Ringlight in a Pinch

Reader Andrew Smith has posted a self portrait and a lighting diagram that show you how to set up an umbrella so that it acts like a ring light.

I have used this technique before to varying success. But then I probably block a little more of an umbrella than does Andrew. Still worth a try if you have nice background to work with, as in his example.

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Speedlinks, 9/29/2007

• Fish has advice on getting your photo gear past the highly trained TSA professionals.

• Jason shows you where to score some cheap black straws.

• Okay, after reading the T-O-P review, I am definitely getting a G-9 now.

• Here's how to tie-dye your own muslin background if you are gonna, like, shoot some hippies, man.

• If you are shooting for this outdoor advertising company, you'd better be shooting RAW.

• With a bag full of company-supplied, high-end Nikon digital gear at his disposal, fellow Sun shooter Chris Assaf prefers to work with cheap, plastic, film-suckin' Holgas.

• Need money? Here's a fine selection of photographic career opportunities, courtesy blogger Alec Soth. (First order of bidness: Dress the part.)

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Watch Chase Jarvis' NYC Photoshelter Talk

Web 2.0 types that they are, the folks at PhotoShelter have uploaded Chase's entire, 55-minute presentation to the web. Usually, you only get about 3.5 minutes of Chase on the YouTube vids. But he is really worth watching long-form.

Don't get so caught up in all of the trappings (dude travels with a DJ) that you miss all of the valuable experience he is throwing at you. Good stuff.

Better yet: Grover and Allen put the entire panel discussion and the presentation of photo buyer Catherine Talese up on their blog, too. You're gonna need a large popcorn for all of this.

(We had miniburgers, coconut shrimpy things and beer...)

Thanks to PhotoShelter for the extra effort for those who could not be there.

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Oh, and since you know you are reading this Chase, I did go out and buy me an hour-long "Ibiza After Hours" iTunes mix ($9.95) for my presentations. I think ya hear me knockin'...

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Paris Seminar Registration Opens

UPDATE: The October 27 Paris seminar is sold out. Full details for the event are after the jump.


Venue and Schedule

We will be meeting at the Hotel Sofitel Baltimore - Paris (hotel info | map).

We'll check in at 0900, and get started at 0930. The morning will be for lighting theory, then we'll break for lunch. During the afternoon we'll be in demonstration mode, playing with lighting setups and discussing the results.

We'll go until approximately 1700 hours (5:00 p.m.) at which point they'll kick us out. So we'll move to a nearby watering hole and keep a less formal (and more liquid) discussion going for those who are interested.


Logistics and Details

The price is €159, payable via PayPal at the link below. If you experience an unavoidable change in plans, full refunds will be issued until October 18th, after which 50% refunds will be available until October 24th. After that time, you will be responsible for transferring your seat to another attendee.

For my part, I have every expectation of being there. The airline tickets are purchased, the meeting room is booked and paid for, as is my apartment in Paris. If something happens that is beyond my control (plane crash, heart attack, abducted by aliens, etc.) full refunds will be issued, and limited to the actual ticket price.

There will be a Flickr thread posted shortly for questions and/or discussion. (UPDATE: It is here.) Of particular interest are the local lunch choices. So if you are based in the City of Light, (gotta love that nickname in this context) we'd love to have your input on local food. I'll be checking out the immediate area during the week before, and will post what I find out.

We are right next to a Metro station (Boissière) which should make transportation relatively easy.

Very important: The seminar will be in English. I will make every effort to be as understandable as possible, but trust me when I say that you do not want me trying my French out on you. (It's pretty bad.)

Also, there will be no waiting list on this one, as managing it would be very difficult from the road during the week before the seminar.

And finally, I am very much looking forward to being in Paris next month. And especially to getting to hang out with you guys and talk about some cool light. We're gonna have fun.

Important: Please save your emailed receipt from PayPal as that will help us more quickly check you in on the morning of the seminar.
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(The Paris Seminar is sold out.)
:: QnA/Planning/Discussion Thread ::

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Ubercharger Lacks Only Diamond-Encrustedness

Full disclosure: We are practically battery fetishists here at Strobist.

And the La Crosse Technology BC-900 Alpha Battery Charger makes our Wally-Mart Ni-MH chargers look like pieces of crap. This thing will charge your flash batts at user-selectable rates, condition them, measure their voltages and capacity.

You want to be nice to your batts and slow-charge them all night long. No prob.

Need them charged fast and rough for a job this afternoon? Okeydokey.

Wanna know if your batts are up to spec, maH-wise? Your BC-900 will tell you.

(More info and links after the jump.)

It comes in full kit mode for $79.95. (UPDATE FROM THE COMMENTS: Only $53.94 $39.99 at Amazon, w/free shipping.) But that includes 8 AA's, 4 AAA's and adapters to convert the AA's to C's or D's. Nice touch. But frankly, it's the charger I am interested in. I could use this baby in rotation with my El Cheapo-Martos and have a decent idea of my batteries' general health as I rotate various sets through the Ubercharger.

See what all of the fancy displays tell you here. And for $79.95, the Ubercharger comes with it's own demo video. (But of course.)

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• Product page, w/full info: BC-900 Alpha Battery Charger
• Cheaper, on Amazon (with very informative review)

(UPDATE #2: Amazon set comes with 4 AA's, instead of 8, but includes 4 each of the "D" and "C" adapters.)

(Thanks to Tony for the initial heads-up, and commenters for better pricing info.)
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Meanwhile, Up in the Cheap Seats

Costco apparent has a similar package with the slow-discharge Eneloops, sans the Ubercharger part. They call it the "Power Pack," and you can find them on the end-caps (which, granted, in a Costco can mean a 1/4-mile walk.)

Here's what you get according to Curtis, who tipped me off:

1 battery charger
8 AA batteries (2000 mAh)
4 AAA batteries
2 C adapters
2 D adapters
1 Nifty Blue Carry Case for it all

Total price: $26.

Sweet. These things are getting cheaperer and betterer.

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JWLPhoto Strikes Again

Man, I am digging Jason Lee's photos of his kids so much I should be paying his Flickr stream rent.

What a great idea: Using a flash set on stroboscopic mode to give your angel wings. This is absolute genius.

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Lighting 102: 3.3 - Balancing Flash/Ambient Indoors

UPDATE: [ Completed exercises | Discussion ]

When last we met, we talked about moving from the idea of balancing a nice, even, back-curtain of sunset light to dealing with a highly directional light source (and learning to use it rather than just fill it.) This week, we are taking it indoors to apply the same principles to light that is less directional, less intense and more diffuse.

