Focus On Lighting Photos Focus on the Fundamentals.pdf

These photos are of a pianist
known for his lightning fast
fingers and particular hand
gestures. He wore black clothing.
We also covered his upper arm in
black velvet to be sure the hands
would float in space.
We shot lots of versions, with
different hand gestures, and in
170
<strong>Focus</strong> <strong>On</strong> <strong>Lighting</strong> <strong>Photos</strong>
each case we had to do our best
to time the firing of the flash at
the end point of the motion to
get the fingers where we wanted
them. (If you want to hear what
these hands can do, go to
joshuarich.com!)
manuaL triggering without
any speciaL eQuipment
Need to manually trigger the
flash? Don’t have a specially
made external trigger? Use
the simplest synch cord the
flash allows (ideally only two
terminals). Unplug the camera
end of the cable and stick in
a bent paper clip when you
want the flash. This is safe for
simple camera-to-strobe connections,
because we use very
low-voltage signals to protect
the shutter. It is not safe for
other higher-voltage electrical
circuits.
<strong>On</strong>e warning, though: if we
have a complex flash cable,
we may not know which two
terminals make the trigger
circuit. Conceivably, we could
damage the flash by connecting
the wrong terminals, even
though we stand no chance
of damaging ourselves. That’s
why we suggest a simple synch
cord with only two terminals
for this procedure. Most flashes
will accept such a cord.