The Speed Light In The Studio - Fujifilm EF X-500 Makes A Debut

The use of speed lights in indoor situations is sometimes looked upon with condescension - there are so many dedicated strobe units that run off power packs or as monoblocks that the studio shooter comes to think of that as the only legitimate way to proceed - how very limiting this is....

I decided to wring out the new Fujifilm EF X-500 speed light by making it do what my normal Elinchrom EL250 and EL 500 lights do - make artificial sunlight for my model car dioramas. This is pretty stiff going as the Elinchroms - and any other dedicated studio strobe systems - have the advantage of lots of light shapers and dedicated control systems.

In the case of the Fujifilm I elected to use it to simulate street lighting on an industrial site. This is because of the small nature of the flash tube in the housing - it can achieve far sharper shadows than the larger tubes and reflectors used in studio strobes. The fact that I had only one flash to illuminate the transport yard was made up for by use of white Foam-Core sheets as reflectors. Steve Sint is emphatic in his books about the use of single light sources and reflection boosters.

Connection between the camera near the model and the Fujifilm EF X-500 up on a light stand like a street lamp was achieved with one of the Captur sets from the shop. The one I have is a non-TTL version that sends a radio signal from hot shoe to hot foot. The fact that the hot foot has a tripod thread in the bottom means you can rig the thing up anywhere that you can sling a 1/4" bolt.

Not surprisingly, it works...and the shadows cast from the model edges are sufficiently hard and sharp to match in with the scale of the scene. People have an instinct for shadows that even they might not realise - they can zero in on false lighting even if everything else is perfect. It is the same with their ability to see whether a person in an image is real or just a scale model - it takes a master miniaturist to fool the human instinct for a face.

The Fujifilm flash can also be utilised with modifiers like the Mag Mod diffusers and gels. It is a tight squeeze to put the rubber belt on the removable bezel, but once on there it need not be taken off. I elected to warm up the scene for a late afternoon look with some of the orange gels that clip onto the basic Mag Mod set.

But how can you tell where the flash is going to go before you shoot it? After all, that is the great selling point of the studio strobe systems with modelling lights - you can position the things precisely and look at the shadows as you do. Well, the Fujifilm flash has an LED panel under the main flash head that can be switched on independently of the flash tube. It has a considerable range of brightness that is controlled on the back screen and as long as the flash head is pointed forward, it approximates what the discharge will do.

I used it to determine where the street light would flood in through the overhead skylights of the Mangina Transport before I triggered them off. A little long exposure made sure that the shop lights would also register. If you look carefully you will see that the floor in the MT shop is clean...but this will change very shortly. I used to work as a labourer at a construction site and can testify that repair shops dealing with earthmoving equipment are rarely clean...

Verdict for the EF X-500 in a studio situation? Good on-site substitute for the Elinchrom EL250. It will make photography at exhibitions a lot easier.

Smart Enough To Be Dumb

Way back in the 1960's I bought a book in a secondhand bookstore in Spokane, Washington, that was made up of Kodak pamphlets. These were loose-leaf style instructional treatises that explained how to use the Kodak materials of the day to do professional work. I thought they were the official word from on high. They were actually the official word from Rochester, New York. They made a million of them dealing with any and all aspects of photography. Some were arcane and dry and some were very entertaining.

Later in the 1980's and 1990's I rejected all the principles that they taught - sure that I knew better. Besides, they spoke of films and processes that had been superceded - so how could they have any relevence? I foolishly gave the looseleaf binder full of pamphlets away...

Well, here we are in 2017, and I am still doing light set-ups for some shots that are straight from those  1960's trade pamphlets...because the Kodak people knew what they were doing. They had years of experience dealing with different face shapes and skin tones and as these have not changed, neither has the technique for lighting them. We now do it with pixels and RAW files but we do it on the same basic anatomy as before....

Formulaic? Stilted? Outdated? Well ask your portrait sitters if they would like to look good to themselves, to their relatives, to indifferent viewers, to you, or to the camera club committee. If you are brave, ask it before you set up the lights. If you are foolish, ask it when you present the bill...Ask it of yourself when you do the studio accounts...

Okay. You know the answer... Now go out there. Go to the secondhand bookstores...if not in Spokane, Washington, then in Melbourne, or Perth, or Sydney. Go to Camera Electronic and ask Saul if you can buy the old Linhof Grossbild and Leica LFI books. Haunt the internet. Haunt the Workshop Camera Club Photographic Markets ( they have enough ghosts there to satisfy any taste...).

