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Posts Tagged ‘Speed’

These 3D-printed hotshoe covers remind you what speed film you have inside your camera

06 Oct

Before the days of LCD displays, the only way you could keep track of what speed film you had in your camera was to remember it, select a dial on the camera, or cut out a piece of the film box and place it in a designated area on the back of the camera.

However, not all cameras have ISO dials or places to put a note; and even if they do, some have a limited range of ISO labels to choose from. To remedy this problem, photographer Guy Sie customized a set of 3D-printed hotshoe covers with common ISO ratings on the top so you can easily check what speed film you have inside your camera.

“On my fully manual ’50s Leica M3 rangefinder camera, the ISO film speed indicator dial on the back only goes up to 200 – the fastest speed available at the time. With film speeds going up to ISO 3200 now the dial is basically useless so I don’t bother with it, but then I have to remember what film I loaded last time I used the camera – which might be weeks ago,” says Sie in the project summary. “After screwing this up a few times too many, I modified gcardinal’s hotshoe covers by adding ISO speed numbers to the top. Load your camera, swap out the cover for the right ISO, and never forget what film is loaded again!”

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The set consists of covers for ISO 100, 125, 160, 200, 320, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 film stocks. As is, the numbers on the covers are raised, but if you really want to make them pop, you can give them a little coat of paint or black them out with a permanent marker, as Sie has done with the set he made for his Leica M3.

The files for Sie’s hotshoe covers are free to download through Thingaverse. You can print out at home if you have a 3D printer on hand or pay a few dollars to have some made through online print shops like Shapeways or Sculpteo.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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ProGrade demonstrates first ever 1TB CFexpress card with 1,400MB/s read speed

10 Apr

Memory card manufacturer ProGrade claims to have shown off the first public demonstration of a CFexpress Type B card with 1TB capacity at NAB 2018 in Las Vegas. The card, which is backwards compatible with XQD formats, makes the most of the CFexpress specifications with blistering read/write speeds of 1,400MB/s and 1,000MB/s, respectively.

CFExpress is the latest standard from the CompactFlash Association, and is seen by many as the natural successor to the CFast and XQD formats. It was first announced in September of 2016, and the final specifications for version 1.0 were published in April of 2017. According to the specification list, version 1.0 of CFexpress Type B cards has a maximum transfer speed of 1970MB/s—roughly twice the maximum speed of XQD 2.0 cards—so ProGrade isn’t leaving much on the table with its debut version.

In its statement to DPReview last month, ProGrade said, “XQD cards [can] be upgraded to operate with the new CFexpress Type B cards if the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) chooses to update firmware in those devices.” This puts the onus on camera manufacturers such as Nikon and Sony to upgrade the firmware in its cameras with XQD card slots so CFexpress cards can be used.

ProGrade says its CFexpress cards will be available in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities when they’re released later this year. We have reached out to Nikon and Sony regarding whether or not they plan to support CFexpress cards in the future, and will update this article accordingly when we hear back.

In addition to teasing its upcoming CFexpress cards, ProGrade also launched a collection of V90-rated SD cards with maximum read/write speeds of 250MB/s and 200MB/s, respectively. The cards will be available in early May in 64Gb, 128GB, and 256GB capacities for $ 100, $ 190, and $ 380, respectively.

ProGrade Digital is First To Publicly Demonstrate CFexpress™ 1.0 Technology in 1TB Capacity

1,400MB/Second Data Transfer Speed Reaches New Milestone

NAB, LAS VEGAS, NV – April 8, 2018 1:00 am Pacific—ProGrade Digital, founded with a mission to provide the highest quality professional grade digital memory cards and workflow solutions, has become the first company to publicly demonstrate the CFexpress™ 1.0 technology with 1TB of capacity. Debut of this important next generation digital memory card form factor, presented by CEO Wes Brewer and VP of Marketing Mark Lewis at NAB in Las Vegas, provides solid proof that the industry is moving toward productization of this new standard.

“The CFexpress standard has been evolving for several years within the CompactFlash Association as a successor to both CFast™ and XQD™ formats. We are pleased to be working within the CFA and aside device manufacturers to bring to market this next generation removable storage standard,” said Brewer. “Industry adoption of CFexpress will allow for much higher resolution and higher bit rate image capture than ever before in many still image and video capture devices. Faster offload speeds will also greatly benefit the post-capture workflow through the extremely high read speeds it provides. With our demonstration today, we’ve also been able to show compatibility for the CFexpress Type B form factor with XQD memory cards–showing operation of both card standards in a common Thunderbolt™ 3 reader.”

ProGrade Digital demonstrated performance benchmark speeds exceeding 1,400MB/second and burst write speeds of greater than 1,000MB/second–nearly three times faster than CFast memory cards and more than four times those for SDXC™ UHS-II.

CFexpress 1.0 Demonstrated Technology Key Features:

  • Industry-leading speeds
  • Greater than 1,400MB/second read
  • Greater than 1,000MB/second burst write
  • CFexpress Type B format factor with two lanes of PCIe® and NVM Express® support
  • XQD form factor interoperability
  • Dimensions: 29.6 mm x 38.5 mm x 3.8 mm

The founders of ProGrade Digital are industry veterans in the removable storage and digital photography industries. Each, having spent time at leading companies such as Lexar and SanDisk, brings extensive expertise in the design, development and manufacture of digital storage products, plus longstanding relationships with key manufacturing and supply chain partners. The company focuses exclusively on development of memory cards, card readers and workflow software for professional imaging markets. Flagship products, ProGrade Digital CFast 2.0 and ProGrade Digital SDXC UHS-II, are optimized to render maximum performance when paired with high-end DSLR, mirrorless, ­­­camcorder and digital cinema cameras from manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony and Blackmagic. ProGrade Digital memory cards expand the creative visions of cinema and photography professionals around the world.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Comparison: Cheap IKEA LADDA batteries beat Panasonic Eneloop Pro recycle speed

01 Mar

Good batteries aren’t cheap… or maybe they are. Putting that notion to the test is Martin Cheung, who recently published a video in which he tests the recycle speeds of inexpensive rechargeable IKEA LADDA batteries against more expensive Panasonic Eneloop Pro batteries using Godox TT685 flashes. The results are surprising: the LADDA batteries actually demonstrated a noticeably faster recycle speed versus the Eneloop Pros.

The test was performed using both flashes, meaning the batteries were swapped to the opposite unit for retesting to ensure the difference wasn’t due to the hardware rather than the energy cells. The one caveat is that this is a test of recycle speed only—as Cheung explains in the video, he did not test the number of flashes the batteries are capable of powering.

Looking at each battery model’s specs, the Eneloop Pros ($ 21 per AA 4-pack) boast a 2550mAh rating, while the Ikea LADDA ($ 7 per AA 4-pack) have a slightly lower 2450mAh capacity. Assuming the two sets are capable of powering a similar number of flashes, however, the faster recycling speed and one-third cost of IKEA’s batteries make them the clear winner in this comparison.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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More than a speed light: Shooting with the Rotolight Neo 2

18 Feb

Introduction

One Neo 2, lit by another Neo 2.

Artificial lighting falls into two categories: Continuous and strobe. Continuous lighting is a great option for beginning photographers, because you can see your results before tripping the shutter (also, they’re handy for the whole ‘video’ thing). Unfortunately, the continuous lights of yesteryear were very power hungry and put out a ton of heat to get light levels that even approached a small, battery-powered strobe.

The advent of LED lights changes this somewhat, offering users a more convenient means of entry into the world of continuous lighting. But their power output still pales in comparison to even a low-end hotshoe flash. Plus, even basic studio strobes come with modeling lights to help with setup, and many on-camera flashes now have LED lights for video shooting in dim conditions.

But Rotolight has come from the other direction; instead of a strobe that happens to include a continuous light source, the Neo 2 is a continuous light source that happens to be capable of strobing at a respectable power output.

The Neo 2’s high-speed sync feature allowed me to get some nice fill-light on Allison’s face at a wide aperture while still exposing for the direct-sun highlights in the scene.
Nikon D5 | Nikon 105mm F1.4G @ F2.8 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 100
Photo by Carey Rose

Designed to be versatile for both on-the-go photographers and videographers, the Neo 2 packs a ton of neat features into a truly portable package. Let’s take a closer look.

Key features

  • Continuous light power of 2000 lux at 3 ft
  • Strobe power of F8, ISO 200 at 3 ft (AC power – roughly half this on batteries)
  • Zero recycle time for strobe work
  • Built-in Elinchrom Skyport receiver for remote high-speed sync triggering (up to 1/8000 sec)
  • Battery or AC power
  • 85,000 full-power flashes or 1.5 hours continuous light on battery power
  • Color temperature adjustable from 3150 – 6300K

Of particular interest to me was the ability to control color temperatures without using gels, the wireless triggering with high-speed sync (HSS) capability, and the lack of any sort of recharge time, even on batteries.

I’m primarily a stills photographer, so I brought along a set of Neo 2’s to a few situations where I’d ordinarily be tempted to use a speedlight. In some ways, they’re hugely impressive, but in others, well, there’s a little ways for Rotolight to go.

Getting started with continuous light

The Rotolight Neo 2’s controls – two clickable rotary dials and a power switch.

As a continuous light, the Neo 2 is really straightforward. You hit the power button on the back of the light; one rotary knob controls the brightness, and the other controls the color temperature. Because the color temperature is varied depending on a ratio of brightness between cool and warm LEDs on the panel, a mix of the two – around 4100K – will give you maximum light output.

When I was wrapping up our iPhone X review, I wanted to take a photograph of the phone being splashed with water, but I wanted to be able to fire the fastest bursts I could to catch just the right moment. That’s tough with a traditional strobe, but perfect for continuous lighting.

Sony a9 | Sony 90mm F2.8 Macro | ISO 6400 | 1/1000 sec | F5.6

I took this shot in an office building lounge area, with some ambient light, the Neo 2 directly behind the subject and firing back at the camera at full power, and my cell phone LED giving a bit of kick to the corner of the phone closest to the camera.

I set a Sony a9 to shoot at its maximum rate of 20fps (which uses an electronic shutter, and therefore is incompatible with traditional strobes anyway), and fired away as my coworker nervously emptied the cup of water from an exaggerated height. The end result, though a little noisy because of the shutter speed I wanted, has all the drama I was envisioning.

Here’s another example of using the Neo 2 in continuous mode in the same room, but with a different subject.

Fujifilm X-H1 | ISO 200 | 1/100 sec | F1.4
Photo by Jeff Keller

Part of what makes a continuous light so fun and easy to use is the instant feedback of how the image looks, and with the Neo 2, it’s small enough and powerful enough to be great for product work. This could be particularly valuable for those who aren’t necessarily comfortable with flash photography, but are looking to up their production value for an eBay or Etsy store.

Then I took our Neo 2 set into the studio for some macro shots, and things weren’t so straightforward any more.

Strobe time

This is the time where I advise you to do what you really should do anyway: read the manual. While the Neo 2’s are perfectly intuitive just as constant lights, using them in flash mode is a little tricky at first, particularly if you’re using the optional Elinchrom Skyport radio controller.

But after some reading (and re-reading) of the manual and a healthy dose of trial and error, I was able to consistently control each of the Rotolights independently in terms of flash output, color temperature and modeling light output right from the transmitter.

Fujifilm X-T2 | Fujifilm XF 80mm F2.8 Macro| ISO 200 | 1/250 sec | F5.6

Though the HSS capability of the system is limited to whichever system you choose at purchase, our Nikon transmitter worked perfectly fine on a Fujifilm X-T2 up to that camera’s maximum sync speed.

For the above image, one Rotolight was behind the subject to the right, with one of the included diffusion panels on the front so that individual LEDs aren’t discernible, and I set the color temperature to the cooler side. There’s an additional Rotolight off camera left providing some fill, and the extra highlights you can see in the reflections off of the iPhone’s lenses are non-dimming ceiling lights.

Overall, it’s a nice system for macro work, but if you require really deep depth of field, your ISO will climb quickly (a later shot with this same setup at F22 required ISO 3200). But at the very least, for macro work, you can place the lights very close to your subject.

Balancing with daylight

One of the main issues with using continuous LED lights as a one-stop shop solution for lighting became apparent anytime you took them outdoors. Without a huge panel and accompanying huge battery, overcoming sunlight or even bright overcast conditions was a non-starter, and you really were just better off with a strobe. The Rotolight Neo 2’s, it turns out, split the difference nicely.

Rotolight Neo 2
Nikon D700 | F4 | 1/125 sec | ISO 200		 Ambient Only
Nikon D700 | F4 | 1/40 sec | ISO 200

Although I tend to like each of these images for different reasons, you can clearly see that the single Neo 2 off to camera left changes the feel of the scene entirely. By raising my shutter speed to take the background brightness down, I can ‘shape’ the light effectively with the Rotolight, while still maintaining context. Plus, with high speed sync, I could use the Rotolight to overpower the ambient entirely in this situation, if I wanted to.

Let’s look at how the Neo 2 copes with a much brighter scene involving direct sunlight.

Ambient only
Nikon D5 | F2.8 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 100		 Rotolight Neo 2
Nikon D5 | F2.8 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 100

In this situation, I exposed for the brightest highlights in the scene while still maintaining a fairly shallow depth of field. Then I brought in the Neo 2 at maximum power to see if it could keep up – I really like the effect it has here. It’s soft, but the added fill light looks almost like it could be a reflection off of another building.

But for this situation, I needed to place the Neo 2 pretty darn close to my subject. This was necessary because, over the course of using our Neo 2’s, they would completely synchronize with our Nikon’s all the way up to 1/8000 sec – but between 1/1000 and 1/2000 sec, I started to notice a reduction in the light’s intensity.

A mediocre BTS photo, courtesy of my cell phone, shows how close the Neo 2 was to the subject.

As it happens, this 1/1000 sec shutter speed made for a good exposure for the ambient in this scene while still allowing the Neo 2 to operate optimally. But it should be pretty apparent that in bright conditions, you’ll struggle with framing your subjects wider than just head-and-shoulders with the Neo 2, to say nothing of trying to get a second evenly lit person into the scene.

The recycle time

Instant recycle time means 11fps bursts with flash are as easy as it is for Andrew to juggle this soccer ball.
Nikon D5 | Nikon AF-S 14-24mm F2.8 G | ISO 6400 | 1/1000 sec | F2.8
Photo by Carey Rose

For the above casual demo, I wanted to see just how effective and reliable the Neo 2’s were when shooting bursts. With zero recycle time and 85,000 full power flashes per battery charge, sports and action could be a really neat use case for these lights.

I cross-lit Andrew with two Neo 2’s – one upper camera left, one lower camera right. Check out the illumination on the grass in the lower right to see just how consistent the output is, even as the stadium lights caused some flicker at these shutter speeds.

ISO 6400 | 1/800 sec | F2.8
Photo by Carey Rose

It should be noted, though, that the D5 was set to 11fps instead of its maximum of 12fps – with the current setup, the Neo 2’s would occasionally fail to fire during the D5’s highest burst speed. That said, having 11fps at my disposal as Andrew went through a few penalty kicks still gave me lots of options to choose from.

Thoughts and takeaways

The Rotolight Neo 2 is a really clever device, and the more I use them, the more I enjoy them. I can envision myself really taking advantage of their versatility in a previous job of mine; I could use them as indoor interview lights for an on-location video, and then bring them outdoors to get a nice portrait of the subject to go along with the video. Two uses, one solution, and my bag is that much lighter.

Again, a Neo 2 lit by another Neo 2.
Nikon D750 | Micro-Nikkor 55mm F2.8 AI-s | ISO 100 | 1/125 sec | F8

The quality of the light is nice and soft, and the instantaneous recycle time and long battery life (for strobing) are appealing. The consistency of color accuracy, even during burst shooting, impresses further.

There’s also a litany of features that are far beyond the scope of this experience; impressive lighting simulations, like the glow of a fire or flashes of lightning, are built-in. The CRI (color rendering index) is very high, good enough for broadcast television.

And yet, I can’t help but feel that these are a bit of a niche product, that their appeal will be limited. For people that are primarily stills shooters, smaller, cheaper, battery-powered flashes will offer you far more power (you may need to get some light modifiers to approach the softness of the Neo 2’s).

For dedicated video shooters, you may find you need more power if you’re in bright conditions. For beginners just getting into artificial lighting, there are basic LED light panels all over the Internet for less than the cost of a tank of gas.

Despite all of this, I think that the Rotolight Neo 2’s have their place as a high-end, portable and versatile lighting solution, admittedly for a very specific type of customer. And more than anything else, I’m excited to see how Rotolight continues to develop this technology into the future.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Speed Test: iMac Pro vs Alienware PC, Mac Pro and MacBook Pro

23 Jan

Photographer and Photoshop expert Colin Smith of PhotoshopCAFE recently embarked on a test many photo and video editors have been asking for: comparing the new iMac Pro against some of its main competition. In Colin’s case, he pit a slightly upgraded version of the iMac Pro against an Alienware gaming PC, a MacBook Pro, and the current Mac Pro.

The iMac Pro Smith was testing is a slightly upgraded version of the base model. His unit sports: a 3.2GHz 8-core Xeon W processor, 64GB of 2666 MHz DDR4 ECC Memory, and an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB of its own HBM2 RAM. If you configure it yourself on the Apple website, you’ll find this setup weighs in at $ 6,400.

Going up against the iMac Pro were three contenders at various price points:

  1. A ‘trashcan’ Mac Pro circa December 2014, with a 3.7GHz 4-core Xeon E5 processor, 64GB of 1866MHz DDR3 RAM, and dual AMD Profire D300 video cards with 2GB of RAM each. Cost (in 2014): $ 3,250
  2. The latest 15-inch MacBook Pro, with a 3.1GHz 4-core i7 processor, 16GB of 2133MHz DDR3 RAM, and a Radeon Pro 560 video card with 6Gb of RAM. Cost: $ 3,400
  3. An Alienware Aurora R6 PC, which is running a 4.2GHz 4-core i7 processor, 16GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM, and an Nvidia GTX 1070 video card with 8GB of its own DDR5 RAM. Cost: $ 1,600

As you can see, the Apple options are all much more expensive than the PC, but nothing comes close to touching the $ 6,400 iMac Pro. So you would hope, at least, that nothing would come close to touching its performance either. That’s what Colin was thinking too, and he tested each machine using Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop.

Each machine was put through its paces on some very CPU and RAM-intensive tasks in these (already RAM and CPU-intensive) video and photo editing programs, timing each system to see how they ranked. In some categories the iMac Pro really did destroy the competition. When it came to rendering 4K video, the results were eye-opening:

But in other situations, like Ram Preview in After Effects, it actually fell quite short given the sheer amount of power it has to draw from:

Of course, for our purposes, we’re much more interested in how the iMac Pro performed in Photoshop. And that’s where, in 3 out of the 4 tests Colin performed, the PC outperformed all of the Macs. Whether you were opening, upscaling, or saving a massive 815MB Photoshop file, the Alienware PC did best each time.

The only test where the iMac Pro managed to flex its considerable muscle in Photoshop was running the Radial blur filter at Best quality and 100%—a crazy intensive task that the iMac Pro made mince meat of, as you can see from the chart:

You can see all of the test results in the video up top, but the conclusion, at least for us, seems to be clear:

For real-time intensive video editing tasks, the iMac pro can really fly, but for stills shooters it just doesn’t seem to make sense for the money. We spoke to Colin about his test this morning, and asked him if he had anything to add for our readers, and he seemed to agree with us. Here’s what he had to say:

When configuring the base $ 5,000, I wanted to get upgrades that gave me the most bang for my buck. I made the decision to spend $ 1400 (total) to upgrade the base RAM to 64Gb ($ 800) and also the video card from 8Gb to 16Gb ($ 600), as these are the 2 things that will make the biggest difference… especially the video card (PGU)

If you are editing video and have to be on Mac (and budget isn’t an issue) then this is clearly the fastest system around, as you can tell by the encoding and rendering times of the iMac Pro being much faster than the competition. The downside, of course, is getting this level of hardware and not being able to upgrade any of it. I feel that’s a bit disingenuous of Apple, and it will cost them a lot of sales. Having said that, this is one of the best displays I have seen to date.

On the other hand, if you are a photographer and your needs revolve around editing still imagery, I think you are better served to save your money for other things.

That’s some pretty pragmatic advice. To see the full test, check out the video up top. And if you want to see more from Colin, subscribe to PhotoshopCAFE on YouTube, check out his website, or give him a follow on Instagram and Facebook.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Expect twice the resolution and speed from the next Fuji GFX and Hasselblad X1D

17 Nov

It’s hard to say much about the next generation mirrorless medium format cameras at this point—even the rumor mill has been quiet—but if you look at Sony’s recently updated sensor roadmap, you can confidently assert one thing: the next-gen Fujifilm GFX and Hasselblad X1D models will contain a 100MP backside illuminated sensor with twice the readout speed of the current models.

