Hello everyone.
So much for my daily posts huh? Man it has been a busy couple months but I cannot complain. I feel like I am coming down with a cold of some sort which is going to be some good times.

Anyways, I have been receiving a bunch of emails asking where I have been so I just wanted to update you all on what is going on. I do have a lot of posts ready to go and be released. Hopefully this winter will slow down enough for me to get back into the game and post more tips and tricks over here on a more regular basis. The primary slowdown is from me wanting to shoot more videos and less text but that eats up a lot of time to push up to the site.

So I hope everyone is well and that you are having yourselves a prosperous year.

Keep checking back for more content to be added… eventually.

High Speed Sync is a really great technology. Here is one shot that I just did where I used the high speed sync capabilities of my flash:

Shot with my Nikon D700, SB-900 mounted off camera and Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 Lens

SHUTTER SPEED: 1/5000″ (try doing that with a PocketWizard!)
APERTURE: f/2.8
ISO: 200
FOCAL LENGTH: 28mm

As photographers, there is a lot that goes into making an image look good in post-processing and The Internet is a great way to showcase these images. Unfortunately, many photographers end up posting their stunning images on the web only for them to look like garbage. Here are some helpful tips on how you can keep the “wow” factor of your images alive so the world can see what you are seeing.

1.) CHANGE YOUR COLORSPACE: Many forums tell you that you should set your camera up to shoot in AdobeRGB so your camera can capture a wider gamut of color which is 110% true. I tend to shoot in AdobeRGB myself and send my images over from Lightroom into Photoshop as 16bit ProPhoto RGB files for even more colors. However, when I save my image to the web, I always make sure that I drop my file down to 8 bits (in Photoshop: Image > Mode > 8 bits/channel) and convert my colorspace to sRGB (in Photoshop: Edit > Convert to Profile… > sRGB). The reason for dropping down to 8 bits is that you don’t need that extra overhead in your files when showing them online. Remember, the internet is a fast paced world so no one wants to take forever and a day to sit and wait for an image to load your website. The reason for converting over to sRGB is a much more essential thing to do. See, just like anything, the internet has standards. However, that doesn’t mean that every web browser follows them exactly. For example, Mozilla Firefox looks at each image file and checks the colorspace and it can read either AdobeRGB or sRGB. Internet Explorer is special in the fact that it just assumes that all files are in sRGB and if they are not, then IE displays them as such…

This means that when you look at your AdobeRGB image in IE then you will see the colors are off kilter and the image looks yucky. Saving in sRGB just ensures that everyone can play nicely no matter what web browser a viewer is using.

2.) RESIZE THE IMAGE: A lot of people who know HTML tend to upload the full sized image to their website or blog and then use their HTML programming skills to shrink the image to fit. An example of how this may be done is:

< .img src="fileLocation.jpg" width="33.33%" height="33.33%" .>

However, the browser still has to load that large file and then it has to resize the file in the web site to 33.33% of the original. Not all browsers may handle this properly so you may end up with a real long and thin image or a short and stumpy one that is skewed. By actually saving a new file that is re-sized to fit your content window, you will notice smaller file sizes and will not have to worry about how the browser may mess with your image.

3.) SHARPEN FOR THE WEB: This is a real biggie to get your files to pop. Sharpening is something that can easily be overdone but it is something that must be done at various image sizes. Therefore, when you shrink your huge 12 or 21mp image down to 700px or so, you will need to then re-sharpen. Remember, a little goes a long way. What you are looking for is a point where you start to see a black rim around your subject and then back it off a pinch to where the edge is not as pronounced.

4.) SAVE FOR THE WEB: In Photoshop, select File > Save For Web & Devices. A new pop up window shows up and gives you the ability to optimize and tweak your image for a proper balance between image quality and file size. This can be done by moving the Quality Slider until you see a file size that is manageable. In this age of high speed internet, a 150-200kb are nothing to load.

Man this has been a busy year! The best part is that it isn’t even over yet… Can you tell I am being sarcastic with that last remark? haha.

Long story short, I have been doing a lot; Aside from being a new father, I have been doing so much with my photography business and then top it all off with my inLIGHTin Workshops. So how can I make more time for myself and my family while still doing what I love to do? The only way to do this was either to outsource some of my work or change the world so I can add a couple hours to the day. Outsourcing seemed like the only logical thing so I started investigating. Now, I’ve been outsourcing my wedding album designs for about a year now and that really works wonders. But how can I save even more time? Should I outsource my post processing too?

But how can a control freak like me turn over such an integral part of my work? I couldn’t come up with an answer so I decided to give things one more chance… Instead of searching for a place to outsource my stuff, I decided to search for hardware and software options that could at least speed up my time behind the computer. Enter DQ Studio’s QuiKeys. Quikeys is the brainchild of Dave and Quin Cheung of DQ Studios. They are a husband and wife photography team over in Canada and they created the QuiKeys to do everything that I have been looking for to speed up my workflow.

