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Review: F.J. Westcott Spiderlite TD6

There is no easier lighting setup to use than the Westcott Spiderlite TD5's. While these lights are great, everyone that uses them says the same thing. "I wish they were brighter." In other words we all wish they output a little more light. Westcott has answered our wishes with the new Spiderlite TD6's. Instead of 5 daylight balanced fluorescent bulbs you not get to use 6. This means 1200W of output instead of 900W of output on the TD5s and that makes all the difference in the world. In fact for everything but their giant softbox, a 6 foot shallow rectangle softbox <-this softbox is amazing though, I can now shoot at 200 ISO as opposed to 400 ISO.

It's more than just an extra bulb

They also made some additional and welcomed improvements. The switches on the back and now more high quality and professional looking. They also added a much needed cord switch to turn the entire unit on/off without having to climb up on a ladder when you have the lights mounted high. Speaking of the cord it's longer too. Basically the TD6 is improves over the TD5 in just about every way possible.

 

The Bottom Line

Although I love my strobes, I'm still amazed by the results I get with the continuous lighting the Spiderlites. Life will only be better with the enhancements on the TD6's. They don't get hot and are great to use in workshops/classes where you will have multiple shooters. If you're doing product photography they rock for that too! Thanks Westcott!

You can get a single Spiderlite TD6 here for about $420. My recommendation is that if you have Spiderlites already, then perhaps one TD6 to replace your main TD5. Otherwise, I would recommend this kit if you're starting out. I use a setup like this one for most of the portrait work I do!

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What I’m teaching at Photoshop World

It's almost time for Photoshop World! It's next week and I'll be teaching at this year's East Coast show. My classes are the same as they were in Vegas last fall although I'll be adding a few new twists to my Creating Interactive Portfolios Class. I'll also have some updated information for my Facebook class too.

  • Introduction to Adobe InDesign CS5
  • Creating Interactive Portfolios in InDesign CS5
  • Why you should be on Facebook
  • Importing & Managing your Images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

Don't forget to see me on the show floor as well. I have sessions scheduled in the Adobe booth as well as partner booths such as Westcott, Elinchrom, and Wacom. 

See you next week and if you have an iOS device don't forget to grab the free App here from the iTunes

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I Won’t Leave Home Without Rogue FlashBenders Again

  

I've had a pack of ExpoImaging Rogue FlashBenders sitting around for a while now. I decided to take them with me to my last workshop at Precision-Camera University. I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. This way I could teach the class on how to use studio lighting with the NEW Westcott Spiderlite TD6's, but also spend a few minutes showing what I travel with as a very portable speedlight lighting kit. Normally I travel with a Nikon SB-900 speedlight, Westcott shoot-through umbrella and small light stand for off camera flash. I had these elements with me in my carryon and showed the class how to use the umbrella. Then I broke out my Rouge FlashBenders by the same company that gave us ExpoDisc for white balancing our DSLRs. 

 

I was blown away!

They worked way better than I imagined they would. You get 3 FlashBenders in a pack and they are designed to velcro right onto your speedlight. You can then "bend" them to aim the light any way you want. Using the configuration above, I got this shot:

ISO 200, 85mm (Nikon 85mm f/1/4 Lens), f/1.4, 1/125 sec

Next I decided to create a more dramatic look (not something I would do in a beauty setup), but using the medium sized one in a snoot configuration. With it I captured this shot.

ISO 400, 102mm (Nikon VR II 70-200 f/2.8 Lens), f/5.0, 1/80sec

The beauty of these is that they are completely flat when not in use and EASILY fit in the outer pocket of my carryon suitcase. Sure I'll take a giant softbox any day I can get one, but in situations when I'm on the road and taking portraits or lighting other scenes with my speedlights, these are AWESOME!

 

You can get the Rogue FlashBenders (3 in a set) here from B&H for $104.85 or individually Large $39.95, Small $34.95, or Bounce Card/Flag $29.95. My favorites are the Large and Bounce Card/Flag.

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Meet George from LCD4Video

As a gadget guy I love finding gadgets that are useful but sometimes fly below the radar because they are not by the big named manufacturers. A lot of times there's a gadget out there that fills a need and unless you happen to be in the right place at the right time you may never know about it. Although I had ordered an LED video light from LCD4Video.com in the past, I had no idea that 1) they were located right in my backyard and 2) they have so many other cool little accessories for video and and still photography. 

