LEDs are nice, but I don’t have a nice one. I’m saving up to grab a Rotolight in the near future, but they’re damn expensive.
I use an off camera flash and I usually bounce it off the ceiling or wall to soften the light. This was using an umbrella with the same off camera flash. I use a wireless trigger mounted on the hotshoe of my camera to trigger the flash.
I use these.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004682464749.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1629836-REG/ulanzi_2298_vl69_bi_color_mini_video.html
Not sure if its a good thing to mix and match like that when they arent identical…
The Ulanzi L2 is my favorite of them though.
I use this umbrella (50cm version) to bounce the light from the VL69.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004741882171.html
And position them like this
I love the little diagram haha
Yeah, that certainty gets the job done, sir. I prefer the look of a flash personally, it’s also a lot more powerful most of the time. It let’s me control more of the ambient light. I usually expose the ambient light to be very dim and let the flash fill in. But I’m definitely going to play around with my LEDs as well. I have a larger one that I bought years ago, but i lost the damn battery charger. I ripped apart my house yesterday looking for it… no luck.
Is that how you get these dark background but still bright enough on the subject?
How does it work though? You click the button and it flashes instantly?
I assume its something like this?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000453696512.html
Yes, sir. Expose to make the ambient light as dark as possible while still retaining the highlights, if you can and configure the flash power to properly light the subject. Use an umbrella or grid to direct the light towards the subject and boom. It takes some tweaking to get the right results but isn’t that part of the fun? 
For these shots, I closed the umbrella mostly and just left the opening small enough to direct the light onto the IEMs to not light the background.
Yes, sir again. You need a trigger system, like this;
One goes on the camera and one attaches to the flash.
I use a different one, it’s like an all in one system that I bought years ago, I just can’t remember the name at the moment. When I get home I’ll take a picture of the flash I use.
Any cheap ones on ali you can find for me?
The one I have at home is pretty cheap imo, let me see if my wife can send me a pic and I’ll pass along the info to you. I think they cost me like $80 for the flash and the triggers. They have some short comings, for sure, but for the money, you can’t beat em’.
edit; The wifey came through, this is the system I use. Cheap, simple and they work well.
Cant buy from any of them…way too expensive…
Gotcha. Take a look on Ali, I’ll do the same.
Would this be viable?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32825306729.html
Looks like it triggers a flash when it detects another one, so I could just use the stock flash on the camera to trigger a 3rd party one?
If your looking at the Rotolights / check out the Zhiyun stuff - cheaper and better design for pretty much the same quality.
Used to use Nanlite but the Zhiyun were better.
Went through Godox, Neweer and the other Chinese cam players eg (Andoer, Ulanzi, Smallrig) before settling on these.
Yup, you could do that too. I don’t like using that because the pop up flash on the camera will obviously effect the image, but, YMMV.
Damn, good tip. I’ve been looking for sure. Thanks for that. I really like how some of the Rotolights can be a continuous LED but also a strobe. That’s dope af imo. Do you know if the Zhiyun stuff can do the same?
Pretty sure you can on most. Will have a check over the next few days on a couple of the different models to be 100% which can.
Would this combo work?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003117361172.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005995659764.html
That flash looks nice at least.
or maybe u need this kit?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003298595670.html
Idk if that combo will work, it doesn’t seem like it would. In my head, unless the flash has a built in radio transmitter, how would it accept the signal from the trigger mounted on the camera? There should be a hotshoe on the actual transmitter to mount the flash on.
aaa thats why the picture shows that u need a receiver (for the flash?) and a transmitter (for you?).
Otherwise this is another one I found.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007100790477.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005951671731.html
not sure if they work though…
This combo should work… I’d be iffy buying on Ali (for returning things), but that’s just because I’m in the states. Not sure how it is for you on in EU.
Returning things is pain for us as well but I prefer buying from ali as they have cheaper stuff and the same quality (if u know what u are buying).
But not sure if that TT600S works with the CT16
The link I found seems to be for Canon hotshoe and not for sony as well…
This setup is at least confirmed to work and recommended by them.
My head is spinning lol Yeah, that’s weird. I’m not 100% sure tbh with you, brother. I’m much more of a ‘plug and play’ kind of guy.
Word word - Which models do you use, brother?
