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Tips for Better Bridal Portraits

If you think that bridal portraits are a thing of the past, you are greatly mistaken. Bridal portraits have taken on new life in the wedding photography industry and are every bit as important as they were before.

What are Bridal Portraits?

Bridal portraits were once taken in a studio, and subsequently when faster and lighter cameras were made available, on location. This is where the bride dresses up in her day-of wedding dress and poses alone. Sometimes the groom would join her.

The photographer would then take several poses of her with her bouquet and veil. So basically, it’s a chance for the photographer to take their time and photograph the bride in many different poses.

This bride was in her home next to a big sliding glass door that let in light even though it was raining.

Now, bridal portraits are taken during the wedding day, thanks to digital photography. Usually right after the bride is done getting ready or during the bride and groom portraits.

It’s a good idea to take portraits during both times to get a more diverse set of bridal portraits, especially if each location is different than the other.

Same bride as the one above, this time at the location we photographed the bride and groom photos. It provides a different feeling and look than the ones taken in her home.

Ask the bride to have a little more time during the getting ready and bride and groom portraits so that you can focus on her. She will appreciate the gesture, knowing that you are going to capture her as a beautiful bride on one of the happiest days of her life.

Why are they important?

Bridal portraits are such an important part of the photographic timeline because each bride takes a lot of time to find the right dress, the right look, and choose just the right bouquet for her wedding day. As the photographer, it’s your job to photograph these details with a lot of attention if they hold a particular meaning to the bride.

I used window light through sheer curtains in a hotel room to create a soft light on the bride’s face.

For example, her something blue might be a ring that her mother wore and gave to her on her wedding day. There might be something special on the bottom of her shoes or tied to her bouquet. All of these details are important during bridal portraits and you need to get detail photos of each.

Bridal portraits are also a great time to get the bride completely alone so that she can have some breathing room before the big day starts.

It’s a great way to quiet the nerves and focus on her and how happy she looks.

A special moment in between posed portraits. The bride reads a letter the groom wrote for her.

Bridal portraits aren’t just for the bride alone, though, sometimes the groom will join in as well. This gives you the opportunity to create really solid portraits of the couple together on their wedding day without anyone else present.

When you take bridal portraits on the day of the wedding, be sure to ask your clients for extra time so that you can make sure that you get enough of the bride alone, the bride and groom together, and all of the important details the bride and groom will be wearing.

Bridal portraits inside

Brides usually get ready inside a hotel or in their home. If this is the case, carve out some time before she has to leave to get the bride alone.

Take her to another room where there is sufficient window light. Window light is the best, in my opinion, because it gives you enough light but also casts off into the room allowing for shadows to define silhouettes.

Sit the bride down on the edge of a chair and have her face the window. Change it up and have her stand full frontal toward the window. The poses and variations are endless and you’ll have beautiful soft light to give her a glow.

Use window light and if need be, fill flash bounced off the ceiling to create a soft light on the bride’s face.

In some cases, especially in the home, you can take the bride to other rooms or locations within the home that offer more options. Like the photo above, where I took photos of the bride in her living room in her house. I did use flash to bounce light since it was raining that day, however, she is calm and relaxed.

Here we see a detail photo of her dress as well as the bride sitting below her grandparent’s wedding photo.

Don’t be afraid to move furniture if you have too. It’s best to move furniture than working around it and missing the opportunity for a great photo. Just make sure that you put it back as you found it.

On location

When you’re out photographing the couple’s portraits, don’t forget to get individual portraits of each, especially the bride. On location may offer better opportunities to get the full dress from both front and behind.

Take individual portraits of the bride and groom if they opt to have the bridal portrait session together.

If the bride has a long veil, you can play with lifting it into the air and dropping it to get some really interesting photos. Having her hold her bouquet and getting up close makes for a great photo. Capture her shoes in action as well, especially if she has put something special on the soles.

Being on location gives you more room as well to have the bride walk, turn, spin, and have fun. Photograph her in different types of lighting and backgrounds. Experiment with close up photos as well as full-length photos.

Try lifting and having the veil blowing in the wind. Letting the bride move around a bit can loosen nerves and get the bride comfortable in front of the camera.

Bridal portraits before or after the event

As important as bridal portraits are on the day of the wedding, sometimes you’ll have the opportunity to photograph the bride before or after the wedding. Many photographers call this a “day after session” or “trash the dress”.

These two photos were taken during the wedding day.

The same couple as the previous photo but the day after their wedding. The photos are more relaxed at a different location, and with different styling.

Bridal portraits are important on the day-of because of all that day’s details, however, portraits taken either before or after the day of the event can offer clients a chance to have a more relaxed look.

The bride may wear her hair differently and use perhaps a different dress altogether. Giving you more opportunities to pose her differently and add to the photos taken on the wedding day.

Photos were taken the day before the event.

Taking the bridal portraits before or after the wedding can also give you the opportunity to photograph in an entirely different setting than that of the wedding day. Giving you more creative freedom while the couple is more relaxed.

Two photos were taken the day after the event.

It’s not just about the bride

More often than not, the groom may join the session as it gives you more time to create more portraits of the couple as well as individually. Focus on taking details of both the groom and the bride.

When the couple poses together, you have more time to allow them to just be themselves, especially if you are doing a before or a day after session.

Try offering the couple something more of a stylized photo session so that you can use props to tell more of the story. This will give them an entirely contrasted look compared to the one that they are going to have on their actual wedding day.

