The debate still rages regarding what effects you can achieve digitally in post production and which ones you have to get from specialized glass.  Tools like Photoshop have certainly come a long way in their various blurring and sharpening algorithms as well as many other techniques that were previously only possible to do in camera or the darkroom.  Purists however, will tell you that if you want creamy bokeh, nice blurred backgrounds, tack sharp images, tilt-shifted images or natural looking selective focus, it all comes down to what lens you are using.  For this reason, companies like Lensbaby are enjoying more success than ever before.  I’ve been familiar with their products for awhile, but when I saw their new Lensbaby lineup I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one to see what that baby was capable of.

First things first.  The Lensbaby is not your all-purpose lens.  In fact, for those photographers who prefer edge to edge sharpness and clarity, I recommend staying away from these products all together.  If you’re a control freak, again, stay away.  This lens is about getting a raw and vintage look, one that may look like someone spilled water on your prints or touched your lens with a greasy finger or bumped you in the middle of pushing the shutter.  Throw in the fact that there is no digital aperture control and no auto-focus and you might wonder why anyone would use this lens at all.  However, that is like asking why paint when you can photograph, or why write when you can film.  These lenses let you step beyond the normal bounds of photography and create unique shots you may not have expected or would have been otherwise impossible.  And the best part is you did it the old fashioned way–in your camera and not your computer.  Once you know it’s application, you’ll fall in love with this lens.

Currently the Lensbaby lineup consists of three products: the Muse, the Composer and the Control Freak.  Along with these are four optic lenses that drop inside for different effects.  All three of the lenses work on the same basic principle of pivoting your lens in relation to the camera’s sensor via a ball-and-socket joint. This creates a sweet spot of focus while blurring and skewing other areas of the image even though they are the same distance from your lens. 

Think about that for a second.  Depth of field principles dictate that everything in the same focal plane will be in the same focus. This lens bends this rule literally by bending the light entering your camera, creating extreme spherical and chromatic distortions that you can control.  What’s really cool is, similar to pinhole cameras and those of yesteryear, these lenses are completely analog.  There is no communication going on between the lens and your camera.  No focusing, no aperture control, no VER or any of that fancy stuff.  In fact, the aperture can only be set by dropping a magnetic disk in front of the lens with holes cut out in various sizes.  How cool is that?  You get to handle your apertures and see their relationship with one another.  Included are discs for f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, with f/2 being the default.  Keep in mind that the larger the aperture, the smaller the sweet spot that will be in focus, and vice-versa.  If you want to get really crazy, try using the star and heart shaped apertures or even order a blank to custom cut your own.

I won’t go into the drop-in optics too much, but they are designed to recreate effects such as old Holga cameras, pinhole cameras and plastic lenses. Their website has a cool page that lets you view the same image taken with each of the different optics and apertures.  Very cool.

Field results
I prefer the Composer for its ease of use.  The first time I took this lens out, it was for a family photo shoot in a park.  I wasn’t sure how the results would be, so I only took it on my spare camera body.  Thank goodness.  From about 15 shots I took with it, only 3 or 4 were up to my standards.  The other 11 amounted to user error in one way or another.  It’s been ages since I shot in manual focus mode, and I felt somewhat out of practice.  In addition, controlling the sweet spot added to the difficulty mostly because this was my first go at it.  Subsequent shots have improved steadily and I’m starting to break myself from reliance on my camera.  I also found that its much easier to get your feet wet with this lens when shooting still objects and landscapes.  Below are a few examples.

The lens seems to have roughly a 50mm equivalent, perfect for many situations.  They also have a few screw-on lens adapters that give you telephoto or wide results as well.  I tried the 0.42x Super Wide Angle Converter and highly recommend it.  It opened up the lens to 21mm and creates a macro-esque features allowing focus as close as 2.75 inces; perfect for flowers, rings and other objects that would benefit from the unique selective focus of this lens.  If you’re going to buy the lensbaby, buy this adapter.  Here are a few of the results all taken from our second outing with this lens.

Bottom line

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.  Price as tested: Lens $270, Wide adapter $75.  A bit pricey, but what isn’t with this hobby?

Recommend for:

• Photographers that want to get more artistic vintage shots and push themselves into new areas of the art.
• Photographers looking for a unique images that stand out from those in a field of ever increasing competitors.
• Photographers that buy the latest gadgets to be the cool kid on the block.

Not recommended for:

• Photographers just starting to build their lens collection.
• Photographers who do little more than portrait work.
• Photographers who avoid fully manual settings.

The Lensbaby is available in several different lens mounts: Canon EF (EOS), Nikon F, Minolta Maxxum/Sony Alpha, Pentax K, Olympus Four Thirds System.  Check out the lensbaby website for video tutorials from other professions using their products and the stunning results you can achieve.  As a bonus, here is a short video entirely with a Canon and a Lensbaby.

Grab one for yourself at Amazon

• Lensbaby The Composer for Canon EF mount
• Lensbaby The Composer for Nikon F mount
• Lensbaby The Composer for Olympus four thirds mount
• Lensbaby The Composer for Pentax K mount
• Lensbaby The Composer for Sony Alpha mount

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Lensbaby Composer (Review)

This shouldn’t be news to avid DPS readers. In that article I introduced a new set of products called Speedlight Pro Kits. It seems their reception has been good as they are now on back order at MPEX. We’ll I’m here to tell you they aren’t the only solid product in town. In fact, there really is only one other kit I’d recommend you pack regularly, it goes by the name, Honl.

What are the Honl products?

