My light gear - soft boxes and photo umbrellas.

Same as many artists  making living on their work, I have days when I really need to watch my budget. (or to be more frank - I am broke).
This often affects the way I do my equipment purchase. While usual wisdom is to buy the very best equipment which lasts lifetime, it is not always possible.

Because of that, I purchased several really inexpensive light boxes and umbrellas which I regretted later.
They were really cheaply made. The silver lining of one umbrella was probably sprayed on fabric, and flakes of it were falling like snow with each opening and closing of the umbrella. It lasted maybe a dozen openings, now it is just a bad memory.
Similarly cheap were some soft boxes, which also proved to be a nightmare to use on location, as they required two people to set them up!

But, trying my luck over and over and trying to do my homework, i was able to find a few keepers, which I use often without breaking my bank. In hope that I can save you some disappointment, stress and money, I would like to share with you my discoveries. I am not getting any kickbacks for recommending them - they work well, and I am happy I found them, that's all.

Westcott Travel Collapsible Umbrella. (photo above)
This little thing goes to my luggage when I go locations. As small as any folding umbrellas used for a rainy weather, it works really nice. Quick to assembly, it can work as reflective or semi transparent. It is made of white fine quality fabric, with a back layer added on if you want to use it for reflecting light. They are not exactly easy to find, I think I ordered mine from Adorama, and it was around $30 or so. Definitely a good deal! Thumbs up!

Another light travel or street photography item: Firefly soft box (called "beauty box"). It is an octagonal and small, beauty dish sized device. Works on umbrella mechanism for super quick setup and includes speedlight mount. It is really well made of fine materials, and is available in shops around. However, it is a bit pricey here. I bought it directly from Korea for about half price.
http://konovaphoto.com/best-selling/aurora-firefly.html

Another great piece of equipment I bought on ebay from England. It is really fine quality huge parabolic umbrella (photo above). This one is a blast when you need a large and strong source of light, it keep very well rounded and focused light, and its silver surface almost magnifies the light, giving a huge but fairly soft light when you need it. Normally parabolic umbrellas are expensive, but this one on ebay was bought at unbelievable price. Here is the link - until it works - on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160492775292&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNASIF:CA:1123
if link does not work, simply search for "parabolic type umbrella", or seller "cotswoldphoto".
This one is one great piece of equipment.

I have also a larger soft box I bought from ebay, and it is also based on umbrella-type mechanism, therefore it is quick and easy to set for a single person. it is made of very good Korean fabric, and of reasonably good quality - definitely worth the price. The seller ADPLO from Hong Kong offers whole range of sizes and different mounts, but always includes in auction title words "Softbox Korea stuff Rustless" so you can search this phrase on ebay, and save a lot on this item.

Surely, these are not the best possible quality items one can get. But they are durable, give good light, and their price offers quite a bang for your buck.

Panorama Photography 2. Panoramic viewpoint and framing.

Here is continuation of Lex' (www.lexnowakphotography.com) tutorial on shooting panoramic photographs. I find his explanations very good, and hope he will continue with the series, talking about 360 panoramas and virtual tours.

CLASSIC PANORAMA – VIEWPOINT AND FRAMING
Viewpoint – The choice of viewpoint makes a great difference in the perception of a panorama image. Typical viewpoint is the eye-level perspective, in which landscapes scene is seen as it would be from an adult eye-level view. In panoramas more preferred view is from higher vantage point, which can give a more interesting foreground and will better resonate with viewers.
Framing - Framing a picture is an essential part of the panorama imaging process. Historically, two aspect ratios have dominated landscape format: the 3:2 ratio of 35mm film, and more recently the 4:3 ratio of most computer display. The advent of high definition HDTV has brought its new standard aspect ratio of 16:9 (almost 2:1), a format more suited to landscape scenes.
There are numerous panorama framing formats. I found the best framing formats to range from 2.4:1 to 3:1. Interestingly, format ratio 2.41:1 is derived from golden ratio, and is naturally pleasing and proportional.
I use different format for different media:
For showcasing panoramas on HDTV, it is visually more appealing if the pictures are optimized for the full screen – nobody likes black horizontal lines at the top and bottom of the frame.
Where the panoramas really shine is on the print media. Computer monitors are not capable of showing full panoramic images, due to screen ratio and size.

