Photo Notes

Reflectors 2

Amazon is shipping copies of my second book: Photographing Architecture. This is really exciting! Of course you can also get my first book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting. You can download copies of most of my articles and some do it yourself projects. I teach three classes at BetterPhoto: Portrait Lighting on Location and in the Studio, An Introduction to Photographic Lighting and Getting Started in Commercial Photography. I hope you’ll check them out. I have been told that prices are going up this year at BetterPhoto, so you might want to sign up soon.

So it’s taken me a while to get back to this blog. No real surprise there. As mentioned I have some samples of what reflectors do for you. Before I get to that I want to mention a few things I have coming up. I will be in Atlanta this weekend. I am going down a few days early for a shoot at the Hartsfield-Jackson airport on Monday. I’d make a joke about shooting in an airport, but the security people have no sense of humor. It’s pretty exciting to be shooting a large public space for a client. I’ll post the results when I have them.

I also want to say something about testing. I took a while to get back to this blog because I needed to test a bunch of reflectors. I still don’t have a studio here in Indianapolis, so this is a pain in the neck. I couldn’t get the reflectors as far from the seamless as I would like. I only shot half of the pattern of the light. None of this matters. Since I hadn’t done this in a while, and I have some new reflectors, I learned things. It is vitally important to test your gear. Not only do you learn about how well it works, you learn about how it works. The strobe manufacturer can tell you about the spread of a reflector, soft box or umbrella, but you won’t know how it actually looks until you do the test. I notice that very few of my students have ever tested their strobes. I encourage them to do a test, and so should you.

Norman LH 2400 strobe 6 in reflector. This is the light I choose to base other power settings on. So neutral power, large coverage

Norman LH 2400 Stove pipe snoot small coverage neutral power

Norman LH 2400 22 in Beauty Dish. Very wide coverage, smooth gradation. -2/3 power

Norman LH 2400 6 in grid spot. Very very small coverage. -1 & 1/3 power

Norman LH2 5 inch reflector. Actually the coverage is surprisingly small. A +5 the power is quite high

Norman Lh2 Glass Dome reflector. long coverage, with soft gradation. -1/3 power

Norman LH 2 Parabolic reflector, small coverage from a very shiny focused reflector. +6 power

Norman LH2 Parabolic w/shoe cover. The cover diffused the light a lot, so long coverage. Neutral power

Norman LH2 6 in/2Q reflector, an alternative basic reflector. Larger coverage w/fast gradation. +3 power

Norman LH2 Homemade black snoot. Small coverage. with -1 power (negative)

Reflector or Reflector?

Amazon is shipping copies of my second book: Photographing Architecture. This is really exciting! Of course you can also get my first book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting. You can download copies of most of my articles and some do it yourself projects. I teach three classes at BetterPhoto: Portrait Lighting on Location and in the Studio, An Introduction to Photographic Lighting and Getting Started in Commercial Photography. I hope you’ll check them out. I have been told that prices are going up this year at BetterPhoto, so you might want to sign up soon.

I’ve often said that I believe that strobes are the best lights available for still photography. The reason I like strobes is that you can make the light work in a large number of different ways. You can make a small spot or a broad light; you can make hard light or soft light; you can even project images (www.siskinphoto.com/magazine/zpdf/strobeprojector.pdf). There are a number of different sorts of tools that give you this control; many of them are called reflectors, which is a problem. Entirely different sorts of tools are called reflectors. Tools which probably should be called reflectors aren’t. I hope to add a little clarity to this situation in the next couple of postings of this blog. I have students that this information will help. I hope it will be more broadly useful.

This is a large bounce reflector. The gold color creates warm light.

So let’s begin with the most basic problem: a large flat device to bounce light is called a reflector and the bowl shaped device that fits onto a mono-light or studio strobe is called a reflector. The large panel reflectors are very useful. They can be used in the studio, indoors and outside. They can reflect continuous light like the sun and strobe with equal ease. I really like using them in the studio and indoors, but not so much outdoors. I find that they are difficult to keep properly oriented outdoors. Often the effect of a panel reflector is so subtle that you can’t tell if one was used.