The common thread you should be starting to see is that there are two simultaneous exposures going on every time you use flash. This is true whether you make use of the second exposure or not. In fact, even if you are shooting with a disposable point-and-shoot and nuking your drunken frat brother with the flash at about, say, twelve beers into the party, you still have two exposures happening every time you push the button.

The difference between neanderthal and nuanced is learning how to finesse the ambient portion of your exposure. I mean, it's always there anyway, so why not use it?

In fact, the more you understand it, the more you realize that it is at least as useful as another flash. And sometimes even more so.

(More after the jump.)

Typical indoor ambient light, for instance, might be about 1/60th at 4/f at ISO 400. So If I shoot you in that light, available only, you are going to be properly exposed. You'll still probably look pretty bad -- we nailed the quantity, but the quality of the light is likely ugly as it comes from overhead fixtures.

So, I decide to stick an umbrella'd flash up near you and light you that way. After all, I think we have established that you need all of the lighting help you can get, right?

I put my camera at the max synch speed (1/250th) and put my flash on 1/4 power and light you up to f/8. As my umbrella is very close to you (yeesh - look at those wrinkles - I can fix that with soft light) we remember that the light is going to fall off very quickly and go pretty dark by the time it gets back to the wall, right?

So now you look great (all things considered) but the wall on the other side of the room is way too dark. The problem is, the only thing that is lighting the wall is my flash. That's because my ambient exposure is set to 1/250th at f/8, which is underexposing the non-flash-lit portion of the room by four stops.

So let's move from the hypothetical to the practical and do a little exercise in walking the ambient exposure up a little bit to see the effect of various shutter speed on the flash/ambient combo. Rather than use photos of you, dear reader, (we don't want to scare the small children, now do we) I'll use a camera as a stand-in.

In this room (my living room) the daytime ambient exposure is about 1/4th of a sec at f/4 at ISO 200 with the lights out. I have the blinds open so the back part of the room is receiving some light. The camera, in the foreground on a coffee table, is receiving much less.

The first thing I want to do is to establish that, at our starting exposure with no flash, the room would be black:

Here we are, at 1/250th at f/4 with no flash. This stunning exercise in minimalism is, in fact for sale. But only a true art lover would appreciate the beauty and meaning of a photograph like this, so please do not be offended if it appears overpriced.

At a 250th at f/4, the ambient light in the room is 5 stops underexposed. Darn near black, I'd say.

Next we'll add a little flash, in the form of an SB-26 in a shoot-through umbrella. Please forgive the umbrella ribs reflection in the front filter. I was working fast today. Besides, I had already made my artistic statement for the day and I was too bushed to be creative again.

But wait, what's that light on the back wall? Well, we already know that it isn't ambient, so it must be flash. Which is exactly what it is -- spill light from the umbrella.

So, let's open the shutter speed up two thirds of a stop to a 1/160th of a second.

Hmm. The background doesn't get any brighter.

Same thing for 1/100th and 1/60th. (Okay, maybe a tiny bit at 1/60th.)

This is simply because we are working so far from the ambient exposure of the room. If the flash is much more powerful than a given, combined ambient setting, I call that "working above the ambient," as in, "I was shooting flash at f/4, working 4 stops above the ambient."

That tells you that at f/4, my chosen shutter speed was four stops too high for the ambient exposure.

It's not until we get to 1/40th of a second that the ambient starts to creep in, albeit barely.

This is the threshold of the shutter settings at f/4 (and ISO 200) that will allow the ambient to burn into the flash's shadow areas in the photo. So here is where you'd start paying close attention to the TFT screen and adjusting your shutter to get the best effect.

At a shutter speed of 1/25th of a second, things are starting to happen.

Clearly the ambient is starting to make a more pronounced appearance here. Mind you, the camera is staying consistent because it is lit solely by the flash at this point.

The background isn't really usable at this point, exposure-wise. But the light is coming up and I am confident that I can fine-tune it to whatever tone I want.

At a 15th of a second, the background is getting usable.

From here on out (or up, actually) the tone of the background becomes a personal choice. There is no "wrong," as it is now a matter of how much separation I want between the subject and the background.

Remember when we told you to throw the concept of "proper exposure" out of the window? This is what I am talking about: The the exposure reference point is set by how you choose to expose the light falling on the camera. The background can be anywhere in a wide range of tones, with the choice being yours.

At a tenth of a second, my off-white wall is a rich tone, influenced as much by the color of the green-filtered shady light coming through the north-facing window as it is by the ambient portion of the exposure.

Doing an exercise like this (hint, hint) will show you just how much control you have over a situation once you start to understand the concept of balancing strobe and ambient.

At a 6th of a second, we are still below medium grey on the tonal level of the background. But now we are starting to get into a background range that, say, a newspaper might be able to reproduce.

The ultimate medium in which the photo is going to be reproduced will be your guide as to the limits of your chosen ambient fill level. But again, the choice within that range is yours.

One quarter of a sec.

This is my personal choice, as I like the "invisible" quality of the light and ambient combo for this picture. It's a subjective call, but for something like this the light can be made to disappear (not too obvious) and the photo just has a quality edge to it that does not look lit, but just looks nice.

At 0.4 secs (1/2.5) the room starts getting airy.

Remember, the walls are well above medium grey, so the camera considers this an overexposure of the ambient. Again, that "proper exposure" thing is a very fudgeable concept. You might like this frame better. There really is no right or wrong here.

At 0.6 secs, the background looks airier still.

I could go up more on he ambient, but the highlights in the center right portion of the background would start to blow out, which would be distracting (but still not "wrong," IMO.) There is more leeway here than in a Composition 101 paper in 9th grade.

The first concept that you have to learn is that there is a base exposure that will render any scene as black. Indoors, this is frequently an easy exposure to achieve while still being at or below your synch speed. From there, merely opening up the shutter will allow progressively more ambient light into your photo until you get exactly the balance that you want.

Here's something else to think about: Your tripod is another flash unit, but with near-infinite power. Say you are shooting in a huge, cavernous, dimly lit, windowless room. You could umbrella-light someone with a flash in the foreground, and just hold that shutter open until the room was raised exactly to the supporting exposure that you wished. Just lock your camera down on a tripod and leave the shutter open until the whole, "unlit" portion of the room burns in.

I have done it (on a tripod) for 30 seconds at f/2.8. The person swayed just a tad during the exposure. But honestly, that made it look even better. And speaking of movement, one last shot:

Given a quarter second of shutter with which to play, of course I am gonna try a little flash-blur.

But that's not until Part 7, so let's save that for later.


____________________________________

We still haven't finished the balance unit. So this week's exercise is just that, rather than an assignment.

I did these demo shots in ten minutes, literally, from light setup to final frame. It's really no big deal to try something like this in your living room.

The important thing to remember (as it always is when "burning in" ambient against flash) is to have your flash-lit subject in a part of the scene that is receiving less ambient light than the ambient-lit part of the scene. In practice, this usually means shooting into a brighter background and lighting your subject with flash in the foreground.

Remember, the whole distance thing still applies. So keep that flash in close, lest it contaminate your background.

FYI, here is a shot which shows the incredibly difficult and complex setup that was used to make this series of shots.

(That's "Ginger" sniffing the umbrella, by the way. She's not the brightest bulb in a three-pack, but she's very sweet.)

One final note on the umbrella: I "choked up" on the shaft a little but, which means that I did not make full use of the full umbrella as a light source. Reason is (other than that I did not need the full light source at this small distance for the light to be soft) is that I did not want any raw light to spill past the edges of my umbrella and further light the background.

If you are doing the exercises, please tag your photo(s) thusly:

Strobist
Lighting102
exercise
balance
indoors

You can view the completed exercises of others, here. There is a discussion thread set up for this post here.

Finally, given the range of background tones that would have been displayed on the back of your camera, which shutter speed would you have chosen, and why?

Hit us in the comments.


NEXT: Assignment: Balance

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L102 Coming Later Today; Paris Signup Opens Thursday

Today has been a continuous series of curveballs thrown at my already-packed schedule. (Latest one: Roots encroach on neighbors' sewer line, making a lovely situation in their basement, so everyone is pitching in.)

And as the L102 section on balancing strobe indoors is pretty involved (with a series of demo pix) it will go up later this evening.


View Larger Map
I did want to take ten minutes to pop up a notice that we now have our venue for the October 27th Paris seminar. We'll be at the Hotel Sofitel Baltimore - Paris, an ironically named and atypically classy joint for the likes of us. The location rocks, too. It is located about half a mile from the Arc de Triomphe on Avenue Kléber.

(Thanks to read John M. for the awesome venue scouting.)

Registration will begin at 7:00 p.m. (1900 hours) local Paris time on Thursday, Sept. 27th. As we are only doing a single, Saturday seminar (as opposed to the normal Sat-Sun weekend schedule) it will probably fill very quickly. So be ready to go at 7:00 p.m. if you are really interested.

The price will be €159, and will be in English. (Trust me, you would not want me to try my French on you...)

The format will be similar to the London seminar with theory in the morning and in-room shooting demonstrations in the afternoon. It has evolved a little since London, but the idea is the same.

Plus, we'll have drinks and cookies. (Thanks again, John...)

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You Love Flickr, But Does Flickr Love You?

Flickr has a very interesting stream called "Explore," in which they give a shout out to what they think are really cool photos.

Needless to say that you guys rock some seriously and consistently cool photos. Which means that some of you get Explored more often than Paris Hilton.

But how do you know when you have been featured in Explore? Simple: You just go to this site and enter your Flickr screen name and it will tell you how many times you have been chosen by the editors.

I scored a 25 (including a lighting diagram -- wtf?) and I am sure many of you are more Exploratory than that.

UPDATE: Be sure to click through to "include dropped" to see your full number. My number jumped up to 44 that way.)

The photo up top, BTW, is reader Jason Lee's most recent of 15 Explorations. Click on the pic for more info.

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Small-Flash Tip for Landscape Shooters

So, you have a jones for those sweeping, wide-angle vistas but can't use small flashes in close because of how much real estate the photo shows? No problem, as long as you are not bound by the ethics of editorial photojounalism. Maybe, say, shooting an illustration, or landscape photography as art.

Just take a cue from Strobist reader "footcandle," who places his strobes where he needs them to be (i.e., close in to the subject to get enough power) and takes them out in Photoshop after the fact. It is an easy thing to do in post. But when you are shooting, just be sure to feather your light upwards so you do not leave obvious light splashes on the ground if you do not want said splashes to be visible.

Lots of portrait possibilities here, too. Photographer Dave Hill sometimes uses a similar technique, for those of you who have made an quest out of trying to get that Dave Hill look. (337 posts and counting!)

Click on the pic and "footcandle" will show you where he hid the flashes. And by the way, am I the only one who thinks "footcandle" is a great Flickr name for a low-power lighting guy?

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Open Source Wireless Trigger Moves to Dedicated Forum

For those of you interested in contributing to (or following the progress of) the open-source wireless trigger design project, they have moved off of the Flickr thread to a more suitable venue. We'll update you with major milestones as they occur.

Good luck and Godspeed, guys. The wallets of photographers everywhere are pulling for you.

:: Background Info ::
:: Original Flickr Thread Discussion ::

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Speedlinks, 9/22/2007

Ah, I love fall. The time of year when fourteen* teams line up to knock heads with the University of Florida Gators on the football field. And something or other about leaves and pretty colors.

While I am trying to find video (or audio) of this week's game on the 'net, hit the jump for a fresh batch of speedlinks on which to waste your precious time:
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• PopPhoto intrepid gearhound Jack Howard has reviewed the crap out of the new, Strobisty Canon G-9. Two-word summary of his findings: "Get one." I'm gonna.

Nathan Welton has chimed in over at Dream Time Images, too.

• Is your country shaped like a boot? If so, you're in luck: The Lampista group has finished translating Lighting 101 into Italian. (There are a couple of other language translation sites in the works, too.)

• Reader Duncan Kinney is blogging about his experiences working at a pro photog's studio.

• Reader Kirk Tuck is getting more web exposure than O.J. in a hotel room these days. Here he is, reviewing the Fuji S5, and talking at length about the small-flash lifestyle. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

• Flying with your gear? You'll get a lot of good info from Fish. (Thanks for the tip, Bill.)
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(* Hopefully -- Counting the SEC Championship and National Championship games.)

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Updates: DVDs; Paris

Been getting lots of questions on the status of the DVDs and of the upcoming Paris seminar.

Details after the jump for those who are interested.

We just did our last shoot for the DVDs, getting a little help from long-time reader Patrick Smith, with whom we did a series of bike-related shots. We still have lots of editing/etc work to do, but the target is for a November release. When we send them to be printed and have a tighter idea of the actual release date, I'll post a heads-up.

As for the Oct. 27 Paris seminar, we now have a (way cool) venue. They should receive a signed contract on Monday. Provided that happens, I will post a sign-up date, which should be sometime this week.

It's been nine years since last I was in Paris. I am chomping at the bit to get back. Looking forward to hanging with some of the locals, too.

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Yet Another Ring Light Hack

Jason Lee (AKA jwlphotography on Flickr) just ball-bungeed two flashes to his lens (top and bottom) and got about 85% of the way to "ring light."

Kind of a neat idea, actually. Helps to have an adorable daughter, of course.

