Just An Important Reminder...
Just a reminder - of which I was reminded today!
Cameras don't take pictures, people do. I shot one of these pictures today with my G10, the other a year or so ago with my 1Ds Mark III.
Both look pretty good to me.
Message: Compose carefully, see the light, watch the background, get the best in-camera exposure.
:-)
Keep shooting.
Best,
Rick
P.S. My next book (no kidding): Confessions of a Compact Camera shooter.
6.7.09 Sunday Speedlite Session: Big Light from Small Flashes
This week's tip comes from my pal Scott Bourne, the cool dude with whom I co-host the Photofocus podcast, and who heads up the Photofocus website (as well as doing about a million other things).
Beam us up (as in "give us some tips on using the beam of our flashes") Scottie.
Here's How to Make Your Small Flash Act Like a Big Strobe
Scott Bourne
Small speedlights are very cool little inventions. They give us the ability to bring light to every situation regardless of "natural" conditions. But the small size of the average portable flash is both a blessing and a curse.
The blessing is that these little babies are very portable. The curse is that being small; they tend to emit rather harsh light. So how can we fix that?
Simple. Get closer and get bigger. I know, I know - you think that's crazy. While it may be counter intuitive, it's true. The closer the light is - the softer it is. The bigger the light is - the softer it is. (Don't confuse brightness and softness.)
So getting closer is easy. How do we get the small strobe to act like a big light? There are lots of ways to accomplish this. One would be to use something like the Rick Sammon Tote from Westcott. Pumping the flash at the reflector makes the size of the reflector the size of the light. This is many, many times larger than the flash head so it softens the light.
Another great accessory is the Westcott Mini-Apollo. This accessory turns your small flash into a decent-sized soft box.
I took the photograph of the little girl on the left. Rick took the other two pictures.
The behind-the-scenes photo shows two flashes aimed at two reflectors; the light in the background is a hair light. The end-result photo on the right was taken with that set up - with another reflector added below the model's chin to fill in some of the shadows.
So the message of this post: Test this yourself. Get closer to the subject and make the light bigger. You'll make pictures with softer light every time.
If you have any flash questions (or any photo questions for that matter), post it on twitter: twitter/ricksammon or twitter/scottbourne
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Rick here . . .
Check out the new PocketWizards for effortless/foolproof off-camera flash photography. Note: the wireless transmitter circled in my picture is the Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter.
Scott and I are tossing around the idea of doing some flash workshops around the country. Let us know if you are interested. Tell is on twitter.
6.6.09 Saturday Photoshop Mini-Session
in Photoshop
One of my pro photographer friends made this image. The first person who correctly guesses the technique and the number of exposures will get an autographed copy of his wonderful book ($75 value). It's very heavy. So US shipping only. Sorry.
Good luck to all.
You need to post your answer here.. not on twitter.
This photographer has an amazing and inspiring story, too. He will be revealed on Sunday in my post of the winner. So come back... and see a behind-the-scenes image, too!
When I say inspiring, I truly mean inspiring.
No pros, please.
Rick
Fishing for Answers to Saturday's Photo Question
First, thank you ALL for playing along.
Sooo.... it was a trick question.
Absolutely no Photoshop techniques were used to create the image. It's a one-shot image.
Photographer/artist Ryszard Horowitz created the image in-camera - before many of us ever heard of Photoshop! Do a search on Ryszard to see his amazing - and more current – work!
Above is a shot of Ryszard taking the actual photograph.
For now, here are just a few of his favorite images.
Read his bio, too.
You can contact him through his web site.
Our winner (you will love Ryszard's book) is: kberwin. Please send me your address. ricksammon@me.com
The point of this post: Experiment with in-camera techniques, too. It's amazing what we can do without the aid of Photoshop.
Rick
P.S. Don't feel bad if you posted suggested Photoshop techniques. I got it wrong the first time, too.