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.

We set up the first lightstand with an umbrella, and the wind almost blew my gear and girl away. Debra asked, “Bare flash?”. I replied, “Yes, I think that would be best.” So we set up 3 light stands, each with a bare BB560 flash and Blackbelt receiver. We moved the lights around as needed, sometimes lighting Brian in the car with 1 or 2 lights (plus the sun of course). In a few images we had 1 or 2 lights on Brian, while at the same time having 1 or 2 lights on the car, just to open up the details that would otherwise be black shadows from the low sun.

I shot these images on a Canon 5dmk2, mostly with a 70-200 lens, and a few wide angle shots were done with a 17-40 lens. Lighting conditions being constant, the shots were taken at ISO 50 or 100, from f5.6 to f8, at a 1/200 shutter speed (the maximum sync speed for the BB560). Flash output was set to 1/2 power and sometimes bumped up to full power as needed. I have been using the BB560′s for sometime now and this was one of those shoots where the reliability and power output was really put to the test. They worked flawlessly.

Photos were edited in Adobe Lightroom 4, the black and white images were done with Nik Silver Eex Pro 2, and Nik Color Efex Pro 3 Tonal Contrast preset was used on some of the color images.

If you would like to see more of this collection shot with Blackbelt Lighting Products, you can visit my blog post here.

Thank you Kerry for letting me share this collection with your Dojo friends.

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 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Some Kind of Bovine - 1/250th - f/4 - ISO 50 - 200mm

Outside of Blythe it was time to take another shot when we tried to get off the road to shoot some wrecked cars. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to the vehicles but the road ended at this small cow stable. In order to make it look bigger than it was, we decided to use a short depth of field by using a wider aperture and a long lens to maximize the effect.

For the complete story about the image, check out the post at:
http://photoproject24.com/2011/01/photo-5-some-kind-of-bovine/

For more information about this shot and the interesting location where it was shot, please check out the complete story at:
http://photoproject24.com/2011/01/photo-3-tilapia-trailer-at-the-salton-sea/

With each image there is a story about the shot, sometimes with interesting information about the location, lighting diagrams, and much more. Each day a different image will be posted. Today’s image, Dinosaur in Cabazon was lit using a video light and a long exposure. For a more detailed explanation and lighting diagram, check it out at:
http://photoproject24.com/2011/01/photo-1-dinosaur-in-cabazon/

Photo Project 24 Image #1 - Dinosaur in Cabazon

The Image

The image I am starting off with is Sunrise on the Salton Sea which pretty much describes the image pretty well as it was taken just after sunrise on the west bank of the Salton Sea (specifically 20 minutes after sunrise). The sun casts a dramatic reflection all the way across the water while a dead palm tree and the shore line add some additional detail.

Sunrise at the Salton Sea

Making the image

The image itself is fairly simple as there are no extra lights used and virtually no post processing. The image is pretty much as it appeared in camera.

Of course, shooting into the Sun may not be the easiest task unless you have a neutral gradient filter but none was used on this shot. In fact, I didn’t even use optimal camera settings as I had changed them on accident and couldn’t see that I had changed the ISO setting in the viewfinder as I was trying not to go blind from looking at the Sun.

The ISO should have been at 100 but ended up being at 400 and the first attempt was at 1/1600th and f/5.6 and came out pretty overexposed.

1/1600th f/5.6 ISO 400

The second attempt was a little better as I adjusted the settings to f/11 at 1/1600th. This was a pretty good image but the rays on the Sun were not very pronounced and I was picking up too much detail in the foreground.

1/1600th f/11 ISO 400

In order to kill off the detail in the foreground a faster shutter speed was needed so I pushed it to 1/2000th. To pick up more detail from the Sun less aperture was needed so I closed it down to f/22. In Adobe Lightroom just a touch of Vibrance, Setting the Camera Calibration to Camera Standard, and adding a touch of Sharpness where all the post production that was done.

1/2000th f/22 ISO 400

Again the final image and settings show that you can actually shoot straight into the Sun and pull off a nice image without any additional hardware or heavy post processing.

Equipment Used

Camera: Canon 50D

The Quick Spot is a basic grid spot designed to fit over the end of your flash without needing an extra strap or Velcro. A unique feature of the Quick Spot is that is comes apart in order for you to put different colors gels (several included) in order to color balance the light or provide special effect lighting.

What is a Grid Spot

A grid spot at its most basic description is a series of straws that take the light from the flash and confine it to keep it from spreading out like a bare flash would. The smaller the size of the straws, the more confined the beam of light will be.

Some people have tried to simply use the Zoom function on their flash to create a similar effect but it doesn’t really do the same thing. Let’s take a look at how the zoom function works.

Flash Zoomed at 24mm

Flash Zoomed to 105mm

As you can see at 24mm almost the entire frame is filled with light and at 105mm we get distinctly smaller source  but it still has a pretty large pattern.

When you want a much tighter pattern with less light fall-off then a grid spot can be your best choice. Harbor Digital Design has the Quick Spot in both 1/4†and 1/8†patterns. The system is designed to custom fit most popular speedlites. I ordered the units for the Canon 580 EX/EX II and was very pleasantly surprised to find that it fit perfect on the YN560 as well.

Let’s look at the light pattern when using the Quick Spots.

1/8†Quick Spot

1/4†Quick Spot

For portrait work, grid spots work great for hair lighting so you can get a nice shine on the hair without spilling the light into places you don’t want. With product photography you can really control where you want the lighting to be.

For an example of using the Quick Spots, check out the following article:
http://cameradojo.com/2010/12/18/using-multiple-flashes-evolution-of-a-shot/

At first glance, $34.95 might seem a little much for a small piece of plastic but considering it is close to $10 less than competing brands when you factor in extra straps you need.  Also consider you also get a decent gel kit to go along with it and you have yourself a pretty good bargain. If you need to attach the Quick Spot to different flashes, you can order just the adapter piece for about $13 and just interchange the outer Quick Spot attachment.

Harbor Digital Design may not be a household name but if they continue to make innovative products like the Quick Spot I am sure you will hear about them more and more.

I am quite happy with the Quick Spots and certainly recommend them as an inexpensive accessory that you should have in your camera bag.

Harbor Digital Design
http://www.harbordigitaldesign.com

• 1 Wireless Flash Trigger Transmitter
• 3 Wireless Flash Trigger Receivers
• 3 Light Stands
• 3 Swivel Mounts
• 3 Umbrellas
• 3 YN560 Speedlites
• 1 5-In-1 Reflector

All kits come with a $50 Gift Certificate to Nations Photo Lab. You get this entire three-light kit for only $499!! [More Information]

Be sure and check out the new Blackbelt Lighting website at http://blackbeltlighting.com

Choosing a Prime Lens

30mm 1/2000th f/2.8 ISO200

If you want a super fast lens or want that really shallow depth of field, a prime lens can be an excellent choice but picking one out from all the different sizes can be a little daunting. Deciding on a lens really depends on what you plan on shooting. Landscape shooters may want a wider field of view, jewelry shooters may want a longer focal length macro lens, and portrait shooters may want something closer to 50mm to avoid any distortion caused by shorter or longer focal lengths. If you are shooting people, I suggest something between 30mm and 70mm. The cheapest lens you can get is the Nikon or Canon “Nifty-Fifty†50mm f/1.8 which will run you about $99 or so. If you want to try out a prime lens without a large investment, these 50mm lenses offer a nice entry point.

If you are not using a full-frame camera body, then keep in mind your crop factor as it will increase the focal length. On APS-C sized sensor (Canon 30d, 40d, 50d, etc) you have to multiply the lens’ focal length by 1.6 so a 30mm lens becomes 48mm which is almost perfect in terms of distortion. The Sigma 30mm 1.4 EX DC HSM is an excellent choice for portrait and product photographers. This is probably one of my personal favorite lenses due to the size, the light weight, the lack of distortion, the super fast f/1.8 aperture and a cost around $450.

105mm 1/500th f/2.8 ISO800

Moving up in the focal length, once we get out of the common portrait sizes we get into the longer lengths like 100mm. At this length, there is a compression added to the image that can make things look slimmer than normal so it actually can make for a good portrait lens even though many people may not think to use it as one. I like using this lens for small products such as jewelry or things that have a lot of detail.

With the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro lens not only gives you a nice long focal length but because it can focus at very short distances it can also create images that are life-sized, this is great for close-ups on things with lots of detail such as wedding ring shots.

Hopefully this has given you some insight into why you may want a prime versus a zoom lens and how to go about choosing the lens that is right for you. As you can see, I am not a purest when it comes to lenses and I have been shooting weddings with a Sigma 24-70 DG for several years. Whatever your brand, whatever your need, do your research and figure out which lenses shoot your shooting style, subject matter, and budget.

Small Perspective Change

Large Perspective Change

]]> http://cameradojo.com/2010/08/08/another-take-on-perspective/feed/ 3 wpid-2010-07-16-06.18.04_edit0.jpg image image http://cameradojo.com/2010/08/01/use-a-simple-angle-to-make-a-shot-more-dramatic/ http://cameradojo.com/2010/08/01/use-a-simple-angle-to-make-a-shot-more-dramatic/#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:22:02 +0000 KerryG http://cameradojo.com/2010/08/01/use-a-simple-angle-to-make-a-shot-more-dramatic/ Here is a quick tip for you that can make a big difference in your shots, try adding a little angle to your shots when you take them. The following two images show what a little turn of the camera can accomplish.

Straight Shot

Angled Shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjRnE7vaZKk

Whaaaat, Did he Say Film?

How can anything having to do with shooting film apply to an ultra-modern uber-pixel state-of-the-art modern and very non-film DSLR? When shooting film, you would install whatever ISO speed film and that’s what you were stuck with. The only thing you could adjust is aperture and shutter speed. With a current DSLR we do have the convenience of being able to dynamically adjust the ISO speed. While ISO does play an important role in the overall exposure, we generally do not adjust the ISO simply to increase or decrease or exposure. Instead, ISO Speed should be thought of as a way of getting us into a usable range where the Aperture and Shutter can then work properly, just like changing the film in your camera.

The Exposure L

So let’s look at the Exposure L and see what it is telling us. Along one axis we have the common shutter speeds in one stop increments, along the horizontal axis we have the different aperture settings, also in one stop increments. Now, so long as we are using an ISO Speed setting that will allow us to get a good exposure somewhere on the chart. Once we have a point on the chart that will deliver a good exposure, we can then know exactly what other shutter/aperture combinations will also deliver a correct exposure by drawing a diagonal line between the points as shown on the chart.

For example, if we have a good exposure at f/16 and 1/250th of a second, we can also use the following:

• f/11 & 1/125th
• f/8 & 1/250th
• f/5.6 & 1/500th

By understanding what other aperture / shutter combinations will give us the same exposure, we can then make an artistic choice based on what kind of image style we are trying to create. If we want a shallower depth of field, we can go down a stop, but we have to compensate for moving up a stop in shutter speed.

Only if the scene is too bright or too dark to get an exposure somewhere on our chart do we need to change the ISO Speed setting.

Example Images

If we look at some example images we will be able to see that once we have a usable exposure we can then slide diagonally up or down the chart to maintain that exposure.

Baseline Image settings f/8 1/60th Sec ISO 400

f/5.6 1/125th Sec ISO 400 (+1 stop aperture / -1 stop shutter)

f/4 1/250th Sec ISO 400(+2 stops aperture / -2 stops shutter)

f/2.8 1/500th Sec ISO 400 (+3 stops aperture / -3 stops shutter)

As you can see from the example above, we slide diagonally down the scale so our exposure never changed so long as we adjusted the aperture completely opposite from how we set the shutter speed. As we adjust one up, the other has to go down at the same rate in order to maintain exposure. The effect is that our depth of field gets shallower and shallower as we open up the aperture.

Here is another example using subjects that are further apart.

Baseline Image – f/2.8 1/640th Second ISO 400

f/4 1/320th Second ISO 400 -(-1 stop aperture / +1 stop shutter)

f/5.6 1/160th Second ISO 400 (-2 stops aperture / +2 stops shutter)

f/8 1/80th Second ISO 400 (-3 stops aperture / +3 stops shutter)

In the last sample set we started with a large aperture and as we closed it down to increase our depth of field, we had to slow down the shutter speed accordingly in order to maintain the correct exposure. The only time we need to adjust the ISO is if the scene is too bright or too dark to get a good exposure within the range of settings the camera can handle.

If we look at our Exposure Chart and have shutter speed on one axis and aperture size on another axis, the ISO setting is not another axis like a triangle, it actually is a third dimension which can add or subtract overall brightness to the scene.

Hopefully this makes more sense than all the articles out there that talk about the “Exposure Triangle†because a good exposure does require balance of Shutter and Aperture, but ISO speed is a completely separate variable altogether.

Think about what you will be shooting

On one hand you could make a point for just bringing the most expensive glass you can afford but having a $1,600 lenses that is great for portraits really going to be overkill when shooting landscapes or waterfalls?

For this trip to Maui I knew I would shoot some beaches, water spraying over rocks and lava flows, waterfalls, and maybe some whales. There was going to be very little people shots as we weren’t street walking or hanging around with other people. While the first thing to come to mind would be something like a 12-24mm in order to have a nice wide angle, I know that shooting wide is going to give me a lot of distortion in the image that I won’t want. Since most of the shots are not going to be close up, a 24-70mm would give me less distortion but still give some extra range when needed. For the really long shots I wanted a lens that would give me a good range of focal lengths, hhave a nice long range, but not be too big and bulky. For this lens, I figured a 70-300mm would do the trick nicely.

Which lenses did I go with?

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM

I had the unique opportunity to be able to choose virtually any lenses I wanted to from Sigma and they had two lenses that matched my requirement perfectly.

Short range – wider angle
For the first lens that I wanted for closer shots or wider angle landscapes I went with the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM. This lens is easily on-par with the Canon 24-70 L series lens. While I certainly didn’t need glass this fast during the bright daylight conditions I was shooting in, this certainly made for an excellent walk-around lens that could pull double-duty for shooting landscapes and then be just as at home shooting a wedding or portrait.

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-f/5.6 DG

Long range lens
When I want some range I know I need some long focal lengths but that usually means lugging a very heavy lens around. Again, shooting in great daylight conditions means I have no need for wide open apertures, in fact, probably 95% of the shots I took the entire trip were shot at f/5.6 with some waterfalls being shot at f/11 or f/22 in order to get long shutter times. Since I didn’t need a fast lens, the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-f/5.6 DG would work great. Since I am shooting with a Canon EOS 50D, I have crop factor (or zoom factor) of 1.6 making this actually a 480mm lens! Talk about getting some range with his baby and the optical stabilization helps ensure you get the shot you were aiming for.

Specialty Lenses
I haven’t done the math but well over 95% of the images taken on this were taken with these two lenses. Just to grab some panoramas I did take a 12-24mm and I never go anywhere without my Lensbaby Composer which I used several times with the Fisheye and Super Wide Angle optics.

Summary

The key is to really think about what you will be shooting and under what conditions and plan accordingly. When doing a trip like outs with lots of getting in and out of the car, lots of walking, a few short hikes, and the occasional trail, light weight quickly became a key decision point about what was in the grab bag versus what was stowed in the trunk the majority of the time.

Tamron website: http://tamron.com

Think Tank Photo: http://thinktankphoto.com

Vanguard Website: http://www.vanguardworld.com

Cullmann Tripods: http://www.cullmann-foto.de
EWA Marine: http://www.ewa-marine.com/

We do know that this video is a little jumpy and we are working on fixing the rendering issue and will have a better version up as soon as possible.

[flashvideo file="video/pma2010_1.flv" /]

Think Tank Photo

Long time readers of Camera Dojo probably know how much I like Think Tank Photo products and this year they have come out with a couple of new products like really caught my eye. The first is a new line of bags designed to have a cool retro look to them. While I have never personally been of fan of the “messenger” style of bag, I just have to have me some of these new ones. Nothing beats a product that is not only highly functional, but cool looking as well.

The second big announcement (literally) is a new roller designed specifically to haul your lighting equipment around. This is something I have really needed lately when doing on-location corporate headshots and family portraits.

You should easily be able to fit several lightstand, flash heads, soft boxes, umbrellas, and all of your assorted cables and modifiers all in a handy roller. While most certainly not capable of fitting in an overhead compartment it most certainly is handy for keeping your lighting gear together, organized, and protected.

Check out more of their products at http://thinktankphoto.com

ColorRight

ColorRight has been making white balance tools for several years and this year they have a few new products to help keep your colors in check. A new domed disk gathers light from 180 degrees making it far more accurate than the previous flat disc. Another disk is used in the scene as a reference for contrast and skin tones. Take a shot of the disc in the scene and using your white balance and color tools to dial in the settings for the rest of the pictures you take in the same lighting setup.

ColorRight Web Site: http://www.colorright.com

Vanguard

I raved about Vanguard’s products at last year’s PMA show and recently reviewed the Alta Pro 284CT tripod. This year they have some new stylish and extremely affordable messenger style bags as well as some ball heads. We will be doing a larger segment on all of the new Vanguard products this week during the rest of the show.

Vanguard Website: http://www.vanguardworld.com

Lensbaby

Oh Lensbaby, how doest I love thee, let me count the ways! This FrankenLens-looking thing below is the new Control Freak. When paired with the new fish-eye lens you get an INCREDIBLE macro lens that can actually focus on an object that is touching the glass of the lens, now THAT’S close!!

Lenbaby Website: http://lensbaby.com

Argraph

You know I am a gadget freak especially when it comes to products to use in the field for backups and image verification. Argraph’s new MemoryKicker offers more features than the Epson products at about half of the cost. We will certainly be taking a longer look at these products this week.

Argraph website: http://argraph.com

Stay Tuned!

PMA 2010 runs for the next few days to be sure and check back for video interviews, new product announcements, and other new info.

The Vanguard Alta Pro 284CT Tripod

I first saw the Vanguard Alta Pro line of tripods at PMA last year and decided right on the spot that I just had to have one. There was one feature of the Alto Pro tripods that stood out from the rest for me, that was the ability of the central rod to be able to rotate from 0 to 130 degrees  in order for you to be able to shoot straight down onto something or for better angles for macro photography. For me, this is highly useful for product photography.

Other features include advanced camera vibration and shock control, legs that adjust to 25, 50 and 80-degree angles, quarter-twist leg locks,  patented premium magnesium die-cast canopy and head, hexagon-shaped central column for extra stability, and non-slip, spiked rubber feet for changing terrains and a removable hook for hanging camera accessories. Alta Pro 284CT is carbon fiber making it very light weight.

Specifications

• Extended height(inch): 63
• Folded height(inch): 21
• Weight(lbs): 3.71
• Maximum loading capacity(lbs): 18
• Titled Loading Capacity(lbs): 15.4
• Number of Leg Sections: 4
• Leg Diameter(mm): 28

Another feature that I was looking for in a new tripod was the ability to spread the legs out to multiple angles in order to get the camera as close to the ground as possible. With the Alta Pro’s ability to rotate the center column over and spread the legs out up to 80 degrees, this gives you some of the most control of any tripod available. The ability to screw up the rubber feet to expose metal spikes should help the Alta Pro tripods stay put on uneven terrain. This should be a welcome feature for landscape photographers. On the bottom of central column is a metal loop that you can use to strap down to a sand bag to steady the tripod when using it in the wind. The Alta Pro tripods all come with a slinging bag (SB-100 Stone Bag). This can be used to store all your basic “keep handy” gear like lens caps, light meters, and turkey sandwiches, or you can fill it with rocks to help keep the tripod sturdy. When looking at the different models of the Alta Pro series, the model number gives you some clues to it’s specs. The first two number designate the diameter of the legs while the third digit tells you how many segments the legs have, hence the 284CT has 28mm legs and 4 segments.

