A little while ago we talked about the Joys of Plastic Cameras, part of the fun being wild vignetting, halos, smeary soft focus, and light leaks.
If you think you can get by without the light leaks, there’s now another option for enjoying the joys of plastic camera photography while using the same camera you have now.
Holga is selling a package of plastic lenses they call the Digital Holga Kitchen Sink Kit. All the fun of plastic lenses without the need to wait on the film to come back from the lab.
What used to be a Canon 5D MKII precision photographic instrument manufactured to insanely high tolerances will be transported back to the days when Reader’s Digest used to give away plastic cameras when you signed up for a subscription. Or, what they call the “Digital Holga”.
No, you won’t get any sophisticated focusing motors, either. In fact, the whole concept of “focus” when applied to Holga products should be implemented with a bit of latitude.
The kit comes with the Holga 60mm, the Fisheye, a 2.5x telephoto lens, a 93 degree wide angle lens and a set of close-up lenses.
Not surprisingly, you can also use this kit with your Holga plastic camera, in case you already have one. Come on, you know you’re going to miss the light leaks.
Compatible with most SLRs, except for the Olympus PEN and Lumix G series. Priced around $109 and available from Holga Direct.
The PocketWizard AC3 paired with the MiniTTL for Canon
My nephew got married recently, an event I was unfortunately not able to attend, although my high tech family managed to send me pictures of the event. One picture that made my teeth grind was one with the wedding photographer in the background, trying to light a dress shot with a dinky external flash.
This was the photographer with a killer web site that my future niece felt she was lucky to get, but there was no way the results displayed on the web site were captured with the camera and flash combination in that photo. Judging by the pictures I’ve seen so far, she was duped by a slick web site with, at best, a tenuous connection to whoever took the promo pictures displayed there.
To contrast the difference between that lighting setup and the real pros, I went to see Karl Leopold at Images4Ever near Melbourne Beach, Florida. Karl has been shooting weddings longer than most photographers working today have been alive, has won more awards than I can list here, and is the president of the Atlantic Professional Photographers Association. I wanted to see a real pro lighting setup and wasn’t disappointed.
“I can change the power by 3 stops on any of the flash units right from here,” Karl explains, dialing back the power with the AC3. I watched him flip through the power settings while shooting nearly continuously, much faster than making the change through the camera menu.
The arrangement provides the flexibility to mount the fill flash on a monopod and let an assistant adjust the location and height to fit the situation. If he’s working alone he can mount the remote on a light stand and adjust it himself. Instead of being tethered to the camera, he can also move the key off the bracket handle if the situation calls for it.
How it all comes together - One Speedlite on a standard bracket, the other a remote that can be mounted on anything
It’s all about speed, reliability and flexibility, with added bonus of being able to light the world.
“The big advantage is you can put a light behind the subject for those nice, bright highlights,” Karl explained. The radio triggers work around corners and even when concealed behind foreground objects.
Equipment isn’t the only factor separating the pros from the posers, but having the right gear is definitely a bonus.
In the days to come I’m planning to work with Karl and Images4Ever on more articles on studio lighting, exposure, and working with models on commercial shoots. Stay tuned.
GIMP is one of the stand out free image editing programs
While most professional photographers will utilize a professional image editing system like Adobe Lightroom, Apple’s Aperture Pro, or Adobe Photoshop, there are a lot of people who don’t need all that high-priced processing power and a few who just can’t afford it yet.
There’s no need to feel left out, there are many really good free photo editing applications out there. Some require a bit of learning and lack the automation and polish of more expensive programs, but you can’t argue with the cost.
GIMP is proof that high end image processing capabilities don’t have to cost a lot of money and it runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The downside is it has a steep learning curve. If you’re coming at GIMP from an older version of Photoshop, you can almost forget it. GIMP gets its automation from scripts generated by the user base and getting them to work right can take a bit of practice.
I’ve also talked to the GIMP developers about changing the name, trying to point out the connotations of the name in English, but they just laugh and say I’m crazy.
Picasa offers superb organizational tools, galleries, geotagging data, support for RAW formats, and basic editing features. I’ve been a fan of Picasa from the beginning and, like most of Google’s tools, it just keeps getting better.
Probably the best organizational feature is the Unnamed Faces tool. When you import pictures of people, Picasa puts people it doesn’t recognize in a special folder and lets you tag them when you have time.
New editing features include blemish fix and basic retouching.
As the name implies, this application is limited to those of you using Windows. Despite that limitation, Windows Live Photo Gallery is quickly becoming a capable application. The first couple generations were a little chunky, but those days are behind them.