 Find those old pamphlets and books. Buy them and smuggle them home and never admit to your hipster friends that you have read them...but learn what light does and what people want and how to do it. Your studio bookings list will thank you. So will your accountant.

PS: If you fancy your knowledge newer and with more theatre go to some of the SHOOT Photography workshops.

You Know, You're Soaking In it?

Geeze, Narelle, You coulda told me...

For those of you who have come into the lounge room late, the cultural reference you have just read is a Robina Beard advertisement for Palmolive washing-up detergent  from the black and white era of Australian television. The product I am spruiking today is a camera accessory from about the same darned time. Trust Camera Electronic to have a steady supply of them...

Well, stop laughing. The Premier AC Mini Slave is one of those products that are older than dirt but exactly the right solution for any number of photographic needs. If you're not a studio shooter you can go boil the kettle but if you do any work that involves fixed flash draw nigh and give heed.

The Premier product is the latest name for something that I have seen as far back as 1964.  I'll bet it is older...It is a self-contained electronic flash that screws into an standard E 27 Edison screw socket for 240 volts and then converts this to a self-firing strobe flash. There's a magic eye inside it that sees when another flash has gone off in the vicinity and then fires the slave in synch with it. Some of the models have open flash buttons and some have little synch sockets but some just fire in sympathy and that's that.

The power level is about what your'd get from an old Metz 45 unit - or a Canon 430 EX or a Nikon SB 700. Not inconsiderable power. The real advantage if the fact that it is screwed into the normal AC current so it charges instantly and for free. When you need a fixed flash, this is the cheapest way to get it.

I use it under my product table. A standard Arlec outdoor floodlight fitting takes the Premier flash and sits on the floor facing upwards. When the main flash above the table fires, the slave fires as well, and whites out the paper under the subject. Do a little measuring and fiddling and you never have to touch it again.

See. It works a treat. 

There is a domed cover that diffuses the light, though not all that much. If you needed less power I'd pack it with something sophisticated, like a Kleenex...

You can also tape bits of gel over the light inside for colourful effects. I used to make artificial footlight effects for dancers this way. Three Premier lights on the floor didn't overpower the rest of the studio set-up but filled in nicely underneath.

I suspect that these humble accessories have been the starting point for a lot of budding studio shooters and they would probably be equally at home in photobooths. Or police lineup shots.

Less than a hundred bucks and they last forever - I love 'em.

Selling Your Birthright For A Mess Of Cottage (Pie) - Food Photography

Well, it's not as bad as all that - and not as biblical either. But you might like to study the picture in the header and then read on.

We bought the frozen cottage pie from our local Woolworths branch and cooked it for dinner last week. It was excellent. Perhaps a little blander than the home-made version I cook myself, but it did have a a lot of vegetables, meat, and gravy and a good thick layer of mashed potatoes on top. It took an hour in the oven but it was worth the wait for dinner on a cold night. I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone.

Anyone except a food photographer, that is. And graphic designers might like to avert their eyes as they slide the cover off the tray. The problem is not the pie - it is the advertising on the wrapper.

Many of the elements of design on the wrapper are there for a good reason; the nutrition information, the ingredients list, the bar code, the cooking instructions. They have not gone overboard with hype - nearly everything is straightforward description...but they have been put forward in such an awkward manner as to damage the appeal of the product.

The layout of the design is bitty - the colour choice is surprisingly dull for being orange. The lettering is all there but the bleed-through of the image from behind it means it is hard to read. Nothing leaps at you.

The image used is honest - that is a cottage pie they have photographed - but it has been lit in such a way as to suggest that it is fairly burnt on the top edge. The spoon used to show that it has been dished out looks neither clean nor well-positioned. The ingredients ranged on the outside have very confusing shadows that mask their shapes. It is just not the sort of food shot that you would imagine fronting a nationally-sold product from a major maker.

So, what is the point of this weblog post, apart from dissing the pie picture? Well, you might be a pie shooter yourself and want to take your food illustrations to a higher level. My suggestion is that you give Shannon a ring at Shoot Photography and see when the next workshop will be held By Stefan Gosatti - he does a very good hands-on explanation of how to do real food photography that makes the subjects look artistic, edible, and saleable.

