The Weekly Wrap-up compiles interesting articles published this week on Photofocus. This week, we dove into an LED light solution, the wonders of Auto ISO, had some fun sledding, applying sunrays in Luminar and speeding up your Lightroom process.
Genaray SpectroLED Essential 500 provides consistent lighting perfect for stills or video - A few months ago, I was presented with an opportunity to photograph Santa and Mrs. Claus posing with families in my community. No, not the mall Santa — THE Santa Claus himself, hired by my local city’s development organization. There would be a custom backdrop built, including Christmas trees and colored lights. It was a part of the city’s annual tree lighting, and they expected a HUGE turnout! The problem Originally the event was slated to take place outside at night. One of their requests — provide lighting so that guests can take photos on their cell phones. For me, this was a big question mark. How would I light the photographs in a way that kept the quality of the scene? I planned on using my AlienBee B800 strobes for my photographs, but I didn’t have a constant lighting option to provide the parents. After doing quite a bit of research, I finally settled on getting some LED lights, and B&H agreed to send me some for review. Primarily meant for video, these would evenly light the scene and provide a soft light, versus a hard, distracting light that might blow out some of the scene. The solution The lights that were sent were the Genaray SpectroLED Essential 500, which are bi-color LED video lights. They come with 504 LEDs at 40 watts, allowing for a color temperature range from 3200 to 5600K that can be adjusted easily with a dial on the back of the light unit. Other specs include 4060 to 4280 Lux, 60-degree coverage and a bulb life of 30,000 hours. Needless to say, I was set for my photoshoot with Santa — and then some. Setup was easy. I mounted them on to the included 6′ light stands and positioned the lights right next to my AlienBees electronic flash units. This meant that the light source would be centered at approximately the same position, providing even lighting throughout the scene. This meant that skin tones would be faithfully reproduced. Both sets of lights were at about 25% power, whereas my AlienBees were at 1/32 power, the lowest setting. Because the photoshoot had been moved inside, I didn’t need the lights to be super powerful, but I did need to have them bright enough to eliminate the shadows that were caused by the lights directly above. I put on the included diffuser on each light, which bows out slightly so the LED light isn’t directly covered. The results The nice thing about having the LED lights and the AlienBees is that they worked together to fill in shadows that created by my AlienBees. It made for a softer, more natural light, allowing me to show off the subjects and the surrounding scene. Folks photographing with their cell phones had plenty of light to work with. Thanks to the LED lights there was enough the light to provide a focus and light the subjects for those using their camera phones. Below are some of those photos. What’s great is having the LED lights also allowed me to capture some close-up candids of the kids interacting with Santa, without having to re-position or move my lights. Closing thoughts The Genaray SpectroLED Essential 500 Bi-Color LED Lights are great lights whether you’re photographing stills or shooting video. They provide nice, even light and have a plethora of controls ready at your fingertips. The Genaray SpectroLED Essential 500 Bi-Color LED Lights retails for $439.88 for a two-light kit. A single light costs $219.96.
Warp-speed your culling in Lightroom - We shoot digital. We shoot a lot. Often way too much. Hey, that’s the beauty of it, right? One shot or a thousand shots cost the same if your memory card is good. But is that really true? Aside from the fact that I remember my fashion editorial days, when we shot three rolls of film for every image, if not four. That’s between 100 and 140 shots per image, not so different from what we do today — but I digress, although this is probably a good topic for another post. The point is if we have to spend hours culling our images, are those extra shots really worth it? Sometimes yes, they are, so why not find a way to cull faster? And here we go — a few quick tricks to speed up your culling and never have those quick-burst guilt pangs again. Before import: Create a metadata preset Before you import your images, create a preset that you’re going to use for every card download from now on. Include your copyright details, and assign one star to every image. Call it 2019, and then make a copy of this to update every year. On import: Assign the 2019 preset and create smart previews Ideally, keep the LR catalog on the internal drive and store