New (free!) eBook from Craft and Vision — a review

Posted on 1 December, 2011 by Eric

Craft and Vision just came out with a new eBook — 11 Ways You Can Improve your Photography. It’s a pretty impressive little eBook — and best of all, it’s free!

But before I send you on over to the Craft and Vision website, let me give you a quick rundown of what you’ll get in this thing. Nine of Craft and Vision’s writers contribute eleven tips on how you can improve your photographic skills, and none of it requires buying gear. 69 pages of useful and thought-provoking material, and it won’t cost you a cent to read or put into practice.

Definitely a good thing in the middle of the obligatory holiday shopping binge!

I won’t spell out what the 11 tips are, that’d completely spoil the surprise for you. But I can summarize. A few tips are pretty basic — so, particularly good for beginners. Others are much more profound, and delve into the reasons and rationale behind our photography, and the use of photographic composition as a storytelling device. Good for everyone, but particularly useful for those who have mastered the technology of their cameras and have moved to a more contemplative place with their photography.

So all-in-all, I think this is a wonderful eBook — particularly when you consider the price! So go and get it!

The Lytro — holy smokes, this thing looks amazing!

Posted on 20 October, 2011 by Eric

I’d heard about “light field cameras” when they hit the news a while back — but didn’t honestly think they’d be commercially available in the next decade.

Turns out they’ll be available by the end of the year. Here’s a CNetTV intro to the little critters (by way of Pixiq):

The idea is that the sensor in the Lytro is covered with little lenses that allow the camera to record brightness, color, and direction of light at each pixel. Apply some processing power to the data afterwards, and you wind up with a camera that lets you focus your picture after you take it.

Amazing stuff, I can’t imagine what these will do in a few more years, once they’ve learned from the original models!

eBook review — Craft and Vision’s Making Light 2: Advanced Use of Off-Camera Flash

Posted on 19 October, 2011 by Eric

You may recall that two months back, I reviewed a book called Making Light: An Introduction to Off-Camera Flash. Well, as you may have guessed, it was just the first of two books by Piet Van Den Eynde.

Today, the Craft and Vision folks released the second volume in the series, called (logically enough) Making Light 2: Advanced Use of Off-Camera Flash. $5 gets you 77 double-width pages of useful material in handy PDF form (read it on your computer, or iPad, or whatever…).

Let’s go through this eBook section by section so you can see if it’d be of use to you:

Introduction

A warm welcome to this book, with a quick reminder of topics in the first volume.

1 More Advanced Techniques

1.1 Going Beyond Sync Speed

An explanation of High Speed Sync, with some examples of how it’s useful in non-traditional situations (i.e., not just for high-speed action, but for daylight fill too). A brief mention of PocketWizard “HyperSync” technology, and its usefulness on Canon and Nikon cameras (as with the first book, unfortunately Piet doesn’t venture beyond the “big two” camera manufacturers in this title).

1.2 Working with Multiple Flashes

In this section, Piet briefly discusses using multiple flashes for more control, essentially a quick follow-on to the first book’s lighting set-up discussion. He also discusses using multiple flashes for more power, hinting at the material on strobes that’s to follow. This section is also easily applicable to all camera brands that provide for off-camera remote-controlled flash (not just Nikon and Canon).

2 Gear

2.1 Advanced Triggering Systems

More information on the latest PocketWizard goodies and a brief mention of some upcoming competitors (this section will age quickly), with another reminder of the utility and financial practicality of optical slaves.

2.2 More Modifiers

This section is a bit of a hodgepodge, but does bring up some useful gear (with links to the manufacturer pages). Softboxes, baffles for them, grids, snoots, flags, beauty dishes, portable backgrounds — they all get their turn here, if only briefly.

2.3 Thinking Outside the Softbox

A quick discussion of non-intuitive ways to use a softbox, modifiers you can make for one, etc.

2.4 More Useful Stuff

Another grab-bag gear section — quick treatments of gels, brackets, clamps, loupes, luggage.

