On a recent vacation I wanted to make sure that no subject was going to be out of range of my camera so I needed a big lens. The problem with long focal length lenses are that they are huge, bulky, and usually fixed to a specific focal length like 400mm. I wanted something more portable and with a wide focal length range so I decided to try out the Sigma 50-500mm lens.

Sigma 50-500m / Canon 70-200mm

The biggest lens I own is the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 is L mk 1. While the Canon lens is a fantastic lens in its own right, on my 7D it is effectively a 112-320mm which is decent for range but pretty long for close subjects. The Sigma is effectively an 80-800mm which works well for close objects as well as having some incredible range.

Pros
The top three things I like about the 50-500mm have certainly got to be the huge focal length range, its image stabilization, and its relatively small size. During my vacation there were days that I used the 50-500mm exclusivly because the wide focal length range covered all of the spectrum that I needed. For most things, the image stabilization system worked quite well and helped make some otherwise impossible shots happen. As for the size, the lens fit comfortably in my standard camera case without having making me decide which gear would be left at home.

Cons
Keep in mind that this lens was never designed to be your daily walk around lens but since I took it with me specifically as a travel lens, I am going to use that frame of reference here. The two things that bothered me were a rather slow autofocus and the weight. While the autofocus did sem slow compared to my regular lenses I use, you do have to keep in mind the massive focal length range of the lens. My 70-200 has a total range of 130mm and my 24-70 only has a range of 46mm. This monster has a range of 450mm so sometimes the autofocus really has a long way to adjust. The biggest issue I had though was the weight. This is one heavy lens, weighing in at 5 pounds, this beast will put some serious hurt on your shoulder after carrying it around all day.

Extended to 500mm

Focus shift
There is one particular quirk to this lens I have not had on any other zoom lens and this is a focus shift between focal lengths. With other lenses I can zoom in to get my focus and then zoom out to compose my shot, if you do this with this lens your zoomed out shot will be out of focus. I wasn’t able to find an effective work around for this and while I don’t think I really missed any shots because of it, it is something that some people might find annoying.

Who is it for?
I have to admit to struggling a little to answer this question as high end sports photographers and wildlife shooters love those big 400mm f/2.8 or f/4 lenses that allow them to shoot at fast shutter speeds. The relatively slow f/5.6 – f/6.4 is going to be a limiting factor if you don’t have bright conditions. The lens is just too big and heavy for wedding photographers. For nature and landscape shooters its probably an ideal lens as shutter speed is less important and the massive focal length range could actually save from having to lug several different lenses. For most people I would probably recommend the 70-300mm as it is a much more portable lens with a focal length that should work in a wide range of situations.

What about the bokah?
I can just picture many of you rolling your eyes and scoffing at a lens with this aperture range. Keep in mind that depth of field is affected by focal length and distance to subject and not just the aperture size so you can get some really short depth of field when using a long focal length with a nearby subject.

Slideshow of samples from St. Kitts

Sigma 50-500 Samples

13 photos

 Image hosting courtesy of SmugMug

Summary
I am a big fan of Sigma lenses and the 50-500mm does not let me down in build quality, sharpness, or results. It isn’t going to be a lens for everyone but if you have a need it can fill you will not be disappointed. At $xxxx it isn’t a quick impulse buy but it is pretty much impossible to find a lens with the versatility that this one has. Despite some of its quirks and the weight I would certainly take it out on other trips where I expect to need the long range but also may have some closer encounters and don’t want to have to change lenses or worse, carry two bodies with different lenses on them.

Website: http://www.sigmaphoto.com/

Chris Diset on Choosing a Lens
http://blog.chrisdiset.com/2010/10/choosing-a-lens/

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1) Optical Slaves Can Be Your Friend

There you are shooting a wedding reception and your going blind with other people’s flashes are popping off like popcorn  in the microwave and the scene looks more like the red carpet as the Oscars instead of a wedding. How do you wrestle control back and get all those cameras put away? One way is to take advantage of an optical slave. Setting up a powerful flash on an optical slave will cause all the other cameras that are popping off to have overexposed images. After a handful of shots, constant adjusting and getting nowhere, sooner than later the cameras start getting put away. Of course you have to have a different method for getting your shots such as eTTL wireless mode.

2) Project an image onto other people’s images

Ok, let’s not stop people from taking pictures, but instead let’s project our own logo or URL onto everyone’s images. To do this you need a way to project a clean shape into a scene. This can be built from an old camera and an optical slave drive. Information on a project like this can be found over at DIYPhotography.net.

3) Fun with modeling lights

Got a videographer that is driving you nuts? One of the best ways to get back at them is to make use of your speedlite’s modeling light. On Canon EOS bodies there is a small button on the left front of the camera body, by pressing this button your speedlite will fire a near constant burst of super bright light for a few seconds. While more designed to test shadows and lighting angles, a few seconds of retina burning light into aimed directly into the lens of the video camera will render it fairly dead momentarily.  Note, this requires enabling this feature on your flash (Custom function 2 – 1 = Enabled).

4) Pit the bridal party against each other

So there you are bored stiff through yet another boring wedding reception, that’s the time to spice it up by playing the bridal party against each other. The best time for this is when its time for the groom to go under the hood for the garter. Hand the groom a flashlight to turn on when well entrenched under the gown. The key here is to go to all the bridesmaids and tell them that if the groom uses his hands, to run out and tie his hands behind his back with a necktie, napkin, or whatever you can find. By giving the groom a flashlight, you ensure that he will in fact be using his hands, thus making sure the bridesmaids jump into the scene and do the hand tying. You might have been bored before, but you just made your night a little more fun and got yourself some fun shots at their expense.

5) Shut up a model’s mom with a reflector

There are few things worse than when shooting a model and her mother is sitting there acting as a backseat quarterback. “Smile, turn, use your good side” and on and on. Really Mom, I am the photographer here, you don’t know what I want. Time to shut up the Mom once and for all. Get the Mom involved and have her hold a reflector and make sure its positioned so she can’t see her future super model. It doesn’t even matter if its actually reflecting light or not, put that Mom to work creating her own shield so you can do your job.

6) The Human Reflector

Got a grooman that is a pain in the butt, get him to act as a human reflector by reflecting your flash off his white shirt. Not only will it keep him occupied and you can keep telling him not to move, but you will also be burning out his retinas with a constant barrage of flash.

Overview

The SpiderPro Holster is a unique device that allows you to place your camera on your waist and then be hands-free…and strap free until you are ready to use your camera again. For me, when I am not shooting, I am usually doing something with my hands like working with a product, helping someone to pose, or arranging items for a shot. Having a strap means that my camera is often in the way, sometimes swinging into something or getting in my way. The SpiderPro Holster securely holds your camera via a special plate on the bottom of your camera keeping is close, secure, and still easily accessible.

Features

The main parts of the Spider Holster system include the holster itself that straps to a belt that will hold your camera, the SpiderPro Plate which attaches to the bottom of your camera, and the SpiderPro Pin which attaches to the Plate and allows it to sit inside the holster.

The SpiderPro 1-Camera kit consists of the following components:

• 1 SpiderPro Camera Holster
• 1 SpiderPro Plate
• 1 SpiderPro Pin
• 1 SpiderPro Belt

Setup

There is only a small amount of prep work to get ready to use the SpiderPro. First you have to determine if you are going to wear it on your right or left side so you can put the holding stud into the correct position on the camera bracket. Next, you need to attach the bracket to the tripod mount on the bottom of your camera. The mount tightens with an Allen wrench that is stored in the camera mount bracket. Finally, you need to adjust the belt for your waist. Once you have the belt on, you are ready to start using it.

Usage

Using the SpiderPro holster is a very different experience than using a strap. Once you slide your camera into the holster, you are completely free of anything bogging you down and you are free to use your hands. I have to say, while any strap allows your hands to be free, with the SpiderPro Holster this takes that concept to a new level because there is nothing around your neck or on your shoulders, this is a very liberating feeling. The only issue I have is that I don’t feel overly secure not having any kind of strap on the camera in case the camera slips out of my hands. A simple solution to this is a wrist strap for your camera if you need that little extra piece of mind.

Keeping the camera on your waist instead of your neck and shoulders is actually more comfortable than I had expected. I position mine a little more towards my back than directly on my side so that a lens on the camera tends to ride behind me a little which helps protect my gear as I am maneuvering in tight areas.

My camera feels extremely secure in the holster even when the safety latch isn’t closed.

Results

While the SpiderHolster looked interesting when it first came out I was pretty happy with the existing strap I was using. While I was at WPPI this year I stopped by the SpiderHolster booth and really got some hands-on time with it. I was actually so impressed with it that I felt I really needed to give it a long term try. It only took a few outings with it to be convinced that it was going to be my primary way to carry my camera.

Using the SpiderHolster is comfortable and easy to use and I certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a better system.

Score Card

The SpiderHolster was pretty easy to grade since the only setup is to put the mount on the bottom of your camera and adjust it to your size. As for features, while it has a single purpose, it does it extremely well. The very nice clasp and the lock mechanism add to an already great package. The system is very easy to use and works great to help you from getting sore after carrying your gear all day. At $135 (Amazon) it isn’t cheap but is well worth it for the ease of use.

Website: http://spiderholster.com

Strap used in video: http://www.cottoncarrier.com/

Have you ever pulled out a copy of a major magazine’s issue of their “Best of” products and wondered why some products made it and other products didn’t? One of the main reasons is often that a major company, that has a great and innovative product, simply won’t pay the submission fee to the publication or don’t know that a submission is required. Some companies consider this to be a form of extortion and just won’t pay to have their products “considered” for an award. This also means that copycat companies can come out with a competing product and use these submission fees as a form of paid advertising. Let’s face it, if you have even a mediocre product but it gets named as one of the most innovative products of the year in what appears to be an unbiased article, this can really kick start a company.

What do these awards cost a company? Depending on the publication, they can range from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. An industry insider says that some publications base awards on yearly advertising and not on any reader votes while others require you to pay to have your products considered with some unknown panel making the final decision.

So how are you to know if an award is given out based on any merit at all? The reality is that you don’t. Can a small panel of judges be completely unbiased? It’s rather hard to say for sure. With many of the big name photographers being sponsored by multiple companies, conflicts of interest are quite easy to come by. Large advertising contracts are worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars so there is always motivation to give big advertisers favorable reviews and awards.

Our insider goes on to tell us that the danger to a company is that if they don’t give into these types of extortion-based awards, that it leaves that category wide open for an lessor known company, or one with a poorer quality product to get this type of industry recognition.

How can you recognize these types of awards programs? It’s actually not that difficult. Looks for the same company to be mentioned in multiple categories, products that have no new innovation or unique feature winning awards, products with poor user reviews getting rewards, or an older product with no perceptible change from the previous year getting awards.

I asked our insider what the reader should consider when reading these awards articles. She says that so long as people don’t think of these as merit-based awards and instead as the thinly disguised paid advertising that most of them are, then they are less apt to base a purchase decision on an undeserved award.

Basically, the message here is reader beware. Whether its a paid award, contests claiming to give away product with no winners ever announced, or other veiled forms of marketing. Read through the disclaimers, rules, and criteria to determine exactly how these awards are being handed out before taking them at face value.

Lensbaby Announces Availability of Composer® Pro for Mirrorless Cameras

Now the Composer Pro delivers ultra-smooth creative control for photographers with Micro 4/3rds, Sony α NEX and Samsung NX cameras too

Portland, OR – April 2, 2012 – Lensbaby announces its popular SLR creative effects camera lens, the Composer Pro, is now also available for Micro 4/3rds cameras (including Panasonic Lumix™ G Micro System and Olympus PEN®), Sony® α NEX, and Samsung NX cameras. The Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras is compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap® System and ships with the Double Glass Optic installed.

The Composer Pro, launched in March 2011, refined and enhanced the popular and award winning Lensbaby Composer® by upgrading the swivel ball and focus mechanism to provide professional performance. The Composer Pro’s metal swivel ball design and refined focus mechanism deliver ultra-smooth focus and tilt control. The updated focus mechanism features a fluid and accurate dampened focus ring comparable to the focus mechanisms of the highest quality professional manual focus lenses. This smooth, fluid operation makes the Composer Pro the perfect choice for discerning professional photographers and videographers who want to create ground-breaking creative imagery – and now they can do so with their mirrorless cameras as well.

The Double Glass Optic, a 50mm f/2 selective focus optic, creates a Sweet Spot of sharp focus that photographers can move around the photo by tilting the Composer Pro’s swiveling lens body. The Composer Pro is compatible with the complete range of creative optics in the Lensbaby Optic Swap System including the Edge 80, Sweet 35, Fisheye, Soft Focus, Pinhole/Zone plate, Single Glass, and Plastic. Each optic can be swapped into the Composer Pro to deliver a different creative effect.

The Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras joins Lensbaby’s growing family of lenses, which now includes the Composer Pro for SLR cameras, Composer, Scout, Muse, and Control Freak.

“We’re excited to give mirrorless camera shooters full access to the Lensbaby Creative Effects system. With so many photographers opting for these smaller cameras for on-the-go shooting situations, our one lens with so many creative effect options will make a great addition to their set-up,” said Craig Strong, Lensbaby Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer.

Composer Pro for Mirrorless Cameras Specs:
Refined metal ball design delivers ultra-smooth focus and tilt control
Ships with the Double Glass Optic installed
Compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap System
Focus Type: Manual
Size/Weight: 2.25″ (5.71cm) high x 2.5″ (6.35cm) wide / 4 oz (113.4g)
Tilt range of up to +/- 17.5 degrees

Double Glass Optic Product Specs:
Focal Length: 50mm
Low dispersion, high refractive index, multi-coated optical glass doublet
Aperture Type: Interchangeable, magnetic aperture disks
Apertures: f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22
Selective focus optic (creates a sweet spot of focus surrounded by gradual blur)
Focus distance when used with Composer Pro: 18″ to infinity
37mm front threads accept all Lensbaby accessory lenses
Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras is available now from Lensbaby-authorized photo specialty stores worldwide and from lensbaby.com. Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras retails for $300 MSRP.

Lightroom 4.1 is now available as Release Candidates on Adobe Labs.   The ‘release candidate’ label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers.  The final release of Lightroom 4.1 may have additional corrections or camera support.

Bugs Corrected in the Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

The following bugs that were part the Lightroom 4 releases have been corrected. The team appreciates the very detailed feedback the community has provided on Lightroom 4 and we’re excited to correct a number of issues experienced by our customers. These issues have been FIXED:

• Point Curve adjustments made in Lightroom 3 and before have been restored.
• Lightroom 4 did not properly open external applications when using the “Edit In” functionality.
• Addressed performance issues in Lightroom 4, particularly when loading GPS track logs, using a secondary monitor, and the controls within the Develop module.
• Ability to update DNG previews and metadata for more than 100 photos has been restored.
• This update allows for improved viewing of subfolders and stacks in folders with a large number of photos.
• It was possible that a layout of a saved book could be lost after quitting Lightroom 4.
• Please provide feedback on your experience with the Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate in our Feedback Portal.

New Camera Support in Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

• Canon EOS 5D Mk III

Run over to Adobe Labs to grab the Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

As I said, the sky was just downright ugly with no color in it at all, and worse, it only looked like it was going to get worse. My goal of teaching how to balance flash and bright sunlight was certainly not working out so I decided to show how to make a blue sky of of the drab sky we were looking at.

To start off, I switched the camera’s white balance from Auto to Tungsten. What this will do is to add a blue color cast to the clouds. Here is how the sky looked in both Auto and Tungsten White Balance.

Auto White Balance

Tungsten White Balance

Now that we have some color in the sky, its now time to shoot our model. If we just used a flash, the Tungsten white balance setting would make our subject look more like a Smurf than a human. In order to compensate for the much cooler color temperature we have to reverse that by making the light from the flash much warmer. To accomplish this, I used the ExpoImaging Rogue Gel Kit with the 1/2 CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel.

Using the gelled flash to light our subject, we get the natural looking lighting on the subject while retaining the blue in the sky.

You can use this same technique with different gels to create more dramatic skies by using the opposite of this effect with a nice sunset. Using a cool (blue) gel and setting the color temperature to a higher temperature will create extremely vivid colors. No lighting kit is complete without at least a few color correction gels.

Step One – Friends are the foundation of your business

No, CLIENTS are the foundation of your business. Many of you may not have a lot, or any, friends that need wedding or portrait photography. I do believe that being friends with other photographers is hugely beneficial because it opens opportunities to learn, grow, and gain experience, but do not expect that a large portion of your work will be from other photographers. Your best clients will come from vendor referrals, if you can get them. You need to knock on a lot of doors, make friends with venue coordinators, florists, DJ’s, and every other vendor in your area.

Step Two – Go Ahead, Step Out In Faith, You Can Do It

David says you don’t need much equipment and you can probably borrow what you don’t have. The truth is that you do need a certain minimum of equipment if you are going to make sure that you capture every moment of the most important day in somebody’s life. You need to have at least two camera bodies and a variety of lenses to make sure you can capture the right shots. What if you drop and break a body or lens? What if you have a mechanical failure? What if something else goes horribly wrong? Equipment is not just an investment, it is insurance to make sure you can do what you were hired to do.

Step Three  – Service is your true value. It is the way forward in the industry & you were created for it.

Providing service is certainly the key to customer satisfaction and I don’t think David really make any real point in his section on this except to shoot for the sake of art and not care if you get paid or not. There is certainly a truth buried in there that you do not have to be a great photographer, you just have to be good enough to deliver what your clients want. Secondly, you are selling yourself and how you treat your customers that often is more important than the product itself.

Step Four – Use the hourglass approach

David suggests you offer free service to 100 people and try to get 10 jobs. Once the jobs start coming in, you start charging for it. I can’t begin to disagree with this enough. If you shoot for free, your clients will put zero value on your work. Those free clients are not going to refer high dollar clients to you because they will not value you at all. A quick check of Craigslist will show dozens of “professional wedding photographers” in almost every major city offering complete wedding packages for $500 or less. The only clients that are going to call those photographers are ones that have to because of their budget and they fully understand that their expectations are going to be inline with what they are paying. The act of giving your work away is not going to make your phone magically start to ring with paying jobs.

Step Five – Get your photos organized, edited, and safely shared, It’s not magic, it’s workflow

Talk about a wild over-simplification here. David says to import your images into Lightroom, use automatic settings, and then your his own Lightroom preset to create great images. Lightroom is a great tool and it is my tool of choice for editing weddings, but I would never simply import, use auto-tone, run a single preset, and export the finished images. Every image should be checked for color balance, sharpness, focus, exposure, cropping, framing, awkward faces, and much more. Simply running them through a set of presets is not doing any justice to your work or to your clients. Here is a link some of David Jay’s wedding photos, you might want to check these out before taking his advice on this topic.

Step Six – Honestly and authentically you. Market your brand proactively for the best first impressions

I absolutely agree that you should be honest and authentic. However, David says you should also be cute, well dressed, and talk about your dog. David does make some good points about important pieces to have on your website like your phone number, your prices, and a video. Having a little promo video is really a good idea as it can give your potential client some insight into what you are like and how you work. David also goes into a lot of detail about using Facebook, and when done correctly, I do agree that Facebook is a great marketing tool.

Step Seven – They pay you to be prepared. Get ready

This is probably the best set of information in David’s guide. You should have checklists, you need to have your gear ready, you need to have backup equipment (or as David suggests, friends with equipment that will gladly let you use their gear)…and of course, you need to buy David’s website tools to create a custom website for your customer. Ok, I am on board with almost all of that but I have yet to have a couple that wanted their own website for their wedding even if I was giving it to them for free.

Step Eight – It’s your time, Get in the game

I can’t actually fathom that David would suggest shooting a wedding with no experience. A wedding has a flow to it, it has a cast of characters, it has a specific timing. If you don’t fully understand the nuances that are involved you will not be ready. You absolutely need experience with weddings, and a good number of them too, before you try to be the main photographer for such a special event. You should intern with existing wedding photographers, work up to being a second shooter, and then work into getting to be the primary while an experienced photographer is your second. Would you like to have a doctor that has never practiced an operation before doing a surgery on you? A auto mechanic doing your car’s brakes who is “just winging it”. If you wouldn’t trust an inexperienced person to handle your important work, why would you think it is ok to risk someone’s wedding photos? To even suggest that you should just shoot as many pictures as possible and hope for a few good ones is simply ludicrous.

Step Nine – Your clients want you, not your prints

Yes, you do need to understand what you are selling and often we are not selling prints anymore but what we are selling are memories. If you cannot capture the essence and spirit of the event, and if you can’t freeze those important moments in time that people will treasure for the rest of their lives, than you shouldn’t be doing it. David does suggest that one of the best products to sell is a customized website, using the products that he sells, again along with a $29 a year recurring fee for hosting their images…surely all of your clients will pay you for many years to come to have their images online.

Step Ten – Let client demand decide, price step

Just follow David’s simple tips and be making $120,000 a year in your third year of business. You built a huge demand for your free wedding services and now its time to get rich. Forget about vendor relationships, advertising, marketing, just build up demand by not charging, then start charging and you are all set. I’m sorry folks, if it was this easy, we would all be rich.

What’s not in David’s Guide

What is not in David’s guide…in a word…reality. Let’s face some facts here, not everyone is going to make it as a wedding photographer. I am not trying to blow anyone’s dreams or aspirations here but the harsh fact is that not everybody has what it takes. First off, you need to be a good photographer and this means having both creative and technical skills and that is just not everyone’s skill set. I know extremely creative and artistic people who simply can’t take a good photo and I know highly skilled technical photographers with no creative ability to get great shots. Secondly, you have to be good at business. The business of photography requires scheduling, meetings, accounting, planning, time management, and many other real business skills. Again, not everyone is cut out to run their own business. You will likely spend 90% of your time running your business than actually shooting and this is a harsh reality that people like David will never tell you about because its not exciting, its not sexy, and its not going to motivate you.

If you want to have a successful photography business you need to understand that it is going to take a lot more than a cool website and some basic equipment.

One last point, to address Gary’s post, I may not be a hot, fabulous woman, but I do love my LensSkins on my 70-200!

Did Midland score a win with the XTC300VP4? There is only one way to find out….put it to the test!

Features

There are not a whole ton of features, settings, dials, inputs, outputs or really much of anything to the XTC300VP4. The camera is what it is, and what it is, is a video camera. There are only three settings shooting modes:

• 1920×1080 High Definition @ 30 FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)
• 1280×720 High Definition @ 60FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)
• 848 x 480 Standard Definition @ 60FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)

There are only two controls on the entire camera, the on/off slide switch and the video resolution switch. There are no menus to dig through, cryptic codes to remember, just set the video resolution you want and turn it on to start filming.

First Major Release since April 2010 Packed with New Features and Huge Performance Enhancements

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta, a preview of what’s to come in the next release of the industry standard in digital imaging, is available as a free download from Adobe Labs. Customers can download the beta, try out the experience and provide feedback to the product team. Packed with groundbreaking new innovations, features and incredible performance enhancements, Photoshop CS6 beta is available for the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows platforms. The final release is expected in the first half of 2012.

“Photoshop CS6 will be a milestone release that pushes the boundaries of imaging innovation with incredible speed and performance,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “We couldn’t wait to share this beta of Photoshop CS6 with our customers and are looking forward to hearing from them and seeing the ways they are incorporating the beta into their daily creative workflows.”

New Features in Photoshop CS6 Beta

Photoshop CS6 beta demonstrates Adobe’s focus on huge performance enhancements, imaging magic and creativity tools that offer customers a new experience in digital imaging. Key features include new additions to the Content-Aware tools: Content-Aware Patch allows greater control by letting users select and duplicate an area of an image to fill in or “patch” another. Content-Aware Move lets users select and magically move an object to a new place in the image.

Customers will experience incredible performance, powered by the new Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine, enabling near-instant results from popular editing tools including Liquify, Puppet Warp, Transform and Lighting Effects; and a refined, modern interface featuring dark UI options to make images pop. New and re-engineered design tools make creating designs faster and more efficient. Vector layers allow users to apply dashed lines and gradient strokes, searchable layers help quickly zero in on any layer you need, and new type styles let designers quickly apply type treatments to their designs.

In addition, the Photoshop CS6 beta offers all the features of Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended, such as new 3D editing features and quantitative imaging analysis capabilities. These features will be included in the shipping version of Photoshop CS6 Extended when it becomes available.

