Perhaps the writer’s Hyphen key is broken. That might account for the missing punctuation in brand-new and first-time on Yahoo! Shine:

Image : http://www.flickr.com

It’s becoming ever more acceptable to be casual versus committing in a relationship. From swinging married couples, to “friends with benefits”, the word “relationship” takes on a whole new meaning in modern times.

With the current view of relationships so much more relaxed than in the past, it has becoming easier (and less pressure) for many start up new relationships, and just have fun. However it has also become more difficult to now find a more serious, committed relationship. This is even more of a problem when you are starting with a casual relationship that you want to turn more serious.

If you are ready to turn your casual relationship into something more solid, and you think that he may also be ready – but you are not sure – keep your eyes peeled for the following signs of a commitment-ready man.

1. He wants to meet your family – If he wants to meet your family – or he already has – it’s usually a sign that he is ready to move forward. Meeting the family is an important step in announcing your seriousness to the world, or rather the people in the world important to you. By doing this he is showing that it’s also important to him, and that he wants to see if he can fit in with your relatives. Seeing you with your family also lets him get to know a different part of you, growing the relationship naturally.

2. He is an initiator – There’s something to be said about making the first move. You know he’s ready when he is the one calling you to hang out, or when he independently comes up with great activities for you to spend time together doing. Does he answer your calls and emails promptly? Does he call or email you even before you even get a chance to do the same to him? If the answer is yes, chances are he’s ready to move forward.

3. He is financially stable – This one’s a no-brainer. A man who is stable and prepared, is ultimately stabling and preparing himself for a good reason. It’s highly likely that the reason is marriage, or at least a committed relationship, be it with you or another. If he’s at this stage, and let’s you know it, chances are he thinks you are ‘long-term’ material.

4. Using the “We” word – Using terms that unite you, especially in front of others, usually indicate he’s already ahead of you in the commitment department. If you hear the words “we”, “us”, and “our” versus “I”, “me”, and “my” you can be certain that he already considers you a couple, and that he is ready to commit more.

5. His friends are all married, or in deeper relationships – People tend to move with their cohort, and like-minded people tend to move together. If his friends all hit the strip club every weekend, and stay out all night, chances are he’s doing it as well – and doing it because he wants to. If his friends are in relationships, or even married, it’s a good sign that it’s the direction he also sees himself heading towards.

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Thanks To : Flintshire Tw Hereford http://macblog03.co.cc/ http://cjmac17.co.cc/ http://dentalcaremblog.co.cc/

Bad. It’s just bad to misspell a celeb name, especially when you’re a professional writer specializing in pop culture and fashion. But the writer for Yahoo! Shine manages to do that with this caption for a photo of Kristen Bell:

Even if you missed that error, you can’t help but notice the surprising description of Ms. Bell’s halter. The whole “shapeless on the bottom, and binding on the top” modifies halter. Funny, it really sounds more like a description of the dress Ms. Bell wears in the photo. But, of course, that word is missing from the description.

My previous post is about colors as noun, typically in a sentence format it is ‘object of the sentence is equal to noun’.  For today’s post, color is used as an adjective or modifier to further describe a subject or noun.  So instead of saying the bag is red, one can simply say red bag and altogether this becomes one compound subject or object.

There is slight difference when using colors as adjective or modifier in a sentence, in some colors the word 색 (saek) which stands for color is dropped (please check post prior to this one), specifically the colors mentioned below marked in red.

• 파란 (Paran) Blue
• 검정 (Geomjeong) Black
• 하얀 (Hayan) White
• 빨간 (Ppalhan) Red
• 노란 (Noran) Yellow
• 초록색 (Choroksaek) Green
• 주황색 (Chuhwangsaek) Orange
• 보라색 (Borasaek) Purple
• 핑크색 / 분홍색 (Pingkeusaek/Bunhongsaek) Pink
• 은색 (Eunsaek) Silver
• 금색 (Keumsaek) Gold
• 갈색 (Galsaek) Light Brown
• 밤색 (Bamsaek) Brown
• 회색 (Hwisaek) Gray

Taking the example above on describing a bag,  here is how you can make use of color to state it:

• 가방이 빨간색이에요 (Gabangi ppalgansaek-ieyo) – The bag is red.  This is one way to say it with reference to previous post.
• 가방이 빨간아요 (Gabangi ppalganayo) – this would also mean the bag is red but the way color is used is as adjective or descriptive verb, so the form used is the 4th bullet.
• 빨간 가방이 예뻐요 (Ppalgan gabangi yeppoyo) – this now means, the red bag is beautiful.

The last two examples provided made use of the color in the form of modifier or as adjective.   Just remember that whenever you use it as adjective, you need to use the inifinitive form, i made a post on how to form this a little long time ago.

