Monthly Archives: February 2012

Turn baby turn, or: point of view

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Michael Willems

Tip of the day: You should always feel free to tilt, and to chance your point of view, for more exciting photos. Here’s a tilt, an looking up, yesterday afternoon in downtown Oakville: I tilted to simplify, and to get … Continue reading →

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Advanced on-camera flash technique

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Michael Willems

I usually advocate not doing this: But this instead: Flash backward, because you want the light to come from 45 degrees above your subject. That’s usually the way, since we usually use wider lenses for people shots, meaning we are … Continue reading →

Posted in Light, Technique | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Timing is everything?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Michael Willems

I would like to repeat a very important aspect of flash photography here, namely the following. The background brightness, when there is any background light, depends on the shutter speed of your photo. Yes, also on the aperture and ISO, … Continue reading →

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Backup tip

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Michael Willems

An advanced computing tip today on speedlighter…: Have a Mac or UNIX-like computer? Then you can use a simple little command to synchronise disks. Let me explain. I have two hard disks next to the Mac. Two 3TB disks (I … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Darkroom | 4 Comments

Lightroom tip!

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Michael Willems

In Lightroom, the catalog (the .LRCAT file) contains all your edits. But what if it gets corrupted? In that case you can retrieve edits – eg edit the file in another app,like Photoshop – from small XMP “sidecar” files – … Continue reading →

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Available Light

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Michael Willems

Here’s an available light portrait of the other day: In a portrait like this, keep the following in mind: Use a prime lens at wide aperture (like f/2.0) to get that dreamy look and to get the ability to shoot … Continue reading →

Posted in Picture of the day, Technique | 3 Comments

Student asks:

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Michael Willems

A student asks: My name is Pauline – I have taken a couple of courses with you. I have the Canon 5D and we had talked about a perchase I sould make of a 50mm lens — when I  talked … Continue reading →

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Snapshot

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Michael Willems

This, taken at a School of Imaging workshop I taught the other day, is a snapshot of a volunteer the way Uncle Fred takes them: What is wrong here? Well if this is meant to be a portrait of the … Continue reading →

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Flash Note

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Michael Willems

When bouncing a flash, you may need more flash power than you have available. To ensure you have enough, do the follwoing: Use an ISO of at least 400. You may need higher ,especially if ceilings are high or non-reflective. … Continue reading →

Posted in Gear, Light, Picture of the day | 2 Comments

Lighting

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Michael Willems

Here’s why you use proper lighting – with flash used for many outdoor shot too. Say I shoot talented new model Anastasia outdoors using available light: That is well exposed – but poorly lit. Even on an overcast day, there … Continue reading →

Posted in Picture of the day, Technique | Tagged | 8 Comments