Cameras
Holga + Vivitar 285 = ?
May 07, 2008 11:00 AM
By Robert LachmanWhen is simple better? This is an example of simple lighting with an inexpensive strobe. This portrait of actor Neil Patrick Harris was photographed by me the for the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times. The lighting setup was simple: one Vivitar 285HV ($90) off camera on a stand with a light orange gel and a small snoot on the strobe to narrow the light beam. It's nice to focus the light into a smaller beam. I used a Holga, a $29 camera, shooting ISO 400 Kodak 120 film. What look like a second light is just the blue cast of the background fill from the shady balcony. I only shot every other frame on this film which gave me the dark edges left and right when I scanned the negative. The vignette is caused by the low tech quality of the Holga camera with the plastic lens. Ok I did use a a Pocket Wizard radio remote to set off the strobe. I could have use a sync cord. Just an example of old school mixing with the new school digital age.
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Win a Dusty Old Kodak Brownie
May 03, 2008 01:56 PM
Ask a photo question and you might win a dusty old (or vintage) Kodak Brownie. The person who sends in the best photo or Mac computer related question to PhotographyAndTheMac.com in the month of May 2008 wins. I will judge the contest and the winner will be announced at the beginning of June. The email address is in the sidebar on the left or just click on the blue rectangle. Robert Lachman______________________________________________________________________
Nikon Web Site
April 20, 2008 09:35 PM
By Robert Lachman
Nikon enthusiasts should check out the new interactive website at www.nikonusa.com and Nikon Picturetown with 2GB of free photo storage. According to their advertising, "Up to 20 GB free until April 30, 2008." Later in the site Tour, the Picturetown's services says you need subscribe to my Picturetown Gold for the extra storage which is available only in the US and Japan. 
It was tough to tell how much extra this was going to cost without signing up. I just signed up for Photoshop Express. Enough is enough with signing up for stuff. Ok after a little further checking you're going to get nailed on your credit card for $2.99 a month for the 20GB's of storage after April 30. Remember you're already getting 2GB of storage free so you're
paying the monthly fee for only 18GB's of storage. Just like those extended warrenties. Probably not a great deal.
The site does interact with their new line of cameras which will transmit via WiFi. This seem cool until you realize most cell phones will email photos instantly already
I certainly do want to give kudos to Nikon for their new D3 camera. The quality of the camera is amazing with high ISO settings like the 1600. They look like ISO 200 compared to a many of the similar cameras. ______________________________________________________________________
Nikon enthusiasts should check out the new interactive website at www.nikonusa.com and Nikon Picturetown with 2GB of free photo storage. According to their advertising, "Up to 20 GB free until April 30, 2008." Later in the site Tour, the Picturetown's services says you need subscribe to my Picturetown Gold for the extra storage which is available only in the US and Japan. It was tough to tell how much extra this was going to cost without signing up. I just signed up for Photoshop Express. Enough is enough with signing up for stuff. Ok after a little further checking you're going to get nailed on your credit card for $2.99 a month for the 20GB's of storage after April 30. Remember you're already getting 2GB of storage free so you're
paying the monthly fee for only 18GB's of storage. Just like those extended warrenties. Probably not a great deal.The site does interact with their new line of cameras which will transmit via WiFi. This seem cool until you realize most cell phones will email photos instantly already
I certainly do want to give kudos to Nikon for their new D3 camera. The quality of the camera is amazing with high ISO settings like the 1600. They look like ISO 200 compared to a many of the similar cameras. ______________________________________________________________________
Think Horizontal, Not Vertical
February 16, 2008 10:29 AM
By Robert Lachman
Earlier, I wrote about the software Fotomagico by Boinx software. It reminded me that when you're shooting pics for a slide shows the rules change. You need to remember the format you shooting for. Try to think of youself as a movie director and the wide canvas you have. Think of the wide long movie screen. It's quite a departure from the way I would normally shoot photographs. The old school rules would be shoot vertical, horizontal and shoot tight.
Remember your cool new digital SLR viewfinder window gives you a much more horizontal square 4:3 format. You're not going to use any of the top and bottom of that viewfinder. All those pixel are going to waste. It a shame to waste pixels, but you can use them later when you make 8x10 or 4x6 prints. Shoot tight but now it's time to pull back and shoot again. Now get much wider and fire again, remember you can pan across photos on your new super expensive HDTV screen. You're going for the Ken Burns effect on steroids, that's OK, this isn't Major League baseball.
You need to push your creative limits.
Earlier, I wrote about the software Fotomagico by Boinx software. It reminded me that when you're shooting pics for a slide shows the rules change. You need to remember the format you shooting for. Try to think of youself as a movie director and the wide canvas you have. Think of the wide long movie screen. It's quite a departure from the way I would normally shoot photographs. The old school rules would be shoot vertical, horizontal and shoot tight.
Remember your cool new digital SLR viewfinder window gives you a much more horizontal square 4:3 format. You're not going to use any of the top and bottom of that viewfinder. All those pixel are going to waste. It a shame to waste pixels, but you can use them later when you make 8x10 or 4x6 prints. Shoot tight but now it's time to pull back and shoot again. Now get much wider and fire again, remember you can pan across photos on your new super expensive HDTV screen. You're going for the Ken Burns effect on steroids, that's OK, this isn't Major League baseball.
You need to push your creative limits.