2.5 Outgrowing Your Small Flashes

High-power strobes, and when you want to use them. A quick mention, and probably appropriately so — this technology changes quickly as vendors come up with new goodies for photographers.

3 Ten Case Studies

Just for fun, Piet actually has eleven case studies in this section (“…it goes to eleven!”) that makes up nearly a third of the book. For each case study, Piet shows you the final image, then follows up with extensive behind-the-scenes “making of” essays and additional images showing setups. In the process, he has examples for the use of pretty much all the gear he mentioned earlier in the book. Meanwhile, it’s pretty much camera-brand-agnostic.

4 Four Interviews

Almost an extension of the case studies, this section takes up just shy of the last third of the book, and consists of four interviews with fellow Belgian photographers. Along with the actual interviews, this section includes even case study style examples, tips on the business of photography, links to sites that the photographers recommend, and of course, links to the photographers’ blogs and social media accounts.

Conclusion

A quick 1-page wrap-up, with thanks and acknowledgements.

So, all-in-all a solid offering — particularly valuable for the case studies and interviews that make up the majority of the eBook’s material.

The Labná Arch

Posted on 10 October, 2011 by Eric

Labná is a neat little Maya ruin that doesn’t get nearly as much visitor traffic as it deserves. On the east end of the “Puuc Route” in the Yucatan, Labná isn’t particularly close to any major modern cities — but it and its neighboring sites are an easy day trip from Mérida.

Should you ever make it to Labná, its arch is its claim to (touristic) fame:

The unusual (and somewhat funny) thing about this arch is where it’s found. Most arches at Maya sites served as ceremonial entrances to the cities — a way to both announce your arrival at the city, and demarcate the boundaries of the city core.

But this arch is different — it separates the royal from the mercantile parts of Labná. This side of the arch (the fancier of the two) is what you’d see as you were walking into the royal part of town (those two ground-level doors may have been where guards were stationed). The other face of the arch, far plainer, announced your arrival into the home of the merely affluent.

I guess some things never change…

Kinichná in Becán

Posted on 4 October, 2011 by Eric

The old Maya ruins of Becán in México have quite a few things to recommend them. A number of structures have been restored, and are open to public viewing; several structures are both climbable and riddled with passageways (so many places to explore).

But really, the marquis attraction is this stucco figure of the Maya sun god Kinichná:

Since the stucco needs to be protected from the hot and humid environment (as well as from vandals), it’s in a purpose-built enclosure with a glass front. But the lighting’s tricky (no artificial light in the enclosure), and the glass is both dirty and scratched (take wet wipes and a paper towel) — so you have to work to get a decent shot of this bit of artwork…

eBook review — Craft and Vision’s Making Light: An Introduction to Off-Camera Flash

Posted on 17 August, 2011 by Eric

I’m a big fan of the Craft and Vision books (so much well-presented information in them, for so little money), so I jumped at the chance to get an advanced peak at the latest book in their stable — Making Light: An Introduction to Off-Camera Flash by Piet Van Den Eynde.

As you’d expect from the subtitle, the eBook doesn’t get either too technical or too deep. But it does provide a well thought-out, non-intimidating introduction to the use of off-camera flash lighting. For $5, you get 63 pages of solid material.

Is this eBook for you? Well, let’s take it apart section by section to see.

1. Introduction: Please Take Off Your Flash

Piet’s sales pitch for off-camera flash, just a few pages long but a warm welcome for the wary.

2. Characteristics of Light

A discussion of the various characteristics of lighting that impact the “look” of an image, it’s probably the “thinnest” of the eBook’s sections. Still, it’s enough to get the off-camera flash beginner going (and I’m a bit of a physics geek, so I likely enjoy wallowing around in this stuff more than most would — YMMV).

3. Fundamental Flash Formulas

An excellent treatment of the inverse-square law, angle of incidence vs. angle of reflection, etc. 5 pages of explanation with well-chosen example images.