What woman doesn’t love shoes? Especially Stuart Weitzman shoes. I just wish the writer of this article from Yahoo! Shine’s  ”The Thread” showed a little more love for the brand.

She’d also do well to show a little respect for common punctuation. All she’d have to do is move the hyphen after similarly and put it where it belongs — between to and there:

Also lacking a little respect is actress Taraji P. Henson: 

Was it a lack of concern for the reader that led to this confusion?

Was Fergie on the finale or premiere of “American Idol”? They’re kinda different, you know.

It’s not hard to spot the first error in this photo caption. Keep reading (if you dare) and you’ll spot the mismatched subject and verb and the incorrectly capitalized spring:

For some reason, the writer chose to use ALL CAPS for the shoe styles. An unfortunate choice because it just calls attention to the misspelled Tijuana:

At least millennium gets a respectable capital letter but not a enough Ns:

Whew. Any respect I might have had for this writer (and it isn’t much) is now gone. But I still love Stuart Weitzman shoes.

Let’s get the simple stuff out of the way: There’s a comma missing after Calif, and century shouldn’t be capitalized:

That was easy, no? What’s really a bit more difficult in this little paragraph from Yahoo! News is the statement about 9-year-olds who have only experienced the ’00s. I suppose that’s unlike the rest of us, who have lived through the last decade, but haven’t experienced it. What in the name of all that is grammatical is the writer trying to say? Do you think it’s: who have experienced only that decade? Or whose only experience is of that decade?

How it works: every time you earn MobaGold, post a blog, or create a new group topic, you earn points towards earning new titles. Check your title page to see how far you are towards earning your next one. Your first few titles will be easy to get, but as you earn more and more titles, new ones will be harder to attain.

In addition, you can earn title modifiers via certain secret methods hidden around the site. We won’t tell you how you get them, but we’ll let you know when you’ve earned a new one. So start searching and let your friends know (or not know) when you figure out how to unlock new modifiers!

.: List of Tittles :.

Mingler, Apprentice, Henchman, Guard, Sidekick, MobaMingler, Explorer, Prankster, Renegade, Zombie, Daydreamer, Electric Mouse, Officer, Rogue, Technician, Secret Agent, Kitty, Scientist, Snowman, Undead Slayer, Lawyer, Viking, Ghost, Sentinel, Oni, Vigilante, Jester, Android, Poet, Warrior, Lycan, Mage, Adventurer, Vampire, Charmer, Heartbreaker, Electrohead, Harlequin, Archaeologist, Beast, Gunslinger, Caregiver, Sniper, Bounty Hunter, Archer, Warlord, Champion, Master, Mercenary, Wanderer, Artisan, Soldier, Knight, Pilot, Power User, Dancer, Thief, Samurai, Brainchild, Spy, Cutie, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???..

.: List of Modifiers :.