Wonder what the "two-flash bungee" would look like with a circular diffuser positioned in front of the flashes...

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Easy, One-Flash Glamour Light

Bert Stephani, a long-time Strobist reader based in Belgium, has made a quick video on adding a single flash to noonish ambient to get a high-glam look.

Reader's Digest version: Just find some shade, and use your flash as a separation light. (This actually works well on cloudy days with dark backgrounds, too.)

You can see the photos created in the video at decent res by clicking through to Bert's Flickr Stream.

Major props to Bert for doing the video. And especially for the English-dubbed version.
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And thanks to the dozen or so tipsters who told me about it. If you have shot (or found) a cool, lighting-related video, feel free to tip your faithful blogger in the comments.

:: More on Strobist by Bert ::
:: Bert's Website :: (Dutch; pix in your language.)
:: Flickr Stream::
:: Bert's longtime Dutch Blog ::
:: Bert's Brand new English Blog ::

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Calling All Geeks:

There is early -- early, mind you -- discussion in the Strobist Flickr threads about an open source wireless remote project. They are looking at the possibility of a group design, with printed circuit boards and component kits for solder monkeys.

Would that just be the coolest thing, or what?

If Strobist were a movie, this would be the moment when it becomes obvious that the geek was gonna end up with the girl.

I'm just saying.
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:: Join the Discussion ::

(Photo of highly intelligent-looking man by Random Factor)

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Nifty Lighting Trick: Invisible Light Stand

Strobist reader Patrick Smith, a college student who shoots for The Towerlight at Towson University, had a devil of a time hiding all of his light stand in the background while shooting a football feature for the paper.

His solution was just the kind of trick we like: Cheap, something you could not do with big strobes, and cheap.

And no, it wasn't Photoshop, ya lighting wuss. Take a guess, then read about how he did it after the jump.

Says Patrick, on his photo shoot of four Towson linemen and their "hitsticks":

"... Who ever thought lighting four football players dramatically would be hard? Getting them all evenly lit is tough, and all I have to say is gaffers tape is smarter than a 22-year-old.

I struggled to hide light stands in the background before I just taped an SB to the wall to get a desired effect. I also must thank my buddy, assistant and the one who will replace my shoes, Kris. I think I showed him how bossy I can be when low on sleep and stressed out. Hopefully he learned a think or two from my mistakes. ..."

Yeah, like how to spell "thing," for instance.

And while we're at it, "the one who will replace my shoes?" What's up with that? Are they messed up? You made a nice photo. Now get some sleep, bud.

(You'd never catch me making typos and brain farts like that when working on no sleep.)

What? What?

Okay, maybe once or twice.
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More, at Patrick's Blog
See Patrick's precarious tape job here. (Thanks, Kris!)
And, most important: "Arrrrrrrr!"

Any other Strobist readers rocking their college papers like this? Hit us with some URL's in the comments.

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New Duracell Ni-MH's Have Longer Shelf Life Than Hostess Twinkies

Things are looking up for us rechargeable AA-powered flashers. First the high-capacity Ni-MH's, which totally rock but lose a charge when stored for too long. Then the slow-discharge Eneloops, which rock a little softer but keep their charge longer on the shelf. And now this:

Duracell has announced a new, ultra-slow-drain, Ni-MH AA battery that holds its charge for an entire year. Which, coincidentally, is the average length of time between paying freelance gigs for Patrick Smith.

At least his flashes will be ready.

Downside: $12.99 a four-pack. For now, at least.
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:: Read the press release ::

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Fear Not, Earthlings: The 'radiopopper' Comes to Your Primitive Planet In Peace

Arizona wedding shooter Kevin King just may have invented the Strobist equivalent of the flux capacitor. The radiopopper wireless synch is said to bridge your Nikon CLS or Canon E-TTL and extends the range to up to 500 feet.

(More after the jump.)

Specs say it works in dumb mode, too, just like a Pocket Wizard or Poverty Wizard, even using the same, 1/8" miniplug. And you can always use the whole setup to go long-range manual, of course.

King said he expects the price to be in the Pocket Wizardish neighborhood. They are talking about it as if it is not just vaporware, either. Until I actually see it work, I am from Missouri on this one.

They say they are currently testing and awating FCC approval. Hoping to ship (from warehouses near Roswell, New Mexico, no doubt) in quantity in January of '08.

Kevin, if you are looking for Beta testers...
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:: Spec Sheet :: (So good it borders on being synch porn. Right click to download.)
:: radiopopper Website ::

(Thanks for the tip, Andrew.)

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Lighting 102 - 3.2: More On the Crosslight Thing

Judging from the questions a few of you are having trouble with the cross-lit sun technique we discussed last Thursday.

I want to revisit a few key things that you have to know to pull the technique off, and then Andrew is going to come to the front of the class to demonstrate. And besides, given that this went up on Thursday instead of Tuesday I am not going to be one of those hard-ass teachers and make you pull a quick turn to the next exercise.

(More after the jump.)

First, understand that with the ambient portion of your exposure your camera defines your upper limit -- i.e., how dark you can make the ambient. Set to the lowest ISO, the best you can do for darkening your ambient environment is to shoot at your max sync speed at the lowest aperture on your lens (i.e., likely f/16, /22, or /32).

You can get around this in a very clunky way with a neutral density filter, but it knocks down the flash, too. So your maximum lighting distance will stay the same.

Remember that this is built on a chosen ambient exposure that lets the shadows fall where they may, so you can light them back up with your flash. So you are limited to your sync speed for the ambient portion of the exposure, too.

Your working aperture, which will now be what determines your ambient exposure level, will also determine how far away you can stick your flash and still effectively light your subject.

In effect, the higher your max synch speed the farther away you can stick your flash and still pull the effect off. The lower your max synch speed, the closer your flash needs to be (not good for big group shots, obviously.)

If you have two flashes, you can gang them up with a Brewer Bracket or some ball bungees. That will give you double the light, which will amount to one more stop. This buys you more working distance on the flash and/or a darker ambient environment.

Step-by-Step

Strobist reader Andrew, who publishes www.meejahor.com, was nice enough to stick his process photos up as a series in this comment in the discussion thread.

Definitely check it out of you are having any trouble. He ran into a flash power issue and had to do a workaround in the form of opening up the sky one stop. Not his preference for the photo, but it makes it a much more illustrative example.

He has the process pix embedded in the comment, but the URLs are locked. (We were just going to borrow them, Andrew.) So you will have to click over to read about it.

Thanks for the helpful series and notes, Andrew.

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Reader Hot Shots

Dude. Sitting down at the computer at the end of the week and tagging faves in the Strobist Flickr pool is like getting a free photo magazine. Click on the pic to see the latest upstream inspiration. (Or here for a slideshow.)

