Flash
« Previous EntriesSome results from my G11/SB800 portable kit
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
I know that sometimes I write about something and leave you guys hanging and waiting for more info (like my year old promise that I’d review the 28″ Westcott Apollo Mono softbox) but today that is not the case. I was so excited after putting together that portable kit that I went ahead and did some preliminary shots using models a few of my buddies as subjects. It took me a brief moment to put it all together (including the Lumiquest Softbox III), I used the light meter to get my readings for aperture and distance, and then we were set to go. This is exactly the reason I put this together and am so excited going foward: its quick, its light, and for what it is it produces respectable results. Remember: this is a point-and-shoot.
Click here to see the pictures…
My portable kit: a love triangle between a camera, flash, and softbox
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
The saying goes that the best camera is the one that’s with you, and mainly that’s used to talk to about cell phone cameras, at least in recent times. That’s all well and good, but didn’t you buy that spiffy new Canon G11 or S90 (or maybe a Panasonic GF1 if you’ve got the funds) to take with you everywhere so that you always had a somewhat reliable, manual control camera with you? I did. But I found that the camera itself wasn’t enough for me. After spending so much time with off camera flash and depending on its capabilities to create the pictures inside my head, I wanted to have it with me all the time. Kind of like ” the best camera and flash are the ones that are with you”. So I set out to create a portable kit that would meet my needs.
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Here You Go: how does ISO compare between a compact and a DSLR? (G11 vs. D80)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009My obsession with all things related to testing my new G11 continues. Today: ISO.
When I got my G11, and even before I purchased it, I knew that if I wanted to use off camera flash with the advanced point and shoot I’d have to go full manual. I’ve been blessed (and cursed) using a full Nikon spread when it comes to serious photo gear: Nikon D80 with a Nikon SB-24, SB-25, and three SB-800s. Those three SB800s and the D80 work fantastic together: I get full manual and iTTL control wirelessly, all from the camera. Unfortunately, it’s made me use iTTL a lot, and I haven’t developed a good sense for manual light levels.
Knowing this, I decided to go ahead and buy a light meter (thanks for the birthday present sweetheart!) to take out the chimping that I knew would come without one. I ordered a Sekonic L-358 off Amazon last week and it arrived on Monday. I played around with it, than I came back to a question that had me curious when I was looking at buying the G11: I know that DOF (depth of field) is greatly increased because of the smaller sensor size in the G11 compared to a DSLR, but how similar are the light sensitivity levels between the two types of cameras? Does f4 on the G11 let in as much light as the D80 that I own? Only one way to find out.
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Here You Go: Canon G11 and wireless off camera flash sync speed test
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Note: “Here You Go” is a new feature that I’m starting here on the OneBrightSpot blog. If you have a question about a technique, gear, anything you see here on the blog that you need more visual help with or questions answered, send an email to jacob@onebrightspot.com with “Here You Go” in the title line and your question in the body, and if I can answer it, I will and I’ll put it up for everyone else to see. This will also serve as the forum for questions I’m trying to answer, such as today’s topic. Hopefully we can help each other out(and everyone else who reads).
For off camera flash fans, we’ve gotten used to the idea that as far as sync speed is concerned, we’ve hit a ceiling: the good ole shutter speed of 1/250 of a second. Sure, there are a couple of DSLRs out there that can go a little higher, but they are few and far between and are becoming a rarity with each new model refresh. So, those of us who use off camera flash frequently are left to be disappointed by the engineers design decisions. Fortunately, we’re lucky to have at least one option to turn to: the Canon G-series of advanced point-and-shoot cameras.
Updated: now with more information at flash power at 1/1000 shutter speed.
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How To Save A Life
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
How to save a life.
If you’re at all into modern music, you listen to the radio, watch televsion, at some point you’ve probably heard The Fray’s hit song “How To Save A Life”. Chances are that just by reading that you’ve heard the words being sung in your head by the group’s lead singer Isaac Slade. I know I did as soon as I finished typing it. It’s catchy, it has a nice sound to it. Specifically for those reasons recently the youth pastor at my church did a series on witnessing and the theme was “How to save a life”.
You’re probably wondering why on earth I’m mentioning this on a photography blog and my answer would be the picture at the beginning of this article. See, we have this guru of Powerpoint guy that works with us in youth ministry named Tim. The guy’s a stud at combing the internet looking for graphics to use for our youth pastor’s slides during his messages and subsequently putting them together with all sorts of crazy and appropriate fonts. He makes the usual drab graphics stuff have some life to it. Unfortunately (and rarely), he couldn’t come up with anything to go with this series, so they were scratching their heads trying to come up with an idea.
By all accounts, if you can’t find what you need, create it. Cue the guy with the camera who loves photography. They had some rough ideas and volunteered some of our teens for the picture and asked me if I could put something together. Well, I’m not sure if this was their original idea, but as soon as I got the gist of the message and the target audience I had something in mind: an aprehensive teen looking over his shoulder at some other students near their locker. With a visual in my head, I brought my gear to the church and went to work.