Usage

There is a lot to like about the Vanguard Alta Pro 284CT, the construction is solid, it has a great set of features, and is easy to use. My last tripod had clunky brackets to release the legs where the 284CT uses a twist-lock that takes only 1/4 of a turn to lock or unlock.

The leg angle adjustment is solid and easy to use as well with a simple push button release. To swing the central column over you raise up the column and push a safety button to release it up into the neck. Once up, you release the Instant Swivel Stop-n-Lock (ISSL) System and the central post will be free to move around.

Keep in mind that the 284CT is not a complete tripod system, it is just the legs and the central column. In order to actually attach a camera, you have to have some kind of head on it.  Currently, my most used head is a Manfrotto 322RC2 ball head. This head requires a larger screw mount than comes standard on the 284CT. Fortunately, Vanguard thought this could be an issue. The 284CT comes with a little tool kit that allows you to remove  a larger screw mount from the top mount and attach it on top of the existing screw mount to allow for a wider variety of heads to be used. The small tool kit also has an Allen wrench and sockets for maintaining the legs.

Along with the stone bag, you also get a carrying bag for everything. I only wish the bag would have been a bit longer to accommodate having a head attached to it. Even so, its nice to have a bag with a carrying strap to help haul it around.

Results

Ok, so remember at the beginning I said that good tripod legs go for upwards of $400 or more, and sometimes, much more. And notice how much attention to detail Vanguard has put into the Alta Pro 284CT. The best part, is you can get all of this for only $299.95. Sure, that is still a heft chunk of change especially when you add in another $50 – $100 for a good ball head. Is an investment of close to $400 really worth it for something as simple as a tripod? That sounds like a simple question but as someone who has gone through a handful of tripods over the years, I can attest to the fact that it does. Let me give you a brief history of my tripods over the years.

My first tripod was a cheap $14 special that actually came free when I bought a Hi8 digital camera once. While initially fine indoors for product photography, it was very wobbly and wouldn’t hold up a heavier camera/lens combo. As I upgraded and the cameras and lenses got heavier, it simply wouldn’t cut it.

The next tripod was in the low-end of the pro spectrum. It extended much taller, was more sturdy, and could hold heavier gear. Over time, the movements got gritty, the legs got looser, and it just didn’t feel stable enough. This tripod still serves duty for my much lighter camcorder.

My last tripod was a nice Calumet. While for a while, it was nice to have a good tripod with a nice Manfrotto head on it, eventually it really began to fall apart. In recent days the clasps are held together with JB Weld, O-Rings have fallen off, and I have to tighten up the screws all the time.

The Vanguard Alta Pro 284CT is easily the most expensive tripod I have owned to date but the features it had, along with much better construction should allow it to last longer and hold up to my abuse, while at the same time giving me functionality I never had before.

Summary

So far, I am impressed with the Alta Pro 284CT. It has the features I was looking for, it is reasonable priced for the class of tripod it is in, and has a nice, professional feel to it. Its also much lighter than my previous tripod which will be very handy as I do travel quite a bit.

But who is Vanguard? I bet most of you have never heard of them before. For 24 years, Vanguard has been a leader in high-quality photo-video accessories (tripods, monopods, ball heads, camera bags and cases), hunting accessories (archery bow cases, gun cases and gun pods/shooting sticks) and sporting optics (binoculars and spotting scopes).

Score Card

Vanguard Website: http://www.vanguardworld.com

Lightroom 2.6.1 : Mac, Windows

Source: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/

Crumpler is a company that has become known for trendy and cool bags for many different markets.  Crumpler has also been known for quality of build and durability.  Late last year, Crumpler introduced the latest in its Million Dollar Home line called the ‘8 Million Dollar Home’ to give a fashionable alternative to the typical, usually black, technical looking camera bag.

At $170 retail, this bag is not strictly just a camera bag, but fashionably carrying your camera gear is a task it seems to do quite well.  As I first received this bag, I spent much time looking at it, flipping it around, studying the stitching, the internals, the straps.

What I realized first that this is a quality built product.  I don’t care how rough you are on your gear bags, the 8 Million Dollar Home from Crumpler will stand up to your daily use as well or better than any bag I have ever used.  The shoulder strap is well padded.  The material is thick and durable.  This bag is built to last.

Next I tried to figure out the functionality of the bag.  Camera bags tend to come in all sizes and shapes these days from backpacks to fanny packs, from rollers to shoulders.  Most all of them are black and pretty typical looking.  No matter where you go, you walk in announcing that you are carrying a bag full of camera gear.  Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but not everyone wants to announce “photographer” with every entrance to a room.  This is the next area that this bag is very well designed.  It simply does not look like a camera bag.  It looks more like a trendy saddle bag.

The model I have is gray on the outside and a bright, neon green on the inside, trimmed with red accents.  The inside has a series of compartments that are fully configurable and there are plenty of extra dividers to allow you to make more than enough small compartments for your needs.  With velcro on the ends of the soft divider panels, locking them into place is easy.  I was able to get a 70-200mm and 2 other lenses in, plus my camera body with a lens on it, a flash, meter and lots of small accessories.  For me, this was plenty of room to load what I needed for a weekend casual trip or a light business shoot on the road.  And the bad was solid and protected enough to make me comfortable that my gear was safe.

One of the most unique features of the bag is the silent closure option. The 8 Million Dollar Home is secured on two corners by two large pieces of Velcro underneath the top of the large messenger flap that encloses your equipment.  An interesting, thoughtful twist is that you can choose to un-tuck a cover, place it over the Velcro, and close the flap with two clasp enclosures allowing for a silent opening and closing without the rip and tear commotion caused by the large, Velcro fasteners. A nice option when you need to get to your gear without disturbing those around you.

Inside, the bright green padded compartments can be configured in a seemingly infinite number of ways to accommodate a variety of gear.  You can even completely empty the inside of dividers and make it one large, open bag, if desired. There are also two large mesh compartments inside the flap and front compartment of the bag, one secured by a zipper and the other with a Velcro strap. There are also a couple of loops on the outside  on either side to perhaps secure a small tripod.

Overall, the bag looks cool, is quite light, and well padded. It will fit a reasonable amount of equipment.  It is fashionable and kind of fun to configure.  It is not everyone’s answer to the “everything-bag”, but is not intended to be.  I personally cannot think of a more comfortable way to tote my gear around for an afternoon of shooting.

The Crumpler 8 Million Dollar home can be found for $170.00 on Amazon.com.

Interested in seeing more of Crumpler’s products… here is a link to All of Crumpler’s products on Amazon.

Product Review Scorecard

Crumpler Website: http://www.crumplerbags.com

Elmsford NY – December 29, 2009 -

Two key version 5.0 capabilities are Rear Curtain Sync and Pre-Flash Boost. PocketWizard’s rear curtain sync allows the photographer to set the shutter speed at which rear curtain sync automatically engages while optimizing the timing of rear curtain sync to fire at the absolute end of the shutter opening. Pre-Flash Boost provides enhanced E-TTL performance when using flash diffusers, doing bounce flash, or at ranges just beyond the normal E-TTL capabilities. By increasing the pre-flash power, PocketWizard has offset the loss of light in these challenging E-TTL situations.

Another significant new feature is Automatic Camera Detection. The ControlTL system can now automatically detect exactly which camera is being used to optimize system performance precisely for that camera. For Canon 5D and 5D Mark II users, this means the system will set the High Speed Sync crossover point to 1/320th versus the default of 1/400th to compensate for those camera’s slower shutter mechanisms. Camera compatibility for the Canon 7D has been added as well as E-TTL flash compatibility for the Metz 58 AF-1 flash.

Several other new features and refinements have been made and complete details can be found at www.PocketWizard.com/downloads. Current MiniTT1 Transmitter and FlexTT5 Transceiver owners can upgrade to the new firmware for free via the recently revised PocketWizard Utility.

About PocketWizard and the MiniTTI and FlexTT5

The PocketWizard MiniTT1 Transmitter and FlexTT5 Transceiver for Canon allow photographers to wirelessly control single or multiple off-camera flash units. These radios interpret the flash and exposure data communicated through the camera’s hot shoe and digitally transmit the information through a reliable radio signal. Photographers can place E-TTL flashes connected to a dedicated FlexTT5 Transceiver for wireless E-TTL operation wherever they need to illuminate a scene, even out of sight or in bright sun. Any change in ISO, aperture, shutter speed and even flash compensation is automatically communicated and adjusted wirelessly. A ControlTL system for Nikon is in the works as well as compatibility with some studio lights. The ControlTL system is also compatible for standard triggering with all PocketWizard radios.

For More Information

For more information on firmware version 5.0, including all new features and refinements, please visit PocketWizard.com.

###

• Canon EOS 1D Mark IV
• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon PowerShot G11
• Canon PowerShot S90
• Leaf Aptus-II 5
• Mamiya DM22
• Mamiya DM28
• Mamiya DM33
• Mamiya DM56
• Mamiya M18
• Mamiya M22
• Mamiya M31
• Nikon D3s
• Olympus E-P2
• Panasonic DMC-FZ38
• Pentax K-x
• Sigma DP1s
• Sony A500
• Sony A550
• Sony A850

Release Notes:

• Camera Raw 5.6 and Lightroom 2.6 provide a fix for an issue affecting PowerPC customers using the final Lightroom 2.5, Camera Raw 5.5 and DNG Converter 5.5 updates on the Mac. The issue, introduced in the demosaic change to address sensors with unequal green response, has the potential to create artifacts in highlight areas when processing raw files from Sony, Olympus, Panasonic and various medium format digital camera backs.
• The Lightroom 3 beta has not been updated with this new camera support. If you’re working with one of these newer cameras and the Lightroom 3 beta, please use the DNG Converter 5.6 to convert proprietary formats to DNG files that can be used in the Lightroom 3 beta.

Download at: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/

Learn to Love Lighting no matter what the situation. From formal lighting in a controlled setting to on-the-fly lighting at a wedding or on location, after this workshop you’ll know how to get the shot!

Part 1: Love Lighting Lecture

Kerry will show you the most common portrait lighting methods to achieve classic portraiture styles. You’ll learn broad lighting, short lighting, loop lighting, butterfly lighting, as well as techniques for dealing with various lighting difficulties.

Jules Bianchi has been shooting weddings for over 10 years and knows about getting the shot in any situation. In an fun and informative style, Jules will show you how to keep your cool, grab your camera, and get the shot no matter what the lighting situation. She’ll show you how to work with your clients, put them at ease, and get those natural, unposed shots she is famous for.

Part 2: Love Location & Lighting

Jules will show you how she works her magic with an entire group to get fantastic images. Follow along as Jules addresses the technical issues of lighting, but also how to help her subjects loosen up, look natural and have fun in the process! Kerry will demonstrate the techniques of formal portrait lighting using his Westcott speed lights. Take all the information you learned from the morning and put it into action! You don’t want to miss this part of the workshop!

Workshop Schedule:

Choose your own adventure! You can choose Part One, Part Two, or both!

Part 1: Lighting lecture in the classroom – $99
Part 2: Live model shoot – both indoors and out with an entire bridal party! – $99

SPECIAL! Choose BOTH part 1 & 2 and pay only $149! This is a limited offer, so sign up now!

When: Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Part 1: Noon to 4pm
Vendor Reception: 4-6pm
Part 2: 6-9pm

To sign up for the workshop, please click here

If you look at the movie industry, rail systems have become the standard way to mount all of the gear wrapped around a digital camera system (in this case, I believe this was a Red system).  Notice the young lady carrying a massive display of equipment on her shoulder.  If you look closely, you will see that there is a person supporting her around the waist as she is walking on rough terrain, and there is a person to her right who is actually running the follow focus and focusing the camera while she walks.  All of this gear looks like something out of a Sci-Fi movie.. and actually, it is (District 9).  In this article, we will talk about building a rail system similar to this to wrap around a DSLR.

When using a DSLR for high definition video, there are several other things you need to make the recording as clean as possible.  You need:

1) Stability – the ability to fluidly move your camera around

2) Focus – DSLRs do not have auto focus like camcorders do.  Focusing a lens is much more clunky and harder to handle

3) Light Control – sometimes a lens hood just isn’t enough control over the light on the lens

4) Microphone – the internal microphone is not nearly the quality needed for a professional video

5) Live View – the small, internal display is not big enough to use when manually focusing and framing a scene

6) Lighting – in darker situations, a light is often needed to illuminate your subject

7) Lens Modifiers – there are lens modifiers that do not attach to a lens and need to be fixed in-line with the camera lens, like a depth of field modifier

Now, imagine being able to take care of all of these needs at the same time.  To do this, you need a frame around your camera with which you can attach all of these components.  With a good rail system, you get:

1) Stability – a shoulder mount and frame you can hold with both hands

2) Focus – a follow focus knob and gearing with which you can easily mark your focus points and smoothly focus the lens

3) Light Control – a matte box with french flag and adjustable side flags and removable filter holders

4) Microphone – a frame allows you to mount a microphone either on the hot shoe or on the frame itself

5) Live View – an external monitor can be mounted above or to the side of the camera for optimal viewing, instead of just the small, built in screen on the camera

6) Lighting – a lighting solution can be mounted above the camera and will move with the camera

7) Lens Modifiers – with a rail system, a lens modifier can be mounted in-line with the camera lens in a rigid and secure installation

To accomplish all of this, we need to start with a rail system.  And to my surprise, there are quite a few out there to choose from.  But with a DSLR, there are special needs to handle the height and weight of the camera and all of its size requirements.  This means that not every rail system will work with your particular camera.  Rail systems designed for DSLRs are a little more height adjustable to allow for the height of the lens off the bottom mount of the camera.  The more flexible systems allow for a battery grip or XLR audio box under the body too.

And as of the writing of this article, there are a few video-capable DSLRs on the market, but many more are coming.  I am basing the article completely around my Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

The rail system we chose to work with for this article is the IndiSYSTEM from Studio4 Productions out of Waterloo, Iowa.  This is a U.S. manufactured rail system that is constantly changing and evolving to meet the needs of modern DSLRs as well as camcorders on the market today.  Tim Ovel, the owner, is a really personable and knowledgeable guy, and a lot of fun to talk with.  Throughout the build of this system, Tim was helpful in piecing the needed items and attachments together to make the rig just how we wanted it.

This article will be the first in a series that goes more in-depth into building and outfitting a rail system.  For this particular article, we are going to focus on the rail system itself.

However, we have other components that will be completing this rig in the next articles in the series.  We have a 5.6″ High Def HDMI battery powered portable monitor from Ikan, an LCD light panel from Ikan and a stereo mic and accessories from Rodes.  Delkin provided us with a Pop-Up Shade for the 5D Mark II, which helped with the outdoor light.  These accessories will help to complete the setup for a full production camera.

Now, let’s take a look at the system we have built here.  The first thing you need to understand is that this setup is completely reconfigurable.  Before even the first photograph was taken of the rig, I probably went through a dozen different configurations.  With the complete flexibility of the indiSYSTEM, you can pretty much make the rig fit exactly what you want it to.

The components:

There are several pieces that make up the rail system.  Combined in any arrangement, these parts make up a rail system.

The rails.

The rails themselves are the basis of a rail system.  They are a platform on which all of the components are attached.  Typically, the base is made up of 2 rails made up of a strong material like metal or carbon fiber.  Many of the rails out there are 15mm in diameter.  They can be almost any length, although the common lengths are anywhere from 10″ to 24″.  The indiRAILSpro system is based on carbon fiber rails, which are both light and very sturdy and strong.

The camera block

The camera mount, sometimes called the camera block, is where you mount your camera.  This is kind of the hub of the rig.  In the indiRAILSpro system, this block has a mounting plate that locks down to the rails themselves to the block and is the basis of holding them in place.  The block is drilled and tapped with mount holes with which to mount quick release bases and plates to attach your camera or to mount the entire block to a tripod.

The shoulder mount

The shoulder mount is not always a necessary piece of a rail system, but it is a very common requirement for many people.  The shoulder mount allows you to balance and carry your camera, rig and accessories on your shoulder while smoothly operating it.   The shoulder mount for the indiRAILSpro is easily adjustable and can be angled to allow the rear end of the rig to be higher or lower as best suits your needs.  The newest shoulder mount was just designed before this article’s release and is a cool new take on their last shoulder mount.  It is light weight and very flexible in layout.  It not only adjusts the distance of the rig from your shoulder, but it also angles to allow just the right angle for comfort.  After all, our shoulders to slant at an angle and your shoulder mount should accommodate that.

The Front handles

Handles on the front end of the rails are how you control it when it is shoulder mounted.  If you don’t intend to carry your rig on your shoulder, then you probably want to tripod mount it, and handles wouldn’t be important to you.  The handles need to be adjustable and flexible as people’s arm lengths are different.  This was another nice feature of the indiRAILSpro system as length, angle and separation could all be adjusted easily.

The Matte box

A matte box has many functions. It allows you to control the top and side light that hits the camera lens.  It can allow you to easily insert filters in front of the lens too.  A matte box can also shape the image aspect by blackening the top and bottom of your image to form a wider aspect letterbox effect.  On top of all of that, it makes your rig look cool and professional.  There are lots of reasons to want a matte box on your rail system.

The follow focus

This is not a “must have†accessory, and it is not terribly important to people using a rail setup with their average camcorders as auto-focus works well in that arena with that gear.  But with today’s DSLRs and video, auto-focus is not there yet.  Plus, there are many reasons to manually control your focus when doing cinematography.  A follow focus system will give you complete manual control over your camera’s focus.

Other Components

As you build out your rig, you will find lots of other  accessories you want to add to make your videography easier and more effective.  Once we built out all we needed with the indiSYSTEM, we started to add some other electronics to complete the system.  Here is what we found most effective to add.

A Matte box for the camera’s viewing screen – Delkin Pop-Up Shade for the Canon 5D Mark II

This little attachment is an inexpensive way to get a bit of light control over the screen of the 5D Mark II (or most any other popular DSLR) when shooting in outdoor lighting.  It takes only seconds to install, and looks good on the camera.  If the positioning of the rail system is right and you can focus your eye on this screen comfortably while moving your camera around, a pop-up shade like this really can make a difference.  And at $25, it really is an affordable addition to any DSLR.

A Larger external display – Ikan V5600 High Definition 5.6″ Monitor

Let’s face it… the small display on the back of the 5D II may be O.K. for checking out your still photos, but it is really too small for monitoring live video while on the move.  When you are moving around with a rig this large on your shoulder, you want to really be able to see exactly what is getting recorded.  Ikan has a series of monitors that are compatible with the HDMI output from the 5D II and many other cameras and camcorders on the market.  With the help of the Ikan mounting arm, the V5600 display took our rails system to a whole new level.  I will go further in depth to this display and it’s features in a future review, but we really loved the light weight, the long life battery pack and the ease of mounting it to the system.

Ikan also makes an 8″ HDMI monitor for those who want a larger display.  It is not as high of a resolution as the V5600, but then the HDMI live video output from the 5D Mark II is only 480P, so most of that video res is wasted anyway.  We will do a more in-depth review of this screen in a future article.  You can see this dispay here:

Ikan V8000HDe 8″ TFT LCD Monitor with DV Battery Plate, 16:9 and 4:3 Switchable Aspect Ratios

Video Light

On-camera lighting is another nice thing to have to accent your shot… especially if doing live interviews.  With a rail system, you have more real estate to mount a larger light and battery pack on top of the rail system above the camera.  The ikan iLED 150 is a slick solution to put portable lighting on top of your rail system.  With 144 LED lights and adjustable brightness, the iLED 150 gives you a nice, controlled lighting solution that runs for hours on a single charge.  We will be doing a specific light review on this product in the near future.

