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

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

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

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

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

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

Host: Kerry Garrison

GoCast Sponsor: http://gopro.com

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The Image

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

Making The Image

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show Host

Kerry Garrison
http://kerrygarrison.com

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

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

In order first sample shot we have a couple standing against a wall with light coming in from the right of the camera creating a fairly simple broad lighting effect. The problem here was that the shot was taken at 4:30pm in May so we still had a good two hours before the sun would go down and give us ideal lighting. Secondly, the two walls we had available faced either due west directly into the sun or faced east and was completely in the shade. I ruled out the first option and went for the easier shot by placing the couple in the shade. With no additional light coming in we just didn’t have an interesting shot and because we were under a bridge, there wasn’t a good angle to use a reflector to bounce any light into the area.

In order to create the directional lighting, a Canon 580 EX II speedlite was fitted with a Lumodi 14” beauty dish and a PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver. The camera was a Canon EOS 50D with a PocketWizard MiniTT1 transmitter. My assistant positioned the light at about a 45 degree angle to the couple’s left and about two feet above their heads. This provided a nice directional quality to the light by simulating a late afternoon sun position but with the ability to completely control the light output. The beauty dish provided for a softer transition from the highlights to the shadows versus the sun would have been much harsher shadows due to is smaller apparent size.

The following diagram illustrates this lighting setup.

ISO 200 Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 IF EX DG HSM @ 63mm f/5.6 1/200 sec Flash: eTTL

In our second example we wanted to create more of a rim or Rembrandt style lighting on the subject. In this case the shot was taken at 7:15pm and the sun was far too low on the horizon to provide and real light other than a little bit of ambient. Using basically the same exact setup as before, a Canon 580 EX II speedlite was fitted with a Lumodi 14” beauty dish and a PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver. The camera was a Canon EOS 50D with a PocketWizard MiniTT1 transmitter, this time the setup was stationary on a lightstand and positioned just to the left and above the subject and is just barely out of the frame in this shot.

ISO 400 Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 IF EX DG HSM @ 70mm f/5.6 1/160 sec Flash: eTTL

Had this shot been taken about 30 minutes earlier the sun would have created basically this identical light pattern although we might have had to use a touch of fill light to keep the shadows from being too harsh. Shooting later in the evening, we can create the effect that we wanted the sun to have created had it not been too late in the day.

As we continue to look at more lighting setups we will add additional light sources, reflectors,  different diffusers, and other tricks to get the light to look as natural as possible but still trying to maintain as much control over the light as possible.

Equipment Used:

With an accessory flash like a Canon 580 EX II the top piece can rotate around to different angles, this will allow the flash to fire in a different angle than the camera is facing. If you then bounce that light off something like a wall or reflector you can then redirect the light back at your subject to create good directional light. The only thing you have to really watch for is that you are blocking and light directly from the flash to contaminate the scene which can completely diminish the look you are trying to get.

First let’s look at the flash configuration we are going to use. A 580 EX outfitted with Velco and then a Honl Photo Gobo to cover the bottom and right side of the flash head. This blocks direct light from the flash from hitting the subject but still allows some extra light to move up and left which will help add a little fill light. If we used a snoot, we wouldn’t have any extra fill light and the shadows would be much harsher.

The key to this working with such a simple setup is actually having things to bounce the light off of. Without walls and a ceiling that are close enough to effectively use as reflectors we might have to bring in our own reflectors to create the desired effect.

Let’s take another look at the lighting diagram.

The flash is mounted on the camera and is turned towards the wall aimed to hit a midpoint between the camera and the subject. This will illuminate the wall and act like new source of light angled back towards the subject giving us light that appears to come from the right side of the subject. Now let’s look at an example image to see exactly what this looks like.

As you can see, we have effectively created a short light setup by bouncing the light off the wall while also using a small amount of bounce light from surrounding walls and the ceiling to add a small amount of fill light to keep the right side of the subject from being completely black.

The point here is that learning how to use your on-camera flash to behave differently than simply blasting your subject with straight on lighting will open up your ability to create much better images. Experimenting will different distances, angles, and reflector surfaces and soon you will find that you can find useful locations and/or objects to use as your bounce target.

Understanding the problem

In the intro, we stated that the Canon wireless speedlite system has a lot of features and is reasonably flexible in how you can use it. While that is true, there are some serious limitation to the system that Canon has yet to address, and given the installed base, probably isn’t likely to address in the near future.

The primary problem is that the Master light needs to communicate with the slave units and does this via bursts of flash just before the main flash goes off. This “pre-flash” happens so fast that you can’t tell it from the main flash. This works quite well in optimum environments like inside your studio. However, once you get outside and you have issues like the sun interfering with the speedlite’s communication, trying to use modifiers that block communication, or worse, trying to put speedlites in places with no direct line of sight such as outside a door, or around a corner, and the Canon system by itself starts to have issues very quickly.

While there are inexpensive radio triggers available and some of them work very reliably, the problem is that they only allow you to use use speedlites in manual mode only. Now this may be ok for you, and it is for many people, they lack several very key features:

1. The ability to use Canon’s eTTL system for automatic exposure control
2. The ability to remotely adjust the power output of the slave units
3. The ability to use high speed sync

Again, these things may not be of interest to you based on the style of shooting you do, but for many people, these are critical components of getting the lighting they want.

How the ControlTL System Solves the Problem

While I will go into more technical detail in a moment, simply put, the ControlTL system intercepts the signals going to the speedlite and transmits the information over radio frequencies to the remote receivers.

There are two available components as part of the system, the MiniTT1 transmitter and the FlexTT5 transceiver. At a minimum you need one transmitter and one transceiver which would allow you to do off-camera lighting in eTTL mode and allow you to adjust power output by adjusting the flash compensation on your camera body.

Adding additional transceivers and speedlites adds to the flexibility of the system and allows you to build up to using multiple zones, ratio control, and remote setting of manual settings.

Why is eTTL Important?

Is eTTL over-rated or the magic bullet? For the most part, eTTL does a pretty good job the majority of the time. Let’s say we are shooting a scene and we set our camera to ISO 200, f/5.6, and 1/60th of a second shutter speed. The Canon speedlites will do a pre-flash to determine the best flash output for those settings and adjust accordingly. If we then change our camera settings to ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/100 of a second, even though we have effectively adjusted the camera settings by two stops, the eTTL system will determine that it simply needs less flash output to properly light the scene. Of course, with any system that is trying determine how to light something, it isn’t always going to be perfect because the camera simply can’t read your mind to figure out what it is you are trying to do, but generally speaking, eTTL does a pretty good job most of the time and can be a big time saver in getting your lighting dialed in.

ControlTL Modes

The new PocketWizard ControlTL system has several basic operating modes, the following are explanations of the basic setups.

• Basic eTTL Mode
  In the most basic mode you need either a MiniTT1 transmitter or a FlexTT5 transceiver on the camera’s hot shoe shoe and a flash on a FlexTT5. In this basic mode, all speedlites  are grouped together into a single zone.
• Ratio eTTL Mode
  This mode requires Canon 580 EX or EX II be in the hot shoe of the MiniTT1 or FlexTT5 that is in the hot shoe on the camera. Remote flashes can be assigned to zones A, B, or C by selecting the zone switch on the remote FlexTT5 module. The ratio control is managed on the speedlite mounted on the camera. You can also use a Canon STE2 Commander on top of the camera to adjust the lighting ratios.
• Wireless Manual Mode
  “Wireless Manual” system allows setting a remote flash to a desired manual level from the MASTER flash. You must use a 580EX II on the MiniTT1 or FlexTT5 as transmitter. The original 580EX or earlier flashes cannot perform
  this function via ControlTL radios. “Wireless Manual” uses controls similar to ratio mode.

In both of the eTTL modes, the new PocketWizards double the output of the pre-flash boost for determining exposure making it more accurate, usable at longer ranges, and improves functionality when using modifiers such as umbrellas and softboxes.

One feature that I love is being able to use high speed sync. The way high speed sync actually works is that the flash will output thousands of small bursts very quickly to provide virtually continuous light output when the shutter is moving at high speeds. The downside to HSS is that it’s pretty harsh on batteries. The MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 communicate directly with the flash and PocketWizard came up with a means of optimizing the burst output to match the shutter speed which can result is massive improvements, 2-4x improvement in output power, 2-4x increase in battery life, and 2-4x faster recycle time.

There is yet another mode called HyperSync which allows high shutter speeds with studio strobes. While you do take a light output hit in this mode, it can enable some incredible shots that were previously impossible to get. This is a mode I am really looking forward to playing with more.

Finally there are even optimizations for rear curtain sync that ensure the flash goes off as late as possible ensuring a proper exposure while making sure the shutter is in the right position when the flash goes off.

Although you may have heard that putting a ControlTL device on your camera’s hot shoe will fool your camera into thinking there is a flash there, this is not completely accurate. The only in-camera flash control you have is Flash Exposure Compensation. Any zone control or ratio adjustments have to be done with an actual 580 EX/EX II mounted on top of the MiniTT1 or FlexTT5 device.

