Flyerstarter Article Feed

FSART Dan Winters: Brand New Website and F/stop Interview

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:28:00 GMT

Travis Smith, Dan Winters' first assistant, emailed me last week to say that the website had been completely revamped. Where there were about 100 photos there are now around 500. Suffice to say this is probably more interesting than whatever you would have been working on in your cubicle for the next few minutes.

It gets better. Winters also gave a very good interview on The F/stop, in case you want a little more in-depth inspiration.

(Remember to look like you are working.)

-30-

FSART Westcott Does Us a Solid

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:20:00 GMT

Kelly Mondora started out with FJ Westcott as a temp in data entry 12 years ago. Now she's VP of the entire photography industry division.

Why? Because of stuff like what you see above.

Our go-to umbrella, the Westcott Double-Fold, is now crush-proof on the business end of the telescoping staff. A little backstory, a DIY workaround and a cool coupon code, inside.
__________

In March of last year, I went to PMA as a speaker and to check out some of the new toys. That's where I met Kelly, who has that rare combo of really caring about her customers at a ground level and being high enough in the company to do something about it.

We talked the near-perfect Westcott Double-Fold, and she quickly honed in on the "near" part. Small, light, cheap -- but crushable if you tighten down on the shaft with your umbrella swivel.

There was even a DIY hack, as seen above, where we shove a pencil up the shaft (New! Graphite Shaft Edition!) to support it.

She told me then and there that they could fix it, and now they have. Redesigned, solid-shaft tip versions are trickling up through the supply chain as we speak. Awesome.

If you get an hollow version (or want to strengthen your current umbrellas) the pencil trick works great. But soon, you won't have to.

And for those who say, "why not a solid shaft," please bite your tongue.

For one, they are heavier. For two, they have to screw apart. And trust me, you do not want extra loose parts which love to drop and roll under your car when you take an umbrella out of your trunk. Been there.
__________

Coupon Code

This weekend, Westcott is kicking off a "Top Pro Tour" roadshow. (If you haven't, heard about it, info is here.)

Kelly sent us a coupon code (as if the solid shaft wasn't enough) in case anyone wants to head out. It's $89.90, but entering the code TPT4949 gets you $20 off.

FSART Animation: “Germans in the Woods”

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:19:45 GMT

A sad, touching remembrance from a veteran:

FSART Photography Deals That are Worse Than They Look

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:35:12 GMT

Photography: Thomas Hawk When Matt Pagel received an email from a publication he’d never heard of asking if they could use an image they’d found on his Flickr stream, he was flattered. The message was humble and even though the sender was only promising a credit in return for the use, Matt agreed, assuming that [...]

FSART What’s “Adobe Player for Embedding” & why would I care?

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:27:57 GMT

You might have seen this name pop up recently among CS5 updates. “APE” is essentially WebKit (the open-source, HTML-rendering engine behind Safari and Chrome) plus Flash Player. Or, put another way, it’s Adobe AIR (which is WebKit + Flash) with modifications to support Suite extensibility (e.g. things like Configurator). In any case, you’ll want to [...]

FSART News Stuff Thursday

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:02:21 GMT

Hey gang, Brad here with the latest happenings and news. Just a few things to talk about today, but they’re some pretty cool things! The brand spankin’ new iPhone Book (by Scott Kelby and Terry White) is now available! This fourth edition has updated info for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, including all [...]

FSART Photoshop World Reviews

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:01:53 GMT

“Scott Kelby Rocks!” by William Beem You probably saw Scott’s recap of Photoshop World earlier this week, but we thought it would be nice to let you hear from some of the people who were there as attendees as well. Here are just a few of the people who have blogged about their experience in Las [...]

FSART How many Photographers Watermark their Images? [POLL RESULTS]

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:53:26 GMT

Last month in our poll we asked our community about whether they watermark their images when sharing them online. The results were fairly split. So it seems that half of our readers watermark their images – at least some times – but quite a few never do. Note: if we take out the 7% who don’t share [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How many Photographers Watermark their Images? [POLL RESULTS]

FSART (rt) Offbeat illustrations: Bears, bikers, & more

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:44:17 GMT

“Sandwich Defender!” Bizarre, oddly charming plate illustrations. Terminator-style child care: Gotta love it when your motorcycle-enthusiast babysitter shows up wearing this. (Go Chris go. :-)) Rainn Wilson presents “The Greatest Portrait You Will Ever See.” Parenting advice for those too dumb to be parents. “Partay, Bitchezz!!” WWII on Facebook. [Via]

FSART Mad Men: Legless Before Lunchtime

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:58:00 GMT

Every so often someone sends me a gem of a PsD with a level of vagueness normally only associated with fortunetellers or income tax forms. So let's hazard a guess and say that this appeared on page 92 of the National Enquirer in 1875.

Thanks to Tobias!

FSART How To Bring Back Boring, And Possibly Horrid, Travel Photos

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:48:09 GMT

We all do it, once in a while. I’ll even admit to it as I am currently paging through the last six years of travel photos. I have taken boring travel photos. Sometimes. Maybe you know you take boring photos and maybe you don’t. And maybe sometimes, like me, you look back and realize you [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How To Bring Back Boring, And Possibly Horrid, Travel Photos

FSART Children Photography Quick Tip: Don't Focus On Your Subject

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:30:32 GMT

This one's a quick tip that many of you may know, Still I thought it is worth mentioning for the sake of fun and anyone who does not know it yet.

You know they say that you must have the eyes focused on a portrait shot? You know how they also say all rules were meant to be broken? I'm about to combine the two.

FSART It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring David Tejada!

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:01:34 GMT

FROM ROCKS AND TREES TO GUYS IN TIES I’m thrilled and honored to be this week’s guest blogger. I’ve been a member of NAPP and a follower of Scott Kelby for many many years, and I can’t thank him enough for all the wonderful information he provides through his books and online videos. I’ve been making my [...]

FSART Engagement Portrait Posing Tips

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:45:56 GMT

A Guest Post by Travis Hill from The Perfect Pose In recent years photojournalism has been all the rage. Just capture the day or moment as it happens. Honestly that is wonderful style of photography that many people enjoy. The problem is, everyone’s doing it. With so many new photographers in the market today, it’s imperial [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Engagement Portrait Posing Tips

FSART Waiting for wireless tethering

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:47:46 GMT

Could photographers be clearer in wanting their images sent wirelessly & immediately to iPads and similar tablets, turning these devices into extensions of the back of the camera? I seriously doubt it. At the moment you can kinda-sorta do some interesting things, as long as you have a traditional Mac/PC in the loop. Here’s a [...]

FSART Pixel Bender revised for CS5

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:58:19 GMT

I’m pleased to say that the Pixel Bender Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS5 has been revised to address a number of bugs discovered after the initial release. It’s ready for download from Adobe Labs. [Via Zorana Gee] [Update: Thanks to readers for pointing out that the package version number was set incorrectly. The team has re-wrapped/re-posted the [...]

FSART When is School Necessary for a Photographer?

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:15:48 GMT

There are different schools of thought on this issue – while some people feel that education lays the foundation for success in any kind of profession, there are others who feel that creative jobs like photography don’t require a formal education and are best learned through experience and a good eye for detail. The jury’s still out on this one and I doubt there will ever be a verdict that’s unanimous; however, there are certain times when a formal education comes in handy when it forms a part of a photographer’s arsenal.

Sponsors of Epic Edits

FSART Samsung 2View TL210/PL150 [REVIEW]

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:59:49 GMT

You may have loyalties to the likes of Sony, Canon, Nikon etc but you have to admit Samsung is shaking the tree when it comes to innovation … witness its NX DSLR-style camera! The company first introduced a twin screen compact camera with the ST550 late in 2009. I have to admit the idea got to [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Samsung 2View TL210/PL150 [REVIEW]

FSART Otto: Being Neither Fish Nor Flesh A Man Knows Not Where To Have Her

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:11:00 GMT

Hi, welcome to the Earthian Fossil Interpretation Center! I'm Zangotx P'Cha-K'cha and I'm going to be showing you what humans might have looked like before they were all wiped out over 250 million zontars ago. This is what we think a typical Earthian female might have looked like!

Thanks to RMF! Original is here!

FSART Illustration: Fun with playground mishaps

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:25:51 GMT

I began a solo week of Mr. Mom duty in the park yesterday, trying so hard not to be this guy: In six work days at Adobe, Margot has logged more miles than I have in a year; madness. Go get ‘em, champ.

FSART Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring 2011

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:12:50 GMT

Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring 2011 features the top 10 colors for women's fashion, along with designer sketches, quotes and headshots.

FSART Prix Emile Hermes 2011

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:58:07 GMT

The Fondation d'entreprise Hermes announced the second Prix Emile Hermes to be awarded in 2011.

FSART Green Government Podcast: Interview with Nancy Somerville

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:27:58 GMT

The Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership just released a podcasted interview with the American Society of Landscape Architects' Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Somerville.

FSART Frog Design and Aricent Launch Idea-to-Market Innovation Services

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:18:01 GMT

frog design and its parent company Aricent announced the launch of a new strategic business unit to enhance their existing joint innovation offering.

FSART Report From Photoshop World Vegas

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:55:26 GMT

Hi Gang: I’m back, and as you might imagine—I had just an amazing time! I met so many great people; I got to teach 4 sessions in the conference tracks, and three on the Expo floor, I had meetings, I went to parties, I got to play with my band, I stayed up way too [...]

FSART How Would You Photograph a Birth Scene?

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:29:52 GMT

Our last community workshop gave one of our readers some great tips on how to approach photographing a model so I’ve decided to post another reader question. This one is a question I get quite a bit – how do I photograph the birth of a baby? Here’s the latest question from one of our readers [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How Would You Photograph a Birth Scene?

FSART Do Your Clients Think Freelancers are Free?

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:26:47 GMT

A recent article in Crain's stated that 42% of New York's independent workers had difficulties getting paid last year, and that 14% were never paid at all. According to the article, this added up to $4.7 billion in lost wages.

I'm sure many (if not all) of you have had trouble collecting from a client at some point. Getting clients to pay can take anything from a nudge to legal action, but it's all part of being a freelancer (and the job of accountant that goes along with that). Do you have clients that don't pay? How have you collected? Please share in the comments and answer the poll below.

Do Your Clients Think Freelancers are Free? originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at 00:26:47.

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FSART Webinar: “Photoshop From the Ground Up,” Sept. 23

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:00:55 GMT

From Adobe Creative Suite User Group of San Jose organizer Sally Cox: Join us online for our new webinar series, starting with “Photoshop: From the Ground Up – Part 1″ on September 23, beginning at 6 pm. All levels of expertise can benefit from this free series. These online meetings will cover all major aspects [...]

FSART Bankujesz Kupujesz: The Frank Bank

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:30:00 GMT

And you thought your bank was rude.

Thanks to Rob! Original is here!

FSART (rt) Photography: Giant imaging, great silhouettes, & more

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:58:59 GMT

Huge: British scientists are using a dried-out lake bed as a massive white balance card for satellites. “The Big Unit” is to become 7-foot-tall rock concert photographer. (Presumably it’ll go better than his career in the Audubon Society.) The Big Picture features a great set of silhouette photos. [Via] Telling a photographer that his camera [...]

FSART Newborn Photography Tips for Beginners

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:39:25 GMT

It can be exciting photographing a newborn so compose a list of shots you want to take before you pick up the camera. Grab these ‘safe shots’ first and once you have this selection in the bag, start to get creative with new angles and ideas. The best lens to use when photographing any type of [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Newborn Photography Tips for Beginners

FSART Swoon: The City Created, Built, Broken and Rebuilt

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:52:22 GMT

Swoon, a Brooklyn-based artist, has worked in a variety of media to engage constructed environments.

FSART Silhouette Ceiling Lamp by Chiara Lampugnani Design

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:44:38 GMT

This asymmetric and enveloping ceiling lamp, which is inspired by the plant world, is characterized by its strong personality.

FSART Poll: My Next Gear Purchase Will Be ...

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:57:06 GMT

On our last poll, we asked a general (yet hard) question - what would you need to do in order to improve your photography.

There are some great responses there and thanks for everyone who opened up and answered this not-so-easy-to-expose question.

Our of that question a few main groups were identified

1. I need more time

2. I need better skills

3. I need better equipment

I have and will tackle all those issues on the blog, however this time I would like to focus on the third item - Gear.

This poll has a simple question - What is the next piece of gear on your shopping list, and I am not talking fantasy list here, I am talking about items that you can actually afford to buy and plan on using in the short term period.

It may be an item at the core of photography - a camera or a lens; A lighting aid like a strobe, flash or modifier, or something completely peripheral like a new computer or a new piece of software. Props, Straps, place, really anything that you feel will give you that push.

While you can form the answers in any way you'd like see if you can answer those two questions: what is the exact item (bad: a new lens / good: a Nikkor 85mm 1.8 lens) and how it will help your photography. Please be as specific as you can.

I'll go first: I am planning on getting a set of pocket wizards. I have had enough of misfires from my cheapo RF slaves and I feel that the price is worth removing the hustle annoyance and embarrassment of having the flash not pop when I need it too.

(If you are reading this via RSS, you may want to click through to read/share your thoughts) [(cc) Image credit fensterbme]

FSART Happy Labor Day!

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:26:48 GMT

Today is Labor Day in the United States, and our offices are closed, so we’re taking today off here at the blog but I’ll be back tomorrow with some after-show coverage from Photoshop World. By the way: I looked up Labor Day in WikiPedia, and here are a few interesting tidbits about this American Holiday: Traditionally, Labor [...]

FSART On Assignment: Armed with Preconceptions

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:16:00 GMT

Planning ahead is a good thing, and I always try to pre-think a job before I head out. It gives me ideas to fall back on if nothing jumps out at me at the location.

But you can pre-plan things too far. So much that they blind you to better ideas and leave you banging your head against the front windshield even as you drive away from the assignment.

That's exactly what happened to me last week when I was assigned to shoot one of the coolest pieces of tech I have ever seen.
__________

You are looking at a real, prosthetic limb in the photo above. But not just any prosthetic limb, as this limb has quite a bit of special sauce.

For one thing, much like your own mostly-dark-meat arm it can move in 22 different ways -- brushless motors everywhere. It has a ton of processing power inside the hand. Not a lot of space there, but you want the thing to be modular with the smarts at the end. That means you can attach it to partial limbs.

Much like Popeye, this thing has its power in the forearm. That is where the user-replaceable, rechargeable battery is. And it has power to burn. It can curl 50 lbs. That's more than my arm will do.

Oh, and did I mention it is designed to be controlled by the human brain? Just like in Firefox, where Clint Eastwood has to think in Russian to fly the advanced fighter jet he just stole. It gets impulses from the brain and provides neural feedback so your brain kinda knows what is going on with it.

My first thought when I saw it: Where is the rest of the cyborg it was attached to, and where do you have to shoot it to kill it. (People always aim for the head in the movies, but this thing has its brain in the hand. So it pays to ask.)

The folks at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab hate it when people write stuff like that, because they really are not trying to hatch a T-virus. (Of course, that's also what SkyNet said.) They just want to give high-level function back to people who have lost a limb.

And they are doing it, too. Live, clinical trials within a year with these things, thanks to a $34 million dollar DARPA grant. Sorry, Steve Austin. $6MM doesn't really cut it anymore.

So you can probably already tell how stoked I was when I got the assignment to shoot this thing for a local biz pub. And the fanboy stuff only got worse when I got to the lab.

Fortunately, I knew exactly what I wanted to do -- all planned in advance. I had a cool idea for a portrait of Mike McLoughlin, the head of the Modular Prosthetic Limb project. And I also wanted to get a sexy product shot of the arm itself.

For a variety of reasons, the portrait I visualized wasn't coming together. So I did the photo above which was perfectly serviceable for the assignment, but not what I had hoped. Then I circled the wagons and worked the product shot to salvage at least one of my preconceptions.
__________

The lighting was pretty simple -- on axis light with an Orbis and four SB-800s spread around the floor to create highlights along the edges. On the clock face, the wrap lights were about at 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 and 11:00. Power levels were all about the same by the time the lights hit the arm. (I cranked up the Orbis a little to compensate for the light loss.)

Except for the Orbis, everything was hard light. This gave me a lot of shape and highlights. The Orbis mostly erased the shadows and makes the whole thing look strangely soft.

In the setup shot above, you can see the distances involved. You cannot see all of the flashes, but the highlights on the floor will point you to them. Dave Kile (who was helping me) piggy-backed my flashes with a channel-1 PW as I pulled the ring away between shots. (I was shooting through the ring for the actual shot.)

Background was a cheap poster board, in a complementary color. I'll usually bring three or four different colors if I am gonna do a small product shot. Way easier/cheaper than background paper.
__________

While I was on location, I was thinking that the portrait I wanted which did not happen. But at least I got the product shot I visualized. It wasn't until I got back to the car and was reviewing photos until the photo I missed hit me.

The portrait I wanted would have been cool. But the iconic picture was right behind my subject the whole time.

I should have shot a still life at the workbench.

You know, just like any other DIY hacker's work area -- soldering iron, pliers, a smattering of little parts and a couple cyborg limbs that mark an amazing leap in bio-mechanical science just sitting around. Static, but a great narrative.

I am such an idiot for missing it.

Of course, I even fawned over the workbench while I was there. But I was so blinded by the pictures already in my head (especially 'cause one of them was giving me fits) that I did not see it.

Pre-planning is not a terrible thing, and I am not ready to give it up. But you can bet I will be on guard for awhile against stupidly missing found pictures because too much thought is being given over to the preconceptions.
__________

Read more::

:: APL to Test Thought-Controlled Prosthetic Limb ::

FSART Illustration: Art cars & great book covers

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:18:25 GMT

Cover lovers: David Pearson spent a large chunk of last year working on a fantastic series of covers for Cormac McCarthy’s books. PSDTuts rounds up “50+ Kick-butt Book Cover Designs.” German wheels: Janis Joplin’s 1965 Porsche art car is far out. (And here I thought she was into Benzes.) Jenny Holzer comes, very oddly enough, [...]

FSART Do You Primarily Shoot with Zoom or Prime Lenses?

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:36:46 GMT

Time for another dPS poll. This one is for DSLR users (which is the vast majority of our readers) and revolves around the type of lenses being used in our community. Do You Primarily Shoot with Zoom or Prime Lenses? A quick recap for those not familiar with prime lenses – in short they’re a fixed focal [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Do You Primarily Shoot with Zoom or Prime Lenses?

FSART DIY Photography Project: How to Make Custom Bokeh Shapes

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:41:48 GMT

One effecct that many of our readers experiment is creating custom Bokeh shapes. It’s a fun DIY little project for a rainy day – this video tells you how to do it. The video is by Lucas Ridley. Further Reading on this topic: Aperture Mask – the Many Faces of Bokeh. Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

DIY Photography Project: How to Make Custom Bokeh Shapes

FSART Fabricate: Digital Fabrication Conference

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:23:27 GMT

The Bartlett School of Architecture announced FABRICATE, a London Conference to assess the progressive integration of digital design with manufacturing processes, and its impact on design and making in the 21st century.

FSART Grand Designs Live Birmingham 2010

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:12:35 GMT

Returning for the fifth consecutive year to the Birmingham NEC, the award-winning Grand Designs Live Birmingham is back, showcasing inspirational design, self build, interiors and cutting-edge homewares from the 8th - 10th October 2010.

FSART Objects with a Void

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:54:59 GMT

Objects with a Void is a design exhibition about voids in objects.

FSART Healthy Homes for Haiti: International Architectural Design Competition

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:46:36 GMT

ARCHIVE launched a global architectural competition calling for architects, designers, and health specialists to submit their ideas to the building of "healthy homes" for Haiti.

FSART Stylus: Trend Forecasting and Intelligence Resource

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:31:03 GMT

Stylus is a new global information and inspiration resource for the consumer-facing industries.

FSART Industrial Design Summit 2010

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:05:01 GMT

The Industrial Design Summit 2010 will bring together world's leading product designers and creative studios to unlock powerful collaborations in new product development.

FSART What Ever Happened to Italian Architecture?

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:04:57 GMT

The first installment in a series of planned biennial symposia that aim to explore the productive intersections and overlaps between art, architecture, and design, this two-day symposium will bring together emerging and established voices to discuss the current state of Italian architecture.

FSART New Accounting Requirements for American Photographers

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 19:36:15 GMT

Professional and semi-professional American photographers might soon face a new set of administrative and accounting requirements that could bury them in tax paperwork – unless they act now. As part of the new healthcare reform legislation approved by the U.S. Congress this year, business owners must now report to the IRS on an income tax [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

New Accounting Requirements for American Photographers

FSART Staging Space: Scenic Interiors and Spatial Experiences

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:46:49 GMT

Staging Space: Scenic Interiors and Spatial Experiences offers new solutions for event architecture, scenography, media installations, interiors, and stage design.

FSART The Beautiful: Illustrations for Fashion and Style

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:34:35 GMT

Illustration is one of today's fastest growing creative disciplines.

FSART Norman Foster: A Life in Architecture

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:27:33 GMT

Norman Foster is a phenomenon - as an architect, but also as an individual.

FSART Walk This Way: Sign Graphics Now

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:24:50 GMT

Walk This Way is an in-depth study on sign design.

FSART Video: Making Van Gogh-style paintings in CS5

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:03:48 GMT

Liquify + Pixel Bender: Nifty. [Via]

FSART This Week in the Digital Photography Forums (29 Aug-4 Sep ‘10)

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:33:27 GMT

Weekly Assignment This week we photographed a subject that is near and dear to me, Books. A good book can create a story, transport you to somewhere new, help you relax, give you a laugh, or make you think. And we had all of those in our winners this week. Our winner though was a shot [...]

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

This Week in the Digital Photography Forums (29 Aug-4 Sep ‘10)

FSART Predictable Magic: Unleash the Power of Design Strategy to Transform Your Business

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:38:58 GMT

Companies invest fortunes on innovation and product strategy. But by some estimates, 80 percent of new products fail or underperform.

FSART The Global Africa Project

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:48:40 GMT

Unprecedented in its scope, the Global Africa Project explores the versatile artistic output emerging from the African continent and its impact on artists and designers working around the world.

