• Maps Module *yawn* Other software does this already
• Books Module *yawn* Should have been there in a 3.x update imho
• Shadow/Highlights tools to add fake dynamic range for the HDR crowd (surprise surprise) – nice enough, but not enough to entice to buy
• Video file support *shrug* How much would one use LR for video anyway?
• Soft proofing *meh* I don’t print out of LR much anymore as my vendor takes care of prints for me….
• Adjustment brush additions *meh* While the additions are welcome, again, hardly incentive to pony up for this…
• Email photos direct from Lightroom *Huh?*  I know, this is surprising that it took this long to incorporate something this simple into the 4th generation of a product line

Will I buy the update?  Probably yes, because I am already “current”, and the price of not updating is more expensive long term ($99 versus $300)…  Also, in the interest of keeping current tutorials and such here on the blog for the readership is also present, so, that kind of colors my decision-making process.  For what they are releasing though – and the plethora of already existing outlets to do these additional tasks, I am not sure the regular photographer types will be justified in the upgrade pricing of $99-$120 (especially considering the economy right now…)

What about everyone else?  Worth the upgrade or not?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Never fear though, I’ve rebounded, and as promised, here’s the skinny on the prints from Image Wizards.  First off, they aren’t kidding when they ship these prints.  I opted for the lower cost corrugated cardboard, but it was still packed in like a tank. After taking it out and selecting an appropriate place for display, I hung it for a while to make sure it worked in my selected location.  Not only does it work – it works beautifully!

As you can see, the ambient light catches it perfectly, and really draws the eye in.  For this particular print I chose the aluminum brushed satin finish, which is kind of like a matted version so it wouldn’t be too glossy as the print is of the stamens in a flower.  Something like a skyline might call for a more glossy sheen, but that’s really a matter of personal taste.

The aluminum composition really makes it stand out unlike any other print you’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a few, from other sponsors like Nations Photo Lab, and contributor Backlitbox).  As we photographers are always seeking to find a niche market, the folks at Image Wizards have found a perfect market themselves for a very unique product.  Not only is it a high quality print, but it’s built to last for all ages.  The mounting (I chose the frame to edge, or boxed mount, option) and hanging mechanisms are equally impressive too.  A double row of framing and a sturdy wire hanger mounted securely by screws make sure that once you hang it, there’s nothing to worry about as you know it’s not going anywhere.

The caveat to all this is that for a unique, high end print made on aluminum, the cost of entry is not cheap.  The 16×20″ print you see above runs about $200!  You can get estimates done for any custom size you like on their upload page (and yes, the upload process is pretty slick too – upload directly via your web browser)!  You do get what you pay for though, so if you really want to impress your own clients with some eye-popping prints, Image Wizards definitely has a unique look for you!  Check them out when you get a chance!

And for those of you wondering why you didn’t know about the contest last month – another one is underway now…only a little time left before the window closes on the December giveaway, so if you want to try for a chance to win a bunch of photography books, gear and such, stop by the Flickr thread and share your image there soon!

One of the latest lenses that they folks at Sigma have been gracious enough to let me borrow for an extended period of time is their 30mm f1.4 lens.  You read that right – f1.4!  Much like the “nifty fifty” because after the crop sensor is factored in, it’s really close the an equivalent of a 50mm on a full frame sensor (30*1.6 = 48)!

I’ll take the usual tack and look at Focal Length, F-Stop Range, Noise, Size/Weight, Build, and Cost, and Image Quality separately. So, let’s get started!

Focal Length

At 30mm fixed, this is another lens where zooming is not an option so you have to zoom with your feet!  This means walking around to get either closer to or far enough away from your subject to get the composition you need.  This could be construed as a disadvantage for those that prefer to dial their lens rather than shuffle their feet, but since I need all the exercise I can get, I am going to call this a positive!  Another positive is due to its relative focal length (48mm) after crop sensor size is factored in.    The rationale here is that it’s a pretty close approximation to what the human eye sees naturally.  So, it’s very much a WYSIWYG approach to composition (what you see is what you get)!

One of the advantages of this is that because it’s a fixed focal length, optical quality is pretty tack sharp all the way through, and even through various f-stop levels.  Overall, the focal length is definitely a positive – even for those used to zooming or adjustable focal length lenses.  It’s quite a treat to get into shooting with a lens like this!

F-Stop Range

The bane of a photographer’s existence is having a scene present itself to you where the light is fading, and you have no tripod or way to stabilize your gear.  The counter to this has been to invest in what’s becoming commonly known as “fast glass”.  The idea is that you can capture a scene at a wider f-stop ratio to let in more light in a shorter amount of time.  The downside to shooting wide open like this is that your depth of field will suffer unless you are focused to infinity. This does limit creative possibilities if you are hand-holding, but the advantage is that you can shoot in lower light.

At f1.4, this lens is designed to let in an amazing amount of light when shot wide open.  I was able to take some decently sharp pictures in near darkness with nothing but sidewalk lights and an indoor light around my house.  Another shot I was able to get included an underpass that was in near darkness and I could make out details in the underpass (see sample shots further on…)  This feature alone (in my opinion) makes a lens worth considering if the budget is there.

Noise

As is the case with most modern lenses, the noise that comes from running the auto focus is becoming much more tolerable.  Older lenses have had noisier motors (like my Sigma 70mm Macro – very loud when focusing).  Because this is a newer lens, and also due to its prime lens design, the lens is very quiet when it does focus in (the focusing ring never has far to go…)  Another pro for the 30mm!

Size/Weight

The Sigma 30mm has the size of a kit lens. It’s very compact which makes for easy inclusion in a camera bag.  When you have multiple lenses and need to decide whether a lens goes with you or stays home, this is one to take with you simply because it takes up such a small amount of space.  As for the weight of the camera, it’s surprisingly well-balanced on the Canon 40D, providing for a nice fit and comfortable shooting environment.

Build

The signature brushed dark metal of the Sigma line is present here and I’ve always been a fan of how these lenses are built and how they feel in your hands.  Exuding professionalism, and a solid graphite brushed metal coating make this a definite pro.

Cost

At B&H, the build cost is the same for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and all other mounts at $489.  You may be able to save a couple bucks here and there by shopping for sales and discounted or used equipment sites, but based off the retail price, the ballpark is around $500 for this lens.  While $500 is a substantial dent to most wallets, I would have to say that this is worth the money.  I’ve had this lens on loan from Sigma for the last 2 months, and it’s not left my camera through several photo walks, two assignments, and of course all of the testing.

Image Quality

Now for the fun part: the image testing!  Now in the interests of full disclosure, I cannot share some of the images here on the blog because of client releases and such (although I will say that I was comfortable with photo delivery to clients using this lens, so that should be an indication of image quality).  Here’s some shots from when I was shooting in other various conditions:

So, there you have it – various examples of the lens shooting under normal, close up, and low light conditions.  In most I’ve just done simple post production work for sharpening, so there are straight out of camera (sooc).  In the low light shots, I did include some noise reduction to handle the grain, and you can see it cleaned up fairly nicely.  Overall, a great lens – thanks to the folks at Sigma for the extended use for testing.  I’ll be sad to see it go!

In keeping with the iBooks shelving design for it’s presentation, the layout fits nicely with the iPad style of reading, so they get top marks in my book just for keeping some semblance of consistency.  With gorgeous photography, insightful articles, and one of the most professionally-designed layouts I’ve yet to encounter, this really does set the bar extremely high for iPad publishers.  The best part about this magazine – it’s free!  There is value-added content if you wish to purchase it for the frugally receptive price of only $1.99, and I have a feeling this will become part of my newly designed digital approach to reading.