???
Adventurous – Sharing your avatar.
???
Arch – Earning over 60 Modifiers.
Artistic – Setting your title to “Noteworthy Daydreamer”.
Atomic – Writing a one-character blurt.
Awesome – Starting a group that gets over 300 members.
Binary – Posting a blurt that contains only 1s and 0s.
Boomtastic – Reviewing a Novel.
Brilliant – Answering a question in Ask A Friend.
Caustic – Posting a Blurt that begins with the word “Danger”.
Celestial – Posting on someone’s wall on their birthday.
Chainsaw-Carrying – Deleting a blog that is over a month old.
???
Charitable – Leaving a comment on the profile of someone in penalty.
Charming – Successfully inviting a friend to join.
Computative – Posting a blog with only numbers in the subject.
Contrary – Blogging the Kode.
Cranky – Using the word ‘hate’ two or more times in a blog.
Dashing – Buying a new hat.
???
???
Emerald – Entering the correct code in your blog.
Epic – Having a discussion topic you created get more than 200 different users commenting on it.
Exanimate – Setting your status to “Loquacious Zombie”.
Executive – Searching for “Moba” in the Member Search.
Explosive – Writing a blog post in ALL CAPS with no punctuation or numbers.
???
Fashionable – Wearing a luxury item when collecting your allowance.
Festive – Collecting your allowance on December 24th, 25th, or 26th.
Firebreathing – Asking a question in Ask A Friend.
Frisky – Having someone leave a wall comment that contains the name of one of mechagojira’s cats.
Frozen – Claiming to live in Alaska or Siberia or Antarctica.
Galvanized – Visiting My Page with no background set.
Giant Sword Wielding – Checking your gold history after five run-ins with the Gold Monster.
???
Glow-in-the-Dark – Switching your profile mood from Cry to Laugh.
Gold-Digging – Posting a forum comment that just says “gold”.
Indestructible – Earning enough titles.
Intergalactic – Being a member of more than 15 Groups.
International – Having your profile include the word ‘travel’.
Investigative – Commenting on a blog more than six months old.
Laser – Setting your title to “Indestructible Apprentice”.
Legendary – Having a discussion topic you created get more than 100 comments.
Loquacious – Posting over 100 blurts.
Lucky – Getting a rare item from the mixer.
Magnificent – Collecting allowance after successfully inviting ten or more friends to join.
Martini-Drinking – Visiting “My Page” with over 10 unread minimails.
Masked – Being lucky!.
Master – Having more than 100 items in your closet.
Mecha – Writing a blurt that is exactly 74 characters long and starts with the letter D.
???
Morphological – Setting a title and modifier that start with the same letter.
Mysterious – Posting a blog between midnight and 12:05am MobaTime.
Mystical – Having someone leave a wall comment that contains the word “Mystical”.
Narcissistic – Searching blog posts for your user name.
Noteworthy – Getting more than 10 reviews on a novel.
???
Pearl – Entering the correct code in your blog.
???
Princess-Stealing – Reasons Unknown.
Raging – Posting a blurt ending with “!!!!!”.
Rambling – Posting a comment over 20 characters with no spaces.
Recursive – Linking a discussion comment to itself.
Ruby – Entering the correct code in your blog.
???
Shadowy – Reaching Level 10 in Shadow Wars.
Solipsistic – Commenting ten times on one of your own blogs.
Somnambulant – Setting your status to “Tiny Electric Mouse”.
Spambusting – Earning gold more than once but less than ten times in a day.
Spamtastic – Earning MobaGold 200 times in one day.
Sparkling – Writing a blog at 11am.
Star – Leaving a wall post exactly 86 characters long.
Stealthy – Reaching Level 20 in Shadow Wars.
???
Super-cool – Having over 3000 MobaGold when you collect your allowance.
Surreal – Switching your profile mood from Angry to Blush.
Symmetric – Posting a palindromic blurt.
Thoughtful – Posting a blog over 1000 characters long.
Tiny – Winning a non-rare item in the mixer.
Uber – Having someone leave a wall comment that starts with the word “Uber”.
???
Ultra-Cute – Buying a new hairstyle.
World’s Greatest – Start a group that gets over 200 members.

If you read this article on Yahoo! Shine, you can say goodbye to greatly needed punctuation:

There’s no need for the hyphen after an adverb ending in -LY. But it’s nitpicky error compared to this:

Is that really meant to be a tribute to Farrah Fawcett?  Maybe misspelling Farrah Fawcett’s name isn’t personal; clearly the writer has trouble with names, like Judd Apatow’s:

A misplaced comma is a minor annoyance (in the U.S., it belongs before the closing quotation mark). More than an annoyance is the remainder of the sentence, which hurts my brain:

Paying a tribute to fallen stars? If so, start paying attention to your writing.

As a novelist, you only get one chance to make a first impression with your book and win a reader. One chance. That’s it. After your big idea enters your brain and your main characters are sketched and fleshed out, your fingers will surely be itching to tap keys and plug away at your story.

While it’s great to go with the flow, whether you work it out bit by bit or fly through, having the novel practically write itself, it’s important to know what pitfalls to avoid on the rush out of the gate.

You want your kickoff to be effective so you can reel readers in and keep them riveted until the final word. To save yourself a major overhaul at revision time, or if you’ve already finished and are editing like me, here are some things I’ve gleaned from craft books and agent blogs about your first impression that you should keep in mind for your beginning.

♦ If you decide to use a prologue, keep it short. Prologues should not be pages of infodumping. They should feature something weird or compelling like in Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr or The Visitation by Frank Peretti. The prologues in those novels are short and pull readers in. Also, consider if your book can stand without it. If it can, ditch it.

♦ Dream sequences are generally frowned upon as an opener because they’re cliche. If you must use one…keep it short and vibrant or move it to a spot where it won’t seem so gimmicky.

♦ Showing common routine-type things, especially getting up in the morning, is a total yawner. Begin with conflict or as close to your MC’s main change or the dawning of the story question as you can.

♦ Starting off with extreme action or a super steamy love scene, only to have the rest of your manuscript be uneventful and more of a character study is a cheat. It’s okay to ebb and flow, but using explosions to hook readers into literary or topical fiction is just not fair or nice.

♦ Skimp on modifiers. Being adjective happy will mark you as an amateur. I’ve read some books where every noun had three or more adjectives in front of it. Paragraph after paragraph of this creates sludge no one wants to wade through. It may look pretty to you, but the eyes of readers will gloss over for sure. Definitely paint descriptive pictures, books without any can be too stark and dry, but pick the most important adjectives to provide good pacing and to make your word pictures pop.