Pricing and Availability

The Photoshop CS6 beta is available immediately as a free download in English and Japanese. At installation, users will be required to provide an Adobe ID to complete a one-time login and online product activation. For information on how to install Photoshop CS6 beta visit http://www.adobe.com/go/photoshopcs6. Customers can submit feedback via the Photoshop CS6 beta forum: http://www.adobe.com/go/pscs6_forum. Users can also connect with the Photoshop team via the community-powered site: http://feedback.photoshop.com; on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Photoshop; YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/photoshop; Photoshop.com blog: http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/; or via Twitter: http://twitter.com/photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop Family

Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Extended are at the heart of the Photoshop family, joined by solutions for users at every level who want to bring out the best in their digital images either at home, in the office or on the go. Coupled with Adobe Photoshop, the recently released Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 addresses the workflow needs of amateur and professional photographers, helping them create, manage and showcase images in impactful ways. Adobe Photoshop Elements provides consumers with powerful yet easy-to-use tools that organize, edit, create and share photos memories. For mobile devices, the Adobe Photoshop Touch app transforms images with core Photoshop features custom-built for tablets; and Photoshop Express is a free app for simple photo fixes and enhancements, and sharing to social networks.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Last year I took my wife to Maui for our anniversary and on the very first day the hard drive in my laptop crashed. At the time I had the Nexto DI eXtreme portable storage which allowed me to quickly back up my CF cards each night. Without a portable backup solution, I would have been nervous about losing my data until I got home. Data loss is the ultimate enemy of the photographer so the sooner you get a backup the better off you are. With more and more video projects coming in, I wanted to make sure I had a backup solution for video files as well as still images and the Nexto DI NVS1501 was an obvious choice since I had liked the Nexto DI eXtreme so much. Let’s take a look and see if the NVS1501 is a worthy successor to the eXtreme.

 Features

While the very unassuming case features only an On/Off button and a single small joystick style control, the system itself is actually crammed with features.

In addition to backing up your memory cards, the NVS1501 also allows you to copy your files onto other devices, such as USB drives or memory cards, using an external card reader or the optional Ikegami GFPAK. Data can also be burned directly to Blu-ray Discs.

Nexto DI gave this device safety features such as shock protection, in the form of a built-in free-fall sensor and rubber bumpers. The NVS1501 can also detect and recover from bad sectors by moving data to a safe sector.

Back Up from Various Memory Cards

Offload data from various memory cards (CF, Microdrive, SDHC, SDXC, MS) up to 500 GB

Supports SDXC

The NVS1501 supports the exFAT file system used in SDXC.

Copy Mode and Performance

Fast Copy: Make a new folder and copy all the memory card data into the folder
Copy and Verify: Same as Fast Copy, but after copying, the data on the memory card is compared with the copied data on the NVS1501 hard drive. Each bit is verified
Safe Copy: Before copying data, the NVS1501 verifies that its hard drive area is safe. If a bad sector is detected, a new, safe area is found – then copying (Fast Copy) will begin

Performance

CF: 80 MB/s – 6 minutes, 40 seconds to transfer 32 GB
SDHC/SDXC: 22 MB/s – 24 minutes, 14 seconds to transfer 32 GB
SDHC/SDXC, UHS-1: 60 MB/s – 8 minutes, 53 seconds to transfer 32 GB
MS: 12 MB/s – 44 minutes, 26 seconds to transfer 32 GB

Preview Video and Photo Clip

User can preview video and photo clips with the built-in color LCD. A preview of both files on internal HDD and external device (CF, SDHC, SDXC, MS, USB external HDD) is supported

Making a Secondary Copy to USB Hard Drive

User can generate (sync) a second copy onto an external USB HDD. Export internal data to an external USB hard drive without needing a laptop. Each time you plug in an external USB hard drive to the NVS1501, any files recorded since the last sync will be transferred. Automatically compare the video folders by file names and sizesThe wall power adapter should be connected to both the NVS1501 and the USB external hard drive. Supports copy from USB card reader or GFPAK using USB host connectivity through eSATA/USB combo port

Multi-Copy Onto Two Separate HDD at the Same Time

MCopy (Multi-Copy) enables mirrored data to be copied onto the NVS1501 and an external USB HDD at the same time, to achieve maximum data safety

Designed for Data Safety Shock Protection

Featuring advanced data management capabilities including Recover folder from bad sector, shock protection and success (or failure) feedback of previous backup operationShock protection:
1. Built-in free-fall sensor
The NVS1501 senses when it’s being dropped – it will be triggered to move the read/write head of the HDD away from platter, parking at its original position. The main power will be automatically switched-off
2. Supplied with Rubber Bumpers
A pair of rubber bumper supplied for an additional protectionBad Sector Recovery
If a video folder contains a bad sector the NVS1501 recovers the video folder. It copies data onto good sectors and replaces unusable sectors with a format dependent on dummy sectors. The frames that contain dummy sectors block noises but the rest of frames become usableSuccess (or Failure) Feedback
Next time you switch on the NVS1501, it will display the previous backup result, in order to help the user to determine the deletion of data stored on the memory card

Using the NVS1501 As a Hard Drive

Supports high-speed data transfer to NLE systemIEEE1394b (FireWire 800): 75 MB/s – 7 minutes, 10 seconds to transfer 32 GB
USB 2.0: 33 MB/s – 16 minutes, 17 seconds to transfer 32 GB

Versatile Power Options

Its built-in internal battery makes the NVS1501 the perfect companion for working in the field. The NVS1501 can also be powered by the power adapter, interface cables, a ‘AA’ battery holder, or external battery

Specifications

Charging Time

Approximately 5 hours via power adapter / FireWire 800
Approximately 9 hours via interface cable
Approximately 10 hours via ‘AA’ battery holder

Setup

Other than charging the battery, there isn’t anything to setup. I plugged the NVS1501 into my laptop overnight to make sure it had a good full charge on it. Aside from that, you are ready to plug your memory cards in and start backing up.

If you are going to backup to a secondary device, you will want to plug that in and make sure everything is working correctly, for me, I just use the NVS1501 as my initial CF card reader after a shoot, then I plug it into my computer as an external drive to copy the files to the computer for processing. Each night, automatic processes backup the processing system to redundant storage systems, only after I have verified that those backups worked properly do I remove them from the NVS1501. This helps to ensure that I never lose any data.

Usage

As I mentioned, the NVS1501 has a very simple interface with only a single directional controller aside from the power switch. When the system powers up, the initial screen you get will say “XCopy Ready”, at this point you can insert your memory card.

Once you select the copy method, it just blazes through the copy process. If you are a wedding photographer that uses a second shooter, this is a HUGE time saver for you, within only a few minutes you can back up your second shooter’s cards and send them on their way.  I use 16gb cards for everything and the typical backup takes about three minutes.

My big gripe about the earlier Nexto eXtreme was the eXtremely tiny LCD display, it was almost impossible to read and had no preview function.  While the NVS1501 does have a larger color LCD and does support both still and video playback the screen is still too small to check images for focus and delete images you don’t want.

For some people, also being able to do a secondary backup to another device is a really big deal, especially if you are on the road for extended periods of time before getting back to the office to dump your files.

Probably the biggest improvements, besides the faster transfer, larger LCD, and massive storage, are the safety features. With both free-fall and shock detection, your system is likely to survive falls and bumps that would destroy competing systems.

Results

If you believe in the phrase “you get what you pay for” than you will certainly apply that to the NVS1501. Coming in at $999.99, the NVS1501 is not cheap by any standard but when compared to its biggest rival, the Epson P-7000 at $799.99 the Nexto DI NVS1501 wins in a number of areas including storage (500gb vs 160gb), speed, security, safety, and reliability. To give Epson credit, the P-7000 wins on the display side with a large clear LCD that really allows you to manage and display images and video.

For the photographer on the go, the NVS1501 is a big investment but if you value the security of your images and want the speed that the NVS1501 delivers, than you will find it to be well worth the price.

Score Card

The Nexto DI NVS1501 scores top marks for its ease of use, speed, safety features, and overall design. I did ding the NVS1501 on the features due only to the small screen. Even with the small screen, a better job could be done on the image preview and file management, both things that could be solved with a software update.

On the overall value, I did knock off a point because of the price tag. While the NVS1501 is certainly a valuable tool it is priced out of the range of many people. Fortunately, there are products available from as low as $200 but you will be sacrificing the speed and durability of the NVS1501.

Website: http://www.nextodiusa.com/

Changes since the public beta:

• Reverse geocoding now available in the Map Module
• Revamped and improved auto tone in Develop based on new controls
• Increased range of local white balance controls (temperature and tint)
• Updated Develop presets plus added new presets for video
• Maximum Blurb book size is now 240 pages
• Over 800 bugs found and fixed! (Thank you Lightroom 4 beta customers!)

Lightroom 4 provides photographers the tools to create beautiful photo books with text controls and a variety of easy-to-use templates, as well as a direct link for photo book creation from within the new Book module. A new intuitive Map module displays images already assigned a location, provides location tagging and reverse geo-tagging controls and saved locations for easy assignment of a photographer’s common locations.

Now, native video support gives photographers the capability to play, trim and extract frames from video clips shot on DSLRs, point-and-shoot cameras and smartphones. Video-specific presets and many standard Lightroom image adjustment controls can be applied to video clips, and adjusted videos can be exported as a H.264 file or published directly to Facebook or Flickr.

In the Develop module, presets fully utilize new processing technology and the addition of soft proofing helps photographers tune images in a destination color space to ensure content looks its best. In addition, customers can now email images directly from Lightroom using an email account of their choice.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is now available for Mac and Windows at www.adobe.com/store. The estimated street price is US$149 for new users or US$79 for upgrades. For more detailed information about product features, upgrade policies, pricing and language versions, please visit www.adobe.com/go/lightroom.

This one was recorded in our cargo van so the noise reduction makes it sound pretty tiney. I apologize for the poor audio quality.

Host: Kerry Garrison

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting

Originally called L7 Foto (the L and 7 looking like an open box for ‘think outside the box) and renamed Camera Dojo in 2008 since so many people had issues with the F instead of PH.

I think I really innovated the photography podcast with almost 100 conversations with industry leaders. The first iteration of the podcast was completely unscripted and was never a simple Q&A session. After a hiatus to try to figure out how to re-invent the show, the GoCast was created with just myself as I drive to and from clients, shoots, or other locations sharing my thoughts on a particular topic.

In November of 2010 we launched Blackbelt Lighting Products as a sister site to Camera Dojo to sell good quality lighting equipment at the best prices we could. Blackbelt Lighting grew from just two products to a complete lineup in a very short period of time and continues to evolve and grow.

Looking back, I think I have done a pretty good job of keeping the content fresh, relative, and educational while striving to be as interesting and entertaining as possible. Over the years it has not been the love of the site, a competitive issue, and certainly not money that has kept Camera Dojo alive…it has been the readers. The emails I receive from some of you that something I said or wrote made a huge difference for you, that it changed your photography, or helped your business. Just knowing that I have made even a small difference in some people’s lives has meant everything to me and I very much appreciate hearing from everyone that has ever written in.

Now on to you…what would you like to see? What type of content do you need? Camera Dojo was not intended to be all about me spouting whatever I felt like every week. It has always, and will continue to be driven by the needs and requirements of its readers so let me know what you would like. Feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

I want to thank all of you for being here, supporting the website, and giving me feedback. I also have to thank all of the sponsors who have graciously given of equipment, resources, and time to help me create content for you. Please support the sponsors of the site as they are some of the best companies in the industry and I couldn’t have done what I have done without them.

So what is in store for The Dojo? You have seen some articles lately relating to video, so look for that to be a big influencer not just on the content, but also in how the content is going to be presented. In 2012 we are going to launch some completely new concepts in photography education, maybe some of the ideas will work, maybe some won’t, but I have never been the type of person to not try something for fear it won’t work. In the end, it will be you, the Camera Dojo audience that will decide what works and what doesn’t. Maybe some of the ideas will need to be tweaked to work properly, but rest assured, I will continue to strive to provide the best content I possibly can and make it as entertaining as possible,

In the following video, Kerry Garrison does a quick overview of some of the new features. Stay tuned for a complete Lightroom 4 Learning Center launching here on CameraDojo.com in the next few days.

To download a copy of the Lightroom 4 beta, please visit http://labs.adobe.com

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro, BlackBelt Lighting

I’ve talked about basic and advanced lighting techniques commonly used for virtually any studio photo shoot, but those lighting setups require more than a single light, and for a beginning photographer, especially one who has a limited amount of studio space and a small budget, retaining multiple lights can be a problem. There is a way to get around using multiple lights though, and that is low key lighting.

Low key lighting is a type of portrait lighting that creates a very dramatic light setup, as well as creates some intense classic looking photos. Low key lighting lends it’s self strongly to a darker side of glamor and artistic photography. This type of lighting can cast a strong exposure on the subject, creating harsh contrast between the light and shadows of your subject, and leaves a majority of the background darkened. There are a few ways to set up a low key lighting setup, but the common factor in almost all low key setups is that they are predominately lit by only a single light.

45 or 90 Degree Angle

Image by Andy Leddy

This setup is the simplest by far, but still creates powerful, elegant images. Place your key light at either a 45 or 90 degree angle from the subject, on either the left or right side of your camera. That’s the entire setup, one light, in one of four locations. While it is a simple setup, the effects of the setup can very greatly. At a 45 degree angle, exposing the front of your subject, you will create a beautiful front exposure, with harsh contrasted shadows. At a 90 degree angle, if you expose your subject from the front you can create an intense split light where the subjects back will virtually vanish into the background, but if you expose the subject from the back you will create the exact opposite effect.

45 or 90 Degree with a Reflector

Image by Cillian Storm

This setup is the exact same as the previous, with the inclusion of a new piece of equipment, a reflector. The reflector is placed on the opposite side of your subject, and directly in front of your light. The light that wraps around the subject, or misses them entirely, is diffused and reflected on the back of the subject, creating a softer exposure. In this way the reflector acts as a fill light. Images shot in this way will not be as dark and contrasted as the previous manner, but will still maintain a much darker contrast ratio.

From Behind

Image by spunkinator

This type of lighting is commonly used to create a much more brooding, or sinister look, by creating an intense silhouette of the subject, only exposing a small area outlining the subject. The best way to achieve this look is with the help of two strong lights, but it can be done with as little as one. Place both lights behind the subject at 45 degree angles on opposite sides. An addition trick to really enhance images shot like this is to actually include the lights in the image. This will create a lens flare look behind the subject, and really enhances the visage of a foreboding or sinister subject.

Kyle Miller has been a professional wedding and portrait photographer for several years. He shares his knowledge on his blog Photography Tips where you can also download his eBook 7 Essential Photography Tips for free.

WPPI Parties Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/315432758592/

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting

At almost any event someone will likely say “That’s looks like a great camera, it must take awesome pictures” and over the years people have argued that you can hand a point and shoot camera to a great photographer and they can make amazing photos with it.

Is there any truth behind these statements? Let’s dive into the issue and see what we come up with.

Show Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting

If you haven’t seen it already, be sure and check out our Lightroom 3 Resource Center.

Now I love Lightroom, it is my primary editing tool but it is not perfect and there are certainly some things I would like to see improved and added and would love to hear what you would like to see in the next major release. Even though Adobe may not be listening to us directly, it will be interesting to see what we can come up with and see what actually makes it into the product when it comes out. I will start with Team Dojo here and then let everyone else chime in with theirs:

Kerry Garrison

• Improved Watermarking
  More options, borders
• Improved noise reduction
  Current NR is really good, but still not quite as good as dedicated software tools
• Improved tethering support
  Current tethering does not allow you to change camera settings and does not support Live View
• Improved Wacom tablet support
  I love my tablet but it is BARELY supported in Lightroom 3, I want FULL support
• Album page design
  Real, actual useful page design with effects, opacity, stacking, etc
• Ability to add video clips to slide shows
  Video editing should be nothing more than beginning and end trimming
• Easier camera specific calibration
  I currently use X-Rite Colorchecker Passport which works well
• Network capabale catalogs
  I use three different machines for editing and this one is a real nightmare for me

Maurice Naragon

• Better image sorting options
• Improved JPEG compression output that matches Photoshops
  Currently you have to use a might higher number in Lightroom for same visual quality at often 2-3 times the file size as a file saved in Photoshop
• Ability to use shift-key to draw straight lines with the local adjustment brush
  Why this hasn’t been there from day one is a mystery

What’s on your Lightroom 4 wishlist? Post in the comments, who knows, maybe Adobe will take a look and try to add some of the more popular requests.

Even though I have talked about this setup several times, recent events have prompted me to bring it up again and for good reason. As I am writing this, I am on a cruise ship sailing towards St. Maarten. One thing about cruise ships is that they make a good chunk of money selling photos. They take photos of you getting other ship, arriving at ports, at dinner, and they have multiple static setups with different backgrounds. When you are needing to pound out hundreds of portraits per day you can’t be spending a lot of time messing with your lighting. So what lighting setup do they use for quick, simple, and consistent lighting? The standard three light portrait setup of course.

Let’s dissect their secret recipe and see how they are using the three light setup so effectively.

To the camera right is a 32″ softbox as the key light. On the camera left is a 42″ umbrella as a fill light, and then high right off the background stands is a third light with a honeycomb grid as a hair light. Why does this setup work so well that they use it exclusively at every one of their stations? The answer is simple, its because it works. The softbox provides some nice directional lighting while the umbrella softens the shadows. The high gridded light adds a splash of hairlight which looks natural for both indoor and outdoor scenes.

While the cruise ship is using 500 watt second monolights, a Westcott Apollo, and a Westcott umbrella, you can put together the same setup for much less. Let’s break down all of the pieces and see what it would cost to replicate this tried and true lighting setup.

(3) Blackbelt Lighting BB560 speedlites @ $95 each
(1) Blackbelt Lighting. Stealth 32″ Softbox @ $79
(1) Blackbelt Lighting 10′ x 12′ backdrop stand @ $85
(1) Blackbelt Lighting Ninja Speedlite Triggers @ $65
(1) Blackbelt Lighting swivel mount @ $15
(1) Shoot through umbrella @ $10
(1) Blackbelt Lighting Samurai Light stand kit @ $65
(1) Bogen Superclamp
(1) Expoimaging Rouge Grid
Printed backgrounds from Backdrop Outlet

All in you are going to be between $700 – $900 depending on the background you get. While this may sound like a lot of money, you would easily spend over $2,500 for big name products. The beauty of a setup like this is that it is a very versatile lighting kit that makes for a great starting point for building upon as your skill increases.

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro / Blackbelt Lighting Products

Features

Before we get into the one feature I really bought the DS214 for (yes, I bought it, full price from B&H, this is how much I wanted it) let’s go through some of the other features that make this unit such a cool device:

• 2 mic channels via the stereo minijack input
• Audio Input Meters
• AGC Disable (to get better SNR from cameras without manual control)
• 30dB typ max gain
• Headphone Amplifier
• Low-noise preamp
• Enclosure fabricated from Aluminum, Approx 3.5″ x 3″ x 1.7″

If you are not an audio expert, you might not know what most of that means, fear not reader, I will do my best to explain it as I understand it.

Our current video DSLR cameras have a single stereo microphone input but usually our microphones only feed in the audio in a single channel (left or right, sometimes combined). Sometimes, we want to use two mics for real stereo input but the difficulty is getting the audio levels to be level between the two channels. With the DS214 (and a specific cable) you can feed two channels into the amp and adjust the input levels with dials on the front of the unit and use the audio level meters to help adjust the levels. Thanks to a headset jack, you can also monitor the audio stream to make sure it is sounding good as well. By integrating a low-noise pre-amp, you can boost the input levels to ensure a goof quality recording.

That is about as technical as I can get without risking the possibility of being completely wrong, so if someone wants to chime in in the comments to help clarify this, please do.

The final feature is the AGC disable (much more on this latter) which rather effectively disables the aforementioned AGC in the camera to allow the camera to record good clean audio.

AGC Disable

There are plenty of amps available with a plethora of features but the DS214 has a feature specific to what I wanted, and this is AGC disable. When you turn on the AGC Disable feature the DS214 mixes both of the left and right channels into a single track that is fed into the left channel while a tone generator feeds a signal into the right channel. The generated tone tricks the AGC system in the camera into thinking there is a lot of noise coming in which causes the AGC to essentially shut off.

While your camera ends up with a really clean audio track on one channel, you also get an unusable right channel that you need to delete in post production. If you are using Sony Vegas or Final Cut, JuicedLink has some instructions for removing the right channel. If you are using Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5, I have come up with the following instructions:

Right click on video clip in the timeline and select ‘Edit Clip in Adobe Audition’
In Audition, right click on sound file in file bin and select ‘Extract Channels to Mono Files’
This will create a file for each channel
Delete the original file and the <filename>_R file
Double-click on the <filename>_L file
Do any processing you want
Save file
Imported new sound file back into Premiere
Right click on video clip in timeline and select Unlink
Delete the audio track
Add new audio track into timeline and align with video track (should snap into position)

How Well Does It Work

To be sure that I was going to get the best results I actually read the DS214 Manual which includes a section on tuning the AGC Disable for the 7D. Once all setup, it was time to try out the new system. I connected an Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Microphone ($21) and pinned it up near my collar like normal. The resulting audio was so good you could hear every breath I took. I actually ended up having to move the mic from my collar to about mid-chest and turn down the input gain a little. The result was crystal clear audio at a great volume.

Is It Worth It?

If you are planning on doing a good amount of video work and you really want to save time in post production by not having to sync audio that you recorded to a secondary audio device, the $144 may end up paying for itself in very short order. If I only did occasional video, I probably wouldn’t spend the money, but since I do a large amount of video for different client projects and have a huge amount of video work planned for next year, even saving a few minutes per project will pay for itself many times over.

Built-In Obsolescence?

For me, the DS214 was purchased to overcome a shortcoming in the Canon 7D audio system. That being said, the Canon 5D Mk II had the exact same limitation which was eventually overcome with both a firmware update as well as the Magic Lantern firmware mod. The current firmware on the 7D is not allowing the Magic Lantern team to create a package for the 7D. This could literally change overnight if Canon releases a firmware with the ability to disable AGC or allow a Magic Lantern modification. The question is, does the DS214 becoming nothing but an expensive paperweight when this day finally comes. The answer is….no.

Even when the AGC disable feature is no longer needed, I will still have a great pre-amp with separate audio input controls, visual audio indicator meters, and a headphone jack for live monitoring. With these extra features, the JuicedLink DS214 will continue to serve multiple purposes for my video recording purposes.

What Could Be Improved?

The only real issue I have is dealing with how to mount the DS214 to the camera. For me, almost all of my video work is done in a studio with the camera on a tripod. With a simple adapter, I can put the DS214 on the camera’s hot shoe making it very conveniently placed to plug into the camera’s mic port. What would be ideal (in my opinion) would be a way to mount it under the camera and then attach a tripod quick mount to the bottom of the DS214. This would be more convenient when using the camera off the tripod. If you are using some kind of cage for your camera than you probably have more flexibility in your mounting options.

If you are using the 7D and want to use in-camera audio then you really have no choice right now. Until the 7D has a means of disabling the AGC system, there simply isn’t a way to get really good quality audio into the camera.

Juicedlink: http://juicedlink.com/
B&H: juicedLink DS214 $144
Amazon: JuicedLink DS214 $144

Show Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors:

• GoPro
• Blackbelt Lighting

Show Sponsors

• GoPro
• Blackbelt Lighting
• Learning Photography eBooks

Sponsors:

• GoPro HD Hero Camera
• Blackbelt Lighting
• All About Light eBook

GoCast Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors

• GoPro
• Blackbelt Lighting
• All About Light eBook

Check out the GoPro Cameras at B&H Photo.

Why Was This Difficult

Generally this may not have been too hard of a shoot but if we look at the first test image here we can see that the label is very transparent and that is wraps around the bottle leaving about a 1″ gap in the back. The gap lets in more light than the rest of the label causing the front of the label to wash out. We can also see the lettering on the back of the bottle which is very distracting to the overall image.

Lighting this wasn’t overly complicated, there were three Blackbelt Lighting BB560 speedlites on either side at about a 45 degree angle with no modifiers. The background was lit with a third BB560 that was flagged to cut down on some of the light from the flash hitting the bottle directly.

The lighting worked, the background went solid white, the colors were accurate, but that label was just going to work.

I Don’t Suck At Photoshop

I made a number of different attempts including cutting the label down and putting it on a new bottle but the label just wasn’t popping the way we wanted it to. It was time to take some more drastic moves in order to make this shot work.

First off we shot a clear bottle of water. Getting this shot would give us a properly lit bottle with enough reference lighting on it to enable us to composite in the label.