Bowl shaped reflector that fits onto a Norman LH2400

The bowl shaped reflector makes the strobe more efficient by putting more of the light in one direction. It also makes the strobe much more useful by keeping light from going where you don’t want it. Different reflectors give you different patterns of light. For instance the five-inch reflector I often use on my Norman LH2400 spreads light over 130º, a very broad spread. A larger ten-inch reflector spreads light over only 60º. When you use most dedicated strobes, like the Nikon SB900 or the Canon 580II EX there is actually a reflector built into the strobe. The spread of the built-in reflector can be changed by changing the setting from wide to telephoto. In addition to changing the spread of the light reflectors can also change the amount of light that reaches the subject. The standard reflector 2D for my Norman 200B spreads light over 60º, The telephoto reflector spreads light over a much smaller area, but is about 2.5 stops brighter. In the next blog I’ll be providing more examples of the styles and light patterns of reflectors. Most studio strobes and mono-lights only use bowl shaped reflectors made by the manufacturer. So when you buy strobes one thing you want to check on the reflectors and other accessories available from the manufacturer.

I just want to add a quick update about my marketing here in Indianapolis. Some of the connections I made through the clubs are starting to bear fruit: I have a catalog shoot that will start in a few weeks. Also I am supposed to meet with someone from the local community college about a teaching position. I went to the Indiana Home and Garden show yesterday. I met dozens of new people and handed out a lot of cards. It was a great place to show off the new book!

Click on the image to download an article about this shoot.

I’m trying to schedule a new lighting workshop. Please let me know if you would like to attend!
Thanks, John

New Book: Photographing Architecture!

I just got the advance copies of my second book: Photographing Architecture. It appears that Amazon will actually be able to ship the book before Christmas, so order now. Pretty darned exciting!! All of the pictures in the blog this week are from Photographing Architecture. Of course you can also get my first book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting.
Also as sort of a continuing gift you can download copies of most of my articles and some do it yourself projects. I wrote most of what follows for my Portrait Lighting on Location and in the Studio class at BetterPhoto.com. I teach two other classes at BetterPhoto: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting and Getting Started in Commercial Photography. I hope you’ll check them out. I have been told that prices are going up next year at BetterPhoto, so you might want to sign up soon. I have opinions about the value of proprietary strobes versus various kinds of manual strobes. They are based on my experience. Reasonable people can hold other opinions. I can only hope that these opinions are based on actual experience. Lighting is more of a language than an art. At it’s most basic level manipulating light can be discussed with numbers. We might call this a machine language. I began to learn this language decades ago. It was relatively difficult to learn because it was not described in a logical manner. I try to describe the language in a relatively coherent manner in my class An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. I think that the manufacturers of cameras would rather you didn’t learn this language. First they think you don’t want to learn and second it would reduce their profits. You can purchase a manual strobe that does what the Canon or Nikon proprietary strobe does for less than half the cost of the proprietary unit. While clearly the extra electronics do add to the cost of the thing, I wouldn’t guess that the extra cost would be very high. In addition these proprietary systems keep you from buying alternative products. I should say that dedicated strobes are great for flash fill and events: areas where auto exposure is particularly useful. When you shoot a wedding your goal is good and fast; when you shoot almost anything else your goal should be great photos. Also when proprietary strobes are used with larger light modifiers they could make a good quality of light. Since one of the best features of these lights is portability people often won’t carry large light modifiers. You can use manual lights with dSLR camera, from Nikon Canon and other companies. When you want to set up a shot with either dedicated strobes or manual strobes you need to be able to see what you’re doing. The idea that you can use the same settings on your lights and positions for the lights all the time, will greatly limit the kind of images you can make. This means that you need to pay attention when you design the light for a shot. It also means that, whenever humanly possible, you will want to do your set-ups tethered to a laptop computer or a tablet. Remember we want to take great photos, and so we need to see what we are doing. I shot a lot of film, and people often ask how I did that with just a meter. The answer is I didn’t. I used Polaroid for every shot I made: thousands of dollars worth of Polaroid in a year. I usually disconnect the camera from the laptop after I have perfected the set-up, it makes it easier and quicker to shoot. When you’re looking at an image, on your laptop, that you made with dedicated strobes you’ll want to examine the how much light you get from each light, the direction of each light, the quality of the light and the way the strobe light interacts with the ambient light. If you need to change the power of one or more of the off camera lights you’ll be able to do that from the camera. You can also adjust the balance between strobe and ambient light. The other things will probably require you to walk to the strobe units. If you need to change the power of a manual strobe you’ll probably need to walk to the strobe and adjust the power or the position. The biggest problem with automation is that people assume that the right amount of light is also the right light. Quantity of light is easy, but the quality of light: how hard or soft and color, require some practice to get right. One more thing, I use a lot of lights. I regularly go out on a shoot with eight lights. Not only do the manual lights I use cost less they use cheaper slaves. It isn’t that I didn’t spend as much on lights as other people, it is that I got more lights. I’m happy with the tools I have. I hope everyone has a great season of celebration! And a wonderful picturesque New Year for us all! Thanks, John

