Texas Towns – Table for Two

Here's another image taken last weekend while wandering around the Texas Hill Country. I was walking some of the back alleys in Brenham, Texas and happened upon a painter's studio which looked out on this scene. Next time I'll have to stop in and see if he's painted this scene.

Table for Two
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 40D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 28mm f/1.8 USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 28mm, f/8 for 1/500th of a second at ISO 200 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro plug-in for Lightroom. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 40D, Texas Towns, Travel Photography

Canon Flash Primer – E-TTL II

First off let me start by stating the obvious. I'm no lighting expert like Joe McNally, David Hobby or Bob Krist, all of which use Nikon strobes by the way. I'm just a guy with a few Canon Speedlites that wants to better understand how these amazing little strobes work and what makes them "tick".

Flash Exposure
The first thing to understand is that a flash exposure is really two separate exposures in one; first the ambient light which would hit the sensor in that shooting situation if flash were not used and second, the light contributed by the flash itself. Once you begin to understand this principle, you can use it to create all sorts of very cool "effects" which add natural light and flash together.

TTL Metering
The term "TTL" refers to the camera's "through-the-lens" metering system. Canon's E-TTL II system is a proprietary automatic flash exposure control system similar to Nikon's i-TTL system where the camera uses multiple metering zones which measure both ambient light and strobe's preflash to determine the "ideal" exposure. The system compares the two values and uses metering distances to automatically adjust the flash duration to achieve what it perceives as the ideal exposure of both the subject and background.

Canon's E-TTL II System
If all this seems a little confusing at first, don't worry. The basics of how this system works is shown in the illustration below.

Borrowed from Canon's Flash Work site.

Focal Plane High-Speed Sync
Daylight fill-flash is a lighting technique often used when shooting outdoor portraits because it "fills in" underexposed areas of the subject's face and strikes a good balance between the exposure of the subject and background. Because the camera's shutter speed cannot be set faster than the X-sync speed of the flash, the aperture must be reduced to compensate for extra brightness which changes the depth of field.

To overcome this issue, Canon Speedlites offer FP (focal plane) high-speed sync mode which can synchronize with a shutter speed that is faster than the camera's rated flash X-sync speed. This availability of faster shutter speeds allows the aperture to be set more freely. And when a fast lens is used, the aperture can be fully opened to achieve beautiful blur effects or bokeh.

When these fast shutter speeds are selected, the second shutter curtain begins closing before the first curtain fully opens. The light only hits part of the sensor at normal flash settings, but the FP high-speed sync flash setting fires repeatedly at roughly 50kHz intervals during the exposure to achieve flash synchronization at all shutter speeds.

Borrowed from Canon's Flash Work site.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon Flash Work, Canon Speedlites, FP High-Speed Sync Flash

ioSafe N2 – Your own Private Muscly Cloud

I wrote recently about the Synology NAS, I will write more about it soon as I've added to it! But there are, as they say, two sides to every story and here's the other side to that story!

Introducing the ioSafe N2 NAS

Having (had!) an IT background and experiencing first hand a number of times people losing their data - sometimes LOTS of data - and being completely overwhelmed at the thought of not knowing what they had saved somewhere else and what was "gone forever*" I wanted to make sure that wasn't the case for me.

At the same time, I wanted to be able to get to "stuff" from wherever I was. I do use multiple "online" storage things, Dropbox is my main online storage space, I've also just started using COPY who give much more free space.. Why multiples? Who puts all of their eggs in one basket? But we're talking 20gb here and 30gb there... If I wanted to have an entire copy of my computer online just incase something really shoddy happened like theft, flood, fire, or something else... The ability to get to my digital life (as I like to call it) is crucial. I work from home, I have client data (As a photographer, I have photographs obviously, but they're covered with my other NAS, the DS1512+) and I need to be able to access that data at all time.

There's also the whole "would I walk up to someone in the street and hand them all the photos of my kid, all of my important business data" that Robb touches on in the video below... I'm sure you've heard of businesses folding - well, it has happened to online storage companies too [READ THIS this is from 2009, but there's nothing to say it can't happen today] and with this firmly in mind, I smile about my N2 sitting securely in a cupboard in my house, out of line of sight, quietly backing up all of my precious digital stuffs...

