Photo Notes A place to talk about making images.

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

I went through some older blog entries I did for an earlier blog at BetterPhoto. I think this is useful information about understanding the cost of photographic tools. I did make a few updates. All the pictures are from my new book: Lighting for Architectural Photography. The book will be out in the fall, but you can pre-order now at Amazon. That’s where the link goes. Here are some more plugs for my other books and classes: If you would rather order something you’ll get right away try my first book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers which is at Amazon.com and other places. You can get a Kindle version or a Nook version also. I have no idea what they look like. Here is a sample chapter from the book. There has been nothing but good feedback on the first 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 this book 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.

I was thinking about how photo gear endures. I used to think about wearing out equipment, and I still do. But I don’t think about wearing out my camera. Technology will force me to replace it long before it wears out. I am on my fourth digital camera system and, as with the others, it will be retired before it stops working. That wasn’t the case with film cameras. I have a Speed Graphic, still my favorite film camera, that isn’t worn out after fifty years, but it has needed some parts.

I still use it when I want to do personal work with a large negative. It was a pleasure to use. My first digital camera was a Leaf back, a DCB 2 that fit on a Mamiya RZ67. I really disliked that camera. It made 3 separate exposures in order to make a color shot. It was very slow and awkward to work with. I was glad to see it go. But, when it did go it was a working camera, a technological dinosaur. I wanted to write about this topic not to whine about digital cameras, but to discuss the expected life times of photoproducts; and how that should affect the way we buy them. For instance, I think that we should buy cameras that have been on the market for a while; my business can’t stand a recall, or other problem with a new product. I also think that I might need a camera with a large file. I nope to do some business with display prints. As a consequence I believe that a camera has a lifetime between 3 and 5 years. It needs to pay for itself quickly!

When I think about lenses, I have different considerations. Current lenses will wear out: the motors that make the lens auto focus will not work forever. Also the focus tracks are very lightweight, they will have wear problems. The tracks are built this way in order to allow auto focus to function quickly. I would guess that the lenses I use frequently are going to last between five and ten years, not too bad. I can make an investment in a lens that will pay off more slowly, even buying specialty lenses that I might not use more that once a month. So I can easily make a case for buying quality lenses.

Tripods last for decades. I would not be surprised to see my current tripods, I have five, last for more another fifty years. So the cost of a tripod is very inexpensive because the cost is amortized over such a long time. By the way I have five tripods because I have small medium and large cameras. My 8X10 camera requires a tripod that is much larger tan I would need for my digital camera. If you buy a good tripod it may outlast ten cameras, a poor tripod may be lousy from the first day.

One of my goals for these blog entries is to talk about lights. In my discussions about strobes I often hear how expensive they are. An investment in strobes is like buying a tripod, since strobes last such a long time. I have some Norman equipment that I bought new in 1983, that’s almost 25 years. The tubes haven’t broken and the strobes still work. Not bad. More to the point, of the photos I’ve made for money since 1983, most required strobes. More than any other piece of equipment, lights separate the assignment photographer from people who are more hobbyist than professional. So, although it may not seem that way when you right the check, strobes are cheap; they will be with you for a long ling time. Good strobes help make professional photographers!

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 that 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?