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Has the venerable Sunpak 120J bare bulb flash been reincarnated? By a world-famous company, no less? Well, no. Not exactly. It's no Sunpak 120J (doesn't have the extra stop of power) and, strictly speaking, it's not really a Polaroid flash per se. Keep reading for the bare facts (rimshot!) on the Polaroid PL-135. Read more » show less

Long-time readers will remember photographer Martin Prihoda, who was originally based in Vancouver before packing up and relocating to Mumbai. Or as he still often thinks of it, Bombay. (Martin, on the distinction: "You do business in Mumbai. You party in Bombay.") His recent cover shoot of Indian actress Priyanka Chopra for GQ India represents a major departure from his previous use of color and light. So I contacted him for a QA. My questions (and his generous answers) follow, along with more images form the shoot. To see any image bigger (and other images from the shoot not seen here) click through to his blog, Atomic Safari. Read more » show less

We're remodeling two bathrooms, and as part of a barter deal with the contractor I am doing a series of before and after photos. I'll post more about that later, but I just wanted to drop something in quickly about the lighting on the detail shots I was doing today. It's a quick-and-dirty, two-light setup and the effect is almost like a charcoal drawing—sort of 2-D and 3-D at the same time. And try as I might, it's pretty hard to mess this up. Read more » show less

If your lighting gear includes sync cords, power cables and/or extension cords, this could happen to you. Don't laugh, pictured is my actual Ancient Sync Cord Burial Ground from the past 20+ years. But over that time I have also gotten a lot better at dealing with cords, and picked up a few cool tips along the way. Keep reading for my favorite five. Read more » show less

©Gregory Crewdson Netflix have acquired the rights to stream Ben Shapiro's excellent 77-minute documentary, Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters. You can also buy it outright <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00BFWKE76/giftfella-20 " target='_blank'>on DVD for $24. Sadly, the Netflix access this is US-only (maybe Canada? nope!) and only for Netflix streaming subscribers. But this is still far and away the biggest audience to have had access to the film. There's no telling how long it will be up to stream. Netflix is notorious for having, then not having, the rights to a movie. So just in case, don't wait too long. You can stream it here. (Many thanks to reader Tim Kamppinen for the heads-up!) -30- show less

Tian Lu (left) and Yuri Shadrin are both accomplished pianists in their own right. But when they play as a duet (on the same piano) they produce an intuitive mix of music and banter that could only come from the married couple that they are. He is Russian, she is Chinese. Which made them the perfect choice to perform in China later this month in commemoration of an upcoming regional trade partnership between China and Russia. So I shot their publicity portraits in one of my favorite little environmental portrait nooks in Howard County—under the fountain downtown at the lakefront. I have shot here before, but every time I come back I see the place a little differently. Read more » show less

Sydney, Australia-based photo assistant Diego asks: You seem to use the Photek Softlighter a lot. How would this compare to the Paul Buff PML Soft-Silver with the White Diffuser? While they are similar (both sub-$100 Octa killers) they are pretty different under the skin, So which model you'll prefer depends on how you'll use it… Read more » show less

Dontcha hate it when your bride-and-groom portrait gets photo-bombed? Okay, maybe not if it's by a Beluga whale. And for Vancouver wedding photographer (and Strobist reader) Vivian Chung, this well-planned cameo was no accident. Complicating things, she only had a little time—and a key technical restriction—to make this shot. Read more » show less

I am happy to announce that Strobist's video series, Lighting in Layers, has by special arrangement been adapted for the video tutorial site Lynda.com. Those of you who are Lynda subscribers can now view the videos there. (This includes Lynda's many corporate subs, so check with your company.) Last week saw the launch of the first segments, which are primarily aimed at beginners. Additional sessions will be released each week. So even if you are not a newb, stick around. It'll get more complex soon enough… -30- show less

It's May. Which always means two things for me: dealing with heavy allergies and beginning my next batch of portraits for the Howard County Arts Council. The drudgery of allergies is offset by the pure pleasure that is getting to work with a group of insanely talented young people. Doing the portraiture for the Rising Stars program is one of my favorite projects of the year. One of the first this year was soprano Rebecca Hargrove, who we photographed in the venerable Garaj Mahal Studios… Read more » show less

For leaf-shutter flash geeks only: high-speed Phantom v1610 video of a Fuji X100s shutter not-quite-really syncing at 1/4000th of a sec. Sorry, I know many of you will be bored to tears by this. But the full technical article photographer Kevin Housen developed around this video (and others, at different shutter speeds) will really peel the onion for you if you want to know about the demonstrable quirkiness of this camera and ultra-high speed sync. -30- show less