When the Zone Controller is available, this will help solve the ratio issue by allowing independent adjustment of three different zones without having to have a speedlite on the camera itself. This will allow photographers with two speedlites to use them both off-camera with individual output control. The Zone Controller can also operate each zone in manual or eTTL mode for maximum flexibility. The Zone Controller should be shipping at the end of May for around $70.

How I use the PocketWizard ControlTL System

I can’t really address every possible scenario but I can tell you how I have been using the ControlTL system in the shooting I have been doing. This generally breaks down into a couple of different situations. As seen in this first image, a remote flash on a lightstand is outfitted with a Lumodi Beauty Dish to provide directional lighting and make it appear as if the subjects are being lit by the sun. Shooting at this distance and still having eTTL control of the flash is a huge benefit. This is also used with high speed sync to be able to properly expose for a bright sky and still get a proper exposure on the subjects.

Usually only a simple adjustment of the flash compensation is all that is needed to dial in the exact look that I am going for.

The second most common usage is the ability to place a subject is complete shade to minimize harsh shadows from the sun but still provide the look of an afternoon sun but with far greater control over the contrast.

The bottom line is that the ControlTL system provides the means accomplish the style of images that I try to create with minimal setup time and quick remote adjustments.

Is the ControlTL System for you?

You are the only person who can decide if the ControlTL system is the right fit for your photography style and especially your budget. The components are not cheap, this is a system designed for professionals. The MiniTT1 transmitter sells for $199 while the FlexTT5 transmitter sells for $225. With the Canon 580 EX II selling for $445, a multi-light setup starts to get expensive very quickly.

Why not just use studio strobes and radio triggers? There are certainly situations where that is appropriate and even preferred. However, studio strobes are not as portable, do not offer eTTL control, cannot do high speed sync, and can’t dump their light fast enough for higher speed shots. The small speedlites are extremely flexible and having them be able to be used at fairly long distances gives you control over your lighting that you simply can’t get with a studio strobe.

For more information as well as numerous instructional videos, check out the PocketWizard website at http://pocketwizard.com

Disclosure: CameraDojo, Kerry Garrison, and associated editors do not receive any monetary compensation for any reviews or articles written for the
CameraDojo.com website. PocketWizard supplied loaner equipment to use for this article as well as several upcoming lighting tutorials.

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

Syl’s new book LIDLIPS Lessons I Didn’t Learn In Photo School is available on Amazon for only $13.45.

Be sure and check out Syl’s websites: http://pixsylated.com and  http://speedliting.com

Show Host

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

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Kerry and Jules also announce their upcoming workshop on Jan 26th. For more information on the Light, Location, and Love workshop, please check out:
http://cameradojo.com/2009/12/09/light-location-love-workshop-with-jules-bianchi-and-kerry-garrison/

Be sure and check out Jules’ website at http://julescafe.com.

Don’t forget about our CameraDojo MediaSmart Server Giveaway

Show Host

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

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

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

Chase’s Links:

Chase on Twitter / Facebook

Chase Jarvis website: http://chasejarvis.com

The Best Camera: http://thebestcamera.com

The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis (on Amazon)

Songs for Eating and Drinking: http://www.songsforeatinganddrinking.com

Show Host

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

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Yes, sometimes it IS who you know

I had heard there was an easy way to organize images from multiple cameras but I had poked around trying to find it but I never really figured it out. Of course, the actual answer was far simpler than I had thought and had thus overlooked it several times. I was recently talking to my good friend Rick Miller who is a solution specialist for Adobe, and had mentioned I thought there should be an easier way to accomplish this. Rick, not wanting to be stumped by a Lightroom question helped me look for the answer and sure enough, there it was…sort of.

Metadata is your friend

This is going to be so simple you may wonder how come you didn’t accidentally run across it yourself. When you are in the Library module, make sure you are in Grid mode. At the top of the Grid you should see the Library Filter bar, if you don’t, just hit the \ key. Next, click on Metadata on the Library Filter bar. Right here you will see that the images are group by camera model. If the different cameras you are using are all separate models, then you are set, just select the Camera model to filter all of the images associated with that camera.

If you were using different cameras but they were the same camera model, fear not, we just have to go through one more small step. At the top right of any of the columns you see there is a small icon, click on that and add a new column, now click on the blank column title and select Camera Serial Number. Now you can filter by the individual camera.

Timing is Everything

Now that we know how to sort on the images, we now need to have a reference point so that we can adjust the time on what set of images to match the time on the rest of the images. Now if you haven’t done the shoot yet, the best thing to do is have everyone take a picture of something like their feet. Even if you are shooting alone, just take one shot with the first camera, then swap cameras and take a shot with the second camera, there is no need to try to do them at the same time.

If you are editing an existing shoot, you need to figure out the time difference. With multiple shooters there is almost always a shot from each camera at the beginning, if you didn’t pick up your second camera until the middle of the shoot, this can be a little more tricky. But play along and let’s see how to do it anyway.

Let’s say our sync shot was taken at 1pm, and the second camera is off by 20 minutes. All we have to do is filter by the second camera, go over to the Metadata block and select the edit icon next to Capture Time. At this point a dialog box will come up with several options for time adjustments.

The problem here isn’t that the functionality we want (to adjust by 20 minutes) isn’t here, the problem is the text for the option isn’t very clear. If you read the description at the top of the dialog box it actually tells you that it will adjust the time of the image that is displayed and all of the other images that are selected will be adjusted by the same amount of time. So if we are seeing the first image, and we set the time to 1pm, all of the rest of the images will be adjusted accordingly and all of the images from both cameras will now be in complete time sync.

Video Demo

In the following video, Kerry Garrison shows how to adjust the time of your images to all sync up together.

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.

In this video Kerry demonstrates using a simple light meter in a product shoot.

How to use a light meter from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Related Articles:

• Using a Light Meter for Proper Exposure
• Podcast #53 – Using a Light Meter

That Cheatin’ Histogram

Let’s look at what happens when we take a picture with our DSLRs. The exposure meter in the camera is using reflective light instead of incident light so a man’s tux will show a different meter reading than a bride’s dress even if the exposure for both of them was correct since the white dress will reflect more light than the tux, thus throwing the exposure meter out of whack. Secondly, when we press the shutter the camera creates a JPEG image with all of your picture settings and an S-Curve applied. Yes, this happens even if you are shooting in RAW mode since the display on the LCD is actually the JPEG image which is also the image the camera uses to calculate the histogram. I can’t count the times that my exposure meter was dead center, the preview looked great, and the histogram was good but when I brought up the RAW image in Lightroom, the image wasn’t quite exposed as well as I expected. Anyone who shoots a lot can attest to this issue. Yes, your LCD and histogram are usually accurate enough, but if you want to be accurate all the time then you need a reading from the point of few of the subject by measuring the actual amount of light hitting the subject and not the amount of light reflected by the subject.

What does a light meter tell you?

I asked a handful of photographers who had never used a light meter what they thought a light meter would tell them and surprisingly few actually knew even the basic functions of all light meters did with “Measure the light I guess” being the top answer. Even the most basic of light meters will allow you to set the ISO speed you want to use, then you set the shutter speed or aperture to what you want to use and the meter will give you the correct settings for a proper exposure. More fancy ones can also fire your flash equipment and some will even calculate the amount of flash versus ambient light.

Let’s say we have a nice bright sunny day and we set our ISO to 200, and our aperture to f/16, if we take a reading we will probably get something like 1/200th of a second as our shutter speed for a good exposure. With most digital light meters you can then make adjustments to the shutter or aperture and it will change the values on the screen to tell you what to change the other setting to.

If you aren’t familiar with the relationship between ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture, you should read the article we have about it (Link: The Exposure Triangle).

Testing the theory

Ok, I am sure many of you are skeptical that your camera, even a high end pro-series camera isn’t going to be dead-nuts accurate, but let’s take a few tests and see what our camera is telling us.

The following is a series of images of a product that has a black front and a light top, not something a camera’s meter is going to be good at so it will help illustrate the point well. Simply adjusting the camera’s settings to center the camera’s exposure meter at ISO 200, f/5.6 the camera gave us a setting of 1/400th shutter speed. Shooting the gray side of a WhiBal card it changed to 1/400th of a second, and shooting the gray/white/black side we got a setting of 1/640th of a second. By doing this test we can see that the camera’s exposure meter is going to change based on how reflective the subject is. In each image you can also see Photoshop’s histogram to see where the image’s exposure actually came in at.

Image 1 – ISO 200 f/5.6 1/400th – Slightly Underexposed (Based on WhiBal Gray)

Image 2 – ISO 200 f/5.6 1/640th – Underexposed (based on WhiBal White/Black/Gray)

Image 3 – ISO 200 f/5.6 1/200th – Showing good exposure (based on light meter)

Now some people may say that a perfect exposure should be centered in the histogram, however, digital sensors retain more detail in the highlights than they do in the shadows so you actually want your highlights to be fairly far to the right without going into the last little bit of the histogram which is exactly what we got with the final image.

But how does the meter know what the background is?

One of the most commonly asked questions is how does the meter know what the background of the subject is, since that should affect the exposure right? Well, let’s just try some experiments and see what we get. The following images were taken using the exposure settings provided by the light meter which were identical for both images, take a close look at the histogram for each image.