I have no idea if he makes cottage pie but if he does it will look wonderful.

The next Food Photography workshop with Stefan Gosatti is on  tomorrow, Wednesday 23rd November!
See the Shoot website for more info and to book.

The Product Table Or How I Learned To Love Under-Lighting

There are very few occasions when you see light coming up from under a subject in real life; some discotheques in the 80's had light panel floors, you can see it in the classical footlights at the burlesque theatre, and when you open the hatch of hell there is a sort of a lurid glow that comes up. The effect can be quite unsettling.

It is stock in trade for Disney artists and illustrators of fantasy and science fiction when they want to make a subject look evil.

But it is also a very valid technique when you are trying to illustrate products for advertisements. In many cases the art director wants the viewer to see all parts of the subject evenly lit for either sales appeal or technical illustration. In some instances this is difficult to achieve with the classic hard/soft light or even with a light tent. No matter where you place the lights, the thing always has a shadow around the bottom bits.

Enter the light table. A support for the subject that is sturdy enough to bear the weight, but either transparent or translucent to allow light to flood up from underneath. There are several ways of doing this for small subjects:

1. The Lastolite company makes a plastic light cubicle that erects with metal rods and provides a space above and a space for a studio strobe below to flash up through the floor of the photo tent. It is big and cumbersome enough to set up to make it a semi-permanent installation, but it really does do what it purports to. I would equip it with three mono-block lights to tackle any catalog item that you could fit in the cube.

2. The dear old film light table. These are made by Metrolux in Melbourne and you can get them in A4 and A3 size. The acrylic plastic surface is about 3mm thick and will hold a considerable weight. The boxes contain a circular fluorescent light that can do an even job of illuminating the underside of the subject, but you've got to accommodate the colour temperature of this to whatever you are illuminating the top bit with. Fluorescent can be tricky...

3. The Bunnings Steel Shelf solution. Bunnings sell any number of cheap modular steel shelving systems. Think $16 per upright and $ 12 per crossbeam and you can make a good product table for $ 64. Add on either glass or acrylic for the top and you are ready to rock. You don't get the light tent or cube up the top but you can get these from our shop  - Promaster and Glanz make them all the way from 40 cm sq to 120 cm sq. Not having a light cube also allows more contrasty lighting.

It is simple to put a mono-block flash down below the table on a small Manfrotto floor stand pointing straight up. I mount an Elinchrom light there and pop a Minisoft 44 beauty dish on it. Then a bit of trial and error...or in my case trial, error, bad language, and more trial...and you are there.

The series of pictures of the 1957 Ford Skyline show the progression from no under-lighting to full effect. The last picture also shows the look of holding a fill card near the subject to throw a bit of the under-light back. In all cases there is only one other Elinchrom light with a wide reflector doing the main lighting. In other words, this is a technique that even enthusiasts with a two-light Elinchrom D-lite kit could use.

For the people who want to make catalog illustrations, this technique goes one eye-catching step above the standard light cube - those who deal in glassware and jewellery will find it particularly useful. Catch an eye - sell a product.*

Remember, Manfrotto, Elinchrom, Glanz, Promaster, Metrolux, and Lastolite products are all stocked by Camera Electronic - and you can get them through our online shop as well.

* or catch an eye and give it to the cat to play with...

PS. The model in the green light is not evil. She is a very nice person. So is the Ford Skyline.

Flash News - Day Four Of the Madness

If you are studio flashing it or speed-lighting it it out at an Easter party, drop by the shop today for bargains up to 78% off of selected lighting sets and accessories.

Theres some quirky bits on offer, as well as some standard flash units. Heavy-duty professional stuff, light shapers, portable continuous lighting, speed lights, etc. Even the video people are catered for.

In store goods, one sale one day...today's the day.

Never mind the chocolate eggs - stock up on lighting now. Surprise the bunny.

Defeating the Glass With Light

Look at that title - normally photographers are trying to do just the opposite - use glass to tame light. But there are times when you need to go at it the other way around.

We've all been to museums, shops, and galleries where interesting things are displayed under glass. It is under there to prevent you from getting your grubby hands on it and degrading it - or to create a sense of wonder and desire on your part. The awkward part comes when you want to take a picture of it.

