Cheap Bouncy Fun

A couple of weeks ago, when we ran the post on the DIY bounce reflector thingie, I got several "Do Not Publish" comments that basically said:

"Are you brain dead? Do you realize you are pointing people to instructions to DIY a product made by one of your advertisers?"

To that, I say:

"Geez, ma, why do you always leave DNP comments on my blog? Can't you just phone me like all of the other bloggers' moms do?"

Kidding -- I love Mother Strobist to bits, which is why I always take advantage of any excuse to run her photo on the blog. (Click it for a corner headshot tute.) And I certainly hope you did not get the wrong idea from that headline.

But while I'll grant you that the brain-dead thing may be debatable, there are actually some gear manufacturers who genuinely want to teach people to light -- whether they buy the gear or not.

Don't believe me? Check out this video from Lighting Academy, after the jump.
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I know lots of questions are popping into your mind right now. Questions like:


• Why would a lighting gear manufacturer publish DIY tips using Home Depot stuff?

• Forget the lighting tips, where can I get that fly outfit?

• And, how come German mannequins got nipples and ours don't?


Actually, turns out that the low-budget themed Lighting Academy is run by the very same folks who were being DIY-hacked by the blogger in the post mentioned above. It is the pet project of Peter Geller, the head honcho at California Sunbounce.

And while CSB's pro gear may not be for the faint of wallet, what he really wants is to teach the world how to shape light. Lighting Academy may have an ad for CSB on it, but it is also chock full of videos (with English versions coming on line soon) to show you just how simple it is to shape light with cheap, DIY gear.

I do not have to tell you how cool I think that is, and how happy I am to be associated with CSB as a result of that compass point. They have produced a ton of videos (link below) on how to light using the CSB line. But even if you can't afford the good stuff right now, you at least can afford the good light.

My only question: Why doesn't every company do this? Seriously, if you are a lighting gear company, how can you not be doing this?

It costs very little. And CSB is not giving away the store, either. Quite the contrary, they are minting photographers who want to better shape their light -- even if they currently are dirt broke.

And if there is any justice in the world, some of that good karma will come back later when the DIY-type photographers want to pony up for the good stuff later.

You can watch more cheap, bouncy fun at Lighting Academy. And you can see CSB's ever-expanding library of lighting videos here.

First Look: Annie Leibovitz At Work

UPDATE: Annie Leibovitz passed through Seattle on her book tour, much to the delight of a few Strobist readers...
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First previewed here last August, Annie Leibovitz: At Work is finally wrapped in those little brown Amazon fold-boxes and hitting doorsteps everywhere.

I have just spent the afternoon with my copy, which I pre-ordered when it first became available. It is a departure from the previous picture books she has published, the main difference being much more back story to go along with the photos.


What to Expect

Originally, I expected to get a more nuts-and-bolts, gear-and-technique type book. But instead the she spends the time on her experiences surrounding approximately two dozen different sittings and projects.

Instead you are taken along with her on her shoots, almost as if she is sitting down after each one and talking with you about it over a cup of coffee. Much space is given to her approach, what she is thinking, problems to be solved, photographer-subject interaction and the like.

From the comments I get in the On Assignment posts, it is clear that many people put a premium on this type of information. From my perspective I have sometimes found that hard to understand. (Just shut up and tell us how to light it, Flash Boy...)

But having read through Leibovitz's book, I find her openness and honesty about the process to be far more valuable to me than the lighting stuff. The cover may show her inside of a typically Leibovitz lighting setup, but the book is not about lighting. It is more to get you inside her head.

If you are a fan of her work, you will find it very enjoyable -- and come away with a much better understanding of her motivations and how she works. If you are sick of her, this book will only make you more so.

Count me among the former.

The book comprises her entire career to date. She revisits the early days at Rolling Stone, the American Express ad campaign, Vanity Fair, etc. She spends time on those multi-panel "big pictures" that did for VF, too.




For those of you who are not near a Borders or some other big book store, I did a quick thumb through of the book simply to give an idea of the photos-to-text ratio. While not a picture book per se, it is very much a book about photography. And by that, I mean a look at everything that goes into Leibovitz's photography.

You'll remember the YouTube video (since pulled) of her session with The Queen. Having seen footage from that shoot, it is very interesting to hear her talk about it, too. She devotes ten pages to that shoot, and includes each of the photos approved released from it.