Windows Live Photo Gallery includes features to combine parts of two or more photos, retouch pictures, automatically stitch panoramas, and straighten photos that are crooked.
It may not be a power user tool, but it does bring a lot of push-button functionality to new users.
Paint.net is another Windows only program, but gets very high ratings from users and reviewers. CNET gave it 5 stars, as did Softpedia, and PC World.
Designed to be quickly intuitive, Paint.net supports many high end features including layers, unlimited undo, and dizzying array of special effects. Paint.net has an active and supportive community that provides a lot of support.
This is a Linux only program, but I wanted to give it honorable mention for being one of the best free photo applications on the market. It organizes photos by gallery, plus features a full suite of photo editing tools and compatibility with the KIPI plugin library.
Is there a bathroom here? Would you want to use it if there were? by ceridwen
Location shooting is fun, but you have to pack smart. There just won’t be room for everything you might want to have along on a shoot, especially if you’re working with more than one model at the same location.
Luckily I work with a couple different studios that have a wide variety of locations within walking distance, including one across the street from the beach access. We can also pick from rail yards, a junk yard, and an abandoned warehouse.
Being close to the studio solves the top two problems: A bathroom and a place for the models to change. If you’re going to be away from the studio, something like a portable changing room can come in handy.
A mirror is a must for hair and makeup touch-ups, but it doesn’t have to be huge. A pocket-size mirror is just fine.
Bring a cooler with some drinks and snacks. I have a little cooler on wheels that’s just perfect, with the added bonus I can stack my camera bag on top. Bring just enough to go around in case shooting runs long. It’ll keep everyone in a better mood if you can keep their blood sugar out of the tank. I grab a handful of those pre-packaged kid snacks at the grocery store because the portion sizes are just right.
If you’re going to be working out away from support buildings, it’s pretty easy these days to pack a small generator and they’re cheap. There’s no reason to be power poor anywhere now, especially if all you’re running is some floor flash units, or charging camera batteries. A 1,000 watt generator will run everything except an A/C unit.
Finally, if you’re working with more than one model at the same location, bring something for them to do on breaks, especially if you’re working in an area outside cell coverage. One of those little electronic game consoles, or something to keep them busy.
And whatever you do, don’t forget the gaffer tape and throw a roll of double-sided tape in your camera bag as well. That can be a lifesaver for equipment malfunctions.
Nature photographer Al Haley and his 600mm Nikkor on a gimble head
It’s no exaggeration to say I could write a book on tripod heads. If you can think of a specific need to have any kind of camera put in any imaginable position, there is someone who has designed a tripod head specifically for that job. It doesn’t matter if that camera is the size of a Subaru or a pocket-size point and shoot, the number of tripod head options is mind boggling.
Instead of trying to cover the universe of tripod heads, it might be better just to cover the broad general categories and let you search that sub-group for the particular model that suits your need.
The one key piece of information you will need is how much weight the head will need to support.
Ball head with spirit level and quick release plate
Ball head tripod mounts have been around since the beginning of photographic time. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with and without quick release plates. Basically these are a ball-shaped swivel mechanism in a base that can be clamped into position.
The advantage to a ball head is they allow the camera to be set at any angle. The disadvantage to ball heads is…they allow the camera to be set at any angle. Sometimes it can be hard to get the camera back to level, especially in a low light situation.
Some models, like the one pictured, has a spirit level built in, just remember to take a flashlight.
Video fluid heads are made to provide a more fluid motion for panning, not necessarily because they have any kind of fluid in the head itself, although, just to confuse the topic, some of them actually do have oil or some other type of dampening fluid in the head.
Others have two handles instead of one and are kind of a hybrid between a video head and a ball head.
Video heads are not made to cant over at odd angles, since there are few instances when a video DP would want to do that. I use a fluid head video tripod because the majority of the time when I have my camera on a tripod, it’s because I’m shooting video. And I very seldom want to shoot at odd angles and if I do, I’d just pop it off the tripod anyway.
Gear heads are like ball heads expect they have a gearing mechanism that lets you tilt and pitch your camera at very precise angles. Most often you’ll see gear heads in the bag of architectural photographers and other who need fine control over the pitch and angle of their camera set.
The advantage to gear heads is if your sticks are level and the gears set on 0,0 your camera is level.
Gimble heads are for nature and sports photographers and the way they work is you mount your big lens on the pivot point and let your camera hang off the back of the lens.
You thought paying $10,000 for that zoom lens was your only expense? Not so, my friend, gimble heads can be really expensive.
The bonus about a gimble tripod head is it gives you very smooth control over moving that big glass around its center of gravity.
