The Shot: Take Two

My first review about The Shot got two angry comments (from the same person I suspect). Apparently the show has some critics, and while I like the show enough to keep watching, the commenter had some points. But before I get to that, I have some comments about Episode 4 (PopPhoto review) which I watched on Monday. If you haven't seen it, you may want to hold off reading this post until you have, because I may spoil some things.

The first sequence involved each shooter getting 15 minutes to shoot women beach volleyball players in action. Surprisely, I enjoyed the volleyball shoot sequence way more than the rest of the show and I really gave the replay button on my remote a lot of use (no, not to replay the volleyball players in slow motion!). I found it SUPER interesting to see how each of the contestants approached the shoot based on their backgrounds. The wedding photographer tried to find a unique view, Dean (the resident Strobist-style hardware guy) had a PW on his camera and a guy holding a flash for fill, the rock band photographer planted herself like a ficus, and the model-crazed black guy just focused on their rear ends...

The main reason I kept rewatching segments was to see where and how the contestants were shooting, and try to get an idea of how assistants were put in play too (each contestant seemed to have at least one mobile light stand assistant, often holding a reflector). I really, really wish they'd give the contestants 30 seconds to describe their lighting setup and camera settings though. The biggest problem with the show (from my photography nerd perspective) is that it glosses over the technicals. And not to mention post-processing, or lack-thereof. But, it is a reality show, and it has to appeal to the masses...

The second sequence involved a 3-D camera, which when I saw the description on my PVR, completely went over my head. But when I saw that array of cameras set up to do bullet-time (well, a 3-D photograph) I couldn't help but grin. Gotta love all that hardware! Aside: some of my friends were involved with the Stanford Multi-Camera Array, but those cameras didn't have nearly the resolution of a dSLR.

But, in the end, what the contestants did (and what they were allowed to do) was quite disappointing, amounting to just asking the models to jump on trampolines and fire off random images. Given more time (on the order of days) and the ability to plan the shot, change the set, and modify the camera orientations, you could get some awesome results. As it was, they were tasked with shooting hair but I thought the cameras were way too far away from the models to make an effective shot.

Sadly, I am also starting to get sucked into the reality part of the reality show (the contestants). Mostly, I'm pulling for Marie, which is odd, because I don't think she is as talented as some of the other shooters, but she seems the least warped (if I have to hear the phrase hair dance one more time in my life, I'll be driven to murder!). So, yeah, the show has pulled me in, although I suspect it hasn't done too well with the general public. I wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled after this season, although I'm sure it is dirt-cheap to produce (especially since it is light on writers).


Now, to the comments. From Mr. Anonymous:

dumbest show ever!! FInd me photographers who want to work in teams...isn't being an artist not about being unique?? Sad very sad dumb cheap american brainlessness!

While I don't agree with a lot of it, he's got a point. The teamwork aspect of the show is kind of lame and just a thinly disguised way to increase tension and make the eliminations more dramatic. After all, how many photographers work in teams? Well, probably all of the good ones, but there's only one photographer in most cases, the rest are assistants. Hence the tension.

But Mr. Anonymous wasn't done yet. He REALLY doesn't like The Shot, so he then went back for more three minutes later with character assassination of Nigel Barker (who? I have no idea who that guy is, but I also can't remember the name of that long-hair dude that runs the show). Mr. A. did have a point later on:

The show is beyond rediculous! Hanging on a rope shooting a professional shot within 10 minutes??? why not standing on the ground shooting the guy with a long lens??

This is a good point. Nobody would ever expect to make a really good shot in 10 minutes, but it is a reality show, after all. Can't expect them to give every contestant a day and 5 assistants to get their shot. I do hope, later on in the show, they give the contestants more time and resources.

Anyway, for now, I'll keep watching. But don't worry, I'm not going to review every episode!

DIY Macro Ring Flash #3: Usage

(rev Nikkor-H 50mm, f/16, 1/250s, ISO 100)

This is the final post in my series about my DIY Macro Ring Flash light modifier. I'd recommend reading the Introduction first, then the Construction, then this post. To refresh your memory, this is what I'm working with:


Depending on the shot, the lens I've used is either a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime, Nikkor-H 50mm f/2 (reversed for approx 1:1 macro), or Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 (above). Wherever possible, I've noted the shooting parameters. Of course, I've had a real hard time remembering what I set my flash power too, so those all have implicit question marks next to them. All were taken with a Canon 20D. And of course, click to see them larger.