Sometimes the people selling or displaying the things won't let you do it - for fear of breaking some law or giving away some advantage. Sometimes it is to allow them to sell their own pictures of the objects in their own bookshop - this is a classic ploy for some museums. No good you taking your own pics when there are postcards to be sold!

Even if you are allowed to shoot photos, you frequently fall foul of the way the goods are displayed:

1. The items may be behind tinted glass.

2. The glass surface may be dirty - filthy dirty in some cases.

3. There may be dodgy lighting in the display case. Dodgy in positioning and intensity and definitely dodgy in white balance. Some lights do not have a colour temperature - they have a colour fever.

4. Strong lighting outside the display case may reflect on the glass surface and obscure the contents.

Oddly enough, this is exactly the situation that pertains to outside displays at one of my favourite events - the car show. If a car owner chooses to wind up the window and it is dim inside while bright outside you cannot get a good picture of the interior of the car.
This happened so often that I evolved a way to deal with it that can be applied equally to the museum or shop.

First - if you are not allowed to use flash you can't do this. Likewise if your camera can never come off of an "automatic" sort of setting, you are stuck. But if you are not so restricted, here's what you do:

1. Put the ISO up to 400-800.

2. Put the camera in Manual mode.

3. Set the shutter speed to 1/125 or 1/180.

4. Set the aperture to something between f:4 and f:11. You'll be experimenting with the first couple of shots and can dial yourself into the correct exposure after you see the results.

5. Set the flash to manual as well and try your first shot at 1/2 power.

What you are doing is making your camera's sensor blind to the ambient light but sensitive to the powerful blast of light from the flash. If you are careful to keep the camera and flash pointed at an angle away from where the light hits the glass, it'll go though to the subject and not come back as a reflected blast onto the camera. The depth of field being shallow at close ranges means your camera won't effectively see the surface of the glass - it will see through it.

You may also have to take your camera off AF to do this as it may insist upon focusing on the surface of the glass - and you want to select the subject yourself.

Fussy readers will please excuse the slight over-exposure on the grey Leica camera but note how much better it is than the ambient-light shot at seeing past the obstructions.

The car interior is also through a full side glass window.

There's Always Time For Cube...Lume Cube

Okay, This is a fun product. If you are authorised to have fun you may continue reading. If you have received a cease and desist order from the fun police please continue on with another blog post. We'll be running one on responsible behaviour later in the month.

The Lume Cube is a sealed light that can be used to take pictures with whatever action camera or smart mobile device you might have. When we say sealed we really mean sealed - the manufacturer cautions you not to open the back since if you do the warranty will leak away. Otherwise you are free to take the thing diving to 100 ft.

Inside the case is an LED light - an extremely bright one - a battery, and enough electronics to control it through 10 steps of  steady illumination and a flash mode as well. You can pump the thing up and down manually with two control buttons on the top or use a Bluetooth - equipped device and an App to fiddle with it remotely.

This latter option will also give you the facility to check on the USB charging, battery status, and to control a series of the little things.

For the non-cool still photographer who doesn't want to App it, there is an on-board optical sensor that will slave off other on-camera flashes. The dark forest macro mushroom photographer who has to backpack for their fungi will love this thing. I've just taken a good shot of the cat's pre-packed dinners at 800 ISO for f 5.6 and 1/340 of a second and it almost makes me hungry for tuna chunks...

It has a 1/4" tripod socket at the bottom and I note that there are a number of mounts available for it. there's a dual - bar rig with a GoPro mount on the bottom to give you dangerous ideas.

A well-made product and a chance to do a lot more with light than you thought.

Mmmmmm. Tuna.....

7 in 1 - Either A Grimm Fairy Tale Or A Photographic Marketing Ploy

We used to have reflectors for photography that had only one side. Mathematicians may see a flaw in this as topographically the disc reflector had a front and a back. And an edge, we hasten to add, for the literal-minded. But for a long time they only put a white surface on one side and left the other as a nondescript cloth that did nothing. Not no more.

Starting with a well-known English manufacturer of lighting accessories, and followed-on by a number of budget copyists from other continents, the trade has made increasingly complex reflector sets  for studio and outdoor use. Today we review a 7 -in-1 from Promaster.

These kits come in several sizes - I picked the 22 -inch set from the shop racks and unfolded all the possibilities.