♦ Relying on lame and lazy be-verbs or just tacking on an adverb for that extra sort of nothing doesn’t really showcase your individuality and voice. Everyone uses be-verbs, and you don’;t have to avoid them, but try to only use them when they work best and aid readibility. And adverbs have their place; just use them sparingly. Often with a little effort you can find an oh-so-perfect verb that conveys what you want to say. Instead of using an adverb on a dialogue tag, try adding action to reveal tone. You can do it. Stretch and make your prose come alive.

♦ Instead of being happy as a clam using a stale metaphor or cliché, come up with your own descriptions and similes, which will make your work zingy and fresh.

♦ Too many dialogue tags, especially fancy ones, create snags. Drop unnecessary ones. When you need them, said should be used primarily, then maybe specific action ones like whispered, mumbled or the like. Conveyed, exhorted, suggested, inquired and other awkward cousins should be cut down to one or two per book, if used at all.

♦ Don’t deluge readers with huge chunks of backstory. This should be avoided at all costs. It’s very dangerous. Very. The past is the past and is telling about the past. Readers want to know what’s happening in your character’s NOW. Sprinkle backstory throughout the novel. I had great fun hinting at something early in my book then revealing the key to that mini mystery later in dialogue.

If you have a First Person narrator telling about a past event, then providing backstory is okay as long as you have scenes and it isn’t all blocks of telling. Some entire books are windows to the past.

In Dark Rivers of the Heart, Dean Koontz does an excellent job of using backstory effectively. If you want a good example of well-rounded characters, a well-researched work and how to use backstory and dreams to HOOK rather than turn off, check it out.

♦ Tears trickle from my eyes, for out my window, beyond cherry trees and mist, pink and coral bands stretch across the darkening sky like braids or interlocking fingers, tightly woven, reminding me of the stranglehold purple prose has on my first chapter…Nix that junk post haste. You can weave some in here and there, but opening with that kind of description is a killer. The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes by Jack M. Bickham lists this as something agents laugh over. You don’t want your book to be the butt of jokes.

♦ Present tense should be avoided for long stories, unless it’s needed for easier readability, like if you have many jumps in time or a First Person Narrator/Partaker telling in real time.  It’s totally weird and jarring for the most part. Stick with the simple past. It’s more familiar to readers. In The Face, Dean Koontz reserves present tense for one character and the rest in past. But there’s a reason for the distinction.

♦ Pages of static material is all telling and shows nothing because these aren’t really scenes. Fiction is scenes. Not explanation or lots of blather. Scenes are things going on, people talking, the plot moving forward, someone doing something, even if all alone. Established authors can get away with pages of exposition at the onset. e.g. V.C. Andrews for one. Unless you’re her ghost writer, get to the action, the dialogue, the conflict. That’s where your story is.

Avoid those deadly Noids that will turn your work into a form-rejection-letter magnet. Put your best foot forward. [Another cliché. What's my tally, 6? haha.] Kick off strong and keep going.

~CV

OK, so I lied about the best writing on the Web. And maybe this isn’t the worst writing on the Web. It’s just two of the many errors that appear on Yahoo! every day. This time they’re from Yahoo! Shine:

I don’t know how a professional writer can confuse the contraction it’s with the possessive pronoun its. If you don’t know (or care about) the difference, I suppose you don’t know (or care) that small-screen is a compound modifier requiring a hyphen.

In honor of World AIDS Day, Yahoo! is recycling the errors on its Yahoo! Events page here:

and here:

and here:

These are the same errors that appeared last year on Yahoo!. Looks like Yahoo! still doesn’t edit or even proofread its “special” events pages.

This isn’t the worst you’ll read on the Web. It’s not even the worst you’ll read on Yahoo!. But these excerpts from Yahoo! TV’s ”Daytime in No Time” aren’t good.

The errors start with Velcro, which is a trademark that requires a capital letter:

Ditto for Kitty Litter:

There’s the missing hyphen in high-powered (it’s a compound adjective) and the incorrectly capitalized real estate (it’s not a proper noun).

The errors are no different from the run-of-the-mill goofs you’ll find every day on Yahoo!:

And that’s not good.

Couple of months ago, I have been reading about creating modifier forms — the basic ones.  It was really difficult.  As it is right now I still at times commit errors on the use of topic, subject, object markers and some other post-positioning.

Today, I learned about a noun that turns into a post modifier.  So this post is a combination of what I have learned on creating modifiers and a special post modifier function of a noun that is called 길 (kil).  This word  means road, way or street, here are  sample use of this word:

• 길에서 놀지 말아요  (Kileso nolji marayo) – Do not play in the street.
• 그 길 무엇이에요? (Hakyoeseo kil mueshieyo?) – What street is that? or What is that way?