the images on an external hard drive. You will thank me later. Assign the 2019 preset, and click on the Smart Previews checkbox. When the images are imported, eject the hard drive. Ta-da! You’ve just sped up Lightroom, because it doesn’t have to revert back to the original image every time you switch from one to another. It now works on those wonderful smart previews you’ve made, which are waaaaaay faster to load. On your way now. Next hero move: Caps lock Click on the Caps Lock key. This will automatically take you to the next image as soon as you assign a rating to the one before. Easier done than explained — bear with me and you’ll see it happen. For now, just click that shift lock and make sure it’s on. The true superpower: Hold your fingers on the number keys As you click on a number, Lightroom will automatically assign that rating to the image, and having your the Caps Lock on will pull up the next image without you having to click on it or use the arrows. Magic! Now for the real boost: TWO is for keepers All your images have one star now. All you have to do is start with the first image and click either ZERO or ONE or TWO. ZERO is for the blurred, bad images you want to delete. I don’t bother with marking photos as rejects (hitting the X key), as it doesn’t make my workflow faster. I can later filter search all the zero rated files and delete them just as fast. ONE is for what you want to keep but it’s not great. TWO is for the keepers — the ones you will want to process. And that’s it! You’ll be amazed at how fast you can do this. Two fast runs is usually all it takes to cut things down to a fifth of what you have. A wedding takes me half an hour to an hour at the most, and is actually quite fun. When I edit, I give three stars to the edited ones, and leave at two the ones that are good but didn’t quite make the final showreel. That way, they can be easy to find again if I need them. And the best of the best gets four stars, the ones I want to find again for the portfolio. You know them when you see them. Oh, and while you’re at this — editing on smart previews is also waaaaaay faster than doing it with files connected, so you might just want to get cracking and finish it off in one go. Inspiration hits best when things go fast ad easy. At then end of all this, re-attach your hard drive and all the work gets re-connected to your original files. More magic! Now be a darling and let me know if you try this and how it works for you. And if you have any other tricks to warp-speed your culling, comment below!
Using Sunrays in a landscape photo in Luminar 3 - In this video article, I’ll show you how I use the Sunrays filter to enhance a sunrise landscape photograph. In this landscape photograph, you’ll see that I shot it at sunrise with the sun at my left. In the original, the sun isn’t really visible and the sunrays are rather limited. I’ll use the Sunrays filter to add the sun back in and make the sun rays more visible. Get $10 off Luminar 3 with the promo code PHOTOFOCUS. Sunrays filter controls Place Sun Center: Click this button to interactively nudge the sun’s position by dragging X: Moves the sun’s origin point along the X-axis Y: Moves the sun’s origin point along the Y-axis Sunrays Amount: Controls the overall intensity of the sun rays Sunrays Look: Changes the overall brightness of the scene Sunrays Number: Use a higher number for more rays and a lower number for fewer Sunrays Length: This impact the distance the sun rays will travel Sunrays Warmth: Use this slider to adjust the color temperature of the rays Sun Radius: This affects the size of the sun rays origin point Sun Glow Radius: Changes the size of the glow around the sun Sun Glow Amount: Controls the intensity of the glow Sun Warmth: Can change the sun from bright white to a warm glow Overall Penetration: This slider impacts how much the sun passes through an area. This can be useful when trying to natural composite the rays into a photo. Overall Randomize: Get entirely new results that are a variation based on the current settings Watch the video Conclusion The Sunrays filter in Luminar is an amazing tool. A couple of areas to pay attention to are the placement of the sun using X and Y controls and also the Penetration control so that the sun is positioned correctly in the depth of the picture. Then once you have the sun and rays setup the way you want them, explore the other controls to refine the look sun and the rays. Now fine tune the other filters you are using in the photograph to take into account the addition of the light the Sunrays filter added to the photograph. A few other filters that I would suggest you explore for landscapes would be the Orton Effect, Sharpening and Vignette filters. I hope you enjoyed the article and found it helpful! Get $10 off Luminar 3 with the promo code PHOTOFOCUS.
