Behind the Scenes – V.A.L – The D700 Diaries

So what’s a V.A.L? Well, it stands for Voice Activated Light-stand.

The particular one I used on a recent impromptu shoot was a STUBBS Mk1. It’s quite old, bit tatty around the edges and a bit limited as you can’t update the firmware. The user interface can be unreliable as you sometimes have to issue the commands more than once, and then it can still be unpredictable. But, it’s cheap and it’s the only one I had available.

You can just make it out with my SB900 speed-light and LumiQuest Softbox III on the edge of this behind the scenes shot (Click on the image for a larger version).

Oh, for those of you who haven’t worked it out yet… the V.A.L is actually just a person to hold your light 🙂