LACMA Jazz

A trumpet player performs with the Tall & Small Band at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Friday, August 12, 2011.

The Moose Sleeps on a Lower Branch

Well, it's a squirrel. Just sitting there, staring in my window. Not suspicious at all. Still staring. Stop it, squirrel.

At least it's not this.

On Our Front Window

This guy stopped by our place this afternoon, stayed about ten minutes, then flew off. (For those of you keeping score at home, that's ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/800th of second, with a 45mm macro.)

If This Is Friday, It Must Be Jazz

Glenn Cashman plays the tenor saxophone with the Luther Hughes & Cannonball/Coltrane Project at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Friday, July 15, 2011.

The Brush Man

Clayton Cameron, known for his percussion work with brushes, performs with the Clayton Cameron Sextet at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Friday, July 8, 2011.

Also see: Jazz At LACMA.

Jazz at LACMA

A jazz bass player performs with the Clayton Cameron Sextet at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Friday, July 8, 2011.

Strobox

How many times has this happened to you: you need to communicate your ideas on how to create the perfect lighting set up, but you have a fear of both paper and pencils.

Finally, there's a solution. The Strobox iPhone App.

It's free, it's fast, it's preloaded with images of gear you're not even sure you can name, let alone use, afford or store. Just click and drag a background, a camera, about 7 or 8 lights, three reflectors and that weird Brolly-box thingie.

Don't forget the snoot!

Add a model, and view the whole thing from above. In just minutes ... you'll have thoroughly overlit your subject in a fairly entertaining way.

But wait ... there's more!

You can look at other people's photos ... complete with lighting diagrams made with the App! That's right: no longer will you need to Guess the Lighting.

Heck, now if only your underpaid photo assistants could just afford to have phones...

Backstory, Part Three

I found a complete copy of the May 23, 1990 edition of my college newspaper, the California State University San Bernardino Chronicle, so I've scanned it to show to my photography students the type of work I did when I first started. The issue, made when I was 23, included five of my photographs.

The first three were sports photos (see here and here).

But I also published two features in that issue, shown above.

Backstory, Part Two

I found a complete copy of the May 23, 1990 edition of my college newspaper, the California State University San Bernardino Chronicle, so I've scanned it to show to my photography students the type of work I did when I first started.

The issue, made when I was 23, included five of my photographs.

Above: on the cover, a photo of the celebration after game one of a three-game series. On the Sports page, two further shots: a home run complete with the ball in the frame and a pitcher mid-throw. Keep in mind that in those days, I was shooting a Pentax K1000 -- with no motor drive and no autofocus -- and developing my film by hand.

Through the Middle

A woman plays the flute between two Mark Rothko paintings at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Sunday, July 3, 2011.

Hill Street

A man plays guitar on South Hill Street in Los Angeles, Sunday, July 3, 2011.

Backstory, Part One

I'm preparing for a new term of teaching Photojournalism online, so I've decided to take a look back at my earliest involvement in the field.

In 1988 I began working for my college newspaper -- the California State University San Bernardino Chronicle -- and stayed involved for several years. (I eventually worked there as a photographer, as a writer, as Managing Editor and as Photo Editor.)

I haven't saved many tearsheets from those days, but I found a complete copy of the May 23, 1990 edition and for fun I've scanned my contributions for that issue.

Above: In those days I shot baseball with a Pentax K1000 and Tri-X film. No motor drive, so just one chance to get the timing right. I don't remember what settings I used, but I like the shutter speed -- fast enough to freeze the bat, but slow enough to let the ball blur.

Happy 4th of July

Above: Michael Tuba Heatherton as Uncle Sam.

Strobo

With apologies to Harold Edgerton (and with a little help from Mrs. Documentary Photography) here's a little stroboscopic experiment.

The setup: a Nissin 466 with a red gel on was set up to light the background, then a Metz 58 AF-2 in stroboscopic mode provided 5 flash pops at a rate of 20 Hz. The exposure was ISO 100, f/11, with a shutter speed of 1 second. (The metz was at 1/128th power.)

"But what about the purple and blue?" you ask.

The Metz was fired through a snoot to control where it hit, directed at the ball and the left side of the frame. It puts out light that is at a color temperature of about 6000K, so by adjusting my white balance setting to about 3000K I was able to shift the light to blue -- and it turns purple where it mixes with the red light from the Nissin.

Maillol LOL

A museum visitor poses in front of a sculpture by Aristide Maillol at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 28, 2011.