Analyzing the Light:

The first step is to really analyze what sort of light I get from ring flash, and more specifically my ring light construction. As Strobist says, ringlight is a bit cliche in high fashion modeling circles. I mean how many pouty models can you really look at with that halo shadow on the wall behind them (actually, I can look at quite a few without getting tired, but...). To demonstrate the effect, I shot my trusty wedding cake topper in front of the wall (Canon 50mm, f/6.3, 1/250s, ISO100, 1/4 power). There you go... cliche ringflash shadows.

Ultimately, a ring flash is simply an area light located on the lens axis. Move it off the camera, and it is essentially a soft box with a hole in it. In the case of my macro version, the area is pretty small (maybe 6 inches in diameter). So if the ring is large compared to the subject, you get the nice soft halo shadows (due to light from each side going around the object) and the brightest part of the object is normal to (facing) the camera. Also, you get a really nice, slow, roll off of light around the subject with some wrap-around light.

But, if the ring is small and/or far away from the subject, the wrap-around light is lost and the ring light acts as an on-camera flash exactly on the lens axis. For instance, the image at left I used the ring flash as fill and it gives slightly better results than on-camera flash because the light is coming directly from the lens, not 3 inches above it. It also helps that the total area of the ring flash is much larger than an average on-camera flash which makes a more pleasing fill. (Tamron @ 20mm, f/3.2, 1/30s, ISO400, 1/2 power)

When it comes down to it though, this flash modifying contraption really isn't meant for human subjects (although it works well as fill light). It really won't give a different look than a small on-camera flash and it lacks the punch to really light up a room (the light path and diffuser eat a ton of light, something like 4-5 stops by my estimation). At 400 ISO you can get it to cover maybe 6 feet. If you are serious about getting cover of full bodies, you'll want to look at a beefy ringlight like the Strobist ring flash. My flash does work pretty well on faces though as long as you are pretty close and fill the frame (sorry, I don't have any flatterying face photos yet).

It was designed for macros, so that's what I'll discuss next.


Macro Use:

I'll admit it: I like to chase bugs and animals around the yard shooting macros. And that's why I built this thing, because it is nearly impossible to not blur a 1:1 macro at f/16 in natural light shooting handheld without going to ISO 1600 (which introduces more grain than I can safely smooth out). Plus, at a macro level, a 6-inch ring flash is a monster and gives a great wrap around look.

While I don't have many images I'm super proud of just yet, I've got a few macro examples from when I was playing around with the thing a few days ago. I'd have more, but it has gotten really cold around here lately (60s during the day, high 30s or low 40s at night) and the bugs are harder to find. Soon though!

First up, the required bee shot. Not my best (especially because I had to be inches from the thing and it was moving enough to make me nervous). In this case, I left the motor drive on and let it take a shot without the flash afterwards to show you the difference.

(reversed Nikkor-H 50mm f/2,
1/250s, f/16, ISO 400, 1/2 power)

A few notable things. First, I'm overpowering sunlight, which was one of my goals from the beginning. The sunlight is probably two stops lower than the flash, but it still gives a nice highlight to the wings (note how the natural light image at right exhibits a bit of blur even at 1/250th!). While it takes about all the power my flash has, it is nice to know that I have the flexibility of not depending on the sun as my key light. It is still a bit tricky to find the right balance between shutter speed and flash power, mostly because of the blur at these levels.

Second, I can get the shot at f/16, which is a huge pleasure. I finally can stop struggling with the smaller depth of field that the larger apertures leave me with. Between the action-stopping power of the flash and the larger depth of field, I'm getting great sharpness from my $20 Nikkor-H. Not bad for something I made for free.

Ok, almost done. Next up, I have the lower portion of my fuschia (stamens and pistils). The real thing to note on this image is the staggering sharpness of the waterdrops in the upper left (too bad I focused slightly behind the flower) and the beautiful wrap-around light on the stamens).
(rev Nikkor-H 50mm, f/16, 1/125s, ISO 400, 1/2 power)

Finally, another nice thing about the ringflash is it lets me go mobile with higher magnification than 1:1. For instance, I slapped some extension tubes on the lens and tried to chase a few things around (ants move really fast at 2:1!). The subjects that moved slow enough were these baby snails, which are actually quite tiny. This image is almost the full frame!
(rev Nikkor-H 50mm, ~20mm extension tube, f/16, 1/125s, ISO 400, full power)


Conclusion:

Ok, hopefully by now you get what the macro ring flash adapter can do, and what it can't. Like many people hope, it isn't going to revolutionize your photography overnight, but for macro work (or a large enough ring at human-scale) it can really add a new look. Futhermore, the design is very handy; I slap it on the camera and it stays with me, leaving the camera very maneuverable (I used a little strip of scotch tape to hold it on). And if I don't want to use it, I'll turn it off and flip it out of the way with the tilt option on my Sunpak.