FSART Cities for People: A Talk by Author Jan Gehl

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:30:35 GMT

For more than forty years, Jan Gehl, renowned urban planner and Danish architect, has helped transform urban environments from Copenhagen to New York and cities around the world based on his research into the ways people actually use - or could use - the spaces where they live and work.

FSART Jennifer: I'll Lease Ya!

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:10:00 GMT

Alicia Silverstone's career continues to enthrall the world. Her new thrilling (and probably illegal) link-up with Jennifer minimizing briefer marks an exciting departure into the racy world of dollar-store underwear. Two thumbs up!

Props to VRN!

FSART How to set up a great Photoshop machine

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:10:33 GMT

At Photoshop World this week, performance testing lead Adam Jerugim presented a performance guide with hardware recommendations and information about the CS5 performance preferences. I’ve put his notes in this post’s extended entry. Operating Systems: Mac OS 10.6.4 and Windows 7 64-bit CPU: Intel Core i7/Xeon or AMD Phenom II/Opteron with 4 cores. More than [...]

FSART Introducing Photoshop’s new PhotoBomb tool (parody)

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:04:00 GMT

Heh heh. This is doubly funny as I watch this in a hotel room with the actual Bryan O’Neil Hughes. (Note: Contains some minor nudity & dirty hand gestures, in case that sort of thing offends you.) In case the embedded video doesn’t work for you, here it is on its original page.

FSART Bicycle Portraits – Part 2

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:54:31 GMT

Bicycle Portraits / Part II from Bicycle Portraits on Vimeo. I wrote about the “Bicycle Portraits” project a few months ago when they were trying to raise the initial $15,000 for their book project. Well, they met their goal and it’s on to part 2 where they need to raise an additional $7,500 by September [...]

Sponsors of Epic Edits

FSART Shots from Photoshop World Day 1

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:17:27 GMT

Hey everyone, Brad here again with some more shots from the first day of Photoshop World Las Vegas. Images from the opening Keynote, various events throughout the day, and the After Hours Party at House of Blues (photos by Josh Bradley, Drew Gurian, and myself): RC Concepcion getting the crowd to their feet with a t-shirt [...]

FSART Control Your Flash Settings With a TV Remote Control

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:13:55 GMT

Controlling your strobe from a distance has always been a priority for off camera flash photographers. If TTL works for you, you can extend your TTL cable quite a bit using a simple Cat5e hack.

But what if you could do this remotely. and I mean skipping the whole walking to the flash and adjusting it bit. (Or asking your assistant to do so, assuming you have an assistant). Up until now remote controlling your strobe like this was a benefit saved for Profoto Air Remote ($325 remote only) and profoto heads, or Radio Popper Jrx owners (Strobist review here).

Now this very exciting feature is available for the oh so cheap YN460 manual flash ($69 + about $10 in remote parts) - read the howto after the jump.

FSART Apple: Logo No Go

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:03:00 GMT

Breaking news: Someone inside Apple's graphics studio sends in a bit of flaky comping
Next up: Someone fired at Apple!

Thanks to Ms X! Original is here!

FSART List: Lens profiles available in LR/ACR

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:10:22 GMT

A reader recently asked whether there’s a running list of lens profiles (enabling automatic correction of distortions) included in Lightroom 3.x & Camera Raw 6.x. Why yes, yes there is. [Via Tom Hogarty]

FSART Photography from Iraq: Drawing down & looking back

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:59:50 GMT

As President Obama announces the official withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq, the NY Times presents an interactive photography retrospective, Drawing Down and Moving Ahead in Iraq. The Denver Post starts with images of the withdrawal, then moves back to feature photography from the course of the war. Rough and gripping, and essential to remember.

FSART David Ziser’s Captured By The Light Tour

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:36:28 GMT

Hey gang, Brad here with a quick bit of news on David Ziser’s Captured By The Light 2010 Tour. David is kicking the tour off in just a few days in Phoenix on September 7, then heading to Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, and a bunch of other cities between now and November 4. During the [...]

FSART Link Roundup 09-01-2010

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:00:03 GMT

Photography links for 09-01-2010

Sponsors of Epic Edits

FSART Gregory Heisler Whiteboards Giuliani Time Cover

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:41:00 GMT

Any time Gregory Heisler gives one of his iconic photos the BTS treatment we pretty much pre-empt the regular programming and turn the joint over to him. And his photo of NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani for the 2001 Time Magazine Person of the Year cover certainly qualifies.

I love this photo, and actually carry it around on my iPhone in my inspiration folder.

Before you make the jump to the very cool video inside, take a moment to reverse what he did with the lighting. And more important, why he did what he did...
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I love how the environment drives the lighting in this photo. Every full-strength light comes from below, because that is where the ambient is coming from. Every full-strength light (key or otherwise) is green, because that's what color the lights in the buildings were at dusk.

It is only the fill that is soft and comes from up top, and that light gets a warming gel. So there is not a single white light in the bunch, and only the fill is coming from a traditional key light position.

I love the way he deals with problems -- most notably, whether or not his subject stand on the edge of a skyscraper. He mentioned in the video that it started to rain, but what he didn't say was that he only got off a few frames before it was all over. (I wanna say four, but it has been a long time since I heard him talk about this one and I cannot remember for sure.)

How's that for a pucker factor? Especially with no digital screen on the back of his 8x10.

And speaking of 8x10, there are some unmentioned camera movements involved, too. Check the focus on the Empire State Building as opposed to the background buildings on the right.

Major props to the folks at Profoto USA for doing this series. we'll gladly sit through your soft sell in exchange for this kind of info. Pass the popcorn and keep 'em coming.
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Related:

:: Heisler's Site ::
:: Heisler Whiteboards Bruce Springsteen ::
:: Profoto USA ::

FSART Shots from Photoshop World Pre-Con Day

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:31:48 GMT

Brad here with some shots from yesterday’s Photoshop World pre-conference day. Hope you enjoy! Tony Llanes performs during the Real World Concert Photography class. (Photo by Josh Bradley) Tony Llanes and Scott Diussa perform during the Real World Concert Photography class. (Photo by Josh Bradley) Scott Kelby, Felix Nelson, and Scott Stahley (drums) perform during the Real World [...]

FSART Reminder: Today’s The First Ever Photoshop World Keynote LIVE Stream

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:24:59 GMT

Larry here. Scott’s busy behind the scenes here at Photoshop World, but we just wanted to post a quick reminder that today’s the big day to watch the Photoshop World Opening Keynote presentation LIVE, as it streams from the Photoshop World site. See you there at 9am Pacific time!

FSART Video: Inflatable Bag Monsters

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:15:03 GMT

Super cool street art from Joshua Allen Harris: [Via Ellis Vener]

FSART Locking in Your Clients and Buyers

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:09:47 GMT

Photography: AtomicShed Once you’ve made contact with a buyer, shown him that you produce images that he needs, demonstrated that your pricing is competitive, and proven that you can be relied upon to deliver great shots, you’ll have put in a lot of work. You’ll want that work to keep paying you by keeping that [...]

FSART The Guardian: Cutout Of The Year 2010

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:42:00 GMT

We've all been in this situation. You have a huge pile of cutouts to do and the first few are fine but then you get one with lots of difficult hair or a dog on a piece of string and then there's one where the shoes don't look right and what the freaking hell am I supposed to do with this one his mom is holding his hand and oh great his legs look like a fairground mirror seriously what the but yes okay alright just get the thing done-so-we-can-get-paid butohgodthissucksserslynvrevragn.

Thanks to Marion! Original is here!

FSART DIY FlashBender

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:42:08 GMT

In this post reader Bob Jordan walks us through a DIY one-piece, strobe modifier, which is kinda like a FlashBender. Which in turn kinda remind me of the Honl system (which also has a Honl DIY version).

I am a big fan of the Honl speed strap system and have been using it along with my DIY straps and other additions for a long time. The high control along with the very light weight serve as an excellent on the go modifier system. While I have never tried the Bender, it looks like a worthy alternative. <switching to Jondan>

FSART It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring John Loengard!

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:01:24 GMT

The Role of the Picture Editor It is not important if photographs are “good.” It’s important that they are interesting. What makes a photograph interesting? I’ll count the ways: It can be our first look at something. It can be entertaining. It can evoke deep emotions. It can be amusing or thrilling or intriguing. It can [...]

FSART Yongnuo "John Snow" ST-E2 Punches Above Its Weight

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:09:00 GMT

For those of you who are Canon shooters and use optical remote flash, you may want to look at Yongnuo's version of the ST-E2 transmitter.

Highlights:

• AA-powered (no more 2CR5s!)
• Greater range -- like, a lot
• Swivels 135 degrees
• Thus, can control flashes behind the camera
• About half the price (est. street, China)

So what's the deal with the "John Snow" part? That's how Google machine-translates the name on the detailed review on our Chinese language partner site. So, John Snow it is.

Okay, Canon shooters, is this thing interesting enough to take a flyer? What about you current ST-E2 owners -- are the extra features enough to make you reach for you wallets?

Sound off below.

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FSART Episode 241

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:49:30 GMT

Matt has a tutorial on using a clipping group to create a grid design for displaying a photo as well as a tip on setting the number of undos. Dave experiments with the new Puppet Warp tool and shares a shortcut for resetting preferences.

FSART Blue Village: Beach Erosion

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:31:00 GMT

Bamseklubben har ✥ppet tv◤ timm❤r om Ɗagen: You'll come for the beaches but stay for the women cruelly chopped in half.

Thanks to Hanna!

FSART A DIY 9Shooter: Shooting Stills & Video Simultaneously & Audio Too!

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:06:51 GMT

The post below shows a simple way to capture video while taking still pictures. Sure, there is some added weight and yea, video will not get a dedicated person and will just "follow along", yet, this is a neat way to achieve video with just one person shooting, This is also a great instructional tool for yourself to see how you interact with your model, what things work and what makes them shrink.

There are two versions for this mod - a dueler which mounts a DSLR with a video camera and a 9Shooter that also has sound attached. From now on it is all Elliot McGucken.

FSART Here’s that “Shooting Long Exposure” HDR Video Tip I Mentioned Last Week

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:14:51 GMT

Hi Gang, and greetings from Photoshop World Las Vegas!!! I’m pretty swamped today, but I wanted to share this video tip with you that I mentioned last week in my report about my trip to Maine. In that post, I mentioned how I went shooting with Scott Eccleston from WeeklyPhotoTips.com, and that I did a tip [...]

FSART Catch my “Pre-Photoshop World” Interview with “The Photoletariat”

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:01:39 GMT

I loved doing this interview, because the Interviewer (Sophia Betz) asked some really great questions. We went into stuff like: Q. What do you find is interesting to talk to photographers about these days in terms of new technologies that didn’t exist even three or five years ago? Q. What tips do you have for [...]

FSART Interview with Tracey Halvorsen - Part 2

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:13 GMT

Last week, I posted part 1 of an interview with Tracey Halvorsen. Tracey is a blogger, painter, author, speaker and Principal and Creative Director at Fastspot, a Baltimore, Maryland-based interactive agency. In the second part of my interview with her, we cover building a portfolio (without existing clients), tips on project pricing, dealing with client requests, the importance of failure and more.

On Pricing: "Budgets are complicated, especially when you are getting started. The value something has in dollars may be outweighed by the value a project presents in terms of your portfolio, connections, future work, etc. I recommend doing a pros / cons list for every prospective project and ask yourself the following questions, before you think about budget..." Read more
On Portfolios: "Feeling uninspired? Do a search for local non-profits. Believe me, there are hundreds of organizations that are dying for some website assistance. You just have to reach out to them. Don't be disappointed if you don't hear back, because people working at these non-profits are incredibly busy and wearing multiple hats..." Read more
On a Happy Studio: "Yes, great design is the goal, and profits, and stability and health benefits and all that good stuff. But NONE of the good stuff matters if people aren't happy. Being a creative person means you need to be challenged, and you need to feel you are constantly evolving. This is important to fostering the happiness within a creative agency. Seek work and clients that will allow you to do those things, and to remain happy, and the profits and stability and good stuff will follow. So don't forget about the fact that you are running a business full of people, who create things for other people..." Read more
Miss last week's Q&A? Want to bookmark or share the full interview? Go Here

Interview with Tracey Halvorsen - Part 2 originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 09:00:13.

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FSART 15 Examples of Environmental Portraits

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:06:57 GMT

Here are the results from another great round of Epic Edits Flickr Challenge! #5 was all about “environmental portraits” (chosen by the winner of the last round), and we had another great set of entries. This round was difficult for me to choose photos because environmental portraits share a blurry line with traditional portraits and street photography. Read on to see the winner and the topic for the next challenge.

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FSART A DIY Clip Gel Holder

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:16:27 GMT

We have featured some awsome gel holders on the site before. But never one with this simple approach. It is fast to mount, easy to use and leave no residue on the strobe.

It also fits any size flash and any size gel, how cool is that?

Thanks, Jerry R Hamby, for this awsome build.

FSART Star Wars: Turn To The Dark Side

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:34:00 GMT

I find your lack of Flip Horizontal disturbing.

Thanks to Diego!

FSART The Tablets Face-Off

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:04:54 GMT

Computerworld has a clever article that compares two tablets: The 2010 Apple iPad and the company's 1979 Graphics Tablet. The 70's tablet was built for use with the Apple II as an input device rather than a stand-alone device. The article covers everything from packaging to drawing, with some classic images to go along with it.

Courtesy of Apple

The Tablets Face-Off originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 15:04:54.

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FSART On Assignment: Nathaniel Welch for Men's Journal

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

UPDATE: Adds available-light-only version of the photo, inside.
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New York based photographer Nathaniel Welch shot the above photo to illustrate a story for Men's Journal on the flaws of sunscreen. I thought it really popped, and talked to him about the lighting while he was en route to Boulder Colorado.

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Welch lit his subject with three Profoto 7B's, each in a white beauty dish which he prefers to the silver version. One was used as a key light directly in front up high, with the other two as rims on each side in back.

"Sometimes I like a silver in front," he says, but generally prefers the light quality of the white ones. He will occasionally remove the disc that blocks direct light in the dish (which he did for this shot) noting that it changes the quality of the light and gives him an extra stop of output.

UPDATE: Here it is, without the strobes. Ambient exposure is based on the sky, and the sun is pretty much a non-issue for the subject:

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"The brief was fairly tight to be honest," Welch said, noting that is normal for a cover but not so much for inside photos. "This was one of the most directed editorial shoots I have had in a while. There was even a photo editor onsite."

He shot looser versions, which he preferred as it showed more of the subject's skin. But in the end end the magazine chose the tighter image and ran it almost full page.

"In the original, the reflection in the sunglasses was too dark," Welch said. So for this shot, he placed the sun behind the subject and lit him entirely with flash. The front beauty dish key light was angled to mimic the light of the sun, then they shot the sun separately and stripped it into the glasses.

Welch usually seeks to use minimal retouching, and has a very good blog post on the subject, if you are interested in that kind of thing. Actually, his whole blog is quite good and very much worth a spot in your RSS reader.

As for the platform, Welch uses a Canon 5D Mk II, which severely limits his sync speed. The 1/200th sync is tough enough. But like many Mk II's, he has to open his up to a 1/160th to get a full sync with no dark stripes encroaching on the bottom.

"It sucks. It really sucks," said Welch of the sync speed.

True. And the net result is that low sync speed forces him to bring more flash power to make up for the higher resulting apertures when balancing outdoors in full sun.
__________

(If you cannot see the video above in your email or RSS feed, click here.)

To get a sense of who Nathaniel Welch is, check out his Redux interview/portfolio video above. And you can see more of Welch's work (definitely worth a look) on his site.

FSART Interview With Caleb Charland

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:45:48 GMT

Caleb Charland is a photographer that captures the everyday physical phenomena which we never think about in a unique and inspiring way.

DIYP was lucky enough to have Caleb for an interview.

DIYP: Can you tell us about yourself and your background?

CC: When I talk about my work I need to share the experiences that made me wonder. Those moments when I began to think about the world, to show from where the pieces fell.

I grew up in a do it yourself household and learned to appreciate the power that tools and materials hold.

FSART Le Petit Nicholas: Lock Out

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:27:00 GMT

I don't know how it happened, I don't know why it happened, I don't know if it's a good thing, I don't know if it's a bad thing. All I know is, this lady has hair growing out of her shoulders. I don't know if she has hair growing out of other places and frankly I don't want to know. I don't know why she has hair growing out of her shoulders or if she knows why she has hair growing out of her shoulders. But she does and there, that's that.

Thanks to Olivier!

FSART Q&A - Mini-Boom

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:15:00 GMT

Quite a few people asked me about the small boom that was used for the key light in the photos of J.D. Roth.

Here's the skinny, in seven words: Cheap, travels well; I really like it.

Details, after the jump.
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Okay, here's he thing: It is not a boom at all. It's a reflector holder:

That said, it is a pretty slick little boom for speedlight folks. But officially, it is the LumoPro LP621 Reflector Holder, and it is $45. (But until the end of the August, there is an instant rebate that takes it down to $40.)

Note that the stand also shown above does not come with the boom -- you get the swivel head and the boom itself. It comes with the clamps to hold a reflector, which I will probably never ask it to do. So I pulled them off.

Here's why I like it as a boom. It extends to 66", but collapses to 30" for easy travel. The swivel head is ratcheted, which means it punches above its weight. It'll hold more than you'd expect.

Further, it has a stud on each end so in addition to hanging your speedlight out there (firmly) on one end, you can hang a counterweight on the other end with the included hook. I like to use a 2.5-lb free weight disc, which you can barely see at right.

One caveat: I do not recommend balancing this thing on top of a compact, 5-way stand. While I love them for speedlights, this would be asking too much of the stand. (The boom is sturdy, the compact stand combo is not.)

So you'll want to stick it onto just about any other standard-sized light stand and everything's cool. Remember to slide the boom on the fulcrum until your weight easily balances your flash naturally before locking down the clamp.

For good measure, I hand a camera bag on the stand itself, too.

But all-in-all, a very wallet-friendly solution for an over-the-top problem.
__________

:: Mini-Boom ::

FSART A Good Face for Radio

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:10:00 GMT

Terminally bored and trapped in your cubicle this afternoon?

Ibarionex Perello and I were finally able to mesh our schedules to do a podcast interview for The Candid Frame. It's 45 mins, and covers Strobist's early days, leaving the paper and what's next.

If you are so inclined, you can find it here.

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FSART Ghetto Magic Arm From An Old Golf Club

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:53:56 GMT

Photographer David Martinez thought that $110 is a bit too much for a magic arm. He came up with his own version for half the price. It's all David from here.

Over the years I have found a few broken clubs laying near tee boxes on golf courses. Graphite shafts are usually very stiff and I always thought they might be repurposed. So I have collected a few of them. Well it just happened that I was in thinking about buying a Magic Arm recently. A friend had one and it was pretty sweet but the price was kinda crazy.

FSART The Dangers of Being a Successful Photographer

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:01:29 GMT

Photography: hellobo Waiting to become a successful photographer can be pretty frustrating. You want to make the sales that prove you’re creating powerful images. You want the attention and respect of other photographers. You want to be a leader in the world of photography. And it’s not happening quite yet. But for those photographers who [...]

FSART Life & Style: What's Wrong With This Pitt Chore?

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:55:00 GMT

WHAT HOW BUT I CAN'T EVEN THE WHAT?

Thanks to Joost!

FSART New eBooks Worth Checking Out

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:00:00 GMT

With my lack of spare time during the move, I've managed to miss 4 new eBook announcements! Since I don't want to flood the blog with a bunch of book reviews all at once, I'll post all 4 together with brief descriptions. I have, however, downloaded and flipped through all 4 books, and they're all great reads from outstanding photographers and authors.

Sponsors of Epic Edits

FSART Good Housekeeping: Honk Episode Gouge

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:39:00 GMT

The Art Directors at Good Housekeeping, unlike those at Abysmal Housekeeping, have no problem switching out of formal western modes of imagery into more expressive, interpretive modes. We salute this adventurous approach to semiotic discourse and wish them well in their future career choices.

Thanks to Kristine!

FSART Photek SoftLigher II - A Product Review

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:43:18 GMT

Lately I've been finding myself wanting more out of my all around umbrella. I've been using the Westcott double fold umbrella for a long time now as my main on location modifier. While I am generally happy with it as a softening device, I wanted to have some more options in my bag without giving up on portability.

The Softlighter II by Photek provides an interesting option for that sake. I've been using it for a few days and in general I am pretty happy.

The images on this review are from a recent shoot for Jim Ridolfo profile pic. Jim Ridolfo is an Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric at The University of Cincinnati.

FSART Episode 240

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:52:35 GMT

Dave has a CS5 tutorial about using new refine edge features as well as the new divide blend mode to create a painted image effect. Matt shares a tip for printing images with rounded corners from Lightroom. Also, a tip on using keyboard shortcuts in CS5.

FSART Link Roundup 08-23-2010

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:00:22 GMT

Photography links for 08-23-2010

Sponsors of Epic Edits

FSART Photographic Art That Sells

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:45:47 GMT

Photography: Gina Signore The more artistic your photography becomes, the harder it’s likely to be to sell. Images shot for stock can have multiple uses and can please a wide range of buyers. But artworks have only one main use, they’ll only appeal to buyers with a similar sense of aesthetic, and not only are [...]

FSART Bones: Very Long Bones

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:15:00 GMT

Bones is a TV show based on the cranky doctor from Star Trek, Leftenant Uhura, who was famous for his catchphrase, "Beam me up Spocky."

Thanks to Julia! Bigger version here!

FSART DIY iPhone Teleprompter

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:28:39 GMT

UPDATE: Martin Just added an explanatory image of the model along with a sketchup model for the matte box. See image and links at the bottom of the page.

DIYP don't often feature video or iPhone hack. It does, but not often. When I see a hack that is both video and iPhone, though, the little geek inside of me simply commands a post.

Reader Martin Taylor came up with a very cool teleprompter project. It requires nothing more than an iPhone, a Fresnel sheet magnifier and a sample piece of beam splitter glass. It is designed for 50mm lenses.

OK, a Teleprompter is the thing that news persons read from when they sit down. It's kinda like the scrolling opening of StarWars. (this is why it looks like newsman are watching ping-pong while broadcasting the news). The cool thing is that the camera sits right behind the teleprompter so it looks like the anchor is looking straight at the camera.

