Download Strobist 101 and change your photography

If you've never heard of Strobist, it's not a piece of software or a camera — it's a way of changing how you look at photography.

Strobist 101

Here is one of the first paragraphs of Strobist 101. In short, this fifty-page PDF is designed as a step-by-step guide to discovering and learning to use your flash differently. It's about relearning to think of light as the combination of ambient light and flash light.

It isn't out of reach — far from it. You just need to take the time to read and work through it step by step. I remember turning my living room into a shooting studio to practice on kiwis and apples. Not thrilling, but tremendously instructive.

Download Strobist 101

Strobist 102

Once you've digested the first Strobist volume, all that's left is to continue your reading with the second phase: Strobist 102.

Strobist gear

As for gear — you'll find this in the 101 — you'll need to invest a little to make your new photos. Personally, I recommend the following products (the ones I've been using for nearly 6 years now!)

More about the Strobist movement

One of the best ways to improve is to draw inspiration from what your peers do. And in this case, the goldmine is on Flickr. And if reading Strobist 101 isn't enough, here are some reference books: