Just Da Boyz
I grabbed the boys from school and we all went to see Coraline. Aidan had read the book and I’m a sucker for Selick/Burton-like movies. Lots of fun, a bit creepy, and some lovely visuals.
Image © Selick et al
Today we’re going to
soccer games, basketball games, for a bike ride and
maybe a hike. Then we’ll come home and do a Jurassic
Park marathon...
Here are two pictures of my two youngest from this
week...
My goofy kids rock.
Russian Festival 09
For the last few years my daughter has been asked to dance in the program as a demonstration of her school, Emerald Ballet Theatre, headed by Ms. Viktoria Titova.
I love going because the cultural center is this old movie theatre complex with all kinds of nooks and crannies with lovely stuff to photograph. And that is besides the program.
This year Chloe and a friend were there to perform their solos they’ve been preparing for the Youth America Grand Prix in San Francisco this weekend. In fact, she’s literally preparing to perform onstage at YAGP as I write this. Good luck Chloe!
This year was no different, and I took some lovely photographs of the event. Here is a short peek...
Click any image to see
the larger gallery.
Have a great weekend!
Odds n Sods
- Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski have a new Nikon D Town show with tips etc. View it.
- Photoshop CS4 Update posted. Run that awful Adobe Updater (they have a blog now, ha ha).
- An iPhone app with instructions on how to use your 5d MK II. Seriously.
- Kindle2’s are shipping. I’m excited to get mine - I hear one is on its way to me as we speak.
- AFP Photog takes his stuff off Flickr due to repeated stealing. Seriously. We at SmugMug work really hard to help you avoid theft. I’ll put together a tutorial tomorrow on how to do this.
- PDN’s cramped studio contest has a winner. See here. I read Michael Pollan’s book on building a small writing shed for himself. It was a great read and is highly recommended.
Crazy Hair Day
Lightroom Tuesday
Lightroom Tuesday is a
weekly feature here at heninger fotographik where we
focus on the happenings in the lightroom-o-sphere for
the past week. I dig up tutorials, presets, plugins
and the like and compile them in an easy to peruse
list. Why? Because I care.
And because Lightroom is an awesome tool that I’m
quite proud to have worked on. So lets get at it.
- DPS (Digital Photography School) kicks it off this week with a great tutorial on split toning. This is a truly wonderful feature and I use it all the time.
- Stephen Zeller gives this blog a shout out on yesterday’s post - listing some great web resources for Lightroom.
- PresetHeaven has a great set of 8 presets for wedding photographers. This is timely, considering that last week I was talking myself hoarse at the Wedding and Portrait Photog Conference in Las Vegas.
- My good friend Eric Scouten has a blog post/tutorial on the nerdiest of nerdly topics - using controlled vocabulary with Lightroom. Not familiar with Controlled Vocabulary? Its a turobo-charged way to use keywording to maximum effect. Keywording? You know, where you assign textual descriptors to an image to increase your ability to find or sell your images. Its a must for stock photographers, but its a great aid for other types of shooters as well.
- The Clarity slider rocks. I remember the discussion @ Adobe as we built and introduced this wonderful control a few years back, and its become an indispensable tool. When we added the Adjustment Brushes in LR 2, you could even paint on clarity effects! How cool is that? Hint: Negative Clarity = Smooth Skin. I actually argued for a specific brush called “Smooth Skin”. Here is a discussion on how even Negative Clarity can be a useful thing.
- I often get asked - What Lightroom Book do I get? I usually point to Seth Resnick’s book, as its a great read from a great guy. Here is a review of another book by Chris Orwig, entitled “The Adobe (redacted) Lightroom 2 How-To Book”
- Matt K has a weekly feature on his LightroomKillerTips website called Q&A - its always a good read.
- Finally, here is a great tutorial on correcting your color balance in Lightroom.
In other more general photo news
- Joe McNally has a new book coming out on small flashes. Must Buy.
- In a further homage to the wedding photog crowd here are some interesting quick links: Low Light Tips, Wedding Photography Truth, Portrait Retouching in Photoshop, Wedding Chronicles, and finally Wedding Trends (many of these via PaxtonPrints).
- That is what I got today. Have a good one.
- Mark Wallace has a great Lightroom Mini Video Tip on using the Survey Mode in Lightroom.
- In case you are not using the Pick/Reject flags, here is a nice walk thru of their use. I heart the pick/reject flags and they form the basis of my editing workflow. Here is a rundown I posted last summer on my basic workflow.