In conclusion

Bridal portraits are growing in popularity both on the actual wedding day and before or after the event. Having this extra time to photograph the bride alone can add to the collection of photos that you will deliver to her allowing her to remember how she felt that day.

In addition, bridal portraits offer the opportunity to capture all of the important details that the bride took so much time to choose. Bridal portraits let you capture the bride in a more intimate way both individually or with her groom.

Take advantage of this time and allow your creativity to flow so that get some really amazing photos of the bride either before, on, or after her wedding day.

The post Tips for Better Bridal Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

September 6, 2018
How Marketing And Finance Could Derail Your Photography Business

It’s is not often that we find people going into businesses that have been widely regarded as sole entrepreneurship. Recently in the photography business, firms can take up to fifty employees in a single office with each photographer doing their thing. However, the journey to be like the top photography companies who have fifty or more employees as an example, Continue Reading

The post How Marketing And Finance Could Derail Your Photography Business appeared first on Photodoto.

Photodoto

September 6, 2018
Report: Multi-camera smartphone segment growing at record pace

If you thought multi-camera modules on smartphones were nothing but a fad, think again. Two recent reports by analyst firm Counterpoint Research and The Korea Herald tell a different story.

According to the analyst report approximately 42% of all smartphones sold globally in July 2018 featured a dual or triple rear camera. The firm estimates that the adoption of multi-camera modules will grow to 60% by the end of the year and says that “while the megapixel war has almost peaked, multiple sensors in phones is the new battleground.“

Graph: Counterpoint

Growth in the multi-cam segment has been fast paced, with penetration increasing from 15% to 42% in the last 12 months, and is highest in the price range from $ 200 to $ 599. In the “super-premium” segment ($ 800+) adoption has reached 100%.

The charge is lead by OnePlus, followed by Huawei and Apple. Google is the only premium manufacturer still betting on single-camera but is under increasing pressure to join the multi-cam movement.

A report by The Korea Herald confirms Counterpoint’s view of the market, stating that “Most major smartphone makers, including Samsung Electronics, Apple and LG Electronics, are reportedly preparing to roll out smartphones fitted with three rear-facing camera modules in a bid to step ahead in the premium segment.”

According to Samsung around 10% percent of its 2019 smartphones are likely to come with triple-camera technology. Unsurprisingly the performance increase through multiple cameras comes at a cost, though. At a manufacturing level the cost of a typical single-lens module is approximately $ 10. Dual- and triple-lens camera modules add $ 30 and $ 50, respectively, to the bill of material.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

September 6, 2018
The Importance of Getting the Image Right In-Camera

When you strive to get your images right in-camera at the moment you take them you’re going to reap many benefits that you might not even realize.

“Just Photoshop it” has become a recurring theme in photography when it comes to fixing image errors. Depending on who you talk to it can seem like Photoshop is a magic pill that will solve all manner of photographic problems. While it’s true that image-editing applications can help deal with a variety of issues, from correcting exposure to removing objects to swapping a cloudy sky for a sunny one, there’s a lot to be said for the philosophy of using as little editing as possible.

I didn’t need Photoshop to get this image. Instead, I needed to get up early, know where the light was coming from, and understand how to use my camera equipment.

This is a tricky subject to tackle because there is so much wiggle room when it comes to defining what the term in-camera really means. To some, it means allowing for no post-production at all, even simple cropping. Others define it as getting things mostly correct at the time you press the shutter button, even though some basic adjustments such as straightening or exposure correction might be needed later.

There are photographers for whom getting it right in-camera means looking out for background obstacles, stray hairs, or wayward arms and legs that might otherwise ruin a good picture.

I don’t like to get caught up in the minutia of what in-camera means. But I will say that if you can strive to have more aspects of a picture correct at the time you make the image, the end result will be that much better.

This holds true for most types of photography save for the outlier examples like extreme focus stacking in macro photography or the types of artistic creations and collages that require post-processing.

An ounce of prevention

There’s an old bit of wisdom you might have heard that goes like this:

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

It applies to many areas of life and the same holds true for photography as well. If you can take a few seconds to fix problematic areas at the time you take a picture it will save you untold minutes or even hours back at your computer. This took me a while to learn when I first got started with portrait photography. But the more I operate by this philosophy the more efficient my workflow becomes.

Do you see the green recycle bin on the left side of the photo? It might not look like much, but if this is printed on a large canvas it would stick out like a sore thumb. Background distractions like that are much easier to fix by adjusting things during the session instead of spending time Photoshopping each image later.

Years ago the only things I knew to look for when taking pictures of clients were things like smiling faces and good posing. As such, I often found myself banging my head against my keyboard while going through my Lightroom catalog afterwards because of unwanted distractions in my photos.

Automobiles, pedestrians, trash cans, litter, animals, street lights, and a host of other imperfections can all be fixed in Photoshop but it’s so much easier to just make sure they don’t even show up in your photos in the first place.

Eventually, I did see the recycle bin so I altered my point of view just slightly, which took a few seconds but saved me a lot of post-processing time.

This works for other things too like stray hairs, bits of dirt and debris that can get blown around and land on clients, or unwieldy shirts that like to get un-tucked. These problems can all be solved to some degree or another using computer software but it’s never going to be as fast or simple as just dealing with them when they occur.

The trick to doing this is to be looking out for such things at the time of the photo shoot. That is what took me so long to really learn, and to be honest I’m still learning even now! There are so many things to look out for when taking pictures. That background flotsam or bits of rubbish on the ground might be the last thing on your mind, but they can easily ruin a photo or at the very least cause you to spend much more time eliminating them afterwards than you would like.