Truth be told, I’ve wanted to go to an exclusively digital method of photography reading for a while now, but the market is only recently becoming large enough to make authors and publishers receptive to digital publication.  For the longest time, the only digital magazine I enjoyed was that of Photography BB, having become such a fan that I volunteered to write for it. With a decidedly educational approach to the craft of photography, it is right up my alley.  The feature article has always taken us to some port of call from around the world, and the contributing author has given their own stylized narrative of their journey there.

TRVL Magazine differs in that there are no articles about social media, nothing about Lightroom, or anything about how to get creative or compose your images better.  Instead, each issue attempts to highlight a particular city or region of the world.  It’s wonderfully written, and the accompanying photographs are (as mentioned above), are always compelling.  I am now into my fourth issue of the digital magazine (can I call it an e-zine yet? Has that term become commonplace enough?)

For those of you considering making the move to digital reading over traditional print reading, if the time hasn’t come for you yet, it’s nearly here.  With things like slideshows of photos and videos for added content (sorry Kelby Media, but apparently you were not the first after all…), this is already got its own space on my iPad.  The other nice thing about how TRVL does it, is that they leave video content as an online experience, to help keep content loaded locally to a bare minimum (it’s about 50MB per issue).

Tap the thumbnail in the lower left corner to activate the slideshow

Since it doesn’t open in iBooks, but rather in its own proprietary envelope, there’s no need to organize it into your pre-existing system.  This was another nice feature as my current collections are already segregated out into three categories.  The other thing to note is that I’ve also grouped my iPad icons in order to minimize the number of screens to slide through…and the TRVL Magazine has it’s own space in my reading group. For the inquisitive, here’s how I’ve got my iBooks collections organized and where the TRVL App fits in my chart:

If you’d like to add it to yours, then go to the App Download Store on your iPad (yes, it’s iPad only) and get it now! Although, I should give you fair warning, if you do download and read these publications, your travel bug will bite hard for everywhere they write about, ranging from the Arctic Circle, to Lisbon Portugal, and worldwide locales to pursue whale watching!  I don’t know when I’ll be able to do that, but if the lottery strikes, you’ll all be the first to know!

*****

As a postcript, don’t forget – today is day 2 of the three-day giveaway bonanza to win a Drobo from the folks at Data Robotics!  Read yesterday’s post for the full scoop!

So, why is this news?  Well, PSU Magazine isn’t news, but from the same folks that brought you PSU Magazine is an all-new digital magazine – and it’s not about Photoshop!  It’s taken on the subject of photography – specifically lighting, and tackling it all in one magazine.  I got a chance to sit down with it last night and really dig my teeth into it.  (And you can too for free, the first issue is free for all here).

Here’s my initial thoughts:

1.  Big:  It’s a big file, about a 350MB download.  Since it’s designed with the iPad in mind, I was a little surprised that the footprint was so large.  I guess it’s to be expected since it did have lots of imagery, and even video embedded in it, so there’s no way in getting around that for the first issue.  My advice though – decrease this size for future issues…the last thing someone wants from a digital magazine is for it to take up 10-20% of my iPad space over just a single year (250MB x 12 months = 3000 MB or 3GB)!

2.  Ads:  I get it, magazines need ads in order to be revenue producing.  And this is no exception – about 20% of the content is ad space.  A good portion of the ads though, are for off-shoots of the Kelby group.  Whether it’s Photoshop World, Kelby Training, or other ventures, a good 50% of the ad space was devoted to their own content promotion.  If I know about your magazine, odds are that I already know about your training, and I can’t help but know about Photoshop World.  While this one is free, if the same kind of ads start appearing in the paid subscription ones, I’d not be thrilled to be paying for them to advertise in their own product and services lines to me again.

3.  Content:  The be-all, end-all of the magazine is the quality of content right?  Right.  Okay, here’s the articles that grabbed me right off the bat:

Larry Becker’s DIY Corner – Easy to understand, well put together, and an immediate grasp of why this is helpful – it saves me money!  I like that!

5 Different Looks From a Single Softbox by Zack Arias – Hands down, the best article in this inaugural issue.  Showing how the same light source can achieve such drastically different looks all depending on position, angle, and posing.

Behind the Lens with  Joe McNally – I have to admit, that when people flock to a certain personality, I tend to run in the opposite direction, and the masses have been flocking to Joe McNally for a while now.  This is probably the one exception primarily because he is, undoubtedly, very talented behind the lens, and knows off-camera flash inside and out.  I tend to gravitate toward his content though, not because of his knowledge base, but because of his teaching style. So, an opportunity to read more of his instruction (and for free), was exciting.

But to be honest, the draw of this article wasn’t the text content, because I don’t think Joe even wrote it.  In fact, it was more just a bio and a couple of shots (which I’ve already seen in his other venues).  So, why did I like the piece?  For the video content!  For the first time, it’s nice to get a video in a digital magazine!  Pretty sweet to be able to tap the video thumbnail and watch the video right there in your hands!  And there were two of them! (Although why they were split into two, I have no idea – maybe the chance to show me the Kelby media ads twice?)

I was a tad disappointed there even though, because the videos were kind of “fluff-y”.  In ten minutes (3 minutes then 7 minutes):

• Question #1 – “If you only had one modifier, what would it be?”

• Answer – Something small light and cheap!

• Question #2 – “What would your next modifier be?”

• Answer: A small cheap 8′ lightstand

• Question #3 – “What’s the advantage of TTL?”

• Answer:  It automates measuring light for you.

• Question #4 – “What’s the tipping between small flash and studio strobes?”

• Answer:  The space you are shooting in, or for appearances on high profile jobs.

• Question #5 – “Where can people find out more about you?”

• Answer:  His blog, website, and social media

*****

Last but not least, the layout here does merit a tad bit of discussion.  First in that area, I liked how the magazine reads by flipping left to right, just like a regular magazine.  I also liked how you could tap an article in the TOC and it would go straight to that article.  The larger res photos on a double-tap were nice features too, as was the video inclusion (just don’t make the questions such softball ones again, take a page from Ibarionex approach when he interviewed Scott on  The Candid Frame).

While the ads were not my favorite part, one thing that I think was very cool was that when you tapped on them, a page opened up for the vendor website inside the magazine!  That’s pretty slick!

So,  the bottom line here (which I think we all are likely asking), is whether or not this is something worth buying.  The answer (surprise surprise), is “It depends…”

For me, the two key variables will be cost and content.

Content

With the exception of Zack’s article, these first pieces were light, brief articles that didn’t really wade hip-deep into much.  With the great equalizer of the web, where so many people are producing valuable content and rich learning experiences for a low cost (or even free), paying for the privilege of basic lighting info and photographer interviews with softball questions is not something I would be prone to doing.  Money is already tight.

Cost

So, what would I pay for this?  Probably – I like that you don’t have to get a full year subsscription, and can buy them on an individual basis.  Each one will go for  $3 (they are calling it $2.99 though, that sounds better to consumers…).  I just hope that you can preview the table of contents on future issues before buying.  Some people I like to read, and others, not as much.  There are features in my PSU magazine that get read instantly, and others I never even glance at.  I think it’s a little high, but understand there’s some overhead, although it’s not as much as you’d think…

Keep in mind, distribution cost used to be the biggest barrier to market and since distribution is free (for the most part anyway), the only real overhead anymore is bandwidth.  Of course, they could also have costs rolled in for contributing authors too, but I can’t speak to that.  Although, with that in mind – if Kelby Media asked me to write an article for their magazine, would I want to charge them for that?  Hmmmmm…….

Don’t get me wrong though – I really liked the stable of authors, and even know some of them personally (hey Mr. Groupp! ) And it is an impressive list for sure:  Zack Arias, Frank Doorhof, Erik Valind, Jeremy Cowart, Jim Schmelzer, Joe McNally, Tom Bol, and Jason Groupp are fantastic photogs and with great insights and experiences

What about you?  Have you read the magazine yet?  If not, at least get the free one here.  What are your thoughts?  What would you pay for this annually?  What would you pay per issue?  Did you like the articles?  Were they thought-provoking and inspiring?  Sound off below!

So, for today, I am happy to bring to you the latest gear review – from none other than the folks at Sigma, with their 85mm f1.4 lens.  Let’s just jump right in:

1.  Focal Length – I’ve talked at length on the blog before about fixed focal length versus variable length zooms.  Their differences, both pros and cons of each are duly noted, and for the most part, I think we can skip the formalities of the technical explanations.  It’s an 85mm lens.  This means you are not going to be able to zoom with the lens, rather with your feet.  It also means that you will gain pros in IQ (See #8 below).  Normally I am shooting with either a 10-22 for wide angle landscapes or a 70-200 for portrait work, so this took a bit of adjusting.

When I did shoot portrait work, I kept on having to step further back to bring more of the subjects face into the scene, and with landscapes, I found myself rotating into portrait position (vertical) and instead of trying to get everything in one shot, rather capturing several shots, with the acceptance that I would have to stitch together in post production.

It’s not perfect for either, but a good compromise in focal length to try and meet the needs of both ends as much as possible.  If I had to choose my favorite focal length, it probably would not be an 85mm, but there are very subjective reasons for that, which probably aren’t as relevant here, so I will defer that for another post.  The focal length is what it is.  You either like the length or you do not.  I was middle of the road on it – sometimes I liked it, sometimes I didn’t.

In the end, I think the focal length was fine for most purposes.  Even

2.  F-Stop Range – This is the reason I want this lens.  Stopping all the way open to an f1.4 gives you amazing results from two key perspectives:

• Depth of Field – When you shoot with a low depth of field, the subject is very easily separated from the background.  This also brings up the subject of bokeh quality, and here I was quite impressed as I didn’t see any evidence of jagged lines or aperture opening sizes, which is often characteristic of cheaper lens builds.
• Low Light photography – Low light photography to me means shooting at or near dusk, or in an incandescent environment where you don’t want to introduce flash.  You don’t want to be a part of the scene.  The photographer wants to blend into the background and be as unobtrusive as possible.  Lenses with low f-stop ranges allow you to do this, and the Sigma 85mm f1.4 is no exception!

3.  Noise – The motor on this lens is as quiet as one would expect for current technology – whisper!  I never heard anything that would cause a distraction, and at this point I am actually considering upgrading the Sigma Macro for this reason – the quieter the operation, the easier it is to concentrate on what you are shooting!

4.  Size/weight – About what would would expect for this focal length and aperture.  Remember, the lower the aperture (f1.4) the beefier a lens will have to be, because elements will need to be thicker in order to have any sort of stability.  It made for near perfect balance in conjunction with the 40D.  On a larger camera like the 5D or 1Ds Mark IV, I could see where you might not have as much a balance, but for my purposes, it works!

5.  Build – Patented and as expected, the water resistant housing, and non-slip grip that is now almost a trademark feature of Sigma was present so no surprises there.  I always enjoy shooting with Sigma gear because the heft of it just feels solid in my hands.

6.  OS/IS/VR – There is no built in motion correction here, which is what I collectively use to refer to the proprietary features of Sigma, Canon’s and Nikon’s camera shake correction technologies.  ALthough I should probably share that OS = Optical Stabilization (Sigma), IS = Image Stabilization (Canon), and VR = Vibration Reduction (Nikon).  Since this lens doesn’t have this motion correction feature, there’s really not much to discuss here.

The one note I would have is that when shooting with this lens, the benefit is primarily in that you can shoot at f1.4 which lets in a lot of light.  To that end, the need for motion correction is probably not as needed, except for the most exceeding low light scenarios, but you’ll see in a minute, that’d have to be pretty darn low!

7.  Cost – For the benefit of shooting at f1.4, the price of admission is hefty indeed.  B&H Photo prices it out at $969.  Since this is a new lens in their lineup, you likely will not find it for much less than this, as there is no aftermarket yet to speak of.

8.  Image Quality – Here, as always, I like to let the images speak for themselves.  I’ve tried to include a few samples that demonstrate both the depth of field capabilities and the low light performance.  Keep in mind – every image here was shot hand held!

My coffee never had a better container!  Yup, it’s kind of hoax here, but it is a legitimate product.  This coffee mug has an exterior that is made to resemble the Canon EF 24-105 f4L lens.  It clearly isn’t, but truth be told, when I received mine in the mail, I was pretty excited.  It does serve its purpose admirably – keeping my coffee hot and in good sipping condition well enough for the duration of the morning caffeine intake.

I was a little disappointed that the focusing rings didn’t rotate, nor did the AF/MF toggle or the IS toggle – in fact, the former was simply painted on.  It did have the cap that looked like a real lens cap, but that didn’t pinch on like a normal lenscap would.  To an uneducated eye, I can easily see this as passing muster for a real lens…until you picked it up!

Nevertheless, it was the talk of the office when I poured my first cup of coffee into it.  It retails higher than I would have expected for nearly $40, but you can get your own here.  And for the Nikonians out there, don’t worry, Nikon versions are available too!

JawDoc

His image of the Tilt-a-Whirl (or whatever you call it) really stood out for me in terms of the sense of motion and speed, so congrats to you sir.  If you could be so kind as to drop me an email, I will forward your name and info over to the folks at Camera Bits who are ready for delivery of your installation code for Photo Mechanic!  One final nod of thanks to them as well, for their generous contribution for the June Giveaway!

And now, for the July Giveaway, our next prize is yet another doozy!  The good folks over at Thinktank Photo have generously sent some of their latest product line to me for review, and now up for grabs is none other than their already well-received Streetwalker Pro bag.  This holds an astounding amount of gear for its size, allows for a tripod, and much more.  I’ve not had a chance to kick its tires yet (so to speak), but you know a review is going to come up soon for this month, so keep an eye and ear open!

It retails for $159 US, and this one is a beauty!

Again, because the prize will be shipped from my location rather than Thinktank, the shipping requirementsare built into this months guidelines:

1.  All images must be between 600-800 px on the longest dimension.

2.  Each person can submit up to two images

3.  The theme is STREET, fitting for a Streetwalker Pro

4.  Contest Deadline is:  July 31st at midnight Mountain Time (GMT -7).  Add or subtract for your own time zone as needed.

5.  US Residents only…sorry international folks.

6. The photo must be included in this Flickr thread.

7. The Flickr photo must be downloadable – we share the winning photo via announcement here on the blog and in newsletters – so I need to get it to do that!

8. Have fun! Remember photography is supposed to be fun so keep that in mind as you approach the May giveaway.

9. Reminder Guidelines and Rules of Engagement links are here for easy reference.

Special thanks to not only Camera Bits and Think Tank photo, but to all the sponsors – and for readers out there, if you would like to see a product reviewed and/or offered up for a giveaway, feel free to drop suggestions in the comments – that’s where vendors look!

The link to enter the contest is here – good luck to all!

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of being the photographer for an annual charity drive for Ducks Unlimited.  Over the course of three hours, I captured about 300 images.  Naturally, some of the shots were before things started (sort of behind the scenes), others were of the attendees, and then others of the auction itself, including products, bidders, and (naturally) the auctioneer.  Afterward, I took the time to run some comparisons.  In order to get as close to a side-by-side comparison as possible, I imported to Lightroom in four different ways:

• Lightroom with 1:1 previews – from USB attached Drobo
• Lightroom with 1:1 previews – from local hard drive
• Lightroom with minimal previews – from USB attached Drobo
• Lightroom with minimal previews – from local hard drive

The initial import kind of told me some interesting information:

What does this tell me? Well, for starters, that the rendering of 1:1 previews really adds to the processing time for Lightroom. No surprise though, we already knew that, right? This data just kind of validates the theory. But from the Drobo versus the C drive, this tells me that the difference even with USB really is negligible. SO many people have expressed concerns over the data transfer rates for a cable-attached Drobo, the need for Firewire, SATA and all that jazz. When honestly, it looks like the difference isn’t all that significant at this level.