External Microphone – Rode Stereo VideoMic plus the Dead Kitten

There are many ways you can go with audio with your 5D II (or 7D or any other DSLR).  One way would be to add an XLR adapter such as those from Beachtek.  These would allow you to hook up XLR microphones either to the rig or wireless or off a boom.  But there is another, much easier way to add a mic.  As the Canon 5D II and many other HD recording devices have mini-phono jacks as their only source of recording.  For this, a cold shoe mounted microphone with a mini-phono jack is often the ideal solution.  We used a Rode Stereo Videomic with a wind filter called a “DeadKitten”.  This unit attaches right to the hot shoe on the camera and plugs into the mini-phono input.  It is a powered mic, using a 9v battery, and it has some really nice features.  It is a stereo “shotgun” style site mic with X/Y configuration, which enables it to capture the true ambiance of the recording space.  This mic is said to be the world’s best selling stereo shotgun mic.  I will be doing a full review of this and several other Rodes mics in the coming weeks, but for now, you read some great reviews here:

Rode Microphones Stereo VideoMic On-Camera Microphone

Putting It All Together:

So, I have to say, putting this all together was the best part.  If you are like me and you like to tinker with things, this is a tinkerers dream. The system came in pieces and components ready to assemble.  I was a bit intimidated at first, but quickly dug into the project.  There were dozens of pieces to put together, but all was done with either thumb screws or allen wrenches that were included.

First – the rails.

I started with the rails… two 12″ long carbon fiber rods that are the backbone of the IndiRAILS system.  There are “blocks” that attach to the top and bottom of these rails and clamp down to hold the rails in place.  All it takes is 1 set of blocks and your rails are steady and firm.

Second – the camera block

The first block to mount is the camera block.  This is where the camera mounts and is kind of the core of the rig.  The IndyRAILSpro camera block is adjustable vertically, so the Canon 5D with a battery grip can still be adjusted to a good height to work with the rest of the attachments.

Inside the camera block I have mounted the “C” shaped mounting bracket and carrying handle.  This is also a pretty recent addition to the product line-up (one that I think I had a little influence in creating) and is an important addition to the rig.  This handle not only allows me to mount my microphone and other gear above the camera, but it is a firm handle to help carry a rather awkward shaped rig around.

Third – the Matte Box

Next, I attached the indiMATTEpro matte box.  It also mounted with a block on the front, which added further stabilization to the rails.  The height of the matte box can be adjusted to match up properly with the lens height on the camera.  The side and top flags are easily adjustable and can be tightened into position.  The height is also adjustable so you can easily align the opening and masking height with the particular camera setup you have.

Fourth – front handles

To give me something to hold onto, I next mounted the front handles to the rails.  These mounted to the rails with a block just like the Matte box mounts.  The handles are pretty flexible with good adjust-ability, and they lock down real tight when in position.  In a future article, I plan to mount a remote control for the camera to one of the handles to allow start and stop recording while on the move, as your hands tend to be pretty tied up while carrying all of this gear on your shoulder.

Fifth – shoulder mount

From here, I put on the shoulder mount.  This latest design of the shoulder assembly is pretty nice.  It is lighter weight than the last model and is more flexible in that you can easily switch which side of the rig you put it on and the length of the mount, as well as the angle from the rig and the angle to the shoulder.

Sixth – follow focus

The next item to add was the indiFOCUSpro.  This is probably the coolest addition to the rail system.  The issue with the 5D II and video is auto-focus… or the lack thereof.  And truthfully, you really don’t always want auto focus.  Selective focusing is much more dramatic and engrossing in your video production. The issue is that grabbing the lens to focus shakes the camera and is inaccurate.  The indiFOCUSpro comes with a large hand grip dial to allow you to focus more naturally.  It has a gearbox that drives gears to turn the lens.  It also has gear teethed rings to mount on the outside of your lens. With the 6 simple adjustment points, it is easy to clamp the ring down on your lens.  It doesn’t have to be tight, and the alan screw tips are rounded as to not mark the lens.  But I went down to the local hardware store and spend $0.86 on some thread protectors and cut them down to fit on the threads.  This made me more comfortable tightening the screws down on my expensive lenses. You can see these (orange and red) in the photo to the right.

Once aligned and adjusted, the follow focus is a great tool for focusing the lens.  It also has a white back plate where you can mark your focus points with a grease pencil (included with the indiFOCUSpro).

At this point the rail system is ready to take out and use.  All of the gear mentioned above has been mounted to the rails and the camera installed.  Here are a few finished shots.

Cost

If you have looked into these rail systems before, then you know how pricey they can get.  We studied the Redrock Micro system and Zacuto gear.  We were amazed at how fast you can spend $2.5k, $3k, $4k and more.  What really excited us about the indiSYSTEM from Studio4 Productions is how reasonable the pricing is for their solution.  The complete indiSYSTEM setup I have shown in this article (not including additional electronics or camera – mic, screen, light, 5d, lens) was just a little over $1,200 at the time of writing this.  For those of us trying to break into video production, many cannot afford $3k or more to outfit our gear to get started in video.  This is something to truly consider when looking for a rail system.

There is a lot more reviewing to do here, as we need to show this rig in action.  But for now, it took me long enough to get all of this gear together.  I wanted to get a basic overview review of the indiSYSTEM components done so we could start to familiarize ourselves with using a rail system.

Stay tuned to see this rail system in operation and for reviews of the individual components.

Here are the websites for the manufacturers of products in this article:

• indiSYSTEM (Studio 4 productions)
• ikan
• R0DE Microphones
• Delkin

The “Easy Way”
The easy way to get this shot is to shoot the card laying on its side. Once you have the image, take it into Photoshop and rotate it 90 degrees clockwise so it is then standing up, copy a portion of it, rotate it vertically, then add a gradient to fade to white, and viola, you are done. This would certainly have been less time in shot setup but more time in post production. What I wanted was to actually do as much of the shot in-camera as possible, hence, I didn’t do it “The Easy Way” and then “Fix it in Photoshop”.

The Shot Setup
The first thing I needed to get was the reflection under the product. A reflection actually isn’t very hard to do, I do it quite often. I just shoot the product over a sheet of thick plexiglass that is sitting on top of a sheet of white muslin. The image of the product will be reflected into the plexi and you have yourself a sweet reflection.

Getting the card to “stand up” required a little bit of thought. At first I tried some acrylic blocks but that stood out too much and would require more Photoshop work than I wanted to do. The same thing happened with white blocks. The final solution turned out to be super simple. I used a boom arm and suspended the cards using fishing line. With the strobes going off the fishing line just disappeared making touch-ups for real fast.

The Post Production
To get started, the images were imported into Lightroom and the Clarity and Vibrance were bumped a hair, the shots were cropped, and then the Adjustment Brush was used to completely blow out the background. A Foreground to transparent gradient was used to fade the reflection to white so the image would set nicely on a website.

The Results
The final images are exactly what I set out to accomplish with very little post production because I tried to get as much done in-camera as possible. While I could have used Photoshop I often think that it is better to get the shot as close to the finished product as possible when you capture it. By even taking simple shots like this and figuring out how to get the shot a different way is good exercise for when something more complicated comes up. Being able to improvise and come up with creative solutions to problems is a very valuable skill.

More Images

Video Explanation

Equipment Used

Strobelite Plus w/Barn Door Kit
Strobelite Plus w/24×36 softbox
Canon 50D
Canon 50mm f1/8
Photoflex Boom arm
Westcott light stands
Vanguard Ball head
Calumet tripod
Phottix Cleon II Trigger

Goodbye Dust Bunnies

There are three things that I keep handy in order to keep my lenses clean. A good microfiber cloth, a Giottos Rocket Blower, and a LensPen. I do not use any cleaning process that uses chemicals since even the best will leave some residue. Preferably I don’t want to touch the glass at all so the first step is going to be to use the Rocket Blower to get as much off the glass as possible. If something isn’t coming off easily I turn to the brush side of the Lenspen. If the issue is something different like fingerprints (my personal biggest issue) then the best way to clean that is with the felt tip of the Lenspen. The carbon dust will clean and polish the lens to perfection.

The following video will walk through my cleaning process that I go through before any shoot.

Equipment Used

• Giottos Rocket Blaster Air Blower
• Microfiber cloth
• LensPEN Lens Cleaning System

Kerry’s Equipment List

• Think Tank Airport International 2.0
• VANGUARD PAMPAS 57 Backpack
• Canon EOS 50D 15.1MP Digital SLR Camera
• Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 IF EX DG HSM AF Standard Zoom Lens
• Tamron AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 SP Di II LD Aspherical (IF) Lens
• Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens
• Lensbaby The Composer for Canon EF mount Digital SLR Cameras
• PhotoVision 24″ Digital Calibration Target
• Westcott 6 In 1 Reflector Kit 30
• Giottos Rocket Blaster Air Blower
• LensPEN Lens Cleaning System
• SensorKlear Loupe and SensorKlear II Combo
• BLACKRAPID RS-1 Camera Sling Strap
• LumiQuest FX, Five Filter Gel Set with Holder
• Lumiquest Promax System
• WhiBal White Balance Reference Card
• ColorRight Neutral White Balance Filter
• ExpoDisc Digital White Balance Filter, 77mm
• Polaris Digital Flash Meter
• HonlPhoto Speed Strap for Shoe Mount Flashes
• HonlPhoto 8″ Snoot
• Honlphoto Gel Kit 2
• HonlPhoto Speed Gobo Flag / Barndoor / Bounce Card
• HonlPhoto 1/4″ Speed Grid
• Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack
• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens
• Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket
• Wolverine ESP 80 GB
• Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash
• SanDisk 16 GB Extreme III CompactFlash Card
• Lensbaby Macro Kit

[flashvideo file=wp-content/uploads/Kerrys_Bag.flv /]

During this tutorial Kerry shows how to use a light meter to determine the difference between the background and the subject to achieve a good high-key look as well as using the meter to determine the proper exposure.

With the Canon EOS 50D that I am using now life has become MUCH easier with the Live View mode and the ability to zoom into the image and just nail the focus. In this video, I demonstrate exactly how this process works.

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DSLR Sensor

What are you really cleaning?

There are two components that we will look at cleaning, the first being the focusing screen mirror. If you remove your lens and look into your camera with a lens off, you will see a small mirror.  Dust typically doesn’t stick to this surface very much, so a few quick blasts of air from something like a Rocket Blower should keep the mirror in relatively clean and clear.  This mirror, however, only affects what you see through your viewfinder and not what the sensor sees.

The second component is the “sensor”.  To get to the sensor you have to put your camera into sensor cleaning mode which moves the mirror out of the way, letting you get to the sensor plate. It is important to note that we are never actually touching the sensor itself.  The sensor sits behind a thin sheet of glass and it is this glass that we will be cleaning.  Knowing that you are actually going to be cleaning a piece of glass, and not the actual sensor itself, will hopefully make some of you feel a little better about this process.

And for those of you who take your camera bodies to Canon and get a free cleaning whenever you want (like we do), be aware that the days of free cleanings are about over.  Manufacturers are soon going to be discontinuing this free service, from what we have been told.

Lenspen SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner and SensorKlear Loupe

Tools of the trade

There are many things you can stick into your camera body to wipe down the sensor, but the goal of this article is to show you how to do it right.  There are many, many products available on the market to clean sensors in DSLRs today.  And quite frankly, many of them just don’t make sense.  Recently, we were at PMA in Las Vegas and we saw the myriad of cleaning products and solutions available for this job.  It is both overwhelming and confusing.  Then, we came across a product and a solution that just made perfect sense.  It’s called the Lenspen SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner and the SensorKlear Loupe.  These two items, together with a blower ball like the Giottos Rocket Blower or the Lenspen Hurricane Blower, make perfect sense as a solution to the problem.

Blowing out the camera

What are we getting into here?

The inside of the camera body is a dark and tight space.  To know what you are getting into, the the SensorKlear loupe is what you use to look into the camera to see if there is any dust that needs to be cleaned off the sensor.  This device is specially engineered to light the interior of the camera body and sensor surface, magnify the view to the eye and allow easy side access to get to the sensor.

There are also two kinds of dust that we will encounter.  Dry dust and sticky dust. Dry dust will make up about 95% of the dust particles you will encounter which is good news since they are easily removed with a blower ball.  A few quick blasts on the mirror, then putting the camera into sensor cleaning mode and then a few quick blasts onto the sensor is usually all you need for the majority of the dust you will encounter.  This should always be your first step when cleaning your camera’s sensor, and many times will be more than enough to solve your problems.  Once you complete this step, either check your sensor with a SensorKlear Loupe or put a lens back on, turn on manual focus and shoot a photo of a white background.  Check to see if there are any spots on your image.

Any dust that remains on our sensor and refuses to budge with just a simple blast of air is known as “sticky dust”.  This dust may be sticky from humidity or it is static charged and wants to just hang on the sensor.  There are several ways to get the sticky dust off and dozens of companies that are ready to sell you all manner of cleaning supplies to solve this problem.  In the worst case, it is possible that a spec might not be so easy to remove.  There are brushes that may work, or sometimes they just end up moving the dust around.  The other products offered are chemicals that will often leave a residue on the sensor glass (and yes, they ALL leave a visible residue… some just less than others).  Depending on the environment, some dust could even have some oil on it and the best you can do with brushes is to move it around and never get it to come off.  That’s when a chemical process and swab may (worst case scenario) have to be used to get that stubborn piece of dust off.

Lenspen SensorKlear

But outside of the worst cases (which RARELY occour), a simple blow, look and swipe should handle all your needs.  This is where the two piece solution of the Lenspen SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner and the SensorKlear Loupe make the perfect combination.  Let’s get into detail about these two pieces.

The SensorKlear Loupe is an electronically lighted eyepiece that sits over the body where the lens normally sits.  With it’s multiple LED lights, it gives you a wonderful, lighted view of your sensor that is magnified many times.  With this, you can see every spec of dust and debris on your sensor’s surface.  This is the only way we know of today to effectively see what needs to be cleaned.  You simply tell your camera to pup up the mirror for sensor cleaning, remove the lens and lay the camera on its back.  Then, you put the SensorKlear over the body opening and turn on the light.

The Lenspen SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner is a pen-like device with a hinge in the middle.  It has a capped cleaner surface at one end.  This cleaner surface is a specially designed chamois surface that is shaped like a rounded triangle to allow you to get into the corner of the sensor area and reach any surface.  Unlike brushes that can simply move things around, this pen can wipe just the area where the dust sits and pick it right up.  If the dust is sticky, it will usually pick it up too, or in some cases, it will move it around and turn it from sticky to dry dust, which can just be blown out of the camera.  Either way, there is no form of dust it cannot seem to handle.

Using the SensorKlear Loupe and SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner

So, the next step is to remove any debris we see.  We are assuming at this point that you have blown out the camera.  With the SensorKlear over the opening, there is a side access opening.  You simple bend the CCD sensor cleaning pen at a slight angle and reach in through this side access opening, watching the whole time throuh the eyepiece.  You make a small wipe or blot of the area where the dust is and it is immediately picked up and swept away.

We know that this sounds like a product plug; and truthfully, it truly is.  This is the first series of products that have actually made us feel comfortable cleaning our own camera sensors.  And that is saying a lot.  As a matter of fact, we heard rumors that Canon service techs themselves use these products for the work that they do on customer’s cameras.  I guess that makes sense to us too.  After all, its the best solution we have seen.

SensorKlear and Lenspen CCD Pen

Lenspen Website: http://lenspen.com

Authors

Maurice Naragon
Digital Creations
Website Development and Marketing
Professional Photography in Orange County, CA

Kerry Garrison
Orange County Wedding Photographer

Canon DSLR Hot Shoe

During a wedding shoot one day I noticed that my flash was only firing occasionally. After the initial panic, I quickly figured out that if I held the flash with a little counter-clockwise tension, then the flash worked fine. At the first break, I tried my backup camera and it was doing the same thing. When I got home, I checked it against my daughter’s 20D and it worked fine, and it also seemed that the hot shoe on my cameras was loose compared to hers.Another symptom of this is that the flash will switch from E-TTL mode into TTL mode and the exposure will usually be very overexposed.

After some research on the net, I discovered that this is not an uncommon problem for cameras that get heavy use. Typically, a quick trip to a service center will fix it, but the actual fix is quite simple and you can help ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

What you will need

Protective Plate

The tools needed to make this repair are quite simple, although small. What you will need is a very small flat screwdriver and a VERY small Phillips head screwdriver. A typical cheap set of jeweler’s or eyeglass screwdrivers should do the trick quite nicely.

To make the fix more permanent, you may want to get some mild Loctite or other thread adhesive. I would not use the heavy duty stuff as that is only needed under heavy vibrations and someday, someone may actually need to take your camera apart for service so the more mild version should work perfectly.

You will also want a good clean work area, preferably with a towel underneath everything, if you drop one of the damned-near-microscopic screws you will be in a world of hurt trying to find it in the carpet.

Getting Started

Hot Shoe Removed

I don’t know if this is the same for Nikon or other brands, but I would assume its not too different, if you run into this issue on other cameras, its worth a try before sending it to service.

When you are looking down into the hotshoe, you will not see any screws, they are covered by a removable plate that slides off. This plate is a good thing to have there as on one of my cameras several of the screws were completely backed out and would have been lost if that plate hadn’t been in place.

There is certainly a technique to popping the plate off which is a bit hard to explain but simple once you get the hang of it. The way I do it is to slide the flat screwdriver under the plate coming from the rear of the camera towards the front. You want to be gentle here and not bend the plate, it will come off with very little pressure. With the screwdriver under the plate, the goal is to lift the back of the plate (side closest to the front of the camera) so that a little lip on it clears the bottom section. With a little pressure on the screwdriver to life the backend, and a little pressure on the plate with a finger it should slip out of place slightly. A little wiggling should allow you to pull it the rest of the way out.

Screws Holding Hot Shoe

At this point you will have access to the four small screws that hold the hot shoe connector in place. if you just want to tighten them up, go ahead and do so and skip to the section of reassembling the protective plate. If you want to use a little thread lock, then continue reading.

The cleanest way I have found to remove all four screws without dropping them is to loosen them all up all the way and then place a magnet (I stole one off the fridge). This will allow you to lift the hot shoe connector and all four screws at once. I then clean up the connector and the camera to remove any dust or debris that is there and put the connector back on the camera. If you are using some thread lock, you just need the smallest dot of liquid on the threads, you can do a quick dunk if you have small enough fingers or apply a little to the threads with a toothpick. Put the screws back in and tighten them up.

Putting the plate back on

Plate Rear Hooks

Oh sure, you popped off the protective plate like a pro, did a solid to your camera with a little Loctite, so putting this little piece of spring-steel back into place should be child’s play right? Its actually pretty easy to screw this part up and end up wondering for an hour what the heck you did wrong. Take special note of the picture here showiing how the plate goes back in with the little hoops going DOWN towards the camera. Those little hoops slide into two slots on either side so you have to make sure they are lined up when you push the plate into place and the rear lip slids into place. If you don’t have those two hoops in the right position, removing the plate again to reseat will be an excersize in frustration.

Trust me on this one, I am speaking from experience here. Once the plate is back in place properly, you are all finished and ready to go. If you are using some thread lock, be sure and give it a little time to dry before attaching the flash and torquing the screws, you might end up loosening them before they get glued into place which would really not be a good situation to be in.

At least you now have one thing you can fix if it becomes an issue for you.

Author: Kerry Garrison

I think screen protectors are way overpriced.  You can pay $10 to $15 for a piece of plastic film smaller than the palm of your hand.  That just doesn’t seem right.  Fortunately, I happen to have a box full of old Palm Pilot screen protectors laying around and I usually just cut one of them to the size of my camera’s screens.  They are durable, scratch resistant and provide decent protection.  I bought several dozen of these in a single ebay auction, so I didn’t feel ripped off at paying $14.99 for a clear piece of sticky plastic, as many companies charge for their “custom cut” screen protectors.