Meta

Robbert Flick photographs curator Tim Wride during the opening reception for the "Street Sight" exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Saturday, June 25, 2011. The show includes work by Flick as well as Adam Bartos, Darryl Curran, Bevan Davies, John Divola, Judy Fiskin, Dennis Hopper, Graham Howe, Grant Mudford, Jane O’Neal, Marvin Rand, Seymour Rosen, Ed Ruscha, Julian Wasser, and Terry Wild.

Street Sight

Two people view photographs during the opening reception for the "Street Sight" exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Saturday, June 25, 2011.

You'd Think She'd Know When They'll Arrive

A woman waits for customers in a storefront "European Psychic" shop in Los Angeles, Saturday, June 25, 2011.

Standard Stoppage

A dog and owner attend the opening reception for the "Street Sight" exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Saturday, June 25, 2011.

Using the Metz 58 Second Reflector Well

Let's start with this: the Metz 58 AF-2 is a great hotshoe flash. In my opinion, it's the smartest flash out there.

I do, of course, understand why a photographer might choose the top-of-the-line flash from their specific camera brand. I think it's worth comparing, though, before a purchase -- it has some features that photographers might not even realize they need or realize are left out of the Brand Name flash.

I'll address the Metz 58's merits some other time, though. Today, I want to address an element I see presented badly around the web, and I just want to clarify a bit about this feature.

I'm talking about the Metz 58's "secondary reflector." Here's the deal: besides the main flash head, the Metz has a smaller, less-powerful flash tube ("reflector") that stays facing forward even when the main head is tilted up for bouncing.

So what do I want to clarify? Well, the typical discussion of this feature goes like this: "Hey, great idea, let's try it. Oh, tried it: it's too harsh."

So, let's look at this quickly. In the photo above, I set a camera bag down and made a quick shot by tilting my Metz up and bouncing the flash off the ceiling. Simple, and it worked well. But ... if we are really picky, and look at the buckle and at the shadows under the flaps of the bag, we can see the drawback of ceiling-bounce-flash: shadows. On a person's face, this can mean that the eyes get a bit dark: the brow ridges cast a shadow and "hide" the eyes.

Well, a quick solution can be to pull out the built-in white card on the head of the flash (similar to putting an index card on the flash held by a rubber band -- the old school solution). Alternately, we could bring in a reflector and redirect some of the light back into the eyes.

But can we use the Metz' "secondary reflector" to help us fill these shadows?

Yes ... and no ... and yes.

So, the Metz lets you sets:

• Secondary reflector at full power.
• Secondary reflector at half power.
• Secondary reflector at 1/4 power.

Cool. Let's try those.



Above: the main flash head is titled up at the ceiling, bouncing its light. The secondary reflector is pointed at the bag, set at "full power."

Awful. It looks like the flash from a little compact camera. Essentially, the secondary reflector is about the same size, so that makes sense. But don't blame the flash: this is the photographer's fault. We need to adjust the power levels between the main bounced flash and the secondary reflector we want to use as fill. In that first shot, the direct secondary reflector was too powerful, so let's turn it down.



Above: the secondary reflector is now turned down to 1/2 power. Better, but the quality of light is still not great. We are getting too much light from the smaller, "harder" light source and not really doing what we set out to do, which was fill in shadows left by the bigger, "softer" bounced light. So let's adjust further...



Above: now we've set the reflector to 1/4 power. Not as bad ... but not good enough.

And usually, that's where the test ends, and why I think this secondary reflector feature has been treated a bit badly by reviewers. They tend to say "Hmm. If it would cut down to 1/8 power, that might work...."

Well, shucks, is it so hard to help the flash out a little?



Okay, that's better. If you look at this shot, and compare it to the original, you can see some positive improvement. The buckle in the first shot is too dark, and here we can see it. And we've done it without letting the little (and harsher) secondary reflector ruin the quality of the light.

How did we achieve this? The Metz only lets you use the secondary reflector on 1/1, 1/2 and 1/4 settings. So ... how did we go further?



Well, duh. I just attached a little diffusion over the secondary reflector. I took out my Honl Strap, put it on the head of the flash, then velcroed on a Heavy Frost gel. If I wanted to cut further, I could use more diffusion.

This could be a very easy and workable technique if one is photographing people and seeing shadowed eyes. Any diffusion material can work -- and you can vary it as you like. For someone shooting night club photos, or a wedding reception, a little refinement of this technique could be a very plausible solution for no-worries fill.

