Lighting can be one of the most challenging (and exciting) parts of photography. Especially for beginners. Luckily, there are some great resources out there for beginners. Strobist, Joe McNally and others help light the way!

About six months ago, I decided to step into the land of the home studio, which for me, included strobes. At the time, I did some research to try and find the best equipment, setups and general knowledge about using strobes. I found varying amounts of information, but still struggled getting a fairly comprehensive view.

That’s what this series intends to help with. I’d like to share the information, resources and experience I’ve gathered and worked with. I may not have the 20+ years plus experience, but I hope to help others just starting out with a guide on how to proceed with Studio Strobes.

This series will last several days (I’ll post most of the series back to back) and will include the following topics:

• Choosing your strobes. Which strobes did I choose? Why? My review of the options I selected.
• How to trigger your setup.
• How to effectively use the strobes for different lighting effects.
• Backgrounds. What are some options and what are the advantages/disadvantages of each.
• Challenges of the in-home studio.
• Various resources for studio lighting.

Check back tomorrow for the first installment – Choosing Your Strobes.

I went on a hike last week and I was able to get this shot with my G9 right at sundown. I was hoping for some better storminess for a compelling background, but it was a pretty clear night.

Late last week I posted that I was finishing up an exciting project. Well, I worked hard over the weekend and am able to launch it today! I just posted a permanent page about Photo Diagrams, a tool that allows you to easily and quickly crete professional photo and lighting diagrams. You can then print/export those diagrams for use on web sites, blogs, reminders for how you set things up, etc.

Check out Photo Diagrams here for more. You can click and open the online version, or download and install it as a desktop application.

Photo Diagrams is a free, easy to use tool that creates professional looking photo and lighting diagrams. Once created, you can either print the diagram or export it as an image.

If you have any questions, feedback or comments about Photo Diagrams, please post them in the comments below. Or, e-mail me at breyman [at] professionalsnapshots dot com.

Photo Diagrams On the Web

Click here to use Photo Diagrams right now.

You’ll need the free Flash Player 9 or above installed to run it correctly, though! You can download it free from Adobe here.

Photo Diagrams Offline

Need to create diagrams but aren’t always connected to the Internet? Download and install the desktop version of Photo Diagrams below.

When you use the Offline version, though, you won’t be able to export images. That piece requires help from your web browser. You’re still able to print them, though! If you install a PDF creator, you’ll be able to print your diagram to that for future use.

Please upgrade your Flash Player at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer. If that does not work, you can download the application at http://www.professionalsnapshots.com/PhotoDiagram/AIR/PhotoDiagrams.air

*Will work on Windows and Mac.

Feature List

Photo Diagrams allows you to create fast, professional looking diagrams. Some of its features include:

• Quickly drag a dozen different photography items onto the diagram. Position and rotate them to your heart’s desire.
• Add custom notes to the diagram that allow you to update the text.
• Change the color of the background. Add or remove grid lines.
• Print the diagram to any printer installed on your computer. If you have a PDF creator, you’ll be ale to print to that.
• Export the diagram to an image for easy posting on your web site or use in other documents.

I’ve been offline for several days in a row – but with good reason! I’m working on an exciting project that I’ll be posting as a resource on this site very soon. I won’t say much about it yet, but I did post a screenshot above. Click on it for a larger version. It’s nearly done, so I should be back in the swing of things next week.

Now for some quick news items.

• I’ve been reading ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. If you are a blogger or want to be, I highly recommend this book. It has tons of applicable, rubber meets the road information.
• Ran across one of the best lighting tutorials in a while recently. It goes into depth on how to shoot lots of different situations with just a white seamless paper background. It has tons of thorough explanation and pictures. Check it out here.
• Guessing photos. Jason at CanonBlogger posted a second ‘guess what it is’ recently. Check it out here. Also, another popular photo blogger, Chase Jarvis, posted another in his series, Room Without a View. He posts pictures of places he travels to and invites readers to guess where in the world it is. You can read more here.

That’s it for today – have a great weekend!

I’ve been wanting to do another one of these for a while now. This is a pretty standard multiplicity shot. Multiple frames merged quickly into one. It was shot with my G9. Click on the image for a larger view.