strobist

In photography, when you're trying to add flash and want it 'off-camera' there's a few options. Off-camera flash is important, because let's be honest, on-camera flash looks harsh and just plain bad. So we have to move the flash away from the camera. Sometimes it's to the right, sometimes left, sometimes up. Other times you might add more than one flash to light the frame.

One way is to use a sync cable. This involves the possibility of adapters, and stretching a long cable between you and the flash. My camera doesn't have a sync socket, so I'd need an adapter.

Another way is to use an optical flash. This is a flash that is triggered any time it sees any other flash light up the scene. I have one of these, and it's great until there's other people in the same area with flash cameras. Then it gets flashed for them instead of me.

I've been practicing at photography for a while, and there's a few things I've learned that I think applies to most any thing you want to be good at.

1) Practice before you stick your neck out.

What do I mean? It's nice to show off photos you've taken after the fact, but if someone expects you to take pictures of THEM and get good shots, well you better be ready. Better to take 400 pictures of plants in your backyard every day for weeks so nobody knows you take 399 bad pictures for every one good one. You can always take pictures of friends later after you have improved your ratio to something better, like 200 to one. :-)

2) Every professional works from a bag of tricks that he repeats and builds on, but still has a basis in some trick he knows.