Last week began the grand-tastic gift guide for 2010, where I shared 5 of 25 great gift ideas for the photographer in your life. I keep the criteria simple. First, I must either own or want it! Second, It must be $50 or less. To read the first five in part 1, feel free to hit the archive for it here. Otherwise, today, we continue with Part 2:
1. Wireless Trigger System: Pocket Wizards, Radio Poppers and Cybersyncs are great if you’ve got the moolah, but for those on a budget, there should be some happy medium to get reasonably reliable triggers. I had tried the Cactus triggers myself, and they were a good point of entry, but really just were too unreliable. My buddy Kerry Garrison from Camera Dojo has researched the heck out of this and knows his stuff on lighting. He’s put together a great kit that includes everything you need from transmitters to receivers, and PC Sync cables too, all for the budget-friendly $50 rate! Check out his demo video here and get your photographer a set of these. I can’t wait to get my own set!
Wireless triggers from Camera Dojo
2. Lexar Memory: Everyone could use an additional memory card, and with prices dropping rapidly, the 8GB UDMA CF cards are now within the budget-conscious range, so pick up a spare (or two) of these as we never have enough in our bags…this one is linked from B&H but pick your own vendor of preference as the deals are across the internet.
Lexar CF Cards
3. Black Rapid RS7 – Okay, so it’s 8 bucks over the limit, but for the portability and easing of camera holding during extended sessions, the Black rapid RS 7 is a godsend. If you don’t have one – get one, plain and simple. Visit here to buy one today!
Black Rapid RS-7
4. Online Training – a month or two from either Kelby Training or Lynda.com is just the ticket to help the photographer in your life help themselves. Whether it’s a refresher on Photoshop, boning up on Indesign, or even learning how to set up a WordPress blog or website, these are great resources for online training. Monthly rates are $25 on average, and with the holidays approaching, you could easily find discount codes or bonus offers for signing up, so consider this valuable option. It’s all part of the mentality of helping people advance in their craft through education!
Online Training
5. Light Stand – I have been procrastinating getting a second light stand for some time now and there is just no excuse. The primary is an Impact stand I got from B&H and it has served me well, so I just need to add this to my own wish list, and encourage you to add one to yours (if you don’t already have enough that is…but then again, do we ever have enough lightstands – it’s a VAL you don’t have to feed or take out for beers after a shoot!)!. Here’s my own preferred one: 10′ Impact Lightstand (Tracy, are you reading this?) I should probably note here that I am linking to the 10′ tall heavy duty one – well worth the extra investment in my opinion, but for the super budget-conscious, these can get as cheap as $20 for a light duty 6′ one!
Impact Light Stand (6' to 10')
Okay, so consider it 5.5 suggestions today. I’m sure you have your own ideas too, so feel free to throw your own suggestions in the mix. Remember, with two down and three to go, keep the ideas coming as I do have some room open for a few more! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
So many people ask me this question, or at least some variation on it. The answer I always give is, “It depends…” Then, I go on to list the various criteria that factor in to determining an equitable pricing guide for your work. Here’s a couple of the factors that I’ve always considered when setting prices for work:
1. Location – Are you in New York, Colorado, South Carolina, or California? The cost of living varies greatly in each of these areas, and what might be a good rate for Colorado would barely pay the cost of gas in California. Consider your geographic market when pricing because the market can be a huge factor in how to set pricing.
Where are you?
2. Competition – What are others charging? Here you have to be careful because there is always going to be someone who can undercut you. I see ads on Craigslist and other places all the time where photographers trying to build a portfolio will offer to work for peanuts – or even free, just to get the experience! It’s kind of hard to compete with that, so consider the “competition” as those who are in the same boat you are in.
The Competition
3. The “Target Market” – Tying all of this in is the target audience that you want to market to. If you want to bring in as many clients as possible, then you will have to market differently than if you only want to work 12 events or sessions a year. So, consider who you want to be your client list as this can be a huge determinant in your pricing strategy.
4. Type of Work – Are you a portrait photographer or an event photographer? Architectural photography? Magazine photography? How specialized is your field or niche? Different types of work can garner different rates, and rates can also vary based on hourly or flat rates depending on how you prefer to work. I know some photographers that charge based on the event, and others who charge hourly rates.