Last time I made a post on processive modifier -는 (-neun), yes it’s called processive modifier because it can only be attached to action verb and not the descriptive ones  (there is such thing as descriptive verb in Korean while in English we would normally call these words adjectives).   The word 길 following a processive verb in 는 form takes the sentence to a new meaning which is not really too far from the essence of street, way or road.   길 then renders a new pattern meaning ‘on the way’.

Just as I imagine, processive modifier in this use will from verbs like 가 (ka) or 와 (wa) which means go and come respectively.   So here are samples of processive verbs followed by 길:

• Question: 어디에 가세요? (Eodie kaseyo?) – Where are you going?
• Answer: 학교에 가는 길이에요. (Hakyoe kaneun kilieyo) – I am on my way to school.

Notice that one can actually also answer 학교에 갈 거에요 (Hakyoe kal koeyo) – I am going to school –which, I have learned to form during the time that I am reading about future tense of verbs.   So this new post modifier gives speaker an option on answering such question.    Here is another sample:

집에서 돌아오는  길에 휘성 가수가  만났어요. (Jipeseo dorawaneun kile Wheesung mannaseoyo)  On my way back home I met singer Wheesung.

Why would a headline appear with two errors?

Designer-inspired looks are better with a hyphen in the compound adjective and someone should knock off the space in knockoffs.

Why do errors appear in great big letters? Because this is Yahoo! Shine.

QUESTION: Do adjectives always come before nouns in English?

ANSWER: No.

This question was shared with me by my Finnish colleague, a remarkable teacher with a firm grasp of grammar. She was challenged by her students to prove that adjectives in English always precede the noun they modify. Apparently, other sources led them to believe there was a hard and fast rule about word order. Well, she didn’t have to prove what she knew to be untrue.

At first, when asked about adjectives, we might automatically state a textbook-like definition: Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns.  Of course, more readily understood wording could be used, but the basic idea is the same: Adjectives describe people and things, and they typically answer the questions which and what kind. The examples that would most likely come to mind first are simple and common ones: good book, tall man, happy girl, etc. Indeed, the more frequent practice is to place an adjective before a noun or pronoun. (We can say these adjectives function attributively.)

But with deeper reflection, we have to consider a number of constructions in which an adjective is placed after the noun or pronoun it modifies (i.e., functioning predicatively). Let’s start with these two:

• Participial adjectives/ passive constructions: Bruce Lee was, of course, a man trained in the martial arts.
• Reduced adjective clauses (without participial adjectives): Who would play the lead role in this movie? The producers were looking for someone young yet mature./ The patient, now healthy and happy, thanked the doctor before leaving the hospital./I’ll eat anything sweet and chocolaty.

Wikipedia notes the role complex wording plays in deciding the placement of an adjective. This example is cited online: “an evildoer devoid of redeeming qualities”.[1] The point being that a simple adjective generally precedes a noun, but a complex adjectival phrase is more natural when placed after the noun. Going back to our first example, we could talk about a trained artist, but trained in the martial arts is too long and complex to place before the head noun.

I agree with the logic above, and yet does that mean it’s wrong to place a single adjective after the noun it modifies? Consider this statement: I like my coffee strong. This has a different meaning from I like my strong coffee, doesn’t it? The former means I prefer strong coffee to weak coffee. The latter suggests that I have some coffee in my possession, it’s strong, and I like it. Or it might mean that I like my strong coffee, but I don’t like yours. Hmm, so can we add another construction to our list?

• Omission of infinitive to be: I like my coffee (to be) strong. / She likes her men (to be) tall, dark, and handsome.

Here’s final construction Wikipedia poses for consideration:

• Adjectives qualified by an adverb phrase: “I saw three kids happy enough to jump up and down with glee.”[2]

Can you think of other cases when adjectives follow the nouns or pronouns they modify?

[2]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective

The mystery has been solved. The Terribly Write blog post just before this one showed the mashup of a photo of Ms. Paltrow with a headline about doctors. Well, the writer for Yahoo! Shine corrected the error. Or at least corrected the photo and accompanying teaser:

Of course, the “correction” omitted the hyphens in the adjective out-of-date as well as some other word or two. Oh, well. It’s only the Internet, and Yahoo!’s readers have probably resigned themselves to the errors that appear there every day.

Is your doctor out-of-date? If your doctor is Gwyneth Paltrow, you have more to worry about than antiquated info:

OK. I confess, I know this headline from Yahoo! Shine is wrong. It has nothing to do with Ms. Paltrow. It’s just an unfortunate, irrelevant, and humorous goof that also happens to be devoid of the hyphens in the adjective out-of-date.

