Product Description

New owners of Canon Speedlites are often bewildered about how to use the flash unit effectively to produce the type of shots they want. Although the supplied manual does provide some technical assistance, Speedlites have been, and remain a mystery for many owners. This DVD sets out to change all that.

With a running time of just over an hour, your host professional photographer Tim Mantoani, takes the mystery out of using these flash units. Whether you own just one or several of these speedlites, Tim walks you through real world photographic situations that can be helped with these flash units. He not only tells you HOW the flash operates, but WHY the engineers designed the flashes with their current set of features.

Once this DVD covers the basics of lighting and flash compensation, it quickly moves into more advanced topics like wireless slave operation, groups, and ratios. By the time you finish watching this DVD, you’ll have the skills necessary to create better photos. You will look at your subjects with the eyes of a lighting director.

You’ve spent a lot of time and resources getting great camera equipment and learning how to use you camera effectively. This DVD will take you to the next level by allowing you to add light where you want it. Photography is all about communication. With a little information, and one of these great speedlites, you can evoke exactly the response you want.

This DVD is REGION FREE.

Topic Covered:
• Flash Exposure Compensation
• Using the Flash as a Key or Fill light
• FP or High Speed Sync operation
• Slow Sync demystified
• Controlling the hardness or softness of the flash
• Auto and Manual Zoom control
• Flash Bracketing
• Manual Mode and Exposure Compensation
• Wireless Operation
• A:B and C groups – why they exist and how to use them
• Group Ratios
• Flash exposure lock
• Getting the flash off the camera
• First and Second Curtain Sync
• Manual and Stroboscopic modes
• And much more!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10432 in DVD
• Brand: Blue Crane Digital
• Model: BC201
• Released on: 2005-12-03
• Formats: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 61 minutes

Features

• Your new EX speedlite from Canon can be the most powerful accessory in your camera bag. Understanding how the controls work is important, and this DVD takes you through its operations, step by step

From the Actor
This DVD keeps extra equipment needs to a minimum. Whether you own a 580EX, 430EX, or both, this presentation gives you a practical approach for all photographic subjects that require a little "portable sunlight".

About the Actor
Tim Mantoani has been a professional photographer for over fifteen years. Shooting everything from professional athletes and celebrities, to fashion and products, his work has appeared in numerous national advertising campaigns and magazines. His monthly column on lighting has appeared in Photographic Magazine for the past thirteen years.

Customer Reviews

Covers mainly studio photography
This DVD focuses almost entirely on studio photography: use of the 580EX with carefully positioned diffusers and reflectors and use of multiple Speedlights under master-slave control (even though I suspect most studio photographers use strobes, not compact Speedlights).

My shooting style is to take travel pictures and people candids. I wanted to learn how to use the 580EX mounted on my Canon EOS 5D camera to improve those types of pictures. On this subject the DVD is virtually silent. So if that's your objective, don't buy this DVD.

Great Introduction to Speedlites for Novices
Being new to the Canon Speedlite, I've spent several days on internet reading up on them and how best to utilize them. That coupled with the manual that came with my 580EX gave me a good idea of features etc., but what none of my research did for me was let me wrap my head around how it all came together in real world photography. This DVD in one short hour took care of that for me. It is beautifully balanced between explaining the basics of lighting for photography and then showing how to use Speedlites to accomlish this. I've already watched it several times and I plan on watching it a few more times after I've taken some more pictures.

If you're new to the Speedlite and confused a bit about all the features and how to put them to work, this is the DVD for you. Highly recommened.

Excellent DVD
I was very surprised with the information that was given in this DVD. The whole DVD is interesting and full of useful information that will make you re-think the way that you take pictures and the examples shown only help you to further understand how to use the speedlites to the max.

I would recommend this DVD to anyone that want to learn more creative ways to use the flash and for users that are just starting in flash photography.