RadioPopper PX Review

I just got some new toys tools for wireless, off-camera flash called Radiopopper PX. What they basically do is take Canon wireless flash technology and make it useful somewhere besides in a dark room with the flashes pointed at each other. You then use the flash system on your flash to set up lighting ratios, manually change the flash settings, use automatic flash without having the light source coming from on top of your camera. Today I took my son and Sounders FC superfan, Kyler, to the park to play with the system.

I wanted to test a few things: the High Speed Sync, speed of operation, and a comparison of the eTTL system versus the manual flash adjustments that I usually do. I used a flash 580EX flash on my camera acting as the master unit with a Radiopopper PX transmitter attached to the top of it and two 550EX acting as slaves with the Radiopopper PX receivers attached.

This is what I envisioned when we went to the park. I used the Radiopoppers to transmit the fire signal and the manual flash adjustments while keeping my shutter speed at the 1/200th top speed that the Canon 5D allows for traditional flash systems.

This image was taken using the high speed sync allowing for a much more shallow depth of field.

I really liked this image. Ky loves soccer and is really excited for MLS to be coming to Seattle (Sounders FC season starts March 19). For this I used the eTTL system rather than manually setting the flash and I was pleasantly surprised at the nicely exposed result.

This is more what I expected from eTTL. The camera saw the bright lightsource in the frame and didn't use enough flash power (even though the fired) to make a proper exposure.

In this image, I switched to manual flash exposure and I had a much better exposure. This image is processed identically to the image before it so that it is an apples to apples comparison.

This image shows the shallow depth of field that is possible using high speed sync and a fast lens.

Same as the image before, but with the focus on his face rather than his hands.

Another using the high speed sync to make him pop from the background.

Testing the range. I was about 150 feet away. Really all that I need it to work at would be this range. The system is supposed to work at 1700 feet. Nice, but not necessary for me!

The front of his jersey. This image was shot at 1/6400 of a second with a full power flash.

This image of my amazingly handsome son was taken at f2 for the shallow depth. Again using HSS.

Again using the two flashes and HSS. The shallow depth of field throws the trees and sky out of focus and makes them shapes rather than trees.

These last three images are for illustration of the Manual versus eTTL. The first is taken with manual flash, the second is eTTL. The third is eTTL with +2 stops of exposure compensation.

My conclusions are that the Radiopopper PX system works really well for doing portraits. The system fired the flashes every time the flashes were ready and charged. It works well at distance. It provides a reliable system to use the HSS (high speed sync) allowing for flash and shallow depth of field at the same time. And it allows me to change my manual flash settings without going over to the flash and pushing buttons (I can push buttons from wherever I am with the camera).

Where it falls down in my mind is the difficult installation (you actually have to semi-permanently attach it to the flashes you are going to use rather than take it on and off at will) and the fact that it is limited to speed of operation of the Canon wireless flash system. I tested it on motor drive and was able to get only four out of 12 to fire at 1/128 power at three frames per second (frames 1, 2, 3, and 9 of the 12). This was because the Canon master flash was not ready, not because the Radiopoppers or the receiving flashes were not ready.

Finally, I found that I got the results that I wanted most consistently when I used manual flash exposure. The eTTL was right about 75% of the time, but for me being wrong 25% of the time doesn’t cut it.

It is a very cool time to be a photographer with all the awesome equipment available!

New Photo Contest!

Another Photo Contest at Wedding Photography Project. This time you can win a $1000 shopping cart system!

Wedding Photography Project - Cool Photo Contest

Check out the contest that I have running over at The Wedding Photography Project - Win a Boda Bag!

Strategy Avenue

Strategy Avenue

A great new resource for photographers!

Advice for aspiring photographers...

I was recently asked what advice I would give photographers just starting out. As you have probably figured out, I like lists, so here's a list of my advice!

• Follow your passion. Shoot in a the way that you like and inspires you. Don't get caught in the trap of "the way things should be done."
• Be yourself. No matter how much you like a particular website, a person's work, their choice in music, or the clever way they wrote their "About me" page, DON'T COPY IT. Being inspired to a better level is good, but be yourself.
• Learn about light and learn how to see light.
  
• Don't be afraid to screw up. I throw out 3 out of every 4 images I shoot. I make mistakes on purpose just to see if I might get something cool.
• Learn the "rules" of composition. Sometimes they help to make things interesting. Other times, just throw them out the window to try something interesting.
• Be a good business person. If you have trouble with some aspect of business - reading a profit and loss report, marketing, or anything else - figure out how to do it better. Whether that is by reading a book, finding a mentor, or hiring someone that does that well.
• Show people what you want them to hire you to do. If you love to do traditional portraiture, show books and images that highlight that. If you don't care if you ever do another family group photo, why have an album filled with them?
• Backup gear is important.

That's my list! If anyone has something to add to it, post it!

Gearbox!

I quite often get questions about what kind of gear I use. I'll happily tell you all, but first I have to get on my soapbox.


The most important piece of gear you will ever have in photography, is the gray thing sloshing around in your noggin! Gear is just a means to an end. Great photographers can create great images with cheap gear and horrible photographers can buy all the gear they want and it won't make any difference!


Here is the gear I use at almost every wedding:
-Canon 30D & 20D cameras
-Tokina 12-24 f4
-Canon 17-55 f2.8 IS
-Canon 50 f1.4
-Canon 85 f1.8
-Sigma 70-200 2.8 HSM
-Pocketwizards
-Canon 550EX x2
-Canon 580EX
-Lightstand

I have a whole bunch of other stuff that I sometimes use, but this makes my main kit.

Business - Make more money and provide better service!!!

Many times I've struggled with the idea of sales and trying to sell more to my clients. I don't like to feel pushy or like I am trying to milk people for more money. My attitude towards sales has changed significantly in the last couple of years. Namely, I no longer assume that my clients work with the same budget that I would have.

I believe this new attitude towards selling things has actually increased my clients overall satisfaction. I still don't like the words sales or selling, because it sounds like I am pushing things that a client might not want. What I actually do is show my clients what is possible, tell them what I think would be really fun and cool to do with their photographs, and see if they have any interest in doing it. Instead of thinking, "They have spent quite a bit, do I show them something else?" I think, "What would be really fun to do with this couple (or these images) would be to..." Then I let them decide.