So, how did Photo Mechanic do?  Well, pretty well, considering.  In Photo Mechanic, it’s not “importing” photos, the software “ingests” them.  Probably just semantics, but the speed is marked, to say the least.  My ingest rates (there is no minimal thumbnail size – it’s always full size), was four minutes for both the Drobo and the C drive!  That’s right, four minutes! A 300 image import took literally 10% of the time it took Lightroom.

Making the first wave of picks and deletions using Photo Mechanic is a no-brainer for me anymore.  I will likely restrict PM to just doing initial imports and deletions though as the editing tools from Lightroom past the initial import/ingest stage are significant enough to merit making the move from PM to LR.  The savings in import time is enough that I finished my post production in less than half of the time it would normally have taken me.  In fact, the Ducks Unlimited event is now out the door, and in the hands of the Chairman!

So, take my advice, if you have the extra $150, consider adding this to your software arsenal – it’s going to save you tons of time in post production!  Oh wait, what’s that?  You don’t have that kind of money?  Well, no worries, there’s still time in this months’ Flickr giveaway to enter.  Just submit your “Speed” themed photo to the June Contest thread for your chance to win!  Thanks to the folks at Camera Bits for their generous contribution and to give me the time to kick the tires on this great software solution!

*****

One final reminder – the first 250 buyers of the DIY Legal Kit fulfillment has almost ended.  There’s literally only a couple left, and if you don’t take advantage of this awesome offer to get the kit at half off, they are expiring at the end of June, so it’s pretty much now or never!  Stop here to pick up the 6 page set of legal forms for a limited time at $15!

Lakes Photo

Congrats and send me an email with your contact information so I can get your Hoodman Loupe out to you!

*****

So, with the June contest now set to begin, I’d like to welcome a new sponsor to the lineup – the folks over at Camera Bits, makers of the reknowned Photo Mechanic!  After I talked with Kevin Mullins on the last podcast, decided I had to check it out.  What a cool piece of software – it loads full res versions of photos stunningly fast!  I can totally see why wedding and event photographers would use something like this to help expedite their work flow.  I used it to sift through about 500 photos from a recent shoot, and what would have taken me about 20 minutes in Lightroom took about 5 minutes with Photo Mechanic!  That’s a 75% time savings!

So, if you take that percentage out to the thousands of photos that are often associated with event photographers, that can translate to a huge reduction in post production!  It’s tempting for sure, and with the software valued at $150 retail, certainly well worth the investment!  You can get a fully licensed version of the software for free just by submitting your own image to the Flickr Contest thread here!  Good luck to everyone and thanks to the folks at Photo Mechanic for their generous contribution!

However, until then a few nuggets here and there will have to do.  (I am trying to coordinate with friend-of-the-blog Kevin Mullins to have a go at a podcast and this would be a great subject for him as he’s an accomplished wedding, event, and photographer from across the pond.  Kevin, I promise we’ll find a date here soon!)

So, the nuggets for this week are facial features – because at the heart of the portrait photographer is bringing out the beauty in your subjects’ face!  Here’s a great set of tips for bringing out the best in your subjects!  When shooting subjects it helps to keep in mind the three basic facial positions:  full front, 3/4 pose, and profile positions:

For subjects with round or wide faces, it helps to raise the camera angle slightly so as to look down to them just a little bit.  This elongates things a little more and minimizes the width perception.  It also helps to approach them with a pose that has a 3/4 look rather than a full frontal look.

For subjects with a thin face, just the opposite holds true – have their full face looking toward you with the camera and try to keep the camera at eye level with your subject.  Going up or down below their eye level will only serve to elongate a thin face even more.

For subjects with a large nose, it can often help to have them also face the camera directly.  By doing this, their nose will point straight into the camera to help minimize its size, and lets viewers see the rest of their pretty face!

For subjects with a smaller nose, it’s time to shift back to the 3/4 look…this will bring more depth to their face and “enhance” things a little…

Other tips I’ve picked up that are not specifically related to facial positioning include things like:

• People Deep-Set Eyes – Point light into their eyes. Light coming too far from the sides will accentuate the depth.
• Glasses – Bounce the light off the ceiling where possible. If not, position the subject so that glasses are pointed away from the lights.
• Dark Hair – Make sure that the background provides enough contrast so hair doesn’t just blend into it. Hair lights or a light on the backdrop are extremely helpful. Also make sure the background doesn’t show through hair.
• Double Chin – A slightly higher camera angle will be more flattering than straight on. It also helps to have the subject leaning forward.
• Large ears – Use a ¾ face pose or a profile.

There you have it!  Great ways to capture portraiture, specifically when working with facial angles.  Special thanks go out to my good friend Evan Ashenhurst for sharing some of his portfolio for this article.  You can see more of his work on his website at:  Ashenhurst Photography

A final footnote – since I will undoubtedly get a few questions about which lenses are best to shoot portraiture with, my favorite is the nifty fifty actually.  Amazingly sharp and the 1.8 depth of field is to be envied among all glass.  If you’re in the market for a portrait lens, you’ll definitely want to check this bad boy out.  Here’s the Canon-mount, a steal for less than $150 retail!

The Aero-Master Tether Table

The Tether Table is a pretty straightforward device – it comes with the table itself, made out of T6 Aerospace Aluminum (whatever that is).  Regardless of what the official name is – this table is pretty solid – I have no doubts as to whether it might bend under the weight of a laptop.  What I found to be really nice is that it spins onto a tripod (sans head of course) quite nicely, and just as easily fits over the top of a light stand.  The stability is also pretty equal between the two once it’s locked down.

So, how does the table lock down?  There’s four little Allen screws that tie the female acceptor tube to the bottom of the table through the top.  Their design makes them lay seamlessly flat so no worries about your laptop getting off kilter.  Here’s a few sample shots to show you the design:

The other part that bears mentioning is the additonal kit item (not included normally with a Tether Table) is the Jerkstopper – a handy little device that attaches at both the laptop and camera end to avoid getting cables tugged out of your connection points.  They really help to keep equipment from falling, plugs or connectors from getting ripped or damaged, and the add-on value is well worth the $22!  Here’s the product shot from Tether Tools site to give you an idea…

The first problem I found was that it does require either a light stand or a tripod.  So, if your camera normally goes on a tripod (mine does) and you have an external flash that goes on the light stand (mine does), then either the flash has to become more of a portable device (enter the wireless trigger system), or you need to get another light stand.  I initially lucked out in that I am/was running the triggers through their paces for my good friend Kerry Garrison over at Blackbelt Lighting for an upcoming review this Friday, but the need for another light stand has become pretty clear to me.  When I am using two-light setups though, things could get complicated, but that’s a personal gear issue, nothing really to do with the Tether Table itself, so no harm no foul there.

The second problem I found was budgetary.  While the sturdy construction and clean polished look and feel are certainly features I can appreciate, being on a budget, the cost of entry to obtain a Tether Table of this caliber is a little pricey for my blood.  At $179 for the Table and another $22 for the Jerkstopper kit, we’re over $200 and while it’s not inconceivable, it’s certainly rich for the enthusiast blood.  For most professionals it is easily justified and likely something you can itemize in an invoice if needed.  So, not completely out of reach, but up there for sure.  Oh well, no one ever said photography was going to be cheap!