David Honl is a well-known photographer who turned a need into a product and then offered it to the rest of us. Already this appeals to me and should to you too. If a product truly has its genesis from a photographer, chances are it may solve a need of your own. Or many. What Honl offers are snoots, grids, gobos and my favorite gels, all reasonably priced and all well made.

When my set arrived in the mail, I was impressed before I even pulled out my camera. It came with a sweet nylon zip-up bag with clip. I have most everything they sell and it all fits nicely into the bag. Honi must know how chaotic and unorganized my gear gets.

So it fits my “it must be compact” rule to be included on my photo outings. Beyond it’s compactness, I also appreciate that it is all made from industrial strength nylon. The same material your camera bag is probably made from. That includes the wrap-around snoot. No plastic to get bent out of shape in your bag, just heavy-duty fabric that can be easily stored. His 8″ snoot is also one of the longer snoots I’ve seen as well. The gobo is simple yet nice. To me a gobo usually refers to a plate with a shape cutout placed in front of a light source. The image is then projected wherever the light shines (think Batman). Honl uses the term to describe its velcro reflector card. One side is white, the other is black. I guess the name works since it is blocking portions the light. Not much else to say about it. When you need it, you’ll know.

The Gel Kits

Where Honl really shines in my opinion is the gels. There are two gel kits each priced at $29, a color corrective kit, and a color effect kit. Once you have the velcro strap system, you could then go to any theater lighting store and choose from thousands of colors and with a little DIY work, make your own gels with velcro and all. I have both kits and each one comes with 5 different colors 2 each for a total of 10 gels. Awesome! You can either roll them up with a rubber band or keep them in the ziploc they come in. Seriously though, if you haven’t ventured into the world of colored light mods, Honl is where you should start.

In this video David Honl shows us the gels, a snoot and a gobo in action. Watching it really makes me want to start experimenting more with light colorization. Imagine the same image with standard flash colors. Yikes.

Conclusion

If you already have grids and snoots, there is going to be some overlap you should consider before buying. The Speedlight Kit for example has similar pieces. What I like about Honl is their simple velcro system and the easy on-off gels. Although I recommend all their products, I especially recommend the two gel kits.

Below is a quick demo of what they sell. They are available at Amazon for around $144. The US distributer is ExpoImaging. Their site has more information and different kit combination options as well.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Honl Photo Speed System (Review)

I don’t need to be the one to tell you the economy is going down the crapper, and when it comes to buying new gear, my list is getting a good purging.  With that in mind, when I find products that aren’t over priced simply because photographers are used to forking out the cash, I get excited.  David Hobby is one of my photography heroes.  As a Baltimore newspaper photo-journalist, I give him credit for jump-starting the “strobist” movement that now allows photographers to get stunning results with minimal equipment investment, which often involves raiding your kitchen cupboards and tool shed for DIY supplies.  To him I also give credit for this products discovery (and maybe even its existence).

With simple light modifiers and a few standard camera strobes (flashes), you can often hang with the best Profoto or Alien Bee setups.  Of course those have their place too if you have the money to go there.  As other articles on DPS have articulated, one of the first steps to creative lighting is to get the light source away from your camera body.  The flexibility one gains is obvious.  The second step is learning to control your off-camera light, entering the wide world of light modification.  This includes such accessories as grid spots, rings, diffusers, snoots, gels and reflectors just to name a few.  Previously these were not typically made for the portable flash units you probably already own.  The strobist movement is changing that.

The Prokit 4

At the heart of the SpeedLight’s genius is the 3 fold flexible reflector with snaps along its edges.  Put together, two of these reflectors connect to form a small 4-sided box with overhanging tabs with snaps on the sides of a decent sized opening perfect for grids, gels and diffusers.  The Prokit 4 comes with 4 of these reflectors (good for two boxes), a nice white diffuser, and a honeycomb grid insert as well.  What I love about the SpeedLight kits is that they don’t sacrifice what you gain from using portable flash units in the first place, being portable.  Each product conveniently snaps together to form its shape and just as easily disassembles to lie flat and compact as illustrated in the assembled and disassembled photos below.

Also in this kit you’ll notice two snoots with two different grid inserts.  With these products, you can have any combination of a bare reflector, reflector with grid, reflector with diffuser, bare snoot, snoot with tight grid, snoot with large grid.  But wait there’s more.  Once you master what comes in the box, check out the SpeedLight site for white and black barn door add-ons as well as large gel inserts.  Below is a video that does a better job than I could in explaining how everything fits together.  One side note– with most of these products you’ll want to use a sto-fen type diffuser that snaps on the flash itself to spread the light and fill the inside of the reflectors.

Prokit 6

So what happens if you snap three reflectors together instead of just two?  You get a cool little hexagon soft box.  They’ve conveniently packaged that together as Prokit 6.  The advantage of this setup is of course the larger diffused surface area, which, especially when close to your subject, creates a softer light.  The flat diffuser that snaps on to the face of this setup even has a semi-porous metallic reflector to avoid having the light concentrated at the center of the box.  From my testing, it seemed to work as designed.  When I used this up close to the subject, and when I say close, I mean having an assistant holding it as close to the subjects face as I could with out it being in the frame, it created a very flattering, evenly lit look.  I’m convinced it will have a permanent place in my bag.