To give you an idea, I have a couple that wanted some engagement portraits for their local newspaper. Because I thought it would be cool, I showed them an album that I have done with engagement portraits. They loved the idea and are making a book. They are happy because they get a cool album with their engagement portraits. I am happy because I get to make something cool with their portraits. Also, my bank account is happy because I made a profit on it.

Great Workshops!

There are some great workshops out there. Here are three that you might want to look at.

• Step it Up with Mike Larson
• The Bebbinar
• The David Beckstead Workshops
  

"Hey, Cory! Why is your flash sideways?" AKA, The Bounce Flash Article!

I am finally getting started on my series of articles on flash. I am going to start with the type of flash I use most often - the on-camera bounce.

The reasons I use on-camera bounce:

1. I move quickly and quite often have the two options of available light or on-camera flash. Sometimes the available light in a room is not flattering.
   
2. I don't like direct on-camera flash in MOST situations as it produces very flat lighting with harsh shadows
3. Soft, bounced lighting, when balanced with room lighting, looks natural and flattering.

The reasons NOT to use bounce flash

1. Some rooms don't lend themselves well to bounce flash (ballrooms a mile wide with 40 foot ceilings, black paint on the walls, red paint on the walls if you are shootingJPG, etc.)
2. It does not add any drama to the photographs (harsh lighting is dramatic and can add or detract from a photograph, soft lighting usually does neither).
3. Beautiful natural lighting already exists in the environment you are in.

Equipment that you will need.

1. A digital (or film, I suppose) SLR
2. Flash capable of tilt and swivel.
3. A piece of black plastic and some Velcro.
   
4. Good batteries

Okay, here we go with the meat of the article.

Bounce flash is a quick and easy way to upgrade the lighting in a room. Whenever I am looking through my camera I am looking at the type and angle of light as well as content and composition. When I see that the lighting is mostly from overhead sources, I usually want to modify it somehow. Overhead lighting as the only source of light leaves dark shadows in the eyes and causes people to look tired. This is probably my least favorite type of lighting.

To use bounce flash, you don't have to do anything too difficult. You attach your flash to your camera (or to an off-camera shoe cord if you wanna get funky) and point the flash in the direction that you want the light to come from. Imagine that you have a big softbox on a set of wheels that you can position anywhere you want in the half-circle behind you. You can place directly to the left or right, directly overhead, directly behind you or the the left or right of directly behind. You obviously can't make it come from the far side of your subject because of the physics involved (think of shooting a cue ball in pool - you can't bounce the ball off the bumper directly on the far side of another ball without hitting the ball).

The softbox concept

A portrait on the fly using bounce flash

Now that you have your flash bouncing around the room, you need to control it a bit. The first thing to keep in mind is how you want the lighting to appear. Do you want to drown out the existing lighting, add to the existing lighting or somewhere in between? My favorite way to do it is to add to, but not completely overpower the existing lighting. I do this by manually setting the exposure to keep the room lighting the way I want it (to add to, but not completely overpower, I might set the exposure to underexpose the existing light by one to two stops). Also, the slower your shutter speed, the more you have to have the room lighting below the flash setting. To give you an example, if you are shooting at 1/20 of a second with only a one-stop difference between room light and flash, you will have blur from the movement of the people as recorded by the by room lighting after the flash has fired. In which case, you need to increase the difference to two stops to avoid the flash-blur look. Unless, of course, that is what you are going for!

Bounce from the right of the room balanced to the room light.

Something else that I wold recommend is controlling the light from falling directly into the frame (this is a more common problem when shooting wide). To do this, you either need to zoom your flash or create some sort of snoot-type device for your flash. You can see what I did here with a piece of black plastic (a file folder from Staples) and some Velcro. This prevents flash from hitting someone directly into the scene I am shooting. I've shown it to other people, but most don't share my enthusiasm for attaching ugly, home-made devices to their flashes, but willingly spend $40 on a piece of Tupperware to sit on top of it!

My setup with black plastic "bounce tunnel"!

I have four more hints with bounce flash. The first is to use a high ISO because this increases the sensitivity of the sensor, which in turn reduces how hard your flash has to work and reduces how badly you blind anyone that makes the mistake of standing next to you! Second, buy a good pair ofNiMH batteries. NiMH batteries keep a consistent recharge rate during the life of the batteries. With Alkaline batteries, the recycle times on your flash become longer and longer as the power is drained out of them. Third, be aware of your surroundings. It doesn't do any good to want the light to come from the left if the nearest wall is 120 feet away. It also doesn't do any good to point a flash directly at the mother of the bride's face! No matter how annoying you may find her, nothing good will come of blinding her! That last is just a joke; I haven't had an annoying MOB in years.

Another example of side bounce.

Finally, experimentation is good! In fact, it is the only way to get a good handle on using bounce flash. Go forth and bounce!

The workflow

I sometimes get asked what my workflow is like. So, here is a quick sketch!

1) Shoot the wedding in RAW
2) Download the cards using Downloader Pro by Breezebrowser and a Sandisk Extreme USB 2.0 Card reader to an external drive
3) Renumber images using Breezebrowser
4) Burn 2 copy discs of RAW images to DVD using Nero
5) Import into LightRoom
6) My wife picks images from 3000 to 700 using LR flag feature
7) Process picked images using LR
8) Export JPG's
9) Check the JPG's using Breezebrowser fix anything that needs to be fixed in Photoshop
10) Renumber the JPG's using Breezebrowser
11) Burn three copies of the final JPG's - one for client, two for my files
12) Jettison the RAW images (still have the backups)
13) Run RedCart script in Photoshop
14) Upload Cart
15) Choose favorite images for Slideshow
16) Size images for proofing section of website using Breezebrowser
17) Upload slideshow images to website
18) Size all images for proofing and add border with Breezebrowser
19) FTP proof images to ProDPI\
20) Select best of best for blog, size & post

Creating an Image (for your business)

One of my most common questions from other photographers is about advertising to get the clients you want. To me, this is putting the cart before the horse.

When you are creating a business, I believe that you have to start with an idea of what your business personality will be. To get this, I think you start with your own personality on your best day or what you strive for your personality to be. This could be "Like me, only more attentive to detail." Then start describing that person/business in single words.