Kodachrome at Eastman House

I wanted to post some information about my experience at The George Eastman House in Rochester. It’s been over a week since I got back, so I have had a chance to think about things a bit. I really wasn’t very interested in taking pictures of the house, so if you want to see the place, visit the site. The collection is huge and only a small amount is on display. You can see much more of the collection by making a request. I wanted to see large format Kodachrome, and the staff were kind enough to let me see dozens of example of 8X10 Kodachrome. Most of this blog will be devoted to what I learned. I wish I had some Kodachrome images to attach to this blog, but the scanner is still missing from the move. Besides you should look at original Kodachrome transparencies, the image on a computer is not the same. The computer makes everything the same size and removes other individual characteristic of images. So I’m just attaching a couple of food images.

Kodachrome was developed in the Kodak labs by a couple of musicians named Leopold: Mannes and Godowsky. The Kodak labs were run for most of the twentieth century by C. E. K. Mees. The Kodak lab was arguably the first industrial research lab. Kodachrome was a huge step forward in capturing color. The previous methods used a filter over a single emulsion, which is very similar to how digital cameras capture color. Kodachrome used three separate emulsions that captured individual colors. This captures much more detail. In addition, with a Kodachorme image, the color went where the silver molecules were. As a consequence Kodachrome images last much longer than other color processes. This was something I wanted to see.

Most of my first color shots were made on Ektachrome color film in the middle seventies. These images are beginning to fade. The Kodachrome shots I saw at Eastman House were from the fifties. The color was as vivid and as crisp as if they were made yesterday. As with other Kodachromes that I’ve seen, the images had no visible grain. Certainly, in large format sizes, Kodachrome was capable of capturing more information than most current digital cameras. of course you wouldn’t see this on print sizes less than 11X14, and probably not on print sizes  less then 20X30 inches. Unfortunately all sizes of Kodachrome, and processing for Kodachrome film, are discontinued.

I also learned a lot about shooting food. The images I saw were made by Nickolas Muray. Almost all of them were images of food. I was interested to see how much hard light he used to make his shot. The food had shape and sparkle as a result of this. I was also interested to see the design of the shots. Many of his images included items that a current stylist would never use. These shots were probably made in the fifties and early sixties and our ideas of how food should look have changed. It must have been difficult to shoot the food for several reasons. 8X10 cameras heed to shoot at a small stop, perhaps f64 or smaller, which means you need a lot of light. He used quartz lights, so heat would have been a consideration especially with food. He had no Polaroid proofing, so I don’t know how he tested his lighting and exposure. Perhaps he set up the day before and ran a test sheet of film overnight. It was really a pleasure to look at the very fine work that Nickolas Murray shot.
You can learn a lot more about lighting in my BetterPhoto.com classes: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting, Portrait Lighting on Location and in the Studio and Getting Started in Commercial Photography You might also want to check out my book: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers. Here’s a sample chapter that discusses portraiture.

Shadow!

The strong shadows in this image make the portrait more effective.

I teach lighting courses at BetterPhoto.com. Some days I think I should teach a course in shadowing. Somewhere photographers acquired the idea that shadows are bad. I’m not sure when that happened. The classic Hollywood portraits used dramatic shadows very effectively. Look at the work of George Hurrell . Shadow is an important part of his palette. Shadow creates shape in an image. Part of what makes a good photograph is the sense of three-dimensionality that shadowing creates in an image. You can make shadows strong and hard. These shadows add drama to an image. You can also make soft subtle shadows that bring out the shape of an object. Whether a shadow is soft or hard is really a function of how close your light source is and how big it is. A bigger closer light source is always softer.

The hard shadows and unusual angle of the light give this image an interesting feel.

