Ok. Are you ready to get your nerd on? Calling all pixel peepers! Here are the images for the modifier run down we went through on Day 03 of the creativeLIVE studio lighting class. I’m not sure which took me longer… Shooting all of these images during the class or prepping them for the web.

Before we get started with the images there are some things I want to go ahead and cover with you before you check these out.

This isn’t the most comprehensive light modifier test in the world. It isn’t even half way scientific in approach. There are real issues with comparing modifiers like this. I’m telling you right now that this isn’t the true proper nerded out way of doing this kind of thing. While we strove for consistency and Dan and I spent some time in the morning before the broadcast testing things out, remember there can be variations 1/3 of a stop from pop to pop with those Alien Bees. That’s why they are affordable.  With all that said let me now say… if you run through some modifiers in this way you’ll learn a lot. I do this kind of stuff when I’m checking out a new modifier.

Why do I feel the need to give this big disclaimer? To ward off the measurebators that are about to descend on this post. The guys who look at photos on the photon level and lose all the soul of this craft. I like to nerd out from time to time and discuss CMOS vs. CCD but never at the cost of losing the soul of the craft. So… enjoy this comparison. There are things to learn.

Things to look for ::

• Take a look at how the modifier effects the exposure on the subject and the background.
• Watch the transition from highlight to shadow. How hard is that line?
• Take a look at the catchlights in the eyes.
• How effecient is the modifier in terms of lost light from the standard?
• Look at the difference in the quality of light when some of them are moved closer than the standard shooting point.
• Moving the light closer to the subject changes exposure so I didn’t list the change in aperture for those images since they deviated from standard position.

I’ve highlighted a few areas here to watch in the photos below… Look at this crop between the 7′ and 4′ Octabanks…

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Notice how the transition from highlight to shadow is much more gradual with the larger 7′ Octa. Notice how the shadows are more open with the 7′ as compared to the 4′. Notice the 4′ Octa has a brighter catchlight. Notice they have about the same effect on the exposure of the background. The background is important to watch with these. There are times I pick a modifier based on how it is going to throw light on or flag light off of the background. Here is the same image without the circles. From modifier to modifier some areas will change dramatically and some will barely be noticeable.

The following image is the “standard” for this test.  It is an Alien Bee with its standard 7″ silver reflector in place. The standard exposure for this at this distance is f13. We then paraded different modifiers off of the same light stand position. At times I moved the stand to demonstrate a distance I would more likely be using that particular modifer.

Here is a crop of the 7′ Octa (our largest modifier) in comparison to the standard 7″ reflector. Notice how light from the Octa wraps all the way around to her ear.

Want to pixel peep? Here you go!

If you look at a few of these and say “I can’t really tell any difference between the $30 modifier and the $800 modifier!” then note the disclaimers above. There are ways of shooting a shoot through umbrella in this kind of situation and make it look a whole lot like the Octabank. Then there are times that one will absolutely run circles around the other and the difference is night and day. To walk through each of these drastic and subtle usage changes would have taken the entire three days of teaching. Your goal is to get to know YOUR modifiers and be educated about the basic differences between different kinds so you can make educated choices the next time you go buy one of these.

As Bill, one of the creativeLIVE crew members, said so well… “There’s no morality in choosing a light modifier.” Let that sink in. Sometimes I pick a modifier based on… “Ummmm. How about…. Uh. This one.” Other times I walk in a room and I know that I want my 28″ Westcott Apollo and there is no other modifier in the world that will do the job. Sometimes I pick a modifier because it is more efficient with light than another that is similar to it in look. Note how the reflective umbrella lost 2 stops of light as opposed to the 4′ Octa. Sometimes that stop is a make or break situation on a job.

At times there’s “just something” about one modifier over another. You can’t quite put your finger on it but you just like “that thing” about that modifier. That’s how I feel about the 22″ beauty dish. I could get a very similar look from the 28″ Apollo or a small silver umbrella but there is just “something” about how the light feathers and falls off with the beauty dish that makes me pull that out over a small softbox. Sometimes I just like the catchlight more.

