Fill Up At the Fujifilm Pixel Pump Today...

Well, that's what the images of the new Fujifilm EF X-500 flash reminded me of after I took their pictures for this column. I kept feeling around the left hand side for the filler hose...

The real reason is I wanted to show you the easy menu system of the flash. The menu of the previous flash was only a two-button affair, but that meant that you were condemned to following through a whole series of things that you did not want before coming to the bit you needed. The new flash uses more buttons and a control dial but lets you in and out far quicker - and it lets you do far more things.

a. Standard - 91 octane - you set to set your own level from full blast to 1/512  of the power. Or you can just leave it on TTL and see what you get. The oblong lighted button under the Mode sign opens the page and you whizz the control wheel round to whatever you want. Then punch either the page button or the central wheel button to set it in place. No waiting ten seconds while the computer thinks about it.

b. Ethyl - 95 octane - the next push on the page button sets up the zoom for the flash tube - you can run it from a 24mm wide angle to a 105mm portrait length. Again there is the Auto zoom option if you are changing gears frequently.

c. High Test - 98 octane - the page button will also take you to the LED light. This light glows just under the main flash head and can be operated separately or together with the flash. It acts as a quasi-modelling light or can be run up to quite a fair power as a video light. Again there is an intensity control and arrangements for this light to assist with illumination for auto focusing.

d. Oh, I almost forgot...how do you know when the flash is receptive to change and when it is locked? The part of the screen that contains what you are trying to adjust - in this case the power of the manual flash - is rendered black when it is active. Once you hit the page button or the central wheel button it is locked in and turns white.

e. Aviation Petrol - 100 octane - now it gets fun. See the thing that says Multi? That means the flash is going to fire like a stroboscope while the shutter curtains are open and you are going to get multiple images recorded on one frame. It is either going to be art or science.

You get to choose how many times the flash goes off and how it is spaced out - the Northeast corner of the green panel contains two figures; the left one is how many times it fires, the right one is how often. You can set the power level as per usual on the scale below these. This is a manual operation - not TTL.

f. Diesel - this is the setting for the flash when it is going to serve as a slave in a flash group. The amber colour is a distinct warning that you have clicked the switch on to the next segment. You'll see that it shows as Manual but you can also switch it to TTL. I am in several minds about this - the times I have tried to run systems where they had a degree of autonomy have always seemed to contain the most out-of-control light levels. 

I have decided that I know what ratios I want and am prepared to dial them into the various group flash guns. The number of times that I have had to deviate from the plan are minimal, provided I have had time to test out the shots before the actual action start`s.

g. Cognac - when you have finally decided to be the boss. This is the master position for the flash - it can run up to three other groups of flashes, with multiple flashes in each group. As you can see, there is TTL, or otherwise. The degree of control may be far more than you can sensibly manage in any one shooting session, but if you find the combination that works, you can lock it in for future reference. The flash gun will return to previous settings after it is turned off and on.

PS: You don't get discount pixels at Camera Electronic but the restrooms are clean...

Tune-Up Time With Manfrotto

How many of us get a tool kit with our new digital cameras these days? In the old film days it was common for the box containing the SLR or rangefinder camera to have a complete tool pouch including a stilson wrench, set of spanners, lens brace, film jack, and a bottle of optical antiseptic. In the case of some Kodak cameras you got a 8-round clip of .30-06 ball ammunition and a toothbrush.

I think we are being done - nowadays you're lucky to get a battery charger and a squidgy little lens cloth with some. Even the instruction manuals are on a CD...or are a web address.

Well, all that having been said, it is refreshing to see that Manfrotto, the famous Italian tripod and lighting accessory manufacturer, has realised that users of their equipment still like to be able to maintain the goods. Their recent carbon-fibre monopod model is a...well... a model of a good product. It works and will keep on working.

The monopod idea is brilliant for anyone who is toting heavy cameras or lenses and needs some relief from the weight. I spend 4 hours shooting dancers on WA Day with a long zoom and a heavy little camera. The Manfrotto monopod I use - an early cousin of this one - takes all the weight out of my arms and puts it down, while not occupying a big triangular patch of floor. Makes the difference between an easy job and a arm breaker.

Well, like some older Manfrotto CF tripods, this one has three lever claps to adjust the sections. Far faster than screwing the sections together like some cheaper monopods. As they are acting on springs, there will come a time when they grow weaker, and need to be adjusted. This is where Manfrotto have been smart - they moulded a plastic box spanner onto a grip and clipped it to the shaft of the monopod.