LCD4Video

They sell the usual gear such as cameras, lenses, tripods, cases and lighting equipment, but they also manufacture specialty items under their own brand. I had the chance to visit their location last week to attend a seminar put on by my good friend Mark Astman representing Manfrotto, Lastolite and Elinchrom. I didn't realize the connection between the seminar and the venue until I arrived. During one of the breaks I popped into the show room and before you know it I was buying hundreds of dollars in gear. 🙂

I wanted a small HD monitor that would fit in my hotshow on my Nikon D7000 for doing DSLR video. I also wanted another battery operated LED light for doing video podcasts. These guys had everything I wanted and even the things I never knew existed. George runs a great business and sticks behind what he sells. 

I highly recommend that you check out their site and the vast collection of products they offer! It's also always good to support the local dealers when possible.

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My Custom iPad 2 Gelaskin is Here

Like I said in my iPad 2 Review, I really like the new Smart Covers for the ease of taking them off and putting them on and leaving the dock connecter exposed and dockable in keyboard dock as well as the charging dock. What I didn't like was having the back of the iPad completely exposed to scratches. So as soon as Gelaskins.com offered iPad 2 Gelaskins I placed my order. My custom designed Gelaskin arrived yesterday and fits beautifully on the iPad 2. Most importantly it works great with the Smart Covers. These skins don't use glue, they are vinyl decals that use 3M adhesive, which is repositionable. For example, I moved the one from my older MacBook Pro to my newer MacBook Pro in about 30 seconds. Since these skins are vinyl they are really designed for "looks" and scratch resistance. If you drop your device on a hard surface, it will likely get damaged. If that's your worry then get a case (not a cover or a skin).

I've been very happy with my Gelaskins over the years and this new one makes the outside of my iPad 2 complete.

You can get your own Gelaskin for a variety of different devices here at Gelaskins.com

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Great Weekend of Teaching at the Precision Camera University

I had the great pleasure of teaching my Digital Photography Lighting and Workflow Session at the Precision Camera University this past weekend. I went into this weekend with quite a bit of trepidation. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough material to fill an 8 hour day (3 days in a row).

Part of my day was spent showing various lighting setups using the NEW Westcott Spiderlite TD6's and the rest of my day was spent showing my workflow from start to finish including everything from signing model releases with Easy Release on the iPad, importing images into Adobe Lightroom 3 and managing them, delivery of the web proofing gallery via the TTG Highslide Gallery Pro plug-in and retouching in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Needless to say by the time I did all of this and allowed time for the students to shoot using the various setups that I did each day flew by.

prepping for a group shot with all the attendees, I stole this opportunity to grab one using my iPhone 4.

It was an honor presenting along side Michele Celentano, Tony Corbell and David Guy Maynard at this event. Also I have to thank the staff at Precision Camera for all the hard work that went into coordinating this 3 day event with multiple simultaneous tracks, location scouting and model/makeup/wardrobe setup.

 

John Williamson was on hand from Westcott

It was a pleasant surprise to walk in and see my buddy John from Westcott. Westcott was one of the sponsors of the event and I was there on their behalf as well as Adobe's behalf. While it was great seeing John again, he was a huge help in my classes acting as photographer assistent and I imposed upon him to kick each day off explaining the six styles of lighting. I've never heard anyone explain it the way he does and I didn't want my class to miss that opportunity. John also made for a very handsome male model 🙂

 

Briana, Cheryl-Rose, Jennifer & Sarah

    

 

Without the great models this workshop would have been a lot harder to teach!

 

Thanks!

A Special Thanks goes out to all of my students over the 3 day period. You had a choice in instructors and you chose my class. So I thank you for spending a day with me and hearing what I had to say.

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Watch Adobe TV on your iPad

Adobe TV has recently been updated to now stream videos to the iPad. You can now watch hundreds of videos about your favorite Adobe products and technologies directly on your iPad for free. These videos will stream right on the Adobe TV page or you can watch them full screen. Many of the newer episodes are now showing in HD.

You can check out Adobe TV here on your computer or your iPad.

As always you can subscribe to my videos and download them to your computer or iOS devices for FREE here on iTunes.