I like circles.

Sometimes.

Other times I like rectangles.

There’s not a moral issue on the table here.

Another issue with this test is we aren’t shooting full length. You’d see a BIG difference between a 60″ umbrella and a 7′ Octa when shooting full length. I tested that out and went back and forth on it. The reason I decided against it was our awesome subject, Lou, would have been standing in one spot for a long time. That little stool she was on was bad enough. I felt standing for as long as we needed to run through this would have been too much to ask. Remember, we are in the service industry. Serve your clients. Make them as comfortable as possible. I guess I could have had her lean on something. That would have been a light stand or a broom handle. Neither make for the best props.

My last caveat to all of this… Go shoot your own lighting tests! Seriously. You’ll learn so much doing this. Change the distance, the angle, the height, etc. Watch what your modifiers do full length vs. head and shoulders. LEARN YOUR GEAR!!!

All the images and download links after the jump….

Get slightly larger sizes of these in no certain order from my Flickr page.

Download the images from this post so you can sort them in your own viewer and put them side by side as you wish.

Why didn’t I add the Softlighter? Barndoors? Snoots? Brolly Boxes? Halos? Rings? Bed sheets? Well, A) I don’t use all of those. B) I’d still be there testing if I tried every modifier in the world. At the end of the day this is what I want in my bag…

3 60″ Impact convertable umbrellas
1 50″ Westcott Apollo softbox
1 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox
4 Standard grids (40, 30, 20, 10 degrees)

Once the camera is paying bills and leaving some left over at the end of each month I added these…

2 12×50″ Westcott Stripboxes w/ egg crate grids
1 22″ Beauty dish with sock and 30º grid
1 7′  Westcott 7′ Octabank

Find the list of gear (with links) I’m using here.

With these tools I’m good. I don’t think there is another modifier out there on the planet I feel that I need right now. Oh, a bit superfluous but sometimes enjoyed… The stupid looking Moon Unit for the Alien Bee ring flash. That thing looks stupid but gives good light.

ETA :: All I did in post on these images was convert them to B&W. I didn’t touch exposure, contrast, etc. I test lighting with B&W images because it helps me better see what the light is doing.

Cheers,
Zack

PS – Coming up soon in relation to this creativeLIVE studio lighting event ::

• A studio tour of my space in Atlanta.
• Color management.
• Grip.
• Last thoughts since the event.

I just finished editing my first music video this week. I shot this in New York last fall thanks to the help of friends, twitter, and Kmart. Read a little story about it after the jump.

I had a few extra days in New York last fall and I spent those days shooting as much personal work as I could. I was in the area to shoot a wedding with Marc. Assistant and intern extraordinaire Brian Hall was along for the ride as well. I reached out to as many people I knew with connections in NYC to find musicians to shoot. It turned out that Snowden frontman, Jordan, was in the city at the same time. Snowden is one of my favorite bands in the world and I’m blessed that they are from Atlanta and I’ve been able to work with them a few times.

Jordan and I decided we would meet up Sunday night and shoot some new promos for him. He sent me a few of his new songs for me to listen to before our shoot. I heard this song Lemon Peel and loved it right away. Saturday night I’m riding the train and I decided we should shoot a music video instead of portraits. I sent Jordan a text and he was down for whatever. Sunday morning I put out a message on Twitter that read something like,

“I need a rooftop. In Manhattan. Tonight. With a garden hose.”

Ten minutes later I get a message from Neil at Nomadic by Design. He had access to a rooftop on the upper west side and it most definitely had a water hose we could use. The only caveat was we couldn’t make a lot of noise because we would be standing over his friend’s apartment and their two year old would be asleep. So no screaming, jumping, playing loud music. Ok. No worries. I thank Neil for helping me out and we plan to meet at his place later that evening.

