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What a Difference a Flag Can Make

The other day I was in the studio taking some portrait shots and for some reason I was getting lens flare left and right. I thought to myself I've done this lighting setup more times than I can count and I just don't remember ever having this many lens flare problems before. Then it dawned on me that I hadn't setup any flags.

I typically have a second light off to the side behind the subject as a wrap around light or hair light and normally I have a homemade flag (it's just a big piece of black cardboard) separating that second light from me. In other words the light is lighting the subject, but not directly shining back into the lens. Once it hit me what the problem was I just moved the light until the problem went away. I was being lazy and just didn't feel like digging out my flag and setting it up. This is definitely the wrong way to do it. I should have put the light where I wanted it and then flagged it. I think that part of the problem was that my makeshift flag is big and a pain to get to stand up on its own. I realized at that moment it's time to invest in some "real" flags. I have nothing against do-it-yourself-solutions. However, when the solution becomes too much of  a pain that you sacrifice the setup you want as a result,it's time to come up with something better. So I took the advice of my buddies over at D-Town TV and ordered the Matthews 24×36 flags.

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Is That 1TB in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

I recently got the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro 1TB (one terabyte) drive to test. Before this drive I was carrying TWO external hard drives with me when I traveled. One was a clone backup of my internal drive. I swear by having a clone backup because I want the ability to "boot" from the external if my drive dies right before or during a presentation. Mac OS X's Time Machine is great, but since it's not bootable, there's no time to do a restore if something happens while on stage. The other drive contains files and videos that I may use from time to time during a presentation, but don't need to tie up my internal drive with. I also use that other drive to backup photos onto from a photo shoot in my studio until I get home. 

 

The 1TB OWC Drive Replaces 2 of My External Drives

My goal for this drive was to use it to replace the two drives I'm currently carrying. I got the drive and partitioned it to 2 500GB partitions. The first partition I use to backup (clone) my internal drive via SuperDuper! The second 500GB partition is for those other misc files and temporary backups I travel with. Although I knew from a size perspective that the 1TB capacity would be exactly what I needed, I was concerned about the relatively slow speed of this drive. Most laptop 2.5" drives spin at either 7200 rpms or 5400 rpms. This drive spins at only 5200 rpms. Back in the day, some 2.5" drives were as slow as 4200 rpms. So while it's not the slowest drive on the planet, it is slower than the speeds regularly available in other capacities today. So for the choice was either carry two fast drives or one big slower drive. 

After I did my clone backup and loaded on all the files I wanted to carry via the other partition, I did a boot test from this drive while it was connected via Firewire 800. It worked. While I could tell that it was slower than my internal 7200 rpm drive, it was tolerable. Keeping in mind that I would only be booting from this drive in an emergency anyway, I can live with the speed if it means carrying one less drive 100% of the time. 

 

The Mercury On-The-Go Pro  3 in 1 enclosure

I've been a fan of this enclosure for years. Although there are certainly smaller, sleeker 2.5" drive enclosures out there, this enclosure has never failed me. I can connect via Firewire 800, 400 or USB 2. It's bus powered on all 3 ports and at a glance I can "see" exactly which drive is inside (make, model and capacity). I've had smaller enclosures overheat before and that's never been a problem for me with the Mercury On-The-Go Pro. The drive comes with all the cables you need, a carrying case and an Firewire 800-400 cable. 

The 1TB Mercury On-The-Go Pro drive goes for $260 and you can get it here.

I recommend this particular model for someone who needs to carry around a lot of data and speed is not the most important factor. If you want a faster drive, look at their other models here. The folks over at OWC are GREAT to deal with and I also buy my RAM from them too. Never had any issues buying from them. They stand behind what they sell.

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Photographers, Do You Care About Video?

There's lots of buzz out there about DSLR video. The benefits of lens selection and a more film like feel to HD video shot with these cameras can't be denied. However, from what I can see the people that are most interested in this new power are typically people that were already doing video. In other words they are videographers who see this as a way of getting better video. Now don't get me wrong, I know that there are some photographers out there that are certainly excited about the possibilities of adding video to their digital story telling. However, I'm just not seeing a landslide (yet) of "traditional" photographers getting into it. I have some theories on why this is and I think it has more to do with the post processing than anything else. Photographers already know how to capture a good image. It's probably not a stretch to say with practice they could capture a good video too. With that said, is there time for both? If you're shooting  a wedding for example, chances are you're going to concentrate on one of the other. You don't have time to capture both great stills AND great video as the bride is walking down the isle. So this means having someone else that can be on hand to capture the video. Let's call that person the "videographer." 🙂

Moving off that situation for a moment, let's say that it's something that's not as time critical as a wedding where you don't have the ability to do it over. Let's say that you are capturing portraits of the couple before the big day and you also have time to capture some video clips of them interacting with each other. Great! Now you've got both good video and good stills. What next?

 

What do you want or need in a video editing tool?