Testing

I never like reading reviews that fail to show the product in action.  To illustrate what these SpeedLights can do for you even on an extremely bright day, I took them out for a little experimentation.  Below you will see two shots.  The first is taken with the camera doing all the metering and using Mother Nature as the primary light source.  What I don’t like about this image is the flatness of the subject’s features and that the background is brighter than the subject.  The lighting isn’t very interesting making the image bland overall.  The second image is taken with the square reflector and diffuser attachment stage left with the camera set to manual.  With the camera in manual, I now have the ability to under expose my backgrounds, giving the illusion that the picture was shot at dusk or in low light.  I can then bounce as much or as little light onto the subject to get the desired skin exposure.  No Photoshop processing was done to the final image.

If you have ever had a difficult time getting a good shot of someone with a blue sky and gorgeous fluffy clouds in the background, this same technique applies.  Expose for the sky, and then use a flash to brighten the subject.  Unmodified however, the small light source on your camera may not be the most flattering, thus the need for these small reflectors.  The example I have here is bit over done, but you get the idea.  In short, using your flash off camera with even a small diffuser can dramatically improve your outdoor portraits as long as you aren’t too far from your subjects.

Here is another example from the same shoot that shows more of the subject’s body and more background.  The final image was de-saturated a bit in post.

In this next example, I brought an R4 along on an engagement session.  I discovered that with this new accessory, I could even place the flash on the ground giving the flash enough angle to properly cover the couple while providing a natural looking vignette/spotlight effect.  It was fun playing with different light positions, and I have admit that anything I have that the average customer isn’t familiar with gives our photo sessions an extra flare of professionalism.  (On the down side, a park ranger came up and asked for a site permit stating that our equipment was too professional looking for average use.)

You don’t have to judge the R4 or the R6 on just my photos though.  Here is a list of some flickr users with great results and uses as well.  If you end up picking up a set, don’t forget to come back to this article and share your results with us.

Conclusion

After playing with all the different accessories and attachments, I can recommend these products without hesitation.  I plan on using them regularly for both indoor studio work, and outdoor shoots as well.  That is something I can’t say for much of my gear.  So how many kits do you need?  Take a look at this behind-the-scenes video of some pros in action using a myriad of every Speedlight product and more strobes than I can count.  So the answer is, there probably isn’t a limit beyond your wallet.  (BTW, from the looks of it, they have since refined their products which no longer use the yellow flash inserts and have better hexagonal diffusers now as well.)  4.5 out of 5 stars.

The current U.S. distributer is midwest photo exchange.  Prices range from $50 up to $125 depending.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

SpeedLight ProKit Review

Right off the bat, let me say that if you want to get serious about macro (close-up) photography this isn’t the best solution. There are good reasons that lenses are engineered specifically with that type of photography in mind. The downside is of coarse, those specialized lenses come with a price. At only $9 I highly recommend this as a starting point or way of experimenting with macro photography. A surprising secondary benefit I didn’t expect when first using this adapter were the insights it gives you into the relationships of depth of field and aperture. So lets begin.

Protecting the Lens

If you haven’t used one before, it will seem strange mounting your lens in reverse. Once mounted, you see some of the guts of your lens that are normally not exposed. All of the pins the lens uses to talk with the camera are visible as well as the internal glass element that moves in and out when focusing.

Unfortunately, leaving the lens on in reverse can potentially let dust inside your lens. I highly recommend you use the lens protector cap that comes with your lens to protect it while not shooting. If you plan on using the lens in reverse often, you can buy a bayonet-to-standard filter thread adapter. This lets you screw on a UV type or other filter to keep nature’s elements away from your lens.

You Lose the Camera’s Brain so Use Your Own

If you haven’t already deduced it, seeing that the pins are now facing out, the camera has no way of communicating with the lens electronically. What does this mean to you? You are going to lose all the cozy automatic features of your camera. No auto-focus since there is no talking going back and forth. In fact, with the lens mounted backwards, your primary means of focusing is going to be moving the camera, which will be just inches from your subject, back and forth until the area you want sharp is in focus. No auto aperture either. I’m guessing that many of you have always adjusted the aperture of your lenses electronically. Say good bye to that and say hello to that manual aperture ring you may have never touched before.

Old manual focus lenses work well here regardless of make. Lenses without an aperture ring such as Nikon G-series and Canon EF lenses may not work. Remember that normally the camera keeps the aperture open so you can look through the viewfinder and see what you are taking a picture of. Just before you take a picture, it stops it down to the appropriate size. Now the camera now has no way to open the aperture for your viewfinder viewing pleasure. This leads us to the next point.

Depth and Field and Lighting

I found it amazing to see the depth of field effects in real time and watch them change as you stopped down the aperture. So when using the reverse adapter, as you look through the eye piece and start stopping down the lens, you will see things get really dark really fast. Unless it’s a very sunny day, twist it all the way to f/16 and you’re staring into a black square. (Many digital cameras have a depth-of-field preview button that forces the aperture to the size designated giving you a similar effect.) Set at 1.4, I could look at a flower and see the razor thin focal plan move up and down the flower as I made tiny movements with the camera.

I lugged in my tripod and a few lighting stands but at the last second decided to shoot everything handheld. Shooting this way can be very difficult for a couple of reasons. First, at large apertures with a nice bright image in the viewfinder, you get a very narrow DOF. The smallest shift in your camera position changes what is in focus. It’s extremely difficult to hold the camera steady enough to get consistent shots.

On the flip side of this, some of my favorite images ended up being the more abstract one with things unintentionally out of focus. If you want a sharper image without that aforementioned razor thin focal plane, you can step down the aperture, but again, you’re faced with guessing what is in focus because you can’t see what your shooting in the dark viewfinder. A tripod would be one solution. You could open the aperture, set your focus, then stop it down to take the shot. I did this a few times without the tripod and it worked out fine.