Now then, I had flashes for portrait work but I sure didn’t have any video lights with me. The 5d MkII does pretty well in low light but not in no light. I knew that I wanted to build off of the water references in the song and I knew that water looks best if it can be back-lit. I also had to do this on a budget of “not much”. Like, less than $50. I went to the Kmart at Penn Station and bought six flashlights. I would have bought some more but that was all they had and I still had another band to shoot AND take 10 portraits of 10 strangers so I didn’t have a lot of time hitting up the entire city looking for more flashlights. On a tech note, these are those focused LED beam lights and they were making odd patterns of light on the roof behind Jordan. I needed to diffuse them to get rid of the pattern so I used the white plastic Kmart bag they came in to do that. I ripped the bag up and put pieces of the plastic over the front of the flashlights and that got rid of the patterns. Ghetto Video Dot Com!

Marc and Brian came along for the evening. Marc was on the flashlight lighting Jordan. Brian was on the water hose. Everything and everybody was soaked by the end of the sixth take. The wind was really unpredictable and we just had to deal with it. Jordan’s MacBook playing the song was wet, the 5d was dripping wet, and Brian turned out to be just as soaked holding the hose as Jordan did getting hit by it. All in all… it was a great night.

So why did it take me so long to edit? Because the idea I had for the edit sucked and I couldn’t re-envision the project. I had it set in my head that it was going to be one way but that way turned out like crap and I couldn’t “see” anything different. That happens to me a lot. I get an idea for a shot. I see it in my head. I pick up the camera. I take a photo. The photo sucks. It is nowhere close to what I see in my head. In photography I have learned to let those things go until another day. I couldn’t let this one go until one evening this week. I’ve been editing images for a new portfolio and this Snowden video was bugging the hell out of me. Jordan froze his ass off for this video and I still haven’t pulled anything out of it. I divorced myself from my first plan and just started fresh and new without a plan and I knocked it out in one night. Seriously. One night. Done. WTH? It’s like doing taxes. No, no it’s not.

So yes… my first music video. I’m happy with it. I’ll hate it soon enough but for now I’m really glad I dropped my first idea for the edit and went in a different direction with it. Am I going to sell my self as a music video director? Nope. Do I want to do more of these? Absolutely. Yes. Just spoke with a past client last night about another one of these. Hip to the hippity hop!

Cheers,
Zack

PS – I won the last GOYA shoot out! I really thought it was going to be Robin (photographer E). I’ll do another post later.

(for a higher quality version of this screencast view the source file here.)

I. Love. Photo Mechanic. End of story. This one program has saved hours and hours of my post production time in the last six months that I’ve been using it. How do I use it? Well, as I state in the screencast above, I only scratch the surface of what it can do but just watch how fast this program is. I can not say enough great things about it. It is available for Mac and PC.

Read below for a $10 discount code on Photo Mechanic!

In this screencast I walk you through my process from start to finish. I have recorded, encoded, uploaded, and ditched this project three times this weekend with the third attempt being my final. Workflow and post production is far from being the funnest and coolest part of our jobs. There is only so much you can say or do to make it the least bit interesting yet it is crucial to our day to day jobs. The more efficient we can be in post production the more time is added to our lives.

Please note that I am not the end all be all workflow guru. Far from it. I do what I do and it works for me. I’m sure many of you are going to leave some comments here teaching me a thing or three about workflow and how I might skim a few more minutes here or there off of my time working with my images. I welcome that. Let this be a conversation about workflow instead of a teaching lesson coming from me.

I want to mention that the Lexar UDMA FW800 card reader I refer to in the video is currently on sale at B&H for $53.99.  That sale ends March 6th. That is more than $20 off the retail price! Do yourself a favor and pick up a few of these. You can daisy chain up to four of them per firewire port. I avoided these for a long time due to the price point but now that I’m using them I don’t know how I lived without them. I wish I would have bought them a long, long, time ago.

I also mention my tutorial on shooting on white seamless on this blog post. You can find the begining of that tutorial here if you have not already seen that.