Interesting fact: Ninety percent of this site's readers do not participate in the Flickr group. Can you imagine what that stream would look like with, say, 50% participation?

If you're a newb, no worries. You are in exactly the same position as every photographer represented in that gallery at some point in their lives. Jump right in, the water's fine.

And there are 14,000+ people waiting to answer your questions.

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Free Lighting Mods in the Produce Aisle

What a great idea. How many times have I walked right past these squishy fruit protectors on my way to the Doritos aisle and not given them a second thought?

I am resolving right here and now to eat just a little healthier this week. Maybe three or four, I dunno, squishy fruits of some sort.

Let's list the bennies:


1. Free.
2. Lightweight.
3. Free.
4. Collapsible.
5. Free.
6. Is a soft-edged, funky snoot.
7. Free.
8. Simulates a bare bulb.
9. Free.
10. Protects your flash while in your bag.
11. Free.

Props to Joseph Hoetzl for an idea that could only be better if I had thought of it myself.

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New in NYC: Free Lighting Critiques

Whoa -- tough crowd.

If you are shooting an ad that will appear in the NYC subway system, you'd better nail the light. Because the techniques of the pros are quickly spreading to the Average Joes.

Last Wednesday Justin Ouellette, who publishes the very neat Chromogenic.net, shot this "annotated" ad in an NYC subway with a cell phone cam. He then put it on Flickr, where it promptly migrated to Digg, where it quickly rose to the front page.

The view count on Flickr is now nearing six digits. Including, eventually, the perfeshunal who originally shot the photo. I love the web.

:: Entire Ad, for Context ::

(Thanks to Berk for the heads-up.)

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Speedlinks, 9-15-07

Whew. Long day.

Those one-day NYC round trips always wipe me out, but it was definitely worth the ride up to go to the PhotoShelter shindig and meet so many readers. If you are considering going to one in your area, check in on the NYC Town Hall thread on Flickr for more info or to ask questions.

Now, the only thing standing between me (at 2:18 a.m.) and 8 hours of sleep are this week's speedlinks. So you jump to the links, and I'm jumping in bed.
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• George Aye, the Strobist reader who blew the curve for wedding proposals everywhere, shows you how to make a shoot-yourself-at-my-wedding photo booth. Creative to the core, George actually did it for a friend's wedding as his wedding gift. Eat your heart out, Martha.

• This is technologically out of my league, but if you are nerd enough you can now apparently get Strobist on your phone.

• Strobist reader Melissa Macatee, who has grown to be a regular contributor on PopPhoto Flash, writes about cleaning her sensor for the first time.

• Wanna buy some great Karma, cheap? Moishe at MPEX is looking for your old digital cameras/etc to help local high school kids. I love seeing this kind of stuff coming together.

• And, as some of you already know, last week's "mystery event" was in fact a lighting seminar in Columbia, MD. (We were filming for the DVDs.) As attendee Dave Hoffmann's photo's clearly show, we like to push the envelope on the attitudey model thing, too.

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Inside David X. Tejada's Lighting Bags

It's double-feature Friday here on Strobist, where hotshot corporate shooter David X. Tejada has posted two new videos of his go-to lighting gear for shooting on location. Dave's kickin' some good light, as we've seen before, and I always appreciate a peek inside the cases of a talented location photographer.


In the second video, he gets into some of the less common gear he uses, including ready-made, store-bought(!) grid spots for his tricked-out Vivitar 283's. He also uses an an old favorite of mine, the Morris Mini flash.

(Hit the fridge for a li'l beverage, then settle in for part two and some links after the jump.)


Cool beans, Dave. Thanks for sharing.

If you have a killer small-flash location lighting bag, film your beautiful self showing it off and shoot us a link in the comments. We are such geeks for this stuff...
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Related:

:: On Assignment: David X. Tejada ::
:: David's Crib ::
:: David's Website ::
:: David's Blog ::
:: Morris Mini Flash ::

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Blogging the NYC PhotoShelter Town Meeting

First off, if you are anywhere near Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco or Los Angeles, you might want to grab a seat while they are still available. If the program in NYC is any indication of what to expect, it's worth playing hookie for a day to attend one near you. Everything is free, too.

Also, PhotoShelter chose today to announce a new stock photography business model that flies in the face of all of the recent, photographer-predatory stock photography trends (cough *Getty* cough):

Real selling prices, set by photographers, and photogs keep seventy percent of the revenues. Way to go, guys. 'Bout time we see someone sticking up for shooters for a change.

I would think this would be of particular interest to many people here who might currently be dabbling with microstock.

(Updates and more info after the jump.)
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(UPDATE #1)

Wow. This is about way more than decent pricing and 70% to the shooter. They are talking real-time info for photographers on who is buying what for how much, a community of photographers educating each other as to what photos are really worth -- in short, doing a 180-degree turn on much that is wrong with the stock photography industry.

This is going to raise a lot of eyebrows. Not a lot of love for Getty in this room, BTW...
______________________________

(UPDATE #2)

In other news, there's food and drink, too. Because I knew you'd ask...
______________________________

(UPDATE #3) Looking at the notes to photo buyers on the PS Collections poop sheet, they stress that they are specifically looking to offer the work of advanced amateurs and hobbyists, along with the pros. Combined with the community of photographers comparingsales and pricing information, it is possible that this could be a turning point in the previous model in which the big agencies hoard information and had the upper hand throughout the process.

Sure beats the heck out of microstock, IMO. You get the feel that they are looking to use the internet not to take advantage of photographers, but to enable them. It is exciting at first blush, and I am looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

Discussion is ongoing in the Flickr threads, here.
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More Info:

1. PhotoShelter Collection Site, which goes live tomorrow.
2. More details, courtesy PopPhoto.

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Small-Town, But Not Small-Time

You may remember this strobed, low-angle photo of two golfers from when it ran on this site last year. It was shot by Strobist reader Gary Cosby, Jr., who is a photojournalist for the Decatur (Georgia Alabama) Daily.

Gary is now blogging about his daily life as a small-market newspaper shooter. It's less about lighting and more about finding a good internal compass point as a photojournalist. I highly recommend taking a look if you are in the biz, or would like to be.

:: A Little News ::
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Lighting 102: 3.2 - Balance | Flash/Sun Crosslighting

UPDATE: Some of you guys are already all over this one. There's a good discussion thread forming already, so there should be plenty of help for the newbs. Please ask technique questions in the Flickr threads rather than the comments.

Last week we talked about creating great light with just one flash and a sunset. (Results here.) But what about those photos which can't be scheduled for the evening?