I was surprised to find that not one, but two of the Queen photos are composites. Also, I found it oddly gratifying to read how the whole thing seemed to be coming apart at the seams in Leibovitz's mind. Of course, she was still able to make four gorgeous historical portraits despite her internal panic.

That tells me much more than the shoots with her Hollywood pals who will do damn near anything for her. I expect that this is a book I will read a few times at different levels, trying to glean what information I can that will help me with my own portraiture.

She does spend a chapter on gear: Cameras, lighting, fans, music, etc. But that is not the focus if the book.

Which is fine. The lighting stuff is physics. A trained monkey can do that, my friend Jed Kirschbaum is fond of saying. (I would note that Jed shoots mostly available light, tho.)

What I am interested is learning more about the difference between the way I think and the way someone like Annie Leibovitz thinks. And for that, At Work foots the bill.

If you have gotten a copy already, sound off in the comments. More voices, the better. Didja like it? Didja not? Why? Why not?

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Annie Leibovitz: At Work is available at Amazon.com and, soon, at bookstores everywhere.

On Assignment: WiMAX

I am a geek.

For the first 30 years of my life, that was seen as a liability. But lately, it has been a lot more fun.

And as a geek, when I got a recent assignment from USA Today to shoot the first-ever rollout of WiMAX on a city-wide scale, I was stoked.

If you are not familiar with WiMAX, think Wi-Fi, stretching for several miles from each access point. Think 5 megabits downstream and 2 upstream in a car traveling 70 MPH on the interstate in the middle of nowhere -- WiMAX rocks. But as sexy as the tech is, my assignment was to shoot a photo of guys testing out the system.

(I don't care. I am still interested.)

And on top of the potentially boring picture part, the worry was that they might be showing up just for our benefit. That is always a concern on this kind of a newspaper shoot.

"Use your judgement," the editor said. Which is fine up to the point to where you try to figure out what you will turn in if it turns out that the whole scene is a setup.

Needless to say I wanted to light, but I did not want the gear to create a big fuss and influence the scene. So I went with a single SB-800 on a stand. Speedlights give me the ability to light quickly, portably, and without the excess gear that can influence a situation.


Flash on a Stick

The assignment was to shoot technicians testing the WiMAX gear in Ellicott City, MD, then head up to Baltimore's Inner Harbor for a rooftop installation which would afford us a full view of the city the WiMAX was designed to cover. So I knew where my lead photo would be -- on that high-rise rooftop. My plan was to shoot the techs first for the jump page (assuming they were really working) and then move on to the second site for a cool, lit-portrait lead.

"Plan A" bit the dust as soon as I arrived at the installation testing site. Turns out the next site had the antennae enclosed in a shed on top of the building. No view for me. Now the technician/testers were gonna be lead. The good news was that they were actually working, and not just for my benefit. (That was a relief.) So I stuck the SB-800 on a stand while I wondered what the heck I was gonna do for a jump page photo.

Bare speedlight on a stand is usually the first thing I do when I get to an assignment. I am almost certainly gonna use at least one, and it allows me to appear to be doing something while in fact I am wondering what the heck I am going to shoot.

True to form, the tech was working in the strong shadow created by the morning sun. Ten years ago, this would have pissed me off as I resigned to use on-camera fill flash. But today I see this as a blessing -- it gives me nice diffuse light a few stops off of my main ambient exposure in which to build some directional light.

Looking at the photo up top, with sun coming in from back camera right, the obvious key light position is gonna be from front camera left. This crosslights the tech who is wearing a branded XOHM shirt -- as I am sure he does every day even when newspaper photogs are not there shooting him. (Hey, at least he is doing real work. I'm not complaining...)

But that key light is gonna leave me with dark, harsh shadows both on my technician and in the area where he is working. So I stuck another SB on my camera to reach up in there and provide some fill. Now we have a no-fuss, three light setup: Sun back/right; key front/left and fill from on-axis.



In a situation like this, shooting in manual is probably gonna make more sense than TTL. Reason is, that highlight on the panel at left is gonna change as you change your shooting angle. And it could very well influence your TTL response. I used both TTL and manual in this shoot, but ended up in manual just for that reason.

For a trigger, I fired my fill light on-camera and slaved the SB-800. Dear Lord, I love those perfect little flashes.