Sophisticated, Down-to-Earth, Confident, Real, Sweet, Intriguing, Mysterious, Responsible, Trustworthy, Fun, Sarcastic, and Unique could be words to describe yourself and your business. Choose what you think are the two most important words, add in a short description of the work you do, and add the clientèle you wish to serve.

When you add it all up, you will end up with a statement that completely describes your business.

Cory Parris is a fun, relaxed and attentive photographer that creates beautifully elegant photostories for brides and grooms that put photography on the top of their priority list for both importance and budget.

This does not have to be difficult and it can change over time, so don't agonize over it. However, you now have a statement that you can pull apart and use for your marketing, creating your business plan (whether it is on paper or just in your head), and for guiding your creation of business image products such as your business cards, letterhead, brochures, logo and, most importantly, your website.

Once you have all of the ideas and materials in place, then it is time to market your business aggressively, whether you do that by advertising, networking, or word-of-mouth depends on your target market (that you just identified) and personality!

New main website for me!

I've just updated my website. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Cool Camera Bag!

My friend Jim Garner has come out with a new camera bag. This is a wedding shooter that designed the perfect bag for a wedding shooter. Check it out at GoBoda.

Great Gear Article by Jeff Ascough!

Cameras and the Desire to Upgrade

New variation on stroke and border!

I just finished the tutorial, when I decided to change it! Here's my new version. I played around with changing the canvas size in two steps rather than one, with the second step only streching the canvas from the top. Have fun!

Adding a stroke, border and logo!

I received an email the other day asking how I created my blog proof action that adds the border, keyline and logo to my images that I post on the blog. So here is a step by step tutorial on how I do it.

I want my blog proof to end up as 600 pixels on the long side. To do this, we will need to set up two actions, one for vertical and one for horizontal. Record this as you do it.

1. Open a horizontal image
2. Create a new Action called "Horizontal Blog Proof"
3. Resize the image to 500 pixels wide
   
4. Duplicate the layer - you can do this in the layers palette by dragging the layer called "background" to the new tab, which looks like a miniature blank piece of paper, at the bottom of the palette
   
5. Resize the Canvas to 600 pixels and choose the appropriate color for your background (I chose black, of course). This will create a large, even black border all the way around your image.
   
6. Select the top of your two layers and add a stroke of the color you like by clicking on the circled "f" at the bottom of the layers palette and choosing stroke. The image above is a one pixel, white, inner stroke.
7. Now stop recording and create a snapshot of your file.
   
8. It is time to set up your Logo file, so open your source logo.
9. Resize your logo to slightly larger than you expect to use it on your image.
10. Drag the logo to your image, this will create a new layer with just your logo on it. There should not be a background on your logo at this point. If there is, you may have to go to a different version of your logo that you received from your designer.
11. Drag the logo to where you want it on your image.
12. Resize the logo to the right size by using the Free Transform tool (Cntrl+T). Make sure to hold down the shift key as you drag the corner so the logo does not get warped.
13. Delete the layers besides the logo (to delete the layer titled "background" you will have to rename it first)
14. Create a blank layer and drag it to underneath the logo. You should now have two layers, one with your logo on it, and one blank below it.
15. Save this in a location that you can find it again as a photoshop (.psd) file with the name something like "horizontal logo file for blog"
16. Now look at your history palette and choose the snapshot of your file that you created before you started working on your logo.
17. Go to your action and start recording again
18. Choose the Place command (File-->Place) and choose the Horizontal logo file for blog.
    
19. If it does not automatically put the logo in the right place, you may have to make sure all the corners line up.
20. Flatten the image (Layer-->Flatten) and stop recording, you are done.

You will have to repeat this for the vertical action. It is also then possible to create a script that tells whether the image is horizontal or vertical and run the appropriate action on it. Once it is set up, you can always modify the action as your tastes change. Also, once it is set up, all you have to do is run the action and it does all this work for you automatically, every time!

Direction and Quality of Light

I was going to start writing my articles on flash today, but I thought that as a prologue, I would first talk about the quality and direction of light.

Light, in my mind, has two characteristics. Direction and Quality. Light can surround you almost perfectly even from every direction, or it can stream harshly from one direction. It can be soft or it can be harsh. It can have these traits whether you are using natural light or creating the light with flash (this is why this article came first).

Light can be soft, harsh, directional or enveloping. I've grabbed some examples from my latest wedding to illustrate and show you how I use the different light qualities.

Natural, soft window light streaming in the door. I chose to backlight the dress so that the light would shine through it.

This was taken with available light in the room. This was less of a conscious choice and more of grabbing a moment with the current equipment.

I placed Kellie near the window to get the soft, very directional light on her face.

Available light in the chapel.

As the ring bearer and flower girl were walking down the aisle, I was luck enough to capture the harsh, directional light of Grandma's flash, which backlit them beautifully.

Again, using the available light (actually more available darkness). The alter was lit, but the rest of the room had only candles for illumination causing the couple to be severely backlit.

The soft, enveloping lighting of a bounced flash.

This image is the result of two flashes. One on a lightstand creating the main exposure and backlighting the couple, and one on camera at one stop below the exposure to illuminate the near side of the couple.

This image is during the college fight song, with the off-camera flash creating the main exposure (and harsh directional lighting) and the on-camera at one stop below filling in the shadows and making the effect less harsh.

The final image of David's fist-pump is again the soft, enveloping, directional (from the right and above) light of bounce flash.

The Wedding Photography Project!

Most of you probably already know that I run another website that features articles written by photographers other than myself at the Wedding Photography Project. There are two new articles there by Jeff Lazo of ProDPI lab talking about printing, and an excellent article by Neil van Niekerk about balancing flash with fireworks. Great stuff!

Good Article at PhotoEdu!

Jerry Frazier has a great article about the cost of doing business and how to do business with the opportunity to make a profit at his PhotoEdu blog. You don't have to constantly buy new gear to get great results!

PHOTO LOVECAT: ALBUM RESOURCES

For professional photographers and aspiring professionals, check out the album resource list over at Photo Lovecat: PHOTO LOVECAT: ALBUM RESOURCES

My favorite books are Graphistudio, Leather Craftsmen, Zookbinders, Queensberry, and (one that's not listed on her list) Photomounts Australia.

For designing the books, I prefer to do my own using Photojunction software.

