Edge lighting tip

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Michael Willems

When you are using rim lighting, like in this shot of this evening…:

Then I would give you a few tips:

Do. It’s good. Look how well it shows off round shapes like arms and legs. It makes them look round, rather than flat, which is what they would look like if you lit them just from the camera’s direction.
Light from behind – 45 degrees behind the subject aimed forward.
Fill from the front. Watch for shadows behind your subject.
Watch for shadows in general. You may like them. Or you may like only one of them. Or none. All good, as long as you watch for them, and feather the lights you do not want throwing a shadow, or use snoots or grids or gobos – or soften them in the case of the front fill light (I used a Honl Traveller 8 softbox).
A little flare, as in this shot, can be okay. Don’t go crazy, but do not be afraid. I often include lights and flare: love them when done well.
If you want flared lights to show like stars, use a small aperture, like f/8 or f/11.
If you are using TTL, which is fine, then do use manual at least for the rim lights. Using TTL for those makes little sense, as this light is very hard indeed to measure in camera.
And for manual flash, know how light works. The Inverse Square Law is very important. To get half the light, increase the flash-subject distance by 1.4 (the square root of two). That sort of thing. Yes, math.

Oh and when you have a wall, you can use it, of course. Like here, wher I have made oneof the rim lights into the main light:

Controlling light is fun, and is remarkably easy. And Photography is all about the light.

(Joseph Marranca and I are teaching another Creative Lighting course, this time in Fort Erie, just over an hour from Oakville, on July 23. Stay tuned or drop me a line!)

Darn Good 9, Third Impression

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Michael Willems

OK, that is a bad wordplay on Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s “Karn Evil 9, Third Impression”. In other words, in my continuing “X100 impressions” posts, a few more points.

As I said yesterday, it’s just a matter of learning how to work the technology. Like a new car – after a few weeks you have learned how it works “inside and out”. And like a new aircraft, which is why a pilot needs to be checked out on each type of aircraft he is going to fly.

So, back to the camera.

One thing in particular is worth mentioning. When you focus closely, the camera often misses – and yet it indicates it is focusing. So watch me as I focus on one of Canada’s most talented photographers, Joseph Marranca, Yes, even taking into account parallax I am focusing on him, not on the background, with a small enough focus point to not hit the background at all, and I am on a contrasting area of his face – and yet it completely misses:

This common issue seems to not just occur in OVF (optical viewfinder) mode – in EVF (electronic viewfinder) mode also, in spite of what other reviewers have said. And mainly when focusing on close by subjects.

Here’s the same shot a moment later.

Why? No idea.

Note that when the subject is too close you have to go to Macro mode. (And I also note that some reviewers have said “macro mode does not get close enough” – well, that is merely a subject of the large sensor. Nothing to complain about.. move on.)

Now to exposure. More than others, this camera seems to want to keep all exposures mid grey, leading to this kind of mistake:

That was 9pm and rather dark – and yet, by using 1/35th second at f/2.8 at 1600 ISO the camera insists on making this look like bright daylight. And in this case, that ensures a blurry pic. So the camera does not take actual light levels into account as much as my other cameras.

No big deal! Because of this bias, simply use exposure compensation (down) when using a semi-automatic mode (I was in Aperture mode). This adjustment is much needed in evening shots. But since the control ends at -2 stops, that means for proper evening shots you simply must go to manual., where you can dial in any exposure you darn well like.

And still I go back to two points:

First, the image quality, which is really superb. I am shooting all these as JPG – and that is the first time I have shot JPG in a decade. The quality is often just about as good as the work I produce with my 1Ds MkIII and 1D Mk4. Amazing – for the first time, I actually have SLR quality out of a point-and-shoot. (And yes, if I had money for a Leica M9 I would get that too, of course. But that’s $9,000).

Second, I keep how cool a little camera is for street photography. No-one comes and asks me what I am doing. Uncle Fred does not come up to talk about aperture and lenses.

(OK, these two gentlemen in the background did rather worriedly ask “HEY! You taking our picture?” – but they took my assurance of “No, I’m taking his” (meaning Joseph’s) at face value.)

A small camera is just less threatening.

X-Ray Vision?

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Michael Willems

When you shoot people, you often need to clean up their skin just a little.

