Shopping for a tripod? Steady yourself!

Put your iPhone into a Snapmount on top of your compact travel tripod, and you're good to go.

Buying a tripod can be a daunting process.

The B&H catalogue of photographic and other gear has seven and a half pages of listings for tripods. The pages contain photos smaller than an inch tall to show you what you are getting, should you make a selection. Yes, you can go to their website for slightly larger images. You can also shop Amazon, and other sources. None of those sources makes it easy to browse or to choose, so far as I know. Amazon’s customer reviews are helpful, I will say, but you still have to narrow your choices as best you can.

You can also go to the manufacturers’ websites and see illustrations two inches tall. Slik, the brand I use, offers eight categories of tripods on their website—eight! Their website is funky, and no love was spent on it. It’s not customer-centric. Do you want to start your browsing with the “Pro Series” or the “Professional Series”? It’s up to you to figure out the difference. What might the enigmatic “F” series be? Choosing a tripod could be your major activity all next week.

With that in mind I decided to share a recommendation with you. This recommendation is not based on any comparison shopping or any knowledge of the major brands. It is based entirely on the fact that I have four Slik tripods, and I have owned one of them for 25 years. I have no business relationship with the company apart from being their customer. This post is simply an effort to suggest a worthy choice to the bewildered shopper who has to navigate shopping venues that are awkward, to say the least.

I have two Slik Pro700DX tripods. They are heavy, but just about ideal in every other way. The heads tilt in all the necessary directions, they contain two bubble levels. Leg adjustments are quick, easy, and precise.

My SBH-100DQ is a handy travel tripod from Slik. My friend Richard recommended it to me. You can slip it into a suitcase or a backpack and hardly notice it. It does not do heavy duty, but it is perfect for use with smaller cameras, and is made to order for use with your phone.

When you choose a tripod consider its height and weight and carrying capacity.  As with bicycles, ultra light weight equates with ultra high cost. Only hardcore professionals get into multiple heads, so far as I know.

I also hasten to recommend the trusty monopod. I find this tool much more useful than a tripod on location when I want lots of mobility. If you are shooting staged scenes you have time to lug your tripod around. Otherwise, the monopod has the clear advantage. The variety of monopods is also bewildering. You can also top them off with tilting heads. A monopod is a very useful addition to one’s photo gear.

I hope this helps any tripod shoppers out there. If you have a favorite brand and model please share the information with your friends.

Flash: Our complicated friend

Single-use flashbulbs cost about 11 cents each half a century ago. A sophisticated flashgun today is around $500. Break even comes after some 4,000 uses, but the quality is superior, and you don't have a solid waste problem, nor burned fingers.

Adding flash to picture taking brings an order of magnitude increase in complexity. I’m inclined to say it doubles it, at a minimum, and the multiple goes up as you resort to wireless flash and other exotic features. The pinnacle might be ratio control among multiple off-camera flash units. Why not put gels on some of them for even more fun? Hoo ya!

In this post I endeavor to sketch the broad outlines of the landscape of flash photography and suggest some sources of instruction for those who are treading this path. I am pleased to say a prayer for anyone bold enough to set out to master flash photography.

These are the plateaus in the use of flash photography as I understand them:

• Completely ignore flash, and live with photographs of unidentifiable subjects photographed in bars and other dimly-lit places.
• Use the on-camera flash, no matter whether it can handle the challenge you give it or not. Accept the garish shadows cast on objects behind your subject, and the flat, pale complexions created by the blast of untempered light.
• Upgrade to a more capable flash, hopefully one with a swivel head so you can bounce the light.
• Move to a prosumer flash that is capable of all the dazzling tricks a sophisticated strobe can deliver. My best one cost $500, and I have three others.
• Become comfortable shooting in manual mode, if you are not already.

For my purposes today I will assume that readers understand the principles of exposure and the general mechanics that support basic picture taking. The following information is specific to learning about flash photography. Remember, you’ll be in my prayers.