This week I want to get into the idea of balancing and crosslighting sunlight, and take a look at a Strobist reader who is using this one technique as a calling card. (More after the jump.)

Before we learn how to tame the harsh sunlight, let's take a look at what TTL, on-camera fill flash does so we can have a basic understanding of the concept to better understand how we can expand it. I have nothing against TTL, mind you. There are situations for which it is clearly the best solution. But I cringe at the thought of all of that technology being brought to bear on what turns out to be a boring photo because the light was coming from on-axis.

You have seen the photo before, in the back of your camera or flash manual. It's usually a very nonthreateningly beautiful female Japanese model, posing by a railing with a background of, say a nice lake or harbor scene and perhaps a sailboat or two. The before-and-after photos show the ugly, raccoon-eyes look of the model in harsh sunlight and the improved-but-still-sterile TTL-Matrix-Balanced-Computer-Assisted-Patented-Photographer-Brain-Softening fill light.

Raccoon eyes are the problem, and the pat solution is to pop just enough light in there to fill them. The camera calculates the basic, ambient exposure and pops in a little fill at, say, 1.7 stops down. It fills the harsh shadows and leaves that little "fill flash twinkle" in the eyes.

But geez Louise, with harsh sun and one flash you can do so much better. I mean, even keeping the flash hard (no umbrella) you can get some very cool looks by going off camera. And you only have three decisions to make:



1. At what angle do you want your strobe light and sunlight to hit your subject?

2. How bright to you want to set your ambient?

3. How bright do you want to set your flash?


Boy, that there's some real rocket science right? No, it's not. It a simple series of choices that can leave you with some super cool-looking mid-day photos. Let's run through the thought process and take a look at some of the results you can get.


Taming the Sun

Here's the basic setup. (Like those new, high-impact, 3-D graphics? Yeah, baby...) Click the pic for a bigger view.

It's good to start with the sun coming from behind your subject, out of the frame, on the back/right or back/left side. You'll be throwing hard sunlight against hard strobe light, so lighting-wise you do not care which is coming from where. But your subject would probably rather not look right into the sun.

(The choice to go back right or back left is going to be made by which background you prefer, given the differing sun positions.)

Immediately, you will want to go to your max synch speed, giving you the most open aperture possible and allowing your flash to do the most work with the least output. (This is where having a 500th of a sec synch -- or higher -- at your disposal pays real dividends.) But 1/250th will work fine, too. Below that, it starts getting tougher.

We'll be playing with the ambient in a bit, but for right now let's just grab a decent background exposure and go with it. Remember, you're at your synch speed, so you will do this with the aperture on manual.

This is not some compromise, namby-pamby, mama's boy, try-to-keep-everything-in-range exposure, either. Expose for the sky and environment and let your subject's foreground exposure fall where it may. Make the environment look good. You'll be fixing the foreground in a minute.

This is also the background/separation light for your subject. So do pay a little attention to how that light looks skimming off of your subject, too. You'll be surprised at how good that back/rim looks coming of of the sun side of your subject when you do not have to worry about the shadows in the foreground.

Now, bring your flash in from the opposite side (a little high and at about a 45-degree angle to start) and set it on, say, 1/2 power, with no light mods attached. (You do not have enough power for an umbrella unless you are in very close or you are rocking some serious watt-seconds.) You can warm it with a gel a little if you want. Maybe a 1/4 CTO.

I would start with my flash at about six feet away, on 1/2 power. Pop a frame and chimp. Too dark on the flash-lit side? Move your light in. Too light? Drop it to 1/4 power to get some faster recycle time for a better shooting rhythm. When you balance it right, it'll look like this:

Now, seriously, does this not look better than anything an on-camera fill flash could accomplish? This is by New Zealand shooter Brent Williamson, who uses this light all of the time and does not even appear to own a proper light stand.

It's not an equipment thing. It's a brain thing.

Of course, synch-wise, Nikon and Canon do the wireless thing very well at close range. And this is a situation where your synch connection is gonna be pretty much bullet proof. So definitely use this as a way to amp those family pix if you are so-equipped. You do not even need a stand, either -- just a bystander to hold the flash and point at your subjects.

Here's a setup shot of a different lighting angle situation, also by Brent, which shows the flash acting as more of a backlight. He is crosslighting almost on the 90's (flash a little behind) but the idea is the same. Looks so obvious when the light is in the photo, but click through on the photo and cover the flash/tripod with your hand and see the lighting look without the setup context. Cool huh?

Exposure-wise, your flash has to be pretty close to correct. But you have a half-stop range either way, so don't get too anal retentive about it. Also, after you nail the exposure, move the strobe around a little to find the best lighting angle/height to make your subject look the way you want.

But the exposure on the ambient/background -- that's another story.

Take a look at this third shot by Brent, which is clearly underexposing the background a little. Totally different feel. To get this, you are going to underexpose the background by staying a the synch speed and closing down the aperture -- and cranking up and/or moving in the flash to compensate or the tighter aperture.

It looks so 3-D because the sun and the flash are painting the subject from opposite sides, and you can play with the ambient exposure to let your subject pop as much as you want.

The flash exposure still needs to be on target, but play a little with the ambient portion. It's the concept of straight crosslighting (instead of straight, on-camera fill) that gives you the look. As long as you shoot on the 3/4 (or 1/4) angles to the lights, you are gonna get a really nice, 3-D effect with this light. The ambient light level, which defines the feel of the photo, is up to you.

No assignment this week as we still have several different light balancing approaches to discuss. But as an exercise, you should get out and try this. It's a way-cool look that anyone with a single, off-camera light can get.

Tag your assignments as:

Strobist
Lighting102
exercise
balance
crosslight

You can view the completed exercises of others, here. There is a discussion thread set up for this post here.

_____________________

Related posts:

:: OA: Archeologists ::
:: OA: Taming Harsh Sunlight ::

See also:

: Brent Williamson's Website ::


NEXT: Balancing Flash and Ambient

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Heading to NYC for PhotoShelter Meet on Friday

View Larger Map
If you want to attend the New York City PhotoShelter Town Hall Meeting on Friday, better hurry up and register. There are only 50 39 seats left.

I'll be there. Look for someone who looks like a cross between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, only shorter, heavier and far less attractive. I'll be wearing a What The Duck T-shirt and nothing else.

Please say 'hi' if you run into me. I would say 'hi' first, but I do not know what you look like. Remember, Chase Jarvis will be speaking there, so we can make faces from the back of the room.

Lookin' like some fun.
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Joe McNally Needs Just One SB-800 to Own You

The Photoshop TV guys (who have a wonderful archive of online tutorial videos) featured Joe McNally back on episode 70. The whole sequence is on stuff he did with just one speedlight. Cool beans.