5. What’s included? – Are you talking about just the rate to capture the images or does this also include post production? What about image usage? Is licensing a factor and if so, what type of license is being delivered? if not, are you producing prints, is the cost of the capture time built in to expected sales, or are the resulting images going to be transferred to the client for their own use. This can have a huge impact on pricing because licensing fees can get pretty extensive, as can re-prints.
Costs
This is just the tip of the iceberg too…I’m sure others can offer particular insights and considerations to take into account when building out your price sheet. There’s a lot to take into consideration…and you know what’s coming – the reader question: What are your own considerations when building a price sheet? Do you charge by the hour or by the event? Have you included gear depreciation in your pricing? What about your hourly rate that you would like to actually earn versus that which goes to paying overhead? Sound off in the comments – I’d love to hear what others have included in their own formulas! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow…
Today isn’t Friday…at least in my head. Today is really Thursday night! I am winding the clock back a day just because it’s been a super busy week. In addition to the regular job, still adjusting to the time change, and prepping the house with the honey-do list, I’ve been prepping for a very exciting shoot I booked a short time ago. It’s gonna take about two weeks of preparations, and with a shoot date of Dec. 3rd, the clock is ticking…
So, to give myself another 24 to catch up, ya know what today is? Yup, no blog Friday! Have a good weekend all, and we’ll see you back here bright and early on Monday for another week of photo goodness!
We are officially into the holiday frenzy, and with Black Friday sales creeping up quickly, it’s time to start thinking of some gift ideas for the photog in your own family…or to drop subtle hints to others (if you want it for a present)! Over the next few weeks, I’ve got 25 great gift ideas to share with you. I’ve tried to keep true to some principles with these gift selections, so just to let you know, here’s my barometer for inclusion:
A. I either own it or want it! If I don’t own it, how can I say it’d be a great gift? Only if it’s something I want!
B. Let’s be realistic, the current economic trials are hitting us all hard – and throwing $100+ ideas on a gift guide is too rich for the blood of many photog-types in the trenches, so it’s gotta be cost-effective (nothing over $50)
To keep this manageable, it’s been parted out into five posts – each with 5 items. These are in no particular order, with no favoritism or affiliation to the actual products or vendors. So, without further ado:
1. Ditty Bag – My brother had some of these on our canoe trip earlier this year, and they proved invaluable in keeping my gear dry. $27 for a three-pack of dry ditty bags is a steal! From REI:
REI Ditty Bags
2. The Photo Mug – What can I say? I want one of these muchly. With my own expenditures being withheld to ones that are needed versus wanting, and not splurge items, I just have to hope someone in my family sees this:
Photojojo Lens Coffee Mug
3. The Battery Caddy – I know, this was in last years showcase, but that should tell you how much I love this. Mine was won in a photo contest online about three years ago and it has never left my camera bag. Brilliant idea, and worth its weight in gold! More options available than the AA clip shown here.
Battery Caddy
4. Flickr is probably one of the most recognizable photo sharing sites. With a pro account ads are banished and you are not limited in your daily uploads nearly as much. Only $25 gives the gift for a year!
Give the Gift of Flickr
5. Pocket Rocket from Think Tank. A sponsor of the Lightroom workshop, Think Tank gave us a bunch of these to include for each participant. I had to have one myself too, so out went the $17 – totally worth it!
Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket
Number 6-10 will be out soon, but I still have room on the list for some late additions, so if you’ve got some ideas, feel free to share (sharing is a good thing) either here in the comments or with me via e-mail. Happy shooting and we’ll see you tomorrow (or possibly Friday)!
HDR, or High Dynamic Range, imagery refers to the process of representing a wider range of colors and light in a photo than what can be traditionally captured in a single image with a camera. There are several ways to produce this HDR-effect. The most common way to produce HDR imagery is to take several exposures, by both under and over-exposing the same scene by several stops, and then combining them in post-production. This process brings out details that would traditionally be lost in both highlights and shadows from normal photography. There are two schools of thought here really on HDR:
1. The first school of thought is that we should adhere to the accuracy of what it is the sensor is capturing. By allowing for interpretation and manipulation of the pixels, photography is no longer the means of reporting things – life, as we know it!