ISO 400 f/4.0 1/125th – Properly Exposed yet histogram says its underexposed

ISO 400 f/4.0 1/125th – Properly Exposed yet histogram says its overexposed

Of course the white paper is providing some bounce light that is providing more details around the edges and since I only metered for the center of center of the phone. So yes, the background can affect the exposure because you may not be metering for any reflected light, although this is typically only a problem with a situation like this. If I wanted to expose for the edges, then I could have metered at the edges. Does this mean the background affected the exposure? Yes, but only because the background in this situation actually is acting as a light source that is reflecting light into the edges around the product.

Will a light meter work properly in every situation?

So far we have looked at using a light meter for incident lighting, where this can break down is with highly reflective surfaces or in situation where the lighting is uneven, in this case a reflective meter is going to be more accurate. Most all light meters can do both types by adjusting or moving the light sensor dome. In reflective mode, the meter is going to act just like the meter on the camera.

Like anything else, a light meter is just another tool that is designed for a specific purpose. Used properly, it can dramatically improve your exposures and you camera setup time. The following image was taken in bright daylight with a large diffuser to the camera right and a large beauty dish flash to camera left. Combined with the ambient light, that is three different light values. With the light meter getting a reading taken at the subjects face, and the meter facing the camera, the settings provided were certainly dead on.

Model: Taylor Thorne

Ok, I want one, what do I do?

Light meters, especially used ones can be had for pretty reasonable prices. I see meters like the Sekonic L-358, which is a pretty nice meter with lots of functionality, often sell for $150-$200 on Craigslist. Cheaper models with less features, but still fully capable can be had for as little as $50-$60.

Model: Taylor Thorne

Features

The Photobasics Green Screen kit is available as both a video kit or a still photography kit with the difference being the disk of backgrounds, the trial software that is included, and the educational DVD. The system is as complete as it gets with the following items:

Setup

Usage

Green Screen Setup

Using the kit is quite simple. The most important thing is to get the background as evenly lit as possible to make your editing go as easily as possible. If you have those two dialed in, then the process of using your green screen images is a simple matter of following along with the DVD.

Results

Taylor Shot 2

Fun Shot with David Esquire

And as you can see in this final shot, you not only can have fun, but you can even create some high-end fine art pieces.

Summary

SpyderCUBE by Datacolor

Once in a while a product comes along that is so clever, so right, it is just a “must have” product.  While at PMA, I stumbled on such a product.  The SpyderCUBE by Datacolor is one of those products.  Nothing it does is really new, but it does everything right, in a small package, with more features than most any competitive product on the market.  For me personally, this gadget has single-handedly obsoleted my gray cards, ExpoDisc and most all other white balance devices I have seen.

Overview

First, this is an ABS plastic/resin cube with a tripod mount on the bottom stem and a metallic ball on the top.  By putting this object in a photo you shoot, you get a whole slew of exposure, white balance, specular highlight, black level, absolute black, neutral gray and white readings in light from multiple directions, all in one place from a single tool.

Features

It’s not a complexly built product, but it is a lot more sophisticated than a piece of gray cardboard that gets bent up in the pouch of your camera bag.  Each and every feature and surface of the device has a specific purpose.  If you use Aperture or Lightroom, taking advantage of this tool is quick and easy.

Specifications

Usage

I have used this product in a couple of tests so far with my Canon 5D Mark II, and the results are both amazing and as expected.  At the beginning of my shoot, I put this SpyderCUBE (attached to a flexible tripod) on a flat surface somewhere in the shoot.  I take an initial shot with it in the photo.  Once I get into Lightroom, I use the eyedropper to set my white balance setting for the room, and then apply that setting across the rest of the photos that I shot in that scene.

Another possibility is to use the cube in a photo to set the on-camera custom white balance.  If you get the cube to take up a a good bit of the image, the camera can set white balance right from it.

Results

Original Auto White Balance Canon 5DII

So, here are some tests that I did to see how well this works.  Follow along with me.

First, I grabbed my Canon 5D Mark II with a 16-35MM F2.8L lens and set white balance to auto white balance (AWB), walked out my back door, sat the SpyderCUBE with a mini-tripod onto a crate of travertine on my back patio.  There is some white Styrofoam and fairly white stone there in the shot, so I figured it would get a pretty decent white balance with the auto setting on my camera.  As you can see, the photo isn’t too bad for color (click it to enlarge).  The camera calculated the white balance at 4500ºK.

Lightroom's eyedropper tool

I then brought the image into Adobe LightRoom to do a little light balance work there.  In the develop mode of lightroom, there is a small eyedropper you can select and use to point to a neutral gray on the image.  This is what the SpyderCUBE is all about… giving you that perfect neutral gray in both direct light and indirect light.  You can see from the image to the right that the Lightroom eyedropper gives a pattern of pixel colors around where you are about to click, as well as the RGB value of the pixel you are hovering over.

Lightroom Corrected - 5000ºK

Once you click the mouse, Lightroom immediately re-calculates the white balance for the scene and changes the white balance setting to the new calculation.  In this case, that setting is 500ºK warmer, or 5000ºK.  If I had just shot a whole series of photos in this scene, I would now apply the new white balance setting to all of the images in the series to get the color correct on all of them.  This one step alone can save many of us from manually tweaking the color settings in our images, but shooting outdoors is not typically a hard situation to white balance.

Mixed lighting indoors + AWB

A scenario that is really hard for most cameras to auto white balance is a mixture of indoor light sources, including halogen, tungsten, fluorescent and ambient light from windows.  I am sure that many of you have had this situation where you shoot an indoor scene with AWB set and what you get is an orange cast image that is just completely wrong as your camera’s auto white balance just cannot figure out the lighting.  So, I have set up that exact situation with the modeling lights from my strobes through soft boxes and halogen overhead lights, plus mid-day sunlight coming in through the windows.  This shot is a mess!  And it is so typical of using the AWB setting on so many cameras when shooting indoors.

Camera AWB reading

Looking at the settings in Lightroom, this image was read as a color temperture of 4050ºK.  The multiple light sources have thrown the camera for a loop.  But again, with the eyedropper and selecting the neutral gray, and this time you can see a much more dramatic change over the last example.

Corrected White Balance

The corrected image now has a color space of 2750ºK, which is 1300ºK different than the original calculations by the camera.  And look how obvious that difference is! As a matter of fact, I could not find a single situation where the color wasn’t ever so slightly off from my camera using the AWB setting.  That alone tells me that this SpyderCUBE needs to travel everywhere my camera travels.

Histogram as shot

This brings up another interesting tip with Lightroom and using the Histogram in the upper right corner.  Let’s take a look at the Histogram for this image (right).  Notice the triangles at the upper left and right of this image?  They actually serve a purpose.  They can tell you if your image has absolute blacks and whites in the range of the image.  Notice how both triangles are gray – the same color a the background of the Histogram?

No blue shows here

If you click on the triangle, it will highlight.  If you look at your image, it will now show blue wherever absolute black appears in the photo.  In this case, there really isn’t any absolute black to notice.  Even the hole in the bottom of the SpyderCUBE is not showing any blue.  But we can fix this.

Sliding the Histogram

Next, we roll our mouse pointer over the lower portion of the Histogram, and click.  A <|> symbol appears and we can now drag the histogram for the lower light portion of the image and move the black point.  As we slowly move it left, you will see the triangle turn blue just as the first pixels of absolute black appear on the screen.  Move it a touch more and it turns white.  When the triangle is gray, none of the image is at absolute black.  When it turns blue, the image is perfectly set with the darkest color in the photo at absolute black.  As you drag further and it turns white you are now clipping some of the darker colors in the image to black.  This is a powerful tool and tells us a lot about the luminance range of our image.

White point clipping

The upper end of the histogram serves the same purpose with the white point of the image.  When I click it, the specular highlight of the SpiderCUBE’s chrome ball reflects the brightest light source in the image and pixels begin to appear in red where the white point of the image begins to clip.  By adjusting this area of the histogram, we can fine tune the white point of the image and control the clipping at the brightest point we wish. You can also click both of the triangles and see the white and black clipping points in red and blue at the same time.

AWB shot for in camera WB

One last test was to see if I could set the camera’s custom white balance from just shooting the SpyderCUBE.  Using the same lighting setup as the studio shots above, I put the SpyderCUBE about 6″ away from my lens and shot it with AWB.  As you can see, the same white point issues.  This shot came out at around 4150ºK, which is pretty far off.  I then went into the menu on the camera and told it to set a custom white balance using this photo as a reference.  This was an interesting test as I made sure that there were other colors visible in the photo.

In-camera custom white balance

The camera re-set the white balance to 2900ºK.  I changed exposure slightly, took the SpyderCUBE out of the shot and re-took the photo with the new white balance setting, and as you can see… a huge improvement!  Once again, the SpyderCUBE has done its job.  even with all kinds of strange light combinations, it has saved the day and set the white balance properly.  From now on, this little baby goes wherever my camera goes.

The SpyderCUBE is available at B&H and Amazon for $59 as of the writing of this review.  Although it is a bit more than you will pay for a white balance card, and a little bulkier, there are some distinct advantages to having the extra features of this product… like specular highlight and absolute black.

The SpyderCUBE and a series of demonstration videos videos can be found at the Datacolor website.

