Snack Time!

Before the new year, I wrote about my favourite portable softboxes to use with speedlights, and promised a follow-up post on my favourite flash-triggers. This is not that post.

What I will talk about is ONE trigger that I’ve been using with increased frequency: FlashZebra’s 16 foot TTL cord. This thing gives me a 8x increase in length over Canon’s (more expensive) OC-E3, for less cost. It doesn’t compromise on any of the information passed from your camera to the flash, and it gives you full Manual & TTL control over your speedlight from Canon’s Flash Control Menu (not available in some older models).

In this image, I was able to adjust my flash controls by moving my flash exposure compensation up and down as needed; I think I had the main flash (as pictured) +1/3rdEV and the rear/separation flash +1EV.

Sadly, the real trick here was focus. I knew I wanted to blur the background as much as possible, and that meant a slightly shallower depth of field. My trade-off was that I couldn’t focus the subjects (me & the kids) myself, as I would be beside them making sure they didn’t fall off their stools and hit their “marks.” This kind of thing is MUCH easier when doing it for others, but the challenge is part of the fun.

In case anyone asks, no, the fish wasn’t in the package, neither was it in the room: Fishy ©2011 iStockphoto.com 😉

P.S. you can see this image bigger from my Flickr page.