Instagram Winners - Flash

Some brighter subjects this week thanks to lighting with the #PRTV_flash Instagram Challenge.  Something you'll discover early on taking photos is you need more light. Either you get a faster lens so the sensor receives more light or you make more light of your own. The latter we focused on this week making a bit of creative lighting for great portraits, catching the action with a 2nd curtain, or even one that took things a bit too literally in a good way.Compounding on this week's challenge will flow into next week with a product Instagram challenge. Pretend you're shooting for a magazine and do a full spread of food lit by a softbox. Or aim big doing automotive photography, shooting a car at sunset, something from my background.  Any product, anyway, anyhow, and it's your choice which way you would like to approach the challenge.To enter post your photos on Instagram before noon next Friday with the tags #PRTV and #PRTV_product.

You can follow Photorec.TV on Instagram at @Photorec.tv

And the team!Toby – @Photorectoby Roy – @RoyMcKeeIII Rose -  @Randomcreativeart

Roy’s Winner:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPWlSbchdgT/Jane has a great photo with dead on exposure in a creative way making a neat story.  Flashes can be props for lighting effects or hidden in a photo easily to make on the spot lighting. In this case, you used that to your advantage creatively making a shot of reading a book turn a bit more magical and a shot to stand out.

Roy’s Honorable Mentions:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPfZjrMBr0-/Krystal shooting a bit of a classic portrait with a twist makes for a nice shot of her daughter for this week's challenge. Bringing lighting closer to your subject can create a vignette for your photos used to great effect in this photo. It gives quite the contrast to the wood grain background going black as it will light your subject up nicely to stand out.https://www.instagram.com/p/BPdqfADDxov/Alternatively, unlike Krystal's photo, you can get quite creative with multi light setups for portraits. Eileen has a neat shot this week using lighting to soften the face but harder light contrasting in the back as a hair light with a blue gel accounting for the color temperature difference. Professionally setups like these would be kept in a "look book" so you'll have your recipes down when you need them and samples to show your customers.

Godox V860II-S Review and Specifications

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4we8QQVNecIs this a good, and much more affordable option, than the Sony flashes for your Sony camera? Check out Scott's review in the video above and the technical specs below!Godox have released an impressive speedlight for Sony Cameras with the V860II-S. Featuring TTL and Godox 2.4GHz X radio it's a great option that can communicate with a variety of products as master or slave. Using the additional X-T1 flash trigger (linked below) you have access to 2.4GHz wireless to fire the V860II-S wherever needed, even through walls.Versus traditional AA batteries you find in most speedlights the V860II-S uses Lithium-ion batteries for a 1.5 second recycle time for use up to 650 flashes. Despite it's lower price versus Sony it's a fully featured speedlight with functions including manual flash, 1/8000 high speed sync, flash exposure compensation, flash exposure lock, second curtain sync, modeling flash, and more. The Godox has great build quality, good features, works smoothly, and can save a few quid versus the more expensive Sony branded flash making it an easy buy. 

Available now! Pickup the V860II-S or plan ahead and get a remote trigger package on a discount.

V860II-S

V860II-S Packaged with an X1T Transmitter, Eachshot color filter, and Eachshot softbox. 

New Nikon Products and 4% Back on Amazon

Nikon recently released a few new products including a new "kit" lens, the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Lens. I put "kit" in quote because currently this lens is not being sold with any cameras but I expect that it will be offered in place of the 18-105 and as an alternative to the 18-55 with future Nikon cameras. My biggest complaint about that current Nikon kit lenses, especially the 18-55, they just don't do the sensor justice. Nikon is offering great sensors in the D3200, D5200 and D7100 and if you have the 18-55 on there you get soft images. Switch to a better lens and the difference is noticeable. Like "OH WOW" noticeable. This lens looks to improve significantly in sharpness. I wonder if we will have to wait for the next Dxxx models to see this bundled or after release at the end of August We may see this bundled with existing Nikon DSLRS? Pre-order the Nikon 18-140 from Amazon | B&HNikon also announced a tiny little entry level Flash, the Nikon SB-300 AF Speedlight. At $150 it is pretty cheap as flashes go but not being able to rotate - only tilt - knocks down my interest a bit. And a better value would be one of the budget Yongnuo flashes like the Yongnuo YN-468 II i-TTL For 1/2 the price you get a more feature filled flash with more power and can rotate as well as tilt. Watch this video for a brief discussion of external flashesPre-order the Nikon SB-300 AF from B&HSpeaking of Amazon - They have upped their rewards program to 4%, 35 days after purchasing select cameras, DSLRS and lenses you get a promotional code that is good for 6 months. All the small print.  The hassle is non-existent, you buy stuff on the list and you get the credit.Here are the P&S Cameras, DSLRS and Lenses eligible.