my blog has been moved to www.alvinrenz.com

my blog has been moved to www.alvinrenz.com

High Tech Flash, the power of light

Nissin is back on the market again with some cool idea, or not? the launch a couple of new stuff that they said it's high tech.. let see what imean.

Color and Auto Rotate Display bears simple and user friendly features of our design concept

The Color Display will automatically follow camera angle in different position and six icons interface gives user friendly operation and representing different menus – Auto, TTL, Manual/Av, Multi, Wireless TTL (Master/Remote) and Customer Setting.

Light it digital strobist magazine

Light It: The How-To Magazine for Studio Lighting and Off-Camera Flash is the first digital photography lighting magazine from Scott Kelby and KelbyTraining.com made exclusively for the Apple iPad. It features the industry’s top experts on photography lighting, studio lighting, small camera flash, portrait lighting, location lighting and more. Readers will also find plenty of lighting tips and tricks, a section just for beginners, interviews with the pros, and news about the latest gear. Light it is for photographers of all skill-levels who use lighting or want to explore lighting concepts.

Greenpeace: Voices of change. Shot on Canon 5dmkII

The Sandpit

The Sandpit

by Sam O'Hare

More of Sam’s work can be found at the Aero Film website as well as his own personalphotography blog and his Twitter page.

©Christoph Martin Schmid

By Sara Lando -- There is something about Berlin photographer Christoph Martin Schmid's work that makes the viewer uneasy. His images are suspended, eerie and polished to the point they seem to transcend reality. His ability to compress a whole story into one single frame has allowed him to land international advertising campaigns and become widely recognized.

Today we go behind the scenes with this image from his Scream!!series.
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For technical and practical reasons, the image was shot in two parts.

It finally happened!

Metrophoto Hothouse New York finally happened.. thank's to Sachie and specially Oly Ruiz for making this happen..

It was almost a whole day of shooting and it's pretty cool when we started shooting in middle of the Highline park, we were about 13 shooters and 2 models (the asian couple). just imagine how cool is that. all the people who about to pass us stop and look at the models and start asking "who is that celebrity''? they all thought that the two are celebrity. but anyway in the end we stop by the nearest park and sachie start giving certificate.

Westcott Apollo rivals come in all shapes and sizes

The Apollo from Westcott is a square softbox known for its quick assembly. The distinctive light modifier opens, closes and mounts like an umbrella, making it ideal for location photography. It comes in 28″ and 50″ square models. At a recommended retail price of $166.45 for the small one, however, the Apollo isn’t cheap, and some photographers have been on the lookout for a lower-cost equivalent.

Phottix have announced a new product called the Easy-Up Umbrella Softbox, designed to be “ready to use in seconds – no fighting with rods and speed rings”. It comes in square (70*70cm) and rectangular (60*90cm) and is on sale at a cracking US$57 – a fraction of the price of the Apollo.

Photoloving have also released some of these softboxes in an even wider range of shapes and sizes under their iShoot brand. They offer 60*90cm and 70*70cm models as Phottix, plus a 50*70cm version and an 80cm octagonal one! ThePortable Reflective Umbrella Softboxes are sold in US$100 kits including light stands and adapters. The softboxes are also available separately for around $50 (you have to ask directly).

As well as the new releases from Phottix and iShoot, we also spotted similar softboxes from Nice at Interphoto Shanghai, suggesting there may be even more brands and sellers on the horizon.

So are these cheap Apollo-esque softboxes going to give Westcott a run for their money? The company don’t seem to think so. In a statement, the Westcott team said,

I am rubber you are glue! The first official "Bounce" meetup. Reflectors only!

yesterday we had a meet up from tampa bay strobist,

the main concept is to shoot without any strobe's, just reflector.

im not really on to ambient light and because of that

i ended up holding the reflector so my groupmate's can shoot.

They provide 5 or 6 models in the shoot. and all the members are

split in numbers of group. each group will have a turn on each model.

and the picture above was one of the few shot that i took while holding the reflector.

light it, shoot it, re-touch it

me and my friend's from our photography group joined the seminar of Scott Kelby training on orlando this morning.

it was great, there is a lot of people who joined and as well as the sponsor booth outside the seminar room, they got B&h Photo and bunch of DVD tutorial's and book's that will put your photoshop skill's to the limit.

this photo on the left was taken during out photoshoot the other day in a lake just beside downtown Lakeland.

For me i learned stuff like how to light your subject, coposition, and the most thing i probably like is on how Scott Kelby teach one by one on how to propper re-touch your photo's and postprocess it.

enough with the strobe and....

enough with the strobist, and step aside your pocket wizard.

David Hill layers. Mind blowing skills

Adventure Series - Exposed from Dave Hill

the behind the scene 3d from his 2d images

it was created for the launch of his redesign website.

finally, the moment i've been waiting for!