This is a BIG deal.

It seems like just yesterday (it wasn’t) Sony released the a7R II, the first camera with a full-frame BSI sensor. But they’re already planning to scale that tech up to medium format in 2018. In fact, their 2018 sensor lineup includes two new MF sensors: a 100MP BSI 44×33 sensor and a 150MP BSI 55x41mm sensor.

These sensors first appeared on the roadmap back in April, but they only received their official announcement on Sony’s Semiconductor website on November 9th. That’s when Sony revealed the readout speeds of the new sensors, which is what really caught our eye.

The IMX161 is the chip (with some modifications…) that you find inside the current stock of 44x33mm medium format cameras—the X1D-50c, the GFX 50S, and the Pentax 645Z. That sensor’s max readout is 3.3 fps, and it offers 50MP of resolution. The upcoming IMX461 that you’ll very likely find in the next-generation models of these same cameras not only doubles the resolution to 100MP, it also nearly doubles the max readout speed to 6fps at 14-bit.

For the next Pentax model, that might not make a huge difference, since it’s a DSLR. But for the next Hasselblad X1D and Fujifilm GFX models, which are mirrorless and require on-sensor AF, that will make a huge difference in performance. Plus, the new sensor can record video at both 4K/30fps and 8K/18fps at 12-bit, which means it should comfortably capture the 8-bit and 10-bit flavors we’re more accustomed to seeing.

For fans of ‘real’ medium format digital (55x41mm sensor), keep an eye out for the IMX411 to show up in a PhaseOne camera of the future. That sensor is also backside illuminated, ups the resolution to 150MP, and can shoot 12-bit 4K/30fps and 8K/16fps.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Shooting an Olympic sailor in action using remote high speed sync

12 Nov

This article was originally published on Luminous Landscapes, and is being republished in full on DPReview with express permission from Terry McDonagh.

In January of last year, I was commissioned to shoot some dramatic action shots of an Olympic sailor; however, I did some image research and wasn’t overly impressed by any images I found, so I decided that a good approach would be to try and light the subject and by doing so I could afford to underexpose the available light.

This would help add to the drama, plus in doing so I would be able to get some light into the water spray coming off the boat. In order to get this shot, I needed to freeze the action using a high shutter speed and combine that with flash, so how was I going to achieve all that?

Obviously, I needed to use flash, but I knew I would be shooting at a high shutter speed, so it had to be high-speed sync (HSS). The beauty of HSS is that it allows you to shoot at a high shutter speed whilst still syncing the flash, which was unheard of a few years ago.

I decided that I would use two flashes, both for the extra power and to avoid any redundancy due to the high risk of this particular situation. I was attaching a flash to a boat which could easily capsize, and I was doing it in January when, due to it being 3°C, the batteries weren’t going to last too long. In other words: I was only getting one chance to nail this job, so I had to minimize the chances of anything going wrong.

Flashes facing Starboard

I had used HSS before, but never remotely and not on the water, which was all a bit daunting.

To prepare, I did a bit of research on trigger systems and decided on a Phottix Laso trigger for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it would trigger my Canon 600EX-RT directly, via the built-in radio on the flash. Second, it came with a separate receiver for my Canon 580 EX-ll, which meant I could control both units remotely from one base unit. And finally, the receiver had a metal hot-shoe mount, which I wanted, as I knew that the gear was going to get bounced around out there so I wasn’t risking any plastic hot-shoe mounts.

Flying along flashes pointing to starboard

The next part of the jigsaw puzzle was the batteries, as HSS is really hard on batteries and the faster the shutter speed, the higher the power drain. I did some more research and came across some ‘Panasonic Eneloop pro rechargeable’s’, apparently the best. I purchased a few sets of them, tested them in the cold, and found they were amazing.

Which brought me to my next major problem: waterproofing the flash units. There was a strong chance that they would be submerged if the boat capsized, and having sailed a Lazer, the boat that I would be shooting, a few times, I knew that these boats flip over very easily. To counter this issue, I developed a triple bagging system using some freezer bags.

When I submerged the flash in a bucket of water to test, it stayed watertight: Happy Days!

The trick was to place one bag over the complete unit and then mount it to the hot-shoe. Then I placed another bag over this, but upside down, and a third one over the spigot so that it was completely sealed.

Flashes bagged up and tethered.

Then it was just a matter of pushing the spigot into the Manfrotto clamp which was attached to the boom of the boat.

Flashes pointing to port.

I headed down to the yacht club to do a technical recce and try to attach the gear to the boat and figure out all my settings.

I settled on mounting the units upside down, firstly so that the sail would not damage them, and also because I was afraid they might rotate with any impacts, plus I reckoned there would be fewer forces on them if they were not top heavy. I used a Manfrotto super clamp as it has a secondary safety lock, so I was able to instruct Annalise how to open the clamp and rotate the speed-lights.—every time she did a tack she rotated the units so they were always facing her, and she was brilliant at doing it. Her sailing wasn’t too shabby either.

Total control

So, I had designed a system that I could remotely fire, adjust exposure and rotate, and it was waterproof… pretty cool! Next thing was to get out there and see how it all worked.

On the day of the shoot, conditions were perfect: overcast, but with some nice contrast. I was getting a light reading of around 1/640 @ F3.2 iso 500. I underexposed by around two stops to try and get some drama into the images but without making it look too much like nighttime.