Here's where I think a large part of the problem lies. Many of the photographers I know, don't like to do image retouching and spend a lot of time on the computer working with photos. They'd rather be out shooting. So now we bring video into the mix and most of the "traditional" video editing tools are just as complex if not more so than Photoshop. Sure there are some easier programs out there like iMovie, Adobe Premiere Elements and the basic editing in Aperture, but in many cases even those apps can be daunting to a person who has never edited video before (and probably doesn't want to). So let's step back for a moment and ask the question, "if someone were to build the perfect video editing tool for a PHOTOGRAPHER, what would it have in it?" I have some ideas, but I want to make sure that I didn't miss anything, so please chime in if I did:

  • Of course it should be as easy to use as possible!
  • It should support the vast majority of video file formats coming out of DSLR cameras today, NATIVELY – No transcoding
  • We need transitions (duh!)
  • We need the ability to incorporate stills
  • We need the OPTION to zoom/pan those stills with human controls ala Ken Burns
  • We need to easily add music
  • We need to be able to EASILY add titles anywhere we want for as long as we want them to be
  • We need the ability to easily output various formats for sharing
  • I'm assuming we need to easily be able to burn a DVD/Blu-ray for people that want it on a disc
  • We need to lose the video vocabulary: I should never see things like CODECs, H.264, 16:9, 4:3, Rendering, etc. in the app. Change the terminology to be simple and plain english. ie. Export for YouTube, Save for HDTV, etc. Remember, these aren't video editors and this App isn't for video editors. They already have lots of Apps.

 

Those are the ideas off the top of my head for what I would see in a dedicated simple video editing App for photographers. Now let's say this App existed and was reasonably priced. As a photographer would you do video? Do you care or do you feel that video work should be done by people that do video? Or tell me why you're just not interested in doing video if I've missed your reasons.

 

This will make the shooting part easier

It's called the Zacuto Z-Finder Jr. It goes over the back of your LCD so that you can really have a much better idea of when something is in focus or not. You can get the Zacuto Z-Finder Jr. here from B&H.

Or go with the PRO model if you really want a great one (thanks Bruce):

The Zacuto Z-Finder Pro goes for $375.25 at B&H here.

 

P.S. My buddy Jason Levine has recorded some videos on DSLR Video Editing. Check them out here.

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So You Think You Can Be A Photoshop Evangelist?

As Adobe's Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist, a lot of people walk up to me at trade shows or send me emails saying "I would love to have your job!" Well here's your chance to show Adobe and the world how great you are:

 

Calling all Photoshop gurus…

we are hosting a contest to find The Next Photoshop Evangelist and it could be YOU! To enter, you’ll need to submit a video showing us your Photoshop skills. The Grand Prize Winner will Win a trip to Photoshop World in Spring 2011 to demonstrate their video tutorial LIVE! 

Now it's up to YOU! Find out the rules and more info on submitting your video here.

Here's a tip: having the coolest technique in the world doesn't mean much if you aren't good at explaining it to others. So while I'm sure that there are people out there that can do amazing work in Photoshop, to be an evangelist also means getting people excited and making them believe that they can do it too!

So let's see if you can impress me, because I am one of the judges 🙂

 

 

Continue reading “So You Think You Can Be A Photoshop Evangelist?”

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Apple Announces the Mac Pro Update I’ve Been Waiting For

My current "work horse" Mac is my NEW MacBook Pro core i7. Don't get me wrong, I have a Mac Pro in my home office. However, my current Mac Pro is the original Mac Pro introduced back in 2006. That's ancient in computer years. Before that purchase I was usually upgrading my tower with every other release (about every 2-3 years). Over the years I wasn't seeing significant enough performance gains to spend the money. Then they introduced an update in March of 2009 that made me think it's time to upgrade, but I just kept putting it off. Now that my favorite Adobe Creative Suite Apps are 64bit enabled with the CS5 release I knew it was time for some new hardware. The problem is  I just didn't want last year's models. So once the new MacBook Pro core i7 came out, I ordered it (from work) day one! When I got it, I ran a speed test against my Mac Pro and was wowed by the fact that it BEAT IT! Granted that really shows just how fast the new MacBook Pros have become, but what it really showed me was just how slow my old Mac Pro was. So I waited and today Apple Announced the Mac Pro update I've been waiting for. Although there was no new case design, that doesn't bother me. It does seem odd though that Apple (a company focused on design) would continue use virtually the same design they introduced with the Power Mac G5 back in 2003!

 

There are 3 new configurations, Dual Core, Quad Core (8 cores) and Dual 6 Core (12 cores)

My only debate is do I spend the $5 grand on the 12 cores or settle for the 8 cores ($3,500). My gut tells me to go 12 core simply because I don't upgrade my tower as often as I used to and the faster the machine I get the longer it will last me. I have a little bit of time to think about it because Apple is not even taking orders yet. They're saying "August" for availability. I'll likely bite the bullet and go 12 cores to have the fastest Mac rendering speeds I can get. As far as video cards go I'll replace the stock ATi card for an Nvidia card to take advantage of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5's accelerated Mercury Playback Engine. <-this was a sneak peek video before CS5 was announced.