When all is said and done, I do think it’s a worthwhile investment.  These can be invaluable in a studio or on-location shoot where you need to be moving around in between shots.  The benefits of both the Tether Table and the companion Jerkstopper could be invaluable in a number of environments, including macro photography, food photography, portrait photography, and most product photography where a dedicated preview monitor would be super handy to have! To that end,  I will be sad to see it go, but alas, the Contest Series gets priority!  Thanks to the folks at Tether Tools for their generous contribution, and best of luck to all the participants!  (If you haven’t entered your photo yet, the theme is FLAT, and the contest link is both here and at the top of the page!)

Have you got an idea for a product review?  Is there something you’d like to see a test drive on?  Sound off in the comments and I’ll try my darndest to make things happen!  See you next time here on the blog.  (And don’t forget the Facebook page where the “Behind-the-Scenes” video is posted on using this very table!…”Likes” and comments there are always appreciated too!).

I wish the birds eyes were more viewable, and the ISO was pretty high so took some serious slider dragging in LR to make presentable here.  Not sure the second is close enough to be worth it, but then again there is something to be said for negative space!  Consider it a photo critique day – so do thy worst fair readers, critique the author!

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again soon!

Each book is a series of “hero shots” – just some really cool photography, ranging from studio work, to portrait, landscape, and everything in between.  The concept behind the series is that each page can be torn out (they’re perforated) so you can go and try to duplicate the effect in your own images.  I tore a few pages out of the books to show you the idea in practice.  Keep in mind that it seems my scanner is having some issues, so the image quality here is not very consistent nor is it necessarily accurate – the end result in the book look much better!

You can see the front image (left) shows the end result, and the rear of the page (right) shows the setup with how and where things are positioned.  I do wish he would have included the technical data such as aperture, shutter, ISO, light settings (1/4 power, manual, TTL, etc.), but it’s a neat idea regardless.

Here’s the rest of the sample images…

With 25 pages per volume, it’s nothing too meaty that will leave your head swirling with technical minutia and yet it’s got enough creative directions from all the contributing photographers to give you plenty of ideas for inspiration.   It’s all a lot like “lighting recipies” with a boiler plate template, from which the author (and contributing photographers) expect you to springboard from.  They give you enough to get up and running, but not enough to completely duplicate w/out a little of your own flavor and tastes in to season appropriately…

Depending on where you are and what you are looking for – this could be a two thumbs up or one to skip.  For me personally – I love getting creative and inspirational ideas from other photographers, so this medley gets two thumbs up!  Cool idea, well implemented, and lots of inspiration going forward!

From the comment contest last week, the winner it none other than Richard Hales – a.k.a. #4 from the Random Number Generator:

Congrats to Richard, and thanks to the folks from Easy Release for their contribution – if you could get in touch with me via email Richard, I’ll connect you both to arrange distribution of the license or discount code for iTunes.  Thanks to all for their participation!

Live Learning Webinar

In other news, the next Live Learning Webinar that Kerry Garrison and I are heading up for the folks over at Nations Photo Lab is ready for registration.  We can take up to 100 registrations for this event.  It sold out fast last time, and we expect things to go quick for this one too.  Sign up here:  http://livelearninglab.eventbrite.com For the inaugural one we covered some great stuff on Lightroom, and this go around, we’ll be talking ‘Shop (as in Photoshop)!  It’s only for an hour and it’s completely free!, thanks to the sponsorship of Nations Photo Lab!

Last Chance Sale on 49 Photo Tips, Vols 1 and 2

This weekend is also the last weekend before the 49 Photo Tips books are pulled from the eJunkie store to be completely revamped for an entirely new product line, so get ‘em while you can!  The laundry list of tips (49 Photo Tips, Volume 1) is only $2.99 and the full color photo-included list (Volume 2) is only $7.99.  Get them both and save $5  (that’s nearly 50% off…) using the coupon code FINAL !

That’s it for the Friday Freebies (and discounts) for this week.  Be sure to get your own comments in for a chance to win!  Gotta be “in it to win it”!  Happy shooting and see you back here next week!

• Includes two standard model and property releases, which are accepted by both Getty and Alamy
• You can add your own custom releases afterward (albeit a bit clunky)
• You can personalize the releases to include your own information including company, your name, email, phone, contact information, and even a thumbnail photo of the person for whom the release is prepared
• You can email the release via PDF to yourself, your client, or both – all within the app
• You can add models, properties, etc. to your contact list (or build from there)

Having said the best features of the app, it kind of needs a few minor improvements though.  In the next version, let me import pre-made release forms for specific purposes.   While Getty and Alamy outlet acceptance is huge, there are other custom needs like TFCD and TFP that would be tedious to type out into the custom function area.  Let me use a PDF of my own creation and add a signature field at the end for models to sign.  Some photographers already have custom ones on file from their attornys (yes, I have a few) that are already created in PDF, and that import function would make this just about a perfect app!  The interface for building one internally is a bit clunky, and this would make things a lot easier.

In order to appeal to a broader market, lower the price a little…$10 is a bit much for an app that only has two forms.  Right now the appeal is there for those who do only model and property shoots, but the app marketplace seems to average around $5 for a high end app, so $10 is a little pricey.  (It’s not insanely overpriced – after all I did buy this app, but I would have liked to see it lower)  Yes, I know the ROI is lower initially, but you’d likely get more buyers from a lower price.  $4.99 is about the max I’d think apps would go for unless they were super powerful or utilitarian.  If the standard model releases covered more situations, then sure, but more and more, releases for things like TFP, exchange of services, and other variations are becoming the norm, not the “old fashioned” model releases, and the price is just a smidge high for my liking.  Different strokes and tolerances for sure, so some may find this completely reasonable, while others may find the price something of a barrier.

Here’s my screen captures from installing it on my iPod:

For those that are interested in getting a copy of this app – I did contact the developers, and they were generous enough to donate a license for some lucky reader – so, here’s the deal:

Share your own thoughts on the app here in the comments below and at the end of the week – some lucky reader (as determined from the Random Number Generator, based on comment #) will win a license key for this app!   Thanks to the developers for their generous donation, and thanks to everyone who takes the time to comment.  Oh yeah, try to provide at least some value from your own comments as that is what makes dialogs fun in the first place!  I’ll announce the winner Saturday on Twitter (you are following me on Twitter, aren’t yo?) and again here on the blog on Monday!  Good luck all, and thanks again to the folks at Easy Release!

A while back I teased about a forthcoming lens review (nearly 3 months ago actually, in the Teaser Alert), and after several project shoots, the holidays, and scheduling delays, I am finally getting my act together to bring you the latest gear review…that of the Sigma 50-500mm.  As a word of caution, you should be forewarned that the Sigma line-up of lenses that I have reviewed has become quite extensive.  Right away this should tell you two things:

• Sigma has been quite generous with me in terms of making a variety of lenses available.  They likely are doing this for a number of reasons, but primarily because they know that I will give a fair, honest, and 9 times of out 10, a positive review of their equipment.
• I like Sigma lenses!  It should be no secret by now that I do like their lenses.  They are optically on par with what one would expect from lens manufacturers by todays standards.  Heck, sometimes I think the optical quality even exceeds that of the main brands out there (of course here I mean Canon and Nikon).  The price is almost always right on – sometimes the price tag is a little high for my taste, but the advantage that Sigma has is that they are what is considered a “third party lens”, and because of that designation, their pricing is a notch below comparable lenses made by either Canon or Nikon for equivalent glass.