CLASSIC PANORAMA – COMPOSITION
Composing panoramic image is inherently more difficult than image shot with camera, partly because viewfinder doesn’t display the whole panorama we visualized, and the amount of detail is greater than in a single shot.
One approach is to pre-visualize scene with home-made framing/composition aid cut out of mat board. Depending on the distance from your eye, you can also simulate differences in focal length.
Other approach is to shot scene wider than visualized and select/ crop in post editing.
Rule of Third – still applies but shouldn’t be used blindly. Because panoramic images are mostly displayed lengthwise, placing horizon in the middle doesn’t disrupt symmetry and harmony. Panoramas are well suited to emphasize symmetrical subjects, e.g. reflection of the mountains in the tranquil lake, and putting horizon in the center of the frame seems like the correct choice.
The best candidates for panoramas are scenes that have a single subject and whose broad surroundings serve to enhance that subject. Panorama images at sunsets and sunrises are also well suited; however they pose technical challenges (lighting and exposure).

Panorama of Royal Roads gardens, Victoria, BC by Lex Nowak.

Panorama Photography 1

While working on various locations, we were often asked by photography enthusiasts about panoramas - how do they work, how to shoot them, etc.
Trying to address these questions, my good friend and panorama expert, Lex Nowak (www.lexnowakphotography.com), wrote his comments on panoramic photography. He recently agreed that i reuse his postings on this blog.
Here is what Lex is saying in 1st part of his tutorial:

The world of panoramic images is fascinating, and with the advancement of digital photography and stitching software, is more accessible than ever. To achieve satisfactory results some technical knowledge and discipline is required. Photography principles like good composition, lighting, depth of field etc still apply.
I will focus in this article on modern panoramas obtained by taking a series of overlapping images with digital camera and stitched with the software. I don’t have experience with film rotational camera like Noblex, or Widelux, so I can’t comment on those.
For the sake of clarity I divide panoramas into two categories:

• Flat, rectangular panoramas – with the angle view typically exceeding 80 deg.

These panoramas can have different type of projection -rectilinear, cylindrical or mercator.

• Virtual Reality panoramas – fully interactive panoramic image allowing for panning 360 deg. These panoramas can be cylindrical – full 360 movement left to right and spherical – full 360deg movement left to right, as well as up and down.

In the series of articles I will write about flat, rectangular panoramas – I call them “classic” as opposed to new breed of VR interactive.

CLASSIC PANORAMA – ANGLE OF VIEW AND PROJECTION
The field of view of the human eye is approximately 140- to 160 degrees. Panoramic image emulates that effect and gives illusion of open views. Human vertical field of view is far more limited – approximately 90 deg. Typical wide angle zoom, on Nikon DX sensor, at 12mm will have field of view 89 deg. There is no actual limit on what field of view panorama should encompass, but the angle of view will impose the correct panorama projection. You can use different type of projections, however there will be only one that “looks just right”. In case of rectilinear panoramas the 100-110 angle will give nice, straight converging lines and natural look.

Single viewpoint panoramas – most panoramas are shot from single viewpoint, where the camera is rotated around lens’s nodal point. The camera is mostly kept level so the horizontal and vertical lines remain relatively straight. Tilting camera e.g. towards the sky will cause converging of vertical lines towards vanishing point, with horizontal line remaining straight. In my articles I will focus on single viewpoint panoramas. Good examples of high quality classic panoramas can be found here – http://www.arnaudfrichphoto.com/

Multiple viewpoints panoramas- (also called multi-perspective) – this panorama is obtained by taking pictures perpendicularly to the subject at different intervals (viewpoints), with desired overlaps of the images. Multiple viewpoints panoramas can’t be stitched easily with traditional stitching software and usually require tedious assembly work in the Photoshop. There is very little distortion in these type of panoramas.
You can view examples of multi-viewpoint panos by artist Michael Koller here – http://www.seamlesscity.com/
There are several types of panorama projections: rectilinear, cylindrical, mercator, equirectangular. The main variable that controls panorama projection is the angle of view.
Rectilinear projection – This projection type is what most ordinary wide angle lenses aim to produce, so this is perhaps the projection with which we are most familiar. Its primary disadvantage is that it can greatly exaggerate perspective as the angle of view increases, leading to objects appearing skewed at the edges of the frame – thus generally I don’t recommend it for angles greater than 110 degrees. As I mentioned earlier, this type of projection will give natural look we are accustomed – it is also one of my favourites.
Cylindrical projection -Is the standard type rendered by traditional panoramic film cameras with a swing lens. Cylindrical projections maintain more accurate relative sizes of objects than rectilinear projections, however this is done at the expense of rendering lines parallel to the viewer’s line of sight as being curved (even though these would otherwise appear straight).
Because of vertical stretching at the top and bottom, this type is not suitable for images with a very large vertical angle of view.
Generally cylindrical projection can be used with angles up to 160 degrees – anything over that will create unnaturally bowed lines. I use this type of projection if I have wider angle of view and can’t use rectilinear.
Mercator projection – Is most closely related to the cylindrical and equirectangular projection types; and represents a compromise between these two types, providing for less vertical stretching and a greater usable vertical angle of view than cylindrical, but with more line curvature. I use this type if the image looks better than in cylindrical mode.
Equirectangular projection – Can show the entire vertical and horizontal angle of view up to 360 degrees. This type maps the latitude and longitude coordinates of a spherical globe directly onto horizontal and vertical coordinates of a grid, where this grid is roughly twice as wide as it is tall. Horizontal stretching therefore increases further from the poles, with the north and south poles being stretched across the entire upper and lower edges of the flattened grid.

