Flash??

 

Ummm.... ok. So I'm practicing the whole strobey light thingy. Ok, so I've mentioned that strobing is hard, right? It takes practice. If you don't have time to learn it, you're going to get really frustrated, really fast. Either committ to learning and seeing light or find a different hobby. The photo above is a self portrait. The goal of the photo was to light a portion of my face. Is the photo perfect? Well, it depends on what YOU consider perfect. Did I accomplish my goal and learn something during the process? Absolutely! To get the shot, I used my SB600, a shoot-through umbrella and the movie screen in my basement as the backdrop. Lesson learned: Patience is a virtue, Shutter speed is a God-send.

White Balance is a son-of-a........

For the record....If your White Balance is set to auto in your camera, please be mindful of the maximum color temperature that the automatic feature supports. Nikon's D700's white balance works quite well. Problem is, it only works between 3500-8000 Kelvin. Drop below 3500K and your pictures will look like yuck.

If you're thinking, "Oh, I'll just fix it in post," you're sadly mistaken. Thinking about clicking the auto white balance feature in Lightroom or PhotoShop? Yeah, well... good luck with that. Let me know how that works for ya. I'm not saying that it can't be done. I AM SAYING that there are better uses of your time than correcting the white balance of 300 photos that have various lighting scenarios.

Here's the thing. If you're using the auto white balance feature on the camera, do yourself a favor. Get some gels, and an expodisc. Now, I'm not saying that you HAVE to purchase those items, but I am saying that if you don't, you'll want to shoot yourself in the face upon viewing the results of not having utilized those items.

Nothing ticks me off more than crappy white balance. It's one thing to artistically use white balance. It's another thing to not know how to set white balance and proving that you're a moron.

Walking into the light....

Yeah, well.....obviously I'm getting ready to do the flash thingy. Yeppers. I've got a couple of speedlights (SB-900 and SB-600) and I think I'm ready to take on the world. Ok, well.... maybe not.

I'm reading Hot Shoe Diaries, Nikon CLS Digital Field Guide and Understanding Exposure all at once. My husband thinks I'm studying for the final exam of Photography Lala Land. It kinda feels like it too. This lighting thing is no JOKE!

Thanks to Hugh Toward over at http://www.cameracard.ca for being my guide and making plain English out of what I'm reading. This stuff can be complicated, but having Hugh is making all the difference in the world. Besides... who else can say that their Jedi-Light Master tutors them from Canada, eh?!! Hugh rocks! By the way, if you're looking for stuff... Hugh sells camera stuff!

Another day...

Photography is OVERWHELMING!!!!!! There. I said it. I'm not the first, and I definitely won't be the last. Photography is so overwhelming that I want to shoot everything and nothing at the same time. Perhaps I should spend more time with Adobe's CS5 Master Collection. Simply owning such a magnificent piece of software heaven isn't enough. I should learn to fully appreciate it. Eh, but not tonight. I'm tired.

My Big 'Fat' Street Photography

I love Street Photography anything remotely close to what I consider hyper-photojournalism. It's fun. It's amazing. It's anti-everything that people hate about themselves. I recently posted some of the street shots that I captured at the county fair. Whew! Talk about folks getting upset! The photos that got the most attention, were of very large women standing in line at various concession stands. Those photos hit a nerve.

Personally, I find a photo of an overweight person standing in the 'fried Oreos' line very amusing. Why are people getting offended, as if I had done something wrong? This was not an expose on 'Obese Americans', I took photos of situations that amused me.

At what point did 'fat' become a protected class? Is the expectation that 'Street' photography exclude fat people and only capture thinner people? Wouldn't that be an act of discrimination? I digress.

Pay no attention to the man behind the camera.....

...and don't hire him either. There seems to be some confusion about who or what a photographer is or isn't. Frankly, I think that the confusion is baseless. Yes, it's baseless. Why? It's baseless because the most important thing that a photographer isn't just some guy or gal with a camera. Consider the following:

1. If your great uncle Bob, get's a DSLR for Hanukkah, he is NOT a photographer.

2. If your mother's neighbor's step daughter from Iceland takes a class in in grade school on the history of Eastman Kodak and owns a polaroid, she is not a photographer.

3. Purchasing a D40 does not make a person a photographer. While I understand that some will make the argument for diffusion, sorry... it's not gonna work.