I’m not sure how the shadows are bad thing got started. I would guess that it has something to do with the fact that it is more difficult to work with small hard lights than large soft lights. Since a misplaced hard shadow can be really annoying, many people would rather work with soft lights. Not only is it easier, because light position is less critical, but also because a large light is more pleasant for the subject. I think that using just soft light for a portrait is often very dull: soft light doesn’t create much drama. This article is about the differences between hard and soft light and using them together.

I think that the way the manufacturers sell lighting gear has a lot to do with the popularity of large light sources. When I checked at B&H they had hundreds more soft boxes for sale than snoots. There are more types of umbrellas than grid spots. Also umbrellas and soft boxes fit most lights

This shot wouldn't work as well without highlight and shadow. Flat light creates flat images.

while snoots, barn doors and grid spots are designed for specific lights. This means that a manufacturer can sell soft light devices to more users than hard light modifiers. So, naturally, the people who build these things will spend more money on advertising soft boxes. This makes people think that they have to have them. Here’s a link to an article about lighting tools, in case some of these terms are unfamiliar.

Don’t get me wrong: I like soft light. I just like to use it with hard light when I can. My favorite tool for making soft light is a light panel . The light panel can be used in many different ways, while the soft box is less flexible.

You can learn a lot more about lighting in my BetterPhoto.com classes: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting,  Portrait Lighting on Location and in the Studio and Getting Started in Commercial Photography You might also want to check out my book: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers. Here’s a sample chapter that discusses portraiture.

New Classes At BetterPhoto!

Some important updates: first BetterPhoto has brought back two of my classes. So I hope you’ll sign up for either Portrait Lighting on Location and in the Studio or Getting Started in Commercial Photography. These classes, particularly the portrait class, were popular before. I hope they will be again. If you want any information on the classes, that isn’t on the links, please e-mail me: john@siskinphoto.com. Of course you can take my other class at BetterPhoto: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. I’m pleased to say that my first book continues to sell well. Please pick up a copy of Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers. Another update: my second book will be out in February. You can visit the sale page for Lighting for Architectural Photography. Finally I have a fine art book that I made at blurb, please check out B Four.

I was evaluating the photo equipment in an old photograph for the Indiana Historical Society. There’s an old 8X10 stand camera and a 4X5 and so on, but I found the lighting set up kind of interesting. Now, if you looked at the shot, you’ll know that it’s impossible to be sure of everything that is going on in the set up. But it looks like there is an opening cut for a vignette in a white wall half way down the studio. The wall has to be lit from the camera side in order to keep the vignette white. It looks like some clamp lights were added at some time to help with this. The subject would be lit from behind the wall. This got me thinking; because it is similar to the way I light motorcycles. I want to try lighting the back side of a wall, as I would with a motorcycle, and then bounce the light into a human subject. As with the motorcycle shot I would use white seamless paper for the wall.

Click on the shot for an article about lighting motorcycles

It’s cheap and much easier to work with than drywall. I would probably use two strobes pointed at the wall. It would be good to keep any direct light from these strobes from falling onto the subject. This should create a very soft even light, virtually shadowless. You could vary the lighting somewhat, by changing the brightness of the strobes behind the wall, and by changing the placement. This should do a lot of what people expect from a large ring light. As a lot of my students know a ring light doesn’t really create shadowless light, except when you are extremely close to the subject. In general a lighting set up like this won’t give you much sparkle, or a catch light in the eye, but it could give shape and make most fabrics look great. So maybe a bare bulb, or a light behind the subject would work well as a third light. I haven’t had a chance to work on this, so I’ll be interested to see if anybody, who reads this blog, does an experiment. I would keep the hole in the wall close enough to the camera, and big enough, so that there won’t actually be a vignette. I would guess that the close wall would be 3-6 feet from the camera, and there would be at least 8 feet between the walls. I don’t think I would try to add much hard light to the shot. It would be much easier to design a shot with hard light using the light panels, because they are much easier to move around. Any really large light source, which will create shadowless light, is pretty flattering to persons with skin issues.

