Travel Photography – Details, Details

Its tough capturing the "feel" of a place when you're traveling. There's so much to see and do that its easy to suffer from sensory overload. Whenever I photograph a Texas town for the first time I like to capture some of the little details that stand out in my mind. Its the small details, like the texture in these straw hats, that really form a lasting memory for me.

Hats
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 35mm, f/5.6 for 1/125th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional UDMA digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Texas Towns, Travel Photography

Landscape Photography – Long Sunset

One thing you'll notice about amateur photographers is that they tend to pack up and leave right after sunset. The next time you're out taking sunset shots look around and notice that many experienced amateurs and professionals will continue shooting well past sunset. It's this time about 30 minutes past sundown when the wind becomes still and the sky turns an incredible dark blue or purple color.

This first shot was taken just a few minutes after sunset when the colors were at their brightest.

After Sunset
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM tripod mounted. The exposure was taken at 24m, f/9.5 for 1/90th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2. Click on the image above for a larger version.

The second shot was taken several minutes later when the wind had stopped and the sky had turned a beautiful shade of blue. The deep, saturated colors make waiting around after dark well worth the effort.

Well Past Dark
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM tripod mounted. The exposure was taken at 32mm, f/11 for 3 seconds at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Landscape Photography

Nature Photography – The Rose

I took this shot last Saturday afternoon at the Mercer Arboretum just north of Houston, Texas. It was mostly cloudy that day and the lighting was perfect for photographing flowers in the late afternoon. The image was taken at f/4.5 to control the depth field and create nice bokeh in the background. I shot this rose looking almost straight down and manually focused on the center petals to make sure it was the sharpest point in the image. Its hard to go wrong when the light is soft and the subject is a beautiful flower.

The Rose
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 95mm, f/4.5 for 1/350th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro filters. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Nature Photography

Nik’s Silver Efex Pro Now Compatible with Lightroom

The folks at Nik Software sure have been busy! They announced Wednesday that Silver Efex Pro, their popular Black and White conversion filter is now available for Lightroom 2 and that the update is free to current owners.

Silver Efex Pro installs as a plug-in filter for Lightroom 2 and is accessible from the Photo>Edit In... menu. Edits made using the plug-in within Lightroom are non-destructive in nature, and are applied automatically to a newly generated TIFF and not the original RAW file.

Nik Software also said that they plan to make all their other Photoshop plug-ins including Dfine and Sharpener Pro compatible with Lightroom later this year. Good news for those of us using these wonderful plug-ins!

Posted in Photography Tagged: Nik Software, Silver Efex Pro

Nature Photography – Red

Just a quick post as you celebrate Passover or Good Friday.

"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace."

Numbers 6.22-27

Red
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 105mm, f/4 for 1/500th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro filters. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Nature Photography

Travel Photography – Faith

Faith
Copyright 2008 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS Rebel XT set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 17-40mm f/4L USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 21mm, f/14 for 1/80th of a second at ISO 100 on Sandisk digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Viveza. Click on the image above for a larger version.

From the bottom of my heart, to all my friends, colleagues and readers worldwide. Have a joyous Easter Sunday. Alleluia, He is Risen.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon Rebel XT, Travel Photography

Nature Photography – The Fair Folk

Being Irish I am both a devout Christian and somewhat superstitious. Nothing too serious mind you but the Irish love their folklore. My favorite stories from my youth involved the daoine s dhe ("deena shee" as its correctly pronounced). Out of fear, superstition and respect they are often not named directly, but rather called "The Gentry," "The Fair Folk," or simply "The Folk". As far back as I can remember, I've always been fascinated by the tales of these creatures. We even have a small statue of one swinging in a tree in our back yard for luck.

Sidhe
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 95mm, f/5.6 for 1/90th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Nature Photography

Nature Photography – Mosaic

There is nothing more refreshing than walking through a garden on a cool spring afternoon. The wind blows gently and the sun peeks from behind the clouds to reveal the rich colors of springtime. We savour our cool spring days here in Southeast Texas because we know the hot, humid days of summer are not too far off.

Mosaic
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 93mm, f/5.6 for 1/90th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro filters. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Nature Photography

Nature Photography – Lines and Colors

Its amazing the patterns of lines and colors you find in nature. Its almost as if someone had designed all of this just for us to discover. Come to think of it, perhaps SOMEONE did!