My best advice to you in this regard is to simply train yourself to be aware. Look at your surroundings in addition to your subjects, and work on seeing background elements and other distractions that might normally escape your eye.

When you see things, take corrective action and even let your clients in on what’s going on. I have paused many photo sessions to say things like, “Oh no, there’s a street sign in the way behind you. Let’s all take a few steps this way…” and every time it has been appreciated by the people who are paying me to do a good job. It sends a message that you know what you are doing and care enough to get the shots right.

A more extreme version of this, but one that’s just as important, is to take note of problematic points that cannot be altered in Photoshop and deal with them at the time of the photo session.

Issues like sign posts sticking out of heads, heads turned in the wrong direction, hands in awkward places, or having people with complementary outfits in close proximity to one another can easily ruin an otherwise outstanding photo session and are all but impossible to fix in post-production. The more you look for these problems and fix them on the spot, the better your photography will be.

Lighting and exposure

Years ago with early digital cameras, it was crucial to get the exposure just right at the time you took a photo. But today’s digital cameras have such incredible dynamic range that you can clean up a great deal of exposure issues in post-production. However, this should be used as a last resort and not relied on as a general rule, almost like a safety net below a trapeze artist.

When shooting in RAW you can lower highlights, raise shadows, and adjust color all day long to get just the right look you are aiming for. This is a huge benefit if you are doing work for clients. It’s even useful if you just want to squeeze the most out of your shots as a casual photographer. This type of exposure correction has saved my bacon more times than I can count when doing work for clients.

This couple was severely backlit which made for a very challenging photo situation.

Despite the flexibility of the RAW format and the editing possibilities offered by many photography applications such as Lightroom, Photoshop, and Luminar – you will find that it’s best to mitigate potential exposure and lighting issues at the time you take the photo instead of on your computer.

It’s not that you can’t fix exposure issues in post-production later, but that if simple exposure adjustments can make them disappear before you even take a picture then why would you want to spend time fixing it later?

It took a lot of editing to wrangle a good result from the RAW file, but I could have just adjusted my exposure settings on the spot and saved myself a lot of time afterwards.

Your time is valuable

The more time I spend as a photographer the more valuable I realize my time really is. Even if you are a working professional who makes 100% of your income from photography, the less time you have to spend editing your images to fix exposure issues means more time doing other things that would help you hone your craft or grow your business. Or time you can spend with your family!

Even though you can fix a host of photographic issues ex post facto there’s no substitute for doing what you can to get it right in-camera and make sure those issues never even happen in the first place. Aside from saving yourself untold hours of time fiddling with sliders and layers on your computer, you will also be growing your skills as a photographer.

It will take some practice as you learn to reduce unwanted distractions and get accurate exposure settings when you press the shutter button. But you will reap rewards in terms of knowledge, confidence, and sheer experience. In the end, the result will be better photos taken by a better photographer, and that’s the kind of benefit you just can’t get by moving sliders around in Lightroom.

The post The Importance of Getting the Image Right In-Camera appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

September 6, 2018

The Canon EOS R isn’t a mirrorless 5D IV, but it’s a start

What you need to know about the Canon EOS R

Canon’s much-anticipated, long-rumored and at this point very leaked full-frame mirrorless camera is finally here. The Canon EOS R debuts a brand new ‘RF’ mount and a 30MP CMOS sensor, with Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus and 4K video.

Despite Canon’s claims that the EOS R is ‘the internals of an EOS 5D IV in a smaller body’, the EOS R is not exactly the mirrorless EOS 5D IV that a lot of people were predicting (and hoping for) but it’s not the mirrorless Rebel that some cynics were predicting, either. If anything, it’s more like a slightly evolved mirrorless 6D II and – spiritually at least – it appears to have a lot in common with a much, much older camera.

With the dust only just settling after the recent launch of Nikon’s Z7, what should you take away from Canon’s latest ILC? Click through this article for some initial thoughts, and a closer look at the EOS R’s key features.

30MP full-frame sensor

Arguably the most important single component of any digital camera, and even more important in a mirrorless ILC, is the sensor. The Canon EOS R uses a 30MP full-frame CMOS chip with a low-pass filter which produces images with the exact same output dimensions as – and may in fact be a close relative of – the sensor used in the 5D Mark IV. The sensor is paired with an Digic 8 processor.

The EOS R’s standard ISO sensitivity range of 100-40,000 is very similar to the 5D IV’s

Assuming we’re right about the sensor being closely related to the one in the EOS 5D IV (pending lab testing), it’s not a bad thing. The 5D IV’s sensor isn’t up there with the best full-frame sensors on the market when it comes to either resolution or dynamic range, but it’s better than the 26MP sensor in the 6D II and it’s arguably the best all-round sensor in Canon’s inventory (the 5DS/R offer higher resolution but lower dynamic range and the EOS-1D X Mark II trades resolution for speed and sensitivity). The EOS R’s standard ISO sensitivity range of 100-40,000 is very similar to the 5D IV’s, too, the two cameras offer the same absolute maximum ISO sensitivity of ISO 102,400.

The EOS R offers Dual Pixel RAW, plus Canon’s 14-bit CRW Raw format as well as the relatively new C-Raw, which provides full resolution but much smaller file sizes.

New ‘RF’ mount

The Canon EOS R debuts a brand new lens mount – Canon’s fourth ‘full-frame’ mount, if you include the long since retired manual focus FL/D and R. The transition from FD to the totally new (and totally incompatible) electronic EF mount in the late 1980s was quite a jolt for some long-time Canon shooters, but EF to RF looks like it’ll be considerably smoother.