Continue reading “Apple Announces the Mac Pro Update I’ve Been Waiting For”

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Another Successful Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk

Although we got rained out on Saturday, we didn't let that stop us and those that could make it on Sunday (plan B) came out for a great time. This year we walked the Detroit Zoo for a change of scenery. In 2008 and 2009 we did Downtown Detroit and since not a lot has changed in 2 years, I wanted to try a different locale. The Zoo is one of those places that you can go every day and get something different because not only do you have the change in seasons, but you also have the "animal activity" factor. Depending on when you go and the mood of the animals you'll either catch some great shots of them interacting with each other or sleeping 🙂 It will be great to see what everyone submits, here are a few of mine for kicks:

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading “Another Successful Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk”

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Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk is TOMORROW!

 

Although my walk is completely full with a waiting list, there are still plenty of walks you can sign up for around the world. Just head over to photowalk.com and who knows, you may capture the winning shot tomorrow.

If you're going on a photowalk tomorrow don't forget:

  • your camera (I know, but I had to say it)
  • extra charged batteries
  • extra memory cards
  • water
  • more water
  • umbrella
  • the lens you think you might want, but don't want to carry, but will be mad that you didn't bring
  • a tripod if you really want a super sharp shot, unless you just don't want to carry it (I hear ya).
  • comfortable shoes
  • lens cloth
  • GPS (I'm a geotagging freak, ignore me)
  • take the stuff out of your bag that you know you won't need (it's heavy enough as it is).
  • a good attitude
  • your best smile
  • a backup point and shoot camera just in case your pride and joy has technical difficulties

 

Have fun!

 

P.S. Things come up! 

If you can't make it, that's fine. We understand. No hard feelings. If you can't make it though there is someone else dying to have your spot. So please login to the site and click the Leave this Walk link above the map to free up your slot for the next person on the waiting list! It's the right thing to do!

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A Robot Cleans My Pool

It's not quite the Jetsons, but close enough for me. Yesterday, I did a post about my generator, so I thought I'd finish off the week with another piece on home automation and that's my iRobot Verro 300 pool cleaning robot. This is definitely one of my other favorite pieces of gear. Drop it in, let it sink to the bottom and turn it on. Walk away and in about two hours your pool is cleaned! It's a robotic pool vacuum and it works GREAT! I was amazed the first time I saw it climb the walls. I've had mine for about two years now and this is one of those things that if it died today, I'd be ordering a new one immediately. It's easy to use and maintain and takes one more chore out of my life.

Here's a short video of it in action (though it's not very exciting to watch 🙂 )

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5-YzK7EauQ

 

You can get the iRobot Verro 300 here. 

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Being on backup generator power for over 24 hours

Back in the spring of 2007 I had a whole house natural gas backup generator installed. After the big black out of 2003 that took out the whole East Coast, I knew that I never wanted to be without power for an extended period of time again. Like many preventative measures, you sometimes never have the problem you're trying to prevent. I used to joke all the time that buying that generator was the best (and most expensive) insurance I've ever bought. Since I had the generator installed the power never went off for more than 5 minutes in 3 years. Well that was until last week. I had gone out to run a couple of errands and just as I was wrapping up my last stop the sky had turned very dark (should have taken a picture) and I could tell that it was about to pour down raining any minute. I made it to the car right before the big rain hit and drove home. I noticed that it seemed a little darker than usual, but just figured it was the very heavy rain. When I got home I noticed a huge tree had fallen on my lawn. Although I knew that I was going to have to pay someone to clear that thing, I was very thankful that it didn't hit anything like the house or a car.

 

I hit the button for the garage door and pulled into my garage. As soon as I stepped out of the car I could hear the generator running on the opposite side of the rear wall. I walked into the house and all was fine. The house was cool, the lights were on and it was like any other time. However, the entire street was without power. That's when I said, "I'm finally getting some use out of that generator!" The beauty of it is, if the power is out more than a few seconds, it fires up and switches over automatically. When the power returns, the generator switches back and turns off. I love this type of automation. Most of my important gear is on UPS backups (see below), so for the most part the batteries in those units handle the switch overs quite nicely.

The next day, the generator was still running. As a matter of fact the power wasn't restored until that next evening. Although I don't wish for power outages because as a gadget junkie, they suck big time, I gotta say this was the first one that I actually enjoyed 🙂

My generator was installed by these guys.

 

For minor power disruptions I still highly recommend APC Battery Backup Units. These are not designed to power your electronics for extended periods of time. However, for your computers they will generally give you time to properly save your work and shut down. For other gadgets in your world (DVRs, Cable Modems, Routers, etc.), they'll preserve your settings and continue recording if the power is restored before the APC's battery dies.