Yes, come up with a little story about semi nude women and then think about how you would illustrate that story with your camera. This will set your mind onto tracks that you would not have explored otherwise.

Here's a story that I came up with before shooting a model semi nude with a) a screaming red top, b) a screaming blue hotpants, c) a golden metal chain slip:

"In ancient times there was a Chinse girl who had a dress made out of gold. From her whole heart she wanted to wear the dress, but wearing it was so dangerous, that it might have cost her life.

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I think it is key to care for an atmosphere in which it is OK for the untrained model to make this sort of unusual poses which are looking good on a photograph. My main tool for "giving her permission" to pose so strange is, to do it myself. I show the model the desired poses by going into that poses myself. Of course I kinda look like an elephant compared to the model, but that is working to my advantage here. If the photographer is doing such strange poses, then the ice is broken and the model can do them also.

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Excellent question! When the flash is the very dominant light source for my exposure and when the available light is not so strong, that it adds a lot to the exposure, then I can let my flash freeze the object. As long as I do not dial my flash (speedlight or monoblock) to a very high power level, the burn time of the flash will be relatively short. Let’s say 1/1000s. In this cases it does not matter what shutter speed I use, the freezing happens due to the short flash exposure.

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Question:
I am currently experimenting with the sekonic L-358 flash meter, and using speedlights, any tutorials using camera, speedlights and lightmeter, especially using cables ie PC screwlock to speedlight 580 EX II would be most helpful.I also use a Canon Eos 7D and can connect wirelessly.Thanks
Kind Regards
Peter.

Answer:

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Question:

I recently had a photo shoot with a warrior princess theme. And used oils on the models skin to define textures...my results were not the best to get her skin to really look good ("pop!") I rented plenty of lights for this shoot for a total of three off camera strobes. I just can't help but think my camera and flashes settings were wrong- do you have a starting point with your flashes to start and then adjust?

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A, B and C are flash groups. All slaves in group A will fire at a certain power a, while all slaves in B will fire at a different power b. Same with C.

On every slave you can control in which group it is. The master flash itself is always in group A. You can't change that.

My typical use of this groups:

A contains all flashes on my left with are pointing to the subject

B contains all flashes on my right

C contains flashes that are in the background and not in the forground

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The steps I take before a shoot usually spring from checklists (my production book) that I use. Those lists come out of my planning. And my planning depends on the type of shoot.

One the end, there are adhoc shoots which I do spontanuosly with pretty much no preparation. On the other end there is a photo shoot for a client in which I need to produce a valuable result. Most of my photo shoots, even my private projects, are rather on this end.

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Yes, you absolutely can. It makes good sense to use a CTO filter in case you want to use it as a fill in flash in a tungston lit environment.

Thanks to Pam for the question

Usually you want to trigger them by your master flash on-camera. But for completeness, here's the all your options:

1.
Wiring the flashes. Use the sync port of your cam to trigger a hub, which then triggers x flashes via cable. Your flash needs to a pc jack for the trigger cable.
Advantage: flashes are not irritated by light noise or radio noise, so in a big pop concert that might be the way to do it. Otherwise: discard this option.

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I usually make a mix of strobes and available light. I need all that light to be able to make a sharp and crisp exposure and in order to control, that there is still some texture in the shades. 

The basic gear that I use is a 

Canon 5D MK II

a 24-300mm zoom lens and

this Kit for Speedlight Beauty Photography

Thanks to Pavan Kumar for the question.

The intro videos are templates for Adobe After Effects which I bought on http://videohive.net.

The music which I use is rendered in Sonicfire Pro with track that I bought on http://smartsound.com (which is the only source for sonic fire tracks anyway).

Thanks to Patrick for the question.

Gosh no - don't do that! I've seen a bunch of tutorials on how to use those lights and use baking paper in front of them as a diffuser. But these lights get incredibly hot. So it's only a question of time when the first person in your studio accidentally burns themselves. You don't want that.

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If you don't have a Camera with a build in flash that can act as the master (Canon 7D) then unfortunately, yes, you need a 580EX. The alternatives are Canon ST-E2 or ETTL radio triggers, both of which have major drawbacks in my opinion. For instance: Very often I use ETTL group C because this group is RELATIVE to the others and the camera does not measure it. Whenever I have flashlight that does not reach the autofocus point during ETTL, then I (have to) put the respective flash into ETTL group C. But the Canon ST-E2 does not support a group C, so it's worthless for me.

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My strategy: I mostly shoot friends of ours.

The fallback strategy: When I need a model I call our stylist or go into a model forum: http://www.moko.cc (it's all Chinese).

The tourist strategy:

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Paying audience for "boudoir" photography is for instance cellphone wallpaper subscribers - $2.99/month - awesome business model.

Thanks to @SteveMphotog for the questions

On SmokingStobes I’m using the Gravatar service to display user pics. 
So the easiest way to make your profile photo appearing is this:

Thanks to Pedro for the question

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Being into beauty photography for me the Canon 5D MK II still rules. It's designed with so much love. It's awesome.
However, Yuri Arcurs would probably argue that the Nikon D3X is better because it's more userfriendly. I can't confirm that but I know that Yuri tests the hell out of every camera.

Thanks to @jennise_therese for the question

I actually don't find it sooooo energy sucking like I sometimes read in the forums. I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason for that is that I am using top notch batteries only - and a clear strategy: 

1. Have enough loaded batteries

I have AT LEAST 3 camera batteries with me even though I never need more than 2. If all things fail, then my cameras will run on AA's.

I am using a powerful external battery for my Macbook.

Besides the 28 AA rechargable battereries that I have with me, I also have 8 Duracel AA's in my bag...just in case.

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Is there any photo online where you say: "Wow, I would like to shoot a photo exactly like this! That must be fun!"
Any photo out there? If so, then let's start by reverse engineering that photo and then learn step by step how to shoot it.

Thanks to Chris Addison for the question.

Well panning needs a good deal of practise, or... a bit of luck ;-)

OK, in order to have the background blurry, the background has to move in your frame a meter or two during your exposure. It will move more when

• you are further away from the background
• your focal lenght is longer
• the subject moves faster
• the shutter is slower

The first point (further away) is a good one. The other 3 methods introduce new issues, mostly that your subject will be more blurry.

So start with this:

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You get different DPI simply because the cameras put different values into that datafield. But DPI does not matter at all, not the slightest bit, unless you print out your photos without defining the printing size.

Thanks to @RJPHIPPS for the question

I think US$500 is quite a tight budget to enter the DSLR field. However, you can't go wrong with Canon or Nikon DSLRs today. All of them produce stunning photos and provide all features that you need.

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Sure, you will be a master at it within a few hours. It’s easy. I’d love to know what sort of photographs you are taking. But let’s assume you take beauty pictures like myself. 

For the moment please focus on the major composition guideline: The rule of thirds.

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