Next we used a flatbed scanner to scan the label in. This gave us a nice vibrant label to work with and we can always adjust the transparency of it in Photoshop.

With the label composited in, using a small amount of Warp to get it all lined up on the bottle, we now have an image that looks very flat and pretty well obviously composited. In order to fix this, we need to bring back the lighting from the clear bottle shot and maybe adjust the opacity of the label layer slightly.

Now we are getting somewhere. The extended lines of the lighting help to give it back a rounded look and since they match the clear bottle light lines, we know it should look pretty natural.

The Finishing Touches

Finally, the client wanted a shadow underneath the bottle to make it look like it was floating. To accomplish this I copied the bottom of the bottle, flipped it vertically, and then applied a Gaussian Blur to it.

Summary

This should go to show you that a good photographer needs more skills than just being to setup lighting and press the shutter. A good knowledge of Photoshop is essential in order to get the desired result. While I am not saying that you can always just “fix it in Photoshop”, its just that there are times when there really are no options and you need to pull out the stops and do whatever it takes in order to make the shot come out as you intended.

The KCWtechnica Rigging System only uses major industry standard connection points.  5/16″, 3/8″, 1/4″, 5° incremental, 15mm & 19mm.  KCWtechnica’s exclusive innovative clamps/converters allows using 15mm rods to 19mm to imperial standard rods.

Kit Contents

• 2 – 15mm 12″ Extendable Aluminum Lens Support Rods
• 4 – 15mm 6″ Extendable Aluminum Lens Support Rods
• 2 – 7″ Aluminum Hex, knurling Rods
• 2 – 4″ Aluminum Hex, Knurling Rods
• 2 – Aluminum Handles/Weights
• 8 – 15° Locking Rod Clamps
• 2 – Rod to Camera Plate Holders
• 1 – Formed Padded Shoulder Plate
• 1 – Lens Support
• 1 – Camera Mount Plate
• 1 – 3/8″ Mount Screw
• 1 – 5/16″ Mount Screw
• 2 – 3/8″ Flat Head Screws
• 2 – 3/8″ Ball Head Screws
• 2 – T-Handle Wrenches
• 1 – Padded Mil-Spec Ballistic Nylon Organizer Case
• **Added are: 2 additional 6″ 15mm Rods + 1 Formed Padded Shoulder Plate + Nylon & Padding to Mil-Spec

The Stage 1 rigging kit is going on sale soon for $995 but until then they are taking pre-orders at only $845.75. While this may still sound like a lot of money, since it is a modular system, allowing you to build numerous configurations, the kit becomes very affordable instead of buying complete components for all of the different rigging designs.

Head over and check it out at http://kcwtechnica.com/shop/mrk-modular-rigging-kit-basic-stage-i

• Finding a venue
• Scheduling guests
• Choosing Topics

As your club grows, there are also legal issues that need to be addressed and Kerry talks about incorporating your club, insurance, and other legal issues.

GoCast Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors

• GoPro
• Blackbelt Lighting
• All About Light eBook

GoPro Announces Wi-Fi Remote Control and Video Streaming

2x More Powerful in Every Way, The HD HERO2 Democratizes Professional Image Capture and Broadcast with Support for Remote Control and Live Video Streaming from Virtually Anywhere to the Web.

GoPro today announced the release of its new HD HERO2® camera. Twice as powerful as GoPro’s original HD HERO camera, the HD HERO2 enables consumers and professionals to capture and broadcast their lives’ most exciting moments in professional quality 1080p HD video and 11 megapixel photos. The new HD HERO2 is now available at GoPro.com, specialty retailers around the world, and at Best Buy for MSRP $299.99

• 2x Sharper lens
• Megapixels: 11, 8, 5 MP wide (170º) FOV, medium (127º) FOV, narrow (90º) FOV
• 10 photos in 1 sec
• TimeLapse every 0.5, 1, 2, 10, 30,60
• LED Lights: 4 (on all sides)
• Inputs: Mini-HDMI port, Composite port, USB, SD, HERO port, 3.5mm External Stereo Mic port

WiFi BacPac

Sponsor: GoPro

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsor: GoPro

Show Host: Kerry Garrison

During this presentation you will learn how to balance lighting, setup hair lights, rim lights, background lights, and more while maintaining a proper exposure.If you are wanting to move into multiple lighting setups, this will be a great primer to get you going and learn how to use different modifiers such as softboxes, snoots, grids, and other accessories to really control your lighting.

Event Details

OC Photo Club (website)
Tuesday, Oct 11th 6-9pm
Irvine Heritage Park Library
14361 Yale Avenue
Irvine, CA 92604-1901

LA SmugMug (Meetup Group)
Thursday, October 20, 2011, 6:30 PM
Beverly Garland Holiday Inn
4222 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood, CA

• White balance
• Light quality
• Exposure
• Aperture
• Shutter
• ISO
• Metering
• Equipment

All About Lighting is available for immediate download for only $4.99. For more information, please visit http://learningphotographyebooks.com

Features

GoPro Size Comparison

The GoPro HD Hero sports a 5 megapixel sensor mated to a super wide-angle lens with a fixed aperture of f/2.8. The lens also has a fixed focus so this isn’t really going to be a good replacement for a good point & shoot. The GoPro is designed to be used in situations that you wouldn’t put a regular camera. The camera body itself has no mounting points because it is generally used inside of the waterproof case that it comes with. There is also no viewfinder or LCD screen built-in as the camera is usually used unattended such as strapped to a motorcycle helmet or attached to the side of a car.

There are four still shooting settings that include:

• Single shot
• Three shot burst
• Countdown timer
• Timelapse mode

Camera Optics

• Lens Type: Fixed Focus (2ft/.6m – ∞), glass
• Aperture: f/2.8 (high performance in low-light situations)
• Angle of View: 170º ultra wide angle in WVGA, 720p, or 960p mode
• Angle of View: 127º wide angle in 1080p mode

GoPro Left Side View

GoPro Right Side View

GoPro Rear View

The first three options are pretty basic but the Timelapse feature requires a bit of explanation. In the settings you first set the time interval between each shot. When you press the shutter to take a picture, the camera will keep firing shots off, pausing between each shot based on your setting, until you stop the process, the SD card becomes full, or the battery dies.

As I mentioned earlier, the GoPro HD Hero comes with a waterproof case that is rated for up to 60 meters. With this much protection, there aren’t many places that you can’t find a use for the GoPro.

The Bad News

Keep in mind that the GoPro is a specialty camera so while it excels in some areas, there are some gotchas to be aware of. I already mentioned the lack of a viewfinder although an optional one is available for $79. I highly recommend the viewfinder for navigating through the GoPro’s menus and for setting up shots. There is also no flash as the primary use is for shooting video. Out of the box there also isn’t any way to mount the camera to a tripod, for this you need an $8 tripod mount adapter.

There are only two buttons on the camera and a small LCD, combined they are used to change the plethora of setting options. Once you get the hang of it, changing the settings isn’t too difficult, but adding the LCDBak really makes using the GoPro much easier.

If you decide to buy a GoPro HD Hero you should start with a package containing a selection of mounting hardware such as the GoPro Motocycle Hero. The GoPro Motorcycle Hero will start you off with suction mount, helmet mount, and a handful of other parts. Add a bicycle mount and the tripod adapter and you will have a good starter kit.

Why use the GoPro for stills?

No viewfinder, no flash, tricky settings menus, so why would you want to use a GoPro for shooting stills? The main reason is that it is small and unobtrusive. You can easily put the camera in obscure locations and just let it shoot away. Think about putting the GoPro in the arch above a wedding ceremony for some unique angles. Your imagination is your only limitation as to what you can do.

But how good are the images?

The single most noticeable thing you will notice about the images is that the lens is a super wide-angle. I don’t mean just wide-angle, this is seriously a wide-angle, so wide that you get a bit of barrel distortion. Sometimes you want a mega wide-angle shot, other times you may not and you may need to do some lens correction on the images.

In the specs I mentioned that the camera has a fixed focus f/2.8 lens. An interesting note here is that Adobe Lightroom reports it as f/3.4. This is a pretty trivial difference, but something I would point out. Also, if you are looking at the EXIF data you will see that the shutter speed and ISO change from shot to shot. It appears that the GoPro tries to maintain a good exposure by adjusting the shutter speed as needed and then adjusting the ISO to keep the shutter speed from falling too low. Hopefully I can get some clarification on this from GoPro. A few other interesting tidbits are that Lightroom reports the focal length as 5mm (I did mention it was a WIDE angle).

Is a GoPro HD Hero right for you?

The GoPro HD Hero at $269 (Amazon) is more expensive than a good point & shoot camera and may even seem lighter on features. The important advantages have to do with the protective cover that waterproofs and protects the camera body from damage. The versatility of the mounting system allows you to use the camera in all kinds of unique situations from scuba diving to sky diving and pretty much anything in between.

These days I don’t leave my house without a GoPro HD Hero. From a quick snapshot when needed to recording the Camera Dojo GoCast series, the GoPro HD Hero is just fun. Sure, a focusable lens, adjustable focal length, and more control over exposure settings would be nice, having these limitations forces you to think about what you are shooting and how work with what you have.

In this post we have only talked about using the GoPro as a still camera, next week we will look at using the GoPro as a video camera.

Be sure and check out more information about GoPro and enter their daily contest for a chance to win everything they make.

Host: Kerry Garrison

GoCast Sponsor: http://gopro.com

One of my favorite features of speedlites is High Speed Sync. This feature allows you to work with speedlites way past your camera’s normal sync speed (1/160 – 1/250 depending on camera). By shooting at very fast shutter speeds you can dramatically cut ambient light and can shoot what looks like night-time shots at high noon. Sounds incredible huh? Guess what, using it is as simple as pressing a single button.

Special thanks to our sponsor: GoPro

Host: Kerry Garrison

Isn’t “Suck” a little harsh?

Actually, to say that the audio recording sucks is an understatement. My two-year old $600 Vixia palm sized camcorder does better audio than my 7D. So no, the poor audio recording is a major failure on the camera manufacturers part and can actually be fixed via firmware if they chose to. One thing that may surprise many people is that they get better sound from the on-board microphone than they get with a high-end studio microphone. No way, the cheap, tiny, built-in mic works better…how is that possible? The answer is the one thing that makes the on-board mic work “so so” and higher end microphones almost unusable is Automatic Gain Control (AGC). What AGC does is to monitor the audio stream and then boosts the audio signal to make sure it is picking up the audio. The reason this sort-of works on the built-in microphone is because of the ambient noise in most situations. With any ambient noise, the AGC will “hear” some noise and the AGC won’t kick in. With a really good microphone, you can get such a clean audio signal that there is no ambient sound which will send the AGC into overdrive, thus filling the audio stream with tons of noise as it tries to boost the signal.

All the camera manufacturers have to do is to allow the ability to disable AGC in the firmware or preferably have a setting option such as High, Medium, Low, Off. This would allow for selectable gain control depending on the situation and the microphone used. That’s it, a simple firmware change and there would be no need for this post. However…none of the DSLR manufacturers have seen fit to include this obvious setting.

Creating Non-Sucky Audio

There are several ways to get really clean audio and we will look at some of these options so you can decide if one of them is more suited for how you want to work.

Secondary Recording Device

From the dawn of time (or at least since video recording started) high-end video production has consisted of using separate devices for video and audio recording. Have you ever seen a clap board and wondered what it was for? A clap board is used by the editor to sync the audio and video since they are recorded on different devices. For cinema production, this is a tried and true process so moving to DSLRs does not affect their workflow at all. For budget filmmakers who have used camcorders, moving to separate audio and video tracks can be frustrating and difficult to sync up properly. Add to this that even a slight variance between the two devices and a long film clip can actually drift out of sync. One  of the most common secondary audio devices is the Zoom H4N. I actually have the older Zoom H4 which isn’t available anymore.
Pros: Excellent Audio
Cons:  More work in post, additional expense

AGC Disabling Mixer

For post production speed it is definitely better to have the audio and video already mixed together. This prevents and audio drifting and issues with syncing (until you start using multiple cameras anyway). One solution I have found is the JuicedLink DS214 Amp which features AGC disabling. The way the AGC disabling works is that the DS214 feeds a generated tone through one of the stereo channels while sending the microphone audio through the other channel. This tone sound essentially shuts down the AGC because it becomes overwhelmed with noise thus lowering the gain to the minimum and letting the camera record very clean audio. With the DS214 costing $144, this isn’t a cheap solution but it does do the trick and as soon as the firmware allows for true disabling of the AGC control, then you can disable this feature.
Pros: Allows variety of microphone gear to work well, less work in post
Cons: Only allows for single channel audio recording, additional expense

Magic Lantern Firmware Hack

While we wait for Canon and Nikon to come to their senses, the folks over at Magic Lantern have created a firmware add-on for some Canon cameras that adds a nice set of features including audio meters and the ability to disable the AGC function. The downside here is that the Magic Lantern firmware is not available for the Canon 7D yet or for Nikon cameras.
Pros: FREE!, True AGC disabling, Auto Meters
Cons: No 7D support, No Nikon support

Summary

If you are getting started with DSLR video, it is only a matter of time before you get frustrated with trying to get good, clean audio. Hopefully you will find one of these options to suite your needs and budget to help you get exactly what you are trying to get.

Special thanks to our sponsor: GoPro

Host: Kerry Garrison

The folks at Magic Lantern have released some videos showing that they have video recording working on the EOS 50D which has never had native video recording before. Of course, since the 50D doesn’t have a microphone you will need to use an external audio recorder such as a Zoom H4 or similar device and then syncing the audio and video in post production. While this may sound like a pain, dual-device recording is actually the industry standard for best quality audio.

While the Magic Lantern Firmware isn’t officially released for the 50D yet, it looks like it is almost ready so you 50D owners out there that have wanted to get into video, now is the perfect time to go find a good audio recorder and get ready for some DSLR Video love coming your way soon.

However, if you have a 5D Mk II, 550D, 600D, or 60D you might want to head over and check it out.

Magic Lantern Wiki: http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki

Links to related articles:

• Learning to shoot in manual mode
• Photography Basics: Controlling Exposure
• The Exposure L – Understanding the Correlation Between Shutter and Aperture

Special thanks to our sponsor: GoPro

Host: Kerry Garrison

Special thanks to our sponsor GoPro

Host: Kerry Garrison

If you have posted images from a project you have done online, please feel free to share a link in the comments.

Special thanks to our sponsor GoPro

Host: Kerry Garrison

Special thanks to our GoCast Sponsor GoPro

Please let me know if you enjoy these small segments. I do apologize for the poor video of this one as it was very late in the evening. Upcoming ones look better, but it’s not about the video, it’s all about the content. Post in the comments below and let me know what you think.

GoCast Host: Kerry Garrison

Practical Uses of ND Filters

Some photographers, especially nature and landscape photographers have long been familiar with neutral density filters most notably for allowing you to shoot a scene with a longer shutter speed for scenes such as waterfalls to get that silky effect to the water.

If we go back to the basics and look at the Sunny 16 Rule, this tells us that is bright sunlight at ISO 100 and 1/100th shutter speed, we will need to be at f/16. If we adjust our shutter to our video setting of 1/50th, then we need to be shooting at f/22 for a proper exposure. While this may work in some situations, if you want any creative control over your aperture settings, you will need to cut down the lighting entering the camera, again this is a great use of ND filters. Instead of using a faster shutter, we can simply use darker ND filters to cut down the light to where we want it.

Choosing an ND Filter

Most neutral density filters are fixed at a particular setting and generally come in settings from 1/4 stop all the way to 10 stops. Buying a small selection of ND filters is certainly one option, although a much more versatile option would be a variable ND filter that lets you adjust the density across a wide range.

The Variable ND Filters from FADER are an excellent example of this type of functionality. With the FADER Filters you have a range of 2-8 stops which, if we go back to our Sunny 16 Rule, only needs four stops to allow us to shoot at f/2.8. This allows us a broad range of creative control with your aperture.

At a bit over $300, these filters don’t come cheap so if you are on a budget you might want to get a couple of less expensive ones to start off with.

Fader Variable ND Filter

Using an ND Filter

There is nothing special or magic about using an ND filter, once it is on your lens it’s just as if someone dimmed the lights and you continue to set your exposure using aperture and ISO adjustments (remember, not shutter speed because we are locking that down to 1/50th second).

The following video demonstrates this concept by shooting the same scene and adjusting the FADER filter to make the scene darker while opening the aperture to compensate.

Summary

I hope you are enjoying these articles on getting started with DSLR video. Even though shooting video with a camcorder or other dedicated video camera is so easy that even a kid can do it, shooting video with a DSLR is actually quite complicated and requires a very different skill set than shooting still and often requires specialized gear to get top-notch results. If you are doing any video work, please post in the comments and let everyone know what you are doing.

Not all of us have hundreds of dollars to spend on fancy gadgets like focus pullers but we can borrow from the concept and with a little ingenuity come up with a way to accomplish the same result.

Parts Needed

What you will need

I hope I don’t scare you off with this extensive list of components you will need to put together.  Ok, just kidding, odds are most of you will have the items you need lying around the house. All we are going to need are two rubber bands and a pen (I find a fine point Sharpie to work the best).

I managed to find two Sunday newspapers that I snagged the rubber bands from and stole a Sharpie off my wife’s desk.

Setup

All we need to do is to place one rubber band on the focus ring and the other rubber band on the part of the lens next to the focus ring that is not going to rotate.

To set my first focus point, I find it easier to use the photo mode’s autofocus or use Live View and zoom in close to make sure your focus is as sharp as possible. Now you make a line on both rubber bands that line up so now we have the first point. Next, we set out focus on the second focus point and mark the rubber band on the focus ring in line with the stationary band.

Focus Point 1

Focus Point 2

Now we are set to go into video mode and start shooting. When you are ready to change focus, you just rotate the focus ring to line up the second focus point line. If you are setting up multiple shots, you can use different colors of pens to correspond to different setups.

Results

Your finished result will be entirely dependent on how well you originally set your focus points and how smoothly you can turn the focus wheel without it being jerky or moving the camera. With a bit of practice, you should be able to get pretty good results.

The video below demonstrates what you can do with this setup. The video was shot on a Canon EOS 7D with a Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens and is actually my very first attempts at using the setup.

As you can see, the results aren’t too bad for a first try. If you are an aspiring filmmaker on a tight budget, give this technique a try and see if you can add some nice focus pulling effects to your videos. If you have done any, please post links in the comments.

ISO and Aperture

The good news is that two out of three aint bad. What I mean by this is that ISO and Aperture affect video exactly the same way that they affect stills. ISO will make the sensor more sensitive to light so just like stills, you can increase the light into the camera by increasing the ISO setting which, just like stills, will add digital noise to the image.

Just like still images, Aperture will open or close the lens’ aperture diaphragm to allow more or less light into the camera which will affect the depth of field.

So long as you already have a good handle on ISO and Aperture, the same principles apply to both stills and video so you already well on your way.

Shutter Speed

With stills, shutter speed is fairly simple to understand, a longer shutter will allow more light but may add motion blur while a fast shutter speed can freeze motion but cuts down on the amount of light entering the camera. The confusing part is how this affects video. Many new video DSLR owners simply think this affects only the light since the frames are already moving. The reality is that the shutter speed can have a significant impact on the video image and most of the articles on the internet are painfully difficult to understand.

The traditional standard for video is 24p (which is actually 23.976 frames per second) which is very pleasing to the eye and is pretty much the standard for camcorders and DSLR video recording (much more on this is available on Wikipedia).

To achieve a film look (which has just enough motion blur between frames to look natural without being “smeary”) you need to follow the 180 degree rule which, simply put, says that your shutter speed should be double the frame rate. This is one of those times when I want to say “don’t worry about what it means, just go with it” as the technical explanation is quite…well…technical. Tyler Ginter did a really good job explaining the technical side of this on his blog post 180 Degree Shutter – Learn It, Live It, Love It.

While I am not going to try to explain the whole 180 degree shutter concept, I will instead just jump into what it really means to you and your video.

Since we already know that when we are shooting stills with action, a slow shutter speed will have motion blur and a fast shutter speed will freeze action. When we translate this concept to video, a slow shutter speed will create a smeared look to the video. If the shutter is too fast there isn’t enough motion blur to smoothly transition from frame to frame causing a stuttering or staccato effect. If you have ever looked at something moving with a CRT monitor behind it you will know what this stuttering can look like. Sometimes, this can be used for creative effect like in the opening of Saving Private Ryan.

To see how this looks in actual video, I did this quick comparison of 24p video shot at both 1/50th (yes, I know 1/48 is double the 24fps but most cameras can’t do 1/48th shutter speed so we have to take the closest option which would be 1/50th) and 1/300th shutter speed.

What about exposure?

The issue with exposure is not when things are too dark as we can open up our aperture and increase our ISO (only to a certain point before we need additional lighting anyway) but when things are too bright, we only have a few options. If you are already at a small aperture and a low ISO and 1/50th of a second will result in an over exposure the temptation is to increase the shutter speed, but this is going to violate the 180 degree rule and cause the stuttering video.

The only way to knock the exposure down is with the use of a neutral density filter. The most versatile filter is a variable neutral density filter that allows you to dial in the amount of filtering. A good example of this is the Fader ND Mark II which is adjustable from 2 to 8 stops.

The real beauty of using a filter with this much versatility is that you can shoot at the relatively slow 1/50th of a second at wide open apertures to create a very short depth of field that just isn’t possible with regular camcorders. The ability easily create different depth of field shots  is a key reason many filmmakers are jumping onto the DSLR video bandwagon.

The Exception to the Rule

Let’s face it, every good rule deserves a good reason to break it and the 180 degree shutter rule is no different. In fact, there is one really good reason to break it and that is when you are specifically shooting for video that will be shown in slow motion. If we use the basic rule of having a shutter speed that is double the frame rate, when we slow down the video we will end up with more blurry video. If you shoot at faster shutter speeds, when you slow the video down you will get cleaner looking video.

This actually brings up a major difference between shooting stills and video. With stills, our final output will be a still frame. Sure, you may use some panning and zooming in a slidehsow which may require cropping that isn’t very tight but lets not digress too much. With video, you really need to think ahead about how the video will be played back. Will the video be sped up, played at normal speed, or slowed down as this final product needs to be considered when choosing the shooting settings.

Summary

Hopefully this has helped make some sense out of the shutter speed issue with DSLRs. If you are just going to be shooting video for yourself, you may not care much about all this but if you are trying to really make your video look its absolute best, and most certainly you can achieve incredible results with the current video enabled DSLR’s, then this is one of those topics that you really need to get a handle on.

Why a big tripod

A big sturdy tripod platform has several benefits over a smaller model. The main advantages are that it is more stable and can raise up higher. The downside is that a large tripod is going to be heavy. The Auctus Plus 324AT is not a tripod that you will likely strap to you backpack for an afternoon hike. But when you need a big, seriously stable platform, this is where the Auctus Plus 324AT shines.

Features

The Auctus Plus 324AT is more than just three legs and a mounting plate, like other Vanguard tripods, the Auctus Plus 324AT has some unique features that make it sand out from the rest.

How good is it?

Large Plastic Feet

Hidden Spikes

Summary

I have been a fan of Vanguard products for a while and the Vanguard Auctus Plus 324AT Tripod certainly did not disappoint on any level. If you need a high quality, large tripod base, be sure and check out the Vanguard Auctus series and see if there is one that will suite your requirements.

Vanguard Website: http://vanguardusa.com/

Online Ordering

Amazon.com $429.99
B & H Photo $429.99

Differences between camcorders and DSLRs

Many of you are probably own some kind of camcorder. These small, handheld video cameras are actually pretty amazing for their price with 1080p video for under $700. If these little wonders are so good, why do we even need DSLR video? For one thing, the sensors in the consumer camcorders are relatively small and the have a single lens with a fixed focal length. This doesn’t allow much in terms of creative shooting like being able to blur a background. Most don’t even let you select a focus point and they try to guess what you want. Are they REALLY 1080p video, well yes, technically speaking but they are not “broadcast quality” images. Just because something puts out video out 1920×1080 resolution does not mean the image quality is going to be that great.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are DSLR’s that can shoot video. In comparison to high-end, dedicated video cameras, DSLR’s can actually have a BETTER image because the sensor size in a DSLR is larger than in a video camera and the ability to use many different lenses allows for very creative shooting.