The Strobist website is the famous source of counsel for flash aficionados. Be sure to go there first.

A good starting point in a book is On-Camera Flash, Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography by Neil van Niekerk. It is an Amherst Media publication. The title need not frighten people who never photograph weddings. The guidance is general purpose. He includes plenty of “with” and “without” flash examples to make his point. One thing I especially like is that he writes with affection for photography. This book addresses the mysteries of manual settings for f/stop and shutter speed while still asking the camera to determine the power of the flash. It’s like patting your head while rubbing your stomach, or saying “toy boats” fast three times.

My second choice is a book by Doug Box called Flash Photography, On and Off-Camera Techniques for Digital Photographers. This Amherst book covers a wider range of shooting environments than van Niekerk’s book. I like reading two versions that cover the same technical information because it increases the chances that I will actually understand and retain what I read.

Now, for the big kahuna, I recommend Hot Shoe Diaries, Big Light From Small Flashes. by Joe McNally. McNally writes in a sort of film noir vernacular that I enjoy. He is a well-paid photographer who has staff, so many of his setups are elaborate and complicated. Along the way to explaining flash he also describes many practical aspects of how he approaches his work. As an aside, I also have his book, The Moment it Clicks. In it he shows off a lot of his virtuoso work. He has a new book coming out, but the release date has been moved a couple of times, and I have not seen it yet.

If you subscribe to the Lynda.com website you might benefit from Derrick Story’s presentation on photographing in backlit situations. I found it helpful.

So there you have it. Bury yourself in these resources if you like, and jump into some practice. Figuring out the settings on your camera and flash will add to the fun too.

Questions, Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?

Me and my Sony A850

The A850 from Sony is nearly identical to the A900, but costs a lot less.

I’ve been shooting with my Sony A850 since February. The longer I use it the more I like it. For the benefit of readers who may not know this camera, let me say up front that given the price and the weight of this bad boy, it’s only for the dedicated photographer. If that’s you, this is a great camera.

The A850 has been thoroughly reviewed in the trade press, and I won’t add much detail here. I just want to mention a couple of subjective aspects of it that make it a satisfying camera.

The A850 is distinguished as the least expensive full frame digital camera available. Full frame means the sensor is the same size as the traditional 35 millimeter film negative. This gives it lots of megapixels and a large, bright viewfinder. It’s a joy to peer through it to compose the shot. When I use one of my lesser cameras it’s like looking at my subject through a tunnel. There is a huge difference.

The viewfinder is smart, too. If you are interested, you can get a great summary of its features HERE. If you didn’t already crave a great lens, the view through this camera will get you going in that direction. I put a Carl Zeiss 28-70 zoom on it. The combination weighs a lot, but it’s worth it. The image is bright, sharp, and precise, and camera and lens understand one another perfectly. Modern cameras are in constant communication with the lens they’re wearing. Cameras these days are incredibly smart and you want all the components to be equally modern.

The menus are complicated, as they must be with a camera that offers so many choices, but they are laid out with real-life situations in mind. Some settings can be changed in more than one way. The camera also has three memory settings that store your choices so you can return to them with the twist of a dial.

The camera isn’t perfect, however. It doesn’t shoot tethered, which means you can’t connect it to your computer and see the photo on the screen an instant after clicking the shutter. I’ve heard rumors that there are workarounds, but they are too geeky for my tastes.

Another downer is the owner’s manual. I don’t know why manuals are universally awful, but Sony is no better than the rest. Also, I called Sony once to protest the outrageous price of the accessory battery pack (FA-EB1AM) that provides extra power for the top-of-the-line flash unit, and I was rebuffed at the castle gates. I never really got past the moat. I wanted to register my complaint with their management.  The gadget works, but it was carelessly designed and is absurdly expensive. Sony ain’t Apple, that’s for sure. I haven’t had any experience with Nikon or Canon either as gear or the companies themselves, so I can’t make a comparison, but Sony is not the role model for customer service.

