Thanks again! So, since you’re using the barndoor, are you only effectively using two light sources? The 430EX w/shoot-through umbrella for key and the 580ex on the reflector as fill? Also, are there any cheap solutions for a backdrop other than the Muslin? I haven’t dyed mine yet, but I was just wondering if there was anything that looks nicer.
I have some black foam paper so I can make the barndoor… I already made one of the variations of the “ABBC”, but mine is kind of shoddy looking and I’m embarrassed when I take it out :-/
Yes, but there is a little more to it than that. The barn door controls the ‘spill’ coming out of the flash, and as long as I can control the spill, then I can control how much light gets to the backdrop. One thing that I’m doing is using an 18% blue backdrop. By restricting the amount of light that gets to the backdrop, I can change what the backdrop looks like.
I used the same backdrop on the father’s day photo session as I did on the scarecrow. Here are three different lighting set-ups that would leave the person in the photo the same, but it would change the color of the backdrop.
This is like the scarecrow, and it gives a darker blue than the backdrop really is.
This is like the fathers day photos, and is more of an 18% blue.
This set up would give you more of a pastel light blue.
18% matte grey paint, some gels and flood lights on a wall? Other than that, maybe look for some remnant curtains at the goodwill, or something. As far as brand new, exactly how you want it, the dyed muslin is going to be the least expensive route that I know of…
I know exactly what you mean. I started using the alienbees reflector instead of aluminum foil, just because it looks more professional. I like using the ABBC, but when I need to look professional, I use a stofen omni bounce or a lumiquest softbox.
i was bored so i blew 30 bux on this opteka .45x lens adapter for the kit lens. it supposed to be a wide lens/macro lens. but the IQ on the kit sucks. i use it mostly for the macro now. its a pretty cheap little bolt on if you want to exp with macro.
My gf’s birthday is coming up and I was wondering if you guys had gift ideas for amateur photographers. She has a canon digital SLR but I’m not sure what model it is and she usually takes pictures on the go. By that I mean she does not set up lighting equipment or some kind of secondary flash. I don’t have the money to buy her expensive things like a lens or lighting equipment but I was thinking of getting her something related like a customized photo album/portfolio book, or a book on lighting since she mentioned that she’s not used to flash photography or one on photoshop. So is there anything that is not too expensive but photographers love to get? Any recommendations would be appreciated.
im in the same situation… but i just got my friend a gift card to make it easy on myself and have him get whatever he wants. youre really not gonna find too much under 100 bux besides filters, tripods, and camera bags.
if she doesnt have one already, get her a camera bag. she’ll appreciate it. not too many people print their photos anymore, they just post them online to share. you can get her an external flash~ 430ex speedlite for about 200 bux if youre willing to throw down that kinda cash.
I don’t know about others, but I love books on photography that give me inspiration, or let me learn new things. The three books that are on my shelf that are the most dog-eared and used are:
Monte Zucker’s Portrait Photography Handbook by Monte Zucker
Photography: Fourth Edition by Barbara London Upton with John Upton
Black and White Photography; A Basic Manual; Second Edition, Revised by Henry Horenstein
That first one applies to anyone, and the other two I can’t fully recommend because they are more of meat and potatoes types of books for people that are developing their own film, and/or work in a lab.
The books that I have on my list to read are:
Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography by Kirk Tuck
The Moment it Clicks by Joe McNally
Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait by Michael Grecco
Light - Science & Magic, 3rd Edition by Hunter, Biver and Fuqua
I’ve not heard good things about Kirk Tuck’s book, but I want to read it anyway.
If I were you, I would buy a photography book and then find an old polaroid rangefinder camera w/media or a holga w/film and a gift card for developing. Of course, this is the type of photography gift that I would like to recieve, and YMMV when it comes to your girlfriend.
books are totally cool too. i like your idea with the old polaroid or holga with film in it. been looking into those lately… just cant come to justify buying one for myself.
i went out to LA today to see what i could find. came back with tons of misc shots.
sorry if i kill your bandwidths.