The big downside is that most (and this IS changing) current video-DSLRs do not have full-time autofocus. This can be a huge challenge for many people who have come to rely on autofocus for their still photography. Add to this moving subjects and trying to adjust focus on-the-fly, and you can be in for a very challenging shoot. Also take into consideration that the ergonomics of a DSLR are not really suited for shooting video so trying to hand-hold a DSLR while shooting is almost certain to add unwanted shaking or movement. One of the other things to consider is going to be accessories to help you shoot video better (more on this below) which may include a tripod with a fluid head, a good microphone, a stabilization system, viewfinder enhancements, constant lights, and software to do the editing. If you go “all in” you can easily spend more on video accessories than you did on the camera body.

Getting Started

I am going to start with assuming most people are going to be shooting video that is not destined for broadcast TV or movie theaters but in future articles we will get into fine tuning our video and camera settings for those applications. For now, we will start with the basics just to get things going.

Equipment

Depending on what you are shooting, you may or may not need all of the things mentioned here and I will try to point out when and where different pieces will be used.

Tripod and Fluid Head

While you probably own a tripod, the head on it is likely not smooth enough for video. As you tilt and pan, it is very hard to get a real smooth motion. For video, you want was is referred to as a fluid head which will really make a huge difference in controlling your camera for video. If you have a tripod with a removable head, you can just buy a head made for video and use it when needed. Good fluid heads can cost hundreds of dollars but a fairly decent one such as the Weifeng WF-717AH can be found for around $70.

Monopod

A monopod can really be a lifesaver when it comes to video since it can help you steady your camera instead of trying to hold it still for extended periods of time. Another little trick is to put the bottom of the monopod into your belt or pocket and extend the monopod so the camera is eye level, this technique can help you get really smooth pans but is going to be fairly bouncy when walking. For this purpose, you can find a cheap monopod at Walmart for about $15.

Batteries

If your camera supports an add-on battery pack, I would highly recommend you get one and some extra batteries. Running your camera for extended periods (which means the LCD is on as well) can suck the life right out of your batteries before you know it.

Microphone

As you can probably guess, the on-board microphones on DSLR’s are not going to give you superb 5.1 Dolby stereo audio. In fact, its fairly poor mono audio and with no windscreen in front of it, you can pick up a lot of noise. A fairly popular microphone is the Rode VideoMic which runs about $149. I happened to have a Zoom H4 recorder which not only has two mics for recording in stereo but also has two XLR connectors so it is extremely versatile. I just needed a $2 audio patch cable and a hot shoe adapter. Of course, if you aren’t planning on recording video and always plan on just having a music soundtrack, then you really aren’t going to need a microphone.

Lights

If you have a bag full of 580 EX II’s, they aren’t going to do you any good when shooting video, you will need a constant source of light. While certainly I am a big fan of big LED light banks like Ikan’s, they are outside my budget. With a couple of small lights like the YN160 you can get generally decent lighting for about $75.

The YN160 can be mounted on-camera or on a light stand and can use seven different types of batteries including regular AA cells.

Software

This is where things can get crazy real fast. While you may find lot of people suggestion that you can use Windows Movie Maker, the video files directly from the 7D and the 5DMkII are NOT compatible with Windows Movie Maker. There are tools to convert the files but now you are getting into a real headache. If you have any software suggestions, please post them in the comments as I would love to hear about them.

I am going to do my best to offer up some suggestions here based on different price points:

Free Software

• iMovie (Mac)
  This is USUALLY free as it is bundled with most Macintosh systems (as far as I know)
• Lightworks (Windows)
  Lightworks is an open source editor that is actually quite powerful but is somewhat lacking in documentation and tutorials

Consumer Grade

• Adobe Premiere Elements 9 ($99 for Mac/Windows)
  Probably one of the better mid-range tools available and at a reasonable price
• Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD ($95 for Windows)
  Vegas is an extremely popular editing program with a very nice feature set

Pro Grade

• Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 ($179 for Mac/Windows)
  My personal choice as I work on a high-end Alienware Windows 7 machine
• Final Cut Pro ($300 for Mac)
  FCP and Premiere usually take turns beating out each other on features. With Final Cut Pro X, I think it takes the lead.

Summary

Hopefully this wasn’t too much to start off with and I really want to hear from you and find out if you are interested in more articles about DSLR video. I will leave you with this little video I did as my first video project with a Canon EOS 7D.

In this post we are going to look at how to control exposure by manipulating the different settings on the camera such as ISO, Shutter, and Aperture.

What is exposure?
Exposure is, simply put, the amount of light that enters the camera and hits the sensor. The more light that hits the sensor the brighter the scene will be. If too much light hits the sensor, parts of the image will be “blown out”, this is considered to be over-exposed. A scene that is too dark and the details in the shadows are lost is under-exposed.

Under Exposed Image

Over Exposed Image

How to control exposure
There are three camera settings that control the exposure, these are:

• ISO speed
  • Controls the sensitivity of the sensor to light
• Aperture
  • The aperture controls the size of the diaphragm over the shutter, the smaller the aperture number the more open the diaphragm is, allowing more light to enter.
• Shutter speed
  • The slower the shutter, the more light will enter the camera

We will look at these settings in more detail to see exactly how the play together later. First, you need to start thinking of light in terms of “stops”. A stop is not an exact amount of light, it is a relative amount of light, each stop of light doubles the amount of light. For example, if we have a single lightbulb as our base light source, adding a second lightbulb (doubling the amount of light) increases the light by one stop. If want to increase the light by another stop we have to again double the amount of light to four lightbulbs. Understanding this is going to be the key to understanding how the different camera settings affect our exposure.

ISO Speed
As already mentioned, the ISO speed will control the sensitivity of the sensor. The lower the number, the less sensitive. For low light you will need a higher ISO number to make the sensor more sensitive. The downside is that the higher ISO the more digital noise (grainy look) will show up which will degrade the image quality.

Each time you double the ISO speed you increase the exposure by one stop, so ISO 400 will give you one stop of exposure more than ISO 200, and ISO 800 will give you one more stop over ISO 400 etc. Some cameras have some in-between ISO settings to provide a finer level of control.

You currently see high ISO performance as being a major selling point for new DSLR cameras as this allows them to shoot in lower light conditions with less noise.

Pro: Higher ISO allows shooting in lower light conditions
Con: Higher ISO settings result in more digital noise

High ISO Digital Noise

Aperture
Aperture is a little confusing because the larger the number the smaller the size. The largest aperture lenses are f/1.0 although most of the good prime lenses start at f/1.4 – f/1.6. Zoom lenses typically are not available that can do more than f/2.8.

So besides letting in more or less light, what does the aperture actually do? The more light that comes in at a particular shutter speed, the shallower the depth of field. If you want more depth of field you use a smaller (higher number) aperture setting.

Pro: Larger apertures allow more light in and thus allow shooting in lower light conditions
Con: Larger apertures reduce the depth of field which may not be desirable

Shallow Depth of Field

Deep Depth of Field

Shutter
The faster the shutter, the less light enters the camera, the slower the shutter the more light will enter the camera. If you are shooting in low light conditions, you may need a slower shutter speed, however, too slow of a shutter and you can introduce blur from the subject moving, accidental camera movement, or both.

Sometimes a little blur can help portray movement and action, a sharp bike rider with a blurred background will make the rider look like he/she is moving fast where a tack sharp image shows no motion at all and would make the same image look boring. While blurring on other images can ruin the image.

Pro: The right shutter speed can really make an image more dramatic. Fast shutter speeds can freeze action, slow shutter speeds can add a dramatic motion blur.
Con: Fast shutter speeds require lots of light, slow shutter speeds are harder to control

Fast Shutter Speed

Slow Shutter Speed

Summary
By understanding the three variables that control exposure along with the pros and cons of each one, you will be able to better control the different options that are available to you.

We have 5 pairs of tickets for the July 24th screening. If there is a screening in your area, post to the comments below with the city you are able to go to and on Friday at noon we will draw our winners.

On July 24, 2011, Life in a Day will continue its journey when it premieres in theaters across the U.S. Additional screenings will be added July 29.

Locations and tickets: http://lifeinaday.cinedigm.com/tickets.html

Visit the LIFE IN A DAY channel at http://youtube.com/lifeinaday

Official Life In A Day Facebook: http://facebook.com/lifeinaday

Along with this, a photo contest will be launched in a couple of days based on the theme “A day in your life” so get your brain cells warmed up and start thinking about how you can get this shot.

• How ISO, Shutter, and Aperture relate to each other
• What the different camera mode are and when to use them
• Understanding your camera’s meter
• How to read a histogram
• How the different camera settings affect your image

This workshop series is brough to you by Blackbelt Lighting, CameraDojo, and Lumodi. At these workshops, products from BlackBelt Lighting and Lumodi will be used for demonstration purpose and will also be available for sale.

Where: Anaheim, Ca
When: Saturday, July 16th, 10:30am – 11:30am
Registration: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1909915609

Whether you are looking for old film equipment, used hardware like tripods, or new products like the Blackbelt Lighting Products or the Lumodi Beauty Dishes, the show has something for almost everyone. Stop by and say hi!

The Math
Feel free to skip right over this part, this is the boring part, it’s so boring I thought of putting a picture of an artistic nude shot next to it just to keep people awake. Ok, so here we go. Before you can calculate the depth of field you first must know the circle of confusion for your camera.

Don’t get too lost on me yet, for most of us digital SLR users this is  one of two numbers. For most of us with APS/APS-C sized sensors this number is 0.019948, for full frame sensors (the big Pro cameras) and 35mm film the number is 0.02501. This represents the sensor size. Again, don’t get all lost on me yet, just remember the number for your particular camera.

The first thing we need to calculate is the Hyperfocal distance, for this calculation you will need to know the focal length of your lens. the aperture you are using and the CoC (circle of confusion) for your camera.

The math to calculate the hyperfocal distance is as follows:

HyperFocal = (FocalLength * FocalLength) / (Aperture * CoC)

Thus, the Hyperfocal distance of a 50mm lens at f/2.8 on an APS sensor (Canon 30D in my case) is 146.85 feet.

Next we need to calculate the near point which is the closest distance that will be in focus given the distance bdetween the camera and the subject. The math here (yes, it gets SO much worse) is as follows:

NearPoint = (HyperFocal * distance) / (HyperFocal + (distance – focal))

This is somewhat  complicated because the focal length is in millimeters and those of us in the US are better with feet and inches still so if you want the end value to be in feet you have to do some more conversions. If we are using the same 50mm lens, at f/2.8 on an APS sensor at a distance of 10 feet (3048mm) then our HyperFocal distance is 146.85 feet (44,749.23mm), giving us a near focus point of 9.37 feet (2,856.66mm). Are we following along still? Did I lose anyone?

Alrighty then, let’s now calculate the far point distance, this is almost the same as before but using slightly different math, so here we go.

FarPoint = (HyperFocal * distance) / (HyperFocal – (distance – focal))

Without changing our values that we used before, we now know that are rear point is 10.72 feet (3,266.81mm). Take note that the near point is actually closer to you than the subject is, typically the focus is 1/3 in front of the subject and 2/3 behind the subject.

The final step is to calculate the total amount of focal distance. This is one I can even do without a calculator, we simply subtract the far point distance from the near point distance.

TotalDof = FarPoint – NearPoint

Giving our example so far we have a total depth of field of 1.35 feet (411.48mm).

Let’s get practical
Why on earth would you want to know this? The simple answer is you may not, nor may you ever care to know it. When shooting portraits, weddings, events, and pretty much anything else it really isn’t going to matter much. However, if you are the type that wants to set up a shot and have it be EXACTLY what you want, there is simply no other way to know what the camera is going to do. This is important in macro, food, and product photography. By knowing exactly where you focus points begin and end you can more accurately design and execute precise shots.

Ok, how about the easy way?
This is kind of like taking a digital photography class and having to spend a semester cooking your own B&W film, its good to know the theory before taking on the practical application. So how can we do this easier than having to pull a scientific calculator each time you want to set up a shot?

• f/Calc Spreadsheet (download) – This is an Excel spreadsheet that will do all the math for you. This was development by me and is free to use.
• f/Calc Windows and Palm App (website) If you want a simple but powerful Windows or Palm based application, f/Calc does Field of View, Angle of View, Magnification, Spot Meter, f Numbers, Depth of Field and Hyperfocal distance
• PhotoCalc for iPhone (website) – Not only does it do everything for DoF, it also incorporates a sunrise/sunset function, flash exposure calculator, and Exposure Reciprocation calculator.
• CamCalc (Market) Android App for Depth of field, field of view, focal length equivalents, flash calculations, color temp. conversion, miniatures, and sunrise, sunset.
• PhoforPho (Market) Android App with Exposure calculator, Hyperfocal calculator, DoF calculator, Timer, and Exposure compensation calculation for multiple exposures.

I know this has been a doozy of an article to read through just to get to some free or almost free (PhotoCalc is $2.99) tools to make it dead simple to do these calculation. Hopefully this will help you perfect your images help you to use depth of field to its full extent.

Often we try to use the fastest shutter speed possible to help avoid blur but when shooting a moving object you sometimes need some amount of blur or it can look like the subject of the image is sitting still. In many cases you want to have the sense of movement to help convey the story of the object.In the case of the ceiling fan we want to show a little movement of the blades since the moving blades is going to be more typical of what you would see by looking at the fan once installed. We also want to show that this is a five-bladed fan so we have to be careful not to have too much blur that we lose all the details.

Let’s take a look at a series of shots taken at different shutter speeds:

1/10th Second - Way too much blur

1/25th Second - Better but lacking detail

1/40th Second - Looking good

1/100th Second - Not enough, just looks fuzzy

1/200th Second - Almost no movement

As you can see the photos taken at the two extreme ranges show either far too much blur or not enough blur to make for a good image. The photo taken at 1/40th maintains a little more detail than the images shot at 1/25 making it a more suitable image for our use.

Summary

The whole point here is to get you to experiment more with shutter speeds to capture a sense of movement, action, or speed. By adjusting the shutter speed you can control how much or how little the blur effect will have.

1. Light travels in constant directions

Have you even shot pool? If so, you have had an extremely practical lesson in how lighting works. If you aim a light straight, it goes straight, if you aim it into a wall, it bounces off in the opposite direction at the same angle. Before the comments fill up talking about diffusion, refraction, etc, the goal of this is to make the concept easy to understand here.

By understanding this basic concept you can control the angle that light is hitting your subject. This can be used to create soft or harder lighting, change the mood of an image, and create different lighting styles. Again, there is more to this with sub-topics on light spread and reflectivity but the number of variables involved are almost infinite. For the sake of keeping it understandable, you need to keep the concept simple. Light does not follow general guidelines, nor does it follow suggestions, it absolutely follows the laws of physics. Getting a handle of how light functions will give you many, many more options.

2. The Inverse Square Law

“The inverse-square law is a law stating that a specified physical quantity or strength is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity.” – Wikipedia

Pretty heady stuff huh? Let’s break this down so it is as simple as possible to understand, if you double the distance between the light source and the subject, you need four times the amount of light. Ok, simple if you are always doubling the distance, but what if you want to do it fairly quickly? If we need to calculate the light falloff we can take the distance, multiply it by itself, and take the inverse of that number. So if we take a distance of 2 feet, multiply it by itself, we get 4, and take the inverse which would be 1/4.

Putting it Together

Keep in mind that these two things work together in that when you bounce light off something you are adding to the distance between the light source and the subject, therefore you need more light. If the angle causes you to double the distance, you need four times as much light. Often the easiest way to increase or decrease the power of the light source is simply to move it towards or away from the subject.

If you are trying to learn how to shoot with manual flash, understanding these core principles will put you well on your way.

To put it simply, on a bright sunny day, set your camera on f/16 and set the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO speed. So if you are set to ISO 200, then set your shutter speed to 1/200^th. If you want a faster shutter speed then increase the shutter speed and set the ISO to match. For example, if you want to shoot at 1/400^th of a second, set the ISO to 400.

f/16 ISO 200 - Shutter 1/200th

f/16 ISO 400 - Shutter 1/400th

To compensate for overcast conditions, simply adjust the f-stop to a more open setting like f/11, and keep adjusting as needed. A good chart of recommended settings is in the following table:

By utilizing the sunny 16 rule you will help ensure that you get the right settings dialed in quickly and easily. It’s always nice to have some frame of reference when getting started. When all else fails and you don’t know what settings to start with, remember the sunny 16 rule and adjust as needed.

We have arranged to use a small studio in Anaheim this weekend for the first workshop, Portrait Lighting.

For instructors, we have myself, Kerry Garrison and Brandon Cruz from Lumodi Beauty Dishes.

All of the lighting gear will be provided, you just need to bring your camera!

When: Saturday July 2nd, 12:30pm – 1:30pm right near Anaheim Stadium
Registration: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1861051455

Workshop sponsored by Blackbelt Lighting Products & Lumodi

Based on feedback from our users, we finally decided to expand on the product lineup with some new products. We are really excited about the new lineup and hope you will find them as interesting as we do.

EZ Collapsible Softbox

We now have some new and exciting softboxes available. Like reflectors, these fold up small enough to fit into most camera bags but expand up to 20″, 24″, or 32″ squares.

The units come with the softbox and all the mounting gear you need to attach your speedlite. Just add a speedlite and a light stand and you are good to go.

These new softboxes are available immediately in the store for:

20″ x 20″ : $55.00
24″ x 24″ : $62.00
32″ x 32″ : $75.00

YN-160 LED Video Light

This is a great unit that can operate on seven different kinds of batteries: Panasonic CGR-D16S/CGR-D220, Sony NP-FH70/NP-FM55H/NP-F550 Ni-MH and AA batteries.

The light comes with a cold shoe mount for putting right on top of your camera or on a light stand with a swivel mount. Also included is a handle that you can attach to keep the light off-camera. Also included are a diffuser panel and three color effects filters.

The YN160 is available now for immediate shipping for $75.00.

BB-200 160ws Studio Strobe Kit

The BB-200 gives you the power of two 560 Speedlites in an AC-Powered studio strobe kit. This is a complete two-light  flash/strobe studio lighting kit featuring:

• 80 watts per strobe
• 5600k light temperature
• Optical Slave
• PC Sync Port
• Ready Light

Includes:

• (2) BB-200 Flash Heads 80w/s
• (2) Reflectors
• (2) Flash Tubes
• (2) A/C Power Cords
• (1) Sync Cord
• (2) 6ft Light Stands
• (2) 24″ Silver Umbrellas
• (1) Stand Bag
• (1) Light Bag

Price: $149.99

All of these products and more can be found at http://blackbeltlighting.com

The two most common issues are not being able to get the background color bright enough or the background color gets too washed out. Let’s get right into it and see how we can improve our technique and use colored gels for our backgrounds more effectively.

The Setup

The setup is very important to make sure everything goes smooth. First off, I prefer using a black seamless paper for the background. Black paper will result in more vibrant colors where a white background will make the colors look duller.

Secondly, you need to make sure that your lights that are lighting your subject are not hitting the background which will cause the colors to wash out as well. The two ways to do this is to use more side-lighting and to increase the distance between the subject and the background. The other advantage of increasing the distance between the subject and the background is that you will be less likely to get color spill on your subject from the background light.

Getting The Exposure

Probably the biggest mistake people make when learning to use gels is to get the lighting for the subject all setup and then try to dial in the background. If you do this in the opposite direction you will get where you want much faster. The following are the three images I took in order to get my light dialed in.

Initial Background Shot

In the initial background shot you can see that I had no light turned on the subject. The background wasn’t quite bright enough so I needed to power up the background flash another stop.

Subject Lighting Test

in the first lighting test with the subject light, the background is nice and bright from turning the power up, but the subject is still underexposed by about a stop so the main flash needed to be powered up more.

Final Shot

In the final shot we have enough light on the subject which is coming from about a 45 degree angle to camera-right and using a Large Rouge Flashbender to flag the light from hitting the background giving me exactly what I needed to get the shot.

The final settings are as follows:

Main Flash: 1/8 Power
Background Flash: 1/8 Power
ISO: 200
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter: 1/250th

Be sure and experiment with gels and see what you can come up with and be sure and share your images with us.

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/662757342

To really understand the difference, we need to look at how the light comes out from both types of devices so we can decided when best to use which modifier.

Side by Side Comparison

It shouldn’t take too much effort to understand how an umbrella should throw light out. The spherical shape sends light in all directions. This is great for providing a large soft light source that is easy to control and manage and provides a lot of latitude in how it is positioned.

A softbox controls light a lot more keeping it from spreading out so much. Because the beam of light is a lot narrower, the light fall off is much faster so positioning is more important.

Test Setup

For our test setup we used Supermodel Venus Garrison as our model and setup an umbrella and softbox in the same positions. Below are shots of the actual setups.

Umbrella Setup

Softbox Setup

The umbrella is a standard 32″ shoot-thru umbrella while the softbox is a 24″ x 24″ Ez Softbox from Blackbelt Lighting (my own lighting products company). In both cases, a YN560 speedlite was used on 1/32 power. The camera settings were ISO 200, 1/160th second shutter, and f/5.6.

The Results

Looking at the results you should be able to easily see the difference. With the larger apparent size of the umbrella, the light wraps around the face more and creates a softer transition between the highlights and shadows. The softbox provides much more directional light with a faster fall-off. Also notice that the background is darker with the softbox because much less light is hitting it from the softbox.

Umbrella

Softbox

Choosing the right modifier

Umbrellas are great for beginners since they are easier to use because of their forgiving nature. As you progress and want to create more dramatic images, being able to have more control over your light will become more and more important. Moving up into softboxes will help you to be able to create the look you want.

While the difference in these two images may seem subtle at first, the differences actually fairly dramatic. The umbrella image has some light on the shadow side while the softbox image goes almost completely dark at some points. Softer, light such as the umbrella shot usually make women look better while men are often shot in harsher, more dramatic light. If you are just getting started, I usually recommend starting with umbrellas and moving to softboxes as you want to create more dramatic and edgy images.

Getting Started
Most cameras, including newer point and shoot cameras will let you shoot in full manual mode. The problem with going manual is that if you don’t have your settings “just right” you can end up with an image that is too dark or too light. Without a basic understanding of the different settings, it can be difficult to get a good shot. However, with a basic understanding of the three variables even the most newbie photographer can learn to take better pictures by getting away from the automatic settings.

ISO Speed
The ISO speed is equivalent to the ISO speed we used to use on film cameras, this describes the light sensitivity of the film that is being used. The higher the ISO speed, the more light the sensor can pick up. For example, if your camera is set to ISO 800 you can take a well exposed image in a darker room than you could with ISO 100. By definition you would always want to run your camera in the highest ISO speed possible. While this may sound like a good idea, the downside is that the higher the ISO speed, the more “noise” will be introduced to the image, thus degrading the image quality. In most cases, you will get excellent results by using ISO 200-400 outdoors and 400-800 indoors. This does not take into account your camera model as some cameras do better than others at the higher ISO settings.

Shutter Speed

Medium Shutter Speed to Show Movement

The shutter speed is one of the easiest settings to understand as it simply means how fast the shutter opens and closes when you press the shutter button. The faster the shutter speed the better the camera will freeze the action of an event. This setting is represented in seconds, a fast shutter speed would be something like 1/2000^th of a second. A long shutter speed such as 1/30^th of a second or slower can result in blurry images if you don’t use a tripod. Like the other settings, the shutter speed also affects the amount of light that hits the sensor. The faster the shutter speed, the less light that comes into the camera. So while a fast shutter speed can freeze action, you need more and more light in order to prevent getting a dark picture the faster you set the shutter. When you cant get a bright enough image, you will need to slow down the shutter speed. In some cases you may want to get a motion blur such as a waterfall or freeway traffic, these shots require a very long shutter speed.

Shallow Depth of Field

Aperture
Understanding aperture is probably the most difficult setting for most people to grasp, because of this we wrote an entire article about it. The aperture is an adjustable opening in the lens that controls the amount of light that can enter the camera. The aperture setting is expressed in f stops with the largest opening having a smaller number so a wide open aperture is going to have an f-stop of around f/1.4. The aperture setting can have a big effect on the depth of field which allows one part of the image to be in focus and the rest of it being blurry which helps to highlight the subject of the photograph.

Starting Points
Without having a light meter or lots of experience how do you know what settings to start with? The way I learned was to set my ISO to what I wanted, typically 200-400 ISO outdoors and 400-800 ISO indoors, and put the camera in P mode and press the shutter half way down. Inside the viewfinder the camera will show the settings it will use to take the picture. Then you can put the camera into Manual mode and adjust the settings to match. After some practice you should be able to set some basic settings fairly close to what they need to be, then, by pressing the shutter half way down the camera will autofocus and then take a meter reading which should show in the viewfinder or on a display depending on your camera. Then you can adjust shutter speed or aperture to change the exposure to get it where you need.