OVERVIEW:
So you may be asking yourself “what the heck is this QuiKeys thing?” I’m glad you asked…
Dave and Quin state on their website that the QuiKeys is a “Workflow Empowerment System” and they couldn’t be any more correct! The QuiKeys is a 58 key programmable keyboard that Dave and Quin have customized to interact with Photoshop and Lightroom to speed up your workflow. Simple as that.

Now I am a self-proclaimed computer geek so anything that has to do with gadgets and technology is cool with me. I received the QuiKeys a couple weeks ago and it took no time at all to get installed and accustomed to.

ORDERING:
You have to specify certain things when ordering your QuiKeys. The site does a great job of holding your hand throughout the process. The two biggies that you need to inform them about are what operating system you are using and if you want the right or left hand version of the QuiKeys. I selected Mac OS X and left handed. Now, one can get away with using the QuiKeys and a mouse but it is REALLY stressed that you pick yourself up a Wacom Pen Tablet of really any flavor. So you will want to purchase the correct setup based upon what hand you use to draw/write with. I have the Wacom Intuous4 (medium sized) pen tablet and if you see in the pics below, the tablet is off to my left while my right hand operates the QuiKeys. This means that the LEFT hand version, should be used with your RIGHT hand… Got it? Good.

Excuse the messy desk BTW ;)

CHECKOUT:
You have to purchase the QuiKeys hardware base (the keyboard) and all the modules (Retouching Module, Freeform Album Design Module and RAW module) separately. I chose to go with the Retouching Module and RAW Module myself since I outsource my album designs. I believe that the Retouching Module and RAW Module are necessities so get both! Upon purchasing the QuiKeys, you receive a nice set of emails from the DQ crew that gives you a rundown on everything. They also give you links to about two dozen instructional videos to watch while you are awaiting for your QuiKey’s Hardware base to arrive. I watched those videos, did my homework and it paid off. I felt like a pro with QuiKeys before it even arrived. I actually found myself learning where the very important keys were just by watching Dave and Quin demonstrating the QuiKeys in those videos which was stellar. All in all, the QuiKeys Hardware Base is a keyboard therefore it is just like learning to type. Before you know it, you will be hitting the correct keys without even looking!

INSTALLATION:
There is no one click installer for all of the QuiKey’s setup simply because of how the QuiKeys taps into Photoshop and Lightroom. Installing the QuiKeys hardware was a snap but it took me about an hour to set the intricate stuff up. It should have been quicker but I was a jamoke and didn’t use my noodle. So I spent like 20 minutes trying to find Photoshop script files that I just installed when they wouldn’t appear. A simple restart of Photoshop did the trick which I should have known immediately. I told you it was dumb stuff like that which made it take longer than necessary…

WORKFLOW:
Within minutes I was soaring through my files with the QuiKeys. Dave and Quin have put a lot of TLC into ensuring that the QuiKeys has all the important stuff available at the press of a button. I don’t have their Freeform Album Design Module so I cannot comment on that. I can say that if it is anything remotely like their other two modules then it rocks!

LAYOUT:
The basic layout for the QuiKeys is as follows:

The Top Row (18 keys) mostly handles Actions (Photoshop) and Develop Presets (Lightroom). There are a couple other important buttons like one that toggles the keyboard layout for whatever app you are using. Each app (Photoshop, Lightroom Library Workspace and Lightroom Develop Workspace) has their own color LED associated to it so you know what one your are on. The Toggle button changes the QuiKeys so your keyboard layout applies to the correct app. You can totally swap out their canned Actions with your favorite ones. I have re-assigned maybe four of the actions buttons to ones that I use.

The Left / Right Columns (20 total / 10 on each side) are vice versa for Left and Right hand users. The basic gist of this is that the buttons you have available to the blade edge of your hand are the ones you will be using the most. These 10 keys are therefore assigned to zoom in and out of your image, shrink or enlarge your brush and arrow keys to control a variety of things; From moving around the image, to controling the height of each curve point in Photoshop. Did I mention how cleaver this is yet? The other side contains stuff like clone tool opacity, quick cropping and stuff like that. Things you will use, just not all the time. For Lightroom users, this section (and a couple of the top keys) controls your Exposure, Contrast, Brightness, White Balance/Tint and other important sliders like that to make RAW editing a snap… Press the RIGHT key there and you will increase the Exposure (or whatever else) and vice versa will decrease it.

The Center area (20 keys) handles the meat and potatoes of your Photoshop and Lightroom app. This section stays the same for both right and left hand users. For Lightroom, you have all your picking and flagging options here and there are more of those RAW editing slider adjusters here too (Clarity, Vibrance, etc…)
Photoshop has a lot more important stuff here! This section is dedicated to brush inverting and pallete color swapping (great for showing and hiding your layer masks with the brush tool), and even a great combo for the liquify tool. I can make my subjects look better than ever now with a couple clicks! This combo is all laid out in order too to make the speed even faster.