I don’t know how many people switch brands once they have made an initial investment in cameras, but if you are still shopping for a brand this Sony camera is worthy of your consideration in spite of the shortcomings of the company that makes it.

Some good online photography tutorials

I took this with a bit of fill flash at +1 exposure compensation, f/8 at 1/90th second, ISO 200.

A Google search for photography tutorials will return plenty of results. This post points to some of my favorites that may be of interest to you.

One of my early discoveries was The Luminous Landscape. It includes a wide range of topics from basic to geeky, and access is free. It also gets beyond pure photography to discuss themes such as how to receive criticism and how to cope with airline travel when hauling precious photography equipment. The site is indexed so that you can find what you are looking for while also finding what you were not looking for but might want to study. There is a section filled with tutorials and another about specific techniques. There are also essays and other items of interest.

Another good resource is Digital Photography School. There is an abundance of helpful tutorials along with advice about cameras and equipment. They also encourage readers to contribute how-to articles based on their own experience and expertise.

If you are studying the use of flash (I’ll pray for you), then Strobist is the place you must be. I have books to recommend too if this is the pilgrimage you are on, but that will come in a future post. Strobist provides archives of instructional pieces on lighting. Another of my favorite features there is the “On Assignment” section where photographers explain how they achieved the results they got. These are quite educational and informative.

If your emphasis is on finding a forum where you can ask and answer questions you will want to visit Digital Grin. Digital Grin has tutorials, but that is not the site’s strong suit. Go for the forums.

These are all free sites, but there is another site that charges admission, and I believe you get good value. It is Lynda.com. I use Aperture, and there are definitely some features that I did not understand. A lengthy video by Derrick Story helped me a lot. This is a link to his blog, The Digital Story.

Lynda offers a huge range of tutorials on various geeky topics. I watched one on Facebook, a subject that continues to bewilder me. I didn’t know that if you click on the word Facebook on the left side of the banner at the top of the page it takes you to your own wall. Badges? Don’t even ask me to explain Facebook badges.

All of these sites are worth checking out to see if they contain content that will be helpful to you.

I welcome your suggestions about favorite sites for tips and tutorials. Until then, go click that shutter!

Inserting a slide show in a WordPress blog

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WordPress keeps getting better. I don’t know if the slide show capability is new, but I received an email recently informing me of the slide show capability. The instructions are HERE.

You may already know that you can have LinkedIn slurp headlines from your WordPress blog and post them on your profile page. I also like the WordPress app for the iPhone. It does all the essential functions, and it does them well and consistently. The reasons to get fluent in WordPress just keep multiplying.

I frequently ask people if they as individuals, or a representatives of their business or civic organization, have a blog, and they say no, or they’re not sure. Why is that? It has never been easier—or more fun!—to share messages with the world than it is now. It has never been more important, either.

A messianic sense of purpose

I took this photo at the 2011 All Souls Procession in Tucson

“We’re here to put a dent in the universe,” Steve Jobs famously told an audience. Carmine Gallo, author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, titled chapter 3, “Develop a Messianic sense of Purpose.” A messiah, in the broader sense, is someone who comes to free people. What do you want to free people from? What do you want to be freed from?

Related to that theme, this morning I listened to a podcast by photographer Derrick Story. If you are wondering what’s next for you, this podcast is perfect. Just substitute your ambition each time he mentions photography and photographer. The principles are highly transferable. Mr. Story speaks of being “notorious” as a desirable trait. Two of the five steps he prescribes are “find your voice” and “be relentless.” Don’t quit. The first 20 minutes of the 30-minute podcast is where the juice is.

Finding your voice in the context of photography means having an approach such that people recognize your work as yours. It means developing a signature. It helps if this ambition is messianic, driven by a fervent desire to free somebody or something. I have that.