That said, having this NAS packed in a cupboard out of harms way, I don't get to use the SDXC slot on the front of the unit, but it is there if you want to use it - simply take photographs on an SD card, pop the card into the front of your NAS and it mounts up like a little external drive and you can copy all of the images across. Very handy.

Lets hop around a little.. I run my own business, but it isn't large and I don't have co-located servers with my data replicating across multiple sites - if I wanted to make sure I was 100% safe, I'd do that, but it is cost restrictive for me right now, so I needed to be able to trust what I could afford** The ioSafe N2 is sort of like a baby army tank that stores data.. It can withstand fire, water, three year olds etc... 1500 degrees f. for half hour - you'd want to hope the fire brigade had put your house out in that time!, Under ten feet of water for 72 hours... This is no ordinary NAS (Network attached storage) device. There's also the included one time data recovery service - ioSafe will recover your data up to $5K worth of DRS included with every ioSafe product... that is pretty rad if you ask me! (read more on that here)

You can see above (and below) where your data is stored, on those two disks in the middle... Then there's a solid metal plate that goes on the front of the disk bay, then a plug that is the front of the unit... There is airflow around the sealed unit that has heat dispersion wings on it, so your disks maintain a normal working temp, too.

Lets jump back to where I was talking about accessing my data remotely shall we... The ioSafe runs Synology DSM (I'm currently running the 4.3 Beta on my ioSafe with great success) DSM pretty much turns the N2 into a fully fledged cloud (cloud simply means server that can be accessed remotely in this case.. sort of) and there are some very handy iPhone and Android and (even haha) Windows phone apps that you can use to get to your data.. You can log into your server via FTP too.. (It also works as a web server, print server, ftp server, media server... this thing can't make a decent espresso, but then I can, so we're good!)

My ioSafe N2 is setup using the Synology Hybrid Raid, I use two 2TB disks in (basically) raid one so I have a one disk fault tolerance.. My stuff is essentially safe unless Godzilla comes along and eats my N2..

I use my N2 in conjunction with my other ioSafe drives.. I have a Solo G3 and a Rugged Portable (That my brother has borrowed to take around the world!!)

Who is the N2 for?

Anyone that is serious about keeping their data safe but maybe not quite ready to buy a serve in a datacentre. (You can also bolt the N2 to your floor / hide it in a cupboard and access it wirelessly!)

Pros

• Life proof.
• Connectivity.
• Massive feature set via DSM.
• Small footprint by comparison.

Cons

• Errr? For the market this beast is aimed at, there are none.

I want to leave you with a video from Robb Moore, he's the guy that started ioSafe when nothing else would suit his needs... I'm very glad he did because right now, for me, nothing else does what this N2 does.

I was provided with the N2 for review, I was already an ioSafe user... I use product I love, I don't have time for rubbish that doesn't work - who does. I give this N2 a total of 10 out of 11 gold stars, I only deduct one because I know I'm going to need more space soon and there's not a 4 disk model - yet.

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.

-Sime

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

ioSafe N2 - Your own Private Muscly Cloud

So You’re Going to Shoot A Wedding: Part 3 of 3 [editing, etc.]

It's done. You survived it. It was the longest day of your photography career, you're exhausted, and all you can think about is how right I was (it's cool-I get that a lot). But.......You. Did. It. And chances are you didn't get locked in a bathroom, or miss the kiss, or have a complete equipment failure, or faint face-first into the cake. You shot a wedding. What's next?

Back-up everything. Possibly several times

As no-brainer as this is, when I shoot portraits, I'm not a diligent about it as I should be. I'm more of a "cross my fingers/hope for the best/fly by the seat of my pants" kind of gal in most areas of my life. But a wedding is different. Good luck explaining to a new bride that your laptop played a vanishing act with the images and you need her to re-do the whole wedding for photographic purposes. It's my greatest fear. My greatest fear used to be a complete equipment failure at a wedding, but then I had that happen a few weeks ago and somehow survived it, so I've graduated my fear list a bit. As soon as I get home from a wedding, no matter that I can barely see straight, I upload everything to my computer, and then back-up everything to an external drive or disc. Additionally I don't erase my memory cards until I need them again and I have cloud storage. Because I'm neurotic like that. Weddings are often thousands of images and this takes both time and space. Having both of those things is yet another factor in the expense of wedding photography (see: never shoot a wedding for free). In most other areas of my life, I am totally okay with just hoping for the best and surrounding it with good thoughts. But this isn't one of them.