I’m thinking about some workshops for next year. Please let me know what would interest you. Thanks, John

Seeing and Lights

What you do affects the way you see. I don’t suppose this comes as any particular surprise. And yet I often find that I forget that I see through a filter of commercial photography. This means that my images are designed to read quickly. As I have been learning more about Indianapolis I have been seeing photographs that are very different from my way of seeing. There are a couple of reasons for this: first I am going to several camera clubs. This means I see other peoples’ photographs more often, which is good. Of course I look at a lot of student photos at BetterPhoto, but a lot of those are wig head shots. Another thing that is changing my way of seeing is that I am still lost a lot of the time. So I have to watch where I am going. I expect that my images might begin to change in the next few months.

The tools you use change the way you see. I can remember using a tripod for every shot as an exercise. Shooting this way slows you down and makes you pay attention to composition. Using a view camera changed the way photographers see, because you were always viewing the image upside down and backwards. Instead of paying attention to the overall composition I paid attention to the relationships between parts of the composition. I miss view cameras. One of the best sorts of tools to change the way you see is light. With lights, even just a dedicated strobe, you can change the relationships between sunlight and shadow. With a couple of mono lights you can create light that defines a subject in a new way. You can simulate room light by using soft light from above. You can make something completely different by lighting from below or by using a snoot. Of course I hope you are interested in learning how to use light, that’s the subject that I teach. You can take my class at BetterPhoto, or, if you’re near Indianapolis you can take the workshop I’m giving in a couple of weeks. One of the questions I often get, in my classes, is what should I buy? First, start with just one light. If you get several lights, at one time, you’ll have a tougher time learning to make it work. This is the list I give people in my classes:
Alien Bee B1600 or Calumet Travelite 750. There are other good brands as well. The important thing is getting enough power to enable you to use lights in a variety of ways. You can always reduce light output, but you can’t get more than you bought.
50º or 60º metal bowl reflector. This is the standard reflector, usually 6 to 8 inches. It spreads light over the angle covered by a normal lens.
1-45 inch umbrella, white satin with a removable black back. An umbrella with covered ribs would be better. The size and style of umbrellas is important.
2- light panels with 2-white cotton or white nylon covers. Also get or make a black cover and a sliver cover. Instructions for making light panels  are at the Camera Design page on my website.
Light stand. At least 8 feet tall, 10 is better.
Perhaps a background stand and a neutral muslin background.
Get a chinese Radio Slave. You can get these from eBay, search digital radio slave. Look for one that has a plug headphones or a guitar. For more on connections check out this article. The radio slaves from China are very attractively priced.

When you get a second light, you may get something with less power depending on what you shoot.
I would also get: A second metal bowl reflector, the same as above.
Barn doors and/or snoot Light stand, as above
2- umbrellas, one matching the one you already have, and the other a 60 inch umbrella.
Very short light stand.

If you add a third light I would get Metal bowl reflector, as above.
1 more light panel with a gold cover.
Light stand, maybe with a boom arm.
Barn doors or snoot if you didn’t get it before.
45 inch umbrella.

I’m still doing experimenting with marketing here in Indianapolis. Yesterday I went out and shot a charity event. While this isn’t the kind of thing I do often, it can be a good way to meet some new folks, and hand out a few business cards. I’ll be going to a couple of camera clubs this week. I need to check out the chamber of commerce here in Indianapolis. Of course I am still sending out e-mail, over a thousand sent out so far! I really hope you can take my workshop but if you’re not around Indianapolis you can take my class at BetterPhoto. I also work with a few people privately using the phone and e-mail. Please contact me if you’re interested. And let’s not forget the book: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers! I hope you take good photos. Thanks, John

Workshop In Indianapolis!

I think that I have some important news in this issue of the blog. I’m offering a live workshop here in Indiana. This is the first time I have done a live class in a couple of years, so I hope you will appreciate that this is a special opportunity. One of my students from BetterPhoto is here in Indianapolis, and she is opening up a new rental studio in the Stutz Building. This is great for me because it offers me an opportunity to teach here in Indianapolis. It also means that my students will have an opportunity to check out the new studio. Even better: each person, who signs up for the workshop, will get two hours to work in the studio on their own. Of course you can get more hours or work with another student. This time will give you a chance to get hands on experience with lights.