Here's wishing you a wonderful week of discovery!

Green
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 100mm, f/4 for 1/60th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro filters. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Nature Photography

Nature Photography – Patterns and Shapes

Another thing I look to photograph in nature is different patterns and shapes like these berries. Any shape that repeats in nature usually catches my eye.

Berries
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 105mm, f/4 for 1/30th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro filters. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Nature Photography

Nature Photography – Clarity

Sometimes the light is just perfect. The wind calms down and the air is perfectly still. You walk silently through the garden and come upon a scene just waiting to be photographed. Time seems to be standing still while you press the shutter button. Nothing simpler than that perfect moment.

Have a great weekend discovering your perfect moment of clarity.

Clarity
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM hand-held. The exposure was taken at 105mm, f/4 for 1/60th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro filters. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Nature Photography

Canon Flash Primer – PhotoNotes.org

I'm in the middle of a rather large corporate facility / product shoot taking place over the next several months using Canon Speedlites (I can hear all the nikon guys laughing in the background). The last time we did this was about five years ago and I hired a local pro who used film and typical studio strobes for most of the shots. Although the images turned out great, the process was fairly disruptive to the employees due to the size of the gear being lugged around and the lack of adequate electrical in the areas we planned to shoot. It was also a very expensive undertaking and in today's economic climate we needed to come up with a much less intrusive and less expensive approach.

BTW - I know some pro shooter is going to read this and flame the living #$%^ out of me for doing this work "in-house", but with the economy as it is, you gotta do whatcha gotta do!

So we're going to take a page (or two) out of Mark's buddy Joe McNally's latest book The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes and shoot everything using small strobes combined with natural light and controlled with some basic, low-cost light-shaping tools. I'll tell you right up front that I'll be stealing every good idea I can from Joe McNally and David Hobby (Strobist) with a little bit of Kirk Tuck's "minimalist lighting" techniques thrown in for good measure.

As I finish each type of shoot (small products, large products, facilities, manufacturing processes and (some) corporate portraits, I'll post some articles on each situation with things that worked and things that didn't. I expect to make several hundred (million) mistakes so it should be entertaining at the very least.

For those of you interested in using Canon's flash system here are a few good articles from PhotoNotes.org to get you started.

• Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part I
• Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part II
• Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part III

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon Flash System, Canon Speedlites

Learning Canon’s Flash System

I need to get this one out of the way before we begin. When you bought your Canon 580EX II Speedlite (or any other Canon Speedlite for that matter) it came with this beautiful little 57 page manual written in English, French and Spanish. I suspect it was originally written by a little old Japanese lady and translated into these three languages which goes a long way to explaining why its mostly incomprehensible to photographers. Its that left brain, right brain thing.

Never the less, you really should start your journey to Speedlite nirvana by reading the manual for each flash you plan on using. You never know. You might even learn how to say "Auto FP High Speed Sync" without it sounding like "Auto Frak'ng Hay Seed Stink".

Read the Manuals
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 50D set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM tripod mounted. The exposure was taken at 70mm, f/11 for 6 seconds at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional digital film. The lighting setup was fairly simple. One off-camera 580EX II Speedlite shot through a softbox with a small reflector adding fill light. All exposure magic was done wirelessly using Canon's E-TTL II sorcery. Post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik Software's Color Efex Pro filters. Click on the image above for a larger version.

By the way. Once you're done reading these little gems, you really should take a peek at my four favorite books on using small strobes.

• The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes by Joe McNally
• The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters by Joe McNally
• Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography by Kirk Tuck
• Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Studio Photography by Kirk Tuck

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Canon 580EX II Speedlite, Product Photography

Tuesday Morning Quickie – Moose McNally

I said this once before but now I'm really convinced that Moose Peterson has been spending way too much time with Joe McNally on those DLWS outings. All kidding aside, if you're not a member of NAPP and haven't signed up for any of the online courses at Kelby Training you really don't know what your missing.

There are dozens of top notch video training classes from folks like Moose Peterson, Joe McNally, Matt Kloskowski, Laurie Excell, Dave Cross, Cory Barker, Rick Sammon (finally, a Canon shooter), Terry White, RC and even Scott Kelby. If you want to learn from the best, this is the one place where they all come together and for less than $200 for a year of unlimited training sessions, its a steal. NAPP members even get a special discount!