Back to Basics - 3 Camera Settings for Rockin' Exposures!

There are so many bells and wistles on cameras that people get lost. It is a great example of how adding capabilities makes things more obscure. I recently bought a camera that is around 50 years old. How few buttons and features there were on the camera really made me realize how complex a digital SLR really is.

On this camera, there are three settings - aperture, shutter speed and focus. Because it has no built-in meter, getting the correct exposure was a little bit of guesswork for most people. With film, though you could be pretty far off and still get a decent image.

When everything is stripped down like this, you can see that there is really only three setting that you need to get a proper exposure, plus you need to focus the camera. Everything else is extra or bonuses.

The three settings you need to take control of on your camera are the basics, that we talked about above, plus the ISO (it used to be called film speed, but, since film is optional these days, let's call it ISO). The ISO is what people forget they can change.

Shutter speed controls the amount of time the sensor/film is exposed to light. Aperture or f-stop controls the size of the hole at the back of the lens. ISO controls how sensitive the sensor/film is to light. With film, you are basically limited to what it says on the side of the film box (there are other options, but that is far more advanced than we are talking now). With digital, the ISO can be changed anytime!

The effect of changing shutter speeds
When your shutter speeds are slow, you will see blur in fast moving objects. A faster shutter speed freezes the action. Also, if your shutter speed gets too slow, the shaking of your hands will cause the entire photograph to become blurry. For a good rule of thumb, try to keep your shutter speed at 1/60 of a second or higher (1/125, 1/250, etc.) with a normal lens. With telephoto lenses you will need faster shutter speeds.

The effect of changing apertures
The aperture controls what is called "depth of field". Depth of field is how much of the photograph will be in focus. We are all familiar with depth of field, but we rarely think about it. Ansel Adams liked a lot of depth of field. He wanted everything in his images to be sharply in focus. Most fashion models and many portrait photographers like the opposite. They want their subject to be sharply in focus, with the background becoming extremely blurry. That way, when someone looks at the photograph, they notice the person rather than the background. A wider aperture makes for more background blur (1.4, 2.0, 2.8), which you can see with much of my work. A smaller aperture provides more of the image in focus (8, 11, 16, 22, etc.).

The effect of changing ISO
Changing your ISO also has a significant impact on your images. Lower ISO speeds provide finer detail, smoother gradations, more vibrant color, and greater exposure latitude (exposure latitude is a fancy way of saying that you can screw up more and come up with a good image). Higher ISO creates more noise or grain. So it seems obvious that the lower ISO's are better. Well, that is true for most cases, but, when you have very little light to work with, or you are trying to create a particular look, higher ISO is the way to go.

How they work together
Okay, so all of this is fine and dandy. It's pretty simple to understand. Now, how does it all work in the real world?

I'll start by explaining how I work. I love shallow depth of field, vibrant colors, sharp b&w's, and high ISO's. The shallow depth of field makes whoever I am photographing stand out from the background. Vibrant colors and contrasty b&w images are fairly self-explanatory. I prefer that images have impact rather than being subtle. I love high ISO's because they allow me to take photographs that I might not be able to get otherwise.

I keep my cameras at apertures around f2.8 or lower most of the time. The exceptions are when I am taking scenics and when I am photographing groups. At these times, you need more depth of field to make all the important stuff be in focus. That means the things that change more often are shutter speed and ISO. They change according to the light level that you are shooting in.

If shutter speeds get too high (above 1/1000 of a second unless I'm already at ISO 100), turn down the ISO. If they get too low (below around 1/60 of a second with a normal lens), turn up the ISO.

Of course, this a vast over-simplification (from my point of view), but it's how I work in many instances. As always, let me know if I'm speaking a foreign language (photogeek), and I'll try to say it again in English!

Flashin' for the fun of it!

On camera flash is at once over-rated and over-maligned. It is one of the most versatile and empowering tools in a photographer's bag. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to write a series of articles about lovin the flash!

Here is a quick overview of what I will be discussing.

Hey, Cory! Why is your flash sideways?



Quick Group Portrait Lighting for the PJ Wedding Shooter

Dynamic Lighting Using Off-Camera Flash


Flashin' in the Sun

Seattle Photographers Shootout Images!

You can find the images by going to Mat Hayward's website, enter the client proofing area, and entering the password "DWF" in all caps. Great work everyone!

Interesting B&W Conversion

Sean Flanigan has a fun b&w technique to play with over on his blog. Below is the photograph I took of Leslie recently. I played with the technique Sean talks, modified it a bit and added a slight sepia tone to add to the vintage feel.

A photogeek's dream office!

Check out Jeff Newsom's photogeek heaven of an office! He's a pretty decent writer, and a downright awesome photographer as well!

Seattle Photographers Shootout!

I had a great time photographing Seattle and hanging out with fellow photogeeks! Here are a few images of the participants.Andrew for the Dgrin/Smugmug forum

This is Ben. I photographed his and Sarah's wedding a couple years ago!

Sarah!

The only member of the Portland Mafia to attend: Evrim Icoz!


The handsome Joe Hein

The love of Joe's life (besides his D2x) Jill Hein

Joe and Jill with their custom branded cameras.

John Krombine from the Madison Park Starbucks meeting I talked about earlier (third Thursday at 11:00).

I make this alley look good.

Here's the whole photogeek squad

Master planner and photographer extrodinairre, Mat Hayward

When looking for a shot, gotta love the cobblestone - much cozier than asphalt.

Laurence Chen from the Digital Wedding Forum
My favorite image of the day, bar none. My lovely wife Leslie who is the light of my life and my best friend!

The steps to a photography business - the short version!

Start by taking stock of what you have and what your goals are. What are your assets? Money, time, etc. How are your images? Fantastic, needs work, true beginner. Where do you want to be in 1 year? 3 years? 5 years?

My answers would go in this order:

1) Get what you need in the way of equipment to produce good work. This does not need to be the flashiest of gear (a 50 1.8 or 35 f2 could be a big improvement in creating a "different" look on the cheap as would a 85 1.8). A vivitar flash and some pocket wizards (or generic alternative) can create dramatic results in the right hands as Zach Arias has often shown. Also get something wide (20mm on 5d or a 12-24 f4 tokina on a crop camera) to add drama and see things a different way. With a couple of these suggestions, you can be producing a wide variety of different looks and have spent less than $1000. It also works as a backup strategy if something breaks.