Product Review Scorecard

*PHD Cameras – Acronym for “Push Here, Dummy”, meaning the world of simple point and click digital cameras.

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

What exactly is this colorspace stuff anyway? Basically its the amount of color that is contained in the file when you save it. The three most common colorspaces are Adobe RGB, sRGB, and ProPhoto RGB.  As my friend Rick Miller puts it, you can relate gamut to containers of beer. With sRGB being a 12oz can of beer, Adobe RGB would be a pony keg, and ProPhoto RGB being a full kegger.

The image shown here (courtesy of Cpesacreta) shows the relative sizes of the different colorspaces.

The difficulty here is knowing when to use which colorspace. Who would take a 12 ouncer when they can have a whole keg right? You would think, but the problem is that not all devices can actually display the larger colorspace  which can cause even more problems when it comes to viewing the images, add to that the lack of color management in most applications (like web browsers) and you will often get dull or washed out colors when viewing the images.

Wait a second, huh? If you use a colorspace that allows MORE colors, than why would the images look WORSE when viewing them? The answer that since almost no devices can actually display Adobe RGB, you wind up with an intepretation of the image causing it to look dull.

Effects of Color Space

Does all of this really make a difference? Let’s take a look at some images that were shot in RAW (thus no colorspace recorded on capture) and then saved as both Adobe RGB and sRGB using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Adobe RGB

sRGB

Adobe RGB

sRGB

Adobe RGB

sRGB

Adobe RGB

sRGB

In all of these cases, the images saved as sRGB should appear more vibrant in Internet Explorer and Firefox since they are not color managed applications. Apple’s Safari browser is supposed to properly display Adobe RGB files and Firefox is supposed to have color management in upcoming versions. However, until everyone is using a browser you should avoid Adobe RGB in order to provide the best images to the widest audience.

What about ProPhoto?

ProPhoto offers the widest gamut of the available common color spaces so should have a place somewhere right? Well yes it does. The best use of the ProPhoto is to use it within your workflow to preserve the largest amount of color in your images and then only do a final conversion to sRGB when saving your images as jpegs.  This is quite easy with Photoshop and Camera Raw while Lightroom uses ProPhoto RGB internally (Geek Note: Actually, Lightroom uses Melissa RGB which uses ProPhoto RGB chromatisity values working in linear gamma, named after Melissa Gaul, one of the Lightroom engineers).

Should you shoot in Adobe RGB or sRGB?

This is another tough question that different people will answer differently. The simple answer is niether. Shoot in RAW and convert to the colorspace you want during your workflow process. If you want to shoot in JPEG then you have to make the choice. The best thing to do is actually experiment with your equipment and software to determine what gives you the best results. Some people think you should shoot in Adobe RGB and then convert to sRGB if the file is for the internet, while others think you should shoot in sRGB so no conversion or translation is applied, thus you should get more accurate color representation.

In the end, you have to make up you own mind as to what works best for you, but you do need to be aware of the differences and some of the issues you can run into based on your choice.

Author: Kerry Garrison

References used in this article

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/sRGB-AdobeRGB1998.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm
http://www.steves-digicams.com/techcorner/October_2006.html
http://www.smugmug.com/help/srgb-versus-adobe-rgb-1998

Jim is a world reknowned photographer with an amazing carreer and is one of the few people granted the title of Explorer of Light by Canon.

Jim Divitale’s Websites

http://www.jimdivitale.com
http://www.divitalephotography.com

Show Hosts

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

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

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Overview

I often see posts in different forums from people trying  to figure out how to provide remote power for on-location shooting. I have seen everything from picnic coolers full of electronics to generators with expensive inverters strapped on.  For the cost of building one of these picnic cooler power packs and your time to buy all the parts and assemble it, you are just as well off to spend the $349 for the Explorer XT and have a professionally built package that you know is going to work well.

Features

The Explorer XT is rated at 350 watts of  continuous power and 1200watts peak power. For studio strobes this can handle up to 2400ws. The Explorer XT is designed as a portable power source for most flash and power pack units to be used on location, away from available power.

The Explorer XT is equipped with two (2) 12V, 7Ah sealed lead acid batteries, with an auto volt-charging feature which accepts 100-240V. It also has a 14V car battery charging where an internal circuit converts the 12V/14V source to a 24V. It also has an auxiliary battery port, allowing the user to connect another battery in case you need extended battery life. Battery power level indicators with beeper and charging indicators allow you to monitor power consumption and charging status.

The Explorer XT comes with a handy carrying bag to make hauling it around easier. The bag opens on both ends to allow access to all of the ports without removing it from the bag.

Specifications:

• Power Output: 350 watts (continuous)/ 1200watts (peak)
• Number of output sockets: 2
• Battery: Two (2) 12Vdc, 7AH SLA provision for external battery pack
• Charging Voltage Input: 100V-240V / 14Vdc (car battery charger)
• Charger: Built-in
• Weight: 8.5 kg (18 lbs)
• Dimensions: 14.5″ x 5.5″ x 7″
• Available Models: 115V/60Hz (North American, Japan) 230V/50 Hz (EU, Asia-Pacific, Middle East
  230V/60Hz (Philippines)

Setup

What setup? You take it out of the shipping container and its ready to go.  The only thing you need to do is keep it charged up. According to the instructions, you should keep in plugged in even when not in use, this will keep the lead acid batteries in optimum condition as well as always being ready for use.  This was a concern of mine since a fan is running and even though the instructions say it will use a trickle charge, I wanted to know how much power draw it was really taking. Using a Kill-A-Watt to measure to power draw I found that while the system is charging (charge light is blinking) was 80 watts, wow, that would be pricey to have plugged in all the time. However, as soon as the system hit a full charge (charging light went solid) then the power draw dropped to only 6 watts, now that’s more like it as I have numerous electronics around the house that use more than 6 watts when in standby mode so keeping the Explorer XT plugged in all the time.

Usage

The Explorer XT is designed to be dead-simple to use. Just turn it on and plug in your devices and use them like normal.  The Explorer XT has two outlets on the front that output clean power from the Explorer XT’s internal pure sine wave inverter.  Having a top-notch pure sine wave inverter is important as it helps protect the devices that you have plugged into it. Besides just being a portable battery solution, it can also be used in between your equipment and a low-cost gas generator. At first that may not make sense, why would you need the Explorer XT if you have a generator? The issue is that low-end generators can’t handle the peak demands that studio strobe lights require and they don’t have pure sne wave inverters. By using both a generator and the Explorer XT the Explorer XT will handle the load of the strobes while the generator will work to keep the batteries charged up.

Results

The only way to really test out the Explorer XT was to hook up some strobed and start shooting. While the unit is rated for up to 2400ws, I don’t have anything near that power, nor do I need it in my home studio. I hooked up two PhotoBasics Strobelites (150ws each) and one PhotoBasics StrobeLite Plus (200ws) for a total of 500ws and started shooting away with all three lights on full power.  The Explorer XT has three charge level indicator lights, High, Mid, Low, at 225 shots the light flickered between Hi and Mid and finally went solid on Mid at 250 shots. The only difference from being plugged into the wall socket is that the recycle time dropped from four seconds to five seconds, and if I was shooting as fast as they could recycle would creep up to about six seconds. A short pause in the shooting and the recycle rate would speed up again. At 250 shots and only having drained about 1/3 of the battery charge I finally ended the test since I don’t like putting unneeded wear and tear on my lights or camera but it did show me that I can easily do most any typical shoot that I do and still have plenty of power left to also run other accessories like a blower or laptop.

I am very impressed by the performance considering the small size and relatively light weight of the unit.

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.

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

In this episode we show some clips of shooting with Jeff and Dana Sipper (http://sipperphotography.com), Scarlett Lillian’s workshop (http://www.scarlettlillian.net), we see Pictage’s new slideshow tool, we then talk to Vu Bui about the FastTrack Bloggers Lounge and new video tutorials from the Bui Brothers (http://thebuibrothers.com),  and then head over to ShootSac (http://shootsac.com) to see their newest product.

[podcast format="video"]/podcasts/WPPI2009_part4.m4v[/podcast]

The widest tilt-shift lens in Canon’s lineup, the new TS-E 17mm f/4L lens expands shooting possibilities exponentially on EOS Digital cameras. Designed with UD glass to minimize and compensate for chromatic aberrations, with specially coated aspherical elements for the highest possible glare-free image quality, this tilt-shift lens offers an angle of view of 93°. New TS revolving lets users freely combine tilting and shifting within the range of +/- 90° in the direction of movement. The lens also has an improved tilt & shift knob with an enhanced range of movement of up to +/- 6.5° and revolving lenses for better operability, it uses a circular aperture for beautiful out-of-focus areas and has an SWC lens coating to control ghosting and flare to a far greater degree than with earlier coating technologies.

TS-E 17mm f/4L

TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II

Want to make your shooting easier so you do less cropping in post production? CropLines has the answer with engraved focus screens for 8×10, Rue of thirds, school portrait, or other designs so that you can nail your image in-camera.

Many photographers use or are considering flash brackets so that you can keep your accessory flash above your camera regardless of whether or not you have your camera in its vertical or horizontal position. The Reporter Flash Ring is one of the simplest flash brackets I have ever seen Instead of a series of hinges and brackets, the Reporter Flash Ring has a rong around the lens that doesn’t move and the flash slides around on the ring on a set of rollers. The design is simple and effective.

While not everyone wants their own photobooth, if you are looking to make you own, check out the new photobooth software from TOFURIOS. Their photobooth software is the best I have seen so far.

Stay tuned, more to come!

From Scarlett:
“I had so much fun last year shooting a sizzlin’ bride and groom session in the glamorous lights of Vegas with Ross of Flosites.com and his bride Leysa, and this year, I want to give you the same opportunity for some rockstar portfolio pieces too! For those attending WPPI this year, I’m hosting a stylish photoshoot in Vegas again. Lyndsay, who won my “I Want to Spend A Day With Scarlett” contest will be the model with her hot husband as we shoot around the city that never sleeps! ”

To join in on the photoshoot, the session fee is $199 and we’ll shoot on Monday, February 16 at 7pm. To sign up, send Scarlett an email at scarlett@scarlettlillian.com! This a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE event, and WILL sell out, so by emailing, you are agreeing to reserve your spot by paying the registration fee!

One of the sponsors, Pocket Wizard, will be at the workshop filming an exclusive BEHIND THE SCENES video of Scarlett and all of you participating in the workshop! So bring your inner rock star and get ready to be on camera! Seriously, you won’t want to miss this!

One lucky winner will get a chance to win a FREE spot in the workshop, so let’s do another CONTEST! The winner will ALSO win a pair of Pocket Wizards, AND the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place winners will all win a Trendy Camera Strap, and Camera Dojo Powertools & Dojo Wedding Tools Lightroom presets! Woo hoo!!

You guys got so creative with the “I Want To Spend A Day A With Scarlett” contest, but this time, let’s call it, “I Want To Shoot With Scarlett in Vegas!”

THE RULES:

1. You have to be in the pic. You are welcome to have others in the picture as well!
2. The pic has to say somewhere “I Want to Shoot With Scarlett In Vegas” whether holding a sign or photoshopped or whatever.
3. Get creative as you want, and try to tie in something Vegas into it! You can dress up like Elvis, or reenact Britney’s quickie Vegas wedding, or show me your winning hand at poker, or whatever you want!
4. Once voting is opened up, you will want to blog/Facebook/Twitter about your contest entry and direct people to come vote for you here on my blog!

Because WPPI is quickly approaching, the DEADLINE for contest entries is next Monday, February 2 when the Finale of my video blog premieres!! Then we’ll have my blog readers vote on the winning photo to award the winner! There is limited availability for the workshop to keep the group intimate for learning and getting the best shots, so for those interested, go ahead and sign up now, and if you win, I’ll refund your session fee!

Thanks to these amazing sponsors! Check them out!!!

Trendy Camera Straps (Scarlett will be hanging out at their booth, more details later on how you can come say hi!)
Pocket Wizard
Camera Dojo
Modern Photographers

Opening the Box for the first time

How Does It Work

Renting from BorrowLenses.com couldn’t be easier. Browse through their website and find the product you want, select the term of the rental you want, and select if you want to get the op

tional insurance (highly recommended). As soon as you place the order, an authorization hold in the amount of the order total is automatically placed on your credit card. This doesn’t withdraw funds from your card, but merely holds them. They will actually charge the credit card the day your order ships. (see their website for information on using debit cards).

Your package will arrive from FedEx ground and your rental period begins as soon as the package is dropped off.

Detail of the shipping box

My First Rental

I simply had to get my hands on the new Canon 5D Mk II and when I saw that BorrowLenses.com had the 5D Mk II available for rental I just had to get my hands on one. A few days later my package arrived with the 5D mk II, a manual, and battery charger all stuffed tight into thick foam padding.

It’s no surprise that the camera was in perfect

condition since it is brand new after all

Inside the box was instructions for sending the package back at the end of the rental period as well as a shipping label  When you are finished, simply pack it back up, seal it with some packing tape, slap the shipping label on the box and drop it off at any FedEx drop-off point.

The Cost of Renting

Canon EOS 5D Mk II

The big question is does renting something you will use on a regular basis make sense to rent versus purchase? Let’s say you really want to step things up and use some professional glass for your weddings, the 70-200 IS L f/2.8 lens will set you back around $1,600,then let’s assume you will need this lens for 15 different weekends over the course of the year. Since the lens will cost you $51 per week to rent, you would have to rent it 31 times before you would have spent enough to buy the lens, that’s two years of use that you can easily add to the cost of the individual jobs and not have to eat the entire $1,600.

Final Thoughts

There have been multiple times that I wished I could get a certain piece of equipment to rent but the local places are expensive, have a small variety, and require massive deposits.  The entire process with BorrowLenses.com is fast, easy, and painless. If you are wanting to try out a new piece of equipment before buying it, or if you need some extra for a special shoot, then do yourself a favor and call BorrowLenses.com. I will certainly be using them a number of times this year for different things. I will be evaluating the EOS 50D, Checking out Tilt-Shift Lenses, and probably using some high end glass for certain events. If you use them, be sure and tell them that I recommended them.

Author: Kerry Garrison

• R-Strap Camera Strap Courtesy of BlackRapid
• Fast Track Photographer Audiobook courtesy of Esquire Photography
• Dojo Wedding Tools Presets for Lightroom
• Dojo Power Tools Presets for Lightroom

All together this is about a $200 prize package.

Example from Roberto Valenzuela

Example of Converging Lines from Roberto Valenzuela

Contest Rules

Please get this right so you do not get disqualified. To enter your image into the contest, upload it to your Flickr account. You will need to be a member of the Camera Dojo Flickr Group and then you can add your image to the Group photo pool. You must tag your image with the words Contest and Lines. This will allow me to find them easily.

You must only upload images that you took yourself. We will post the winner’s pictures on CameraDojo.com but you will retain all copyright to the image. We suggest you have a watermark on your images as well. The deadline for entries is Feb 28th 2009 and the winner will be named on the following podcast.

Here are a few other examples:

Current Entries

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

Getting the Camera

Since I am not sponsored by Canon (any help here would be appreciated – wink wink) and I haven’t been able to justify the cost yet, I decided that another way to get one for a little while was to call up the good folks over at BorrowLenses.com. I hooked up with Max to get a weekend rental on the 5D Mk II so I could use it on a wedding shoot I had planned as well as to play around with the other features. If you have never rented equipment, you can’t go wrong by using BorrowLenses.com as their prices are great and you don’t get slapped with a huge deposit (no deposit in fact), but more about BorrowLenses.com in an upcoming article as I review their service.

I got the camera and couldn’t wait to slap in a card and start playing with it.

First Impressions

When picking up the body the first thing you notice is the surface has a much better texture on it than previous cameras making it easier to hold. The form factor is much like the 30D/40D/50D/5D. For users of those mentioned cameras, the control layout will be very familiar with the only noticeable exceptions being that the delete button has shifted due to the large screen and the top LCD illumination button has been moved to the right side of the display. For people moving up from a 30D/40D you will notice the lack of a pop-up flash and no preset modes on the mode dial (this is much more of a Pro camera than a consumer camera after all).

The large LCD on the back is just stunning with its much higher resolution display which enables you to better see if an image is sharp and in focus.

The new menu system is super clean and sharp looking on the big display although a little hunting around the first few times to find some of the features will be in order. The only thing that threw me for a loop for a minute was figuring out how to setup exposure bracketing. Not wanting to turn to the manual, I figured it out quickly enough. What I did have to crack the manual for was to figure out how to  use the video mode. Simple enough, go into Live View mode and press the Set button in the middle of the large dial on the back to start/stop recording.

First time setup

Before really being able to push the 5d Mk II to it’s limits, you will need to go into the menus and setup a few options first. Here are the things I did to get it ready for my tests.

C. Fn I : Exposure
Custom Function 3 changed to 1 to enable ISO expansion. This is needed to shoot at ISO ranges above 6400.

C. Fn II : Image
Custom Function 3 changed to 1 to enable Highlight Tone Priority. This enables Highlight Tone Priority which can help from overexposing important aspects of your image. Note however that when this is enabled, you will not be able to go over ISO 6400 regardless of the previous setting.

C. Fn III : Autofocus/Drive
Custom Function 3 changed to 1 to enable Multi-controller direct. This option enables you to select the autofocus point by using the multi-controller (mini joystick).

Live View Function Settings
LV Func. Setting set to Stills+movie, Screen Settings set to movie display

Image Quality
Image quality was set to RAW.

Finally, I made sure the date and time was correct, dropped in a compact flash card, formatted it and I was ready to go.

Shooting the 5D Mk II

Like many people getting the 5D Mark II, I have been shooting APS-C sized sensors for the past few years as I use a 30D as a primary and a 20D as a backup. Functionally, the 5D Mk II is virtually identical in how to operate the camera although the shutter sound is different and quieter. The big difference comes into play when using the same lenses you were using on the smaller sensor. If you aren’t familiar with this phenomenon, the smaller sensors in the 20D/30D/40D/50D are smaller APS-C size sensors versus the full frame sensor in the 5d Mk II. The smaller sensor size introduces an effect referred to as a zoom factor (also known as crop factor) which, in essence, magnifies the focal length of your lenses by 1.6.  To put it into simple terms, subjects on an APS-C sized sensor will appear closer (as if zoomed in by 1.6x) and the same lens on the 5D will give you an wider field of view. If we take a 50mm lens and put it on a camera with an APS-C sensor, what we get is basically an 80mm lens. A 70-200mm on the 50D becomes a 112-320mm lens on the APS-C sensor. This is interesting to note that a telephoto lens will get you more reach on a smaller sensor but you lose width at the smaller focal lengths. With my typical lenses, I now have to move closer to the subject to get the same effect as before, but I now have the added bonus of wide angle lenses being wider than before.