The three pictures below show the dramatic changes that come with changing the aperture on close up images. These are all the same flower, with changes made to the f-stop. On the first image, only the tiny buds are in focus. On the second image, I moved slightly losing the focus of the buds making them essentially disappear. The last image was stopped down to f-16 to get both the buds and the pink pedals in focus.

This image is of an orchid. You can see how shallow the dof is on the first image and how different it looks in the second which was shot around f/16. All small aperture shots required me to use my flash to compensate for the loss in light. I used it in remote mode and held it in my other hand to get different lighting angles. Leaving the flash on the camera is a bad idea as it usually over shoots your tiny subject and you can’t control the light direction.

Finally here are a few other images my brother took with this same adapter in his backyard.

If you want to see the entire collection from botanical gardens, they are on blog.chaselliott.com. Like I said, I found myself liking the soft focus abstract ones and plan on mounting a few of them to frames. If you pick up the adapter, let us see some of your own work.

A few side notes

*This setup would work best in a studio environment. You could use multiple flashes and a tripod or even focusing rails to get pinpoint accurate focusing.

*With this reverse mount technique, you are no longer limited to having a single lens on your camera. A technique called “lens stacking” is popular in some circles where a lens like the 50mm is reverse mounted on the end of a zoom lens. Search around for example shots and explanations.

*You aren’t limited to reverse mounting prime lenses. In fact, you can build your own reverse mount extention tube that will work with any lens. Here are some detailed instructions.

*Reverse mounting a lens is not the only way to get cheap magnifications. If you use the Kenko extension tubes and an AF lens you can maintain metering, autofocus (both AF-s and screwdriver AF), and VR (vibration reduction). A three piece extension tube set will give you up to 6 different magnification ratios plus fine tuning with the lens helix. The reversing adapter will give just one magnification ratio.

*If you already own a nice zoom lens, look into close-up diopter lenses that screw onto the filter threads. The best ones are dual-element made by a few different manufacturers, and cost around $80 each. Some zoom lenses will even work well reversed if you reverse-mount them with the close-up lens attached. In this case, zooming simply changes magnification which is very handy for trimming the composition.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Reverse Mounting Your Prime Lenses for Affordable Macro Photography

Having a larger build, I have always disliked the straps that come with various camera bodies. I find them too short, too uncomfortable and just cheap feeling. I also dislike the having the camera model number largely displayed making me a walking billboard for Nikon. People often approached me at weddings I was shooting to discuss this feature or that and even talk about how they’ve upgraded beyond what I was using. I always smiled but wished I could focus on what I was there to document.

When I came across the R-Strap, I thought this might be the very thing I needed but didn’t know I was missing. Well, it has arrived and here is my review.

The R-Strap by BlackRapid, a Seattle based company. Being very simple and elegant in design you have to wonder why straps weren’t made this way from the beginning. Essentially, it allows you to sling your camera down to the hip level instead of having it hung around the front of your neck. My initial reaction was that it was very well built. Upon opening the package, I was impressed by the RS-4’s design. It had comfortable shoulder padding and even a small zipper to store my extra memory card or flash gels.

The stainless steel connect screw called the R2 also looked solid.

One of the reasons I was looking forward to the R-Strap was for comfort. When I photograph weddings, having the strap around my neck gets old very fast. I usually end up not even using it, only to have it get in my way as I switch from landscape to portrait shots. Not having it around my neck, I’ve also had a few close calls with guests bumping into me and almost losing my grip of the camera. All of these issues I think have been solved with my new strap. (Can you tell I’m excited about it?)

I didn’t have a wedding scheduled so I decided to walk around Old Town Alexandria in Northern Virginia and see how I felt at the end of the day. It was no problem all day. I shot a quick demo with my point and shoot while I was there which can be found below. Go easy on the video, remember I’m a photographer not an actor or cinematographer.

In the end, I was very impressed with this new system and will not be using my old strap any longer. In fact, after seeing on the Black Rapid website that two straps can now be coupled together for double camera slinging power, another R-Strap is on my long list of future purchases. The video below shows the double strap in action. 4.5 out of 5 stars. (The minus .5 is simply because with the strap connected, it’s not as easy to set my camera on a flat surface for a quick shot. I first have to unclip the strap. I know it’s a small issue.) It can be purchased at Adorama here. The older RS1 Strap is available at Amazon.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

R-Strap by BlackRapid – Camera Strap Review

Death Cab for Cutie – Little Bribes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

You can see the video at full resolution here.

If you haven’t seen the previous work that Ross has done, check out this article on time-lapse from last month. Ross has agreed to answer a few questions for curious DPS readers on this new project. If his question isn’t answered here, post it in the comments below and well see if we can get to it.

What are your primary tools (camera, software, accessories….)?

• Canon 5D Mark II (Just recently upgraded from a 40d)
• Manfrotto fluid head tripod
• Canon TC-80N3 Remote Timer
• 24-70 mm F/2.8L, 70-200 mm F/2.8L and Canon 17-24mm F/4L
• Quicktime Pro, Final Cut Pro
• Google Maps

Went to an arts and crafts shop and found a lot of useful props to make words out of for about 20 bucks

Was the video shot completely with an SLR or did you also incorporate standard video as well?

The entire video was shot using a SLR. I’ve realized that there are waaaaay too many videos on the internet that were shot with standard video cameras. It’s just impossible to stand out and be noticed in that saturated field. People seem to be more awe-stricken when they find out it was all shot using an SLR. Not to mention it’s a style that is not nearly as crowded.

