A Weekend Of Discovery

You can learn a lot when you are stupid. Of course you can learn a lot when you are smart, and it generally doesn't take as much skin off, but the knowledge gained from ignorance seems to sink in better. Thus my weekend...

Round one. Read the label. Whether you are mixing a cake or setting a camera or purchasing bookcases from IKEA...read the label. Saves you hauling three giant cardboard boxes back up the freeway in a Suzuki Swift to exchange them for one of the right size.

Round two. Hook up a mirrorless camera to the studio lighting system and try to use it in the same way that the DSLR system operates. In my case I have an adapter that lets me use the same lenses as my Nikon. Oh boy, I bet it is going to be better...! Oh boy, am I wrong.

The lenses and the sensors being equal...the images are the same size and proportion. And the depth of field is the same - thats a function of focus distance, focal length, and aperture.
No gain there.

When I am using a camera in studio mode - manual setting for both aperture and shutter speed - DSLR's  let me see through the viewfinder at full aperture and then check depth of field by pressing a preview button. Mirrorless cameras don't - they compel me to open and close the aperture by the click-stop ring and I am liable to push the whole assembly out of position as I do it. Do-able, but much more inconvenient.

Moral of the story? Use the regular heavy old DSLR for studio work in manual mode. Save the new you-beaut mirrorless for convenient field shooting.

Round three. The new you-beaut mirrorless camera can be mounted in a wooden box and triggered with a standard cable release. It is absolutely soundless when in the box, but will do perfect automatic focussing and exposure. It will also do a pretty good recording in sepia straight out of the camera. Steampunk Time!

Seeing Is Believing - Updating Works

A couple of days ago the national trainer for the Fujifilm company visited our shop and took us in groups for sales training. It was interesting to see the new components in the X-series cameras explained - the question of the new X -trans sensor in particular. He was a great speaker because he finally explained the real cause of moiré patterning in images and the various means that have been adopted to deal with it.

He was also a great speaker because he showed me how  to update the firmware on my X-10 camera. It was done in about 3 minutes and the difference it has made in the operation of the camera is magic.

I also took courage to re-jig an another Fuji X camera and watched it go from good to great. See the images for this post. The hot rod was taken with my standard package of Nikon D300s, 18-200 lens, and SB700 flash on a Stroboframe rig. Note limited depth of field that is just enough to get the car in.

Now look at the Fuji image - the '49 Mercury. It is under different conditions - a bare studio set and some studio lights. There is less contrast as the light source is huge.

There are some similarities - the sensors in both cameras are APS-c size. It was flash exposure so the shutter speed was about 1/250 second - no movement.

The lens focal lengths were different - 120mm for the rod and 23mm for the Mercury. The f stop for the rod was f:22 and for the Mercury, f:16. This is the smallest stop the 23mm lens can do. Of course they are both going to be affected by diffraction, but unless you sacrifice DOF by sticking to f:8, you are going to have to deal with it.

Or not - if you buy the new Fuji X-100s. There is a special computer program in it that specifically targets areas that are spread by diffraction while preserving the portions of the image that are not so afflicted - the result would be dramatically sharper resolution in the picture. I don't know, because I am still using the older X camera, but the new guys are going to get world-beating results.

Note also that the update added the capability to see "focus-peaking" in the LCD screen. It is the enhancement of the in-focus portion of the image with a black or white rime. It is evident even in small areas and allows you to get a sharper manual focus than you could do with a bare eye. I could "walk" the focus back from the headlight of the car to the front of the windshield to maximise the depth of field. Beats peering into a small viewfinder in the dim focusing light of the studio mono-blocks.

My honest conclusion is that it is an image as good as or better than that produced by my regular studio tabletop rig. Provided I want to point of view to be that of the 35mm lens on an older film camera, it is ideal. If I wish to replicate the 50mm on an old film camera it will still have to be the Tokina 35 macro - if I want wider views the Sigma 8-16 will be needed. At least I now have and excuse to have another camera!

Gather Round The The Tabletop

Tabletop photography attracts some strange creatures. I know - it attracted me. Let's see if we can interest you...

The tabletop photo can be easy to define but hard to do. It is anything that you can make as an artificial scene - and surprisingly may not be on a table top in a studio. Some of the best of them are photographed on portable sets out in the sunlight.

They have traditionally been seen as an activity that filled the long winter months for northern hemisphere photographers who could not travel to exotic climes. As it is, these days everyone seems to be travelling either too or from exotic climes so there must be another charm to the genre. There is - when you create your own world you can sometimes be more than a mentor, superstar, or ambassador - you can be a deity. If you are a good deity you get good pictures.

As with all close-range subjects, your chief bugbear is going to be gaining sufficient depth of field to make things look real. Of course you will have some images that benefit from bokeh - believe me as soon as you relax your vigilance in this game the bokeh will run out from under the couch and bite you.