2) Educate yourself in creating amazing images. One Light is a good place to start. As is the usual $100 Denis Reggie tour, or if Huy is doing a short course in your area. There are also many online resources. Second shooting for great shooters would work very well.

3) Once you know how to take amazing images, are inspired, well-equipped to take advantage of the opportunities you have or will get, and have a website capable of showing off your work in a up-scale, stylish way, then you can pour some money into advertising.

It is hard to work up a buzz as an average photographer, so educate yourself, equip yourself, produce some excellent work, THEN attack the marketplace. Spending money on advertising before you are ready is just wasting money. Getting yourself in position to attack the marketplace makes more sense.

What you have in the way of assets (namely time and money) will determine your strategy for the attack and the timetable involved. If you have more money than time (full time well-paying job and a family for example), spend the money on the best possible samples and advertise in the biggest, splashiest places. If your assets are more on the time side (part time working bachelor), then you might get a couple nice samples and try to get your name out by meeting everyone that will meet with you (florists, planners, venue coordinators, other photographers, etc.).

Madison Park Starbucks...

The third thursday of every month, a bunch of photographers get together to talk, share knowledge, be photogeeks and feed the elegant and classy addiction that is Starbucks. Networking and talking with photographers is a great way to fill the empty dates on your calendar. I get a few weddings every year from other photographers. It's like hanging out and talking about your favorite thing (photography) a finacially and educationally beneficial activity!

Here are a few images from yesterday. Some taken by me, and others taken by the wonderful Joe Hein of Joe and Jill Photography.


Great photographer and friend, Joe Hein of Joe & Jill Photography.


Eric Sartoris of Northern Lights.


The photogeek known as Cory Parris. I think Joe took this one!


The character that is Dani Weiss.


And the illustrious Natalie Fobes.

Choosing the right flash batteries

Here's a little detail that people rarely think or talk about. What type of batteries should you be using in your flash?

There are basically four options: alkaline, nimh, ni-cad, and external packs.

Alkaline batteries are the easiest to use because they are everywhere (and costco sells packs of 40 AA's for around $10). However, they are disposable causing hazardous waste, and they are not the best performers. When they are brand new, they work well. As the charge gets sucked out by the flash, the recycle times gradually get longer and longer, forcing you to wait between shooting exposures.

Ni-Cads have been around forever. They are relatively cheap, rechargeable, and produce faster recycle times. However, they don't hold as much of a charge, so you end up changing them more often and requiring you to bring a slew of batteries with you. They are also memory-type batteries. That means you have to fully discharge them before charging them again. You can buy the more expensive chargers that will discharge the batteries before charging, or just fire your flash until they are completely spent.

Nimh batteries are my choice. They are not too expensive ($20 for a set and a charger), hold a ton of energy (so you don't have to suddenly change batteries in the middle of the toast), and recycle at a quick, consistant rate until they are nearly completely spent. They are also memory-free so you can recharge them anytime without ruining the batteries.

External battery packs provide the most power and quickest recharge times. However, they also require extra cords and extra weight. For the right situation, and for some people this provides the best option. Personally, I hate cords on my cameras when I am shooting.

Happy Valentine's! And a b&w conversion for Photoshop

Hey gang. I hope you have a fantastic holiday with your loved ones!

Today I'm going to show you how to make a really fast, simple, high-contrast black & white conversion.

The first step is to make sure that you have the default black on white color set.

Then go the the layers palette and click on the adjustment layers symbol.

The third and final step is to choose the "Gradient Map" option.

All Done. Here is a before and after.

Seattle Photo Shoot on Sunday!

Join me and a bunch of other professional photographers in shooting Seattle. This is not only fun, but it is a contest with the winners possibly being published in Popular Photography!

The photoshoot will be held on Sunday, February 18, 2007. Meet at the Pike Place Market Fish Throwers. Entry fee is $10 (there will be memberships to the Digital Wedding Forum given out for the top finishers for each 10 entries) at 1:30. Shooting will be from 1:45 to 3:15. Here are the rules: 1 camera, 1 lens with 85mm equivalent field of view (full framers use 85, crop camera users should be using a 50mm), no driving, and have fun. We will be meeting back at 3:15 to commence hanging out and enjoying adult beverages.

I hope to see lots of people there!

Great article with video over a PhotoLoveCat

PHOTO LOVECAT: LACOUR ON WEDDING PHOTOJOURNALISM

The Hows and Whys of Color Management!

Color management is the processes that photographers need to use to make sure their images look how they should!

Why would you want to be color managed? Well, if you haven't calibrated it already, your monitor sucks for looking at photographs! Out of the box, monitors are typically far too bright, have too much blue color, and make your photographs look horrible. The good news is that it is easy to fix!

The first step is to get some sort of monitor calibration device. You can find a whole lot of options at b&h, the world's largest photo store in New York. What you need really depends on how serious you are. Any of them are better than nothing and both Colorvision and Pantone have excellent solutions for around $200.

Then you follow the very easy steps that the software included in the bundle will walk you through. This takes about 15 minutes and should be done once every couple of months, unless you just bought a new monitor, in which case you should do it weekly until you see very little in the way of changes between adjustments.

Then you send in a file to your lab. Make sure to request no corrections. When you get the print back, compare it to your photograph on your monitor. You may need to make some minor corrections to your color profile.

Where should I get prints made?

One of the hardest things to find is a good lab to make prints for you. My suggestions are MPix for amateurs and ProDPI for advanced amateurs and professionals that have a "managed workflow". MPix provides good color, will make adjustments for you and deliver them to your door for a reasonable price. ProDPI is nearly the perfect lab for me as a professional. Color is excellent, consistant, on the photographic paper I prefer (Fuji), extremely fast and good prices. ProDPI also has the best customer service that I've received from any lab.

Canon Lensmaking!

Okay, this is photogeek heaven! Check out how lenses are made at Canon!

Wedding Biz - Shooting!

When I shoot a wedding, I only partially shoot for my client. It sounds crazy since they are spending thousands of dollars to have me there, but it's true.