For those of us how have attempted time-lapse and photography we know how long it can take for just one short clip. Can you give us an estimate on the time it took to complete this?

I spent about 2 weeks on this project. It’s actually takes considerably less shooting time to create this piece because I don’t need to spend an hour waiting for a time lapse to finish. Some shots were as little as 3 frames. The difficult part was putting together the words. At times I was sitting on the side of a road trying to find pebbles that will spell something out. I’d get very strange looks from people passing by.

Of all the words you created for the video, which one was your favorite? The M&M’s?

My favorite words were the ones I created at night time. Specifically the glowing words. I think that’s because it takes a bit of my background work (time lapse) and my current, new ideas and blends them together. There’s something about night time photography that I absolutely love despite having to sit out in the middle of nowhere in the cold. Photos at night don’t look the same as what we see with our eyes.

We’ve had a few articles here on light painting, which you used for some of the words. Can you illuminate the technique you used?

The hardest thing about time lapse and light painting is that the background moves. So if I begin painting something out I don’t have too much lee way to make mistakes. (Keep in mind I have to paint these words mirrored to look correct for the camera) If I make a mistake there will be a jump in the background and have to start over. After writing about 20 words over and over mirrored I’m now a pro at writing things mirrored. A lot of it is trial and error. I studied the technique a lot, but nothing much came of it until I got out there and started testing it.

Have you heard from Death Cab and got their opinion on the video?

I didn’t want to show it to Death Cab when I first released it because I was afraid they might not see it as a cross promotional deal and more as a copyright infringement. I’m a huge fan of their music and I wanted to at least show it to the world first. If I went to them first and they said “No don’t post it” those two weeks of work would have gone down the drain. I’ll send it to them soon though. Through twitter :)

Any protected trade secrets you’d like to share with DPS readers?

New ideas don’t come easily. Time lapse (and tilt shift) photography is beginning to become an every day occurrence on the internet, and I’ve had to think of new ways to stand out. I spent a whole month and a half thinking of how I could change my style and move forward and yet still make impacting movies that keep the viewers on the edge of their seats. When this idea came to me, I scoured the internet so see if it has ever been done before, and surprisingly I wasn’t able to find very much work to the degree that I went to. Almost everything I’ve learned about photography has come from sitting hours in front of my computer on the internet. If you love photography, you should also love the internet and technology.

Further Reading: How I Made a Time Lapse Movie with my DSLR (an article Ross guest posted here at DPS last year). See more of Ross’s work at his website rossching.com.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Interview with Ross Ching – Time Lapse Photographer

The DVD is divided into eight chapters focused primarily on lighting techniques used for portrait sessions. Her subjects of choice are babies, children and families so if that is also your style you may find this especially helpful. Her photo shoots alternate between indoor window lit settings to various outdoor conditions. In the end, Host is very resourceful when it comes to finding and using light that creates the desired emotion in her photos.

Not only does she layout the technique she uses to find and utilize natural light, she also provides some very good tips in dealing with children, and larger groups along the way. Host shows the viewer how to create an environment that is comfortable and natural for the subject. Without all the umbrellas and flashes of a typical studio setup, it is easier for the subject to relax, which adds a natural feel to your already natural light. Judy Host continues this theme with props to envelop her subjects with nature and flowing fabrics that create a soft tranquil setting.

For those with a camera, but limited gear this DVD will provide motivation and some very basic information on lighting, and give you an inside look at a typical photo shoot. I would recommend it primarily for beginners with limited exposure to the art of photography. For those on a more advanced level, they would be best served by looking into other more advanced titles as I found the lighting tips to be rather general and not very technical. Still, it’s nice to have information for all levels and I am impressed with the quality information provided for this beginner level.

Basic points covered:

• Exact methods to create a great picture are not the focus, rather a general idea of what to look for when using natural light is offered.
• If you can take time to play, plan and find times of day when the light works for you, then you can duplicate lighting for various shoots.
• Natural light is the root of photography whether you use a lot of equipment or not you must have a basic grasp of how light drives your photos.

Pros and Cons:

Pro’s:

• The message of the DVD is very helpful and inspiring for a new photographer.
• Through every chapter the viewer can gain a better appreciation for natural light and the effect it has on ones photography. I definitely came away with a handful of priceless information. What are the priceless tips you ask? Buy the DVD and find out for yourself.
• If you have been stuck in a rut of controlled lighting, this title could help move you into some new avenues and rejuvenate your style.

Con’s:

• The DVD comes in a little steep at $100. This is a bit of an investment and I don’t know how many people would watch it more than two times. Not technically informative.
• Style is a very personal thing, so if you’re not passionate about natural light, the DVD may not be applicable for you.
• Although it was nice to feel like you were part of the crew on her photo-shoot outings, I sometimes felt the film quality could have been improved. The camera handling was shaky at times and the lighting for the cinematography was below average (perhaps because they chose to use natural lighting for the video camera as well).

Overall I found The Art of Available Light helpful on many levels, and would give it a rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars. I plan to review some more technical titles by Software Cinema as they have some very high industry recommendations. This DVD can be found here along with many other helpful photography DVD’s.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

The Art of Available Light by Judy Host [Review]

I’ll talk more on the latest project that Ross has been working on below (video of it is below) as well as some other amazing works that can be found around the web, but first, let’s give those new to the concept a brief background on time-lapse photography.