Like the 30+ year-old EF mount, the RF mount is based around a throat diameter of 54mm but with a much shorter flange-back distance of 20mm (compared to 44mm). This is compared to 46mm and 18mm for EF-M, and the longer flange-back distance of the full-frame RF standard would appear to make Canon’s two mirrorless mounts incompatible with (i.e., unadaptable to) one another.

No EF-M compatibility

The lack of EF-M cross-compatibility is a bit surprising. It forecloses the possibility of anyone using EF-M lenses on a hypothetical future APS-C format EF-R camera, essentially closing off the much vaunted APS-C to full-frame ‘upgrade path’ for Canon’s mirrorless customers.

Canon’s long-term interest in APS-C mirrorless has always looked a little shaky – could the EOS-M line be left to quietly die, in the same way as Nikon’s 1 system? We hope not. More likely in the short term (but still a bit odd, however you look at it) is that Canon will pitch its EF-M cameras as a solution for those photographers that want the convenience and size advantages of APS-C, with RF as a full-frame mirrorless system running (kinda, sorta,) in parallel.

If nothing else, the simultaneous announcement of a 32mm F1.4 for the EOS M-series is an indication that Canon wants us (you) to know that it’s still taking EF-M somewhat seriously.

EF to EF-R adapters

On the other hand, converting EF lenses to the EF-R mount is easy, courtesy of no less than three adapters, all of which do basically the same thing. The most basic is a simple mount converter, with an additional two adapters which add an extra control ring, and a tray for drop-in filters, respectively (the latter is pictured above). These adapters allow EF and EF-S lenses to be used on the EOS R without limitation.

Sadly, because of its relatively (for a mirrorless camera) deep flange-back, the RF mount will not be capable of accepting as many adapted third-party lenses as the super wide, super shallow Nikon Z mount. Neither Sony E nor Nikon Z-mount lenses will ever be an option for use on the EOS R or later cameras, for example.

5,655-position Dual Pixel CMOS AF

Canon’s continually-improving Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus has impressed us for years, and the system included in the EOS R is without doubt the most impressive iteration we’ve seen so far. Covering 100% of the frame vertically and around 88% horizontally, and rated down to -6EV (with an F1.2 lens) the EOS R’s autofocus chops are impressive. More importantly, the EOS R always focuses wide open, even in 5 fps bursts: this helps the AF system continue to function optimally in low light even if you’re shooting stopped down.

While 5000+ selectable AF positions might look like overkill, we’re excited to see the difference it makes to precise tracking. That many on-sensor phase-detection AF points does represent an awful lot of data for the EOS R’s processor to move around, though.

Autofocus performance

From our initial impressions, autofocus appears very accurate. Autofocus speed is good: focus is snappy and even in continuous AF the system is quick to refocus on moving subjects, as long as your lens is up to the task.

What will probably slow you down more than the outright AF speeds, though, is the overall method for selecting your AF point or subject: you’ll have to drag your thumb around the touchscreen, and given the touchscreen’s laggy responsiveness, this will be an issue.

Canon EOS R autofocus modes

There’s a ‘Pupil Detection’ mode to ensure eyes are in focus but this is only available in AF-S mode. Disappointingly, like all mirrorless systems so far, the EOS R does not offer flash AF assist when a compatible Speedlite is attached.

Speed and continuous shooting

Sadly, no current mirrorless camera can boast the ‘instant on’ experience of a good DSLR, and the EOS R is no different, with a startup time of 0.9sec. On the face of it, the Canon EOS R’s continuous shooting performance is fairly unremarkable, too. A maximum framerate of 8 fps with focus locked isn’t going to set the world on fire, and nor is 5fps with AF tracking or 3 fps in the higher-precision ‘tracking priority’ mode. Remember what we said earlier about all that data from so many Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus points stressing the R’s processor?

While the EOS R isn’t exactly a speed demon, with a UHS-II card installed it does offer a halfway decent buffer

To be fair, the general experience of taking pictures is really nice, with virtually no blackout between shots, and AF tracking seems to be very good at 3/5fps. But it doesn’t look like the EOS R will trouble the wallets of action photographers any time soon. While the EOS R isn’t exactly a speed demon, with a UHS-II card installed it does offer a halfway decent buffer of 100 JPEGs (large/fine) and 47 Raws.

Our bet? There will be a speed-focused mirrorless EOS-1D type camera launched in time for the Tokyo olympics in 2020, alongside a similarly pro-oriented Nikon Z-mount competitor.

Handling and design

Just like the Nikon Z series, the EOS R makes a lot of effort to accommodate existing DSLR shooters, with a dial layout and menu system that will be immediately familiar.

But, also like the Nikons, it also switches to using its maker’s live view AF system, user experience and nomenclature. This won’t be quite such a shock for Canon users, since the Dual Pixel DSLRs were pretty usable in live view mode (and, in the case of the EOS 80D, arguably better when used that way). But it still means it won’t be as easy to jump back and forth between shooting a Canon DSLR and using the EOS R as Canon likes to imply.

This image shows the optional BG-E22 battery grip. The BG-E22 can hold two LP-E6N batteries, effectively doubling battery life.

Handling and design

The build quality and grip shape are immediately impressive when you first pick up the EOS R. It’s built with a magnesium alloy shell over a magnesium alloy body and it has a real sense of quality to it. Changing exposure parameters feels immediate – like a DSLR.

However, while the build feels premium, the lack of AF joystick hints at this model’s slightly more modest status. We’re also told the weather sealing is more 6D than 5D standard.