My main goal when I photograph a wedding is to create what I think is the greatest wedding photographs I have ever created. I do this for me. It is my tastes that I am working with. My satisfaction and approval that I am looking for. My creative drive that I am trying to satisfy. My personal comfort zone that I am stretching, and leaving behind in my effort to create great images.

I am also shooting to create great images to put into my portfolio so I can sell my services to my next bride. I also shoot to add images to the portfolios of the florist, cake artist, venue, wedding coordinator, and band.

As a side benefit, trying to stretch creatively, create amazing work, and putting images into my future portfolio also ends up by delivering some great images for the client that I'm working for! As bizarre as it sounds, my business has increased exponentially by trying to satisfy myself rather than my clients!

This image was taken during the daylight with flash as the main source of light on the couple. They were extremely backlit, so I set the exposure for the background slightly underexposed to give the darker blue sky and used the flash as the main light. This was something I had wanted to try, but hadn't much until this photograph earlier this year. Now I've done it several times. The couple loved the shot. Bonus!

Go forth and produce the images you want. The clients that like those images will love you for it!

Setting Up Your Business for Success

A year ago, I gave a talk to around 40 local Seattle (Portland to Bellingham) photographers that were or were interested in becoming wedding photographers. I've decided to take excerpts from that talk, update them, and present them here. Look for the first articles coming soon!

Camera Gear - Lenses!

Here are some recent questions I've had about camera gear and my answers. I know what I'm trying to say, but if anything is unclear, please let me know so I can fix it!

I want a better lens, what should I buy?
There are so many different ways to answer this question. Most people start with a crop camera (something besides a Canon 5D or 1 series) with a kit lens. Pretty much any lens you buy will be an improvement over that!

50mm fixed focal length lens. Beginning photographers often overlook this lens. However, it is one of the sharpest lenses you can buy and it is a very good value. Both Canon and Nikon have an f1.8 version that is less than $100 (and really great versions at $300 for the f1.4). Whenever I suggest this lens, I get asked why anyone would want a lens that doesn't zoom. The simple answer is speed. A fast lens lets you take available light photographs in less light, or extends the reach and power of your flash.

The lens that comes with most kits is something like an 18-55 f3.5-5.6. What this means is that the f-stop (aperture) at 18mm is f3.5 and it slides to 5.6 at 55 mm. Lets compare that to the cream of the crop lenses that are available. The 17-55 2.8 IS lens that Canon makes is 2.8 the entire way. That means that at 17/18mm the 17-55 needs 67 percent of the amount of light to get the same shutter speed. At 55mm, the 17-55 needs only 25 percent of the amount of light. Now, let's compare even the amazing 17-55 2.8 IS to the $80 50 f1.8. The 50 f1.8 needs 33 percent of the light that the 17-55 2.8 needs to reach the same shutter speed. Compared to the kit lens at 50mm, it needs a mere 8 percent. You can get even more light if you go with the 50 1.4 which sits at 6 percent of the kit lens, which is a significant improvement over the 1.8.

However, having a fixed focal length lens does make it hard when you want to include more or less in the photograph (sometimes this is called the human zoom because the photographer has to move forward or back). Therefore, I also recommend the 17-55 2.8 IS lens for Canon users. Nikon also makes a version, but without the internal image stabilization. These are exceptionally high quality lenses that are capable of creating amazing images in the normal (for a crop camera) zoom range. If you can't afford the Canon/Nikon version or if this is just one of many hobbies, I have heard good things about the Tamron 17-50 2.8. When you switch from one the kit lenses to one of these, you will suddenly start seeing an increase in good photographs. Those using a full-frame sensor (5D & Canon 1 series), I suggest the 24-70L.

In addition to the light gathering advantages that these lenses offer, they also produce more "out-of-focus" areas. This is a huge advantage. Many photographers, like myself, love this. It enables the photographer to isolate the subject from their surroundings.

This photograph of my daughter's friend was taken with a wide aperture to make her stand out from the background

A lot of people also want to be able to take photographs of their kids sporting events. Depending upon the type of sport, you will need different equipment. For inside sports such as basketball and gymnastics, I would recommend the 50mm 1.8 (or 1.4 for a better built lens) or the 85 1.8 (or 1.2 if you have an extra $2000 to invest in your hobby). For outdoor sports, it's hard to beat the 70-200 zooms. The Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS (VR for Nikon) lens is fantastic. If you don't want to spend that much, I suggest the 70-200 4.0 L or the 70-200 2.8 HSM Sigma.

The last type of lens that someone would need would be a wide-angle. These are great for landscapes, architecture, group portraits, and for creating interesting images. I personally love wide angle lenses, but I didn't so much when I was first starting. The lenses I would suggest in this category would be the Canon 10-22, Nikon 12-24 and Tokina 12-24. For those that have a full-frame sensor, I suggest the 16-35L.

Are there situations where I wouldn't want the 2.8? I was taking pictures with it on auto and sometimes it would set to 4.0 - Should I set it to 2.8? What does 2.8 really mean?

Okay, there are several related questions here, so I will start with the most basic and work my way through them.

In the simplest terms, the aperture (f-stop) number represents the amount of light that the lens allows through to the camera. Each f-stop difference means the light allowed through is half of the f-stop before it. In the olden days when I started in photography, the numbers of the f-stop were engraved on the lens, so it was easy to remember them. The full f-stops are 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, etc.

This image was taken with a smaller aperture to make everything from the wood post to the Herb Farm in the background in focus

The obvious question at this point would be, "So what does that do for me?" What it means is that the lower the aperture number, the more light a lens can gather, which allows for higher shutter speeds, less camera shake causing blurry images, less need for flash, and when you do use flash you have greater range and options with your flash

Something else that changes with the aperture is the Depth of Field, or how much of the frame is in focus. If you are taking an Ansel Adams type landscape, you will want to shoot at something like f22. If you want to isolate your subject from the background, you will want a very fast aperture (like 2.8 or faster) to throw everything else out of focus.

This is another example of a shallow depth of field. Her eyes and mouth are in focus, but the tip of her nose and her ears are out of focus, ensuring that when we look at the photograh, we look at her face and aren't distracted by the background.

Next time I'll tackle the question most often asked of me at weddings, "Why is your flash pointed sideways?"

Getting the Clients You Want

When you are shooting, whom are you shooting for? Are you creating images you think will sell, or are you shooting to get the clients you want?