Eclectic 3.0: The Roads Less Traveled from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

The beginnings

When did the technique originate? Many of you may have heard of Eadweard Muybridge or seen his work of a horse captured frame by frame in motion. His work preceded the celluloid film-strip we use today. Rumor has it that in order to settle a wager of whether a running horse is briefly mid-air with all four hooves losing contact with the ground, Muybridge setup a complicated rigging of 24 cameras. He used trip wires to trigger the shutters of the cameras as it strode by. Once strung together, of course, a “moving picture” was created which revealed that all the hooves do, in fact, actually leave the ground.

Today, film is typically captured at 24 or, in some HD applications, even 60 frames per second. By stringing the images together rapidly of course, you get the feeling of seamless motion. When we talk about time lapse, in contrast to what Muybridge was attempting, slowing down a real event, we are more interested in speeding up an event. Although you still string multiple images together, as in the Muybridge experiment, the difference is that you program the camera to pause slightly between each photo. You then run these frames together at a common speed, i.e. 24 frames per second. By doing this, you create the illusion of watching an event occur many times faster than it did. The first recorded use of this technique was done by the cinemagician Georges Méliès in a feature film called Carrefour De L’Opera in 1897. Of course many others soon followed.

Set your settings

To save you from hours of sitting and pushing the shutter release, many of today’s DSLRs come with interval features built right in. If your camera is missing this feature, external shutter release cables with built-in timers are also available. Better yet, you can build your own “intervalometer” for about $20.

On to the shooting… First thing you should consider is what camera settings are best for time-lapsing. It is extremely important that every image setting be exactly identical to the previous in order to avoid a seizure inducing flicker or strobe effect. No matter how smart your camera is, each frame my come out with a slightly different setting than the last. Solution? Ditch every auto setting your camera has, from auto ISO, to auto white balance, to auto exposure.

If you’re not used to the daunting M mode, don’t fret. Simply use your camera as a basic light meter. Switch to aperture priority, choose your desired aperture (for landscapes use a smaller aperture, such as f16 to provide a greater depth of field), then make a mental note of what the camera assigned as the corresponding shutter speed. Flip back to manual M mode and duplicate the settings. If you are hoping to capture the blurred movement of cars, streams or any type of motion, you might start with shutter priority and then go back to M mode. Interestingly, having images with a slight motion blur can actually increase the smoothness of your final film. If you were to view a single frame of an action film, you may be surprised to see it isn’t as crisp as a still frame from a high speed DSLR would be. For a brief explanation of why blurring simulates fluidity, sharpness simulates a stuttering effect look here.

If you are shooting a sunset or sunrise, remember to weight your exposure on the bright or dark side so that as the environment changes, your final images are still acceptable. Lastly, if you are shooting a camera with a high megapixel count, you might be better off using a lower quality jpeg setting. The highest quality setting probably exceeds any HD format and the smaller images will help ease the load on your computer when arranging your images as a sequence.

Time is on your side

Next up is deciding how many frames to take each second. A little bit of math is involved here. The guys over at Time Science explain it this way: “Consider a movie in the cinema which is normally recorded at 24 frames per second. You could create a time-lapse by recording one frame every second. When you play the movie, the frames recorded over a period of 24 seconds are played back in one second. So the recorded scene moves 24 times as fast as the real scene. One hour of recording would play back in (60/24 = ) 2.5 minutes.” The math can get tricky depending on what you’re trying to capture, so they’ve built a simple time-lapse calculator on their site here to help us out. Simply put, you may have to shoot a few hours for just a few minutes of footage, so bring a book and pack a lunch.

First time for time-lapse

Heading down to D.C., I decided to try my hand with this technique. For my first attempt, I decided to go 1 image for every 4 seconds. I found some slow moving paddle boaters that would be good test subjects. Unfortunately I didn’t lug my tripod along so I found a nearby wall to set the camera on. I tried a few different angles before turning the camera around to capture some of the passerby’s.

As mentioned above, a slower shutter speed will smooth out the final results, but I wanted to keep my shutter speed fast so as to create a chaotic feel that I find appealing. After seeing the final result, and thinking it needed a little spice, I decided to try running each image through a filter before arranging them into a sequence. I recently reviewed PhotoTools 2 and I knew that it had a built in batch tool. I chose a vintage “Holga” filter, pointed it to the entire folder of images and let it go to work. About thirty minutes later each image had a black frame and blurry smear added. If you decide to apply a filter on your images, you don’t need Phototools, of course, since there are batch features built into Photoshop as well.

Now the good stuff

Ok, I know you wanted to see how things should really be done and there are some amazing example around the web. First up is Ross Ching’s new creation “Eclectic 3.0: The Road Less Traveled“. Not only did he create a stunning film, he used some unique twists in the process. Some of his secrets are in his how-to video here. I found his technique of extremely slow panning especially interesting, as well as his use of a tilt-shift lens to give the illusion that you are viewing miniatures. If you aren’t familiar with tilt-shifting, a future DPS article is in the works.

Next up is another very cool tilt-shift time-lapse featuring the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, done by Sydney-based photographer Keith Loutit. Make sure to view this in full screen HD and it will blow your mind.

Next are some very cool videos by 599 Productions. They have some interesting shots of late night city scenes and highways.

Lastly we have a humorous video done with a slightly different stop motion technique, but it’s funny enough to include here.

Hope you enjoyed this short journey into the possibilities of time-lapse photography. Share your own finds or better yet, your own attempts at time-lapse photography.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

An Introduction to Time-Lapse Photography

Here at DPS we have occasionally featured articles on how to shoot like a photo-journalist. The great thing about this form of photography is that anyone with a camera can try their hand at covering cultural and political events.

The rise of eye-witness contributions from amateur and semi-pro sources has completely changed the media industry. There is still a place for professional coverage of course, but if you are interested in this type of work you don’t need a permission slip to get out and start building your portfolio.