- A few free B&W Lightroom presets from Kishore Vengala.
- Camera Dojo offers some great free (and for sale) Lightroom presets.
Inspiration Monday: Robert Evans
Today we’ll take a look at the work of Robert Evans, an LA-based wedding photographer extraordinaire. Since I spent most of last week in Las Vegas with the WPPI crowd, I though it fitting to spotlight someone that I spent some time getting to know at the show.
Over sushi on Tuesday night, we sat with a big group of photographers and talked shop. We reviewed portfolios, chatted and goofed it up. The iPhone has become such a great portfolio tool, and we ended up just passing everyone’s favorite phone around the table.
In the course of the night, I ended up with Robert’s iPhone and was blown away by the quality of his work. I come from a traditional street photography/reportage/documentary/PJ background, and I tend to gravitate towards work of that nature (although, not exclusively) and I found Robert’s work to be right up my alley. Here is a taste:
Image © Robert Evans
Image © Robert Evans
Image © Robert Evans
Here is his website
Here is an interview with him on Camera
Dojo.
Here is a YouTube video on Robert from
Getmarried.com
Robert is also about giving back to the community he
loves so much. He’s taken on the mentor role - both
at a large scale with PhotographyMentor.com (hosted
by SmugMugPro).
For a limited time you can see some previews of the
school here: http://photographymentor.smugmug.com/
Finally, he’s also focused on exploring the way video
and stills can be integrated to tell an expanded
story. He’s sponsoring and participating in a country
wide tour called the PhotoFusionTour that is seeking
to teach photographers how to fuse (as it were)
stills and video together in interesting ways.
Info here: http://photofusiontour.com
Watch the intro video there and you’ll see what he is
up to.
I’ll be attending the Seattle tour and, despite being
a total video skeptic, I’ve seen the results and
loved it. I can see how adding video to your toolbox
can enhance your photography...
Baile Flamenco!
For those not in the know...
“El baile flamenco is a highly-expressive solo dance, known for its emotional sweeping of the arms and rhythmic stomping of the feet. While flamenco dancers (bailaores and bailaoras) invest a considerable amount of study and practice into their art form, the dances are not choreographed, but are improvised along the palo or rhythm. In addition to the percussion provided by the heels and balls of the feet striking the floor, castanets are sometimes held in the hands and clicked together rapidly to the rhythm of the music, or clicking using just fingers. Sometimes, folding fans are used for visual effect.” From Wikipedia
As a result, the room was alive with all the rhythmic stomping and clicking one could ask for.
This past Nutcracker, these girls danced a part of
the Spanish Dance, which was both fitting and
appreciated by all.
More dance images to come tomorrow.
Young Dancers
Lovely. I heart this lens.
Still editing the larger
set, and I have some fun flash work from today, as
well as some Flamenco dancers to come.
Have a great weekend...
A Morning with Jasmine Star
Busy Busy Busy. WPPI has really been a great show for the SmugCrew. We’ve been working the booth and have been at 100% capacity the entire 6 hours - literally flooded with people coming to chat about what SmugMugPro can do for them. Its been truly humbling and exciting too see such great energy and support from this group of photographers. WPPI remains my favorite conference for the energy and passion that abounds. Even better, our suite has been at capacity as well, so thanks to all who came by and gave us their 2 cents (or 10).
Yesterday, I started the morning going on a shoot
with the ever popular Jasmine Star. She’d opened up
20 slots to the first readers who responded via
her blog, and was gracious enough to let us tag
along. As I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out
with Jasmine before, I called in a favor. Here are
a few picts of the morning shoot...
Jasmine talking up our little group
Shooting models on the crosswalk
She did a great job, taking a receptive group of
photographers through the nuts/bolts of how she works
with her clients - both technically and
interpersonally. She really has a knack teaching -
her sincere and honest presentation was refreshing
and well received, and I even picked up a few useful
tips that should make my client work much smoother.
The most interesting moment came as we exited the
hotel and picked up a drunk 20 something kid who
proceeded to follow us for about 10 minutes, trying
to mix it up with “the ladies.” Luckily JD (Jasmine’s
husband) managed to talk him away after 10 minutes of
his sophomoric commentary and he opted to take his
express train of inanity to Hooters.
We proceeded to cover 5 or 6 different locations on
the hotel grounds and fun was had by all. Success!
