The post 10 Creative DIY Photo IDEAS when Stuck at Home (video) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
In this video from Nicolas Doretti, he gives you 10 creative DIY photo ideas for when you are stuck at home. They are fun, interesting, and best of all, they may teach you some new techniques you hadn’t thought to try.
So try some of these ideas out, and share your results with us in the comments section!
10 Creative DIY Photo IDEAS when Stuck at Home
Use everyday props to play with the light while making portraits. Play with colanders, cut shapes into cardboard, or use pieces of material to filter the window light or other artificial lighting.
Use glass and ice as a foreground for some cool portraits.
Use fairy lights for some great portrait effects, or if you have no model, just photograph the lights themselves and create bokeh.
Do some food photography. Make a seamless DIY backdrop using a pillowcase or similar.
Do some Ninja photos using oranges or similar. Cut them in half and use skewers to make them look like they are floating. Photograph yourself making a Ninja move, so it looks like you have just cut it in half. Or, if you don’t want to be in the photo, simply make them look like they are floating.
Duplicate yourself in photos by placing your camera on a tripod and taking multiple photos of yourself in different positions. Then composite the photos together in a program such as Photoshop by using Layer Masks.
Try levitation photography. Use masks again to remove your chair (or whatever you have used to make it look like you or the person you are photographing are levitating).
Try some birds eye photography by attaching your phone to the ceiling and taking some shots of the room below.
Make some cool lighting effects using reflections! Or shoot using objects that refract or diffract the light, such as reading glasses, crystal, drinking glasses, CDs, or knives.
Create your own neon background. Do a search for colorful or neon backgrounds, and place the image on your TV or screen. Then photograph your subject in front of it.
You may also like:
The dPS At-Home 7-Day Photography Challenge – Week One
Next-Level Selfies – 7 Tips for Creative Self-Portraits (video)
How to Make a Cool Double Exposure Effect Using Photoshop (video)
How to Create Dramatic Portraits with Shadow Photography
5 Ways to Use a Piece of Glass for Unique Portraits
How to Take Floating Photos – Levitation Photography
Challenge Yourself by Photographing One Object
Easy to Create Fake Underwater Photography Hack
The post 10 Creative DIY Photo IDEAS when Stuck at Home (video) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
Since many of us are still limited to where we can go, this week’s photography challenge topic is the ICM (intentional camera movement)!
I focused the camera then as I pressed the shutter button, moved the camera following the direction of the grass blades. f/16, ISO 100, 1/15th sec.
This is a fun exercise you can try inside your home or out in your yard (if you are lucky enough to have one). If you live in an apartment in the city, you may want to try capturing the night city lights with ICM instead.
You’ll want to use a relatively slow shutter speed – something slower than around 1/15th of a sec. Then you will want to physically move the camera in the direction you want as soon as you hit the shutter button.
Check out some of the articles below that give you tips on this week’s challenge.
Tips for photographing the ICM
How to Take Creative Landscape Shots using Intentional Camera Movement
Creative Reasons to use Intentional Camera Movement
Intentional Camera Movement and the Landscape
Intentional Blur- How to Create it and Why it’s Awesome
How Mark Rothko’s Paintings Can Inspire Your Photography
5 Great Ways to Create Abstract Wave Photography
Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge.
Share in the dPS Facebook Group
You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSICM to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
The post How to Use Intentional Camera Movement in Your Photography to Great Effect appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.
The presentation of motion in a static image is the subject of this article – a seeming contradiction in terms. This is not the case, and today you’ll discover how to use intentional camera movement to create dynamic images. You’ll learn the techniques you can use during the day and those which you can use at night. So read on and find out how you can make your photos dynamic!
What is intentional camera movement?
This image used a day time zoom burst, and a strong ND filter.
The majority of the time, you’ll be taught to keep your camera still, to avoid blur in your photo. However, what if you moved the camera during an exposure, and you did it on purpose? This is what intentional camera movement is.
Now for this effect to work, you’ll need to use slow shutter speeds. You won’t see any worthwhile results from shutter speeds over 1/100th.
It’s possible to practice this handheld with shutter speeds between 1/50th and half a second. Anything slower than that will require a tripod for the best results.
How to use intentional camera movement during the day
There is more than one way you can apply intentional camera movement to your work. The most well known is probably panning. The following are the main ways you can move your camera, and produce interesting results.
Panning is a technique that tracks movement.
1. Panning
Panning is a technique used to show the motion of a moving object. The aim is to move your camera at the same pace as a moving object and to expose the image for around a third of a second to produce blur in the background.
There are several ways you can refine this technique to produce even better results.
The shutter speed used will also be dependent on the speed of the object you are panning. This is a nice technique to try as there is a clear main subject, which is not always the case with intentional camera movement.
2. Zooming
A night time zoom burst, with light painting across the scene.
Using zoom during the day can also give interesting results. You’ll learn how you can add even more to this technique at night by reading below. The effect is produced by changing the focal distance of your lens, so primes lenses won’t work here.
The following are the steps you’ll need to take to create a daytime zoom burst.
Exposure – You’ll need to find a location that allows you to expose at 1/10th second or longer. If you choose to use a longer exposure, you’ll need a tripod.
Lens – You’ll need a lens that allows you to manually change the focal distance during the course of the exposure.
Filter – Those daytime long exposures will likely require an ND filter to achieve them.
Zoom in – The effect will broadly be the same whether you zoom in or zoom out, but for daytime zoom, it’s better to zoom in.
Focus – Focus your camera at the focal distance you intend to finish the zoom burst at. This may require pre-focusing the camera, and setting the camera to manual focus for the exposure itself.
Location – A location with something overhead like a tree canopy will work best to show the zoom effect. A clear sky won’t show any zoom at all.
3. Intentional camera movement
This type of photo is often very abstract in nature. The goal is to move the camera in such a way it produces appealing blur patterns in your image. You’ll need a longer exposure to produce this.
Circular motion is a type of intentional camera movement.
The best movements are often defined shapes. If you move your camera in a straight line, a circular motion, or perhaps a heart shape, you should get a nice result.
It’s possible to carry out photos like this handheld if the exposure is short, and you keep to a simple movement. An exposure of around half a second would work for this.
4. Using a tripod
It also possible to use intentional camera movement from a tripod, though you’ll be limited to the movements your tripod head will allow. That means you can produce all the shapes mentioned above, you’ll just be pivoting from a fixed position.
The advantage of using a tripod is that the camera will be that much steadier. The next advantage is that if you wish to combine intentional camera movement with a stationary phase to an exposure, this is possible with a tripod.
