Among the cameras launched at this year’s CES were a handful from JK Imaging, a worldwide licensee for Kodak ‘PIXPRO’ digital cameras and lenses. JK doesn’t have a booth at the show, but we visited them in a hotel suite for a briefing and some hands-on time with the new S1 Micro Four Thirds camera, and the company’s two new ‘Smart Lens’ camera modules. Click through to read more, and see some pictures of the new cameras.
CES 2014: Samsung’s biggest announcement thus far this year (okay, we’re only a handful of days in) came the week before CES with the NX30. That didn’t stop them from announcing a few more compacts for the show, continuing the theme of connectivity by including Wi-Fi in all of them. We checked out the always-impressive Samsung booth and got a first look at the latest fleet of smart cameras.
CES2014: JK Imaging has announced an array of Kodak-branded cameras, including a superzoom compact with a 65x optical zoom and a couple of ‘Smart Lenses’ designed to clip onto smartphones (very much like Sony’s QX cameras). It’s also given more details about its long-in-development PIXPRO S1 Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera. Click through to learn more.
CES 2014: Sigma Photo had a good-sized booth and were showing off their latest lenses, as well as some old favorites. The new lenses are a budget-friendly 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 superzoom, as well as a 50mm F1.4 Prime. Click to see them in action.
There’s one thing that I have noticed from doing my workshops that is quite endearing: I watch the workshop students forge friendships from the weekend long seminar that carry on for months afterwards. I see them add each other on Facebook and continue to encourage each other along their individual paths towards becoming fashion photographers. It’s been really sweet for me to watch this! I see them commenting on each other’s pictures and keeping in touch with one another through skype and email, because they comment about it! Very cool! We all need to have people on our team when we’re starting out. People who we trust to critique our work as we develop as photographers and people who root us on and tell us to keep going, even when we feel like sacking it in and giving up! It’s been a wonderful PLUS to see this happening in my workshops.
Photo by: Jerome Lim – Workshop Student 2012
This March, in Los Angeles, I will hold another Fashion Photography Workshop. Held at BoxEight Studios in (the now very hip) downtown LA, BoxEight becomes our home for two days of intensive learning. Saturday we’re going to cover how to light beauty using different modifiers strictly for lighting the face and we’ll learn how to position the light for optimum benefits. After lunch on Saturday we learn lighting for fashion. We try 4 or 5 different lighting set ups, going from basic catalog or look book lighting, to showing you some much edgier, editorial lighting. The great thing about Los Angeles in March is that the weather is fantastic! The great thing about BoxEight is there is an outdoor studio which makes it perfect to take the shoot outdoors at the end of Saturday and conquer some outdoor lighting set ups!
Photo by: Jerome Lim– Workshop Student 2012
Sunday is all about honing your retouching skills. We teach you about dodging and burning instead of using filters and plug ins. We take your work to a whole other level! A much more professional one! In the afternoon, I teach about the business of fashion photography and what it takes to get your foot in the door. It’s a whole afternoon of lecture and Q & A. This is the time when you can ask me anything you have ever wanted to know about fashion photography but were afraid to ask!
Photo by: Mario Gandia – Workshop Student 2012
You can read about the entire workshop by clicking on the link here. Tickets are selling fast as we posted loosely about it on our launch post. So don’t delay! Come join us in one of the most exciting cities in the world, Los Angeles! And let’s take your work to The Next Level!
See you there!
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know by now that I am a devoted Nikon user. Often asked WHY am I so devoted to Nikon over Canon, it’s really a matter of the way the camera has always felt in my hands when I’m shooting. It’s felt more solid, I guess. Even when I’ve played around with Canon’s in the past, Canon has just felt more lightweight, a little flimsier. They’re equally great cameras, I can’t say that one is better than the other. It’s just a feeling thing, baby. Nothing else. Last February when Nikon announced their newest Pro DSLR, the Nikon D800, I was excited to get my hands on it. I pre-ordered the camera from B + H and then waited. And waited. shoots came and went and I even traveled to Europe to shoot and still, no D800. Finally I wrote B + H and told them that I had waited over 6 months for my camera. 2 days later, my new camera arrived!
