Archive for equipment
Spring is so fun!
Posted by: | CommentsI have spotted the most gorgeous male pheasant near our house. 
I have seen him a couple of times. My husband, the hunter, told me that they are more colorful in the spring. I am glad I keep a camera in the car! I stopped on the road to grab this shot. All I had time for was to put it on program, lower the window, and shoot. It isn’t tack sharp so I should go on foot one day and see if I can get closer.
Do you have a favorite spring time photo subject?
Get ultra creative with Lensbaby
Posted by: | CommentsA selective focus lens is a great tool for the ultimate 
in creativity and impact.
I played with my Lensbaby for the first time on a little photo safari to Conrad, Iowa. I found all kinds of neat things to photograph in this little town.
I really liked the effect on the piano guts I came across. (Don’t ask me why someone threw out the middle of a piano.)
Get more information on the lens at: http://lensbaby.com/lenses.php?gclid=CJui693C1a4CFcW8KgodwRMLgA
This type of lens isn’t for every session you do, but I have seen it successfully used at weddings.
Let me know if you have shot with and liked it. Better yet, send me an image from a session!
Video for Canon EOS 5D Mark II Users
Posted by: | CommentsI have owned my Canon EOS 5D Mark II for, well, quite a while. I knew it recorded video. I thought I heard that the TV show “No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain” was shot entirely with it. I could not find any reference to that but I did find that it was used to shoot an entire “House” season finale, and the director says it’s ‘the future’.
I have gotten my manual out a number of times to look up how to set it to record video and gave up. Today I Googled “video on Canon 5D” and found a scary article about updating Firmware (do I have to mess with that?). That didn’t appear to be what I was looking for so I called my trusted camera sales person. Movie. I was supposed to look up MOVIE not video.
Since sound is important, I purchased a lavalier microphone by Audio-Technica for $28 and the sound is pretty good! This small microphone can clip to a collar so your subject doesn’t have to shout. The only draw back at this point is that it is on a cord but I think it is a good start before I invest in any money in any wireless systems.
Get out your manuals and look up MOVIE, not video, and play with it. This should be fun!
Subscriber asks about Monitor Calibration
Posted by: | CommentsCalibrating your monitor is a critical step in getting images back from your lab that look like they should. Monitors will change as they get older.
Again, you all know I am not a technical person, so I asked my color lab for assistance. Most professional labs are equipped to help you with this.
My main lab for more than twenty years is American Color Imaging (ACI). http://www.acilab.com/ We started out using a Spyder and now we have gone to an Eye-One Match 3. ACI even carries the equipment so it is very easy to get. Once set up, it is fast and easy to do at least once a week, I think.
When I order from a different professional lab, my images still seem fine but you want to pay attention and check your images.
Here is a link to B&H Photo Video website so you can see and learn about a variety of calibration systems.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?ci=12000&N=4220238354+4293918168+4220238419
My best advice is to start with the customer service department of a professional color lab. Also make sure you are in a room with subdued light and not a lot of color in it to fool your eyes.
Are Your Events Running Smoothly?
Posted by: | CommentsMany of you do dances and proms. Do you have a system for that? Do you feel prepared or are you scrambling at the last minute?
My system starts with a file folder, backed up with electronic copies on my computer.
- The first step is making sure I have a team to assist me. I don’t have employees right now so I call the ones I used to have to help out at this event.
- My checklist of things that I need to take to the Prom which you will read below.
- My original order form that I need to make copies of.
- Extra copies of last year’s forms we did not need. Provided there are no price changes, then I am good to go.
My dance checklist is similar to my Camera bag for going on location checklist which you can find in my “Photography Studio Must Haves” available at http://barbgordonphotocoach.com/blog/products/musthaves
Here is my list I will need for dance night:
Photo session notes with contact names and cell phone numbers and my location.
My camera bag will include: Camera, Lenses, Digital media: Compact Flash Cards, Batteries, Grey card, Business cards
The accessory bag will have: Camera battery charger, Flash meter, Radio slaves: both parts and their cords, Back up synch cord: In case the radio slaves quit working. Extra batteries, On camera style flash unit: As a backup. Lens cleaner.
Lighting: Flash unit and cords, Softbox, Light stand, Reflectors
Supply bag for all of the non-camera gear: On location light stands, Collapsible soft box, Small background light stand, Flash umbrellas, Three prong adapters: For older homes and buildings with only two prong outlets.Binder clips, Background clamps, Duct tape, Extension cords, Power strip
Taking a background: Pole system, Background, Clamps
Event/Dance supplies: Change: If collecting money at the event (get the day before). Order forms: Prepare the week before. Pens, Calculator, Business cards, Bank bag: To carry all of the above in.
Be sure to give a last call for your photography services so you get everyone photographed who wants to be! This should eliminate the stress of being asked for a photograph as soon as you get your first light packed away.
The cool thing is we can tell our camera what white is supposed to look like. This is called white balancing. If your camera understands what white is, other colors will fall into place more accurately. Be aware that colors do reflect and bounce around. For example, photographing with someone under a tree may cause a green to grey cast in the shadow areas of their face and neck.
Color temperature, measured in degrees referred to as Kelvin temperature (K), is the color of the light. You may remember seeing pictures of people in fluorescent light, everything was kind of greenish? That is an example of color temperature.
Our camera meters are designed to read 18% grey. By shooting in RAW and using a grey card to take reflected metering off of will make the process of color balancing in the processing stage possible. It is also fast, easy, and accurate. You can not do this with shooting JPEG.
I prefer to shoot RAW not only for the large amount of information I have for a quality file, I have more flexibility. I do not enjoy white balancing at every new location I go, especially when I photograph high school seniors. We change locations a lot!
To keep this simple but still get professional results, I manually set my color temperature on my camera to 4600K. (This setting works perfect for my studio lights and my system. Do not assume your work will look the same. You must test this for yourself.) This is close enough to the outdoor color temperatures so I can leave my camera at my indoor temperature and tweak any outdoor images in Adobe Bride Camera RAW processing.
Color balancing is tweaking the red, green, and blue channels of a file for the desired final effect like warming up skin tones in a portrait so people look healthy.
You may be interested in learning more about histograms also in the “Beyond the Photography Instruction Manual-Professional Results with Manual Photography”. I will take you through it step by step. Click here to learn more.
The Hardy Photogenic Flash Unit
Posted by: | CommentsI recently had a Photogenic studio flash unit repaired. This was my first repair on any of my Photogenic units ever and I have owned them for over sixteen years. Not bad!
When the unit came back, I marked the date of repair on it and added the repair info to my equipment list. Since I have three identical Photogenic units, I want to know which unit had the repair in case I have other problems. Marking the unit this way is a time saving monitoring tip. Similar to labeling other equipment purchases like I talked about above in my personal message, this makes for fast and headache free organization.
Just two weeks ago, a different Photogenic unit tipped over and fell to the floor. Okay, that freaked me out, but since a client was near by, I had to play it really cool. I did not have the tripod legs spread out adequately enough and got it tangled up in a background I was whipping around. Anyway, the unit was fine and no customers were injured! I only broke the modeling lamp, which is to be expected with fall like that. The modeling lamp is the cheapest part. I always keep spare parts and it did not slow me down.
A couple other things I happen to like about Photogenics is that, unlike Eilenchrome, I can change the flash tube myself. I also actually like the fact that they are not as high powered so I can shoot with larger apertures to throw the background out of focus in my portrait work.