If the weather changes or the equipment ages, you just tighten up as you go.

Brilliant. Combine it with the Manfrotto 234 or 234RC tilt top and you've got the smartest quick support in town.

Bonk, Bonk, Bonk. Is This Thing Turned On?

How many items do you carry in your photographic kit that don't need electricity? Not many, I suspect. Even the lens cleaning cloths these days seem to have a battery door somewhere...

One that you can rely upon without power is the grey card. Also known as the gray card in rural Missississippi. It is the photographic studio equivalent of a Powdermilk Biscuit - always there in the cupboard and good for any number of things.

The schools all teach about grey/gray* cards when they talk photography. In some cases I suspect their lecture material was last revised about the time that Ansel Adams invented the 2-zone system...he expanded his practise later...and they make great theatre out of using the things to assess exposure. Some modern students can be brought to understand this and come cannot, but it is still good to see old rituals being enacted.

The standard 18% reflectance grey/gray card was used first with hand-held meters - indeed it may have been seen with extinction meters in the Jurassic period. It allowed the user to have a standard surface colour and contrast to measure to ensure that exposure fell somewhere in the middle of the sensitive range of the plates or films in use at the time. It worked, and let the user make one good guess regardless of whether the scene to be photographed was in contrasty sunlight or flat dark shade. The photographer could then override that advice by merely setting the aperture or shutter speed differently.

This was in the days before camera companies packed the central processing chip with 20,000 images that could be referenced in an instant to give a perfect exposure. You got one bite at the cherry and, often as not, your teeth hit the stone inside. This was in days when you paid for the film, developing, and printing, and did it with your own money. You wanted to get the exposure right the first time.

Your scene might have been all over the place as far as lights and darks went and measuring any small portion could have thrown out the whole shebang. The 18% reflectance was what your meter was set for so it was what you measured. Some of us measured them at home before we went out and cello-taped the controls down on the cameras but that didn't work all that well...

Well... you can do the same thing now with the cards. Use them as exposure guides or use them as white balance guides. You can shoot a custom WB into one and save yourself a lifetime of slider hockey on the computer when you get home. You can take a clear picture of it, compare it to the computer screen and later to the print and see exactly whether you've got the balance right. Like the multicoloured X-Rite calibration colour checker cards, 30 seconds spent shooting this simple little plastic panel will save you 30 minutes in the computer room.

That's good value for money and time. Grey, gray, or grau - they make sense.

* Not to be confused with a noted Melbourne television personality who did crow imitations.

Here, Kitty, Kitty...

They say you can sell anything with cats and kittens. Well we're about to see if that's true. 'Cause we're going to sell foam rubber bags full of tigers.

The actual products, apart from the Schleich tigers, are Lens Coat BodyGuard camera cases. The one with the closed back is a straight BodyGuard while the one with the clear plastic screen cover at the rear and the Velcro flap on top is the BodyGuard Compact CB.

I said foam rubber but I should have said neoprene wet-suit material - that is what this amounts to. The bags are precision cut, assembled, and properly edged. They are designed to enfold cameras while leaving the front of the lens free for operation. You select which size fits your picture box and go from there. In the case of the Plain BodyGuard it wraps around a camera without a neck strap but the BodyGuard Compact CB is pierced at the right spots to pass the camera strap through.

The basic idea of the BodyGuard is to wrap around a camera in your luggage or your pocket to prevent hard objects from damaging it. You are expected to take the camera out of the pouch to use it, but if you were in a desperate hurry you could probably turn it on and fire it by feeling the controls through the neoprene. It would certainly muffle the sounds of the shutter.

The Bodyguard Compact CB is a different proposition. Once you mount your Canon G 7 to G 16 in it, or your Fujifilm X-T10, or your Panasonic micro 4/3 camera with the straps through the bag slits, you leave it in there as you shoot. LensCoat have put a generous flexible clear plastic back on the case and a smaller version on the top surface that allows you to see the shutter or mode dial on the RHS of a camera.

There is also a velcro'd flap up top that pretty well matches the position of the hot shoe on many mirrorless and compact cameras. Leave it shut for the most part but flap it up when you attach your speed light.

There are also two slits in the sides of the pouch that allow you to reach in and change memory cards or access the in/out panel of USB and video sockets.