To Flash Or Not to Flash?

Originally published in the Korea Herald on October 22, 2009

No, I’m not talking about what you do from under a trench coat in the mall parking lot. I’m talking about that oft-ignored practice of lighting up the night – or day! – with flash photography.

In recent years, flash photography has gained an undeserved reputation as a last resort, a tool exclusive to the snapshooter. Something we use to blind our friends in dimly lit nightclubs, the resultant photos blanketing Facebook, portraits begging to be untagged. These photos are often characterized by blown-out (all white) facial features and deep, shadowed backgrounds. Not cool.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The flash, even the built-in version that comes with 99% of consumer cameras, can be a very powerful tool and can indeed help you craft moving images. The trick is understating your light. That’s the light that’s coming out of your little flash and the light that’s already present in a scene (aka ambient light) – be it sunshine, the light of the moon or the hot fluorescent stage lighting at a Wonder Girls concert. What you most often want to achieve with flash is good balance within the scene. Blasting one element of the frame with flash and leaving the rest in darkness isn’t cool unless you’re shooting Levis ads for GQ. Avoiding this is simpler than you might think.

A little on-camera fill flash never hurt anyone. Except for this cosmos flower. RIP.

Understand that there’s nothing you’re going to be able to do to a dark background with a single, on-board flash. You can control the light you send out to your subject, but in a cavernous club, a church or a Buddhist temple you simply don’t have enough power to bring the whole scene up to proper exposure levels. This is where a dedicated flash unit (or five) becomes invaluable. Using a dedicated unit (often called a strobe), you can bounce light into the ceiling or off of a wall so that it cascades down over your scene evenly, dropping soft, even light on your subject and carving out shadows that will give everything a 3D look. You want to light up the entire room, from front to back? Put two strobes on light stands and place them in opposite corners of the room, trigger them with a radio slave system (Flashwaves and Rembrandt triggers are affordable Korean makes) and delight at the studio-level quality of your light. You’ll be doing celebrity weddings in no time.

Strobes are doing all the heavy lifting here, bouncing around inside the stairwell and dropping light all over the model.

It’s a myth that flash is best served in the dark. The next time you’re out shooting under the sun and you find the shadows and the contrast too much to deal with, don’t ask your model to rush into the shade so you can fire away in the even light. Your on-board flash unit is plenty strong enough to cut through the hard shadows and you’ll come to realize a facet of photography often ignored by the casual shooter: the beauty of the fill flash. Try it out for yourself. Underexpose your scene by 1-2 stops and hit your foreground subject with fill flash. The resulting scene will showcase an evenly lit subject and dramatic, textured background. Perfect for those ubiquitous temple and mountain shots we all know too well.  Without even realizing it, you’ll have become a strobist yourself.

-flash

Strobing In Seoul: A Beginner’s Guide

I went to my first strobist meeting without a clue as to what type of gear people would be showing off. Sure, I had worked my way through Lighting 101, but I had never seen any of this stuff put to work in the field. Pros make everything look easy – who knew how practical/simple/portable it was going to be?

In a word; very.

The great thing about off-camera lighting is you can make it as complex as you want it to be. David Hobby has made some of the most iconic photos in the genre with a single strobe while Joe McNally usually has enough gear strabbed to his back to light up the Parthenon. One strobe, ten strobes – it’s all about what you want to do. There are lighting guides all over the internet, but for the sake of those living and shooting in Seoul, I’ll tell you what we’ve been shooting with the Seoul Strobist Club, where you can find it and how much you can expect to be gouged paying for it.

Cameras: We should probably get this one out of the way, since having a camera is generally recommended if you intent to make photographs. The good news is you don’t need an expensive DSLR to make off-camera flash work for you. If your camera has a hotshoe and a manual mode you’re good to go. It’s as simple as that (even some point-and-shoot digital cameras come with a hotshoe, so if you’ve got a Canon G10 in your bag you’re golden). However, if you’re new to this stuff and looking for a camera to get started with, I suggest picking up a model with the fastest flash sync speed possible. Most of the DSLR models on the market today max out at a shutter speed of 1/200 or 1/250 when used with flash. Nothing wrong with that. There are, however, a few gems out there that will sync at 1/500 of a second or higher. The Nikon D40 is a great example – Nikon’s cheapest DSLR (less than 500,000 won, street) has a max sync speed of 1/500. Ditto for the old D70. That’s twice as fast as the “pro” and “prosumer” Nikons, like the D90, D700 and even the mighty D3. Even better, when using a flash trigger in the hotshoe, you can “trick” the D40 or D70 into shooting at ungodly shutter speeds of 1/1000 or higher. You’ll need a lot of POWER to use these speeds, but it opens up an entire world of possibilities.