Techniques you can use at night
Lights from an event like Christmas are great opportunities for kinetic light paintings.
It’s that much easier to practice intentionally camera movement at night. That’s for two reason. The first is it’s easier to carry out long exposure, as the light level will be lower. The second is light sources you’ll see out night will light paint across your scene. In fact by night intentional camera movement might more accurately be described as kinetic light painting. The techniques listed above can be adapted to night photography. Panning is almost the same, so this won’t be discussed any further.
1. Kinetic light painting zoom
Kinetic light painting involves changing the focal distance of a zoom lens, during a long exposure photo. The exposure lengths at night mean you’ll now need to use a tripod to get good photos using this technique.
A key difference with daytime zooming is that it’s preferable to zoom out when practicing this. The reason for this is you want the light paint to zoom outwards across your scene. If you zoom in, the chances are you’ll have light painting across your main subject in the center of your scene. To find out more about this technique, you can read this article.
This photo shows the result of camera rotation, and kinetic light painting.
2. Kinetic light painting rotation
Another type of kinetic light painting is camera rotation. Once again, you’ll need a tripod for this, and you’ll move your camera body while it’s attached to the tripod. It’s a technique that works best where there are tall structures. These can be tall buildings, statues or perhaps Christmas trees.
To make this technique work, you’ll need these structures to have lights on them. To find out more about camera rotation read this article.
Create dynamic images intentionally!
Now it’s your turn to get out and create some images. If you can’t get out and about, try some of these in your yard or home. It’s a great way of adding narrative to an image, or perhaps to create a completely abstract image.
Have you tried any of the ideas mentioned in this article? If you have what were your experiences?
As always, if you have images that display intentional camera movement, please share them in the comments.
The post How to Use Intentional Camera Movement in Your Photography to Great Effect appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.
The post 10 Photography Projects You Can Work on From Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.
If you’ve suddenly found yourself at home for an extended period, your first reaction could be to feel restricted in terms of what you can achieve. Fear not, there are lots of photography projects you can work on from home. In this guide, I’ve detailed ten projects I plan on working on in the coming weeks.
1. Make a photography zine
With time on your hands, there’s no better time to start thinking about creating a photography zine. I’ve just made my first zine with images I took while on holiday on the Isle of Wight last year.
There was quite a steep learning curve for me in putting it all together. Some of the skills I learned include: how to select images for a book, page layout using Adobe InDesign, and the difference in how images look printed in the CMYK color space instead of how they’re viewed on the screen in the RGB color space. The next step is to market and sell my zine.
The whole process has been very rewarding. Look out for a future Digital Photography School article coming soon about this topic.
Checking the final layout of my first photo book ‘Every Summer’
2. Organize your Lightroom catalogs
If your Lightroom is anything like my Lightroom, of all the photography projects you can work on from home, this one could take the most time. Over the next few weeks, I’ve decided to start organizing it once and for all.
With well over 200,000 photos, this is a daunting task. Like all big projects, I’ve decided to break it down into manageable chunks. Starting with my 2019 photos, I’m aiming to sort, keyword and organize two months of photos per day.
My process includes adding keywords, adding ratings to photos I like, creating collections for shoots or locations, and flagging photos for deletion. It also includes exporting photos for a variety of uses: family photos, photo projects, stock photography, and for my portfolio and website.
The most rewarding part for me is flagging photos for deletion – this is a fantastic way to free up much-needed space on my hard drive. It’s so easy to forget that you have taken multiple photos – in both JPG and RAW format – of the same subject. I take great delight in flagging the ones I don’t need and deleting them forever.
If your Lightroom is anything like my Lightroom, it could benefit from some organization.
3. Catalog your equipment
If you’re anything like me, you probably have camera equipment in boxes, on shelves, everywhere! Getting it all down on the floor and sorting through it item by item can be a very useful activity. You may well find cameras, lenses, filters, or other items you forgot you had.
As I sort through my equipment, I like to catalog it all in a spreadsheet, making notes about each item. Noting if there’s an issue with its working or cosmetic condition, where I got the item from, and how much I paid for it. This is also a really good way to work out if there’s anything you don’t use anymore and could sell to fund other gear.
4. Research a photographer
When I was on holiday last year on the Isle of Wight in England, quite by accident, I discovered an amazing place called Dimbola. This was the home of the 19th-century photographic pioneer, Julia Margaret Cameron.
There’s a wonderful photography museum inside the house, along with descriptions of how she took the images and many prints of her work. Looking around the house, I wondered how many other amazing photographers I had never heard of?
For this project, research a photographer from the past. It could be from 20 years ago or 120 years ago. You could research a photographer from the genre that you like the most, or someone in a completely different genre. Who knows what inspiration might strike?
Take a look at our Lessons From the Masters Series.
Sadness (1864) by Julia Margaret Cameron. Can you believe this photo was taken over 150 years ago?
5. Create a memories book
When I was growing up, we had a cupboard under the bookshelf that held all of our photo albums. At any time I could dig them out and have a look (and a laugh) at all the family memories they contained.
These days, most of our family photos are on hard drives and devices. One of my goals is to create a series of memories books for my family. When I show my children photos from a few years ago, they always get a kick out of it. Why not use your time at home to create a book for someone in your family as a gift?
One of the advantages of sorting through your Lightroom catalog is that you’ll already have a folder of images ready to go for your memories book.
6. Read a photography book
If photography is your passion, you’ll no doubt have a bookshelf full of photography-related titles. I have dozens of photography books, yet there’s only a few that I’ve actually read cover to cover. Others I’ve put on the shelf telling myself that one day I would get around to reading them. Guess what? That ‘one day’ is here!
I now have a list of books that I will work through in the next month. Some I’ve read before, most I’ve only flicked through. For books that teach a technique, I like to make notes as I find that helps me remember the information more effectively.
Some of the photography books I plan on reading over the next few weeks.
7. Work on your lighting techniques
Now is the perfect time to working on your lighting techniques. As far as photography projects you can work on from home, learning more about light could have the biggest impact on you as a photographer.
Even with a single flash, there are dozens of different ways to light an image.
Once you add a light stand, an umbrella or a softbox, your options grow. Find a book or search dPS for lighting techniques, or watch some YouTube tutorials. Play around with how light affects your images. Often it’s trial and error, seeing what works and what doesn’t.
The set up for the photo below was quite simple. I laid my camera on a black sheet. Then I attached my Godox flash to a stand, pointing away from the subject into a silver umbrella. I then took a series of photos with Fujifilm X-T3 – a remote on the hotshoe triggered the flash.