On the production-spec cameras we used, the touchscreen interface was laggy and rather slow to use

Without an AF joystick, you’re pretty much required to depend on the touchscreen-based touchpad AF. This is pretty customizable, allowing you to choose ‘relative’ or ‘absolute’ positioning, and also limiting the active area of the touchscreen. But on the production-spec cameras we used, the touchscreen interface was laggy and rather slow to use, which makes the camera as a whole slower to operate.

The touchscreen can also feel laggy in playback mode. But that’s not the only thing that feels laggy about the camera: as the EOS R is writing to the card, some camera functions, like switching to playback mode, can feel very slow to operate.

Protective measures

One interesting first for a mirrorless camera is that the EOS R closes its mechanical shutter when the camera is turned off, perhaps to reduce the risk of dust on the sensor. Canon recommends always turning off the camera when changing lenses, as a consequence.

We’ve always been told that the glass cover is much stronger and harder to damage than the delicate mechanical shutter blades, which makes this an interesting decision. The camera also stops its lens down on shut-down and shows a warning not to leave it pointing at the sun with a lens cap off, presumably to avoid warping the shutter with the lens-concentrated rays of the sun.

No IBIS

With the EOS R, Canon is continuing its long tradition of putting image stabilization into selected lenses, not its cameras. The normally stated logic is sound – better tailor an I.S. system for the specific demands of a particular lens than go with a ‘one size fits all’ in-body system which inevitably adds bulk to the camera.

It’s a fair argument, but Sony’s A7/A9 bodies and Nikon’s new Z6 and Z7 do offer in-body stabilization, it works, and it is very useful for video and stills alike. The new Canon RF 28-70mm F2 for example may turn out to be a great lens, but since it lacks an in-built I.S. element, it’s completely unstabilized on the EOS R. Sure, the R offers digital ‘5-axis’ stabilization in video mode, but it’s no substitute for an optical-mechanical system.

Single UHS-II SD card slot

And if there’s one thing we learned from recent reaction to the Nikon Z7 it’s that only one card slot means EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE AND WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIEEEEEEEEEEE!

If you, or anyone you know has been affected by the inclusion of a single card slot in a digital camera, we want to hear from you. Asking for help is the first step.

Viewfinder and rear screen

The EOS R’s viewfinder is built around an OLED panel with a resolution equivalent to 3.69 million-dots, and a magnification of approximately 0.76X. Coverage, as we’d expect from a modern EVF, is 100% of the image area. The EOS R’s viewfinder is really nice, offering a comparable (if not quite equal) clarity and perceptual resolution to the excellent (and similarly spec’d) finder in Nikon’s Z7 and Z6. It’s slightly smaller though, compared to the 0.8X finder magnification of the Nikon models.

The EOS R’s LCD is fully articulated, rotating around a hinge on the left-hand side of the camera’s rear plate

The EOS R’s rear LCD also looks very nice indeed, offering a resolution of 2.1 million dots, with touch sensitivity. In terms of resolution this almost (but not quite) matches the benchmark panels on the back of the Nikon D500/850/D5 and should look crisper than the 1.6 million-dot LCD on the back of the EOS 5D IV. The screen is fully articulated, rotating around a hinge on the left-hand side of the camera’s rear plate. The well-integrated on-sensor PDAF system and sharp, articulating rear LCD make the EOS 6D II great fun to use in live view mode, and the EOS R looks like it will be be similarly enjoyable.

LP-E6N battery

The Canon EOS R uses the same LP-E6-pattern battery that has powered more than ten of the company’s DSLRs, and the (included) ‘N’ variant will support in-camera charging, via the PD-E1 power adapter over USB C. The company recommends only using its own adapter.

The EOS R’s CIPA rating for battery life ranges from 330 to 560 shots per full charge, depending on shooting conditions. For reference, that compares to 850-900 shots from the 5D Mark IV. The lowest rating is derived from mostly viewfinder shooting at 32 degrees F / (zero degrees C), and the highest rating refers to composing images on the rear screen, at room temperature, with ‘Eco mode’ activated. With a boring old LP-E6 (not the newer ‘N’) battery life should be about 5% lower.

Any way you look at it, the EOS R won’t have anything like the endurance of Sony’s a7 III

However you end up shooting with the EOS R, CIPA rated battery life for hybrid mirrorless cameras should be taken with a very large pinch of salt. In a single shooting session, we’ve managed more than 5X the CIPA rated number of exposures from a single charge of the new Nikon Z7’s battery, for example – a camera that has been roundly trashed on our forums by people who have never used it for its poor battery life. That’s not to say that CIPA ratings aren’t useful for comparison – any way you look at it, the EOS R won’t have anything like the endurance of Sony’s a7 III, for example.

Video

The Canon EOS R can of course shoot video as well as stills, at a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels (that’s 4K UHD) at 30p. 24p 4K is also available, as well as HD at up to 60p, with a high-speed 120p option available at a reduced resolution of 720p. At its absolute highest quality setting, the EOS R is capable of a maximum bitrate of 480 Mbps, which works out to about 8 minutes of recording on a 32GB card before you’re out of space (and you’ll need it to be a V60-rated card).

The EOS R gains the ability to capture C-Log footage internally

That’s about the same as the EOS 5D Mark IV and compares to a maximum bitrate for internal recording of 100Mbps from the Nikon Z7. We’re not necessarily expecting video from the R to be more than four times better than footage captured on the Z7, and in fact the option to shoot at lower bitrates using the more efficient H.264 (rather than being locked to Motion JPEG, as in the 5D IV) is actually more useful.