This shot was synced at 1/200 on my D90. A faster shutter sync (1/500, for example) would have let me take the background to black with the sunset and the students steady at their current exposure

Why is this important? It allows you more control over your ambient light levels. That’s really important if you want to light someone on the beach at noon or if you’re on assignment in the Gobi and there’s no shade for 500 miles.

Strobes: These are not of the disco ball variety. Call them whatever you like – speedlights, flashes, flashguns – the terms are interchangeable. For our purposes, strobes are essentially any off-camera light with a hotshoe that we can sync with our camera (more on syncing in a moment).

What strobe should I buy? There are as many strobe brands on the market as there are cameras. Knowing which one to choose can seem a little daunting at first, but making the right call is actually very simple. What your strobe must have, though, is a full manual mode. If it can’t be moved out of auto or TTL/i-TTL/e-TTL you are SOL. You’re also going to want a strobe with at least a four stop power differentiation; this is quite important. Most strobes have power settings of 1/1, 1/2, 1/8 and 1/16. More advanced models will include 1/4 and everything from 1/32 to 1/256. In case you want to light a gnat from an inch away.

Shooting manual (camera and flash) gives you precise control over your light levels. This shot was made at 1/4 power with a shoot-through umbrella. The umbrella was inches away from the models face, just out of frame

The brand you buy, surprisingly, isn’t important. This might sound sacrilegious to the Canon fans, but your best bet for off-camera work is to pick up some used Nikon Speedlights at Namdaemun (or Yongsan, if you can barter through the BS). Any of the older models will work – SB-24, 25, 26 and 28 are all fantastic and can be had on the cheap, while the 600, 800 and 900 are going to burn holes through your wallet. The best bang for the buck comes in the form of the SB-80DX, but finding one for less than 200,000 won is now next to impossible, thanks to the Seoul Strobist Club.

At one time they were each at the top of the Nikon line, so you know you’re getting quality gear if it’s been looked after. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with a Vivitar 285 or a Metz flashgun, it’s a good idea to purchase the highest quality product when dealing in the same price range. We’re talking “pro” versus “consumer” grade in the strobist world. The best part about the Nikon strobes? They work with virtually every trigger system on the market today. The same can’t be said for the Canon or Vivitar models. Even better? When used off-camera, the Nikon strobes will work with Canon (or Pentax, or Sigma…) cameras. Just remember, if you’re using an off brand flash, NEVER stick it onto your hotshoe. These things are for off-camera work only, unless you enjoy sending your camera for service on a regular basis.

What you should expect to pay: Older (used) Nikon models can be had for between 40,000 and 100,000 won each, though the price has been rising lately. That’s still a lot cheaper than you’ll find them on ebay or in North America. One of the interesting things about the Korean photography market is that everyone wants the biggest and best piece of equipment as soon as it drops – that means a lot of old, barely used strobes are being traded for newer, more expensive models that do the exact same thing. Advantage? Foreign Strobist.

Made with a 20+ year old Nikon SB-25 strobe purchased for 40,000 won in Namdaemun. That’s half the price of a new Cactus or Vivitar 285 for more features and better build quality

Don’t pay more than 50,000won for a SB-24, 25 or 26 and don’t pay more than 100,000 won for a SB-28 or a new Vivitar/Cactus 285. If  If you can pick up an SB-80DX for less than 150,000, do it. Given your choice between the Nikon models, go for the SB-26 or 80DX. They feature wireless IR support and can be triggered via the flash from another strobe.*

* Sorry, but none of this applies if you shoot Sony out of the box. Sony cameras and flashes work on a proprietary system and are not compatible (in their base configuration) with “regular” strobes or syncing systems. Luckily, hotshoe adapters and PC cords can solve your problem on the cheap.

Triggers and receivers; syncing your camera and flash: If you want to make some light off-camera you need a way to send signals back and forth between camera and flash. Sure, you can use the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) for total wireless control, but the cheapest flash in this line costs 300,000 won and you need a Nikon camera to use it. There are cheaper, easier ways. David Hobby swears by the Pocket Wizard triggering system because it is, hands down, the best remote system on the planet. But David Hobby puts his flashes inside helicopters and fires them from 300 feet away. So, if your designs are a little more modest, you can save the 200,000 won you’d need to spend on each trigger or receiver and invest in a Poverty Wizard system. The market is full of triggering systems at different price points. The two most popular in Korea today seem to be the Flashwaves (I and II) and the Rembrandts. We use both at the SSC and have never had a problem with reliability (we haven’t shot Building 63 from World Cup Stadium yet, so we can’t say just how far these things reach). Triggers slide into the hotshoe of your camera (or connect via PC cord) and receivers slide into the hotshoe of your strobe (or connect via PC cord). Most receivers come with a female tripod mount, too – which means you can set them directly onto your support system.