The basic structure is the familiar steel band loop stretching out a translucent fabric. Then a 3-part cover is sewn up that provides 6 more types of reflecting surface. The choices of fabric take it from merely a light modifier to an actual backdrop accessory. What it lacks in surface area it makes up in versatility.

Here's the thing out of the pod. Looks like a Sandpoint hamburger, doesn't it?

Ah, but here is what was lurking - a small green screen just perfect for close-ups with one of the small GS programs. Green Screen Wizard is also available from Promaster in kits and does a decent little job.

If you are a blue screen worker this is also available on one surface. Sort of glows, doesn't it?

Silver is always a strong reflector  though it can cause hot spots if the main light source is strong.

White is flatter and a little more controllable.

Silver/gold warms an image a little.

And pure gold warms an image a lot.

That's 6. All good for photography. But the package promises 7. Here is where Promaster have exercised their ingenuity. Seizing upon the popularity of the movies " Jurassic Park " and " Jurassic World " they have introduced the dinosaur surface.

Plugs, Lumps, Spigots, And Screws

Sounds like a Disney movie title, doesn't it - possibly starring the corpses of Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews bolted together.

No, as we are featuring columns dedicated to expounding the Manfrotto Way Of The Studio we must not neglect the smaller bits - because they are what ties the whole thing together. In fact, these are the items that you most frequently tip out the storage drawer to find when you are working. Let's go by the numbers:

118 - the Short 5/8 Spigot with male threads on the ends. You get a 1/4" on one end and a 3/8" on the other. If you are only used to working in metric measurements try not to hyperventilate - photography still has a lot of imperial measurements as common currency.

Light stand spigots are 5/8" and proud of it, even if they come from Italy. The wonderful thing is that even if the designs get ripped off by oriental manufacturers - and they do, they do - the size is still kept to 5/8". Nearly everything fits with nearly everything else.

These spigots can marry lots of things to 035 Super Clamps and also stack some of the more modern mini-monitor screens onto video rigs.* the hole in the middle of the brass spigot is to allow you to put a dog bar in there and tighten or loosen the spigot.

119 - this is related to the 118 - it is the Adapter Spigot with 3/8" and 1/4" threaded holes in opposite ends of the brass. You can pop it into the socket of an umbrella holder and put that on a tripod rather than a light stand.

125 and 147 - look carefully at the part and the packaging as these look very similar - they are a two-ended bolt . The 147 is 3/8" and 1/4" and the 125 is two 3/8" ends back to back. Here again these can be used to secure video monitors to rigs or cameras to flat bars.

061 is the odd-looking piece of the group. An aluminium casting with what looks to be a rough surface - or maybe it is machined out of a hexagonal bar. In any case it is called a Joining Stud and has the specific job of allowing you to join two of the 035 Super Clamps back to back. Then you can clamp off big things at a number of different angles.

There are no specific numbers for the last two items but people using Manfrotto quick release plates will recognise them as the screws that go from the plate to the camera - one is 1/4" and one is 3/8". You'll recognise them because you managed to lose one...come into the shop and buy another...

* Video rigs are like early mammals - still evolving with no-one actually certain what the final creature will look like. Expect tusks and a prehensile tail...

Autopoling Is Not Against The Law

Well, not against Australian law, anyway - it does, however, defy gravity. And thereupon hangs a tale.

Actually thereupon hangs a lot of stuff. Manfrotto Autopoles seem to have been around since the 1950's and have been seen in photographer's studios, designer's lofts, upmarket shops, and possibly bomb sites. They are one of the niftiest solutions for supporting things that Manfrotto make. And Manfrotto make a lot of supporting structures!

Basically they are a two-part metal tube with rubber ends that can be slid between two surfaces and then jacked outwards to wedge the tubes rigidly between those surfaces. Note that I didn't restrict myself to saying floor and ceiling - Manfrotto Autopoles can equally well be placed between two walls and locked into place - they can even be used to separate teenagers in a car on a long trip.

They come in different sizes and different diameters so you can come close to the measured span you need to wedge into before activating the mechanism. The wedging is done with a lever and roller and is surprisingly powerful. You must make sure that the two surfaces you are going to exert pressure onto are sturdy enough to take it  - no pushing ceiling panels out of place if you can help it*. Once you have positioned the Autopole, wedged it in place and locked off the lever, you are set to hang anything you like off it.