This is the sort of case/pouch/whatever that allows you to move through crowds, caves, or bramble thickets with no damage to your camera.  Even if it swings about on your neck or shoulder strap there is enough neoprene around it to cushion the blow. It is precisely the sort of thing that I was trying to make for myself three weeks ago with sheet neoprene from Clarks rubber. My design failed miserably - this one succeeds.

Let's face it, folks...the day of the ever-ready case in leather - with three accessory boxes attached to it - is dead. They don't supply 'em any more because they don't make 'em any more. And you wouldn't be caught dead struggling off a Boeing in Bali wearing one. But the need for protection is still there, and we need imaginative solutions like the LensCoat ones.

PS: The tigers say Hi. They're from Claremont...

The Lenscoat Closing Down 50% off online sale is now on! Visit www.lenscoat.com.au

Space Invader

Bom. Bom. Bom. Bom. Bom...

Well it's not that bad. I came upon this Pelican case in the shop today. It is the 1690 case and it is the biggest thing you have ever seen that was never a Queensland road minister. It is so big that there are expensive Parisian apartments in a good arrondissement that have less interior space. It is so big that you need council permission to keep it on the front lawn.

In short, it holds a lot of gear.

The actual interior capacity is quoted as .191 cu metre or 6.73 cu ft. It has enough capacity to take far too much gear. If you are addicted to loading everything you own into one box, this is the box.

It has all the usual Pelican waterproof construction - O rings and latches and well-spaced hinges. The length of the box is such that Pelican have included a supplementary tongue and socket to prevent the case wall and channel from moving sideways.

The carriage side is also extremely strong - note the cast polypropylene feet to keep the retractable handle mechanism out of the dirt. Also please note that the end handles are made with recognition that this will be a four-handed lift once full.

You may be forgiven for thinking that it looks a little like the black monolith in " 2001 - A Space Odyssey "...

And finally the interior contents. That is a great deal of Pick and Pack cubed foam - configuring this one will take a couple of days of planning before you start digging out the space for your gear. It pays to make paper templates and to think in 3D like a Tetris game before you start. You can get replacement panels for the three foam levels but if you plan ahead you will be happier.

Pelicans can withstand the toughest treatment while protecting the equipment entrusted to them. What is really needed with this one is a Model A luggage rack to strap it to - ask the staff to order one for you. The 1929 sedan model is very popular in Chicago. Doesn't show bullet holes...

www.cameraelectronic.com.au 

Pass Right On Through With The New Pocket Wizard IV

Transmitters and receivers for sending signals between cameras and flash units have been legion in the last few years, but few of them have combined all of the features that people wanted - now PocketWizard have released their new Plus IV and it looks as though it redresses the situation.

What it provides:

Radio-frequency command between your camera and your flash out to a long distance.

TTL through-put to a flash mounted on the camera - in other words you can send out a manual signal to outboard units while your TTL flash on camera does the usual measuring and quenching thing.

                                               

   

Control  for 4 separate flash groups.

Control for 32 channels.

Note that you get an orange back-lit panel when you press the Mode button. When you are using flash in dimly-lit venues any on-board illumination is a blessing. Rocket Wizard have decades of experience in the field.

Auto sensing for pairing the transmitter and receiver.

Two-stage remote camera triggering. Just like the shutter button on your camera - half and full-press and then turns off to save battery power.

Receiver will accept and fire up to 14.5 FPS.

Runs on 2 x standard AA batteries or you can put external power in through a Mini-USB port on the PocketWizard IV.

And best of all - they have lain the body of the thing down forward instead of making it stick up like their old units. Much easier to move about with the camera if it lies along the top of the lens. Note that they have been wise enough to make the battery door a hinged fair rather than a slide-off cover that would be lost and trampled on.

 

1/4" screw socket on the bottom and TTL hot shoe on the top. A stand-alone independent outfit.

Find it online or in-store!

Don't Get the Stink Eye - Get a Hoodman Hood Eye

Sorry, headline opportunities like that come up rarely and we are all human...

For years we've been selling Hoodman accessory products for cameras - viewing loupes, LCD shades, computer screen shields, etc. They make a fantastic video rig that lets you put a loupe on the back of your DSLR or mirror-less camera with an ease, precision, and low price that is really not matched by anyone else in the video game.

And they make the HoodEYE range. these are eyecups that attach to the viewfinders of modern cameras to exclude external light and let the photographer see the screen clearly as they shoot. This is particularly important for us, here, now, for two reasons:

1. We live in a state that has some pretty fierce sunshine and we get it fresh off the truck since we have clear atmosphere.