4. Owning a camera and hanging out at Nikon-Digital does not make a person a photographer.

5. Being a complete gear-whore of all things Nikon doesn't make you a photographer. It simply means that you either have parents who were generous with your trust fund or the cops are simply waiting to apprehend you and reclaim the money you stole from the bank.

I loathe folks who acquire a camera and then self-proclaim the title of Photographer within minutes. Did I say "loathe?" Perhaps I didn't use strong enough language. It pisses me off.

If you can't figure out why there's a yellow haze to your photos, maybe it's not a good idea to open up shop. Photography is serious. Titling oneself as Photographer means that you take full responsibility for immortalizing life. The word 'life' only has four letters, but it's a pretty big and powerful word. The word 'life' is SOOOOO important, that it keeps company with the likes of other big words such as 'civil litigation' and 'bankruptcy'.

People with cameras who don't have the chutzpah to post their work such sites as DP Review, Photocamel, or Nikon-Digital for C&C are not Photographers. Heck, GOD BLESS anyone that can manage to crawl past any of these forums with all of their teeth and their tails not tucked between their legs. The folks that play at these playgrounds can piss on an ant's ass from an airplane.

A good photographer can earn a lot of money. A good photographer cares about the quality of their work and the strength of their reputation.

A good friend will look at your photos and say, "Ooooh, nice pic!" A good photographer will say, "Are you fucking kidding me? You're gonna attach your name to that shit and try to sell it?"

Exposure Value: What The Hell Is It?

I'm sure that if you ask 20 people for the definition of Exposure Value, half will give you a definition for Exposure Compensation while the other half will provide an answer to a question that you didn't ask. In his book, The Betterphoto Guide to Exposure, Sean Arbabi writes the following definition about Exposure Value:

"... is a method that was created to simplify exposure combinations for certain measurements of light. The term is used throughout digital photography and can be a bit puzzling, since it's applied in a variety of ways: to measure light, for incremental settings in your aperture or shutter speed, for your meter using exposure compensation and so on. If you get a little lost in this section, move forward and then refer back to it from time to time; as you learn more about exposure, EV may begin to make better sense."

Now, if you're new photography (like me), the aforementioned paragraph reads like a pile of horse poo! Yep. It went straight over my head. After MUCH research, I've found a better way of explaining it. Upon reading my definition, you'll think, "Darn. That's it?"

Exposure Value is a 'nickname'. That's right. It's a nickname. Here's an over-simplified non-photography related example: I have a good friend whose name is Linda Consuelo Epstein. Instead of calling her Linda Consuelo Epstein, we call her Linn; it's easy to remember and suites her. Whenever someone says, "Hey Linn!" She knows that they are addressing her, because Linn, which is her nickname, is short for Linda Consuelo Epstein.

Here's another over-simplified example: If someone asks me my daughter's age, I COULD say, "Oh, she's 1,239 days (exposure value)" or "She was born October(ISO) 7(Aperture), 2006(shutter speed)." The combination of ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed is Exposure Value.

Now, don't get me wrong, Exposure Value isn't just ANY old combination of ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed, it's SUPPOSED to be the perfect combination of ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed for a given situation.

On a bright sunny day, if EV is 15, Aperture=f/16, ISO=100, and Shutter speed=1/125. How did I come up with that? I looked at the chart you ninny! No one in their right mind sits around and calculates this mess! NO ONE! EVERY ONE PULLS OUT A CHART! Could you calculate Exposure Value for yourself? Sure, but why bother? Your camera does it for you.

At this point you're probably looking for the Exposure Value setting in your camera. Sorry but you'll find not such thing, unless of course, you recognize that your camera's meter is the modern day abacus for Exposure Value. That's right, balance your camera's meter and you've in essence, calculated the right exposure.

So the next question is probably, "Why are people making this out to be more than what it is?" The correct answer is either because they can, or they are confusing Exposure Value with Exposure Compensation. Exposure Compensation is the adjustment that you make to an Exposure. Let's say you meter off your subject, and the perfect exposure is f/16, ISO 100 and shutter speed of 1/125 and you find that it's too bright. Making an adjustment to underexpose the shot by a third of a stop (-.3) is Exposure Compensation.

In summary, Exposure Value is perfect combination of Aperture, ISO and shutter speed for a given situation. Exposure Compensation is the adjustment to that exposure.