Many of you asked on Twitter about my thoughts on LR 3, Aperture, and archiving. I can answer that quickly here. I have not really looked at LR 3 yet. I’ve read Kelby’s ongoing posts about new features and I’m excited to see it once it goes public … and … a few months after that since there are always bugs to figure out once a large update is released. I’m too busy to test new software, deal with glitches, and throw up my hands to only go back to what I know and wait for the glitches to disappear. I am interested in the new Aperture 3.0 since it can sync libraries between multiple computers. Aperture has always been a resource hog though. Not that LR is anything but 100% efficient but I only have one editing machine I feel could make the most of Aperture and I’m not convinced that I need to convert from LR to Aperture just yet. I know plenty of you use it and love it with a capital LOVE. I get that. Their brushes look far more intuitive than LR’s brushes. I typically can not afford to jump from application to application when I’m not convinced it is what I need. I was happy in bridge until I sat in a two hour workshop covering LR. Once I saw what it was capable of I switched from Bridge to LR. Maybe the same would happen if I attended an Aperture workshop.

As for archiving, I have decided that should be a post of its own.

For more information about the deeper features of Photo Mechanic, check out the great tutorials on PhotoMetaData.org.

I hope you enjoy this screencast more than I did making it. Actually, it was a fun process until I watched the final, uploaded, ready to go versions before this and decided they were far, far, far too boring. I decided it needed 100% more hip hop and down tempo.  Side note – I’m now using Affix Music for my soundtrack needs. They are a new music licensing company who specialize in urban and electronic music. Their catalouge is growing and growing. Check them out. Would you all be interested in a discount code with them? Let me know and I’ll see if I can swing one. They are an amazing service!

BTW – Caleb sat next to me on this one and he wants you to tell me in the comment section if it was boring or not.

Photo Mechanic Discount Code ::

All you have to do is ask…. I called the good folks at Camera Bits, makers of Photo Mechanic, and told them I was doing a screencast based on PM and asked if there was some sort of discount they could offer all of you. They were more than willing to give me a code that is good for $10 off the price. You get to pay less than I did! In the name of full disclosure… I’m not getting anything from Camera Bits. This is not an advertisement. I pay for my software.

Call 1 503 547 2800 or email (sales @ camerabits [dot] com) to order and use the code PMzarias. This code is only good for emailed and phoned in orders. They currently do not have a promo code box when simply ordering online. This code is good until March 15th, 2010.

Cheers,
Zack

PS – I know curves are a great way of dealing with exposure issues but at times, brightness and fill does the job for me. As with all things post production, there are 10 different ways to do the same thing.

Do you ever need something larger than an umbrella or softbox? Not quite sure if you are wanting to deal with a massive Octabank? Try a 12×12′ silk! Tie it up to some stands like these Matthews Tall Boys and presto! Gorgeous light.

Did you click on the links? Expensive aren’t they? Not to rent!

PITA to carry around, set up, and use? Absolutely. Worth the pain in the ass it is to carry around, set up, and use? Absolutely. Want to do it on your own? Absolutely not. Bring a friend or two.

Silk’s are great because they cut ambient light, you can blow flash into them, you can use them as background material, they look cool blowing around in videos, etc, etc, etc.  Octa’s are cool because you can blow flash into them. (crickets) No etc, etc, etc. after talking about big octa’s. Don’t get me wrong, octabanks are amazing light modifiers.  LOVE them!  But if you need something that is just as much a pain in the a$$ to set up, sand bag, and move around as a large octa is, then consider using a silk.  I prefer the 12×12′ as it is really versatile at that size. I think we are paying about $25 a day to rent two silks.  That’s an affordable solution to a modifier that can do a number of things.

I can’t show the goods from today’s shoot but here is one that I really like from today showing the silk flying in the air like it just don’t care.

Cheers,
Zack

As we get deeper into video production I know that one skill I really need to work on is audio capture and editing. I headed out this evening with a Sennheiser ME-67 and an Edirol audio recorder. Big thanks to Marc for letting me borrow the recorder. The recording comes after the story.