So, when Sigma came calling (actually I called Sigma), with the 50-500, the game face was put on.  Right off the bat, here Sigma has been more than generous because I have now had this lens in my possession for nearly 3 months!  I’ve posted a few photos from this lens over the past three months, so you may see some repeated images here, but they serve the purpose of demonstrating the various settings that I have used to shoot and test this glass.  Having set the stage, let’s get started with the review.  In the past, I’ve talked about things in terms of Pros and Cons, listing first the things I like, then the things I was not as much a fan of.  While it has worked to a degree, I am trying to make things more uniform in the review section, so will start adhering to some more concise points and then indicating whether it is a pro or a con.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the

Sigma 50-500mm f4.5-6.3 Review

1.  Focal Range: The focal range is how lenses are most commonly identified, and this is the measure of how much “zoom” there is in the lens.  Here, the description says it all.  This lens ranges from a widest point of 50mm to an impressive “zoom” of 500mm.  On a crop sensor camera, that means you are looking at a range of 80 to 800mm!  By any standard, this is a pretty wide range, encompassing a difference of nearly 700mm in focal adjustments.  I am going to call this one a Pro.

2.  F-Stop Range: The f-stop range is the measure of the minimum (or maximum depending on your way of thinking) aperture the lens can handle at various lengths.  When dealing with a zoom lens, as you move further out, the elements have to compensate for the change in the length by increasing the size of the opening of the aperture, so you will see adjustments as the lens “zoom” increases.  The Sigma 50-500mm is dialed in to a minimum aperture opening of f4.5 to f6.3.  So, at the widest zoom of 50mm, the lowest aperture setting you can get is f4.5.  Likewise, if you zoom this all the way out to 500, the minimum aperture is f6.3.  So, don’t be misled by the numbers, shooting this lens at 500mm will not afford you the f4.5 that is capable at the widest setting any more than the f2.8 is available on a 70-200 at the longest zoom.  When you have zoom lenses, there is a compromise in aperture capabilities that must be met when zooming out, and such is the case here.  I did some experimenting at various focal lengths, and here are some apparent limits at different zooms:

Given the technology of aperture limitations in zooms, I would say that the Sigma is on par with what the expectations would be for this range. To build this lens for any lower aperture settings would make the lens both heavier and longer.  I don’t even want to think about what it would do to the price either!  It’s not the greatest in aperture abilities, but it’s no slouch either.  I’m going to have to thrown an “Even” flag on this.

3.  Noise: I brought in the noise consideration based on my first Sigma lens I ever purchased, the 70mm Macro (f2.8) which did not have HSM.  The inclusion of HSM in almost every lens since has been a Godsend.  This holds true for the 50-500mm as well.  It’s super quiet and has convinced me that I will never stray off the Hyper Sonic Motor (or USM on Canon glass, ever gain!  ‘Nuff said.  Pro

4.  Size/Weight: My last big lens I reviewed here was the 18-250.  It was a respectable weight, but this is by far the heaviest lens I’ve ever tested.  Weighing in at a shade upder 4.5 lbs (that’s 1970 grams for you Metric folks), it can cause some serious arm strain after extensive shooting.  I would recommend using either a monopod or a tripod for this lens whenever possible.  It also bears mentioning here that due to the weight of the lens, you want to support it in the provided collar.  Supporting the rig by the camera can result in some serious shear force, which can rip the lens right off the camera.  Other size considerations involve the length of the lens both fully closed and fully extended.  This will draw some eyes at either end…whether it be the short side (8.5″) or the long side (12″)!  Here’s a comparison shot with it next to several other lenses so you can get an idea of its relative size:

Another consideration to take into account about this size is the filter required.  For those interested in using the ND filters to protect front elements, you will need a 95mm filter to cover this – not a cheap thing to purchase by any means.  Ultimately the size/weight considerations really will depend on your personal ability to handle it effectively.  For me, most of the time it was not a factor, so I’ll acquiesce and call it a Pro.

5.  Build Quality: In line with expectations, the Sigma quality showed here.  Their now easily recognizable textured exterior exudes professionalism, and just feels good in your hands.  Given the weight of the lens, you don’t want to hold this gingerly, but at the same time, if the body took a slight bump from another lens in your bag, the “other lens” would likely bear the brunt of it.  No questions here.  It’s a Pro.

6.  OS/IS/VR: Due to the limited aperture range, and the weight, the presence of OS is invaluable.  Using the OS allows you to keep your aperture value low, allowing for bother faster manipulation and shorter shutter speeds, as well as some nice bokeh in the background when your distances are good.  What was extra nice about this is the ability to toggle between the vertical and horizontal planes to control vibration in different circumstances.  When I was on a monopod, I switched to OS 2 to help control vertical (or up and down) vibration.  When shooting handheld, I was on OS 1 most of the time, under the premise that my own face, body and camera holding helped to minimize the vertical and thus needed more help with horizontal.  When I was on a tripod, I turned it off per normal procedures for when using OS/IS/VR.  In my book, having versus not having OS/IS/VR is definitely a Pro.

7.  Cost: The average retail market for this lens is approximately $1500.  Given the focal range, the aperture range, and other considerations thus far, it seems to be pretty competitive.  The Canon lens with the longest zoom range is their 100-400 and that factors in at $1800.  Nikonians can salivate over their 80-400 for $1850.  Both price in over the Sigma lens, and it still gives an extra 110-150mm of variable range.  For my own personal budget, that’s a tougher call because while I would love to own this lens – I would have to sell something else to do so, and am not sure I want to dispose of anything else in my camera bag at the moment…the jury is out on this for me personally, but for those interested in purchasing any time soon:  Pro

8.  Image Quality: Image quality is always subjective to the viewer/shooter, so here I will just let everyone defer to their own tastes by sharing a few sample images taken over the last few months:

Kissing Squirrels

Chopper Series

Miscellany:

Other features that bear mentioning here include the locking mechanism and the focusing rings.  I thought about including the latter in the build quality, but decided to bring it in here for discussion.  First, the locking mechanism is a handy feature to have for keeping the lens locked in place to prevent lens creep.  The idea is a good one, but for this particular lens, it would not lock in the “zoomed” position, where I would have thought lens creep would be more of an impact, than in the “closed” position.  Having said that, from the lunar shots I did (as shown above), the fully extended lens did not experience much, if any, creep.  This could be because the lens was recently brought back from a service stop where knobs and buttons and toggles were all tightened and such.

This brings me to the focusing rings.  The rear focusing ring is the one used for fine tuning and the front ring is for zoom.  This was an adjustment for me as my other zoom lenses have these rings reversed (where the zoom is on the back ring and the focus is on the front ring).  it forced me to change my style of shooting a little, but since I was working off a lens-mounted setup most of the time rather than a camera-mounted setup, my shooting habits were already being adjusted anyway.  The last part is that the zoom ring did seem a bit tight to move.  Whether this is by design or because of the recent factory adjustments, I am not sure, but it was just a tad stiff to adjust.

Summary:

All in all, the Sigma 50-500mm is a great lens.  It stood up for the challenges of both wildlife and aerial photography, as well as lunar and even a portrait shot of the canine companion.  The compression it exhibits at the far end (which is characteristic of these long zooms) is to be expected, but I would probably not be using this for landscapes unless I was in a pinch and had no other lens with me.  Still, it could be done, depending on what kind of landscape you are trying to capture.  The zoom really had no noticable effect on image quality without going into some serious pixel peeping, and thus, meets or exceeds all criteria that I can think of.  I would definitely make a positive recommendation on this lens for either a wildlife or sports shooter where distance from subjects is often greater than 10-15 feet.  (The minimum focusing distance at 500mm is something like 6 feet!)

That does it for today – I hope you enjoyed the review and photo gallery from the Sigma 50-500.  Here’s the final results/scores I give the lens:

Have you shot with this lens?  Share your own thoughts in the comments or with me via email.  Likewise, if you have a lens you would be interested in having me review, feel free to drop me a line or share your requests through the comment area as well.  Special thanks to Sigma for giving me such an extended testing period to review the lens, and we’ll see you here again soon!  Happy shooting!