So I learned yesterday, whenever someone asks you to shoot a photo always say yes. What I thought was going to be a simple turned into me getting published for the first time in the Ventura County Star…
hey i just stumbled in here i didnt know srk had a photographers section. well i just recently got into photography with 2 friends loved it in high school only class i ever got an A in. when my friends were out taken shots i was very jealous. went out and bought nikon d40(i am a noob for now) and picked it up real quick!
Good job on making the newspaper. As they say in ghostbusters, if someone asks you if you are a God, you say YES!!!
I was working 9-3 all this past week, here is my office:
A pair of alienbees, and a 40D tethered to a laptop with a 28-105 F/3.5-4.5.
Self Portrait:
In the bag, you can see my backup system, which is a digital rebel, 580EX x2, 430EX, umbrella stand adapter x2, and two shoot through umbrellas. Also in the bag is a backup film body and 50 rolls of film.
Here are some shots of me playing with the backup system at home. The shots are of me, my wife, and my son. See if you can figure out who is who.
The 40D is a 14 day rental, and I’m still not sure if I’m going to buy it. I like to try everything out in the real world before I actually buy it, so I will borrow or rent camera equipment before I purchase it.
The rental came with a 28-135 F/3.5-5.6, so I got to do a week long side-by-side comparison of the 28-135 to the 28-105. The bottom line is that I like the 28-105 more than the 28-135. the 28-105 looks better at the extreme focal lengths, and is a more neutral lens. The 28-135 has more ‘pop’ than the 28-105, but I much prefer the neutral balance of the 28-105 where I can dial in the amount of pop in the image with the lighting. I guess you could say that the image quality difference between the two is subtle, but the 28-105 is like Kodak Gold, and the 28-135 is like Fuji Superia.
Final verdict is that for most people, the difference between the two is negligible, and the added 30mm means that the 28-135 is the better choice. However, when it came down to brass tacks, I was using the 28-105 because it ‘felt’ better.
As I am on leave because of my new son, I’ve been able to go through my bookshelf and look through some photography books that I haven’t flipped through in literally, decades.
So, I’m going to do a book review so that some of the SRK photographers can learn a little. If anyone has any questions, or if you learned from this post, post up and let me know.
The book review is on Outdoor Portraiture: Problems of Face and Figure In Natural Environment by William Mortensen, published in 1940.
First of all, there is a lot of the book that is completely out of date, because it assumes that you are going to be using black and white 8x10 view camera, but recommends what he calls a black and white 35mm “miniature” camera. He also gives very detailed instuctions on how to build a collapsable reflector out of four pieces of wood, a pair of hinges and some white cloth. This piece of equipment is key to everything that follows, but suffice to say that a few bucks spent on a sunshade is a much better solution than his diy plans.
Also, since it was written in the forties, by a guy in his forties, there are a few different nuggets of bigoted and arrogant statements like these beauties:
It is clear that he believes that his way is the “One True Way” to do photography. Once you get around his ego and the outdated equipment, the book becomes half as long, and is goes into depth on how to solve one basic problem. How to deal with images that have highlights or shadows that are outside the dynamic range of the camera. This concept, and the method (and he only has one method) to solve it are as relevant today as they were back then.
So, I shot a few example photos similar to the ones that are in the book, because I don’t have access to a scanner at the moment.
So the basic presentation goes like this (I’m paraphrasing):
You are going to shoot a picture like this because you are stupid.
You should have done something like this.
I’m going to show you the mistakes you made.
So he goes on to explain that there are five types of images. Type A, B, C, D, and E. It starts with type A being a photo with no blown out highlights or shadows and the image gets more contrast until it reaches type E, which is an image with underexposed shadows and overexposed highlights. Here are some examples. (Again, I shot these this afternoon because I don’t have a scanner).
Type A
Type C
Type E
Then, he basically goes through how to identify what lighting conditions that you have (A, B, C, D, or E), and shows you how to use a reflector to fill in the shadows with light so that you can change every image into a Type A image.
The beautiful part is that you don’t have to mess with his reflector diagrams in today’s day and age. You can just identify the ambient lighting conditions and then throw up your sunshade in different places until you have a Type A image. Verify that you did it right with your chimp screen and call it a day. Essentially, this is his method, but it is much easier and quickly done with any digital camera.
