- Une ferme en été
- Spencer Xtreme and Thunderbolt in November Paddling Workout
Rob was paddling laps in his Spencer Xtreme Canoe. I took my Thunderbolt-X kayak for easy paddling and testing a Flip Ultra camcorder as a bow camera. I attached the Flip grip from Wet Stuff to a suction cup mount from Sticky Pod.
- Year In Pictures: Smokey Skies
The fires burning nearby make for some dramatic skies for me to photograph.
- Beaded Art Deco Headpiece - by Naomi
Last night, after many months of on-and-off work, Naomi completed what I think is one of her most beautiful beaded artworks yet, a green, silver and black beaded feather headpiece.
- Photo5 Results, Recognition and Reflections
The Canon Photo5 competition has come to an end and the winners posted, but not without controversy!
- Petite maison II
La même maison qu'hier, mais cette fois d'un autre angle et avec un style plus antique. Elle est située sur l'Île Bonaventure à Percé, QC, Canada. 
- Learning Photography with Neil Creek Forum Launched
Flickr was fine as a community discussion, for a while. Now we have something much better, a discussion forum! Anyone can join and participate, and stay up to date with the latest happenings there.
- Petite maison
- Sentier d'automne
- Sentier d'automne
- Alpha radio flash trigger: when will Sony offer one?
The Sony Alpha hot shoe is the best in the business…but where is the radio trigger to fit it? Nov. 6, 2008 Last time I discussed the A900’s lack of a popup flash and the need for a $500 HLV-F58AM flash unit if you want to trigger the Sony Alpha wireless flash system. The hope is [...]
- Corporate Photography
I just saw a really cool video from Kelby Training by Joe McNally on corporate photography and also one on light shaping. I strongly recommend you look at this service programmed by Scott's gang. They are very cool. Here is the link Have a kewl day !
- Manifest Studio Shoot - Setup and Lighting
A few weeks ago, I was at the Melbourne Anime Festival (Manifest) photographing in an on-site studio in a professional capacity. I thought that it might be useful for readers of the blog for me to describe my experience at Manifest, how it worked and what I learned.
- Naomi Walks From Chair to Bedroom
For this series of photos I experimented with a couple of ways of presenting a sequence. I want to experiment more with sequences in the future.
- Lighting 101 PDF Translation Project
Thanks to the multi-lingual talents of reader Andrew Dahms, I am happy to announce that Lighting 101 is now available in Japanese as a downloadable PDF. The document is being released with a Creative Commons license under which it can be printed out, shared and/or hosted anywhere. The only restrictions are that it cannot be altered or used commercially, and attribution must be included.
Keep reading for more -- including the Japanese download link, other PDFs in the pipeline and how to help translate Lighting 101 into your own language.
Hardly a week goes by that I don't get an email from someone offering to create a piggy-back site and translate Strobist into another language. Or a note that they already have been translating the site somewhere. (Which is not cool, actually...)
Having a slew of foreign language sites is good in theory, but in practice tends to create more administrative problems than it solves. As the content creator, I need to keep control over the site's original material. But even being loosely involved with administering a couple dozen translation sites is beyond my capabilities at this point.
And while the written material on Strobist is free -- and always will be -- it is only when people actually visit the site that the economic model of free content works. Not only do the advertisers pick up the tab, but some have actually altered their focus to better serve the site's readers. That's way cool. But I have to center the readership here for that to keep working.
The solution was to translate the core unit on the site into multiple languages within a locked document format. Hopefully, many people will benefit from the translated L101, and enough of them will trickle in to read more in English so that it will have been worth the traffic dilution.
Leading Off: Japanese
The first L101 translation to be released is Japanese. It is available via MediaFire, here. Japan has vibrant photographic community, and it is my hope that some Japanese-speaking photographers will benefit from being exposed to Lighting 101.