Here's where the Manfrotto 035 Superclamp and other accessory arms come in handy. You can swing 2750 Superior paper rolls between two Autopoles easily with the appropriate Manfrotto Expan drive kits. Don't be shy - I run three Expans and three rolls of Autopoles and no fear of anything falling down. And plenty of pole space left for anything else you want to clamp on.

If you are stuck in an area that has a floor but an inconveniently high ceiling, Manfrotto also make a set of tripod legs that slip over the pole and can stabilise it beautifully - again well enough to swing three 2750 rolls or other heavy gear.

Note that they can also be used for light supports if you use the 035 and side arms - in this instance they can support multiple lights and flags as well.

* I got leery of putting pressure on ceiling panels so I made a pair of big round plywood feet and support tubes for my Autopoles. Looks clumsy, but it means that even if I inadvertently lose contact with the ceiling the whole assembly cannot actually fall over sideways. There's probably a more elegant way but this will do for now.

Steve Sint - my new favourite photographer - has a plan in his book on digital still life photos for a product table made with Autopoles and a couple of sawhorses. Looks a cracker.

Finally, there are time when you need to have a camera way up high. Trust the Autopole and a side arm to do it.

Super Clamp - Super Powers Activate!

All hail the Manfrotto Super Clamp
We never shall forsake it,
It grips your bits and never splits
And you'll never ever break it.

They used to say the key to the Universe was 42*...this may be, but the key to the photographic Universe is 035.

035 is the model number for the Manfrotto Super Clamp - the single most useful mechanical device in any photographic studio. Forget the camera, forget the lights, forget the model and the makeup - all you need are enough 035 Super Clamps and you can create the world.

Now Manfrotto are a funny company - very innovative in many ways. They make changes every year to the tripods they sell, and add or remove fashionable features and styling - rather like Ferrari and FIAT with cars. As Manfrotto are Italian as well, perhaps it is in the blood. Any road, there is a steady current of good sense under the flash and this design philosophy has ensured the success of the 035.

Basically, It is a set of jaws that grasp a round pipe, square timber or metal tube, or flat board and then invites you to plug in or bolt on the rest of the studio. I do mean the rest...I have successfully attached lights, cameras, flats, backdrop holders, boom arms, umbrellas, and an f-86 Sabre Jet fighter plane to a 035 and nothing has crashed yet.

The big jaw can grasp a round or square strut. It can be modified with a small plastic triangle in the jaw - this is included with the clamp - to grasp a plank or a table edge.

There is a socket made to take further Manfrotto accessories including stand-off arms, 1/2 inch spigots for lights, and curved holders for backdrop poles.

There are 5-count-em, 5 - 1/4 inch threaded sockets for attaching anything else. I have bolted lots of things to these using standard bits from Mr. Bunnings and as we are dealing with pressure-cast aluminium the thing is sturdy.

You can even back two 035's together and bolt up a double super clamp that will deal with the intersection of two major structural members. Set building is where this comes in - rather like the scaffolding sets you see workers on building sites using. BTW it is considered unfair to undo scaffolding clamps form building sites, particularly if there are brickies up on them already...

So - provided Manfrotto do not go all stylish and exotic and turbo-charge the 035 clamp, we should all be able to make our studios work. I'm good  - I've got 9 of them already.

* only if you were a member of the Royal Highland Regiment.

The Stage Lights Are Calling - Or What's A Fella To Do?

Well, it's the old bump and grind this weekend. Three hours of colour, movement, and loud music. And I'm going to be out the front with a camera.

No, not the burlesque. That's not my beat - though I have seen some dynamite shows here in Perth and some very good publicity, event, and art shots taken by the photographers who specialise in this. I'll be at a hafla - a belly dancing show held at a suburban school.

The school isn't just your regular local primary - the Saturday venue is a pretty swish one that takes in private-school money. And spends it on their theatre facilities, I might add. The main performance space and seating is very professional - more so than many public venues. They have good lighting, good lighting control, and good sound - and a large enough stage to make a real production.

I'll set a fixed camera with radio wireless control to capture full-stage shots from the mezzanine ( They have a mezzanine! ) and roam the aisles and floor with a large-aperture Fujifilm lens on my X-Pr01. The high ISO capability and the big aperture should allow enough shutter speed to stop much of the motion.

But.

But the lighting plan can sometimes be highjacked by a temptation to use too much colour - if there are gels on a lot of the floods and spots they sometimes run a whole number under pools of red, yellow, and orange. Then blue in the background and green as a follow spot. Add to this the fact that the costuming can be very colourful to start with and it gets a little out of hand.