FSART SyLights Goes Mobile And SLR Allows You To "Pre Check" Your Lighting

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:09:33 GMT

Looks like the Strobist community is taking over the iPhone apps stores.

Two new members to that community - the new Studio Rig Locator and an iPhone port of SyLights.

SLR - Studio Rig Locator is an app that not only allows you to position lighting elements in the studio, but also allows a somewhat weird preview on the newly lit model. (this app is a paid app £3.49)

The other new iPhone App is a SyLights port to the iPhone. And really, I like the mobile version even more that I like the SyLights site (which is not that shabby at all). SyLights allows to create store and manipulate diagrams with loads and loads of studio equipment. Then those can be saved to your camera roll (iPhone's lingo for image directory). Best of all it is a free application.

both apps has intro videos after the jump.

FSART Freelance Design Business Advice from Fastspot's Tracey Halvorsen

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:28:40 GMT

Fastspot is an interactive agency based in Baltimore, Maryland, that creates beautiful websites, applications and brands along with offering a wide selection of technology and marketing services. I recently had a chance to speak with Tracey Halvorsen, Fastspot's Principal and Creative Director. Tracey is also a painter, author, speaker and of course, a designer. She shared some great advice for freelancers and designers, including effective ways to use social networking, important things to remember when starting a freelance business and skills aside from design a designer should work on.

Below are a few of the questions from the interview, which I'll be sharing over the next couple of weeks.

How has social media changed the way you communicate and do business?

"Not only is Twitter useful to broadcast and interact, it's also incredibly useful to research prospective clients, learn more about potential employees and watch what your competition is up to." Read Full Answer
What advice would you give to someone considering leaving a full-time job to start a freelance business? When is the "right time" or does that not exist?
"Get back to people, follow up, always put the ball back in their court. I call it client service hot potato - if I'm holding it, I'm getting burned." Read Full Answer
If you could pick a few things designers should improve on or learn about, that have nothing to do with the creative side of our work, what would they be?

"Remember your prospective clients are busy, so don't waste their time, and don't make them work hard to understand what you are selling or why they should hire you." Read Full Answer

Jumbalaya iPad app by Fastspot (Image Used Courtesy of Fastspot)

Freelance Design Business Advice from Fastspot's Tracey Halvorsen originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 00:28:40.

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FSART Introduction To Radio Controlled Plane Aerial Photography

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:47:20 GMT

Some time ago we introduced R/C Helicopter Arial Photography, however Helicopters are not the only thing that flies, in fact R/C planes are cheaper to get in the air.

Although they provide less control they are still a good option to get your camera up high and they are lots of fun to take pictures with.

In this tutorial -manuel- will explain how to apply a similar concept for still and RC planes which are much cheaper.

FSART Getting Your Work Online With a Photography Portfolio

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:00:00 GMT

One of the many challenges of working for yourself is finding work. As a professional freelance photographer, the more avenues through which you can obtain work the better. One great way to gain exposure and get potential clients to view your work is to set up an online portfolio. An internet-based photography portfolio if designed well can really bring a touch of class to your work and allow people to view it at their leisure.

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FSART Calleija: My Giraffe Can Do That

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:59:00 GMT

This kind of imagery is aspirational! In that, you might aspire to survive a hanging.

Thanks to Dad! Original is here!

FSART Filter Care & Use

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:35:16 GMT

So you’re using a filter on your lens, maybe to protect it from dust or finger smears or maybe for an effect that you want, what can you do to ensure that it does not degrade the quality of your expensive lens? Here are some pointers: DOs: Buy a good filter. A bad filter can [...]

FSART Shoot the Bloggers: J.D. Roth

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

While I was in Portland last month I photographed J.D. Roth, the man behind the blog Get Rich Slowly, for my ongoing project on bloggers.

J.D. had earlier escaped the shackles of a big wad of credit card debt, and has since created a career out of teaching others how to manage their money more sensibly. For the shoot, we did some standard headshots which would be useful to him for his public speaking appearances, etc. But I also wanted to do something a little more intense and/or cerebral, which is what led to the shot above.
__________

If the ambient was decent, I could've done this with one speedlight. But as it happened, the ambient in the room was pretty low so we used three flashes. The first step, as in the Betty Allison shoot, was to kill the ambient. This one would be lit completely with flash.

Betty's shoot is actually a pretty appropriate example, now that I think about it. The lighting setup is pretty similar, even if the look is very different. Once I killed the ambient, I started from the back with a domed SB-800 against the wall. This gave me a very controllable gradient on the background.

Next, came the on-axis fill -- in this case an Orbis w/SB-800. The exposure on this flash was sufficient to light J.D. to the level you see on the far camera right side of his face. It's a little deeper than normal at almost 3 stops down.

The key light, coming from close-in high camera left, was another '800 in a LumiQuest SB-III. But as you can see the light is not wrapping around on the camera-left side of J.D.'s face. That's because I partially gobo'd it with a piece of cardboard clamped to a light stand between the key light and J.D.

This is why he looks like he is emerging into an interesting shaft of light. Because that is exactly what he is doing, only it is a static setup. You tend to see this light in real life a lot more than you might think, only it is usually very brief when it happens.

I still did not quite like it, as his forehead was a little hot. Luckily, the cardboard envelope I was using as a gobo also happened to be my gel kit. So I took a 2-stop ND gel (sized for my studio flashes) out and further cut down the light as it was traveling up the upper camera left side of his forehead.

That gave me the look I wanted -- something more interesting than the standard umbrella headshot. Depending on where / how it will be used, one may be more appropriate than the other. But it is nice to have both.
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For a second look we did something a little more pulled back -- and with a little more content, too.

As you might guess from the name of the blog, J.D. espouses the theory that slow and steady wins the race. So my idea was to get him rolling coins at the dining room table.

And it wasn't much of a stretch, as he of course had jars full of saved pennies and other coins.

Again, I am looking for light that is not the standard umbrella/softbox stuff. Where possible, I like to have light that is both motivated and interesting -- but also something I can control.

So I used a normal light stand and a mini-boom to light him from overhead (just in front) with the Lumy SB-III. It had an "overhead lamp" kind of look, which was appropriate for a dining room table. Fill was with (surprise) an Orbis ring at about two stops down.

That retained the shape of the overhead light, but gave some legibility into the shadows.

Here it is without the fill, and you can see how much the ring light is really doing -- without calling attention to itself. There's a little ring signature shadow on the wall, but I am okay with it. Would been easy to kill by moving everything a few feet away from the wall and sticking a flash in there to light the wall only to it's natural level from the key. That would kill the shadows without adding anything.

Start a Project

I am really enjoying the shooting the blogger project, for a number of reasons. Committed bloggers are very interesting people for me to meet. The shoots are cool, but even better is the conversations that happen around them. We tend to work alone, in our respective caves, and it is a cool thing to connect with like-minded people. J.D. and I exchanged good ideas all day long. Not to mention his wife Kris's praline upside down cupcakes...

If you have a camera, some enthusiasm and just enough knowledge to be dangerous, I highly recommend embarking on a personal project of your own. The bloggers are really a side project for me at this point, but I do have something more significant that I am working on.

A little thought (more like 3 years worth, for me) goes a long way. And my hope is to get some of you thinking in terms of a sustainable project of your own. After all, what is the point of growing your skills as a photographer if you don't do something fun and worthwhile with it?

And if you'd rather get rich instead, you would do very well to start with J.D.'s blog.

FSART Le Parisien: Main Problem

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:01:00 GMT

Seriously, what is wrong with French football?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

FSART I Do & I Don't: Don't

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:38:00 GMT

This image is an excellent example of the application of quantum mechanics to Photoshop (ℑ). The image ∂ is represented by a waveform ℵ in which ℵ' is the image without any Photoshop work and ℵ'' is the image that a neutral observer ☺ can see. As ℑ approaches infinity we see the waveform collapse and oh her arm has snapped off.

Thanks to Jennifer and everyone else who sent this in!

FSART Become a Star Photographer with Actors Headshots

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:05:34 GMT

Photography: Nick Gregan Photographers who find their passion a competitive field can always console themselves by remembering that at least they’re not actors. While everyone with a camera believes they could shoot a cover for Vogue, they aren’t all trying — and even those who don’t make it to the top can still make a [...]

FSART Book a Shoot During Your Next Boring Meeting

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Why endure yet another "strategic planning session" at work when you can secretly be shooting away in your studio instead?

Remember to nod your head occasionally, and make eye contact with the speaker every few minutes as you appear to be inputting important notes from the meeting on your iPhone. Trust me, they don't want to be there any more than you do. They'll never notice.

Oh, and for the record: I know this is a capabilities video, but that is way too damn many light sources for shooting a bendy stick figure.
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:: Studio Light Rigger app :: (iTunes)

-30-

FSART Zeeman: You're Zeeman Now, Dog

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:56:00 GMT

Frankie "Four Arms" O'McReilly was one shady customer; he'd already been caught slipping the wax jumbotron to Mad Ginger "The Ambulance" Van Der Plank and now here he was trying to dust off Jack "Untitled" Von Doom Jr with a lawnmower made of sailors. This wasn't going to be pretty.

Thanks to MB!

FSART Episode 239

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:31:56 GMT

Scott is back and he has a tutorial about how to cut and crop your photos so they have a white border. Matt shares a plethora of text tips. Dave teaches viewers how to create a postage stamp edge.

FSART Ralph Lauren: Like You Just Stepped Out Of The Witchdoctors

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:29:00 GMT

Ralph, you're supposed to make the head bigger and the body smaller; this isn't going to make anyone anorexic.

Thanks to Angel! Original is here!

FSART 13 Photography Lighting Video Tutorials

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:20:10 GMT

The following is a collection of thirteen video lighting tutorials. The main premise is that after watching those videos you'll know to light a little bit better, or at least pick up a trick or two.

Now watching those will not make you better pictures, you'll actually have to go out and shoot some. Hopefully those videos, some only using one light, will provide lots and lots of motivation to try new things.

FSART Available Dark

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:54:00 GMT

I just got back from perhaps the darkest place I have ever been. We were twenty miles form the nearest city of any size, at over 8,000 feet of elevation with no humidity on a moonless night. That's a straight shot of the night sky, above.

I was on a family trip to a ~~dude~~, er, guest ranch after teaching in Denver two weeks ago. So I had a better-than-average collection of gear with me for being on vacation. But only one problem -- no tripod.
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Duuuuude!

Those of you who know me also that a dude ranch is about the last place you would ever expect to find me. As in, I don't ride horses. We had 'em when I was growing up. I always found them to have a distinct lack of hard controls, most notably any type of reliable braking mechanism whatsoever.

In fact, my last significant interaction with a horse was actually more of the gastronomic variety. This was thanks to my friend Fons at CERN. So my daughter Emily and I do share a love for horses, even if not the same kind of love.

The Long Con

Speaking of Em, that's her above, riding on the open range near Red Feather Lakes in Colorado. Her mom let her go without a helmet just this once so I could grab a panned shot of her on her horse-for-a-week, Oreo. (The name, of course, only strengthens the gourmet equine connotations in my mind.)

She's entering 7th grade this year, but was in 4th grade when she hatched the scheme that would end up in our spending a week at the Sundance Trail Guest Ranch in northern Colorado.

Her assignment, courtesy teacher Kim Eubanks, was to research and report on what would be her dream vacation -- anywhere in the world. With no limits, all of the other kids chose foreign and/or exotic locations. But Em researched and fell in love with a small, family-oriented guest ranch about two hours north of Denver.

It was a very sweet thought, but these types of places are not our normal modest-price hotel fare. Still, Susan and I both admitted that it might be possible with a little frugality and a lot of saving.

So later when we announced to Em that we would, in fact, be heading to Sundance Trail, she told us that had been her secret plan all along. In other words, we had just been expertly played by an 8-year-old for a four-digit payoff.

Oh, and as a bonus the place was just crawling with kittens. For Em it was pretty much like that lab experiment where they give the rats all of the crack they want, just to see what happens.

My wife Susan is a rider, too. So there was no question she was gonna have fun. But Ben and I are not horse people, so we spent the week doing lots of other stuff. Between the white-water rafting, climbing, tomahawk throwing, campfires, hiking and (especially) shooting, we had a great time.

Oh, and don't even ask me about the food. Suffice to say that Nate took good care of us in the kitchen, even if Trigger was not on the menu. And Susan and I both lost a pound each. Go figure.

In Need of Support

By the second night I was totally infatuated with the dark skies, which featured layers upon layers of stars. There were so many that I could not easily find the major constellations, and the bands of the Milky Way were gorgeous. This is not something we often see in the east, so I was like a kid in a candy store.

But I had left my tripod at home, and none of the other guests had one I could mooch. So I started to experiment with various DIY substitutions to keep the camera still for the ten seconds of so I could use before the star trails would start to be obvious from the earth's rotation. I pined for my tripod and John Moran's brilliant DIY astronomical camera mount. Next time, I'll bring both.

In the end, the porch rail and a rubberized iPhone (used as an elevation shim) served the purpose pretty well -- even if it did limit my shooting direction. Using the self timer to allow the camera to settle down, I was able to get a pretty sharp 10-second exposure at f/1.8 at ISO 3200. The 35/1.8 lens (fastest I had with me) was designed for small chips, thus the vignetting. But I kinda like it, to tell the truth.

Flashes and Stars

Shortly after, I started thinking about a shot of the lodge lit against a backdrop of that stunning night sky. And it didn't help that I had half a dozen SB-800s with me, along with stands, PWs, etc.

I know -- I'm on vacation. But still, I really love playing around like this. And on vacation you should get to do anything you want, right?

So I chose a fence post for a camera support and set off to light the lodge to f/1.8 at ISO 3200 with speedlights. I could easily light something a couple of football fields away at that level with speedlights, after all.

I set up my key light about 200 feet away (for even lighting) from the lodge at dusk. Then I set a fill light right in front of the front porch, hidden by an old wagon in the front yard. A little guide number guestimation showed me that I would not even have to crank up the flashes to full power to light the house from this distance.

As the ambient light dropped down, I did test shots of the lodge against the sky. Visions of a gorgeous shot of the lodge and the night sky danced in my head. Maybe I would even get lucky with a Perseid meteor or two in the frame.

But then something unexpected started to happen. Long before the stars started to appear, the lodge itself started to go nuclear bright. I had not considered what a normal, interior light (60th @f/2.8 @ISO 400) might look like at f/1.8 at 10 seconds at ISO 3200. Little hint -- they are very bright at that exposure.

As in about 13 1/2 stops over.

(Apparently, my brain takes vacations, too...)

Even by shooting RAW files and combining single images imported at multiple exposure levels, I quickly knew I was not going to be able to marry the two exposures -- small flashes or not. Well, okay, I could. But that would mean turning off all of the interior lights and triggering tiny flash pops in each room -- for each exposure.

Nope, this was where I would cut my losses and bail in favor of the campfire and songs that had been my backdrop for the shoot until now. After all, I was on vacation.

The fickle weather in the Colorado highlands teased with other short-lived opportunities to do a lodge-and-stars shot. But instead I decided to go with the flow, shooting the transitions that included both moving clouds and star fields. I had never seen anything like it before, and might never again.

The firey colors on the horizon are from the city lights that the locals lament are ruining their rural night views (they're looking at you, Ft. Collins…) But I thought they made a neat separation light for the mountain trees on the horizon. So you are fine for now, Ft. Collins. But no more development, please.

For those interested in a week in the saddle, I cannot recommend Sundance Trail enough. Definitely check it out.

Even as a non-rider I had one of the best weeks of my life. And the horse people in the bunch wore big smiles (along with sore butts) all week long, continually exploring some of the most beautiful backcountry you could ever want to see.

If you visit Sundance please give Dan, Ellen and the gang our best. And be sure to check out the family brand we charred into into the dining room wall before leaving your own.

Oh, and bring a tripod. Unlike me, you might have the patience to get all of the lights turned off for a flashed, lodge-and-stars photo. If you nail it, please post a link in the comments below this post. I'd love to see it.

Until then, happy trails…

FSART Why Aren’t Cameras More Like Bicycles?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:57:48 GMT

Meaning... why aren't more components on a camera interchangeable and replaceable?

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FSART The Creative Characters Archives

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:09:41 GMT

I always enjoy reading the monthly newsletter from myfonts.com that highlights a type designer, called Creative Characters. Issues have featured Richard Lipton, who has worked with Adobe and Bitstream to Jos Buivenga, creator of Museo (which I seem to see on every other website these days). Since I generally get to the articles right from my email, I only recently found the Creative Characters archives, which has all of the newsletters and of course a sign up form to get them yourself. I recommend reading them, and along the way perhaps you'll find the next typeface for that project you've been losing sleep over.

The Creative Characters Archives originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 00:09:41.

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FSART Besame: The Tell-Tale Part

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:16:00 GMT

Oh Besame, why can't you Bedifferent?

Thanks to Rubén! Original is here!^{[warning: ladies in their grundies]}

FSART Heart Shaped Bokeh Appears in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 04:58:42 GMT

OK, so this is not a tutorial, more of a technique spotted. I love the shaped bokeh thing, and it appears that the makers of Scott Pilgrim Vs The World love it too. And they do once and for all prove that geeks + video + heart shaped bokeh is a match never to be broken.

Just check out the street lights in the background.

If you like it, you can learn how to make a filter that does this effect here, and here or buy a ready made kit. Thanks for the tip in the flickr threads, Andrew.

FSART Victoria's Secret: Easy Way For A Flat Stomach

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:30:00 GMT

Does your top lingerie model have a hideous beer gut? You need BeerGutFilter 2.0! Replace her ugly bloaty paunch with one of our massive selection of over four guaranteed flat stomachs! Super flat tummies! No more stupid Art Director making you do it again! Perfect for every situation! Order now and get TitBlur 2000 FREE!

Props to Jordan!

FSART Proenza Schouler: Toxic Waist

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:54:00 GMT

You can never be too rich or too thin, but Proenza Schouler are working on it.

Thanks to Meagan and everyone who sent this in! Original is here!

FSART The Right Way to Answer a Photo Buyer

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:06:15 GMT

Photography: Caro’s Lines Making money from an image involves two steps. The first is to shoot a picture that someone will pay to use. That’s the fun bit. It’s the step that absorbs most of your effort and it’s the activity that turns enthusiasts into photographers. Get it right, place the pictures where people can [...]

FSART One Light Portrait Setup #1 - Butterfly Lighting (+ Optional Strobe)

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:21:33 GMT

Yuval needed a few pictures for her facebook, twitter and other social media services she consumes (or is being consumed by hehe).

As profile pics seem to be popular these days, I thought I'd put the setup and photographs here on DIYP. It is going to be a one light portrait (and optional second light for background).

A while back we had a clamshot post that showed how to use two collapsible Westcott umbrellas to create butterfly lighting. It is a great light for the ladies that really gives that glamorous look. This is why it is also called paramount lighting. We also had a ghetto studio setup post for making a "table" kinda thing for this shot using a single strobe. This one was for the PVC lovers.

In this post I am going to explain how to create the same effect with a single light. (and then show what can be done with a secont light).

FSART Test Drive: Yongnuo YN-560

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

UPDATE: The flash is en route back to China and a second copy will be in my hands ... in an undetermained amount of time. Will report back then.
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After months of rumor-fueled anticipation, I finally got my grubby little hands on a production model YN-560 speedlight.

The new, $85(!) flash has two important features which potentially potentially make it an good addition to a lighting photographer's bag: A built-in slave and an external sync jack.

Any shoe-mount flash with that kind of bling deserves a look.

First impressions, after the jump.
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The flash I ordered was a standard production unit. I had seen reports around the web from pre-production versions, but this review is from a unit purchased directly from Yongnuo via the US eBay site.

There are lots of different people selling them on eBay. But Yongnuo was offering a one-year warranty, which made them the obvious choice. Your mileage may vary with other retailers, who may offer a warranty anywhere from one year down to nothing.

There has been a lot of talk of the YN-560 as a lower-priced alternative to the $160 LumoPro LP160. Let's see how it stacks up.

Build Quality / Warranty

Yongnuo is an up-and-comer. Their quality continues to improve, and I have been very happy with my Yongnuo 10m TTL cord. Similarly, this flash gets triple aces on build quality -- it is very solid. Like, surprisingly so.

It feels like a much more expensive flash, aping the lines of the similarly named Canon EX-580 II. The battery door is captive and hinged (a plus over the LP160) and very well-designed. The battery polarity sticker is a nice touch for guys like me who are putting off getting bifocals. (That bell tolls for me in three weeks -- I am officially old.)

The batts themselves drop right in, whereas the LP160 housing can be a little tight on some of the rechargeable batts that sometimes are a little bigger than the alkaline versions.

The PC jack and high-voltage jack (don't get too excited about the latter yet) are covered by a rubber door -- another nice touch. Unlike the metal foot on the LP160, Yongnuo chose to use a plastic foot on the '560. I would not consider this a problem, as it appears to be solid.

Like the '160, it has a screw-down lock collar, but also adds a lock pin. In practice, the screw-down collar should suffice. Short answer, both models have reliable feet.

Weight-wise, it measures up about the same as an LP160 -- maybe even a tad heavier, judging with one in each hand. Both of these models are well-built.

So, build quality is great. Which is not to say that quality control necessarily is on the '560. As I said, this was a production model. But nonetheless, mine had some problems.

The recycle beep function did not work on my flash, which is a minor annoyance from an otherwise helpful feature. The LP 160 does not include a ready beep, but does include a ready light on both the front and the back. Call it a wash -- well, if the ready beep worked on the '560.

Far more frustrating was the fact that my flash had a non-working zoom-head motor.

Argh.

I so wanted to love you, YN-560. Now you hit me with a second, non-working feature. The absence of which essentially makes the flash unusable for me, necessitating a round-trip return to China.

On the one hand, this is why I strongly suggest buying direct. On the other hand, I would also suggest that Yongnuo join LumoPro in hand-checking each unit before it goes out. It is only a wasted effort if your quality control is hitting 100%. And you are not there yet, Yongnuo.

It's 30 seconds of prevention to insure against a few weeks' wait for the customer if problems arise later. Especially until Yongnuo gets the early production bugs worked out.

Slave and Sync

Kudos to Yongnuo for including both a slave and an external sync jack, although I would have loved to see a 1/8" jack alongside the PC version. Having to buy overpriced PC cords over the life of the flash is a hidden tax when compared to flashes that sync with a 1/8" jack. Advantage: LP160.

From my early testing, the slave appears to be very capable, and on par with that of the LP160. I would have liked to see more rotation on the flash head, which goes 180-left and 90-right. This leaves one quadrant uncovered for times when you need to point the flash head one way and the slave another.

The LP160 goes 180-right and 150-left, meaning click stops every 30 degrees around the circle. This difference will not seem important to you until you need to point the slave in a certain direction to get a good sync. Advantage, LP160.

Control Interface

What can I say. I found the 560's controls to be both fantastic and maddening.

On the plus side, you get a 1/1 - 1/128 power range. This is unheard of in the sub-$100 price range, but they go and include eight steps of variability between each stop. Amazing in theory, but in practice the flash's consistency tops out in the ~1/3-stop range. In other words, it ain't a Profoto D1, but I really like where they are aiming. You have to give them major props for that little trick. Advantage: YN-560.

That was the spoonful of sugar. Now here's the medicine.

The flash uses a row of 8 LEDs across the back display to give the following info:

1. Zoom head angle: This is the only function that is actually labelled, and a tad ironically so for me given that my zoom motor did not work.

2. Power range, from 1/1 to 1/128: When adjusting the power with the left/right buttons, the dot scale represents overall flash power -- but is not labelled as such. You have to count the dots. That's a dumb miss -- what were they thinking?

3. Intra-stop power range: When using the up/down buttons, this adjusts the power between stops. Again, no labels, and going for the third indicator from the same set of LEDs gets problematic when it comes to labeling.

I applaud the effort to get as much mileage as possible out of the LEDs, but I personally found the interface to be completely non-intuitive bordering on pretty annoying.

On the other hand, the LP160 has two rows of LEDs signaling both zoom head setting and power setting. So, while the LP160 lacks intra-stop adjustments and a 1/128th power setting, I still strongly prefer its interface -- faster and more intuitive.

Modes

Both flashes feature manual mode and two slave modes -- straight and pre-flash. They are pretty self-explanatory, although I do not know exactly how each handles the pre-flashes. But there is some mechanism for adding slaved manual flash to your TTL flashes, if that is your thing.

The YN560 offers a power saving mode, which will idle the flash after 3 mins. The instruction manual says you can wake it back up from its slumber by pressing the test button or the power button. Presumably, the test circuit could also be activated by a hard trigger at the PC jack, but probably not via the slave. After 15 mins of being dormant, the flash will turn itself off. If you are in either slave mode, the flash will extend the dormancy period to 30 mins.

That's pretty cool, but here's where it goes off the rails. If you turn off the power-saving mode, the flash will still shut down after 30 mins of non-firing (60 mins in slave modes).

Maybe it is just me, but if I turn off the power-saving mode, I would want the flash not to go to sleep. So if you pre-set flashes before an event, you'd better remember to pop them occasionally while you wait for the event to start. This is just dumb programming, and I would strongly suggest changing this on the next product run.

If I am not in power-saving mode, it is because I want the flash to stay on. If I drain the batts, it's on me.

Power

Other testers have reported power levels to be similar to the Nikon and Canon flagship flashes. Just a tad below, to be specific, for both the '560 and the '160 -- and I have no reason to doubt them. In short, plenty of power.

I'd confirm it, but I do not even know what zoom setting my flash is stuck at. It's something wide as far as I can tell. Barring that info, comparative readings would be useless.

Recycle Time

Nice surprise here -- the YN-560 recycles fast. As in less than 2 seconds for NiMH's, and ~4 secs for alkalines. Remember, 1.2 NiMH batts deliver current faster than their higher-voltage alkaline cousins, and that's what counts.

But with great power comes great responsibility, dragonfly. After just ten full-power pops at the speed at which the internal NiMH AA's will recycle it, the '560 will drop into thermal protection mode for several minutes.

So back off, Rambo, unless you want a three-minute time-out. My advice would be to back off the recycle time just a tad so we could make use of it for more than ten pops at a time. Or, add in a little better heat sink and let us make use of this fast cycling.

Oddly (given the above) the YN-560 includes a high-power jack which appears to be a Canon model jack. Why would you do this on a flash that can overheat itself in ten full-power pops using just NiMH AA's?

This I do not know. If you get a YN-560, my advice is to ignore the hi-power batts. The inability of this flash to quickly dissipate heat would make it not very useful.

Accessories

Unlike the LP160, the '560 does not come with a sync cord, but it does come with a case. Both flashes come with a foot/stand, and the '560's has a metal 1/4x20 insert. Nice.

And, oddly, my '560 came with a Sto-Fen -type dome, but it was outside the box. So I do not know if every YN-560 comes with a dome, or if I was just lucky. Add in the variable of other dealers, and who knows.

There is a pull-up/fold-over wide-angle panel, and a pull-out bounce card -- nice. The panel is pretty stiff, and without a lot of lip to grab. If you are a fingernail biter, you'll probably have to pull out a credit card or driver's license to get it out. But still, nice touch. The LP-160 has a slip-on diffuser panel. No nails needed, but you could lose it.

Advantage: Depends on what accessories are more important to you.

Where to Buy

No brainer -- get it direct from the factory on eBay. Why? Well, there's the one-year warranty for starters. It's not as long as the LP160 (2 years) but still very good. Alas, if you have problems with it as I did, it will require a round-trip back to China. But at least there should be no passing the buck on who is to blame for the problem.

And don't be confused by the Nikon version vs. the Canon version vs. the Pentax version, etc., on eBay. As far as I can tell, they are all the same. Just keywording to try to catch more bidders.

So that's the quick test drive. If you are using a YN-560, hit us in the comments with your experiences.

FSART Moet: Scarlett Noupperarmon

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:54:00 GMT

No, see, a wave from the sea is in front of her arm. Or her arm is super bendy! Hey actually I think that's his arm and he's holding the bottle behind his head. The way you do. Actually there's another woman behind them waving the champagne. The photographer probably saw it and decided to keep it in because the camera said "Memory full." Super pro guys do stuff like that all the time, it's called literal thinking. Maybe the guy has an arm growing out of his neck, and they thought he was going to die but they found a cure and that's why they're drinking champagne.

Thanks to Marek!

FSART A4 Sheet Fold Me Lumiquest

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:33:21 GMT

Lumiquest has a pretty nice solution for diffusing on (or off) camera strobes by dressing them with a small and light weight softbox.

Reader Julian Schüngel came up with a similar device that can be constructed from one A4 sheet of paper (and kicks the crap out of my similar design that needs 6 sheets). Oh yea, it has build in barn doors too.

FSART Life is Still Hectic… Summer of 2010

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:31:52 GMT

Well… I made it to north Idaho. I was offline completely for about a week, so I’m slowly getting back up to speed with everything as we settle into our new home. I should be getting back to the regular posts very soon — but in the meantime, here’s a quick rundown on my recent [...]

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FSART Episode 238

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:21:36 GMT

Dave shows off a free Photoshop download called Pixel Bender and shares a tip on using the crop and straighten photos command. Matt has a Lightroom tip for adding additional clarity to your photos.

FSART Sucker Punch: Mmmmkay

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:30:00 GMT

In Sucker Punch, the exciting new movie from Zack Snyder, a young girl has her head swell up so she looks like Mr Mackey from South Park. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy she imagines herself with a normal size head and a tiny body. It all ends in a madcap chase with bongo music and a surprise guest appearance by the Elephant Man. Three thumbs up!

Thanks to Stefanie! Imdb page in case you are unable to believe this is real.

FSART Beautiful Illustrations by Uğur Derinoğullu

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:21:24 GMT

I recently came across the work of Uğur Derinoğullu, first seeing the illustrator's cover art that circulated on Twitter. These beautiful illustrations show Derinoğullu's ability to bring a completely unique approach to design, shown further in other pieces on Cargo Collective.

Image courtesy Uğur Derinoğullu

Beautiful Illustrations by Uğur Derinoğullu originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 17:21:24.

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FSART Essential Fonts

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 03:35:55 GMT

With so many fonts out there, sometimes our collections can get out of control. This can get overwhelming when searching for that perfect typeface for a project. When this happens, sometimes it's best to focus on the classics. Here's a list of essential fonts for a graphic designer, including some of the most popular and commonly used typefaces. While many of these fonts come installed with your computer, the list includes links to purchase the full font families on Linotype.com.

Please share your favorite classic fonts in the comments.

Essential Fonts originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 08:35:55.

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FSART Everything You wanted To Know about DIYing a Tilt Shift Lens For Less Than $10

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:38:51 GMT

Tilt Shift Lenses are cool. They are those lenses that allow you to take those miniature looking photographs.

I dare you to get a real one; Both Nikon and Canon models are so pricey that you have to give a kidney to afford them. (OK, maybe just a pinky). But we have some good news. Bhautik Joshi (the inventor of the weirdly named plunger cam) and John Swierzbin (who is a DIY lens master) came up with an extensive tutorial about building your own tilt shift lenses.

FSART Ann Taylor: Ann Failure

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:39:00 GMT

Jezebel has a nice story on Ann Taylor's amazing bid to be the home of the most ridiculous retouching ever. Apparently besides retouching images with the finesse of a prison tattooist, the site managed to post both retouched and unretouched versions of the same images.

Thanks to RG!

FSART How You Can Help the Gulf Oil Spill Wildlife

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:06:31 GMT

Everyone around the world has probably heard of the Gulf Oil Spill by now. The biggest environmental disaster of all time. Most of us feel helpless in our homes not sure what to do or how to help. I know I felt that way. Once that feeling left, the first question that popped into my [...]

FSART The Comprehensive Water Drop Photography Guide

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:20:12 GMT

Not a long while ago the net was exploding with Corrie White's Fun with Water set on Flickr. Her control over those drops, their color and their timing was remarkable indeed.

This is why I am very exited to share Corrie's very extensive guide for water drops photography.

The guide is for all levels going explaining the setup, lights, optional use of a drip mechanism and post.

FSART New Book Shelf - Feed Your Brain

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:14:28 GMT

There are many great photo books out there. I love reading photo books. Both the ones that tell you how to take great photos and the ones that has great photos. And of course the ones that do both.

A while back I had a post that summed up DIYP readers recommendations about photography book, and I decided to take it a step further. There is a new section on the site called The Book Shelf (Food for Your Brain) It will be constantly linked from the main page and refer to a repository of books that I recommend. (Not surprisingly they have high correlation with the list from the post I mentioned). The list will grow bigger the more book are reviewed on DIYP.

To be completely transparent I'll note that the links on the list are marked with my tag, so when you buy a book from that list I get a small percentage of the sale, while there is no impact on the book price. Buying books from that list is a great way to support DIYP.

FSART On Assignment: Caleb Jones

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Here's the scene: You're at the shore of a beautiful lake on a summer's evening, with live cello music set against a backdrop of twinkling fireflies.

The ground, alas, is covered in goose crap. And that's where you are -- on your belly -- because that's where the best shooting angle is.

Such was the case for our HCAC shoot of cellist Caleb Jones.
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Caleb was the winner of the 2010 Howard County Rising Stars competition, in which 10 very talented young artists compete live onstage for a $5,000.00 prize. The winner is by audience vote, and the evening is part of a gala which raises money for local arts in all forms.

Suffice to say that our background music for the shoot was very, very good.

We started off near sunset, shooting tight headshots through the quickly changing light. After sunset, it usually takes about 15-20 minutes before the color starts to get really interesting. But at that point it is also changing very quickly, and it can be an advantage to be working with a minimal amount of gear. Typically, you get to spend a decent amount of time preparing but then have to work quickly to make your photos while the light is good.

One Light for Shape; The Other for Detail.

I used to use a single flash in an umbrella against sunset light for an easy, reliable look. But I have since moved to using to flashes, which gives me lots more flexibility.

If you are using one umbrella (or one light in any mod) your key light angle will usually be a compromise between position vs. detail. Frequently, the best position for your key light to define your subject may be one that also leaves too much of the subject in the shadows. Which means that you may have to move your key closer that you want to the camera to preserve more detail.

But with two lights you can choose to light your subject from any angle with your key. And you can use the second light (in this case, a speedlight in an Orbis) to control your level of detail in the shadows.

The two-light combo is such a sweet spot in the curve. It gives you lots of options, in addition to being a backup in the event one of your flashes goes down.

In this case, I wanted to light Caleb soft and from the top, which would have left his face in very dark shadow without the fill. Since he had dark skin (not to mention an awesome-but-dark vintage tux) I used the ring fill and dialed it up a little more than normal. It's probably a stop down from the key, maybe a stop and change.

The key light was from a shoot-through umbrella overhead, courtesy Dave Kile as the voice-activated boom. You can see it at left, and can also see what the fill would have looked like if it were dialed down a bit. This is because I moved back to pop the setup shot, and didn't crank the ring up enough to compensate.

Remember -- when you are working with ring fill in manual you have to compensate the power level if you move closer or further away from your subject. Or, you can not make that adjustment and think of it as an added feature -- an auto-bracketing fill light. Just sayin'.

At first, it almost doesn't look like there is any fill on Caleb at all in the above frame until you realize that there has to be something lighting Dave. It's not until you take the fill away that you see how much it is contributing even at that relatively low level:

See what I mean? The detail goes away completely without the fill.

Also, there is something interesting going on here with the umbrella. See the edge of the umbrella light happening on the other side of Dave and Caleb? That's raw spill going past the shoot-through. Usually, it ruins a shot but here it kinda helps bring up that background area a little. I'll take it.

More and more, I find that if I am gonna use an umbrella as a key I am coming in from high overhead. It just looks a little more atypical and interesting to me. But that's not gonna help me if I totally lose Caleb's face against the background.

But shoot when he is looking up, and it's another story altogether. To me, the top light all by itself works well here. But it's very close to not working, too. IMO, the eyelids catching the light makes it okay for much of his face to be in shadow. Lose the eyelids and I'd have more trouble with it. (Kinda hard to see at 400px -- click the pic for a bigger view.)

Also, the B&W conversion helps, too. Two totally different photos -- one built on shape and texture, the other on pure graphic form.

These finished pics are done with the same key light and two extremes of fill -- a lot and none at all. But there are a lot of different looks to be had between those two extremes, and it gives you an idea of how much control you have by varying the fill intensity.
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Goose crap and all, it was a wonderful evening. Caleb played most of the way through the shoot, so people on the hiking path around the lake were surprised by a soundtrack that even included some of his original cello compositions. He'd finish a piece and applause would spread around the lake. Very cool.

Assistant Erik Couse was covertly shooting a video of us with his iPhone, conveniently making himself a felon in the State of Maryland in the process. We are gonna wait until the next time he pisses us off to press charges.

And the fact that it was almost nighttime accounts for the production quality, which is about three notches below that of Faces of Death 6. But still, I am pretty sure the felony charges will stick.

The first couple minutes are from the headshots at the beginning. Then all the light goes away and we shoot the photos seen above. But it does show a that modest amount of strobe can transform a tiny amount of ambient light into something cool.

FSART The Moment It Clicks / Joe McNally - A Book Review

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:47:07 GMT

I just put down Joe McNally's The Moment It clicks. It clicked. I don't really know how to catalog this book, it is not a learn-photography-techniques book, not a biography and not a Manifesto. Or maybe it is a little bit of all three.

When coming to review it I didn't really know how to break the book down, there is some structure to it created by having four different chapter and some sections, but it didn't for feel right to go part by part and review it. instead it felt right-er to review the whole thing as a whole.

FSART Santander: Check Out Our Real Employees

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:24:00 GMT

From day one you are part of the Santander UK team and you will have a real* job, adding value from the outset. Find out more about the opportunities we have open currently by clicking on the tabs opposite.

*Please note that the term "real" is subjective and may not be interpreted to mean that the job exists or has any relationship with the real world other than a null hypothesis style relationship defined as no relationship. You agree to be bound by our interpretation of reality even when prima facie evidence contradicts this. If you are in a jurisdiction where this cannot be enforced then you no longer exist and neither does the jurisdiction. I am a yak and I drive a big red tractor. See how we can decide what is real? Get used to it. No jeans.

Props to Zeronill! Original is here!

FSART Best Digital Cameras With Video Capability

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:03:59 GMT

© Ian MuttooAs more individuals and households own digital cameras, the specific video features to capture memories becomes more valuable. Selecting the right digital camera to record videos can be a challenging task. Recently, Consumer Reports filed an investigation to find the best digital cameras in the market with the best capability to film good quality video footage. Each camera was used in various lighting and environments to test the best quality in all situations possible. From indoors to bright lighting, the best ...

FSART Q&A: Feathering a Soft Box

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:00:00 GMT

After the Monday's OA post on Betty Allison, reader Łukasz Kruk asked about feathering the small LumiQuest soft box that was used as a key light:

I understand how this works with directional light (e.g., a bare speedlight) - but doesn't the softbox's flat white panel send the light in all the directions more-or-less equally, thus rendering feathering more or less impossible? Can you feather a shoot-through umbrella -- and how?

(a) No, (b) sort of -- and (c) lemme explain…
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First off, the light in question here is a speedlight in a LumiQuest Soft Box III, but feathering will work with any soft box.

Light coming of of a soft box panel does not have a defined beam like a small light source inside a reflector would, but it still has some shape. Think of in terms of how much of the soft box panel you can see from different positions around the light.

If you are directly in front of it, you will see the full face of the soft box, and the intensity of the light you receive will be a function of how far away you are. But as you move around toward the side of the soft box, you will see less apparent surface area because of your angle of view.

You can use this "edge" of the light to control how light falls across your subject, as in this close-up portrait (more here) that I did with the same light source.

In that example, instead of pointing the light right at his face it was rotated around away from him (towards me) and also pointed further up than you would expect. This placed his face in the area where the intensity of the light is falling off, which is what gives you that nice gradient towards the camera-left ear and down his torso.

(If you need to get even more of an edge to a small soft box, that's an easy mod, too.)

The light is less than a foot from his face, and hand-held. That way, it is easy to look at the image popping up on the back of the camera and adjust the angle as you shoot. Kind of the ultimate voice-activated light stand, 'cause it's you at both ends.

Umbrellas (speaking of shoot-through versions here) are a different animal, because they present themselves as almost hemispherical -- sending the light out in almost a 180-degree pattern.

You can't really feather a shoot-through umbrella per se, but you can control the spill by partially gobo'ing it.

The photo at left is a good example -- more details and a diagram here.

FSART The Strobist Corner: A Quadzillion Duty Light Source

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:23:03 GMT

A long while back David Hobby did a double duty assignment where he asked participants to use a single light source to perform several lighting function. A huge deal later I saw a great video from Jim Talkinton about using mirrors as a way of expanding a light source and became obsessed with it.

In this post, I will share my experience with creating a setup that only uses one very cheap work light on a stick-in-a-can and lots of mirrors from a Dollar store (or Amazon). The premise is that you can light well on the cheap. Mucho strobismo.

Here is the fun bit, lighting for this setup only costs about $10. The step by step is right after the jump.

The resulting image is on the top of this post. We'll get back to it, but first, lest see what we started with.

FSART Episode 237

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:32:19 GMT

Dave and Matt are back with a new season of PhotoshopUser TV. In this week's episode, Matt shows viewers how to correct lens distortion in Camera Raw. He also shares a tip for changing your before preview in Lightroom. Dave has a tutorial on making your own custom patterns.

FSART Governments and Groups on Flickr

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:11:52 GMT

Photography: The U.S. Army If you have a Flickr stream you’re now in the best company. Even if you never get invited to a garden party, never feel the tap of a sword on your shoulder, never have to make small talk with the Prince of Wales, you can at least console yourself by remembering [...]

FSART Poll: I Would Improve My Photography If...

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:11:37 GMT

As photographers we strive on taking good photographs. Moreover we want to take consistently good photographs. While it is true that inspiration, ideas and magic powder all help in making a good photo, the truth with photography, like so many other crafts - is that the more you "practice", the better your images are.

The premise of this poll is that if you need to do two things in order to constantly improve: 1 take lots of photographs. And 2. invest the time and effort to learn after each session. You must have both.

If you "spray around" and do not take the time to edit, review, self criticize and expose your images, you will have lots of pictures, but quality will not change.

If you shoot very little it will be hard to exercise the points learned in the previous round.

(Statistically speaking, if you do take the spray route your chances of taking one good image do increase, I mean even monkeys can write a Shakespearean play, but this is not what I am talking about here).

In this poll, I would like to hear what is stopping you from improving and refining your photography skills. What is stopping you from continuously improving and honing your skills?

I'll go first: I would improve my portraiture skills if I shot more personal projects. And I would do more personal projects if I was not so shy about asking people for participation.

How about you? Share in the comments.

(If you are reading this via RSS, you may want to click through to read/share your thoughts) [(cc) image credit Cayusa]

FSART Working Late with the New York Nightowls

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 03:36:51 GMT

The New York Times technology section recently featured the New York Nightowls, a group of designers and web developers that get together every Tuesday for a different kind of work day; one that starts at 10 PM. Sometimes working as late as 4 AM, the group gets a nice solid block of time uninterrupted by the usual daytime distractions.

I know I often go back to work on a design around 11 PM, and many creatives do the same, but it's been a while since I've seen a sunrise while working on something. When do you do your best work? Early in the morning or in the middle of the night? Answer our poll below and share in the comments.

Working Late with the New York Nightowls originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 at 08:36:51.

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FSART Stick In A Can (Poorman's Solution For 3D Lighting)

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:25:36 GMT

A long while back I got familiar with Stick In a Can method for light positioning through the (sadly retired) Pro Photo Life Blog by Jim Talkington. In this post, I'll show how to make one of those and what are some great uses for them.

A stick in a can is the poorman's solution for positioning lights in three dimensional space. Basically it combines a stick, which provides some height and a cement filled can which provides anchoring weight. It works great for positioning worklights, reflectors and just about anything you can clamp.

The Caterpillar above was shot using one of those stick in a can and some magic. (more on the magic in a future post).

FSART The Many Faces Of...

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:01:36 GMT

"The Many Faces Of..." is a website that looks at, well, the many faces of various characters. So far, they have featured the cast of the 80's classic The Goonies, John Cusack and Alan Rickman. Each feature is an example of excellent, modern web design with great illustration and comedy mixed in. The site was created by the studio Paravel, whose design work is also worth checking out. Have a look at The Many Faces or follow them on Twitter to be notified of new features.

The Many Faces Of... originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Monday, August 2nd, 2010 at 21:01:36.

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FSART On Assignment: Betty Allison

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

See that black blob?

It's not a mistake. It's the first frame of any consequence on a quick biz portrait of Betty Allison, the woman who runs our local wholesale food market. Her job is to make sure the fresh food supply runs smoothly for the state of Maryland and surrounding areas. And we have to shoot a quick portrait of her for a local business paper.

So, c'mon -- hurry up. We only have a few minutes to get the light worked out before we shoot her between appointments…
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Okay, the black(-ish) blob is there for a reason. That is a knocked-down, ambient-only exposure. What I am looking for is an exposure that is dark, but not excessively so.

Reason is, I will be adding lights to this in just a minute. And since I am using speedlights I also want to be conscious of not cranking down my exposure excessively. That would mean I would have to ask for more power from the strobes to compensate.

Okay, that was easy enough. Those refrigerated room barriers are translucent. So all I have to do is to stick a speedlight behind them to get a cool background. Should be a piece of cake. Be right back with a test shot.

Eww.

That kinda sucks. Apparently, the doors are more transparent than diffused. The bare strobe is too... point-sourcy.

No prob -- I'll add a shoot-thru umbrella to make the light source bigger and that should do it. It'll cost me a little power, but no worries -- I am only at 1/8 now.

Crap.

Close, but no cigar. I need the light source to be bigger yet.

The problem is the umbrella is the biggest light modifier in my bag. I was not expecting to use a big light source, and now I need one.

Alright, let's kill the umbrella altogether and turn the flash around. We'll use the whole fricken' wall as the light source.

That oughtta do it.

Better.

And the lines in the door flaps hide the flash, too. I'd rather be lucky than good, any day. But still, needs more cowbell.

I could vary the exposure a bit, walk the aperture up and down to see how it looks. But no, the exposure looks fine. That's not it.

Hmm… cold…

I know:

A 1/2 CTB gel on the flash cools it down a little.

This will give me some nice color separation from Betty, and it connotes the cool temperature. Full CTB woulda been a little too much.

Plus, that wall and the gel combined to force me to pump the speedlight up to 1/2 power. Remember, it has to go thru the gel, bounce off the wall and go thru the door flaps.

All of that costs light. And 1/2 power is my effective upper limit when shooting people. I'm not so big on a 4-second recycle. Much rather cut that in half.

Here it is without the doors. That whole wall is my light source. Little hot in the center, but that will probably work for me as a framing device.

Okay, let's set up the front lights.

I already have my working aperture and shutter speed, so I'll have to adjust the power on the key and fill lights to match. (Oh, and subtract a couple stops for the fill...)

Since we started out on the threshold of ambient black, we can bring up the ambient very easily at any point by opening the shutter speed. Or we can make it a flash-only exposure by leaving the shutter alone.

Here are the front lights -- including some ambient dialed in so you can see them better. We'll add the blue background light back in a minute.

We're using a fairly harsh key to give her some pop in the cheekbones, and some nice on-axis fill to tame the harsh shadows. The key (a Lumiquest SB-III) is feathered up and away from her to let the light fall off nicely. Add a 1/4 CTO to the key to give her a little color, and you're golden. Or she is, anyway.

She will hide the fill light's reflection in the doors. The key light is small, and that reflection looks fine. Okay, good to go. Bring her in.

Hmm… need something to do with her hands to keep her from looking stiff. Most people are not used to being photographed this way, and it is harder than it looks.

Does she have a Blackberry? Of course she does. That'll give her something to be doing, and a natural look for her hands.

A couple minutes later:

All set, and good to go.

Only took a couple of mins for her, and she is off to her next appointment a little bit early. It's a bread-and-butter biz portrait, done just about as quickly as if we'd used natural light -- only it has a lot more pop.

Okay, let's tear this down, throw the gear into the car and get some breakfast -- it's your turn to buy.

FSART Slave Q&A: Your Questions from Last Week

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 02:19:00 GMT

After the two posts on slaves last week, there were lots of tips being shared in the comments -- and some good questions, too.

Answers to the latter, after the jump.
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‪Diego‬ (and several others) asked:

David, I've had some problems in the past with pre-flashes fooling the optical slaves causing the flashes to fire before exposure. Have you experienced any of that?

Yep, sure have. Especially when using my Canon G11 to sync with slaved SB-800's. The trick is to use the triggering flash in manual mode to eliminate the pre-flashes that are setting off your slaved flash too early. And if you do not want the triggering flash to contribute to the photo, turn it down as much as possible and/or block the light in a way that will allow your other flash to see it -- but not the area inside your frame.

‪Scott‬ asked:

I bought two high-end Wein optical slaves (the ones with the integrated hot shoe) two years ago and now they do not work. I suspect user error, but I am not sure what it is I am doing wrong. Could the level of the batteries in the flash affect the trip point of the slave? Does the optical device age and sensitivity drop over time?

Scott, I have never heard of that kind of aging, and at two years I would not expect it. And I am almost positive the batts in the flash would not affect the slave. I would contact Wein about your slaves. They have a very good reputation for quality gear, and I would bet they will run down and/or fix the problem for you.

Moishe at Midwest Photo noted and asked (echoing the woes of many Canon users):

Finding a slave that is compatible with YOUR flash can be very very tricky. This is one of those areas where you will be very well served to search the discussion groups on Flickr to find actual user experiences. You can NOT rely on compatibility published by the various slave manufacturers / distributors.  

I am yet to find an optical slave that works reliably with Canon flashes. I've tried Fotodiox, several styles of Wein, Dot-line, Nisha and a couple others I can't think of right now.

Some of those work some of the time. Some work with some flashes but not with another identical model. If anyone has any recommendations on slaves that work with modern Canon flashes, please email me. Would love to carry them in our store!

  Suggestions? Email him at moishe at mpex dot com.

‪Charles Verghese‬ asked:

I wonder if these optical slaves can be DIY'ed into functioning as a Lightning trigger? Without thinking it out through, I am of the opinion that it could be soldered onto a camera trigger cable. Reason I am asking is because I am trying to avoid having to pay the big bucks for a traditional lightning trigger.

Well, Charles, there is good news and bad news.

First, the bad news: I have never been able to get a slave to remote trigger a camera, and I have tried several models. I am not absolutely sure, but I think that the devices that will remote fire a camera both use relays and complete the circuit for longer than a slave does. Whatever it is, it does not work.

The good news, from someone who has shot a lot of lightning: You do not need a lightning trigger. First, lightning exists for longer than you think. Use a tripod and a cable release and you can do pretty well if you are fast on the draw when you see the lightning. Better yet: Use long exposures and cast a bigger net (time-wise) for catching the strikes.

You can also keep the shutter open (as long as your camera stays below the noise/time threshold) and block ambient with a black card held in front of the lens. That's very quick to move when lighting strikes, and you won't jar the camera, either.

E‪do‬ asked:

Is it ok to use PW in master flash & trigger the slave using the master? Are we going to have synch issues?

Edo, that depends on your flash and, more likely, your camera. The good news is that slaves add almost zero latency to the process. They are very fast circuits. That said, I have run into problems specifically with Canon 5D's and slaved flashes. The problem is that as slow as the 5D sync already is, they cut it awfully close on the second curtain. I am convinced that many 5Ds (Mk 1 and II) cannot reliably get a full, off-camera sync until you open them up to 160th.

‪Outofnapkins‬ asked:

I have run across the "standard" H-prong connector on the Wein slaves before, back in my old medium format film days. I had inherited a sync cord for it but didn't know what it went to until today.

For the life of me, I can't figure out when you could use one of those today without that dang cord. Would you mind including a section on the various slave connectors?

Actually, many big flashes used to use the HH sync cord plug. Even my old Vivitar 283's had aftermarket "Holly Flash Foot 1" metal feet that converted them to household sync. It is a cheap and rock-solid method, but pretty over-engineered.

There are way too many connectors to go down the road of listing them all, and to very little benefit. My suggestion is to get on the 1/8" (3.5mm) Sync Jack Bus. It's air conditioned, with comfy seats, wi-fi and a big screen TV. You'll love it.

‪Laird‬ asked:

I love the convenience of Wein Peanuts, being small and plugging right into Vivitars, but have a unusual problem. I use PW to trigger a SB800, and slave other flashes off that. Sometimes, the Vivitar slave doesn't sync at 1/250 and I have to drop down to 1/160 or slower. Other times they're fine.

I use Nikon D300 in manual (not TTL) and no rear-curtain sync. Seems to be unique to Peanuts, as I've not had this happen with "off brand" slaves that slide on the hot shoe. Any ideas?

Wow. I dunno. For one thing I would suggest PW'ing the Vivitar and slaving the SB-800 via its excellent, built-in slave. That will get you two reliable lights firing at full sync, at least.

‪Ad‬ offers the following tip:

When shooting with optical slaves or CLS in cavernous environments which are tricky to get the slaves to fire (gymnasiums, theatre) I aim the flash forward on the light standard and place an umbrella behind it to act as a surface to bounce the PW'ed flash master off. The umbrella is not used to soften the light, its simply used to catch and reflect back the master onto the slaved light.

Yep. Looks like the parabolic antenna on the Death Star and works great. You can also use sheets of paper or aluminum foil to do the same thing in a pinch.

‪Catherine‬ asked:

I recently bought a Canon 580 EX II and have learned from the comments in this thread that it doesn't have a built in slave. I'd intended to get the Canon 430 EX II in future to use as a second flash, and some Pocket Wizards Plus IIs to trigger them.  If I attach one PW+2 to my hotshoe, and the other to either of the Canon flashes, does this mean that I'd need another PW to attach to the other flash, because the two flashes can't 'talk' to each other?

Catherine, in theory you should be able to slave the 430 (using a slave with hot shoe adapter cord) but as you may have read above some Canon flashes can be really picky with slaves. I would call Midwest and/or Flash Zebra for help with that.

On a broader note I would say that as a Nikon shooter, I have frequently been jealous of many of the Canon digital bodies over the years. That jealousy has never extended to the Canon flashes, for a variety of reasons. Several people have asked for specific advice about the Canon eTTL system, and how to set up master and "slave" flashes with that optically based system.

Alas, I am so in-the-dark on Canon's light-based off-camera light system that I would be doing a disservice if I tried to explain it. There is a new book by photographer N.K. Guy, entitled "Mastering Canon Flash Photography," which is a sort-of lighting compendium told from the Canon flash perspective that may be of more specific help to you.

It is not a purely Canon book, but rather as small-flash lighting book with a strong Canon orientation. If you are in the dark on your system's capabilities, it may be of help to you.

FSART Be a Good Photography Seller

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:33:18 GMT

Flickr’s deal with GettyImages is good news for buyers. Designers and other image users can now easily pick up the kind of creative, original photos that are more likely to be found on photo-sharing sites than in traditional stock inventories. It’s also good news for photographers. If buyers know that they can deal with a [...]

FSART Understanding Optical Slaves, Pt. 2

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Editor's note: There are enough questions coming in via the comments that I am prepping a slave-related Q&A for later this week. If you have a question that has not yet been asked, please get it into the comments ASAP. Thanks.
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In part one, we talked about the differences in optical slaves, and why internal slaves were usually better solutions.

In this post, we'll look at the practical side -- how do you get the best performance out of your slaves?
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#$!%! Thing Didn't Fire!

Slaves are a little like radio remotes in that they are not 100% perfect and reliable. (But the good ones are damn close.)

And unless I am working in an environment alongside other photographers, I almost always use a hard cord or a PocketWizard on one flash (which becomes a "master" flash) and optically slave the others. It's generally very reliable, and a fast way to work.

So, which flash to use as a master and which to slave? The answer might be different than you think.

Power vs. Angle of Coverage

Say you have a key light firing at 1/2 power, and three more accents set at 1/64th power. Try using your most powerful flash as a master and slaving the accent lights. If that main light is gonna be bouncing off of all sorts of things, so much the better.

But if you are running flashes at only modest power levels, you might try using the flash with the widest beam spread as the master flash. Often, beam spread trumps power level as the reason for a flash to be the master. The reason is simple -- the other flashes have to be able to see the light from the master to fire.

For example:

In this instance I would use the umbrella fill flash as a master, even though it is gonna be at a lower power than the key light. Reason being, the umbrella light will go out in all directions and the other flashes will see it better than if I master sync'd the key light at bottom right.

On the other hand, if I used one of the other flashes as a master, the umbrella flash might not fire. This could happen either because of the limited beam spread of the other flashes, or because the umbrella itself was shading this flash and reducing the intensity of the light from the master flash before it reached the slave.

The More, The Merrier

Realistically, with as many flashes in a photo as in the above example, they will usually all fire no matter what.

As long as at least one slaved flash can see the master, it will likely set off at least one other slaved flash, and so on. This cascading effect means that it is actually easier to fire off of a room full of 50 slaved flashes than it is to fire, say, two.

In the Usual Suspects -style photo above (more here) there was a 2-stop down umbrella right at the camera, acting as an on-axis fill. Those slaved, low-powered accent lights were fired by the umbrella. And if they weren't, one of the many other accent lights took care of the problem for us.

Be Like McNally

Knowing how to choose your master/slave flashes correctly is a good skill to have for those of you who use Nikon CLS or Canon eTTL syncing methods, too.

One trick Joe uses for complicated setups is to use an off-camera TTL cord and hang that master flash out somewhere where all of the remote/slave flashes can better see it. There is usually a spot that will get the job done -- and often that spot is not right on top of your camera.

But you can think that way for manual-flash slave setups, too.

For instance, if you had one PW and several slaved flashes that were gonna be used as gridded key lights, you might remote-/hard-sync a background/scener/rim light (upper left) that all of the gridded flashes' slaves could see. Problem solved.

And this is an instance where the slaved flashes' rotating heads would come in handy, too. You can point the heads at your subjects and rotate the bodies of the flashes so the slaves can see the master flash. (That is why near-360-degree rotation on flash heads is so useful.)

Hiding the Sun

Sometimes the problem is that the ambient light level is very bright, causing difficulty for the slave. It has to see that pulse of light to fire your flash. And if the slave eye can actually see the sun, too, that's a lot of competition.

Shading your flash eye with a little gaffer's tape will make a big difference in the range of your slaves in daylight. Just make sure you shade the sun while leaving a clean line of sight to the master flash.

It's Firing By Itself

If your slave is so sensitive it is getting false fires (assuming it is not a total piece of crap that would false fire inside of a dark closet) that is an easy problem to fix, too.

You can "dumb down" a slave by partially covering the eye with tape until the offending false positive trigger is canceled but your master will still fire the slave. With "super" and "ultra" slaves, you might have to do this more often than you would expect. No big mystery -- they are just that good.

What's Your Favorite Slave Tip?

Do you have a favorite slave tip I left out? Do you know a great slave that doesn't break the bank?

Hit us with a comment (and/or a URL to a picture that proves how good your "giant killer" cheap slave is) in the comments.

FSART DIY Camera Hard Case

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:13:36 GMT

In this post, Kevin A Crider will show you how to make a DIY Hard Camera Case the size of a suitcase. And yes, you can get a pro, feature rich version for $800, but if you walk to the closest garage sale, you can make a camera hard case for $5 and the price of the foam.

All this project requires is a suitcase that opens in the middle and a sheet of foam. You may use any suit case, but the ones that open in the middle allows us to store equipment on both sides.

FSART Who Is This Guy

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:02:53 GMT

If you were wondering who is that weird guy behind DIYPHotography, you can grab a hot chocolate and head over to PetaPixel where Michael Zhang gave me quite an extensive interview. Extra! Extra! read all about it. + You get the bonus of enjoying my unedited superb English)

And the obligatory link.

FSART Five Overlooked Ways to Sell Your Wedding (and Other) Photography

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:03:25 GMT

Photography: epSos.de There are lots of ways to promote your wedding photography services, but for many photographers, sales tend to come down to a couple of proven methods: building a website; and hoping for enough personal recommendations to keep new clients rolling in. But there’s a lot more that wedding photographers can do to find [...]

FSART Life is Hectic… Summer of 2010

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:40:37 GMT

I’ve been awfully quiet on my blogs and social media accounts over the last few weeks — but I’m not just being lazy. Most of you probably don’t give a hoot one way or another, but for those who are interested, here’s what I’ve been up to lately… At the end of June, my wife [...]

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FSART The Work of Jared Nickerson

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:07:33 GMT

Digital Art Empire has a nice feature on the character design and illustration of Jared Nickerson. His work includes beautiful iPod cases, digital art, graphics for Computer Arts Projects magazine and amazing compilations of images for use as wallpapers, sneakers and more. See some of Nickerson's favorite pieces in the article or view his portfolio.

The Work of Jared Nickerson originally appeared on About.com Graphic Design on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 21:07:33.

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FSART Understanding and Using Optical Slaves, Pt. 1

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

First off, this is a long-overdue post. It arguably could have been in Lighting 101. But this week (four-plus years later) we'll be looking at choosing and using optical slaves.

In this post, how to figure out which kind is right for you.
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Only Two Things Matter

Slaves are not particularly complicated. They see a light pulse, and then they complete a circuit -- hopefully firing your second flash in the process.

There are only two variables that should concern you -- connectivity and sensitivity. (Okay, price, maybe. But as you'll see later, it is better to wait a little bit and buy a little further up the scale if you possibly can.)

Connectivity

How sensitive a slave is doesn't mean squat if it will not connect to your flash. Typical connectors are HH (meaning US-style household plug), 1/4" plug, 1/8" (3.5mm) plug, PC plug and specialized connectors such as the weird Vivitar thingie.

There are hot-shoe based slaves, too, but you will always pay a premium for them. Which is why the very first rule of slaves is to:

ALWAYS TRY TO CHOOSE FLASHES WITH BUILT-IN SLAVES.

Sorry for the all caps, but I do not even consider a flash unless it has a built-in slave. But if your flash hasn't got one, you'll have to choose a slave that will connect to it. And God help you if you have a series of flashes with different connectors. With decent slaves starting at north of $50, you can see how the necessary duplication could get expensive fast.

If you have 1/4" and 1/8" jacks on your flashes, you can solve the compatibility problem with a cheap adapter. Ditto getting to an HH jack, if you have a couple bucks and some soldering skills. But the most important point is that you should be considering the down-the-road costs when you are buying flashes. And buying a flash without a built-in slave or an external PC jack makes life complicated for you later.

Long story short, there is a lot of elegance in a flash system with a jack you can sync with low-cost cords and a built-in slave. That was the thinking behind the LP160 -- to duplicate the bigger monoblocs' ease of syncing.

Sensitivity

Once you have your slave hooked up to your flash, you are halfway home. Now you have to get it to actually fire.

This is where lots of people pay the newb tax -- when they buy a no-name eBay slave that technically fits their flash but fires about 30% of the time. (But hey! They're $10!)

There are two kinds of slave circuits -- passive and powered. The above eBay specials are almost always passive. And when they do work it will typically be in an indoor situation -- low ambient, lots of bounce surfaces, and for good measure you should probably throw in some pretty high master flash energy levels, too.

Passive slaves will typically advertise a range of ~100 feet. Take that with a grain of salt. It is calculated under ideal circumstances with powerful master flashes.

To be fair, there are decent passive slave designs. But they typically will be for short-range, bright flash situations. My advice is to save a little longer and opt for a powered design.

Trust me, you really want a powered slave. You'd think they'd require batteries -- and they used to. But a while back someone got the bright idea to use the voltage from the flash's trigger circuit to power the slave. Presto, no batts needed.

The range on a powered slave can be very impressive. You'll see advertised ranged of ~600 feet and up. Grain of salt there, too. But you can compare apples to apples from the same manufacturers to see which slaves they consider to be their best.

Take a look at this slave product range from Wein, who has a good reputation for high quality slaves. You'll see a wide range of connectors and sensitivities available.

How do you tell which ones are powered slaves, and thus more sensitive?

You'll see prefixes like "super" and "ultra" being batted about. And the prices will rise, too.

And "super" and "ultra" are not far from the truth. If you have problems with these slaves, it is more likely to be from false positives (random fires). These are likely not random at all, but rather triggers from environmental light pulses -- the sun gleaming off of a passing car, perhaps.

But the takeaway is that an expensive slave is usually worth the money.

Built-In is Better

Here is a photo from a ways back, illustrating just how good the built-in slave is on a Nikon SB-800 when in SU-4 mode.

Built-in slaves (more so the modern ones as opposed to the ones from 20 years ago) are almost always "super slaves." And the internal connectors are all soldered, which is better than any flavor of jack.

That photo was taken in the middle of the day. That flash was triggered by the internal slave seeing the on-camera speedlight. Impressive.

So if you are buying flashes, stick with those models with a well-regarded built-in slave. You'll save money in the long run, and you add a lot of versatility to your lighting schemes.

We'll talk about that -- and how to get the most out of your slave's range and sensitivity -- in Pt. 2.

FSART Going Rogue with FlashBenders

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:00:00 GMT

I know what you are thinking -- this snoot looks a little familiar, perhaps?

Well, it is -- and it isn't.

Actually, better lemme explain.
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Okay, long story short -- and without going into too much detail:

Honl creates a line of snoots and gobos. Sells them independently. Signs with ExpoImaging as distributors. A falling out occurs. Honl back to independent. ExpoImaging releases new line of Rogue FlashBenders.

So now you know some backstory. And yeah, there is a certain level of familiarity involved. But they are different enough to make them of interest, so here goes.

Mounting Tension

There are a few differences between the Rogue FlashBenders and the Honl stuff. But for me the special sauce is in the way they designed their mounting system.

The speed strap is elasticized, and built into the snoot itself. It attaches with a nice (and consistent) amount of tension. The edges of the snoot attach with velcro, like so:

Advantages: Quick mounting, and the strap is always with the mod.

Disadvantages: You're essentially gonna pay for a strap with each mod. Whereas you might be able to get by with, say, four mods and two straps otherwise.

Horses for courses. And depending on what configuration you end up with, one system might be priced better for you than the other.

One area in which Honl snoots do best the Rogues is in reversibility. Being able to choose which surface you want on the inside of a snoot means that you can alter the internal reflectance of the snoot -- and thus the quickness of the fall-off at the edge of the beam.

Since the FlashBenders have a white interior, you are always going to get a wide feather to the edge of the snoot's beam. You can see it what I am talking about in the photo directly above.

I make my homemade cardboard snoots reversible from end to end (black interiors one end, white on the other) just for that reason.

Get Bent

Conversely, the FlashBenders do add a feature over the Honl models in that they have an internal set of thick, diagonal wires. This allows a kind of "twisty-tie" capability in that you can lock it into just about any shape you want if using it as a bounce card.

Personally, I do very little (if any) bounce card-type lighting. But I know a number of you do shoot that way (receptions, parties, etc.) and it would seem to be more versatile for those folks.

The wires do add weight. Not an issue for just one or two units, but if you have a stack you could tell. Feels kinda like one of the X-Ray proof film bags back in the day. (They were, of course only X-ray proof until the opaque image they gave on the machine caused the operator to crank the volume up until your film glowed in the dark.)

There is a large and small version of the snoot / bouncer / bendy thing. There is also a straight bounce card/gobo version, which does have a black insert or a white backing for versatility.

More info / prices, etc., at ExpoImaging.

FSART Photo Buyers Still Asking for More Ethnic Diversity in Images

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:19:39 GMT

Photography: Shockadelic For as long as John Griffin has been running CutCaster, the image marketplace he founded in 2008, he’s been hearing the same request from buyers. They want to see more “everyday” people in stock inventories, they tell him, and in particular, they want to see more “ethnicity” represented. It’s a request that crops [...]

FSART Press Releases That Win Publicity for Photographers

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:11:41 GMT

Photography: Zarko Drincic When it comes to spreading the word about a photography business, large or small, nothing is more effective than a write-up in a newspaper or an appearance in the news. Not only do you suddenly get all of the recognition and awareness that usually costs a fortune in advertising dollars, you’re also [...]

FSART Cheap, Powerful On-Axis Fill

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:20:00 GMT

Here's a quick little tip for the next time you find yourself in need of a little impromptu on-axis fill and you do not have a ring light: Use a direct speedlight instead.

It's small, hand-holdable -- and very powerful. The trick is getting it off of top of the camera, and even closer to the lens.
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On-Camera vs. On-Axis

The problem with on-camera flash is that the flash is mounted in possibly the very worst position possible. It's too close to the lens to offer any real shape, and yet far enough away that it leaves gnarly shadows under the chin of your subject.

But if you get it right next to the lens, everything changes. That's why your point & shoot sometimes makes some pretty glam-looking direct flash photos. Because the flash is about an inch from the lens.

Compare that to a typical DSLR, where the direct flash head can be ~6 inches from the lens and you see the difference. Pop-up flashes on DSLRs are better than shoe-mounted flashes for this reason, too (example here.) But right next to the lens -- as in touching it -- is best.

The trick is knowing where to position it (i.e., where on the clock face) around the lens. Here is how I hold it when filling another light, and why:

I put it on the exact opposite side as the direction of my key, and right next to the lens. I usually just hand-hold it, but I am actually thinking of building a little bracket that would do the same thing and allow me to position the flash on either side of the lens.

Here is the thinking: The fill is gonna be a couple stops down, so the tiny (almost non-existent) shadows created would appear on the side of the subject getting the key light. So the key light (at full exposure) will easily erase them.

The shot at top (of opera singer Rolando Sanz) is filled in this way. And it's almost hard to tell the fill is there, until you see the photo without it:

You can make it as subtle as you want, obviously. I usually just do it by eye -- dial it in until I like it. Take this fill down another stop and the photo would look completely different. Not better or worse -- just different.

Power to Burn

Say you are working outside with a big mono (or some ganged speedlights) as a key. You are underexposing the ambient by a good stop, with the sun coming from behind. That key is lighting your subject from one side, but leaving pitch black shadows on the other side.

A speedlight, fired direct, only has to fill your subject to about two stops down -- three, if you're a badass and/or if your publication medium can handle the subtlety. That is not asking a whole lot out of a small flash. Firing direct (zoomed, even,) any speedlight can handle that in full sun out to a distance of a dozen feet or more. Go ahead -- try it.

But that little kiss of light in the key light's shadows will give you depth and detail and more control over your subject. And right up against the camera, the sliver of a shadow it would have created will be wiped away by the key light.

Syncing Options

When shooting inside, I usually remote the key and slave the fill. Having a speedlight with a built-in slave is a godsend for this. But if you are outside, you may well need to remote them both depending on the position of the lights.

If your key light has a slave, it is simpler yet. Use an off-camera cord (as shown in the diagram above) for the fill light and slave the key. As a rule, I generally do not buy a flash unless it has a built-in slave -- a good one -- just for this flexibility. (More on slaves coming next week.)

So the next time you are shooting an off-camera flash-against-sunset photo, stick a little direct flash right up against that lens on the opposite side, dial it down two or three stops, and see if that doesn't give you a more nuanced look -- no fancy modifiers needed, and with power to burn.

FSART Lastolite Triflash Sync: Triple Threat

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:30:00 GMT

Multi-speedlight brackets are a great way to gang up your small flashes when you need a little extra oomph, as in when trying to overpower the sun for a portrait.

Why not just buy a monobloc, you ask? Well, for one thing, it is easy to gang up small flashes. But it is a little more difficult to hack a monobloc into key, fill and background lights. Different folks, different workflows.

There are a few options for ganging speedlights into a more powerful, single light. And they have all been pretty much the same -- until now.
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Ahead of the Curve

Unlike most multi-flash brackets, the Lastolite TriFlash Sync includes three hot shoes, as compared to the typical cold-shoe versions.

And that 1/8" (3.5mm) jack you see out front? That is parallel-wired to all three, effectively giving you the minijack sync option that frees you from the PC Cord Mafia.

Which means you can use an audio patch cord as a sync cable. A mono cord is supplied, but my stereo cords also worked with a PocketWizard to sync three speedlights at once.

You can also even mount the PW on the center hot shoe and have it securely fastened if you just are firing two strobes. Lastolite includes a cold-shoe adapter for that, lest your PW get locked into an endless relay-mode feedback loop from triggering itself.

Built Like a Tank

With three SB-800s connected as shown, the bracket/flash combo feels like one solid unit. The shoes all have both clamping rails and locking pin holes for Nikon and Canon models.

The clamps are really solid, which is important when you consider how much money could potentially be attached to this thing. I'd hang this one out over water without the usual ball bungee wrapped around the shoes for insurance. The tilt mechanism also has locking teeth, and is quite solid.

(Please note that the above photos are of a beta unit, and the final version may have slight differences.)

Radio Not Required

Obviously, you can go with a 1/8" hard sync cord into the bracket. But if you are, say, filling with an on-axis flash you can trigger a multi-speedlight key light with the built-in slave.

The slave is intelligent, and battery-powered -- which can be good or bad, depending on your perspective.

First off, batt-powered slaves are generally more sensitive, which is good. And you can set it to ignore from one to four pre-flashes, if you are into combining manual and TTL.

But that also means that the slave is battery dependent (in this case, a button cell) so if you are going to be using the slave you have to remember to turn the thing off every time.

It's a non-issue for me as the PW input is convenient and immune from syncing the flashes from other nearby photographers. And if I needed to use a slave I'd probably opt for the version built into my flashes -- the SU-4 mode on the SB-800s is as good as it gets.

That way, I also have three slave eyes pointing in different directions. So the best-aimed slave would trigger, and that flash would easily set the other two off. But most flashes do not have built-in slaves, and the Triflash Sync is inspired thinking for a multi-flash bracket.

They are not yet available, but are coming soon. If you are in the UK you'll get them first (est. in a couple weeks) as they are UK-made and distributed by Lastolite. And they should be trickling out to other countries via the normal Lastolite outlets in fairly short order after that.

Price is expected to be ~$149 in the US. And who knows, UK might even get a relative break this time. Or at least, not have to pay the usual ~1.5x price...

FSART Science Is an Untapped Photography Niche

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:13:38 GMT

Photography: PNNL – Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Today’s photography market has brought opportunity to every photographer with a store of talent and a stock of camera equipment but it’s also brought plenty of competition. If prices for stock images have fallen to microstock levels it’s because good photos are now common enough for buyers to [...]

FSART Shoot like a pro with the latest digital compact cameras.

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:51:18 GMT

© billy1125 With even the cheapest digital cameras loaded with features, even a complete novice will be able to take some fabulous shots. If dealing with f-stop and aperture has put you off taking anything but holiday snaps, the latest digital camera will have you taking pictures like a pro. Digital cameras in the $100 range can come loaded with some of the following features: Face Detection With automatic face recognition and tracking, portrait photography just got a whole lot easier. Digital ...

FSART Beers With: Edward Hopper

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:20:00 GMT

It's been a while since we got a chance to chat with any dead artists, and Edward Hopper was actually in the news this month.

So I caught up with him last week at (appropriately) a bar in Fell's Point in Baltimore to chat about the use of light in his most famous work.
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Strobist: First of all, Mr. Hopper, I'll confess to being a big fan. You have long been an influence on my lighting. And also for a lot of other photographers, from the look of things.

Hopper: Don't mention it. Really. Influence is one thing, but some of the "homages" are another thing altogether. And please, call me Edward.

Strobist: Thanks. I don't want to waste any time before getting to the painting you are most associated with: "Nighthawks" (1942). It has become a cultural touchstone.

Hopper: Well, that's one way of putting it…

[Ed. Note: Click on the pic to open it bigger in a different window for reference.]

Strobist: So, here's the picture. And I think it is damn-near perfect, if you don't mind my saying. Was that available light?

Hopper: Oh, no -- it was lit.

Strobist: So … it was also staged?

Hopper: Yep. The redhead is from Model Mayhem. $150 (and a CD) for three hours.

Strobist: And the guys?

Hopper: Locals. They cost me a coupla beers. We did it after hours. We paid the barkeep a C-note to stay late and pose, too. Pretty bootstrapped, really. Fortunately, we did it before that stupid $300 NYC shooting permit crap. Ridiculous.

Strobist: Indeed. So it is lit, then. Mind if I give it a go?

Hopper: Be my guest.

Strobist: Okay, so everyone has front light, and that can only be coming from one place. Direct light up in the ceiling?

Hopper: Close. It's actually a tight bounce. Direct might have looked better, but it would have been hard to hide the bare reflection in the coffee machines. With a near-surface bounce, we mostly tone down the reflection in the top dome. I actually considered pulling one of the coffee machines and using that window divider to hide the light's reflection on the other machine.

Strobist: Ah, and that would have given you an easy way to use a bare light.

Hopper: Yep, but what all-nite joint wouldn't have caf and decaf?

Strobist: Exactly. Thus the bounce?

Hopper: Yep. And that was the only interior light we used. It was an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra, by the way. It kicks out 400 watt-seconds, but was small enough to gaffer-tape the whole damn thing to the ceiling fixture. With a Skyport remote, we could control the power remotely, too. But we ended up running full power. The bounce ate up a lot of light.

Strobist: So, you say that's the only interior light. Were there more?

Hopper: Yes, there is one more strobe -- another Ranger Quadra.

Strobist: Where is it?

Hopper: You tell me.

Strobist: Well, shadows on the right side of the far window point to the light, so I know it is somewhere around that corner.

Hopper: Keep going…

Strobist: Any Photoshop tricks?

Hopper: Nope.

Strobist: Then it has to be behind the back right wall, on a very high stand ... and a boom?

Hopper: Yep, thus the tiny little Quadra. Head just weighs a few ounces. You can stick it way out there. Stand goes up behind the back right wall, boom comes out to the left, light is hanging out over the street and hidden by the wall over the window. That give me a hair light on Red, and separation on the guy sitting next to her.

Strobist: Is that important?

Hopper: Oh, yeah. Look at the other guy. See how he gets lost against the background on his camera left side?

Strobist: Yep.

Hopper: No separation light on him. That kinda makes him secondary to the couple as a subject. That back light is catching the barkeep's face a little, too. But we gobo'd it to keep it from hitting the area across the street directly behind the bar patrons. We left that nice and dark.

Strobist: Sweet. And everything else is ambient?

Hopper: Yeah, about 3-4 stops down. We dragged the shutter for eight seconds -- always bring a good tripod when lighting at night. Had the interior lights off in the bar, so no ghosting issues if they sat still. Ambient-wise, the bar is actually darker than the street outside. But the strobes reverse that.

Strobist: So, do you just wing this kind of stuff, or do you comp it out?

Hopper: Oh, no. I plan everything. Even did a run-thru a few nights before.

Strobist: Really? So you just lay it out on a cocktail napkin, McNally style?

Hopper: Used to, not any more. Now we do nice charcoals, on acid-free paper.

Strobist: Wait, what?

Hopper: Let me explain. Case in point -- see this?

Strobist: Yeah. Nice, I guess.

Hopper: I guess? That baby went for $352,000 at Christie's.

Strobist: The rough draft? Are you kidding?

Hopper: No kidding.

Strobist: Wow. I use my iPhone to make lighting diagrams.

Hopper: Aren't you cool.

Strobist: Apparently, not. Let's get back to the idea of the homage.

Hopper: You mean, ripoff?

Strobist: Whatever. So, here is "Boulevard of Broken Dreams II," (1984) by Gottfried Helnwein. Kinda cool, really -- James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis. It's cool because they all died before their time, and here they are in a bar together at night.

Hopper: Oh c'mon. It's a watercolor on cardboard, for pete's sake.

Strobist: Yeah, but…

Hopper: Really? You like it? REALLY?

Strobist: I have another small confession -- for the longest while, I thought the Broken Dreams painting was the original one.

Hopper: Are you friggin' kidding me? Look. I really gotta go, okay?

Strobist: But...

Hopper: Bye.

Strobist: Well, in that case…

__________

Abruptly ended fictional interview aside, this painting was in the news this month. After much painstaking research, it was determined that the bar in Nighthawks -- real tho Hopper made it -- probably never actually existed.

You can read more about that, starting here.

And if you enjoy beers with dead guys, you can read our earlier conversations with Rembrandt and Vermeer.

FSART Hermann Rorschach, White Courtesy Phone Please.

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:18:00 GMT

We get lot of smoke photography in the Strobist Flickr Group, but this is the first time one has come close to getting bounced for not being family-friendly.

On second thought, I don't see anything unusual about it at all.

(Nope, nothing.)

Click the pic to get to the Flickr page, where Strobist reader Shafik Saba includes a brief run-thru on how he shot this purely random smoke photo.

-30-

FSART Becoming a Successful Wedding Photographer

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:18:33 GMT

What does it take to become a successful wedding photographer? How have the opportunities available to today’s wedding photographers changed, and what are the most successful wedding photographers doing to make the most of them? Those were the questions that we were considering as we started putting together The Successful Wedding Photographer. To answer them, [...]

FSART Syncing Your Flash: The Recommended List

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Today, I'm going just a little bit out on a limb, making the first-ever detailed recommendations from this site. And we'll be jumping right into the deep end, into the crowded and somewhat murky waters of remote syncing devices.

Recommendations for three budgets -- and why -- after the jump.
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Guidelines

First, this stuff is not carved in stone. It is one person's opinion, based largely on personal experience. Think of it as if we were sitting at a bar, you were about to buy some remotes and you asked me for some friendly advice.

And since you asked me, you would of course be buying the beer. Because as long as I am imagining scenarios, I may as well imagine a free drink out of it. Or two.

Second (and much like the nice, foreign beer I would be enjoying) you don't ride first class on a third class budget. That said, all of these recommended sync methods get triple aces in one key area -- and that is sync reliability.

That's kind of a no-brainer for a desirable quality in a remote, and suffice to say that not all remotes are reliable. That is a deal breaker for just about any photographer -- or should be, at least.

The second quality is longevity. Which is to say that the remote system you buy this year should be expandable next year, and hopefully for several years after that. Additionally, there are other issues (sync speed, battery availability, etc.) But reliability and longevity are the biggies.

High End

For those of you looking to build a long-term system with an unmatched reliability record (and who are willing to reach deep into your pockets to do so) the following should come as no surprise. I recommend the PocketWizard Plus II Transceiver.

(Pocket Wizard Photo by Krazewerks)

Why? Several reasons.

I have used them (and their predecessors) for the majority of my professional life. And I have counted on them day in and day out, for thousands upon thousands of off-camera flash exposures.

And as for range, suffice to say that they give me all of the range I need. And I tend to push the envelope even on PW's occasionally.

Case in point, this air-to-ground shoot of a police helicopter at night. You can see more on that in a two-part, On Assignment post starting here. And it is a great example of what a PW can do when the boundaries are pushed.

PocketWizard or no, you gotta remember that radio is not perfect. Which is to say that there will be environments in which, for some reason, a given wireless remote will not work. The folks who are really serious about lighting sports arenas, for example, will usually opt for hard-corded sync options when possible just for this reason.

But I will say that I have rarely met the environment that will best a PocketWizard. If one won't fire, it generally comes down to a bad battery or a bad cord between the PW receiver and the flash. And I have very occasionally had issues when they were being used ~~illegally in other countries with different RF spectrum allocations~~ in, um, atypical environments.

But, back to the batteries, they run on AA's.

Dear God, why can't all remotes run on AA's? I always have spare AA's in my bag, and you could probably get AA's on the moon if you ran low. Sadly, that is not the case with many remotes. And it is yet another reason why I love my PWs.

So, why PW+ II's and not the new Flex/Mini platform? Coupla reasons, for now.

One, I am not a TTL guy. So I do not need most of the extra features. Two, the Flex/Mini platform is only out for one camera brand. But that is changing pretty soon. (They are pretty complex, and it's basically like a run-thru of the Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain" to integrate a Flex/Mini into a camera brand.

That said, I am a beta tester of the upcoming Nikon model and I am very excited. In the end, I will probably get one or two.

That is as compared to my 12 copies of various standard PW's. (I have +'s, +II's, standards, etc.)

With a Flex unit (runs on AA's, so Flex will get my nod over the Mini) on camera, I can get the most important upgrade -- a higher full-sync speed. And it will transmit that capability to all of my older PW's being used as receivers, thus making every single flash I have nearly twice as powerful. Relatively speaking, at least.

But, that's down the road. Short version: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight: Fedex.

When it absolutely has to sync: PocketWizard. And the PW+ II's are the gold standard.

Midrange

This is where it gets a little complex, because there are variables that will determine what may be a better choice for you. Plus, by talking you through those variables, I could probably stretch this into another beer.

In my experience (and that of friends) I would not hesitate to recommend any of the following, midrange remotes: RadioPopper JrX, Paul Buff CyberSyncs or Elinchrom Skyports.

For those of you using Einsteins, for instance, PCB's CyberSyncs offer significant advantages -- the receivers even drop right into sockets in the top of the Einsteins. A specialized transmitter allows you pretty much full remote access to the flash's controls. Ditto with the Skyports and many Elinchrom lights -- including the punch-above-their-weight Ranger Quadras.

For generic, manual shooters either one will work well. But you may well also consider the RadioPopper JrX's. Since you are on a budget if you have read this far, I would suggest you skip the studio version and go straight for the bare-bones JrX. It's a great, albeit imperfect, little system.

So what's the difference between the PW's and the midrange stuff? Coupla things.

First, the range will not quite be the same. And while you may never need to sync something 1500' away and/or way up in the air, that extra range equals extra robustness at lesser distances.

Other little quirks, too. Just niggling stuff, really. But worth considering, as it may guide you to different models in this range.

First, batteries. CyberSyncs take AA's on the receivers, but button cells on the transmitters. Skyports take button cells, too.

RP JrX's take CR123a batts -- more capacity than a button cell, but hard to find in a pinch. If you go JrX, then I strongly suggest going with rechargeable NiMH CR123s. You can read more here, and my rechargeables have performed flawlessly.

Other stuff: Design, oddly enough. The Skyports have a swivel antenna that is small enough to scare me a little. (Purely psychological, maybe, as I have not heard reports of them breaking off.)

And the CyberSyncs have raised buttons (including the on/off switch, on older models) that you need to mod to keep from being pushed accidentally in your bag. You also have to mod them if you want a lanyard. Else your sync cord becomes your lanyard (not good.)

But What About the Brand X Units?

I hear you already: What about Phottix / Yong Nuo / Gadget Infinity / eBay / etc. remotes?

To be sure, there are some very good remotes being made by the above companies -- at some very good prices, too.

Just a couple of years ago, the so-called "eBay remotes" were somewhat of a joke. A "newb tax," as it were, to be paid by the light of wallet. You buy them, they kinda work, you stay into it, you move up to a better remote within a few months. So you buy twice.

Not any more. The various oriental manufacturers are coming on strong. None are perfect, but many are very good -- and very cheap. But among their flaws is a deal breaker for me at this point, and the reason I would not recommend them to most people.

All of the remotes recommend above have either a demonstrated or presumed commitment to backwards compatibility. Which is to say that next year's remotes will work with last year's remotes. One of the problems with the constant improvements of the various oriental brands is that they have also been (for the most part) jerking us around with model-year-to-model-year incompatibility.

By comparison, I have 15-year old PWs in my bag that I can trigger with my beta Flex units. Even the RP's JrX system was designed to be compatible with their previous, higher-end system. That is, I think, because they are photographers themselves and know how important the continuity thing is. Choosing remotes that will let you painlessly expand your bag in a few years is essentially making a bet on your future commitment.

I expect that the Chinese/etc. remote manufacturers will get this soon enough. And when they do, I will be happy to recommend them providing they have good performance. And to any manufacturer reading this, if you are dedicated to backwards compatibility you should proclaim it on your product page and give yourself an advantage over your competitors.

Bargain Basement

Hello, poor-but-honest starving artists who have read this far. So, you may be long on talent and sincerity, but are presently short on cash. What, for you?

I do not recommend a remote at all. I recommend going hard core, or, rather hard cord.

Specifically, get on the 1/8" sync bus with a set of Universal Translators (only one if you are using, say, an LP160, or AlienBees, for example, as they already rock the 1/8" jack.

