Foto Tech

Litepanels 1X1 Kit

LED lighting will play a crucial role in the evolution of photography. I’ve dreamed of a specific light my entire career and LED technology makes that light possible. The light would be small yet bright, dimmable and with adjustable color. This light would run cool and quite on battery power. That’s exactly what LEDs can do.

LED lights are quickly replacing all forms of lighting. In most cases it’s just a better technology. Just look for a flashlight or camping lantern and you’ll see what I mean. My friends at 360s.com have developed a light engine that will be manufactured for mobile operating rooms. This LED light source replaces traditional incandescent systems, and it lasts over 4x longer than other lights using similar battery packs . I’ve been playing with one of these “light engine” prototypes and I love it. It’s shows incredible potential as a photographic light: bright, cool, adjustable, and small.

Look for manufactures of all sorts of photography lighting to move to LED sources in the coming years. As I said before, it’s simply a superior photography technology. I’m curious weather or not these lights could be “pulsed” like a strobe. An LED light that could turn on for a 1/4000 of a second would replace the need for standard on-camera flash and studio strobe systems . At the very least, manufacturers will replace modeling lights with LEDs and compact flash units will become hybrid lights.

The move to hybrid cameras that shoot both stills and video is driving a need for continuous lighting. Also, strobes can’t keep up with the frame rates that are possible with today’s cameras.  HDR imaging also requires a continuous light source because shutter speed adjustments are necessary for exposure changes (changing the aperture changes pixel alignment).

Strobes are available and usable in far brighter ranges than LEDs, however I find this unnecessary. An LED equivalent to a 6400 watt second  strobe would blind everyone on the set. For portrait work, I’m often using 1600WS lights on their lowest settings and sometimes adding neutral density to dim them down. Modern DSLRs do an excellent job at higher ISOs like 400-800, so the need for all the power has really diminished.

Litepanels MicroPro

There is already an abundant selection of stage lighting and architectural lighting available in LED. There are also many on camera video lights and ring lights for macro work. Larger arrays of LEDs for studio and location lighting are available, but the selection is limited. I do expect  there to be a vast selection of adjustable color LED lights with available within two years.
Many of these lights are controllable by a stage lighting communications protocol called DMX

Here are a few LED Lighting resources:

Litepanels – Video
Kometled
Pdngearguide
Arri
Switronix
Enfis

” I’ve loved more cameras than women, but I love women more than cameras.”

I’ve been working out some theories on the most practical way to upgrade technology. Cameras, computer hardware, and software technology move at an alarming rate. The question is: when does it make financial and practical sense to upgrade? There are considerations of implementation and cost involved. Here I will outline these considerations and my theories and strategies.
Moore’s Law describes a long-term trend in computer hardware where capacity of circuitry doubles every 24 months. These same principles can be applied to almost all technologies, though the timing is different for every technology and situation. Technology upgrade theory is all about cost, implementation, and gain. Developing a good strategy is dependent on the nature of the technology and that must be studied carefully.

Know the Technology and know the habits and schedules of the manufacturers of that technology.
Example #1 Adobe is on an 18Month upgrade cycle: they allow you to skip versions and still get upgrade pricing: and their upgrades are usually major.
Example #2 Nikon usually upgrades the flagship models six-nine months before the top prosumer models. The top of the line prosumer cameras usually have many of the desirable features of the Flagship model at 40% of the price. Nikon is notoriously slow in getting their announced cameras to market. Read more…

My last post on camera bag technology and transporting your gear did not include lighting gear. This post is primarily for Pros who travel with lighting.

Case technology for transporting lighting really hasn’t really changed that much. Lights have gotten smaller and lighter, but this hasn’t change the cases. It’s just a matter of getting the right size and padding. Many newer cases come with wheels and that’s a noteworthy addition.

The four biggest manufactures are Lightware, Tenba, Pelican, and Haliburton.

Size matters: Getting the right size and weight for air travel is tricky. Sometimes it’s just best to rent gear near your destination when you travel by air. I like to hire local assistants who own lights or can get their hands on some. I’ll pay big bucks for someone who knows the location, can get the lighting, and can pick me up at the airport. What I save on rental cars, taxis, and baggage charges can pay for an assistant. Read more…

The right method of traveling your gear is essential. Careful consideration of the way the gear is transported is often overlooked. Camera gear has changed, so the bags and cases have changed as well. Some of the new bag technology is really innovative and can make a big difference in the way you work with the equipment. Backpacks, slings, and holsters are in are replacing shoulder bags. My back welcomes these changes! Really nice Modular Systems are also coming onto the market.

Depending on the amount of gear you own, and what you do with it, I recommend owning at least three camera bags:
#1.) The largest bag that will still fit the domestic travel carry on regulation: I use the Tenba Shootout backpack shown above for this bag. It just barely fit’s into the overhead of larger planes. The shootout is a really well thought out backpack and I highly recommend it.

#2.) A medium bag that will carry just one camera body, a flash and a couple of lenses: I use the Tamrac Velocity 9 shown below which is a sling style. I love the sling style and find the Velocity 9 to be an comfortable and accessible.

#3.) A holster bag that carries only one camera and one lens: It’s nice to be able to take just the bare essentials on some shoots. Read more…

We used to joke about photographers who “had their lights on strings.” This was an old school way of producing consistent results, but not creative ones. The modern version of that is photographers with their flash still on the camera. With all the options for remote-triggering strobes there is no excuse for using just an on-camera flash. That deer in the headlights straight on small light source look look is so tired. Here I light myself with two Canon 580 EX II flashes. I also used a ring light for fill, then added some lens flair in Photoshop
I really don’t need that much power most of the time, so a a battery powered TTL flash is fine. You can control additional flashes from an on-camera flash or use an IR controller.

Read more…