#1 – Understand the data

I was out two weeks ago with this money (probably burning a hole in my pocket, and came across an HP monitor in none other than Best Buy.  The price was right ($249), as were the dimensions (23″).  I was looking at some of the other monitors, and none really filled the bill like this one did.  The only downside was that there was no USB port (or so I thought).  The salesman also pointed out the contrast ratio of 40,000:1!  Without thinking about it to much, I figured it certainly wouldn’t be a bad monitor – so why not give it a whirl!  After all, a 30 day return policy to the brick-and-mortar worked in my favor.  So, home it came for setup.  A few landmines awaited:

Size – While the dimensions of the monitor are always important, another consideration to take into account is the elevation or lift you get.  My old faithful Dell had a telescoping arm that elevated it nicely over my Drobo, and kept it right at eye level for me (or very near it to prevent me from hunching over too much and becoming Lurch!.  The HP 2310m had no such benefit and I then found myself shopping around for monitor stands.  Subtract another $40 for a decent quality stand (Allsop).

USB Ports – I neglected to consider that the HP had no USB ports.  I previously had 3 things coming off the old monitor – a printer, my mouse, and a dangler I could connect my card reader to easily.  So, some rewiring was in order.  But, this helped me clean up some cable management issues, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Contrast Ratio – If you take away nothing else from this post, consider this:  contrast ratios are meaningless!  That’s right, they are meaningless numbers, generated by each vendor to measure their own “belief” of what the expected performance could be of the monitor under the most extreme settings.   I got a hard knock here, recalling after some collaboration with the crew over in the NAPP forums (thanks to Andrew Rodney for the reminder).  As it turns out, pretty much anything past 1000:1 is meaningless under a calibrated workspace, because monitors just aren’t made to produce a useful contrast past this once calibrated.  Some of the really price ones from LaCie and Eizo do, but those are in the thousands of dollars range.  So, keeping true to my budget, I had to settle for consumer grade gear.  But, I wish I would have known that before buying, because the decision was made in haste and on bad information.  So, lesson learned – know the important data!  Contrast Ratio = 1000:1 or greater is fine!

#2 – Don’t Be Afraid to Settle

After finding out all these little caveats, I also got an email blast from Newegg, touting their Halloween deals, and of course, a monitor came up in the laundry list.  An ASUS 25″ for $230!  I was floored.  Two more inches of real estate, for $30 less!  So, I started digging into the reviews, forums, and consumer reports.  I’d purchased a few of their motherboards over the years and was happy with those.  A trip back to the NAPP forums did alert me to a few misgivings some had about the brand though, so I decided against returning the HP in exchange for the ASUS.  After all, it was only $30 difference in price, and would have possibly got me in a situation where I may not have been able to return the ASUS without getting an ugly restocking fee.  And besides, the low profile and lack of USB were also present there, so there wasn’t much to gain.  Then I saw the LG.

It was on display at Sam’s Club, and I’d seen these things in use in lots of retail settings, including warehouse environments, retail, and even doctor offices.  The seemed to be of  decent enough quality, although the contrast was  always way over cranked.  I could fix that with a calibration though, so checked the price:  $189!  A savings of $60 (figure in tax).  That would negate the $40 spent on the monitor stand and give me a little change back in the wallet.  Off to the web I went for more research.  Turns out this isn’t that bad a monitor.  I decided to go for the savings and returned the HP, bringing the LG home.  Now, all that was left was to set it up, and I was off to the races!

#3 – Calibrate it!

Last but not least, I set the LG up to calibrate.  After twenty minutes trying to dial in the color, contrast, and brightness, I was beginning to understand the differences between vendor makes and accuracy.  I’d heard of monitors that just wouldn’t calibrate and was suspecting that this was the case for the LG.  (The luminance was just way to low, and the colors would never fully align to center in my Gretag Macbeth colorimeter.  I finally gave up, and went to take the colorimeter off.  On doing so, I noticed that the ambient light filter was still on the puck that I had used to measure ambient light.  That explained it!  Sans filter, I placed the colorimeter back on the monitor, and within 5 minutes, had things dialed in pretty close to perfect.  My luminance is 0.5 off, the color is at 6500, and contrast is spot on dead center.  It’s got 30 days to satisfy me (and assuming nothing else goes on sale…)  So, word to the wise – when calibrating your monitor, remove the ambient light filter – it can save a lot of headache!

I’ve now moved the 19″ into the secondary position, the 23″ has become the primary, and the added benefit of the monitor stand has given me two new rows of surface area to store things like my thumb drives, media cards, businesss cards, and other bric-a-brac.  More storage in an increasingly cluttered life is a good thing!

So, watch that contrast, check to calibrate, and exercise caution in spending habits – especially if you can’t return things easily.

Thew New LG Monitor

Now it’s your turn – got any purchasing stories or tales to share where you learned something in the experience?  Sound off in the comments, let me know your thoughts on the above, or to share your own “war stories”.  Thanks for stopping in and we’ll be back tomorrow with more photo goodness.

P.S.  Another heads up reminder, that the November Newsletter will be coming out this Friday, so if you’ve not signed up – make sure you pick up a subscription for it either in the sidebar or here.  It’s free, and only available to subscribers!

The Whole Schmear

The Choices

The Selects

The Hero

So, (and I know this will be specific to the type of photography), the question comes to mind for me: What is a good pull rate? Should I be keeping half my shots? 25%? 10? What percentage should I be pulling from a shoot to deliver to a client?

Clearly, many of the images are thrown in the digital dumpster, but I am wondering whether I should be keeping more for delivery, or for “recovery” at a later date when software improves even further? Is it even worth keeping those? What are the odds I’ll come back in five years saying “If only I had a shot of a hockey player in a white-and-blue jersey center-framed against a white and yellow wall”? My guess is slim to none, so why bother keeping those shots?

Hence the question – what is the average pull rate for photography work? Only client pulls? Client pulls + 10%? +25%? Would really be interested in hearing what others deem to be “acceptable” pull percentages, so please – sound off in the comments and let me know your thoughts…

In the meantime, keep on shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Sigma 8-16mm

As I understand it, this is a rather unique lens in that it is the widest non-fisheye lens on the market, even wider than the previous widest one I own, the Canon 10-22.  It was quite interesting to compare these two lenses side by side.

What I Liked

1.  Optical Quality

The optical quality of this lens really is amazing given it’s wide angle nature.  I say this because wide angle lenses are typically prone to distortion, particularly around the edge of the lens, and especially at their widest points.  Now, shooting this on a Canon 40D, it is mounted for the APS-C sensor size, so am not sure this would work too well on a full frame camera.  The end range after you consider the 1.6 crop factor brings it up to 12.8-25mm.  With that in mind, I tried shooting wide open and was happily surprised at the minimal distortion on the edges:

Tree at sunset

Horizon Test

On the first shot, here I didn’t see any distortion actually from the branches of the trees, and the second shot the horizon didn’t really seem off-kilter much either.  However, these were a fair distance away from the lens itself, and while wide angle lenses aren’t intended for portrait work, I was curious as to what the results would be like if I pushed it to those ends:

Portrait Test

So, portrait work should probably not be done with this lens, but then again, as mentioned above, wide angle lenses really aren’t meant for that sort of work anyway.

2.  Weight - This weighed in at just a touch over a pound at 19 ounces.  Pretty light but also heavy enough to know you’ve got some nice balance to it, and it balanced well on the body of the 40D too, so I suspect it would also balance well on the rest of the Canon X0D lineup (e.g. 30D, 40D, 50D, 60D, etc.)

3.  Finish – Like the rest of the Sigma line-up, the rubberized-metallic finish they apply to their lenses is present and it just speaks to the professionalism of the line-up as a whole.

