The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally [Amazon] [Joe's Blog]

Joe McNally, a regular shooter for photographer mecca National Geographic and author of The Moment it Clicks (a book I’ve been wanting forever but am too poor to buy at the moment) has out done himself with this one. If you’re a budding small flash nerd like myself, you really need to own this book! Granted, if you’re a Canon guy or gal like myself…you’re going to wish it included Canon Cliff’s Notes. This book is 100% Nikon Speedlight-centric. HOWEVER, you can just let your eyes glaze over when he gets into Nikon-speak like I did and pull a LOT out of this book. And I mean a LOT, so don’t let the Nikon stuff scare you off.

Joe spends at least half the book going over one-flash set ups, making this a great book for those of us who do not half a vault of flashes we swim in like Scrooge McDuck does with his money like I imagine Joe does after a long day’s work. The majority of the rest of the book is 2 and 3 flash set ups and there’s even a few “holy shit” double-digit flash set ups for good measure!

The book is written in a casual, diary-like format meaning Joe takes images from his portfolio of impressive work and talks about the lighting challenges, goals and execution for each shot. There are lots of hand-drawn lighting diagrams (look for Joe, the stick-figure labeled “numnuts”) and clear explanations of WHY these set ups work, and even a few times…why they could have been better.

Fans of David Hobby and the small flash “strobist” movement are going to LOVE this book. I’d reccommend reading the Lighting 101 on Strobist.com before this as The Hot Shoe Diaries isn’t exactly a 101 type of book, but I’d say it’s a great 102 type. And if you’re a Nikon shooter, it’d make a great guide to wrapping your head around your speedlight.

With a little brain stretching you can find many of the features Joe discusses for the Nikon Speedlight on your Canon Speedlite.

So after finishing this, I’m left with some solid flash knowlege and a better understanding of how to shape it and bend it to my mighty will (couple this with David Hobby’s Strobist seminar DVDs and I’m feeling pretty good about light.)

One thing that confused me was Joe’s shooting style. He flies mainly on Av (Aperture Priority) mode and TTL flash. I’ve always wondered if there’s any difference between shooting on Av/TTL and adjusting exposure with exposure and flash compensation and just shooting manual (as I do) and adjusting exposure using the light meter. Why do YOU do one or the other? I tried a little of Joe’s method out of curiosity and it seemed like more work for the same result and TTL in generally resulted in a lot of “ugh” shots…am I missing something?

So overall for me this book is great, minus the whole obviously Nikon-sponsored thing. This has left me with one burning question…What are you slacking for, Canon? Where’s your shining star? Nikon has Joe, David Hobby and Scott Kelby. Canon has….? Get off your ass Canon! Put out a great book like this and snub the Nikon people for once!

(Just kidding Nikon people. Sort of.)

Any photographer worth his or her nerdsalt has probably bought, or at least contemplated buying some sort of weird Japanese knock off of gear and gadgets they cannot afford the name brand of. Probably the most popular of these is the “Poverty Wizards” (Cactus triggers) sold by Gadget Infinity on Ebay. They’re the poor wo/man’s version of the much sought after Pocket Wizards. You may remember I have some Poverty Wizards and no, they didn’t make me stop lusting after Pocket Wizards…but for now, they got my flash off-camera wirelessly. Can’t complain…even if they seem to have a mind of their own.

When I bought my 40D from Chris Haskell, who I am forever indebted to because of the steals he gives me when he upgrades, a Yongnuo Universal Flash Diffuser (a knock off of Gary Fong’s Whaletail flash diffuser which retails for 99-130 dollars-wow) came with it. Chris hadn’t found much use for it and didn’t feel like selling it on the POTN boards so it became mine to figure out.

In true Japanese fashion, there are no directions, only a vague diagram on the side of the box. So I looked around for video of Gary Fong using his classier invention to get an idea of what this thing is supposed to do.

Basically I found the only real way this thing is useful is to open the top hatch for ceiling bouce-age, and then open the front hatch and angle the white side of the hatch a the face you’re shooting. This actually does work a little magic and adds a nice fill-flash to the face. You can use the shiny side (curtosy of a foil sticker…wouldn’t want to break the bank using an actual mirror, right?) if you need more dramatic (harsher) light to hit the subject.

Here’s some test shots I took earlier. I have white ceilings (10 foot, tops?) and white walls. There was a window to camera right with nice soft light thanks to unending grey clouds here in New England this Spring.

Example 1, My son Aiden. (all four shots are f5.6 @ 1/125 ISO400)
No diffuser

Example 1, with diffuser.

Not bad, right? It puts nice catch lights in the eyes and fills everything in pretty well. Here’s my dog, same deal.

No diffuser, bounced off the ceiling.

And with the diffuser, same set up:

My dog really needs a haircut, what a mess. But that’s quite a difference for a cheap little knock off, right?

It also comes with orange doors to replace the white/mirror’d ones but I found them completely useless. They don’t warm the flash and seem to do little more than reflect less light. It also comes with a bunch of slide-in plastic things that are supposed to act as gels. They’re not. Use gels instead.

Speaking of, I broke down and bought one of these…

from Amazon after all attempts to score one for free failed. Totally worth it. I’m going to take it apart as soon as I find a business card holder or something to organize them in. If you’re not familiar with the use of this little sample pack, get thee to Strobist and read about them! They’re made by a company that sells big sheets for studio cans but these sample packs fit perfectly over the head of a small flash (with a little ghetto-rigging).

I used a 3/4 CTO to flash my face here:

But that’s a whole other review…coming soon.