Hothouse New York:

August 13, 2011

Meat Packing District, New York City

$250 per slot

Please e-mail workshop organizer Sachi Villareal at sachiweddings@gmail.com to book a slot.

mymetrophoto

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Hothouse is the workshop series of Metrophoto on wedding photography. It is especially crafted to bring interested photographers all the learning, techniques, and knowledge that have made the Metrophoto brand succeed in the short time since its inception.

Hothouse, as the dictionary defines it, is an environment that encourages rapid growth or development of someone in a stifling or intense way. That is exactly what aim for but in a sure fun and inspiring way. It is a comprehensive download of everything that we know to help your photography and business get to the next level.

Part of the workshop activities and discussions are shooting concepts, equipment line-up and set-up, actual shoot, post production, up to branding and marketing and dealing with clients. We’ll simulate how to extract unique and stylish images out of a location that seemed to have nothing, we’ll share and show all the gears we use and WHEN and WHERE we use them and what could be your cheaper alternative, we’ll explain how to get that Metrophoto look right from the shooting up to final processing, and most importantly, how to create your own brand and business.

vivitar 85mm f/1.4 aspherical lens

it's about week now since i got my vivitar 85mm f/1.4, and im starting to like this lens. not only its 1.4 but it is also aspherical.. since this lens is manual focus, it's kinda tricky to focus,but i manage to use the live view for accurate focusing.

but for the rest, quality and build its amazing how this 329$ perform..

the metal and plastic built was beter than other third party lens.

the hood is plastic but it doesn't matter as long as it work..

katzeye offer focusing screen for diffrent camera models. but this is not only simple focusing screen, it has a split prism circle and microprism colar. it's like the focusing screen on those old camera's were autofocus are not inveted yet. and it really work's

here is a review of katzeye for 50D

Reverse Engineer This Light :by DIYP

original post from: DIYP

I did mention that all the lighting on the set was DIY and made by yours truly.

Before I go ahead and do the lighting breakdown (I don't actually have to reverse engineer it, I was there and took pictures :)), I am placing the portrait on the big again below. Look at it (or super size it) and then skip to the actual break down (which is also a sneak peek into my living room)

The key (1), as many of you guessed was a snooted strobe on camera right, high above the model at f/10. This can be deducted from the hard nose shadow and the higher catch light on the eyes. The actual snoot is a beer cozy with the bottom cut. There were some guesses about a beauty dish, I think a BD would give a softer falloff on the nose.

The fill (2), as again many of you indicated, is a 40cm DIY softbox camera left about 2 stops down from main. You can see the square on the second catch light on the left. Actually, If you went super close on the portrait you could see the hotspot in the middle of the square which is common to DIY softboxes which don't have an internal diffusion screen. The tutorial for building this softbox will go up tomorrow.

The third (3) light which provided separation is a flash with 1/2 CTO gel and a coroplast gridspot positioned a bit lower than the model's head and pointing upwards. it is very close to the backdrop and creates a small circle. Many guessed that one as well, but for some reason the gel was hard to pick up.

A little bit more fill (5) coming from below is a foamboard reflector covered with aluminum foil. It was placed a little higher on the tripod which is not in the picture.

The backdrop (4) is a stretch of black fabric. It is held with a hangman stick-in-a-can and a few A clamps.

Lastly, the chair (6) is an $8 stool from IKEA.

It is great to see how well a DIY studio can light a portrait, and if you find this to be as much fun as I do, you'd be happy to hear that this image is going to feature is a DIYP studio book coming soon. The book features many lighting and studio projects that you can build at home.

rim light diy by: Kevin Thai

See the full tutorial and motivation over at Kevin's blog (which is also a great learning resource and a burl of clever pictures).

Reverse Engineering Other Shooters' Light

a helpfull Q,A by david hobby

Q: Where did the light come from?
A: The shadows will tell you.

Q: Were there multiple sources?
A: If the light appears to be coming from multiple directions (assuming no mirrors) probably. Also check for inconsistent shadows.

Q: Was the strobe light balanced?
A: Well, do the florescents look, say, white? There you go. Ditto tungsten, etc.

Q: Is the light falling over a small, restricted area?
A: Snoot or grid.

Q: What is the easiest way to check the style of the front light in a portrait?
A: Eyes make good mirrors to see the light sources. If they are wearing sunglasses, you are golden. Unless they Photoshopped it. And no, you cannot do that if you are a journalist. And if you are a Strobist, you shouldn't have to.

Q: Was the light nearby?
A: Check how fast it falls off as it travels across the subject. Fast? Yes. Slow or none? No.

Q: Was the light source large?
A: Depends on how close it is. A small, shoe-mount flash head looks like a softbox from 2" away on a macro shot. The sun, which is the largest light source you'll likely be using, is pretty hard because of the 93,000,000 mile thing. It is all about how big the light appears to the subject.

Q: Is that light strobe or continuous?
A: That can be a toughie. You can use available light effectively enough to fool people.

Q: How did they get that overcast sky so neon blue?
A: Set the camera balance to tungsten, which renders the formerly neutral clouds blue. Underexpose the sky (to, say, a stop below medium grey) for more of an effect. Then, CTO-gel the flash lighting your subject to render the light hitting it as white and you have the effect.