Jason Geil, from wesay.com posted the first article on this topic entitled, Discover How to Become a Photojournalist.

Putting these tips in my back pocket I decided to brave the inclement weather and put them to the test covering a protest gathering in down town Washington, D.C., referred to as a tea party.

PLANNING

As a wedding and portrait photographer in the Washington, D.C., area, I often hear of news worthy event’s happening locally, and even though I’m not being paid, I sometimes attend with some of my camera gear. As I mentioned above, whether you shoot weddings, portraits or just shoot on the side as a hobby, chances are you have everything you need to get out and start documenting events photographically.

Not only is this type of shooting fun, it’s a great way to learn to use your camera gear in various situations and conditions. Before you leave your home, it’s a good idea to have a plan. Generally you will want to be telling some sort of story with your images. Christina Dickson explained in her article on photo essays that, “Now more than ever, the power of storytelling ought to be harnessed. But telling a story with photos takes more than just a skillful photographer. An impacting photo story can only be developed by skillful photographers who understand the emotions and concepts behind every great story.”

To truly capture the event you can’t be a mindless button pusher behind a piece of glass. Do some preliminary research. Once on scene, if you aren’t afraid to talk to strangers, start some casual conversations with those attending the event. Apply the knowledge you gain and try to capture the emotions of the event in your compositions.

I found some interesting shots were of others covering the event too, such as reporters and TV crews. They usually don’t mind if you hover and get shots of them in action and you get to hear the interviews to boot.

Obviously, you should check the weather report and dress appropriately. It’s one thing to be caught in the rain without an umbrella and have the fizzle taken out of that hairstyle you worked so hard on and another to be caught in the rain and have the fizzle taken out of a $2,000 camera.

If there is a chance of rain, you might want to bring a plastic bag to help keep your camera dry when you aren’t shooting. If you are going to be taking lots of pictures in the rain, you can buy an underwater camera case for less than $200. If you are going to be taking a lot of pictures outdoors, you might also consider a waterproof camera bag.

Lowepro makes a bag with waterproof zippers and a fully waterproof plastic-coated nylon shell at a reasonable price. Gloves with the index fingers cut out can be useful in the winter. In my case I didn’t follow my own advice and had constant trouble juggling my umbrella and two cameras.

NEUTRALITY

I think every event has an overall message to be illustrated. As photo journalists, we should try to capture images that best represent the event as a whole. In most situations, there will be outliers or images that may be dramatic but miss the larger picture (no pun intended) or meaning of the event.

If you’re shooting an event where 1000 people are pro issue X and 10 people show up against issue X, it wouldn’t be accurate to give both groups equal coverage. As photojournalists, we need to be as honest as possible regardless of where our personal biases lie. Unfortunately, agenda’s often drive the final story; but, being a neutral photojournalist is an ideal we should all strive for. On the subject of neutrality I found this activists sign appropriate.

Increasingly, I’ve heard strong complaints regarding unfair coverage coming from both sides of political issues, this hurts the reputation of the industry as whole.

COMPOSITION

The ironic thing about shooting crowds is that when trying to get the bigger picture, it usually entails getting shots of the individuals.

The first thing to remember in composing your shots of the crowd is that you need to see faces. A picture of the back of everyone’s head isn’t going to create the most interesting shot. It will simply lack emotion. This can create a conflict if the center of action is in the other direction. At the very lest, instead of shooting back-of-the-head shots, try to get at least one face in your shot and use that face as your focal point. This might mean that you have to swim up stream if the crowd is moving, or wade into the crowd and then turn around if the the crowd is stationary.

When picking a face out of the crowd, try and frame it with an interesting background. This might be a building, an interesting piece of archetecture, or a sign. In this shot, the background happened to be the White House which gives the viewer a good context of the event.

Also, look for people with character, or people wearing unique clothing or hats. There is always someone making a fashion statement and those individuals will make a great focal point in your composition of the crowd.

If people are carrying signs, try to include the text as they help tell the story of the event. Usually you need to make sure you have both the individual and the sign, otherwise, all you have captured is a low-tech advertisement of their cause.

For example, I liked the combination of the message on the sign and the children in this image.

Every rule can be broken of course, and I found this headless sign shot visually appealing.

Just remember, strive for an interesting and unique composition.

GEAR

This article wouldn’t be complete without talking briefly about what type of gear you should take.

First, don’t get too hung up on gear. If you are using a point and shoot, then get out and point and shoot. If you have a nice 200mm zoom, then zoom away.

Avoid the feelings of “If I only had X, I could really cover that event.” Trust me when I say you’ll never come to a point where you say “I have everything I want as a photographer,” so that feeling shouldn’t prevent you from using what you have now. Enough said.

GOING PROFESSIONAL

Once you feel like you have enough experience under your belt it’s time to go pro. You don’t want to be shooting without pay forever, so where do go for resources on how much to charge and how to work with perspective clients?

One of the best resources is the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). Things can get complicated when dealing with copyrights and contracts so I’d do the reasearch. A similar site with good information is the American Society of Media Photographers.

Lastly, a great resource to help you make the leap from amature to pro is to attend a workshop. The prestigious Eddie Adams Workshop, for example, is a 4 day intensive course after which you meet the big players in the industry such as Time, People and National Geographic. Amazingly, it’s actually free after room and board ($350) but they only take 100 students a year. Look around for other workshops in your area.

If you’re interested in seeing the entire gallery of this event, it’s viewable here. Music courtesy of The Pressure, an up and coming band based in Seattle (used with permission).