USAGE:
I shoot in RAW so the first step is to use Lightroom to import and catalog all my images from a shoot. Let’s go with a wedding for example. Now I take about 1,200 images at a wedding and have more to work with if I have a second shooter present. I did a high end wedding a couple weeks ago, which had three shooters all together, and I had 2500 images from that wedding alone! This was also the first wedding that I used the QuiKeys on. So once the images are imported, I go about picking my favorites and getting rid of the crummy shots. Within one hour, I had all those images down to about 950… I was in Lightroom’s Library module and used the Grid View to work very quickly and pick my faves. From there, I did simple adjustments for exposure and white balance where needed. The Grid View is great because you can select X images and it batch edits each one for you. So I press the + exposure button on the QuiKeys twice and all 20 underexposed images that I selected get the boost and look great. Cool huh? That took maybe 45 minutes…

From there, I exported my RAW images into high quality JPEGs and went to bed. When I woke up, I had all 950 of my final images in a folder. Now is the time for me to use the QuiKeys in Photoshop… THIS is where the QuiKeys REALLY shines!

The first step here is to open the AutoLoader script and assign a working folder and a destination folder. Why do you need to do this? Glad you asked. To answer your question, I will have to first tell you about the part of the QuiKeys that I absolutely love. The little RED button!
This little red button is the AutoLoader button. Pressing the AutoLoader button will open up image #1 in your working folder (the one that you selected in the AutoLoader script as the working folder). You do your edits and when you are happy, press the AutoLoader button again. Look here, image #1 gets saved for you (in the format and size that you specified in the AutoLoader script) to the destination folder and image #2 then pops up for you to work on… Press the AutoLoader button again, #2 gets saved to the destination folder and image #3 opens…. No more File > Save As > Blah blah blah followed by File > Open > blah blah blah. One button click and it does about 6-8 button clicks for you. Let me tell you, THAT adds up! Say one of your favorite images isn’t a favorite image anymore and you don’t want it to make the second round of cuts. Just X out of the image and then hit the AutoLoader button to open the next image for you.

Another cool perk about the AutoLoader script is that you have the option to load the images in REVERSE ORDER… Why would you need that? Glad you asked haha.
This is a perk for those who work and who do parallel editing with another photographer. One photographer starts from the top down and the other starts from the bottom up. No one is stepping on the others toes overwriting files. Instead, you just meet half way and the entire photo shoot is finished and edited.

I found myself actually “finishing” every single file for my client. That means, clone tool to get rid of distracting stuff, retouch tools to make the bride and groom look awesome and flawless and even the liquify tool to modestly remove a couple bingo arms here and there. I also got to give every photo a certain “pop” to them which I didn’t do before. I find myself using the 4 Actions buttons that I re-assigned (I use Totally Rad Actions Re-Touch action and a couple Kuboda actions religiously) and have been using the QuiKey’s Dodge and Burn buttons along with their Auto Vignette action and stuff like that. A cool thing to note is that each and every button press that makes an adjustment to your image is all done on a layer mask. This makes it easy for you to adjust the opacity of the layer and it even allows you to paint in the effect to only the areas that you want it to. Much nicer than the effect adjusting the entire image on you… When I end up with a file, I have maybe 5-6 layers so I just press their “Merge Layers” button and then I am back to one layer before saving and closing the image with the AutoLoader button.

All in all, my first time using the QuiKeys with Photoshop was about 6 hours and I went from those 950 images down to 850 AND finished every image to look awesome! That means that I edited an entire wedding containing over 2500 images down to 850 and FINISHED the files within 8 short hours! One day to shoot the wedding, one day to edit the wedding and you are literally DONE!

Now when I post the pics to Pictage, I know that every guest who purchases an image will have an amazing file to use as the basis so they will truly be happy with the print, I also know that I don’t have to touch any files no matter which images the bride and groom choose for their wedding album. I just send the files off as is to get thrown into a wedding album design.

I didn’t even get a chance to talk about how beneficial having a Pen Tablet is! Here’s a quick cliff notes version: Having a pen tablet is very intuitive since it is like you are drawing on your computer screen. I have never worked so fast as I have with my pen tablet. I am now even using it for my everyday mouse. The Wacom Intuous4 tablets have about 8 buttons on the tablet itself that you can assign features to. Furthermore, it knows what app you have open so it can dynamically adjust your 8 buttons to ones that you associated for each application you have open, Firefox can have 8 buttons while Photoshop can have another 8 and so on. The pen itself have a variety of nibs that you can use. I prefer the soft, felt feeling one since it slides over the tablet the best. The pen also has two button on it. I have both set to the Alt/Option button to make picking out my Clone and Healing brush targets that much easier.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Is this product a necessity for budding and amateur photographers? No… Is it an amazing tool for those who are professional photographers and who are looking to get their life back and away from the computer? Yes Yes Yes! All in all, the QuiKeys is an investment but how much is your time worth to you? To me it was well worth the price. The QuiKeys hardware base runs $250 while each module runs $350 to $500. All in all, it ran me $1100 for the QuiKeys and it was worth EVERY penny! If you want the QuiKeys but are on a budget then maybe ditch the RAW Module and do the Lightroom stuff with your traditional QWERTY keyboard. The Retouch Module is worth it’s weight in gold and is a MUST for Photoshop users! Nuff’ said.

