Jan
22
Conducting a lot of my work on-location, I need to pack my lighting gear around to some very random, very remote locations. I also shoot the majority of my work with larger studio strobes (I use AlienBees), rather than the smaller hot shoe lights. As much as I’d like to utilize my set of speedlites more often, especially on shoots where I’m left packing gear over a long distance, they just don’t pack the power I’m usually demanding from my lights. You might be thinking, “hey, if you have both sets of gear and have the choice, well… that’s easy, go with the AlienBees.” Contrary to AA battery-powered, convenient, lighter, fit-in-your-bag speedlites, packing and deploying AlienBee lights on a location shoot can quickly become a pain in the ass. With speedlites, you have the small light, a stand, and maybe a light modifier. With Alienbees (and all studio strobes for that matter), you’ve got power cables, reflector dishes, carrying cases, larger/heavier light modifiers, and power packs (to power the lights). By default, AlienBees want wall power to keep them happy and firing. If you want to take these things out in the middle of nowhere you gotta bring big power with ya.
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Jan
21
It’s easy to forget about. You use it for just about everything in life, you rely on it more than you know, but might not even know how inaccurately you are viewing and editing the digital world. Out of all of the gear photographers lust over, camera bodies,lenses, and the thousands of dollars spent to acquire these light capturing tools, most forget about one of the cheapest and most important pieces of gear they need. If you are a photographer and have not properly calibrated your computer monitor, you need to stop editing photos and get on this. I repeat, do not edit another photo before taking the steps to ensure proper monitor calibration.
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Jan
12
Reflectors and diffusers are typically the first things photographers buy when they start experimenting with light manipulation. It’s a great thing… you’ve taken the step to start playing with light, rather than just throwing your arms up in defeat when you can’t seem to achieve favorable light conditions in a given shooting situation. A reflector/diffuser combo is a very wise choice, regardless of your existing gear status, as they are useful all the time. I think that at times people feel that “controlling light” translates to blasting a flash in someone’s face and calling it a day. Adding flash lighting or redirecting ambient light with a reflector is a way more delicate process than you might think. It doesn’t have to be a huge, dramatic change in the overall exposure. Just adding a little of spark to your main light, or filling-in shadows to bring some more detail into the composition can make a night and day difference. It’s not a game of miles or even feet, we are talking about inches. Small increments of addition/subtraction of light to make all the world of difference in your portrait work. Here are a couple thoughts, more of a checklist, to keep in-mind when you go out to make this purchase.
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Dec
12
It’s a topic photographers start to tackle as they continue to develop their skills, continue to tackle new subject matter, and continue to tackle the processes in order to capture better photographs. Of course, all of these photographic avenues we try to improve ultimately trickle down to the same solution, much like the branches of a tree to the trunk, and that is – the betterment of capturing light. Each photograph – a simple exposure to light. There are literally an infinite number of situations in which a camera can be asked to best capture that pesky stuff we call “light.” Some of these situations can best be captured by simply fully understanding how to use a camera and how to spin the dials, some may call for the use of a reflector, diffuser, or even an addition of a light source, and some require the introduction of a filter to best capture the moment. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the latter, an in-depth look at the various filters available to photographers, which ones to avoid, correct and incorrect uses, and when to best use them. The importance of using filters in your work will largely depend on the type of photography you capture. They can have a very dramatic or very little effect on your image, depending on your knowledge of how and when to use them.
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Nov
19
Here is a video Q & A for those of you photogs who want to start flirting with off-camera flash. This isn’t a video about how to use lighting and everything that goes with it. It’s a simple recommendation on the starting block gear to acquire to start your lighting journey. The good news is that TTL will help you ease into this journey (if you are using hot shoe lights), so you don’t have to be an absolute lighting wizard to pull of simple lighting execution.
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Nov
18
You have to admit, it’s a guilty pleasure buying new stuff. Sure, it sucks having to shell-out moola for the really good stuff, but if you are a legit working professional in your field, it’s a necessity. BUT… as much as you hate seeing a series of zeros in the price tag of pro-level equipment, there is a part of you that is super happy about clicking that “buy” button. Photographers are notorious gear freaks, always lusting after the next biggest, faster, meaner piece of equipment, whether it is a lens, camera body, general accessory, lighting, or computer equipment. We live in a world that is now obsessed with efficient, lean business workflows. On top of that, society in general is always looking at how they can get services and products cheaper, faster, and easier. The same applies to the career field of photography. If photographers are expected to keep their prices lower to stay competitive, they have to find ways to make the price they are charging economical to keep their dollars per hour up at a desirable range. Ex. if you charge $200 for a photo shoot, is your total time invested into that project 3 hours or 30? If this (photography) is what you wake up and do every day, it is a prime example of a high output workflow. By that, I mean it’s not like you are dealing with something on a small scale, like selling cars. You are most likely pumping out photos in the thousands every month if you have a healthy business. So, we are dealing with units in the thousands per month. Don’t you think that is something that is worth evaluating, in terms of process workflow and where bottlenecks might be? Just like any other profession, the longer you keep at it, the quicker you are capable of doing a job, managing the juggling of processes, etc, and hopefully the lack of efficiency in certain spots will become more evident. You’ll most likely continue to reach new levels in your knowledge and experience, and your current gear and approach may begin to keep you from breaking through to the next step. That’s your cue to do something about it.