Last week, we talked about how to do this in TTL mode. It is very easy in manual, too. Crank the ISO down low. Shutter at 250th of a sec. Choose an aperture that gives you a nice, rich exposure. Bring your key light in against the ambient on manual power until it lights your subject well.

Generally, in a situation and working distance like this a 1/4-power manual shot is gonna get you very close. If it is not dead-on, it is in the ballpark for an easy, quick adjustment.

The key-to-subject distance is fixed, so nothing changes as long as your ambient is constant. If the sun goes behind the clouds, open up your shutter to adjust your ambient and then keep shooting. It's so easy, even a photographer could do it.

The one variable you'll need to keep an eye on is the on-axis fill if you are working in manual flash. I dial in the power level until the fill looks good in the screen on the camera back. Then I adjust it, based on whether or not I move in or out from the subject. Remember, this flash exposure is going to change as your camera-to-subject distance changes.

But you can use your movement as a quick flash adjustment, too. If I need a tad more fill light in manual I may just move in a foot or two and zoom out to compensate. Presto, your manual fill flash is brighter. You get the idea.

I knew a wrestling shooter who used to fine tune his focus that way before the days of autofocus. He would just sway to and fro as he shot, looking like he was lost in some sort of religious chant. Worked, too. Or maybe he was praying for sharp photos. I certainly have done that on occasion.

Back to the light, the on-axis fill defines the contrast range of the photo. Ambient sets the environment, key light properly exposes the subject and on-axis fill dials in the shadow contrast. He wasn't doing anything sexy (unless pumping stream after stream of throbbing test data through a network turns you on) but I was able to get quite a few different looks very quickly with this lighting setup.


On to Plan B

So, now that the skyline is a bust and the jump photo has just bubbled up to the lead, I need a new jump photo. A few questions later, we find out that other engineers are testing WiMAX bandwidth with mobile laptops nearby.

That is not the kind of photo that would normally excite me. But compared to not having a jump photo, it is absolutely fantastic. A half hour later we caught up with them, sitting in their car in crappy overhead light.


Once again, what I used to consider as a liability is now an opportunity. My guy is sitting in a car in backish/overhead light, working on a laptop in a car. (Yeah, I know -- they can't all be firefighters tossing babies out of burning buildings.) But, like I said, compared to having no jump photo I'll certainly take it.

Again, bare flash on a stand makes easy work of a guy in a car. I just walk it around to the front of the car and aim it through the front windshield by sighting the angle from the flash. I aimed it to hit his face from a profile-to-slightly-backlight position. I set the flash on 1/4 power (I hang out there a lot) and walked around to check the intensity and direction of the light.

Direction was good, but the light level was a little off. A quick adjustment of the flash's power level and I was in business. Trigger on this setup was a Pocketwizard. (Since I was not using on-axis fill, I had no light to trigger the key via optical slave.)

Are these sexy, glamorous photos? No. They are simple, block-and-tackle, hit-for-average shots that define what you settle for on the low end of the quality scale.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: I consider these photos just as important to light effectively as is the bigger stuff. All the more so, really, when you consider that what you do with these types of jobs define the "floor" on range of what you produce.


CYA With a Detail

One last thing. Like Bob Hamilton, my DOP at The Sun, used to tell me: Always look for a detail photo.

If you get into a practice of grabbing at least one relevant detail on every assignment, you frequently will save a page designer's butt. And occasionally you'll save your own. And if your light-on-a-stick is already set up, adding dimension to the detail shot is a very easy thing to do.

For this close-up shot of the XOHM WiMAX card, I already had back/overhead key from the sun. So sticking my flash down close to the ground in front and uplighting the card was the best way to cross light it to give it a little more pop. Nothing earth-shattering, but it gives a secondary highlight and makes it look better than a one-light-source shot.

Did I mention how much I love those 5-section, compact light stands? This is one reason why: You can crank them down to the height of a tiny background stand for a quick uplight when you need it.

Again, nothing sexy. But being in the habit of lighting the details (and shooting them, for that matter) is a good work ethic and will pay you dividends down the road.
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NEXT: On Assignment: Manil Suri

Jerry Vo Takes October -- With a Pair of 'Ebay Remotes'

Congrats to Jerry Vo, whose days of annoying strobe misfires are history. Vo shot his way to a free pair of Pocketwizards for the month of October in the Going Wireless contest by using a pair of what have ironically become known as "poverty wizards."

