PixelatedImage Blog

A month ago a client of mine bought me a Canon 5D. I’ve refrained from writing about it, mostly because I’ve not had a tonne of time to actually shoot on it. But now I have and for the curious, here are my inital thoughts.

1. Oh man is it nice to be using a full-framed camera again! Most digital SLRs have sensors smaller than a 35mm frame – this gives you cropped images (relative to a 35mm frame and the lens you’re using), and it gives you a smaller viewfinder. Suddenly it’s like someone turned on the lights – the viewfinder is HUGE. And bright.

2. The full-sized sensor gives much better depth-of-field/bokeh. In fact the look of the images produced is much closer to film than anything I have seen previously.

3. Another bonus from the full-size sensor – my lenses act like they used to. An 85mm lens is now an 85mm lens again because the crop factor is gone. This is most noticeable on the wide end. Suddenly my 17mm is seeing things the way it was meant to – really, really, WIIIIIDE.

4. The 5D shoots less frames per second than my 20D, but I don’t much notice it.

5. The 5D produces huge files, and huge images. Suddenly my 1gb cards seem tiny. And my 17″ studio displays seem inadequate.

6. It focuses better and faster.

7. It has spot-metering. Finally.

8. The images shot at 1600 iso are remarkable and at 800iso the noise is barely noticeable.

9. The shutter is more sensitive. I can press the shutter lightly instead of mashing it. Less camera shake.

10. Same batteries and CF cards as the 20D – so the move up is painless. I was at a wedding recently and needed a charger – one of the wedding party had a Rebel XT – his batteries unlike the 300D, the 20D, the 30D, the 5D, the old 10D – are different. Not cool. I like standardization across a line – it just makes things easier. I can go anywhere with my 20D and 5D and they share cards and batteries. I like that.

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Further proof that scientists should still be looking for intelligent life on this planet
I was shooting lilies in a pond over the weekend as I led a photo-walk around the city. The sudden sploosh beside me surprised me. Then I noticed a cell-phone in the water. Looked alot like my cell phone but I knew it couldn’t be because mine was…in my shirt pocket. So. Don’t put expensive stuff in your shirt pocket. Unless you want it to die a short watery death from which it will not return.

Amvona.com has lighting gear – reflectors, lights, softboxes, stands, tripods, etc – for very good prices. I just got a 5-in-1 reflector disc for a ludicrous price, and some light clamps for a similarily ludicrous price. I have some experience with their softboxes and am not terribly impressed. But their stands and reflectors seem ok and to be honest the prices can’t be easily beat. In fact if you bid on this stuff through their eBay store you can get some ridiculous deals.

Give them a look here at Amvona.com

Adobe has just announced the third release of the beta version of Lightroom. A few nice additions in this one, including a web panel that allows you to build great galleries very easily. This functionality was included in the last release as an export from Slideshow but it’s growing up and has many more features. And it’s still free so check it out.

Good news for Windows users – you can still buy a Mac! Kidding (sort of). Lightroom is almost ready for release in beta form to the PC world.

I’ve taken a couple small gigs recently solely so I could outfit myself with adequate flash equipment. Both the gigs require additional lighting that could be handled with a small, intelligent flash set-up. So I took them to get the gear. It’s a sickness. But it’s also getting me on my way to a fully-equiped portable studio.

So, in the interest of technological transparency, and for those of you that care about this kind of thing, here’s the recent.

I now have a basic set up that is comprised of a Canon 430ex flash, a Stofen OmniBounce (good), a LightSphere (way better), a light stand and convertible umbrella, and a set of PocketWizards. Much of what I am learning comes straight off the pages of The Strobist but I’m learning alot shooting with my friend Kevin Clark as well. Here’s a few nuggets.

1. When shooting with flash you are essentially exposing for two photos. One is the background which is lit by the ambient light. The other is the foreground, which is usually what you are lighting with flash. But the trick is exposing it all so (1) the background is exposed correctly (2) your flash still syncs, (3) your aperture is the way you want it (I rarely go above f4) and (4) your foreground is exposed correctly.

2. The best way to achieve the above is to set the camera and flash on manual. Or to set the camera to manual and let the flash use its E-TTL (or TTL) capapility. You can’t do this if you’re using a PocketWizard set-up. A flash that can be dialed down to 1/32 or 1/64th in manual is great. My basic flow right now is set both to manual. Set the in-camera exposure to accomodate your prefences for aperture, iso, and speed (keeping in mind most cameras don’t sync at more than 1/250 – and if using PocketWizards your high-sync mode won’t help you get over this). NOW turn the flash on and start making test exposures.

3. There are two issues related to flash light. One is quantity and is addressed by some of the above. The other is quality. Sometimes you want a bare-bulb look, other times you want to diffuse it like crazy. If you’re looking to diffuse it you have lots of options. What’s important – especially where using off-camera flash with umbrella or softbox is concered is this – generally you will get softer light if the diffusion is CLOSER to the subject.

Let’s assume you want to do a portrait. If the softbox is nice and close you will get a softer, broader, bigger, light source than moving it further away – which is the intuitive, and wrong, approach. If the light is too strong then keep the box or umbrella where it is and move the flash itself back (if possible) or dial it down (keeping in mind that dialing a flash down from 1/8 to 1/16 is cutting the light fully in half)

4. Positionning the source matters a great deal. I very much like a strong backlight and the flash in front at about 45 degrees, filled with a reflector on the other side. But play with it. If you do it right you will get great tones, a nice defined shape, and a catch-light in the eyes.

5. Other stuff:

These PocketWizards are amazing. Finding an adaptor to use them with a flash without a PC Sync cord (what the heck is Canon thinking) was easy enough. But if you plan on always using manual mode for your flash then any Canon shooter can go get a Nikon flash. You’d lose E-TTL functions but the flash will work great in the conditions I am describing.

The LightSphere by Gary Fong is pretty darn cool. It won’t win any beauty contests, but what it does to the quality of light is wonderful. Simple to use. Gary’s own website is hard to navigate but I bought the right unit (different sizes for different flashes and two different levels of diffusion) through Vistek and it was here within a week.

I found the Photoflex website had some great resources (see the Photoflex Lighting School) on lighting. Easy to follow, well-laid out. Some of it is free, some you have to pay for.

6. Lastly – The Strobist is having an Off-Camera Flash Boot Camp beginning June 14.