The best way to get the depth of field you need is to use as short a focal lenght as you can consistent with the angle of view that you want. If you are using a camera with a big sensor, you will need a longer focal length so consider deliberately choosing an APSC or micro 4/3 camera. You really will gain an advantage.

Consider getting a camera that will display what you do on a clear screen as you do it - peering into a small optical finder or through a dusty ground glass and hoping for the best is not only inconvenient but unnecessary. I know - I did just this for years and now revel in the clear view that the digital screen delivers. If you can find a camera that has a swivelling LCD screen so much the better.

You definitely need a camera that will allow manual focus - there is very little need for AF in tabletop work. There are times when you need to create layers in the picture with manual focussing onto each layer - get a lens that focusses easily.

Cable or wire remote release is mandatory and a synch socket or at least a hot shoe to let you use studio lights is perfect.

Which leads me to the pictures of the panasonic GH3 camera - Micro 4/3, and all the other necessary attributes right there on the body. Chose a lens to suit your point of view -I favour the 12-50 or the 14-42 - and away you go.

Quite what you choose to put on your table top is your own affair - I do toy cars and buildings and then combine them with live models. I've seen marvellous model seascapes on acrylic sheets. One worker makes paintings using food...

And DO check out Paul Michael Smith on the net.

Note - we've got the Panasonic and a shelf of great lenses for it in shop right now. Come see.

A Camera For Plain Pictures And Plain Dealing

Welcome, Friend. How may I help thee?

You wish to take photographs of thy family, or thy farm animals? Of the Meeting House on Sunday? And you wish to do it decently, soberly, and in plain clothes? Of course.

Here is the camera for thee. The Ricoh GR. It has one lens only and that lens sees the world at the equivalent of a 28mm focal length. Thee can take pictures inside thy house by lantern as well - it has an aperture of 2.8.

So that there is no chance of dishonesty, the camera is fitted with an electronic level - your pictures will be level. They can also be made square if that is thy wish.

You may elect to shoot them in a number of jpeg sizes. Modesty being a virtue, many of the elect will elect to switch it to small and turn off the colour setting. If you wish to make a large picture, remember that the RAW setting and the 16 Megapixel APS-C sensor will permit good results up to A3+.

If you wish to make motion pictures to show the action of your favourite buggy horse, there is a full HD 1920 x 1080 video. You will need a fast SD XC I card to do this.

The appearance of the camera is modest and sober - no flashy chrome or colours to dominate others.

If you wish to examine the world in detail, it will focus as close as 10 centimetres.

We have a number of them for sale and we will deal plainly and fairly with thee - as will the Ricoh Corporation, who warrant the camera for a year.

Hands Across The Table - Cullmann Studio Set

I wish I had an underwater studio. Then I could employ an octopus as an assistant and whenever I was trying to photograph a complex setup on the tabletop there would be extra arms available to hold things.

As it is, what might look like a simple bunch of toy cars and their associated scenery might be propped up with toothpicks, Blu-tac, double-sided sticky tape, folded matchbooks, piles of rice...the variations are endless as I try to show he object but hide the support. Photoshop is helpful to erase shadows but the more you can do at the time the less fiddling you do later.

Enter the Cullmann Flexx Studio set. A whole kit wrapped in a nylon carry bag that attaches to table edges, or smooth flat surfaces, or cranes over from a light sand. there are clamps, grips, and a ball head with a cold shoe for a speed light. There are extension poles and goosenecks. It should allow me to get a steady shot while holding a lot of the heavier little components at awkward angles.

Guess what I am going to push for as a Christmas present...

PS: You can get smaller sets as well, but this is the big daddy and I deserve the best...

Coil and Recoil

The modern speedlight flash is a marvel. Gone are the days of a complex guide-number chart on the back or a dial that has four different circles in four different colours. The new flash may have nothing more than an on-off switch. It is nevertheless capable of full TTL operation with the computer in your camera and the resulting exposure can be balanced far better than ever we did when we were pacing off the distance between ourselves and the subjects.

The trick is the dedicated contacts in the hot shoe - 3 for Nikon and 4 for Canon. They pass the coded signals back and forth at the speed of light. It is perfectly feasible to take flash pictures all day and not touch any of the controls. Yay.

But when you need the direction of the flash to be different than stuck on the top of the camera you need to get that same control at a distance. Here is where Promaster comes in. They make double-ended TTL cords for both the Canon and Nikon systems - you can get them as short as 150 cm and as long as 10 metres in either coiled or straight form. Attach one end to the hot shoe, put the flash in the other end and shoot macros, street shots, product shots, and Hollywood portraits.

In-store right now.

Close Encounters of The Fun Kind - Stroboframe

I frequently buy items from our shop upon speculation - I do not know exactly how I will use them but I add them to the armamentarium on the off-chance that they will be just what I need. Here is a tale of one such device.