Give a sneak peek

These images are going to take you a long time to go through, edit, and deliver. Unless you have some sort of crazy amazing one day editing process, which if you do, I'm going to need you to email that to me immediately. While everyone is anxious to see pictures, no one is more anxious than a still-glowing bride. Give them a little taste and buy yourself some time to ice your camera-strap-indented neck and regain clear vision. Social media is a fabulous option for this if it's available to you. That way everyone can see them and fawn over how great the images are, giving you a little boost of confidence and the newly minted couple a little attention-both of which work in your favor for the long editing road ahead. (Oh friend, it's a long road.)

Decide if you are interested in doing this again

Every wedding I have ever shot has led to at least one referral. In general, I don't photograph weddings. Yet, there I am, every summer, finding myself wanting to pass out from heatstroke with a 10 pound black box in front of my face. Why? Because I'm a sucker. I suppose I could tell you that it's because I love weddings and true love and all that, but the truth is: I'm a sucker. Throw a few compliments at me and I'll do about anything that doesn't involve roller coasters. I hate roller coasters. (I also hate those rides where you spin on something that's spinning. I'd like to have a long talk with the guy who thought that was a good idea for your internal organs.) Even if you didn't hand out a single business card......even if you don't have a single business card.....they will find you. Unless you were a miserable human being to be around (I don't judge-I've been there), you will get a call about another wedding. Decide right now if this is something you ever want to do again so you can handle that call that will come later. There is nothing wrong with saying no, thank you. It might not be your cup of tea. Or quad carmel latte (I'm becoming a really expensive coffee date lately). There is also nothing wrong with having loved it. The point is that you need to decide quickly because there is literally a barista of sorts waiting on your order and she has a whole line of impatient people behind you and a smoke break coming up.

Don't overdo it

The last wedding I shot came in at just shy of two thousand images. There were 26 guests, and that's including the dog ring bearer. I shot for less than 4 hours. I'm an over-shooter. I know this. In my defense: WHAT IF I MISS SOMETHING??? For this said wedding I have no less than 40 images of "the kiss". Truth? They all look the same. Don't get me wrong-it was an amazing kiss. Record books, in fact. But, those 40 images I shot in probably 30 seconds of time all look pretty much the same. Yet I want them to see every one!!! What if they love one that's slightly different than another?? What if the clouds moved just a bit and it makes for the best of forty? I don't know. What I do know is that to the average person, all 40 of those images look exactly the same. Pick one, edit it to loveliness, and move on. No one knows you have forty of them. And likely, no one cares.

Deliver the images with deserved fanfare

I personally don't do any printing; if you book a session or a wedding with me, your flat fee includes my time, the finished (edited) high resolution images on a disc, and a full printing and usage release. This is how I have been doing it for years and I find that not having to mess with an 8 10 print of this one or a 5 7 of that one or marking-up my printing costs to cover everything is a much easier way of doing things. And easy works best for me because I am a terrible insomniac (see numerous references to coffee above) and when I get overwhelmed with work (which is often), I go lock myself in my closet and cry a little. However, just handing over a disc feels like a near let-down when I've been editing for weeks and, as previously mentioned, spent an extremely long and tiring day just shooting the images. I like a little fanfair, and because wedding photography is such an investment, I think my clients should get a little ribbon and bow. Or maybe a horn section. Depends on what I have access to at the time. I like to put together a "highlight" slideshow of 50 or so of the images that the couple can send to their friends and family to watch online. Additionally, I usually put together a little gift of sorts to give along with the disc-maybe a large print that I put in a readymade frame or for a smaller wedding, I might print off 4 6 prints of each image and put these in a pretty box so theycan make awedding album easily. It honestly just depends on the couple and what I charged. My goal here is only to hand them over something more lovely than a cold silver flat circle.

Wedding photography was never my goal, nor do I consider myself a wedding photographer. I have never advertised or marketed for it, though I have shot about 70 of them in the last decade. It's tough-I'm not set-up to be a wedding photographer, both from an equipment and time perspective, yet I find myself doing several a year even still. All joking aside, I don't EVER take on a wedding just for the money or just out of wanting to do something wonderful for a loved one. Every wedding I have ever shot I only ended up there because I truly felt that I was the best person for the job. Many times I was right (this isn't a time to be humble), but a couple times I was wrong and it makes for a painfully long event day and editing process.