Overview

While at the PMA tradeshow in March ’08, I met with a Giottos distributor named Bill Hodges, who was very enthusiastic about their products.  Bill showed me an product line that I was not familiar with in the Giottos lineup… the AEGIS Pro Optical Glass Screen Protectors.  Unlike the simple plastic films you can buy for $10 to $15, these Giottos screen protectors are $24 to $45.  Now, I have never been comfortable paying $15 for a piece of plastic film smaller than a playing card, so what could possibly make me spend two to three times that amount to protect my camera screens?

To answer that question, let’s look at some specs on this product.

AEGIS SP 80 series
• Transmission 420~680 nm: T≥98%
• High translucent, optical glass sheet made from Schott glass in Germany.
• Both sides 12 layers coated, from “LEYBOLD†Germany
• 12 Layers improve LCD backlight transmission while reducing reflections or glare
• Elite Schott glass protects and clarifies LCD images
• Includes Micro-Fiber Cleaning Cloth
• Available for digital cameras and DSLR’s including Canon, Nikon and Fujifilm
• Adds no significant weight or bulk to the camera body
• Resistant to acid and alkali prolonging the life of the LCD
• Easily applied using pre attached 3m double sided tape
• No air bubbles
• Glass surface reaches 8-9 and the elastic pressure is 4kg/cm2 to help it withstand impacts
• Removable and replaceable if it gets scratched or damaged

I have found that most LCD screen protectors fall into one of two categories; the plastic stick-on film sheet or the flip-up sun shade housings.  Stick-on sheets are prone to peeling off, bubbling, and have little to no beneficial optical qualities while LCD hoods/screen shades & covers are bulky and cumbersome while only minimally preserving the LCD image.

Setup

The Giottos AEGIS Glass Screen Protectors are very different from the start. The package has an interesting pull-up transparent tab that has the outline size of the screen protector that you can lay over your camera screen to confirm the size. With 12 layers of Anti-Reflective coating, plus being made of glass, they protect the LCD panel from not only abrasions and scratches , but impact too.  The multi-layer coating supposedly improves clarity and color quality as well as the life of the LCD.

I picked up two of these screen protectors; one for my Canon 5D Mark II and one for my Canon G9.  The two models I picked up were obviously different as the screen sizes of the displays on the two cameras are just a little different.  So, I started with the SP8301L for the 50D and 5D Mark II.

So, enough of all the marketing hype… what is the user experience?  What is this thing really like?  Well, first, the application to the camera screen was fairly simple.   Since it is rigid, it is easy to move around and pre-position.  There were no air bubbles to worry about, but not just because you are applying a rigid piece of glass, but because the glass is actually suspended above the screen surface by a fraction of a millimeter.  The only sticky surface is around the edges of the protector, and the thickness of the sticky substrate suspends the glass above the screen.

Installation

There is protective plastic on both sides of the glass sheet.  I cleaned my screen well with a micro-fiber cloth, peeled away the bottom film first, then lined the glass up with the screen.  My first shot was not perfect, so I used a fingernail to peel it up and re-apllying it.  Not too challenging.  Once in place, I rubbed it down with a cloth and peeled away the top protective layer.  The fit to the 5D II is perfect.

Usage

Checking at the final result, it looks great.  The protective cover has the Giottos logo in the black trim around the outside edge which covers the Canon logo.  This is the most visible thing you will notice every day  But as you can see by the photo it simply looks like part of the camera.  The surface of the Schott Glass is a little more reflective than the anti-reflective coating on the original screen surface, but you only notice this when the camera screen is off. Once it is on, the picture is bright and clear.  I actually find it much easier to see in bright sunlight than it was before the Giottos screen cover was on.

One More Time

Next, I installed my second screen protector over my Canon G9 screen – model SP 8300.  This was a little tougher as the screen fit was not as perfect as the one for the 5D Mark II.  The cover for the G9 was actually a couple on millimeters shorter on the vertical dimension than the Canon G9 screen.  This caused me to lift and re-seat the cover a couple of times to get it to where I could best see the camera’s screen through the glass.  Now, the end result is absolutely fine and the screen is 100% visible, but the Canon logo at the top is only partially covered.  This is a very small detail, as I guess I was expecting absolute perfection here.  However, I am completely happy with the end product.  With the small body of a camera like the G9, you tend to touch the screen more and it seems more prone to being bumped or scuffed by being laid on the screen, so I think this application is even more crucial than putting it on my pro body.

Protector in place	Removing film cover
With Protector Installed

Results

I have now tested both of my cameras outside in sunlight, in the shade, in the dark, in about every possible situation.  I have to say that I have no real complaints at all.  About the only criticism one might have is that the new screen is a bit more reflective than the original surface, but it isn’t bothering me.  After reading some reviews online, I see that there are various complaints about size, reflectivity and the screen not sticking.  I have to say that I do not see any of these issues with my two experiences.

Summary

The only reason to really put a protector of this sort over your camera’s screen is to protect the original screen and protect the value of your camera.  Let’s face it… these cameras are electronics.  In today’s market, electronics are the fastest depreciating item you can buy (outside of a home – but that’s another story).  To keep the value of your camera, you need to keep it looking new.  But you don’t want to have to look through some bubbled, misty looking piece of plastic film the whole time you use your camera.  So, is it worth a little more to invest in a quality piece of glass like this?  I think so.

Lensbaby Composer

In the beginning there was the original Lensbaby lens, a simple bellows system with push-pull focus and left/right and up/down sweet spot selection. Then c2ame the Lensbaby 3G that allowed you to fine tune the sweet spot after locking it down so that you can easily repeat the same shot and settings.

Now, the Lensbaby Composer promises a lens that is easier to use, better control over focusing, and a selection of different optic inserts to give you a variety of different effects.

Lensbaby 3G and Composer

Comparison to other Lensbaby Lenses

Looking at the difference between a Lensbaby 3G and a Composer, the older models have a flexible bellows that adjusts the focus by pushing it out or pulling it in, the Composer has a focus ring that moves the optic insert in and out. To adjust the sweet spot on an older model you move the lens around on the bellows, on the Composer the optics are held by a ball and socket that has an adjustment ring to adjust the amount of friction so you can have it move easily or even lock it in place and just about anything in between. The older models have a removable aperture disk, the larger the aperture (the smaller the f/stop number) the more dramatic the effect.

Optic System

The new Composer comes with double glass optics that can provide a very sharp image.  Also available are three other optic inserts that can be swapped out for the double glass optic. These other optics include:

• Single glass optic
  This is an update to the original Lensbabies lenses, with the single glass optic you get a subtle, soft, dreamy effect.
• Plastic lens optic
  With the plastic lens this optic has a very soft effect that creates very ethereal photos with abundant chromatic aberration.
• Pinhole/Zone Plate Optic
  In pinhole or zone plate mode, this optic insert achieves softer focus, dreamy images that are equally sharp from edge to edge.

You can see an interactive example of the different optics with different apertures by using Lenbabies’ Optic Comparison guide.

Using the Lensbaby Composer

Composer on Canon 30D

The Composer attaches to your camera like any other lens but there are no electronics in the lens so there is no Auto-Focus and no aperture control from the camera. The Composer is a completely manual lens and the aperture is controlled with different discs that are placed into the bottom of the optics.

Using the older Lensbaby 3G or the original Lensbaby 1.0/2.0 was an exercise in frustration for many people as just adjusting the lens, holding it in place, and holding the camera almost required three hands.  With the Composer, the easiest way to use it is to adjust the friction ring so the lens will move easily but is not too lose and simply shoot away, adjusting up/down/left/right as you see fit and adjusting for focus. If you are using a tripod and want to make sure the lens does not move at all between shots then you can lock the lens on place by tightening up the friction ring.  While this sounds like a lot of work, it is significantly easier than than trying to use two fingers from each hand to wrap around your camera body, look through the viewfinder, compose your images, and press the shutter at the same time.

The Lensbaby lenses are not lenses you will put on your camera and be firing shots off like a machine gun, you need to slow down, get your composure right, get your exposure dialed in, adjust the sweet spot, and make the image versus taking a snapshot. You have to think and work a little more, but the result is an image you made in-camera and got it right.

The Lensbaby Effect

What the lens does is to shift the focus into a “sweet spot” and the blur effect will radiate out from the sweet spot and increase in effect as it moves away from the spot.  In some images the effect can be rather subtle so I purposely chose an image that will show the effect quite well.

Here you can see the front of the car is where I set the sweet spot and the blurring effect increases as it goes away from the sweet spot. This is a very difficult look to do with software although some plugins are getting very close these days.

This differs from a true tilt-shift lens in that the Lensbaby lenses can’t correct perspective like a tilt-shift lens. The Lensbaby is more of a special effects lens which can create some very interesting images. While the car shot demonstrates what the Composer can do, that isn’t what you are typically going to do with it. Many still life shots are shot with Lensbaby lenses and I suspect we will even see some cool video from cameras like the new Canon 5D MkII.

The Lensbaby Composer is roughly a 50mm focal length so when it is used on an APS-C sized sensor it will become around an 85mm focal length, that’s something to keep in mind if you are trying to set a scene up for use with the lens.

The following are two images of the same scene, one with a standard lens and the other shot with a Lensbaby Composer.

Standard Lens

Lensbaby Composer

Sample Images

Here are a few shots I have taken recently with the Lensbaby Composer:

Walking Down The Alley

Soft Kiss

El Cortez Sign

Sassy Sally w/Plastic Lens

Picket Fence w/Super Wide Lens

Learning to Use The Lensbaby Composer

The Lensbaby Composer is not the most intuitive or user-friendly piece of glass you will have in your arsenal. It is most likely the only manual focus lens you will own, the aperture is set by physically changing rings in the lens instead of from the camera controls, and it takes practice to get really good shots out of it consistently. That being said, the Composer is FAR easier to use than previous Lensbaby lenses so it will take much less practice than before.

What I really like about the Composer is that I really feel that “I” am making an image. I have to slow down my thought process and get things right in-camera. If your composition is off, you can’t just crop it and get a better image since the effect will usually not allow for much latitude when it comes to post processing. If you feel you are stuck in a photographic slump, pull out your Lensbaby lens and start making some fresh new images, it will inspire you to think differently and try new things.

At the recent PMA 2009 show, Sam from Lensbaby walked us through the Composer and all of the available accessories.

Should I Get A Lensbaby Composer Now?

.6 Wide Angle / Macro Lens

Only if you like getting things for free!

With your purchase of a Lensbaby Composer we have arranged for you to get a Wide Angle/Macro Conversion lens with your order. It adds even more possibility to your images.

The Lensbaby 0.6X Wide Angle Macro Conversion lens converts your Lensbaby’s 50mm focal length to 30mm, while keeping the Sweet Spot the same size as a Lensbaby photo taken without a wide angle conversion lens. Other wide angle conversion lenses shrink the sweet spot. You can unscrew the rear lens element for use as a macro lens that focuses as close as 2″ to 3″ from your subjects.

The Lensbaby 0.6X Wide Angle/Macro Conversion Lens is fully compatible with all Lensbaby SLR lenses. L:earn more about this special offer (link).

The Bottom Line

The Composer is certainly a speciality lens that not everyone is going to find a use for. However, if you want to be able to add a dramatic effect to your images and do it all in-camera then a Lensbaby composer is a must-have for your gear bag and at only $269.95 it is probably going to be the least expensive lens you own.

I have been using the Lensbaby lenses for several years and the Composer is my favorite of them all with its easier to use design and now with all the accessories, it is a very versatile lens that adds to my creative process.

Website: http://lensbaby.com

Amazon Links

Lensbaby The Composer for Canon EF mount Digital SLR Cameras
Lensbaby The Composer for Nikon F mount Digital SLR Cameras
Lensbaby Optic Boxed Set
Lensbaby Creative Aperture Kit
Lensbaby Macro Kit (AMACK)

Top Ten Contest Entries

Nashville Train Station (link)
The Link (link)
Millenium Bridge (link)
Nicholson Viaduct (link)
The Road Goes on Forever (link)
Gothic Walkway (link)
Quase Infinito (link)
Golden Beach Dock (link)
DC Metro (link)
Her first day on the job (link)

And the winner is……

LShadrack's The Link

LShadrack’s entry, The Link is our contest winner. This killer shot of a bridge in Kansas City played well with the theme of the contest, nailed the symetry of structure, was exposed well, and made for an excellent image. Congrats!

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

I have mentioned David Ziser’s upcoming seminar series several times and I will continue to until it is over as it is going to be the one big not-to-miss seminar this year. David is an expert on lighting and technique and presents these topics in very easy to understand ways so that you can go back and start implementing them immediately.

David Ziser’s Digital WakeUp Call 2009 Tour will get underway on March 30 and hits 58 cities across the country. I got a sneak peak at some of the material while at WPPI and it made my entire trip worthwhile so I am personally excited about the Digital WakeUp Call Tour.

I had asked David how I could help promote tour for him and he responded with a special discount code for Camera Dojo readers. The discount code ZKGDWC09 will get you into the seminar for only $59 (a $20 savings!).

Who Should Attend?

I have been asked this a lot, and while David is one of the best wedding photographers in the world and certainly many of the examples will be of wedding images, anybody that wants to shoot people, make their images better, and learn Lightroom, should most certainly attend. Even if you are not selling weddings or portraits, for $59 you will improve the quality of your images signifigantly by using the techniques that David will be teaching.

Is It Worth Attending?

Again, yes yes yes!! For $59, you will leave with materials worth $250 more than you paid to get in:

• Tour Handbook including: program notes, photography, marketing and more
• 2 Hour DVD with extended program content
• $100 Rebate from American Color Imaging
• 1 year membership to WPPI and Rangefinder magazine, a $99 value
• FREE 3 month membership to DigitalProTalkPlus.com, a $45 value
• FREE 3 month subscription to PPA Magazine, a $15 value
• FREE PPA Indemnification (no-fault) insurance for all new PPA members, a $50 value
• Over $2,500 in door prizes awarded each evening
• And a chance to win 1 of 4 Grand Prizes worth over $5,000

Where will it be held?

The answer is, almost everywhere. David (and his amazing model LaDawn) will bring DWC to 58 cities across the country. The the schedule and registration page lists all of the days and locations. I will be attending the one in Irvine, Ca on May 20th.

Links:

Digital WakeUp Call Tour
David’s Digital Pro Talk Blog

Please check out California Sunbounce at http://www.sunbounce.com

It all adds up

If the visual references isn’t quite enough, then another way to think about it is to think of a perfect exposure as the combination of the right proportion of ingredients made up of ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture setting. If a perfect exposure = 9, and you have equal parts of Shutter, ISO, and Aperture, then you have a good mix (3+3+3 = 9). If you need to adjust one of the ingredients, then you have to adjust one of the others to come up with the same final number (2+4+3=9), subract from one, you have to add to another to make up the difference. If you have too much of one, without substracting from another, you end up with an overexposed image. Conversly, if you take away from one but don’t add another, you end up with an underexposed image.

The Sunny 16 Example

In a previous article we looked at the sunny 16 rule, this states that on a bright sunny day, a perfect exposure should be f/16, ISO 200, 1/200th of a second. (ISO and shutter are the reciprocal of each other). If we wanted a shallower depth of field and wanted a larger aperture like f/2.8, then since f/2.8 is 5 stops brighter than f/16, we would then need to compensate with either a lower ISO or a faster shutter. Increasing the shutter is the easiest in this example then we need 5 stops of shutter giving us a speed of 1/6400th of a second.

Low Light Adjustments

In low light we have the opposite issue, trying to get enough light into the camera. We only go so slow before we run into blurring issues with slow shutter speeds, and the aperture limit is going to be based on the lens we are using. If we still don’t have a bright enough exposure then we have to compensate by increasing the ISO speed.

Bringing it all together

While each setting can have an effect on the overall image quality, the sum of the three effect the overall exposure. For a refresher on the other settings, be sure and go back through these previous articles:

• Beginner’s Guide to Aperture
• Controlling Exposure
• The Sunny 16 Rule in Photography
• Capturing movement with shutter speed
• Understanding Depth of Field

Author: Kerry Garrison

What is a RAW image?

By RAW, I mean an image that is shot with your camera image quality set to RAW mode which stores the actual sensor data for the scene that was shot. This is different than a JPEG image that is a rendered image of the RAW data that has different effects applied to it by the camera such as sharpening, saturation, and contrast. A good quality JPEG image can look incredibly good and can be printed at large sizes and will look great. A RAW image will need some form of software program to convert the RAW data to something usable. The most popular programs for this today are Lightroom, Photoshop, Aperture, Capture One (Nikon), and Digital Photo Professional (Canon).

Is there a technical difference?

Anyone that tries to tell you there is no difference in image quality between a RAW image and a JPEG is simply mistaken or ill-informed. From a purely technical perspective, a RAW image will always give you a better image. A RAW image simply has more data, for each pixel there is at least twice as much data on older cameras like my 30D and as much as eight times as much data with newer cameras that have more bit depth. This means that a RAW image has the ability to have a greater tonal range than a JPEG. A RAW image will also then have greater latitude than a JPEG image, giving you the ability to process the image to recover shadows and highlights more than you can if you started with the JPEG. Since white balance settings are applied when an image is saved as a JPEG, shooting in RAW will allow you to adjust the white balance during post processing without sacrificing any image data.

This is not an opinion, it is a pure technical fact. So let’s accept that this is true and that RAW has a distinct technical advantage over a JPEG saved from the camera. I don’t think we need to debate that RAW has an inherent technical advantage and I think some people get caught up in this. I think the real issue is whether or not you need the advantages of RAW versus the negative reasons for using RAW that we will look at later.

Getting down with the downside of RAW

The big debate over RAW vs JPEG is whether or not the pros outweigh the cons so let’s look at the cons and see what the downside of using RAW images is:

• Increased file size
  This is probably the biggest issue there is. RAW images are considerably larger files than their corresponding JPEG images. With my 30D, a RAW file will typically be around 5mb while a fine quality JPEG will be around 1.5mb. As the megapixel count goes up, the files get downright huge with RAW images from a new Canon 5D MkII being around 22mb each. If you are shooting lots of images, at a wedding for example, then the larger size of RAW files will be a significant hit. Since the files are larger, they will require more horsepower from your computer to process. For the same number of images, you will need more flash card storage.
• Specialized software needed to process
  If you can call Photoshop, Lightroom, or Aperture specialized software, then yes, you will need something like this or use the software that came with your camera. If you use something other than these programs then you may have issues dealing with RAW files. For a brand new camera, you may have to wait for updated versions of these programs before they can recognize your files. This also means that if your camera is discontinued in the future, there is no guarantee that your camera’s format will always be supported (this is a good reason to use DNG files, but that’s for another article).
• RAW workflow is different than a JPEG workflow
  Is it? If you are already using Aperture, Lightroom, or Adobe Bridge for processing JPEG’s, then there is little to no change in your workflow. Two years ago, before tools like Lightroom and Aperture, working with RAW images was such a pain that RAW was said to mean “really awful workflow”. Since many of us are using Lightroom and Aperture now, there is little to no changes at all for working with RAW files other than they take longer per image to download off a CF card.
• RAW images in third party tools don’t look as good as the JPEGs
  This has been a real serious problem for a while as only the camera manufacturers really have the secret sauce for decoding their RAW images properly. Adobe has pretty much solved this issue with Lightroom 2.2 and the inclusion of camera profiles that setup the RAW processor to match the settings used to create the JPEG images in your camera.

Again, we are looking at facts here and not opinions, but it is important to understand that there is a downside to using RAW files even if I personally feel that the negatives are typically blown a bit out of proportion with the exception of the increased file size which can be a really significant issue for heavy shooters.