The EOS R gains the ability to capture C-Log footage internally (as 8-bit 4:2:0 MP4 files) or stream 10-bit 4:2:2 C-Log over HDMI. This is a positive step.

Video performance

Sadly however, video performance doesn’t appear to live up to these specs: 4K is limited to a maximum of 30 frames per second, and exhibits significant rolling shutter, from what we’ve seen so far. The image above is a still frame from a 4K 30p whip-pan using the EOS 5D IV showing how severe the so-called ‘jello effect’ can be. The EOS R also imposes the same ~1.7x crop that we saw on the 5D IV, essentially reducing it to a sub-APS-C camera in 4K mode.

For a company with such a long history of disrupting the video market, we had hoped for more

Yes, that’s right – the EOS R is unique among current 4K-capable full-frame mirrorless cameras in not offering full-width video capture in its highest resolution video mode. If you’re a stills-focused photographer, this probably won’t bother you, but it’s still disappointing that Canon hasn’t invested more in the video features of the R. For a company with such a long history of disrupting the video market, we had hoped for more. Maybe next time?

On the plus side, though, there’s the highly usable Dual Pixel CMOS AF system which, combined with a full flip-out touchscreen and the ability to use EF-S lenses, means the R could be quite an effective camera for vlogging.

Buttons, dials and panels

In terms of its operational design, the EOS R is a mixture of the old and the new. The venerable top control dial (which dates back more than 30 years to the film-era T90) is still right where it’s always been, on the top of the grip just behind the shutter button, but the traditional EOS rear dial has been relocated to the camera’s top right shoulder. A PowerShot style 4-way controller takes its place to the right of the LCD on the rear of the camera. There is no dedicated AF joystick, and no traditional PASM dial. Instead, exposure modes are cycled via the ‘Mode’ button at the center of the rearmost control dial to the right of the top-plate LCD.

Several functions can be assigned to the touch-sensitive M-Fn bar

To the left of the EOS R’s viewfinder you’ll see an on/off switch cunningly disguised as another control dial (an unwelcome throwback to the original EOS M), and to the right you’ll notice a brand new control point, which Canon is calling the ‘M-Fn bar’. Several functions can be assigned to this touch-sensitive bar, depending on what you want to do, and how you want to interact with it.

You can touch one side or the other, press the entire bar at its center, or swipe from left to right or right to left. In this way, the bar can be used to set a range of functions during shooting, ranging from ISO sensitivity to display info. In playback mode it can be used as a function shortcut or to ‘jump’ between ranges of images in a sequence.

Final thoughts (for now)

So the EOS R isn’t the mirrorless 5D IV that some people were hoping for (except in video mode…), much less the mirrorless EOS-1D X Mark II that others were bravely predicting, but even so, dismissing the R would be a mistake. As a company, Canon remains very conservative in many respects, while being quietly groundbreaking in others. Dual Pixel CMOS AF was always going to be at the heart of any canon full-frame mirrorless camera, for example, and the version that Canon has included in the EOS R appears to be significantly evolved compared to its earliest iterations.

We always knew that Canon would enter the mirrorless full-frame mirrorless market eventually, but not until it was ready – and certainly not in a way that would risk either killing sales of its hugely popular DSLRs or spooking the heavily-invested professionals that make up such an influential and valuable (albeit numerically comparatively small) portion of its customer base.

The original EOS 650, which debuted the EF mount in 1987. In terms of specification, the 650 was a fairly pedestrian camera, but groundbreaking nonetheless. Picture: Szczery, via Wikipedia Commons.

The EOS R is the natural product of that philosophy. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the original EOS 650, Canon’s first EF-mount SLR and a fairly ‘meh’ camera even by the standards of 1987, but one which nonetheless ushered in a sea-change in Canon’s optical and mechanical design. Despite its unassuming specification, the EOS 650 and its subsequent sister models rang the changes for the entire photography industry for many, many years afterwards.

For now, the most interesting thing about the launch of the RF system is the new mount

Canon is very rarely first to market with new technologies – a point made by executives at the EOS R’s official launch. Historically it’s not been so much a matter of when, but how the company enters the market that has proved impactful. The EOS R isn’t a particularly exciting camera – especially for videographers – but as a statement of intent it is highly significant.

For now, the most interesting thing about the launch of the RF system is the new mount, and the co-announced native lenses. Even if you’re not particularly inspired by the R, it’s worth looking back to those early EOS models of yesteryear and pondering what might be coming next. The new 28-70mm f2 looks like it could be one hell of a lens, but Canon probably doesn’t expect it to be bought by EOS R users. It’s more than twice the weight of the R, for one thing. More likely it’s intended to be used by purchasers of a future RF-mount camera, one more geared towards the needs of advanced enthusiasts and professionals.

For now, the EOS R is pretty much what we expected it would be. It’s not the final product of Canon’s mirrorless ambitions, it’s a start.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

September 6, 2018

DPReview TV: First thoughts on the Canon R

Hours after the official launch of the Canon EOS R, Chris and Rishi sat down to chat about the camera and what we know about the system so far. They talk about where the camera falls short of expectations, some initial handling impressions and the promise of this new system.

Read more about the Canon EOS R

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

September 5, 2018
Canon 400mm F2.8L IS III and 600mm F4L IS III are lighter than predecessors
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Amid its full-frame mirrorless announcements, Canon has also made room for some L-series lens updates. Canon has focused on reducing weight and so its EF 400mm F2.8L IS III USM and EF 600mm F4L IS III USM both lay claim to the title of “world’s lightest” in their respective focal lengths. The 400mm F2.8 has shed 1kg / 2.2lb and the 600mm F4 is 0.86kg / 1.9lb lighter. Both lenses feature advanced coatings, improved image stabilization and circular nine-blade apertures.