If, like moi, your photos are absolutely perfect right out of the camera and you do not need PS, you can catch Joe's segment beginning at the 12:30 mark.
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Related:
:: Joe's Site ::
:: Simply Well Lit with Joe McNally ::
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Lustworthy Gear: The Brewer Bracket

Strobist reader Todd Brewer sent me one of his double flash umbrella brackets to test drive a while back, and I have only recently gotten a chance to play around with it. The "El Doble" dual flash bracket is designed to allow you to easily use two flashes in one umbrella, and it works great. It's built like a tank and reasonably priced, currently at $59.95.

(More after the jump.)

What I especially like about it is that it gets the flash heads right next to the umbrella shaft, for much better on-axis coverage. Actually, you may wish to use this bracket with only one flash for just that reason. (I'd swivel the head just a tad toward the umbrella shaft to better align a single flash.)

But why would you want to stick two flashes in one umbrella to begin with?

More power is the obvious reason. The second flash adds one full f/stop of light (all settings being equal) that can put you over the hump when you are trying to balance flash with daylight, for instance.

But you can also gain shooting speed. By doubling up with an extra flash you might have lying around, you can cut each flash's output by half. This halves your recycle time, which doubles the speed at which you can shoot.

The bracket can mount onto a typical umbrella bracket, as shown, but it can also hook up to a Super clamp, for applications such as speedlighting a gym. Again, you can go for more power or faster recycle.

But you do not need to have the flashes firing in the same direction, either. You can angle them away from each other to create a huge angle of illumination for your light. This would be especially handy for wedding shooters who might like to backlight a large reception area from one clamped position.

The flashes mount using (your) typical umbrella shoe mounts, with a 1/4x20 screw. Todd makes low-profile screws available (separately) or you can hit the hardware aisle at Home Depot and fashion your own. Put a wing nut on a bolt that is a little long, stick it through the hole in the bracket and into the flash shoe and tighten the wing nut underneath to secure it.

Any way you use it or mount it, this bracket is pretty sharp -- and built to last forever.


:: BrewerBracket.com ::

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Free, Online Version of Photoshop?

Finally, something that is actually worth something being given away for free. This would be great news to the cardboard-and-duct-tape readers.
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'One-Light Workshop' Site Relaunches with Forum, Pithy Slogan, Longer Beard

Like myself, Atlanta-based photographer Zack Arias (hipster, left) teaches minimalist lighting techniques to others, further increasing the talent pool and ruining the futures of professional photographers everywhere.

So naturally we are cutthroat competitors, locked in a bitter struggle for a finite pool of readers. And needless to say, Zack will never get any publicity around these parts.

Which is why I would never tell you about his all-new site and lighting forum. (Editor's note: Zack, being Zack, has continually re-invented him self over the past years. So those links are no longer valid. You can now find him here.)

Not to mention his new slogan, "People Are Happier When They're Lit," which was so much better than mine that it made me physically ill.

Because, as any traditional businessperson will tell you, information has great value, and must be hoarded to preserve the informational advantage over everyone else. Otherwise, they will more successfully compete with you. And you will die.

So I'll spend the rest of the day racking my brain to figure out how I can better compete against Zack, to bury him and rule the small-flash lighting world.

First order of business: Learn how to grow one of those ZZ Top beards.

In the meantime, don't go to his site. Nor should you read Ted Leung's review of Zack's One-Light Workshop.
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Lighting 102 Will Publish on Thursday This Week

We normally do Lighting 102 on Tuesdays. But I am schedule-crunched, running blog camps at The Sun Monday and Tuesday.

So, rather than just crank out a rush-job post for today I will be running this week's L102 on Thursday. We'll be on the second installment of Light Balancing, which deals with mixing flash and full daylight.

Thanks,
D

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Flash Your Friends

Tired of those 2 a.m. self-portraits?

Does the cat hide under the bed when it sees your camera?

You may be in need of some new subject material. And there is no better place to find it than a Strobist meetup. After the success of the Florida meetup last month, (nearly 50,000 views) lots of people are planning local events in cities and countries all around the world.

Now, you can easily search for a local meetup, or put the word out about one yearself.

(More, including video of the Seattle meetup, after the jump.)

There is now a drop-down menu on the sidebar to search upcoming seminars and meetups. The "Search Meetups" choice opens a new window and searches for the world "meetup," (which is not, in fact, an actual word) in the Strobist Flickr discussion threads. The results are returned as most recently updated first.

So if you are looking to meet some locals who do not think you are weird for scrounging black straws from restaurants, click here to search for a meetup in your area.

A quick check include meetups in the works for New York, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, London, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Baltimore/Washington, Chicago, California and Missouri.

And not to be outdone by the Florida folks, the Seattle contingent just had a meetup of their own, posting a video as little challenge for the next city:



I see several folks from the Seattle seminar -- Jeremy, Ted, Brittney in a bathtub -- looks like you guys had lotsa fun. (Why can't you do this stuff when I am in town??) The Flickr thread on it is here.

If you would like to make your event searchable from the main site, create a thread in the Strobist discussion groups (check for duplicates first) with the word "meetup" embedded in the copy. And please edit the thread headline to reflect the most up-to-date info -- confirmed date, location, etc.

(Nuked Assistant photo by Antti Lehtinen.)

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Cool Idea for Lighting Car Interiors

From reader mini/eng, here is a cheapo, tight-space lighting technique so clever that it would make Strobist car-lighting guru Moosehd2 proud.

Mini/eng stuck a Canon 430ex speedlight (on manual at full power) on the roof of the car, and aimed it at a large, white card just outside the far window. Presto: clean, soft even light to throw nice smooth speculars off of that rich, Corinthian Vinyl dash.

He triggered it wirelessly with a Canon ST-E2 infra-red remote. I am thinking he nuked it on full manual to get the most depth of field possible, and adjusted the aperture to make Mr. Histogram happy. (Looks like he coaxed f/8 out of it.)

My one-sentence, pimp-my-light advice would have been to shoot it at night, with the dash lights on, and to leave the shutter open long enough for all of that speedo-tacho ambient goodness to burn in. Wouldn't that rock?

Don't think this bounce card technique is limited to the boot-strapping, starving-artist types who read this blog, either. The Big Dawg car photogs use this trick any time they need clean, soft light in a tight area.

Good to remember next time you are lighting the interior of your Cooper Mini. Or maybe a Manhattan apartment.

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Speedlinks, 9/8/07

Woo-hoo! I'll be out shooting today. (I kinda miss that.) I am doing an eleven-person group portrait for an annual report.

I think I am going to take a page from the playbook of Kirk Tuck and use speedlights all around. Double umbrella in the front, with ceiling-bounced fill strobes in the back and on the other side.