There wasn’t much to do in post-production. I darkened the blacks a little and removed a small scratch from the top of my camera. You could apply this or other lighting techniques to people, food, objects, anything.
Try out your product photography skills by photographing your cameras.
8. Video chat with other photographers
In one of the many photography-themed Facebook Groups I’m in, someone organized a video conference a few days ago. About twenty of us dialled in from all over the world for a chat. Having the opportunity to talk to other people in different countries was amazing.
Lots of different topics were covered, including photography projects you can work on from home. Knowing that there are other people out there in the same boat can be quite comforting. Why not organize a video chat with a friend, or a group of people with the same interest? Many video conferencing tools are free, or have a free option.
9. Social media spring clean
It may not be spring everywhere in the world, but there’s no better time to spring clean your socials. Start by looking through your profile, is the description still accurate? Is your website listed? Is your profile photo up-to-date? Then take a look through your photos. Are there any that you’d like to hide or delete because they no longer fit with your profile or brand?
Next, look through the images you exported as part of your Lightroom Catalog clean-up. Think about the best order to post them in. Will you follow a theme based on location? Or simply post them in an order that looks good for the Instagram grid?
Finally, look at who you’re following on social media. Look for new accounts or hashtags to be inspired by, and also consider unfollowing accounts that you’re no longer interested in.
There’s no better time to Spring Clean your socials
10. Research a photographic technique
Photography is incredibly broad and diverse. There are so many different techniques to learn and master. As photographers many of us will only scratch the surface of what’s possible.
On Digital Photography School, there are articles on almost every kind of photography technique you can think of. Some of my favourites include how to shoot traffic trails, tips for shooting pet portraits, and taking better sunset photos.
You can also check out some of my recent articles for dPS including 17 Tips for Shooting Better Urban Portraits and Top Tips for Photographing the Best a City has to Offer in 48-hours.
Traffic trails in Taipei. I took this just before I had to leave for the airport to catch my flight.
Conclusion
Not being able to go out for an extended period of time can be daunting, but there are so many photography projects you can work on from home. From making zines to promote your work, creating photo books as gifts for family members, and of course, cleaning up your Lightroom catalog.
There’s also lots of inspiration you can take, from the thousands of articles here on dPS, or by researching a photographer or photographic technique.
What projects are you working on at home? Tell us in the comments below.
The post 10 Photography Projects You Can Work on From Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.
The post Photographing a Still Life Series for Exhibition or a Portfolio appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.
If you’ve ever tried photographing still life images, you’ll know that making a single good picture is relatively easy, but shooting a still life series is much harder! Trying to make a set of images that feel like they belong together can be very challenging for many reasons.
If you’re shooting to create a portfolio, or perhaps even for an exhibition, you’ll want to create images that feel like they belong together. That way, the body of work will appear more thoughtful, and its message will be stronger.
But no matter how hard you try to make images look like they are a series, there often seems to be something that doesn’t look quite right. So how can you overcome these challenges and shoot a still life series that feels like the pictures are coherent?
What is coherency?
When it comes to these images there’s a number of ways that a still life series can look like they belong together. But it really starts at the beginning.
Shooting a series of images that aren’t connected thematically is possible, but you have to pay attention to the technical aspects of your shots for coherency.
The most useful thing that you can do is have a series in mind when you shoot your first image. Picking a theme that will weave through your images and tie them all together is probably the easiest way to get a coherent feel to your series of shots.
If you shoot images around a theme, then the theme should automatically help to make them feel like they’re all a part of the same project. Perhaps the easiest way to approach still life thematically is to try to tell a story through the images. When you try to include storytelling in a still life series, it should help the images feel like they belong together.
But sometimes it’s not all about the theme and the storytelling; sometimes, you want to pull images together visually. So here are some suggestions on how to go about doing just that.
Use the same viewpoint
When you’re planning out your still life series, experiment initially with a few different viewpoints. But consider sticking to one throughout the series. Swapping viewpoints between pictures can make the images feel like they’re not quite part of a coherent set.
Consider using a tripod in order to keep everything the same. It’ll make it easier to keep your framing consistent for each shot, as well as keeping your distance the same from the camera to the object. And don’t forget to think about your composition as you place objects into your frame.
Of course, it is possible to change the viewpoint and still keep the images looking like they are part of the same still life series, as the image above shows. You’ll just have to make sure that you keep some of the other variables about your shot the same. Perhaps make sure that your theme or story is stronger than you might otherwise have needed to make it.
Use the same focal length
Keeping the distance between the camera and object the same, and also the focal length of the lens, can be a really great trick to keep your images looking like part of a series. When we use different focal lengths or vary the distance from the object to the lens it can cause distortion. Distortion causes our brain to realise that something isn’t really quite right.
Left: Shot with 35mm lens (50mm equiv.) Centre: Shot with 18mm lens (28mm equiv.) with the subject in the same place Right: Shot with 18mm lens (28mm equiv.) with subject moved closer to camera
While on the surface, the left and right images above look similar, you can see on closer inspection that there is distortion. In the right-hand image above, that I shot with a wider focal length, you can see more of the top of the apple, less of the bottom. And the apple appears to be bulging out towards the camera.
Of course, there’s really no “correct” focal length to use when it comes to shooting still life images. You may want the distortion that a wider angle lens brings to the image. In a way, the wide-angle creates a strange look that could almost pay homage to the artist Paul Cézanne who painted both the side and top of objects in his still life – an “impossible” view.
And on the other hand, a 50mm equivalent focal length gives a much more “natural” view because it’s closer to how the human eye views objects.
The important thing if you choose to vary your focal length or distance from the camera to object is to keep enough other variables the same. That way, your images still look like they are part of the same series.
Post-process images in a similar way
If I was going to shoot a still life series on film, I’d definitely make sure I shoot the same film type for all of my images. That way, they’d all be similar in color, tone, and feel.
Digital is no different. Post-processing images to make them look as similar as possible in style and feel can make a huge difference when it comes to feeling like they’re part of a series.
This is a great time to think about introducing something unique to your post-processing rather than just going for a totally natural look. It could be a slight split-toning in Lightroom with colors in the shadows, or a particular black and white recipe.
The key is to create a distinctive look and then apply it to all images, applying minor adjustments to each one to make them look coherent. Then your images, even if they are of quite different subjects, will be pulled together with a common look and feel.