2. The camera screens that we see in the viewfinder have ever more information on them that we want to know as the shoot - it's gone way past the old micro prism circle and a red needle moving up and down. The modern finder may have up to 12 settings displayed at any one time and we need to see them clearly.

Enter the HoodEye. They slide and clip onto the rails beside the viewfinder aperture and lock into place. The extended cup goes around your eye socket and stops side light from striking in. Your eye relaxes and gets to concentrate on the scene the finder.

Note: Hoodman also make some models of HoodEYE to suit us spectacle-wearers. Bigger port, bigger rubber.

This model is new- they now make them to suit the Sony mirror-less camera  - all the A7 series of eyepieces - and Ricky, our resident Sony expert - thinks they may also be applicable to some of he smaller DSLR series that Sony make as well. The cup allows the eye-recognition switch of the Sony to function as per normal. Of course you can also switch the rubber cup from right to left if that is your preferred shooting eye.

Small investment - big return. Available on-line or in or store right now.

Don't Swat the Spyder - He's Your Best Studio Friend

Your normal reaction to a large Spyder may be to reach for a swim fin or flame thrower, but we would like to break you of the habit. Not only will you be a better friend of the environment, but you'll get better pictures as well. Miss Muffett - invite the Spyder Cube to sit down beside you.

The grey card is one of the most useful of devices to judge accurate exposure with. No matter how much confidence we have in the software of our camera, there are times when it can be fooled and we need to be able to correct its errors. If we use a grey card we can find the 18% reflectance point that gives our meter the best chance of an even exposure.

If we also have access to a pure black tone and a pure white tone in our image we can tell our computer exactly how far to go for the image that it alters.

Finally, for the ultimate of contrast control, we look for the ultimate specular highlight and absolute shadow. But frequently in the subjects that we encounter none of these attributes are to be found. We find ourselves basing our decisions in the studio, field, and computer room on uncertain things and sometimes can never seem to get a pure photo, no matter what slider we shift.

Enter the Spyder Cube. It has 6 working faces as well as a specular highlight collector and and a absolute shadow point . You can dangle it near to your main subject or screw it onto a tripod so that your camera sees it in the same light. One or tow test shots to the grey and you've got the basic exposure, and when you get the test shots back onto your computer screen you will have the whole range of tones there to adjust to; specular, white, 18% grey, black, and absolute black.

Here's the key to what you see:

A. As bright as it will ever get. Pure white from the strobe tube.

B. The 18% grey.

C. The white that you have to deal with in the lighting situation you are in.

D. The black you have to deal with with the lighting as it is.

E. As black as you can ever get it.

If you follow the entire sequence through to your printer - and then make sure that you examine the output from the printer in a strong, even light - you can produce full tones without skewing the contrast one way or the other. Some workers will go further and specify colour temperatures for viewing and time to let any drying effects of the ink settle down, but in general you can make a much more accurate assessment that you could back in the days of a wet silver print. Dry-down seemed to rob us of so much brilliance then unless we took extraordinary measures with ferrotype tins and glazing solutions.

The Spyder Cube is small enough to pack for the field and fast enough to deploy in any studio shoot - and cheap as chips compared to frustration time spent whacking sliders back and forth!

To Strobe Or Not To Strobe - That Is The Question

Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of trying to photograph a black cat in a coal-hole by purchasing a lens that looks like it should be on the front of a spy satellite or to take arms and buy a flash kit and actually see what it is that the camera is pointed at...

Hamlet, omlette, or roulette aside, I vote for the flash. I am just not sure which I prefer - mains powered kit or portable speed lights. I've tried both and they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

To clear one thing up at the start - if you are starting out afresh without the comfort of 40 years of gear acquisition filling your closet...or hanging round your neck like a plastic and aluminium millstone...the cost is going to be remarkably the same. An entry-level strobist kit is very close to the price of an entry-level studio kit. The chief difference between the two is the power supply and whether you'll want modelling lights.

The strobist kit comprises two lightweight light stands, two umbrellas and appropriate holders, and a carry bag. You'll need to add two speed lights and a wireless radio command kit to this, plus two sets of one-use lithium AA batteries.

The entry-level Elinchrom set contains two stands, two strobe heads, two soft boxes, and an in-built radio command set. You'll want to add a long extension cord and powerboard from Bunnings

In both cases we're talking about $ 1000 new stock.

The strobist kit is neat to transport - one case - but you'll still need to bunk the flashes in your camera bag. The Elinchrom comes in two cases that hold everything - plus you need to carry your camera case.

