LumoPro LP633 Flash Brackets: Why I Chose Them

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you likely know that I use hot shoe flashes (speedlights) for location lighting. In order to put those awesome little light sources on a stand, you have to have some sort of bracket. Tilting umbrella brackets are really helpful because they give us the ability to tilt our light source on the stand and provide a means to also mount an umbrella to that stand.

When I first started out with off camera flash, I bought some fairly inexpensive umbrella brackets, and while they did the trick, left quite a lot to be desired. Nor did they inspire confidence as the cold shoe gaps are rather large, allowing the flashes to move and wobble around in the cold shoe.

Check out this image with my notes to see what I’m talking about:

Becoming more and more frustrated, I searched out a new umbrella bracket and that’s when I came upon the LumoPro LP633. I’ve only been able to find them at one dealer, and that’s Midwest Photo Exchange. They sell for $17.95 each (only $4.00 more than previous choice) and they’re worth every penny!

These little bad boys are shorter, have a more stable tilting mechanism, and they utilize a spring-loaded plate to maintain even pressure on the side of the flash’s hot shoe, holding it securely in place.

Take a look for yourself:

So if you’re looking for a solid and decently compact umbrella bracket, I would take a serious look at the LP633 that you can pick up from Midwest Photo Exchange. (Note: Westcott sells the same bracket under their name, for $29.95 as priced from B&H Photo.)

It’s “No Blog Week”

I won’t be posting anything on the blog this week as I will be out to sea. I’ll be back next week though, so be sure to check back!

Have a great week!

Stephen

Photo 101: Open Shade is Your Friend

When you’re shooting outdoors it can be hard to find good light. Most of the time the sun is shining overhead and that light is hard, unflattering, and casts some nasty shadows. Not to mention that you’ll be lucky to get your subject to hold their eyes open long enough to get a decent shot.

So how do you remedy this? Well, if you don’t have a ton of money to spend on a huge silk (I certainly don’t) then your best bet is to find some open shade. Remember that tree location that my wife scouted for me last week? I went out there yesterday with my family to check it out for myself. No flashes, no softboxes, just the camera. It was an overcast day in San Diego anyway but this tree location really rocked because it is like a natural canopy providing lots of open shade.

Open shade will give you a much softer, window-like kind of light that is simply awesome to shoot in. One thing to keep in mind is if you’re in a location like this and it happens to be a bright, sunny day out be sure to watch out for dappled light on your subject. Dappled light is where you have a combination of hard and soft light falling on your subject. It’s ugly! Avoid it like the plague.

I shot the image above with my D90, Nikon 16-85mm VR lens, at f 5.6, 1/30th, 85mm, ISO 200. I had VR on to help ensure that I got a sharp shot. Also, another trick I used was to set my camera to shoot in Continuous Mode and let the shutter fly a few times. When you’re hand-holding at slow shutter speeds, this will help you get a sharper shot. If you shoot five you’re much more likely to have one be sharp than you are if you’re shooting them one at a time. And with digital, the film’s free!

That’s my tutorial for this Monday. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and come back again this week for more great photo tips and news!

Family Portrait Session

This time of year always gets somewhat busier for portrait photographers as there is a sudden surge of people who want to have portraits taken to send out with Christmas and Holiday cards. They can be shot in the studio or on location, depending on what the client prefers. I tend to lean toward location-style portraits because anyone can get a portrait shot in a studio on a white seamless. Why not show off the location where the client lives by shooting on location?

Here’s some shots from the session:

It’s “Lite-Post” Week

Hello to all (three) of my readers!

Just thought I would let you know that I won’t get much of a chance to post for the rest of this week as I am getting settled in to my new house and getting everything organized.  Not to worry though, as I have some pretty cool posts in the works and some pretty cool ideas to share with you as well, including a home studio setup that you can do yourself for very little cost. 

More to come next week and until then you had better get out and get some shooting done!

Take care,

Stephen

Nikon D90 (Body Only) In Stock @ Ritz Camera

Just wanted to give you guys a “heads up”.  If you’re interested in buying one of the new Nikon D90s without the 18-105mm VR kit lens, Ritz Camera.com is showing them in stock as I’m writing this.  Calumet showed them in stock a few days ago, but no such luck now. 

