The problem is that while this device is impressive, it’s my opinion that the Lightsphere is a little overpriced. Gary charges $50 for the actual lightsphere, and another $20 for the amber dome (which helps under tungsten lighting). I’m all for personal business ventures, especially in the photography world, but when I found the Lambency version of the Lightsphere on eBay for 1/4 of the price – I couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on Gary’s original version… especially after hearing stories like this and this. So I bought the eBay Sphere.

While I applaud Mr. Fong for his ingenious device, and would be willing to throw some money his way for it, I’m a little confused as to why this replica diffuser can be manufactured and sold at such low costs in comparison to his “authentic” Lightsphere. If you feel the same, and want to save yourself some money, check out the Lambency diffusers.

I ran across this article on Photonovice that was in response to a post from Oliver Neilsen, who asserts that strobists are loosing out on the point of their photography by concentrating on the lighting.

You are killing your photography with this technofetish you all have for your speedlights. I have also recently bought a couple speedlights, to supplement my real strobe setup, but in the past I’ve shot many images without any flashes or modifiers at all. You can do a lot of stuff by working with the surrounding walls, available light etc.

While I have to agree that Strobists generally have a real fascination and, dare I say it, obsession with their lights and lighting methods, I don’t think this needs to have any kind of impact on how we view our photography. Lighting is another tool, a way to control and enhance the mood, the emotion, and the design of a shot. Strobes (of all sorts) allow you just the same sort of control and flexibility (in many cases, more) than bulky studio lights. It’s not that we are letting our enthusiasm for lighting overpower our vision, but to compliment it.

The pro does not worship his equipment.

I think this statement underlines a misunderstanding about strobists. Like I said before, strobists are enthusiastic about their equipment and their capabilities, but not to a fault. Photography is all about finding the easiest way to get to an end vision. If that vision is interesting and unique, and you can come to terms with realizing it – you’ll end up being successful. Having more tools in the toolbox, and understanding how each will work in the context of the situation, that’s the art. That’s what this is about. Not worship – but education.

There are three planned Radiopopper units in their initial lineup. Two of those are TTL systems (the P1 and P8) and the third is a $25 Radiopopper Jr, which is a non-TTL unit. Here’s an image of the P1 prototype. Excited yet? If not, read on.

The P1 (single channel) is expected to cost $175, the P8 (eight channel) about $225. The Radiopopper Jr (non-TTL) is expected to cost about $25.

That’s an incredible price for the little Junior unit, which runs on one AAA battery and has a projected range of 2,000 ft. How these Radiopoppers will work exactly, and how it will compare to the current leading brand transmitters remains to be seen.

Release dates for the Radiopoppers is January for the P1 and summer for the Juniors and P8’s.

What they’ve done is create this clever little light box that allows you to fire a strobe from underneath a subject (in this case, a bottle of beer… mmm, thirsty).

The top of the box is open, with a piece of clear plexiglass overtop of it, where the beer bottle sits. The best part of this effect is not only that it lights up the contents really well, but the reflections in the plexiglass as well.

Read the article here and part two here.

As with a lot of fotohacking, experimentation is key – but the real trick is to open your aperture fairly wide (this one was shot at f/2.8) and set your camera to a long shutter speed. Unfortunately, as long as my Nikon D70 would go is 30 seconds without using bulb, so that’s what I did for this shot. Use a remote or the self-timer so that you have no movement in the camera when the shutter is depressed.

Once you’re exposing, you can run around with lights and illuminate whatever you want. With small LED lights, you’ll get a finer streak and are able to write (albeit backwards) in the air. With a wider or more diffused light, you’ll get more general illumination, and you can light up segments of your environment.

Make sure you don’t have any ambient light coming in to the frame that might ruin the shot. This was an indoor shot, so I shut off all the lights, closed the curtains (to avoid street light pollution) and shut down anything with an LED. Outdoors would be a little trickier… and you would need to watch for traffic or street lights, as well as any possible lights in the sky. Even dim light will register as something much brighter when you expose it for 30+ seconds.

Another good tip for light painting is to have someone hold a black card over the front of the lens during a bulb exposure, while you move in and around the shot, setting up different lighting. Remove the black card when you fire the lights. The less exposure information the camera needs to record during periods of “blackout” the better – as it will save you from accumulating excess noise and any possible ambient light artifacts.

You can use an elastic band and wrap it around the head of the flash and bam… you’ve got some new colored lighting. Some of those ribbons could also be interesting gobos for creating patterns, and the shiny wrap can create some awesome effects on the wall if you bounce the light off it like a reflector.