Friday Flower

I'm not really a flower guy. It's important to stretch, though, I think.

This image was made as a little flash-technique exercise. I shot at 1 p.m. under full daylight sun. The trick: I set my flash on HSS (High Speed Sync) and changed my exposure to ISO 100, f/4, 1/4000th of a second. Since the flash was connected via an off-camera cable, I was able to position and direct it where I liked -- letting me decrease the background exposure but still intensely light the flower.

Perfect for Rush Hour

A component of a Richard Serra art work is prepared for transport at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, Thursday, June 23, 2011.

See also: Cor-Ten

Double Portrait

Today at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Also, there was this.

Cor-Ten

A component of a Richard Serra art work is lifted by a crane at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, Thursday, June 23, 2011.

3rd and Fairfax in Los Angeles

A costumed person waves while walking along 3rd Street in Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 22, 2011.

Que? Serra, Serra

A construction crane, used to move art work by Richard Serra, is seen at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Tuesday, June 21, 2011.

Found

Tatum O'Neal strides forward to join Mario Lopez for a television interview at The Grove in Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 22, 2011.

Dogtown and TV-Boys

A Los Angeles television reporter learns to skateboard during the "Wild in the Streets" event at Lafayette Park in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 21, 2011.

CORRECTION:
Los Angeles television reporter Cary Berglund learns to skateboard during the "Wild in the Streets" event at Lafayette Park in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 21, 2011.

The Downside of Street

A skateboarder falls during the "Wild in the Streets" event at Lafayette Park in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 21, 2011.

And on my other blogs:

Wild in the Streets

First Day of Summer

First Day of Summer

A skateboarder attempts a jump during the "Wild in the Streets" event at Lafayette Park in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 21, 2011.

Wild in the Streets

A skateboarder lands after a jump during the "Wild in the Streets" event at Lafayette Park in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 21, 2011.

The Return of Rocky the Fleeing Squirrel

Previously, on Rocky the Fleeing Squirrel....

Ambient Sound: Quarters Dropping

Returning from Utah, we had a few flight delays. While waiting in McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Mrs. Documentary Photography suggested we play a small amount of money on a slot machine.

Landlocked, Yet Hopeful

I'm in Utah. It's kind of a long story.

A Face in the Crowd

I heard sirens, and went outside. I photographed this incident. I looked around at the crowd, and saw the expected mix of curiousity and shock that an accident had happened.

And then, there was the guy above.

Pink Shoes

Firefighters help a person involved in an automobile accident onto a stretcher in Los Angeles, Friday, June 10, 2011.

Looks Like He Made It

Barry Manilow is escorted from a performance stage to a waiting limousine after a performance at The Grove in Los Angeles, Thursday, June 9, 2011.

Wait, "Fauve" Means Wild Beast?

Why, yes, we were discussing Chip Simons, why do you ask?

Like A Felon

Recently, I've had to use gels on my flash for both color correction and for effects.

It occurred to me that, if someone is interested in gelling their flash, they may easily be led astray by the "advice" they find on photo forums. You know, those same people who tell you to use the bottom of a 2-liter soda bottle instead of a Gary Fong diffuser. They're out there, in the forums, and telling everyone to ...

• buy big sheets of color gel material and velcro fasteners
• spend all day cutting the gel material into strips and carefully attaching the velcro
• somehow label the gels so you'll be able to figure out which one is the full "Color Temperature Orange" and which one is the 1/2 "Color Temperature Orange" during the pressure of a shoot, in the dark.

Great. Because you need to spend hours doing that to save about $20. Nothing like work that equals about $5 an hour and looks kinda shoddy at the end of the day. Let me save you the time, but cost you about $50. First, know what you want to do. The idea is this:

The Problem:
 Your flash puts out light that is pretty close to the color temperature of 5500k. So if you go into an office and want to use it to augment light coming from overhead fluorescent panels (which are kinda green if you shoot them with Daylight white balance instead of Fluorescent white balance), you may find a mismatch that can create color casts somewhere in the image. Or, if you go into someone's living room and want to add to the light coming from their table lamp (possibly balanced for 3200k) you will have to choose to set your white balance to match your flash or to match the lamp -- which can mean either a blue or yellow cast in some areas of the image.