But enough about the sad fact that I am excited to be shooting a group shot. Today's speedlinks include reflector named "John," a flash mount that really sucks and Canon's Chuck Westfall trying to get inside your pants. Betcha make the jump now...
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• This site attracts a rather creative demographic. Who else would think of sticking a flash inside this white, bowl-shaped reflector.

• I do not know exactly how I would use this DIY flash mount. But I still want one.

• Dim the lights, pour yourself a cab-sav and make sure you are sitting on your wallet. Because Chuck Westfall is gonna be reaching for it soon.

Complete with Ken-Burnsey product shot pans (what else were they gonna do for seven minutes) is this interview about the eight thousand dollar Canon 1Ds Mk III.

And if you're young, fresh and a little light in the back account, Chuck's got a little sump'm-sump'm for you, too. The last part of the interview is about the new 40D.

I would remind you Nikon folks to remember that you are married. But you can look.

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Buy One, Get Two Free

Apropos to Tuesday's light balancing discussion is Imationx2006's portrait shot in the water at sunset, which popped up in the Strobist Flickr pool this week. But there's a little more going on here than just light balancing.

On her face it's easy to reverse engineer the light size, and position, thanks to the shadow under the chin. But what's with the fuller, more pearly light on the skin closer to the water? And what of the "white plexiglass" look in the foreground? Spend a moment reverse engineering the light, and then click through to jump to read about all of the variables at play.


One Flash, Three Effects

Alright, let's take a look at everything that is going on here. First, the speedlight (a PW'd Canon 580ex) is firing into a 45" silver umbrella. So you are going to have a nice, soft light source. But this looks a little smoother and fuller than the typical high-umbrella sort of light. That's because there are two reflectors filling the shadows - the water and the sand.

From the model's perspective, the water is throwing back a specular reflection of the umbrella (from the low side.) It's about a stop and a half dimmer from the looks of things. And the sand is throwing back a diffuse reflection, which is larger and softer and dimmer than that of the umbrella's reflection via the water.

Pretty nice set of lights you have there, huh?

Additionally, you have that cool, plexiglass thing happening in the foreground. That's the sand, being lit underwater, and throwing back enough light to be visible even over the water-reflected sunset background. What determines where the through-the-water sand overpowers the sunset, and vice-versa?

Simple. Highest tonal value wins. In case of a tie, you get a namby-pamby mix. Which can be cool, too. And if you spread a piece of black tarp under water for her to sit on, the reflected sunset would own the foreground.

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By the Numbers

• Over 700 articles on off-camera lighting: Free.

• Getting your ad shown 1,000 times on this site: As low as $1.50.

• My having time to volunteer at my kids' school again: Priceless.
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Thanks to the following sponsors for supporting our community in August: MPEX, PhotoShelter, (I'll be at the town hall meeting in NYC on 9/14) Zenfolio and Connected Flow. Without them, it doesn't happen.

And thanks, as always, for reading the site.

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Pocket Wizard Guts

Ever wonder what a Pocket Wizard looks like without it's clothes? Me, too.

Thanks to reader Rabbit.Marshall for posting this nekkid shot of a PW Plus II transceiver. Lotta neat stuff in there, but I still can't find $187.50.

Nonetheless, they do work with absolute reliability. So I guess I can't really be a fanboy and gripe about the price at the same time.

(Click in the pic to get to larger sizes.)

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New Canon Powershot G9 Makes My G7 Feel Like Unloved Stepchild

Lost in last month's hoopla over the Nikon D300 and D3 was the introduction of the Canon Powershot G9.

I don't write about specific cameras very often on this site, but this one bears a closer look. The G9 is of particular interest because of it's flash-friendly features, among other things.

More after the jump.


G9: Making a Good Thing Better

I am a big fan of the Canon Powershot G7, which I bought earlier this year. (I'm not alone, either.) Canon included lots of nice touches that make the G7 far more usable to the off-camera flasher than the typical point and shoot.

The G7 has a 10MP chip, full manual mode, and a hot shoe -- which can be adapted to wirelessly sync a flash with Pocket WIzards, Gadget Infinities, or whatever. You can stick an AS-15 on top to get a PC jack, too.

And best of all, the G7 synchs at every speed - right up to a 1/2500th of a second. If I don't have my basic SLR/lighting bag with me, I am usually packing a G7.

It puts out nice files at lower ISO ratings, then gets a little noisy as you head north past ISO 200. But the fact that (a) it can be used with off-camera light, (b) has an f/2.8 lens at the wide end, and (c) has image stabilization usually offers me a good high ISO workaround or two.

This sunflower, shot with two off-camera speedlights, is a good example of what the present model G7 will do. Click on the pic for the photo's Flickr page, then "all sizes" for a larger look at the file, directly as it came from the camera.

(I did crop it very slightly, but there was no other post-production adjustment. This is basically straight from the camera, except the original was a little bigger.)

The new G9 (what, did I miss the G8?) includes all of the important features of the G7. But it adds pixels (12MP vs 10MP) and, more important, returns the RAW image feature to the Powershot line. Now that I am getting away from deadline shooting (and end-of-day archiving) I am shooting RAW more and more.

As if that wasn't enough, it supports the Canon ST-E2 speedlite transmitter, for wireless control of multiple flashes. If you are a Canon shooter who already has the ST-E2 and a couple of flashes, this thing looks more and more like a no-brainer for your "everywhere" camera.

The G9 is less of a new camera than an evolution on the very capable G7 platform. In my last few months at The Sun, I covered maybe a dozen assignment solely with the G7. It has an amazing macro capability. And the (physically) smaller chip size works in your favor to allow you to preserve more focus on the background in those close-up shots for a better sense of place.

The G7 is quieter than a Leica M6. I would have no problem shooting a PGA golfer at the top of his backswing(!) from 10 feet away from the tee. Have to cover an assignment in church? No prob -- I'll be the quiet one with the tiny camera resting on the pew.

I used the G7 for group shots, too. Just hold your camera in front of you, frame from the chimp screen (which jumps to a 3" model in the G9) and shoot away at over 3 FPS. I'd just banter away with the group, motoring them them all the while, as they wait for me to get behind the viewfinder so all of their good expressions can go away.

It works great, with the still pix popping up one-by-one on the chimp screen as you shoot. I usually take one photo the traditional way at the end, just to make them think I am so good I can get a no-blink group shot with a single bullet.

They look to be $499.95 list, so I am thinking ~$425 street pretty soon. Sweet. I love my G7, but I think it is headed for eBay.
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:: Canon G9 Spec Page ::
:: Great Canon G7 Fan Site ::

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