Moshe and Eddie Brakha: Standardizing Creativity

When most photographers hit "a certain age," they might be tempted to revert to the mean -- to play it a little safer, creatively speaking. Not so Moshe Brakha, who has never been one for safe lighting.

These days, his collaboration with his son Eddie combines experience and relative youth in a photographic one-two punch. For the Brakhas, stale is not an option. And to combat it, they are setting aside regular downtime reserved solely for stretching themselves. Read more »

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A Thanksgiving Weekend Class for the Strobist Flickr Group

While you were busy digesting turkey and watching football this weekend, you may have missed Brad Trent* (at left, photo by Kazuhito Sakuma) dropping into the Strobist Flickr group to answer lighting Q's about controlling contrast. Definitely worth a read.

As mentioned before, Brad not only includes lighting setup shots in his portfolio, but blogs about his shoots frequently at Damn Ugly Photography.

That's worth a read, too.
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*I ran into Brad in person at PhotoPlus Expo in NYC last month. Funny thing, that amped-up Brad Trent Light^® seemed to follow him around wherever he went. Kinda like the Mona Lisa appearing to stare directly at you no matter where you stand…

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Giving Thanks, Giving Back

It's Thanksgiving Day here in the US. Which means that in addition to trotting out the traditional Strobist before-and-after turkey shot (courtesy the tryptophan-laced Paul Morton) we pause to think about giving thanks and helping others.

This year, a quick look at how some local photographers in Howard County, MD are using their cameras to give back to their community. And not to put the idea in your head, but it was a really fun day -- and something anyone reading this blog could do, too. Read more »

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… Or, a Soft Box Will Work, Too

After reading Sunday's post on improvisational ring lights, Haristobald Photography shot me a link to this BTS video.

Camera on axis with a soft box, and everything on an overhead boom gets him a different perspective for these calendar shots of a local track club -- with very cool results. More info and final pics are on his dual-language blog post.

If he sounds familiar, it is because he was one of the winners in the PocketWizard/Strobist video competition a ways back. If you are a new reader (since November '08) you'll want to check those out.

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Substituting an Umbrella for a Ring Light

Just a quick-hit post today on when and how to use your umbrella as a faux ring light -- and when it may be even better than the real thing.

Save some bucks, and/or get a completely different look, inside. Read more »

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Subject For a Day

Photo ©Mark Heayn

I had the tables turned on me a few weeks ago when Baltimore photographer Mark Heayn shot my family. It was for a marketing campaign for the company that converted our house to solar energy.

As much as we tend to dislike it, staring down the barrel of a camera occasionally is a very good perspective swap for a photographer. I learned some stuff watching Mark shoot -- and even discovered a cool new (old) piece of gear. Read more »

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Your Gratuitous Pool Boy Awaits

Yes, I know that 94% of the people who read this site are male. But that does not mean I am not looking out for the other six percent. Or, [6%+(94%/10)-(6%/10)] if you want to get really mathematical about it.

To that end I offer this BTS video of a Harper's Bazaar shoot by Melissa Rodwell, whom I met last March in Dubai. There's actually some lighting stuff wedged in, so you can call it educational.

Melissa gets a little more into the overpowering-the-sun stuff and shows all of the final images in her blog post. But the blog itself is mostly about the vagaries of fashion photography, a world that is obviously completely foreign to me.

At least until my 17 pairs of cargo shorts come into style.

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On Assignment: Frickin' Lasers

Update: I've answered several reader questions in the comments.
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Being both a photo geek and a garden-variety tech geek, I love it when my two worlds collide. Shooting people who roll with cutting-edge tech is one of my very favorite things to do.

I photographed Shirley Collier, CEO of Optemax, for the Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly. Her company is beyond cool as far as the tech goes. They specialize in setting up laser-based data networks in just about any location. Local/terrestrial is no problem. But neither is air-to-ground -- as in using a laser to send data to and from a moving aircraft. And they can move that data at the rate of one terabit (about 9 DVDs worth) per second.

When emailing back and forth with Shirley for ideas, she suggested she could bring a laser pointer. Ten seconds of Googling told me that was a big no-no for the CMOS chip in my D3. But it did give me an idea… Read more »

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Mola Dishes Out Lighting Tips

Turns out Mola, the funky-looking beauty dish manufacturer, actually has a pretty cool blog. Lots of neat examples and more than a few lighting diagrams. All featuring Mola beauty dishes, natch.

I saw it this week when they profiled Brad "My Lighting Volume Knob Goes to Eleven" Trent, who is a frequent user of the ridged reflectors. Definitely worth a look.

:: Mola Softlights Blog ::
:: Damn Ugly Photography (Brad Trent) ::

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Readers Shoot Back: Your Background Stand Hacks

Lots of cool upstreams in the comments of Monday's Hack your Background Stand post. Given that many people read the site via RSS, I thought some of the better ideas merited a quick recap -- inside. Read more »

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Hack Your Background Stand

Normally used for seamless paper, background stand systems can pretty useful items for other stuff, too. Especially when you consider how little they cost.

Four more ideas on how to use your background supports, inside. Read more »

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Stereo Sweetener for a 1/8" Sync Mod

A Strobist reader who cryptically goes by "bleeblubleeblah" last year posted may what well be the nicest walk-thru to date of hacking a Nikon SB-600 speedlight to get a remote 1/8" sync jack.

And as sweet as that looks, someone has hacked the idea to make it significantly better.

How to improve your 1/8" DIY jacks, inside. Read more »

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