Q: This is starting to sound random and incoherent. Are you OK?
A: Yes, it is. And no, I am not. I am home sick from work today, feeling like I got runover by a train. I will add more to it later when I am more lucid.

But I hope you are starting to get the idea that there are no secrets when it comes to light.

Only physics.

you can see the full post here

strobist set up

dustin diaz is one of my favorite flickr user, not because of his style by matching strobe and bokeh on most of his shot, he is also uploading his lighting set-up for most of his shot's.

you can find his flickr acount in here

you can find his lighting setup link at the bottom of each photos he uploaded.

the peeping tom project

The making of Peeping Tom from Sinclair & Hill on Vimeo.

another set up for my next photoshoot.. anyway.. medyo mkang mahihirapan ako dito sa set up na to, dahi sa style ng bathroom namin, i hope gumana at mag karoon din ng magandang results sa mga strobes.

for the final project of this video its here james hill's flickr

highspeed strobing

kung nabasa mo ung previous na post medyo maiintindihan mo na to kung papaano..

highspeed photography.. ang kailangan mo dito timing at bilis

so anu nga ba yang nasa picture????

lighter yan na may powder..anung klaseng powder?bahala kna don. basta powder..

anywai... simple lang

din ang concept nito..

unahin ko munang ipakita yung set up ng ilaw

dito ang set up ng ilaw ay snooted.. nakita mo ung nasa dulo nang flash? parang cup na mahaba pero isalang ang ginagawa ng snoot, para ma i focus mo ung flash mo kung san mo lang gustong pabagsakin ung ilaw.. more control sa ilaw

sa speed photography kailangan ng speed kya dapat ang shutterspeed mo mabilis.. pero diba nga ang sabi ko dun sa unang post hangang 1/250 sec. lang ang maximum sync nang strobe mo pag wireless... maliban nalang kung naka ettl cord ka or pocketwizard na trigger,, anywai. so ibig sabihin hangang 1/250 sec. lang ang kaya mong i push sa shutterspeed mo, so go i push mo lang hehe...

bakit ba kailangang 1/250 sec. kung pepede naman sa mas mababa...??? pde kaso... kya ko ina-advice na itaas mo, let say nasa lugar ka na masyadong maliwanag ang ilaw or (ambient light) pwedeng maapektuhan ung shots mo at mahaluan ng ambient light..mag kakaroon ng blurr or trail sa subject mo.. or tulad nung shot ko nayan black ang background once na nahaluan ng ambient light yan di na magiging pure black yan...

marami kang makikitang diy tungkol sa highspeed photography na ginagamitan ng ibat ibang klaseng trigger...

mayrong sound activated trigger na kpag nakarinig ng sound ay mag ttriger ung flash

mayron din na motion sensor trigger na once na hit ung particular na object mag ttriger ung flash..

pero hindi iyong ang ginamit ko sa shot na ito. lahat nayan manual..lol..

isipin mo kung pano?

simple lang. naka tripod ung camera ko,

naka set sa manual focus at naka focus na din kung san babagsak ung lighter,

ung flash naka set narin sa tamang exposure.

bilang ka ng 1.. 2.. .....3.. drop.. sakto mo lang na pag bagsak nung lighter na click mo nadin ung shutter, then pag hindi mo nakuha ulitin mo lang ulit, hangang sa maka kuha ka na nang gusto mong kuha...

so pano naman ung mga sound trigger at motion??

ang ginagawa lang nung mga sensor nayan ay nagagawa nilang i-trigger ung flash sa tamang oras.. like pag binagsak ko ung lighter nayon at narinig nya mag ttriger ung flash..

so pano naman ung shutter ng camera, pano mo pipindutin qng dimo alam kung kelan mag ttriger ung flash?

ganito ang ginagawa nila.. unang una dapat nasa madilim na lugar mo ito gagawin, ok lang kahit sa kwarto na may ilaw basta napaptay..haha

so inaayos muna nila lahat ng setting sa camera, focus, flash etc. na kailangan.

tapos ilalagay nila sa "bulb" ung shutterspeed nila..

akala ko ba dapat highspeed mabilis ang shutter? edi pag bulb mabagal..

yes, pero isipin once ok na ang lahat at pinatay mo ang ilaw, wala nang ambient light.!

wala na ding mag bblur sa subject mo kase ang tanging ilaw lang na papasok sa camera mo ay yung nang gagaling sa flash..kuha mo?

so ganun lang kasiple ung concept nito..

i ayos lahat.. bulb mode, flash power, focus at subject mo.. once na ok na ang lahat. patayin ung ilaw.. hold mo ung shutter at wag mong bbitawan hangat hindi nag fflash. ibagsak mo ung subject mo sa powder pag nag flash na bitawan mo na shutter mo.. ayon pasok na yon:)

*take note sa may mga sound trigger at motion trigger lang to..