Back on November 7th I spent a day in the company of Syl Arena and about 40 other folk at Syl's Speedliter's Intensive one-day seminar in Houston. What a fun day!
No, the Speedliter's Intensive is not a hands on workshop where you get to shoot photos of models, but it is an immersion into the world of Canon Speedlites. And not just the latest 600RT models but all the available Speedlites in the Canon range. Would you also get value from this course as a Nikon, Sony or other DSLR shooter? Absolutely! But Syl's not going to be able to talk you through the menus and functions of your SB900 or other flash unit. While it is a class built around the Canon ecosystem, as Syl says, “You'll be remembered not for the gear you used, but by the photographs you created”.
But, since the key difference between Canon and Nikon is in the function of exposure compensation behavior, the actual lighting side of using small camera flash is universal. On Canon, an adjustment of the EV on the main exposure of the image does not affect the Speedlite setting, while on Nikon it does. So if you decide to underexpose your image on Canon by -2EV, you just dial that in on the camera but you don't have to make an offsetting adjustment on the Speedlite. With Nikon, however, if you dial in -2EV on your camera, that will also reduce the flash by -2EV so you then have to change the EV on the Speedlight by +2EV to get back to the flash power you had before.
So, when you go to a Speedliter's Intensive seminar, take your camera and a Speedlite with you because Syl's going to take you through your camera and Speedlite menus so you can actually practice pressing the buttons, turning the dials and understanding what the controls and mysterious icons of the Canon Speedlite mean.
With the relatively small class size we were all able to introduce ourselves and what we were looking to get out of the day – it certainly helps if you have an idea of what you want because Syl can address that in the class. Our class was a range from novices to pros but Syl's approach made the subject matter accessible to all so we all left at the end of the day having learned something.
Throughout the day Syl introduces and expands on his image making philosophies – an extension to his excellent book – LIDLIPS – Lessons I Didn't Learn In Photo School
Attendees get a pretty comprehensive Speedliter's Intensive workbook but it's so jam-packed with information I highly recommend you take a notebook to jot down other inspirations that flash into your mind through the day. If you have either Syl's Speedliter's Handbook
I guess for me, a key takeaway was to really get familiar with my existing gear and not rush out and buy more (though I confess did buy a Canon OC-E3 (B&H) off camera flash cord on my way home from the seminar). Although I do use Radio Poppers for wireless Speedlite control, I learned a lot more about Canon's optical system and how far you can really stretch that – you can do plenty if you understand the optical system before you invest in wireless triggers. But of course, my wish list is now populated with 600RT Speedlites that have the wireless trigger built in.
If you've more than one Speedlite, another great segment is using the menus on multiple Speedlites and Canon's approach to Speedlite groups. Syl takes you through adjusting your Speedlites from the back of the camera rather than fiddling with the smaller and less intuitive controls and button push sequences on the Speedlites themselves. And, if you own a Canon camera that was released in 2012 you can learn some useful undocumented features of those cameras!
In addition to learning a bunch more about my own Speedlite collection and how I can put it to better use, I learned a bunch more about how to adjust the settings of my camera – things that in hindsight were so glaringly obvious that the glare obscured them – along with a better appreciation for shadows!
Syl has added more dates to his us tour so there are more opportunities to attend the tour coming up soon in
- Philadelphia – December 11
- Baltimore/DC – December 13
- Fort Lauderdale – December 15
- Charlotte – December 18
- Orlando – January 13
- Tampa – January 14
Syl has plans to take the tour to other us cities in 2013 and is also game to taking the tour outside the us if there's sufficient interest.
If you're going to be near those cities on those dates, I heartily recommend you register then call-in sick the day of. You'll be glad you did! You can get more details and register on the Speedliters Intensive website
Note that the extra dates are listed on Syl's blog ‘pixsylated' where you can also register plus, you'll find a coupon code!