Good luck and happy shooting.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Shooting Like a Photojournalist [Part 2]

For a photographer, skills in family portraits are are essential and are usually the bread and butter for up and coming photographers. Looking at the history of photography, one of the first popular uses the camera was not for abstract art, or photographing the family pet, but for photographing people and their families. Because of the expense and difficulty of each photo taken, they became masters at getting things right the first time and being able to fit in as many people as possible into the frame. In order to hone in on the small things that make a difference in this classic and often overlooked form of photography, I have come up with my five DO’s and five DONT’s of Family Portraits. I’ve also included a few examples from portrait sessions we have done.

Family Portraits DO’S

1) Do squish your groups together

Most likely, even though they are family they won’t be getting close enough. Maybe it’s an American personal space thing, but it’s always been an issue for me and having everyone in tight truly makes a difference in the tone of the picture. When families are physically close, it emits a warmth and visually shows what families should be like…close. Even if you are photographing the Adam’s family, when you get everyone rubbing shoulders they look like a model family and the overall composition is more finished than a typical snapshot. As a starter, try having people stand at slight angles with shoulders overlapping. Also, consider the age of your family. If Grandma is present, make sure you have a chair for her. If grandma and grandpa are both there, you’ll will need two chairs.

2) Do coordinate clothing

Before you meet with your family you should guide them in a wardrobe choice. Ultimately it is up to them and their families style to choose what they wear but simply reminding them to possibly overlap in a color scheme, avoid extreme colors, prints and logos on their clothing can make a big difference. This will give you an easier time post production, and you will have both options in color and black and white. As I said, it’s their picture and their choice, but a casual recommendation from a professional is usually appreciated.

3) Do check the screen for blinking

Shooting and shooting is OK for one or two people, but in a larger group it can be hit and miss and you may miss that one photo where everyone has there eyes open. I used to think “Hey, its digital. I’ll use the rapid fire method and surely I’ll get one right.” After a few sessions of transplanting eyes from one photo to another in Photoshop, I’ve changed my methods. You can get away with a weak smile but if someone looks like they are sleeping or on drugs in there first family portrait in 10 years, the customer may not be too happy. With experience you learn to quickly scan across everyone’s eyes in an instant.

4) Try and be funny to get some genuine smiles

A few cheesy jokes work surprisingly well to break the tension. A typical photographer joke might be saying “Ok, I need everyone to get in focus.” Or asking everyone to strike their best glamor pose. Other ways to get a smile is to get them doing something they don’t normally do. Have them try jumping, running, human pyramids or whatever comes to mind. If you have a one-liner you’ve used SUCCESSFULLY, or a creative and fun pose, sound off in the comments for the rest of us.

5.) Do try and blur the background

Choose the largest aperture setting you can, while still keeping everyone sharp. An aperture of 2.8 might make the trees and shrubbery look silky smooth, but it might make Uncle Bob at the end of the line look fuzzy. This is especially a problem when everyone is standing on different focal planes. The solution is often to shoot a few clicks smaller than the lenses widest aperture, then use the preview screen and zoom button on your camera to make sure everyone is looking good. Then adjust and continue. If you’re really serious about this, I’ve even heard of photographers setting out cups length-wise on a picnic table to estimate the distances you start to loose focus. Seems extreme to me, just don’t forget about Uncle Bob.

Family Portraits DON’TS

1.) Don’t forget to check ALL your basic camera settings before clicking away

ISO (go as low as possible), Image Size (RAW, fine), Exposure Compensation, Metering etc. It would be sad to get to the end of a great session and realize you didn’t change the low quality settings from the last time you used your camera shooting Garbage Pal Kids you planned on selling on Ebay. Of course in-door and out-door settings will differ as will naturally lit an artificially lit.

2.) Don’t let your subjects tilt their heads into each other

This is fine for your everyday Joe at the family Bar-b-que, but not a paid photographer. Subjects tend to think they will fit into the picture better if they tilt and lower their heads. Funny thing is, I’ve even caught myself doing this when I was being photographed. Watch for it and avoid it. There is always the lovey-dovey pose where they intentionally lean heads in, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

3.) Don’t sound insecure

Don’t say things like “This isn’t working.” Rephrase it into a positive, “Great, lets try a few more positions.” The more you tell them the pictures are looking great the better looking the pictures will get. Think high fashion cliche’s like, “Love it,” “Your beautiful,” “What a great one.” If you act like you have never seen such great photos the energy will give you just what your looking for and they will show confidence in their smiles.

4/5.) These last two may seem to contradict each other so I want to put them together. 4.) Don’t let Mom run the show. 5.) Don’t be afraid to let Mom, Dad, and kids come up with ideas and posing.

First about Mom. We all remember the drill, no running, no jumping, no dirt, and pretty much no fun until after the pictures. If you do this you can get a treat on the way home. This is probably the best way to ruin family picture day for the rest of every 8 year old’s life. Besides the fact that it is almost impossible to control what 8 year old’s do, it makes for bad portrait sessions. If you are sensing a strong arm from Mother, make sure to get the squeaky clean formals done right off the bat. They are easy and traditional. After that let mom know that you’ve got it covered and now you want to have fun with the kids. Let them be kids, let them wrestle and play and capture them at their best. Once in awhile you will find families that are more relaxed. They may have seen fun family photos of their friends and want do do some in a similar fashion. Take their suggestions without letting them think you have none of your own and work them in. Often they will turn out great and they’ll feel like they had a little more to do with the pictures than just a pretty face.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Family Portraits Do’s and Don’ts