The non-destructive workflow

One of the biggest advantages of shooting RAW is that it inherently provides you today with a non-destructive workflow. What it means is that there is no image degradation between saves and any given step in the editing process can be removed. If we are using any of the three most popular tools today (Photoshop, Aperture, or Lightroom) then when we edit a JPEG, and make our changes, those changes are permenant, and because we just re-saved our image as a JPEG some compression has occured, every time we do this we lose some image quality. Sure you can make multiple copies along the way so you can go back to previous versions, but that negates the whole point of JPEG’s saving disk space. I personally work in Lightroom and I can take my RAW images and apply as many edits to them as I want but these changes are simply stored as a set of instructions to Lightroom, thus the original image is never modified. This also allows me to make virtual copies of an image so I can have a color, B&W, Sepia, or dozens of different versions of an image and take up only a trivial amount of disk space since it is only storing the steps to make the changes and isnt storing a new copy of the image itself and again, no matter what I do, there is no image quality lost at all during the post-production process.

Is anyone still using JPEG these days?

If nobody was shooting JPEG anymore than I wouldn’t have so many questions about it but are any real professionals shooting JPEG and the answer is yes.

Carlos Baez is a wedding photographer from Florida, this is someone who makes his living delivering top quality images to high paying clients and yet Carlos shoots JPEG because he can consistently deliver great images without the extra overhead of RAW files. Carlos is an expert at lighting and understanding exposure so he doesn’t rely on post processing to get his images right.

Ken Rockwell is a huge advocate for shooting in JPEG mostly because a lot of people use it as an excuse to not get the image right in camera. Although he has an article about this (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm). I have posted a link to his article because he does make a few valid points but I think he does go over the top a little on some of the negatives while I do agree that many people use RAW without either knowing why or using it to correct their mistakes from not knowing how to use their camera properly.

Pros against JPEG

It’s only fair that I point out a few pros who have made the switch to RAW and some of their reasons for doing so.

Scarlett Lillian from Florida has been shooting RAW since she started shooting weddings but then tried going to JPEF to save disk and CF card space. After really giving it a try, she finally switched back to RAW because she felt she just wasn’t getting the color and skin tones from the JPEG files that she was when she was using RAW. She uses Photoshop with Bridge as her workflow tool.

David Ziser is, without a doubt, one of the biggest names in wedding photography and recent convert to the RAW side. David’s big switch came when he started using Lightroom for his workflow and then discovered that the images he was getting with Lightroom and RAW files simply gave him a better image than starting with JPEG. David details his experience in a post on his site, although he also make a case for use JPEG for less critical shots that will never be printed at larger than 5×7. Anything destined for the album or enlargements he suggests shooting in RAW and the filler shots can safely be shot in JPEG to conserve space.

Rick Miller who is a Senior Solutions Engineer at Adobe does a segment when he is demoing Lightroom where he shows a picture of his girlfriends dog that is a white curly haired dog. Rick took a picture of the dog that when the rest of the scene is properly exposed, the dog is overexposed. Saved as a JPEG, the details in the dogs fur are completely lost and unrecoverable. The same image shot in RAW is able to use tools like recovery and exposure control to regain all of the detail in the dog’s fur. This demonstrates how even a shot that is technically correct for the rest of the scene may still suffer from being shot in JPEG.

RAW or JPEG — Which is for you?

Since I am far more likely to forget to change my camera from JPEG back to RAW when I need to, I simply leave it on RAW and take the disk space penalty. With a large wedding costing me around 10-12gb of space, it isn’t that big of an issue. If I upgrade this year to a 50D or 5D MkII and I move to having 30-40gb of space per wedding, I may have to rethink this strategy. What I like about shooting RAW for weddings is that in the thick of things, if you do make a small error in exposure or white balance, it is far easier to correct it afterwards. I don’t use this as a crunch, but it is a safety net.

To decide If you should stick with JPEG all you need to do is to take a close look at your images and compare them with what you can get from a product like Lightroom and then decide if your images are good enough or if any improvements that you get from using the RAW image are noticeable and worthwhile.

What do some other photographers say?

Mark Teskey “RAW only. Shooting JPEG is like working without backing up files or a second body/flash. There’s no safety net with JPEG.”

JE Images “RAW all the way. if I need to tweak anything then I have full access to all the info..”

Denise Clay “[I shoot] RAW – I used the best film I could that matched the job in film days, why not do the same now with the best digital file?”

MrsBoesch “I shoot JPG. It takes up less space on my hard drive, and I am of the opinion that you should try to “get it right” the 1st time”

So what are you to make of this?

There is certainly a case to be made that higher quality final images can be made from using RAW files and that shooting in RAW provides a technical safety net (even if you dont need it because you are wicked good). The main issues of working with RAW for me are the non-destructive workflow and the ability to have multiple virtual copies of an image without eating up more disk space. I do believe that almost all of the main complaints about RAW have been more than satisfied with current software leaving the issue of disk space and storage being the only real issue, albeit a signifigant issue for some people.

In the end, the only thing that matters is that you are happy with the images that you are delivering and if you are shooting for clients, that they are happy with the images you are delivering. If you are shooting in JPEG and are happy with your images and you see no compelling reason to switch, then don’t. If someone like Carlos Baez can shoot a wedding in JPEG and he makes a LOT more per wedding than I do, I am not going to tell him he is wrong for shooting in JPEG. On the flip side, if you are shooting in RAW and the disk space is killing you and you are good enough that your images require basically no tweaks for color, white balance, exposure, fill light, highlight recovery, or saturation, then you may be a good candidate for shooting in JPEG. It all comes down to a personal choice. There is no right or wrong answer to this debate, its just a question of what works for you in order for you to deliver the best quality images to your clients.

Author: Kerry Garrison

While there are a number of other programs available to do HDR with, we are going to look at the three most common ones mentioned in most posts and blogs, these are:

• Adobe Photoshop CS4 – Merge to HDR Function
• Photomatix
• Enfuse

Photoshop CS4

To be completely fair, I am using the different HDR tools here with their default settings and am not doing any additional tweaking afterwards to make the images look better. That being said, the Photoshop result is certainly the worst of the batch. The dark areas are too dark, the bright areas are too bright and it just didn’t do anything to really impress me. I also cannot find any noticeable difference between Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS4 in the final output. Even though you could tweak this image in Photoshop, it would be quit a bit of work because you really need to darken the sky and brighten up the building and parking lot. There may be a particular type of image that Photoshop likes better, of perhaps it doesn’t like that the images covered a 4 stop range. If someone has some tips on working with the Photoshop HDR merge, please post them in the comments.

Photomatix

Photomatix is another commercial tool (http://www.hdrsoft.com) that many people consider to be the best HDR tool available. Comparing the images, the Photomatix output most certainly gave the most dynamic range, so much range that it is actually easy to get an image that doesn’t actually look natural. The way Photomatix works is a complete mystery as even in the overexposed image, you can’t see the detail in the windows and doorways of the building the way you can in this Photomatix output. From a “wow” perspective, it is most certainly the most vivid image and has an amazing amount of range, there is almost nothing in the image that is too bright or too dark. While this may be good for some images, if you are trying to replicate what you are seeing with your eye, this isn’t quite accurate. Is it stunning in it’s range? Absolutely, no question there, it wins hands down in that area.

Enfuse

Enfuse is a different type of tool that compares multiple images and chooses to keep the pixels it feels are the best exposed. Using Enfuse by itself can also be an exercise in frustration. To simply using Enfuse, I use LR/Enfuse from Timothy Armes (http://timothyarmes.com/lrenfuse.php) which integrates into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Using just the default settings, the result is an image that is much more natural and is truer to what you would see with your eye. A big advantage of using Enfuse (especially with LR/Enfuse) is that it is significantly faster than Photomatix, the downside is that you don’t get the amazing results that you can get from Photomatix. Enfuse is going to give you a far more natural look.

Summary

It’s not entirely clear if these is a real no-brainer choice between Photomatix and Enfuse as it is really dependant on what you are trying to accomplish with the final image. Photomatix can certainly deliver outstanding images that are virtually impossible to achieve any other way and can also create more natural looking results by toning down the resulting image making it a more versatile tool overall. Enfuse has its advantage in being fast and easy to use when integrated into Lightroom and will create very nice, natural looking results, and if that is your goal then sending a few bucks to Timothy for LR/Enfuse is well worth it. Personally, I have both installed and will choose when to use each tool based on what result I am looking for, and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each option will make it easier for me to decide when to use which tool.

Author: Kerry Garrison

What is this aperture thingy anyway?

Inside each lens is a diaphragm that can open and close, the size of the opening at any given setting is what we refer to as the aperture setting. On our cameras we refer to specific size settings as f-stops such as f/2.8, f/5.6, f/11, etc. While the obvious value of adjusting the aperture is to control how much light enters the camera, there is a secret hidden world beneath the hood that we will need to get a grasp of as well, but let’s start at the basics first.

For a given ISO setting and shutter speed we can adjust the amount of light entering the camera by adjusting the aperture, a smaller diameter (higher f-stop value) will allow less light in, while a larger aperture (smaller f-stop number) will allow more light it. If we refer to the Sunny 16 rule, we know that on a bright sunny day, if we are using ISO 200 and a shutter speed of 1/200^th then we will get a good exposure at f/16. As the sun goes down and there is less light, we need to allow more light into the camera, we can do this by opening the aperture up (again, using a smaller number) to allow more light in. This sounds easy enough right?

Image showing relative sizes of aperture

If that is all there is to it, then this whole aperture thingy would be a piece of cake and life would be good. It is enough to get you going into how aperture plays a role in getting a good exposure, so it is certainly a lesson worth learning and understanding well.

Have you collimated your rays lately?

The opening of the diaphragm also will control cone angle of light coming into the camera and this is why adjusting the aperture can affect the depth of field. To see how this works use your thumb and pointer finger to make a big circle, with one eye closed look through that at a finger on your other hand held about 12″ away. This is going to simulate a large aperture, you will be able to focus on the finger but you will have far less focus on something across the room. Next, make the circle very small and look through it again (now simulating a small aperture), you will be able to focus on both your finger and something across the room equally well. The reason for this has to do with the angle of light coming into your eye, with the large circle, light is able to come in very straight which creates a shorter focal plane, with a smaller aperture opening the light comes in as a cone shape giving a longer focal plane. While this simple experiment has a very subtle effect (not everyone may even notice it working) in your camera it can have a dramatic effect on how your images look.

Factors that determine depth of field

There are three factors that will determine the amount of depth of field you will have in your image, and taking from a comment post from Photo Larry, this points out the different factors:

In a comment from an earlier post, Photo Larry provided this very simple guide:

• Distance from the subject (Close=shallow, Far=Deep)
• Focal Length (Short=Deep, Long=Shallow)
• Aperture (Small=Deep, Open=Shallow)

Aperture Setting
We have already covered this one, the larger the opening (smaller f-stop number) the shorter the depth of field will be.

Focal Length
The longer the focal length the shorter the depth of field will be. This is why you will get more blurring effect on telephoto lenses than you will with wide angle lenses. The most popular portrait lens is the 70-200 f /2.8 because as you back up from the subject and use the longer focal length with a large aperture the more the background will get blurred out.

Distance to Subject
The further you are away from the subject, the more depth of field you will have as well. This is much easier to see with a long telephoto lens, if you focus on something very close to you, much of the background will be blurry, as you focus on things further away less of the foreground and background will be blurry.

Two images with different aperture settings

Summary

Hopefully this will help you understand the basics of what your aperture setting can do for you and how to begin to use it to your advantage both in getting enough light into your camera and by being able to add some extra flair to your images using the depth of field.

Author: Kerry Garrison

Content Aware Scaling in Photoshop CS4 from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Adobe has released Lightroom 2.1 and Camera Raw 5.1 along with the DNG Converter 5.1. Lightroom 2.1 has been in a release candidate state for several weeks and has some improvements and fixes over the initial 2.0 release. Both Lightroom 2.1 and Camera Raw 5.1 include camera support for the following new models:

The beta versions of the Camera Profiles and DNG Profile Editor on Adobe Labs have also both been updated.  The Profile update includes additional profiles and incremental improvements to the previous beta profiles.  The DNG Profile Editor update includes minor enhancements.

Lightroom 2.1 (Mac, Win)
Camera Raw 5.1 (Mac, Win)

To find out about the other shows at Personal Life Media, please go to http://personallifemedia.com, you can also catch some of my favorite shows from there in the podcast player widget in the sidebar.

• What is your favorite lens for portraits?
• How do you deal with inclement weather?
• What do you wear when shooting a wedding?
• How much equipment do you carry on you when shooting a wedding

Please feel free to send in your letters, questions, and comments to podcast@cameradojo.com, leave a message in the forums, or send us a message at twitter or facebook.

You can listen to this podcast now using our player widget in the right hand sidebar

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

The Adjustments Panel

Working with adjustment layers has always been a serious tool for hardcore Photoshop geeks, now this has been made much simpler with a new adjustments panel. This can be used to easily adjust Curves, Levels, Hue/Saturation, Vibrance, and more. New On-Image controls allow you to adjust colors in the image without the guesswork of trying to match a complex color. The panel features a wide range of modifiable presets for each type of control and more than 20 preconfigured, customizable starting points are included.

New to the masks is the concept of Density and Feathering to control how much of the mask is used. This is a huge improvement from before where deciding you wanted more or less effect would require constant redrawing of the mask.

Improved Dodge, Burn, and Sponge Tools

If you are a big fan of the dodge, burn, and sponge tools, one of the big issues in the past is that they could sometimes affect the color underneath in odd ways. The new versions of these tools work in a much more natural way and help you to make the adjustments you want while retaining tonal quality.

Improved Image Aligning and Panorama tools

CS3 has some really good photo merge tools and panorama tools, but CS4 takes these tools to all new levels. The improved algorithms improve blending, vignetting, and geometric distortion which results in much better final images. The blending tool can take multiple images of the same shot using different focal points and combine them into a single image with a greater depth of field.

Content Aware Scaling

Ok, this is some wicked cool sh** right here. What happens when you want to scale an image that has people in it? The people can get severly distorted ruining the new image. With content aware scaling, you can size an image and retain the original sizes of key elements like people. Using this you could change a horizontal image to a vertical image and the people or key objects in it will look the same while scaling the remaining parts of the image in a very natural and usually undetectable way.  When you see this in action, you will simply be amazed at what it can do.

Fluid Canvas Rotation

If you use a Wacom tablet or just need to view the world a little differently, you can now easily rotate the canvas around to make it easier to work on a it. Rotating the canvas does not affect the rotation of the actual image, this is simply a tool to make it easier for you to work on images by being able to look at it from different angles.

Smooth Pan/Zom and Flick effects

Some people may think that the new smooth pan/zoom and “flick” effects are just for show, but as you begin to use them you will see how much nicer it is to smoothly zoom in and out of an image and be able to toss the image around as if “flicking” it with your finger. The built-in physics engine makes this new way of dealing with images much more natural.

Bridge

I have always hated Bridge, I’m not afraid to admit it, it was slow, real slow, painfully slow to start up and slow to use. Even on my new quad core system with a nice video card, I still didn’t like Bridge. But get ready you fellow Bridge haters, Bridge is one sweet tool now. Not only is Bridge faster, but it has been improved in a number of areas. There are several new views such as Carousel view which makes working with large numbers of images signifigantly faster. Bridge now also has a PDF-based contact-sheet creator and preview along with web gallery tools. Bridge has certainly grown up and is more integrated into the majority of the CS4 tools besides just Photoshop.

Camera Raw 5

Take the Develop module tools from Lightroom 2.0 and put them all into Camera Raw and you now have Camera Raw 5. And I do mean virtually all of the tools like port-crop vignetting, the gradient filter tool, and the local adjustment brush tool. Unfortunately, Lightroom Develop presets are not available in Camera Raw.

Smarter Smart Objects

Smart Objects were introduced with CS4 and made a huge impact on how you dealt with new objects. With CS4, Smart Objects can now accept perspective transformations.

64 Bit Support (Windows 64 ONLY)

As a HUGE shocker to long time Macintosh users, the advantage this year goes to 64 bit Windows systems. Apple changed a bunch of things without telling Adobe and thus Adobe had to pull 64 bit support out of the Macintosh version. Are Mac users going to have to switch to Vista 64? Not really, only the heaviest of users is going to see much of a performance difference according to sources at Adobe.

Live Preview for Clone Stamp and Healing Brushes

As cool as the cloning tool and healing brushes are, the results have always been somewhat black magic, you just never really knew what you werew going to get. The new versions of these tools provide a live preview for easier and more precise cloning and healing results.

Availability and pricing
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended is now available in North America for an estimated street price of US$999. Adobe Photoshop CS4 will be available for an estimated street price of US$699. Both can be obtained directly from Adobe or through Adobe Authorized Resellers.

To order directly from Adobe, visit the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com or call
1-800-833-6687.

Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3 Extended, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS can upgrade to Photoshop CS4 Extended for US$349.

Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS can upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS4 for US$199.
Licensed owners of Photoshop 5 or 6 can upgrade to Photoshop CS4 Extended for $899 or Photoshop CS4 for $599.
Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3 Extended, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS are also eligible for special upgrade pricing to certain editions of Adobe Creative Suite 4.

• Local adjustment brush
• Graduated Filter
• “Post Crop” Vignetting
• Opacity for the cloning/healing tool
• Improved Auto Adjustment
• Support for the new Camera Profiles that are still in beta form

The Camera Raw code is the ‘engine’ that drives the non-destructive adjustments in Lightroom’s Develop module so you’ll see that the two products are now aligned in terms of image adjustment capabilities.

Camera Raw 5.0 is installed automatically with Photoshop CS4 so there’s no update process beyond installing Photoshop.  One important note is that the new camera support added in the last Camera Raw update for CS3 is not currently available in Camera Raw 5.0.  Adobe will be providing a Camera Raw 5.1 update next week that will include additional camera support.

Source: http://adobe.com

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

• Canon EOS Rebel/1000D
• Canon EOS 50D
• Fuji FinePix IS Pro (preliminary support was introduced in v4.5)
• Kodak EasyShare Z1015 IS
• Leaf AFi-II 6
• Leaf AFi-II 7
• Leaf Aptus-II 6
• Leaf Aptus-II 7
• Nikon D700 (preliminary support was introduced in v4.5)
• Nikon D90 (preliminary support was introduced in v4.5)
• Nikon Coolpix P6000 (preliminary support was introduced in v4.5)
• Olympus SP-565 UZ
• Pentax K2000/K-m
• Sigma DP1
• Sony DSLR-A900

Camera Raw 4.6 can be downloaded by itself or in a bundle with DNG Converter 4.6.

Download Links:

• Camera Raw 4.6 for Mac
• Camera Raw 4.6 for Windows
• Camera Raw 4.6 and DNG Converter 4.6 for Mac
• Camera Raw 4.6 and DNG Converter 4.6 for Windows

The Camera Raw 4.6 Read Me is here.

Show Links
http://canon-usa.com

http://thinktankphoto.com

You can listen to this podcast now using our player widget in the right hand sidebar

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

• It can be compressed to 3 inches in width once your equipment is removed.
• Dedicated neoprene pockets for 2 pro size DSLR’s, 70-200 2.8, 24-70 2.8, wide angle 2.8, and strobes.
• Holds up to a 17″ laptop in rear compartment.
• Front pocket organizers for your digital essentials.
• It can carry tripods and monopods.
• The Pro Speed Belt can be attached and quickly released.

After your gear is removed, you can continue to carry your laptop and accessories, but in a much smaller package.

What’s the issue?

The issue here is the Parent Media Group’s new Baby Photo Contest which can be found at http://www.thecutekid.com. Come on, who wouldn’t want to enter their kid into a contest that could be worth a $25,000 college tution? I have a wife and two kids all in college right now, what I wouldn’t give for 25 grand to help pay for some of this! The catch is that in their terms of use (read it here) it states:

Parent Media Group, Inc. has the right to use your photos on our site as well as for marketing purposes for an unlimited time frame.