The D800 features a brand new 36 Megapixel full-frame FX-format sensor, which makes it the highest resolution camera outside of the medium format world. Offering 36 megapixels, critics argue that too many pixels on a small sensor can introduce grain when shooting in low light or at higher ISO speeds. Wait, is that a problem? My main disappointment with the digital format has always been the loss of grain and grittiness that I used to love about film. So that was not a negative aspect of getting the Nikon D800. Depending on the quality of lenses, this “grain” can be quite lovely, actually. At least to someone like myself that likes to shoot in low light situations. And the D800 has a full frame sensor so that means it’s a match for a 35mm film camera. With shortcut buttons on top of the camera, I can get to my ISO controls and WB modes instantly without having to go into the menu. There’s even a LV button which pops the camera’s mirror back to preview what I’m shooting when I’m shooting video. Fantastic!
Even though it’s lighter than other NIkon’s I’ve owned, it’s still retains the same durable, workhorse build that I’ve relied on with Nikon for over 25 years of shooting professionally. The last Nikon I shot with had over 1/2 million actualizations before I burned the shutter motor out. My Nikons take a beating, I’ve shot in freezing cold climates and in the rain and I’ve never had one fail on me. It’s usually me just shooting the hell out of them before they finally say, okay that’s enough. Time for a new one!
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G – Good normal lens for capturing straight shots
Nikon Telephoto AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D IF Autofocus – Best Lens in the World
If you’re using DX lenses, it does cut your pixels down to 15.4, which to me, is still high in pixels. This whole craze with photographers thinking that “more pixels, better camera” is kind of lost on me. I shot many a shoot on lower pixels and unless I had a job where I was going to shoot for a billboard, the pixels did just fine. Most of my work is editorial and print advertising. I don’t need 64 pixels for this type of work. But if you have the money and think that adding pixels to your images will make them better images, go right ahead and buy that expensive gear. For me, I would rather see you invest in better quality glass for your DSLR’s. I can’t tell you how many times I hear about someone scrimping on the glass but buying a very expensive camera. Just my two cents, feel free to argue away!
One of the biggest pluses on my new camera is the video feature. The Nikon D800 offers 1920 X 1080 pixels full HD video with an eloquent 30fps. I just came off a 2 day video shoot and I used my Nikon for the whole shoot while my collaborator, video director Dimitrios Papagiannis shot with a Lumix. After looking at my footage, Dimitrios was impressed with the quality of the footage I shot. I was too, although I’m not a pro yet at video. I was just impressed I could capture motion because I have been thinking in “still” mode my whole life. If I could be so humble to say that I think my strong suit as a photographer is my ability to capture a moment, or at least, that is what I strive for, in video you need to capture the MOMENTS! It’s a whole way of seeing/visualizing. Thank God I’ve had a camera plastered to my face for over 33 years. That kinda’ helps with the whole “seeing” part. : )
If you got the cash, I highly recommend this camera. Will it make you a better photographer. Quite plainly, no. You shooting all. the. time. will make you a better photographer. But the Nikon D800 will capture a beautiful image as you trudge the road to shooting all. the time.
I say it so many times that I’m beginning to annoy even myself! But I can’t empathize how important it is to work with really talented people. The success of your shoot depends on the talent of your team members. And their ability to work with each other. That’s why when the opportunity came up to work with Donald Lawrence again, I jumped on it. If you remember my “Huskey Shoot” (which we have affectionately begun calling it), you’ll remember that Donald Lawrence styled the 4 Asian girls on that editorial. The shoot was so good, we featured it on our DVD! And….on a side note, that editorial was chosen as one of the top 10 Asian stories of 2011, which made us very proud! At any rate, I loved working with Donald on that shoot so when he told me about a L’Officiel Ukraine shoot and that his wife, Tracy Wingrove, would be doing the sets, I jumped on it. I Tracy needed extra time to put the set together so I told her to come in and start working on it while I was shooting another editorial in the same studio we’d be using the next day. It worked out great that I was shooting two days in this studio, allowing us to have some of the clothing and props delivered to the studio the day before.