He'll be able to shoot his next model from 1600 feet away.

If you want a shot at the last set of PW's to be given away, you'd better hustle up. The last day to enter a video (or re-tag an existing video) is November 30th. Chop chop.

More on Vo, including links to more of his work, at the Pocketwizard Blog.

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Orbis Enters the Ring

The much-awaited Orbis Ring Flash Adapter is finally coming off the production lines. Enlight Photo has moved from a teaser site to the Full Monty, with lots more details and pix.

Orbis is the first (non-DIY) competitor to the Ray Flash, and lowers the entry cost for a commercial ring flash adapter.

Highlights:

• Introductory Price: $169 US (with $16.99 shipping to US - for other areas see site)

• One size fits most all shoe-mount flashes -- except the big-headed Vivitar 285, apparently.

• Requires off-camera sync of some kind (can use off-camera TTL cord)

• Larger lighting surface area than Ray Flash - (should be softer light, will test soon)

• First units ship in December, in three weeks

More details, FAQ, pix, etc., at Orbis website.

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There Goes the Neighborhood

I first got to know Drew Gardner by reputation before I ever met him. I was standing in The Flash Centre's London store and I saw these amazing, humongous photos on the wall. They were beautifully lit, but they also had a unique personal style and were full of humor. Anyone who makes shots like this has got to be fun to hang around with, I remember thinking.

The first time I met Drew in person, we had both just arrived at a hotel in Dubai in the middle of the night. I knew he would be there and recognized him from the accent and the clean-shaven head from the back.

We were both dog-tired from the flight. He did not know who I was. We had not yet even met. Perfect time to have a little fun...

So, here's drag-assed Drew, looking like a boneless chicken trying to get registered at the hotel. The only thing he is still carrying is his California Sunbounce kit, which only weighs a few pounds. But we can fix that.

As he talks with the desk clerk, I very lightly place a hand on the CSB kit hanging on his shoulder. If you are going to do this kind of thing, always start with a very light touch. Then add just the tiniest amount of weight to your hand. A little more. A little more.

The object is to make that thing go from a couple of pounds to twenty or thirty pounds without the guy noticing the change. One's goal is to boil the frong, as they say.

About 30 seconds into it, he finally gives up on resisting the pressure. He collapses his shoulder, turns around saying "What the...?" and sees a smartass photographer whom he had never met smiling at him with a hand still on his CSB.

I am happy to report that Drew didn't punch me in the face. Which, of course, means that he truly is a guy who you'd want to hang out and have beers with. And we have tested that beers thing on several occasions since.

But Drew is more than just a good guy, he is a helluva photographer. He is an A-lister out of the UK, and I am very pleased to welcome him to the world of photographers who are blogging with the goal of teaching others.

The guys makes some amazing photos, and has a wonderful sense of humor and whimsy that shows in his work.

He likes to play with the big toys, as shown in this video of him testing out the brand new Phase P65+ medium format digital back:




Drew's world is one of big lights and big ideas. I mean, when is the last time you rented a water buffalo for a shoot?

He has been blogging for a little while now at "The Dark Art," his quirky little corner of the photo world.

I very much hope you'll put him on your rounds / RSS feeds / whatever, as I can tell you from experience that you'll learn a lot hanging out with him.

Right out of the blocks, he has pieces on subtractive fill for white-on-white, the anatomy of a composite shot and a test drive of the new P65+ back.

He even takes you back to a time long ago, when he had youthful idealism and hair, to tell you how it all began.

The world of photographers educating other photographers just got a little bit better. I hope you'll join me in welcoming him to the neighborhood. And if you want to see more of Drew's work, his main photography website is here.

Light Fare in Bilbao

If you happen to get hungry for tapas in Bilbao, Spain this month, be sure to stop by Café Iruña. The restaurant, which has been in continuous operation for over 100 years, is featuring an exhibition of photographs by Strobist readers.

There's even a meetup scheduled. Thanks much to Rafa at SeE for the assist.

If you are looking for an outlet for your local band of lighting enthusiasts, consider offering to do a group show at a coffee shop of local café, etc. They are always looking for local art that has a little edge to it. And it will help you hook up with more people in your community, be they fellow photographers or future clients.
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MORE INFO:

Map/Info
Newspaper story on exhibition (in Spanish)
More photos (slideshow)
(Photo: El Correo Digital)

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