Cheers Jaz, you rock.
Lightroom Tuesday
Well, this might be a bit abbreviated, given the
hectic schedule I’ve been keeping these past few
days...
- A free set of presets (and a few Photoshop Actions) from Epic Edits.
- Lightroom efficiency is all about keyboard shortcuts. LightroomBlog.com points to a great PDF with a listing of all the shortcuts (you can also see a nice display of these in each module in the Lightroom help menu).
- I mentioned Timothy Arme’s LR2/Blog plugin a few weeks ago. Well it turns out he needed some help doing the export banner (that goes along the top of the export dialog in Lightroom) and since I’d done those graphics for the Adobe pieces, I spent a few minutes and made one for his plugin.
- Got the “Presence Blues”. Here is a short tutorial from DPS on how to use the Presence set of sliders in LR 2 to really make your pictures sing.
- The Turning Gate guys have created a new Web Gallery for LR2 that exports a nice iPhone-focused weg gallery (via the Pixelated Image Blog).
- Matt K has a great tip for printing multi-photo images in LR2. Sweet.
- Not Lightroom related, but cool: InkJet tatoos
- Julianne Kost has a new blog. I saw her today at WPPI and quickly said hi as i ran to another appointment. She is probably the only Adobe person attending this conference. There were so many of us last year.
- The editing piece of Lightroom is awesome. Editing your photos (or culling or making selects) is a skill that takes years to master. Lightroom makes it easier - learn to rate, flag and filter.
- Tethered shooting rocks. Here are the Cliff Notes on how to do this in Lightroom
- White Balance got you down. Get back up!
- Cheers!
Vegas in Quads
Free Hug!
Sometimes you use the camera you have.
SmugMug @ WPPI
For those of you unfamiliar with WPPI, this is the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International conference that masses loads of happy photographers together for a week long festival of brides, backdrops and stunning imagery. This year the show is 30% bigger than last. Take that economy!
This is a great conference. The energy and excitement exhibited at this show greatly surpasses that of other photo shows by a wide margin. I love being around people so excited about storytelling, photography and love.
I’ll be going to parties,
heading out on an early AM shoot with Jasmine Star and hanging with a
variety of photographers and friends. I’m so not
much of a party kinda guy, but I’ll be taking one
for the team 
Speaking of which, one of SmugMug’s goals at WPPI is
to have as many conversations with portrait and
wedding photographers as we can. To that end, we’ll
have a booth on the show floor with Bay Photo, and
(even better) we’ll be welcoming select people to our
deeee-luxe suite for informal discussions about life,
work and photography.
If you are professional photographer, we at SmugMug really want to make
your life easier, so this is your chance to make
sure your needs are heard. Over the next few
months, we’ll be adding a bunch of new pro-focused
features as a way to better serve those working in
the wedding and portrait space.
If you are in Vegas attending the show, please drop
by our booth on the show floor and grab an invite.
Then just swing by the suite, take a load off, have
some refreshments and lets chat.
PS. You can even follow SmugMug Pro on twitter! We’ll
be posting a few tidbits and even giving away a
thing or two.
Valentines Day Cometh
It is a family tradition for my kids to actually hand make all their valentines. Its quite a party. My wife disappears for a few hours and spends an unknown sum of $$ on fancy paper and other crafty doodads. My kids then gather around and spend hours gluing, drawing, cutting themselves to valentine bliss.
When I was a kid, it was simpler. Or at least my parents balked and got us those books of “Star Wars” or “The BeastMaster” valentine books that were full of perforated cards. It was 10 minutes and a paper cut or two and you were done, even if it lacked some personality. That way we had more time to watch the A-Team and the kitchen remained cleaner, but I digress.
Here are some favorites from this year:
Fun. And the kids are
ready for the big hand out tomorrow.
Speaking of kids, here is a shot of my youngest
preparing to weather the unseasonably cold Thursday
morning confronting him. Ringflash alert.
PS. I will
not be giving a valentine (at least
in the traditional sense) to the @#$#@ Gobshite that
backed into my brand new Honda Civic this morning at
the gym. Why is it that I can’t own a car without
dents that I do not make. Its almost as if a new car
in my hands is magnet for inconsiderate morons.
Grrrr. Can you tell that this isn’t the first this is
happened? I’ve only had someone approach me once in
the 8 or 9 times this has happened to me. Karma,
don’t fail me now.
Orbis-O-Rama!
