LR/Enfuse Thoughts

Recently I blogged about using the LR/Enfuse plug-in to automatically combine multiple exposures of a scene to create a "realistic HDR" look. It actually seems to be a very hit or miss thing, and I've yet to find any definite pattern as to what works and what doesn't work. Within Lightroom you can group all of your HDR sequences into stacks and then have Enfuse process all of them into 16-bit TIFFs in batch mode. Today I pointed it to 52 such stacks, 265 photos in all, all shot on one day from my D.C. stock photography trip this past spring. Then I went away for awhile... Out of the 52 resulting images, none are worth keeping. They all look hideous. I'll do them manually in Photoshop instead.

Camera Recommendations

A family member emailed me today asking what camera I would recommend for a beginner. This is a question I've gotten a lot over the years! I thought I would share my response this time with everyone. A disclaimer though, all of my recommendations here will likely be out-of-date in only a month!

The first site I point everyone to is http://dpreview.com/. They have the most in-depth reviews on the internet of every camera make and model imaginable. Besides the raw specs, you'll also want to know if the menus on the camera are user-friendly and see some sample pictures from the camera as well. http://dpreview.com/ has all of that.

Now, here are two entry-level cameras that I recommend. I'm not saying their cheap! But both of these are very good starting points if you want to seriously dig into photography.

Canon G10

I own the Canon G9 myself, and the G10 is its recent successor. The G10 packs many of the same features of an SLR into a compact camera. It's 14.7-megapixels and can shoot RAW files giving you complete control over your images. You can shoot on aperture-priority, shutter-priorty, and manual mode; or keep it one of the auto-scene settings. The 28mm wide-angle lens is also a huge plus for a camera this size. It has an E-TTL hot shoe as well if you decide to add a flash later. The gives you a lot of options, especially for portraiture, as you could later move your flash off-camera with a connecting cord to the hot shoe or a radio trigger attached to the hot shoe.

One thing I learned the hard way with the last compact camera I owned is to never buy one that doesn't have an underwater housing available. Even if you don't want the expense of buying it when you buy the camera, you want the option for later. Then in a few months when you're about to take a beach vacation you can pick-up the waterproof housing. I own the one for the G9 and highly recommend it for snorkeling or to keep your camera safe while out on the boat. At the time of this writing you can buy the underwater housing for the Canon G10 for $174.95 from B&H.

Buy the Canon G10 from B&H
or Amazon: Canon Powershot G10 14.7MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

Nikon D5000 Digital SLR Camera Kit with 18-55mm VR Lens

If you want to jump into the world of DSLR cameras for ultimate control over your pictures, then the new D5000 is a great way to go. The kit I'm listing here comes with a 18-55mm vibration resistant lens, meaning that you can hand-hold it at slower shutter speeds and still come away with sharp pictures. The great thing about owning a DSLR, whether its Nikon or Canon, is that you can add lenses, flashes, and other gear over time and the whole system will grow with you. One day when you're ready to dig deep into macro photography or underwater photography or sports photography, you don't have to scrap everything and start over with a completely new system.

The Nikon D5000 would last you a long, long time though. At 12.3-megapixels it's not going to be obsolete immediately. I huge plus is that it also shoots HD 720p video. This works with any wide-angle or zoom setting and with any lens you put on the camera too! The D5000 has 19 auto-exposure scene modes to help you make the transition to a DSLR, but as soon as you start learning more about photography you're going to want to stay in either aperture-priority (where I live most of the time), shutter-priority, or full manual.

Buy it from B&H
or Amazon: Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Lens and 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD

Westcott 5-in-1 Reflector Product Review

Looking to improve your photos? One of the most powerful and useful pieces of equipment you can buy, and also one of the cheapest, is a 5-in-1 reflector. In fact, a good quality reflector is an essential piece of equipment for every serious photographer. The Westcott 5-in-1 reflector is an extremely well-made product and very affordable at only $40 (at the time of this review). I own the 40" (1 meter) reflector and highly recommend it.

"5-in-1" means that it contains silver, gold, white, and black surfaces plus, with all of the covers removed, a translucent surface. Let's look at each of these:

• White Reflector - Do your subjects have raccoon eyes? A white reflector can be used to bounce light into shadows. If you are using a off-camera flash you can also bounce light off of the white reflector itself to create a larger light source.


• Silver Reflector - A silver reflector serves the same purpose as white but produces more specular highlights. The result is a higher-contrast image.


• Gold Reflector - Light takes on the color of what it bounces off of. The favorite of photographers shooting bikini-clad bodies on the beach, a gold reflector will warm up an image giving skin tones the Bay Watch look. (Or add warm light to the bouquet of flowers on your dinning room table>) Tip: You can also use a gold reflector as an out-of-focus background for portraits.


• Black Reflector - Taking away light is just as important as adding light. A black reflector can be used to make one side of the face in a portrait darker. It can also remove reflections.