We headed out to sea about 4 km out as that’s where the wind was and I wanted little or no background buildings etc. in the images. To preserve the batteries I left the units off until we reached our destination, This proved to be a bit of a mistake as the boats were dancing around a lot, so much so that I almost fell in trying to locate the switches on both speed-lights and the receiver, and through the Ziploc bags it proved very tricky.

Luckily my very quick-witted boatman spotted this and grabbed me at the last moment, otherwise I honestly would have gone into the water with a 5DSr and a 70-200mm lens plus my phone etc. Thank god is all I can say.

We shot for approximately an hour, as that was long enough for both Annalise and me, and the batteries were getting very low on energy. I reckoned I had the images I needed in the bag.

Annalise loving the conditions.

I was shooting on a Canon 5DSr with a 70-200mm lens. Final settings were 1/640 @F3.2 and iso160. I had considered using a faster camera but the flash wouldn’t have kept up with it so I just stuck with the higher 50MP camera, which was important as we were using the image on billboards etc. so the higher the quality the better.

The shoot worked out brilliantly. The hardest bit was trying to maintain focus on Annalise, and trying to keep the horizon level; plus, watching all the other elements meant that after an hour of this type of thing you’re pretty burnt out.

When we finished, Annalise nearly fainted when she heard that there was approximately €2k worth of gear attached to her boat. She said had she known she wouldn’t have sailed so hard! I didn’t believe that for one minute.

Wind just died, time for home.

Based in Dublin, Terry works for leading advertising, design and architectural agencies throughout Ireland and often abroad in the areas of industry, architecture, products, people and food.

He provides a fast and reliable digital retouching and manipulation when required, and shoots live action commercials too. Feel free to contact Terry for more information.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

08 Nov

So what exactly is shutter speed? In its simplest form, shutter speed refers to the length of time that your camera sensor is exposed to light (the shutter stays open) while taking a photo. A faster shutter speed thus lets in less light and a slower shutter speed lets in more light.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

You may already be aware that shutter speed is one of the three elements of the Exposure Triangle that work in tandem. Thus changing your shutter speed leads to changing one of the two other elements (aperture and ISO) to compensate for your exposure.

Of the three, shutter speed is the one that allows you the most creative versatility. If you want to use shutter speed to make more artistic choices, let’s start with some basics.

1) Freezing Motion

Freezing action or motion happens at faster shutter speeds and literally captures a moment in time. If the shutter is open for a long time and your subject is moving, it looks blurred. On the converse side, when you have a faster shutter speed, any movement (blur) is less noticeable as it’s more frozen.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

Sports photographers especially, take advantage of freezing motion techniques. Capturing that moment a player strikes a ball, crossing a finish line or just as that knockout punch is delivered is important in that genre of photography.

2) Panning

Panning is a technique where your moving object appears in focus, but the background appears to be moving at a higher speed. When using this technique, pick a subject that moves across your field of vision from side to side and not coming toward or moving away from you.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

Pre-focusing at the distance where the subject will be when you shoot is a good habit. This is because autofocus can easily switch your camera focus to the background, instead of keeping it on the subject.

Lastly, your follow-through is a very important aspect of panning.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

For example, if you are shooting a car, pre-focus on the road or area where the car will be. Then aim your camera in the direction that the car is coming from, and when it is almost in front of you, hold down the shutter button (make sure to set it to high-speed burst mode) and move your camera with the car’s movements.

Note: Pre-focusing helps you minimize shutter lag.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

This technique takes some practice but is a lot of fun. If you find that your background is still sharp, use a slower shutter speed and retry. For best results, try and match the speed at which you pan with the speed of the object.

3) Slowing it down

Slow shutter times are when you leave the camera shutter open for much longer than normal. This is a highly creative effect and helps you show motion like movement in a crowd, light trails or fast flowing water. With slower shutter speeds, a tripod is an essential asset to avoid camera shake. You can also invest in a remote trigger or cable release to minimize shake even more.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

When your shutter is open for long periods of time, you risk having too much light enter your camera. To help with this, you can use a smaller aperture (higher f-number), shoot at a low ISO, or cut the amount of light using filters.

Neutral Density (ND) filters are a landscape photographer’s best friend when it comes to shooting long exposures during the day. Slower shutter shooting is more widely known as long exposure photography.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

An extremely long exposure here has made the water smooth and dreamy.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

A faster shutter speed here has partially frozen the crashing wave.

Bonus: light painting with the shutter opened

This technique, also called light painting, is where you make images in a dark place (usually) by moving a hand-held light source (or by moving the camera), while your shutter is open. If you are moving the light source, you need the camera to be steady.

3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively

As in the previous tip, a tripod is recommended, but nothing is wrong with embracing blur as part of your creative technique. Once you are ready, dial in a slow shutter speed and set up a timer. Now use any handheld light source (e.g. torch, flashlight, light-stick or cellphone) to “paint” in your scene. It’s a cool approach you can use when storytelling.

Conclusion

Do you have a favorite way to use shutter speed creatively? Are you a fan of freezing motion or do you prefer long exposures? Have you ever tried panning or light painting? Share some of your work with us in the comments below.