About four years ago, I stopped trying to shoot what I thought my current the clients wanted to buy and started creating images that were more representative of what I wanted my portfolio to look like in the future. This is a very important difference in the way I was approaching wedding photography.

As a result of my new mindset, my work improved, my clients’ satisfaction levels went through the roof and most importantly, I was much happier.

The second part of this is only showing the things you want to sell. Don’t show what you think your clients want to see. Show what you love to do and what you excel at. I stopped showing any group portraits on my site or in my sample books.

Eventually, I started to find new, different clients from my old clientele. They wanted what I was showing, were eager to have me at their wedding, and were willing to pay more for it.

This goes for everything you show. Use the albums that you love. Show the wall samples like you want them to buy. Print up postcards that show your favorite image, not the one you think will be the best seller. Unlike with other businesses, if you captured one percent of the market, you would be overloaded, so what we, as photographers, are trying to do is find the RIGHT clients, rather than just any clients.

Cory Parris is wedding photographer in Seattle, Washington. He loves his wife, his kids, owning his own business, and photography. He is constantly mixing them together to see what he comes up with!

You can find Cory on the web at www.coryparris.com and here!

One Image from start to finish

This is an explanation of how an image was created from start to finish.

This image was taken during the couples first dance. I saw the fantastic hard light coming from the far side of them and positioned myself to point the camera directly at the light so I could work with the flare. I find working with flare to be pretty unpredictable, so I was just playing, trying to get the look that I wanted. Then I saw the brides daughter watching them dance and thought it was perfect.

After I had the shot, I brought the image into Photoshop. First I cropped the image. Then I duplicated the background layer and changed the blending mode (found at the top of the layers palette) to Overlay. I adjusted the opacity to 70 per cent. Next I added a Guassian Blur to the Overlay layer to give it the glowing look.

My next step was I made a black and white conversion layer (my favorite method is via gradient map). I adjusted the layer opacity to about 60 per cent.

My final step was to add curves adjustment layer. I pulled up on the middle of the curve until the daughter was the tone that I wanted her. Then I inverted the layer and painted only the little girl back in using the attached layer mask to the adjustment layer.

Flatten, save and done!

Cory Parris is wedding photographer in Seattle, Washington. He loves his wife, his kids, owning his own business, and photography. He is constantly mixing them together to see what he comes up with!

You can find Cory on the web at www.coryparris.com and here!

Cory's Guide to Camera Gear - Version 1

I have to start by saying that I love photo gear. One of the best parts of owning my own business is having an excuse for buying the toys, errr…equipment. I’m also always happy to talk about photo gear, so give me a call or send me an email.

Before you start looking at gear, it might be helpful to know what kind of photographs you want to take. Sports photography requires different gear than still life photography. It will also have a big impact on the amount you need to budget for your new gear. I would also suggest that you try to assess how much you will actually use the equipment. No sense spending a large chunk of change on a paperweight!

Digital or Film
Film is a four-letter word and I don’t like talking about it. Unless you like the retro look or hate computers, buy digital.

SLR or PS
An SLR (Single Lens Reflex) is a camera with interchangeable lenses. It is the ultimate in photographic tool because of it’s flexibility with the ability to change lenses, add flash(es), filters, macro attachments, and a host of other goodies. In the right hands a digital SLR can perform magic! The downside to SLR’s is that they don’t produce better photographs than a PS (point and shoot) unless you know how to use it, and they are much larger and heavier.

The Point & Shoot is a great thing to have. Everyone should have one to just stick in their pocket so they can get a decent photograph wherever you go! Personally, I want to get one of the really small ones so I can have it with me everywhere. They are great for snapshots on the fly and outdoors when it is bright out. They are also much cheaper than SLR’s. Where they fall down is anytime the lighting is less than ideal. They have significantly more noise (digital grain) and horrible flash systems.

I am not an expert on PS cameras, so I will refer you on www.dpreview.com and www.stevesdigicams.com for more research.

I do, however, know something about SLR’s.

Brands and Systems
So many times when someone is choosing a camera, they forget to look at the rest of the system. When you buy a particular brand of camera, you are locked into their proprietary system of lenses and accessories. You can’t buy a Canon camera and Nikon lens or flash for it. “So?” You might ask. Well, you need to guess at your future needs as well as your current needs to see if the system works for you. Do they have the lens line-up that I am likely to need? Can I ever afford to buy a good lens? Why is Pentax cheaper than Canon? Could I rent a lens if I ever wanted to? Do they have an expedited professional service department? Okay, that last one may not apply.

Canon and Nikon have the most complete camera systems available with huge choices for lenses, flashes and are the two big dogs that everyone else is chasing. The advantage to the Big Dogs is choices, lots of choices! Camera models, lenses, multiple flashes to choose from, flash cords, battery packs and lots of other stuff. Some of the other competitors (Sony, Olympus and Pentax) are currently trying to woo consumers with some pretty cool features that the big boys aren’t offering.

A Little About Lenses
Why are lenses important? Lenses are what actually get the photograph from the real world to the camera sensor. So it makes sense that if you have a cheap, flawed lens, you will have poor, flawed images. I never buy the “kit” lens that comes almost free with the camera. For the most part, you get what you pay for. The exception is in the old classic 50mm lens. With most camera manufacturers, you can pick up a 50mm lens for under $100. This is not a sexy lens in that it doesn’t zoom, is small, and looks like a piece of plastic (because it is). What it does do is produce fantastic quality for the price. The 50mm lens is the easiest lens to produce.

The kit lens is usually something around an 18-55 with an aperture of 3.5-5.6. This means that the aperture (or f-stop) slides all the way to f5.6. Each full f-stop allows ½ the amount of light in. So an f2.8 constant would allow 4 times as much light in as an f5.6. All this mumbo jumbo that sounds like math (it is, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying photography), really means that lenses with larger apertures are better in low light. That is why professionals go the expense of buying the larger more expensive versions of the lenses. For example, I use a 17-55 2.8 IS lens. It covers the same range, but the quality of images it creates and the low light levels that it allows me to use make it worth the $1200 that I spent on it rather than the $80 that the kit lens costs.