Nikon Speedlight SB-900 - my comments on using it.

It is not an official or systematic review, but rather several loose comments I have after using this flashgun in several different situations.I used it for indoor portraits, architecture/interior photography, outdoor portraits and landscape, as well as some night photography.

I used two other flashes for a while;  Nikon SB-600 which I love, and a Chinese flash, amazingly inexpensive, rather powerful and good - if you don't mind working with only basic settings - Yonghuo Speedlight YN460-II.
The Yonghuo has lots of bang for its money (just about $50 on ebay) - amazing value, works great in manual mode, and is perfect for general use, or as a backup flash.
Nikon SB-600 for quite a while worked for me as primary flash, and did it really well. Precision, power, endurance. I love it.   But, since the news about new super-flash Nikon SB-900 showed on line a while ago, i knew I want to use that one to.
So, some months ago I purchased it, and after quick tests decided to use it as my primary flash. It has remarkable power, much bigger than anything else around in its class. The power of SB-900 can be compared with power of some of bigger and much heavier studio type strobes, and is great outdoor, as it can overpower sunlight in some situations. Actually - its power was the major factor behind me ordering it.
So, I accepted that the power comes at cost, and at size - as it is bigger and heavier than SB-600.
Someone called it a "speedlight flash on steroids", and after a few tests I agreed with that.

It has such bang that it works great with biggest umbrellas, soft boxes, and other diffusers and modifiers, giving substantial light even after reflecting through several layers.

It also eats up batteries, much more than slimmer SB-600. I learned to always have another set or two of freshly recharged AA batteries. (by the way, I use remarkable rechargeable batteries I found in Hong Kong on ebay. They are orange-coulored CFL High Capacity AA batteries,  with amazing 3800mAH of energy, more than 4x of typical alkaline battery! So cheap, and they go really long way.)

High energy use is unfortunately not the only issue with my new SB-900 flashgun. There is a problem which I find really annoying and difficult to deal with; overheating!
It is all fine if you use your flash only sparingly. But for portrait works, or for HDR imaging, I need my flash to act often and sometimes in series of several flashes per minute. With that, I don't need to work long to hear the sound signal announcing overheating. After playing a lovely, happy melody - flash switches off for several minutes to cool down, and is simply unusable. What? Do I need to say "wait" to all people i am working with, so the flash can cool down?
It created several very silly situations for me, and also some situations where i was unable to complete my job in scheduled time.  Rather bad. Awfully bad, to be frank.
It has an override setting to disable overheating warning, but since it was factory programmed to switch off, can I risk ignoring it and frying the $500 unit? Not very tempting.

There is another option - to turn its power down, as when it is set to 1/4 or less, it does not overheat so quickly.
But the power was what I bought it for. So, if I need to reduce its power, I can rather work with smaller SB-600 which is lighter, much more gentle on batteries and easier to travel with. You can also try high zooming of flash beam to 180 or 200, as it tends to run a bit longer without overheating - but it may not be what you need on your set, so it can't be considered a working solution.

My final opinion after using it for 1/2 year?
It is a good flash which can SOMETIMES give you extra power when you REALLY need it.
But if you need consistent high power, use strobes in studio situations.
and, outdoor, on locations? turn your ISO up, and work with maximum power of SB-600 or other flashes you can get - or with SB-900 switched to 1/4 power or less.
and use higher power only occasionally, for selected shots, and only when you really need it.

I find this sole overheating issue very disappointing, and not worth the Nikon name. Perhaps Nikon's engineers should think of some cooling vents, or adding some sort of heat-sink? I don't know, but I am certain that solving this issue would greatly improve usability of this pricey unit. as it is for now - I have mixed feelings, and am not thrilled.  And, when I go for location work far away, traveling light - having pricey SB-900 at home, i travel with my old SB-600 which I find more reliable and trustworthy...

Expensive Gitzo tripod? Or some other options?