4.  Range – The extra ten mm of range I got from the Sigma was more than I would have thought in a scene.  While I was shooting rather sloppily in terms of exact comparisons, when I had both lenses with me, I did get similarly composed scene for both teh 16mm end of teh Sigma and the 22mm end of the Canon, as was surprised how much of a difference 10mm was.  Take a look:

Canon Lens at 22

Sigma Lens at 18

Like I said, it was a bit of sloppy photography on my part for not making the scenes truly identical in terms of exposure values, but the underlying scene is rather telling.  First, though, it would probably help to explain why I I chose to compare at the longest end of the zoom range.  The way I understand the physics, there is less distortion at the longest point of a zoom, and I wanted to just compare scenic differences, so by using the long end, was able to effectively eliminate that as a comparison point (both lenses have that, and it’s to be expected).

Here, rather the 8-16mm shows a significantly wider scene than the 10-22.  This can be a point both in its favor and against it depending on your purpose.  In it’s favor, if you need to capture at the long end of the zoom, it’s still going to require fewer shots than the 10-22 counterpart from Canon for panorama images.  As a downside, it does mean you can’t get as close to the scene that the 10-22 can.

Now granted, when using a wide angle lens, you probably are not wanting to get all that close to begin with, but here I thought the images made for a good juxtaposition with one another, and it’s where the real differences lie in the range of the two lenses, because the different between 8 and 10 is not as significant as the one between 16 and 22.  At the long end, the Sigma still keeps you very wide at 25mm when counting for the crop factor, while the Canon lens takes you a bit past the 35mm range.  In wide angle photography, 10mm of “wideness” can be a difference-maker.

5.  Price – The Sigma retails at $700.  The Canon, $770.  So, it’s $70 cheaper, and has a wider end than Canon, and dare I say less distortion at that end.  Hmmm, not much of a decision here.  Had this lens been available when I was I was in the market, I suspect it would have gotten the nod.  Now I realize that some subscribe to the theory that a body works best when mirrored with a lens from the same manufacturer, and while that may have been true in the days of yesteryear, the differences have dropped significantly in recent years.  Today, I would submit that the difference is negligible, and sometimes even non-existent.  Of course, that’s something that will be subjective depending on your shooting needs and preferences.

For me though, the answer is a resounding yes!

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It definitely a high quality lens, and I would even venture to say there is relatively less distortion at the short end of the Sigma than the Canon at its shortest, but did not get out enough to test things to that level of minutia.  While it’s not something I can justify for myself at this point, that is only because I already own a similarly ranged lens, if I was in the market and did not own a lens, the Sigma would be a tempting lens to consider.  For the nature photographer who is looking for a super wide – this lens will not disappoint.

For those looking to purchase the lens – you can get it direct from B&H here.

To that end, it’s to our advantage to control the light as much as possible.  An entire sub-industry has grown over the years catering toward controlling the light in your photos too.  Everything from grid spots, to gels, strobes, reflectors, and so much more – we could spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on various light modifiers.

We’re not going to break the bank today though as we take a closer look at a certain kind of light modifier called a Flash Bender, from the folks over at Expo Imaging.  Pricing for individual ones range from $30 to $40, or you can get the entire three-piece set for only $104, we’re certainly not spending exorbitant amounts of money.  The question really is more of what they can do.

Taking a page from their own description on their website (which you can find here:  Rogue Flashbenders), these devices:

“FlashBenders represent a new approach to controlling light. FlashBenders are positionable.  You can bend a FlashBender into almost any position, and it will assume that shape, staying in position until you reform it.”

To see if these shape-changing devices really can deliver on controlling the light, I turned to my trusty, not-so-rusty model train for a little demo shoot, just to see what I could do with them.  First up, I took a couple shots with a bare flash attached (580 EXII) and pointing full on the subject.  The results were predictable:

Bright, shiny highlights, and some pretty nasty glare, right?  But, like I said, to be expected from a full on-camera flash.  Having set the barometer now, I decided to move to where I knew the light would be better.  Off-camera.  I started working with the light and found a good angle (around 45 degrees, camera right), then attached one of these benders and made a snoot out of it (a snoot is a circular funnel that restricts the light).  Things were starting to look up almost immediately with a full wide angle, mid width and then a tight snoot.  Take a look:

Nice!  These Flashbenders really easily got my harsh light that just doused a scene and wrangled it under control pretty quickly with just the strap of Velcro around the neck of the 580, and shaping it around the front in a circle.  It was time to start adding slight nuances to the shape of it to see just how much nuance I could get.  Here’s the result:

Now we’re talking!  About the only thing missing is a little bounce from the light as it shoots past the train to come back and fill the shadows a little.  I tried holding one out to camera left and got the final effect desired:

I could keep going with all the different options and shapes here, but it’s sufficient to say that I was highly impressed with the Flashbenders.  They fit the bill for me in three material ways:

1.  Cost – Hey, it’s the economy right?  Gotta keep costs down and at $104 for the trifecta, it’s almost a no brainer because you can get the Large Reflector, Small reflector, and the Bounce Card sizes in one sweet little package.

2.  Space/Construction – Not only are these pretty durably designed with the bendable metal plates or fingers wrapped securely in the nicely padded and sewn-stitched outer shells, but they pack well, laying flat in the bottom of your bag or curled up snugly to fit on the edge (I put mine next the the flash and barely knew they were in there!  Rock on!

3.  Functionality – What can I say?  They deliver and in a big way.  I used one to wrap the light tightly, then the bounce card to hand hold and create a little fill on the opposite side.  They serve their purpose, do so with space-saving design in mind, and at a cost that all but the most frugal photographer can afford!

These get my two-thumbs up seal of approval.  If you don’t have a set, you need to go out and get one.  If the full set is out of your reach, then at bare  minimum, you could probably get by with the largest one as it has the most range and flexibility.  It’s available through Expo Imaging direct, or if you want, you go through one of their many retail partners.  I tend to prefer B&H as NAPP members enjoy free 3-day shipping.  (If you want to go that route, here’s the link to the largest of the set at B&H if you like…)

There you have it, my two cents on these flash modifiers – probably one of the cheapest tools out there, but so functional and usable on so many different levels, it’s simply a must have in any photographer’s tool kit!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here on Tuesday (Labor Day Weekend and all…) for more photography goodness!

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Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens – Touted as the worlds widest fisheye zoom, it’s an impressive feat, but not many shooters really need such a lens.  At $1400 price point, the price point will likely be too high for many to justify.  Cool factor – high, Use factor -  low.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens – I believe this is the first L lens in this zoom range, and for that reason, the optical quality will likely see a market improvement.  At a price point of $1500, the reach will appeal to many, but the price compared to the 70-200L f2.8 IS will deter more.  You may lose a little reach, but you gain a stop of light.  Not a lot of reach loss for IS gain!

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens – The 6th in the continuing series indicates that this is the go-to lens for the serious shooters…i.e. the pros of the sports circuit. The appeal? Drop in overall weight will reduce arm fatigue. The burden? $7 large! (Call your boss to see if accounting will approve it and best of luck!)

Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM lensThe best of the best – a fixed focal length prime and the bees knees of the profession, SI shooters, NFL, MBL, NHL, etc – if you are looking here for advice on whether to drop the $11,000 on this lens, I want to know why! Buyers of this grade of optics are the companies with budgets larger than my annual salary my many multipliers!

Canon Extender EF 1.4x III & Canon Extender EF 2x III At $500 a piece it’s really just improved optics. For each it also represents light loss – one stop versus two. if optics are important and light isn’t, the 2X is your choice. Add reach and minimize light loss – the 1.4X. A more cost effective approach – neither at this price!

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