My crusade is to free people from some of their own inhibitions. For example, I was chatting with a successful man about my age at a cocktail hour and I told him that I make books about people and families. We were talking about the reasons people don’t pause to reflect on their own lives long enough to make a record of them. One of his suggestions is that people consider themselves so ordinary and unremarkable. Why bother to make notes? This man, like many people, is inhibited by a misplaced sense of modesty. He was not inclined to share what he had learned over a lifetime because it seems so ordinary to him.

I had another conversation last night with a friend who is reluctant to get in front of a video camera to tell her story to prospective employers. She said she would commit to a video taping session if she could work up the courage. I corrected her. I told her she would get up her courage during the taping. Big difference. Tape, review, tape some more, review some more. At some point it will all come together. I’m relentless about this.

I got “freed” by being laid off from a job. I discovered that behind my conventional facade is a person who is relentless, and who is on a crusade to free people from certain inhibitions. Give yourself the credit that’s due you. Face the camera, trusting that I can see something magnificent and meaningful through the viewfinder.

Most of all, discard misplaced modesty. Get rid of it. You will still be kind and considerate, assuming that you have those qualities now. You just won’t be reluctant anymore. You will find your voice, and you will free yourself and others. It’s a good thing.

Drama and sunshine

Erin Schumacher is an accomplished yoga instructor.

I have photographed Erin Schumacher on three occasions. The purpose of the most recent shoot was to produce images suitable for her yoga website. Her site is pink and cheery, and had clip art images that we both agreed had to go.

Her reaction to our shoot? She told me, “I’ve never liked so many pics from one shoot before!” Thanks, Erin!

Resort hotels provide some of my favorite shooting locations. La Paloma Resort, in Tucson, is particularly accommodating to photographers. All they ask is that photographers not interfere with their guests. Each time I’ve asked, they have said no special permission is necessary to photograph on their lovely grounds. The hotel has a covered walkway with a series of photogenic arches. During the leafy-green part of the year the poolside area behind the hotel offers splendid settings under the trees.

Erin has a dramatic side that photographs beautifully.

Erin is fun to work with because she is an experienced model. She needs very little direction and knows how to find good poses intuitively. Having a theme to work with helped a lot too. We wanted to achieve a peaceful, sunny feeling infused with happiness.

Compare the two yoga shots to this dramatic photo from an earlier shoot.

In the seated photo there was relatively little light on her, so when I exposed for her face the background was pumped up as you see it.  I set the exposure compensation for 1.5 stops over. In the bottom photo the highlight on her hair is, forgive the pun, the crowning touch.

Tucson is cool enough for outdoor photography from late October until some time in April. Those dates are subject to change due to global warming. She put this photo on her Facebook profile.

I have photographed many yogis. They are fun to work with, and the poses can be outrageous. I look forward to photographing many more!

My favorite pose

Billy Pegram also wrote a companion book on lighting for model portfolios.

My favorite pose is the one I haven’t photographed yet. I don’t expect to find a favorite pose in a book called 500 poses for high school seniors (or couples, or brides). I have a book that is a catalog of poses for photographing nude women, and it manages to be boring. That’s an accomplishment.

Memorable poses are usually the ones that provoke wonder, and an exclamation along the lines of, “I wouldn’t have thought of (or done) that!”

I do not say this to reject classic techniques. Mastering the basics is, I believe, a required fundamental step. Picasso, legendary for his abstractions, was a talented painter of the literal. I think it is important for photographers to be well versed in traditional disciplines before expressing their unique creative inspiration.

This pose in Irving Penn's portrait of Igor Stravinsky did not come out of a book.

I do recommend that novices not strive to copy clichés. It is valuable to study books on studio lighting and standard studio poses that businesses and high schools want, and mastering the basics supports doing more inventive work. I don’t recommend transferring those poses intact when the intention is to produce exciting images that portray the wonder and power of the person in front of the camera.