Keeping your studio setup and lighting the same can really help when it comes to post-processing to make your shots look similar. Starting from the same “canvas” will mean that you don’t need to be a total post-processing wizard. Instead, small adjustments will pack a real punch when it comes to coherency.
Keep experimenting
When you’re planning your series, make sure that you keep experimenting. Try all kinds of different technical approaches to start with and narrow it down to the ones that suit the theme (and your style) the best. And then, once you have your images, experiment with the post-processing before saving your recipe as a preset so that you can use it to help you create a coherent look amongst all your images.
Remember that simply experimenting by changing your background can affect the whole feel of your shot! I shot these images were in the same lighting as the “light” images in this article and with similar settings. Both: ISO400, 35mm (50mm equiv.), f4, 1/240th sec
Don’t forget that you can apply these ideas to other kinds of photography too.
For instance, when creating a series of portraits, you might want to think about using a single focal length, aperture, and a post-processing recipe. It will help all your shots feel similar. These ideas about shooting a still life series can be applied to more than just inanimate objects!
The post Photographing a Still Life Series for Exhibition or a Portfolio appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.
The post Is This the Best Camera Gear of 2020? Tipa Awards Results appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
The Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) has just announced its 2020 TIPA World Award results, which seeks to recognize the best photography-related gear of 2020.
The winners include a mix of cameras, lenses, post-processing software, tripods, flashes, and more, all honored in categories tailored to 2020 photography interests and needs.
Awards were determined by representatives of TIPA’s member magazines. Note that TIPA magazines are a diverse collection of imaging-related publications from across the globe, including:
Camera Australia
Practical Photography
Luminous Landscapes
Photo Life
While TIPA awards are normally determined by an in-person body of magazine representatives, this year’s judging process proceeded differently (due to COVID-19 concerns). Instead of taking place in a Las Vegas assembly, voting was done online.
The TIPA chairperson explained:
We believe that now more than ever our support of the industry and the people who work so hard, be it in production, distribution, or marketing, deserve credit and our thanks and appreciation for their efforts to continue to develop new and exciting products and grow into the future. Of course, while the process of nomination and selection of award winners had to adapt to the circumstances, we maintained our usual rigorous standards in our considerations.
Read on to discover TIPA’s choices for the best camera gear of 2020.
You’ll probably notice quite a few familiar products. But you may also notice some new ones worth checking out.
And then, when you’re done, leave your thoughts in the comments section. Let us know how you feel about the winners!
Do you agree? Disagree? Are there any cameras, lenses, or additional gear that you’d like to have seen on the list? And what is your favorite camera, lens, photo editing software, and accessory of 2020?
2020 TIPA World Awards winners
Cameras
Best Full Frame Professional Camera: The Sony a7R IV
Best Full Frame Camera Expert: The Sigma fp
Best APS-C Camera Professional: The Fujifilm X-Pro3
Best APS-C Camera Expert: The Sony a6600
Best APS-C Camera Advanced: The Nikon Z50
Best DSLR Professional Camera: The Canon EOS 1D X Mark III
Best DSLR Expert Camera: The Nikon D780
Best DSLR Advanced Camera: The Canon EOS 90D
Best Full Frame Photo/Video Camera: The Panasonic Lumix DC-S1H
Best Medium Format Camera: The Fujifilm GFX100
Best Expert Compact Camera: The Sony RX100 VII
Best Vlogging Camera: The Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III
Best Premium Compact Camera: The Fujifilm X100V
Best Photo Smartphone: Huawei P40 Series
Lenses
Best DSLR Prime Lens: Tamron SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD
Best DSLR Macro Lens: Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO
Best DSLR Wide Angle Zoom Lens: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 CF
Best DSLR Professional Lens: Nikkor 120-300mm f/2.8E VR
Best Micro Four Thirds Lens: Panasonic Leica 10-25mm f/1.7
Best Mirrorless Prime Standard Lens: Nikkor Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct
Best Mirrorless Prime Wide Angle Lens: Samyang AF 14mm f/2.8 RF
Best Mirrorless Wide Angle Zoom Lens: Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art
Best Mirrorless Telephoto Zoom Lens: Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Best Mirrorless Standard Zoom Lens: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art
Best Professional Portrait Lens: Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM
Accessories and software
Best Imaging Software: DxO PhotoLab 3
Best Inkjet Photo Paper: Hahnemuhle Natural Line
Best Portable Photo Printer: Fujifilm Instax Mini Link
Best Imaging Storage Solution: SanDisk Extreme Pro CFexpress 2.0
Best Portable Flash: Nissin MG80 Pro
Best Professional LED Light: ARRI Orbiter
Best Tripod Head: Gitzo 3-Way
Best Travel Tripod: Manfrotto BeFree GT XPRO
Best Professional Photo Monitor: BenQ PhotoVue SW321C
Best Professional Video Monitor: LG UltraWide 38WN95C
Best Mobile Accessory: Godox R1
Best Color Management Solution: X-Rite i1Display Studio/i1Display Pro Plus
Best Photo Lab: WhiteWall Masterprint
Best Photo Service: CEWE Photobook
Best Photo Innovation: Sony Real-Time Tracking technology
The post Is This the Best Camera Gear of 2020? Tipa Awards Results appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
The post How to Choose the Best Lens for Wildlife Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Shreyas Yadav.
Before you select a lens for wildlife photography, first ask yourself – what are you passionate about photographing? Do you love exploring the forest and chasing big cats on a wildlife safari? Perhaps you love photographing birds flying around? Maybe you love to explore reptiles and amphibians?
After you have figured out what you are passionate about, think about how many of those subjects are available and whether you can access that location. For example, if I am passionate about exploring forests full of tigers, leopards, and elephants, I have to see if those subjects – and the location – are accessible to me at least once a month.
Alternatively, if I am passionate about colorful birds, I have to check if I can access those locations at least once a month.
If you can access the location and subject of your choice, you are lucky. It will make your lens selection an easy decision. Since you will be using that lens every month, it makes complete sense to own the glass.
Homecoming : Baya Weaver Bird in Flight
On the other hand, if you love birds and African Big five. If you live away from Africa, then it is better to buy a lens that is perfect for birds – which you are more likely to shoot every weekend. Whereas, you may only visit Africa once every three years. Hence, think about it before you purchase a lens.
The most crucial factor is the budget. How much cash you can allocate to the lens. Keep aside some money for the camera body, accessories, and most importantly for travel, as wildlife photography involves a considerable amount of travel. While travel is sometimes hectic and a bit expensive, it is an awesome experience!