The workshop is set up over two days. The first day, October 15, will be lecture and demonstration. Because there are only ten students in the class, you’ll have the opportunity to learn the material in a way that suits you. We’ll have a model so that you can really see how light affects a person. I hope that everyone in the class will ask questions and get a chance to examine everything we do. Over the next two weeks each student will visit the studio individually, or with another student, and work with the studio and lights themselves. If you do team up with another student I’ll try to come by during your studio time. Finally, we’ll meet again on October 29. During this session we’ll review the work each student did and discuss any issues that came up during the shoot.

We are going to cover several topics in depth. How lights work. How to manipulate and control light. How to control color. The differences between hard light, soft light and projected light. How to achieve a sense of three-dimensionality with light. We’ll discuss how to light the face, products and spaces. You should gain an understanding of how the basic tools of light can be applied in a variety of situations to create the image you want to make. Most people take pictures, they point the camera at a subject and press the button. Photographers MAKE pictures: they control light and image to make a photograph that is more than just a record. This workshop will give you the tools that you need to take control!

One more thing that you’ll get from the class a copy of my book: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers. The book will help you integrate the ideas from the class in the pictures that you make.

Please visit here to sign up using PayPal, at the bottom of the page. Or you can call me to ask questions or to reserve a space: (317) 473-0406. I really hope you’ll join me for this great opportunity to learn how make the photographs you want by controlling light! The class is just $295, so I hope you’ll reserve a space now.

Updates and Marketing

I really like the long tonal range created by the windows in this shot. This is Grand Central Station in New York. I like this angle because it makes the window look monumental.

I’m going to try putting the shameless plugs at the end of this message.  I hope you’ll take time to read them.

I sent off more images for my architecture book this week. I’ll do whatever the editor wants. I’ve used some of these additional images here in the blog. I don’t know if anybody out there has much experience with blogging, but I have an issue: I get a couple of spam posts to a few of my old posts every day. These are annoying to remove. Any suggestions?

I went back to two photo clubs this week. I will be doing live presentations at both of them soon. I guess I should practice my presentation. I’m hoping to do a workshop soon, somewhere here in Indianapolis. I’m still sending out e-mail on a daily basis. I’m going to try to get to a chamber of commerce function next week. I know that soon I’m going to have to pick up the phone and actually call ad agencies and designers, but I am still putting that off. Agencies are supposed to take time to learn about creatives in their area, but that doesn’t always make them receptive. The other thing I need to do is contact the schools that teach photography around here, maybe next week. It’s always difficult to present yourself to strangers.

The room is really just a background for the lifestyle shot. You often need to light a space to create a shot that tells a specific story. In this case the shot advertises a small winery.

One of the clubs I’m attending had a print competition last night. On the whole the images were quite good. I know that this is a very important part of any group of photographers, but I wonder if photography is inherently a competitive art form. Actually I wonder if art should be competitive? Regardless I wanted to a few thoughts about competitions. First, if you can, get information about your judges. I’ve known judges who just seem to like versions of the same thing; reflections or patterns for instance. Second, most competitions have a lot of images; one way to make your image stand out is to make it big. Last night the images where presented to the club, the 8X10 images were too small to see. In a group of images a small shot is at a disadvantage.

I took a design class in college that talked about three kinds of space: positive, negative and equivocal. I have a friend who shoots wonderful images that are mostly equivocal space. They can be fascinating, but you have to spend time relating to the image. You can’t just get a quick gestalt of the image. These images, while great, aren’t going to win any prizes. If you want a prize build a strong image, with good graphic qualities. Then add detail to keep the eye entertained.

This is the entry of a new home. The low angle defines the height of the entry way very effectively. This was a very difficult angle because of the many interesting aspects of the room.

One more thing: consider entering contests that have fees. They usually publish the list of judges and they often have better judges. Keep in mind that most gallery owners and other taste makers have better things to do than look at the thousands of pictures that may be in a good contest. So they get paid. Also a fee keeps people who don’t really believe they have great images from entering. I don’t enter contests often, but when I do I pay a fee.

I also like contests that judge prints. Lot’s of things look good on my monitor, but when I print them, not so much. High quality prints have a resolution several times as high as a monitor. So you can really see more detail, for good or ill. When I want to see the work of a photographer I want to see prints, not just phosphors on a screen. I have hundreds of photo books so I can see the detail in a good reproduction. Looking at a classic photograph on a screen is very disappointing. Unfortunately there are fewer print competitions than there used to be.

