. All rights reserved.
Posted 12/19/2014 on www.shutterbug.com.
Shoe-mounted flashes are handy tools. Where space or weight is a concern, a kit with two or three shoe-mounted flashes is much easier to carry than even the smallest power pack/head combo or a low-output monolight, and more versatile.
Case in point, on two separate photography assignments I employed no more than two shoe-mount strobes to light-paint the huge blue whale model exhibited at New York’s American Museum of Natural History (in collaboration with museum photo staff). In fact, there is an entire subculture among pros that favors shoe-mount strobes – aka “strobists” – over bulky and expensive studio lighting gear for location work and even in the studio.
The dedication to the shoe-mounted flash for other than run-and-gun photography is largely centered on finding portable lighting gear that will reliably deliver the kind of results we expect of larger strobes.
Among the “third party” shoe-mount strobes I’ve come to trust is the Metz brand. Reliable German engineering and a long-standing reputation reinforce that trust. And the company’s new flagship Mecablitz 64 AF-1 digital flash promises to keep that reputation intact. Metz also makes my favorite ring flash, the wireless and ultra-compact Mecablitz 15 MS-1, which also played a part in this review.
The Mecablitz 64 AF-1 retails for $449 and is available in versions for Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, and Pentax cameras. I tested the Nikon version of the flash. READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW.
Case in point, on two separate photography assignments I employed no more than two shoe-mount strobes to light-paint the huge blue whale model exhibited at New York’s American Museum of Natural History (in collaboration with museum photo staff). In fact, there is an entire subculture among pros that favors shoe-mount strobes – aka “strobists” – over bulky and expensive studio lighting gear for location work and even in the studio.
The dedication to the shoe-mounted flash for other than run-and-gun photography is largely centered on finding portable lighting gear that will reliably deliver the kind of results we expect of larger strobes.
Among the “third party” shoe-mount strobes I’ve come to trust is the Metz brand. Reliable German engineering and a long-standing reputation reinforce that trust. And the company’s new flagship Mecablitz 64 AF-1 digital flash promises to keep that reputation intact. Metz also makes my favorite ring flash, the wireless and ultra-compact Mecablitz 15 MS-1, which also played a part in this review.
The Mecablitz 64 AF-1 retails for $449 and is available in versions for Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, and Pentax cameras. I tested the Nikon version of the flash. READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW.
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