4. The Fundamentals at Work in Everyday Use

A set of “making of” images with different lighting layouts and modifiers. Essentially an extended set of examples for the material laid out in sections 2 and 3 — this time, presented in a less theoretical, more pragmatic way.

5. Basic Off-Camera Flash Gear

A discussion of flashes, triggers, manual vs. TTL flash, lighting modifiers, etc. A good presentation of the practical uses for this gear, thinning down your gear for travel, and warnings of some items that likely aren’t worth their cost.

6. Setting Up a Nikon for Off-Camera Flash: Seven Easy Steps

7. Setting Up a Canon for Off-Camera Flash: Seven Easy Steps

What — no Olympus set-up instructions? Seriously though, Nikon and Canon have captured something like 95% of the DSLR market, so this will get the vast majority of off-camera neophytes going. Besides, if you’re an Oly shooter like me, the set-up is so simple you don’t need an eBook’s help ;-).

8. Shooting Pictures with Off-Camera Flash: A Failsafe Ten-Step Approach

Living almost up to its name (it’s really only got nine steps…), this section lays out a fairly straightforward approach to setting up a shot lit with off-camera flash. Good information on how to tweak your setup to get exactly the look you want.

9. Nine Cases

Definitely my favorite section of the book, this takes nine example images that Piet made on his travels (and from the looks of things, Piet really likes to travel!) and shows / tells you how they were made. Given that Piet tends to travel by bike, they’re all done with simple portable lighting gear. So even if you’re not planning a trip to Java any time soon, this will show you what you can accomplish without needing to buy or lug around a van full of gear — just a camera, flash, and some simple / cheap light modifiers.

C. Conclusion: And Now… It’s Up To You!

Your call to action, and a bonus “making of” image.

Since this eBook is written as an introduction to the subject, a good bit of this material is available here and there on the internet for free. But Making Light pulls it together for you in one convenient, easy to follow eBook that’s better written than much of the free material, and less likely to get lost than a collection of hyperlinks. If you’re just getting started with off-camera flash, it’s a good value for the money and I’d highly recommend it.

Burst on a wave

Posted on 15 July, 2011 by Eric

I took this shot at a July 4th fireworks display while we were down in the metropolis of Cortez, Colorado visiting a family friend. Of all my “accidental” images, I think it’s the one I like the best.

It’s not a multiple exposure shot, and I’ve done essentially no post processing work. Think you know how it happened? Let me tell you the tale.

Cortez isn’t a particularly large town — population was just under 10,000 at the most recent census. But when we were down there to visit our friend over the Independence Day weekend, we were expecting a good show for July 4th. A new guy in the city government had taken over job of coordinating Cortez’ yearly fireworks display, and we were hoping he’d try to make a “splash” his first time out.

Apparently a lot of the locals had the same expectation — I think the whole town turned out for the show. As a result, the four of us were sandwiched on a blanket on a little strip of grass — right next to the sidewalk that’s right next to the road that’s the line marking the safe viewing area for the display.

So we had great seats, aside from pesky pedestrians occasionally walking by right in front of us.

Now bear in mind that shooting fireworks is somewhat of a hopeful process. The round goes up, you open the shutter, and your camera captures whatever it sees in the next few seconds. Maybe you get something good, maybe you don’t.

In this particular case, I opened the shutter just before one burst went off — I thought it would be a good capture. Then a couple of young guys walked right in front of us with “glow sticks” in their hands. I was a bit annoyed at the time, obviously they’d ruined the image.

Or so I thought until I got home and could see it on my computer’s screen. As “ruined” images go, I think it turned out pretty well…

Echinacea, 7/09/11

Posted on 10 July, 2011 by Eric

My first decent shot using an old Polaroid SX-70 camera I bought off eBay, and some Impossible Project film:

Long-story-short, now that the Impossible Project folks are producing both color and black and white film for SX-70 cameras, I thought I’d take the plunge and start experimenting with low-fi analog photography.

Here’s a shot of echinacea in our front yard, taken with my used / new (to me) SX-70 Alpha 1 SE and Impossible Project PX 70 Color Shade film.

