Monday, December 13, 2010

Profoto: The Light Shaping Retina Searing Company



Remember the guy who zapped words into German tourists' photos with his DIY flash projector gun?

Suffice to say when you swap out the speedlight for 4800 watt-seconds worth of Profoto Pro-7B, things can get a little more interesting.

(Tip via Joel)

-30-

Sunday, December 12, 2010

On Assignment: Brian England


I shot a job last month for a story on the downstream impact of the new Jobs Bill (as in small business, not Steve.) Local auto shop owner Brian England, above, was one of the voices in the story.

It's your basic talking head. And just about anything would suffice for this kind of story in the local biz publication. So I always see these kinds of job as a perfect time to try on a new lighting style for size. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by experimenting -- as long as you cover yourself in case it doesn't work. Read more »

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Greetings, Newbs


Are you just stumbling in after learning about us in the New York Times gift guide for photographers? If so, thanks for dropping by. You'll probably want to start here.

-30-

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

In Which a Commenter Gets His Soapbox


Today, a peek inside the sausage factory that is this blog.

Every blogger has to deal with this question at some point: What do you do with commenters who attempt to use your site as a large platform on which to go after a third party?

To my view, it is the equivalent of a guest who has had too much to drink standing up in your living room and uncorking loudly on another guest within full earshot of everyone else. And clearly, it reflects more on the commenter than the target of his or her rant.

Normally, this sort of remark falls well outside of the comment guidelines, which have evolved to the point where they effectively screen out this kind of stuff.

And really, I do try to err on the side of publication. I do not want to censor peoples' views. But neither do I want to cede the comments section to the lowest common denominator. And that's the lens through which I normally view comment moderation.

But today, a comment of such ironic merit that I am elevating it to the status of a post. Fully annotated, of course. Read more »

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Hangin' Eight, with Dave Black

Editor's note: You're gonna wanna watch this one in 720p, full-screen. So do yourself a favor and res-up now, to let it start loading in while you read.
__________



What do you get when you slap together 8 SB-900's, an SU-800, one RadioPopper transmitter, two receivers, two FourSquares and two sets of Michael Bass fiber optic bundles?

Well, you get $5,000.00 lighter in the wallet, for one thing.

But you also get a (32) AA-battery-powered monoblock with a 2-second recycle that can reach out and touch someone -- in TTL and/or via high-speed sync -- at very great distances.

And today, sports photographer Dave Black is gonna use it to make some rad surfing shots.

(Oh, and you'll also need $4800 for a Nikon D3s and another $5800 for the Nikon 200-400, too. Just saying.)

Hit the jump for another vid using a similar setup on motocross riders and a link to more speedlight insanity from Mr. Black.
__________




So, here is the 8-cylinder speedlight engine being used on motorcyclists at distance in full daylight conditions. Pretty impressive. And before you start whining about the cost (or logic, vs. real monos) for many this would be an ideal, lightweight solution.

Dave is a big TTL/FP sync user. So for him this makes more sense than a case of big lights which would limit his sync speed to 1/250th of a second.

You can see lots more from his excellent lighting website, Workshop at the Ranch.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

It's DIY Thursday

Fancy yourself a bit of a … modder?

Well, we gots not one but two DIY tips today, courtesy intrepid readers. Hit the jump to learn both how to add a nipple (not my term, mind you) to your SB-800 and how to make a very cool speedlight-to-AlienBees adapter. Read more »

Matthew Jordan Smith Gives Tyra a Ring



We normally think of ring flash as having that signature, wrap-around shadow on the background. Or, increasingly, as a fill light. But it takes on a completely different look if you use it as a key and take everything else away -- background and any reflected light.

(Oh, and it helps if your subject is Tyra Banks, too.)

Matthew Jordan Smith explains in the first of an upcoming BTS series for Profoto. And not to just bang the Profoto drum here, either. We are always looking for the other educational BTS vids that the other flash manufacturers should be creating. Ahem.
__________

More Profoto BTS:

Gregory Heisler shoots: Springsteen | Giuliani | Jeter
Annie Leibovitz: Pro-8 and Machine-Gun Annie

-30-

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More