Working with the Classics: Speedotron
“Remember that the person you are photographing is 50% of the portrait and you are the other 50%. You need the model as much as he or she needs you. If they don’t want to help you, it will be a very dull picture.”—Lord Patrick Lichfield Speedotron’s power pack and head systems are the studio lighting world’s equivalent of the American muscle car. They’re made in the USA, ruggedly built to take hard use, and powerful. The...
Coping with Shutter Lag
Sometimes when making candid photographs your subject stays right where you hoped but occasionally something or someone steps into the scene blocking your chance of capturing the moment, all because of shutter lag. Out here in the real world, there are two kinds of shutter lag: The first is the amount of time that it takes from depressing the camera’s shutter release to when an image is saved onto a memory card. During that time, the...
Camera-of-the-Year 2013?
For the past several years, I’ve presented an annual Camera of the Year award nicknamed the Ernie, in honor of the late Earnest E. Mau, a photographer, computer pioneer, and friend who didn’t live long enough to get his hands on a really good digital camera. My main rule for giving this award is that it is based on my hands-on experiences with a camera I actually used and shot under all kinds of conditions but in 2013 not many...
Welcome to the New Blog
Things look a bit different and I hope better here at the all-new Saving the World, One Pixel at a Time. My system architect, Tim Fielder, worked on our new look, new functionality and improved user experience. For instance, on our Home page you can now scan a full week’s worth of blog posts at one time, displaying thumbnails and a bit of text allowing you to preview the post before clicking to see the full details. The Search...
Wordless Wednesday #014: “Platte Valley Medical Center in HDR”
This HDR image of the Platte Valley Medical Center was made from a five shot bracket with a nominal exposure of 1/500 sec at f/11 and ISO 320 using a Sigma 10-20mm lens set at 18mm. Three .NEF files were combined using Adobe Photoshop’s Merge to HDR function to produce the final image. ©2012 Joe Farace
It’s Shark Week on Business Friday
Small businesses like photographers are a lot like sharks: Every year during the Discovery channel’s Shark Week, a sonorous narrator reminds viewers that if a shark stops swimming, it dies. I believe that when a photographer or studio stops promoting and marketing itself, it dies too, but there are obstacles in the way of becoming a lean, mean marketing machine. Some photographers (and I am just as guilty of this as the next guy) are...
Holy Utility Belt, Batman!
Snoochie Boochies, Batman! I’m not the only kid who has wanted his own utility belt and now Think Tank Photo has redesigned its Modular Rotation System Skin Components to provide for easier gear retrieval and better equipment fit. The Modular Skin Set V2.0 includes the Skin 50 V2.0, Skin 75 Pop Down V2.0, Skin Strobe V2.0, and the Skin Body Bag, all of which fits inside a breathable Large Travel Pouch. All of the elements can...