I think it’s going to take a while to get a hang of this — the camera works just fine, but the film is a bit… tricky. In particular, it’s REALLY light sensitive for a minute or so after it comes out of the camera — and it’s prone to over-exposure too.

Oh, and did I mention film costs about $3 per exposure? Definitely gives one cause for reflection before pushing the shutter release. Once I get this down to a more-nearly-repeatable thing, I’ll do a writeup on this film and the whole process of using it.

The start of a new tradition

Posted on 3 April, 2011 by Eric

Once upon a time, I thought an “easy” way to sell some of my photography would be by way of iPad and iPhone wallpaper. But it turns out I really don’t have a lot of time to devote to learning how to program for the iPad, and besides there are a lot of free wallpapers out there.

And it’s hard to compete with free.

So my current plan is to find some other way to help pay for my photographic equipment, and just give away iPad and iPhone wallpaper. I’m going to give away one piece of wallpaper each week — and it’s free both as in beer (no cost) and as in speech (do what you want with it, within Creative Commons limits).

Here’s the first free wallpaper (click on it to get to the Flickr page where you can download the full-size image). It’s a backlit shot of a glass block (part of an art installation) at a local light rail station.

Digital camera memory cards â€” advertised vs. real speeds

Posted on 17 January, 2011 by Eric

So a few weeks back, I bought an Olympus E-5 — the idea being that I’ll play around with it and the E-3 (for side-by-side comparisons) for a little while, then sell the E-3 on eBay in order to help pay for the new gear.

Meanwhile, since the E-5 shoots bigger images (in pixel terms) than the E-3, I thought I should also upgrade from 8GB memory cards to 16GB cards for the new camera.

Now like everybody, I’ve had occasional camera memory card failures. I’ve managed to salvage all my images to date, but as the result of my experiences I’m relatively cautious about my use of memory cards. When I’m on a trip, I take 3 cards, and cycle through them daily — this way if a card dies (or my camera is stolen), I’ll lose at most 1/3 of the images I’ve taken. I also back up my images, but that’s the subject of another post. Anyway, to be even more cautious, I also prefer to use cards from different manufacturers (just in case somebody had a bad day at the factory, and a batch of “weak” cards made it out to retail).

A side benefit of this approach is that I’m now pretty well equipped to compare the actual write speed of multiple card vendors. Since the E-5 now has one slot each for compact flash and SD cards, I thought I might as well test the write speed of my fastest cards of both types.

My testing approach was pretty simple. The E-5’s buffer will hold about 9 Raw images — at 5 frames/sec, this means differences in memory card speed won’t show up until I’ve been shooting for at least 2 seconds. So for each card, I did rapid-fire shooting (high-speed continuous mode, manual focus, 1/8000 sec shutter, NR/NF off) — and tested how many images would get taken / saved in 5 seconds and in 20 seconds. Subtract the two, and you can calculate the actual captured frame rate (images / sec) and data write speed (MB/sec) for the card. I did 3 runs of each test so that averaging the numbers would smooth out my reaction time (I was timing things with my watch).

Anyway, here are the results:

As you can see, SanDisk is by far the speed champion of these three brands — either for CF or SD format. They also seem to have the most honest appraisal of card speed (although to some degree this is also impacted by the camera). Delkin is (surprisingly) slow for CF — there’s statistically no difference between their CF and SD cards (not the ones I tested, anyway). This came as a shock to me, given that comparable-grade CF and SD cards from most manufacturers show a 2x or 3x difference in speed.

Also, note that to keep cost comparisons “fair,” I used Amazon (on 15 January, 2011) as the single source of price data — I won’t pretend that these are necessarily the cheapest prices you could find anywhere. And thanks to the fact that I’m not independently wealthy, my data is obviously limited in the number of brands I could test.

So if you need to take sequential shots at a reasonably high frame rate (about the only time you’d care a whole lot about these numbers), hopefully this data will help you make buying choices that make the most sense to you.