The Pocket Wizard Pre-Trigger

Back in February, I promised to put up a review of the Pocket Wizard Pre-Trigger. I had just bought one and wanted to give it a test out.

Though I’ve been super busy and haven’t had a chance to use this thing much, the perfect opportunity presented itself recently. Spring has a good grip on northern Colorado. The flowers are blooming, the weather is warming up, grass is getting green, and the birds and insects are starting to come out in droves.

A few days ago we put up a few bird feeders with hopes that we could attract a few visitors. Boy did we ever! I tried to get some pictures of those birds, but they wouldn’t come around with me standing there. What ever would I do? Yep, this trigger came to mind instantly.

First off, I should mention that the trigger that came for my Canon 20D doesn’t look like the one pictured (from the PW web site). The little box is much smaller, with just a tiny switch with a “I” and a “O” symbol.

Bird brains shows up to drink

First up was the hummingbird feeder. I set up my tripod, mounted the camera with my Sigma 70-300mm lens, and positioned the whole setup about 5 feet from the feeder with the lens set out to 300mm. I got a focus on the feeder where the bird would be (this particular bird always goes for one side), and set the lens autofocus switch to manual.

Tripod mounted, lens set to 300mm

The trigger doesn’t come with much instruction to speak of. The most important thing to know about this trigger is that there are two switch positions: “I” and “O”. Think of one as holding down the shutter button half way. When you switch it on, the camera will get a focus lock (if set to AF), and wait for a trigger. The moment you press the shutter, there will be no lag. If you have the switch set the other way, when you trigger the remote, it will first attain a focus (if AF is turned on), then take the picture. This explains why I set the focus up then set the switch to manual focus. I turned the switch on the trigger to “half way” I’ll call it. This way, when I trigger the camera, there will be no lag whatsoever.

I went in the house and waited. I couldn’t see the camera, but I could see the feeder. With my other Pocket Wizard in hand, as soon as the bird showed up, I started pushing the button like crazy. I ended up walking away with a few decent pictures that would have been impossible without a wireless trigger.

If I were to do this again (which I will), I’d set up a flash to really accentuate the bird. I’ll post those when I get around to it.

Next up was our finch feeder. This thing is seeing some serious action. At times we have 8-10 birds all duking it out for some seed.

This time I decided to go a little wider. I set up the tripod about 15 feet away and had the same lens, but set to 70mm. Got my focus, composed the shot, and went inside. 20 seconds later the birds showed up and I snapped a few photos.

70mm

I then went back outside and recomposed the shot at 300mm. Went inside and got a few more.

300mm

Unfortunately it was evening and I couldn’t get the shutter speeds I wanted to really freeze the motion. But that’s okay, I’ll try again. Bumping up the ISO would have done the trick, but I was okay with a little motion blur over some noise.

One thing to note about this trigger. When the switch is set to “shutter half way” mode, you can rapid fire the shots. However, just like if you had your finger on the shutter, an image won’t show up on the LCD. You have to turn off that switch and the image will show up, even if it’s been a long time since your last image. Also, because cameras keep priority on the shutter when the button is halfway pressed, know that the images will not write to the card (or will write at a slower rate with a lower priority). So your camera’s buffer may fill up after a handful of images.

When I first got this trigger, I ran out to take some pictures of the sky. I thought that the ability to trigger the camera without touching it would be cool. I was a little frustrated at why the image wouldn’t show on the LCD until it occurred to me what was happening.

So, my overall impressions of this trigger are simply that it’s awesome. It has enabled me to get some photographs that I wouldn’t be able to get without it. This $80 trigger is a LOT cheaper than a $12,000 600mm lens. Sure, I can’t be at the camera, but at least I get the shot. I can also start taking photos of my family with me in it, and don’t have to break an ankle stumbling over rocks to beat the self timer. To me, that’s worth 80 bucks right there.

And don’t even get me started on the distance I can go from the camera thanks to the Pocket Wizard’s amazing range. I haven’t even tested that yet with my flashes.

Have you tried this trigger? What did you think? Drop a comment.

Pretty much since I first laid eyes on the Pocket Wizard radio triggers, I’ve wanted to get the camera trigger so that I could take pictures without standing behind the camera or using the timer.

Then I had a baby. Any idea how hard it is to get a decent family photo with a bobble head kid and a ten second timer? I need something where I can be in the photo, and snap the shutter with the same response time as if I were looking through the viewfinder. As an owner of a Canon D30 and a Canon 20D, there is no included wireless trigger like some of the cheaper models such as the Digital Rebels.

Then I moved to Colorado, and realized I wanted to get some family photos while high up in the mountains on the trails, with no one in sight to take a photo for me. To complicate matters, I hike with my 30 pound son on my back, in snowshoes. Trying to hit the shutter button and quickly get in position in deep snow while weighed down is an interesting maneuver to say the least. I’m sure I resemble a water buffalo on roller skates.