The advantage of Auto ISO - Using Auto ISO can have advantages when you’re out photographing. In photography, ISO is a rating of your camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. A lower ISO like 50 or 100 means that the sensor will require longer shutter speeds and larger apertures to properly expose an image. A higher ISO like 1600 or 3200 will require shorter shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures to properly expose an image. Auto ISO is a fantastic tool to use for birds in flight, sports and action photography. What is Auto ISO? Almost all current interchangeable lens digital cameras give you the option to manually select an ISO value or to use a setting called Auto ISO. There are advantages to setting your ISO for a fixed value and there are advantages to allowing the camera to choose the ISO for you. For example, I generally use a fixed ISO when I have time to think about the exposure and in situations where I’m shooting from a tripod with fairly stable lighting conditions. Alternatively, I use Auto ISO when I’m shooting birds/wildlife, street photography or shooting outdoor sports where the subject might quickly move in and out of the light. Hiking with friends is a great situation to use Auto ISO. Here, we are hiking to a bird sanctuary in southern Iceland. In fast-moving situations, Auto ISO is a godsend that allows you to concentrate on composition and focus while the camera automates exposure. I think of Auto ISO as a tool that helps me respond quickly to the scene by cutting out additional mental tasks I have to accomplish before taking the picture. Your camera probably has a few Auto ISO options to choose from. In each case, you’ll most likely need to select the minimum ISO (starting point) and the maximum ISO you want the camera to use in order to meet your exposure criteria. Common options Let me go through three of the most common Auto ISO settings to help you decide which one is best for your shooting scenario. 1. Auto ISO Most entry-level cameras and point and shoot cameras have a standard Auto ISO option that doesn’t have any other customization options. This setting takes the ISO decisions out of your hands and allows the camera full control over ISO settings. Often times, the camera automatically chooses ISO and shutter speed based on its own internal algorithm. It does a pretty good job, but doesn’t allow you any ability to optimize settings for your specific subject. Here, my photographer friend and I were hiking up a steep incline photographing a waterfall in Iceland. I used Auto ISO to give me a fast enough shutter speed to prevent motion blur while hand-holding the camera with one hand. I’ll use this setting when I’m using a smaller entry-level camera and when traveling with my family. In these cases, I use the camera much more for grab-shots because I don’t have a lot of time to spend setting up compositions. 2. Auto ISO: Minimum shutter speed This setting is found on mid-level and pro-level digital cameras. I recommend using this specific Auto ISO tool for sports, birds in flight, auto/motorcycle racing and any other activity where your goal is to freeze action. Here, you’ll choose a minimum shutter speed that want to shoot use for the image. Then, the camera’s exposure system will make sure ISO is high enough to allow that minimum shutter speed. For example, let’s say you are photographing birds. Most of the time, you’ll want a minimum shutter speed of at least 1/1000s in order to freeze the motion of the wings. Therefore, you’ll set your Auto ISO minimum shutter speed to 1/1000s. Any time the light begins to dim, the camera will increase ISO to meet your shutter speed setting. If you are using Aperture Priority, you’ll still be able to choose your aperture (i.e. f/5.6) while the camera then uses Auto ISO to make sure your shutter speed doesn’t fall below 1/1000s. I set up my Nikon D500 Auto ISO settings for 1/1000 sec minimum shutter speed for this image. Atlantic puffin, Vestmannaeyar, Iceland. 3. Auto ISO Auto: Shutter speed based on focal length Use this setting when hand-holding your camera. A common scenario is shooting street photography with a zoom lens. The concept here is that your shutter speed will change depending on the focal length of the lens. This harkens back to a traditional rule of thumb that a photographer should be able to handhold their camera and get a sharp image at shutter speed equal to 1/focal length. In other words, if you are shooting with a 24mm lens, then you should be able to handhold your camera and get a sharp image at about 1/25s. This setting determines what focal length your lens is zoomed to, then sets the shutter speed according to that focal length. Keep in mind that if you are using a super-wide zoom lens, like a 10-20mm, then your shutter speeds will vary between 1/10s and 1/20s. These longer shutter speeds might cause moving objects to blur in the image. If you are holding your camera steady, then still objects should be sharp. I use Auto ISO Auto when I’m hand holding my camera and doing street photography. For this shot of an Icelandic horse, I used Auto ISO Auto because I was hand-holding my camera and the horses weren’t moving. I wanted the camera to make sure my shutter speed would always be fast enough for my long 200-500mm lens. Again, I want to emphasize that this Auto ISO setting (Auto ISO Auto: Shutter speed based on focal length) is specifically designed for handholding your camera when shooting scenes that don’t move (buildings, landscapes, urban scenes, portraits). How will you apply this? Now, my challenge to you is to go out and put Auto ISO to work for your shooting style. I encourage you to embrace the technology and use Auto ISO for sports, action, wildlife, travel,
