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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Filed under: Market Served •Extreme •Nature •Sports •Stock •Travel •Technique •

LCD Visibility

Tom Bol | 02/23

Try using a Hoodman Loupe to check composition and exposure in bright environments.

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I can’t imagine how I survived before digital.  The thought of not having my bright LCD showing my trusty histogram and composition sends chills up my spine.  I used to live in Alaska, and shooting portraits back in the film era meant I would first shoot a Polaroid to check my exposure and lighting.  Since it was generally cold out, this slowed down the develop time of the Polaroid film.  By the time I got everything right, my model and I would be hypothermic.  Instant feedback from my digital camera’s LCD solved this dilemma, but I still had one problem.  Shooting on bright snow or sand made it almost impossible to see my LCD.  Then I found the Hoodman Loupe.

The Hoodman Loupe is a simple loupe (remember hovering over your light table looking at slides) made from black rubber that eliminates any extraneous light from entering.  This handy loupe is perfect for shooting in bright environments where it is difficult to see your LCD.  And you can buy an accessory cinema strap that will attach the loupe over your LCD for use in video shooting.  I recently photographed this fox on a bright day shooting in the snow and could barely see my LCD to check exposure.  I just capped the LCD with my loupe and could see everything I needed with no outside light interference.  If you are shooting in bright environments you may find this loupe a handy tool.

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Use gels on your flash for special effects.

Tom Bol | 05/11- 05:35 AM

Adding gels to your flash and changing white balance creates unique images.

I like to follow this principle.  “The more skills you have, the better your chances for success.”  I used to use this principle as a climbing instructor when teaching students rope systems.  Inevitably on some climb something wouldn’t go right, maybe a simple thing like getting a rope stuck.  The more rescue and climbing systems you knew, the better your chances of having a solution to fix the problem.
The same is true for photographers.  Every photographer has a story about a ‘photo shoot gone bad.’  Strobes don’t fire, talent doesn’t show up, permits aren’t in order.  What separates one photographer from another is how they deal with these situations.  Clients like photographers who have solutions, not problems.  Knowing more technical skills behind the camera also helps.  And one of my favorite things to do is add gels to flash to spice things up.

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Creative Use of High Speed Sync

Tom Bol | 04/29- 10:11 AM

Use high speed sync to add mood to your shot.

When most people think of high speed sync, they think fast shutter speeds and freezing the action.  True, shooting at 1/8000 with flash is going to freeze the action no matter what the main light source is illuminating the subject.  But what about other uses of high speed sync and flash.  Until the release of the Pocket Wizard Flex system and Hypersync (see my last post), I was often frustrated shooting in bright sun.  I needed an aperture of F16 to get the right exposure at 1/200, my fastest sync speed using my Elinchrom Rangers.  What if I wanted to use a wide open aperture like F2.8 to get soft focus and blur out the background?  The answer is use high speed sync for selective focus shots in bright, sunny conditions.  Maybe high speed sync should be called ‘soft focus sync.’

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