Don't get me wrong - Bollywood can never be too bright. Or too bouncy. Bollywood makes you feel happy no matter what. But some of the other dances need mood and it can be hard to make someone look sexy if she is lit up in Tiger Moth Training Yellow - complete with roundels...

I am hoping that they tone down the gels and concentrate on more of the white lighting. It's no good trying to get a custom WB when the business can change so fast between one minute to another - I might as well put it on Auto and go from there.

Shoot RAW or jpeg? Well, what the hell. Fujifilm jpegs are all I could ever want and the exposure will be right if I use spot metering on the individual figures - then the black stage does not influence the equation. The X-pro1 writing jpeg and RAW would be slower than the dance requires. It'll be jpegs. Lotsa jpegs.

After the first three big production numbers I go deaf anyway so why not.

Uncle Dick

The Difference Between A Self Portrait And A Selfie

The difference between a self-portrait and a selfie can be far more than the equipment that is used for the image - and far more than the location or occasion. It can be the difference between a portrayal and a betrayal.

We are beset or blessed by social media - Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, Blatt, Squeal, Overshare, and Timewastr. We all need photos of ourselves to put on the top or the bottom of the page - or, in the case of one of my FB friends...everywhere including the water tank at the top of the hill. We take selfies for this purpose. The traditional selfie for Japanese tourists is in front of a western monument smiling and making "V" signs with their fingers. The traditional selfie for belly dancers is making duck faces in front of the bathroom mirror. These are accepted as fun things.

The selfies with dead animals are not accepted. Hunt and shoot if you will, and frame your portrait with the dead whatever for your den wall, but be careful that you do not advertise it further. The contumely can be never ending.

The self-portrait is altogether a more serious thing. The photographer has the task of representing themselves to people who will really look at the thing - actual contemplation rather than a quick flick through the FB news feed. The self-photographer would do well to imagine their image printed to a large size and set for viewing in a public gallery - and then to provide an image that rewards that scrutiny. They may chose to reveal or conceal, but they must do it well.

Well - the man in the image seen at the top of this blog post did just that - he thought about himself; his interests, his personality, his external appearance. He considered which colours would look well on him, and would look well framing him. He considered the lighting. As he had the equipment to light a portrait, he used it correctly - he analysed the best angle for main face lighting and put in enough ancillary illumination to support this.

The result is...he looks good. Damned good. He can send this as a small image or frame it as a large one and know that it is a good ambassador for him. He can make a business card for himself with this self-porttrait and people will look at that card more than once. A successful self-porttrait.

PS: I pinched this Gold winner from last night's Mandurah Camera Club competition as well - I thought it a delightful image.

Uncle Dick

Home Built Or Shop Bought?

I've just been asked whether it is better to buy things from the shop or make them yourself.  At the risk of giving the management asthma attacks, I have to say yes and no.

Yes, it is better to buy your lenses and camera bodies from the shop rather than make your own out of wood. Artistry and skill only go so far when the material is white pine and the end result is a DSLR. We have seen a rather wonderful little wooden camera made by Leica but it is a toy rather than an working instrument.

Likewise, knitting your own memory cards is fun but the failure rate is high - better to buy San Disk or Hoodman at the outset and save the needles for socks and gloves.

The question gets a little closer when you consider accessories for a studio. A commercial light tent is still a good buy if you need to have a portable environment for product photography. You could make one yourself but you'd end up with a big monster that would not pack away when you need to change jobs. Ask me how I know, and where I store the damn thing.

Likewise, if you are going to sling expensive strobe lights in the studio, sling them on proper light stands and boom arms. Home-made wooden devices can work but with a great deal more bulk and a great deal less security. At the very least, use Manfrotto or Kupo spigots and hardware.

You can suit yourself if you want to use cardboard sheets for flags and reflectors in the studio - the material will eventually break down but it might be cheap enough to start with. Be kind to yourself if you intend to use a reflector at the beach or out on a job - get a commercial folding one ( Be really kind to yourself and get either a Profoto or a Lastolite.)

Lights? Go look at the bargain types available at Bunnings and imagine what it will be like working with two 1500watt  workshop lights on yellow stands in your spare room in the middle of February...Suit yourself but don't expect to shoot ice cream or seafood shoots in any degree of comfort.