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5 Things You May Not Know About InDesign CS5

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpGTT4JP9-k

 

In this episode I'll show you 5 features that you may not know about InDesign CS5. These are just 5 of the many little productivity features that are under the hood in InDesign CS5 to make life easier for InDesign users each and every time they use the application.

 

See more of my Adobe Creative Suite Videos on my Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and get the App here. It features EXCLUSIVE CONTENT that no one else gets to see. This episode has a BONUS CLIP that is available only in the App:

Learn Adobe Creative Suite with Terry White - Wizzard Media

 

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Review: Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air with Built-In AirPlay Support

I've been a long time user of Apple's AirTunes (now called AirPlay) technology. As a matter of fact I bought the AirPort Express the day it was introduced, to be my travel WiFi hotspot, but then I quickly saw the benefits of wireless music streaming and set them up throughout my home. Each AirPort Express I have is either plugged into a powered speaker system like the Bose SoundDock or a surround sound system. Life has been good with this setup and it continues to get better now that Apple is putting AirPlay technology into more things. I also like steaming to audio to multiple rooms. I was really curious though what it would be like to have an AirPlay device that had this support built-in as opposed to having to tack on an AirPort Express to each speaker system. While the AirPort Express provides audio AirPlay support to any device with an audio-in jack, it is an extra expense and requires a cable to the audio device. 

 

Bowers & Wilkins shipped one of the 1st Speaker Systems with built-in AirPlay support

During last weekend's iPad 2 madness I noticed that my local Apple Store had the Zeppelin Air in stock. These speakers are sold out just about everywhere and even the Apple online store quotes a 3-5 week wait. It's not everyday that I plunk down $600 for a new sound system, but I was willing to give this one a shot. AirPlay is a great feature, but it has to sound amazing too. Bowers & Wilkins has a long standing history of making great sounding audio gear. I wasn't really worried about it not sounding great.

 

Setup could have been easier

The Zeppelin Air is beautifully packaged and unboxing it only takes a few moments. They supply a wireless remote, power cable and ethernet cable. The ethernet cable is really only needed for the initial configuration and this is what could be improved. In order to set it up (following the directions) you plug the ethernet cable into the speaker and into your Mac or PC. Then you fire up a browser and go to 169.254.1.1. However, you would have to know that the only way this will work is if you have disabled your Mac/PC's WiFi connection and the only connection you then have is via the Ethernet cable. Luckily I knew this going in. Also it takes a few moments for your computer to realize that this is the only connection you have before it brings up the page. This may cause some users to think that it's not working.

Once the built-in web page comes up you use it to select your WiFi network and enter the password for it. You can also use this opportunity to name the Zeppelin Air whatever you like. This name will show up whenever you go to choose it in iTunes or other AirPlay compatible Apps. While this seems straight forward you get a big warning message that unless you read it slowly, it will sound like the setting you just made didn't work. What the message is really warning you about is that "if" you entered the wrong information on the "previous" screen, it may not connect to your network. Duh! This warning should be on the screen where you're actually keying in the info. I did it 3 times before realizing that the message wasn't saying that it didn't work, it was saying that it may not work if I keyed it in wrong. After you click OK, you disconnect the ethernet cable. The flashing LED will turn a solid dark red if it worked and connected to your network. It also takes a few moments for it to connect, causing a bit of anxiety.

I also took this opportunity to download the latest firmware update from the B&W site and install it. This is when I knew that the process above could have gone better. The firmware update installs via a USB cable. Yep, there is also a USB port on the back of the speaker too. They don't supply the cable, but it made me think how much easier this whole setup could have been had they allowed it to happen over USB instead of Ethernet. There would have been no need to screw with your Mac/PC's network connection at all.  Oh well, it's up and running now!

 

The Zeppelin Air is Live on my Network

Once I got through the setup and Firmware update the next thing I obviously wanted to do was hear my new investment. While I could have simply docked an iPod or iPhone on the built-in dock, I wanted to hear it via AirPlay. So I fired up iTunes 10 and started streaming music to it over the air As I expected/hoped the sound was AWESOME. Nice bass response and just and overall great sound. I've often professed NOT to be an audiophile. I'm not one! However, I can definitely tell the difference between this speaker and other lesser speakers that I have around my home. It easily fills the room I have it and then some. No hiccups or other delays in streaming.