Advantages of the strobist? No need for an AC mains outlet nearby - no power cord on the floor. Disadvantages? No modelling light - limited light modifiers. Many batteries to remember. Markedly slower to recharge between shots.

Advantages of the Elinchrom? More light, faster recharge, unlimited number of shots. Neater integration of package - more light modifiers available. Modelling lights. Disadvantages? Gotta have an AC mains power point available. Two power cords on the floor.

For me - with all the stuff I need sitting on the shelves in the studio or at home - it revolves around the AC mains outlet and the distance I'll have to haul the gear from the car to the shooting venue. Short distance and power available means the studio strobes go out for a job - no powerpoint or a long walk to the venue means the speed lights.

Heading photo - Princess Fee at the Pseudoskirt rehearsal. The skirt of power! And the socks of polishing the floor!

Bag And Drag With Promaster - At A Bargain Price

Good news for all you enthusiasts who will be taking your portable studio flashes, light stands, tripods, softboxes, smoke machines, and electrical cords out to a show. Or a commercial shoot. Or a wedding. Or, heaven forfend, a family party...

Now you need not carry all your goods into the venue in four old Coles cardboard cartons. Or on your back in a hessian bag. Now you can look good and travel well - Promaster studio bags and boxes are on sale.

We've got a little mountain of them in the front bargain corner of the shop floor and we've decided to run them out at 50% off their marked prices. Some are wheeled, some are not. they all will make a difference if you have to haul a disparate lot of gear into a venue.

Not: The larger amount of gear you need to carry, the greater chance the building you will visit will have 43 floors and the shoot will be on the 42nd floor - and the elevator will be out...

The Upshot Of The Down Shot

That was a down shot. The sort of thing that you do when you don't know that you can't do it.

Wooden 4 x 5 field camera bolted to a rafter in the studio ceiling. Just enough space between the the back of the camera and the ceiling to insert the double dark holder.
A builder's ladder to get up to the camera for cocking the lens and inserting the double dark and then pulling the dark slide.

Focus? Lie on the floor with the camera just above my nose and focus on the rafter - I mean, focus works in both ways - once it is set for the rafter it'll be set for the floor.

Red paper backdrop covered in thin red velvet. You have no idea how much white lint a red velvet can pick up until you are sitting there with a roll of sticky tape picking up the bits.

Lights, camera, action. Model in place, drapes in place, football in place - ladder in place, double dark in place, cock the shutter, pull the slide, stretch the air release tube way out to he side and squeeze the bulb. The ladder back in place, put in the dark slide, flip over the holder, cock the shutter and repeat the whole thing.

8 more times. I never want to see that piece of red velvet ever again...

All of which to introduce the idea of the down shot - the direct vertical view that you might get from an airplane or rafter. If you are an award-winning aerial photographer like Tony Hewitt this sort of thing is old hat, but if you are newer to the idea it can be a wonderful revelation. Google Earth on a smaller scale, if you will.

It can certainly give an entirely new perspective to your photography - and in the next blog post I'll show what happens with a high-angle oblique shot.

Note: No models or football were harmed in the shoot, but it was a close-run thing a couple of times. Careful with ladders - gravity works all the time.

Uncle Dick

The Delicate Art Of Dividing Up The Carcase

I am frequently asked about the law as it applies to photography - both the privacy laws and the copyright laws. As far as I can see if you are under 30 there are no rules - and if you are under 30, wear a fluoro Hi-Vis vest, and drive an old Mitsubishi Magna, you are excused road rules as well. Get out there and go mad...

For the rest of us - the oldies - we do not understand the copyright laws either, but we tend to be a little more circumspect about stealing other people's images and whacking them on our websites. This is not because we are moral - it's because we can't figure out how to do it.

And as far as breaching privacy laws goes by taking pictures of people on the nude beach, or Hay Street...we refrain because we cannot run away fast enough to avoid capture. That and the fact that we just do not care any more. Street photography for us is only fun if the street has a coffee shop that serves florentine biscuits and you can sit there and eat them and not have to take pictures.

But what of events? Closed events. Events that may have punters who want to have their pictures taken and might pay some money for them. How do you divide up the job?

Well, if it is a wedding you stand back, let the hired photographer do the pictures, and just hang around until they open the bar. You can do no good by taking "extra" pictures that interfere with the pro doing their work well. Be nice.