Using the Histogram
If your camera will display a histogram after shooting an image, then you need to take advantage of this feature. By looking at the histogram of an image you can quickly tell if the image was properly exposed or not. With a digital SLR camera you want the histogram to be a nice curve with the curve being just to the right of center like our example one here. This is actually saying that the image is just slightly overexposed. With film, if you overexposed the image, you would lose detail so it was better to slightly underexpose. With digital, shadows will lose detail so it is better to slightly overexpose.

Practice Practice Practice
There is nothing that will beat getting out and getting behind the camera and learning how to use it well. If you plan on making photography a serious hobby or more, you will need to learn how to use manual mode for those times when the automatic or program mode settings just won’t cut it or for when you want to create an effect that you just can’t get any other way.

Get out and practice and be sure to post some comments and post some pictures to our Flickr group.

If you can master controlling the depth of field in your photographs you will be taking your photographs to a whole new level. What do we mean by controlling depth of field (DoF)? This is the effect where the subject is in sharp focus but the rest of the image is slightly out of focus. The effect is referred to as bokeh. The more bokeh, the more dramatic the blurring effect. In this article, we will discuss how to control the amount of bokeh in your images.

Getting Started

Being able to control the depth of field is not very easy on lower end cameras as you need to be able to shoot in either an aperture priority mode or in a full manual mode. If you have a fully automatic point and shoot then you will not be able to achieve the effect you want

50mm 1/2500 f/2.8

50mm 1/40 f/22

The setting you need to be able to adjust is the aperture setting, the larger the aperture (the smaller the number) the shorter the focal plane will be. This is one reason that some people buy very fast (larger aperture) lenses. A less expensive lens may have an aperture range of something like f/4.0  -  f/5.6, while you will achieve some bokeh effect with this lens, it will not be as pronounced as it would be if the lens has a f/1.6 – f/2.8.

Without having a lens with a very large aperture, the other way to achieve a dramatic bokeh effect is to use a long zoom lens to shoot very close objects. Since a long lens won’t be able to focus on both something very close and things at a distance, you can achieve a strong bokeh if there is enough separation between the subject and the rest of the image.

225mm 1/800 f/5.6

70mm 1/800 f/5.6

Understanding Aperture

Diagram of decreasing aperture sizes (increasing f-numbers) for “full stop” increments (factor of two aperture area per stop) – Source: Wikipedia

The aperture setting is the size of the opening that is used to let light into the camera and onto the sensor. The size of the opening is measured is F-stops. The confusing part is that the larger the aperture setting, the smaller the hole that will be used to take the picture. The reason why lenses with a very large aperture (smaller f-stop number) are more expensive is because the lenses require more engineering and typically use better and more complicated lens elements. These higher end lenses usually have glass that is manufacturered to higher tolerences and may include special coatings on the glass elements, this helps explain the high costs of the top end lenses.

The other side effect of getting a lens with a small f-stop number is that the smaller the f-stop, the more light will come in per image thus allowing you to shoot in lower light conditions. A lens with a f/1.8 can shoot well exposed pictures in a situation that is much darker than an f/4.0 lens could shoot in.

Why Control DoF?

So now that we know the how of controlling depth of field, let’s talk about why we would want to do this. Isn’t the goal of every picture to have the ultimate tack sharp image? Why would you intentionally blur part of the image? The simple answer is mood. Quite often, the background of an image may be distracting from the subject matter, think of a bride standing in front of a wall of flowers. In this case, the bride is obviously the main subject and anything else may distract from the subject, by blurring out the flowers behind the bride, you can retain some of the color and texture without the detail, adding a much more dramatic feel to the image.

One thing to be aware of is overdoing the bokeh effect. Since the eye is drawn to the lightest parts of an image first, a common problem with a heavy bokeh is creating a large blob of very light color, this can be more distracting to the image than if the background would have been in focus. Used right, the effects can be stunning.

Choosing Lenses

When choosing a new lens, once you decide once you decide the focal range you are looking for, then you go for the lens with the largest aperture (again, lowest number) that you can afford. A common misconception with new photographers is that a lens labeled with a single aperture will only do that aperture. The labeling denotes the maximum aperture at the listed focal length, So if you have a 70-300 f/4.0 – f/5,6, then your maximum aperture at 70mm will be f/4.0 but will shrink to f/5.6 at 300mm. Whereas a 70-200 f/2.8 can maintain f/2.8 throughout the entire focal range but can also go to the minimum aperture of you camera (often f/22 or lower),

Now that you have these basics down, you should be able to tell that the faster (smaller f-stop number) the better able the lens is to shoot in darker conditions and when used at the lens’ maximum aperture, the more pronounced the bokeh effect will be.

Be sure and post some images that you have taken to the Flickr user group and tag them with DoF and cameradojo.

Height

The world does not all exist at an average of five feet to six feet above ground level so why limit your pictures to being shot from that height? Take a look at most model pictures, they are not shot at eye level, most often, the camera is aimed at the model’s chest. Aiming eye level at a person will leave far too much dead space above the head. Experiment with different heights to see how much different an ordinary shot can be when viewed. If you have a baby or small pet, get on the ground and take pictures, try to show the world from their perspective. Look up at objects you normally look down on, look down on objects you normall see from a normal level.

Less is More

Sometimes showing things from different angles can result in an image where less is more. Showing only a part of a common object or a common object from a abnormal angle can really change how you view something. Take the picture here of this slick hot rod, while it does show the car off quite well, the shot is definitly nothing special. On the other hand, if you took some pictures from some different angles or perspectives, you can can really get some interesting shots. Here are some examples of this concept also from this same vehicle.

Pieces & Parts

Just like the previous examples, just showing pieces and parts of something that are even less recognizable than showing something completely obvious like a tire or headlight. Any interesting grill, side louvers, paint job, or some other detail can really make for an interesting photograph.

Again, here are a few examples of this concept:

Here is a gallery of images from The hot Rod Revue at Original Mike’s. These demonstrate the concepts discussed in this article and were inspired by the work of Mike Micklich at Car-tography.com.

• 1 Hour Consultation with Moshe Zusman
• Module Pass to Moshe Zusman‘s Workshop in DC
• Jason Groupp’s 25 Kick-Ass Lighting Scenarios DVD and pocket guide
• Portfolio Review from Kerry Garrison
• 2 e-books from Jason Anderson – 49 Photo Tips – Volumes 1 & 2

To enter, simply go to http://www.nationslearninglab.com/topics/learn-from-the-best-contest/ and say why you deserve (or need) to learn from one of the best.

Good luck!

Pre-Shoot Checklist
The pre-shoot checklist is the list i use the day before a shoot. This one covers things like making sure batteries are charged, cleaning equipment, and things like that. Nothing is worse than thinking you are totally prepared and realizing your camera battery is near dead when on location.
Pre-Shoot Checklist

Shoot Day Checklist
The shoot day checklist is the list of things I am taking for a particular shoot. Bodies, lenses, filters, flash, tripod, batteries, etc. This is my basic packing list of things that go into whatever kit I am taking.
Shoot Day Checklist

Location Checklist
There are a LOT of logistics about doing location shooting, especially for architecture shots that must be perfect. This list is a ton of questions to make sure you have the answers to such as parking, access, lighting, people, signage, security, etc.
Location Checklist

Wedding Shot Checklist
A wedding is one of the most stressful types of shoots there is, you simply cannot miss a key shot or get a do-over later if a shot doesn’t work. The second part requires skill and experience, but the first part we can address with this wedding shot checklist. Go over this list with the bride and groom and decide which shots are the must-have’s for their wedding. If you don’t want to always be referring to the list when taking the photos, bring an assistant with the list and a clipboard to make sure all the shots were taken.
Wedding Shot Checklist

I hope this inspires you to create your own customized checklists for the type of work that you do so that you will always be as prepared as you can possibly be.

Link: Posing Your Subjects: LDP Podcast #58

Before I just jump in and explain what he was doing wrong, let’s break down the situation and explain why this shouldn’t have been a problem.

The room wasn’t very bright and you needed to shoot at around f/5.6 to keep multiple people in focus. Using this aperture and a reasonable shutter speed of 1/60th required an ISO setting (without flash) of 6,400. A Canon 580 ex II zoomed to 105mm at full power easily has a working distance of 150 feet so I was able to get good exposure at a much lower ISO at only 1/4 power. I didn’t even bother to use manual flash settings as eTTL was doing just fine.

Given the ability of the equipment, why was it that the other guy was having problems even though he actually had a better camera? Well, the other guy had something I didn’t, he had a Sto-fen diffuser on his flash. But wait, isn’t a Sto-fen supposed to improve your flash? Why was this killing the shot?

Let’s break this down. At full power he should have had 150 feet of flash range. Just having the Sto-fen on the flash will cut the total light output by two stops (Understanding Light Stops), add to that the diffusion that is throwing the light in every possible direction and you are probably losing 60-70% of your forward facing light. If we start with a practical 150’ working range and cut our light by two stops, we cut our working distance down to 37.5’ which would still be in range of having a good exposure. Now let’s be really conservative here since I don’t have a Sto-fen here to test and say that its really only wasting 30% of the light and 70% is still going forward, 70% of 37.5’ is 26..25’ which is too short of a working distance to light a subject 40 feet away. All he had to do was remove the Sto-fen diffuser from his flash and he would have got instant great results.

I am not telling this story to mock him for using a Sto-fen, but you have to understand what different modifiers will do to your light and how it will affect your working distance. The following day I saw people at the final graduation event sitting in bleachers close to 350’ away from the subjects and having their flash turned on. Not on the best of days with the wind behind you and finding a four leaf clover will your flash give you an exposure at 350 feet…this is physics, it just aint gonna happen.

This is why you need to learn how your equipment works, try your different modifiers, figure out what the longest working distance you have is and even write it on the device. If you decide a Sto-fen device is best used at 20 feet or less, write a “20-“ on it so there is no second guessing when you really need something to work.

Again, I am not knocking the Sto-fen diffuser here, I am simply saying that there is a time and a place for almost any modifier and knowing that some devices will give you a shorter working distance is absolutely critical to making sure you are setup properly.

Any time you get a new light modifier you need to really practice with it and figure out its strengths and weaknesses, and they ALL have weaknesses. Some are better for individuals, some are better for groups, some are better for soft lighting, some are better for dramatic lighting. The point is, they are all different and don’t assume that you can take one specific modifier, put it on your flash, and never have to worry about it again..

IMG_2058	IMG_2059
IMG_2080	IMG_2082RV
3I8O3658	3I8O3711
IMG_5385	IMG_4844RV
30	IMG_4326RV
IMG_2031C	IMG_2031RV
IMG_0208	IMG_0209
IMG_0209RV

Be sure and check out Roberto’s website at: http://www.robertovalenzuelaphotography.com
Follow Roberto on twitter at @robertophoto

Show Host: Kerry Garrison

Features

At first glance the Pro Roller x300 looks like your basic roller case with two zipper pockets on the front. The small pocket is fairly small but expands a little and is good for fast access to small items like lens caps, cleaning clothes, batteries, memory card holders, and other small items. The second pocket is larger and is fairly nicely padded making it ideal for storing a laptop or tablet.

Locking Mechanism

On the left side are two attachment points for adding a tripod holder. On the opposite side is a unique locking mechanism that has a pull-out cable that goes through hoops built into the zipper handles to help keep everything secure. The only thing I wished the lock had was a longer cable to make it easier to lock the bag to a secure object during an event when you can’t keep your eyes on your bag. The fact that it does lock the entire bag, including the front pockets, is a real plus though. The locking mechanism is TSA Approved so you will not have any issues with airport security if you want to check the bag through luggage.

Prop Stand

Turning to the back, there is a hide-away prop stand. I think this prop stand is a very nice addition to a roller bag since it makes it easier to get into your gear without having to bend all the way over to the ground. When you first look at the prop stand you will likely think that it is going to be weak and unstable, however, in use it is quite stable.

Specifications

Capacity: 1-2 pro DSLRs with grip plus 8-10 lenses; accessories, up to 17″ laptop

Inside

Inside The x200

The door features two good size pockets that don’t really expand much so they are good for small cables, gels, and other small accessories. There is also three holders for memory cards that feature small flaps that you can switch to show if the memory cards are full or empty. There is also a little hide-away panel that has a spot for a few pens and business cards. In the main compartment is plenty of space for a couple of bodies and a good assortment of lenses and accessories. The padding is quite thick so your gear should be pretty safe from getting knocked around when traveling. There are two main divider pieces that run top to bottom in the case that really don’t lend themselves to being moved much while all of the other cross pieces are easily moved or removed to customize the bag to your needs.

Hidden Backpack

The Surprises

There are two big surprises that the x200 has in store for you. The first big surprise is that the whole storage system unzips and comes out of the outside case complete with shoulder straps making the x200 a true hybrid roller/backback system. While this seems basic enough, Lowepro takes it to the next level by having the a zippered cover for the roller shell. What this means is that when I am getting ready to travel somewhere, I can pull out the backpack, complete with all my standard gear, and then use the roller case as my suitcase. When I arrive at my destination I can unpack the suitcase and put the backpack back inside and am back to having a rolling camera bag. This is certainly a unique aspect to this bag system.

Accessory Mount Thread

The second surprise, which I have wanted on my bags for a LONG time, is a threaded hole hidden beneath the logo badge on the handle. This allows you to screw in a standard threaded stud and then attach your camera or a light for a quick mobile platform. This is a very welcome design feature and I am sure I am going to use that heavily instead of having to pull out a light stand when in a hurry. When you open the x200 up you will find an accessory bag with the strap for the tripod holder and a threaded rod for the handle.

Results

There is a lot to like about the Lowepro Pro Roller x200 Case. While there are a few little tweaks I would like to see but overall it is a very solid bag and the little extras really are excellent touches. The Lowepro Pro Roller x200 Case doesn’t come at a cheap price, at $329.95 at B&H Photo, it is on the high side of the camera bag price spectrum. I have said this numerous times, you get what you pay for. A high quality bag like this will last you for many years without any problems. My experience is that a cheaper bag is just not going to be built as good and I used to replace my camera bags every 6-9 months. At that rate you are much better off buying something that is going to last you five years or more. The Lowepro Pro Roller x200 delivers on many levels and is certainly a worthwhile purchase in my opinion. Lowepro Pro x200 product page: http://products.lowepro.com/product/Pro-Roller%20×200,2163.htm Amazon.com: Lowepro Pro Roller x200 Camera Bag $329.99 B&H Photo: Lowepro Pro Roller x200 Case $329.99

So what’s wrong with existing white balance tools and why is the ColorRight Pro supposed to fix it?

Using the ColorRight Pro

The main problem with most white balance tools is that when you take your calibration shot, the gray card or white balance filter can be getting light contamination from different light sources. The theory here is that the only light source that really matters is the main (key) light. If we can narrow down the source of light we are calibrating for to mostly just the main light source, then the subject will generally have the correct white balance.

The ColorRight Pro attempts to solve this by having an angled opening in the dome that collects light from multiple angles yet favors the light from specific angles by “aiming” the dome at the main light source.

Does it work?

This may seem like a simple question but the answer can be fairly complicated. For the sake of keeping things simple, let’s just say “it depends”. This isn’t to say it doesn’t work in some situations, but more that the usefulness may vary from situation to situation which is of no fault to the ColorRight Pro and probably speaks more to improvements in modern DSLR’s ability to have automatic white balance. Let’s look at a few examples:

Automatic 4800k

ColorRight 4850k

In the first example, the ColorRight Pro corrected the white balance by only 50 degrees. Not really enough to make any real difference in the visual appearance.

Automatic 4850k

ColorRight 4850k

In the second example, the ColorRight Pro produced exactly the same white balance values as the camera’s automatic white balance.

Next it was time to see how it would do in a more unfriendly environment…under the hot lights!

Automatic 4150k

ColorRight 2900k

Under the tungsten hot lights the ColorRight Pro really showed what it is capable of. The camera’s auto white balance failed miserably to correct adequately for the extremely warm cast from the tungsten bulb. After getting a shot with the ColorRight Pro and setting the custom white balance, the next shot was perfect and required no color correction in post production.

Is the ColorRight Pro For You?

If you are only shooting outdoors during mid-day or using flash for really solid daylight balanced conditions, you may not need the ColorRight Pro and your camera will probably do pretty good. If you ever shoot in the late afternoon when the color from the Sun has gone into the warm side, ever have to deal with awkward lighting setups, or ever need to shoot JPEG, then you certainly need some kind of white balance tool.

The ColorRight Pro sells for $129.95 at B & H Photo which might be a bit pricey for some people but when you really need to rely on your white balance tools, you want to make sure what you are getting is going to do the job correctly.

Summary

I said it right up front, I don’t often use a white balance tool but when I do need one, I REALLY need one. There is simply no better way to speed up your post production workflow than to be able to completely ignore having to do white balance correction. Secondly, if you find that you need to shoot in JPEG (yes folks, there are reasons like I described above) then white balance is absolutely essential to getting the shots right.  What you have to ask yourself is if it’s worth $130 to have exceptionally good white balance. This is going to depend on you. You can spend $15 for a cheap white balance lens cap and it may be better than nothing or you can spend $130 for extremely accurate color. Only you can place a monetary value on the quality of your own images.

ColorRight Website: http://colorright.com

Continue reading to see a large version of this graphic.

Click to Enlarge Image

Via:Online Printing

https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/42b310f1/13466693

Lowepro CompuDay Photo 250

Here is my personal dilemma…I want to carry my camera with me much more often but I always carry too much gear when what I really need is a body, a 24-70, a 70-200, a flash, and a modifier or two. I have tried messenger bags and other backpacks but they never really “did it” for me as they were either too heavy, too small, or wouldn’t organize things well.  The folks at Lowepro suggested I give the CompuDay Photo 250 a try and see if it addresses the issues I have had with other backpacks.

Specifications

Capacity:
Compact DSLR with kit lens attached; up to a 15.6†widescreen laptop; accessories; personal items

Using the CompuDay Photo 250

I figure the best way to discuss the CompuDay Photo 250 is to go through the list of issues I normally have and see how the CompuDay Photo 250 stacks up against the rest.

Size

The CompuDay Photo 250 is a small backpack for short hikes or daily carry-around use. Unlike some other bags that are basically small all-purpose camera bags with straps on them. This means less room for gear, but that’s kind of the point. For a nice bag just big enough for a few components, the CompuDay Photo 250 fits the bill quite nicely.

Weight

The empty bag is quite light so it’s much more about your gear and you don’t feel like you are lugging around a heavy bag as well.

Organization

There are lots of pockets and sleeves to help keep your stuff organized but the main storage section is really just a big open space but it is big enough for a DSLR and a lens or two. I really like the external access to the lens pocket which means you can swap lenses without having to dig through the main compartment. This is a nice win for the Photo 250.

Quality

The build quality of the Photo 250 is top-notch. I have nothing negative to say about the build quality at all.

Price

At $99 list price and a current street price of $74.95 at B & H Photo, the CompuDay 250 is reasonably prices for a backpack with these features and quality.

Results

I didn’t really know what to expect from the Lowepro CompuDay Photo 250 as my experience with backpacks in the past has not been overly positive. I really have to say that I actually like the CompuDay Photo 250 quite a bit. When I travel, it makes a nice carry-on bag for my laptop, basic camera gear, and electronic accessories, around town I can keep my camera with me for fast, easy access without bogging me down with my normally excessive gear packing. At the current street price, it’s not going to break the bank and will make for a nice size back for those photowalks, short hikes, and other times I want to be hands free. The only thing I wish it had was a divider in the main compartment to aid in the organization of a lens or two but that is getting a little nit picky.

If you are looking for a good quality backpack at a really good price, it would be hard to do much better than the Lowepro CompuDay 250.

Lowepro Website: http://www.lowepro.com/
Lowepro CompuDay Photo 250: http://products.lowepro.com/product/CompuDay-Photo-250,2249,16.htm

Lowepro CompuDay Photo 250 at B&H Photo: Lowepro CompuDay Photo 250

The Image

The shot is an evening shot taken after sunset so there is no visible sun and almost no ambient light. The subject is a girl so she needed to be lit properly which meant artificial light. I also wanted the water to be sharp and not have any motion blur in it.

Making The Image

The light from the sun was almost non-existent so any normal exposure that would freeze the water in mid-air would have resulted in a pitch black background. In order to get any color at all out of the background the shutter speed needed to be 1/15th of a second, now that is one slow shutter! But with that slow of a shutter, why isn’t the water all blurry (not to mention the subject since I shot it hand-held, not with a tripod)? Since there was almost no ambient light, what freezes the subject and the water is not the shutter but the flash. The speed of the flash is about 1/20,000th of a second so it is this short burst of light that, in effect, acts like a fast shutter speed. The flash was a Canon 580 EX II with a 14″ Lumodi Beauty Dish mounted on it about 3′ away from the subject.

The aperture was set at f/8 to provide a wide field of view for all the water as well as the subject and the ISO was at 200 so keep digital noise to a minimum. The flash was fired using a PocketWizard MiniTT1 Transmitter with AC3 ZoneController mounted on a Canon 50D and a PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver on the flash. This combination allowed me to take a few shots and adjust the flash power right from the camera while an assistant held the flash into position.

ISO 200 - f/8 - 1/15th - Handheld

While you may not think you can get a sharp image with a long shutter speed, if flash is the only light source then you can use a very long shutter speed and the light from the flash will be so brief that it will effectively freeze the objects in the frame. This is the same technique for freezing bullets in mid-air and other fast moving objects.

What you will need

To start off with, you should get a set of gels. The set I recommend is the Strobist Gell Collection since it contains a large number of gels of different colors that are pre-cut to fit most speedlites. Second, you will need some way to attach the gels to your speedlite. I generally use the Lumiquest Gel Holder or just some basic gaffers tape.

Once you have the gel attached to your flash, you are ready to get going.

The Lighting Setup

This is where people often get hung up because a poor setup can cause light to spill on to the subject or the main lights can wash out the color effect. Ideally you want 3 feet or more between the background and the subject to prevent spill and you want the main lights to be angled enough to not spill onto the background to wash it out. Later on we will look at some actual setups to show how they are done.

In the first image, we saw just a plain black background which was done with black seamless paper and the lighting was coming from an side angle to prevent hitting the background. In this image we have a single speedlite one 1/2 power with a purple gel shooting up from behind the subject. This is a very simple yet effective setup since it used a single light source. To help the light spread out, the flash zoom was set to 24mm to make it as wide as possible (without a modifier).

If the flash isn’t set high enough you won’t get much of an effect. If it is set too high, the color will wash out and you will get white.

If you want to take it a step further add a second light with the same or a different color. In this case I changed the purple to a red and added a second flash with a blue gel. Take notice that where the colors overlap they actually mix and become purple. If you are trying to use two different colors, you will need to keep this mixing effect in mind and might have to take steps to flag the two flashes to keep the colors from mixing.

Another thing to try is to use multiple gels on a single flash by covering half of the flash with one color and the other half with a different color. For a recent benefit shoot I tried this with pretty decent results.

Again you can see the distinct blue and red colors but a purple where the colors mixed. I am going to continue to play with this technique and see what I can get with possibly using a vertical card in between the two gels to try to keep the colors separated more.

Even though the colors mixed more than I would have liked, the overall effect was very nice although I later wished I had used a white or black background as the gray seamless was a little too drab where the color wasn’t hitting it.

The following is an image from the shoot showing how the images turned out.

What I really wanted to achieve was a red, white, and blue effect so back in the studio I start experimenting to see what I could come up with. What I finally came up with was a three light setup with bare flashes with the gels on the bottom and an non-gelled flash higher up to provide a white splash. If I used just a bare flash for the white, the spot was too big and washed out the other colors so I added a Rouge 3-In-1 Grid to keep the light contained.

The first test was alright but the white spot was too small.

To solve this, I took the small grid out of the Rouge Grid so I would get a little larger of a spot and got the resulting image.

There I had it, a red, white, and blue background effect. The next image is a shot of the actual lighting setup so you can see how it was all put together.

Hopefully this will inspire you to get creative with using gels for different background effects. It just takes a little patience and practice to get it all dialed in right, but once you do, the possibilities are endless.

Images discussed during the show

Christina

Lips Blow Cue

Sylvianne's Vineyard

Renée Robyn floor

Dave Burns Hawaii

Dave Montizambert’s Website: http://www.montizambert.com

Dramatic Lighting Workshop May 15-16: http://www.wix.com/sarahreid/lightingworkshop

Show Host

Kerry Garrison
http://kerrygarrison.com

How are we doing this?