If you are part of the Japanese online community (we had 3,451 visits from Japan last month) I hope you will help to seed this Lighting 101 module into some of the Japanese language photo sites. You are free to link to the MediaFire hosting site where it is now, or to download and host/post/share it in any way you like. Just do not alter it or charge for it -- it is meant to be free.
And, thanks to the intrepid Rafa Barbera, who has been running the Strobist en Español site, Lighting 101 will soon be available in Spanish as a PDF. Constructing a mirror site is an ongoing commitment on both ends. So for now, translated PDFs will be the way to go.
Lighting 101 is also being translated into Mandarin Chinese, thanks to the efforts of reader David Li.
As there already are Italian, German and Danish Strobist groups on Flickr, my guess is they will happen as PDFs, too. More on that below.
Help Translate L101 into Your Language
If you are a long-time reader of the site and are native in some other language, you can help to spread the information in Lighting 101 to others. I am looking to crowdsource the process and will gratefully accept the efforts of anyone who wants to chip in.
Many hands make light work, so my preference is to use a team of translators for a given language. If we can get a few people willing to pitch in, I will be more than happy to greenlight a translation PDF and host it. French, Hungarian, Swedish, Klingon -- whatever. The more the merrier.
For each language, we will need:
• A project lead: This person will coordinate the group's translation efforts and help with translation.
• A designer: Someone who can create a PDF document similar to the Japanese example released today -- could also help with translation. A designer could also be a project lead, if they were willing to serve in both capacities.
• An editor: Someone who was not involved in the translation, to make sure the translation is faithful to the original.
• Additional translators: Several people working together in this capacity will make the project easily doable.
Ideally, translators would be native speakers of the target language, be fluent in English and be very familiar with the material (i.e., long-time readers). Once a team has come together to translate into a given language, I'll get it started, including some additional guidelines, Creative Commons image files, etc.
Bear in mind that this is a bit of an experiment, based on the ideas and generous volunteer efforts of those responsible for the languages already in translation. I think it is a wonderful idea, and an ideal way to pay forward any help that this site may have been in broadening your understanding of small-flash lighting.
I have set up a Lighting 101 Translation Thread on Flickr. If you are not already on Flickr, you will need to sign up for a (free) account to be involved. From there, groups can form into various languages, share documents via email (or Flickr mail) and coordinate with me.
I will vet each translation before releasing it on the site in its official form, so please to not turn them out in to the wild before they are complete. I will also monitor the translation thread and answer any questions that pop up. Please ask them there.
For those who choose to get involved in a translation project, my sincere and heartfelt thanks and the thanks of those who speak your language who will learn more about lighting as a result of your efforts. Ditto for those of you who help to propagate the translated documents into your native language site and discussion fora.
I can tell you from experience of running this site that it is a wonderful feeling to be a conduit for knowledge that goes on to help many people -- and that good feeling never goes away.
- Year In Pictures: My Vote Counts
With my family in tow, I voted today and made a difference.
- Grands espaces II
- Grands espaces
- Photo5 Finalists Announced
The top 50 selected images from approximately 8000 submissions have been selected by the judges and the Canon Photo5 Competition entrants are now online for voting.
- Trip to the Hills - Day 3: Snow!
This was the first time my nieces had seen snow, and naturally making a snowman and tobogganing were essential activities. The responsibility of ensuring the girls had as much fun possible on the slopes fell to my father and I.
- Technologie et paysage
- Technologie et paysage
- Le petit phare
Tout petit, mais quand même très important. Comme quoi, la grandeur physique ne prime pas toujours sur l'importance du rôle. 
- Sous les nuages
- Silver Maple Leaves Falling into the Delaware River at Dawn
Posted on October 23, 2008
Le chien et l'automne
Le chien et l'automne
Nikon SB-900: Joe Bob Goes to the Movies
Those of you of a certain age will remember Joe Bob Briggs, who used to review guys' movies for the newspapers the way a guy would want a movie reviewed.
Steel Magnolias? Zero stars. Way too much emotional junk.
Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Instant classic -- it has chain saws, fer cryin' out loud. Get the Oscar buzz started!