 

AirPlay from Devices

Since AirPlay is built-in to iOS 4 I can pickup  any of my iOS devices (iPad, iPhone 4 or iPod touch) and start streaming audio directly to this speaker. Besides having the ability to stream iPod content I can stream audio from Apps like Mobile Safari, Pandora Radio, YouTube, SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, etc. See more AirPlay Enabled Apps Here.

 

 

The Bottom Line

There really isn't anything "special" about this speaker system. It has AirPlay built-in! However, and I stress this again that the same exact thing can be accomplished with an AirPort Express Base Station and ANY speaker system, including other Bowers & Wilkins Speakers via a line out of the AirPort Express and into the speaker's audio-in jack. If you are starting from scratch and looking for an all in one solution that only has a single power cable once it's setup and sounds great, this is it! Audio streaming has been flawless so far.

I expect a flood of these kind of devices in 2011. I'm also hoping to see some video displays with AirPlay built-in for wireless streaming of video and audio. This is just the beginning.

You can get the Bowers & Wilins Zeppelin Air here for $600 or less.

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Review: iPad 2

It appears that by all measures the iPad 2 launch was a success! iPad 2 officially went on sale in stores at 5PM local time on Friday, March 11, 2011. Online ordering opened up at 4AM ET the same day. When I woke up around 7AM and placed an order, my delivery time was set at 5-7 days. Apparently I missed the window of 3-5 days earlier in the morning. About an hour later the wait time went to 1-2 weeks for new orders and currently sits at 3-4 weeks for any new orders. This translates to Apple is selling iPad 2s as fast as they can build them and new orders will see a 3-4 week wait time. Placing an online order first thing in the morning for many served as a backup plan in case they didn't get one that evening locally.

Luckily, I was able to snag two at my local Apple Store. I got the 64GB black Wi-Fi+3G and the 32GB white Wi-Fi+3G (both on AT&T). I think the thing that surprised me the most was that even though there was a long line at most Apple stores throughout the US, Apple employees were still taking the time to offer a "personal" setup and walkthrough of the device. For many waiting in line, this meant that it was going to be a long night.

 

First Impressions

When I picked up the original iPad out of the box, my first reaction was "it's heavy". It was heavier than I expected it to be and I knew from that moment that it would not be comfortable for one handed reading for long periods of time. When I picked up the iPad 2 out of the box my initial reaction was "wow, it is lighter." On paper the iPad 2 is not that much lighter at all (1.34 lbs vs. 1.6 lbs). However, it is noticably lighter in reality. I still think it's probably too heavy for long periods of one-handed reading and the Kindle wins in that scenario big time, but for those of you who wished the iPad were lighter to hold and use, I'm happy to report that it is. Also with the new flatter back and rounded edges it's just more comfortable to hold in general. 

While I know that it now has a dual processor A5 chip and significantly faster graphics, I haven't actually felt the effects yet. This is largely due to the fact that I never felt that the original iPad was slow. The iPad 2 is fast and Apps open quickly and graphics display beautifully and fast. Again, I haven't been wowed by the speed increase though. I also have always said that we quickly assimilate speed. You don't really realize how much faster something is until you go back to something that was slow. So perhaps if I spent a day back on my "old" iPad I would notice it more.

 

Smart Covers

I opted for the red and black leather Smart Covers as well as an Orange polyurethane Smart Cover. I know that it's the little things in life that really matter sometimes and this is one of those times. During the keynote and introduction of the iPad 2, the thing that I was most excited about was actually the NEW cover. Don't get me wrong, I've wanted the cameras since day one, but we all knew that the cameras were coming. What we didn't see coming was the new Smart Cover design. Although I have a few different cases for the iPad 1, I was never really in love with any of them. I liked the Apple case the least, which is what lead me to buy the other two in the first place. I liked the Macally Bookstand Case (the one I used the most) and Incase Convertible Book Jacket, but while the Macally case was nice and thin, it never felt stiff enough and while the Incase offered the most support for standing it was too thick. So I alternated between them constantly.

The Smart Case is perfect for me! It keeps the iPad 2 nice and thin for travel. It attaches and detaches in a second. Also it's integrated in that opening the cover turns the iPad 2 on and closing it turns the iPad 2 off. By not covering the back it also makes it very easy to use with accessories such as docks and keyboards. 

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