2. The other school of thought is that pixels and cameras are simply a means of capturing a limited portion of the world around them, and that even the human eye is capturing more in a single instant than any single still image could ever hope to capture. With that in mind, it is the job of the photographer to bring to life what it is they see, and use the tools available to them to bring that image to life, whether it means performing HDR, sharpening, white balance corrections, or anything!
Now, keep in mind that there are always exceptions to the above two schools of thought. Journalism for instance, requires accuracy and not making adjustments as it really is meant as a reporting mechanism not an interpretation or individual perception of what is scene. While I am not sure where my own line of thinking really ends up on this very polarizing issue, it does seem that perhaps there is a time and place for it. Again, with all subjective work, there is a certain degree of personal preference and bias – and this also speaks to the second point, because some HDR can be really really good, while others can be really really bad. Nevertheless, for my two cents, it does seem that occasionally, there is both a time and a place for HDR. During such times, I’ve tried a variety of approaches to utilize HDR while also keeping some measure of reality in my photos. Take for example, the three images below taken at different shutter speeds, while keeping ISO and aperture constant – thus creating several different exposures of the same scene:
HDR base Images
By combining and basically “stacking” each of these images inside our post production work flow, we can bring out the details in the shadows from the first image (down in the golf course area), bring out the details from the highlights (the clouds), while maintaining the clarity of the neutrally lit areas in the middle of the photos (the rocks and pool). While there are several ways to do this, including Photomatix, HDR Pro (the one native to CS5) and several other Photoshop and Lightroom plugins like what Topaz Labs, Lucis, and OnOne’s plugin Suite), here I am using the HDR Pro function inside of Photoshop CS5.
HDR Pro Sample
I did choose the option inside the HDR Pro menu to select a more saturated image than what was originally created in camera, and it is more reminiscient of what I actually saw. So, am I cheating at what I created? Is this a “real” photo? What if I were to take another approach, and simply make some adjustments on a single image? Back to the digital work flow I go…and here is a single shot edited in Lightroom:
Lightroom HDR
Now, while there are clearly some slight differences in tonal range, saturation, and such, there are two things to keep in mind: 1 – I was making these edits pretty quick, and 2 – this is the Internet, which makes color accuracy a difficult thing to achieve. It does serve to illustrate that you don’t necessarily have to stack images in Photoshop to achieve the HDR look. Simple slider adjustments in Lightroom can approximate the same thing. As mentioned above, there are also a number of third-party plugins and add-ons that can bring this effect to life. Regardless of what the consensus is, HDR is likely a technique that is here to stay, and it’s simply a matter of experimenting and finding a technique that works for you, and that your clients, or colleagues, or friends and family, will find appealing.
This is, of course, just my personal take on HDR. What about the rest of the readership? Any thoughts on the legitimacy or validity of HDR? Does it work? Can it work? Or should we stick to trying to capture it all in-camera – on a single frame? Sound off in the comments or via email! Thanks for sharing your own thoughts, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
ETA: Don’t forget – a couple contests are going on through November and the rest of the year:
1. Monthly LDP Giveaway – Share your own “POP” themed photos for a chance to win a pack of pearl metallic paper from the folks at Red River – this paper is awesome for HDR-styles of work!
2. The Nations Photo Lab Family Photo Day – Upload your images to their Flickr Page for a chance to win a pretty impressive set of prizes including autographed books, free printing certificates, and much more!
A review lens from the folks at Sigma has been getting a good tire kicking here for the last few weeks. I’ve tested it out in a number of environments, including portrait, landscape, and throughout the zoom range. I have been pretty happy with the quality of images that have come out from it. However, a new photo/writing project is in the works that will require me to hang on to the lens for a little while longer, so I asked Sigma if they would be okay with that. Since they did confirm that, I am going to hold off on a review report here on the blog for a little while longer in order to complete project #2 (the first being the lens review). So, instead of delivering a lens review as I had originally anticipated, here’s a teaser alert from the very lens in which a review is forthcoming:
Moon
I am quite happy with the sharpness on this lens. (This was hand held…) Any guesses as to which glass did this? And for the pixel peepers out there, don’t peek at the meta or EXIF data!