Image shot with 50mm on 30D (APS-C)

Image shot with 50mm on 5D Mk II (Full Frame)

Ok, so how about this ISO stuff, how good is it really? Yeah, well, its pretty damned good. On my 30D, it pained me to go up to 1600 ISO, on a 40D, 1600 would give you a very usable image but 3200 got to be a bit much, on the 5D Mk II, 3200 is a no-brainer and 6400 will give you very usable images. Moving up into 12,800 gets to be noisy but should be usable with a good noise reduction software while 25,600 ISO is basically unusable unless you convert the image to black and white and then you will get something looking like an older newspaper image.

Comparison of ISO settings from 5D Mk II

A feature that first appeared on the 40D is Highlight Tone Priority which can be a saving grace in numerous situations. Instead of going into how great this feature is, please refer to David Ziser’s post about Highlight Tone Priority.

What’s missing from the 5d Mk II?

Yes, the 5d Mk II is a huge leap forward for Canon, so much so that some shooters with the higher end 1Ds Mk III are actually “downgrading” to the 5D to get the improved sensor cleaning and higher ISO performance. But surely the 5D Mk II is not the Holy Grail of cameras, something must be missing right? Well, of course, otherwise it would be an $8000 camera. So what is it that we don’t have on the 5D Mk II that it’s big brother has?

• Dual memory card slots
  Many people think this is a major disappointment that the 5D wasn’t outfitted with dual memory slots to provide real-time redundancy when shooting.
• Built in battery grip/portrait grip
  The original 5D didn’t have one, and the 5D Mk II is aimed at the high end Pro-sumer market, not the professional market so this is an option. Unfortunately, the 5D Mk II uses a redesigned grip so existing ones will not work.
• Long life shutter
  The big gun 1Ds Mk III is rated as about double the shutter activations as the 5D Mk II (150,000 (5D) vs 300,000 (1Ds)).
• Dual Digic processors
  While the 5D Mk II does have the newer Digic IV processor, the 1Ds Mk III has dual processors for faster image processing.1

Granted, the higher ISO performance, larger, higher resolution LCD screen, improved dust reduction, 21 megapixel , full frame sensor, full HD video, and significantly cheaper price does make for a very compelling camera.

Focusing on Video

Yeah, the 5D Mk II is the Grand Poobah of DSLR’s that can shoot video with its full 1080p video capture. Being able to use all of the lenses at your disposal to shoot video is quite awesome indeed to achieve the same shallow depth of field that you can get in stills. So look out Sony, your days of being a video camera manufacturer have come to an end and the 5D Mk II is taking its rightful place of the King of all things video…..well….not exactly.

There is no question you can get stunning HiDef video out of the camera, there are plenty of examples online. But let’s look at the reality of shooting video with the 5D Mk II.

First off, abandon all hope of using autofocus when shooting video. If you are using the on-board microphone, you will hear constant whirrrr whirrrrrrrr whirrrrrrrr as the contrast-based autofocus “attempts” to focus. In some situations it may do alright, but the majority of the time you will end up with lots of times where the camera is trying to focus but tracks back and forth a few times before locking on. You really need to consider the camera as a manual focus camera when shooting video. Use autofocus in still mode to get your focus, then switch to video mode with autofocus off for best results. As for the built-in microphone (located just underneath the 5D logo), its alright for playing around, but anything serious will require an external mic plugged into the microphone jack on the side of the camera.

5D Mk II LowRez Video from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Sample HiDef Video from 5D Mk II from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Megapixels = Mega Storage

Oh sure, we all SAY we want more megapixels, but you really have to think of the ramifications of that. Here is a comparison of the same image taken with several of the different available image quality settings:

This means that a RAW file from the 5D Mk II is 4 times larger than a RAW from a 30D and even the 5D Mk II’s Fine JPEG is 2mb larger than the RAW file on the 30D. That’s 1/4 of the number of images I can fit on the same memory card and a typical wedding shoot for me will balloon from 10gb to 40gb. Add to that the additional disk space required to hold the images, and the addition computer horsepower (CPU and RAM) needed to process these huge files and you need some seriously beefy hardware to use this camera to its full potential.

For best results, UDMA Compact Flash cards are recommended, using these will speed up write times to the disc. Keep all of these things in mind if considering moving up to the 5D Mk II as it could turn out to be a bigger investment than just the camera itself.

Using the 5D Mk II

The first project I had was a small wedding reception, shooting out on a golf course at 11am presented some really harsh lighting conditions, the highlight tone priority system did a great job at keeping the subjects from getting blown out. One thing that I noticed was that the autofocus was really fast and super accurate. This is compared to the 30D that I normally shoot with. Normally I will get a handful of out of focus shots for no apparent reason, of almost 500 shots, there were only two that were out of focus, a significant improvement in the autofocus system over my camera.

The shutter noise is fairly quiet and doesn’t draw attention which is nice for quiet ceremonies and for catching candids without disturbing anyone.

For all your Shamu fans out there, here are some shots from Sea World.

5D Mark II - 70mm 1/640 f/9 ISO 200 Mode: Program sRAW1

5D Mark II - 70mm 1/5000 f/8 ISO 200 Mode: Program sRAW1

5D Mark II - 70mm 1/500 f/8 ISO 200 Mode: Program sRAW1

5D Mark II - 24mm 1/25 f/6.3 ISO 400 Mode: Manual sRAW1

5D Mark II - 42mm 1/60 f/2.8 ISO 400 Mode: Manual sRAW1

Is the 5D Mk II Right For You?

I only had the 5D Mk II available to me for a few days but I am completely impressed with it from a technology point of view. One of it’s biggest selling points is also one of its biggest problems, and that is the size of the images. A typical wedding will take up 30gb of space and just a simple day at an amusement park could easily eat up 6gb.  The ability to use the smaller sRAW sizes is a plus, but its painful to have to limit the camera, something I think I could get over easily enough but it remains to be seen if it is too limiting for doing paid wedding shoots in the reduced file format sizes.

Unless you already have a beefy uber-computer and have more compact flash cards than pairs of underwear, then there are going to be some hidden costs of getting into the 5D Mk II. I am probably fairly typical (or at least not abnormal) in that I am currently shooting with a 30D and put together some numbers as what it would take for me to purchase and use the 5D Mk II, and this is not upgrading the CPU or RAM in my machine as it isn’t that terrible to work on images with what I have.

That’s well over $4,000 with tax and shipping and isn’t counting having another as a backup. I would certainly recommend the 5D Mk II to anyone who can afford one, but, for myself, I need to take a look at the 50D before deciding to save up for the 5D.

Author: Kerry Garrison

Rental Equipment by: http://BorrowLenses.com

Overview

The VerteX is designed to give the ultimate in lighting control from a typical speedlight by allowing almost an infinite amount of adjustment. The VerteX is a mechanical device that can accept one or two panels on it to allow you to send the light in the specific direction(s) that you want.

The VerteX works by having a swinging arm that can have either one or two flaps attached to it that can rotate 360 degrees. Each flap has a mirrored side and a white diffusion side.  By adjusting the swing arm and the flaps you can split the light coming out of your accessory flash and send the light in different directions. Nothing else on the market today gives you this much control over your lighting.

Setup

Normally I would go into a real lengthy section and maybe even some step-by-step pics showing how to assemble a product. Bust seriously, the VerteX takes about 30 seconds to setup, you will spend more time reading this paragraph than you will spend setting the VerteX up. You take the two arms and snap them into place in the holes on the sides of the rubber band, push them together over the cross piece, and push the flaps into place, which are held there with magnets. That’s it. I find it easier to get onto the flash if you attach the rubber band to the flash head right after putting the two arms on and before attaching the cross bean and flaps. In under a minute you are ready to start taking pictures with the VerteX.

Usage

I am going to be really honest here, if you really don’t understand lighting, you may have trouble previsualizing what you can achieve with the VerteX. However, if you are the type of person who can look at a scene and know, for example,  that you want a slight shadow from one direction, a little fill up front, and some top lighting, then you will be able to use the VerteX to it’s full potential. Since you can split the light and send some forward, some up to bounce off the ceiling, some left to bounce off a wall, you can achieve lighting effects that otherwise would have required multiple strobes.

Results

Before getting into wedding photography I did mostly product photography so using multiple lights was second nature, getting into wedding photography felt very limiting as it really isn’t practical on most shoots to lug around multiple light sources, radio remotes, light stands, etc and the current light modifiers on the market work very well in specific situations, but there hasn’t been a product that could really give you the flexibility of multiple light sources from a single strobe head until the VerteX. Here are a few shots from a recent wedding where I used the VerteX to get some really nicely lit indoor shots.