Meg was in Little Five Points to purchase some props and wardrobe for a shoot we have next week. I met her there and walked around recording sounds of cars, people, etc. Someone called out to me;

“What in the hell is that thing? Is that a gun or something?”

The ME-67 is about 14 inches long and is kind of menacing looking in the dark. Black Rob (as he’s known on the streets) was just making sure nothing crazy was about to go down. He started asking me about recording equipment and I started asking about his life.

I recorded Rob without the aid of headphones. I scurried out of the studio too quickly today and left my headphones behind. Always a great thing to do when trying to learn how to capture audio. Luckily the Edirol recorder has a nice level readout so I just kept my eye on that while recording.

I came home needing some music to lay under the recording I had made. Meg disappeared into Loretta (her recording studio) to create an original song just for me. She reappeared at 5am. I had cut all the parts out of the recording that I wanted and got to work in Apple’s Soundtrack Pro. This is the first time I’ve used the program and it was the first time Meg used ProTools.  We’ve both been sliding down a steep learning curve.  

I’m sure you audio guys and gals would have some opinions on this. I would love to hear them.

Listen to the final project for the day. 

Cheers,
Zack

Well I’m freaking motivated now. Meg and I just watched London based photographer Drew Gardner’s DVD entitled “Location Lighting with Drew Gardner.” I picked it up from Midewst Photo Exchange for $24.95. That is a grand theft video right there and it is an introductory offer. I think it is going to sell normally for $34.95 or $40. For UK readers you can purchase it from the Flash Centre for 20 pounds.

Synopsis of this DVD :: You follow Drew on two big location shoots. He walks you through the location, the lighting, the thought process, and finishes each section with a quick look at the post production. The reason the post production is a “quick look” is because he does as much as he can at the time of shooting instead of relying on Photoshop. Granted, these images “require” some compositing. I mean, where are you going to find five perfectly trained badgers? The following images are the final images from these two shoots…

These are big production shoots with a station wagon full of gear. Drew uses a Phase One medium format back, Elinchrom Ranger lights, the beautiful and remarkable Red Wing boom (I really want one of these), grids, Chimera softboxes, a smoke machine, and assistants to help him get all of this together. Here is the thing though… Do not think that you HAVE to have this gear to get something out of this video. I don’t have any where near the type of gear he uses for this and I’m completely inspired to get off my arse and step up my game.

So what does that mean? That means I pick this information apart and retrofit the techniques Drew uses with the gear I currently own. That means I shoot 35mm based digital instead of medium format digital. It means I use my Alien Bees with a Vagabond battery in addition to my used Nikon flashes. The Rangers are incredibly wonderful and powerful lights but I can’t yet justify the cost of them and chances are you can’t either. It basically means I step up my skill set with whatever gear I have. I work within my limitations and that is going to make me a better photographer.

Another thing I think about is I can rent bigger lights if needed! I can rent a Ranger and a head for $55 a day here in Atlanta. Plan your shoots well and you can sometimes pick up rental gear on a Friday afternoon, return it on Monday and only pay for one day of rental. That gives you 2 1/2 days to shoot.

Some of you may be saying, “But I’m a wedding / portrait photographer. Why would I go to these lengths for my shoots?”

Because you could absolutely separate yourself from the pack of competition if you slowed down and thought through sessions with the detail Drew goes into. When you show up with something completely different than the standard you attract a client base looking for something different. You also attract better rates for your services because you put more into it than the new kid on the block with the camera from Best Buy.

Slowing down is something I have to be doing these days. I’m the kind of photographer who feels he must shoot, shoot, shoot and get this angle and that angle and the other angle. A lot of times this is great and keeps me on my toes but I know that I’m not getting exactly what I want because I feel some sort of internal pressure to move on to the next scenario BEFORE I get the best I can get from what is in front of me. I’m really attracted to tethered medium format digital right now because it makes you slow down and really think through the shot in front of you.

Seriously, exchange the girl on the water buffalo with a bride and you have a John Michael Cooper meets Drew Gardner kind of thing.