Exsqueeze me? You want the unlimited lifetime use of my child’s photo to do with as you please? Uhh…I don’t think so. Let’s think about this a second. Let’s say 50,000 people enter this contest, and the prize is $25,000 for college, that means they are buying an annuity that will come do in about 18 years, so that’s costing them about $5,000? That’s an invest of about 10 cents per image for enough images to last them years.

Why is this misleading? It is on several fronts. Mostly because the contest is purely a front to gather tens of thousands of images that they now have the rights to use. Secondly, knowing that many people won’t grasp the complete implication of their release of their images, they are, in effect, tricking people into sending their images in.

So why is this a big deal?

I don’t know the people at the Parent Media Group nor can I guess what their intentions are, and that is exactly what bothers me. What if I believe strongly in Pro-Choice but the Parent Media Group decides they are going to start a campaign against it, with this clause they can use my own child’s images in a campaign against something I believe in. What if they decide to run my photo on the cover of a magazine that sells tens of thousands of copies, and I don’t receive one penny for that usage. There are dozens of other examples that can be used here, some benign, some not, but do you want to take that risk with not only your own images, but the images of your children?

What should they do?

Parent Media Group should immediately change their terms of use to state that the images can only be used in the marketing and promotion of the Baby Photo Contest, period. A photo contest should be a photo contest not an endless pool of copyrighted material that they now have unlimited rights to. Anything outsider the realm of the photo contest itself should be compensated fairly. This is very poor business practice and has happened many times in the past and I am sure it will happen again, but for a company like Parent Media Group who appears to want to do good things, they need to step up and do the right thing here.

What should you do?

I encourage you to all write to the Parent Media Group by using their contact form and tell them how wrong that being a copyright troll is and that they should fix their terms of service immediately before people begin to stop reading their publications due to their mishandling of the copyright issues surrounding the baby photo contest.

That’s it for my rant about this particular issue but I do encourage you to be sure and read any terms of service before entering any photo contest.

Pretec CF 233X and 333X CF cards use metal housing and ruggedized construction to provide extensive ruggedness making the card resistant to impact and shock – at least 10 times more durable than a typical CF card. With the green concept of reuse, recycle and reduce in mind, Pretec 64GB CF cards can be configured or reused to make a 256GB SATA or IDE SSD, the highest capacity 2.5†SSD in the world so far, by using Pretec Q-SATA, a patent-pending technology of flexible, scalable and modular SATA/PATA design based on up to 4 CF cards. This technology provides ultimate flexibility and ease of use, especially for those needing both CF cards and SSDs.

Pretec 233X and 333X CF cards will be demonstrated together with high performance digital cameras from Leaf, a business unit of Eastman Kodak and a world-renowned industry leader in providing cutting edge digital photography solutions, whose AFi professional camera was recently awarded “Product of the Year†at the Photoforum exhibition in Russia. The new Leaf AFi-II system delivers the fastest shooting speeds of any camera in its class, with a practically unlimited burst depth. These speeds are enabled by advanced communication and CF technologies and Leaf Capture software. “Leaf and Pretec share a similar vision -to offer cutting edge technologies and unique products with unparalleled performance and to provide our customers with exceptional quality and satisfaction,†said Seth Greenberg, Leaf Marketing Director. “We are pleased to have chosen Pretec as our exclusive storage partner at Photokina 2008 and to witness the excitement as Pretec breaks the CF card speed and capacity world records.â€

Pretec 233X 64GB and 333X 32GB CF cards with suggested retail price of $399 and $630 are slated to start delivery by Photokina 2008, and 233X 100GB and 333X 50GB are expected to start shipping by the end of 2008.

About Pretec
Pretec™ (http://www.pretec.com) offers a complete spectrum of small form factor memory cards and card readers such as CF, SD/MMC, USB Flash Drive, and wireless communication devices for digital imaging, mobile communication, and industrial flash markets. As the 2nd company in the world to offer CF cards since 1995 and the company to create CF I/O and SD I/O cards since 1998, Pretec has consistently demonstrated the highest capacity flash cards in the world: such as CF 3GB, 6GB, 12GB, 16GB, 24GB, 48GB and SD 4GB, SDHC 8GB and 16GB; the fastest flash card in the world: such as CF 80X and 333X, SD 133X, USB 166X, and SSD (IDE/SATA) 400X. With more than 200 patents granted or filed, Pretec has also been offering the smallest USB flash drive in the world with unique technology: such as i-Disk Tiny (“Best Gear of 2003†by TIME Magazine) and i-Disk Diamond; the most reliable flash card in the world: such as rugged PCMCIA, rugged CF card, and i-Disk Bulletproof, a water-proof, fire-proof, and bullet-proof USB flash drive.

*For more information, please visit www.pretec.com
*Note:i-Disk, i-Disk Tiny, i-Disk Diamond and i-Disk Bulletproof are trademarks of Pretec. All other trademarks mentioned herein are recognized as the property of their respective holders

Apple Releases Camera Raw 2.2
Adobe Releases Camera Raw 4.6 Release Candidate
Leica M8 Firmware 2.00
Sony Alpha Firmware

Lightroom 2.1 Available on Adobe Labs
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Lightroom_2.1

Lightroom Web Gallery Module
http://cameradojo.com/2008/09/23/lightroom-web-gallery-modulelightroom-web-gallery-module/

Canon EOS 5D Mk II
http://cameradojo.com/2008/09/16/canon-announces-eos-5d-mark-ii/

Canon Powershot G10 IS
http://cameradojo.com/2008/09/16/canon-powershot-g10-is-camera-announced/

Canon Powershot SX1 IS
http://cameradojo.com/2008/09/17/canon-powershot-line-in-sx1-is-with-1080p-video/

Sunny 16 Rule
http://cameradojo.com/2008/09/18/the-sunny-16-rule-in-photography/

Guest on the Digital Photography Show
http://digiphoto.thepodcastnetwork.com/

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Website: ifoundyourcamera.net

Overview
If you haven’t read it already you should probably start with our original review of the Photo Basics StrobeLites as that will bring you up to speed on the kit and the associated accessories. This article is going to focus on the StrobeLite Plus and the differences between it and the original StrobeLite series.

Both versions are complete mono-lite heads meaning they are self-contained units with the power supply and flash bulb in a single unit. The basic controls are an adjustment that takes the unit from full power down to 1/4 power, an on/off switch, and switch for the modeling light for off/full power/variable power. Both models feature flash ready lights and optical slave sensors. The StrobeLite Plus goes a step further and has switches to disable the audio ready beep and the optical sensor.

Features
The following table outlines the difference between the two models:

So what’s it all mean?

The most obvious difference is that the StrobeLite Plus head takes the output from 150ws to 200ws, while this isn’t a massive difference more power is always better, especially when using super large soft boxes or octagons. With the option to turn off the audible ready beep they are less obnoxious when used in situations like weddings. The other switch on the Plus series enables you to turn off the optical sensor, this also is very useful in situations like weddings so all the point-and-shoots aren’t making your strobes go off.

While the extra power and controls are nice, one of the nicest features is the tilting bracket on the StrobeLite Plus is made of metal instead. With the plastic bracket on the lower-end version the light cannot hold up heavier softboxes like the 36″ x 48″ softbox, within a few seconds the light will start to sag over. With the metal bracket on the Plus, even the heaviest modifiers should be nice and secure now.

The Bottom Line
Looking online, the StrobeLite is available for around $140 while the StrobeLite Plus goes for $210. Is the upgraded Plus heads really worth an additional $70? For me, the ability to use super large softboxes without sagging is is a huge plus, adding a little extra power cinches the deal for me. I don’t personally need the ability to turn off the optical slave or the audible ready tone but those may be important features for some people.

While there are other similar products coming to market from other companies, what we like the most is the education approach the Westcott is using with the Photo Basics product to not only bring affordable, quality products to the market, but to also provide comprehensive tutorials and training tools. The complete kits even come with a floor mat to show you exactly where to place the lights, the camera, and the subject. We simply can’t recommend the Photo Basics products enough.

Website: http://photobasics.net

Original review article: http://cameradojo.com/2008/07/09/photo-basics-strobelite-review/

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – August 12, 2008: Lenovo today introduced the ThinkPad W700, a 17-inch widescreen mobile workstation engineered with game-changing technologies and innovations to exceed the demands of the most data and graphics-intensive users. Lenovo brings the industry’s first built-in digitizer and color calibrator to a mobile workstation and combines these innovations with first-in-market technologies such as new NVIDIA® Quadro FX mobile graphics and supporting the upcoming Intel® mobile quad core processor. Other features such as optional dual hard drives with RAID configurations, up to 8 GB of high speed DDR3 memory, a range of wireless connectivity options and excellent multimedia capabilities including an optional Blu-rayâ„¢ DVD burner/player make the ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation the standard-bearer for power and performance in a mobile workstation.

“Lenovo has engineered a new breed of mobile workstation with the ThinkPad W700,†said Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, Notebook Business Unit, Lenovo. “No other PC manufacturer has a mobile workstation that delivers the sheer power, performance and cutting-edge innovation that Lenovo has packed into the ThinkPad W700. The ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation flat out delivers the command performance our customers demand at the desk as well as in the field.”

According to IDC, the compound annual growth rate for the worldwide mobile workstation market has been more than 60 percent per year since 2002.1The ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation extends Lenovo’s commitment to workstation users, complementing Lenovo’s W500 mobile workstation and ThinkStation S10 and D10 workstations. As workers in fields such as digital content creation, computer-aided design and manufacturing, digital photography and science fields including the oil and gas industries become increasingly mobile, they are demanding the full-featured performance of a desktop workstation in a mobile workstation.

First-in-Industry Engineered Innovation

The ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation takes customer driven innovation to a new level with an optional built-in palm rest digitizer and color calibrator. Lenovo and Intel collaborated to integrate the color calibrator and digitizer into the ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation. Designed for digital content creators and users, the mobile workstation’s digitizer helps them easily configure an image, either mapping it to the entire screen or to an area defined by the user. High performance users, especially digital photographers, will benefit from models with the built-in color calibrator as color continues to play an important role in their work. The calibrator automatically adjusts the display’s color in up to half the time of many external calibrators and with higher accuracy, resulting in the most accurate, true-to-life images in an integrated package. Together with the upcoming Intel® mobile quad core processor, multimedia designers and animators now have outstanding quad-core processor performance and true color replication that is critical for realistic digital creations and workflow efficiencies.

Super-Charged Performance Unleashed

Supporting the latest Intel processor technologies including the upcoming mobile quad core processor, the mobile workstation can be configured with up to 8 GB of memory with an additional 2 GB of Intel Turbo Memory. Lenovo also offers models with Intel® vPro™ technology for complete manageability. The mobile workstation can be equipped with dual internal hard drives, including solid state drive storage. The ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation offers both the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 2700M and 3700M Open GL graphics processors with up to 1 GB of dedicated video memory for exceptional graphics performance in a 17-inch mobile workstation. The hard drives can be configured for RAID 0 to help users access and save their data faster than traditional disk-writing methods, or users can choose RAID 1 for mirrored data redundancy.

The mobile workstation includes WiFi wireless connectivity. Additionally, users can connect to other devices wirelessly using mobile workstation models featuring Bluetooth and ultra wideband technology. Models supporting WiMAX will be available later this year.

New Heights in Display Technology and Multimedia Excellence

As the company’s first product with a 17-inch display, the ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation delivers an unparalleled viewing experience with a combination of leading technologies. Its optional 400-nit WUXGA display provides up to twice the brightness of earlier ThinkPad mobile workstation models, and the 72 percent wide color gamut provides more than 50 percent greater color intensity. The high resolution, extreme brightness and wide color gamut coupled with the NVIDIA Quadro FX MXM graphics solution results in a user experience unequalled in a mobile workstation today. For external connectivity, the ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation provides support for Dual Link DVI, Display Port and VGA. A 7-in-1 multicard reader, and five USB ports give users flexibility in transferring and accessing digital content. Additionally, the workstation comes with an optional compact flash reader and Blu-ray™ DVD burner/player. An optional mini-dock extends the mobile workstation’s capabilities with eSATA and digital audio ports as well as convenient cabling for power, external monitors and peripherals.

Packed for extreme performance, the mobile workstation also features BIOS/port disablement and an optional fingerprint reader, a smartcard reader and hard drives with full-disk encryption. It will carry more than 20 certifications from independent software vendors. “Our engineers use Lenovo ThinkStation workstations to help them design the next-generation Williams – Toyota FW31 race cars, aiming to make them faster and more agile, with greater performance than the competition,” said Chris Taylor, IT manager, AT&T Williams. “We’re thrilled to see Lenovo deliver the workstation performance we’ve come to rely on – now in a mobile, portable solution.

Pricing and Availability

The ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation will be available beginning in September with models starting at $2,978. It is available through Lenovo Business Partners and www.lenovo.com.

About Lenovo

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is dedicated to building exceptionally engineered personal computers. Lenovo’s business model is built on innovation, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction as well as a focus on investment in emerging markets. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.

Also check out the new website Lenovo set up just for the W700 at http://www.photolaptop.com.

Continue reading the article to view the video.

Lightroom 2.0 Library Module from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Continue reading the article in order to view this video.

The new displays cover 94% of the Adobe RGB color space which is an improvement from only covering 88% before.  Either device supports JPEG photo formats and the RAW files from most popular Digital SLR cameras, with a zoom function that allows photographers to confirm focus and look closer at fine details. Supported video files include MPEG-4, Motion JPEG and H.264/AVC SVGA, while the compatible audio formats include MP3 and MPEG-4/AAC files. An A/V output in the form of a 3.5mm headphone jack allows the device to play sound through external speakers.

The devices feature built-in CF — including ones that support high-speed UDMA — and SD card slots, with other types compatible with the use of an adapter. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is rated at three hours of life. A travel pack that includes a dual battery charger, car adapter and case comes with the P-7000 model only.

The P-6000 will be priced at nearly $600 with the P-7000 priced at nearly $800 when both go on sale this September.

The Wolverine GEO is a GPS accessory that attaches to the latest Nikon or Fuji DSLR’s to tag your exact location every time you take a picture. No need to guess where you took a picture, no need to manually associate each picture with location. The Wolverine GEO takes this burden away and map-tag your exact location onto your picture wherever you are. Paired with a compatible digital SLR camera from Fuji or Nikon, the Geo presents a user with the ability to embed in images geospatial data in the form of GPS coordinates in the image’s metadata during exposure. List Price: $189.99.

• GeoTag photos anywhere in the world
• 20 parallel satellite tracking channels for fast acquisition
• Easy to install – Plugs into the camera 10-pin connector and Hotshoe
• Ultra compact design with low power consumption
• Draws power directly from camera
• Includes easy to use application software to map pictures
• Compatable with Google Map, Google World, Picasa and others

For more info, head over to Wolverine Data

World Wide Photowalk Day Info
http://www.photoshopuser.com/photowalk

As part of World Wide Photowalk Day, I am hosting a photowalk on August 23rd around the Orange Circle area in Orange, Ca. If you would like to come hang out and get some great photos of this interesting area, just signup to participate. The Photowalk is open to everyone even if you only have a small point and shoot camera or even just your cell phone camera, the goal is to get people outdoors, socialize with new people, and have some fun while taking photos. I only have room for 50 people for this event, so sign up soon!

Orange Photowalk Info
http://www.photoshopuser.com/photowalk/city/orange.html

Kerry, David, and Maurice sit down and talk about how to get good shots in low light by “dragging the shutter” and how to use the technique to get some interesting visual effects. The team also discusses how to make your clients comfortable and everyone throws their tips into the pot again this week.

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

If you are using the new adjustment tool in Lightroom 2.0, this is going to save you lots of time in getting your adjustments painted in properly. If you hit O (oh, not zero), while you are in the adjustment tool you can turn on the overlay and paint with it still turned on. Hit O again to turn it off. You can also use Shift-O to toggle the overlay colors. A second tip is to use the Alt key to “un-paint” an area. This video shows how these shortcuts work.

Before using this technique you will need to install the camera profiles that are available here:
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles

Lightroom 2.0 Overview from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Here is my list of things that make Lightroom 2.0 simply awesome, and I will point out changes from the public beta for those of you who have been using it for a while.

• Adjustment Brush
  Called the retouching tool in the public beta this originally was going to be a tool to add selective dodging and burning to an image, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You have brush-type control to “paint” in exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, clarity, sharpness, color, and there is a new soften skin option as well. This is one amazing tool that actually puts Lightroom ahead of Photoshop in terms of ease of retouching images.

Clarity Control
You can now use negative values in the clarity control, you can get some really cool effects with this, especially since you can use negative numbers for clarity in the Adjustment Brush.

Gradient Filter
This is a software version of a gradient neutral density filter but is totally controllable. If you are shooting a landscape and need to tone down the sky this is a perfect tool. There is no doubt you will find lots of other uses for this really cool new tool.

Vignette Control
In Lightroom 1.x the Vignette tool was designed to solve problems with certain lenses and filters but people wanted to use it for more creative adjustments. In the beta of 2.0 they added a post-crop vignette that great improved the vignette options, the problem was it was pretty easy to tell a picture that has been subjected to the post-crop vignette tool. In the final release of 2.0 the post-crop vignette tool now gets a roundness control and a feather control, these help you adjust the vignette to make it blend in much more naturally into the image.

Multiple Monitor Support
If you use multiple monitors, Lightroom 2.0 has some really nice multiple monitor support. This can not only help you when using Lightroom for your workflow but is very cool when showing images to a client.

Slideshow Improvements
One of my big complaints about the slideshow tool was that it would simply start on the first images and go forever. In Lightroom 2.0 you can now have opening and closing title pages, start the slideshow on the first title page and hit spacebar to stop it. When you are ready to continue, hit spacebar to begin the sequence. There is also a new checkbox to turn off the looping of the slideshow.

Camera Profiles
I have yet to play with this one, but a lot of people would click on the image in Lightroom and see an image they thought was really nice and them BAM! it would lose some level of saturation or sharpness, this happens because the first image you see is the embedded JPEG preview and then Lightroom switches over to the RAW file after it finishes loading. Adobe has added Camera Profiles so you can get that JPEG look right at the beginning and hopefully have to less corrections.

• http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/
  Price: Lightroom 2 is $299 or available as a $99 upgrade for Lightroom 1 customers.
• 30 Day Trial Available

Watch for a slew of new videos here showing off all of these amazing new features.

Camera Raw 4.5
Camera Raw for Photoshop CS3 has been updated to version 4.5.  It will provide exactly the same rendering obtained in Lightroom 2 but will not have all of the new controls provided in Lightroom 2.   Download Camera Raw 4.5 and DNG Converter 4.5 (Mac, Win)

Discussion Topics

The Moment it Clicks by Joe McNalley -[ Amazon Store Link ]
Using the Black Rapid R-Strap – [ http://blackrapid.com ]

Tips of The Week
David – Go with your gut
Kerry – Keep your calendar updated with Google Apps
Maurice – Don’t ever give out unedited photos

Hosts
Kerry Garrison – http://kerrygarrison.com
David Esquire – http://esquirephotography.com
Maurice Naragon – http://headcheese.com http://webscience.com

You can listen to this podcast now using our player widget in the right hand sidebar

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Do I need to know this?
If you are always using your flash in automatic modes, you may never need to know much about guide numbers but in manual modes, if you don’t have a flash meter, understanding how guide numbers work can be a powerful tool in helping you to get your lighting setup faster. Many older flashes even have built-in guides to help you calculate the aperture setting for a given distance.

Using the guide number to determine aperture
At the end of this article is a link to an Excel preadsheet that will do much of the work for you as well as containing the guide numbers for a handful of popular flash heads. First off you should understand the math behind it and how to read the guide number information for your own equipment.