For discussion’s sake the Android tablet we will be looking at is the Motorola XOOM. This one was chosen as our Android platform because it is considered to be the top-of-the-line of the current Android tablets.  Now I want to start off by saying that I do not consider myself an Android fanboy. I love Apple products and have always felt their industrial design is generally second to none. My wife and daughter have MacBooks, most everyone in the family owns an iPod, and my wife has an iPad. One the other hand, we all own Android-powered phones. Hopefully this gives me enough credibility and experience to be able to give a solid rundown of the differences. So let’s get started.

Size Differences

In physical size the XOOM and the iPad are very similar although the XOOM has a slightly larger LCD display. Even though the iPad’s screen is 1/2†smaller than the XOOM, the iPad is physically larger due to having more bezel around the edges. A half-inch increase in screen size isn’t a complete win for the XOOM since the smaller bezel actually makes it more difficult to hold without touching the actual screen. If size is really a consideration here there is no clear winner based on size.

Horsepower

When it comes to raw processing power, both the iPad 2 and the XOOM are outfitted with quite powerful processors. The high-end Android tablets such as the XOOM are also outfitted with the nVidia Tegra2 video chips providing amazing 3D graphics ability. Not that the iPad is a slouch when it comes to graphics, but the Tegra2 is certainly the top of the line at this point. If you are looking at a tablet as a gaming platform, the games developed for the iPad 2 are sure to please, but the games that are possible on the XOOM can have slightly better and faster graphics. As a gaming platform, I am going to give a slight edge to the XOOM.

Ease of Use

Let’s face it, Apple can take a powerful device and make it so dead-simple to use that many older people who would never carry a laptop around are seen carrying iPads. Apple spends a tremendous amount of effort on documentation and guidelines to ensure that iPad applications have a very consistent look and feel and all conform to very strict user interface guidelines. Since Apple tightly controls the apps in the Apple Store, if your app doesn’t conform to the strict guidelines, it simply won’t be approved. This is actually a double-edged sword. One one hand you get solid consistent apps but on the flip side this makes it more difficult to develop applications and may prevent some applications, as good as they might be, from ever getting published.  I am really torn on how to call this one. The iPad clearly wins on ease of use but there is a hidden cost to keeping things as simple as Apple requires. Still, this is the one huge benefit of the iPad, it only takes a few minutes to master the interface and understand how to do most tasks.

Customization Ability

Where the iPad is exceptionally simple to use, one of the main reasons is because you cannot customize your user experience outside of moving icons around and having folders with current iOS versions. While this lack of customization is what ensures the iPad user experience is always simple and consistent, it is also the biggest differentiator to the Android experience. If you are a power user and want to customize your experience, than the Android platform may be a better choice. Shown here are the home screens of my wife’s iPad and my XOOM. Her iPad looks basically the same as every other iPad, 20 icons per screen and 5 permanent icons on the bottom, nothing special, but certainly easy to navigate.

iPad Home Screen

Customized XOOM Screen

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the home screen from my XOOM. I have replaced the stock Honeycomb interface with a different “launcher†that provides additional functionality. The Android’s ability to use screen widgets, I have quick glance access to recent emails, upcoming calendar events, and weather. I also have placed my most commonly used shortcuts on the home page so I don’t need to scroll through a list of icons to find them. There is also a hand Pandora widget that allows play, pause, thumb-up, and thumb-down without having to switch to the full application. For this category, and admittedly this is purely a subjective opinion, I am giving the win to the XOOM. I want to be able to personalize my user experience the same way I do on my computer systems. If this feature is not important to you, then that is a completely personal preference and it is not for me to try to convince you otherwise.

Notifications

Android Notifications

While many iPhone/iPad users are quite content with the notification system within iOS, I think it actually fails on a number of levels. The only notification system within the i-Devices is a simple pop-up dialog box, the Android notification system is quite robust. Being able to see a list of recent notifications, selectively act on or clear specific notifications is a clear win….if you use the tablet as a productivity device. If you only use a tablet as a media consumption device (web browsing, music, video, etc) then you have no real need for notifications at all. On the other hand, if you are using your tablet as more of a desktop replacement with email, instant messages, scheduling, and social interaction (Facebook and twitter) than a much more robust notification system can indeed be very valuable. Here at Dojo Central, my wife uses her iPad mostly for reading books with the Kindle reader (her iPad replaced her original Kindle), checking email and facebook. She doesn’t care about notifications as she uses her phone or laptop for that. On the flip side, I use the XOOM much more as a productivity device and notifications are extremely useful for the way I work and use my tablet.

Design Goals

I actually feel like the design goals between the iPads and the Android tablets are quite different. I like to consider the iPad to be a media consumption device. For web browsing (the lack of Adobe Flash not withstanding), checking email, listening to music, watching videos, reading books, the iPad simply excels.  using iTunes to manage your media is fairly simple and works well. With its simple interface the iPad can be picked up and used by kids to senior citizens and everything in between.

On the other hand, the Android tablets seem to be geared towards productivity and more general computing tasks. Granted, many applications are available on both platforms so one device doesn’t necessarily have a huge advantage over the other. There are also apps on each platform that people with the other platform wish they had so it goes both ways.

Summary

Is there a clear “winner†here, the answer is “it dependsâ€. I realize that this may be a cop-out to some people but as I have tried to outline here, both platforms have strengths and weaknesses. There are also other features that may be important to you such as the XOOM’s expandability with an SD Card slot and USB port for easy access to manage files, connect external devices or the iPad’s assortment of accessories. The iPad also has a more mature software base especially with Apple software such as iMovie and GarageBand being great examples.

If you have an iPhone and absolutely love it, than you will probably love the iPad. If you have an Android phone and you love it, then you will probably love an Android tablet. But, as even witnessed here at home, my wife has an Android phone but wanted an iPad and has absolutely no regrets about her choice.

If you are considering a tablet, I highly encourage you to fully investigate both platforms and try to make as informed of a decision as possible. It’s really hard to go wrong either way, its really a matter of features and abilities are important to you. Also keep in mind that an iPad is an iPad, there are no cheap crappy versions of iPads. There is only Apple made iPads.On the other hand, since the Android operating system is open source, virtually anyone can create an Android tablet and there are cheap, crappy Android tablets on the market, many under $150, there is even a cheap Android tablet available Big Lots (formerly Pic-N-Save). So if you are shopping for an Android tablet, be careful of those inexpensive devices as they are underpowered and usually do not even have access to the Android Market for you to install new apps.

Lighting Studio
[Android Market Link]
Price: FREE

When you want to do a quick layout of a lighting setup, Lighting Studio is a quick and simple way to lay out different components. From subjects, to lights, to background, to modifiers, Lighting Studio makes it very simple. Best of all, Lighting Studio is FREE!

Screen Shot

Photoshop Express
[Android Market Link]
Price: FREE

Edit and share photos virtually anywhere. Access them all on Photoshop.com

Edit and share photos virtually anywhere. Touch to crop, rotate, adjust color, and add artistic effects. Access all your photos and videos directly from your free Photoshop.com account. Quickly share with family and friends.

Screenshots

Vignette
Price: $4.05
[Market Link]

Add film and camera effects to your photos.

• 68 effects & 56 frames
• Retro/vintage styles
• LOMO/Diana/Holga toy camera styles
• Polaroid/instant camera styles
• Cross-process, tilt-shift, photobooth, double exposure and more.

• Supports the full resolution of your camera (3.1MP, 5MP or 8MP)
• Flash (if your phone has one) (not working on Dell Streak)
• Front-facing camera support (on some phones)
• Self-timer and time-lapse
• Digital zoom
• Geotagging

There is a free demo version of Vignette to allow you to try it out before you buy it. Click here to try it out.

Screenshot

Sundroid
Price: Free
[Market Link]

Worldwide sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset times.

The most downloaded sunrise and sunset times calculator for Android! Handy for photography, hunting, outdoor activites and holiday planning. Use your current location from wireless networks or GPS, select places on a map, or search by name or zip code.

Also calculates moon rise, set and phase.

Take a look at my paid app if you’d like 4 widgets, civil, nautical and astronomical twilight times, azimuths of rise and set, monthly calendars and saved locations.

Screenshots

Picsay Pro
Price:
[Market Link]

Award winning photo editor with all the tools you need to spice up your pictures

Spice up the pictures on your phone with this award winning photo editor!

New, initial Xoom support, Gritty and Redscale filter, and new mouth stickers!

Sharpen, remove red eye, crop & straighten, distort, insert cutouts of other pictures, paint, make color splash out of black-and-white pictures, add text, word balloons, apply effects like Cross Process, Lomo, Vignette, faux HDR, Tilt-shift, Pencil Sketch, and much more.

Screenshots

Easy Release – Model Releases
Price: $9.99
[Market Link]

Easy Release replaces inconvenient paper model release forms and contracts with a slick, streamlined application. Collect all data and signatures right on a touch sensitive Android device then email a PDF of the release right to you. Pre-bundled with industry standard (Getty Images) model and property releases in 13 langs.

- Approved for use by Getty Images and Alamy contributors!

Screentshot

For more information about the show, please check out http://www.bargaincamerashows.com/bcs_sd_map.htm

Build and Feature Comparison

Size is only one of the comparisons I will be making through this article because in the end that is what people are going to ask about.  The bare lenses are very similar in size with the Sigma just a hair longer than the Canon. For comparison we are using the previous Canon model and not the newer Mark II version in order to be on the same playing field price-wise.

The build quality of the Sigma is very nice. I have been a fan of Sigma lenses for a long time and shoot regularly with the 24-70 f/2.8 so I was not surprised that the Sigma had an excellent fit and finish to it.

One surprising difference is that the lens collar on the Sigma is actually better than the Canon one. I actually really dislike the lens collar on the Canon, it’s a pain to spin around when you are in a hurry.

I wasn’t about to take two expensive lens and pour water on them or subject them to a heavy dust storm, but the Canon lens is known for having really good weather sealing which may be a factor in some extreme locations. For the average wedding and portrait shooter, this may not justify the extra cost.

The Sigma has simpler controls for the autofocus controls which plays to Canon’s advantage since the Canon has a switch for two difference focus ranges that can help the Canon lens focus faster. Not that the Sigma is a slouch in the autofocus department but when used properly the Canon will outperform the Sigma is focusing times.

The Hypersonic motor in the Sigma is remarkably quiet and when tested on a Canon 50D the autofocus works quite well and very accurately.

The lens hood on the Sigma (included at no additional charge) is a little longer than the Canon with the two primary petals narrowing at the ends giving it a pretty aggressive look.

The zoom and the focus are arranged opposite differently from the Canon which isn’t an issue if you haven’t used the Canon lens much.

You could nit-pick the differences one way or the other but from a build and quality perspective the lenses are a pretty close match. Where the rubber hits the road is going to be how well does it shoot images.

Lens Tests

Shooting out in the field it was very difficult to tell a difference between the images from each lens so I needed to ramp it up a notch and pull out the LensAlign and see if we could get some actual results.

Sigma

Canon

The test shot here was taken at f/2.8, 200mm at 8’ from the front of the camera body (Canon 50D). At first glance the images look pretty much exactly the same with the exception of the image size. You may be wondering why the Canon image is physically smaller than the Sigma. The reason for this is that they were cropped from the top-left of the LensAlign to the bottom-right of the actual image and there is a focal length difference between the images. I don’t have the equipment here to tell you precisely what each lens is doing  but for the sake of example, let’s say that the Canon shoots a perfect 200mm on a full-frame sensor, so on the APS-C we are getting the equivalent of 320mm. With the Sigma, we are not getting the same maximum focal length, we are probably shy by about 20mm. I would be a little careful here slamming Sigma for being the same as the Canon since the crop/zoom factor on the smaller sensors can sometimes be an issue. Having the Sigma be a little wider than the Canon, in my book, is not necessarily a strike against it, especially with small sensor cameras. Certainly, if you need all the reach you can get, then the Canon may be a better choice.

In the next set of images I have done a 100% crop and cut out the same section for comparison.

Sigma Lens

Canon Lens

My initial take on these was that the Sigma actually seemed a little sharper at the edges of these images. Upon thinking about this for a little while it occurred to me that part of the reason the Sigma appears sharper is that we are not actually comparing apples to apples here. The longer your focal length, the shorter your depth of field, so since the Canon is actually shooting at a slightly longer focal length, as described above, the depth of field is going to be larger. If we narrow our focus just to the “0†location we find that the two lenses are virtually identical in sharpness.

Summary

I need to point out again that this comparison did not use the new model of the Canon 70-200 IS L II and instead used the previous model because I felt from a price point, the new Mark II version of the Canon lens was in a completely different price point. For people considering getting into the less expensive previous model, we wanted to see if the Sigma was a good enough value.

Current Prices (as of 4/3/11)

• Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO EX DG HSM OS FLD $1,399 Street Price
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM $1,549 Street Price
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM $2,599 Street Price

* Street prices taken from Amazon.com

With the Sigma being $200 less than the Canon and, other than the focal length issue which may or may not be an issue for you, the only real difference could be the weather sealing on the Canon. I have shot all over the country in a variety of conditions with lenses that have never claimed to have any weather sealing and have never had an issue. However, if I was going to be doing an African safari or maybe shooting in a rain forest than I would opt for gear that has the best protection possible, which in my case would mean a new camera body as well.

For the vast majority of photographers, I have to give Sigma a win based on price here. I have been shooting Sigma lenses for years and have always been happy with their image quality and performance and I can certainly recommend the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO EX DG HSM OS FLD as well know.

What is the AC3?

The PocketWizard AC3 ZoneController is an add-on to the ControlTL system that brings a new level of control to your lighting setups. Before we get to deep into this we need to take a step back and look at what the Canon system delivers so we can see how the AC3 ZoneController enhances the original functionality.

While I am not going to go deep into detail here as that would require an entire book, let’s break it down into two main types of control the Canon system has.

• eTTL Ratio Control
  With eTTL Ratio mode you have an A and a B channel that will provide automatic metering through the camera. You can provide more power to one channel while taking power away from the other. This is a very basic ratio control and the only override you have is a general flash exposure compensation. You can then add to that a C channel which operates independently and has its own power adjustment. The downside with this setup is that a simple ratio control sometimes isn’t enough.
• Manual Control
  In manual control you can simply adjust each of the three channels independently. This is generally my favorite mode but the main problem is still the line-of-site issue and that pesky third channel is often now in a good position to get a signal from the main flash.

While the PocketWizard ControlTL system solves the line-of-site issue, the problem has always been that if you still want all of the functionality of the Canon wireless system, you still had to put a 580 EX/EX II flash on top of the MiniTT1 module to enable the full range of controls. What I really wanted was to be able to use ALL of my speedlites off-camera and not have to sacrifice one just for the controls.

This is exactly where the AC3 ZoneController comes in. The AC3 provides you with three different channels to work work (make me now wish for 4 or 5 though) that can be managed in three different ways:

• Off
  Should be self-explanatory here, if not, this allows you to simply turn off each channel by itself.
• Auto
  Uses the Canon TTL system for automatic metering while provide a simple override dial giving you plus or minus three stops.
• Manual
  Provides manual control over each channel from 1/64th power to Full Power.

Using the AC3 ZoneController

I certainly have to admit that I don’t miss having to have a complete speedlite on top of the camera to give me the control of my lighting since this give me one more light at my disposal to use to light the scene. I also should admit that I shoot the vast majority of my work with manual flash. I find it to be more reliable and consistent than using eTTL. The ability to turn channels on/off and adjust the power without having to walk over to where the speedlite is can come in very handy.

For most portrait setups, the Automatic mode will work the vast majority of the time, its usually only when the subject has odd-reflective properties do things have a tendency to get a little wonky. Still, I shoot my camera in manual, and I generally keep my flash in manual.

One of the biggest advantages is the time savings in dialing in your lighting output power. I can start with all of the lights off to adjust for the ambient. Then turn on the accent light to get it’s power set, add the fill light, and then the key light and everything comes together very quickly without multiple trips to each light or having to have a VOLS handy.

Keep in mind that you are paying for this convenience. A three light ControlTL power system would consist of the following components:

• MiniTT1 Transmitter $199
• Three FlexTT5 Transceivers @  $229 each
• AC3 ZoneController $79

So a three light setup will set you back $955.00. While a cheap, manually only trigger kit will run less than $100. While this does sound like a staggering difference in cost, and it certainly is up front, you have to consider the time factor of being able to control everything from your camera. You simply do not always have the luxury of time to run around adjusting lights to get exactly what you want. The time factor can certainly pay for itself fairly quickly since you can dial in all three zones without having to waste your own time or have an assistant.

Putting the AC3 ZoneController to Use

The following sequence of images shows exactly what I described above from starting with ambient light and adding the three lights in order.

Get Exposure for Ambient Light	Setup Background Light
Add Fill Light	Add Key Light

The beauty of the PocketWizard AC3 ZoneController is that turning lights on and off and adjusting their power is all done without have to step away from the camera. If your lights are pointed in the right direction it should only take a few shots to get everything you need dialed in quickly and accurately.

If you have already made the investment in the PocketWizard ControlTL system, plunking down another $79 in order to have the AC3’s level of control should be a complete no-brainer.

Pockwizard Website: http://www.pocketwizard.com/
PocketWizard Blog: http://blog.pocketwizard.com/

Amazon Links

• MiniTTL Transmitter
• FlexTT5 Transceivers
• AC3 ZoneController

I personally love using grids to help control light spread. Grids are great for hair lights, accent lights, and can even be used as a primary light for some really dramatic lighting. The downside to grids is that you basically get what you get. Even the most popular companies that make grids make them in different styles so you can get different amounts of light spreads. If you want any variety you have to buy multiple grids. ExpoImaging has attempted to solve this problem with the 3-In-1 Grid by providing three different styles in order to get different light spreads from a single piece of equipment. How does it work? Well, you need to read the complete article for details.

How Does it Work?

The Rogue 3-In-1 Grid consists of four pieces that work together. First you have the sleeve that fits onto your speedlte, by itself it could actually be used as a small snoot. Next you have the outer bevel that fits onto the end of the sleeve. Then you have a 45Ëš screen and a 25Ëš screen. These screen can be used individually or stacked together to create a 16Ëš screen.

The smaller the grid angle, the smaller the beam size will be on the subject. Having three different angle degrees means you only have to buy one device that can provide you with multiple lighting styles. Since the sleeve is very similar to the FlashBenders, it lays flat and the complete package isn’t any larger than other grids on the market. This is a very welcome design feature for people who have a limited amount of space in the camera bag.

16Ëš Grid

25Ëš Grid

45Ëš Grid

Using The Rogue 3-In-1 Grid

One of the more common used of a grid is to add an accent light such as a hair light. In this shot here, our model Venus is shown being light from camera-right with a beauty dish while the Rogue 3-In-1 Grid is used high and left to provide a hair light (ok, so in the case the word ‘hair’ is used rather loosely).

In this case we used the 16Ëš configuration, had we used a larger grid angle we could have lit the entire side of the face.

What I really like about the Rogue Grid is that it puts out a nice circular pattern. With almost all other honeycomb grids,  they create a more rectangular shape because of their design. Now sometimes that may be what you want, but generally I would prefer as round of a beam as possible.

Background Lights

Beyond hair and accent, another great use of grids is controlling light on backgrounds. Instead of attaching a Velcro strap, then attaching a Lumiquest FX, and then putting the Grid over that, I simply use the sleeve of the Grid to hold the Lumiquest FX in place and fire away.

To get this background shot the speedlite with the Grid and blue gel was positioned just below shoulder and pointed slightly up onto the background.

Summary

The Rogue 3-In-1 Grid hits the mark on a number of key areas. First off its three different grid sizes in one on top of a short snoot and even a nice size catch light card. Any product that is a true multi-tasker is much more welcome in my camera bag than a uni-tasker.  Secondly, it takes up very little space in my bag and since bag space is not infinite, the more functionality you can fit into the same amount of space, the better off you are.

At $49.95, its not the cheapest piece of gear but when you consider the versatility it really is quite a bargain. When you look at competing products that require you to buy multiple units along with attachment straps, the Rogue 3-In-1 is actually a cheaper, and more versatile solution.

If you want to get really creative with your lighting, the ExpoImaging Rogue 3-In-1 Grid should really be part of your lighting gear.

On top of all of the latest posts, there is also an integrated podcast player so you can get all the latest podcasts right on your phone without having to use a podcast player or sync it up manually.

There is still the old $1.99 app which I am trying to get removed so if you just scan the QR code here it will take you to the correct one. Enjoy!

At a recent event I only had a few minutes to get whatever I was going to do setup and tested and I didn’t have anyone available to stand in for the speaker to test the lighting. While I would usually throw up a couple of YN560’s and some wireless flash triggers, the problem was I didn’t have either the time or a subject to help dial in the lighting. Sure I could have used a light meter but I also didn’t really know how things might change as the spotlights came on and I wanted to make sure things were going to work right.

For me, this would normally be a simple case of using the PocketWizard ControlTL system with the Zone Controller so I could change my lighting on the fly from wherever in the room I ended up. The reason I didn’t go with my regular Blackbelt Lighting triggers was simply a convenience factor so I could change the flash output remotely.

The second concern I had was where to put the lights to get good lighting on the speakers without blocking the view from the tables. While I had a good position and angle, using an umbrella would get in the way of some people’s view while also flashing the audience at the same time.

The solution had to have the following qualities:

• Small enough not to block the view from the side
• Big enough to provide a good light source
• Can’t be obnoxious to the audience
• Had to be able to adjust the power output remotely

While this isn’t a huge list of requirements, it does represent a unique challenge. How to you get something big enough to give a good light source but not be really visible from the audience? My solution was actually quite simple and required very little in additional equipment over two Canon 580 flashes.

The Lighting Setup

Let’s start with the actual lighting setup. The main light is a Canon 580 EX speedlite on a lightstand to camera right. The fill light is a Canon 580 EX II mounted on-camera. The 580 EX main light was switched to Slave mode on wireless group B with the body of the flash aimed back towards the audience.

The 580 EX II on the camera was in Master mode on Group A. With this setup, especially because the remote flash was in front of the Master light and aimed back to the on-camera flash’s position, this setup should work quite well without the need for a radio transmitter system.

While I would normally use the PocketWizard ControlTL system for this setup, except that the battery in the MiniTTL transmitter was dead, and since it is not a common battery, I had no means to replace it before the shoot. (The battery sells for about $12 at Radio Shack or $3.99 at Batteries Plus).

The Modifier

The choice of modifier here is what really pulled everything together. I used a Rogue Large FlashBender. The large size provides a nice size light source so the shadows wouldn’t be too harsh. The FlashBender also allowed me to fold down one side so that when the flash went off the audience didn’t really see it, so the flash going off wasn’t annoying to the audience.

Since the FlashBender is much smaller than an umbrella, it was basically hid behind the existing balloons so it wasn’t blocking the view from the audience on that side of the room.

The Results

Using only the eTTL Wireless System built into the Canon 580 EX/580 EX II flashes I had the ability to adjust lighting ratios between the main light and the fill light.

The FlashBender rounded out the solution by being “big enough†without being too big that it would block the view. The ability to fold the one side down to flag the flash from the audience kept the flash from bothering the audience.

In the end, we ended up with what looked like nice window light even though there were no windows in the room at all.

The flash ratio was generally 1:4 (B group 4x brighter than fill) and with the A being a bare flash firing right at the subject and the B light firing up through a modifier, this create a fairly nice directional light.

If I had to do anything differently, I would have brought in a larger lightstand so I could have got the flash higher to add a little down-angle to the shadows.

With all of the gear I have, this shoot really boiled down to the camera, two 580 EX/EX II flashes, a light stand, a swivel mount, and a simple light modifier. The end results look quite nice, certainly much nicer than just using an on-camera flash and blasting flat light on everyone.

My good friend Chris Diset comes over yesterday and tells me that his significant other Debra has come up with a solution.

Fortunately we all had some of the small Think Tank Photo Pixel Pocket Rockets (for 6 CF cards) laying around that Think Tank Photo had given away in a recent promotion.  The trick here was to cut the separator out of each pocket, this way the gels would be able to fit into the pocket perfectly. This is not the easiest thing in the world to do, you need to be careful as the material in the back of the pockets will tear easily.

Since I use a Large Pixel Pocket Rocket for my CF cards, and its a different color than the small one, this wouldn’t be confusing during the heat of a shoot.

The result is better than I expected as the gels fit absolutely perfect into the pockets. The next decision was how to organize them, and while you may do it differently I figured I would explain how I decided to do it.