The Solution:
Put a gel on your flash to match it to the existing light in the space. Then, you can set your white balance to match. In other words, in an office you would make your flash a bit green to match the greenish light fluorescents put out, and set your white balance to Fluorescent. In a living room, you would gel your flash to make its light close to 3200k color temperature, so it matches the living room lamp, and then set your white balance to "Indoor" or "Tungsten."

So what you need is the right gel -- and you can get custom made ones for relatively cheap, and quickly attach them to your flash. (And then, if you want to explore the world of "painting with light" or other color trickery, you can get additional gels to work with.)

Here's what I recommend:

1. Get a Honl Speed Strap.
This is just a strip that wraps on the head of your flash -- it's basically one size fits all for any hotshoe flash -- and that gels can be Velcroed to.




2. Get a set of Honl Color Correction Gels.
These come with a two of each of the important gels for making your flash match the conditions you'll find in the world. They attach quickly and easily to the strap, and take up almost no space in your camera bag. Adding flash to an office shot? No problem. Adding flash to a living room shot? No problem. Purposefully warming up a shot? No problem.




3. Later, get a set of Honl Color Effects Gels.
Then, you can spend hours in the dark, playing with light.




As an example, the image on this page was made with a "Bright Red" gel and a "Moss Green" and just a touch of "Yellow" -- I set my camera on a tripod, darkened the room, set my aperture to f/11 and the shutter speed to 8 seconds. I held my flash in my hand and then manually fired it in varying positions -- set on low power -- a few times with each gel.

The Circle of Life is Noisy

I don't mind that the backyard crows fight. I just wish they'd wait until I've had my coffee before they start.

Gelling Your Flash

Recently, I've had to use gels on my flash for both color correction and for effects.

It occurred to me that, if someone is interested in gelling their flash, they may easily be led astray by the "advice" they find on photo forums. You know, those same people who tell you to use the bottom of a 2-liter soda bottle instead of a Gary Fong diffuser. They're out there, in the forums, and telling everyone to ...

• buy big sheets of color gel material and velcro fasteners
• spend all day cutting the gel material into strips and carefully attaching the velcro
• somehow label the gels so you'll be able to figure out which one is the full "Color Temperature Orange" and which one is the 1/2 "Color Temperature Orange" during the pressure of a shoot, in the dark.

Great. Because you need to spend hours doing that to save about $20. Nothing like work that equals about $5 an hour and looks kinda shoddy at the end of the day. Let me save you the time, but cost you about $50. First, know what you want to do. The idea is this:

The Problem:
 Your flash puts out light that is pretty close to the color temperature of 5500k. So if you go into an office and want to use it to augment light coming from overhead fluorescent panels (which are kinda green if you shoot them with Daylight white balance instead of Fluorescent white balance), you may find a mismatch that can create color casts somewhere in the image. Or, if you go into someone's living room and want to add to the light coming from their table lamp (possibly balanced for 3200k) you will have to choose to set your white balance to match your flash or to match the lamp -- which can mean either a blue or yellow cast in some areas of the image.

The Solution:
Put a gel on your flash to match it to the existing light in the space. Then, you can set your white balance to match. In other words, in an office you would make your flash a bit green to match the greenish light fluorescents put out, and set your white balance to Fluorescent. In a living room, you would gel your flash to make its light close to 3200k color temperature, so it matches the living room lamp, and then set your white balance to "Indoor" or "Tungsten."

So what you need is the right gel -- and you can get custom made ones for relatively cheap, and quickly attach them to your flash. (And then, if you want to explore the world of "painting with light" or other color trickery, you can get additional gels to work with.)

Here's what I recommend:

1. Get a Honl Speed Strap.
This is just a strip that wraps on the head of your flash -- it's basically one size fits all for any hotshoe flash -- and that gels can be Velcroed to.




2. Get a set of Honl Color Correction Gels.
These come with a two of each of the important gels for making your flash match the conditions you'll find in the world. They attach quickly and easily to the strap, and take up almost no space in your camera bag. Adding flash to an office shot? No problem. Adding flash to a living room shot? No problem. Purposefully warming up a shot? No problem.




3. Later, get a set of Honl Color Effects Gels.
Then, you can spend hours in the dark, playing with light.




As an example, the image on this page was made with a "Bright Red" gel and a "Just Blue" -- I set my camera on a tripod, darkened the room, set my aperture to f/11 and the shutter speed to 8 seconds. I held my flash in my hand and then manually fired it in varying positions -- set on low power -- a few times with each gel.

Rocky, The Fleeing Squirrel

No moose sightings to report.