Permanent features can be lightened a little, while temporary blemishes can be removed. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating changing people into something they are not, but a little work is often the secret to a good photo.

So here’s a Lightroom trick that helps you see where problems are likely to occur. This is not always easy to see, but with my trick it’s a doddle.

Take a RAW image into Lightroom. Ensure that exposure etc are good. You should see something like this:

Looks good (and being a photo of me, that is rather an achievement).

Oh yeah?

Then take this into Lightroom’s Develop module, and:

Go to the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) section.
Ensure you have selected the Luminance controls.
Now decrease the orange luminance all the way (-100).
Red and/or Yellow can go to -100 also, but sometimes work better at 0 or even at +100 – try it to see. (And in people with different skin colour, different directions and amounts may be needed for all three orange, red and yellow – but it’s still those three).

You now get this rather disconcerting view:

Light is fine; dark is fine: but the areas with rapid transitions between light and dark are the possible problems. These “mottled” areas show you two things:

Where you may need to concentrate your Lightroom or Photoshop efforts;
Where this person may develop skin issues in later life.

On that last point: as a photographer, I see the damage the sun causes. My skin is relatively clear (I grew up in the Netherlands and the UK), but still, as you can clearly see there’s likely to be areas I can be slightly improved.

Anyway – this technique should speed up such “improvement” work as you may want to do.

When you get a new camera…

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Michael Willems

…you need to learn to use it. Its instructions. Its strong points and weaker points. Its do’s and dont’s. Its quirks, even.

I am learning to use my Fuji X100:

It will take me a few days of use until I fully “get” it – its instructions (cannot use the optical viewfinder for close focus); when it does not accurately focus; when exposure is off; how it displays pre- and post-shot; how best to focus (in manual, I can use the AE-L/AF-L button to focus, which I only just discovered!), and so on.

Let’s start with a few snaps taken during a nice downtown Oakville “getting to know the camera” walk today. All these were shot as JPGs, and post-editing in Lightroom was minimal – a little cropping, perhaps a slight exposure tweak, that sort of thing.

Quality is excellent. Results are good.

In using the camera today, I found a few issues I have to work on. Namely:

I have to get quicker at the “switch to EVF (electronic viewfinder) if you want to focus closely” thing.
Switching focus points. I switched to “let camera select focus points” half way, since I was not quick enough switching. Next time, manual focus plus the AE-L/AF-L button to pre-focus!
When does the camera refuse to focus? And when does it miss, and focus on the background instead of on the object I am clearly pointing the focus spot at? I am not 100% clear yet, so this needs a little more work too.
I have to get more familiar with shutter speed limitations: at what ISO is it limited to what shutter speed? This needs to be second nature to me.
Exposure is sometimes unpredictable, or at least seems so when looking pre- and past-shot. In fact looking at the results, they seem good, if somewhat hot in the highlights – forgiveable on a bright sunny day at 2pm. So maybe on a crazy bright day like today I just shoot and ignore the previews and post-views.

And here is my favourite of the day, because it shows clearly what you can do with a little camera: people do not even notice you. Not even Mr Muscles here:

(Click and see it at large, original size to see the full effect.)

The Degas-like composition is due less to my artistic input than to the fact that the camera was just fast enough for me to capture him before he skated out of the frame.

The pedagogical point of this post: when you get a new piece of equipment, whether it is a camera, a set of lights, a flash, or a lens, do not be discouraged too quickly. Learn its quirks and benefits and how to best use it.

Tip for Canadians

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Michael Willems

In four days time, our American friends get to shoot fireworks. But those of us in Canada get to shoot them tonight. Here’s how (click to read a previous post). Just sayin’ .

X100 – First impressions

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Michael Willems

A few first impressions of the Fuji X100 camera:

This, like all my reviews, is a “first impressions from the field”. Not a full review: for those you can read dpreview.com and other sites.

These sites are great. But 23 pages of review are all very well: what do they really mean? I mean – to a user, a photographer, not someone who sits in his loft obsessing?

I have had my X100 for a day so I think I am qualified.

First, I upgraded the X100. And rather than by following the two-page instructions from Fuji that involve at least two files, I did it the simple way:

Download firmware file (.DAT).
Copy this to a freshly formatted card.
Start camera with RAW pressed while powering on.
Say YES to the upgrade dialog.

Done.