The post 3 Tips for Experimenting with Shutter Speed Creatively by Nisha Ramroop appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Metabones’ Devil’s Speed Booster turns Pentax Q cameras into ‘monster low-light machines’

10 Oct

Metabones—the company known for its lens adapters and focal reducing Speed Boosters—has released a new Speed Booster that ought to have Pentax Q users salivating a bit. It’s called the Q666 0.5x ‘Devils Speed Booster’, because it allows Pentax Q owners to mount Nikon F and G lenses and produce a working aperture of f/0.666 when a lens with an f/1.2 aperture is used wide open.

The booster has a magnification of 0.5x and produces a 2.8x crop factor when used with the Q and Q10, and a 2.3x factor with the Q7 and Q-S1.

Metabones has used six elements in four groups inside this new Speed Booster, and has incorporated what it calls a ‘long-throw clickless aperture ring’ for G lenses that has eight marked positions. The adapter is compatible with all Nikkor and Nikon-mount lenses except the Nikkor 2.1cm f/4 and the 20mm f/2.8 AI-S.

The idea for the adapter was launched in August, but this is the first version to emerge. Metabones promises one in a Pentax K mount as well.

The Metabones Nikon G to Pentax Q Speed Booster Q666 0.50x costs $ 490. For more information, visit the Metabones website.

Press Release

Metabones Devil’s Speed Booster Q666 0.50x

Caldwell Photographic Inc. and Metabones® is pleased to announce the Speed Booster Q666, a.k.a. “The Devil’s Speed Booster”, exclusively for Pentax Q series cameras. With its 0.5x magnification and world-record f/0.666 maximum speed it is crazy wicked fast. So make a deal with the devil today and turn your Pentax Q with its back-illuminated sensor into a monster low-light machine unlike anything ever seen in photography. Attach an f/1.2 lens and stop down a little to see how Stanley Kubrick made do with f/0.7 for filming those famous candle-lit scenes in “Barry Lyndon”. Or open up all the way to f/0.666 and probe the darkness in a way that no photographer has ever been able to do until now.

With an advanced 6-element optical design, the Q666 packs lots of optical horsepower in a small package. Sharpness is excellent even at f/0.666, and is downright superb if you stop down to f/1.0. Distortion is very low, with a maximum value of, naturally, 0.666%. And thanks to the back-illuminated sensor used in Pentax Q cameras, the full f/0.666 maximum aperture can be utilized with minimal pixel vignetting effects commonly seen in other cameras used with high-speed lenses.

Figures 2 through 4 below show MTF at 10, 20, and 40 lp/mm as a function of image height for output apertures of f/0.666, f/1.0, and f/2.01. At f/0.666 (i.e., with an f/1.2 master lens) the MTF is high near the axis, and only falls off gradually toward the corners. As the aperture is reduced to f/1.0 and then f/2.0 the MTF becomes very high and more even across the field. Figure 5 shows that there is less than 1 stop of corner illumination falloff even at f/0.666. And guess what – there is no vignetting at all after the output aperture reaches f/1.82. Figure 6 shows that rectilinear distortion added by the Speed Booster Q666 is negligible at less than 0.666%.

Like all Metabones Speed Boosters, the Speed Booster Q666 is optimized to fully account for the camera’s filter stack located near the sensor surface. This is especially critical at the record-setting f/0.666 aperture now possible with the Q666. As a result, an enormous range of optics, from vintage film lenses to the latest digital designs, will function flawlessly when adapted to any Pentax Q camera. Planned lens mounts for the Speed Booster Q666 include a Pentax-K version and a Nikon F/G version with the most advanced Nikon G aperture adjustment mechanism in the industry.

The Speed Booster Q666 will be available starting in Aug 2017 from the Metabones website (http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPNFG-Q-BM1) and its worldwide dealer network for US $ 489.00, plus shipping and applicable taxes and duties.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Speed up Your Workflow with the Accent AI Filter in Luminar and Batch Processing

03 Oct

It’s not uncommon for me to sit down at my computer with a memory card full of images and stare blankly at my ever-growing Lightroom catalog while my mind reels at the thought of editing each and every one of them. Many photographers have experienced this phenomenon and there are certainly some good methods of dealing with it such as using Presets in Lightroom, syncing edits across multiple photos, or even just copying and pasting a series of edits from one image to the next and then tweaking as you go.

Other programs offer similar tools for processing multiple images at once, but the Achilles Heel of this type of workflow is that the edits are often static in nature. You can choose from a predetermined set of values (e.g. Clarity +10, Saturation +5, Highlights -20, etc.) and then apply that to many images at one time. But what if some of your images require subtle changes to those parameters?

Lightroom and just about every image editor I have ever used for batch processing won’t tweak your editing parameters if a picture needs a little extra contrast boost or exposure adjustment. That’s where Luminar is different, and its unique Accent AI filter combined with the program’s built-in batch processing offers a great way for you to significantly speed up your workflow while producing outstanding images for yourself, your clients, or your fans on social media.

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

After batch processing with the Accent AI filter in Luminar.

Accent AI Filter in Luminar

The Accent AI filter is new in Luminar Neptune, an update to Luminar that was released this summer. It works by using artificial intelligence to analyze your image and make adjustments depending on where it thinks the picture needs it most. Accent AI isn’t just a predetermined set of adjustments, but a series of tweaks and edits applied dynamically to the image, all controlled by a single slider that lets you control the overall intensity of the filter.

When I edit my images in Lightroom I often start with a custom preset that includes many alterations such as sharpness, highlights, shadows, tone curve, etc., and then adjust those on a per-image basis according to how I want them to be fine-tuned. It’s the latter part of that process which becomes tedious, and it’s precisely where the usefulness of the Accent AI filter really starts to show.