Some flash devices will simply have a single guide number value while others may have different numbers at different ranges and even ISO settings so you need to pay attention when reading the guide number. Let’s take a look at a typical flash setup. A Canon 580 EX II flash has a listed guide number of 191, if we divide the guide number by the distance in feet we should get a good estimate of the aperture to use. In this example we will use a distance to the subject of 30 feet.

Guide Number / Distance = Aperture
191/ 30 = 6.3

The closest aperture setting on my Canon 30D to that is f5.6 so that would be an appropriate aperture to use if I was using ISO 100. If I was using a higher ISO number then I could use a smaller aperture. The following chart shows the multiple factor for common ISO speeds:

ISO Multiplier Table
ISO 100: 1.0
ISO 200: 1.44
ISO 400: 2.07
ISO 800: 2.99
ISO 1600: 4.30
ISO 3200: 6.19

To expand on the previous calculation, we can add in the ISO to give us more aperture options. Using the same guide number and distance while adding the ISO, let’s see how this affects our aperture setting:

(Guide Number / Distance) * ISO Multiplier = Aperture
(191/ 30) * 1.0 = 6.3
(191/ 30) * 1.44 = 9.1
(191 / 30) * 2.07 = 13.1
(191 / 30) * 2.99 =19.0

The most common question now is how to determine the distance to your subject without measuring it with a tape. Most lenses will have a distance readout that will show you the distance to your subject once you focus on it. Just press your shutter half way down while aiming at the subject, take your finger off the shutter, and then look at the distance readout. We aren’t aiming at hyper-accuracy here since the aperture settings in your camera aren’t going to exactly match the calculations but we are trying to get as close as possible and avoid a lot of trial and error. Using this information you should be able to get your light dialed in much faster than just by guessing.

Determining Maximum Flash Distance
Using a similar method we can also determine the maximum distance your flash can be effective at, this is extremely useful when trying to determine if you can light up a person on a stage from the back of an auditorium for example. The calculation for this is the guide number divided by the f/stop, and again the ISO value can be used here as well. In this example we will use the guide number of a Canon 580 EX II (58) and an f/stop of 5.6.

(Guide Number / f/stop) * ISO = Max Distance
(191/ 5.6) * 1.0 = 34′
(191 / 5.6) * 1.44 = 49′
(191 / 5.6) * 2.07= 70′
(191 / 5.6) * 2.99 = 102′

Since the f/stop and the ISO determine how much light enters the camera, you see how using a larger aperture (lower number) and a higher ISO can really affect the range of your flash. Let’s compare the difference between f/5.6 and f/2.8 as an example:

GN 191@ f/5.6 100 ISO = 34′
GN 191 @ f/5.6 200 ISO = 49′

GN 191 @ f/2.8 100 ISO = 68′
GN 191 @ f/2.8 200 ISO = 98′

These calculations will help you determine if a long distance shot is even possible or if you need to bring in additional light. If you are too far from the subject for your light to be effective, you could place your light closer to the subject and fire it with a wireless trigger, this would allow you to shoot from a distance but get the desired light effect.

Summary
I know this can seem a little intimidating at first but understanding these concepts will help you get your lighting technique under control much faster and help make sure you can get the shots you want. You can even use the calculations to build a custom “cheat sheet” for your particular flash that can print out and keep as a handy reference. The spreadsheet that we have made available for you has both the f/stop and maximum distance calculators but has a second worksheet that will create the cheat sheet for you by simply changing the guide number on the first line to match your flash device’s output.

Calculation Spreadsheet [ Download ]

Author: Kerry Garrison

What’s a ball head?
A typical tripod head can be adjusted in three axis, think of these as left/right, tilt up/down, rotate left/right. To adjust your camera across these three axis you have to loosen and then tighten three separate controls. A ball head has a single friction control and then the entire head can be adjusted simultaneously across all three axis and then locked into place by tightening a single control. This can dramatically speed up the time it takes you to get your camera in the position you want. While some ball heads have a knob or dial to lock the head into position, the 322RC2 has large grip handle that you squeeze to release friction and then release to lock the head into position.

Features
The 322RC2 is made from magnesium in order to keep the weight on the unit as low as possible and is designed to keep the center of gravity over the center of the tripod for better stability. Built into the handle is a nice bubble level and a safety release pin to keep things from coming apart unexpectedly. A thumbwheel in the handle is used to adjust the friction and the unit can support camera systems weighing up to 11 pounds.

• 1/4” screw attachment type (camera)
• 3/8″ female thread attachment type (tripod)
• -90° / +3° tilt range front tilt
• -90° / +90° tilt range lateral tilt
• 11.02 lbs load capacity
• magnesium construction
• 360 ° panoramic rotation
• quick release system
• secondary safety system
• weight: 1.54 lbs

Setup
I had a nice set of Calumet legs handy so the 322RC2 was going to have a nice home on top. From the box to being secured on top of the tripod must have taken all of about 5 seconds since it just screws into place. The 322RC2 also has a movable top plate so you can position into one of three normal positions or even stand the handle upright and put the plate at the end of the handle (great for using on a monopod). Next I screwed the mount plate onto the bottom of my Canon 30D, snapped it into place, locked the handle down and I was ready to go. Total setup time was under one minute.

Usage
Squeeze, adjust, release. Yup, that’s it. Pretty simple huh? Ok, how about some more detail. Using the 322RC2 gives you one of the moments when you think to yourself that you couldn’t believe that something so simple as the tripod could be as good as it now is. Think about trying to shoot anything that is moving in two different planes (kids are a great example of this) and trying to use a three axis tripod to follow their chaotic action. With the 322RC2 you can easily follow the action through all three axis of control and lock your camera in place right where you want it.

Results
A ball head is a seriously cool accessory for a tripod and the 322RC2 may have a hard name to remember but once you use it, you will wonder how you got by without it. When you are ready for a top-notch tripod setup, find a set of legs that meet your requirements and you can’t go wrong sticking the 322RC2 ball head on top.

Author: Kerry Garrison

Are you too “Pro” to use a tripod? Think again as we discuss different tripods types and why you need to have a good tripod.

Assignment: Build a Portrait Cheat Sheet
Take images of someone rotating through 180 degrees to see how the light changes on the person’s face. Post your cheat sheets to our Flickr group.

Picks of the week

Kerry
The R-Strap camera strap
http://www.blackrapid.com

David
Drobo 2.0 Drive Enclosure
http://www.drobo.com

Your hosts this week are Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com) and David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com).

Notable Links:
Prophotolife.com
lensbabies.com
lensprotogo.com

You can listen to this podcast now using our player widget in the right hand sidebar

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Do your homework
Before the day of the shoot, go to the locations at the same times the ceremony and reception will take place to make sure you know where all the best photo locations are around the property. It is important to do this at the same time as the time you will be there is to make sure the lighting will be the same. Obviously you don’t want to do this six months in advance as the sun will be in a totally different position come the day of the shoot.

Be prepared
We have talked about having checklists for both weddings and equipment in the past so make sure you review those articles as well. Make SURE you batteries are charged, your flash cards are formatted, you have spare batteries, your lenses and sensors are clean, your bags are organized, you have your printouts of the schedules and maps to the locations done, your clothes cleaned and ready to go, gas in your car. You cannot be overly prepared when shooting a wedding.

Arrive Early
It stands to reason you cannot be late when shooting a wedding but how early should you be? Regardless of how far away the wedding is from you, or even if it across the street, plan your trip to arrive an hour early. If the location is normally 60-90 minutes away this ensures that you will make it even some really bad traffic occurs. If you do make it an hour early then you have plenty of time to scout the location, take some detail shots around the venue, if the ceremony or reception areas are decorated then you can get the detail shots in those areas as well. Arriving an hour early shouldn’t be an hour of sitting around, make use of the time to your advantage.

Have an agenda
Before the ceremony, preferably way before the ceremony you have already worked out the agenda for the day with times and schedules of each major event during the day. This assures that you, the DJ, and the people in the wedding know what is happening when and where they need to be.

Run the show!
This is a critical part of the entire process. The photographer is in the best position to run the entire show during the day. Nothing moves until you say so. If there is a wedding coordinator, they almost always understand this and will be there to support you. While this may sound surprising that the wedding coordinator will help you to run the agenda, their goal is to make it the best day possible for the bride and groom and help you to get the best possible shots.

Adobe Photoshop Express Demo from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Creating vignettes with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

These superior quality Rosco gels are pre-cut and attach quickly and securely to the HonlPhoto Speed Strap, and can be used in conjunction with the HonlPhoto Snoots, Gobos, and Grids. Usable gel area is 2.5″ x 4″ and can be trimmed to fit individual strobes (measure the surface area of the front of your strobe to check fit). Packaged in a convenient carrying tube, the kit includes one each of:

Color Correction:
Cinegel Quarter Blue (1/4 CTB)
Cinegel Tough 1/2 PlusGreen
Cinegel Tough 1/4 PlusGreen
Cinegel Roscosun CTO
Cinegel Roscosun 1/2 CTO
Cinegel Roscosun 1/4 CTO
Cinegel Roscosun 3/4 CTO

Effects:
Roscolux Primary Blue
Roscolux Moss Green
Roscolux Light Red

Price: $24.95

Website: http://www.honlphoto.com

Continue reading to view the video:

Author: Kerry Garrison

Lightroom Digital Workflow from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Continue reading to view the video:

Summary
The FX is a colored gel system that comes with five colored gels (blue, green, red, yellow, and amber) and a gel holder that attaches to your flash with velcro. The kit contains the holder, the five gels, a carrying case, and velcro pads. The FX is available at most camera shops or online for around $35.00.

Usage
The FX attaches via velco to your flash with the included velcro pads. If you are like me and use a variety of modifiers, putting some velcro pads on the flash really isn’t an option. Instead of sticking the velcro pads on, I use a Honl Photo Speed Strap and the FX attaches to the Speed Strap quite nicely.

To use, pick out a color you want and insert it into the FX holder, attach the holder to your flash and you are ready to go. Keep in mind you are going to lose about 1 stop of light when using the gels so adjust your flash accordingly.

Shown here is the FX attached to a Canon 580 EX II and fired at a black muslin wall so you can get a feel for how to use the system. At first you may think you want to aim the colored light at a white wall for the best reflection, but in fact, the opposite is true. A white wall or white seamless paper will reflect the light and just give you white instead of the color you want. Using a dark grey or black background such as seamless paper, black muslin, or black velvet will give you the best effect.

By adjusting the output of the flash you can control the brightness of the background and adjusting the position can create a gradient effect as you can see that the color goes from brighter “sweet spot” to darker edges.

“The Lumiquest FX is going to be one of my favorite gadgets to have around for those times you need something a little different.”

I will usually have the flash hanging off a long boom and triggered with Gadget Infinity Flash Triggers. In the studio I will also shoot tethered using DSLR Remote Pro.

As you can see, a subtle color on background can make a huge difference on a portrait shoot. Let’s take a look at several product shot images taken with and without the FX system in place.

No Background Color

Blue Background

Red Background

Results
The results are exactly what I was looking for. The color is vibrant with a predictable fall-off allowing for easy adjustments so that you can get the exact effect you are looking for and for less than $40, it will work with virtually any flash brand.

Continue reading to learn more about remote backup devices…

Some newer units from Wolverine and companies like Epson even feature screens for viewing your images and allowing you to use a much larger screen for checking to see if you want to delete those images or not. My older Flashpac unit simply has a basic LCD that gives me the status of the current copy operation. Since this device is an older unit, it isn’t very fast, taking about 10 minutes to copy a 1gb CF card, but since for me, this is a single purpose device – used only for backing up cards in the field, it serves its purpose quite well.

Like many other devices, my unit has an internal laptop hard drive and an on-board battery that is charged through the USB port on the device. Most devices like this can handle a number of different card types, although I only use CF cards it is nice to know the others are there if I need to backup files from someone else’s camera.

What really got me to write an article about this topic was because the hard drive in mine died this weekend, fortunately I was able to replace the drive with a new one and use a tool from Wolverine to format it properly. I was going to send it with my daughter on a weekend trip for her backups. As soon as I realized I now longer had it available I had to immediately work on a replacement. Even though it doesn’t get used very often, it does have its place in the camera bag and is used often enough that I didn’t want to go without on.

If you are ever going to be away from your computer for a day or so, these types of devices are well worth the investment. With prices ranging from around $99 to upwards of $400, there is a device available to fit your needs and your budget.

The main point here is that you should make sure you have a backup solution in place and use it, the sooner you have two copies of your images, the safer you are and these remote backup devices give you that piece of mind.

Device Used: Wolverine FlashPac
Website: http://www.wolverinedata.com
Author: Kerry Garrison

Continue reading to view the video:

Continue reading for more information

Primary Known Issues

• Lightroom 2.0 beta will not upgrade Lightroom 1.x libraries. The beta is intended to be used for testing and feedback purposes. Lightroom 1.x and 2.0 beta libraries will be migrated to the finished version of Lightroom 2.0.
• While data loss is not expected, this is a very early ‘beta’ quality build and you should always work on duplicates of files that are securely backed up.
• Lightroom 2 beta will not overwrite or interfere with a machine that currently has Lightroom 1.3.1 installed.
• Develop settings applied in Lightroom 2.0 beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to the final version of 2.0. This is particularly true for localized corrections.
• The new Photoshop integration functionality is only available with Photoshop CS3 (10.0.1) and should only be used for testing purposes. Metadata associated with the original file may not carry over to the subsequent file saved from Photoshop
• Additional known issues are listed in the release notes.

New Features
Library

• Streamlined Library Layout
• Smart Collections
• Powerful Filter Bar to search and refine images
• Suggested Keywords for simplified keywording
• 10k pixel size limit raised to 30k pixels
• Output-based Collections

Multiple Monitors:

• -Four flexible modes for an alternate window: Grid, Loupe, Compare, Survey
  (Check out the Live Loupe mode!)

Photoshop CS3 Integration:

• Open files in Photoshop as a Smart Object
• Select multiple images to merge as a Panorama
• Merge multiple exposures into a single Photoshop HDR image
• Load multiple files or virtual copies into Photoshop as separate layers in a single document.

Export Functionality:

• Auto-add exported images to the Lightroom catalog
• Auto Output Sharpening for images on export

Develop Module

• Non-Destructive Localized Correction for dodging and burning specific areas of an image
• Post Crop Vignette
• Basic Panel Keyboard Shortcuts
• Improved Auto Adjustment
• Improved memory handling through 64-bit support on OS X 10.5 and Vista 64-bit.(Not limited to develop module)

Print Module

• Picture Package for multi-page layouts
• Print Module output directly to JPEG
• Enhanced Print Sharpening based on PhotoKit Sharpener algorithms
• 16-bit Printing for Mac OS X 10.5

Download Lightroom 2.0 Beta at Adobe Labs

Quantity

The first property of light that we want to look at is Quantity. This is the amount of light that is hitting the subject. You have several ways of adjusting the amount of light the camera will see. In some cases you can adjust the light output of your lights or use diffusers to cut down on the light if you have too much. You should all know that you can also adjust your aperture or shutter to adjust the amount of light coming into the camera. With DSLR’s, don’t forget you can also adjust your ISO setting. With four main ways to adjust for light quantity, this is one of the more versatile of the three properties.

Quality
The light quality is one of the more confusing properties and the one that gives new photographers the most trouble. Quality is not about the color of the light, it refers to whether the light is very harsh and will cause hard shadows, or is it softer with smoother shadows. The quality of the light will affect the overall contrast. The way we adjust the quality of light is by changing the apparent size of the light source. The reason this is confusing is that you initially think that the close a light is to the subject, the harsher the light will be. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The closer the light is to the subject, the larger the light source will appear to be. Take the Sun as an example, far and away the largest object in our solar system, but because of the distance, it acts as a very small diameter light source causing harsh shadows. If you only have a small lightbox, moving it close to the subject will make it appear much larger and thus will soften the shadows and provide a more pleasing light source.

Harsher Side Light

Softer Side Light

Direction
The third property should be fairly simple to understand. The light direction will also affect shadows and the final image quality If you are using small lights, you can simply move them in order to create a more flattering light angle. If you are using window light, or other unmovable light source than you can still change the orientation of the subject to the light source.

Side Lighting

Direct Frontal Light

Come the the Flickr User Group to discuss this and other topics.

• EXIF Time Stamp Error: There is an error in the EXIF time stamp update technology that causes Lightroom to believe that the files are out of sync with the correct time stamp as displayed in Lightroom. Any ensuing metadata update will attempt to incorrectly modify the EXIF time stamp in the original raw file itself.  This is the only metadata field that Lightroom will write to an original proprietary raw file. This error will not impact the integrity of your image data.  The Camera Raw plug-in also will incorrectly change the EXIF time stamp in files converted by the plug-in.  The information written to the XMP sidecar files or XMP metadata in the converted files will remain correct.
• DNG Conversion Error(Windows Only): With the latest version of the Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 applications, Adobe has included technology to verify that the image data in a DNG file is unchanged from when it was originally converted to DNG.  Unfortunately, when converting to DNG using Lightroom 1.4 on Windows, the application will write an incorrect verification tag to describe the image data.  When Lightroom attempts to work with those files in the Develop module, the application reads that incorrect tag, believes that there is something wrong with the raw data and will present an error.  Rest assured, there is nothing wrong with the integrity of your image data or metadata.  For those that have already converted their files to DNG using Lightroom 1.4(Windows only) we recommend using the DNG 4.3.1 converter to convert the DNG files you’ve created with Lightroom 1.4.
• Olympus Conversion Error:  There is an error in converting Olympus JPEG files to other formats in Lightroom 1.4 and the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in.

To uninstall Lightroom 1.4 please see the instructions per your platform:
Mac: Delete the Lightroom application in the Application folder(Mac) and Delete the following file:  Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg
Windows: Choose the Uninstall Lightroom 1.4 menu item from the Windows start menu.  The Add/Remove Program utility on Windows will also achieve the same result.

To replace the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in with the 4.3.1 plug-in, follow the manual installation instructions provided on the download page linked above.

Source: Lightroom Journal

Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi/EOS Kiss X2)
Fujifilm S100FS
Nikon D60
Olympus SP-570 UZ
Pentax K20D
Pentax K200D
Sony A200
Sony A300
Sony A350

Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 include corrections for the following issues:

• Previous camera profiles identified in the Calibrate panel of the Develop module may have displayed poor results at extreme ends of the temperature and tint ranges. A new camera profile identified as Camera Raw 4.4 is now available and will be applied by default to all images without existing Camera Raw or Lightroom settings. The creation of new default profiles will also include the updated Camera Raw 4.4 profile. Images edited in Camera Raw or Lightroom with earlier profiles will retain the earlier profile value and visual appearance.
• In previous grayscale conversions the Color Noise setting was disabled and this could result in an image with excessive noise when grayscale channel mixing is applied.  Both the tool and effect have been enabled in Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 providing the ability to reduce noise in grayscale conversions.  In order to return to the prior visual appearance, Color Noise reduction can be set to zero.

Lightroom 1.4 includes corrections for the following issue:

• Compatibility with legacy printer drivers on OS X 10.5 (Leopard) has been updated. I’d like to thank everyone who commented on my earlier post regarding this topic.  Some valuable feedback was provided and by working directly with Apple and Epson we are able to provide a resolution through this Lightroom update.

What is a Lensbaby?
From the lensbabies.com website:
Lensbabiesâ„¢ are selective Focus SLR lenses that bring one area of your photo into sharp focus, with that “sweet spot” surrounded by gradually increasing blur. You can move the sweet spot to any part of your photo by bending the lens.

It’s pretty hard to beat the explanation right from the source, the Lensbaby attaches to your camera like a normal lens and has a lens mounted to a flexible bellows. You make coarse focus adjustments by pushing or pulling the lens back and forth and then adjust the “sweet spot” by moving the lens up and down and left to right. The 3G model adds the ability to lock the movable element in place and then make fine tuning adjustments as well as focus tuning. This allows you to mount the camera on a tripod and take the same shot repeatedly or to take long exposures.