Summary

While the VerteX may look like a homing beacon for an alien spacecraft, it does exactly what it is intended to do. I am thrilled with the control over the light that it gives me and enables lighting that simply wasn’t possible before.  For $49.95, it isn’t any more than other brand-name modifiers but it does give you a level of control that other products do not. I have used the VerteX at several weddings now and it has not come off my flash yet. The only real negative thing I can say is that if you happen to bump something and one of the flaps comes off, they are so light that you stand a good chance of not noticing since you usually wont hear it hit the ground. Most of the time I use it as pictured in the image to the right with only one flap, so if I actually lost one for good, I could get by for a while, so keep an eye on the panels wqhen you are moving your equipment around.

Here is a little video showing more about the VerteX and how I use it.

VerteX Light Modifer from Presslite from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Product Review Scorecard

Product Page: http://www.presslite.com/vertexinfo.php
Company Page: http://www.presslite.com

Author: Kerry Garrison

Links from the show

Roberto’s website (http://www.robertovalenzuelaphotography.com)
WPPI Master Class (http://www.wppionline.com/tradeshow/show2009/speakers.taf?pgm=master)
WPPI Article (http://www.wppionline.com/newsletter/Dec08/member-month.tml)

Show Hosts

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

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Have you ever imported some RAW files and when you first open the image in Lightroom the image is vibrant and looks great and then all of a sudden the image switches to something that is less sharp and the colors are all bland? If you have seen this phenomenon, what you are seeing initially is the embedded JPEG image being displayed first and then the on-screen image changes to the RAW sensor data image. The reason why there is a difference is that the JPEG images have had your camera settings applied to them before being saved. With Canon camera, this is usually Standard, Faithful, Landscape , Neutral, and Portrait. Other camera brands have similar types of basic settings. Many people complained that the JPEG image was often very nice and it took a lot of work to get your RAW images to look as good as the JPEG image.

To solve this, Lightroom needed to have a way to understand what the cameras where doing to the images. Initially, you could use the camera calibration controls to dial in some default settings, but this was really inaccurate and rather a pain to use. Shortly after Lightroom 2.0 came out, Adobe came out with the first beta versions of the camera profiles. These profiles were actually based on the characteristics of the different cameras and can be used to very quickly get your image looking better right from the beginning.

Sometimes the effect is more subtle

For some people who still shoot JPEG instead of RAW, one of the complaints about RAW is that it takes longer to process RAW images to get them look good. Lightroom 2.2 with camera profiles solves this problem quite nicely. You can easily create a camera profile preset (or download ours here) and use them as an import preset so that it is applied to every image as you are importing them. Applying the Standard profile during import will get the vast majority of your images looking almost identical to what you would get from saving the image as a JPEG.

Beta Profiles

If you have installed the beta profiles, you can go ahead and remove them using the following instructions specific to your operating system.

Go to the following folder (based on your operation system) and delete anything with the word “Beta” in it’s title. Then restart Lightroom and all should be good in the world again.

Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles
(note: the Library folder for Macintosh HD, not your user account)

Windows 2000 / XP: C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataAdobeCameraRawCameraProfiles

Windows Vista: C:ProgramDataAdobeCameraRawCameraProfiles

Video Demo

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Camera Calibration from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Author: Kerry Garrison

1. DIY Photography
   (http://www.diyphotography.net)
   Udi does a terrific job at bringing alternative ways of lighting, shooting, and creating light modifiers to people without unlimited budgets.
2. John Nack’s Blog
   (http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/)
   John is the product manager for Photoshop and almost every day has a new blog entry with something interesting or cool to look at.
3. Photo Business News
   (http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/)
   John Harrington writes several times a week with news and information relevant to the business of photography. This is one of my must-read blogs every week.
4. Strobist
   (http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/)
   David Hobby has several posts a week that specialize in talking about working with small accessory flash units and getting the most out of them. This is definitely one of the best sites if you are into lighting.
5. Lightroom Journal
   (http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/)
   This is the official blog from Adobe for Photoshop Lightroom. All official Lightroom news is posted here.
6. Lightroom Killer Tips
   (http://lightroomkillertips.com)
   Matt Kloskowski posts excellent tips and presets several times a week for Lightroom users.
7. Digital Pro Talk
   (http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/)
   This is the home of David Ziser, one of the top wedding photographers in the world. David is one of the most prolific bloggers around and posts awesome shooting and lighting tips virtually every day. He posts so much that its hard to keep up with all of his posts. This is another must-read site.
8. Flash Flavor
   (http://flashflavor.com/)
   Matt Adcock takes some of the most amazing photos you will see anywhere and is simply an inspiration to go through and see what he is doing and how he does it.
9. Digital Photography School
   (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/)
   This site from Darren Rowse is chock full of good tips and tutorials with new content on a regular basis.
10. Rob Galbraith DPI
    (http://www.robgalbraith.com)
    Rob always has good information and is often the first with breaking news.
11. TWIP
    (http://twipphoto.com/)
    Although known more for their podcast than their blog, the This Week in Photography blog has a new post every day. Maybe someday CameraDojo will get mentioned on their show (hint hint) – wow, CameraDojo got mentioned on their site today!
12. Photoshop Insider
    (http://scottkelby.com)
    Another site with several new posts every week from Scott as well as regular guest bloggers.
13. 1001 Noisy Cameras
    (http://www.1001noisycameras.com)
    With new info more often than you change your underwear, 1001 Noisy Cameras may never win a design excellence award but certainly is at the top of most lists of useful and informative sites.
14. Pro Photo Life
    (http://www.prophotolife.com)
    This site from Jim Talkington amazes me that I don’t see it on most “top sites” lists like this. Jim does regular video tutorials and the wealth of content on his site is awesome. If you aren’t visiting this site every week, you are missing out on some fantastic stuff.
15. PhotoJojo
    (http://photojojo.com)
    You don’t even have to remember to go to PhotoJojo, this is a twice a week newsletter that is emailed to you with cool stuff in every email. Sign up and never miss it.
16. Photo Walk Pro
    (http://www.revellphotography.com/blog/)
    Jeff Revell’s site is another often-0verlooked site since many people think it is just about photo walking. Jeff also does a good amount of tips and tutorials for shooting and for working with Photoshop.
17. The Pioneer Woman
    (http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/)
    Ree Drummond must be the most amazing woman on the planet, with multiple blogs about her life including photography, cooking, home and garden, and more she is a non-stop blogging phenomenon. While her sites appeal mostly to women, her photography stuff appeals to everyone.
18. Lighting Essentials
    (http://www.lighting-essentials.com)
    This is another excellent site for tutorials on lighting. Don Giannatti is an awesome photographer and is bringing his knowledge and experience into this website.
19. DPReview
    (http://dpreview.com)
    If you just have to know everything there is to know about camera bodies and lenses, DPReview is the encyclopedia of all camera knowledge when it comes to specs and unbiased technical reviews.
20. AllTop
    (http://photography.alltop.com/)
    Alltop.com is the brainchild of Guy Kawasaki and the photography section is filling up with a great list of photography sites. Bookmark this page there and never have a lack of reading material.

While there are dozens of other sites out there that are all worthy of being on any list like this, I decided I was going to stick to the top 20 sites that I personally use. Please add your own favorites into the comments.

What is selective Focus?

We have talked about selective focus here numerous times using depth of field (here) (here) (here) and lenses such as the Lensbaby 3G. Selective focus simply means that the main subject of the image is in sharp focus while the rest of the image is blurred out, this forces the viewer’s eye to the section of the image that we want them to be looking at. This can have a dramatic effect on the image and give it a much more dramatic feel. The problem with simply using aperture settings to control the selective focus is it doesn’t allow you to control the shape, direction, direction, or opacity of the blur effect. With a Lensbaby lens you have more control over the sweet spot of the focus area but you are limited to a round pattern and you don’t have some of the other controls either, and you can’t do a true tilt-shift effect with a Lensbaby lens. With a tilt-shift lens you have more control in the different directions but you still can’t control some of the effect, a tilt-shift lens will also set you back over $1,000. This is where Focal Point comes in. You can use your high quality auto-focus glass to take a great picture, and then add a variety of selective focus effects to the image in post production.

Lensbaby Image

Comparison to using a specialty lens

Before jumping to conclusions, bear in mind that I am a fan of the Lensbaby lenses and I use them at different times to achieve a look that I know how to get in-camera. I have the new Lensbaby Composer and have a review of it coming as well. I know what that lens will do and I use it to create images like the one you can see here. You get a sweet spot where the lens is pointing and then there is a blurring effect that gets more intense the further away from the sweet spot you get. If you are a huge fan of doing things in-camera, then a Lensbaby is a great lens to use. However, the amount of effects that you can get is limited. If you have the time to swap lenses and get the image dialed in, the effect is very cool. If you don’t have a Lensbaby, or if you find later that you have a great shot that would have been even better with that effect, then you are out of luck without a re-shoot. With Focal Point, we can now add the effect in post production and get very similar results.

What can we get with Focal Point?

The best way to see what Focal Point can do is to take a look at several before and after images for comparison.

