Leap Day Giveth, Delta Taketh Way

I had hoped to be landing in Dubai for GPP 2012 right about now, but our mechanically challenged plane yesterday objected. Rather theatrically, I might add.

So instead, I'm encamped next to the airport in Atlanta at a hotel sufficiently downmarket to have free wifi. So that's something good, I suppose.

To that end, my homage to Andrew Hetherington's ongoing Room With a View series. But cool as those photos are, he never tells you the lighting details. So we can at least accomplish that much today. Read more »

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How to Avoid Dealing With the Police When Shooting in Public

Are you a photographer in the US? Congratulations. In the eyes of some of your more dimwitted fellow citizens, you are now potentially a member of al Qaida.

Thanks to ridiculous government posters like the one above, people are now conditioned to be suspicious of photographers. And photographers using flashes on location are all the more noticeable to people who are predisposed to phone in anything out of the ordinary, just in case.

Don't think so? True story: I actually had an interaction with the police for photographing … a maple tree. Read more »

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Michael Grecco for Psychology Today

Here's a cool, ~1-minute time-lapse that offers some neat ideas. Grecco uses an undersized set and some oversized creativity to create a conceptual cover photo for Psychology Today.

It's quick, and some details are easy to miss if you don't hit pause. (Watch it full-screen on 1080p for best effect.) But the lighting is one out-of-frame boomed box on the background, a top-of-frame box for key and a ring for fill.

Note that after the model is done, he shoots the grass and flowers separately for an easy strip-in with a locked-down camera position. (Final image is shown in close at the 0:38 second mark.)

Props to Grecco for his steady stream of BTS vids from many of his shoots. If you have not seen them, here are some others:

:: Grecco Shoots Will Ferrell ::
:: Grecco Shoots Martin Scorsese ::
:: Grecco: Guerilla Shooting in LA ::

-30-

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PocketWizard Plus III's: More Trigger, Less Cash

(Click pics for bigger versions.)

A couple of years back, as PocketWizard were rolling out increasingly complex remotes featuring wireless TTL and HyperSync and everything else, I sent an e-mail to one of their engineers.

Basically, it said that if you want photographers to love you long time, release a stripped-down "cadet" model that is as reliable as a Plus II, but at a lower price. Because in the end, what we want is rock-solid triggering and non-obsolescence -- at a lower entry point (amirite?)

Turns out they were listening, if only half-way. Because the PocketWizard Plus IIIs are coming, and they are $30 cheaper than the PW Plus IIs.

But stripped down, they ain't. Not by a long shot. Read more »

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Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light

From the American Masters Series, this outstanding documentary on Richard Avedon was originally aired in 1995.

It's an intimate, hour-and-a-half long journey into the mind of one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, and it's brilliant. Read more »

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B2B: One Big Top Light

We're back to basics today -- looking at working with a single, large source and how to tweak it.

Five years ago, I mostly thought of large sources in a "45-degrees-up-and-over" kind of way. Safe? Yes. But now, that kind of stuff all looks the same to me. So I almost never use them that way. Read more »

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How the Other Half Lives: George Holz' Beyoncé for Spin

Photo © George Holz

You know how people on the Strobist Flickr group like to talk about how it is technically possible to shoot blow-away white with just one flash?

Yeah, this is not exactly that.

Hit the jump for a walk-thru vid for the (ahem, eight-light) shoot, including a key light combo that you're prolly gonna want to rent rather than buy next time you are assigned to shoot Beyoncé. Read more »

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Lighting Inside the Box

After 15 years of long-term planning (and saving) Susan and I finally took the plunge with a full kitchen remodel. We were really pleased with the results, and at some point I had promised the contractor a nice photo of the final product.

In a room like this you are basically illuminating the inside of a box by using hidden lights, which turned out to be an interesting exercise. And it's something I would recommend for just about any photographer. Read more »

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Core Knowledge: Working With Remotes

There are two things you should always remember about radio remotes:

One, radio can be fickle. This is true whether you are using your time-honored PocketWizards or a brand new Chinese offering.

Two, radio waves -- and success with your remotes -- are all about the physics. So a little knowledge can go a long way toward ensuring good range and reliability.

Some basics that every lighting photographer should know, inside. Read more »

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