I was very disappointed to find out that the "Joe Bob" in the new Nikon speedlight video were in fact Bob Krist, internationally known travel photographer, and Joe McNally, some guy I have never heard of.
Sadly, the video is not available yet, nor are the online excerpts -- they are coming next week, from what I hear. So why am I even telling you this?
Because the release of the SB-900 video trips in a little gentleman's agreement about the previous, SB-800 "Speed of Light" video...
__________
A few years ago, this Joe McNally guy filmed a video for Nikon on the (then) new SB-800s, showing just what they could do by using CLS in a real-world environment. It was a capabilities/brochure type of thing, and they probably underestimated the demand for nuts-and-bolts, exact "how-to" type of stuff.
The video was called, The Speed of Light (spoiler alert: 186,000 miles per second) and was a great tease to get you pining for six SB-800s.
The feedback, of course, was that now everyone wanted to know exactly how to do this stuff: What do I set the +-TTL at? Why use the dome outside? How do I find a contortionist and a glass box in the middle of the desert?
So, from what I understand at least, they are looking to be more nuts-and-bolts in the current iteration which is now in the can and ready for release. The new video is five times as long as the last, which should allow for more detail in the process.
From what I hear, they had fun filming it, too. Rumor was that Bob and Joe actually pretended to get pissed off at each other, almost to the point of coming to blows (my money is on Bob -- he's a scrapper) just to worry the director while shooting. That's why you never let the photographers outnumber the directors.
But enough of that. Back to the Speed of Light video.
__________
Here it is, embedded. If you are viewing this post via RSS or an email subscription, you probably won;t be able to see the video. You can get to the full web version, with video, here.
The vid has been up on Google Video for several months, and is a total bootleg upload. I was tipped to it by several readers way back when.
Normally this is a strict no-no, and results in DCMA takedown notices out the wazoo almost immediately. But I talked to several people at Nikon and the idea was batted around that letting this one go into the wild at this point might not be such a bad thing. Simple cost-benefit analysis. But I agreed that it would best to wait until the next-gen SB-900 video was announced before linking to the old SB-800 video.
There is a lot of information in it, but the flash itself is discontinued. (Bastards! They killed Kenny!) Which means the commercial value for an SB-800 video is down to the flat part of the long tail chart. So, given that they (a) know it is out there and, (b) have not yet DCMA'd it, you are not starving anyone's babies by watching it.
It's about half an hour long. IMO, the best part of the video has nothing to do with lighting. CLS shooters will learn from it, of course. But the real takeaway is watching this Joe guy work.
When you are watching this, pay special attention to how Joe paces his shoot. Note how he keeps his subjects engaged, how he uses their time and attention efficiently. A good shoot is all about a steady stream of communication and keeping a good rhythm going with the subjects.
He's too modest a guy to tell you this, so I will: His long-practiced ability to interact with his subjects is just as key to the success of his photos as is his lighting skill. More so, actually. It's a dance, and someone has to lead.
You can get great photos all day long with good subject interaction and finessing whatever available light you can find. Not so the reverse. If you do not gel with your subject, all the fancy flash in the world will not make a great portrait.
I am very much looking forward to the new vid (hopefully, with a director's cut including the fight scenes) when it pops up. I'll point to the excerpts online whenever they are posted.
Hey, Nikon -- why not YouTube that trailer and let it fizz a little?
And I would be curious to hear your thoughts on the interaction and rhythm thing in the comments below. What did you come away with?
__________
New Speedlight Video: Nikon Press Release
Heading to the Big Apple
I'll be out of touch up in NYC without a laptop this week at Photo Plus Expo for a full schedule of meetings, booth browsing and cocktail imbibing. Please say hi if you happen to see a dumpy, middle-aged photographer walking around the convention floor sporting a "Strobist" credential. (Yes, we're sending the entire editorial staff...)
