Chris Poindexter, Author at Snapsort

Inflatable Photo Studio Space

Massiera Industries has come up with a clever idea for people who need studio space but can’t afford a rental studio. The company is offering several varieties of inflatable studio that come with a different set of features.

Ranging in size from 15 to 30 feet wide, these inflatable studios are easy to transport, and take only a few minutes to set up. When the shooting day is done, the packing up doesn’t take much longer than folding up a tent.

The concept allows photographers to have studio space anywhere they have a flat space and electricity. The smaller units pack up to box roughly two feet square and weigh less than 50 pounds and come pre-fitted with tie-downs for anchoring them against wind gusts. In some situations having the extra indoor space could be a life saver.

With a portable generator it would be possible to stage a studio shoot in the middle of nowhere. Not entirely certain why you’d want to do that, but if the weather kicked up on a location shoot it might be handy to have in the truck.

At least one model has a diffused natural light roof the others are made to keep the natural light outside.

The units use an external fan for inflation, much like the bouncy house you rent for your kid’s birthday party. The fans and air flow are hardly noticeable inside, potentially making them useful for location video besides photography. The entry door is wide enough to accommodate most equipment.

My only concern would be how well they regulate temperature in a hot climate, but that problem would seem to be easily resolved with either interior fans or a small cooling unit.

Massiera is currently in negotiations with one of the better known New York photo/video stores for exclusive North American distribution rights. Pricing hasn’t been finalized yet but is expected to be in the $1,800 to $2,000 range for one of the smaller units.

Can’t Miss Landscape Tips

Every photographer hears the call of the wild at some point. I used to get up at 4 am to haul a Bush Pressman D model 4×5 out into the wilderness along with a steel tripod that was a handy companion in a bar fight but quite a load to pack around otherwise.

The great thing about shooting landscapes is they’re not moving very fast. It’s easy to keep a bead on them. All the same you keep seeing the same mistakes in shot after shot: The horizon splitting the shot across the middle, no point of interest, bad lighting, and no shot lines for continuity.

Luckily you don’t have to haul a camera the size of microwave oven up a mountain trail in the dark to get good landscape photos. Anyone with a decent camera and a tripod should be able to take postcard quality landscape shots by keeping a few simple rules in mind.

Use A Tripod

Today there are aluminum and carbon fiber tripods that weigh very little, or a Gorilla Pod that will easily fit in your backpack. Take one.

Two reasons for a tripod: One is so you can choose an f-stop to get the maximum depth of field. Unless you’re going for bokeh with a foreground object placement, most of the time you want the smallest aperture (highest f-stop) that you can swing for a landscape to capture the maximum amount of detail.

The other reason for a tripod is for water shots where a slow shutter speed will give the water a foggy, smooth appearance.

Don’t Split The Horizon

Look back on our tips for composition and remember those apply to landscapes as well.

When it comes to the horizon, it’s a rare shot that splits the horizon along the center line and still looks good. Decide whether you want to emphasis the foreground or the sky and align the horizon along the appropriate third.

Horizon line — The horizon line is a little too close to center in this shot

Look For a Foreground Subject

To make mental composition easier look for a foreground with some interesting detail and frame around that.

The biggest offender in this category tend to be beach shots. When the horizon is on the upper third, there’s this huge, featureless expanse of sand in the foreground. Try to find some dunes or beach grasses to break up all that sand.

Converging Lines

One pro tip for taking better landscapes is to start asking yourself what elements are leading the eye of the viewer in your shot.

If you don’t have good foreground lines, start looking around for roads, power lines, tree lines, anything that take a point of reference and lead it toward a subject.

Wait For It

In movie production the hour just on either side of sunset is called the “Golden Hour” for a reason. That’s when the quality of sunlight is at its warmest, with a reddish gold glow that saturates colors and brings out contrast.

That golden moment in lighting is worth waiting for. I try to get setup at least a half-hour early and shoot through the whole range of golden hour. As the light angle shifts you’ll be amazed at the different colors, patterns and shadows that change from one minute to the next. It is really quite a remarkable time of day.

Most Important Quality In a Digital Camera?

samsung sh100 — Samsung SH100's wifi support connects with consumers - by Samsung

When thinking about the most important qualities in a digital camera it might depend on your perspective. Professionals are looking at chip size, resolution, dynamic range and speed. Most consumers just want to be able to take nice pictures and send them to grandma.

In 2001 Johnathan Kaplan and Airel Braunstein formed a company called Pure Digital Technologies to create an inexpensive digital camera to compete with disposable film cameras. The idea was to have customers bring back their digital cameras for printing, just like a disposable film camera. The company would save money by not needing to manufacture a lot of cameras, which they sold for $20 each.

The idea bombed because customers wanted a cheap digital camera, but they didn’t want to bring them back. Some people were content viewing their photos on the tiny 1.4 in screen, others figured out how to hack the cameras and download the pictures.

Lots of camera sales, but few returns destroyed Pure Digital’s margins and the camera failed. But it did point out that consumers were willing to sacrifice lots of quality for price and convenience.

It comes as no surprise then that PCMag.com Reader’s Choice Awards for 2011 reflect the changing trends in the consumer market.