If Luminar thinks that an image might benefit from lowering the highlights, increasing shadow detail, altering the exposure, or any number of other editing parameters then it adjusts all of these at once instead of forcing you to edit individual sliders and change numerical values.

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

Original unprocessed image. All I did to edit this into the image you see above was to use the Accent AI filter in Luminar and nothing else.

Applying the Accent AI Filter

Another example of the effectiveness of the Accent AI filter is this image of the Seattle skyline I took from the Sky View Observatory at the top of the Columbia Center Tower. I spent a lot of time using the various sliders in Lightroom to try to get a decent final result. But when opened the same picture in Luminar and used the Accent AI filter, I got a great finished photo in a matter of seconds.

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

Original photo. Listen closely and you’ll hear a sad trombone playing in the background.

The first version, processed only using Lightroom. I spent about 10-15 minutes to achieve this in LR.

The Luminar version is so good I like it even better than the results I got from manually tweaking all sorts of sliders in Lightroom, and it literally took less than 10 seconds with the single Accent AI slider.

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

Applying the Accent AI filter dramatically improved the image. The only thing I don’t like about this picture are the spots from dust on my lens in the top-left corner. Accent AI is great at many things, but it won’t fix blemishes like that. Luminar does include a powerful Erase tool to fix blemishes if you want to, but of course, it doesn’t work for batch processing.

Accent AI can also be used in combination with other filters in Luminar to enhance your images even more. You can get just the right combination of editing parameters to make your photos shine. I often use the Accent AI Filter as a starting point, usually adjusting the value to between 60 and 80, and then apply other edits as I need them like Vignette, Dehaze, or Soft Focus.

But the real power of Accent AI lies in how it can be used for batch processing wherein it can dramatically speed up and enhance the results of your photo editing workflow.

Creating Presets in Luminar

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

Click the Add Preset button (shown here with a red circle around it) to create a new Preset that you can use when Batch Processing several images.

In order to use Accent AI for batch processing you must first create a preset, since you can’t just apply individual filters when going through a batch of images. Your mileage may vary but I’ve found that a good place to start when working with this type of operation is a value of 75. Set that, then click the icon third from the left (circled in red on the screenshot) and give your Preset a name, but make sure it’s descriptive like “Accent AI 75”.

Presets can contain as many filters as you like. I have create several for different types of images including: landscape, close-up, portraits, etc. All of them include the Accent AI filter and a combination of other filters in order to get the right look. The heavy lifting is done with the Accent AI filter, though. So I have a few different presets created with just that one filter set to different values like 60, 80, and 100 so I can quickly apply a single Accent AI adjustment to multiple images at once.

The Accent AI filter shines

Since the Accent AI filter examines each image individually and edits them based on where it thinks they need to be altered, I can generally trust it to give me good results and often don’t even need to use any other adjustments or filters.

Another way to approach batch processing with Accent AI is to open a single image from a collection of similar photos, apply the filter just as much as you want for that specific image, and then save that value as its own unique Preset. Then enter the Batch Processing mode and apply that Preset to all of your images at once.

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

The thought of going through and editing each one of these pictures individually really bugs me. I created a preset called Cicada Accent AI 82 for editing these in a batch, which was nothing more than the Accent AI filter set to 82 Percent.

The major difference between using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar and syncing (or copy/pasting) edits in Lightroom is that Accent AI works dynamically to apply adjustments where they are needed. So each picture is edited individually rather than having all the same edits applied to all of them at once. That makes it ideally suited for batch processing in a way that is a step above what Lightroom and other programs have to offer. I’m not all that comfortable with applying a single preset in Lightroom to many pictures at once without then going through and tweaking all of them. But I’ve learned to trust the Accent AI Filter in Luminar and I’m quite pleased with its results.

Batch Processing

Once your preset is created, click the multi-file icon in the top-left of the Luminar interface to enter Batch Processing mode. Here you can set a variety of options such as export location, image format and quality, resizing, renaming, and more.

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

In the example above I have loaded the Accent AI 75 Percent preset and ran a batch process on 50 photos of a cicada bug. Luminar processed all of them in about the amount of time it would have taken me to edit a single image in Lightroom.

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

A quick caveat

As good as the Accent AI filter is for batch processing, it does have some important limitations that you should be aware of. I have found that it works best for nature, landscape, and architecture photography and generally prefer its results in those types of situations over portraits.

That’s not to say it isn’t useful for portraits, just that I’m a bit overly picky and tend to obsess over small details that even the advanced artificial intelligence in the filter can’t quite match. Also there can be a tendency to apply it a little too much, especially when you first start using it. My advice would be to hold back a bit to a value of 40 or 50, especially when batch processing. Sliding the filter all the way to the right can sometimes result in photos that look a little too over-edited and fake, so it might be best to start small and then find how you like to use it over time.

How to Speed up Your Workflow Using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar to do Batch Processing

Conclusion

Even if you don’t like the idea of trusting a computer to edit your photos for you, I would encourage you to at least give the Accent AI filter inside Luminar a try. Use it in combination with a couple other filters and see how it could save you a great deal of time, especially with batch processing or generating proofs for clients. You might be surprised at how much you like it.

The post Speed up Your Workflow with the Accent AI Filter in Luminar and Batch Processing by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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