The pen tablet can run $99 for a Wacom Bamboo (never tried it but it seems like a cheaper version of the Wacom tablet- expect it to have less features and won’t be as touch sensitive) up to $2000 for a tablet screen. I have the $450 Wacom Intuous4 but would recommend at least the size smaller which is $250. Don’t forget, you can always get one of these used and save cash!!!!

Now that brings me to around $1600 for a complete workflow setup. I spent that much on stupid photography gadgets that are collecting dust and I am sure many of you have as well. Therefore the $1600 to save myself a crap ton of time AND to get me more time to spend with my wife and child was well worth it!

I have been using the QuiKeys for just under a month now. I have become fluent in the usage of the QuiKeys and know where every key is without even looking. I am now killing off wedding jobs in under 5 hours (with the longest part being the Exporting of RAW to JPEGS!) and am killing off portrait jobs in under 2 hours. Given these numbers, I have knocked down my time per job by roughly 66% !!! What? You mean to say that I cut my time behind the computer AND am giving my clients better files.

As a matter of fact, that is EXACTLY what i am saying. Props to Dave and Quin for making an amazingly awesome product!

Here is some information for further reading:
DQ Studios Website: http://www.dqstudios.com
QuiKeys Website: http://www.quikeys.com
About the QuiKeys: HERE
QuiKeys Examples: HERE
QuiKeys Tutorials: HERE
QuiKeys Products: HERE

Hello fellow inLIGHTin’ed Ones!

Long time no see. How has everyone been lately?

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am always thinking and brainstorming… For example, I should be editing a wedding right now. Instead, I have finally came up with where I want to direct my inLIGHTin Workshops. Before I get going, these are all good things! I am in no way, shape or form stopping these workshops so you can let out that sigh of relief now haha ;P

Now in my head I always seen a ‘loop-hole’ in my workshops so to speak… I basically held up a sign that said, “come to me if you want to know anything and everything about photography…” That was ideally what my one-on-one workshops did. You came to me with what you wanted to learn and I taught it. However, in my 5 year plan, I planned on doing more speaking engagements, group workshops and team learning (both locally and on a national level)… How can I get to that point when I only affect one photographer at a time? Also, do I want to be known as the guy who is like the Bob Villa of photography or do I want to be known for being an expert in my strengths and passions? Why give you an overall general knowledge base of things when I can hone into the nitty gritty and provide you with more concentrated content. These are the questions that I have been racking my brain on and here is my answer!

I have a new direction for the inLIGHTin Workshops which will be effective immediately:
All future inLIGHTin Workshops will be conducted in a group environment and the topics of these workshops are now divided into four categories: Lighting, Post-Processing/Workflow, Photography 101 and Nature/Landscape Photography. These are the disciplines that I am most passionate about and love to teach. My lighting workshops cater to my passion for portrait photography. The nature/landscape workshops combine my love for traveling, sight seeing and fine art landscapes. Post-processing and workflow lets out the inner geek in myself and the photography 101 courses will be my way of giving back to the industry. We all started off somewhere so these Photography 101 workshops will get my students more comfortable with their cameras and hopefully help them to acquire a new found love and passion for photography.

Take a look at the following link for more information on what these workshops entail: http://www.inlightinworkshop.com/about/

I will most definitely still offer one-on-one workshops but they will come at a premium and on a more limited basis. Please contact me at Mike(at)inLIGHTinWorkshop dot com for more information.

I also hope to start taping these workshops and am looking to partner up with a videographer to help this vision become a reality. If you miss the workshop then you can always have access to it via these videos.

All in all, I have big, big plans for The inLIGHTin Workshop and I thank you for being on-board! If you are interested in hosting an inLIGHTin Workshop in your neck of the woods then please email me at Mike(at)inLIGHTinWorkshop dot com .

These workshops have always and will still be 110% about YOU. Therefore, I would love to hear your thoughts and comments so please comment on the blog below and let me know your feedback.

Thanks for reading and for all your support!
Michael

Nothing is more important than backing up your data. Unfortunately, this is something that gets pushed to the wayside so we can get a new camera or lens gets. What good is all that camera equipment if we lose all the images taken with it???

It all boils down to storage… Here are some helpful suggestions on how you can preserve your images for years to come:
1.) Do not format your memory cards until you have backed them up. It is important to have yourself “at least” two copies before formatting your memory card!