The top pocket holds my main color correction gels, this includes the CTO’s (Color Temperature Orange) or the green’s for correcting in fluorescent lighting. This middle pocket holds the color effects gels which is all of the rest of the colored gels. The bottom pocket holds all of the Neutral Density gels. This layout makes it very simple to find the gel you are looking for, and if you happen to drop it in the wind, the gels are not going to go flying everywhere.  This is such a perfect solution for storing gels that I am actually going to encourage Think Tank Photo to offer a version of this pouch like this.

So thanks to Chris and Debra for this awesome quick tip. If you have your own quick tip that you would like to share, please post in the comments section.

This is exactly the case with the upcoming workshop that Dave Montizambert is going to be teaching in Temecula, Ca on May 15-16. Dave was a long time assistant of Dean Collins and presents his material in a very similar way which helps you learn quickly. Dave’s commercial clients include companies such as McDonalds, Motorola, Toyo Tires, Warner Brothers, Kodak, and many others.

If you want to learn what it takes to make compelling images that stand apart from the competition, then this is most certainly an excellent workshop to attend.

For more information, please check out: http://www.wix.com/sarahreid/lightingworkshop

INTRODUCING THE ROGUE GRID: A 3-IN-1 STACKING HONEYCOMB FLASH GRID THAT PROVIDES 16Ëš, 25Ëš and 45Ëš SPOT LIGHTING CONTROL IN A COMPACT DESIGN

The Rogue Grid from ExpoImaging provides three honeycomb grid angles in a compact circular design weighing less than 4 ounces and measuring just 3.6†x 1.2â€

Watsonville, Calif. — March 21, 2011 — ExpoImaging, Inc., which markets, designs, manufactures and distributes innovative camera accessories to the photographic market, today announced availability of the Rogue Grid, the newest addition to its Rogue FlashBender product line.

The patent pending Rogue Grid is uniquely designed to produce three different honeycomb grid angles. A 25Ëš grid and a 45Ëš grid align and stack to create a 16Ëš grid, producing three distinct levels of spot lighting control in a compact and lightweight package.

The durable Rogue Grid securely attaches to almost all standard shoe mount flashes using the included adjustable tension strap.  Weighing just 3.5 ounces, the versatile Rogue Grid comes with a small nylon pouch that stows easily in a photographer’s camera bag.

The grid’s innovative modular design allows for easy changing of grid angles or the addition of lighting gels. The Rogue Grid is designed to work with the popular Rogue FlashBender reflectors as it fits securely into the end of snooted reflectors.

“As we showed with the Rogue FlashBenders, our goal is to create innovative and   versatile tools that are durable and well-constructed,†said Erik Sowder, CEO of ExpoImaging, Inc. “The 3-in-1 Honeycomb Rogue Grid continues that mission by providing more light control while saving space in photographers’ gear bags. No other grid is this flexible or, I think, as cool-looking as the Rogue Grid.”

When attached to a light source, a honeycomb grid creates a spot of light with a gradual fall-off useful for adding dimension and depth to an image, or for highlighting important features.  When attached to an accent or background light, grids help draw attention to an object, texture, or color, and can help to create a desired atmosphere or mood.  The angle of the grid determines the size of the spot projected forward, with smaller degree grids producing smaller spots, and larger angles producing larger spots.

Pricing and Availability

The Rogue Grid is available now through ExpoImaging’s distribution partners worldwide, or online atwww.expoimaging.com, for $49.95.

About Rogue Photographic Design

Created by ExpoImaging, Rogue Photographic Design is a new line of innovative lighting equipment for small strobe lighting enthusiasts.  These versatile new lighting tools provide photographers with remarkable power to control the light from their shoe mount flashes.  More information about offerings from Rogue Photographic Design is available at www.expoimaging.com.

About ExpoImaging, Inc.

ExpoImaging, Inc., markets, designs, manufactures and distributes innovative camera accessories to the photographic market.  ExpoImaging is the pioneer in digital white balance filters and manufactures Rogue Photographic Design, Rogue FlashBenders, ExpoDisc White Balance Filters and the ExpoAperture2 Depth-of-Field Guide.  ExpoImaging is also the exclusive U.S. distributor of Ray Flash: The Ring Light Adapter.  These unique products are available at select photography dealers worldwide or online at www.expoimaging.com.

• The Credential Holder features a clear window that always keeps credentials of various sizes in view, an adjustable neck strap, a zippered business card pocket on the front flap, a roomy interior pocket that fits a smart phone, and a back side that has two pen pockets and a pocket that fits a reporter’s pad or small note pad.  Exterior dimensions:  5.7″ W x 7″ H x 0.3″ D (14.5 x 17.8 x 0.8cm).  Weight: 0.1lbs (0.05kg).

• Small AA batteries are one of those accessories that tend to fall to the bottom of whatever bag being used.  The AA Battery Holder lets photographers store eight AA batteries in a soft, compact case that folds in half and is easy to find.  Exterior Dimensions:  3″ W x 3″ H x 0.5″ D (7.6 x 7.6 x 1.3cm).  Weight: 0.05lbs (0.02kg).

• Travel humid or inclement weather can beat up a passport.  With the Passport Holder photographers can carry one passport, airline ticket, credit cards and other identification in a sleek leather case.  It features a front pocket for airline ticket stubs and three small pockets for additional identification, coffee gift cards, frequent flyer membership cards, and the like. External dimensions:  3.8″ W x 5.5″ H x 0.5″ D (9.7 x 14 x 1.3cm).  Weight: 0.1lbs (0.05kg).

• When forced to mix photo gear and clothing in a roller or backpack, clothing often gets wedged into a corner.  The Travel Pouch-Large is designed to hold clothing and other items that need to be protected in a lightweight and soft pouch.  It folds easily when empty and the mesh front keeps the enclosed items visible.  It features a webbing carrying handle.  External dimensions:  11.5″ W x 15.5″ H x 3″ D (29.2 x 39.4 x 7.6cm). Weight: 0.3lbs (0.1kg).

• The Travel Pouch-Small is a smaller pouch for organizing non-photo gear, such as toiletries and socks.  It is lightweight and soft, and folds easily when empty.  The mesh front keeps enclosed items visible.  It features a webbing carrying handle.  External dimensions:  6.7″ W x 10″ H x 2.5″ D (17 x 25.4 x 6.4cm).  Weight: 0.2lbs (0.1kg).

For more information, be sure and visit Think Tank Photo’s Website.

How wide is wide?

With the 8mm designation and the large bulb-like front element you might think at first that you will be getting a fish-eye effect but while the perspective is quite exaggerated it isn’t as bad as a fisheye, and the image fills the entire frame. You do get an amazing 121.2 degrees of viewing angle which can create some very cool images.

The 8-16mm DC HSM is still a rectilinear lens meaning that it creates images where straight features, such as walls or trees, appear straight instead of being curved. A fisheye, on the other hand, is a curvilinear lens which will bend and distort straight lines.

Lens Construction

While most wide angle lenses are rather short, the Sigma 8-16mm DC HSM is surprisingly long. This length is due to the lens having 15 different lens elements inside. Four of the elements have “FLD†coating, which is similar to flourite glass, to reduce color aberrations.

A petal lens hood is built into the end of the lens which not only cuts down on glare but also does a pretty good job of protecting the lens.  The zoom and focus rings a have very smooth feel to them without being too loose or too tight.

The HSM in the name stands for Hyper Sonic Motor which is the drive mechanism for the autofocus. It might as well stand for Hyper Silent Motor as it is one of the quietest lenses I have tested.

Using the Sigma 8-16mm DC HSM

The Sigma 8-16mm DC HSM is classified as an ultra-wide lens and this actually means some strange things can happen when using it that usually won’t happen with other lenses. This isn’t to say you get the fisheye effect as mentioned before, but there is a very unique distortion that occurs. In a shot of a room the ultra-wide will work to make a room seem much larger than it really is. The two images below were taken from the same exact location but one was shot at 16mm and the other at 8mm.

Shot at 16mm

Shot at 8mm

While I am not generally a fan of Ken Rockwell (and he obviously got a bad version of this lens because I completely disagree with him on the quality), Ken does have an article on using ultra-wide angles lenses to their advantage. To briefly quote from Ken:

Distortion

• Ultrawides are not fisheyes. Fisheyes distort and curve everything. Ultrawides keep straight lines straight.
• Ultrawides don’t distort technically, but they distort artistically. This is why we use them.
• Ultrawides exaggerate the relationship between near and far.
• Ultrawides stretch out objects on the sides and the corners.
• Ultrawides exaggerate any slight misalignment of your subject and camera.
• They do all this while keeping straight lines straight.
• This is why we love them! We exploit these distortions to our advantage.

For his complete article,  visit: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm

Just for the width

One of the things I agree with Ken about on the use of ultra-wide lenses is that they aren’t actually that great at simply being used to “get more into the frame. In the following images this is exactly what I went for. I wanted to see how much of the shopping center across the street I could get into the frame. The result was a lot, the problem is that the picture actually loses something from a composition point of view since it also pickes up so much more on the top and bottom.

That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions to this but, generally speaking, the closer you are to the subject, the more dramatic of an effect you will get from the lens. The following example could actually play well to show off a particular venue.

Get Close

The real beauty of this and other ultra wide angle lenses happens when you get closer to an object. Being able to use some of the inherent distortion and unique characteristics of a lens this wide can result in some interesting images. Here are a few fun shots that I took while trying to learn how to exploit the characteristics of the 8mm range.

Summary

There are certain lenses I can recommend for different types of photography very easily. For example, if you want to shoot weddings, you could get a really nice Canon or Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 and a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS and actually be able to do quite well with just those two lenses. Nature/landscape photographers generally have some wide angle glass and some long focal length glass without much in the middle. The Sigma 8-16mm DC HSM isn’t the absolute, one lens that rules them all, in any given category but it is a great go-to lens to get some interesting effects and extra wide angle shots that aren’t all fisheye distorted. I can see nature, landscape, wedding, product, architecture, and real estate photographers all grabbing for the 8-16mm once in a while. Although if you only do portraits and headshots, this probably shouldn’t be real high on your “must have†list. At $699 on Amazon, the Sigma 8-16mm DC HSM isn’t a horribly expensive lens but its in the price range where it isn’t an impulse purchase for most people. For me its going to be more like my Lensbaby lenses where it won’t be used all the time but will be pulled out for a short time at pretty much every event for some specific shots. The only downside for me is that I don’t actually own this lens yet. Sigma loaned me this lens to check out for a while and its one of the few times I wish I didn’t have to send a lens back.

Tune into the podcast on Tonight (Wednesday March 9th) at 6pm PST / 9pm EST

https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/42b310f1/12177029

Book Mention: How to Get Ideas – Jack Foster

Upcoming Workshop
http://photonortheast.com/

4 day fusion workshop
http://www.niagaraschool.com/

Be sure and check out Jason’s work at http://jasongroupp.com

Show Host

Kerry Garrison
http://kerrygarrison.com
Twitter / Facebook

The problem often is how to connect the new monitor. Unless you have a video card with two monitor ports on it and especially if you want to add a third monitor, this can turn into a real technical challenge. There is actually a fairly simple solution to this with the Sewell vDeck USB to VGA External Display Adapter.

This simple device claims to be able to drive a monitor while using only a USB port. How well does it work? Continue reading to find out.

How Does It Work

The Sewell vDeck USB to VGA External Display Adapter not-surprisingly is exactly what it’s name implies. The device plugs into your computer via a USB cable and on the other side has a VGA connector to connect to your computer.

Now I have tried several USB/VGA adapters in the past and their performance has always been extremely poor. Most of them suffer from really bad screen times, low resolution, or other types of problems.

Because of my experience with similar products, my expectations were quite low when I received the vDeck to review.

The installation process is pretty simple, just install the driver from the CD, and plug the device into a USB port and a monitor onto the VGA port. The setup process should only take you a minute or two.

The Results

If I am going to test this, I am going to push it as much as I can so I connected a Dell 24†widescreen monitor that has a native resolution of 1920×1280. I had absolutely no hope that this was going to work.

To my complete surprise, not only did the monitor come right up, it came up in full native resolution. Ok, just because it came up, how good can this little business-card sized box perform. I grabbed some windows and dragged them around the screen, poor performance will cause an “echo effect†instead of smooth moving of the window around. The windows moved smooth showing that the vDeck really did have enough horsepower to drive a screen this size.

The only issue I came across was I couldn’t quite get the color balance dialed in quite right. I used a Huey Pro to calibrate the screen but it didn’t seem to make any difference. Not that the color was too far off, but it was visible to me since my main monitor is calibrated so I could see a little color shift in it. As a second monitor for email, web browsing, Photoshop tool bars, etc. it was just fine. As a primary screen for editing photos the color shift would concern me a little. It is entirely possible that Sewell will be able to fix this with a driver update. My guess is that it simply isn’t applying the color profiles from the Huey Pro.

Summary

Considering that a good video card will set you back $150 or more, the vDeck at $69.95 can be a very affordable option. Considering you don’t have to know the difference between PCI, PCI-X, PCI-Express, etc, the vDeck is dead simple to get up and running and actually works pretty darned good.

I would certainly recommend it, even with the minor calibration issue because I expect this will be fixed soon, for adding a second or third monitor to your system. While my monitor size is just outside of what the vDeck is rated for, it actually performed quite well. If you need to support bigger monitors with DVI or HDMI connectors, the USB to DVI is $79.95 and the Minideck is $99.95.

For more information about the vDeck and a comparison of the different units, check out: http://sewelldirect.com/Sewell-vDeck-USB-to-VGA-External-Display-Adapter.asp

Solution In Search Of A Problem?

As I discussed Square with photographers across the country, many thought they already had the payment problem licked. Some had credit card terminals, some used PayPal’s Virtual Terminal, and others, including myself, simply sent PayPal invoices which can then be paid via a credit/debit card. The problem with most of these is the cost. Having an actual terminal or PayPal’s virtual terminal usually involved some monthly fee with PayPal being $30/month ($360/year). Sending PayPal invoices has no monthly fee and is simply a 5% charge.

Square initially started off pretty similar to these other services but has continued to improve both the services and the pricing. As of the time of this writing there is no setup charge, no monthly fee and the charge is 2.75% – 3.75% (see sidenote). So right off the bat, using Square can really add up in savings by not having to pay monthly charges and being able to keep more of your money.

Square’s Service Rates

How Square Works

The Square app is available for Android and iOS devices (iPhone, iPod, iPad) and the app is available for free via the Android Market and iTunes Store. With just the app itself (and registering on the http://squareup.com website) you can start taking credit card payments by keying in the credit card number, expiration date, dollar amount, and zip code. The next step asks for the buyers signature which they do with their finger on your device. The final step is to send the buyer either an SMS or email receipt. The entire process only takes a few seconds. The interesting thing here is that even if you are accepting cash/check payments, you can enter the information into the Square app, it can calculate how much change to give, and still send the buyer an email receipt.  For service related companies (like photographers), you can go into the settings and enable “Tips”. This way to buyer has to opportunity to add a tip to the amount just like you can do in a restaurant. As your client is filling out their information, the fact that the tip option is there may encourage them to use it. The Squareup.com website allows easy access to all of your transactions and deposits with the ability to download as a spreadsheet. Hopefully some future options might include an easy way to import into QuickBooks.

To make the data entry process faster, as well as saving you 1% and 15 cents off the transaction, Square provides a credit card reader in the form of a small gadget that plugs into your smart phone. From a technical point of view, this is where things get interesting. The device plugs into the headset port on your phone and not the USB port. There are actually several really good reasons for this technical decision. First off, smart phones don’t generally support USB Host Mode (I said this was technical) so a phone cannot connect to USB devices such as USB cameras or hard drives. Secondly, Square would have to write a handful of different drivers and maintain them across different operating system updates. A headphone jack is completely universal and doesn’t require any drivers to use it. All the app has to do is listen on the audio port and the Square Reader simply “plays†what it finds on the card for the app to deal with. This means that Square can come out with support for virtually any smart phone including Palm and Blackberry devices without any additional hardware considerations.

The reason why there are lower charges when using the card reader is that swiping the card means the buyer physically had the card present and the seller can verify the ID of the buyer, this greatly reduces the chance of fraud and chargebacks.

What About Payments?

First off, you do not need any special merchant account, any checking or savings account will do, you simply verify your bank account and routing number with Square so they can make direct deposits to your account. There are also no limits on how many transactions or value of transactions you can do.

This isn’t to say there isn’t a caveat here because there is, and it can be an important one to some people. Square will deposit the first $1,000 per 7 day cycle to your account within 24-36 hours of the transaction. For many people, this is going to be just fine. However, if you do more than $1,000 per week, Square will hold anything over that initial $1,000 for 30 days in case of chargebacks. If this is going to present a problem for you in terms of cash flow, you can contact Square and they will ask you for some typical business related information to help prove you are a legitimate business and can adjust that restriction for you.

Does it Work As Promised

This week I was on the road at WPPI in Las Vegas and the Northern Light Convention in Minnesota. At both of these events I had some of the products I sell over at http://blackbeltlighting.com and wanted to be able to accept credit cards from the show floors. Throughout these events, Square worked flawlessly allowing me to close sales I might not have otherwise got because people could easily user their credit/debit cards.

An interesting side note to this is that I signed up for the service just prior to leaving on the trip and did not have time to receive my free card reader so initially I had to key in the transaction manually. The app worked great and only took a few moments per transaction. I also noticed several other people using Square around the show such as Scott Robert Lim.

When I got to Minnesota for the Northern Light Convention, Square had send enough of the Square readers to the convention for every attendee to get one in their shwag bag. The upside to this is that now I will have two readers so I can have two transactions going (assuming I have a second smart phone) at the same time.

Should You Go Square?

If you want to easily take credit/debit cards I am struggling with a reason why you wouldn’t want to use Square. It’s easy, simple, and cheaper than any other service I know of.  Even if you aren’t sure if any client will ever pay you with a credit card, you still might as well sign up and get your card reader just in case. Since it costs you nothing to sign up, and there is no monthly fee, simply throw the reader in your camera bag, purse, or laptop case so you always have it available. Convinced? Go sign up for free at http://squareup.com.

Disclosure: I did not accept any compensation of any kind for this endorsement. My opinion is based entirely on my own experience using the service.

Update: Jason has offered almost a 30% discount on the DVD using discount code “cameradojo”, this is a very limited time offer so take advantage of it this week!

What is it all about?

As you have seen here on CameraDojo time and time again, I am really big on off-camera lighting to help you make the best images possible. Shooting flash straight from your camera will get you rather flight and unflattering light while off-camera light provides more natural looking shadows to give your subjects depth and dimension.

One of the biggest issues is that people are intimidated with big studio lights, portability and power issues, and how to position them. Jason’s approach to lighting mirrors much of my own style with using inexpensive speedlites, cheap wireless triggers, and simple setups to provide professional quality lighting that is affordable for virtually everyone.

What do you get out of it?

“25†gets you 25 different lighting setups where Jason and his team go through the thought process, setup, and shooting of each situation. Jason then goes into Adobe Bridge and Photoshop to show you detailed lighting diagrams and analyzes the final image.

What really separates 25 from other lighting tutorials is that Jason doesn’t get bogged down into tons of different modifiers, in fact, all 25 shots are done without using any modifiers at all. The only exceptions to this are the use of a reflector and some neutral density filters, other than that Jason gets his shots using just the bare speedlite. Jason also does a great job of showing how to use the zoom function on the speedlites to act as a modifier to give narrow or wider beams of light.

The two hours of content on the DVD goes right from setup to setup without getting into theory or talking about classic portrait styles. Instead, 25 is more of a collection of lighting recipes that show you how to get amazing lighting with simple, easy-to-replicate setups. This is a refreshing difference than many of the products out there in that you can quickly find a few of your favorite lighting setups very quickly and instantly make them your go-to lighting setups.

Is 25 for you?

If you just want to take basic photos of people and are happy with the images you are getting then why spend any money on additional training? On the other hand, if you want to separate yourself from the massive hoard of photographers out there by adding dynamic and creative lighting to your images, then the cost is likely to be a very good investment.

As I said in the into, most of the DVDs I have looked at are generally not worth the money and since I am already a big proponent of off-camera lighting, the first few setups are fairly common but do get less experienced people up to speed quickly. As the setups progress, Jason shows some very unique setups that I had never thought of, one of my favorites being the Ghetto Ring Flash. While this simple ring flash effect creates an interesting effect, you do need to have a cooperative assistant that will gladly invade your personal space to assist in the lighting or a set of light stands if your assistant doesn’t care to be in close proximity to you.

While I rarely ever like most DVDs on the market, I found Jason’s 25 to be a refreshing change, loaded with great setups and unique styles, while Jason’s very approachable personality helps to bring everything together. At $150, 25 isn’t exactly an impulse purchase but it very well could be a valuable investment in helping you to master off-camera lighting.

Jason Groupp’s Website: http://jasongroupp.com/

Jason Groupp’s 25 Information Page: http://jasongroupp.com/25dvd/

Camera Features

First off many people think that all film cameras are probably very difficult to use and all manual. Newer film cameras like a Canon Rebel are just as easy to use as a digital SLR with all the same features like aperture priority, shutter priority, program mode, automatic mode, creative modes, auto-focus lenses, etc. Internal meters make getting your exposure quick and simple and really the only downside is the lack of an LCD on the back.

Older film cameras like the AE-1 lack many of those features. While the AE-1 does have an internal exposure meter, what the meter tells you is what aperture it thinks you should be at for the currently selected shutter speed. The general process for taking an image goes something like this:

1. Set your shutter speed where you think you want it
2. Look through viewfinder at scene and press shutter half-way
3. Find the suggested aperture setting in the meter
4. Look at lens and adjust aperture as needed
5. If you do not have enough aperture to get the shot, adjust shutter speed and go back to step 2
6. Look through viewfinder again and try to get a good focus (no autofocus here)
7. Press shutter
8. Crank film advance

Certainly a little different than how fast we can get a good shot with a modern DSLR.

Rolls 1 and 2

I started off with a roll of color film and a roll of Black and White film. I shot away for two weeks using the camera every so often until the film was used up. I rewound the film and dropped it off at the local lab. The next day I go in to get it and the entire roll was bad. Apparently I hadn’t loaded it right and there wasn’t a single image on either roll. Not to be put off, I grabbed another roll of film on the way out.

Roll 3

Roll 3 was a 36 exposure roll of color film and I made sure to load it right, click off a few frames and make sure the takeup reel was turning with each shot. To kill off the roll I pulled out the camera during a weekend drive-around shoot with my friend Chris Diset. On Monday I dropped off the roll back off at the lab and opted to only have a CD with the images instead of getting prints. The lab told me to come back at 4pm the following day for the images. Day 2, I head over to the lab at 4pm as instructed and get told that their developer machine has died so come back tomorrow. Day 3, I run back to the lab again and am told they had to replace the developer machine and the prints will be done tomorrow. Day 4, back to the lab and this time I get told that they sent the film out because their system was still not back up, but fortunately my film was now back…except that I had ordered a CD and their scanner was down. Day 5 I head back to the lab AGAIN and this time I get my CD of images finally. Back to the studio and load them into Adobe Lightroom.

Of the 36 images, I am pretty happy with 8 of them. Focus is certainly an issue. Its very hard to manually focus in low light and the dimmer shots certainly proved that point. Other images suffered from too short of a depth of field. Overall though, the shots I really wanted to get right did turn out good.

It helps to really know how to use your camera, understand exposure controls and know how shutter and aperture work together. The Canon AE-1 was a serious workhorse and many iconic images from the past were taken with it. The quality of the images is still excellent even if you need to take some extra time to take the shot.

We live in a world of instant gratification and shooting film most certainly does not give you that. Besides the time from shooting to getting the film to the lab, this last experience added four more days to process, really testing my patience.

Is 8 out of 36 a good ratio? Considering what I was shooting, I am going to say yes. Some of the “not keepers†were experiments with some of the lenses I had, so in a since they did turn out. On the next roll there will likely be no experiments and I will be focusing on making each image count.

Oh yes, there will be more rolls dropped off at the lab this year but not to prove a point to anyone, not to be able to call myself a film shooter, and not to be able to say that I can shoot film and other people can’t.  My renewed interest in film, especially on essentially what is a completely manual camera is much more about preserving the craft, continuing to hone my eye for exposure, and teaching myself to slow and make each shot count. At $6 for a roll of film and another $6 in developing each click of the shutter drains about 33 cents from your wallet. This can add up quickly and you certainly want your percentage of keepers to be as high as possible. By pulling out the film camera and having a real cost for each picture, it certainly puts much more value on each shot versus loading up a 16gb CF card and cranking out a few thousand pictures during the course of a wedding.

