strobist

I took this photograph of Kgomotso at the beach in a session, where I played with some concepts that I learnt from Strobist. In the past, I would have just packed in my camera and worked with available light. On this occasion, I packed in light stand strobes and lots of courage. For a good part of the photo session, we were standing in water. Not only we, were standing in water, but also the lightstand with a strobe. It is amazing how powerful waves can be. One wave threw over the lightstand and with it my strobe. Thanks for insurance companies… The strobe died a heroic death in the seawater.

Nevertheless, we had lots of fun with the portraits and this image here was taken before the accident. One strobe was direct from the camera right from the bottom up towards the face.

Jake Garn published a video tutorial on dodging and burning in Photoshop to enhance portraits. The tutorial guides you through a process of enhancing images with those tools in 15 minutes. Check it out here.

Stephen from Appletell thinks that Apple displays suck. Good post with some interesting points. Go here to read it.

Freelanceswitch focuses on actions to get things done. Read it and use it. I found some good advice for myself.

Remember my article on using more than one library in Aperture? Ben Long from Inside Aperture has a different opinion. He calls his post: One Library To Rule Them All. He offers good arguments in favor for using one library.

Of course, David Hobby had a couple of good posts this week. I liked Assisting On The James Balog Iceberg Shoot for several reasons.

• David’s approach of sharing encourages other photographers and assistants to share their experience.
• Strobelights are used in a landscape photography context, where you wouldn’t normally expect it.
• Jeff, who wrote the article gives great hints on how to work with Nikon’s CLS (Creative Lighting System) in very difficult circumstances, where you wouldn’t expect the system to work and would normally use remote triggers like Pocket Wizards.
• The post forced me check my camera manual!
• The results are amazing. Check them here at Nikon. There is also a video giving some more background info.

If you are a .Mac user, you can learn here, how to embed the .Mac Web Gallery into your own domain. Mac OS X Hints is a great resource for tips and tricks, using Macs.

In August, strobist posted info about a training DVD by the late Dean Collins. He was a studio photographer and according to David Hobby an amazing teacher. Dean Collins taught on how to work with light. What really caught my attention was that the light modifiers, he worked with were DIY project, made out of PVC tubing. The best part is that plans for his tools are available as PDF download.

I started with an easy project, a 1.20m x 2.00m light panel. Over the last few months, I worked with the light panel on a few small projects. This weekend I did some headshots using the light panel as sunlit background. So I set up the light panel in the garden and asked my models to sit in front of the panel. With the help of a reflector, I was able to balance the light according to my needs. It was fun working without any strobes and getting great results. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are serious about learning more about flash photography, then Strobist is the Blog to read. This week, you will learn about ring flash photography.
Ring flashes are popular with fashion photographers as they provide a good quality light. Ring flashes are expensive. Strobists will provide a diy manual for a speedlight based ring flash.
Check it out. It is a great resource.

I found a link to flickrslidr on Strobist’s blog. The slideshow setup was so easy and resulted in an appealing presentation. Check it out yourself.
The images, I selected are from a 5 day hike with friends along the Whale Trail in South Africa.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

As part of my daily routine, I read a good amount of blogs (via Google Reader) every morning.
Here are some entries, I found interesting enough to share with you:

Inside Aperture shows you, on how to setup an online approval system with Aperture and some other software.

Pixelated Image gives some advice on self promotion.

David Hobby aka Strobist, shares an interview with 17 year old photographer Joey Lawrence. His work is outstanding and he is releasing teaching DVDs. Get some inspiration and read the interview and the go to his web-page.

Jasmine Star (what a name!) is a wedding photographer in the states, who’s work inspires me working with available light. Her pictures look vibrant and fresh.

For any Apple fans, who haven’t heard yet: Leopard has been released…

Strobist has started the Lighting 102 course. Why is it called 102, because the first one was called Lighting 101. Actually this week is already the second part and deals with distance. If you want to participate, you can still upload your assignment to Flickr. You can find more information on the Strobist Webpage. You might find this exercise less than exciting, but still do it. You learn by doing things more than just reading it. I did my assignment and encourage you to do the same.

Strobist: Lighting 102: Introduction

If you are interested in learning more about using flash photography creatively, check this one out. The strobist webpage is starting the 102 Lighting course. There will be assignments to complete, so you will be challenged.

I will be participating, will you?

Just a short entry for today. I found this video at the Strobist’s Webpage. You can learn here, how to clean the sensor of your camera yourself. The editing of the video is rater rough or non exisitng. You still can learn a thing or two. Follow this link to the Strobist’s webpage. Strobist: Sensor Cleaning Demo

Don’t forget to have a look at the Lighting 101. You can learn a lot here. This blog is one of my favourite blogs about photography.

My Nikon D200 is equipped with wireless flash control (Nikon calls it Creative Lighting System - CLS), which simply means that the built in flash can be set on commander control and with that can remotely trigger and adjust external system flashlights like the SB600 or SB800. Is it a great tool? For sure it is! You can use TTL mode, manual mode or A mode. With the built in setup, you can control two external flash groups (consisting of 1 or more flashlights each). If you use a SB800 or the controller unit SU800, you have the ability to work with 3 different flash groups. You can download this document from Nikon for more details of the setup.

Is there a downside to it? Yes, the flashlights need to be in visual contact to the control unit. Otherwise the infrared receivers cannot pick up the signal and won’t trigger. In most setups that is easy to accomplish, though not always.

I have been using until recently mostly the TTL setup as it is easy to use. Most of the time I would get the result, I was after, but sometimes it seems the communication between me and my camera did not flow perfectly.

A while back, I found the the strobist webpage with some great advice about using flashlights in a wireless setup. Strobist is run by David Hobby, photographer for the Baltimore Sun. I used the articles as inspiration for flash setups, but continued to work with the TTL setup. This weekend I decided to explore David’s advice to go manual. Honestly, I was a bit sceptical, but went for it anyway. David also uses radio triggers for his flashlights, which cancel out the problem of visual contact between controller and flash. As I didn’t have those, I just went with what I had.

Man! I was surprised, on how easy it was just to go manual. For the first few shots, I used a flashmeter, but packed away quickly. It was not necessary. All the information, I need I saw on the little screen on the back of my camera after did the shot. I just adjusted the manual output of the lights according to what I saw. That made the process quick and easy. Actually, as easy, if not easier than using TTL. I had the feeling to gain 100% control over the process again. It was almost like standing in the darkroom and printing my own images. A great feeling.

The objects of my experiments weren’t very sexy and I did not bother too much with composition. The technique was more important for me than anything else. I will post some images over the following days, where I will use the newly learnt techniques in an attractive context.