Tell them Jeff sent you. They won't have a clue what you're talking about but its worth a laugh or two. Speaking of laughs, did you notice the shovel and large garbage can in the left of the photo? I've never seen those two accessories on Adorama's web site.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Joe McNally, Kelby Training, Moose Peterson, NAPP

Nature Photography – All Alone

Here's a quick shot I took a few weeks ago at the Brazos Bend State Park near Needville, Texas. I finished this a little differently using the "Bi-Color" filter included with Nik Software's Color Efex Pro plug-in suite. It provides a nice warm tone to the entire image.

All Alone
Copyright 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon 50D set on aperture priority (Av), using an EF 300mm f/4L IS USM with an EF 1.4X II extender mono-pod mounted. The exposure was taken at 420mm, f/5.6 for 1/250th of a second at ISO 100 on Lexar Professional UDMA digital film. All post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 using Nik's Color Efex Pro filters. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Wildlife Photography

Shooting Tethered with the Canon 50D and Lightroom

One of the best things about working in a studio is the ability to shoot tethered from your DSLR to your computer running Adobe Lightroom. The is especially nice for Canon shooters since all the software you need is included with your camera for FREE!

I guess this almost makes up for (NOT) Canon's lack of a cost effective GPS solution like Nikon's GP-1 unit recently covered in a great little post by Jeff Revell. Yes Jeff, Canon shooters are green with envy over this one!

Tethered shooting from the EOS 50D to Lightroom is fairly straight-forward but there are a few tricks to getting things configured correctly. First you start the EOS Utility and set your Preferences as shown below.

I recommend checking "Auto power off" in the "Basic Settings" preferences to save your camera batteries. Shooting in a studio using small strobes tends to take a lot longer and you'll go through camera batteries fairly quickly if you don't use AC power.

You can choose a destination folder anywhere on your MacBook but I like to store all images in my "Pictures" folder. One important thing to note is that THIS FOLDER MUST BE COMPLETELY EMPTY (no sub-folders or files) and I'll explain why later in this article, so keep reading.

NO SUB-FOLDERS (sorry for yelling but it took me almost an hour to figure this out on my own).

Its also important that your file naming scheme doe not duplicate any file names previously used or Lightroom won't import these files automatically. Another little issue that took a lot of time to track down.

I use a specific file naming scheme for my work as shown below:

IMG - Image prefix
50D - Camera Model
T - Tethered
000x - File sequence

And because I'm completely paranoid about losing my work I also write the image files to the compact flash card in the camera. Not strictly necessary but a good studio habit to adopt.

Believe it or not, you really need to set the "Linked Software" preference to "None" for this whole system to work correctly with Lightroom.

To complete this process, just click on the "OK" button to save your preferences and return to the EOS Utility's main menu.

Now all you need to do is set a few options in Lightroom 2 and you're ready to begin shooting. Go ahead and start up Lightroom and click on the "Auto Import Settings" menu. Set the "Watched Folder" by clicking on the "Choose..." button and navigating to the "Destination Folder" location you set in the EOS Utility's preferences.

If this folder is completely empty (as it should be if you read my rant above) then everything will be fine. If not, a nasty little dialog box will pop up telling you the folder must be empty (see, I told you so).

Go ahead and select a "Destination", a "File Naming" scheme and other "Information" settings and click "OK" to save these Lightroom settings.

To enable the watched folder all you need to do is select "Auto Import" from the File menu and then select "Enable Auto Import". Nothing could be simpler, right?

Now, with Lightroom active, select "Camera Settings / Remote Shooting" from the EOS Utility's main menu.

And up pops the Camera Control window where you will spend the next several hours, days or weeks happily shooting with your EOS 50D tethered to Lightroom. The really cool thing about this is that the remote shooting controls are so easy to use you could actually "drive" your entire studio session from here. The remote controls are the real thing and you can change almost every camera setting remotely. If you're doing still life or product photography, the only time you'll need to look through the viewfinder is to check focus and composition.

Sweet!

So what's the big advantage to shooting tethered? Well, it sure beats looking at the camera's 3 LCD.

BTW - This can also be done wirelessly using Canon's $800 WFT-E3A Wireless File Transmitter. Now if I could only get my daughters to buy me one for Fathers Day!

CLASS DISMISSED

Posted in Photography Tagged: Adobe Lightroom 2, Canon, Canon 50D, Canon 50D Tethered Shooting