• Translucent Fabric - Do you want really soft light? The bigger your light source, the softer your light. Holding the translucent disc is one way to do it. You can also shot through it with an off-camera flash.

All of the above equally apply to still-life and food photography as well. The reflector collapses to 1/3 of its size and slips into a carrying case. It's light and easy to take with you.

At only $40.00, it's a great value and something that you will use often and for a very long time. However, if you can not afford one now, then go pickup some white, silver, gold, and black pieces of flexible poster board and/or rigid foam core. In a limited way they can serve the same purpose (other than shooting through them of course!). All pro photographers that I know of will still supplement their lighting gear, including reflectors, with basic white and black foam core as necessary.

You can follow this link to buy it from B&H: Westcott 5-in-1 Reflector.

Or buy it from Amazon here:

Rosco Cinegel Swatchbook

Strobist blog readers all know about the use of color correcting gels to convert flash output to tungsten light, florescent light, or any other color. The extreme popularity of the Strobist blog and David Hobby's tip to use gels out of the Rosco sample packs, which can often be had for free and happen to be almost the same size as a flash head, has caused a run on the sample packs. Most camera stores are out of them. Just yesterday I was trying to find some myself in order to replace the gels I've been using. I checked several online stores, even those I prefer not to shop with, and everyone was out of them!

Luckily though, I've just got an email from B&H stating they have some back in stock!

You can find them here:
Rosco Cinegel Swatchbook - 1.75 x 2.75"

They sell for $0.01 each! But with a quantity limit of 2 per order unfortunately.

Plus, if you are a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) you always get FREE 3-5 business days UPS shipping! NAPP members get a GREAT magazine (I struggle to read all of it each month) plus tons of other great perks. I find the free shipping from B&H nearly, if not entirely, pays for my NAPP membership each year.

In full disclosure, I added another item to my B&H order so I can not 100% guarantee you can order two sample packs with free shipping and only pay $0.02, but I believe it is possible.

Update 4/22/2009 - I have ordered more of these with a recent order and can verify that the limit is still 2 per order.

Update 8/18/2009 - Looks like B&H recently raised their price from $0.01 each to $2.00 each, a 200x increase! There doesn't appear to be a limit of 2 restriction any more though. They are $3.95 each at Adorama, so I guess this is still a "deal". They are certainly worth $2.00 each if you do any amount of small flash photography.

Strobist Lighting Seminar Review

2008 has definitely been "The Year of Strobist" for the photography community. Many of us, and hopefully you too, were regular readers of the Strobist blog before the beginning of 2008, but this year David Hobby's blog has definitely taken off. The blog was mentioned in USA Today a few months back, and if that wasn't enough photography blog after photography blog pointed out the fact that Strobist was in USA Today. Giving him even more traffic! And deservedly so.

This year David Hobby launched the Strobist Lighting Seminar set of tutorial DVDs. The first batch of 1,000 (low because David funded it out of his own pocket so I've heard) sold out very quick. I thought my order was in that first batch, but I barely missed it and had to wait a few weeks for the second batch to come in. (My boss here at Terry Smith Images (myself) doesn't like me to waste training-budget money on rush shipping.)

The Strobist Lighting Seminar is 8 DVDs for $139.00. I paid $143.80 which included the cheapest, US Postal Service mailing option.

Is it worth it?

YES

These DVDs are worth every single penny. If you are serious about learning more about lighting you really need to buy these DVDs. There is an amazing amount of material here.

I've read and watched a lot of photography training material over 10+ years of seriously studying the art and craft and in these DVDs David is sharing a TON of information and "first-hand, real-world secrets" that I have never seen anywhere else.

I'm not going to do an extremely in-depth review here. I'm sure other bloggers have done that already. I will summarize the set by saying the first DVD is about Lighting Gear for Beginners, the next four DVDs are recordings of one of this lecture workshops (two for the morning session and two for the afternoon session), and the next three are all live photo shoots.

The decision factor is this: You are not going to get better value anywhere for the amount of instruction versus cost as contained in this DVD set. Any class, workshop, and conference given by someone with his level of expertise would cost much, much more.

Click here for more info on purchasing the DVDs:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/05/now-available-strobist-lighting-dvds.html


Here's a executive portrait I shot "strobist-style" recently using wireless off-camera flash. In this case an SB-600 was in the back to light the copper wall and an SB-800 with a CTO gel was to camera-right shot through a white shoot-through umbrella. Some window daylight was let in as well to warm the scene up a bit more. I was working very quickly, and in hind-sight this definitely could be improved. Some front-fill from just a large white card or reflector to camera-left would have added some needed fill to the face.


UPDATE 04/21/2009 - As a complement to these DVDs, I HIGHLY recommended The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally. Click here for my review.

All images are Copyright Terry Smith, 2008. All Rights Reserved.