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August 2, 2011
initial images – Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L fisheye zoom lens (review)
I got my hands on the brand-new Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L fish-eye zoom (B&H) today, and I just had to try it out. And what better place than Times Square in Manhattan. Enough tall buildings and billboards to fill the frame of a lens that gives a 180 degree view! Now, before I continue, I have to admit that even though I have a fish-eye lens in my bag, (the Nikon 16mm f2.8), I only occasionally use it. I feel that a fish-eye lens can be over-used very quickly when it draws too much attention to the distorted view that the lens gives, rather than the photograph’s content. That said, I haven’t had this much fun with a new lens in a long, long time!
[ updated: review of the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L fisheye zoom ]
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June 22, 2011
photo session with the Fuji X100 – camera review
First of all, for those who haven’t heard of the Fuji X100 (B&H) yet, it is a beautiful retro-looking rangefinder-mimicking 12 megapixel digital point & shoot camera (with a fixed 35mm equivalent f2.0 lens), that gives remarkable image quality. That about sums it up.
For all those reasons, quite a buzz developed around this camera. Quite unlike anything since … oh, the Leica X1. Or the Olympus Pen EP-2. Or the Sony NEX-5. There was greater excitement building up around the Fuji X100 though than other cameras, specifically for its looks initially. And then when news hit about the incredible image quality, the excitement and interest became more substantial. It’s a hot item right now, and for good reason. But more about the details and specs of this camera later on.
The reason why I bought this camera – well, the way I justify it to myself even though I have several Nikon D3 bodies and a Canon 5D mk II – is that I wanted a Day Off Camera.
My usual day working as a photographer, is where I’m slinging heavy cameras around and running myself ragged. Or else, a working day is where I slump in front of the computer. Because of all that, I’ve felt this need to take a day off during the week. On this mid-week “weekend” day, I would just like to roam around New York with a camera and take photos, and have lunch and relax. But the camera shouldn’t be a heavy Nikon D3 with a zoom lens. That would just be too much physical effort again. (As it is, I have tendonitis in my right elbow from not carefully handling the big cameras with a 70-200mm f2.8 lens.)
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So for a while now, I’ve been looking for a light-weight, top quality camera. My Day Off Camera. With the Fuji X100 (B&H), I finally felt I might have it. A stylish camera that is fun to play with, and gives great images.
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Before I even got to photograph a wedding with the Fuji X100, I had a brilliant idea for a review of this camera. I wanted to do a photo shoot with Anelisa. Now the twist here is that I wanted it to be a play on the idea that this camera is ideal for surreptitious street photography.
The styling of the Fuji X100 is like the classic rangefinder cameras which were the tools of the trade of the street photographers. However, I live in New Jersey. This land of suburbia and shopping malls isn’t exactly the kind of place where you can roam around the streets on foot with a camera, snagging images which are wonderful slices of life. Besides, street photography is tough. You have to pound the city pavements for months on end, looking for those interstitial moments where everything in the frame intersects just perfectly. It is long hard work building up a portfolio of street photography that doesn’t just consist of random boring snaps of stuff and people.
The brilliant idea was to test the Fuji X100 out as this inconspicuous and innocent looking, yet very professionally capable camera … by photographing Anelisa in a shopping mall in New Jersey. Doing this photo shoot without being noticed by the security guards and getting kicked out, would need some non-chalant moves by the photographer and model … and a camera that doesn’t draw attention. If you pulled out a big DSLR with a telephoto zoom and started to direct the model, it will surely be only a minute before security guards accost you and ask you for your permit and proof of insurance. Life in America.
Anyway, as I said, the idea behind the shoot was a tongue-in-cheek reference to this camera being this surreptitious street photographer’s camera. But in a New Jersey shopping mall. I know, I know, it’s not the same. But, just go along with the idea …
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June 20, 2011
by: Stephanie Zettl (St Louis wedding photographer)
Have you ever tried to connect your very expensive speedlight to a light stand or flash modifier with a coldshoe? Have you tightened the coldshoe around your very expensive speedlight and had that bad feeling in the back of your mind that with a little bump, the coldshoe would loosen and your very expensive speedlight would go crashing to the ground? I know I have.
Ten years ago, I did not have many problems with coldshoes. Part of the reason was because the coldshoe tightened around the flash foot and the flash itself had a rotating locking wheel that tightened the flash to the shoe. Since speedlights have gone to a pin and lock system, coldshoes have become much more unreliable. Most coldshoes are not built to have a pin lock into them.
Then came along the Frio. I have never been so excited about a $15 piece of plastic. If you use off camera flash or any coldshoes mounts, this is a product you might be interested in.
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June 16, 2011
contest: comparison between different flash modifiers
(competition is now closed to new entries)
My friend Stephanie Zettl, that awesome wedding photographer in St Louis, MO, is currently busy writing a book on the Nikon flash system, to be released next year. She showed me some of the comparison images that she shot yesterday, where various light modifiers are tested against each other for their specific results. She photographed a model against a grey backdrop, which helps show how the light is dispersed across the frame.
Now, I have my preferred method of using on-camera flash , when I can get away with just using on-camera flash. By manipulating my flash’s light pattern with a simple piece of black foam, I can get surprisingly elegant results. But I know that many readers of this site are curious about the variety of light modifiers out there, and how they compare. So I thought it will make for a great article – comparing the different flash modifiers for speedlights.
Better yet, let’s make this a contest!