To Use or Not to Use

The next question is whether or not I will be using film at any weddings or other events this year and I think I actually might. Certainly not as my primary camera but I may drop a single roll at each wedding, engagement, or model shoot. If they turn out, then great, if I blow another roll then I am not out any important images.

Think You Can Do It?

If you don’t have a film camera than I am not going to suggest that you go drop some money on one. You can get a lot of the same experience with your digital camera. Try using some gaffers tape and covering up the LCD on the back on the camera. Bonus points for shooting only in manual mode, and double points for shooting with manual focus. The goal here is to really learn how your camera works and not rely on chimping the result on the back.

If you do experiment with this, please post your results and comment here. I would love to hear what you think of trying it out for a weekend.

• Two versions available: DSLR Camera Remote HD for iPad; DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone and iPod touch.
• Remotely fire & control your Canon or Nikon DSLR from your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.
• Includes an intervalometer and auto-bracketing for HDR photographers.
• Start, stop and monitor video on supported HD DSLR cameras.

Continue reading for full press release

Portland, OR – February 21, 2011 - onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, announced the immediate availability of the major update to it’s wildly popular application for remotely controlling Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras using Apple iOS devices. Specifically designed for the iPad, the new DSLR Camera Remote HD includes a redesigned interface that takes full advantage of the larger screen on the iPad, improved gesture-based preview functionality and the addition of starting, stopping and monitoring video from supported HD DSLR cameras from Canon and Nikon.

In addition to DSLR Camera Remote HD, onOne Software also updated DSLR Camera Remote 1.3 to version 1.4 by adding support for the Canon 60D and the Nikon D7000. The original DSLR Camera Remote (not the HD version) is designed to run on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Owners of DSLR Camera Remote 1.3 can add video start and stop functionality through an in-app purchase.

“DSLR Camera Remote has been very popular with professional and hobbyist photographers who value the ability to shoot remotely and we are extremely pleased to offer a new and separate version that adds iPad support and the ability to start, stop and monitor video in direct response to their requests,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “We look forward to continuing to take advantage of new platforms in the ever evolving digital photography market to provide customers with tools that help them spend more time behind the camera and less behind the computer.”

New Features in DSLR Camera Remote:

NEW iPad Version: Taking advantage of the larger screen, a new, separate version of DSLR Camera Remote HD for the iPad features image thumbnails and larger previews in addition to faster access to options like the intervalometer and auto bracketing. DSLR Camera Remote HD for the iPad also includes the new Video start, stop and monitor mode at no additional charge.

NEW Video Mode: Start and stop video recording on supported cameras and even remotely monitor video on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Video mode is included with the new iPad version and is available as an in-app purchase for the original DSLR Camera Remote 1.3 for the iPhone and iPod.

More Cameras: Both versions of DSLR Camera Remote include support for the latest cameras including the Canon Rebel T2i/550D, 60D and the Nikon D7000.

Free Version: Introducing a DSLR Camera Remote Free version for those who want to try the application first. The free version allows photographers to remotely fire their camera. This is a no risk way to try the app before making a purchase as photographers can see exactly how to set up DSLR Camera Remote and try it before making the purchase.

Improved Previews:  Browsing images is now easier in DSLR Camera Remote through support for gestures which enable zooming and panning of preview images by pinching and swiping the image.

Save Local:  Photographs can now be saved as low resolution images to the connected iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to enable quick remote sharing via email, MobileMe, Facebook or any other sharing service. Saved images can also be edited with other iOS applications.

Availability and Pricing

DSLR Remote Camera Remote HD for the iPad is $49.99 and DSLR Camera Remote 1.4 for the iPhone and iPod is $19.99 and are available in the Apple iTunes App Store. For more information visit http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/dslr-camera-remote/.

Owners of DSLR Camera Remote Pro 1.3 for the iPhone and iPod can get the updated camera support for the Canon 60D and Nikon D7000 at no cost with the 1.4 update. However, adding the start and stop video feature will be a $9.99 in app purchase to add this advanced functionality.

DSLR Camera Remote Free is a free version offering the ability to fire or release the shutter of the camera, for those who wish try the app before purchasing.

There is no upgrade path from the iPhone or iPod Touch version DSLR Camera Remote 1.3 to DSLR Camera Remote HD that is designed specifically for the iPad.

After purchasing any of the editions from the iTunes App Store, users will need to download a free application that runs on their supported Mac or Windows computer. This free application is required to communicate between the iOS device and the supported Canon or Nikon DSLR camera, connected via USB or Firewire to a WiFi enabled computer.

Supported Cameras and System Requirements

For the most complete list of supported cameras and system requirements, please visit the onOne Software website at http://www.ononesoftware.com/iPhone.

About onOne Software

onOne Software, Inc. is a leading developer of timesaving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers. Our products allow photographers to spend more time behind the camera and less time behind the computer screen. They include a wide range of easy-to-use applications and plug-in enhancements for Adobe^® Photoshop^®, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom^®, Apple Aperture and now the iPhone and iPad. Founded in 2005, onOne Software, Inc. is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon.

Later in the show Kerry and Robert discuss the current Fusion trend of mixing still images and video.

Be sure and check out Robert’s sites at:

• http://www.robertevans.com
• http://www.celebrityweddingphotographer.com
• http://www.photofusionworkshops.com
• Engage Video

Show Host

Kerry Garrison

http://kerrygarrison.com Twitter Facebook FriendFeed

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

With even just a single light you can create really nice portraits. All of the examples here were created with just a single light with the only change being the position of the subject’s face in relation to the light.

For some people, the shadows may be too harsh in which case adding a reflector to bounce some light back into the shadows will help brighten up the shadow side of the face.

With the light shooting through an umbrella and the umbrella positioned just above the subject’s head and angled down to point right at her eye, we get some nice directional lighting which is quite flattering.

In the second we turned the subject’s body away from the light and had her look almost directly into the light.  This gave us a little more light wrapping around her face while still giving a little directional light.

Because of the size of the light source and the closeness of it to the subject we still get plenty of light on her body while the directional light brings out the detail in the dress.

Because the light is higher than the subject’s head, we also get the advantage of lighting up the hair nicely.

In the next example, we look at the same scene with and without the use of a reflector.

Without Reflector

Gold Reflector to Camera Left

As you can see, even if you are on a budget and can’t afford a multiple light setup yet, you can still create great images with just a single flash and a adding a reflector greatly increases your versatility.

Start off with a simple setup and learn to use it to it’s full advantage before trying to complicate things with multiple light sources. You also don’t need a big studio either, all of these shots were shot in the exact same location which was no more than ten feet wide and deep.

To wrap this up, here are a couple more shots that were also done with just a single light.

But let’s step back in time a little, what about using an older vintage Canon AE-1. There are no scene modes, no automatic modes, no program modes, no eTTL flash, just shutter and aperture and whatever ISO film you have installed.

The Truth Be Told

Even the old AE-1’s had some basic metering and some automatic modes. If you pressed the shutter half-way down, the internal meter would tell you what the recommended aperture setting would be based on your ISO setting and current shutter speed. If you roll the aperture wheel on the lens (yes, on the lens, not on the camera body) from one of the available aperture settings to A, then the camera would set the lens to the recommended aperture setting before taking the shot, thus giving you somewhat of an shutter priority mode (you set the shutter, camera adjust the aperture). Keep in mind this is a reflective light meter so it can sometimes be inaccurate with brighter or lighter subjects.

Is it important that people know how to shoot film?

If you ask most any photography teacher they will tell you that learning film is extremely important in order to understand all of the dynamics of film and that learning the developing process will teach yo….oh man, I can’t even finish explaining it. I think the point that is often missing is not whether someone can shoot film or not, but whether or not someone has the skills and knowledge to get a good exposure without relying on all the modern conveniences of current cameras.

As I discussed this issue with fellow photographers, some felt that it really didn’t matter so long as the person can make good images with what they have. The problem I have with this is that you may be able to make good images, even on a regular basis, what you can’t do is to get a wide range of creative images.

The camera and your flash are going to try to give you a very neutral lit image. While this may be ok a good percentage of the time, when you really want to do some creative lighting your camera is simply not going to know what you want to do.

An example of this is with very dramatic lighting. The image shown here would be almost impossible with any automatic camera or TTL lighting modes. The camera would see the subject as underexposed and try to increase the exposure to give a brighter image. Of course you can usually correct that with flash exposure compensation, but that doesn’t work all the time and if you use most wireless flash triggers you won’t have automatic exposure features anyway.

It’s also fairly common that eventually a photographer decides they want more powerful studio lights, they make a big investment in gear, and then can’t figure out why they are not getting what they want out of them. Again, this is simply a lack of experience in understanding the correlation between aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and lighting power.

If I can help to teach anything, it would be that shooting in manual modes is not as difficult as it may seem at first. Learning how to really control your camera and your lighting will open you up to a whole new world of creativity.

Here are some past articles that will help you along your path:

• Getting Manual Flash Exposure Quickly
• The Exposure L – Understanding the Correlation Between Shutter and Aperture
• How to use a Light Meter
• Photography Basics: Beginners Guide to Aperture
• Photography Basics: Controlling Exposure
• Capturing a sense of motion with shutter speed
• Learning to shoot in manual mode
• Understanding Depth of Field

Show Host

Kerry Garrison

http://kerrygarrison.com Twitter Facebook FriendFeed

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

If you believed that line than you are obviously living on a different planet than I am because I am constantly trying to get the right color on the screen as I saw with my eye. I know this as sure as I know that the color Ferrari Orange is not a real color.

X-Rite ColorChecker Passport

So solve this problem, our software needs to know what the colors in an image are supposed to look like. If we can make our software understand our specific cameras, then we are certainly going in the right direction. Adobe made an excellent attempt to solve this on a very broad scale in Lightroom 3 with camera calibrations. What Adobe did was to take a color chart under different lighting conditions with different cameras and then use that data to create a calibration that is designed for specific cameras. I have to admit, this works pretty darned good and I have relied on this for my image processing since the day it came out.

Is it perfect? No, its darned good, but I always felt it wasn’t quite 100% there. Maybe my lighting conditions aren’t perfect, maybe there is a variation in camera bodies/sensors, maybe Adobe had to compromise to make it as good as possible for a broad range of users. Whatever the case, I always thought I could do a little better if I had a calibration profile designed specifically for MY camera and MY lighting…and this is where the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport comes into play.

X-Rite ColorChecker Passport

The ColorChecker Passport is a combination of a shooting target with different color swatches and a piece of software the will analyze the resulting image to create a custom calibration profile for your specific camera.

All you really need to do is to shoot the target so that it fills about 10% of the image and have a good exposure and the software will do the rest. Ok, it’s not exactly that easy, the image has to be in DNG format so I use Lightroom to Copy as DNG (which I do most of the time anyway) at least the shot of the target. Then open the folder with the ColorChecker Passport software and drag the image file onto the application. In a few seconds, you have a custom calibration.

X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Software

Once you have completed the calibration and saved the file, you will need to restart your editing software (Photoshop or Lightroom) so it reads in the calibration profile.

Can you really tell the difference in finished images? I will let you be the judge of that with the following images:

Mouse Over Image To See The Corrected Version

With the Viper, the red’s are definitely richer. This has always been a complaint of mine with my Canon camera’s. The Lightroom Camera Standard calibration setting does really good at fixing that but is not quite as good as the ColorChecker Calibration.

Mouse Over Image To See The Corrected Version

Again with the Ferrari, the yellows with the corrected version are much richer. To see how these colors shift, let’s take a look at the ColorChecker colors using the Adobe Standard, Camera Standard, and a custom calibration created with the ColorChecker Passport software.

Passport Profile

ACR 4.6

Camera Standard

The biggest differences are in the blues and reds. While Camera Standard is very close, and probably perfectly usable for a large number of people. When you really need accurate color, a custom calibration is the way to go.

DNG vs Dual Illuminat

What Adobe did for their calibrations is to shoot a color target under different light conditions so that their camera profiles would hold up in different situations. What we have looked at so far is creating a single image calibration which is appropriate for a single lighting situation. The X-Rite ColorChecker Passport also allows you to create your own Dual Illuminat profile as well. Simply use two images shot with different lighting, like one with flash and the other with tungsten hot lights. The ColorChecker Passport software can then use both of those images together to create a more robust profile than we have been able to create for ourselves in the past.

ColorChecker Target Size Comparison

Is it Worth It?

While you can look at the images above and certainly see a difference, is that difference worth $99 to you? For me, the majority of the work I do is product photography and usually very little color is involved. However, when I am shooting weddings, portraits, cars, or other things that really have vibrant color, I want to be as accurate as I possibly can. I would certainly recommend that every camera club buy one and let all of the members have a shoot day where they can create their own calibration files.

Gray Card Function

But Wait…there’s more!

We have only looked at 1/3 of the functionality of the ColorChecker Passport, albeit a very important function.  Flip the target around and you also have a decent sized gray card that is just slightly bigger than a small WhiBal card.

The large gray card is ideal for product or food photography since you can get it into the scene and then use that image in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw to get a really good white balance. For People and Landscapes, its the next function that is really interesting.

Creative Enhancement Target

Creative Enhancement Target

The the calibration target over and you get what X-Rite calls the Creative Enhancement Target. There are two main purposes of the Creative Enhancement Target:

• Allow for one-click white balance across a range of swatches
• Allow you to easily see white and black clipping

The middle two rows are designed for portrait (top) and landscape (bottom) photography so you can easily select a white balance that is best suited for your situation. Often portraits are added a little warmth and landscapes with different color temperatures can really help make the sky bluer or grass greener.

At the bottom you can use the clipping swatches while adjusting exposure and blacks to make sure you are not overclipping those settings.

X-Rite ColorChecker Passport

Summary

If you are like me and strive for accuracy in your colors, then the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport is absolutely a must-have. If you are not shooting images where color accuracy is critical, then go in with a few friends or your local club and buy one just to have a good calibration profile for your camera.

X-Rite ColorChecker Passport on Amazon.com

X-Rite Website: http://xritephoto.com/

X-Rite Blog: http://blog.xritephoto.com

Full Disclosure

Let’s be clear on one thing here, I sell a competing product to the Cactus triggers. My triggers are quite affordable, work well, support 4 channels, and have a range of about 90 feet. The reason I am pointing this out is not to pimp out my own products but to be honest about it and I promise to be as fair and unbiased as possible during this review.

Features

Most low cost wireless triggers have a transmitter and then separate receivers. The Cactus V5 only come one way, as transceivers. Each transceiver can be either a transmitter or receiver depending on how you are using it.

A nice feature change from my old V2′s is the use of standard AAA batteries. Push on the back and the tray pops out. Replace the batteries and push it back. No more ordering strange and expensive batteries for the receivers.

Specifications (each V5 transceiver)

• Working radio frequency: 2.4GHz;
• 16 channels selectable;
• Support sync speed: up to 1/1000 second (subject to camera’s sync speed limitation);
• Compatible with all DSLR and SLR cameras with standard ISO hot shoe or PC sync output;
• Compatible with portable flashes and studio strobes;
• Low battery indicator;
• Maximum effective area: 100 meters (328 feet);
• Operating temperature: -20°C to +50°C (-4°F to 122°F);
• Flash voltage handling: up to 300V;
• Camera voltage handling: up to 6V;
• Power input: 2 x AAA 1.5V batteries;
• Connection port: 3.5mm (1/8″) mono mini-phone;
• Dimensions: 82mm (L) x 70mm (W) x 37mm (H);
• Weight: 58g;

On the left side you have the TX/Off/RX swide switch while the opposite side has a 16 position rotary dial. Again, a nice step up from sliding DIP switches. While this does make it easier to change channels, it also makes it easier to accidentally change it. The left side also has a 1/8″ port that can be used for connecting to PC Sync fired flashes or for remote firing of a camera.

Probably the biggest change is that each unit, being a receiver, has a hot shoe mount to fire a speedlite, but this also allows you to use a speedlite on top of your camera while also using the transmitter. If you are using an off-camera light for a key light, then you can have a flash on-camera for some fill light.

On the bottom the Cactus V5 is outfitted with a metal hot shoe which is really nice to see on a budget piece of hardware. There is also a 1/8″ threaded  port so you can attach the V5 to a light stand.

On top of the hot shoe mount is the clamping wheel. While the threads on the wheel are fairly fine, which helps keep it secured to a swivel mount, the wheel size itself is pretty small and I have some difficulty in adjusting it with my large fingers.

The build quality is very nice has a very professional feel. If you didn’t notice in the specs, the Cactus V5′s use the 2.4Ghz Spectrum allowing for close to 300 feet in range.

Does it work?

The big question is does all these new features and upgraded specs add up to an improved product? The answer is “it depends”. The Cactus V5′s certainly have an exceptional range. I tested them out and ran out of space at right at 300′ and they still working fine. Will you ever need to use a flash 300 feet away? Most likely not but the theory is that you will always have a strong signal that is less likely to suffer from interference.

The Big Question

So the big question, especially considering that I already mentioned that I sell a competing product, is would I recommend the Cactus V5. Let’s break it down and see where the Cactus V5 stacks up.

• 2.4Ghz for longer range and less interference
• 16 Channels
• Easy channel change via rotary dial
• AAA Batteries for easy replacement
• Metal hot shoe
• Hot shoe passthru
• Ability to work as a remote camera trigger (not at the same time as flash trigger)
• Up to 1/1000 sync speed (dependent on camera body)
• Retail price of $59 for two transceivers

Given the features and price point I have to give the Cactus V5′s a big thumbs up. In fact, if I can buy them at wholesale I will sell them myself. Can you save a few bucks with less expensive triggers? Of course you can and while they may work just fine there are certainly situations where the cheaper units can misfire with certain types of interference and the 2.4Ghz and 16 channels can certainly help avoid that.

The metal hot shoe and good lock down screw will help keep your gear more secure and the hot shoe pass-through is something unique to Cactus V5. For the price, the Cactus V5 is an excellent value.

The Cactus V5 is available now from Gadget Infinity: http://www.gadgetinfinity.com

Syl Arena

• Syl’s Blog: http://pixsylated.com/
• Speedliting.com
• OCFGear.com
• Speedliter’s Handbook

Show Host

Kerry Garrison

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This podcast is also available on iTunes.

There were five speedlites used on this setup with a mix of 580 EX, 580 EX II, and YN560′s all fired with Pocketwizard FlexTT5′s. To get the signs on the top light with minimal spill, they left and center one were fitted with Harbor Digital Quick Spots and the one on the right was fitted with a large Rouge Flashbender if a half roll to act as part snoot but also to spill some light on the side of the building. Two more speedlights were on the ground pointed inwards to light the area under roof area.

Lighting Setup

While we tried to use a longer exposure to try to pull in the stars, the problem was that too much shutter and we were getting light contamination from nearby street lights. All of the flashes were set to 1/4 power and the three pointing at the signs were also zoomed to 105mm while the ground lights were zoomed to 24mm.

24mm - ISO 400 â€

For more information about this image and to see the rest of the Photo Project 24 images, please visit http://photoproject24.com

The swivel mount included with the BlackBelt Lighting Kits solves both of these issues with a very deep V groove to prevent shorting and a clamp on the side to securely hold your gear. Instead of sliding your flash/trigger into the cold shoe and using the wheel on the device to get a friction fit, the Blackbelt swivel mount actually clamps your gear in place making it the most secure swivel mount available. The all-metal design ensures that it will last a long time as well.  Right now the Blackbelt swivel mount is available only with the Blackbelt Lighting Kits. If there is enough demand we can start selling them by themselves.

For more information, please visit http://blackbeltlighting.com

• 7 Photo album templates
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All you have to do is register for a free account at http://www.ononesoftware.com/free/templates to get access.

This is one of those times when things just didn’t work right immediately. We tried to get some star trails…didn’t look good. We tried to light paint the hill behind us, didn’t work. We tried to get headlight trails from the road, but it was so dark you couldn’t see the road. So…time to light the bushes around us. We tried front lighting, side lighting, gels, and nothing was coming together. We then came up with the idea to backlight it and see what we would get.

We mounted a speedlite on a lightstand about 30 feet away with a PocketWizard TT5 and set it on about 1/4 power.   The shutter was at 1/40th but since it was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, the shutter speed was meaning less. The backlighting came through the shrubs nicely and reflected off the snow which then light the underside and even the front of the bushes somewhat. We both looked at the image and thought it was finally a pretty cool shot and off we went to the next location.

24mm - ISO 400 â€

Lighting Setup

To read more about this and other images from the Photo Project 24 adventure, please visit http://photoproject24.com

The Lighting Setup

With almost no ambient light left and just a little rim of light in the background, we would need a long shutter speed to bring some light back to the sky. We also wanted to try to lose focus on the trees behind the wagon so we set on an aperture of f/4 and at ISO 500 we would need a 1 second exposure.  We could have used a lower ISO and longer shutter but there were still enough cars whizzing by that any longer than a second and we would likely end up with headlights streaking by.

With the camera setup for the sky, we now needed to light the wagon. This was done with two speedlites fired with PocketWizard FlexTT5′s and the Mini TT1 on the camera. We put both lights in manual mode at 1/4 power with no modifiers on them.

Lighting Diagram

32mm - ISO 500 - 1 sec - f/4

Fairly simple setup, a few practice shots, and we got the image we were looking for and headed down the road to the next location.

Be sure and follow the complete set of images and stories at http://photoproject24.com

A Solution in Search of a Problem?

When discussing the frio with a handful of photographers some didn’t see the need for it while others see the frio as an absolute God-send. It really depends on the gear that you work with. Cheap cold shoe swivel mounts often don’t have enough surface area for a good solid fit and combined with inexpensive flash triggers that have rather course threads, its really hard to get a secure and solid fit. I have aimed swivel mounts and had the flash literally fall right out.

With the frio, one end is closed so your gear can’t fall out of the front. What is really different is that and hinged plate that pops up to secure the back side. With the lock down feature of your gear, the pop-up plate provides a second level of security.

The narrow design also makes it very easy to tighten down your gear onto the cold shoe area. This is a big time saver and when you are on location, being able to setup and tear down quickly is a huge advantage.

The only real issue is if you are an umbrella user. With a typical cold shoe swivel mount with a built-in umbrella holder your flash is relatively close to the umbrella shaft. If you are using a swivel mount with a mounting stud (as shown above) you can end up adding a couple of inches between your gear and the umbrella shaft, this might can cause some uneven lighting.

Does it fill the bill?

While I do use umbrellas on a regular basis, more often I am using on-flash modifiers such as Rouge Flashbenders, softboxes, Quick Spots, or other types of gear. Other than the umbrella issue (which isn’t that big of a deal for me) there really isn’t downside to using the frio…almost.

Let’s face it, the frio costs money, at $15 it may seem trivial to some people  and if you are buying 3-4 you will be set back up to $45.  Since you can buy an inexpensive cold shoe swivel mount for about $16-$18, the frio isn’t cheap.

The question for you is really if the cost of the frio is worth the security of your gear. I can only speak for myself but there really wasn’t a question that it was worth it. Just to be clear on this, I have never had any contact with enlight photo, or distributor. I bought three of these units, they weren’t given to me to review. I heard about the frio from my buddy Syl Arena who said “The frio is ingenious. For me it was love at first sight.â€

As I said earlier, I have actually had flashes and triggers slide right out of some of the swivel mounts that I own. Fortunately none of my gear has ever been broken during one of these incidents. However, it only takes one time to have a couple hundred dollars smash to pieces on the ground. For around $15 I consider it cheap insurance.

I always like innovative solutions and the frio is definitely innovative and solves a real world problem.The only thing that would make it perfect (or closer at least) would be a real short mounting stud to keep it lower when using umbrellas. Given this unique design, I would also like to see versions designed for 2 or 3 flashes.

I love how easy it is to get gear on and off my lightstands now and the extra security is well worth the price. I absolutely recommend the frio to help keep your gear secure.

Official Website: http://www.friocoldshoe.com

Frio on Amazon (link)

For more information about this shot, please visit:
http://photoproject24.com/photo-6-the-accidental-ghost-town

The Accidental Ghost Town - 1/250th - f/5.6 - ISO 50 - 24mm

In this podcast episode episode Kerry sits down with Troy to discuss how Troy gets such vivid and dynamic images in the middle of the night.

Be sure and check out Troy’s work at http://lostamerica.com

You can also subscribe to Troy’s Flickr and Facebook profiles to see a new image almost every day.

We both hope this encourages you to go out and try some different techniques and see if you will enjoy doing something a little different.

Show Host

Kerry Garrison
http://kerrygarrison.com