Can’t say enough about the folks at NAPP. They got Photoshop World coming up, and they be cranking on that, and at the same time, they launch today this cool tips and tricks show featuring Scott Kelby, and the other KMan…Matt Klowskowski. Now here’s a couple of guys who know, right? How many pages of the manual has anybody out there read? How many times do you get to a point on a job and you wish you could remember where that custom function was? Scott and Matt have read and remembered it for you. All that stuff– the bells, whistles, buttons, dials, dive planes, air horns, g-thrusters, and cloaking devices of the new digital SLRs made by Nikon are handed out in bite sized chunks of video. Gotta check it out. I did, and right away I had one of those, “I coulda had a V-8!” types of forehead slapping moments. The live view white balance deal Scott showed was very cool. As was the command dial feature Matt showed to scroll your pix on the LCD on some of the camera models. Check it out at http://www.nikondtown.com/.
I’ve been having a blast doing the Kelby Training Videos. Shot the above for a new one called One Light. Put myself in a box and could only take one light out of it. Used two lights, actually, but not together. I compared and contrasted approaches using one SB900 Speedlight, and one Elinchrom Ranger. Big light, small light, but always one light. Tried to push the envelope a bit and see what we could do with that particular limitation. Also, continued my history of tempting fate by combining expensive electronic equipment with large bodies of water by dragging a Ranger with an Octa (yep, the 74″) into Tampa Bay to shoot Bo, an unbelievably amiable, patient, terrific teenager. Hey, it was Scott’s Octa. Come to think of it, it was Scott’s Ranger, too:-)
Other news…very cool. Jeff Snyder sent me this the other day..the Bogen Tri Flash Bracket is #LSTF3PFSÂ and will be $69 at Adorama. Considering Jeff is close with the folks at Bogen, particularly Mark “The William Holden of Flash Photography” Astmann, he should be able to get a bunch when it comes out next month. Tried it a couple times, and it rocks. First did a demo at our lighting workshops in Dobbs Ferry last month, where we had the first one in the country, and Mark shot a cell phone pic of it.
I mean, we were shooting stuff like this….
And this….
And, yep, you guessed it. I got more mail about the Tri-flash than the fashion models. Photographers, we’re strange. More tk….
Wow, the second photo is great. I have to try it too 🙂 (off to buy some gels)
That shoot-out in the Scott Kelby video was off da hook!
The TriFlash rocked at Dobbs! I can’t wait to snag one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/enigma1977/3210939841/in/set-72157612722235559
Love that “Octa by the Bay” look….which leads to…..
“Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun
I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ come
Watching the light roll in
And then I watch it roll away again, yeah
I’m sittin’ with an octa by the bay
Watching the light roll away
Ooo, I’m just sittin’ with an octa by the bay
Wastin’ time…..”
Sorry to all the Otis fans.
Joe,
I have plenty of gadgets but show me a stand that will hold 3 fashion models and then we can talk!!
IDC photography already has a 3 light holder on the market if someone wants one now. http://www.idcphotography.com/kart/index.php?p=product&id=112&parent=23
I don’t have this product of there, but do have many others and they are great. They also have good customer service.
Cory Ann
Joe,
You’re down here (Tampa Bay area; that second shot actually looks like Clearwater Harbor to me) often enough, why don’t you do a workshop here? I’ve (knowingly) been a fan of your work since the 100th Anniversary of Flight spread for National Geographic and would love to attend one of your workshops.
Isn’t One LIght trademarked by Zack Arias?
I was making a similar thing by myself. I is great to be able to buy it now!
just watched the first Dtown as well
I posted on the dtown page as well, but thought I’d post her for anybody who cares. :o)
About the command wheel tip.
I’ve been using it so long on my D80, I didn’t remember it wasn’t default.
However, an additional tip:
While the thumb (shutter spd) command wheel scrolls through the shots like using L&R on the multifunction pad, the front/finger (Aperture) command wheel scrolls through the view functions (EXIF, Histogram, highlights) like the Up & Down arrows on the multifunction pad.
And one more, if you hold down the “zoom in” button and spin the thumb command wheel, you can zoom in and out much more quickly than just repeatedly pressing the zoom in and zoom out buttons.
I realize it’s contrary to the whole McNally nous to say so… but by the time you’ve bought the bracket and, say, three SB-900s to go on it, wouldn’t you have spent more money than you would on a really nice monolight…? The latter also wouldn’t leave the model wondering why you were lighting her with something you had apparently put together out of Tinkertoys…
I put a similar bracket together for myself, too. Yes, I could have bought a monolight, but the portability and remote control of the SB’s is completely addictive. I love it that I can carry it all in a backpack and a shoulder bag and have a mobile portrait studio.
An Octa and Ranger out on the water? Crazy, but completely worth it. Love your work, Joe.
Smokin JOE! Just checked out D Town! You now act! What don’t you do? Check out Joe doing a commercial for Kelby Training!
@DTown video – the best part of the show, hands down, was the commercial for the Light Shaping tools. 🙂 I presume that lens smoke was added in post.
@Ranger9 – yes, but then instead of having three portable lights you can use anywhere, you have one monolight that is useless without AC, a generator or a battery pack.
I liked the second one, great picture.
Love the photographs, especially the second one, which will make cracking wall art.
3 Speedlites, 3 sets of controls to fiddle with, 3 sets of batteries to run flat just at the wrong time! If I need this sort of power I’ll stick to a monobloc. But then again, thanks to you, Joe, I’m a convert to the Speedlite way of shooting.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Ian
Only problem with that tri-flash is you gotta have 3 (tri get it?) flashes! Pricey man, pricey.