Mikkel Elbech

I’d spent about 2½ years firing my external flashes with the easily broken Cactus V2s triggers and no proper lighting gear aside from a tiny softbox and some other little things.

I’d get the occasional glimpse of the potential of that setup (like here and here), but most of the time it was an unsatisfying experience, since the results didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to, and everything just seemed a tad too random and unreliable.

The $800 upgrade
Then yesterday, I finally upgraded my lighting setup, spending around $800 on an additional flash (an SB-700 to go with my SB-800), an EzyBox 15” softbox, a shoot-through umbrella, a light stand and some other small things.

I got to do a test of my new setup right away, and it was an amazing experience! The Ezybox (with the SB-800) was used as a side/hair light, and the umbrella (with the SB-700) was used as the main light. Finally I was getting the kinds of results I’d been trying to get for years!

My main worry was that the Nikon Speedlights wouldn’t be powerful enough, and that I should have gone with big, dedicated studio flashes from Elinchrom or some other brand instead. Or that I should have gotten the SB-910 instead of the SB-700. Thankfully, neither was the case.

Previously, I never used to fire the flashes at full power, and I didn’t have to yesterday either. And my logic tells me that it must mean that they’re powerful enough for what I’m doing. And if they’re not, I can always boost the ISO. It never went above 200 yesterday. (I realize that a lot of power is needed if you want to drown out sunlight outdoors using a small aperture, but I’ll worry about that when I’ve been in a situation that this setup can’t handle.)

Everything is controlled from the camera menu 
With Cactus triggers, you always have to set each flash manually. But with the Nikon D700’s built-in commander mode, I can control both flashes (one in “Group A” and the other in “Group B”) wirelessly directly from the camera menu, and it worked like a charm.

The downside to using the camera’s built-in flash in commander mode is that the flash itself fires every single time you take a shot (though the light from it doesn’t affect the photo you take (or, rather, it almost doesn’t).

The perfect solution for this, I found, was my beloved Lightscoop. Placed in the hotshoe, the subject won’t get the light from the built-in flash directly into his or her eyes, but the two external flashes fire off just as they should.

With the SB-700 and SB-800 and the D700 (and a line-up of Nikon primes of which the 50mm f/1.4G remains my all-round favorite), everything is now 100% Nikon and much, much more reliable than the Cactus triggers. With everything being controlled from the camera menu, there’s a lot less jumping and fiddling around - and more focus (pun intended) placed on the subject at hand! :)

I did a photo session with my friend and colleague Cecilie in the nearby snow-covered cemetery (and took the third shot at a cafe afterwards). :)

I got to photograph Damien Hirst today as the big Hirst room at Arken (art museum outside of Copenhagen) was unveiled to the press.

Several hours later, having finished working on this video on the unveiling, I hung out at the museum restaurant where Hirst suddenly popped up and signed autographs for a few people. I approached him to ensure one for my friend, who’s a massive Hirst fan. Not only did he sign the paper - he drew his signature shark, too. :)

4 weeks in the United States, summarized in 10 photos.

That wasn’t easy.