2.) Invest in quality not quantity. It is easy to see a hard drive for $80 and want to pick it up. However, be sure to do your research and make sure that these hard drives are reliable. We wouldn’t want to get into a car that wasn’t reliable and take it for a drive across country now would we? Same goes for your hard drives.

3.) Go for speed. Look for hard drives in the 7200rpm or faster range. Also ensure that your external hard drives have various input jack options. These 250 gb rugged external hard drives by LaCie are portable and can withstand a good beating. Trust me, I have tried and they are still kicking!

4.) Things are always better in pairs! Do your research on data redundancy and set yourself up a nice RAID system. The basic nuts and bolts of RAID is that you can have your hard drive mirrored meaning that one could crap out and you will have an exact replica to takes its place. Furthermore, you can put a new hard drive in the old one’s place and have the RAID mirroring kick right back in. LaCie also makes amazing products for redundancy. This particular model is the LaCie 5 Big Network NAS file server and it can expand to offer you up to 7.5 Terabytes of data!!!

Front:

Back:

5.) Upgrade your CDs and DVDs from the Walmart brand to archival grade. The cheap DVDs have an average shelf life of like 5 years. Go with the more expensive, but more reliable, archival disks. These last well over 90 years and are more scratch resistant.

6.) Keep a backup off-site. Take one of your hard drives or keep a running record of DVDs and send them over to your mother-in-laws house. Just keep them somewhere safe and away from where you keep your other hard drives. This goes with the saying about having all your eggs in one basket. Heaven forbid you had a fire or a natural disaster hit your house… Having an off site backup ensures that you have one copy somewhere else that is hopefully going to be out of harms way.

One can get pretty overboard with backups so be sure to do your research and follow a backup regiment that will suit your needs and fit in with your already existing workflow. Thanks for reading and check back tomorrow when my good friend, Christopher Zak, shares his review on the Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens!

Hello everyone. Today I want to talk about Aperture Priority (Av for short) Mode on your cameras. I think this setting will really help you to get the images you want without fiddling too much with your camera settings.

Please refer to your camera’s manual to see how to change your camera’s shooting modes. Every camera is different so the four different modes (M, Av, Tv, P) could appear on a knob that turns, it could require your to hold down a button and move a command dial or none of the above. While you have that user’s manual open, it might be helpful to give it a read…

So let’s do a quick review of the camera modes before we go any further.
Manual Mode (M): Enabling this requires that you the photographer has to set the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Basically, you have full control over the camera in order to have the most creative control over your exposure.
Aperture Priority Mode (Av): This setting is a lot like Manual Mode, BUT you only have to set the Aperture and ISO. The camera takes those two settings and then goes ahead and computes the proper Shutter Speed for an average exposure. But what happens when we want the CORRECT exposure? We’ll dive into that a little later.
Shutter Priority Mode (Tv): This setting is the opposite of Aperture Priority mode. We set the Shutter Speed and ISO while the camera figures out the proper Aperture. The camera also computes an average exposure for you that sometimes needs to be overridden. The Tv in the abbreviation there stands for Time by the way. I can safely say that I have NEVER used this setting EVER!
Program Mode (P): This setting is used by many people when they first get their cameras and are still learning. Program Mode is the “safe” setting. It figures out the Shutter Speed and Aperture for you all the time to once again to compute a “safe” setting so your photo comes out fairly decent. All you have to worry about is the ISO… If you don’t even want to mess with the ISO then there is a full auto mode. On Canon camera’s, it is represented as a green square. Basically, that is the mode you set it to when you give it to your grandmother so she can take a picture for you. haha.

Now, I posed a question earlier about the Av, Tv and P camera modes and how the camera decides upon a middle of the road setting for Shutter Speed and Aperture. More often than not, the setting the camera chooses is not correct. For example, if you are photographing something that is mostly white, then the image will be kinda gray and under-exposed and vice versa for black. There you have a black subject but it will over-expose the image so it appears gray. Don’t worry there are ways to get around this… Want to know how? Glad you asked.

There is a little something called EXPOSURE COMPENSATION and the button looks like this:

Exposure Compensation works for Av, Tv and P modes. You can set it in Manual mode but it will not affect the image. It will however, affect your flash if in TTL (At least Nikon works this way). So Exposure Compensation is the tool we need to tell the camera that it is giving us the wrong exposures (thus images are too light or too dark) and that we want more (by setting a + number) or less (by setting a – number) light to enter the camera. See the camera is nothing but a computer. All it knows is ones and zeros. Therefore, it doesn’t know that you are photographing a landscape at sunset or sparklers on the Fourth of July. All it does is take a light meter reading and gives us a safe set of settings. The camera can, and more often than not, gets fooled. All we have to do is hold down that exposure compensation button and use our command dial to set it to a plus or minus value. In this digital age, we can simply take a photo and physically see how the exposure looks. We have Highlight Warning to tell if we blew out our highlight, we have our Histogram to tell where all the pixels in our image are falling within the limits or not and we have the actual image for us to critique with our own eyes. So take a test picture and make your adjustments as needed. It is always important to adjust the Exposure Compensation and then check every once in a while to make sure your lighting didn’t change!