Yes, I'd love some more power, but for macro work, it has plenty of power (and isn't too powerful, as in the case of the bare flash at 1/16th power). Larger would be nicer too, but a larger flash will but more stress on the hot shoe and result in more light drop-off in the ring. As it is though, the paper is super light so I don't worry about hurting the flash or my 20D's shoe.

So, if you have some time, try to whip one up. Once I've spent more time with it, I might build another, more improved version. For now though, I'm quite happy and it will be just one more photography tool I keep around!

Backlink Note

Wow, three posts in one day. Crazy.

Ever wonder why your post isn't getting an automatic backlink on another page you linked to? I did; a my recent posts haven't been getting the eyes I expected because the backlinks are missing on Strobist.

Turns out, with Blogger's backlinking system, the links are set up the first time you publish and not afterwards. So if you accidentally publish before all your links are in, save it as a draft again, and republish, Google's blog search won't rescan your post and you won't get linked up.

The easy solution is to copy your entire post into a new post and republish it, deleting the old one.

Update 12/4: Had more trouble with backlinks not working today, and I'm not really sure how I fixed it. One thing was I set the feed to 'short' so maybe my links were too far down the page. I tried remaking the page three times and it didn't seem to work. Could be a problem with blogger too, I'm not sure...

Early Rumblings of a Strobist Photo Contest

Sounds like the cool guys at Strobist might be hosting a photo contest to choose the best images in the Flickr Strobist pool with real prizes worth actual money. Well, it is still in the advertiser soliciting stage, but given the numbers Hobby suggested, I doubt he'll have trouble getting companies to donate prizes.

The full post: Strobist: Strobist Photos of the Year Contest: Call for Sponsors

I'm excited, although realistically, given the quality of the photos in the Strobist Pool, it is highly unlikely I'd have a shot at a prize. But still, a very cool thing!

And there's always DPChallenge if you feel like photo contests; although no prizes are involved.

The Shot: Mini-Review

Yeah, I know I promised my next post would be the final installment of my macro ring flash series, but I've been too lazy to finish prepping the images for the web. So sue me...

On second thought, don't; I'm too poor to make it worth your time.

So, instead I'll give you a little mini-review of The Shot, a new reality series from VH1 built around fashion photography.

When I first heard about the series on the Photo Business News & Forum, I was pretty shocked that I hadn't heard about it. After all, I'm a bit of a reality series fan (I wouldn't go so far to say junkie). I still watch the Amazing Race, Survivor XXMCI, The Apprentice, etc. but I can't tell you off the top of my head who has won each Survivor season (hmmm... Richard Hatch, some girl, some guy, at some point a guy named Ethan won it and that chick married to Boston Rob). Still, though, I enjoy reality shows and something related to photography is right up my alley.

The Shot airs on VH1 every Sunday night at 10 pm EST (and there are plenty of reruns during the week). Actually, the fact it is on VH1 is probably why I didn't hear about it; I'm too old to watch crazy spring breaks and Carlson Daly on MTV yet too young to watch VH1 and find out what Vanilla Ice is doing right now (oh crap! It looks like he is touring... in Europe). Hence, I didn't hear about this show until now.

So I used the old DVR to tape the third episode and watched it a few days ago. The show is built around the concept of wanna-be professional fashion photographers in a game to select a single photographer to get some cash and some high-profile assignments. While it isn't amazing, there was enough to please the reality show fan and photography fan in me. I'll definitely be watching a few more.

Episode 3 (summary at PopPhoto.com) was built around extreme locations. In one sequence the wanna-bes hung over a cliff and tried to shoot a climber (I was really living vicariously in that one). Then, for the real competition, they got split into two teams to take shots of supermodel Kristy Hinze underwater in a pool (did I mention living vicariously?). The main thing I got out of the episode was a respect for models; Hinze was in the water for four hours patiently taking the direction (or lack of it) from novices. She looked entirely exhausted at the end.

The actual reality stuff (you know, relationships and freakouts and stuff) bores me, but it is really cool to see what the contestants are given and how they use it: sort of a mini making-of video. I wish there was more, but it'd bore the typical viewer if they put in too much. Just seeing the equipment is really cool -- the underwater housing on the camera was a monster with a lens-cover the size of a dinner plate. Must have had a really wide zoom in it.

So, overall, I'd give the show a 7 out of 10. It could be I just saw a cool episode, but I'm interested enough to watch again. If you have the time (or the space on your TiVo) check it out!


Actually, unrelated to the review, I hate VH1's website. Too many ads, too garish, uses way too much processor time. I went to look at The Shot images (too see some of the contestants results in more detail) and the photo gallery looks like it was taken with a cell phone. C'mon guys!