Key factors to consider while selecting the lens for wildlife photography
To summarise, below are the key factors to consider while selecting the lens for wildlife photography:
Personal liking
Subject availability
Location accessibility
Budget
Technical factors to consider when choosing the best lens for wildlife photography
Let’s start with the technical factors you should consider while choosing the best lens for wildlife photography.
Focal length range
Maximum aperture
Focusing speed
Controls and ergonomics
Compatibility with Teleconverters
Weather sealing
Low light performance
The King – Power, Dominance, Calmness and Royal presence
1. Focal length range
The range of focal lengths is essential to photographing wildlife images. You need longer focal lengths to photograph birds and mammals. For photographing birds, you need a focal length of at least 400 mm. And it can go up to 600 or even 800 mm.
If you are photographing mammals, the required focal length is from 200mm up to 600 mm. The longer the focal length, the better reach you will have.
However, there are exceptions in some of the cases.
When you want to show wildlife in its habitat or if you can approach the wildlife at a close distance, you can use shorter focal lengths, such as 12mm or 14mm.
But in most of the wildlife cases, there will be a distance between you and the wildlife you photograph. Hence longer focal lengths are useful.
2. Maximum aperture
Lens aperture determines how much light passes through the lens to the camera’s sensor. Larger apertures help to capture maximum light.
Large aperture lenses focus faster than smaller aperture lenses too.
In wildlife photography, the action is fast, so to capture fast action, you need a quicker focusing lens. Hence, it’s preferable to use a lens with a large aperture in Wildlife photography.
The maximum aperture can be f/2.8 and f/4. The lenses with a fast aperture (smaller number) can focus fast.
Image quality, depth of field, and sharpness are superb for lenses with a faster aperture.
Select the lens with an aperture value of f/2.8 or f/4. The smallest aperture you can go up to is f/5.6. Try not to choose lenses slower than f/5.6.
Sony FE 200–600 mm F5.6–6.3 G OSS
3. Focusing speed
Focusing speed is critical for wildlife and bird photography.
The best lens should focus fast and accurately and should be able to focus precisely – even in the low light as well.
Focusing speed is mainly dependent on the maximum aperture and lens construction.
While looking at the lens construction, we will not be able to figure out the focusing speed. But, based on the maximum aperture number, we can get an idea of lens focusing speed.
A lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 or f/4 focuses fast and accurate.
In general, a fixed focal length lens performs better than a zoom lens because of less moving glass elements. (There are exceptions. Some of the zoom lenses focus fast; we will discuss it later in this article)
4. Controls and ergonomics
Controls and ergonomics determine how you can handle and use the lens.
Lens zooming and manual focus rings should be smooth and accurate.
The lens should zoom with optimized ring rotation, so you don’t have to rotate the zoom ring by 360 degrees.
Autofocus and manual override (A/M or M/A) is a great feature. It means you can autofocus the lens. Further, to fine-tune the focus, you can manually focus it.
Vibration reduction/image stabilization helps to compensate for any camera movement. This feature helps to capture a sharp image at low shutter speed.
The weight of the lens is a significant factor in choosing the lens too. Less weight is always preferred because you can carry the lens while hiking or traveling. Similarly, smaller size lenses are right for traveling and packing.
Most of the wildlife and bird photography lenses are a bit heavy and bigger. Of course, there are exceptions. Some of the lenses are equally great in terms of image quality at a much lower weight and size. But the price of those lenses is higher. We will evaluate those lenses as well in the next sections.
NIKKOR AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 G ED VR
5. Compatibility with teleconverters
As you will be using the lens for many years, compatibility with a teleconverter is essential.
The lens should be compatible (in terms of Autofocus performance such as accuracy and speed) with the teleconverter.
Teleconverters help to expand the range of the lens. For example, a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens with a 2X converter will be 140-400mm f/5.6. It doubles the focal range of the lens and reduces the maximum aperture of the lens from f/2.8 to f/5.6.
For any lens brand, generally, there are 1.4X, 1.7X, and 2X teleconverters. If the lens is compatible with all 3 teleconverters, it’s excellent! But at least it should be compatible with either one of the teleconverters.
If your lens is compatible with teleconverters, you will be able to extend the focal length of the lens.
6. Weather sealing
The right lens for wildlife photography should be able to take beatings from outdoor weather.
The lens should withstand against rain drizzle, temperature extremes (both hot and cold temperatures), and dust.
Weather sealing should be good enough to stop raindrops and dust from entering into the lens.
The weather sealing of the lens depends on lens construction, protruding lens elements, type of seals at zoom/focus ring, and at the camera mount.
With that said, while photographing outdoors, take care. It is always better to clean the lens after each photography trip. Cleaning of lens contacts, lens mounts, front elements, zoom/focusing rings, and protruding parts is good enough.
A graceful walk of a Tusker
7. Low light performance
Low light focusing performance is dependent on the lens and camera as well. Both camera and lens play an essential role in low light focusing.
Most of the wildlife action happens during early dawn and late dusk. During this edge of day, light conditions are poor.
Good lenses should be fast and accurate enough to focus in low light.
A lens’s low light performance depends on the maximum aperture and moving glass elements. Larger apertures of f/2.8 or f/4 and less moving glass elements mean the lens focuses fast. (Assuming your camera is having excellent low light autofocus performance.)
Now you are aware of what technical factors to look for, let’s learn what types of lenses are available for Wildlife photography.
Different lens types for wildlife photography
Prime Lenses ( Fixed focal length )
Telephoto zoom lens
Micro 4/3rd format lens
Micro Lens
Oriental White Eye Birds
1. Prime lenses
A prime lens has a fixed focal length.
Prime lenses are best for birds and wildlife at a distance.
Because of fewer moving glass elements and maximum aperture, autofocus performance is excellent.
Image quality, sharpness, low light capability, and focus response is excellent for a prime lens. Prime lenses are compatible with teleconverters too.
One caveat is, if the wildlife approaches closer to you, you cannot zoom out and take the picture. Instead, you are stuck with a fixed focal length. In this case, you may want to take a portrait/close up image.
Compositional flexibility is limited when using prime lenses.
Prime lenses are higher in price and can be a bit heavier as compared to zoom lenses.
However, buying the best prime lens is the most significant investment you can make in your photography. These lenses last more than a decade and keep making beautiful images.
Out of your budget, try to spend the maximum amount of money on buying the best prime lens.
