The Moment It Clicks / Joe McNally - A Book Review |  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. read more |
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Santander: Check Out Our Real Employees | 
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! | | 8/6/2010 4:24:00 PM - Photoshop Disasters |
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Best Digital Cameras With Video Capability | |
© 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 ...
| | 8/6/2010 12:03:59 PM - Digital Shot |
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Q&A: Feathering a Soft Box |  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.
 8/5/2010 3:00:00 PM - Strobist |
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The Strobist Corner: A Quadzillion Duty Light Source |  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 cheapwork 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.
| | 8/4/2010 11:23:03 AM - DIYPhotography |
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Episode 237 | | 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. | | 8/3/2010 7:32:19 PM - Photoshop User TV |
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Governments and Groups on Flickr | | 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 [...] | | 8/3/2010 2:11:52 PM - Photopreneur |
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Poll: I Would Improve My Photography If... |  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 p... | | 8/3/2010 12:11:37 PM - DIYPhotography |
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Stick In A Can (Poorman's Solution For 3D Lighting) | 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). read more |
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The Many Faces Of... | "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. Permalink | Comment | Email this | | 8/2/2010 4:01:36 PM - Graphics |
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On Assignment: Betty Allison |  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.
8/2/2010 4:00:00 AM - Strobist |
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Slave Q&A: Your Questions from Last Week | 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... | | 8/2/2010 2:19:00 AM - Strobist |
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Be a Good Photography Seller | | 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 [...] | | 7/29/2010 12:33:18 PM - Photopreneur |
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Understanding Optical Slaves, Pt. 2 | 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... | | 7/28/2010 9:00:00 PM - Strobist |
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DIY Camera Hard Case |  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. read more |
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Who Is This Guy | 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. read more  | | 7/28/2010 8:02:53 AM - DIYPhotography |
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Five Overlooked Ways to Sell Your Wedding (and Other) Photography | | 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 [...] | | 7/27/2010 4:03:25 PM - Photopreneur |
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Life is Hectic… Summer of 2010 | | 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 [...]
Sponsors of Epic Edits
| | 7/27/2010 2:40:37 AM - EpicEdits |
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Understanding and Using Optical Slaves, Pt. 1 | 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... | | 7/26/2010 4:00:00 AM - Strobist |
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Going Rogue with FlashBenders | 
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 7/22/2010 7:00:00 PM - Strobist |
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Photo Buyers Still Asking for More Ethnic Diversity in Images | | 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 [...] | | 7/22/2010 4:19:39 PM - Photopreneur |
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Press Releases That Win Publicity for Photographers | | 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 [...] | | 7/20/2010 1:11:41 PM - Photopreneur |
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Cheap, Powerful On-Axis Fill | 
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 ... | | 7/19/2010 3:20:00 PM - Strobist |
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Lastolite Triflash Sync: Triple Threat |  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 Li... | | 7/15/2010 5:30:00 PM - Strobist |
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Science Is an Untapped Photography Niche | | 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 [...] | | 7/15/2010 12:13:38 PM - Photopreneur |
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Shoot like a pro with the latest digital compact cameras. | |
© 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 ...
| | 7/13/2010 1:51:18 AM - Digital Shot |
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Beers With: Edward Hopper |  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…
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Hermann Rorschach, White Courtesy Phone Please. |  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- | | 7/12/2010 11:18:00 PM - Strobist |
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Becoming a Successful Wedding Photographer | | 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, [...] | | 7/12/2010 4:18:33 PM - Photopreneur |
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Syncing Your Flash: The Recommended List | 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 ... | | 7/8/2010 4:00:00 AM - Strobist |
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Selling Pictures without Model Releases | | 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 [...] | | 7/6/2010 3:56:58 PM - Photopreneur |
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On Assignment: Mark Edwards | 
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 t... | | 7/5/2010 6:55:00 PM - Strobist |
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Adding a Watermark in Lightroom 3 – Video Tutorial | | 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 [...] | | 7/5/2010 11:08:41 AM - Yaniks Photo School |
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Episode 236 | | 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. 
| | 7/2/2010 3:34:43 AM - Photoshop User TV |
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Writing Photo Comments to Win Respect, Traffic and Leads | | 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 [...] | | 6/29/2010 12:39:50 PM - Photopreneur |
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Shooting Tethered in Lightroom 3 – Video Tutorial | | 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 [...] | | 6/28/2010 11:05:29 AM - Yaniks Photo School |
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From the Flickr Group 26-06-10 | | 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 [...] | | 6/25/2010 7:45:06 PM - BeyondPhotoTips |
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Beyond Phototips’ Best Posts! | | 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 [...] | | 6/24/2010 3:41:17 PM - BeyondPhotoTips |
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