Here’s the link to the D90 at Ritz.

Have a great day!

Stephen

My iPhone 3G Review: This Device Is Made For Photographers

Ever since I got the iPhone 3G, I have been obsessed with everything about it.  Techies (a.k.a. geeks) like myself get all worked up over a device like the iPhone.  After spending a few weeks with it, here is my review… geared towards photographers.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of great Smart Phone or PDA phones out on the market today.  They almost all have the same features, like GPS, navigation, e-mail, web browsing, calendars, contacts, games, and the list goes on.  Most of these phones are offered in some fashion or another by every major wireless carrier.  The exception being the iPhone 3G.

As a photographers, we need to have a means to stay in constant contact with clients, websites, blogs and the like.  What I love about the iPhone is it lets me do all of those things and it also can be taken a couple of steps further.  In my review I will tell you what I like and dislike about the iPhone from the standpoint of a photographer.

What I Like:

• First off, the iPhone has the slickest interface on the market today.  The prospect of using a touch-screen and only a few buttons scares the heck out of a lot of people and rightfully so.  I thought it would be tough to get used to, but it only took me about a day to nail down typing on it for e-mail and text purposes.  After that it’s smooth sailing… er, typing.
• I love the way the iPhone seamlessly integrates with both Windows and OS X.  I’m using Windows Vista and Outlook and it syncs flawlessly with my Calendar and Contacts.  It even syncs with my e-mail if I want it to.  The sync settings can be adjust in iTunes and it’s very easy to set up. 
• If you use a free e-mail account like Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL, the iPhone already comes with built-in support and you can set up your account on your phone in minutes using Mail, included with the iPhone.  You can also use a Microsoft Exchange account if your IT department will support you using the iPhone.  Now I have e-mail at my fingertips and I can even save it for later to download into Outlook.  Even without a laptop I can communicate via e-mail with family, friends, and clients.
• One of my absolute favorite features is having photos on the iPhone.  I have a folder organized in my Pictures folder that I have broken down into two sub-folders, Portfolio and Inspiration.  This way I have a completely portable portfolio with me all the time.  I can show anyone my photos at any time on a large, bright, colorful display and I can even do a little slideshow.  Potential clients always want to see your work and handing them a business card or website address is hit and miss.  They may never make it to your site.  With the iPhone I can show my work right on the spot.  Thanks to David Hobby who turned me onto that function.
• Since the software upgrade in June, the iPhone is now capable of downloadable applications and let me just tell you, that put the iPhone way ahead of it’s competition.  Developers are so excited to develop apps that they distribute a lot of killer apps for free!  With the Word Press app, I can write and post pictures to my blog right from my iPhone.  There are several Flickr apps that allow you to upload photos from your iPhone to your Flickr account on the go.  There is also a really cool app called Pandora which is also free and provides free streaming radio to your iPhone as long as you have a data connection, either Wi-Fi or 3G.
• The connectivity of the iPhone is absolutely outstanding!  The 3G network from AT&T can achieve approximately 1.4Mb/sec download speeds and with Wi-Fi you can go even faster than that!  With Safari, web browsing is exactly the same as it would be on your desktop or laptop computer.  The ability to zoom in and zoom out lets you view websites that were created to run at a desktop resolution.  You can do almost anything on the web on the iPhone that you can do on a desktop or laptop.
• I couldn’t live without the GPS!  The Maps application (powered by Google) uses GPS to display your location and get you directions to any point of interest you would like to go to.  There are no turn-by-turn directions like you would find with a Garmin or Tom Tom, but it accurately tracks your position on the map along your route as you travel.  There are also free, downloadable apps that used the location service to tell you where movies are playing, what restaurants are around, etc.  As a photographer on travel, this is a feature that I couldn’t give up now that I’ve had it.
• The onboard camera is very handy for taking a quick snapshot and it does that job amazingly well for a PDA/phone.  I have posted a few shots that I took with the iPhone’s camera and you can find them here.