Why on earth Fuji needs to include an “upgrader app” file and spend two pages of convoluted instructions making it so complicated I would hesitate to do it, I will not understand. Engineers making it complicated again. I am an engineer so I can comment: KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

On to the camera. I am not worried if the review (of the original, not upgraded) software says bad things about the firmware. I want to know what it means to me, not to a theoretical user. So “Auto ISO is hidden” does not bother me – I do not use auto ISO (or if I do, it’ll be all day, so I will find it). And interface stuff you can learn is not a serious drawback.

In a few words:

The camera is a delight. The hybrid electronic/optical viewfinder is a. ma. zing. The camera is well built. Retro looking. Solid. Offers excellent image quality. Has a JPG conversion engine that does a great job: this camera may be the first one in many years that I actually use in JPG mode. Great 23mm lens (equivalent to 35mm “real” lens).

So this is basically a Leica M9 at a fraction of the price?

Sure. But since there are no free lunches, what are the drawbacks?

That is what I am talking about because this camera is so good. Get one, unless one of the issues below is a showstopper for you. I am skipping through the trivial ones (“auto ISO is hidden”, “The ISO dial turns the wrong way”, and so on.). These, while true, are unimportant. But there are some real ones – “issues that could get in the way”, rather than “issues I’d rather see done some other way”. My main ones among these are:

The focus points are hard to shift. I want a quick way to shift my focus point. I do this in every image. So it must be quick. Instead, I need to use both hands in unusual positions. I can never find the button without looking at the back, necessitating me moving the camera away from my face.
Focusing in low light often fails.The battery/memory card door opens way too easily. Happens regularly.
The central “Menu/OK” button is very hard to press, unless you have the fingers of a six month old embryo. You will inevitably press the other, surrounding, buttons instead.
Battery life is not great if the “quick start” option (which is needed!) reduces it by half.
Focusing is impossible at less than 80cm (ca 2.5 ft) unless you use the electronic viewfinder.
Even with new firmware, startup time is slow.
Not enough buttons are customizable.
The maximum speed goes down with large ISO and aperture settings. At 400 ISO and f/2, the camera cannot shoot above 1/500th second, for instance. And the ND filter which was designed to handle this is many key-presses away.

These are not fatal, but they are the ones I really notice as a photographer. Many of them (though not point 3) will be solved in upcoming firmware, I imagine.

A few snaps (where as per previous posts, I make the viewer tell his or her own story):

I think “street”… I cannot wait to get to Toronto to do some street photography with this wonderful camera. It’s winning – and not in the Charlie Sheen way.

Canadians: Happy Canada Day. More tomorrow.

Post Note: As reader Duke S. points out: I could well refer to this camera as “Preciousssss…”

Post post note: Second impressions and third impressions now also online here.

Gear News

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Michael Willems

OK, OK, I bought a Fuji X100 point-and-shoot.

If you have not heard about this camera, you should: it looks like an old Leica, and in many ways works like one, including fabulous build quality, excellent image quality and quiet operation. But in one way it is even better: it has a viewfinder that is both “purely optical with information overlays” and “fully electronic” – and you can switch between the two options using a switch. Genius. And a great-looking camera:

Talking about looks, here’s Rob Buchelt, the manager of the Oakville Henry’s store, shot just now with the X100:

Yup, the new toy is great for street and impromptu photography and it is small and inconspicuous.

It has drawbacks, of course. More about those soon – but in my case, they are vastly outweighed by the positives.

As a result, I am selling this – much as I love it, because money does not grow on trees (I keep hoping, but no luck so far). This is my Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f/1.7 “pancake” interchangeable lens, and a spare battery as well as a 4GB memory card. I am about to put it up on Kijiji.

I’d like to chat more but now off to run errands and then two shoots to finish!

Chipping away…

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Michael Willems

Let us continue to chip away at learning flash.

Today, more background information. A quick note now on how Canon and Nikon, the two brand leaders, handle exposure differently. (Others follow either Canon or Nikon).

What shutter speeds are allowed by the camera when you are using a flash ?

Shutter speeds can be restricted by the camera for two reasons:

To protect the user from shaky pics, a slow speed is sometimes denied.
To prevent bad flash photos, a fast shutter speed is also sometimes denied.