How to photograph sledding (comprehensive) - Wanna have some fun this winter? Go photograph kids sledding. When your subjects are having fun, you’re sure to have fun, too. It’s a great excuse to get out and make pictures and keep your eye sharp through the winter. As much fun as it is, there are some surprising challenges you’ll need to overcome if you want to make epic sledding pictures. Let’s talk about camera settings and shooting techniques so you can get great pictures quickly and focus on having fun. White balance Why is white balance at the top of the list? It’s simple, but you’ve got to pay attention to it, especially when you start shooting JPEGs, as we’ll discuss below. Although you may be making pictures on a sunny day unless the sun is shining directly on your subjects, the blue sky will actually be illuminating them and they will look really blue. If it’s a sunny day, choose the cloudy or shade white balance setting so everyone looks warm and healthy when they’re not facing the sun. Don’t choose auto white balance because everyone’s colorful snow clothes easily fool the camera and it will shift the color from shot to shot. In the pictures here, I used the cloudy setting. Exposure compensation The main thing to remember about photographing on snow is that your camera’s meter is only providing information — it’s neither right nor wrong. Thinking that your exposure meter needs to be in the middle at zero would be a big mistake in the snow. The meter sees all that white in the picture and says the exposure is too bright. The meter wants everything to be a nice, boring gray. If you set the meter in the middle, your subjects will be under-exposed with very dark faces. In this case, my meter read approximately +1-1/3 stops over-exposed. The snow should be ultra-bright in your picture, and maybe even clipped and blinking, but it doesn’t matter because your subject’s face is the important thing to see. Manual mode Use Manual mode for all this, too. If you use Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority mode, then the exposure settings will change as your subject gets closer and closer to you and fills more and more of the frame. The bigger they are in the frame, the less snow will be visible and that will affect the way the meter reads and the way the camera shoots. Instead, lock in your settings so they don’t change. As we’ll discuss below, shutter speed is your most important setting, so set the ISO low (there’s plenty of light; use 200) and set the aperture in the right place to give you the right brightness at the shutter speed you need. Mine were shot between f/8 and f/4 as the brightness of the day changed. Keep an eye on your exposure every now and then to make sure the light didn’t change while you were having fun. The brightness can be very sneaky on overcast days. Focus for action The main idea is to capture movement, so you need to choose continuous focus in your camera. That’s usually AF-C or AI-Servo. This setting allows your camera to change the focus while your subject is moving closer to you, even while the shutter is working. Just keep the focus point positioned on your subject. If you leave it on AF-S (One Shot on Canon cameras) you’ll end up with lots of feet in the focus at the back of the sled with faces out of focus. At the same time, remember how to change back to AF-S so you can make some quick portraits, too. Fast shutter You should have plenty of light to use a very fast shutter speed to freeze action, like 1/1000s. The problem is that the fast shutter speed makes your subject appear to be holding still. You can freeze snow spraying and that can be fun, but I think that after a few shots freezing the action you’ll be ready to use a slow shutter to show the action. Slow shutter When there’s a lot of movement, you can emphasize that movement by using a slow shutter speed. The key is to move your camera with the subject so that the subject remains sharp while the background blurs slightly. Although you may be using a small aperture, like f/8, you’ll still get terrific separation of your subject from the background because of the background blur. I shot anywhere from 1/120s to 1/20s. Remember, too, that a blurry picture is different than an out of focus picture. When you see a problem with your picture on your screen, try to figure out if it’s bad because you didn’t get the focus or because you didn’t get the action right. Action shots don’t need to be perfectly sharp to be good shots, either. Lens choice The best shutter speed depends on the lens you use and the distance you are from the subject. I used a 42.5mm lens for all these pictures. If you use a telephoto lens as I did, then you’ll get more time with your subject in each run. When you use a wide-angle lens, the size of your subject in the frame changes very quickly — any change in distance from you makes a huge difference in their size in the frame. That means that you get more opportunities to shoot with your subject large in the frame when you use a long lens than when you use a wide lens. Your background blur will also be greater with a long lens than with a wide lens at the same shutter speed, so you’ll need to shoot slower to see the effect with a wide lens. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use a wide lens — it can make some terrific photos that feel more intimate — I’m just pointing out the differences. Also, you’re less likely to get run over with a long lens :D Don’t hold back There is a