UPDATE: Due to a tragic event in the Howard County blogging community, this class has been postponed. Long-time (and widely read) local blogger Dennis Lane was murdered on Friday morning (more here). The local blogging community is still in a state of shock. Out of respect, we felt it was best to postpone the class until a later date. If you were already signed up, the organizer will have reached out to you at your email address of record. Many thanks, and we will be in touch again soon. -30- show less

See this umbrella? It's very different than the typical reflector in one very specific way. And it's being touted as being way better for digital sensors. Can you tell what's different about it? Probably not without looking at it close-up… Read more » show less

Right about now I feel like Alice in Wonderland, holding the "drink me" cup. Having a leaf shutter, a built-in 3-stop neutral density filter and a real chip in a compact camera is opening up a whole new world of possibilities. But with these possibilities come some quirks, some compromises and a few technical things to be mindful of. What you need to know about leaf-shutter compacts and daylight flash, below. Read more » show less

UPDATE: Too late, it's over. If you are just seeing this now, you snoozed and you losed. You missed it for free, but you can still purchase the archive from CL if you want. Just a quick heads-up: for three full days, photographer Joey L. is teaching all day live on Creative Live. And it's free. So far it looks like really good stuff, and definitely worth your time. :: CreativeLive.com :: -30- show less

We have a bluebird nest in our backyard. There are two fledglings, and this is their dad. To me, bluebirds have always had a specific connotation (i.e., the "bluebird of happiness," or more lately, "Twitter"). But this guy is a fearless badass. He'll fight off other birds, cats, squirrels—and photographers—if they get too close to his nest. And for two afternoons this week, this particular bluebird led me down a photographic rabbit hole. Read more » show less

I've just returned from a week in Havana, Cuba. Without an official assignment of any kind I found myself wandering the streets with absolute minimal gear, looking for and studying light. Consciously paying more attention to light is something I have been working on, and I can't imagine a better place to indulge that effort than in this amazing city. Read more » show less

Having traveled more in the last five years than in all of the previous forty three, I finally feel like I have found a comfort zone as a traveling photographer. Though lugging far less gear, I'm still protected with backups for critical items. Looking back just four years, there is now a huge difference in the way I approach my gear pack. A walk-thru and my reasoning, below. Read more » show less

This video marks the last of Profoto's Greg Heisler BTS series. In today's BTS, Heisler does some pretty cool problem-solving before the fact only to get blind-sided with the bison head on the day of the lightning-paced shoot. Yeah, I said bison head. No, actually Heisler said that… Read more » show less

Remember when we talked about gelling your light mods, and how some almost aren't worth the trouble? If you frequently light people with large soft boxes, you can choose to warm your light up right at the source. Read more » show less

One of my favorite things about being a photographer is that if you pay attention, stories are everywhere. But the trick is paying attention—even if that story is presenting itself after you have had a drink or two at a New Year's Eve party. That's where I met Judith Schardt-Shure, a cafeteria manager at a local public middle school. We asked each other the typical "So, what do you do?" party questions, and the 30-minute discussion about cafeteria food that followed left me wanting to know more—and wanting to make sure other local parents knew, too. Which is exactly why I have developed HoCo360 over the last three years. It has now turned into what I had for 20 years as a newspaper photographer: a license to be curious. Read more » show less

We have a rule in the Hobby household. If the kids can get ready for bed quickly enough, we get to watch an episode of Doctor Who together. It is one of those rare shows that is equally enjoyed by every member of our family—including two middle-aged parents, a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-girl. That alone is remarkable. And as good as the show is, I've lately found myself watching it for the lighting as much as the imaginative story lines. A look at perhaps the most Strobist-y show on the TV dial, below. Read more » show less

Fact: most people on the planet—including roughly two-thirds of Americans—do not have a passport. Without a passport, you won't be traveling internationally any time soon. And even if you have no immediate travel plans, just having a passport is kinda like having a muscle car at a red light. You won't always squeal tires when the light turns green, but you know you could. If you have never held a passport before, it's a neat feeling when it arrives in the mail. For perhaps the first time, you feel like a citizen of the world. Merely having the possibility of international travel is better than not having a passport and being guaranteed you can't go. Even better, unlike your crappy driver's license or student I.D. mugshot, your passport photo is something you can control. So if you are gonna be a jet-set traveler, you may as well look good doing it. Read more » show less

On Strobist, I try not to merely echo content seen elsewhere. I just don't think rote aggregation adds much to the conversation. But I am making an exception on this Hassy HD5 BTS vid, which you may have seen recently on other sites. That's because the video itself (which, to be fair, is quite cool) is not the subject of the post. Nope, this post is about a comment on this video from long-time Strobist reader Duncan Bell. Read more » show less