You can also get very fast, higher quality, less expensive lenses if you want to use something without a zoom. Photographers always used to use prime (non-zoom) lenses because they had no choice. Now, it is mostly professionals that prize the speed, quality and uniquely beautiful out of focus areas (bokeh is the technical term for the shape and flavor of out of focus areas that is distinct to each lens) that prime lenses are capable of producing.

Wide-angle lenses can also add a lot of interest to architectural, portrait and landscape images, but are not commonly bought by most consumers. Go wide – it’s fun!

Megapixels and Cameras
Megapixels in digital SLR’s are over-rated. You can get a beautiful 20x30 print with any digital SLR currently in production, whether it is six or 16 megapixels. For photographs of people, six megapixels is more than enough to show wrinkles and pores. You may want more if you are doing a group of 50 that you want to blow up to 20x30 or if you are doing landscape photography for very large images.

Features you may want to look for…
Image stabilization. This allows you to use lower light levels without the shake and movement of your hands to make the image blurry. Canon and Nikon offer this in a select set of lenses, which is generally considered a slightly more effective system, but it more expensive. Sony and Pentax offer this as a feature in the body, which makes all the lenses you put on the body have this feature.

Frame rate. You will quite often see cameras advertising 2.5 frames per second, 3 fps, 4 fps, or even 8 fps. The higher frame rate is highly desirable for sports and action photography. However, just as important as frame rate is the buffer size and how quickly the buffer is cleared. The buffer data is usually something like 5 fps for 6 images in RAW or 5 fps for 12 images in JPEG. Then there is the speed that the camera writes to the card (which is partially dependent upon the card). The faster the frame rate, the better for sports, wildlife and other fast moving photography. Still life, landscape, and architectural would not require a quick frame rate.
Weather proofing. Normally available only on the professional series cameras and lenses, but it might be worth looking for if you plan to do photographs of mail carriers in the rain, snow, or sleet. For the dark of night you might want to think about a high-ISO and maybe some sort of flash!

Autofocus. All the cameras have it, but it does vary in accuracy, so check the online reviews and try them out for yourself.

Canon
Canon is the current leader in digital technology and has about a two to one lead in the professional market. They have a wide range of cameras, great lenses and a complete line of accessories. Their cameras feature the cleanest high-ISO files. This allows for better quality in dim to dark lighting as well as more ambient texture when using flash.

Nikon
Nikon make my favorite cameras to hold. They fit into the hand extremely well. Their sensors are second only to Canon in image quality.

Sony
Sony has just bought out the Konica and Minolta brands. Their first entry into the market is with the Alpha which features image stabilization in the camera, which allows lower shutter speeds without the need for a tripod.

Pentax
Pentax is trying to grow their SLR market share and their latest entry the K10D is perhaps the greatest combination of price and features in any digital SLR. Featuring things like in-camera image stabilization, water resistant seals, and a price around $900. They also have a very interesting lens line-up with some great prime (non-zoom) lenses.

Olympus
Olympus is putting their eggs in a new basket. Rather than modifying an existing camera and lens system, Olympus designed theirs from the ground up. It has some great features like the smaller size and weight of the camera and accessories, and some drawbacks like the smaller sensor that they use. Overall it is good systems at a good price if you don’t have any professional aspirations and maybe even if you do.

For more information you can check www.dpreview.com or send me an email!

Speeding Up the Workflow

Improving Your CS2 RAW Workflow With Pre-sets

How is it that some photographers claim that they get done with their post-processing so fast? How do I do all my post-processing for 600 photographs in three hours?

Hey, I thought you’d never ask. The answer really is quite simple. Pre-sets in Bridge. This is also the same concept Adobe is using with their new Lightroom project. By using pre-sets, you can bypass the slow and tiresome Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) window.

The first step to working with Bridge is to set up your processing defaults. You can see that I have mine set up to do a lot of the work for me. I find that it is faster to let Bridge adjust the Exposure, Shadows, and Brightness automatically. I have White Balance, Hue, Contrast, and Saturation set to a specific value.

You will have to play with your setting until you get them perfected how you like them. A couple of tricks that I use is the lens correction tab to add a soft vignette to each images and I bump up the contrast and saturation to give it the pop that I love. Once you have it the way you like it, save the default setting by clicking the triangle just to the right of where it says Camera Raw Defaults and clicking "Save New Camera Raw Defaults". You will have to do this for each different camera model (5D, 30D, etc.) that you use.

Now, let's make sure the pre-sets we are about to use will show up when we want them to in Bridge. You will need to go to the Edit menu in Bridge and choose Preferences. Then click on the Advanced option in the list on the left. The screen below will show up (you may need to click on it to make it big enough to see). Make sure that you have the "Double click edits Camera Raw settings in Bridge" and "Use Distributed Cache When Possible" options are checked. This will make things work correctly.

Now that you have that done, you need to save some presets. Probably one of the first that you will want to set up is a b&w preset. It is possible to create some great b&w settings in bridge by desaturating and adjusting contrast. You can also use the calibrate tab to adjust the tones in the image in a way similar to using filters with black and white film. Once you have your recipe created, you need to save it by clicking the arrow just to the right of where it says Image Settings in the drop-down menu.

Choose the option Save Image Subset. When the next window pops up, choose only the check boxes that apply to the recipe that you want to save. In this case, it is saturation and contrast.

Click Save and give it a name that you will easily be able to recognize when you see it. For this one, you might try "B&W - Basic". That way you can keep all of your B&W actions together.

Now when you are in Bridge, you should be able to right click on any image thumbnail and see "B&W - Basic" as one of your options! Cool. Now repeat this process of saving presets for anything you normally do. I have them for exposure (-2.0, -1.5, -1.0, -0.5, -0.0, +0.5, etc.), brightness, contrast, curves, white balance, multiple b&w, a kind of cool sepia-ish muted color (true sepia is impossible to create in Bridge as far as I can tell), color pops, high contrast, and cross-process effects. And they are all point and click.

Another cool thing about this sort of processing is that the concepts and even some of the settings will be useable in Lightroom though you will have to go through the process of creating the presets again.

If you don't want to create your own presets, you can purchase them from Kevin Kubota and David Jay. Good luck and let me know how it goes!

Cory Parris is wedding photographer in Seattle, Washington. He loves his wife, his kids, owning his own business, and photography. He is constantly mixing them together to see what he comes up with!

You can find Cory on the web at www.coryparris.com and here!