I'll be at hanging out the MPEX booth (they got DVD specials and "dozens" of vintage Nikon SB's) on Friday from 11:00 a.m. to lunch time. Also, Joe McNally will be demo'ing speedlights at the Nikon booth Thursday from 2:30 - 3:00 p.m.
Hope to see you there. Please feel free to leave any party time/location/secret handshake info as a "do not publish" comment below. If I can swing it, I'll try to stop by.
-30-
Political Event, Chinatown Style
Guests at Political lunch event at Chinese restaurant during the National Day of Republic of China(Taiwan) celebration.
Since May this year I was working on the personal project documenting Chinatown and one thing led to another I began to get in contact with some of the old , semi-political organizations that have long history with the community. Then about a week ago I was photographing the political event which marks the national day of Taiwan - or Republic of China, the island's official name.
To understand why these people celebrating the holiday that is only marked in the calender in Taiwan there's a bit history lesson to be learned.........To put it simple, this so called National Day which is on Oct. 10th was celebrated in China before 1949 prior to the People's Republic. Then The Chinese Nationalist lost the civil war and retreated to Taiwan so the National Day on Oct. 10th is only celebrated on the territory that Nationalist controls. However for the oversea Chinese organizations, specially the old ones that are locate in Chinatowns, are still supporting the Nationalist so naturally they're celebrating ROC's National day as well.
So what do I make of this? Well, I personally felt like I went into an living antique shop when I attending the event not only because of age group of the attendees but also the propaganda - may it be the slogan they shouted during the event or the text on the wall. All these remind me of my elementary school times in taiwan 20 years back.
Feuillage à l'automne
Arrière-plan...
Une image toute simple qui peut rappeler certaines images d'arrière-plan de Windows. 
On-Axis Fill: Experimenting with Ring as Fill
Having talked about the inspiration to learn more about on-axis fill, I'd like to work through the process of studying a lighting idea to the point where you become totally comfortable with it.
For better or worse, my goal is for this experience to serve as a sort of template for how I approach a new lighting technique.
This week deals with first attempts to reverse engineer how people were getting that cool, controllable 3-D tonality in their shadows, specifically by using ring flash.
When struck by the idea of on-axis fill, ring light is a no-brainer. It doesn't get any more "on-axis" than that, so it was my obvious starting point. What I would go on to find out was not only were there many options for creating on-axis fill, but also a seemingly endless number of combinations between the quality and quantity of the fill and the key light.
Whenever I am struck by a new technique, my programmed response is usually to shoehorn it into the very next opportunity I have to shoot. I'm impatient that way. But the point is to learn it ASAP, and hopefully in a way that does not screw up a paying gig.
Professional shooters as notorious cowards thorough testers -- much more so than most amateurs I know. We want to do our screw-ups in relative privacy, and not on someone else's dime.
That's the way I normally work, but this time I was too impatient. I felt like a kid in a candy store, and wanted to start playing with on-axis fill immediately, if not sooner.
My first attempt at ring fill was against an umbrella key light, while shooting the lovely and enthusiastic Minty (that's her name) seen at the top of this post. It was at the Gulf Photo Plus event in Dubai. We were working very quickly, trying to get a selection of different looks from three different setups and outfit changes in the span of about 45 minutes.
To my credit I at least saved my on-the-job experimentation until the last of the three setups, which was outside of our conference room in the hall. The walls in the hall basically looked like seamless background paper, which was enough to qualify as a good setting in our academic conference environment.
The idea -- making this up as we went along -- was to position the key (umbrella, camera right) as I would if just shooting normally. Then I would dial in the ring fill and see what happened.
What ratio to use? Heck, I wasn't thinking that far ahead. In retrospect, it ended up being about one and a half stops -- too much fill, IMO.
Much like the first time I had shot someone with an umbrella against a sunset, I was happy enough with the first result that I did not press it by trying variations to see what would look better. That's a big mistake when trying new techniques, and one I will readily own up to. Because I do it over and over again.
In a turn on the old phrase "the perfect becomes the enemy of the good," it's more like "the good becomes the enemy of the way better."