So, if you spend less than a sawbuck and get your camera onto the 1/8" standard with a Universal Translator, you do some pretty cool things for yourself. First, you are kinda making a down payment on future remotes, which also work on the 1/8" jack system. In fact, all of the ones I recommend above do just that. That is to say, you are standardizing on a cheap sync cord right from the get-go.

Second, you are into a system that is for the most part rock-solid. RF interference? No prob. Batteries? Don't need 'em.

Only issues are with range (limited to your sync cord length) and multi flash (I recommend flashes with built-in slaves.) You cord one flash, slave the others, and you are set. You can also move to a remote relatively painlessly later, starting with just two units. Slave your other flashes until you wallet recovers and then grab some more receivers.

And the cord itself? That's the beauty of the 1/8" system.

It gets you out of the grips of the PC Cord Mafia and into the promised land of nearly free, 1/8" sync cords. Seriously, 25-foot sync cord for $1.94, anyone?

You want backups, and reliability? Get five at a time at that price. (Cheaper, actually, if you get 5.) But still, create a little strain relief by rubber banding your sync cords to the light stand to keep them from jiggling and they will last far longer.

And you will always have a backup in the future when your fancy remotes crap out on you because you are shooting too close to Area 51 or something.

But that non-syncing PW may not be your biggest problem problem at that point. I'd concentrate more on the very serious gentlemen in the rapidly approaching green jeep with the .50-cal machine gun mounted up top.
__________

Dang, that was a pretty long post for a Thursday. (I like to coast into the weekend with a short post and a single malt…)

And as I said, this is my opinion alone -- worth what it cost ya. And naturally I got everything wrong, as I am sure many of you are about to tell me in the comments.

But that's okay. And did I mention earlier that I had switched to single malts? Nothing too pricey -- let's call it a 12-year old Jura. (I was educated this spring in Edinburgh.)

But they have been going on your tab for the last 15 minutes.

FSART Selling Pictures without Model Releases

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:56:58 GMT

It might look like a small detail compared to the challenge of framing the image and adjusting the lighting but for photographers looking to cash in on their images, the lack of a model release is a major limitation when it comes to making sales. It’s one of the most common reasons — together with [...]

FSART On Assignment: Mark Edwards

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:55:00 GMT

A suburban community nestled between Baltimore and Washington DC, Howard County is not exactly known for its exotic location backdrops for shoots. But if you are a little creative, you can usually scrounge something up.

Such was the case for a recent HCAC shoot of classical guitarist Mark Edwards, for which we borrowed access to the courtyard of the Franciscan Friars in Ellicott City, MD.
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The Friars are caretakers of an actual relic -- AKA, a part of a human body -- a practice which is common in Europe but much less so in the United States. The Franciscan Friars' Shrine of St. Anthony houses a relic from the saint of the same name.

The relic looks about as you would expect a centuries-old piece of human flesh to look, but the building itself is beautiful. It was designed after a similar structure in Assisi, Italy and is a great location, considering the relative homogeneity of the surrounding areas.

My standard M.O. for getting access to a neat area for a shoot is to call well in advance, compliment the heck out of the location, and be very flexible and deferential to their schedule.

I generally do not promise so beforehand, but afterwards I almost always email some images of the location itself and give the owners the rights to use them on the website, etc.

Some will chafe at the fact that I am giving away the use of photos, but I am also getting a great location for free. It's a win/win, as we are both essentially getting something for next to nothing.

It's also great karma. Thinking every transaction has to be of the monetary kind -- not-so-great karma.

Expose for The Sky, Light for The Subject

For the shot at top I completely underexposed the shaded, interior hallway around Mark, dropping the exposure to just below that of the full-daylight sky and sunlit background.

That means going to a 250th of a second shutter speed right off the bat, to give myself a friendly aperture against which to light. The shutter speed gives you the aperture (adjust your aperture until you get the background tones you want). Then you match that exposure with your flash and you are good to go.

For these photos I was using one light -- a Profoto B600 battery-powered flash in a Paul Buff PLM. I love the 64" version. I cannot imagine the big one, as the middle-sized one I use is humongous.

It is similar in theory to the 60" Photek Softlighter II (which I used here) but significantly more efficient due to its parabolic design.

Both of those light mods offer wonderful value for money -- truly a poor man's Octa, IMO. They both have some advantages over the other, but for less than $100 it is hard to go wrong either way. I am using both of them quite a bit lately, and hope to have a good comparison post up before long.

Give Yourself an Edge

So, why even use a PLM or Softlighter? Why not just a Zack Arias Special 60" umbrella?

Simple -- I love what that optional front panel does for me. It gives me a light source that has a flat front, and that means it has an edge you can feather.

Sometimes you want a big, bulbous light source to flood the area. And for that an umbrella is great. But the PLM, for instance can give you a beautiful, efficient, soft light source with an edge that you can use.

Take this shot, for example. See how the light falls off as it heads up the wall? That makes Mark pop a little more, and it is very difficult to do with an umbrella. You could flag it, I guess. But that would involve another stand, a big gobo and some clamps.

The outcropping on the wall also falls off a little differently than does the recessed wall in the back. I like that variety and texture.

Here is a side view of the light, and you can really see how the light falls off at the edges with the PLM/front diffusor combo.

For reference, Mark would be at the outcropping portion of the wall at left, and I would be shooting from camera right.

I nearly always shoot setup shots, and I usually learn something new from them. (And yes, I did use that gorgeous hallway in some of the other shots.)

In this case, you can see the hard tilt I have applied to the PLM. It's such a big light source that I still get a nice wrap on the vertical axis on Mark, but I have a nice fall-off edge against which to work, too.

In this setup shot you can see an even harder vertical fall-off on the camera right side than the one on the left. The light is actually pointed away from the wall, but is still hitting near the bottom. And you can really see the edge happening as it goes up.

The other thing you can see is how cool it looks to drop a big light source into the middle of a frame. Say you were shooting a photo from the point of view of this setup shot, looking back into the hallway. The light would bathe down on the subject and fall off as it came towards you, making for a very 3-D look in that space.

If you needed detail in the shadows of the subject, it would be an easy fill with some ~2-stop down on-axis light. If you did not want to fill the walls at the edge of the frame, you could flag the fill light on the sides or use a gridded, on-camera flash to fill.

You may remember Mark from a previous post in which we blew out the background with a little high-speed, focal plane sync. That photo (here) was shot at this exact location and direction, yet looks totally different because the shallow depth of field melts the background detail away.

But we spent most of the time working with that big, 64-inch PLM. Paul Buff is still trying to keep up with demand -- and with good reason. They are efficient, gorgeous and amazing value for $77.90, including the front diffusor.

FSART Adding a Watermark in Lightroom 3 – Video Tutorial

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 11:08:41 GMT

This is the third and last Lightroom 3 video tutorial that I’ll be posting on the new and upgraded features in this wonderful software. There are more new tweaks and upgrades but, for me, these three are the major ones that will affect the quality of my work. If you’d like more detailed tutorials on [...]

FSART Episode 236

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:34:43 GMT

In this final episode of the season Matt recommends the CS5 sharpen tool and gives a tip for Lightroom users about the solo mode workspace option. Dave talks about how to learn more about Photoshop from inside the program using CS Live features. Special guest Jim DiVitale has some helpful tips on shooting the perfect flame for studio photography. Be sure to catch up on previous episodes, the Photoshop Guys will be back in 4 weeks with a new season.

FSART Writing Photo Comments to Win Respect, Traffic and Leads

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:39:50 GMT

Photography: Duncan What you shoot will always define your reputation as a photographer. When it comes to generating respect and interest in your work though, what you say to other photographers about the images they shoot is no less important. Picking up an audience for your work on Flickr, for example, has always involved taking [...]

FSART Shooting Tethered in Lightroom 3 – Video Tutorial

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:05:29 GMT

As you guys know, I’m a big fan of Lightroom. And with Lightroom 3 out, I’ve discovered many cool tweaks and upgrades like super fast importing and disk deletion as well as image preview generation. They seem like little things but it just keeps time on your side just a bit more. On top of [...]

FSART From the Flickr Group 26-06-10

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:45:06 GMT

I’ve got myself some new favourites in the Beyond Phototips Flickr group. Head over and check out the new additions for yourself. This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website. Similar Posts: Flickring back to life Group Favs – 113 in one day! 15-03-10 Beyond Phototips [...]

FSART Beyond Phototips’ Best Posts!

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:41:17 GMT

Recently, I was looking through some of the posts that you’ve made popular over the years, and I realised that some of the newer readers may never have seen this content. So here’s a list of the most popular posts, with a healthy sprinkling of my own favourites – posts that I think you may [...]

FSART Photography Enthusiasts Enjoy the Recession

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:31:45 GMT

Photography: Larry Shaefer Larry Shaefer’s last professional project was in July of last year for the television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. He’d donated his time to build a staircase for a needy family. The work done, he put away his tools, took his family on a vacation to Oregon, and on the day he [...]

FSART Episode 235

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:36:31 GMT

Matt has some helpful hints for using the Liquify tool in Photoshop as well as a tip about Lightroom collections. Dave's tutorial is about using mini-bridge with smart objects, as well as an interview with onOne Software's Dan Harlacher.

FSART Lighting Tips For Digital Photography

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:04:10 GMT

When taking photographs outdoors, there's very little that any photographer, digital or film, can do to offset bad effects being caused by the position the sun. The usual problem is lens flare, which can be controlled somewhat by using a lens hood. Of course, one can always buy a high priced lens whose elements have been treated with special coatings. Even so, there are situations that the best of lenses can't cope with. If the photographer can't figure out a way of dealing ...

FSART Shoot Sellable Images without Leaving the House

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:24:12 GMT

Photography: Nebojsa Mladjenovic Vanessa Dualib’s photography career took off when illness restricted her to her house. Forced to make her own amusement, she played with food and cameras, uploaded the results to Flickr and ended up with an offer from Getty. Emin Kuliyev too spent a year in bed after a car accident broke his [...]

FSART Noise Reduction in Lightroom 3 – Video Tutorial

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:08:23 GMT

It’s been a while since my last video tutorial but I’m back with a microphone that actually works now. So I thought I would test it out on a new tutorial. Lightroom 3 just came out a few days ago and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to show you my favorite new upgrade. This isn’t [...]

FSART Episode 234

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:51:06 GMT

Scott recreates the graphic for the new Apple iPhone 4 launch ad. RC experiments with the new divide blend mode in Photoshop CS5 and shows viewers a trick for recreating an HDR image by finding the settings that were used to create it.

FSART Which Digital Photo Editing Software Should You Use?

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:14:12 GMT

The site I have linked for this posting poses the question: "Should digital photographers use image editing software?" Well, the quick answer is, yes, of course, and the article presents many reasons why digital photographers should post process their photo files for best effect. When you consider all the variables in the picture taking process it's nigh on impossible to get every one of these parameters spot on every time. Differences among all the various types of digital image editing software also ...

FSART Stock Photography Rights

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:33:00 GMT

Photography: Photos8.com You’d think that microstock companies have nothing to worry about. This time last year, iStockPhoto was predicting revenues of about $200 million — and that after Getty had bought the company just three years earlier for $50 million. Six months ago, Fotolia announced that it had 8 million images available, and as companies [...]

FSART Use Your Digital Photos To Create Fine Art Pictures

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:03:57 GMT

I've always thought that people should have hobbies and interests that can be engaged in both indoors and outdoors. This way when the weather, health, or just a need to stay home for anything arises, you'll have something to do if some spare time comes your way. For we fans of digital photography all the bases are covered, indoors and outdoors, so we need never be bored or have to call a halt to our creative efforts. One of the things I ...

FSART Simple But Effective Tips For Digital Photographers

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:55:04 GMT

Sometimes the simplest tip can make a huge positive difference in the results a digital photographer produces. One simple tip I learned when I first got into photography was the "Rule Of Thirds". This simple tip taught me to look at a given scene, or look for a particular scene, that would allow me to place the main subject in an off center place that made for a better focal point than if it was centered. Check out the list of simple ...

FSART From Theory to Creativity to Practice

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:36:14 GMT

It’s been a looooooooooooooong time since I posted a new tutorial on YPS. 2010 has been a changing year for me both personally and professionally. I needed to refocus my photography career. Believe it or not, I was getting bored. I was loosing my passion. Yup, you read correctly. And why was that, I asked [...]

FSART Episode 233

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:17:08 GMT

Matt has a tutorial on adding scribbles to your photos, which is great for kids and wedding pictures. Dave shows viewers how to display large images on the web with Photoshop's zoomify. Also, a tip about the new knowledge panel in Photoshop CS5 and organizing your photos with collection sets in Lightroom.

FSART The Most Overlooked Paid Photography Opportunities

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:09:11 GMT

Photography: GlacierTim Start thinking about ways to turn images into cash, and at the top of the minds of most photography enthusiasts will be microstock. With dozens of companies begging for new submissions to keep their inventory fresh and attract buyers, it takes little effort to be in a position to make sales. Just shoot, [...]

FSART Have Some Fun With These Digital Photography Tips

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:36:03 GMT

One of the many great things about digital photography is the ability to manipulate your photo files during the post processing stage. We've all cropped photos, added a bit of contrast, adjusted the lightness and darkness, the color, etc. but there are many more tricks and tips you can use to make your pictures truly stand out. Besides that these tips contain extensive instructions on how to "fix" or repair many of the common problems encountered in digital photographs such as pixilation. ...

FSART Creating Professionally Looking Cheap Flyers

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:32:22 GMT

© morbutoBeing a photographer and Adobe Photoshop expert, a lot of friends ask me to help them create professionally looking cheap flyers for their businesses. Whenever I have some extra time to spend I gladly aid them in implementing their ideas to create professionally designed flyers. The work hours I put into these projects may seem to go unpaid, but I hardly see it that way. That's what friends are for, right? Of course various printing companies will also have a nice flyer template which ...

FSART Episode 232

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:57:47 GMT

Scott shares a tip for placing a logo onto a t-shirt. Corey talks about the 3D capabilities of Photoshop and the new Configurator 2. Special guest Richard Harrington has a tutorial about using Photoshop to make black and white adjustments to video clips.

FSART The Most Surprising Amateur Photography Success Stories

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:39:45 GMT

Image: Twitpic When a picture sells, it’s traditionally the result of plenty of planning, lots of practice and years of professional training. The low cost of professional quality digital cameras, the ability to show the results on the Internet, and the rise of microstock have now made it more common for buyers to license pictures [...]

FSART Digital Photography Website For Adobe Photoshop Fanatics

Sun, 30 May 2010 18:54:16 GMT

If you're into Adobe Photoshop, and I mean really into it, as part of your digital photography post processing routine, have I got a website for you. Scott Kelby is a professional digital photographer of the highest caliber who is also a kind of a wizard with Adobe Photoshop. In addition to his tutorials and reports be sure to take a look at his photos. If those pictures don't inspire you and cause your creative juices to flow nothing will. Scott also ...

FSART New Sony HD Digital SLRs Offer Outstanding Image And Video Performance

Sat, 29 May 2010 18:57:07 GMT

The latest Sony Digital SLRs are really feature rich, and compact, and best of all, they perform as advertised. I have to admit that I'm quite taken with these cameras, or actually, what I mean is that I'm quite taken with the performance statistics these new Sony digital cameras have generated. Of course I find the Sony NEX-5 looks and design elements to be quite appealing as well. But good looks don't contribute to performance so what's so hot about Sony's latest marvels? ...

FSART Microstock Photographers to Earn for Approved Images

Thu, 27 May 2010 13:33:50 GMT

Image courtesy: Veer Veer Marketplace, a microstock element within stock site Veer, is currently paying photographers for every contribution that they approve. The rates vary according to the number of images accepted, whether the photographer is a new member or an existing contributor, and the size of their current portfolio, but can be 35 cents, [...]

FSART Digital Photographers Here’s A Free Website Building Program

Sun, 23 May 2010 19:11:43 GMT

If you're going to have a website you should realize that it may very well provide the first impression people have of you, and you want that impression to be favorable. This is especially important if the site is going to be used for business purposes, such as a place to advertise your services as a digital photographer and display examples of your work. But, even it you aren't going to use a website for business purposes, you still want your own personal ...

FSART The Easiest Ways to Generate Regular Photo Sales

Thu, 20 May 2010 14:36:04 GMT

Photography: unifiedphoto There are no “easy” ways to generate regular photo sales. Selling photography always requires a knowledge of craft, the talent to use it creatively and the willingness to push those images ahead of competitors’ works and into the hands of buyers. There are however a few methods that are easier than others, not [...]

FSART The Best and Worst Times to Raise Your Prices

Wed, 19 May 2010 11:07:33 GMT

Choosing your rates is one of the hardest challenges for any photographer, professional or enthusiast. But wrong prices can be corrected. The challenge isn’t just to choose the right amount though; it’s to pick the right moment to make the change. The worst time to demand more money is also the most tempting. As photographers [...]

FSART Check Out The Epson PM 310 Combination Printer/Digital Picture Frame

Tue, 18 May 2010 18:15:41 GMT

Here's a new mini "two in one" combination printer and digital picture frame from Epson that passes both the quality and "cute" tests, if the latter attribute is important to you. Combination, or, "All In Ones, have increased in popularity because, even as the devices become more sophisticated, they are occupying less and less of a footprint. This is an important consideration these days due to rough economic times causing people to downsize their offices and homes. Another great feature of this tiny ...

FSART Free Program Keeps Track Of Digital Photographers’ Time On Projects

Sat, 15 May 2010 18:46:01 GMT

If there's a need for you to know how much time you spent on a given project, or during a certain time period, then I've got a great little free program for you. This software enables anyone to track time spent using various programs, such as graphics programs, in the case of a digital photographer, which makes it easier to determine how much to bill a client. You can also use this program to track time spent researching a project which could be ...

FSART Let Your Digital SLR Breathe New Life Into Old Lenses

Fri, 14 May 2010 18:13:06 GMT

It may not seem to make much sense at first but read on and be surprised with what you can do with some "old time" lenses. First off I do want to mention that using film SLR lenses on a digital SLR camera body can range anywhere from very easy to very challenging and the way these lenses "behave" on a digital body may be quite different from its performance on a film camera. You need the correct adapter or mount, available from ...

FSART Filming Parkour – an Insiders Guide

Fri, 14 May 2010 14:57:02 GMT

Scott Bass is a practitioner of Parkour, a Photographer and Cinematographer. To those of you who have followed his work, you’ll recognise his videos “Live On” and “Constant Motion“, considered by many to be outstanding examples of Parkour Videography. His work often features well-known parkour athletes Daniel Ilabaca and Phil Doyle among others, and his [...]

FSART Photography Gigs That Pay You to Travel

Wed, 12 May 2010 12:24:22 GMT

Photography: Nic McPhee In 2004, Steve Levine was about to show his photographs in public for the first time. Three New York galleries had invited him to exhibit his work in a series of back-to-back shows that would last a total of four weeks. As he prepared for the exhibitions, meeting the gallery owners and [...]

FSART Kodak Is Striving To Be A Leader In Digital Photography

Sun, 09 May 2010 18:48:19 GMT

Eastman Kodak, or Kodak, as we call it, was right there almost at the very start of this photography thing, and despite some setbacks, is right there again as photography continues going digital. Digital photography is quickly morphing beyond the conventional press a button and take a picture technology. These days people tend to think more in terms of "imaging" rather than "photography" when referring to the action of "taking a picture", and that change in attitude has opened up an entire new ...

FSART The Biggest Obstacles to Your Photo Sales

Thu, 06 May 2010 14:21:36 GMT

Photography: The U.S. Army/Sgt. Travis Zielinski It’s now possible for any talented photographer armed with some basic technical knowledge, a consumer DSLR and a reasonable amount of talent, to sell their pictures. But not everyone is doing it. Not all photographers are making their pictures available to buyers and not all of them are making [...]

FSART Travel Photography for Stock Photo Buyers

Tue, 04 May 2010 12:28:11 GMT

Photography: WisDoc The usual order for shooting travel photos is to go somewhere far away then take some beautiful pictures. A competition currently under way at Shutterstock is trying to reverse the order: submit your best travel image and they’ll send the winner (plus one) to South Africa. They’ll enjoy three nights on safari and [...]

FSART Everyone’s Going Ga Ga Over The New Digital Polaroid Instant Camera

Mon, 03 May 2010 18:08:33 GMT

I've been a fan of instant photography ever since I was a little kid when an instant camera was simply called "the Polaroid." That's because no one else manufactured similar cameras and Polaroid had the field all to themselves. But things soon changed. Polaroid continued changing and improving their products, Kodak took a shot at the instant camera business, and Fuji came out with some cameras and film of their own, but the technology was still clumsy and limited. But people still ...

FSART Creating an Effective Photography Newsletter

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:37:52 GMT

Photography: xposurecreative.co.uk If clients had better memories, a lot of photographers would be out of business. Couples wouldn’t need wedding albums to remind them of the most important day of their lives and families wouldn’t need portraits to show them what their children looked like aged three, seven or thirteen. They could shut their eyes [...]

FSART Photographs Don’t Want to Be Free

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:08:01 GMT

Stewart Brand famously declared that information wants to be free. Newspapers have been cursing him ever since. But what about images? If words are crying for freedom, are pictures also aching to be used for no fee and without royalties? Should photographers ever give away their work, and how can they be sure that their [...]

FSART Pentax K-x Digital SLR Now Available In Designer Colors

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:13:39 GMT

Pentax always struck me as a fairly conservative company that builds appealing, quality products that boast an understated, but sophisticated look. This is not to say that the company lacks imagination, to the contrary, Pentax has been responsible for many important firsts in photography, and it seems that now, in the digital camera age Pentax has decided to a bit of a designer camera thing. The popular Pentax model K-x digital DSLR will now be available in designer colors, which are listed as ...

FSART The Effects Of Different Digital Camera Lenses And Focal Lengths

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:47:32 GMT

Newcomers to digital photography have many questions about the equipment and processes associated with it. Not surprisingly the topic of lenses comes up all the time; as well it should, right after digital cameras in fact. It's obvious that people are aware of the fact that a camera's lens is probably the most important part of a camera. Some digital camera fans are too concerned only with numbers when it comes to lenses, usually the zoom ratio. With DSLRs it's a different ...

