Today we are going to review the DVD that was born of the great Flash Bus Tour of 2011.
When I first saw that there was going to be a combo of David Hobby and Joe McNally my thought was "boy that David is dreamy"... no wait, that was an inside thought.
But seriously, my first thought was "what an odd combination" because if you know either of these guys you know they are polar opposites when it comes to Speedlights.
Mr. Hobby is all about using your Speedlight on manual, no TTL for him. Everything I have learned about/from him has convinced me his goal is to shoot with his flash at the lowest possible power level while still lighting his subject in an interesting and complimentary way.
Mr. McNally has "TTL" tattooed on his left arm and boy, oh boy, can he make a Speedlight sing like Frank Sinatra.
Now before I get into the DVD itself I just want to say that at the beginning of Joe's segment there was a slideshow of who and where he has photographed and I was so intimidated I wanted to turn off the DVD and walk away.
Un-freaking-believable.
So here's what you get if you buy the Flash Bus Tour of 2011.
You'll get two DVD's, the first is the morning session with David Hobby and the second is the afternoon session with Joe McNally, both of them are 2 1/2 hours long and packed with information.
One of the most important things you'll get with this is humor and I know what you're thinking "I want to learn about lighting, not be amused", here's why I think it's important, it would be easy to be intimidated by these two gentlemen but their self deprecating humor puts you at ease, make you feel much more comfortable thus opening our mind, being more receptive and letting information in.
Have you ever listened to someone speak who is an expert in their field, but their talk was full of "ah's" and "ya knows" and it made you want to drive a fork into your own eyes?
That won't happen here. Both David and Joe are phenomenal speakers, and when you are listening to them speak for 2 1/2 hours that's pretty darn important important.
You will get three of the most important things you need to be a better photographer:
1. The knowledge you need not just to light a subject, but to let them WELL
2. How to use minimal and inexpensive gear to do the job (like an Painters Pole, a Chinese silk lantern, Shoot Through Umbrella, Flash Gels, LumiQuest LTp SoftBox)
3. They make you want to run right out and challenge yourself, ask "what if"
Both sessions start out with simple single light scenarios and build upon that throughout the talk.
And I could talk all day about what's in these DVD's, but I'll boil it down to just two words "Your Future".
The Flash Bus DVD's are non-stop learning experiences but I am going to share just one thing from each of them.
I will share one thing from David's presentation, it's an environment portrait that drives home the point of simplicity:
It was simply lit (a Speedlight in a lantern & one on camera), simply staged (suspended from a branch with fishing line), here is the full shot:
Pretty simple, huh?
And the one thing from Joe? A quote "It's all about the management of light".
Which to me put's it in perspective, we manage our cameras, we manage our editing software, but when it comes to lights we are intimidated. Light is just like any of our other resources, we are responsible for managing it, we owe that to our client, and this DVD will teach us how.
This DVD set comes with two snaps and a circle (for all you In Living Color fans).
You can get this for just $99 with free shipping and I like it so much that I'll give you my personal buyback guarantee, the first person who buys it and then tells me they think it wasn't worth the money, I will personally buy it back from them.