If it is a ball or party and you are allowed by the organisers to take photos - and THAT is a real consideration - see if they want a set-up or just circulating shots. If you set up, set up well - nothing is nastier than an off-hand impromptu studio that makes everything look bad. Be mindful of safety with your electric lines. Use a wireless synch and as few light stands as you possibly can. Crowds surge around like cattle and they will stumble over anything.

If you are circulating, keep your gear as simple as you can, consistent with the look you want. If you go through a crowd trailing wires, umbrellas, and extra metal arms expect to hit something expensive and/or painful.

In either case, have some clever way to let the punters see the pictures in a reasonable time. Website gallery with or without passwords - Facebook postings - nailing the proof sheets on the door of the local church - whatever you do, make sure that they get to see it.

Be classy. If you are at an event where someone else is trying to make a living with their photography - and you are just looking for a few blog shots or a chance to look down ladies' dresses, do not intrude on their business. The photographers, I mean. It all comes round and one day you will be out there trying to do the digital deed for dosh yourself - make sure that your fellow photographers will be kind to you.

Uncle " Not An Artist " Dick

The Humbrella - Lighting On the Cheap With Promaster

It is Promaster day here at the shop - boxes of Promaster accessories have come down from the receiving desk and are being priced up. The good news is the humble umbrella holders are back and the bad news is you don't know about it.

Yet. Read on...

If you have a regular electronic flash - any kind of flash, from the modest to the complex - you can generally adapt it to umbrella shooting - and thereby make large studio lighting from something that folds up under your arm.

You'll need to get a small light stand ( Did I mention that Promaster make them?), a small umbrella ( Did I mention that Promaster make them?), and an umbrella/flash holder ( Guess what...). We've got them all here - and if you'll bring your camera and your flash in we can generally succeed in showing you how to rig the system up to fire.

For all the hoohah about soft boxes, the umbrella does a pretty good job of softening a light blast. Add to the fact that setup can be a couple of minutes instead of 15+, and you can see the attraction. Add to this the variety of surfaces, colours, and translucencies of different umbrellas, and yo can fine tune the setup to match your own contrast preferences.

Plus you can get caught in a winter shower and still save your equipment.

The Leaf Shutter And The GT 40 - Look Into The Lens

Those of you who operate the Hasselblad 500-series cameras can go to coffee. As can the users of Fujifilm X-10, X-20, X-30, X-100 series, Canonets, Bessamatics, and Crown Graphics. The rest of you stick around.

The reason they have gone is they know what the leaf shutter can do in bright sunlight. And you can stop laughing  - yes, I know they can stick open or go slow but if you have them serviced regularly by Ernest you won't have that problem. What I mean is they can synch with flash at high speed.

Ah, you say, I have this setting on my super flash that says high-speed synch and there is a setting in the menu that says hyper-super flash and if I download an app and send a command to Cheyenne Mountain I can get mine to synch at 1/250 of a second...good for you - at least you recognise that you need to do something - but leaf shutters do it so simply.

The shot you see was taken in bright Sunday sun on a community oval. The ISO was 200, the aperture was f:11, and the camera - a Fujifilm X-100 - could be left to its own devices to deal with the exposure of the background. The fill flash was an old Metz Cl-1 that could be set onto one of the automatic settings and left to IT's own devices. All I had to do was stroll around and point the thing at the Cobra cars.

Never mind thinking or apps or the superhyper whatever. If I wanted the background darker, I dialled the compensation dial on the X-100 to - 1 or -2. If I wanted the car brighter I dialled the Metz to one click higher. I never did have to go to a full power dump - even in full sun.

Those of you who want art can do otherwise - modifying the light or tilting the horizon or draping dead fish on the cars just as you please. I am delighted with the sort of fast clear illustration that a Fujifilm leaf shutter  camera produces. And when there are subjects that are exotic, colourful, and available like the GT40 Ford I get exactly what  want.

Note - when you are taking race car pictures you have to squat down a lot. Three formula ones and a sports car equals a half hour at the gym.

The Professional Image - Or How To Command Respect With A Lastolite Reflector

Professional image is a topic that you'll read about in lots of publications. Advice is given on how to appear professional when advertising in the media, when presenting yourself to a potential client, when commanding a shoot, and when presenting the finished results. They stop dead there...no-one tells you how to be professional after that when the client steals the images, refuses to pay the bill, and goes defiantly bankrupt.

Well, you are on your own there...any advice I could offer would be suspect. By that I mean that if you followed my advice both you and I would eventually be suspects....

