Anyone have a double A?

I am often asked “Why do you use the oldfashioned Pocketwizard IIs, Michael? Why not the new ones, or a cheaper smaller Korean or Taiwanese version?”

When I use wireless flash transmitters, like Pocketwizards, or when I use any other battery-powered equipment, two things matter.

  1. Are they reliable? They need to be 100% reliable – I cannot have things malfunction when I am shooting.
  2. Are they tried and tested? If everyone uses a certain type of equipment, it is likely that this is trustworthy equipment.
  3. Do they use ordinary batteries? I am not a fan of special batteries.

The latter point is big for me; as big as the former points. Any equipment that uses funny cell batteries – i.e. expensive, hard to find batteries that last for days, not months – is a no-no in my book. Pocketwizard IIs use ordinary AA batteries.

And if there are three things in life that are certain , they are death, taxes, and the availability of AA batteries.

 

Simple does it.

Shots are good when you take them using simple means – and when the shots are simple themselves. And your life is easier that way.

Like this shot from the other night. We started with a great outfit and great make-up, done by the model herself, and hair by Francis. Then we added a simple setting and great technique:

And another version, perhaps even better:

What did we do here?

  1. First, we adjusted the shot to the available space. A floor. A floating wall. But the floating wall had a TV on it. So we had the model sit down below the TV.
  2. Then, I got on the floor. I wanted the floor to lead to the model, and that meant I had to be close to the floor. I suppose I work out to be able to do this stuff!
  3. Then, the light. I used one off camera flash, shot through an umbrella, on our right. I made sure we had a nice reflection – reflections rock. The camera was set to manual exposure mode, and for the flash I used remote TTL. I used a prime 50mm lens. (That would be a 35mm lens if you had a crop camera).
  4. In post-production, I cropped, and gave the image a slight vignette; and in the second image, I made it black and white and popped up “orange” just a tad.

The entire shoot took just a few minutes. Learn technique (I teach pro flash courses, remember?), keep your compositions simple, and think about the light. And Bob’s your uncle: pro shoots with simple equipment and little time spent on the shoot and on post- production.  Go try it: your camera is for more than just snaps.

 

Rough to finished

“What finishing work do you do, Michael?”, I am often asked.

I try to keep it simple, as simple as I can. That way, there’s little work, and I feel like I am a photographer, not a Photoshop/Lightroom artist.

But I often use techniques like:

  • Adjust white balance if needed.
  • Adjust exposure a little if needed.
  • Adjust “blacks” and “whites” as well as “highlights” if I have to, e.g. when the shot’s background should be dark but is not quite dark enough.
  • Add brightness where I need it, if I need it.

Those are the “fixing mistakes” adjustments, and I keep them to an absolute minimum. In studio shots these should be zero.

Then there are the creative adjustments, and those I feel better about if I have to make them. I keep them to a minimum, but I will do them if needed.

  • Crop – to whatever aspect ratio I like (unless I know I am making a print, in which case I crop to that print’s aspect ratio).
  • Vignette a little – but keep it minor.
  • Adjust “Clarity” down a little if humans are involved (a minimum – perhaps -10 to -20).
  • Adjust sharpening.
  • Reduce noise if needed, e.g. in shots over 1600 ISO.
  • Add film grain if I feel like a film-type look.

I often shoot a little wide so I can crop to taste afterward.

Here’s a rough shot, as taken by me a couple of hours ago:

And here, adjusted and cropped:

In this example, I added a little more vignetting than I usually would, for clarity.

So my advice: keep “fixing” adjustments to a minimum by shooting properly, and keep creative adjustments to a minimum if like me you want to be a photographer rather than a photoshopper. Oh – and do it in Adobe Lightroom.

 

Lightroom 4.3 is out

Lightroom users (and why aren’t you all?): Lightroom has just been updated.

Currently, on my Santa shoot job, I am shooting “tethered” – meaning my camera is connected to Lightroom, which shows the client what I am shooting as I am shooting it.

Problem is, it would hang up several times a day, causing long delays.

Now, in the new update, Adobe says the follwoing is fixed:

Tethered capture fails when turning camera off and back on. This also can occur if the camera goes to sleep and then wakes. This occurs only with Canon cameras and on Mac only.

Since I am using a Mac and a Canon camera, that makes sense. Let’s hope it is indeed fixed. Many more Santa pictures to come… 12-5 today and tomorrow at Hopedale mall in Oakville.

 

 

Share! Share!

As you all know, I share my knowledge and experience freely (and for free). Information wants to be liberated – keeping secrets helps no-one.

So a request to you, my thousands of readers: I am asking you to reblog, tell your friends, share my posts too if you like them. Simply click on the little “share” icons at the top of each post to share the post on Facebook, Twitter, etc… you would be doing me a favour. I want to educate the world: it is such a beautiful world, and photography is such a beautiful way of sharing it, and everyone can learn. Help me spread the word!

Thanks,

Michael

Studio and more

I often shoot on location – many of my shoots do not require a studio, and I generally find studio environments too clinical.