So I bought the pre-trigger. It was delivered a couple of days ago and I have done some very limited testing on it. Soon I’ll take it for a real spin. So far I love it, but have learned a couple of things that I can tell you if you buy one to help you out.

So keep your eyes peeled for the review if you have any interest in this product. And if you don’t but own Pocket Wizards, I just might convince you to get one.

I got an email a few weeks back from Ken Kobre, the inventor of the Lightscoop. It would seem that the good professor stumbled across my article on making your own off camera lighting using an index card. The Lightscoop was mentioned in the comments, and Ken wanted to chime in, but didn’t want to make any shameless plugs. I can appreciate that Ken.

Instead, he emailed me and offered to send me a Lightscoop to play with and give an honest review right here on Sublime Light. I accepted and he shipped one off right away. Ordinarily I’d be on something like that like white on rice, but with my move to Colorado, I had to put the playtime on the back burner. As soon as things calm down and we get settled in to our new home in the Rocky Mountains, you’ll see what I think of the Lightscoop.

I plan to see what this thing can do out of the box. Then I’ll go Tim “The Toolman” Taylor on it and see what kind of photos we can really get out of it. And of course, I’ll compare it to direct popup flash and to the index card trick.

So keep your eyes peeled in January if you have any interest in buying a Lightscoop. Happy New Year everyone!

I recently put my house on the market. I’m a photographer. Naturally, one thing immediately popped into my mind when it came time to list the house…taking my own photos of the house. I’ve been toying with the idea of breaking into real estate photography for a little while, and thought that moving to Colorado would make a good starting point for that venture. Since I had to get my own home looking nice for sale, it would make a good guinea pig.

During my research for this new venture, I stumbled across a real estate photography blog, aptly named Photography For Real Estate written by Larry Lohrman. Larry knows his stuff, and I spent hours scouring his blog for useful information that I could use in my own photos. He was even nice enough to provide me a little feedback on the job I’d done, mentioning that the photos were good for a first time, though I needed to ensure that all vertical surfaces remained vertical in the photos. Mental note taken. If you ever need to do any kind of architectural photography, check out Larry’s site before you do.

So here are a couple of the interior shots from my own house. Here’s my living room:

From a recent
portrait session

Wow, it’s been a crazy couple of months, and I’ve decided it’s time to come up for air for a few minutes, just long enough to write up a post. I know many of you regular readers out there have been wondering where I’ve been and why I suddenly stopped posting. One reader even called to make sure everything was ok (thanks for the ring Scott).

You see, right about time I made my last post, things got crazy in the Solley household. As some of the more longtime readers know, I’ve been planning a move to Colorado from Texas for some time now. Well that time has finally come. I’ve been busy for the last two months straight getting my house ready to sell (lots of work there), packing for the move, and of course with Christmas coming up, we’ve been shooting lots of portrait sessions. We’re actually making our move to Colorado this weekend. That’s right, immediately following Christmas we’ll be loading up and heading to the mountains. What this means is that you’ll start seeing portraits taken with the beautiful Rocky Mountains in the background from here on out.

I’ve been getting some questions coming to my inbox, but have just been too busy to answer them. So I thought this would be a good time to do so. Since time is short today, I’ll just answer one that seems especially relevant.

Julius writes:
I’ve been looking at your site.. and love it. For some reason I’ve been getting many requests to photograph parties, and weddings. I’ve been looking at some basic traveling light kits from Photogenic, and noticed the Pocket-Wizard Plus II. How does this work with the Nikon D300, the SB-800 and also light kits for portraits? Or, does it? I’m really wanting to get started and am very interested in any info you can provide to help get me on the right track.

You’ve come to the right place Julius. Pocket Wizard Plus II’s are the cat’s meow. You can use them on any camera with a hot shoe (including that D300) and they definitely work nicely with those Nikon flashes. There are lots of cables to connect them to any flash or studio strobe. For a little more info., check out the Portrait Lighting For Beginners: Camera and Lights article. And for tons more information that’s all over the PW’s, check out Strobist.

That’s it for today folks. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful holiday. For everyone else, take some awesome pictures.

A couple of weeks ago, I told you that I got my hands on a Vivitar 285HV shoe mount flash (click for more on that).

My first impressions of the flash were positive. With it’s uber-manual controls and low price ($89 from Amazon), this is a tough deal to beat.

Then I ran off to Colorado for five days and decided to bring my new flash along for the ride. I has intentions on getting some really great family portraits in Rocky Mountain National Park, but thanks to it being 35 degrees, wind blowing 50 MPH, and it snowing off and on, it didn’t happen. Did I mention I was wearing shorts? Yeah, the portrait setup wasn’t happenin’, no way. The good news for me though is that we’re about to put our house on the market and move there, so many portrait opportunities still remain to be had.