At long last! After several weeks hiatus with starting a new job, and lots of other activities distracting me, I finally just dove in and assembled another podcast. No fuss, no muss, no guests, no news – it’s all you! That’s right, another Q&A show – the best of the listener questions answered in this latest episode of The Learning Digital Photography Podcast! It should be up on iTunes in a bit, and of course, is immediately available from right here in the RSS feed and the blog. Continue reading “Episode #52 – Why We Charge!”→
The kind folks at Sigma have become quite the regular contributor to the review section here – as you keep asking for lens reviews, the Sigma brand keeps coming up, and they continue to be generous with my participation in the loaner program. Thus far the lens line-up I’ve reviewed from the Sigma Collection include:
Having compiled quite the list of review lenses, I am happy to announce the latest addition to this review series (some day I hope to have reviewed every lens Sigma has! 🙂 ) I give you the Sigma 70-200 f.28…
This lens is the comparable one to the Canon 70-200 f2.8, and while I’ve not had a chance to test the Canon equivalent, there are some optical similarities. I won’t go so far as to compare it to my own Canon 70-200 f4.0 simply because there are enough differences that it would be an apples to oranges comparison. So, here I’ll just share my own thoughts and shots on and from the lens for everyone to consider. Here is everything from soup to nuts:
The (Alphabet) Soup
This is the 70-200 F2.8 EX DG OS HSM lens – quite a mouthful, but all of these features are important. The EX signifies that this lens has benefitted from the now signature finish of Sigma lenses. It’s smooth but rugged, and hard to really explain, but denotes quality and professionalism while being also understated – it means business. I’ve raved about the finish that Sigma puts on their lenses and this one is no exception. Top Notch! The DG? That means it’s optimized for Digital use. To quote Sigma,
“These are large-aperture lenses with wide angles and short minimum focusing distances. With an abundance of peripheral illumination, they are ideal lenses for Digital SLR Cameras whilst retaining suitability for traditional 35mm SLRs.”
In other words, the f2.8 means the aperture is designed for the width and opening, optimizing the amount of light that comes in, and minimizing barrel distortion. The end result of all this means you spend less time in post fixing things. A definite plus in my book!
OS is the now easily recognizable label of optical stabilization. These lenses have built in mechanisms that counter your movement to allow for shooting at slower shutter speeds. Slower shutter speeds, wide open apertures all means you can shoot and get quality results in lower light! I’ll go into more details on their OS features later though.
HSM refers to the Hyper Sonic Motor, which means nearly whisper quiet movement as the lens picks up on the AF points. Less noise means less distraction. This is good regardless of whether you are shooting portraits, wildlife, or street photography. Remember, it’s not about the photographer, it’s about the photo, and the HSM is an added bonus to help achieve that end goal!
The Nuts
All the acronyms in the world won’t tell you a thing about lens performance though, and neither will my blathering about this or that, so let’s just get to the nuts. I went out with the lens to take some test shots and basically get a feel for the optical quality throughout the lens. I took some at short range (70mm), some in the middle (ranging from 120-150mm), and some at the long end (200mm). Shot groups also were mixed between simple test shots (a street) to portraits, and landscapes to get an idea of the focal range. Here’s said shots!
The 70mm shots
70mm Portrait
70mm Roadway
70mm Landscape
Dog Portrait @ 70mm
Mid-range Shots
Mid-Range Roadway
Mid-Range Landscape
Mid-Range Park
Long Range Shots
200mm Portrait
Long Range Landscape
Long Range Landscape (180mm)
Here, you can get an idea of both the optical quality and range of the optics as well as an idea of how it would perform in a variety of functions. I should also note that I have done literally no post production work in these at all. The only sharpening that was applied was on output sharpening from Lightroom, and that was set “For Screen” by default on all my images. In other words, nothing has been tweaked. Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of the optics overall.
Pros ~
I absolutely love the bokeh on this lens at long range. It compresses subjects nicely for portraiture, and throws the background nicely out of focus with some great treatment due to the optics. These shots were taken in afternoon light, and the sun was coming in and out of the scene – which could change the settings quickly. We were shooting on a monopod, and with IS on so the minor changes in shutter speed (these were aperture priority shots) didn’t really affect us. The f2.8 end came out nicely too, which was as expected though – that’s the whole reason for the f2.8 My excitement was primarily lent toward the bokeh at the long end which came out to about f4.5 Not too shabby!