Getting a cool result can keep you from pressing the idea further to see what else might happen. That's something you should always be on guard against.
When I edited my photos that night in my hotel room, I could see my problem much more clearly. The light directions were okay, but the ring fill had too much intensity. The result was that dimensionality had been stripped from the photo, and Minty had been reduced to almost a 2-D cutout.
It was like a layered paper sculpture, lit on different planes.
In general this is not a ring fill ratio I would use on people -- I'd want less of the fill. But, as with any screw up, you learn. And what I learned here was that on-axis fill is basically a control slider to enhance or compress the 3-D quality of your subject.
Much like a field goal kicker who misses a big kick by aiming too far to the right, I would overcorrect on my next attempt.
At left is Asif, a marketing exec in Dubai, whom I shot in the very next workshop. After Minty, you can be pretty sure I wasn't gonna over fill Asif. So naturally, rather than filling him a stop and a half down, I filled him at, like, four stops down.
Had I shot this for The Sun, our presses would have happily filled in all of those subtle, dark tones with nice, black ink. You cannot do this on newsprint and expect to get away with it.
The photo was obviously inspired by Peter Yang's eerie shot of Admiral Fox Fallon. I previously had worked through this poor-man's version of Yang's big, gridded reflector by substituting a small LumiQuest soft box instead. I used a Soft Box II at the time, but my preference now would be the new Soft Box III, as it is a little bigger. (Both will work, though.)
But what about the grid? Isn't that critical?
Well, no. Not really. It is what the grid does that is critical, which is to create a shaft of light that keeps the top of the person's head from being illuminated. You can also go that with a simple gobo.
As you can see from the diagram, the gobo allows the light to reach the subject's face, but not the top of the head. If you place the gobo closer to the subject, the line is harder. Place it closer to the light source and the line into darkness gets softer.
I like to place it pretty close to the (small) source, and at a height to where the subject's eyes can see about 3/4 of the light source. This tells me that the eyes will be positioned about 1/4 of the way into the transition from lit area to shadow area.
This is offset by the fact that the eyes are closer to the light source on a relative basis than are the lips, chin, etc. These two factors tend to cancel each other out in a cool way.
But this post is about ring fill, right? And besides, I am not put on this earth just to ape someone else's light. I want to shape it in new ways and do my own thing.
So I wanted to keep the dark look of the photo, yet still be able to see up into the shadows a little bit in a controlled way. That's where the ring fill does the job perfectly.
I am filling at almost four stops down, which is a tremendous chasm of a lighting ratio by most measures. Example: That's a white piece of paper a few feet behind Asif, going almost black. (That is straight from Lighting 102 - Position | Distance.)
Again, from a newspaper standpoint, it's a big 'ol fail. But, there may be times when I want this tiny peek into the shadows. On an RGB display, it is legible -- just at the edge, really -- but I can dial this in any way I want now, because I have seen the upper and lower limits.
But, the "screw ups" are defining my boundaries. And I could very well decide to go there again, too. It is my choice, depending on the look I want and the medium in which the photo is gonna run.
A stopped watch is right twice a day, and even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. So given that I had missed on both high and low on my ratio, I hopefully would be ready the next time.
Having seen what both "too light" and "too dark" looked like, I felt comfortable that I could dial in the ring fill against an umbrella with a little nuance. Which is what happened the next time I tried the technique.
You can see a full write-up on the contortionist photo, which was a direct offshoot of the test shots above, in this post from earlier this year.
If there is anything that should be stressed, it is (a) that zeroing in on the look you want is a logical process, and (b) you should not expect to happen upon an ideal look right out of the starting gate. It takes testing and experimentation -- and learning from the "close-but-no-cigar" photos is a valuable part of the process.
Next in this series, we'll look at using ring fill on axis against a hard and/or restricted key light.
Rapides II
Arrière de la Cathédrale de Rimouski
fotolog
0 комментария(ев):
Post a Comment