Some of the best prime lenses are:
Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4E PF ED VR
Nikon AF-S 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II
Nikon AF-S 500mm f/4E FL ED VR
Nikon AF-S 600mm f/4E FL ED VR
Sony FE 600mm F4 GM OSS
Canon EF300mm f/4L IS USM
Canon EF300mm f/2.8L IS II USM
Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM
Canon EF600mm f/4L IS II USM
Canon EF400mm f/5.6L USM
Red Munia
2. Telephoto zoom lens
A telephoto zoom lens is a variable focal length lens. You can change the focal length of the lens by rotating the zoom ring on the lens.
Telephoto zoom lenses are best for birds and wildlife at long and short distances.
As compared to prime lenses (fixed focal length), Zoom lenses have more moving glass elements. This affects the focus performance.
However, there are exceptions.
Some of the Telephoto zoom lenses are as fast as prime lenses. We will see which of those lenses are in this article.
Telephoto zoom lenses are compatible with teleconverters. However, teleconverter compatibility is limited. Telephoto zoom lenses are fully compatible with some of the teleconverters, while only partially compatible with other teleconverters.
When choosing a telephoto zoom lens, check the teleconverter compatibility as well.
The main advantage of a zoom lens over a prime lens is variable focal length. Variable focal length helps in photographing farther as well as closer objects. Zoom lenses give freedom in image composition as well.
The size and weight of zoom lenses are relatively manageable as compared to that of prime lenses. Most of the zoom lenses are hand-holdable and travel-friendly.
While selecting the telephoto zoom lens, look out for aperture numbers such as f/2.8 and f/4 (for particular lens you can go up to f/5.6). Try to get the largest possible aperture for the telephoto zoom lens. This helps in autofocus performance, low light capability, Image sharpness, and smooth bokeh.
Some of the best Telephoto zoom lenses are:
NIKKOR AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR
NIKKOR AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR
NIKKOR AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 G ED VR
NIKKOR AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II
NIKKOR AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR
NIKKOR AF-S 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II
Sony FE 200–600 mm F5.6–6.3 G OSS
Super telephoto Zoom 100-400mm G Master lens
Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM
Raindrops and Green Vine Snake
3. Micro Lens
Micro-lenses are a prime lens (fixed focal length).
If insects, snakes, butterflies, or small creatures are your interest, then micro lenses are for you.
The most popular lenses among the photographers are 105mm f/2.8, 180mm f/2.8 and 90mm f/2.8. Among all 105mm f/2.8 lenses are the right balance of image quality, range, size, weight, and price.
Here are recommended micro-lenses from popular brands:
Nikon 105mm f/2.8
Canon 100mm f/2.8
There are additional micro-lenses from third party brands such as Sigma and Tamron.
Sunbird in Flight
4. Micro 4/3rd Format lens
Micro 4/3rd format lenses are a bit different. The cameras with the Micro 4/3rd system have a smaller sensor size.
For example, a full-frame 100mm lens will become 150mm (1.5 X) on the crop sensor (small camera sensor body). Whereas on the micro 4/3rd system cameras, a 100mm lens will become 200mm (2 X).
Micro 4/3rd systems have their benefits such as size, compactness, weather sealing, and convenience. With a small sensor, as compared to a full-frame sensor, there is a compromise in terms of image quality and dynamic range. Lenses for the Micro 4/3rd system are built well. The quality of the glass, weather sealing, and ergonomics are excellent too.
In wildlife photography, weather conditions will be hostile. You have to hike along with your gear. Size and weather resistance of the equipment matters.
Hence specifically for wildlife, photography Micro 4/3rds is an excellent and unique option to consider.
Some of the best micro 4/3rds lenses for wildlife photography are:
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F2.8 PRO
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 300mm F4.0 IS PRO
Elephant Scape
Process for selecting the best lens for wildlife photography
As you are now aware of what type of lenses are available for wildlife photography, let’s look into the process of lens selection.
These steps will help you to select the best lens for wildlife photography.
Identify your photography requirement
Find out what your area of interest is and identify what you want to photograph. You may want to photograph birds or big animals or small creatures. The key is to find out your objects of interest.
Evaluate the lens
Once you have found out what do you love photographing the most, select the lens accordingly. For example, if you love photographing birds, then select a telephoto (prime lens). If you like photographing butterflies, insects, and snakes, then select a micro-lens.
Rent the lens
Before you buy the lens, rent it. Also, try renting similar options in the lens. For example, if you are looking for a telephoto (prime) lens for birds, then rent and use the lenses such as 600mm f/4, 500mm f/4, and 400mm f/2.8 and see which lens you find comfortable while using.
If you want to photograph wild animals, try using lenses such as 70-200 f/2.8, 300mm f/4, and 200-500 f/5.6. By using the lens, you will be able to evaluate it better.
Buy the lens
Once you have evaluated and tried the lens, it is time to buy the lens. Generally, there is no discount for good lenses. Also, it is better to buy the new lens as you are going to use the lens for a long time (likely, more than a decade). Once you buy the lens, make sure all the functions work correctly.
Make sure you have a lens warranty in place, and you are good to go!
Now it’s your turn
What is your favorite object? Which lens have you selected?
If you have any questions regarding lens selection for wildlife photography, please let us know in the comments below.
The post How to Choose the Best Lens for Wildlife Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Shreyas Yadav.
The post Instaproofs Review: An All-In-One Platform to Sell Your Photography Online appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.
Looking for a better way to share and sell your photos online? Then Instaproofs might be the right solution for you.
Whether you do in-person sales or online, Instaproofs can help you organize your sessions, sell products and prints, and even help with contracts. Read more about the platform in today’s article review.
What is Instaproofs?
Instaproofs is a subscription-based platform online that helps photographers use online galleries to sell products, prints, and digitals to their clients worldwide.
They have been around for 15 years and over time have improved their platform to offer beautifully-designed galleries, easy user-friendly cart systems, and create more avenues for photographers to earn more after completing their work.
The galleries are compatible with all devices.
They are similar to other services like Pixieset and require a monthly subscription. Although, they do have a free plan available for those who use online galleries for in-person sales and can work within the 3GB limit.
Here are the current monthly options for Instaproofs that you can choose from:
Key features
The key features that Instaproofs offers are:
Online gallery platform and shopping cart with custom pricing and products
Cloud storage
Contacts and invoicing
Mobile apps
Digital delivery
Reports
Multi-lingual
Marketing tools and email tracking
Managed accounts for multiple users
Migration services from previous online gallery service (extra charge for this $ 3 per gallery).
Lab fulfillment services
Watermarking
Quick payments through Stripe
The service also offers a 14-day free trial so you can poke around and see if it’s right for you and your business.