Original Shot		Focal Point Effect
Original Shot		Focal Point Effect

Using Focal Point

Focal Point installs as a Photoshop plug-in for Photoshop CS3 or CS4. Once launched you can move the “Focus Bug” around to select your sweet spot, and then grab on the handle to adjust the effect. You also have 3D effects that can control the focal plane by holding down the alt key on Windows or the Option key on the Mac and dragging within the focus bug.

Focal Point Plug-In Interface

On the right side of the interface are sliders for fine tuning the effect as well as adding a vignette effect and film grain into the blurred image. Any of the settings can then be saved as a preset for easy access at a later time.

Key Features of Focal Point

While we have mentioned most of them already, let’s take a quick look at the key features of the Focal Point plug-in:

• Focus Bug
  This unique control gives you very simple control over the effects. Just drag and click to move the sweet spot or to adjust the amount of effect.
• Aperture Shape
  While we have only looked at the round shape so far, you can also use a planer shape that simulates narrow depth of field that is often used with food or macro photography or for simulating the miniature effect that you can get with a tilt-shift lens.
• 3D Tilt
  As mentioned, you can adjust the tilt of the sweet spot to create the effect of a tilt-shift or view camera.
• Blur Types
  You can choose from a standard “defocused” look or add a bit of motion to the blur
• Add Layer Mask
  By default (you can turn this off if you want) a new layer is created in Photoshop containing the image with the effect applied. This allows you to change the opacity of the layer or paint out areas that you don’t want affected.
• Vignettes
  Focal Point allows you to add either a dark or light vignette effect to the image with the ability to adjust the amount of the vignette as well as the midpoint.
• Presets
  If you have created an effect that you like and may want to use again, you can save it as a preset within Focal Point so you can easily apply it to another image later.
• Film Grain
  While you may not think you want to add grain to an image, adding the film grain effect to the blurred image will help to maintain a realistic image as well as prevent posterization during printing.

System Requirements

Macintosh

• Mac OS X 10.4.10, 10.5 or Higher
• 1 GHz or faster G5 or Intel Core Processor(s)
• 1GB RAM (2GB+ recommended)
• 25 MB hard disk space for installation
• OpenGL 1.5 Compatible video card with 128MB VRAM at 1024×768 or higher.
• Adobe Photoshop CS2 (9.0.2) CS3 or Elements 4.0.1 and higher.
• Internet Connection & Flash 9 player
• Adobe Acrobat 6 Reader or higher

Windows

• Windows XP SP2, Vista or Higher
• 1 GHz or faster Pentium 4 processor(s) or equivalent
• 1GB RAM (2GB+ recommended)
• 25MB hard disk space for installation
• OpenGL 1.5 Compatible video card with 128MB VRAM at 1024×768 or higher.
• Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 or Elements 5 and higher
• Internet Connection & Flash 9 player
• Adobe Acrobat 6 Reader or higher
• Microsoft dotNET Framework 2.0 or higher

Focal Point Demo

Here is a video of Focal Point in action so you can get a feel for how it works.

Focal Point Demo from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Results

Focal Point retails for $159.95 which puts it into the mid-range of prices for lenses from Lensbaby and is significantly cheaper than a tilt-shift lens.  Given that you have more control with Focal Point than you do with any type of lens, its hard to argue the value of Focal Point. There are certainly people like myself who enjoy using specialty lenses as they force you to slow down and really think about the image you are trying to make. Even for me though, there are times when I look at an image and wish I would have broke out the Lensbaby to take the shot and now I can get the effect that I want in post production. The effect that Focal Point creates may not be for everyone but if you shoot weddings, food, macro, still life, or nature shots, then Focal Point can add a new dimension to your images.

Product Review Scorecard

Product Page: http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=35
Company Page: http://ononesoftware.com

Author: Kerry Garrison

• 23% shoot 101 – 250 images per week
  That is a lot of people shooting a lot of images, good for you! Keep it up and post some in the forums
• 19% shoot 51 – 100 images per week
  That is still a good number of images to be shooting every week.
• 18% shoot 11 – 50 images per week
  Ok, not bad, at least you are out there shooting, keep it up, practice makes perfect right?
• 13% shoot 251 – 500 images per week
  What a bunch of rock stars out there, you guys are burning up the memory cards
• 11% shoot 0 – 10 images per week
  That’s a little surprising, I was hoping for a smaller number here, but its alright, we all lead busy lives
• 9% shoot 501 – 1000 images per week
  Amazing!
• 8% shoot over 1000 images per week
  Do we have that many wedding photographers here or is this one mad group of shutter freaks?

Overall, 53% of you shoot over 100 images per week and 47% are under 100 images, thats an amazing range of people and shooting habits. I just wanted to share this with everyone.

Certainly some people think that David has lost his marbles, but is he completely off-base here? Even Chase Jarvis has some thoughts on this idea. I do not believe this idea is anything really new here, and perhaps explaining it in the way David does may make it sound like something new and unique. The fact is, many of us have done free work for a variety of different reasons. Here are some examples of what I have done, and often continue to do with any money exchanging hands.

Work with models when I need subjects for lighting tutorials or to experiment with new products
Absolutely, I don’t get paid for writing articles for CameraDojo (any potential sponsors, please contact me) so when I need subjects for shoots to try out new lights, techniques, or for a subject of an article, I turn to craigslist or Model Mayhem to find someone that will work with me in exchange for some nice headshots, body shots, or whatever they need for their portfolio. Since I am not bound by any constraints during these shoots, some of my best work has come out of some of these collaborations.

Shooting with big names in the industry
My bread and butter is wedding photography and I have had the pleasure of shooting with a number of excellent photographers which is how I learned the ins and outs of the business. I did plenty of those shoots for free in order to learn that segment of the trade. I would still be willing to second for the likes of David Ziser, Dane Sanders, Mike Colon, Frank Salas, or a number of people who are vastly more successful than me in order to get the experience working with them.

Social Interaction with other like-minded people
Two weeks ago I got together with a number of other photographers up at Robert Evans’ studio in North Hollywood to do a trash the dress shoot for a couple. They probably ended up with hundreds of images from a dozen photographers, none of which charged a nickle. Robert opened his studio, I brought fog machines and dry ice, Candice supplied several dresses, and a dozen people worked together on a project that was for the betterment of all involved. This was so fun and worthwhile, we have decided to try to do it once a month.

I suggest you take a good read at David’s article as well as Chase’s response and think about what you are doing with your photography. This will actually tie in well with next week’s podcast with Dane Sanders about figuring out who you are as a photographer. In these tough times, we need ideas that are outside the box, those who survive and push through, those who do whatever it takes to weather the storm and find ways of improving themselves at the same time will flourish as things get better.

Author: Kerry Garrison

A common complaint of female photographers is that photo backpack shoulder harnesses are designed for average-sized men. The shoulder straps on the StreetWalker have been specifically engineered to fit a wider range of sizes for both genders.  Women in particular will appreciate the StreetWalker’s very narrow and vertical profile, especially when combined with the shoulder harness design.

The three new StreetWalker backpacks are:

• StreetWalker — This slim, lightweight backpack will hold a Pro Size DSLR with 70-200 2.8 attached and hood in position. It includes a monopod/tripod mounting system, a contoured harness and air channel for increased comfort, and lots of pockets and organizers for customization.
• StreetWalker Pro — This backpack is designed for a Pro Size DSLR with up to a 400 2.8 attached, or a 70-200 2.8 attached and hood in position. It also includes the monopod/tripod mounting system, the contoured harness and air channel, and lots of pockets and organizers.
• StreetWalker HardDrive — This backpack will hold most 15″ laptops and a Pro Size DSLR with 70-200 2.8 attached and hood in position. It also includes the monopod/tripod mounting system, the contoured harness and air channel, and lots of pockets and organizers.

The StreetWalker backpacks were designed by veteran camera bag designer Lily
Fisher.  “First and foremost  these lightweight backpacks give photographers quick access to their gear while allowing them to maneuver easily through crowds,” said Fisher.  “Additional benefits are the slim profile and adjustable sternum straps.  These backpacks also offer a unique benefit to women photographers, which is that the shoulder harness has been designed to  fit our unique body types.”

Specifications:

StreetWalker
Internal Dimensions:  8.5″ W x 16″ H x 5.5″ D  (22 x 41 x 14 cm)
External Dimensions:  9.5″ W x 17″ H x 6″ D (24 x 43 x 15 cm)
Weight:  2 lbs – 2.8 lbs (0.9kg – 1.3 kg) (Varies based on accessories used)
Price:  $139.00

StreetWalker Pro
Internal Dimensions: 9.5″ W x 16.5″ H x 7″ D (24 x 42 18 cm)
External Dimensions: 10″ W x 17.5″ H x 7.5″ D (25 x 45 x 19 cm)
Weight:  2.6 lbs – 3.4 lbs (1.2kg – 1.5kg)  (Varies based on accessories used)
Price:  $159.00

StreetWalker HardDrive
Internal Dimensions: 11″ W x 17″ H x 6-7″ D (28 x 43 x 15-18 cm)
External Dimensions: 11.5″ W x 18″ H x 8.5″ D (29 x 46 x 22 cm)
Weight:  3.6 lbs – 4.4 lbs (1.6kg – 2kg)  (Varies based on accessories used)
Price:  $179.00

Source: Think Tank Photo