Also, make sure to zero out your Exposure Compensation settings before you are done shooting. You may have had a +2 for a backlit condition but when you pick up the camera again you may not remember that you had it set to that high of a value. Zeroing it out gives you one less possible thing to troubleshoot.

Now, I use Av mode a ton during weddings. The wedding is a fast paced event at times so I need a setting that will keep up. I also use Av sometimes for portraits, when outside and under varying lighting. I love being able to adjust my aperture and control my depth of field and then have the camera set the shutter speed for me. Of course I know how to set my Shutter Speed, but sometimes I miss “the moment” because I am moving my camera to the proper Shutter Speed. In Av mode, the camera sets the Shutter Speed to what I would have set it to, just faster!

Thanks for reading and I will talk to you again real soon!

I wanted to go over my recent inLIGHTin Workshop for today’s Friday Night Lights segment.

I gave an inLIGHTin Workshop to about a dozen photographers over at the iPrintFromHome.com Headquarters over on Niagara Falls Blvd. For those local to Buffalo… did you know that we have an awesome photo lab right in our backyard?

So we started at 6pm and went a little over three hours! This workshop was all about lighting. We talked about everything from free and available light, to continuous light, speedlights (on and off camera) and ended up on studio strobes… There was A LOT of content and could have easily spent an entire day talking about things…

I had a great time and wanted to thank everyone for attending. I hope to see you at other workshops of mine and as always, call or email whenever if you have any questions guys!

Here are some pics from the workshop that my assistant, Martha, shot during the workshop:

Thanks to the George and Sarah over at the iPrintFromHome.com family for letting us use their space.

What better time to review the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR when a new one has been announced right?

Basically, I just wanted to let you know that this lens is still going to be used by myself and I do not have immediate plans to upgrade to the new 70-200mm with VRII…

Here are the differences real quick between the old model and the new one:
1.) Price! I paid around $1,800 last year from my 70-200mm while the new one appears that it will be going for around $2,400.
2.)VR vs. VR II: You basically get an extra stop of light with this newer version VR. The old one states that you can handhold the lens and get an additional three stops out of it while the new one is rated for four stops.
3.) Lens Coating & Design: The new VRII lens has the nano-crystal coating and sports a new design to boot.
4.) Minimum focusing distance has been dropped from 5 feet to 4.5 feet or so.
5.) The VRII lens is about a quarter inch shorter than its predecessor. However, it is approx. 2.5 oz. heavier.
6.) Sharpness: The new VRII is supposed to have better edge to edge sharpness on the new VRII lens.
7.) AF: Faster focusing with the A/M, M/A and M options.

So if you think that the extra $600 will help out your photography then put an order in for one of the new VRII versions… Otherwise, wait it out and continue to rock it’s predecessor.

I personally love my current lens. The important things are that it is fast to acquire focus, it is sharp (even at f/2.8) and it is comfortable in the hands. Need I say more? This lens has some amazing bokeh (that is the term given to the aesthetic quality of the blurred out background in your image when using a shallow depth of field)

I chose to do this review actually because I have been using this lens for more and more of my work as the days go on. My full frame D700 rocks with this lens. I did find that DX crop cameras give me a little too much zoom (approx. 105-300mm focal lengths after considering the crop factor) for my wedding and portrait needs. This lens coupled with a 2x teleconverter on my D300 DX camera gives me an effective 600mm f/5.6 (you lose a stop of light with each x in the teleconverter so my f/2.8 bumps up to f/5.6) Not too shabby! So all in all, I can use this lens with either a DX or FX body and for various photography assignments.

The image quality of this lens really excels when shooting wide open. Here are some sample pics from a job that I just did where the 70-200mm was used at f/2.8:

 

This lens is a staple for Nikon shooters. There are a couple other “necessary” lenses in Nikon’s lineup that you should have with you. The 24-70mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4 would have to be the other two that I can come up with. Enjoy and check back tomorrow for some awesome workflow techniques!

Thanks for stopping by.

I have been a photographer for over 12 years now. To some, that’s how long they have been shooting film alone! However, even though I am only 26 years old, I’ve made my way through the ranks and have been blessed to actually have shot with film, developed it in the darkroom and even wound my own film! With that being said, I’ve used and acquired a lot of camera equipment. And by a lot, I mean A LOT!

Technology is changing so fast that it can be easy to get caught in this “age of obsolescence” where new tech comes out every month. Combine that with forums and internet chatter about the new gear just in case you weren’t enticed enough to get it already. In all honesty, itt is like “keeping up with the Jonses” except on a national level.