Victoria Anderson and McKenna from Wilhelmina NY were our two gorgeous models from this shoot. The issue hit the newsstands this month so it was a pre-Spring story. Donald pulled very colorful pieces and wild prints. Donald had the genius idea of hiring body painters to paint gloves on the girls depending on what they were wearing and also bringing some painted color to their faces. I loved it! The thing about working with someone like Donald is that he always pushes the envelope and goes that extra step ensuring you have killer images! And not just another dull fashion story…..
Gee Whiz, I wish I could break off some gnarly lighting secret here for this shoot but the plain truth is that I used one light again and that light was the Elinchrome Octabank. One big, beautiful source of soft light was all I need to light the girls on the set. We had Issey Miyake, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexis Bittar, Michael Kors and Etro clothing which made me swoon as I truly am a fashion addict and love great clothes! I shot with my D800 and used my 85mm, 105mm and my trusty 24mm for one wide shot, which ended up being the lead page on the editorial. I shot at ISO 100 and I used around an F8 through out the day with my shutter set at 100. I didn’t want to shoot super tight at 11 or higher because I didn’t want total sharpness on the backgrounds but depending on the shot, I didn’t want them to totally be in focus either.
I love this shoot and I really value knowing people like Donald Lawrence and Tracy Wingrove because working with them is not only really fun, I get great images at the end of the day. And the editor was so thrilled with the shoot she ran all 10 pages!
I get a lot of fan mail. I’m not trying to brag, just letting you know the facts here. And a consistent request is how people would LOVE to come watch me shoot. I can’t tell you how many requests I get for “Can I just be a fly on the wall and watch you shoot?? I’ll get the coffee, hold your light stand, anything….I just would LOVE to watch you shoot!!” I can’t normally really allow that to happen as I have to keep my sets closed and not have any distractions while I’m shooting. But we came up with a great idea for those attending my workshop next month! On Monday, the day after our weekend long intensive learning workshop, I am inviting all those who participated in the workshop to come join me the next day, Monday March 18th to watch me shoot a 10 page editorial for Ben Trovato! Marius Troy has asked me to shoot another Ben Trovato Exclusive and he has worked out a theme for me. I will take my students from the mood boards that Marius and I have sent back and forth and how I chose the models for the shoot, hair and make up and stylist too. And then you’ll watch me shoot each look for each page and how I execute an editorial. We’ll have lunch delivered and we’ll shoot through the day, getting every image done to perfection and in the can before we call it a wrap! So there are a few seats left for those of you who are considering coming to LA and participating in the workshop!
Hope to see some new faces in one month! xoxo
CES 2014: Nikon’s compact announcements for CES include the Coolpix L830, a budget-oriented 34x superzoom. It’s equipped with a 16 megapixel BSI-CMOS sensor and a tilting 3.0-inch 921k-dot LCD. The L830 records full HD 1080p video with new Hybrid Vibration Reduction stabilization available while recording video. Available in February, the L830 is powered by AA batteries.
CES 2014: Nikon’s booth, near the back of the Central Hall, showed off their latest products, and also had a live demo of their ‘HD SLR’ cameras, replete with models. We’ve already had some hands-on time with the new D3300, 35mm F1.8G lens and a behind-glass D4S, so we spent our time at the booth checking out the new Coolpix lineup. Tour Nikon’s CES 2014 booth
CES 2014: Nikon has announced several additions to its line of slim compacts including the Coolpix S6800, S5300 and S3600. The Coolpix S6800 features a 12x optical zoom, 16 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor and Wi-Fi connectivity. Below it in the lineup, the S5300 has an 8x zoom, 16 megapixel CMOS chip and built-in Wi-Fi. The S3600 also provides an 8x optical zoom and a 20.1 megapixel CCD sensor. All three will be available in February.