The reason wedding photography is met with such passion by veterans and hobbyist alike is because it's a big deal; there are no re-dos, no second chances. It's a type of photography that is all it's own. So only shoot the weddings where you feel confident that you and the couple feel similar about the end vision. Only shoot the weddings where you genuinely like the couple; if you wouldn't want to have a beer with them, you're not going to want to spend a 10 hour day with them. Only shoot the weddings that will give you more than a paycheck, whether that be experience, a day of fun, or that good feeling of doing something wonderful for someone else and knowing you did a good job. It doesn't matter if you believe in true love or soul mates, it doesn't matter if you feel like weddings are too over-the-top and unnecessary, it doesn't matter if one of the biggest highlights was the free piece of cake (I'm a big fan of cake), what matters is that you went in there knowing that you were the person for the job, that you stayed there feeling like you were doing a great job, and you left there happy to have done it.

Tired and glad for it to be over, but happy to have done it.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

So You're Going to Shoot A Wedding: Part 3 of 3 [editing, etc.]

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 Review

What a whopper! It looks like a compact digital camera but sure as hell offers far more than your average CDC.

The 60x zoom runs all the way up to a 35 SLR equivalent of 1200mm but - note this! - it begins from a super wide 20mm equivalent. That means you can shoot close shots of sports players from the sidelines and then cover cramped interiors with the same camera. You can also buy a 1.7x tele conversion lens that will take the focal length to 2040mm! Beat that!

The maximum image size is 4608 3456 pixels, large enough to make a 34x29cm print.

Video can be shot in either AVCHD or MPEG4 formats at Full HD 1920 1080 pixel resolution. But no, you can't shoot stills mid video recording.

Another spec to die for is a 9fps continuous shooting rate at full resolution; moderating this is a continuous rate of 5fps with full AF in play.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 Features

Controls: the top deck houses the mode dial with positions for intelligent auto, PASM, creative video, custom mode, scene mode, panorama shooting, scene and creative control modes.

In scene mode you can choose from portrait, scenery, panning, HDR and 14 other settings. This feature alone should tell you heaps about the intended market: those with tonnes of ambition but little real photographic knowledge.

Creative control takes you further and into a re-rendering mode that can impart to a picture the feelings of a retro or old days look, high or key, sepia, dynamic monochrome, impressive art, high dynamic, cross processing plus a miniature or toy effect plus quite a few others.

Close to the mode dial is the shutter button, encircled by the zoom lever; the red video record button; a burst shooting button; and finally, a button that can lock in focus mid shoot ... haven't seen one of these before.

The camera's rear has the flash activation button at extreme left; top viewfinder focus; a button to switch between the turret finder and the rear LCD screen; one to lock focus and exposure; the rotating rear dial that takes you through selection of settings; replay; the four way jog dial that offers control of ISO, white balance, self timer and function selection; centred is the menu button.

Lower are buttons for display options and access to a quick menu.

Battery and memory card are loaded via a door at the base of the camera.

I found the control arrangement to be entirely logical and non-confusing.

The menus are similarly well laid out and abundantly clear in their intent.

Some Notes

I had taken temporary ownership only a matter of hours before I took it out on a shooting essay: I found the camera to be well-balanced and easy to operate, even tapping controls during a video shoot.

The zoom needs special mention: don't think for a moment that you can hand hold it with the focal length anywhere past 10x. No way Jos !

The zoom action is smooth and, amazingly, provides minimal steps along way. The stabiliser is most effective. A fine effort.

Notable is the wind noise protection thanks to a special wind shield built onto the microphone's housing.

The rear LCD screen is of course virtually useless for viewing outdoors, so the top viewfinder comes in to play, although it offers less resolution.

The panorama mode offers four options: pan left or right; pan up or down.

Startup Time

It took two seconds to power up and let me take my first shot. Follow ons came in as fast as I could tap the button.

Distortion

No problems at the wide or tele ends of the zoom. A fine piece of glass.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 ISO Tests

Only by ISO 1600 did some noise appear but with sharpness still acceptable; by ISO 3200 a blue colour cast appeared over the image, with noise up and sharpness down.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 Review Verdict

Quality: average.
Why you'd buy it: that 60x zoom! excellent AF and stabiliser action; feels good in the hand.
Why you wouldn't: bulky for some.