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An afternoon spent shooting my wife (nowhere near as bad as it sounds…)
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Sometimes weekends work out exactly as planned, others they just kinda wander around and do their own thing. This past weekend was definitely the later and we have cancelled plans and rainchecks to thank for it. Of course, stuff happens to all of us, right? Eventually, you’re even the one doing the cancelling and giving the “hey we’ll do it again” speech. So what do you do when you suddenly have a Saturday night open and no desire to drum up new plans? You make lemonade. Wait… that didn’t come out right. It has something to do with lemons, I know that. Anyways, make lemonade (the real sugary kind).
And that’s what I did. I got the chance to do a “photo shoot” with my beautiful wife, who is very sweet (AND the lemonade sugar joke comes full circle I’m an idiot). We’d been wanting to get a proper photo of her done so she could post it on a beta webpage she’s testing for her school’s website. So, I figured why not use the time to experiment a little and maybe have a happy accident if we nail one. Fortunately, we had a few keepers.
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More cupcakes, simple easy pictures, and addition tells me I’m now 27
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009In two completely unrelated events, as of 12:01am last night , I’m now 27 and I also have another cupcake picture for you. Though, if these cupcakes were what I got instead of a cake, you’d hear no complaining out of me.
My wife, along with another lady she took a cake decorating class with, got together to make a batch of cupcakes for a small reception some friends of ours were having. The last time I took a picture of her cupcakes, I picked the best one (or the one I liked the most) out of all that she made and took a picture of just the one. This time, I decided I wanted to find a way to incoporate all of them.
Now the focus of talking about this cupcake picture is not because it is a spectacular picture. It’s nice, but the main idea is this: sometimes pictures can be easy to make. Those of us who love to get creative with our pictures seem to find so many ways to make them complicated that we end up not taking any because we think it requires too much effort. Sure, sometimes they do take a while to set up and orcestrate, and then sometimes they only take a few minutes.
Click here to continue reading and see the setup shot…
Back from a long hiatus… with a cupcake!
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Well everyone, it has been a long time since I updated my blog, I know. I also know I still you owe that review of the 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox from way back when. Don’t worry, it’ll come, along with some more updates. Just because I haven’t been posting anything doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. I’ve done some side projects for my work, some personal stuff, and then a wedding which, with the permission of the couple, I’ll have posted here in a gallery in the near future. Thanks to everyone who has still been stopping by. Literally thousands of you have checked out the articles on the umbrellas and softboxes, so it appears there’s a real desire out there for more information, which hopefully I can provide. Keep checking back and I’ll some more stuff to whet your appetite.
But along with the other things I’ve been working on, occasionally I just find a reason to pull out my camera. One such instance was a month of two ago when my wife, Sarah, came home from a cake decorating class she decided to join. She loves to bake things and make fun desserts so this was right up her alley (plus I was glad to see her take interest in a hobby- she’s always so busy with teaching). So Sarah comes home with some cupcakes she made and I was definitely impressed. However, one stood out (for me) among all the others.
Click here to read about how the shots was setup (hint: it was very easy)…
All white seamless background: lessons learned
Thursday, March 12th, 2009It was probably almost a month ago now that I had the time and energy (at least I thought) to try and attempt Zach Arias’s all white seamless background tutorial. I love the effect and I wanted one more trick to add to my bag, and surely something as stylized and simple looking as this would be a great addition. I should have realized this wasn’t on sure footing when I came down with a fever.
I’m not going to reteach Zach’s tutorial because he quite frankly does a good job of it already. However, I will share some things I learned that might keep you from either wasting time or going down a dead end road. In the end I was only able to come out with two images, neither of which are portfolio worthy in any aspect. But it was a learning experience and it wasn’t a costly one. I’ll gladly take that anytime. Let’s a look at somet things you might want to be aware of:
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Another quick comparison: shoot through umbrella vs. bounced /w cover
Monday, February 2nd, 2009Last week, after I put up the post comparing softboxes and umbrellas, I had a lot of people here and in the Flickr Strobist group mention how much they appreciated the information as well as how useful it was in helping them decide which modifier to go with. I had planned to do a much more thorough comparison, which will be saved for the future when I have time to do it right, but what was most helpful was the pictures comparing the spill and seeing how the light was controlled with either the softbox or the umbrella.
One reader asked if I could put up a picture, using the same set up, of a reflective umbrella bouncing the flash inside, and I thought that was a pretty good suggestion. But, I think I’ll take it one step further. To answer another question floating around forums, “What umbrella should I get: a shoot through or bounce?”, today we’re going to compare the spill and spread of light when using a white satin “shoot through” umbrella as a shoot through as well as a bounce, plus we’re going to throw in another covered umbrella just cover all of our bases.
Click to see a comparison of shoot through vs. bounced umbrella lighting.
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