A book I recommend for learning the fundamentals is Posing Techniques for Photographing Model Portfolios. The author is Billy Pegram. He shows you what to do with feet, hips, hands, eyes, and more. On page 67 he provides helpful advice on the subject of elbows. Even if you never plan to shoot model portfolios you can learn a lot about the basics from this short book, and what you learn can be applied in any situation where you are photographing women. Mr. Pegram’s book is about women exclusively.

Working with a professional model is very different from photographing a woman who has hired you to take her portrait. An experienced professional model has internalized lots of posing fundamentals, and she will require only simple guidance from the photographer in order to achieve the desired look. A non-professional is likely to be completely unsure of what to do. When working with beginners it is important to offer a few simple instructions so as not to overwhelm. It’s more important for the model to be confident and comfortable than to obsess on details.

The overall position of the body, tilt, curve, thrust, and so on, is generally more complex than the beginner will want to worry about anyway. That is why the most dramatic photos are done with professional models. Learning the basics of how to pose a model will make the photographer more confident, and enable him to make the amateur model more comfortable.

Mr. Pegram packs a great deal of useful information into the compact format that Amherst Media uses for its books. It will particularly help the intermediate photographer put a new level of polish on his or her work.

4 great iPhone apps for photographers

The Sunset and Sunrise app tells you when first light and last light will occur.

Who would have thought a phone could be so much fun? Who would have thought a phone could be such a handy tool for serious photographers? Well, it is both!

Here are four of my favorite apps to make the photographer’s life even zingier.

Let’s begin with the SmugMug app. SmugMug is a robust online photo gallery, and it supports the professional by providing a shopping cart, order fulfillment, and much more. The app lets you view your galleries on your phone. I use it primarily to show my favorite images. In a formal presentation I use my laptop, but the phone is adequate for impromptu occasions. This app performs flawlessly.

Another favorite is PhotoSync. You load the app on your phone and also on your desktop/laptop computer. It wirelessly transfers images you took on your phone to the computer without bothering with email or iTunes. You might be using iCloud, but I found it confusing. The app is easy to operate, and that pleases me. I don’t shoot a lot of photos with my phone, but if you do, this is very handy tool.

Sunrise and sunset are favorite times to take photographs, but the opportunity slips away so quickly. An app called Sunset and Sunrise not only tells you the precise time of each event, it also tells you when first light and last light will occur. I used it yesterday, and it was precisely accurate about last light. Imagine yourself taking sunset photos of bride and groom and knowing exactly how much time you had left! It’s quite amazing. I just checked it, and it says first light is one minute from now. I dashed out and took the photo you see here.

The final app is MoonPhase. It shows the phase of the moon on any given date. If you want to plan a shoot on a night when the moon is in a particular phase, this is the device for you. I can see that the next full moon is November 10, although it will appear nearly full from Nov. 8 through Nov. 12.

I know there are many other categories of apps, such as those that create special visual effects. These four, however, are eminently practical, and I highly recommend all of them.

Let me know your favorites!

Sony flash: if the shoe doesn’t fit

This is the shape of the bottom of the Sony flash, showing its Minolta heritage. It does not fit in the standard mount shown below.

This mount is intended to hold a flash on a light stand. It does not accommodate Sony flash units. You need a mounting bracket that ends in a tripod-style screw, or a mount that interprets the two formats.

I was shooting Minolta cameras long before they became Konica Minolta, or Sony, but I had not read Herbert Keppler’s 2007 article about the proprietary contacts that connect the Sony flash to the camera body. I did not notice until recently that Sony flash units will not mount on a standard hot shoe.

The shapes are quite opposite as you can see in these photos.

If you want to use your Sony flash on a light stand you need a connection that ends in a tripod mounting screw, or you can buy an adapter that speaks Sony on top and traditional design on the bottom. The Sony flash comes with a little plastic “foot” that holds the flash and mates happily with a tripod screw.

I prefer the tripod mount method to solve the incompatibility problem. Your photo supply store has what you need in that regard.