Here are a few pictures from my my inagural use of the Orbis with ETTL.
Nice. I’m quite happy
with the subtle effect here. Very ringflashy. The
tones are quite nice too. I’m still going to get
around to making a diffusion panel for the Orbis at
some point.
Cheers!
PS. Gotta love goofy boys.
Irish Dancers
We have several groups that rent space at the studio but I generally find myself remiss in their regard. I mean well, but I always end up with a large collection of ballet pictures and little of the Flamenco, Irish or Capoiera dancers. Periodically they’ll show up because we’ve integrated them into our big performances (this past Christmas, we had flamenco dancers in the Spanish dance scene of the Nutcracker, the year before Capoiera) but this does not do them justice.
No unexpectedly, my daughter participates in several of these groups, so yesterday when I was tasked with picking her up, I went early to get a few pictures of the Baile Glas Irish Dancers.
Here are a few of my favorites from last night...
Alzo Mini Softbox: A Review
I’ve been meaning to get a small softbox like this for headshots and I figured it would be good to see what was offered for small strobes as a way to add to my Strobist street cred. There are several on the market: the Lastolite EZbox, the Photoflex LiteDome an the Alzo Mini Softbox.
I went with the Alzo because my wife gave me a sideways look for all the packages that showed up that week. Total was just under $58 bucks with softbox, mount and carry case. Not to bad, and alot cheaper than the Lastolite. The Photoflex is new to me, so I didn’t consider it, but it looks like it fits right in between the two price-wise.
Anyhow, the Alzo is an
interesting little unit. It sets up quickly, by just
unfolding it much as you do a reflector, which is
really nice. You attach the single white diffusion
material to the front with velcro. I’ll have to admit
the supplied front diffusion panel was a bit smaller
than it should be - it takes a bit of work to get
that material even, but it works.
The flash attachment actually threw me for a loop
when I actually went to attach it to the softbox - it
just fits in the back and is held on by friction. I
had to think about it for a minute before I decided
that was indeed the design. And then I went to the
website to double check that I wasn’t missing
anything. Honestly, I’m not sure I like that. On
doing some research, it seems the Lastolite uses the
same mechanism. Oh well.
Here is how it attaches:
Overall, I was surprised
by the build quality of the softbox itself. It seems
every bit as sturdy and well put together as my Alien
Bees softbox. The stiching and fabric seem sturdy and
should stand up to the use intended. The bracket is
serviceable, although, as mentioned, I’m not sure the
friction mounting system will be a durable.
Anyhow, setting up from there is straightforward. The
nice thing about this is that its pretty much
speedlight-nostic. It will let you use most flash
units, including my Vivitar and Canon 580 EX lights.
I found the light quite nice - I was a bit concerned
that there wasn’t an internal baffle like there are
on larger softboxes (the EZYBox has two diffusion
panels) but the light was exactly as I expected from
a softbox. Very nice.
Here is a shot from today with my son modeling his
new watches (Happy Meal toy. Hey, it wasn’t me).
Very nice. This is
tentatively titled “I gots me some watches.”
The light feels just right. The softbox in this
picture was about a foot away from the model’s right,
and set on 1/8th power, giving me plenty of light for
a 1/200 f9 exposure. If I compare this with the ring
light I got a few weeks back, its *much* softer and
pleasing. In fact, I’ve been toying with the idea of
sewing an external diffusion baffle for my Orbis
because of its harshness.
Speaking of diffusion, I’ll probably add a second
diffusion panel to the Alzo myself as well. Shouldn’t
be too hard.
In short, this is a recommended unit. Buy it here or on Ebay.
Lightroom Tuesday
A good Tuesday morning to you. Here are a few of the
happenings on the Lightroom front this week:
- Julianne Kost will be presenting on Lightroom as part of the NPPA’s Norther Short Course in McLean Virginia March 19-21st. Julianne and I hung out in the Adobe booth last year at WPPI and it was a hoot. That woman has groupies, and no wonder, she gives a great presentation. More info here.
- Dave Hill certainly gets aped a lot these days. Here is another Dave Hill preset that is less extreme than most. As the author Stephen Zeller points out, its all about the lighting...
- Scott Kelby and Matt K have gone public with their favorite Lightroom camera profile. I kid, I kid. But it is interesting to see they point out how important a camera profile is for photographers. I know i used to get the “ACR/Lightroom” always makes the skin tones (insert complaint here) and I have to use (insert other Raw processing software here) because of it. With camera profiles, this objection goes away because you can download many others (including many for skin tones) or make your own using the Adobe provided editor. Very cool.