The trend seems to be toward convenience of sharing photos. This is reflected in an increase in people using their cell phone cameras for more of their photography needs. Cell phone manufacturers have wisely responded by making cell phone cameras better.

In the Reader’s Choice Awards, consumers are going for the models that make sharing easier. At first I was skeptical of wifi-enabled models like the Samsung SH100 and Panasonic FX90, but now it appears they had the pulse of consumers all along.

Beginning Strobes On a Budget

Using external flash in an umbrella — Starting out with an external flash in an umbrella is okay - by Wesley Oostvogels

To put together a decent strobe lighting setup it is not necessary to spend a huge amount of money. You can, if you have the cash, but it’s not necessary to get good results.

There are three basic types of strobes: Monolights, Pack & Head systems, and external flashes.

Monolights, which have the plug and all the circuitry built in to the flash unit. Monolights have the disadvantage of needing to be plugged in all the time and are primarily for indoor use.

Pack and Head sets are lights that come with a separate battery pack and can be used outside. They’re not conveniently portable, but they’ll move.

The other option are external flashes, which run on batteries. If you’re just starting out, external flashes are okay. You can mount them in a softbox or umbrella and get good results, though you may be limited at the distances you can use them. You’ll burn through more batteries, but they’re a lot easier to pack around and very versatile. The only downside to external flashes are the lack of a built-in modeling light. You have to take a picture to pre-view the results. Less of a problem in these days of digital cameras.

What you’re giving up with low end equipment is build quality, recycle times, and fine tuning. High end studio flash units can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars and are color balanced to incredibly fine tolerances. In these days of RAW image management and the available fine tuning and batch processing available in post-processing, I’m not sure how important that is anymore.

There are mid-range professional lights like Paul C Buff’s AlienBees that are more than adequate for most professional applications these days.

AlienBees B400 in an umbrella — AlienBees B400 studio flash in an umbrella - by Paul C. Buff

If you’re new and piecing together an external flash setup on a budget, you can pull it all together for around $300. This is all equipment I’ve tested personally.

YN-467 $70

Can be used on camera for with compatible TTL with Canon cameras and is a surprisingly good flash unit. My only niggle with the design is the battery door feels a little flimsy. Power can be an issue with external flash units, but the YN-467 would light up the night in my testing.

YN-460 $45

Has a setting to operate as an optical slave, easy to change power settings. These make fine slave units.

Light stand w/ umbrella $39 x2 = $78

I’ve found ring lights and umbrellas to be my preferred way to light portraits over the years.

Background paper $20

I’d start with white and decide if you need a pattern later.

Reflector $13

Clamp it to a light stand if you don’t have an extra set of hands to hold it.

Flash trigger $34

You’ll want to upgrade this eventually, but all you need starting out is to trigger the key light and the slave will trigger the fill.

A highlight light, which can be any kind of spotlight or an extra flash on a snoot.

Or you can buy a low end introductory studio kit for about the same money. The disadvantage is you can’t move those outside without running extension cords all over. This is not equipment you’d want to build your business on, but it will get you through the learning stage without breaking your budget.

Beyond the introductory kits, then you’re into piecing together your studio lighting from higher end suppliers. I would recommend starting with a lower-cost system to gain experience before going out and dropping a bundle on equipment that you’ll want to keep for years.

The next investment I’d make after the flash units is a digital light meter. I’ll talk more about that and how to use it in another blog.

Showcase Your Work

You’ve spent years learning photography and honing your craft and it’s time to show your work to the world. That usually means a gallery and these days it’s probably going to be a web gallery.

You’ll have quite a few choices for web galleries and there are some technology decisions involved. The big tech decision is Flash verses no Flash. A Flash application can give you a rich visual display environment and fluid transitions, it can also provide tools for uploading your images, which is very convenient.

The downside with Flash is not all devices support Flash, particularly many mobile devices. Apple only recently added support for Flash on many of their iPhone and iPads.

For the widest possible audience, you’ll want to go with a CSS or scripted gallery. The challenge with those is they have to be updated regularly and not all browsers support standards equally. Some of them are plug-ins for other frameworks that have to maintained themselves.

Then there’s free verses paying for a gallery. I’m not above paying for a good gallery if it’s well supported and provides integration with social media and image sharing sites.

Here are a few to get you started.

Monoslideshow

I know, Flash-based and it costs money, but really delivers in terms of features, integration and functionality.

Graph Paper Press

Several WordPress themes there that make very attractive image galleries. The only downside is they’re trying to get you to subscribe to WordPress themes on plans that can run up to $100 per year. With the free themes on a subscription site, you can’t always be certain they’ll stay free.

Imagin

Another Flash gallery that has a free option with a branded logo or a low-cost option to purchase and remove the logo.

Zenphoto

Zenphoto is open source and free to download and use. You can donate to support development and purchase customizations if you want something to work a little differently.

What I like about Zenphoto is being able to set up password protected galleries. The downside is it can be tricky to setup if you’re not technically gifted.

Those will get you started. None of them are perfect, but they all have attractive features. Know of one I missed here? Post it in the comments.