LATEST ADDITIONS

Steve Bedell  |  Apr 12, 2012  |  First Published: May 01, 2012  |  18 comments

Photographers all have their favorite light modifiers. Some like umbrellas, some softboxes, others parabolics, and then there’s the beauty dish, which seems to be a combination of a softbox and a parabolic. For those not familiar with the beauty dish, it’s a round but narrow modifier that you attach to your light. Think of it as a parabolic reflector painted white inside and flattened. If you stopped there, and you could, you’d have a pretty harsh light that makes a well-defined circular pattern with distinct shadows. But there is another little modification that makes a very big difference and also softens the light considerably while still maintaining that circular pattern. There is a bulb cover or center bounce dish that blocks the direct light from the flash and bounces it back into the dish. When used this way, the light output sits midway between a softbox and a parabolic.

Press Release  |  Apr 12, 2012  |  6 comments
It was 25 years ago that LumiQuest came on the scene with its original product—the LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer. And it still remains one of the most popular LumiQuest products in the world. LumiQuest was co-founded in 1987 by Quest Couch and Heidi Kenny as a result of their Audio Visual Production company, which required Quest to be on-location shooting for clients. “This type of photography was fast-paced and required being prepared for a variety of different lighting situations,” Quest explains. “At the time, I often carried several Vivitar 283s and their metal bracket with a bounce card, which was bulky and cumbersome to pack”.
George Schaub  |  Apr 11, 2012  |  0 comments

The new super wide angle Distagon T* f/2.8 15mm lens for Canon and Nikon mounts is neither lightweight nor inexpensive (1.6 lb for Nikon, 1.8 lb for Canon mount, $2950) but what you get from this manual focus lens is exceptional image quality and facility that is perhaps unmatched by any other lens in its focal length class. With a 95mm filter thread and integral and fully compatible lens shade, the lens offers an extraordinary 110-degree angle of view that is pleasure to work with on a wide variety of subjects. The fast f/2.8 aperture is matched on the narrow end by a minimum aperture of f/22, which at 15mm means there’s potential for extraordinary depth of field effects using the 10-inch closest focusing range. While decidedly not a portrait lens, the 15mm is ideal for landscape, street photography and creative advertising work, as well as architectural and urban photography, as I discovered in mybrief time working with it.

Joe Farace  |  Apr 10, 2012  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2012  |  0 comments

“Lighting is really common sense and personal observation. This is applied to a few rules of photography which cannot be broken and to others which I tend to bend a little.”—Paul Beeson

 

A monolight or monobloc to our European friends is a self-contained studio flash that is typically, but not always, powered by an AC power source and allows for different light modification devices, including reflectors, light banks, or umbrellas. The key phrase in that last sentence is self-contained. To my way of thinking the biggest advantage monolights possess is just that—if you’re shooting on location or for that matter anywhere and the power pack in a pack and head system stops working, so do you. If you have a couple of monolights and one of them fails, you can still shoot.

Press Release  |  Apr 10, 2012  |  0 comments
Three new Lightroom 4 Preset Packs are now available from the onOne Marketplace. These preset packs have been developed with the new Lightroom 4, released earlier this week, to take advantage of its new and improved Develop Module tools and to help photographers work more quickly and easily while expanding their creative options.

Now Available
Nicole Young Film Presets for Lightroom 4– Developed by Nicole Young, lifestyle and food photographer, this pack of presets takes images back in time. Hints of film grain with touches of contrast and cross processing add a beautiful retro feel to portraits, landscapes, or any image.

George Schaub  |  Apr 09, 2012  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2012  |  0 comments

The diminutive Nikon 1 series of cameras, including the J1 reviewed here and the coming V1, introduces the new CX-format CMOS sensor to the interchangeable lens, mirrorless camera field, which we dub Compact System Cameras. The sensor is smaller than APS-C and Micro Four Thirds sensors, coming in at a 2.7x multiplication factor using standard 35mm focal length designations. The 10.1-megapixel sensor has a native speed of ISO 100, with speeds up to 3200, and 6400 with a 1 EV push.

Press Release  |  Apr 09, 2012  |  0 comments
collagesDesigner 2.0 is the newest free Album and Book design software available for Collages.net customers. This brand new program enables you to quickly create professionally designed and highly personalized albums and books. Choose your product, a folder of images, and then click Autoflow to watch your images be carefully inserted into a clean, professional design! Review the design, export a proof, share with your customers, and place your order! It is that simple.
George Schaub  |  Apr 06, 2012  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2012  |  2 comments

The new Canon PIXMA PRO-1 is a 13x19” pigment-ink printer that makes fine quality prints in a price range that could be considered quite fair for what you get ($999). Aimed at avid photographers and enthusiast printmakers, as well as pros choosing to do their own mid-size prints, the PIXMA PRO-1 fills a void left by HP’s abandonment of the category and directly challenges Epson. The printer offers ease of use, solid performance, 12 ink cartridges, and all in all seems to improve upon 13” printers of the past. Our tests were aimed at determining if the PIXMA PRO-1 could be a solid contender in its class and if there were upgrades or new workflow techniques that would differentiate it from the competition.

Press Release  |  Apr 06, 2012  |  1 comments
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced the availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4 software for Mac OS and Windows. Lightroom is the essential digital photography workflow solution helping amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase their images. First released as a public beta in January 2012, the final version of Lightroom 4 is now available for US$149 for the full version and US$79 for the upgrade, providing an incredible value for photographers. Lightroom 4 introduces refined technology for superior shadow and highlight processing, ability to create photo books, additional local adjustment controls, and enhanced video support.
Staff  |  Apr 05, 2012  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2012  |  0 comments
Fill flash, when applied appropriately, can bring out details, enhance color, and open shadows that might not be accessible if shooting with natural light alone. Our assignment for this month’s Picture This! was to bring a touch of fill to subjects that would benefit from this “taste” of light applied to a subject or scene. In most cases readers responded by using fill to highlight natural subjects, florals, birds, and the smaller creatures that inhabit the planet. Details became vivid, colors popped, and all the delight of nature’s design came to the fore.

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