But I digress. My sister in law is pregnant with twins. What a great opportunity to bring some gear and get some nice maternity shots for her and my brother! Armed with two small flashes I had the control to get some great portraits of them in their new home in Colorado.

Rui M. Leal of
Lighting Mods

Portuguese photographer Rui M. Leal has put together quite a blog that I think is right up your alley. It goes by the name Lighting Mods and is dedicated to showing you fantastic and cheap ways to improve your lighting by putting together your own lighting tools. I’ve been keeping tabs on Rui for some time now, and he has yet to let me down.

The latest lighting mod is a do-it-yourself soft lighting panel made of PVC. I myself have been meaning to put one of these together for quite some time but just haven’t gotten around to it. When I do, it will include the ability to act as a reflector using an emergency Space Blanket.

Check it out for yourself if you want to improve your portrait lighting on the cheap. Rui is now on part two of this three part series.


Got a great tip? Let me know about it and I’ll tell the world! With credit to you of course.

Image by Uncle Frank

Have you ever had an umbrella and flash all set up on a light stand out in a park, only to have it blown over and bent or broken? Well I recently found this little tip that is a really great and cheap solution. All you need is a tent stake, a bungee cord, and a hammer.

Talk about simple…and cheap. You take tent stake A and hammer it into the ground with hammer B. Then wrap the bungee cord C around the light stand and hook it to the tent stake. Now when the wind blows your light will stay put. Easy!

Check out the main thread for more pictures and a full description of the tip.

And you Nikon folks are finally gettin’ some love from the Timster. I found this on NikonCafe.com. See, I’m an equal opportunity shooter.

Oh yeah, and in a pinch you could use the hammer to ward off any packs of blood thirsty vampires you might encounter. Or uncooperative models.

Canon EF
50mm f/1.8 II

I’ve been hearing a lot about Canon’s 50mm prime f/1.8 lens for a while now. The “nifty fifty” is a bit of a hit with many serious amateur photographers thanks to it’s low price ($75 on Amazon) for what you get. It’s hard to find a lens with such a wide aperture for so little money. So I decided to get my hands on one of these lenses and try it out for myself. It came last week and I got a chance to use it on a trip out of town this weekend. Here are my first impressions of this lens.

What Is Success?

Let me start by stating that when I review a product like this to determine it’s worth in my shooting, I don’t line it up next to a bunch of other lenses. I don’t take identical shots with different lenses and let you compare the details. For me, trying out a new lens is all about putting it on the camera and going out and shooting. I take note of the things I like or that bother me along the way. In the end, if the images are good and the cons I discovered weren’t too significant, then the lens is a winner.

What I Liked

f/2.5 @ 1/5000 sec

The first thing I noticed about this lens when I took it out of the box was how small it was and how light it was. Having this lens on your camera feels like you’re shooting with the body only. This is nice when you’re out and about and don’t have a brick hanging around your neck.

Every photographer has a personal style, even if you don’t realize what it is yet. As a photographer of people, I like taking shots with the background out of focus, especially when outdoors. One of my favorite shots is when one person is in focus and the other is not. To pull this off, I need lenses with a really wide aperture, and this lens delivers in that respect. A 1.8 aperture gives you a really narrow depth-of-field, which is perfect for me. I found that I spent most of my time shooting in the f/1.8 to f/2.5 area (I really like bokeh).

Photographer Joe McNally knows how to take a portrait. He is a true master of lighting. If you’ve never heard of him, he was LIFE magazine’s staff photographer for four years and is the man behind the acclaimed “Faces of Ground Zero - Portraits of the Heroes of September 11th” series that helped raise over $2 million for September 11th relief efforts.

Lighting gear maker Elinchrom has cranked out a 24 page brochure (available as a PDF) for their equipment that has Joe singing the praises for all their products. The whole things revolves around a photo shoot Joe did of a gorgeous Kazakh model. As long as you take all the marketing hype talk with a bit of a grain of salt, the photography and some of the photos of the lighting setups are pretty dang cool.

I highly recommend you take the ten minutes or so to look through this download if you haven’t already seen it. It’s well worth the read.

My favorite shot in the whole thing? The one where Joe puts the strobe in another section of the “L” shaped room and shoots it through two windows at the model. Makes for a pretty cool shot.

I originally saw this yesterday on Strobist. While I’m not one who likes to simply regurgitate what I read on other sites to you all, this was just a little too good to pass up. I didn’t want anyone left out in the cold on this one. Thanks to David Hobby at Strobist for letting his readers know about this download.