I suggested an alternative to competition to the club: giving the members a chance to present a small portfolio. Perhaps two or three members would present at each meeting. That way the members would have more of a sense of what the other members do. But I do know they love their competition.

This is a really dramatic room, particularly the staircase. Because the room is shot with a very wide lens the staircase looks a little more dramatic than it does in the room. There are lights on both floors and at the back of the room, so a shot like this takes a while to set up.

First in the list of shameless plugs: it looks like I will be offering a workshop here in Indianapolis. I might have a location lined up, I’ll know next week. I hope to do this in October. It’ll be about lighting. If you’re interested please let me know what you’d like to learn. More information soon! Here are some plugs for my books and classes: you can get the books from Amazon: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers and the class is at BetterPhoto.com. Here is a sample chapter from the book. There has been nothing but good feedback on this book, so I would guess that you’ll like it. Of course I still hope that you will please consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Purchases of B Four mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. I lowered the price a couple of weeks ago, and that has helped. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Remember that the books and the class keep me updating this blog. My new book, Lighting For Architectural Photography will be out in February.

Now In Indianapolis!

Here are some plugs for my books and classes: you can get the books from Amazon: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers and the class is at BetterPhoto.com. Here is a sample chapter from the book. There has been nothing but good feedback on this book, so I would guess that you’ll like it. Of course I still hope that you will please consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Purchases of B Four mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. I lowered the price a couple of weeks ago, and that has helped. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Remember that the books and the class keep me updating this blog. My new book, Lighting For Architectural Photography will be out in February.

Dodie

I am now in Indianapolis. The transition from Los Angeles has been very difficult. Our dog, Dodie, an old English sheep dog, passed away on our trip. I still find myself turning around to look for her. I keep hearing her. She was a very good dog.

I had hoped to be further along with marketing and networking by now. And so it goes. I have been to a few photo related events, including a club out in Carmel. Also I have made some connections with instructors at Ivy Tech College. The most important thing I’ve done is to set up my office. I know that many people work well in a sort of chaotic state, but that leads to chaotic work habits for me. So, while much of our stuff is in boxes, my office is pretty nice. I have a local phone number: (417)473-0406. I though about leaving it off the blog, but I spent hours updating all the pages of my web site with the number, so it’s not hard to find. If you haven’t checked out my web site you can see it at www.siskinphoto.com. I hope you’ll take a look, after all this blog is about promoting what I do.

I am going to get more serious about marketing this week. I have already sent out an e-mail introduction to some local advertising agencies. This week I started contacting people involved in construction businesses. I wish that businesses would find me in some magical fashion, but that isn’t likely. One of the biggest problems is how to let people who might need your services know about them without being too annoying. I’ve tried a lot of things over the years: mail pieces, cold calling and so on, but e-mail is basically free and you can contact a lot of businesses at one time. I’m attaching a screen capture of one of my e-mails. Keep in mind that all of the pictures are linked to the web site when you get the actual message.

Photography is more than just a fine art. Just like English is more than just poetry. It is a language that communicates directly with almost any viewer. It makes sense to use visual skills to communicate with potential clients. In the piece I’m sending out I’m SHOWING people that I make images for their kind of business. I’m not going to tell them I make great pictures of saxophones, odds are they don’t care. If I can’t communicate with potential clients, how can I help them to communicate?

I’m going to a camera club this evening. I hope to find out more about photography classes and about suppliers locally. I am also wondering about rental studios and labs. All of this is sort of fun, but it’s also a little intimidating.

I spent some time reviewing and editing the version of my second book the publisher sent. I think it’s working quite well. There is now going to be some material about shooting exteriors of buildings. This should make the book more useful. I did a shot of the exterior of the Indianapolis library at several different time of the day to show how the light changes. The book will be published in February now, rather than November. I hope you’ll get a copy.

When I teach a class I ask people to practice. I suggest that they work with a Styrofoam wig head and cheap flood lights. The wig head is all white, which makes it easy to see the shadows. The flood lights are easy to see and to manipulate. This gives you a sort of a lighting lab where you can practice and experiment. I still use the wig head when I get a new piece of lighting gear. I know I’ve said this before: musicians practice so they can play, why shouldn’t we? If you can only practice with a live model you won’t be able to take the same risks you can with a hunk of Styrofoam. Most models don’t have the patience of the wig head. So, if you’re thinking about a lighting class why not mine?