No - this blog is about looking professional enough at a shoot to get cooperation and respect. Oddly enough you needn't be getting paid for the photography to appear in this light - you just need to look as if you know what you are doing and are doing it to a purpose.

A car show is a perfect example. You might be just the same as every other wandering dub looking at the machinery but if you carry a DSLR with a big enough lens you look as if you are a pro. Never mind you don't need it, and could do quite as good a job with a mirror-less camera like a Fujifilm or an Olympus - it is not the fact of the thing but the perception of the public we are dealing with here.

Likewise if you have a big flash on the camera. A good idea for technical reasons, but again it makes you look like you know what to expect when you press the button.

Oddly enough, the giveaway used to be a big camera bag but as everyone who aspires to back pain carries one these days, people do not credit it anymore.

The biggest help to this image thing- and the effect is to move the crowds back so that you can get a clear shot of the equipment - is to have an assistant carry a reflector and use it to light up the dark side of the car. Even if it does not actually help the lighting, it shoo's off the wanderers for at least 10 seconds and allows the clear shot. The Lastolite Triflip reflectors are a good choice - big, oddly shaped, and with a convenient handle to control the position. You could use it yourself as a diffuser or reflector propped against your knee but the assistant idea is more effective.

Only disadvantage of an assistant is you have to buy them a hot dog and a big orange drink to keep them on site. No good laughing and saying you left your wallet at home - they swat at you with the Lastolite.

Final note - the professional look is a variable thing - your attire and behaviour at a wedding should be different from that at a burlesque show. Mix them up and trouble ensues.

Too Much Of A Good Thing - Elinchrom and Fujifilm

I was shooting pictures yesterday of the flight of the Spokane Sun God over the Umgawa waterhole in Zumba and ran into a problem that is rare - too much sunlight. And I had foolishly not equipped myself to deal with it.

The problem was that I did not want to have the waterhole in sharp focus as the Buhl sesquiplane passed over it - just a little out of focus so as not to scare the elephants out of the waterhole. The aircraft was going to have to pass fairly low to have the waterhole appear large underneath it and the depth of field of the lens at small aperture meant that the elephants were going to be in sharp focus.

There was too much light for this - the lowest ISO that the Fujifilm X-E2 goes with a good dynamic range is ISO 200. I would have been forced to use f:16. I really wanted f:2.8.

Had I been wise, I would have employed the Fujifilm X-100, 100s, or 100t because these have an inbuilt switchable 3X ND filter. Or I could have put a three stop ND filter on the 35mm lens that was used on the X-E2. Then the shot could have been done in one. As it is I made multiple shots of the plane and waterhole and made sure that the latter was very deliberately de-focused. It looked fine in the composite, and the elephants did not stampede.

There is more need for this sort of thing than we suspect - the landscape worker who wants to emphasise a foreground by going to f:2.8 or wider would like to focus on the main subject and let shallow depth of field make it pop. The shooter who wants to make moving parts of the scene blur out and needs to have  long shutter speed to do it.

These are the natural customers for he ND filter - of course there is also the specialised landscape shot that also needs a graduated ND filter, but that's another tale. The full ND is available in square Lee or Cokin, or any number of round filters of different diameters. Power can be as weak as one stop or as strong as ten stops.

It is a useful accessory for most camera bags - and I'm going to make sure I have one of the  3-stop variety in place next time.

* Note: it was necessary to set the sun back another 5 metres to get the shot of the waterhole in mid-morning. The dawn shot was easier because the light is lower and more orange. Elinchrom make a nice powerful sun, but sometimes it is too much.

Under The Sun - Gillam Road With Fujifilm

Every year I hope for an overcast day in Armadale - specifically on the date of the Gillam Road hotrod and kustom car show. And every year the Meteorological Bureau laughs and laughs and laughs...and turns the heat up to "9". Yesterday was no exception.

But yesterday was the first occasion that the car show rig of Fujifilm X-100 - EF 42 flash - WCL-100 wide angle adapter lens - Sunwayfoto bracket was tested.

The components have had separate runs in other circumstances - the weaker sun of Melbourne or the cloudy skies of Singapore - but this was the toughie; full WA sun on polished cars on asphalt. If it works here it works anywhere.

Well, it works here.

The leaf shutter design of the X-100 lets me set the aperture on f:11 and leave the camera to find its own speed - I am not restricted to a slow shutter speed. The ISO of the capture is 400 and the dynamic range is 200%. I'm shooting RAW since the whole thing can be decoded by Aperture or PE10.