So where am I going with this? Photography is expensive… But good news! Today’s cameras are allowing your money to go further. How so? Easy…

Way back in 2001, I had a Nikon D100. This camera was a workhorse. BUT, it sucked at low light. AF acquisition was okay and good luck with noise after ISO 800… Nothing like today’s cameras. So way back in 2001, that D100 ran me a good $1600 or so. I paired that up with a Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 variable aperture zoom lens and that was my setup for quite some time… As you can imagine, I needed a speedlight for a lot of my work in order to have enough light since the lens was definitely not the fastest in Nikon’s fleet.

I managed but it was tough! All in all, that was my gear for 2-3 years. A Nikon D100, SB-800 Speedlight and a 28-105mm zoom lens. All that totaled about $3000 back in 2001. So what can we get for $3000 today?

The money is the same but the features and equipment of today far surpasses what I had to use back then!

Basically all D-SLRs allow you to take control of the following: Shutter speed, aperture and ISO controls. These three items are the basis for photography. The shutter speed and aperture hasn’t changed. However, recent ISO improvements in the current array of cameras have been huge for photographers! My Nikon D700 (D3 too) can get me to ISO 26,500!!! That is madness. Remember me complaining about files coming out of my D100 that were taken at ISO 800? I can now handhold my camera in darker conditions, without a flash I might add, and get superior images than before. What does this mean for today’s photographers? First off, we can save a boat load of money by choosing those slower, variable aperture lenses!

Here are two lenses:
The first is my Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 and the other is my old Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5.

Images courtesy of www.KenRockwell.com

So that 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 ran me around $350 back in the day. What is the price of the 24-70mm f/2.8?? About $1800! That is quite the difference in price… What could you do with that $1500 in savings?

Now let me first start off this comparison by saying that the 24-70mm is one of my favorite lenses. It is sharp at every aperture and could be my one and only lens. I love it! If you have the money to pick one up then I would highly suggest making it your first lens purchase! This article is written for those just starting out or who may be wanting to take the jump to digital so keep that in mind as you are reading this!

So the main difference in specs is the fast fixed f/2.8 vs. the slower, variable aperture f/3.5-f/4.5 lens.

f/2.8 to f/4 is a reduction of 1 stop of light… This is a fact. The difference between the two lenses is a loss of 1.3 stops of light. Long story shot… Big friggen’ deal! 1.3 stops of light is nothing in this day and age. Another big perk is that a lot of these cheaper “kit lenses” as they are also called is the fact that they are now coming with VR built in. Canon calls this IS and others have their own unique name. VR stands for Vibration Reduction. Essentially, there is a floating element inside the lens that moves when enabled and helps correct for camera shake at slower shutter speeds. VR lenses essentially can give you three to four extra stops of light by being able to shoot at slower shutter speeds. Pretty cool huh? Just make a mental note that VR capabilities fix camera shake that is caused on the photographer’s end. It helps correct shake from hand holding the camera and shaking or a wobbly tripod. If you are shooting at 1/25″ second then don’t expect your moving SUBJECT to be still… The camera will still pick up blur from your subjects moving so keep that in mind!

Now the 28-105mm lens seems to be extinct but there are other amazing lenses out there that are ripe for the taking. Many of these newer lenses have the VR option too which is pretty sweet. As a matter of fact, I wrote this article and it encouraged me to pick up the Nikkor 80-400mm f/4-5.6D VR lens. But more on that later…

So here are some Nikon lenses that are in the $300 price range and rock.
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D Prime Lens: $130 (Look maw, f/1.8! Wow. This really means hello low light photography!)
Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 IF AF-S DX VR: $219
Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED: $360
Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 ED AF-S DX: $170

What do all those letters mean in the lens name?
ED = Extra-low Dispersion. This came about around 1960-1975′ish and it is a better quality glass that is used for the lens elements. It is harder and helps correct for chromatic aberration (green and magenta color fringes around the edges of your subject).
IF = Internal Focusing. This means that when the auto-focus is activated, the glass elements move inside the lens. This means that the lenses have a shorter focusing distance and can help the lens focus quicker.
DX = the short hand name for the sensor in crop cameras like the D40, D90 and D300 DSLRs (to name a few). When a lens has this in it’s name that means that it is optimized for crop cameras. This is because the lenses have smaller image circles to pair up with the smaller sensors. If you were to put a DX lens on an FX body then the result would be a big loss in resolution. Don’t get me wrong, FX camera bodies would work with these lenses. It is just that my 12mp full frame D700 would end up giving me 6mp images and would basically do the DX cropping for me.
FX = the short hand name for full frame sensors like the ones found in the D700, D3 and D3x DSLRs. Lenses do not have this in their name. It is more of a camera abbreviation.
PC = Perspective Control. This is another name for tilt-shift lenses. These are specialty lenses designed primarily for architectural photography.
Older lenses may have the abbreviations: NIC, SIC or RF to them. I wouldn’t get too caught up with these. If you are buying new equipment, then stick with the newer tech.