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Oct
19
Whether you just bought your first SLR camera or your fifth, there’s no denying the fact that most of us photographers are gearheads one way or another. Some of you might be looking for a bag to lug around your first big boy camera, some are running out of space for additional lenses you are adding to the never-ending collection, and some have more specific needs in a bag. Let’s take some time and go over some things I’d recommend you consider when shopping for a new bag. I can remember back when my gear grew and/or changed in size. I made a couple bag purchases and quickly outgrew them or they simply lost their purpose in life for me. Let’s breakdown some of the basics when considering that new camera bag and some of the problems that can arise unexpectedly quick, leaving you with a bag only 6 months old, yet worthless.
I think that the people this post will help most are those who have recently bought their first DSLR, who probably have a kit lens and maybe one more lens (most likely a mid-quality longer zoom). So you are juggling two lenses, you are going on some adventures and want to have them both with you, yet you want to pack/protect your investment. Others might have been in the game for awhile and you’ve caught a serious gear bug, and you have a lens/accessory infestation. There are bags for you and your “issue,” and we’ll cover that as well (I fall into this category). Some of you may choose to have multiple bags, one big guy that fits all your gear, and another smaller bag for your wandering adventures.
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Sep
24
Is this post a little late to the game? For those who already use applications like Aperture and Lightroom (more about these later in the post), yes, this post is about the biggest “duh!” article you’ll have read in a couple years. However… for those photographers who have not had their eyes opened to these savior-like applications, the people who make a living making piles and piles of photos yet still rely on single image editing applications, this post is for you. Why do I STILL have a sense that this post is necessary? ‘Cause I hear of people struggling with photo management on a regular basis, and I feel compelled to write it for them. Most likely, this post is going to help that group of photographers who are at the level where they are just starting to get paying gigs, they are flirting with the idea of taking on photography seriously, or maybe they’ve been doing it for a while and can’t figure out how other working photogs are staying afloat with all of the editing, ’cause they are spending an unimaginable number of hours in post production with a steady stream of clients. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s all about getting the job done better, faster, and cheaper. Streamlining your biz is key, and post production is a giant arena which can be tweaked to really get more time back to invest in other areas.
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Sep
04
Commercial work, mini sessions, weddings, and more all in the same week. The last month has been a crazy mix of work, if it weren’t for iCal keeping my schedule and head together, I wouldn’t know what mode to wake up in. It’s an interesting thing, switching it up from shooting food products in the studio to children in the park the next day. Clientele interaction, lighting, and photographic approaches… the whole game changes with the wildly different jobs. One thing is for sure, all the variety keeps me on my toes, and… consequently keeping me away from the blog as of late.
Speaking of variety, the mini sessions have been bringing just that. From a single person to the full family shoots, I’ve been shooting it all and at a few different locations. The kids always bring unexpected surprises. They are definitely a challenge, but a welcome one, because they provide hilarious expressions when they come out of their shell. Couple goofy ones I’ve taken over the last week in the post, along with a young man I captured down at Ruston Way. Plenty of bloggin’ to come on that later down the road.
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Apr
04
More specifically, what makes a DSLR superior to a point and shoot? That’s a loaded question, but lets look at the major factors to consider buying a DSLR if you are serious about photography. A DSLR camera is requirement if you are looking at attending a Matty Photography workshop, and you’ll see why next.
Control, Quality, and Performance are the three of the many factors we are going to look at today. There are ALL KINDS of bells and whistles on today’s cameras, but we are going to specifically concern ourselves with the ones that really truly matter when it comes to making a photograph.
Control is pretty basic really, but hard to appreciate/understand if you do not know how cameras capture light in order to make a photograph. In short, the camera has a couple parts that vary their size and speed in order to capture the proper amount of light. Most of your point and shoot cameras to not allow you to control this. In turn, you lose control of your image taking. I mean… how can you control your camera and take the photo you want if you can’t control your camera’s functions in which determine all this? These mysterious functions that I speak of are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, all which contribute to making the image. If you do not fully know what these are or how to control them, you are not taking the photograph, your camera is, you are just clicking the button. Now don’t you feel special? 
Learning these functions and how to control them are covered in-depth and practiced in the beginners workshop, so don’t sweat not knowing this information, just know that it’s important stuff. A lot of students will walk into the beginners class with a camera that they do not know how to use, but by the end of the class, they are all well-skilled in how to take the photos they want with a DSLR and do it great!
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Feb
04
Life is all about time, or rather the lack of, right? Time is always the most scarce resource, even if you have all the time in the world, others around you, or even mother nature does not. As a photographer, “good light” naturally only happens in small fragments of time, and we counter this by using off-camera light, even when we don’t need to in order to get even “better” light. I think we need to put all our cancer curing resources and task them into figuring out how to extend really nice sunsets to say… twice as long (I kid…. but seriously).
Here is a behind the scenes video I cut together today, it showcases a little bit of the stuff we did while we were running around the island.
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Oct
18
Been integrating more video work in with my clients. I’m experiencing that once business clients know that I can shoot/cut video along side the photos, they ask for it. And why not? At a flip of a switch, I can go from photos to video, both top quality products out of the same device, pretty neat. I say that loosely, although you can make the transition to capturing photos or video with a flip of a switch, there is a bit more to it than that. Obviously photos and video capturing have a lot in common, but as much as they have in common they also have just as much that separates the two arts. First, you have a completely different selection process for what to capture in each medium. Some things are best captured with photos, some with video. Understanding and getting a feel for working to each medium’s strengths will greatly improve efficiency and the overall product given to the client. With photos, you have the luxury and power of flash/strobes to blast light, greater controlling your environment. With video, you are stuck with continuous light, which also has it’s strengths as well.
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