This DVD is NOT a down and dirty, nuts and bolts technical video. If you are new to lighting and photography in general then this one is going to go a bit over your head. This is best suited for those of you who are comfortable with lighting or at least you have the knowledge and understanding of f-stops and shutter speeds. If you are new to lighting then check out the OneLight DVD and/or the Strobist DVD for the foundations of lighting and gear.

It is currently being offered at MPEX in the US for $25 and that’s a steal. I suggest picking one up before the introductory price is up.

Find out more about Drew on his blog at www.TheDarkArt.com. And here is a quick trailer for the DVD…

Cheers,
Zack

PS – Yes… I taught with Drew in Dubai. NO… I’m not getting any kind of commission / kickback for posting this review! I really do love this DVD as does Meg. Yep! Even Meg got excited about photography after watching this and she isn’t a photographer!

Many of you have asked about my DarkSphere that I used in the GPP group shot photo. It is pictured above attached to a Nikon SB-25. It is painted silver on the inside and black on the outside. I do not suggest painting it silver on the inside because it took about 18 months for the silver paint to dry on the inside. Paint it white instead or don’t paint it at all. This is for the soft squishy model of the Lightsphere. That is a Speedotron 10 degree grid bunjeed to the flash.

Here I am painting it.

Why did I do this? I like for grids to be placed a little bit off of the face of the flash head. I find that it gives a cleaner circle of light and it is much easier to bunjee to a small hotshoe flash. So I took a Lightsphere that someone gave me and painted it black to act as a sort of parabolic reflector like you find on 120j’s and Q-flashes. It works exactly as I want it to work! The problem with painting one of these is that you can no longer use it as a food storage container or a cocktail glass. Oh well.

While we are nerding out and talking about gear, I thought I would do one of those “what’s in your bag” blog posts that were popular a few years ago.

For my bag I use the ThinkTank Airport Security roller bag. This is THE best camera bag I have ever owned and it has more miles on it than I can count and every stitch is still in place. I love that I can lock the main compartments as well as lock the tethered cable to something so someone can’t simply roll off with it. They have to show up with bolt cutters to take off with this thing.

I’m off to shoot a big Indian wedding in the morning and here is how it is packed.

In addition to my Speedo grids, I also keep two Honl Photo grids and a snoot in my bag. They are nice to just have something to slap on to a flash quickly. Here is the front flap compartments.

Yes, I’m packing both systems tomorrow. @Steve_Gray asked on twitter, “Isn’t that like packing matter and anti-matter?” Hahaha! So true. Notice I had to separate them or else they would be fighting to the death!

Which one do I love more? Can’t say. Can’t say at all. I will tell you this though… when it comes time to shoot the reception tomorrow night I bet you the 5d goes back in the bag because the auto focus is useless in low light. You’d think they could do something about that. The D3 can focus in just about any dark environment I find myself in. The 5d requires you to be standing on the surface of the sun to have enough light to focus. Ok, maybe not right on the surface but pretty close. The AF system on the Canon can not even be compared to the Nikon. In this area Canon sucks and Nikon rocks. The rest seems to be up for debate.

I’ve been shooting with them side by side for the past few weeks and I’m confident I can keep them straight now as far as the vast difference in controls on each one. If you have any questions about gear and such hit me up in the comment section.

Cheers,
Zack

On the next to the last day of Gulf Photo Plus I was informed by GPP organizer, Mohamed Somji, that I had the “privilege” of shooting the group shot of all the GPP staff and photographers. I would be given 15 minutes to set up and execute the shot with 25 to 40 people.I have done countless group shots in my young career but never one that had folks like Joe McNally, Drew Gardner, David Hobby, Chase Jarvis, David Nightingale, and on and on and on. No pressure.

