Photography Basics Archives - Page 15 of 16

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.

Understanding Color Depth

Understanding bit depth is the first step to understanding color space - by Cpesacreta

This is one of those subjects that makes people’s eyes glaze over, but it’s important for learning how digital cameras process images and what that means in post-processing. Most people know it has something to do with color and that more bits are better, but that’s about as far as it goes.

The basic terminology is fairly simple. A bit is a basic unit of data processing and is expressed as either a 1 or a 0. Eight bits, also called a byte, can be used to express 256 different states or 2^8.

Most digital pictures, inkjet printers and most color monitors express colors at an 8 bit color depth per channel. So that’s 256 shades each of red, green and blue. Each pixel is then represented by the color which is the sum of all three color channels.

As you can see, in a 16-megapixel chip there’s an aweful lot of processing going on, even for a simple 8 bit image. But modern cameras don’t shoot 8 bit anymore, most are shooting 16 bits per channel, 65,536 possible representations of each color channel, or 48 bit color depth. A 48 bit color image is capable of producing billions of colors.

Many cameras are pushing 22 bits per channel, or 16,777,216 shades of each channel. With a 20-megapixel chip, if nothing else you should gain new respect for what’s going on inside your camera just to record the image. Hopefully, these comparison specs, will mean more to you now.

When it comes to working with images in post-processing, generally working at higher bit rates will yield more subtle variations in tone. But don’t feel that you have to chase ever increasing color depth. The human eye can only discern about 10 million different colors, about 24 bits per pixel. So, for display, anything beyond that is not going to look that much better to viewers.

Five Tips For Better Product Photography

Object photography — Studio lighting works for product photography - by Thor

Quality product shots can make a big difference on how attractive a product is to potential customers and can greatly improve chances of a sale. Whether you’re taking pictures for a customer or photographing your own stuff, it’s worth the time to get it right.

Cleanliness

Dirt, smudges and fingerprints will not do. I get clean chamois for getting every smudge and fleck of dust off anything small and wear exam gloves to keep from adding my own fingerprints.

When it comes to hair and fiber, your static lens brush works best. Take the same care you’d use cleaning your lens glass.

Background

Instead of opting for professional background paper, I head for the craft store. There you can find fabric by the roll and folding cardboard presentation blanks that come in a variety of colors. It’s also no problem to cut them into different shapes to accommodate odd size objects. Because they have fold out panels, you can layer diffusion material over the top.

I use white backgrounds as much as possible and over-expose them slightly to make them pop and hide any imperfections in the material.

Lighting

Your studio flashes in a softbox or umbrellas will be fine. Space them off to each side at a high angle. The goal is to reduce shadows as much as possible. If it’s a glass object and you’re worried about catch lights, use some fabric cover over the top of the background panels.

Float the object to eliminate shadows – If you can float the object on a piece of glass raised three or four inches, you can eliminate most of the shadows. Pick the angle of shot to eliminate reflections or use a polarizer.

Use a Longer Lens

I use an 85mm in front of an APS-C sensor, slightly longer than you’d use for a portrait.

Take Lots of Photos

Take pictures from different angles, top and bottom views and with any accessories or options attached. Most people will just want the straight in look, but those who are really interested will look at all the pictures you have. My experience with successful eBay sellers indicates those who use the maximum number of pictures sell more items.

The work is in the setup. Once you have the staging, you might as well shoot all the angles.

Will Film Follow Kodak To The Grave?

Is filmed doomed to the same fate as Kodak?

It’s been a rough month for film. Kodak had to shush rumors about a possible bankruptcy and offer a red-faced explanation about why they’re hiring a law firm specializing in helping big corporations going out of business.

Added to that was CreativeCow pointing out that ARRI, Panavision and Aaton have all ceased production of film movie cameras, shifting their design and production focus to digital. Those companies will still produce special orders for film cameras, but will no longer manufacture production film cameras.

Following the trend away from film in Hollywood, FilmCraft, a commercial film photo lab in Detroit, closed their doors, leaving Astro in Chicago as the sole film lab in the entire midwest. With theaters switching over to digital projection as fast as the screens can be converted, even the market for distributing film prints to theaters is on death watch.

The moves in the film world could have a roll up effect on photography, as movie production and distribution are the last big corporate markets for film. What’s left in the photography film market? Disposable plastic film cameras at the drug store, an ever decreasing handful of hobbyists still shooting film, and certain specialty markets like x-ray film. You even have to hunt at big box retail stores like Walmart to find a display of roll film.

We’re now in the long trailing tail of film. How long Fuji and AgfaPhoto will continue to make photographic film is anyone’s guess. Every year that ticks by sees their market diminish. Economics will win out in the end.

It may still be a hobby for a handful of photographers, but it may not be a hobby you’ll be able to indulge in much longer.