Why not Photoshop?
While there are some really good Photoshop filters and actions that seemingly come close to the Lensbaby’s look, its complex three-dimensional physical movement doesn’t just provide for selective blurring, it’s gradually increasing blur seems to slightly distort the blurred areas. Jim DiVitale describes this not as “blurring” but as a “slurring” effect. Whether or not “slurring” ever makes it into the dictionary or not it does somehow capture the essence of the Lensbaby effect. It’s this mysterious slurring effect that just makes it virtually impossible to replicate in software.

So, why even use it?
We typically use a short depth of field in order to blur out the background of an image in order to make the subject stand out more. The Lensbaby takes this concept to another level by not only blurring the background, but by allowing you to select a “sweet spot” of the image and then the blur effect moves outward in an increasing manner away from the sweet spot. This helps to guide the viewers’ eyes towards a more specific point in the image.

How does it work?
The basic functionality is quite simple, to set the main focus you pull the lens element in or push it out. This will get the pretty close with the focus and then you can fine tune the focus like a manual focus lens by turning the focus ring. There will actually somewhat of a learning curve for most people as there is no automatic focus, or automatic anything for that matter. Learning to use the Lensbaby 3G to its full advantage will simply take (heaven forbid) shooting a bunch of pictures until you get the process down. I found that after a dozen or so images I was starting to get the basic feel for how to work the lens and after a few dozen more I was turning on some pretty neat images. Fortunately for me I was able to go tag along on a wedding shoot and then we did a large group TTD shoot both just days after getting the Lensbaby so I had lots of opportunities to learn how to use it well.

Lensbaby 3G Specs

• Coated Optical Glass Doublet (Same optic as Lensbaby 2.0)
  
• Focal Length: 50 mm
  
• Focus Type: Manual/Fingertip, with barrel fine focus
  
• Aperture Type: Interchangeable levitating aperture disks
  
• Aperture: f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f/11, f/16, f/22
  
• Minimum Focus: about 12″
  
• Maximum Focus: infinity
  
• Size/Weight: 3″ (6.72cm) high x 3″ (6.72cm wide / 5.7 oz. (161.6 grams)
  
• Note: a Lensbaby does not communicate electronically with your camera body
  

You cannot set the aperture from the camera body, you have to replace different aperture disks that come with the lens.

So, what do I think?
During the two shoots that I had just following getting the Lensbaby, I kept two cameras on me in order to take shots of the same scene with two different lenses. Here are some side by side results that I was able to get.

I’ll be honest, there is a distinct learning curve to getting the best results from the Lensbabies lens. I had tried the original before and the 3G is a vast improvement over the original design. Being able to lock the lens into a position and then fine tune the effect in as well as fine tune the focus makes it a lot more versatile than the original or the 2.0 version.

The Lensbabies are not for everyone but if you are more serious about your photography and looking for that “something extra” when doing weddings or portraits then you should consider adding a Lensbaby to your lens collection. Priced at $270 it’s not a very expensive lens in comparison to buying some uber-sharp L series lenses.

In the next few weeks we are going to dig into some more creative uses and other applications as well as look into the differences between the Lensbabies and a regular tilt-shift lens.

Final Results

Company Website: http://www.lensbabies.com

Author: Kerry Garrison

• Airport Airstream — This new, small roller complies with international air travel guidelines and accommodates up to a 400mm lens and multiple DSLRs and lenses. It features new and enhanced security features: TSA combination lock for the zipper sliders, a security cable for securing the roller to immovable objects, a front cable and lock for securing a laptop case to the bag, and the new Security Plate system for easy identification. With Think Tank Photo’s new Security Plate photographers can register their roller’s unique serial number at the company’s Lost and Found site. If Think Tank Photo is informed that a lost or stolen bag has been located, it will contact registered users at no charge. The optional Airport Airstream Low Divider Set lets up to a 15″ laptop lay safely inside of the roller.
• Airport Security V2.0 – This large roller, which is renowned for its ability to hold a large amount of gear while complying with most USA domestic airline size requirements, has been completely upgraded. Like the Airport Airstream, it now comes with all of the company’s enhanced security features. In addition, the optional Airport Security Low Divider Set is now available, which allows the Artificial Intelligence 15 & 17 laptop cases or the Cable Management 50 to lay inside of the roller.
• Airport International V2.0 –This new version of the popular mid-sized roller was recently named a 2008 winner of the “Hot One Award.” In making this award the judges noted that the Airport International was “the first large rolling camera bag to meet all international carry-on size requirements.” The roller, which now includes the new enhanced security features, was designed to accommodate a 300 2.8, 400 2.8, or 500 4 with lens hoods, multiple DSLR bodies and lenses, and other photography accessories.

The AI Low Divider Set is also available for safe laptop storage.

“With all of these rollers we’ve listened to photographer fears and designed in strong, customizable features that allow them to use this rolling camera bag not only as a means of transporting equipment from one site to the next, but for storing it securely  during a shoot,” said Doug Murdoch, Think Tank Photo’s founder and lead designer.  “As they are rollers, photographers can move quickly from one flight to the next and without the burden of carrying this weight on their shoulders.  The goal is to minimize the wear and tear on their bodies and the fears associated with transporting expensive photographic equipment.”

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About Think Tank Photo
Headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, Think Tank Photo (http://www.thinktankphoto.com/) is a group of designers and professional photographers focused on studying how photographers work and developing inventive new carrying solutions that meet their needs. They are dedicated to using only the highest quality materials and design principles, and employing materials that are environmentally benign.

Product Specifications

Airport Airstream
Internal Dimensions: 13.5″ W x 6.5-7.5″ D x 15.5″ H (34 x 16.5 x 39.5 cm)
External Dimensions: 14″ W x 8″ D x 17.5″ H (36 x 20.5 x 44.5 cm)
Weight:  9 – 10.5 lbs (weight varies depending on accessories)
Price:  $289

Airport International V2.0
Internal Dimensions:  13″ W x 6.5″ – 7.5″ D x 18.5″ H (33 x 16.5-19 x 47 cm)
External Dimensions:  14″ W x 8″ D x 21″ H (36 x 20 x 53 cm)
Weight: 9.5-11.5 lbs; 4.3-5.2 kg (weight varies depending on accessories used)
Price:  $329

Airport Security V2.0
Internal Dimensions:  13″ W x 7-8″ D x 21″ H (33 x 18-20 x 53 cm)
External Dimensions:  14″ W x 9″ D x 22″ H (35.5 x 23 x 56 cm)
Weight: 12 – 14 lbs/5.4 – 6.4 kgs (weight varies on accessories used)
Price:  $369

In the past we have looked at other products to do white balance such as the Expodisc or the Menon Lens Cap. While these can really help you get your white balance correct, the two issues with products like these are that they do not help you with your exposure settings and that it is not always easy to get into a position to get the correct reading from the perspective of the subject. Using a PhotoVision Digital Calibration Target allows you to easily set both your white balance and exposure settings in one simple procedure.

Getting it right the first time

Although later on we will look at how to use the digital calibration target in post production, our goal is to get our settings right before shooting so that we spend our time getting the image right in-camera. To do this properly is going to require that you learn how to set a custom white balance for your camera. With Olympus DSLR’s you can set a button to be a custom white balance switch which makes it super simple to take an image to use for a custom white balance. Canons and Nikons require you to take an image, then go to the custom white balance settings and select the image to use. Refer to your camera’s manual to learn how to do this for your camera model as every camera is a little different from others making it far too much information for a single article. So your homework is to learn how to set custom white balance for your particular camera model.

Calibration Target

Histogram

Once we know how to set the white balance for our camera we will put the digital calibration target into the shot where the subject is going to be and feather is just slightly towards the key light to take into account the curves of a face. When possible you want to zoom in enough to fill at least 1/2 of the frame or more with the target. The best way to use the target is to first take an image for the white balance and then set your custom white balance setting, then aim at the target again to adjust for exposure and then shoot another frame to have a calibrated point of reference. At this point your camera is setup for an ideal exposure and white balance. Remove the target and start shooting.

“I really put the target to the test doing a recent engagement shoot in the snow. The Digital Calibration Target helped me nail the tricky white balance and exposure and the few seconds spent on using the target saved a lot of time fixing the images in post” – David Esquire, Esquire Photography

Auto White Balance

Calibrated White Balance

One big benefit of using the calibration target is that you get the white balance at the plane of the subject. Let’s take a tungsten light and point it at the background, if we use auto white balance we will get a value that combines the foreground and the background which will dramatically change the white balance on the subject. Since we calibrated against the plane of the subject, the white balance on the subject remains correct while the background gets the warmer orange color from the tungsten light.

Calibrated White Balance
with tungsten background light

Getting it right in post

So what do you do if you realize you have just shot a series of images and the white balance and/or exposure isn’t what you had hoped for? While we know we can go into Lightroom or Photoshop and correct this in post production but we can still use the target to make sure we can start with settings that are accurate. In this case we can put the target into the scene just like we would do before starting shooting and simply take an image of the target. Once we bring the image into Lightroom we use the target image to set the white balance against the grey stripe and use the white and black stripes to help set the exposure. You can then select the rest of the images from the same setup and use the Sync button to sync the white balance and exposure to the selected images. Even though we have now done the corrections in post production, we have dramatically cut down the time spent on each image to get the settings how we want them.

Available Options

The PhotoVision Digital Calibration Targets are available in a variety of sizes including a 6″ mini, 14″ pocket size, 24″ target, and a 34″ target size. The most versatile is probably the 24″ size which retails for around $99. I recommend getting both the 24″ size and the 6″ size ($37.50) to give you the most flexibility. The small size has a silver backing to act as a reflector while the 24″ has a white reflective backing instead of silver to cut down on harsh specular reflections.

Results

It is really amazing to me how often something comes along lately that dramatically changes the way we do our jobs. Adobe Lightroom was the final straw for many photographers to finally switch to using RAW because it made it much easier to make exposure and white balance corrections in post production and then discovering the PhotoVision Digital Calibration target has made me go back to making sure my images are better in-camera instead of relying on the post production process.

Final Results

Company Website: http://www.photovisionvideo.com

Author: Kerry Garrison

]]> http://cameradojo.com/2008/03/02/photovision-digital-calibration-target/feed/ 4 target_bundle.jpg custom_white_balance.gif img_6690.jpg histogram.jpg Auto White Balance Calibrated Image img_6694.jpg http://cameradojo.com/2008/02/28/how-to-shoot-with-a-partner/ http://cameradojo.com/2008/02/28/how-to-shoot-with-a-partner/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:47:58 +0000 KerryG http://l7foto.com/2008/02/28/how-to-shoot-with-a-partner/ I have had the opportunity to shoot with a number of other people as both the “second” photographer as well as being the primary photographer. Today I want to talk about my feelings about shooting with other people as my own experience has covered the gamut from extremely enjoyable to absolutely horrible. So while this is not a technical article by any means, it is my own opinion as to how shooting with someone else can be both a rewarding, educational, and enjoyable experience.

Why a “partner”
I like to use the phrase partner as opposed to using an assistant as a photo shoot that has two photographers available should benefit from the experience and skills of both photographers and not relegate the second person to being nothing more than a VOLS (Voice Operated Light Stand). If you give two photographers the same camera, the same lens, and put them on the same spot, you will virtually never get the same exact photograph from both of them. This is simply because everyone looks at things a little different, the composition will be different, the lighting/exposure may be different, and the angles may be different, so why not benefit from two styles rather than sticking to only one? Having two people that are photographers can also add to the overall image quality.

Let’s take a simple example. When shooting weddings with David from Esquire Photography, he may be up at the top of some stairs shooting down at a bride, but because I am at a lower angle, I may see a shadowed spot more easily that he can from his angle and I can pop a little extra light from a reflector into the shot. Because he knows that I know what I am doing, he trusts that I may have seen something that he didn’t and continues to shoot, the result is a better image and there is no reason for anyone’s feelings to get hurt because I was trying to help him get the best shot possible. On the other hand, David is much better posing details than I am so when we did a recent shoot with a model, I was doing the shooting while he was giving direction to the model to achieve the best looks. Again, there was no stepping on my ego because I was getting awesome shots.

Ego is the killer
Let’s face it, most of us aren’t in the same league as people like Scott Kelby, Ed Pierce, or Vincent Versage, but when you listen to them or read their posts, they quite often talk about learning a new technique or lighting style from someone else. If guys who are making millions of dollars a year traveling the globe can state that they learned something from some unknown person, should any of us really have egos so big that we can’t listen to our own peers? I know it is sometimes hard to take advice from someone when it comes to your own creative ideas and processes, but really, aren’t we all always trying to be the best we can and don’t we get better by learning, experimenting, looking at other people’s work, trying new things, and looking at other ideas? So what can possibly be better than having another photographer with you right by your side, feeding ideas off each other, tossing concepts back and forth, and trying more things on one shoot than you could think of, or pull off by yourself?

I had an experience where I was asked by a primary photographer to shoot a wedding in a very specific way. Basically I was to hang back as far as possible and take everything with a long zoom lens. While I did plenty of that, I also got creative as I would typically do, posed the guys a certain way, got some crazy angles, used available structures for props and backgrounds, and in the end I ended up with some really great shots. However, the primary photographer got upset that I used any creativity at all because it was HER shoot. This turned a really enjoyable day into a real let-down even though I delivered some great photos.

Try some collaboration
I can’t encourage you enough to get into the user group, look around for a local photo club, get on other forums, or somehow find other people in your area to collaborate with. Together, come up with a shoot concept, and each get behind the camera and let the other person give you feedback from a different perspective. If one photographer can do a really cool shoot, how much better could one be with two photographers? Stop thinking that it lowers you or impedes your creativity, instead allow a shared session to enhance your creativity and let you try new shooting angles, new lighting techniques, and even new post processing ideas.

The most enjoyable shoots I do these days are with photographers who have a strong vision of their own but are still open to trying new things and experimenting based on my feedback and in turn, I enjoy getting feedback from them. Not only does it dramatically add to the creative process, it keeps you from getting into a rut of doing the same things all the time. I know that I have grown far faster and further through my collaborative sessions then when I was either “just an assistant” or had some VOLS helping me out.

Source: http://photobasics.net

Was it as simple as cleaning out the garage and painting the walls? Absolutely not, continue reading to see what else we did to put some finishing touches on the studio.

As you can see from the shot here (of David from Esquire Photography), notice the rafters of the garage have been covered with white paper. This was actually done with spare rolls of paper from a print shop. The paper acts as a big reflector adding at least a stop of light onto the scene. You can see this effect by noticing the gradient getting lighter as it goes closer to the subject. Without covering the rafters, if you tried to bounce flash in the area you would end up with an orange color cast from the light bouncing off the bare wood. Adding the paper strips provides more light and eliminates any unwanted color casts. You can still see a few spots that have to be cleaned up but the area is now better than 95% completed.

While David is an ok subject for a quick test shot, let’s face it, what’s better than a cute girl on a motorcycle? The main lights are the Westcott TD5 Spiderlites while a little extra pop was wanted so an on-camera 580 EX flash was bounced into the ceiling. We wheeled David’s Ducati into the garage and asked Taylor Thorne to do a few quick poses for us.

It only took a few test shots to get the light and camera settings dialed in nicely and the pictures we were getting showed us that the home studio setup is going to work perfectly. I didn’t take much time trying different lenses as we were just checking light balances and I couldn’t be happier with the results. One of the things I plan on adding is a dedicated station for a laptop for tethered shooting with Breeze Systems DSLR Remote Pro.

What’s left? The following is a list of the remaining items that will totally finish off the studio completly:

• A few more strips of paper towards the back of the room
• Taping up all the seams for a cleaner look
• An overhead two bulb flouresenct fixture with daylight balanced bulbs (hair light and background light)
• White muslin drape to seperate shooting area from the rest of the garage area

We hope you have enjoyed following how we have built our home studio. Now we can get back to writing some more articles. If you have a home studio or want to ask any questions about ours, please come to our group to discuss it.

If you are into Do-It-yourswelf projects, be sure and visit our friends over at DIYPhotography.net.

Author: Kerry Garrison

Painting the main wall
Once the area in front of the main shooting wall was cleared away and scrubbed down, there were just tons of holes in it from different shelves that had been installed over the years. Some spackle took care of the holes and I used some to smooth out the transitions between the drywall sheets as the drywall in the garage was pretty much slapped in, nowhere near the quality of the finish inside the house.

Being unpainted drywall that was installed about 30 years ago, this was not going to be a single coat paint job. I had a full can of spray primer that I used first, the drywall pretty well sucked up the primer. During the cleaning I found a few gallons of an off-white latex, so two more coats of that and the wall is looking pretty solid. Along with the spackle, I also bough a new can of high gloss white that will be the final coat.

Costs so far
Since I had primer and basic painting supplies, I have so far only spent a total of $47 at the hardware store for the white paint, spackle, stir stick, putty knife. Considering that I have also made about $1,700 in selling old crap on craiglist, I am still well ahead of the game.

What’s left?
Without a truck to haul stuff to the dump, I am limited to what I can throw away in two trash bins and one recycle bin every week. In the picture here you can see one last pile of trash that is left, the vast majority will go into next week’s trash containers and there are a few old printers that have to be disposed of.

Once the final coat of off-white paint dries then I will give the wall and baseboard a coat of the high-gloss white. I am still debating about what to do with the floor. If you have any suggestions please post a comment here are in the Flickr Group.

Please come to the Flickr Group and show us pictures of your home studio,

If you are into Do-It-yourswelf projects, be sure and visit our friends over at DIYPhotography.net.

Read Building a Home Studio Part 3

Author: Kerry Garrison

Step 1 – The Garage
The garage was a total disaster, it used to be a big workshop for me to work on Radio Control vehicles and actually had a small area for taking product photos of the products I was reviewing and writing about (my first real experience doing a lot of photography). Once I sold off that website, the garage began turning into a total junkyard of…well…junk. We had built a large worktable which became even more space for even more junk. In order to even begin this project the garage needed to be cleaned out, and this has been my project for the past six weeks so far. Every week I have filled all of our available trash cans with trash and have sold everything worth selling on craigslist.

Six weeks, 10 trashcans full of stuff, tons of craiglist sales, and a lot of organization later, and the space that will become the new home studio is really coming together. When finished, the main shooting area will be 17′ x 15′. I still have enough trash to fill two weeks of trashcans, the wife has huge piles of plastic organizes to…organize, and we have boxes and bags of stuff to donate to Goodwill and we need to buy one or two storage racks to finish the areas off. This will complete the cleaning process and allow the build stage to begin.

While you may never build a home studio as complete as our studio is going to be, the ideas that we present will help you build your own home studio to fit your own needs, budgets, and desires.

Step 2 – The Plan
With the garage coming together and seeing how much space we have available, its time to start doing some planning on exactly what we are going to do out there. The garage has a built-in workbench on the right side that I am going to leave for storage and shelf space. The right side will get hangers to hold 10′ pieces of seamless paper, and a white muslin sheets will seperate the shooting area from the rest of the garage area.

Now you know what I have been up to for the past few weeks, one one hand its taking a long time to build this studio project out and on the other hand it’s actually going better than I expected. In upcoming articles we will look at how to overcome issues such as the wooden rafters, using inexpensive lighting techniques, how to mount lights, and a number of other issues we are seeing that are going to be issues that we need to deal with. Hopefully this will inspire you to take your home studio to the next level as well.

If you have a home studio, please go to our Flickr Group and share some thoughts and pictures of your home atudio with everyone.

If you are into Do-It-yourswelf projects, be sure and visit our friends over at DIYPhotography.net.

Read Building a Home Studio Part 2

Author: Kerry Garrison