I'm featured in a small article in the latest issue of Practical Photography magazine. Just before Christmas I was asked if I had any strange non-photographic bits of equipment that I use on shoots etc. Well I'm a great lover of DIY tools and accessories in photography so I had plenty to choose from. I opted for my lens cleaning method of using Rizla cigarette papers.
I'm always interested in equipment that enables me to do what I want wherever I want. I've been reading a lot recently about ring flash adaptors for speedlites on websites such as the Strobist. Lots of people were raving about them, but I hadn't seen anyone in the commercial world try them out. At the recent SWPP convention I thought I might as well pick one up and try it out on a shoot.
As I write this there are 2 choices. The RayFlash, and the Orbis. Both work in a similar way, taking the light from a single speedlite and reflecting it into a ring shape around the camera lens. I opted for the RayFlash for the simple fact that it's supported by the on-camera speedlite. The Orbis needs to be hand held, which I didn't like the idea of - although there are plans to release a bracket for this.
First impressions are pretty good. It's fairly well constructed. It's very light, but then it needs to be to prevent from damaging the head of the speedlite. It fits onto my Canon 580EX II very securely using the locking mechanism on the top. My only real gripe is that due to the weight and the slight play in the speedlite head, it doesn't sit perfectly around the lens. This is fixed by resting my hand against the back of it whilst shooting to correct it. My hand is usually in roughly that position anyway to support the lens, so this really isn't too much of an issue.
In terms of performance, I was really impressed! Obviously, as it's only powered by a speedlite it's not going to be amazingly bright, but it's bright enough to achieve f/8 at ISO200 for a half length portrait.
The RayFlash will never out-perform a proper ring flash, but it definitely as an application in the commercial world as it's immensely portable and gives a perfectly usable light output.
Here are a couple of sample shots and a video of it in use...
I attended the SWPP Annual Awards Dinner last sunday and was very shocked to pick up my first ever award! I hadn't expected to win any award as I don't generally enter competitions due to the subjective nature of photography. I actually entered this one by accident after taking part in a weekly fun competition. I had no idea that my image would have been put forward for this award afterwards. Either way, I'm extremely happy!
Over the Christmas period, I did some more work with Funkstylerz at events at Sound, Leicester Square, and Ascot Racecourse.
These jobs are often a lot of fun, but can have their fair share of stress. I usually make sure I turn up early so that I can have a proper look at the venue to decide where I want to shoot from, and to also take some light readings. I also speak to the lighting technicians to make sure the lighting isn't going to be too dark. With dance, you need a fast shutter speed to capture motion. Many of these venues use smoke machines which then prevent the use of on camera flash as it creates a fog like haze across the image.
For the job at Sound, which was the Discovery Channel's Christmas Party, I got the lighting guy to show me the lights he was to use for the performance. I took a reading and it was so dark I was only able to manage 1/100sec @ f/2.8, ISO6400. Not really enough to be freezing fast moving breakdancers and freerunners. I asked him to show me the most light he could give me.... I managed to get it up to 1/200sec, just enough to get away with it.
When it came to the actual performance, my worst fears were realised... he ignored all my requests and actually had the lights even darker! For most of the 3 minute performance I struggled to get more than 1/30th sec, with some shots coming in at 1/6th!!!!! Not only that, but the lights he'd turned off meant that the dancers were heavily backlit and as such I was getting a lot of silhouettes. Thankfully, breakdancing involves a lot of freezes, so I was able to get enough good shots for it not to have been too much of a disaster. It made me realise that you really can't rely on anyone!
There's no doubt that in today's commercial world, digital is king. Everybody wants their images now, or in many cases, yesterday!
I shoot digital 99% of the time, but from time to time I like to get out one of my many film cameras and play around with them. There's something that makes you feel very different when you shoot with film. You have no LCD to review your images, so you have to know what you're doing when you click the shutter. Otherwise you're just wasting money.
One of the issues that is faced by photographers in the 21st century is the increasing notion that it's the camera that is doing all the work and that photographers are simply operators. I'm sure most people have heard the phrase "Your camera takes amazing photos!!!". You don't get that with film! Somehow it make you seem proper.
Digital is here to stay, and I'm sure film will gradually die out completely over the next 10 years or so. Until then, it's a lot of fun to play with, but commercially it's no longer a viable option. Not for me anyway.
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For anyone that does still shoot film, you'll probably know that the EXIF data on your scans relates to the scanner. Well I found a cool little tool that lets you add EXIF data to your scanned film images to give you the camera and film details.
Obviously you need to know what settings you used, but it's still a cool little tool to be able to use.
Well that's it, 2008 is done and dusted, and 2009 is upon us.
I personally can't wait to see what 2009 has in store. I'm not one for resolutions, other than to keep doing what I love and bettering myself, both professionally and personally.
I hope you all had a great NYE and aren't suffering too much today!
I wish you all a great 2009, whatever it may hold!
