Naperville Photographer for Portrait Photography and Sports Photography

Category: Technique

The Grape of Wrath: Fun With Fruit

Sunday, 20 November 2011 18:10 0 Comments

With apologies, but not remorse, I call this one "The Grape of Wrath". Shot on Lightbox with Softbox and Reflector providing key and fill lights.I have been having more and more fun experimenting with light box photos. This shot was made with the grapes placed on top of a cheap DIY lightbox with a Canon 580EXii stuck inside shining up through the table surface. Up top I used a 24″x24″ soft box with a 430EXii on one side as the main light, and a circular reflector on the other side to act as fill.

I did several different versions of this shot, both with my Canon 7D and the popup wireless flash controller, and with an evaluation Canon 5D MkII having another 580EX on top to serve as flash controller. I found very little difference in picture quality between the two sets in cases like this where the lighting is good. The 5DMkII really shines best when the light is dim.

Great Book for Learning Canon E-TTL Flash System

Thursday, 29 September 2011 07:24 0 Comments

There are lots and lots of general flash technique books out there, but Speedliter’s Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites is by far the best I have found for getting the most out of the E-TTL system in the Canon lineup. This book goes well beyond simple rewriting of the material in the Canon manuals however, and gives you plenty of creative and powerful ways to do flash on your Canon using both E-TTL and Manual (e.g. Strobist) settings.

The Kindle version of this book also works very well, with photo examples inserted at the correct points in the text and with Figure Captions where they should be.

My Top Recommended Book for New DSLR Users

Thursday, 01 September 2011 15:03 0 Comments

Many years ago I got my first DSLR and began my quest to master the medium. I’ve still got a long way to go, but the best book I found to get me started was Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Before reading this book I thought exposure was just an issue of getting the correct “brightness” for the shot, afterwards I gained a better insight for the critical role that exposure plays in the overall picture. Highly recommended.