But now I have found a new studio I like, really like… in an old factory building full of photographers and other artists. I shot there today. Using my speedlights (of course!), I did studio shots like this:

The great thing about this studio, though, is that it is entirely suitable for cool environmental shots too. Even outside the studio:

Cool buildings.. train tracks… trees, privacy.. amazing.

As is shooting inside not using backdrops. Look at this cool window and brick wall:

And inside using the wooden floor:

All this may help you in several ways.

First, you can do a lot using just simple equipment: three small flashes on two light stands, and one on my camera, all using a simple 24-70 f/2.8 lens.

Second, you can go to www.hamiltonstudio.ca and talk to Sam about studio rental per half day or day.

Third, even better: whatever your level of experience, you can have a private (or group) lesson from me in this studio on this type of studio shooting, either with speedlights or with strobes! Contact me for details – soon, before Sam fills up his studio!

Here’s Sam in his well equipped studio, in Hamilton, Ontario, a short drive from Toronto:

If you call him, mention my name. He’ll see you right with a special offer for speedlighter.ca readers.

 

Another note on primes…

“Why should I buy a prime lens”, I am asked often. The answer is always the same: sharp, small, fast, and consistent. Oh – and fun.

Look at this photo:

A typical prime shot: 50mm lens on a crop camera (meaning a “real” 80mm). In available light, I used the following settings:

  • Manual exposure mode.
  • 800 ISO
  • 1/80th second shutter speed
  • f/1.6 aperture.

Let’s say I had used a consumer lens: f/5.6 at 50mm. That’s almost four stops slower, so I would have had to use either:

  • A slower shutter, like 1/6th second; meaning a shaky picture;
  • Or 12,000 ISO, meaning a grainy picture;
  • Or a combination, meaning a little of both.

And the background would not have been nice and blurry, and simple.

Even an f/2.8 zoom lens would have meant 1/25th second or 3200 ISO, or a combination. And again, less blurriness.

So in real life available light situations, a fast prime can be invaluable. So you can document everyday moments and tell everyday stories, which are often the best. Here, the storytelling is done by the simple composition, the leaving out of the face, and the fork hovering expectantly.

 

 

Mood in a portrait.

Here’s a portrait I made a few days ago. A portrait I am very proud of; very proud indeed:

This portrait shows a young woman apparently reflecting. It raises questions – and as I have said many times, raising questions, in stead of spoon-feeding the answer, is what makes an image effective and interesting.

Here, the questions include: “On what is she reflecting? Why is she sitting there? Why is she looking at the floor? Is she sad? Is she waiting? For what?” Those questions are what matter, more than the answers, which you have to come up with. Her apparent loneliness is emphasized by the empty space around her, the bare couch, her guarded pose: existential loneliness, or just a break?

We do not know. But we can all identify. An image like this makes us think about our own lives, and the experiences we have had. The human condition is deliciously complex, sad, and wonderful; and sharing it with others is what art is about.

The composition also helps. I am not sure analyzing art is all that productive, but if you asked me I would say the following are effective technical elements in this image:

  • Bare couch. Simplifying any image is key!
  • Simple setting; negative space.
  • The use of the rule of thirds.
  • Simple black and white.
  • A slight vignette.
  • The subject’s face is not looking at us and is mainly hidden.

In a technical sense, this is easy. The use of off-camera flash is effective in creating just enough shadows. I used a Canon 1Dx, with an off-camera 430EX through an umbrella. Camera in manual mode, 1/200th sec, f/5.6, 400 ISO; with the flash in remote TTL mode. I used a prime 35mm f/1.4 lens.

You really can take images like this using a very simple setup, so think about subject, story and composition, not about the technical settings.

 

Tilt-Shift question

I have talked here before about tilt-shift lenses (search in the search field on the right). I love my 45mm TS-E tilt-shift lens, and I mentioned it in my talk to the Brampton Photo Club.

David H asks:

On Thursday at the BPG meeting you mentioned using tilt-shift lenses for architectural photography. But people have told me that given the price of the lenses, you are better off using photoshop or lightroom for correcting perspective. Now, I realize that tilt-shift lenses have other uses such as their control of focus, but for architectural photography are there other advantages of using them that you can get from using Photoshop or Lightroom?

Good question, David.

And yes, there are benefits to using one of these lenses.

First, the tilt-shift lens has other benefits than architecture. Moving the field of focus (tilting) is often important, rather than perspective correction (shifting).

Second, a Tilt-Shift lens is a prime lens, meaning it is sharp and has a large aperture – f/2.8 typically.

But even for perspective correction there are benefits to doing it in lightroom. Sure, Lightroom makes it easy to correct the convergence at the top you get with vertical lines when you aim a camera upward – a couple of clicks and you are done.

But this is at the cost of

  • Pixels. You draw out the center pixels, meaning that is an image is, say, 4,000 pixels wide, when you are done correcting the top may be only 3,000 pixels wide – meaning less resolution in the finished image. The tilt-shift uses your whole sensor – al 4,000 pixels in this example.
  • Space. By cutting, you are losing bits of your picture.

All these benefits of this type of lens means you may well consider renting one to see what they are all about. Read the articles I wrote here about them and then decide. Remember, you have to both expose and focus manually when using one of these – but that too can be a benefit. Humans know more than chips!