FSART An Easy Way to Sell Your Photo Prints Online

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:29:41 GMT

Image Courtesy: BuyaPhoto.net Prints don’t sell on the Web. You can sell digital downloads through microstock sites. You can turn your photos into books and offer them on online stores. You can even put your pictures on products and offer them as t-shirts, mousepads and even skateboard decorations. But create a gallery and suggest that [...]

FSART Turn Your Digital Photos Into A Custom “Photobook”

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:32:13 GMT

I've been a fan of photography all my life; and one of the things I like about it is that when you can't get out to take pictures you can still indulge in your hobby indoors. I'm not talking about indoor photography but rather that part of digital photography that made the "wet" darkroom, from the days when film reigned, a thing of the past. That is, what to do with your photos after you've taken them and this time I'm not referring ...

FSART Become a Master of Your (Photography) Niche

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:38:13 GMT

Decide that you want to make some money from photography and whether you’re setting up as a professional or just hoping to earn a little extra cash at the weekends, you’re going to be spoiled for choice. You could become a wedding photographer, a specialization with plenty of demand, high prices… and lots of competition. [...]

FSART Lose Yourself, Find Things to Photograph

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:22:55 GMT

Often people mistakenly believe that they need to go to a strange new land to discover new things to photograph. I discovered otherwise just yesterday. Yesterday, I deliberately got lost in my city, Chennai. I went into a section of Chennai that I’d not been to before, and I discovered a whole new part of [...]

FSART Get Correct Exposure On Every Photo From Your Digital SLR

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:00:49 GMT

Obtaining correct exposure for your digital photographs really isn't all that difficult given that the entire process can be automated; but there are circumstances when proper exposure can be tricky. Digital Photography Tips: How to get Correct Exposure and Avoid Blurry Photos in Low Light. from Nick Campbell on Vimeo. Exposure is more than just regulating the amount of light that passes through your camera's lens and onto the digital sensor. Depth of field is controlled by the F stop setting and the ...

FSART Entrepreneurial Photographers Become Successful Developers

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:24:39 GMT

Image courtesy: Light Blue Software Become a successful photographer and it won’t be long before other photographers are asking how you did it. They’ll want to know how you take your pictures, what sort of equipment they should use and what tips you can offer about shooting in low light, bright light, no light. If [...]

FSART Turn a Single Photo Shoot Into a Lifelong Business Relationship

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:28:47 GMT

It takes effort to land a photography client. You have to make sure that your website is seen and persuasive, that your images are attractive and inviting, and that your prices are pitched at the right level. You have to talk the lead into hiring you, and you have to build up the experience that [...]

FSART Digital Photography Tips Tutorials And Challenges

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:06:39 GMT

If, "Variety is the spice of life", isn't it time you started varying your photographic style and techniques? Remember that as a serious digital photographer, and amateurs can be serious, you have to stretch your legs so to speak and let your creative juices flow where they may. Digital cameras and photography let you explore new ways of taking pictures and finding new subjects without breaking the bank by paying for hundreds of prints just to get a really good one. You ...

FSART How About A Digital Camera For Mom On Mother’s Day?

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:29:47 GMT

Mother's Day is about a month away so it's not too soon to start thinking about what to give mom as a gift. Of course there's always the traditional gift stuff, jewelry, flowers, etc., but how about something most people don't often think about giving as a gift, a digital camera. These days you can spend as much or as little as you want and be assured of getting a digital camera that will take at least "good pictures." Don't stop with ...

FSART Photographer Becomes Professional Cartoonist

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:19:44 GMT

Courtesy: Emily Horne and Joey Comeau Photographers, especially photojournalists, are often told that their pictures should tell a story. A number of photographers though, are using their pictures to create entire storylines, as well as jokes and books, adding text and speech bubbles to turn their images into comic strips. Posted online, these webcomics are [...]

FSART The Knowledge You Need to Sell Your Photos

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:46:06 GMT

Photography: ShironekoEuro The difference between a professional who makes a living out of photography and an enthusiast looking for his or her first sale isn’t always talent. There’s no shortage of mediocre photographers using their cameras to pay the rent, and there’s no shortage too of photography lovers with a great eye and a portfolio [...]

FSART Olympus Stylus 8010 Digital Camera Can Take A Beating

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 18:26:23 GMT

When shopping for a digital camera it's important to not only make certain that it has all the features you want or need, or at least that you can afford, but don't forget about durability. After all you want your new toy to be reliable and not break down, at least under what we call, "normal operating conditions." But what if your demands include activities that put delicate gadgets in harms way, such as rock climbing and other strenuous outdoor activities? Normal ...

FSART Different Ways to Teach Photography

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:55:57 GMT

It’s not easy to make money out of photography. Learning how to shoot great pictures is hard enough but you also have to be able to put them in front of buyers, persuade those buyers that they want them and beat off the competition. Traditional stock companies are choosy, galleries are selective, and microstock sites [...]

FSART Stormchasing Photographers Capture Tornados

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:52:51 GMT

Photography: Mark Humpage For most photographers, the weather represents a challenge. It’s one element that they can never control and it affects how they shoot, what they shoot, and how the pictures eventually turn out. For one group of photographers though, the weather is more than a factor that affects the light levels. It’s the [...]

FSART Recover Lost Hard Drive Data With Free iCare Data Recovery 3.6 Software

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:29:51 GMT

Here's the latest free hard drive data recovery program to be offered, and as always I advise you to maintain separate, removable media, to back up your precious digital photo files. Of course the use of removable media for backup extends beyond your photo files and should include all files that you consider "must haves." The "iCare", "Data Recovery 3.6" Software, is a bit more advanced than some past free offerings and deserves a look, especially since it's free. Besides the usual ...

FSART Get Your Digital SLR Firmware Updates Here

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:05:11 GMT

You do update your digital camera's firmware don't you? After all, it's like getting at least part of a new camera for free, so why not update? The current hot firmware update is for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and is version 2.0.4. Of course there are firmware updates for other Canon models available, and, you'll find links to firmware updates by all the major digital camera manufacturers there as well. "CurrentPhotographer.com" is a website where you'll not only find ...

FSART Combining Passion and Imagery in Aviation Photography

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:31:01 GMT

Photography: Philip Stevens A great photograph always brings two kinds of pleasures. There’s the thrill that comes from knowing you got all the technical demands right: the lighting, the composition, the focus, the moment. And there’s the excitement too that comes from looking at a subject you love presented in the most loving way possible. [...]

FSART Build a Valuable Photography Collection

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:03:09 GMT

Photography: Mr. T in DC On March 26 and 27, Profiles in History, a California dealership, will auction a collection of photographs and memorabilia that is said to include “every iconic image of ‘30s and ‘40s glamour photography by every major photographer.” Among the images to be sold are a negative and custom print of [...]

FSART Free Program Will Speed Up Your Digital Photo Post Processing

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:17:17 GMT

Anything that will increase a computer's overall processing speed is always welcome, and users of digital graphics programs, such as we digital photographers, can always use more computer speed. Anyone who has ever run the full blown Photoshop programs knows what I'm talking about so let's clean up those hard drives and at the same time recover lost files. "Wise Disk Cleaner 5.2 Professional", by WiseCleaner.com, searches for duplicate files and other extraneous bits and pieces of code that are no longer required ...

FSART Free In Depth Adobe Tutorials For Digital Photographers

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:33:58 GMT

With digital photography your images aren't complete until you've engaged in some form of post processing image manipulation. That is unless you and your digital camera are so good that there is no need for further adjustments after you've taken a picture. Well, for people like me, who at least take a quick look at all photo files using one graphics program or another, and then try to make the image better, we're always on the lookout for shortcuts and guidance. If ...

FSART I’m a Photographer for National Geographic

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:28:33 GMT

Photography: ©National Geographic When photographer Paul Nicklen climbed from his Zodiac into the Antarctic Ocean to take pictures of a massive leopard seal for National Geographic, the former marine biologist from Baffin Island, Canada, had no idea what to expect. A short distance from an enormous marine predator and in freezing waters, he swam up [...]

FSART Canon to acquire ‘.canon’ Top-Level Domain

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:40:20 GMT

Canon has announced that they will be acquiring the ‘.canon‘ Top-Level Domain (examples of other TLDs are .com, .org, .co.uk, etc.). They expect that this will increase the effectiveness of their communications. Canon hopes to globally integrate open communication policies that are intuitive and easier to remember compared with existing domain names such as “canon.com.” [...]

FSART Selling Your Photos to Book Publishers

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:08:33 GMT

Photography: James Higgins Prowling used bookstores in the search for old photography books back in 2002, photographer Karl Baden began to notice something unusual. Many of the most iconic images in the history of photography, he saw, were turning up on the covers of books that appeared to have nothing to do with the subject [...]

FSART Group Favs – 113 in one day! 15-03-10

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:45:36 GMT

I’ve just finished looking through approximately 550 of your photographs. A tough undertaking, and one of my own making because I’ve put off writing this post far too often. However, there is a bright side to it. Here, we have 113 of your photographs that are really cool. They’re all my favourite photographs from the [...]

FSART The Surprising Places Where Photography Meets Business

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:07:16 GMT

Photography: Joe Thorn One of the things that makes photography special is that it’s an activity that many people pay to do and some people are paid to do. It’s a business and an industry, as well as a passion, a hobby and a pastime. Usually, those two elements don’t mix. Photographers who shoot stock [...]

FSART Creativity Really Can Sell Pictures

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:19:34 GMT

Photography: Mike Stimpson When Toyota hired Rebekka Gudsleifdottir to shoot a series of billboard ads for the Prius in 2006, it was an idea they were after. Rebecca, then an art student in Iceland, had already gathered a large following on Flickr by creating a series of self-portraits in which she appeared twice. That double-appearance, [...]

FSART Photographers Struggle with Licensing Models

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:32:56 GMT

If a photographer were to open a store — or even a gallery — the business plan would be pretty simple: figure out the right price for a photo, put the price on a sticker, put the sticker next to the image, and wait for someone willing to pay that amount. It’s the way retail [...]

FSART Photodoto closing down

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:24:19 GMT

I started Photodoto in 2006. In four years, we’ve published nearly 600 articles on a diverse range of topics for beginners to advanced photographers. I’m proud of the work. For myself, and on behalf of all of Photodoto’s contributing writers: thank you for reading and contributing. When I started Photodoto, my mission was to try [...]

FSART The Best-Selling Popular Photography Subjects

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:29:43 GMT

The biggest difference between photography enthusiasts and photography professionals is what they’re hoping will happen when they put down the camera. A photography enthusiast hopes that he or she has captured an image that will make them proud, show that they’ve improved their skills and made use of their talent and technique. A photography professional’s [...]

FSART Stock Photography Agencies for Amateur Photographers

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:11:26 GMT

Photography: illustir The stock industry has changed. For established professionals who were already inside and enjoying the benefit of lifetime royalties from a reliable sales channel, it’s all been bad news. Competition has increased, and the prices — even of photos from companies as selective as Corbis and Getty — have fallen sharply. For enthusiasts, [...]

FSART Memory Card Tips

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:39:28 GMT

This guest post was written by Sherry Osborne. Sherry is unable to leave home without at least one camera hanging off her shoulder. She posts photography tips geared to beginners several times a week at photoblog.net. Contact me if you are interested in guest writing for Photodoto. -John I don’t know if this has ever [...]

FSART TTV Photos

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:47:37 GMT

I’ve mentioned before that I’m often inspired by this blog and yesterday’s post was a TTV photo, which inspired me to tell you, dear Photodoto readers, how to create TTV photos. Luckily for you it’s very simple, in principle. TTV stands for “Through the Viewfinder” and to create one of these photos you need two [...]

FSART Earn Money With Digital Photography—Promote Your Skills

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:20:38 GMT

This guest post was written by Laura Charon. Laura is an avid photographer who has been taking pictures for years–first with an old brownie camera and more recently with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. You can read more of Laura’s posts at Beyond Megapixels. Contact me if you are interested in guest writing for Photodoto. [...]

FSART Getting Your Photography Business in the News

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:29:13 GMT

When her friend Ellis was posted to Iraq, photographer Kim Crenshaw decided to send him a care package. Like others hoping to support troops serving abroad, Kim filled the package with candy, soaps and snacks but as a photographer, she wanted to contribute a little more. She invited the soldier’s wife and son into her [...]

FSART Inspiration

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:00:03 GMT

If you’re following along with DSLR-101, if you’re a more experienced amateur, or even if you don’t own a camera and just like to look at pretty pictures check out this website for some inspiring interviews with professional photographers. I’m going to call it inspiration Tuesday. Enjoy. Be inspired. Go play with your camera. Photo [...]

FSART DSLR 101 – White Balance

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:00:32 GMT

We’re continuing with our DSLR 101 this week and today we’re explaining white balance. What? White balance is responsible for keeping your photos the correct temperature. A low colour temperature creates more red, a higher colour temperature more blue. Digital cameras create the correct colour temperature by picking the part of the photo that it [...]

FSART Citizen Photojournalists Win Sales Every Day

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:34:37 GMT

We’ve heard the hype before. Citizen photojournalism, we’ve been told, is the future of editorial photography. Newspapers are shrinking their photography departments just as cameras have become standard features on mobile phones. With a camera-holder at every news scene, all a media outlet has to do is ask for submissions from any accident, disaster, terrorist [...]

FSART Buy Awesome Photos and Help Haiti

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:25:13 GMT

If you want to get some awesome new art for your walls and help the relief efforts in Haiti at the same time, check out these photo auctions: Switch Cities Erin Lassahn Simply bid on a photo you like, if you have the highest bid you get the photo and your money goes to help [...]

FSART Come together now…

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:08:45 GMT

When a Canon and a Nikon come together… … at least they’re not a Pentax. Joey L & The Photo Club. This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website. Similar Posts: Filming Parkour – an Insiders Guide How your lens was made… a video Amazon’s top [...]

FSART DSLR 101 – ISO

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:16:29 GMT

Time for lesson number two in our DSLR 101 series! Our topic today? You may have heard of it, it’s a little thing called ISO. What? ISO is traditionally a measure of film speed; basically how sensitive a roll of film is to light. Obviously if you’re using a DSLR you’re not using film but [...]

FSART Learn from Big Shot

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:00:22 GMT

In keeping with the theme of learning, here’s an interesting program I hope expands in the future. Bigshot is currently only running workshops in the New York City area but it looks like they might reach other cities soon. The Bigshot workshops allow kids to build their own camera from a set of Bigshot click-together [...]

FSART Photography Studio Shares its iPhone App

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:26:09 GMT

One of the biggest problems for photography studios is amnesia. Clients book a shoot, pick up their pictures… then forget who took them. They might show the pictures to friends occasionally but for the most part, the images stay in the album and the direct connection to the photographer – together with the potential for [...]

FSART DSLR 101 – Auto Exposure Bracketing

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:00:32 GMT

Do you own a DSLR but use it mostly as a very expensive point-and-shoot? Time to take off the training wheels! Join us for DSLR 101! Don’t worry we’ll take it slow, and the little green rectangle of the auto setting will always be there for you to run back to if you find yourself [...]

FSART Flickr Photographer Says No to Getty

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:16:40 GMT

Photography: Vanessa Dualib Food photography is usually a difficult niche for a photographer. Getting the lighting right is only part of the challenge. You also need to know how to pose the food, prevent it from drying out under lights and make it look appealing and appetizing. Many specialist photographers work with professional food designers [...]

FSART When Photography Really Does Mean Business

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:21:49 GMT

Photography: Craig Holmes It would be great if success at photography were only about talent, technique and the ability to produce a great picture. It isn’t. Earning a living behind the lens also means understanding the business of photography, knowing how to promote services, sell images, and protect yourself against the most damaging competition. That’s [...]

FSART Photo Project: Going Retro With Your Camera

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:06:14 GMT

A few days ago, I wrote about how to retrograde your dSLR, and turn it into something a bit more dated. Yes, a strange thing to do… Now, we’re going to look at how you can use that retro dSLR to improve your photography skills and the way you think when you have a camera [...]

FSART Tiny Tips 17: Retro DSLR

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:16:58 GMT

photo credit: Alex Dram A Digital SLR is a modern piece of equipment. It has nothing of the old-world charm associated with photography. No “wait till the film is processed“, no “did I get the exposure right“, no “oh, this is not good enough to be photographed“, no “Is the light right?”, no “I’ve got [...]

FSART On hiatus, for now…..

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:45:41 GMT

As you can see, I haven’t been updating the Digital Design Blog for a few months now. Today, I’m officially putting it on hiatus…for now. Hope to be back later in October with some major [more...]

FSART Mobile Marketing: Is App-vertising Really The Answer?

Thu, 14 May 2009 20:55:48 GMT

My new post for AdAge’s DigitalNEXT series is up and it’s called “Mobile Marketing: Is ‘App-vertising’ The Answer?”. This time I look at how apps — and Apple’s App Store and iPhone in particular — [more...]

FSART Disruptive Mobility Roundup: Amazon DX - say hello to my not-so-little friend, T-mobile support for unlocked iPhones, eyes-free shell for Android, “open” 4G and more

Thu, 14 May 2009 20:32:40 GMT

Netbooks et al The new Kindle DX “wireless reading device” is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Features include 9.7″ diagonal e-ink display, a PDF reader, and the capacity to store 3500 books. http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/files/articles/kindle.jpg iPhone T-Mobile offers iPhone [more...]

FSART Announcing: New Facebook Marketing Breakfast Event In San Francisco

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:22:50 GMT

I’m happy to announce that Razorfish is partnering with Inside Facebook to announce the first Facebook Marketing Breakfast, a half-day invite-only event in San Francisco on Thursday, June 18th, 2009, focused on the landscape and [more...]

FSART Will Augmented Reality Reshape Digital?

Fri, 01 May 2009 17:08:07 GMT

My new post for AdAge’s DigitalNEXT series is up and it’s called “Augmented Reality: Can The ‘Star Wars’ Effect Sustain Engagement?”. This time I look at some of the best early augmented reality advertising work [more...]

FSART Can Creativity Be Crowdsourced?

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:31:01 GMT

My new post for AdAge’s DigitalNEXT series is up and it’s called “Can Creativity Be Crowdsourced: New Tools, Technology Force Big Changes For The Ad Industry”. This time I look at how some early crowdourcing [more...]

FSART How To Save The Mobile Web

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:24:10 GMT

Razorfish interaction designer John Pettengill argues why a “watered-down Internet” is not the future of the mobile web — and what should be: An Internet Watered Down View more presentations from johnep.

FSART Unintended Trailblazing?

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:40:12 GMT

There have been a lot of companies lately leveraging the open framework of Twitter and Facebook as the back end of their content publishing. Modernista was one of the first to hit my radar last [more...]

FSART Five Reasons You Shouldn’t Tweet Professionally

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:00:54 GMT

While several million people pile into Twitter, the Millennial Short Form Brain Nugget Sharing Service, lots of folks are wondering, “How do I manage my work-related persona in these memed-out, darling-and-pundit-infested waters?” Truth is, tons of [more...]

FSART Moms Who Tech: Lessons Learned From The Web 2.0 Expo

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:59:38 GMT

Last week I had the pleasure of co-hosting a mom-centric Birds of a Feather session stemming from the San Francisco Web 2.0 Conference. Facilitated by Beth Blecherman (www.techmamas.com), the session was called “Moms Who Tech” [more...]

FSART Tap, Tap, Flick, Fling: How Gestures Are Redefining Digital Creativity

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:55:00 GMT

My new post for AdAge’s DigitalNEXT series is up and it’s called “Tap, Tap, Flick, Fling: How Gestures Are Redefining Digital Experiences.” The basic premise of the post is that the technology behind gestural and [more...]

FSART ARF ReThink: Meet The Connected Consumer

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:49:38 GMT

The presentation that Shiv Singh and I gave on Tuesday at the ARF ReThink Conference on the future of consumer behavior is up on SlideShare and embedded below. Meet The Connected Consumer View more presentations from gschmitt. ********************************************************* We [more...]

FSART Disruptive Mobility Roundup: Foursquare’s Urban Mix Tape, Closing the Digital Divide, and the Economic Revolution will be Mobilized

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:02:16 GMT

[Image of the week] DIY compact iPhone stand via Boingboing by way of Make Foursquare’s Urban Mix Tape Foursquare is a service created by Dennis Crowley (founder of Dodgeball) and Naveen Selvadurai and it was the breakout app [more...]

FSART How To Use Data To Drive Web Profits In A Downturn

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:00:46 GMT

Sample Page Views Per Session Data The economic downturn has many of us personally looking to stretch our dollars and make the most of what we’ve got until budgets can be loosened again. For corporations and [more...]

FSART SXSW Recap In Words and Pictures

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:40:26 GMT

For those who weren’t able to make it to SXSW Interactive this year (like myself), sketch-artist Mike Rohde provides the next best thing by uploading 70+ pages of moleskin “sketchnotes” to Flickr. Check out the [more...]

FSART Data Visualization Is Reinventing Online Storytelling

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:56:41 GMT

My first post for AdAge’s DigitalNEXT series is “Data Visualization Is Reinventing Online Storytelling: And Building Brands in Bits and Bytes.” Basically I argue that a new breed of storytellers, whom I call “visual scientists”, [more...]

FSART New Razorfish DaVinci Surface Application Video

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:31:13 GMT

Even more on the gestural UI front from Razorfish this week. This time it’s a new Microsoft Surface application called DaVinci which is a prototype/experiment that blurs the lines between the physical and virtual worlds [more...]

FSART Carville: Another Razorfish Gestural UI Prototype

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:55:30 GMT

Just came across this early car showroom interactive piece built on Microsoft’s Surface from the Razorfish Headlight Blog. The goal was to embrace the game-friendly aspects of Microsoft’s Surface table (multi-touch, large enough for simultaneous [more...]

FSART Disruptive Mobility Roundup: Mobile Banking, SXSW, and the User Experience of Money

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:00:58 GMT

Intriguing: Zippi Cash will let you search online transactions and eBay sales to find out how much stuff lying around your house could actually be worth. Coming soon to the iTunes App Store. Study Predicts 913 [more...]

FSART Shaking Up Dockers: Razorfish Creates Gestural Advertising for the iPhone

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:51:22 GMT

The other week I wrote about how Razorfish was designing gestural interface experiences beyond the iPhone. This week it’s all about our agency designing advertising *for* the iPhone. Today Dockers announced the first truly interactive, “shakable” [more...]