Hello,
 I wanted to share some thoughts with fellow photographers here.
As we are preparing for another location trip in the Caribbean (in October), together with Lex we decided to get some good carbon fiber tripods, light enough to carry around, but sturdy enough to hold D300 with the heaviest lens, flash, etc..
Lex bought a nice, rated 12 kg Gitzo, which is renowned as a Mercedes of Tripods. I, on the other hand have always a tendency to go sideways and experiment. I looked at less renowned brands. I like Manfrotto, but their carbon tripods are too heavy. So, I checked some others, and - decided for a relatively little known brand from Taiwan - Feisol.

Based on photo and description, I ordered on-line ( www.feisol.com )  model FEISOL CT-3441S Travel Carbon Fiber Tripod. Rated 10 kg and weighting less than 1 kg (just about 2 lbs), standing tall over 170 cm - it tempted me, specially with its price $300 - less than 1/2 of that Gitzo.
Just recently we had a chance to compare them together, next to each other. And we both were impressed with Feisol. So strongly built, it is very sturdy and has no tendency for vibration. Maybe fully extended it can be a bit less perfect, but i rarely use such height - with the Markins head it is almost 180cm high - no need for such height in 90% of my photography. Of course Gitzo is really fine and gives you legendary reliability, but it is to be expected for its rather steep price.

So, my verdict? They both are really good, a bit different in handling but Feisol is an excellent value, and fantastic quality too. if you don't care about using only most recognized brands and need to watch your money spending, you can go for it without regret. A big bang for the buck. Kudos for Feisol! Personally, I prefer it over Gitzo, just feels nice in hand.

Ah, there is something else from this kind of information i wanted to tell you. (Some of you know it already and laugh at me, that is OK :-)
Fellow photographers - if your neck hurts after handling a D300 or similarly heavy camera with 300mm lens for a few hours - consider an amazing camera strap. made by Crumpler, it has typically extravagant name as all their products. It is called "Industry Disgrace". I thought it is a funny name. But hey - you don't know why it is called like that, until you try it! It really brings shame to cheap, lame straps included with the finest cameras.
It is AMAZING! So light, but soooo comfortable. You owe it to your neck and your body. I only regret I did not buy it sooner...
Until next time!
Derek

Photoshop brush is lagging on my PC - mystery solved! (at least to me).

I have a decent Windows 7 computer with lots of processing power. Still, I decided to upgrade to a new i7 second generation with overclocked processor, SATA 6 disks and other fancy options.
So, i moved my stuff to the new machine. To my surprise- while Photoshop CS5 worked perfectly fine on my older computer, on this new super-fast beast - brushes were sluggish, lagging badly behind my movements and driving me crazy.
I checked for remedy on internet, and learned that quite a few other people complain about the lag problem.
Recommended by someone solution was to change brush "space" property from default 25 to a lesser value.  It helped to some extent, but it also changed brush characteristics. So, no good. I searched more, and found more postings on various forums.
Desperate, annoyed users tried to uninstall and reinstall drivers, Photoshop itself, Wacom Bamboo drawing pad, trying to debug Photoshop with Adobe support, etc. etc.  Somehow, I did not believe that any of these actions would solve the problem. After all - brush is one of Photoshop's basic options, and if there was a bad driver or other similar problem, it would be addressed in an updated version.
Additionally, I use both  a Bamboo pad, and also mouse. So, surely Bamboo would not affect my mouse performance.
Then, having experience with music recording on my computer - I remembered about latency problem. A similar, annoying lag between the moment one presses a music keyboard key and the moment the sound is heard. And I remembered that latency problems are related to sound card, with different brands and models having a different latency or no latency at all. So, I decided to follow the line of the card - in this case - the video card.
In my older computer I have a Radeon based card. In the new one I had NVidia Ge-force based card.

Instead of trying my luck installing and uninstalling drivers as recommended on some forums - I decided to buy a different card. I bought a simple Radeon card, tossing NVidia altogether.
That was it!!! From the moment I installed new card, all problems magically disappeared!
All works perfectly, and both my pad and mouse feel more crisp, more snappy and more precise!
They work exactly the way i like!

Worth a note is fact that I did not install anything fancy or expensive, but bought a modest card for about $80. So, it is not the fancy card which fixed it, but rather a different chip.
My conclusion is that NVidia Ge-force based cards are "not in love" with Photoshop, and possibly using Radeon cards would solve the problem. I am not a gaming guy, so I can't comment on differences between these brands when playing a game. But - for Photoshop and other editing programs - Radeon rules!
So, if you are one of people affected by this brush lag problem and you use Windows based PC - chances are you can quickly fix it (and by selling your old card you may not lose a penny on this switch!)
Good luck!