Stroboframe make brackets and flash holders for film and digital cameras - have done for years. Wedding photographers who used flash in the film era used them to drop the shadow from the flash down behind the subject. The simple geometry of the thing meant that faces looked clean and attractive and even quite small spaces could be utilised for set shots.

In a studio setting, the various flip mechanisms that Stroboframe make let people turn their cameras from landscape to portrait orientation without losing framing. A lot less shifting of tripods.

I had occasion yesterday to discover just how useful one of the larger Stroboframe brackets could be when I covered a model car exhibition. Think of these model cars in terms of close-up rather than macro subjects but stretch your imagination further to encompass your own work - and see if the brackets might be just as useful.

The bracket mounts my Nikon D300 with an 18-200 lens. The wide range of the lens is very useful when dealing with subjects that might be as small as your thumb up to full interiors or landscapes. In the case of the model car show I chiefly wanted clear illustration for my blog - "Here All Week" at hrhoa.wordpress.com. Thus meant accurate colours and adequate depth of field on the small cars - I needed f:22 if I could get it.

No problem with the Nikon flash system - the SB 700 flash has more than enough power for this task. The fact that I could mount it on the cross-bar of the Stroboframe in a TTL extension cord meant that there was absolutely no calculation or adjustment needed for the 170+ illustrations - I just selected a low ISO, a high f stop, and 1/160 of a second. Point, frame, and shoot...

The first wonderful thing about the Stroboframe is that if you need to do a vertical shot you just release the small red lever at the bottom and rotate the camera 90º. The weight of the camera steadies it in the new position and the flash angle does not change.

The second wonderful thing is the top flash bar also swivels down so that it will drop the light - and the troublesome shadow - even if the subject is tiny and close up.

The third wonderful thing is this same rotation can continue upwards for bounce flash and it is a damn sight easier than pushing the rubber button and swivelling the head. See the effect of a light bounce up on the Bonneville Salt Flat model shots.

The forth wonderful thing about this particular bracket is the peculiar rubber-covered handle on the front - it is very convenient as a carrying and support point for the whole rig - it is well balanced.

BEST NEWS - We've been having a Stroboframe sale these past weeks and we will continue it for a little while longer. 50% off is not to be sneezed at, particularly if you are a regular Camera Electronic bargain hunter.

The Best Tool For The Job

The best tool for the job - is frequently a debated point. One practitioner points to one item, another holds up something different, and the argument is on. If the job is a technical one the rest of the populace stands baffled.

Suppose you are a dentist who wants to take pictures of teeth and jaws - or a skin specialist who wants to illustrate surface lesions for lectures or books. Or a mechanical engineer who wants to show tiny little parts and mechanisms. You reach for a digital camera with a good close-focus setting and try your luck.

If you have the light just right, and the white balance just right, and the auto focus on and you don't shake too much, you might succeed. Equally you might be too much in the shade, or too blue, or too wobbly.

Rethink. Get yourself a decent DSLR or mirror-less camera. C, N, P, S, or O come to mind...clap on a decent macro lens that will allow you to stand back about a foot from your subject. Put the Metz Mecablitz 15 MS-1 digital macro flash onto the lens, set the flash to take orders from the camera and go for your life.

Note: experienced clinical and macro workers do not try to use the auto-focus on the lens. They set the thing to manual and lean into the subject until they see it in focus.

The Metz people have been making flash units for decades - I have my original Mecablitz 45-CT1 from 1975 and it is still producing saleable pictures - and I've added three more of them from garage sales...Suffice it to say that Metz is the standard of the small flash industry when it comes to reliability.

The 15 MS-1digital fastens to the front of the lens with threaded rings - rather like some of the filter systems these days. There is a quick-release for the flash if you need to do something else with the camera straight away. Metz also supply a funny little clip - rather like a hair clip - that you can see in the main illustration. It is used when your DSLR has a pop-up flash.

The idea of the 15 MS-1 digital is that it can take TTL synchronising information from your DSLR in the same way that remote flashes do. The clip goes over the pop-up flash to prevent visible light flooding the subject while the IR information that instructs the flash goes out the side.

In addition, there is a standard PC socket at the side of the flash to take firing instruction from cameras that do not have a commander flash.

The two tubes mounted either side of the lens are movable - they can toe-in to illuminate subjects at very short range. There is an integral diffuser that you can rotate into position to reduce the intensity of the light.

The GN for this unit is 15 in the metric system - 49 for the imperial. More than enough for intra-oral and full-face shots. It runs on AAA batteries and will poot out 140 to 200 shots at full power.

In short, Doctor, the 15 MS-1 and the C,N,P,S, and O will be OK at TTL for IO and FF.

But that is just my initial diagnosis...