I also was a huge fan of the OS – optical stabilization. It had two settings…OS 1 for shooting handheld, which counters both vertical and horizontal axis movement, and if you are shooting on a monopod (which is common with heavier glass), you can switch to OS 2, which turns off the one axis (horizontal I think). This allowed me to take some pretty decent shots at a hockey game a few weeks ago. You may recall seeing a gallery of those shots here on the blog. I was toggling between the OS1 and OS2 for that series so some shots did come out better than others – the ones with OS2 were the sharper in the set!
Another advantage here is that the collar for tripod or monopod mounting is included. I had to shell out an additional $50 for my Canon when I bought the f4, so seeing it included here was a happy surprise. I hate to go on and on here, but there was one other feature that bears mentioning and that is the smooth rotation I was getting from the lens as I worked it through the focal range. Either this was brand new, or had just been serviced because it was about the smoothest glass I’d seen from Sigma yet…and given the laundry list up top, that’s saying something!
And finally, the last big notch in favor of it, is – of course – the price. Coming it at $1700 this lens is certainly not cheap. However the savings is still there as it offers a s$200 over the Canon equivalent which comes in at at $1900! For the cost conscious (and who isn’t these days), that $200 can go toward many other accouterments in your shopping cart! And from what I can tell, the image quality is pretty darn good. (I got my prices from B&H Photo – the Sigma one is here and the Canon one is here)
Cons ~
This was much heavier and bigger than I anticipated. It was longer than my own 70-200 from Canon. Now I grant you my own is only an f4.0 and does not have the OS (or IS if you prefer – for the strict Canonistas out there). But I was a little surprised. I think that’s why my initial shots were a little oof – out of focus – because my arms just weren’t used to carrying the weight around. Lesson learned though – when moving into the fast glass category, at least shoot with a monopod, arm strain is greatly reduced!
The other big con was battery drain. All the time I could hear the OS kicking on and off as it would sense movement, even as I walked around. This caused some noticeable drain on my battery and I found myself swapping out after about 3 hours of shooting. Maybe this is typical of optically stabilized lenses and I am just not used to it, but the drain was something else that I had to take into account. I did have a spare with me, so it wasn’t that big a deal – but I certainly could not have shot all day on only two batteries with this lens.
While the collar was included, I don’t believe the lens hood is. Now the test unit I had did include a nice lens hood with the butterflies to avoid as much vignetting as possible, but that would likely add to the cost. Based on prices seen on B&H though, that’s only in the neighborhood of $25 (Direct link to Sigma marketplace here).
The Decision:
I would loved to have held onto this lens a while longer, and truth be told, will probably end up buying it. The Canon 70-200f4 may be working its last days in my bag, just because the faster glass and features are sure to see much more use from me. Coming up tomorrow, the results of the October contest giveaway – and announcing the November giveaway…make sure you stop in for that! Happy shooting and we’ll see you then!
A recent birthday launching me firmly into my fourth decade of existence yielded some nice returns…which has afforded me the opportunity to upgrade my monitor. I’ve been in desperate need of an upgrade to my setup as I have been working off a Dell 19″ and a Dell 17″ for my two display setup for a while now. Given the birthday broohaha, I had about $250 to go find something new. So, on a shopping spree I went, and I come back from said spree, with three new nuggets of information to share…or more to beware of when purchasing a new monitor.
#1 – Understand the data
I was out two weeks ago with this money (probably burning a hole in my pocket, and came across an HP monitor in none other than Best Buy. The price was right ($249), as were the dimensions (23″). I was looking at some of the other monitors, and none really filled the bill like this one did. The only downside was that there was no USB port (or so I thought). The salesman also pointed out the contrast ratio of 40,000:1! Without thinking about it to much, I figured it certainly wouldn’t be a bad monitor – so why not give it a whirl! After all, a 30 day return policy to the brick-and-mortar worked in my favor. So, home it came for setup. A few landmines awaited:
Size – While the dimensions of the monitor are always important, another consideration to take into account is the elevation or lift you get. My old faithful Dell had a telescoping arm that elevated it nicely over my Drobo, and kept it right at eye level for me (or very near it to prevent me from hunching over too much and becoming Lurch!. The HP 2310m had no such benefit and I then found myself shopping around for monitor stands. Subtract another $40 for a decent quality stand (Allsop).
USB Ports – I neglected to consider that the HP had no USB ports. I previously had 3 things coming off the old monitor – a printer, my mouse, and a dangler I could connect my card reader to easily. So, some rewiring was in order. But, this helped me clean up some cable management issues, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Contrast Ratio – If you take away nothing else from this post, consider this: contrast ratios are meaningless! That’s right, they are meaningless numbers, generated by each vendor to measure their own “belief” of what the expected performance could be of the monitor under the most extreme settings. I got a hard knock here, recalling after some collaboration with the crew over in the NAPP forums (thanks to Andrew Rodney for the reminder). As it turns out, pretty much anything past 1000:1 is meaningless under a calibrated workspace, because monitors just aren’t made to produce a useful contrast past this once calibrated. Some of the really price ones from LaCie and Eizo do, but those are in the thousands of dollars range. So, keeping true to my budget, I had to settle for consumer grade gear. But, I wish I would have known that before buying, because the decision was made in haste and on bad information. So, lesson learned – know the important data! Contrast Ratio = 1000:1 or greater is fine!
#2 – Don’t Be Afraid to Settle
After finding out all these little caveats, I also got an email blast from Newegg, touting their Halloween deals, and of course, a monitor came up in the laundry list. An ASUS 25″ for $230! I was floored. Two more inches of real estate, for $30 less! So, I started digging into the reviews, forums, and consumer reports. I’d purchased a few of their motherboards over the years and was happy with those. A trip back to the NAPP forums did alert me to a few misgivings some had about the brand though, so I decided against returning the HP in exchange for the ASUS. After all, it was only $30 difference in price, and would have possibly got me in a situation where I may not have been able to return the ASUS without getting an ugly restocking fee. And besides, the low profile and lack of USB were also present there, so there wasn’t much to gain. Then I saw the LG.
It was on display at Sam’s Club, and I’d seen these things in use in lots of retail settings, including warehouse environments, retail, and even doctor offices. The seemed to be of decent enough quality, although the contrast was always way over cranked. I could fix that with a calibration though, so checked the price: $189! A savings of $60 (figure in tax). That would negate the $40 spent on the monitor stand and give me a little change back in the wallet. Off to the web I went for more research. Turns out this isn’t that bad a monitor. I decided to go for the savings and returned the HP, bringing the LG home. Now, all that was left was to set it up, and I was off to the races!
#3 – Calibrate it!
Last but not least, I set the LG up to calibrate. After twenty minutes trying to dial in the color, contrast, and brightness, I was beginning to understand the differences between vendor makes and accuracy. I’d heard of monitors that just wouldn’t calibrate and was suspecting that this was the case for the LG. (The luminance was just way to low, and the colors would never fully align to center in my Gretag Macbeth colorimeter. I finally gave up, and went to take the colorimeter off. On doing so, I noticed that the ambient light filter was still on the puck that I had used to measure ambient light. That explained it! Sans filter, I placed the colorimeter back on the monitor, and within 5 minutes, had things dialed in pretty close to perfect. My luminance is 0.5 off, the color is at 6500, and contrast is spot on dead center. It’s got 30 days to satisfy me (and assuming nothing else goes on sale…) So, word to the wise – when calibrating your monitor, remove the ambient light filter – it can save a lot of headache!
I’ve now moved the 19″ into the secondary position, the 23″ has become the primary, and the added benefit of the monitor stand has given me two new rows of surface area to store things like my thumb drives, media cards, businesss cards, and other bric-a-brac. More storage in an increasingly cluttered life is a good thing!
So, watch that contrast, check to calibrate, and exercise caution in spending habits – especially if you can’t return things easily.
Thew New LG Monitor
Now it’s your turn – got any purchasing stories or tales to share where you learned something in the experience? Sound off in the comments, let me know your thoughts on the above, or to share your own “war stories”. Thanks for stopping in and we’ll be back tomorrow with more photo goodness.
P.S. Another heads up reminder, that the November Newsletter will be coming out this Friday, so if you’ve not signed up – make sure you pick up a subscription for it either in the sidebar or here. It’s free, and only available to subscribers!