BASIC COMMENTS - PLEASE READ

Hello,
Just a few words about this blog and a few words about me:
At the time of opening this blog, I am working from Victoria, BC, Canada, often traveling to various international locations. Because i need to travel reasonably light (airlines' luggage restrictions), I don't use full frame equipment. Currently I use Nikkon D300s dSLR camera, having previous experience with many other cameras, like Nikon D90, Nikon D60, Yashica, Panasonic, Canon, some older Russian cameras like Zenith, and more.

I do not wish to discuss here advantages or disadvantages of my gear vs full frame, or Nikon vs Canon, etc.
I am a Nikon guy, but the thing is - I do not enjoy theoretical discussions which brand is better, nor i wish to know more about Canon in order to discuss such things. I am not one of these guys who enjoy testing anything they can get on hold of. I am more a practical person, and i care for results. If I can do what I wanted to to - I am happy with my gear.
So, none of my posting will be an official test or endorsement of any equipment.  I work with what I need and what I like, and from time to time - when I discover something interesting or have a comment - I simply want to share it. As simple as that.
For an extensive library of independently tested photo gear and reviews, I recommend Ken Rockwell's blog  www.kenrockwell.com

My posts are not organized by categories and can be random. Please check post TITLES to see what they are about. Thank you!

A Few lines about me:
At the time of opening this blog, I am working from Victoria, BC, Canada.
I am a member of:
CAPA (Canadian Art Photographers Association)
GMG  (Garden Media Guild, international association in UK)
PGP (Professional Garden Photographers,  international association in UK)
My photographs won various awards, such as IGPOTY (International Garden Photographer Of The Year by KEW Gardens, Royal Garden Society, UK), Four Seasons, Monochrome, and other international and national competitions.

My photos were exhibited in North America and Europe, and published by various magazines and publications, including:
Debbie Travis - Caribbean Charm, April 18 2010
Luxury Home Quarterly – Summer 2010 (main feature - 26 pages)
Building Savvy magazine vol.2 2010
ZING magazine (in-flight Liat airlines) vol.8 Summer 2010
Good Life Connoisseur magazine (Heat Wave feature) Summer 2010
Trellis – Toronto Botanical Garden mag. Winter 2011, vol.38, nr 1
ZING magazine (in-flight Liat airlines) vol.10 Jan-March 2011,
Real Life magazine, Spring 2011
Luxury Home Quarterly – Spring 2011
Pin-Up Architectural Entertainment Magazine, New York, Summer 2011
Real Life magazine, Summer 2011
and others...

I had the pleasure of working for a wide, high end clientele, including:

Lane Pettigrew Architects (LPA Inc, Florida, USA)
Cap Maison Resort (St Lucia)
Jalousie Plantation - Sugar Beach Estate Resort (St Lucia)
Mount Hartman Bay Estate (Grenada),
Sotheby's Realty International
Fort Young Hotel (Dominica)
La Giralda resort, Honduras
RealLife Magazine - Cayman Island
Zing in-flight magazine (UK, Caribbean)
Secret Bay lodge, Dominica
and many others...

I am a co-owner of Ozone Zone Books, independent publishing company offering coffee table books books, as well as custom publishing services. Our books are distributed through North America, the Caribbean, UK and Europe, as well as through major book stores on-line, and received several prestigious international awards and 5-star reviews from readers around the world.

I offer my stock images (through  Photographers Direct web site), as well as high quality photography services with an artistic edge, accepting travel assignments to Canadian and international locations.
More info on my photography services available on my personal Web site   www.artphotographyservices.com
while more info on packages (photography, photo panoramas, writing, designing, publishing, etc.) - offering one stop high end publishing and printing solutions, see www.ozonezonebooks.com/custom-orders
We offer all sort of very high quality printing materials, from books to brochures, wall calendars, folders, postcards, etc.
My Ozone Zone Books' partner art historian, researcher and award-winning author, Margaret Gajek, works with me on regular basics, lending her professional eye also to my photography jobs.
We work with a small team of highly specialized and skilled professionals, including photographer-panorama expert Lex Nowak, to offer you the highest possible quality work you require.

To learn more, see my portfolio, and inquire about any of above services please refer to listed above Web sites, contact me, or Ozone Zone Books office.

Thank you! I hope you will find my comments and tips on this blog helpful.

LINKS:
My personal site and portfolio http://www.artphotographyservices.com
Ozone Zone Books  http://ozonezonebooks.com
Ozone Zone Books blog http://ozonezonebooks.blogspot.com
Photography and publishing services offer  http://www.ozonezonebooks.com/custom-orders
My Model Mayhem page (portrait and fashion photography) http://www.modelmayhem.com/DerekGalon