I suspect I could also use the Fujifilm X-30 as it has a leaf shutter as well, but that's an experiment for the future. As it is, the WCL-100 means I am seeing with the equivalent of a 28mm lens on a film camera - wide enough to let me come inside the crowds and get a good bit of light on the cars but not so wide as to distort the noses or tails of the cars.

The EF-42 has enough punch to effectively fill in WA sun. I run it at +.5 for the outside shots and .0 for the interiors. I noted that I shot 300+ shots yesterday with forced flash on a plain old set of Duracell alkaline AA's, so it is economical in operation.

Final note: the old Camera Electronic Mitsubishi van cannot last forever. Clients are invited to vote for which of the following vehicles should be purchased to replace it.

Legless Lou And The Spyder Checkr

I have just added the Silkypix 6 program to my system and decided to take the opportunity to test out the correlation between the Elinchrom studio flash, Fujifilm speed light, and the Fujifilm cameras. It is not that I mistrust or misunderstand what they do - but I am aware that flash tubes and soft box diffusers change with time, and that sometimes the white balance results can be off enough to make later processing a nuisance.

Of course, like all RAW process programs, the Silkypix will allow a considerable degree of white balance change in the file - but the fewer changes needed, the faster the operation. Plus, if I wish to take advantage of the gorgeous jpeg images out of he Fujifilm X cameras, it is as well to be spot-on.

Okay, Legless Lou is there to ensure that I am looking a a standard two-light portrait setup: Elinchrom 500 EL on the right with a standard reflector and a similar head feeding a giant Redwing softbox on the left. ( Note: we have one of these giant softboxes left for sale but you need to be foolhardy and vicious to put it together. I put mine together...) The grey backdrop is there to remove weird reflections.

The Macbeth colour card is there to give accurate repeatable flat colours plus a grey scale. Mine is an old card, but we sell new ones made by Datacolor and X-rite here in the shop. Buy one, even if you don't take pictures - they look pretty and it's good for business.

Any rate, I carefully set it up, made exposure trials, and then lettered a series of paper slips to let me identify which white balance setting was used for each shot. I ranged it from 4200ºK to 6000ºK in the steps that the menu allows in the Fujifilm cameras. Then I shot a series of test exposures plus one at Auto WB.

Clever readers will realise that I was not thinking - the EXIF data tagged onto each exposure had all the detail I needed to differentiate the shots...the pink slips were just extra work.

Okay - shots from the X-E2 and X-100 were taken with the Elinchrom setup and the Fujifilm EF 42 speed light and loaded into the computer. I set up the Macbeth card next to the monitor with my standardised print assessment light on it so that I could see screen and card equally - and ran the series of shots through the Silkypix 6.

I was deliberately trying to find the most accurate of the settings to yield exactly the same balance all the way through. It turned out - for me on my system, mind - to be:

Silkypix 6 "Faithful", standard colour, a little strong contrast...

X-E2 and X-100 plus Elinchrom studio monoblocks...5600ºK

X-E2 and X-100 plus Fujifilm EF 42 speed light.........5900ºK

Note as well that this was done cold sober and before 10:00 at night. If I were to alter either or both of those two conditions, I should not warrant the accuracy of my judgement.

Now, I know the accurate colour base for my shots. Now I can do this:

The Chinese Solution For Field Flash - Jinbei

The person who gets one of the smaller studio flash sets - like the excellent Elinchrom D -lite sets - eventually gets ambitious and wants to take the flash out into the field. Glorious idea - the Elinchrom D-Lite flashes make wonderful mains and fill. But there are a lot of fields that don't have a mains power socket handy.

It's no good throwing a couple of wires over the 55,000 volt transmission lines - Synergy frowns on this and the fire department hate sweeping up your ashes...you are far better off getting a portable battery pack to run the Elinchroms.

The Jinbei EN 350 is just the job. Thats a rechargeable battery pack that slides in the top and you'll see the two output sockets are configured for normal Australian plugs. There's a charging line into the top, and a mains charger included in the kit. I noted also a USB feed out that would presumably power small devices for ever...

We've tested how much you can get out of the battery here in the shop and we are of the opinion that you could get it to fire about 200 shots from a two-head setup.

The whole thing is lightweight - don't let the heading picture fool you into thinking that it is the monolith from the Stanley Kubrick film. You can sling it over your shoulder and haul the Elinchroms on the other side. Or better yet - get an assistant and a stick and drive them before you like a pack mule.