But Canon and Nikon do this differently – and it helps to know how your camera works. So here goes.

SLOW SHUTTER SPEED RESTRICTIONS:

Shutter speed mode:

Canon: None. You set what you like.
Nikon: None. You set what you like.

Manual Mode:

Canon: None. You set what you like.
Nikon: None. You set what you like.

Program Mode:

Canon: no speeds slower than 1/60th second will be used
Nikon: no speeds slower than 1/60th second (adjustable on some cameras) will be used. Except if “Slow Flash” is selected: then, any speed including very slow ones can be chosen by the camera.

Aperture Mode:

Any speed including very slow ones can be chosen by the camera.
Nikon: no speeds slower than 1/60th second (adjustable on some cameras) will be used. Except if “Slow Flash” is selected: then, any speed including very slow ones can be chosen by the camera.

So there you have it – markedly different behaviour by both cameras.

Clearly, from the above you can see that:

On Canon:

Program mode is not ideal when using indoors flash (you might want slower shutter speeds to allow lighter backgrounds)!
Aperture mode is not ideal when using indoors flash (you might get a 1-second shutter if the background is dark, which you do not want!)

On Nikon:

Program mode or Aperture mode without “slow flash” enabled are not ideal when using indoors flash (you might want slower shutter speeds to allow lighter backgrounds)!
Program mode or Aperture mode with “slow flash” enabled are not ideal when using indoors flash (you might get a 1-second shutter if the background is dark, which you do not want!)

Which is why I use manual when using flash indoors, when ambient light is low.

FAST SHUTTER SPEED RESTRICTIONS:

Canon: when the flash is detected, no speed faster than the flash sync speed (typically 1/200th second) is allowed, except if “High-Speed Flash” is enabled on the flash. This, however, drastically reduces the maximum available flash range.
Nikon: when the flash is detected, no speed faster than the flash sync speed (typically 1/250th second) is allowed, except if “Auto FP Flash” is enabled in the camera’s flash menu. This, however, drastically reduces the maximum available flash range.

All these Flash articles are excerpts from my signature four hour “Advanced Flash” course, in which you learn all these concepts in a hands-on, interactive session.

Polarize it.. don’t criticize it.

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Michael Willems

Look at this shot of this morning:

And now look at this:

Look at the sky, and the cloud. More saturation on the blue. More separation between cloud and sky. More definition in the tree.

Because for the second shot I used a polarizer.

Put it on the lens.
Turn baby turn – until you see the desired effect.
This effect is strongest 90 degrees perpendicular to the sun, i.e. when you are shooting 90 degrees to the right or left when the sun is behind you or in front. It is weakest parallel to the sun, i.e. when the sun is exactly behind you or in front of you.
Do not leave the polarizer on – it eats a few stops of light. Only use it when you need it, and remove afterward.
Do not combine with other filters, or vignetting may result.

Do you have a polarizer in your bag? If you live in a place where the sun can shine, you probably ought to.

Cave Cardem

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Michael Willems

OK, that is rather a lame wordplay on the Latin “Cave Canem”, which means “beware of the dog”. So I mean “beware of the (wrong) memory cards”.

How so?

Bit of background. I always use only Sandisk or Lexar cards – they do work more reliably. And my images are important since I get paid for them, so why try to save? Better is, well, better. That does not mean I buy fast or large cards – but I buy brand names only.

So. My second shooter used an 8GB eye-fi card in her D90 camera the other day to shoot a wedding. This is a card that can connect to WiFi, but it also writes to local storage.

Allegedly.

The moment I inserted this card into my card reader, my iMac crashed. Hard. Grey screen of death. That happened twice. And now the card is unreadable on any machine.

Or not?

Part of a wedding is something you must never lose. And yet this happened. Perhaps Eye Fi (www.eye.fi) can help restore the images? Perhaps, but so far, over 24 hours later, they have not responded to my email support request.

And this, my friends, is why I use only Sandisk and Lexar cards. And cameras that write to two cards at once (my 1Ds Mk3 and 1D Mk4). Live and learn, never again will I allow anyone who shoots with me to use anything except a freshly formatted Lexar and Sandisk. If your images are of equal importance to you, you will do the same.

And the wedding? Well – that is why we have two shooters and four cameras (with another in the car as a backup). The wedding couple will be happy. But I am not.

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