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Desert Island Gadgets - part 2 of 1 2 3 4 5 6

Published 01/06/2014

Paul Callahan

Sekonic L-478DR LiteMaster Pro

When you've been a wedding photographer for 25 years you've got an awful lot of tricks up your sleeve. Paul Callahan told me about his latest gadget, the rather futuristic Sekonic L-478DR light meter. It has built in PocketWizard technology and is the first Sekonic light meter to feature touch screen technology!

'It calculates the ratio between ambient light and flash'

enthuses Paul. 'That's really impressive because lighting is such a subjective thing, but with this you can easily set a different mood without having to do all the calculations in your head.' Paul pairs the light meter with Nikon SB900 Speedlights and also banks of continuous LED lighting for the ultimate lightweight and portable solution to shooting weddings. 'I don't shoot anything in the studio, I don't even have a studio. Everything I do is out on location or in venues.

Wedding photography is basically portraiture at 100mph, so this light meter helps me be prepared for any situation!'

One of the advantages of the Sekonic L-478DR is that individual Speedlights can be controlled from the unit, as well as groups of them together. 'I only use a very, very small fraction of the functions of this light meter. It has capabilities for cinematography too; it's an incredibly sophisticated bit of kit! It's also smaller and lighter than previous versions.' But could Paul go back to an older version with fewer features? 'Oh absolutely! If I wasn't going to be using combinations of flash and ambient light, or if I wasn't going to be mixing and matching LED lights and similar!'

I couldn't help wondering what a photographer based over in Ireland gets out of his membership to The Societies. 'It keeps me motivated to belong to such an organisation. It's also one of the best organisations for keeping up to date on technology and current market trends. The Societies keeps you fully briefed on everything that's happening out there.' And of course I had to ask if he makes it over to the Convention each year; 'Oh yes, and of course the Convention! I was over this year. It was a good party, I absolutely love a good party!'

But putting all this talk of parties and gadgets aside, Paul tell me that one of the most useful accessories on a wedding day is his voice activated light stand; 'My good wife, Margaret. She is the most helpful thing I have on a wedding. I say move to the left or move to the right and she will do it for me!' Despite all the high-tech equipment available to us as a photographer, it appears that the human touch is still the most useful.www.paulcallaghan.com

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1st Published 01/06/2014
last update 09/12/2022 14:53:15

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