What you should expect to pay: This one might surprise people. A set of flashwave IIs (1 receiver and 1 trigger) will run you roughly 140,000 won, while a set of Rembrandts will cost about 65,000. To sync my strobe set with Pocket Wizards would have cost me more than 800,000\. What can that extra 670,000\ get you at Namdaemun?***

***You can also consider syncing your flash with a PC cord directly to your camera, but you’re limiting yourself to the length of the cord and a single flash at a time, unless your other flashes have wireless support. Do yourself a favour and pick up the wireless system. It’s more fun.

Support and other gear: You’ve got a camera and a strobe and a way to make them talk to one another. Now you need somewhere to put that strobe, unless you’re into making light happen from your left hand for the rest of your life.

Enter light stands and monopods. 5- and 6- section light stands are great because they are light and portable. They are also cheap. 6-foot light stands sell for about 35,000\ while 8-foot stands can be had for around 60,000. You want some advice? Get the 8-foot stands. If you’re shooting people with a 6-foot stand you’re going to be all over your friends assistants to hold the thing in the air and get that light coming in from a better angle. If you wanted to do that you would have bought a monopod… …

Monopods are fantastic. Basically, they give you a light on a big pole that an assistant can work into a million different angles at a million different degrees. You can also wield the monopod on your own for those times you’re shooting strobist style without the aid of your trusty camera club.

Prices vary like crazy; Manfrotto and Gitzo are popular in Korea, but everything on the market can be had for the right price. One of the key features of light stands is that they can be dressed up with umbrella adapters. These adapters range from 20,000 -40,000 won. They have a slot for umbrella poles and rotate up to 90 degrees, making lighting at angles a snap.

Lit with a single gridded strobe on a light stand six feet in the air

Umbrellas, softboxes, snoots, grids, beauty dishes, ring flashes, gels and other toys help meld, model and modify your light. If you’re just starting out you can get by with a single shoot-through or reflective umbrella. A shoot-through is simply a white umbrella you point at your subject and strobe through for a soft, even light. A reflective is a silver umbrella (usually with a black cover) that you bounce into for even, harder light. Umbrellas range from 15,000 – 20,000 on the street. Or go to HomePlus, buy one for 2,500 and chop off the handle. Bob’s your uncle.

The great thing about light modifiers is that with the exception of umbrellas, you can make them yourself. You wouldn’t believe how many cereal boxes I’ve destroyed in my quest to build the perfect snoot. My grid spots, by far my favourite strobist tools (what you use to create your wonderfully graduated backgrounds) are made up of little more than cardboard, gaffers tape and black straws. Just remember to wear your running shoes when you’re “borrowing” black straws from Starbucks. They never believe you when you tell them you’ll bring them back.

Hopefully this quickie guide has answered a few questions for the would-be Seoul Strobist member. Though these are the basics, it doesn’t get much more complicated (unless you’re Lee Smathers and can’t find your car in the parking lot without your light meter).

- flash

Do you like clean-shaven and clean-cut hyphenated? (They should be.) Do you like sentences that make sense? If you do, you probably won’t like this headline and teaser on Yahoo! Shine:

OMG. Why would an alleged professional writer in the world of fashion add a hyphen to Jean Paul Gaultier?

I guess if you’re capable of writing nonsense like this, you’re not going to be conscientious about spelling:

I have no idea what that first sentence was supposed to be. I do know that the compound adjective high-end needs a hyphen. So, maybe the writer can use the hyphen that appears here:

Or the one here:

Maybe the writer will learn to spell the designer’s name. In the meantime we can skip over anything written by this author on Yahoo! Shine.

I wish it were the grammar gods that spoke to the writer of this article on Yahoo! Shine and turned her away from random capitalizations:

Or the typo-spotting gods to help with removing unintentionally humorous errors:

Or the put-a-hyphen-in-there gods to create a compound adjective:

Or the you-can’t-be-serious gods:

Or the capitalization-isn’t-a-random-act gods:

Oh, lordie. Why are some writers allowed out in public without adult supervision? Someone over at Yahoo! Shine needs to watch this writer and exercise a little oversight because readers of her blog posts are recipients of some of the most egregious errors in Webdom.

How difficult is it to run spell-check or to verify the spelling of Whoopi Goldberg?

The relatively minor offense of omitting the hyphen in ’80s-inspired

is offset due to a horrendous homophone error:

Hallelujah! There’s only one misspelling here:

Good job! But next time, try hyphenating the compound adjective high-end: