Accessories Archives - Page 5 of 10

Striving For Perfect Exposure

Polaris Digital Light Meter — A good quality light meter is still worth carrying in the world of digital photography

I’ve been taking pictures for decades. For at least the first 10 years of that time, I was a pretty much a full auto shooter and got results that were consistent but unimaginative.

In the old days of film cameras, the light meters could be off as much as a full stop. Occasionally the discrepancy would work in my favor and I’d produce some fantastic shots, proof that even a blind sow gets an acorn once in a while. Nikon shooters had an advantage in those days, as their internal light meters were far more consistent.

Then I started to get suspicious that my camera’s light meter wasn’t always giving me the whole story and got an incident light meter. That was quite an education. Then I went the opposite direction. I turned into the manual exposure hall monitor from hell. Internal light meters in cameras were crap and anyone who didn’t think so was hopelessly amateur. The worst part was that I was shooting really amazing pictures in those days, which only reinforced my bad attitude. I was an exposure snob.

Today I’m back to shooting on auto. Well, not exactly and not completely, I shoot mainly on my Canon 7D’s CA, or Creative Auto setting. With the menus on the back I can quickly bump the exposure up or down, change picture styles, and control the depth of field without manually setting the aperture. I do a lot of what’s derisively called “chimping”, checking the LCD screen every few shots to see if I like the results. If not, I change the exposure and try again.

I still go back to manual exposure in certain situations when the lighting is tricky and I know that even the marvelously accurate computers inside the camera are not going to meter the scene properly. I still use a light meter sometimes, more in the studio these days than outside, but lately there are fewer situations when the camera and light meter disagree.

A properly exposed photo is still a thing of beauty, but now we’re so used to near exposure perfection from even average digital cameras that the manual tweak of imperfection is becoming a statement in its own right.

The main thing is find your own style for dialing in the perfect exposure. Don’t let anyone tell you chimping is not okay. The LCD screen on your camera is a fantastic tool, use it.

But do invest in a good quality light meter, they really are quite handy. Even doctors need a second opinion once in a wile.

Adobe Launches V10 of Photoshop & Premiere Elements

Adobe Systems announced the release of version 10 of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, two of their popular photo and video editing applications.

Photoshop Elements fielded a crop of upgrades, including support for 64 bit systems running Window 7. Other add-ons include the ability to paint specific effects and patterns on parts of photos and post-processing simulated bokeh and other guided edits.

Also new is the ability to search for photos that contain specific objects, so if you’re looking for all pictures that feature a motorcycle, you can have Object Search do the legwork for you. Search functions also include the ability to weed out duplicates.

Simplified text to path and text to shape tools will make it easier for users to create their own cards and event notices, along with several built-in templates for online and printed albums.

Another feature you may or may not appreciate is integration with Facebook’s facial recognition tagging. There are also other updates for better integration with other social media sites.

For the more technically savvy, Adobe has integrated the Photoshop Touch API, which lets developers build touch tablet apps that interact with Photoshop and now will also work in Elements.

Other new features include what Adobe calls “content intelligent tools” that will do things like move people from one background to a different one, choose the best looks for each individual in a group shot and even wipe people out of a scene.

Photoshop and Premiere Elements are available for download for $99.99 each or $149.99 together. Available for Mac and Windows.

For More Info:

Adobe

Low-Budget Portable Lighting Rig

remote fill — Using a slave as a remote cuts down on the cost of the wireless rig

A little while ago we covered the lighting setup for a pro wedding photographer at ImagesForever.net down in Melbourne Beach. A few of you might have read that and gotten depressed because, when you added up all the separate components, you realize the cost of that lighting setup was close to $1,800.

Many of you don’t have that much to spend, others may enjoy photography as a serious hobby but aren’t willing to risk divorce court by trying to talk your significant other into dropping that kind of cash on portable lighting.

So, I took on the challenge and wanted to see how close I could get to a usable lighting setup on a budget more people can afford, say $250.00 USD. Certainly there are going to be some compromises: Build quality, fit and finish, and convenience will all be challenged to move the price point that far. You get what you pay for, but if you’re creative in moving stuff around, you can sometimes get better results than the price tag might suggest. Besides, you can always upgrade individual components if you have the money.

Here’s what I came up with. Please note the prices are subject to change and don’t include shipping:

1 Yongnuo YN-467 ($85.64)

This flash is pretty good for the money. It’s compatible with my camera’s e-TTL system and does a respectable job lighting the scene. The refresh times are surprisingly fast for a sub-$100 flash. With fresh batteries the flash can fire as fast as my camera can write images. It’s also got a built-in diffuser plate and bounce card.

The build quality does have issues. The battery door feels cheap and flimsy, take extra care changing the batteries.

YN467 Flash Text — The YN-467 on a monopod tethered to my 7D with a Pixel TTL compatible sync cord. I used the monopod because the bracket didn't arrive in time

1 Yongnuo YN-460 Slave ($39.39)

Instead of two YN-467’s, I went with a dedicated slave to save some money. Now I have the freedom to mount the fill flash on a monopod or light stand that I can move around. The downside to not having the AC3 Zone Controller is I have to walk over and change the power settings on the remote manually, instead of flicking a switch on the top of the camera.

Another limitation is having the bracket flash tethered to the camera with a cord. It limits mobility quite a bit. I could still mount the bracket flash on a light stand if the situation called for it, but I’m not going any farther than the cord.

1 Pixel TTL compatible sync cord ($23.18)

A $20 cord still gives me the ability to put the primary flash on the bracket handle and still sync with the TTL in my camera. Instead of shooting everything manually, I can use the Creative Auto (CA) setting and change the exposure of at least the primary flash with the exposure compensation adjustments in the camera.

Two bounce diffusers from eBay $1.95 each.

Okay, that brings us up to $152.11 and we can go shopping for a flash bracket and light stand.

For the flash bracket I picked the Stroboframe Quick Flip 350 on sale for $35.95, which unfortunately did not arrive in time for the article photos.

Which leaves me enough room for a pair of PBL heavy duty light stands for $51.95.

Which brings my total to $240.01, with enough left over to buy pizza for the TFP models.

So How Does It Work?

Judge for yourself. With the exception of the bracket handle, I took all these photos with the components described above.

Because the remote operation is manual, it sometimes took me a couple shots to dial in the fill flash power. Sure, it’s extra walking, but how much walking will you do for $1,400?

article photos — That will pass. Might have been a little better with the main flash straight on

article photo — Lighting the entire pool room was no problem

test photo 1 — By putting the remote behind the subject I was able to achieve the outline highlights that seem to be all the rage right now

Top Six Lenses Given As Gifts

You gotta love statistics. It gives you the ability to slice and dice data and make discoveries of interesting trends, like the top six lenses that are purchased as gifts, as compiled by Amazon.

1) CanonEF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6-IS lens is designed for the consumer market with EF-S mount cameras, primarily APS-C models. This model will not work well with full frame cameras like the Canon 5D MKII. The big selling point is having a long zoom range with built-in image stabilization.

This lens has received some criticism for feeling like plastic, but overall gets good marks from users.

2) Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

The Canon “Nifty-Fifty” 1.8 lens is a must for any camera bag. It’s small, sharp, fast and inexpensive. A great lens for any kind of general shooting duty, including portraits and walking around.

Has been criticized for feeling like plastic and noisy focusing motors, but what do you expect for $100?

3) Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6

A very light and inexpensive lens for the focal range. While the build quality is mediocre, the lens generally gets decent reviews from users.

Criticized for being soft at the wide end at lower f-stops, the clarity improves as you stop down. Focusing speed is okay, but not fast.

4) Nikon Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6

A lens criticized for the plastic mount, but praised for high quality optics and excellent clarity. Considered by many to be the telephoto lens deal of the decade.

Handling does take some care not to chip the plastic mount.

5) Nikon NIkkor 35mm f/1.8

This inexpensive hero from Nikon is frequently the one that gets left on cameras the most often. Fast focusing and versatile, this lens gets high marks from Nikon shooters.

Criticized for feeling like plastic and being a little slow on the focus.

6) Nikon Nikkor AF-S 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G

Another Nikkor lens that gets high marks for clarity, light weight, and optics but criticism for the build quality. Another point of contention is the noisy autofocus. A lens popular with many weekend sports enthusiasts.

Wireless Flash Controllers Explained

Back in the day there were manual flash’s were simple. An electrical contact inside the camera closed a wired connection with a battery pack in the flash handle which then sent a jolt of current through a glass bulb stuffed with magnesium filaments. A blast of light ensued that would have you seeing a giant blue dot in your field of vision for five minutes and was hot enough to make the glass bubble. You would set the exposure on the camera.

Flash bulbs were replaced by flash tubes and eventually the camera and flash units learned to talk to one another across the hot shoe. The flash could “see” the scene through the camera lens and the flash power and duration were set automatically. It wasn’t long before someone came up with a connector cord that let you put the flash on a bracket handle with a diffuser.

One advantage wires had was the ability to act as an extension of the hot shoe. The camera and flash could still work together, albeit thorough a coiled cord connecting them. The camera could tell the flash the proper exposure and flash power, just as if the flash was reading the scene through the camera lens.

The wires connecting the camera to the flash unit were eventually replaced with wireless transmitters and that’s where the confusion began. Companies like Canon had their own proprietary wireless e-TTL technologies and, for a long time, no one could figure out how to get that to work across a radio link. It was either buy a Canon flash or forget it.

Early on, and in most inexpensive wireless flash controllers today, all the wireless connector does is tell the flash to fire. The flash fires at maximum, unless you manually scale the power back.

Even today professional photographers don’t use anything more complex than units like this Cowboy Wireless Flash Controller because they still prefer to use a light meter and set the flash power manually. Shooting that way is perfectly okay.

Some of the newer units like these can give you control over the sync and flash power (not full TTL support) over the wireless link.

But along came a photographer who was annoyed that his e-TTL would not work across a radio link and, even though many others had failed, he partnered up with an engineer and figured out how to get it working. They called it The Radio Popper.

Other companies have since figured out the wireless TTL magic and now wireless TTL is available for almost any combination of camera and flash, if you want to spend the money.

Some people, even those who have the money, still prefer to use a light meter.

infrared flash controller — Infrared flash controller

A wireless data link is not your only option. If line-of-sight is not an issue, you can still go with an infrared transmitter. There really just isn’t much incentive to buy infrared over radio these days. It’s so convenient to be able to put a flash unit out of sight in the background that limiting yourself to line-of-sight seems silly.