Last year David Hobby shot the group photo. He did it available light and had the photo posted on the web in 30 minutes. He was smart. David kept it simple. I however had could not leave “well enough” alone. I wanted to make a picture that was a tribute to some of the photographers in the photo and I wanted to keep with the OneLight theme so I decided I would get everyone in the auditorium and light them individually with one light and then comp them together in post. I have “painted with strobes” a few times in my life but never on this scale. It isn’t the most technically brilliant photograph I’ve ever made in my life but I had fun doing it. Everyone in the room had fun bustin’ my chops for taking this on. Hobby had a GRAND time playing with his wizard in his pocket while I was setting this up too.

How I did it = Pretty simple

• I set my camera up on a tripod so that each shot would align in the final image to be created.

• I had my studio manager, Erik, walk around the room with a Nikon SB-25 mounted on a tripod. On the SB I placed a Lightsphere that I have painted black. I call it my Darksphere. I then bunjee’d a 20º grid on the front of that. I like to have my grids placed off of the flash tube to get a cleaner circle of light.

• I exposed somewhere around 5.6 at 250th of a second to kill the ambient light in the room. I just needed the light on each person. There are 29 people in the final shot and I used 28 frames to capture them all. Chase and his wife, Kate, were lit together for one shot.

• I tried a quick multiple exposure shot on the back of the D3 to see if my idea was going to work. In this you can see Erik holding the light on the stick.

This is what each individual shot looked like…

This is what the group shot looks like without the auditorium showing through…

Here is the auditorium. I would use this image to mask parts of the ambient back into the group shot.

Once the people were together I could then bring in the image above and again, using layer masking, I painted in just enough of the ambient light to mix in with the lit shots. The final shot was 34 layers tall. 28 layers of people and 6 layers of ambient light and details like the the strobe painting on the back wall panels. Here it is again…

So…To Joe McNally – I know you eat 30 Speedlights for breakfast every morning so excuse me while I meagerly try to pull it off with one.

To David Hobby – My light rig for this shot not only has a bunjee cord on it, but it has a LightSphere that I spray painted black to keep with the DIY / Modify philosophy you preach so well.

To David Nightingale – 30+ exposures to make one final image! How do you do it so well? You can see how much of a hack I am.

To Drew Gardner – If only I had a water buffalo and 300 gallons of strawberry jam then you too would have a tribute here. Maybe next year I’ll shoot it on a Phase One. Oh wait! I don’t have to shoot it next year! Some other light monkey will have to do it!

To Chase Jarvis – You talk about pushing yourself. Well… I pushed myself on this one!

I could have done this or that or the other to make this shot better but I had no time to really think it through. It was a good exercise for me though. I’m glad I did it this way.

I have one more Dubai post to make this week and then we are back to regularly scheduled blogramming.

Cheers,
Zack

The image above states the exact feeling one has when shooting at this old prison in East Atlanta.

Here are some more images I shot this week of Julia. She needed one or two new pieces for her portfolio and I needed to run the CaNikon 5z Marc Too (as I call it) through the paces. Overall I’m really happy with this camera. For this shoot I used the 24-70/2.8L and the 90 2.8 Tilt Shift. I have to be very, very, very careful with the T/S lens because if I am not very, very, very careful I will use it WAY too much. The reason I don’t own a fisheye lens is because I would use it all the time. I fear I may do that with the T/S. It’s like instant creativity! My initial thoughts on the 5d after the images.

In addition to the stills, I shot video as well. I don’t have the time right now to get the editing done on that but I hope to cut a short clip together soon.

Things I love about the 5d vs. the D3 I normally Shoot ::
• Color and Contrast straight out of the camera.
• A remarkable skin tone quality when shooting natural light.
• HD video

Things I don’t like about the 5d vs. the D3 ::
• The AF system sucks in low light situations. Every Nikon I have ever owned from the D100 to the D3 can lock focus faster and more accurately than the 5d does in low light levels.
• Nikon still pwns Canon at ISO 3200 and up.
• It’s slow as Christmas compared to the shooting speed and buffer of the D3.
• The ergonomics. The 5d feels like a brick in my hands even with the grip. The D3 feels like a glove.