So, here are 10 images, shot in 10 different ways with a speedlight. There is a separate non-ordered list of the various modifiers and ways the flash was used. Match them up correctly – and be the lucky winner of either a Nikon SB-700 speedlight (B&H link) or a Canon 430EX II speedlite (B&H link). I know there is a slight discrepancy in the value between the two flashguns, but the 1st rule of this contest is – no whining is allowed. Second rule – I have the final say.
Post your results here as a comment. You’re more than welcome to discuss it too. Entries close at midnight (New York time) on Thursday, June 23, 2011. I’ll announce the winner sometime on Sunday, June 26 after I pick a winner at random from the correct entries, or from the closest-to-correct entries.
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June 7, 2011
how to carry your camera over your shoulder
An interesting comment came up in the article on choice of lenses for wedding photography. The observation was that the photographer, Lou, felt like he was the proverbial bull in a china shop when he carried two cameras over his shoulder. With the lenses protruding on either side, it was tough going through doorways without knocking something.
There are numerous camera strap solutions available on the market – rapid straps and holster systems. Most of them work well. I still like the old-fashioned camera strap on the camera. One thing I should mention here is that I really got to like the way the Canon bodies work. Attaching the strap to the bottom of the camera makes absolute sense. Then the camera dangles vertically, and it is easy to swipe the camera to the side under your elbow when it hangs from your shoulder.
I liked this so much that I got the Camadapter place to attach to the bottom of my Nikon bodies. This allows my Nikon cameras also to dangle vertically from my shoulder. Perfect. If I had to choose from scratch again, I’d probably settle for the Kirk plate (B&H). This too has a place for the camera strap to loop around, at the bottom of the camera. Perfect.
Now, it might not be immediately obvious when you pick the camera up and hoist it over your shoulder, but there are two ways to sling the camera …
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May 21, 2011
using a macro lens for a photo session of a newborn
I had the pleasure of photographing the newborn baby of Jen and David recently. (David regularly follows the Tangents blog!) Aside from photographing the proud parents with their little one, I also needed to get detail photos of the baby.
With detail images, you see even more clearly just how small this newborn baby is, when you show the scale. A tiny hand clasping a finger. Tiny toes gently flexing against her mother’s hand.
For this, a macro lens is an essential part of my camera bag …
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January 30, 2011
review: Custom Brackets Digital Pro-M rotating bracket kit
The makers of the Custom Brackets flash brackets, recently sent me a copy of their latest and best rotating flash bracket, the Pro-M rotating bracket (B&H), for review. They had noticed my page on flash brackets, and even though I don’t much use my flash bracket any more, they still thought I should check their latest model out. Of the various makes of flash brackets I had tried out when I first started doing wedding photography full-time, the Custom Brackets was the one I settled on out of all of them. As far as I was concerned theirs was the flagship of the flash brackets. So I was curious to see what the updated model could offer …
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December 20, 2010
comparison between a softbox, a white shoot-through umbrella and a bounce umbrella
I’ve had several requests from readers of the Tangents blog about how the light from a softbox would differ from the light from an umbrella. Spurred on by that, and by my own curiosity, I met up a while ago with my favorite model, Anelisa, specifically to do comparison shots.
And here it is …
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December 6, 2010
using multiple speedlights with high-speed flash sync
This photo of Angelique, our model, was taken at 1/8000 @ f2 @ 100 ISO. Yes, an eight-thousand-th of a second. I wanted to use the unique look that an ultra-wide lens gives at wide apertures. (Click on the photo for a larger image). However, the shallow depth-of-field necessitated a very high shutter speed. So we were working in high-speed flash sync (HSS) territory here.
I also wanted to under-expose the city-scape and then use flash to highlight the model against the environment. So the lighting had to enhance the look of the wide-aperture wide-angle lens. The lens was the beautiful Canon 24mm f1.4 II (B&H). The camera that I used is the classic Canon 5D.
With high-speed flash sync, there is a dramatic loss in effective power, as shown in this previous article. To overcome this, you need to work very close to your subject, or gang up a number of speedlights as a group.
My friend Yishai, of HD PhotoVideo, had shown me his permanent set-up which he uses whenever he has the need of high-speed flash. His setup consists of four Canon 580 EX ii speedlights (B&H), held together via a Lightware Foursquare Block. To free himself up from line-of-sight restrictions, and give reliable control of these speedlights, Yishai had connected each speedlight to a RadioPopper PX unit. (They worked with perfect reliability during this shoot.) To have the speedlights recycle fast enough, they are powered by two Quantum 2×2 batteries (B&H). By ganging up four speedlights like this, we can start overcoming the loss of flash power when going into HSS.
To show me how these work on an actual shoot, we arranged to meet up with Angelique (on this icy cold day) on this pier in Brooklyn, for a photo session.
Here is what this set up looks like. …
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November 22, 2010
non-photography goodies in my camera case
Work as a wedding photographer isn’t just about the gear – cameras, lenses and flashguns – and about taking photographs of key moments. Often enough it is up to you as the wedding photographer to help guide the day’s time-line and flow, and also just to help. For me, wedding photography isn’t just a passively observed event where I take photographs in a photo-journalistic or story-telling motif. I’m there to record the day’s events, but also to help, if necessary, making it a spectacular day.
In the photo above, I took over from the maid of honor when her fingers weren’t strong enough for that final button and clasp at the back of the bride’s dress. My fingers were stronger, so I finished the last button. So as a photographer I’m often called on to do more than just take photographs. And in my camera roller case, I keep some extra non-photography related goodies …
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