I well remember handling my first camera with a 10x lens ...it was a Kodak I think! I thought the world had taken a turn for the best. Now look where we are!

Top gear.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 Specifications

Image Sensor: 16.1 million effective pixels.
Sensor: 11mm CMOS (6.17 4.55mm).
Metering: Multi, centre-weighted, spot.
Lens: Leica DC Vario-Elmar f2.8-5.9/3.58-215mm (20-1200mm as 35 SLR equivalent)
Exposure Modes: Auto, Program AE, shutter and aperture priority, manual.
Shutter Speed: 8-1/2000 second.
Memory: SD/SDHC/SDXC plus 200 MB internal.
Image Sizes (pixels): Stills: 4608 3456 to 480 480.
Movies: 1920 1080, 1280 720, 640 480.
Continuous Shooting: 9fps max.
Viewfinder: Turret (202,000) and 7.6cm LCD screen (460,000).
File Formats: JPEG, RAW, MPO 3D, MPEG4, AVCHD.
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 100 to 6400 (with boost).
Interface: USB 2.0, HDMI mini.
Power: Rechargeable lithium ion battery.
Dimensions: 130x97x118 WHDmm.
Weight: 606 g (inc battery).
Price: Get a price on the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ70 at Amazon.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 Review

The Magic of Soft Light

Soft light is beautiful. It is a gift from nature that helps you create interesting images using high quality light. You'll find soft light in the shade on a sunny day, during twilight after the sun has set, or all around you on a cloudy day.

Let's take a look at these two photos to see the difference between hard light and soft light. I took the first in direct sunlight in the afternoon. The light is hard and it's not a good a photo. The contrast is too high - it's not possible to get good detail in both highlights and shadows.

I resolved the problem by holding a reflector, still in its cover, between the flower and the sun. Actually, it doesn't matter what I used, the purpose is to cast a shadow over the flower and the background. That means the flower is now lit by soft light, not hard light. Aesthetically, the photo is completely different. The even lighting means that the brightness range of the subject falls is reduced to something that my camera's sensor can handle comfortably. There are no shadows. The flower is evenly lit, and that gives me nice deep colours. The quality of light has gone from hard and ugly to soft and beautiful.

That's the power of soft light.

I'm not saying all hard light is bad, and that all soft light is good. What's important is the match of subject to light. This flower needed to be photographed in soft light to bring out its beauty. Some subjects suit hard light better - I will explore those in a future article.

So, where else does soft light come in useful?

If you're shooting close-ups, soft light lets you capture colour and detail and avoids bright, distracting highlights or high contrast. Again, the quality of the light is beautiful and suits the subject.

Soft light doesn't have to be completely shadowless. Sometimes the sun is out, but the air is hazy and the light has a soft luminous quality. The light is hard enough to cast shadows, but they are not very deep. The light in this photo has that quality. See how the light is coming from behind the houses, but isn't strong enough to create strong shadows. This kind of light seems to work well when the subject is backlit.

Finally, soft light is absolutely beautiful for portraits, especially of women. I'm a little surprised by how many people, photographers and models included, think that sunny conditions are ideal for taking photos of people. Not true! Especially if the sun is the only light source - admittedly the use of a reflector can help compensate for the hard light of direct sunlight. You can also get good results in direct sunlight by using flash to fill the shadows or even overpower the sun. But that's another article.

If you are taking photos in natural light only, then head for the shade. On a sunny day, the light bounces off any surfaces lit by the sun and into the shadows. It's like shooting with an enormous, and completely free, reflector. The light is soft and beautiful and creates amazing catchlights in the model's eyes. The portrait above has these qualities in abundance.

Mastering Photography

My latest ebook, Mastering Photography: A Beginner's Guide to Using Digital Cameras introduces you to digital photography and helps you make the most out of your digital cameras. It covers concepts such as lighting and composition as well as the camera settings you need to master to take photos like the ones in this article.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

The Magic of Soft Light

Renovation Private House by AST 77 Architecten

AST 77 Architecten has renovated a private house in Belgium. The architect say that the existing residential volume on the street side will be packed with a full-height on the thermal insulation. The entire volume will be finished with an ecological wooden trellis, being Thermal wood materials and fibre cement sheet. In this volume will be on ground floor the entrance hall, the bedroom and the office are provided.

More pictures: hoooooome.com

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