In-Depth Review
Galleries
These three the are the biggest features that Instaproofs provides. Whether you are a digital delivery photographer or focus more on prints, there are endless features that you can take advantage of to get you more sales.
The gallery homepage can feature all of your galleries or you can choose to hide some. Add passwords and require emails to sign in. It’s fully customizable for each gallery depending on your needs.
The online galleries support high-resolution images up to 50MB per image making sure that you’re able to offer your clients the best image quality available for their images. You’re also able to upload smaller resolution images if you’re looking to present the images during in-person sales. This can save you storage space the monthly plan.
The dashboard will let you customize the views and windows. You can see right away how much storage space you have left, how many galleries are active, and the number of images you have uploaded.
The galleries also have the option of choosing the image you want to be featured for the entire gallery as well as category featured images which can be different. You’re also able to upload the HTML code for a video slideshow if you’ve created one – all to captivate your clients right from the start.
The star shows the images you have chosen as featured and will show as the cover for the gallery.
When setting up your galleries, you have all the options in the same window so that you can set up the purchase minimum, slideshow music, whether you want the photos to display mostly horizontal or vertical, choose a price list for the gallery, and categories.
Currently, they’ve added the option to upload to multiple categories simultaneously for faster uploads making it easier to organize and categorize the images for your clients.
Adding custom links and music to the slideshows is also a great way to engage your clients during the selling process. Another great plugin: Direct uploading from Aperture, Lightroom, or FTP applications.
Not into selling digitals? You don’t have to. The galleries offer the photographer to have a minimum purchase amount, offer only web-sized digitals or only watermarked digital images.
You have full control over how you want to set up each individual gallery. You can give your clients permission to hide images, download all, or none, and a customized link. You can also have guests who enter the link to only be able to purchase images and not download at all. Each gallery is personalized as much or as little as you want.
From the galleries, you’re able to create mobile apps that hold 50 images from a particular gallery. You can also make one without a pre-existing gallery, where the client can save the mobile app onto their smartphone and have 50 images to view and share on the go! Especially useful to do sneak peeks/previews.
Shopping cart and selling
Instaproofs’ motto is “Sell more prints” and that is exactly what they aim for. More than a digital delivery service, they make it really user friendly for photographers to set up price sheets, sales, coupons, and products to the storefront for clients to purchase.
You can also choose to create add-ons so that you can maximize the sale. Rather than just selling a print, you can also add on the frame and offer your clients more value for their purchases.
When creating the shopping cart, you can also use lab pricing and a certain markup percentage to make it easier to set pricing. This can be really useful for beginner photographers who are getting into selling products and don’t really know how to go about pricing their prints and products.
From the cart, you can activate whether you’ll want to sell prints in black and white and/or sepia. This is a preference and each photographer can set up the cart as they wish.
There are many features to the shopping cart that gives the photographer full control of what to sell, how many, bulk pricing, options for black and white or sepia, cropping to help clients crop properly, lab fulfillment, pricing sheets, discounts, sales, coupons, promotions, and much more.
It’s a complete selling platform for you and user friendly for your clients. You will need a Stripe account in order to activate the storefront in order to get paid.
These are the professional lab partners that offer print fulfillment through the online gallery.
Contracts and invoicing
Instaproofs have added contracts and invoicing to their services and allows photographers to create their own contracts or use a pre-made template.
Choose templates for weddings, portraits, model releases for both adults and minors, independent contractor agreement (freelance work or similar) or you can make your own.
Just fill in the fields and required information, then choose to save a draft or finalize and send it to your client for signature.
Right from the contracts window, you are also able to create an invoice for your client by filling in the information fields for the invoice.
You can also choose an online gallery for the invoice in the event that you’ve already made a gallery.
Choose to attach the contract to the invoice, add an auto-reminder, and save your invoices as templates for future use.
Reports
Another great feature for photographers is to get reports of what you’re selling, products most purchased, email deliveries, and much more. This can be really great to see how your business is doing year to year.
Pros and cons
The biggest pro for signing up with Instaproofs is the number of features it offers photographers all from the same platform. Meaning, you don’t have to use different services to send gallery invites, emails including cart and expiration reminders.
The service allows photographers to ultimately customize the entire interface from adding your logo to the galleries, custom links, custom products, and print options, add-ons, and pricing sheets.
Instaproofs also has a referral program that gives existing users the opportunity to get more storage (2gb per referral) when a photographer signs up and says you sent them. It’s a great incentive if you’re a satisfied customer.
The con may be the price and limited galleries in the free and basic options.
There is also a commission fee for the free option and limited cloud storage.
We’ve rounded other top services so you can compare them and determine which is best for your business.
Instaproofs leads in cloud storage in the bottom level monthly subscriptions but doesn’t offer an unlimited version for companies with a higher volume. Which is a big con if you’re a multi-photographer studio that needs unlimited galleries and storage space for high resolution selling and viewing.
Sharing to social media or via email is really quick and easy for your clients.
Also, it’s important to note that Instaproofs isn’t an online archiving site and so if you’re looking for a service that backs up your digital files, you might want to look elsewhere. It’s primarily for uploading client photos and selling photo products.
Conclusion
Instaproofs has a lot of features that aren’t just bells and whistles. Many of the top photographers like Jonathan Canlas, Laura Murray, and Abby Grace use Instaproofs for their own businesses.
The slideshow feature allows you to set music and wow clients.
Having an all-in-one platform for both product-based photographers and digital format photographers, with customization in all of their features, gives you a great advantage in generating more sales and offering a beautiful and easy to use interface for your clients to view, enjoy, share, and buy their images.
With a 14 day free trial, you can try it out yourself and see if it’s the right service for you and your photography business.
The post Instaproofs Review: An All-In-One Platform to Sell Your Photography Online appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.
The post How to Dramatically Shape the Light and Mood Using Adjustment Brushes in Lightroom (video) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
In this video from PiXimperfect, you’ll learn how to dramatically shape the light and mood of a photo using Adjustment Brushes in Lightroom.
Throughout this tutorial you’ll learn:
the difference between local adjustments and global adjustments
how to auto-set particular sliders
ways to expand the tonal range
how to avoid edge glow when using particular sliders
about the tone curve and how to use it effectively
valuable shortcuts to help you see when you are creating clipping (blown-out, and underexposed areas with no detail), to view before and after shots, to select the adjustment brush and more
how to use the HSL panel to great effect
ways to use split toning
We’d love to see the images you edit after watching this tutorial. Please share them with us in the comments section.