- Scott also points to a link discussing the new glossy displays on RobGalbraith.com. Conventional wisdom from the color gurus I’ve spoken to in the past have always talked about Gossy=Bad. Spoiler Alert: looks like there is some variation in the offerings today, with Apple’s offerings at the bottom of the heap. Woah, wasn’t expecting that. Its a good read for those into accurate color.
- Matt K’s presets of the week include: Yellow Duotones and a nice High Key Effect. Also note yesterday was Lightroom Q&A day - he answers reader’s questions. A good week on Lightroomkillertips.com.
- Ever wanted to get that Ralph Gibsonesque High Key look? A noble goal. DPS has a great tutorial.
- Since joining SmugMug, I don’t need to use the web module as much for photo galleries. But I do Blog, and there is a new beta Export plugin from Timothy Armes called LR2/Blog that lets you export to blogs such as WordPress that use MetaWebLog (whatever that is).
- I’ve used GPS for a long time. And its use in the photo world barely interests me. But there are many out there for whom it does. Here is a discussion on geolocation and Lightroom.
- David Ziser has just announced his Digital WakeUp Call series of seminars today. It includes info on lighting, the wedding biz and Lightroom use. Cities/schedules here.
- New to the Adjustment Brush we built into Lightroom 2? Here is a nice tutorial from DPS on how to use it.
- Every done a Photomerge right from Lightroom? It rocks. Here is how to do it quickly. Much nicer than the way we had to do it in Lightroom 1.
- Paxtonprints.com pointed to a free set of presets for architectural photography.
- Not lightroom related, but certainly focused on keeping the images going into Lightroom as clean as possible for less hassle afterward.
- Here is a good take at using the editing tools in Lightroom to manage your post-process workflow. The better you edit, the less time you’ll spend tweaking images that shouldn’t be tweaked. Editing is a skill that takes years, and while tools like Lightroom really help streamline the editing process, you still need to know how to pick the wheat from the chaff as it were.
- Here is a new set of presets from PresetHeaven.com from photographer Sarah Ji.
- In case you can’t figure out how to get all these preset goodies into Lightroom, here is a nice tutorial.
- In the Lighting department, here is a nice comparison of how different umbrellas work (shoot thru or bounced) and the resulting light effects.
Well, that is it for today. Have a good one.
PS. I’m going to be at WPPI next week, so I should have a mound of interesting things for you. If you’re going to be in Vegas during WPPI, drop me a line and we can get together for a chat.
Inspiration Monday: Noah Kalina
all images © Noah Kalina
Straight outta Brooklyn!
Fair warning: some of his galleries are mildly NSFW
and some are a bit hipster for me, but the flash work
is fantastic.
Have a great day.
Battle Droids: Fight!
But when it snows in the hills around Issaquah, the school bus runs on a later schedule.
So the kids had some extra time this AM before meeting the bus - time happily spent drawing on the living room floor.
Those are Battle Droids lining up for an epic match of Jedi vs. Robots.
Rehearsal Redux
These images are from a few early December rehearsals in the Emerald Ballet Theatre studio and show some of the “behind the scenes” stuff that goes along with documenting a working ballet studio and the lovely dancers that work so hard at their craft.
Click to see the full gallery...
There is a lesson here
for photographers. Sometimes your initial edits
overlook some really great photos. Sometimes its
worth going back thru some previously edited work to
see if you call cull out some overlooked treasures.
That is all. Have a great day.
Joshua Tree National Park
To be honest, I’m not really much of a landscape photographer, but I spend a fair amount of time in beautiful places, so I do end up with a few pictures because, well, they deserve to be taken seriously.
So, anyhow, I headed out at 5 am for the cholla garden along one of the major routes thru the park and found a few interesting things.
Dance Class
Lightroom Tuesday - Early Edition
Its Lightroom Tuesday
Eve!
I’m on a plane to San Jose for the day tomorrow and I
figured I’d just post this week’s Lightroom Tuesday a
bit early.
- Goal: Crop in Camera. Reality: Life. So master the crop & straighten tool.
- Here is a review of a commercial Preset offering for Lightroom: the Wonderland 3.0 Presets. Here is a video of them being used. You can even download a sample set here.