The Canon EF 400mm F2.8L IS III USM will sell for $ 12,000 and the Canon EF 600mm F4L IS III USM is priced at $ 13,000. Both lenses will ship in December 2018.

Press release
Canon Redesigns Premium L-Series Super-Telephoto Lenses With Its New EF 400MM F/2.8L IS III USM AND EF 600MM F/4L IS III USM Lenses

New Compact and Lightweight EF Super-Telephoto Lenses Are Well Suited for a Variety of Photographers’ Needs

MELVILLE, N.Y., September 5, 2018 – Most professional photographers need to carry multiple lenses in their camera bags. Helping to lighten their load, Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, introduces two new super-telephoto lenses, the EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM and EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM. Both lenses possess a dramatic weight reduction and high-image quality, making it ideal for shooters to easily transport and capture images during action-driven scenarios, such as sports and wildlife. Both lenses now hold the title of world’s lightest in their respective focal length*. The weight of the EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM and EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM lenses has been reduced by 2.2 lbs. (more than 25 percent) and 1.9 lbs. (more than 20 percent) respectively.

“When developing updates to some of Canon’s most popular legacy lenses, one common question that is asked by photographers was ‘can they be lighter,’” said Kazuto Ogawa, president and chief operating officer, Canon U.S.A., Inc. “The significant reduction of weight in these two lenses addresses this customer need and delivers thoughtfully designed, high-quality optics .”

The new lenses are must-haves for advanced and professional photographers shooting wildlife, aviation, sports and news with Canon’s new EOS R full-frame mirrorless camera (with use of one of the three new Canon mount adapters), as well the EOS 1D and 5D series of DSLR Cameras. Both lenses feature two of Canon’s most advanced propriety lens technologies – Air Sphere Coating (ASC) and Super Spectra Coating (SSC), helping to reduce flaring and ghosting, and suppressing the reflection of light, leading to vivid images. These updated lenses inherit the excellent overall build-quality and ruggedness photographers have come to expect and admire from the Canon EF L series of lenses. In addition, the minimum focusing distance has been improved for both lenses, from 2.7m to 2.5m (8.8ft to 8.2ft) for the EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM and 4.5m to 4.2m (14.8ft to 13.8ft) for the EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM.

Additional noteworthy features of the lenses include:
- Upgraded Optical Image Stabilization from three-and-a-half stops to five shutter speed stops1 of correction over the previous f/2.8 lens
- Improved, flexible focus control with a customizable electronic-focus ring
- Two fluorite lenses and one super UD lens, helping to provide high image quality
- Circular nine-blade aperture
- 17 lens elements in 13 groups
- Heat-shielding paint helps prevent lens temperature from rising during excessive exposure to sun
- Fluorine coating on front and rear optical elements, helps to reduce smears and fingerprints
- Inner focusing system with Ring Ultrasonic Motor
Availability and Pricing

The Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM is scheduled to begin shipping in December 2018 with an estimated retail price of $ 11,999. The Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM is scheduled to begin shipping in December 2018 for an estimated retail price of $ 12,999^. For additional information regarding the lenses predecessors please visit, visit usa.canon.com.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
September 5, 2018
Three EF-to-RF adapters available for EOS R

Alongside the new RF lens mount, Canon has announced a trio of RF-to-EF adapters for owners of current Canon DSLR lenses. There’s a basic adapter, another with a customizable control wheel and a third with support for drop-in filters. The Mount Adapter EF-EOS R, Control Ring Mount Adapter EF-EOS R and Drop-in Filter Mount Adapter EF-EOS R are compatible with both EF and EF-S lenses.

Refresh this page for updates

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

September 5, 2018
Olloclip announces Multi-Device Clip for smartphone lenses

Olloclip has built a reputation as one of the most successful manufacturers of smartphone accessory lenses. However, so far most Olloclip lenses have had one important limitation: they were device-specific. If you had more than one smartphone you could not use the lenses with all your devices, or if you upgraded to a new handset you usually needed to get new lens clips and/or lenses.

This is now a thing of the past, however. Today Olloclip has announced its new Multi-Device Clip. The clip is designed to work with the company’s Connect X line of interchangeable lenses, which includes several wide-angle options, macro lenses, a telephoto and a fisheye, and works with most smartphones.

The Multi-Device-Clip can expand to fit devices of up to 12mm thickness, meaning it is compatible with screen protectors and you can usually leave your case on as well, when snapping an image with your Olloclip lenses.

Olloclip’s new Multi-Device Clip will be available with any of the Connect X lenses mid-September starting at $ 60. You can sign up for more information on the upcoming release on the Olloclip website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

September 5, 2018
Why I’ve Become a Light Meter Convert
Light meters

Light meters can be an invaluable tool for photographers; especially those who use off-camera flash.

Mention a light meter in photography circles and you’re certain to get some fierce responses. Sure, some photographers will be indifferent and fewer will be in favor, but most will be adamant that you don’t need one. I used to be somewhere in the middle.

I could definitely see their utility, but I just never thought I needed one. Before a few months ago, I had picked up a light meter once in 14 years. It turns out that I was just making excuses to not spend the money on something that may be one of the most powerful tools you can buy if you use off-camera flash lighting.