So we covered lenses, now it’s time to dive into camera bodies. I would suggest a Nikon D300 ($1500) or the newly announced D300s ($1800). Typically, camera’s that have an ‘X’ appended to their name (i.e. the Nikon D40 vs. the D40x and the Nikon D3 vs the D3x) means that there is a resolution improvement. The D40 was around 6mp while the D40x was in the 10mp range and the D3 is a 12mp camera while the D3x is a whopping 24mp! When you see an ‘S’ appended to the model then that more or less means that the camera has feature upgrades. (i.e. the Nikon D2X vs. D2Xs and the Nikon D300 vs. the D300s)This includes, adding more menu options, video mode, screen size and other various bells and whistles of the like. When a camera has a DX format sensor, that means that it is not the same size as 35mm film. Instead, the sensor is smaller. It is cheaper to make (due to less silicon) and has something called a crop factor (aka lens multiplier) to it. Think about it… If you drew a picture on a large piece of paper and then put smaller tracking paper over it and copied whatever you could then you would only be able to trace a portion of the drawing. The tracing would appear to be A ZOOMED IN version of your original drawing. So if you have a 50mm lens on both a DX and FX camera… The image coming out of the DX camera would appear to be zoomed in. Nikon and other camera companies do the conversion math for you and came up with like 1.3, 1.5 or 1.6x crop factors. All you need to know is that when you throw a lens on your DX camera, just multiply whatever your current focal length is by the crop factor. Let’s do one for an example: I have my D300 with a 1.5x crop factor and mount a Nikkor 70-200mm lens on it. What zoom range do I REALLY have?

70mm X 1.5x = 105mm
200mm X 1.5x = 300mm

So I get more zoom out of that lens with my D300 than I would with my full frame D700. Got it? Good. Back to the topic at hand now…

The D300 has the ability to shoot at ISO 6400… If you wanted to spend more money and drop $2500 on a D700, not only will you get a full frame sensor, but the ability to shoot up to ISO 25,600! If you think back to my D100 which got up to ISO 1600 (without looking like complete garbage) then the D300 will give you an extra 2 stops of light (while the low noise in the image still looking good) or up to 4 stops of light with the D700. Worse case scenario, throw your image into a software plug-in like Neat Image or Noise Ninja to fix the noise in the pics.

In conclusion, you don’t have to drop $30k on slew of camera equipment. You can if you want but you can still have fun and take great pics with a $3,000 setup. Can you purchase cameras that are cheaper? Sure… There are DSLRs in the $500 price range. In my experience though, I found that if you spend that little bit extra and get yourself into the $1500 price range then you will have yourself a very nice camera that won’t be missing an important feature or two and will last you a lot longer. I found that people who start off with the $500 camera’s end up moving up to the $1500 cameras and then take a loss when trying to sell their old one… Just spend the extra money because it will come back and bite you in the butt later on. Lenses; You can get away with a $300-$500 lens no sweat.

So this article was really inspiring to me. Inspiring to cost me money at least. I recently purchased the Nikon D300 (non S version) and paired it up with that 80-400mm VR lens I mentioned earlier. This combo is just killer and can do a lot of damage (in a good way)! This camera/lens combo ran me about $3,000. The perfectionist/snob in me required myself to pick up a MB-10 battery grip for the D300 and RRS (Really Right Stuff) brackets and mounts for the camera and lens. For me, I like having the battery pack and the RRS stuff makes tripod shooting super steady and tight and gives me the sharpest images possible.

This article hit me when I had the Nikon 600mm f/4 lens arrive at my doorstep. I am a NPS member and had one shipped to me as a loaner. It was heavy, bulky and costs upwards of $10,000!!! Sure it was sharper than sharp and was extremely cool to use but good luck taking it with you on an airplane or for hikes. Heck anywhere outside of your house for that matter

I have been eyeing up a crop camera for some time. The D300 is a staple and is a very nice camera so I went with that. I was toying with the 80-400mm f/4-5.6 lens and the 200-400mm f/4 lens (about a $5,000 price difference) when it hit me… GET THE D300 AND 80-400mm LENS AND SAVE $2,000!!!

With the D300 and the 80-400mm, my effective focal lengths are 120-600mm f/4-5.6! Not too shabby. The VR will help with camera shake at those effective focal lengths which is a huge help. I saved myself (and my back) probably 20lbs of camera gear and I have the same focal length… Sure I can’t use teleconverters and I lose a stop of light being at f/5.6 and all but who thought there wouldn’t be a catch somewhere in this?

I knew that going into the purchase. For me, $3,000 is worth the expense for how often I go out shooting birds and wildlife while not taking a huge $10,000 hit for a lens that will REALLY see no use…

I am not dogging the 600mm lens in any way. I am just being realistic with my shooting and weighing in the pros and cons to both. I would say that the 200-40mm f/4 lens is probably the best option for travel, quality and price over the 600mm lens.

Hopefully this article will at least open your eyes up and maybe even save you a few dollars in the process.
Thanks for reading and check out my new articles next week!