- To DNG or not to DNG. Wondering if you should be converting to DNG? I say yes. Here is another's opinion (royalty or not).
- Here is a good video tutorial on using Merge to Panorama in Lightroom 2 from Peachpit press
- I just found a Flickr group dedicated to presets. Find it here.
- Often I get asked how one can learn the ins/outs of Lightroom 2. My favorite resource is Seth Resnick & Jamie Spritzer's Workflow seminars offered in major cities around the US. For $1k you get a great 3 day session that will teach you what you need to know. I've met a variety of great photogs there, including Susan Meseilas and Gregory Heiser. Can't make it? Then you can buy their book.
- Apparently there are issues with new Lightroom release with Canon 5d MK II support. Stephen Alvarez covers this on his blog, but I've heard of this directly from Ira (his source) as well. Ooops.
- There is a new export plugin from Jeffery Freidl.
- Not using the Quick Collection feature? Ponder this.
- LRG Dragon preset available for Adobe Exchange
- Matt K offers a video tutorial on how to organize your presets.
- Speaking of free presets that will need organization, check out these wedding-centric presets named after wedding venus in Johannesburg
- PresetHeaven has a great desaturate preset
- Speaking of video tutorials, check out this list of 10 video tips for Lightroom.
- Finally, here is an Old Fashioned Preset from Matt K
Inspiration Monday
Funny, but I’ve known several photographers who have exploited the small camera for great effect.
The first on my radar in this genre was photographer Michal Daniel, a photog I met a few years back on a mailing list. He was an interesting guy, and we met up at least once in new York to chat (I have some photos of him somewhere in my film archive). I also have a few prints of his on my walls, which is high praise
Michal was working diligently in this area before cell phone cameras really became hip, and (AFAIK) he was the forerunner of the whole less-is-more idea with these small, unobtrusive cameras. He was raw street photography with an intimacy that was hard to miss.
His photographs are shot on a small Handspring PDA (yeah, remember those!) that used the Palm OS and an attachment called the EyeModule2. His mantra was “Don’t mind me, I’m organizing”. It worked
Right on Michal.
Image © Michal Daniel
Next up. PDN today had a
great slideshow and discussion with a
photographer working in a similar vein that
reminded me of Michael’s work.
The photographer, Sean Rocco, is a staff photog from
the North Carolina News & Observer. His blog
Cellular Obscura highlights his
work and there are some real gems there.
Image © Sean Rocco
Finally, Chase Jarvis, a local Seattle
photog (and guy I really gotta meet up with some
day) is currently posting iPhone picts via
twitter.
Image © Chase Jarvis
Remember that old adage:
it isn’t the camera, it’s the photographer.
Word.
Orbis Ringflash
This morning I had some down time and wanted to play with some of the new gear that arrived at my doorstep in the week I was gone. This included a small strobe-based softbox and an Orbis Ringflash adapter.
As I’m pretty down with the Strobist mindset (and yes I have big lights too), I wanted to get some additional light modification gear for my Canon 580 EX II speedlight. I built a few items in the last month (Snoot, Grid, Beauty dish) but I decided to “outsource” on the ringflash and softbox for obvious reasons.
The ringflash is something that has always intrigued me, and its pretty hip right now in the light modifier market. Buts you gotta pay to play, and I’d not gotten around to getting one of the new units that uses your speedlight for power. I chose the Orbis because it lets you use ETTL mode when you are in a non-studio environment (via a off-camera hotshoe cord). For run and gun, this makes sense. Here is the unit (from their website):
So I setup the seamless,
grabbed my goofy kids and had a short studio session.
Then my youngest came
running in with the goofy teeth. The goofy teeth were
a gift from their cousin in Utah, and we’ve had many
hilarious sessions with said redneck accoutrements.
And finally, a slightly more serious portrait of my
son.
Using the Orbis was prety
straightforward. I set it up on a lightstand using my
flash mount, pulled down my white seamless and setup
the meter for 1/4 power at 2 feet from the ring. I’ve
got the off-camera hotshoe on order, so I used my
radio control triggers and went manual. I’ll try the
ETTL mode when it arrives. The light was exactly as I
expected - a nice soft halo that is characteristic of
the ringflash setup. And the best part is I don’t
have to sink all that extra cash in a dedicated ring
light. For most work I do, this should work
perfectly. Recommended.
That is it for today.
I’ll try to break out the softbox this week and give
it a whirl as well.
Have a great Sunday.