Excuses

There are a lot of motives and reasons that you might avoid using a light meter in the digital era. For example:
- You can just chimp the LCD screen.
- It’s easy to fix it in raw processing.
- They’re too expensive for what they do.
- The histogram is enough for testing exposure.
I get it. All of these sentiments came out of my mouth over and over again.

Chimping and the Histogram

While you can chimp your exposures to get them right, this can take both time and guesswork. A light meter takes away both of those things.

Sure, you can look at the back of your camera after each test shot (chimping) while you’re setting up your lights. This works fine for one or two lights, but what happens when you need to create a precise lighting ratio?

How do you ensure that your fill light is exactly three stops below your key light? How do you ensure the rim lights are an even exposure with your fill? It’s possible, but all of that takes time and guesswork.

I remember doing a basic four light setup a few years back and it took the better part of an hour to get the ratios exactly how I had planned them.

Since starting to use a light meter, I set up an even more complicated five light setups, mixing really hard light with very soft light. It took me only 10 minutes to get right. I don’t know about you, but I could do with a lot more instances of saving nearly an hour of shooting time.

These images use five lights at a very precise contrast ratio. Using a light meter meant that the setup time was only 10 minutes.

Fix it in Raw Processing

Fixing your exposures at the raw stage is a viable option, but it can take some time that might be better spent elsewhere.

Yes, you can fix the image later in raw processing. As long as your highlights and shadows aren’t clipped, raw processing is a viable tool here. However, wouldn’t it be much nicer to get it right in camera?

Think about it this way: with a light meter, you press the test button on your strobe, check the reading and dial it into your camera. The whole process takes about 20 seconds. Unless you move the light or your subject moves, every subsequent photo is now properly exposed.

Presume it takes about two minutes of fiddling to adjust the exposure of an image in Lightroom or ACR. If you’re working on 20 photos from a set, you’ve just lost 40 minutes of time to a task that could have been negated in twenty seconds.

Too Expensive

I get it, I really do. This was the main reason I avoided getting a light meter for so long. A couple hundred dollars for a decent light meter is a hard pill to swallow when there are so many things that you can buy for your photography at a much lower price. Why spend that kind of money on something you use so briefly when you can spend that money on lights, modifiers, trips, studio time, props, etc, etc.

It’s all a matter of how much you value your time and convenience. A light meter will save you time and it will make a good chunk of the set-up process easier. In the end, I’ve found that the price tag has been worth it.

Changing My Mind

I had a shoot where I only had 10 minutes to set up. I borrowed a light meter from another photographer just to make my life easier. That one time completely changed how I felt about using light meters. In minutes, all of the potential benefits and values of having a light meter in my bag became apparent.

Time

As you may have guessed from my previous points, it comes down mostly to time. Faster set-ups mean you get more time actually shooting, which makes it more likely that you’ll get the shot that you’re after. Less time processing means you have more time to work on other things, like planning and arranging your next shoot.

Also, in terms of portraits, a light meter will help you minimize the time that your subjects are waiting on you between sets. Nobody, absolutely nobody (especially paying clients), wants to wait around for huge chunks of time while their photographer is messing with the lights.

Complexity

In this image, I wanted to experiment with a gridded stripbox as the key light and a giant octabox as fill. Using a light meter made getting the exact ratio between the key and fill lights that I wanted a breeze.

On top of time, the multiple light techniques that a light meter opens up makes it more than worth the value. With a light meter, you can dream up any number of lighting configurations, plan them down to the exact contrast ratio and set it up with no fuss.

You want a hard light source as a key at f/8, with two giant modifiers providing exactly two stops of fill at f/4 and two background lights at f/22? That’s a set-up that popped into my head one night shortly after buying my light meter. I went into the studio the next day and set it up.

I wouldn’t have bothered before, as trying to get the ratios right between those light sources would have been a major headache.

Metering for each light individually and adjusting their exposure took about a minute or two. This only has to be done once.

If the exposure from the octabox was off, it would have destroyed the effect of the lighting from the much smaller striplight.

Imagine that you’ve just had a week where you’ve saved several hours at both setting up and post-processing. If you used just a bit of that time to start drawing out and planning new light set-ups, how many do you think you could come up with?

Getting it right in-camera

When dealing with difficult subjects, like white shirts on dark backgrounds, a light meter can be an absolute blessing in terms of getting it right in the camera.

As I already mentioned, the ability to get your exposure perfect every single time is a huge benefit. In fact, when working with flash, I would posit that using a light meter might be the single most valuable step you can take to ensure perfect exposures and making your workload that much easier.

I’m a Total Convert

Over the time I’ve had it, my light meter has become indispensable. As it fits in my pocket, it now comes everywhere with me.

In the end, I regret that I put off and continually excused myself from buying a light meter for as long as I did. In the few months since I bought it, I have saved a ton of time in the studio not messing about with lights while people were waiting on me. My post-processing workload has lightened quite a bit as fixing contrast ratios in post-production is all too time to consume.

Both of these factors together mean that I now have more time for planning shoots and lighting set-ups than I had before. Those set-ups are also getting more and more complex as time goes on and most of them would have been next to impossible for me to put into use without a light meter to ensure the precise exposure ratios.

If you’re like me, and you’ve convinced yourself that a light meter is a superfluous bit of kit, I can only encourage you to challenge your own assertions. Could a light meter save you time as it has for me? Could it open new possibilities?

It’s possible that the answer is no. I can’t presume to know or understand your situation. All I can suggest is to at least ask yourself the question. It may very well be that light meter could be as valuable a tool to your photography as it is becoming to mine.

The post Why I’ve Become a Light Meter Convert appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
September 5, 2018