And yes, I’m aware that I’m comparing a mid level Canon to the top of the food chain Nikon.

The number one reason I have this 5d is for the video as I’ve stated before, but I also love that there is a specific quality to the images this camera produces that I find other cameras do not have. Back in the days of film you would choose one film over another based on the characteristics of that film and the type of color, contrast, and quality that you desired for the shoot you were doing. Since we can’t simply change sensors in our camera bodies like we could change film, this particular time in digital photography requires us to change the entire body. In the studio the cameras are nearly identical.

It is in the available light photography that I find the 5d to perform remarkably different. Skin tones have a smoother quality to them akin to something with warm butter all over it. The Nikon can be a little too cool and too sharp for my liking. You can spend time in post trying to replicate one look or the other but when you study enough images online and you KNOW an image was shot with a 5d without looking at META data then you know the camera has something special about it.

The same could be said for my D70. I could do things with that camera in post production that I have yet to fully replicate with any other digital camera I have owned. The camera body is now the film base and you choose the one you want for the look you desire. That’s why the 5d is going to have a permanent spot in my bag in addition to the video capabilities.

Cheers,
Zack

First things first. If you want a copy of Meghan’s song, “Window”, from the Transform video. Just click this link. She wants to remind everyone that this was just a quick recording during a practice session but it currently is the ONLY recording of this song. So, it isn’t a perfect recording but you know what? This whole post is about doing it lo-fi! If that link stops working, we’ve gone beyond our bandwidth and I’ll find another place to host it. If you want to find more of her music, you can find her on iTunes under the fantastic name of Meghan Coffee. That was her name before I ran off with her to the judge!

More after the jump…

Since putting the Transform video online yesterday, I’ve gotten a number of comments and emails asking about putting a wide angle lens onto a Flip Mino HD camera. Like I said earlier, even if I had the $$$ to go buy a Canon 5d Mark II, I couldn’t find one to save my life. Still a big waiting list for those cameras.

Being that much of my philosophy about things is doing a lot with a little, I wanted to see what I could do with a small web camera. I looked at a number of them and decided the Flip Mino HD was the way to go.When I bought this camera to do this project, I did a google search for hacking a Flip Mino camera and came across a blog post by Russ Roca. He bought a Sunpak 37mm .5x video camera lens, glued one of the supplied step up rings to the Flip Mino, and had the ability to use the standard field of view or go wide angle. The standard field of view on the Flip sucks for many of the shots I wanted to make for the Transform video.

I can’t find a link to this specific .5x lens. I bought it at my local Best(worst)Buy. I did find the 2x lens on their web site. I got the 2x lens as well so I could have a little extra reach. There are a number of these inexpensive wide angle and telephoto lenses out for small video cameras. The nice thing about the Sunpak lenses are the series of step up rings that you simply pick one and super glue to the Flip Mino.

Are these the finest optics you’ll ever see? Ha! No. We’re talking about a $200 HD camera that is smaller than your cell phone. Overall I’m really pleased with this little camera. I’ve been taking it everywhere I go. Despite being so inexpensive, the quality of the video is quite remarkable. Remember that the version you see online has been compressed a lot and then converted to flash. I uploaded it to YouTube today and it looks like @$$. I may take it off my account there. Blip.tv is really nice.Oh, if you want to edit the .mp4 clips from a Flip Mino in Final Cut Express or Pro, do yourself a big favor and download MPEG Streamclip to convert the .mp4 files into something that Final Cut won’t have to render each time you drop a clip in the timeline. You can edit the files right out of the Flip camera but as soon as they hit the timeline, you’ll have to render unless you convert them first.

Here are the conversion settings for MPEG Streamclip that work well for converting Flip Mino clips to something Final Cut will play nicely with. I’ve been using Final Cut Express 4. I was going to cut this together in iMovie but they have recently taken the ability to change the speed of a clip in that application. The new iMovie really sucks IMHO.

Cheers,
Zack

PS – The car shots were done with a Sticky Pod.