Is there anything you can make yourself? Yes - there are no end of specialist flags and shade boxes that you can make with matt board and gaffer tape that can be perfect for you. Get a Stanley knife and a steel straight edge and slice away. If some of your accessories have red, sticky fingerprints after this...well, you'll know better another time.

PS: you can indeed light your studio with Leyden jars or a kite and a key in a thunderstorm...or with no-name strobe kits bought off eBay. If you choose the low-powered versions they can just barely kill you...

Hot Lights Cha Cha Cha

Did goe to the Westside Camera Club laste night and was greatley entertained. We did a talk and a practical session on taking portraits.

You can't teach portraiture in a half hour but you can show one light setup and if the lights are the constant variety and have dimmers you can show the effects on the sitter's faces pretty well.

The enthusiastic club members did very well, as did their models. They listened carefully,
looked closely, and tried out the business with their varied cameras - but as I said to them at the start, the best teaching cameras were sitting either side of their noses. And so it is with most people. Try this:

1. Look inna book. Or on the net , if you are allergic to paper. Look at pictures that artists have drawn of the human face. Then look at photographs that have been taken in studios of sitters from the Victorian era to modern times. Look at the light.

2. Get a pair of lights and stands and a patient model. Make the face look good with one light on one side, and then see if it is going to be improved by letting a little soft light onto it from the other side. Figure out how to soften that light ( Hint:umbrellas or Lastolite diffusers...) and then just look. And when you can make the face look good to your eyes, it can look good to the camera's eye.

One caution - selfies won't help most people. We do not see ourselves as others see us and neither do we see our own portraits with a clear eye. In my case it is a blessing...

Uncle Dick

A Night At The Opera - Lighting Lessons From Mozart

Did goe to the opera house last night and was greatley entertained. The subversive opera " Marriage Of Figaro " by some Austrian individual was sung and played by a number of local artists - to the entire satisfaction of the audience.

A note about the audience - as with many music things that you go to, I noticed that they were all on drugs. Of course, given that this was a Mozart opera sung in Italian, the drugs were chiefly Mogadon, Lasix, and Metamucil...

But back to the stage. Going to any presentation is a good chance for photographers to see what stage light designers do with their resources. Their gear may not be exactly what we use in the studio or out in the field, but the stage light designer does have the brief to illuminate and to emphasise - and this is certainly applicable to our efforts.

If we are doing it in studio we can observe where they have placed their stage floods and spots and see if the faces and figures look good - then do the same with strobes. Think of our reflector strobes and soft box strobes as the spot and flood of stage work. Our strip strobes also are sometimes seen on the stage - in fact last night I was particularly attentive to strips off-stage allowing some spill from behind the flats as the backdrop sheets on stage were rippled - it gave the effect of a forest waving in the night.

We can also look carefully to see if gels are doing their job on stage - or whether they are a hindrance and distraction. Last night was pretty good in as far as the gels were not excessive. Those of us who shoot middle eastern dances or burlesque can sometimes be working in some pretty vile colour washes and the photos we get from this sort of illumination is equally vile. White balance is nigh on impossible unless there is some white somewhere...

Finally - nearly all stages are illuminated from above - that is the nature of the stage. Some have additional footlights - His Majesty's has good ones. These are wonderful in supplying  a good look to the bottom part of the actors and I would earnestly recommend that studio shooters think of adding a set of them at the front of their sets. You don't need big stuff and some of the screw-in strobes are wonderful - you can even get the holders for them in Bunnings.

PS: Figaro and Susanna did succeed in the end. Mozart won.

Oh Lord Take Me Now - Manfrotto

 Well, you live long enough, you see everything. Domenic found a brand new Manfrotto extending light stand put away in the storeroom and brought it down to the sales floor. No mean feat, either - the thing weighs 21 Kg.

It is a 087NW cine stand. Built to take really heavy weights up really high. It will loft 30 Kg to 3.7 metres via a two-part column.

That is seriously heavy construction there. Look at the castings and the bolts. Look at the cast footplate on the side to allow the operator to get to the lights or cameras that are way up high.

Look at the cast-on ring to allow guy wires to be attached for stability in a wind.

Look at the crank mechanism - sorta like a gun mount. Serious stuff for serious studios.

Someone out there in Western Australia needs this stand.