What I Don’t Like:

• The iPhone is not capable of viewing Flash-based content on the web.  This is frustrating, but I think it will only be a matter of time before Flash-based content will be compatible.
• Battery life is not outstanding.  If I’m using the phone intensively (GPS, web surfing, e-mail, etc.), the battery will only last about a day.  Since I can use the cable that comes with it to charge my iPhone on my laptop, a field re-charge isn’t out of the question.  One way I have found to lengthen battery life is to use Airplane Mode when I don’t need the data or phone features and this helps tremendously.
• Beyond the two things I mentioned above, there is nothing else not to like about the iPhone.  Even those are a bit picky at best.

All-in-all, I would buy another one of these phones in a heartbeat if I had to.  I’m glad that I waited a year to get one, as the 3G, GPS, and downloadable apps put the iPhone out in front in terms of a Smart Phone and leave the competition struggling to keep up.  Apple has done a phenomenal job with the iPhone 3G and it’s a device that fits photographers like a glove.

Hangin’ With The Strobist: David Hobby

Two days out of this past week, I had the distinct pleasure of hangin’ out with The Strobist, David Hobby.  “How did this come about,” you ask?  Pretty simple actually.  My ship is in Baltimore for her Commissioning and he happened to be available. 

Photo above by David Hobby.

So we set out to come up with a really cool photo and thought we had a plan for what would be something really special.  You know that whole “best laid plans” thing?  Yeah, it reared it’s ugly head and our plan was out the window.  (I could tell you why, but then I would have to kill you and nobody wants that.)

Not to be defeated, we decided to see what we could do with what we had available.  So we headed outside determined to overpower the sun with a few of SB-800s.   David had no problem at all doing just that.  He quickly went to work getting the exposure he needed for the background and then built up the light around me, his subject.  We were in a situation where there was no available shade for me to be in and so the only real option was to bring down the background and then bring the light up so that I was correctly exposed. 

To do this, you can use your shutter speed to control the exposure of your background and use your aperture to control the exposure of your subject.  Once your off-camera flash is set up and giving you enough light, then all you have to do is move shutter speed and aperture up and down to get the photo you’re after. 

As far as The Strobist goes, DH was a great guy and photographer to work around and I had my mind in “sponge” mode the entire time, picking up everything he was throwin’ down.  If you ever get the chance to attend one of his lighting seminars, I would HIGHLY encourage it. 

In exchange, I gave him the 50 cent tour of the Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.  From stem to stern, keel to mast, I showed him just about everything I know about this amazing ship that I serve on.  David, if you’re reading this, I hope you had just as much fun as I did. 

There will be more to come on this subject soon and I’ll be sure to keep you posted!  Have a great week!

Long Awaited Update – And More Photos Too!

We have been busy, busy, busy on the ship and I wanted to take a minute to update you all on what’s been going on.  I have been shooting as much as I can, but I just haven’t had the time to update the blog.  I hate that, but there is no way around it.

I got the chance to try my hand at aerial photography one day out to sea.  We brought a helicopter out for Deck Landing Qualifications and the pilots agreed to take me up with them so I could get some aerial shots of the ship.  During our Bravo Sea Trial, the BIW photographer, Mike Nutter, could not get up to take shots due to weather.  So here’s a few that I got from that day and I hope that you enjoy them!

I had a blast getting these shots and I hope you enjoy them!  I’m down here in Baltimore, MD for our Commissioning ceremony.  Don’t worry, I will have plenty more pictures to post this week.  I have been super busy shooting and I’ll have a little more time off to make some updates!  Maybe if David Hobby from the Strobist is in town, he can come down the ship, get a tour, and give me some pointers!  Who knows?!  Have a great week!!!!

I’m Taking The Week Off…

Yeah, right!  Hey everyone!  I wanted to let you all know that I won’t be posting anything to the blog this week as I will be back at sea this week taking the Navy’s newest destroyer out for another spin.  No, seriously.  The good news is that I’ll have a lot of time for shooting and there will be plenty of good stuff to shoot besides the usual stuff at sea.  What might you ask?  I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.  I’m kidding of course.  Kind of.  At any rate, I hope everyone has a great week and I’ll see you next week!

- Stephen