You may also like:
Landscape Editing Techniques for Fine Art Photography Using Lightroom
5 Things to Do to Every Photo In Lightroom to Improve Your photos
How to Jump from Lightroom to Photoshop and Back Again When Editing Photos (video)
Answers to Your Most Common Lightroom Questions
How to Make Your Photos Pop in Lightroom (With Just 4 Quick Edits!)
Create Amazing Sunrise Photos with these Easy Lightroom Editing Tips
How to Make Your Photos Awesome in Lightroom or Photoshop Camera RAW
The post How to Dramatically Shape the Light and Mood Using Adjustment Brushes in Lightroom (video) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
The post LitraTorch 2.0 Review – LED Lighting for Photography and Video appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Suzi Pratt.
LED lights are fantastic for both photography and videography, but they tend to be large and cumbersome to use on-camera. This is where the LitraTorch 2.0 steps in. Released in late 2018, this second iteration of the popular LitraTorch promises “studio lighting in your pocket.” How does it actually perform? Read this LitraToch 2.0 review to find out!
LitraTorch mounted to a GoPro using the included cold shoe mount adapter.
Specs
Truly compact at 1.5 inches x 1.5 inches
16 LEDs – double the original version of 8 LEDs in version 1
Color temperature is 5700 Kelvin (bright, cool and neutral color)
Optional filters to change the color cast
Simple One-Touch Operation – just one button to cycle through the brightness settings
Standard Micro-USB charge port with charging cable
Waterproof up to 20m/60 ft
US$ 89.99
What’s in the box?
Each LitraTorch 2.0 comes with a white silicone diffuser, belt clip, GoPro mount, 1/4 inch tripod cold shoe mount, and a USB charging cable.
All of the accessories included in the LitraTorch 2.0 package.
Recommended extra accessories
These items are not included with the LitraTorch 2.0, but you can purchase them to enhance its functionality:
a carrying case
battery brick (the LitraTorch can be charged via micro USB and is usable while charging)
LitraTorch filters and accessories (more on those below)
Pros
1. Solid construction
The LitraTorch 2.0 is not only a strong LED light, but it is also built tough to withstand extreme conditions. It is made of a waterproof aluminum body (up to 60 feet or 20 meters) and drop-proof. With its solid build and compact size of 1.5 inches x 1.5 inches, this light is the perfect compliment to action cameras like the GoPro. But it can also work well with other DSLR or mirrorless cameras, or by itself.
2. Strong light with 3 brightness modes
The LitraTorch 2.0 is packed with 16 LED lights, double the amount in the original LitraTorch. There are 3 brightness levels with outputs of 100, 450, and 800 lumens, and a stroboscope (blinking light) mode. Thanks to the positioning of the LED lights, there is a very even light spread with no center hot spot.
Color temperature is 5700 Kelvin (bright, cool and neutral color). The only way to change the color cast is to use optional filters that are available as an add-on.
1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 with ambient light only.1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 with LitraTorch 2.0 on brightness Level 1 (no diffuser).1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 with LitraTorch 2.0 on brightness Level 2 (no diffuser).1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 with LitraTorch 2.0 on brightness Level 3 (no diffuser).
3. Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
The LitraTorch 2.0 is powered by a built-in battery that can be recharged via micro USB. Fortunately, the light can work while it is charging. The battery lasts for about 7 hours on strobe, 4 hours on level 1, 70 min on level 2, and 35 min on level 3.
4. Flexible mounting options
Also built-into the LitraTorch 2.0 are two holes that accept 1/4 inch tripod screws. When used with the included 1/4 tripod screw cold shoe mount, this makes it easy to mount the light to the cold shoe or hot shoe of a camera or cage. The back end of the LitraTorch also has a built-in magnet for fast and easy attachment to magnetic surfaces.
You aren’t restricted to using the LitraTorch on a camera only. You can also mount it to something like this Joby Telepod Mobile.
5. Optional light shaping accessories to customize your light output
By itself, the LitraTorch and its dimmable settings are great as a key light, fill light, or hair light. However, there are optional accessories that you can purchase to further customize the way you shape light.
6. Barn doors
While the wide spread of the LitraTorch 2.0’s 16 LED lights is great for an even light spread, sometimes you want a more targeted light. This is where the optional barn doors can be helpful if you want the light to illuminate a specific part of your frame. The barn doors include a white diffuser and fold down flat when not in use.
1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 with LitraTorch 2.0 on brightness Level 1 with the barn doors wide open.1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 with LitraTorch 2.0 on brightness Level 1 with the barn doors partially closed.
7. Colored filter set
The LitraTorch 2.0 outputs a clean and neutral 5700k light, but it doesn’t offer any color options unless you add these colored filters.
This optional filter set includes 5 filter frames that you can use individually or stacked on top of each other. There are 3 sets of tungsten 4600k filters, 3 sets of tungsten 3200k filters, 1 white diffused filter, and 1 each of red, yellow, blue, and green filters.
While helpful and easy to use, these filters are small and easy to lose, so keep an extra eye on them!
Optional LitraTorch lighting accessories include barn doors (top left) and colored gel filters.1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 with LitraTorch 2.0 on brightness Level 3 with red gel filter.
Cons
The LitraTorch is pretty simple and straightforward, but there are a few things that could be improved.
1. Micro-USB charging port
While I appreciate the ability to charge the light via micro-USB, I wish this was USB-C instead since that charges faster, and most of my gear uses USB-C.
2. Built-in battery that can’t be replaced
The main downside to having a built-in battery is that you cannot replace it. Once the LitraTorch 2.0 is drained, you have to pause to recharge it and do not have the option of swapping in a fresh battery. On the bright side, the light still works while it is charging.
The back end of the LitraTorch 2.0 has a 1/4 inch thread and it is also a magnetic surface.
3. Does not come with a carrying case
When you buy the LitraTorch 2.0 by itself, it comes with a handful of small accessories, including a belt clip, which is really useful. However, there’s no carrying case, so you can easily lose these smaller pieces like the tripod and GoPro mount. If you get this light and plan to use a lot of small accessories with it, be sure to get a carrying case.
In conclusion
As a compact, high quality LED light, the LitraTorch 2.0 does not disappoint. It is easy to use with several dimming options and a plethora of light shaping tools to increase the usefulness of this light. But it can also be used by itself to light up any situation.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly, high-quality compact light, this might be it!
Video
The post LitraTorch 2.0 Review – LED Lighting for Photography and Video appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Suzi Pratt.
