Canon Cinema Caravan

I'm not sure why but I love this video. It always makes me want to go out and shoot.

canon cinema caravan promo film from stillmotion on Vimeo.

BTS Video

So fstoppers.com had a behind the scenes video contest. I wanted to submit something, but I also wanted to wait on the 5Dmk2 to film it. As the deadline drew near for submissions, I realized that I was just making excuses. So, instead of sitting and doing nothing, I called Tiffany and we made a quick and dirty BTS video for the latest installment in the T-shirt Fashion series. Its nothing special, and I feel like I look super goofy, but I felt lazy not making it so here it is.

BTS Video from Zac Henderson on Vimeo.

Behind the scenes video for F/Stoppers.com

High Fashion T-Shirts

I'm working on a T-Shirt fashion shoot for Mammoth Printshop that merges the simple T-shirt with high fashion photography.

Basically the idea is that I'll be shooting models done up with high fashion makeup, hair, etc, as well as a large production feel for the sole purpose of advertising a T-shirt. This past weekend Tiffany (my model of choice + my fiance) and I shot a test image for the series. Right now its waiting to be approved by the owner, so we'll see if he goes for it or if he wants something a little more down to earth.

Here is a short short video of us setting up. You may notice us putting tin foil on the outside of an umbrella. This was just an experiment to see what it would look like if the light from the flash goes through the umbrella fabric, bounces off of the foil, and then travels back through the umbrella fabric onto the model. I'm not sure how much of a difference it made. I don't know why I didn't shoot a comparison shot. Anyway, the two shots in the studio below were shot with that umbrella as the key.

Ti-83 TIme Lapse

I was asked to shoot a time lapse video for Mammoth a while back. I have never shot a time lapse video in the past, and so I was at a loss for how I was to get started. Fortunately, the internet exists. I found a couple pages about how to set up and edit, as well as information on exactly how to take the photos on a regular schedule. The main consensus on the websites I found was to buy an intervalometer which would attach into the camera's 2.5mm remote port and control the camera's shutter. I did not, however, want to spend $60.

Then, I found this website that instructed users how to program their TI-83 series graphing calculator to enable it to trip the shutter for the camera. I was skeptical, thinking there would be some hidden modification somewhere in the process that I wouldn't be smart enough to figure out. Wrong. Its easy. The tutorial on that site is fantastic, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in time-lapse that also owns a TI-80something.

I would also suggest Photojojo's guide to time-lapse. They've got a great explanation and step by step process regarding the planning of the video.

To test it out, I set up my Canon Rebel XT on a boom and attached the calculator to a clamp on the stand. After I made sure everything was the way I liked, I executed the program and voila, hundreds of still frames just waiting to be put together in a video.

TI-83 TIME LAPSE from Zac Henderson on Vimeo.

I was asked to shoot a time lapse video for Mammoth. I had never done it before, and so I searched around the net for tutorials. I came across a website that showed users how to program their Ti-83 graphing calculator so that it could be used as a timer for DSLRs enabling time lapse photography. Obviously I got it to work! This is just a test.



http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-a-TI-Graphing-Calculator-into-an-Intervalomet/



Music: Zero, by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Making the move...

Yeah, thats right.

I'm making the switch to full frame.

Some of you (probably no one) might be familiar with some of my first posts regarding the 7D and its performance. I got the 7d and loved it, but as I started shooting I began to realize that this camera was not made for someone of my shooting style. I do a lot of low light and shallow dof work, and the noise put out by the 7d did not make life easy. I have a problem with a camera having features that I shouldn't use, (iso 12,800 being completely unacceptable).

I wanted a camera that was able to record video, but I didn't care as to the quality so much as long as the still capture was good.

Well, the 7D ended up being a camera that was great at shooting video, but only ok at taking stills. I needed a camera that was great at taking stills, and ok at taking video. Enter the Canon 5D mark II.



The full frame sensor allows for greater image quality, higher resolution, less noise, greater dynamic range, and a more shallow dof. Not to mention there no longer being a need to multiply the focal length. The 5D Mark II does shoot video, but there is not as much effort put into it than in the 7d. I haven't received the 5d yet, but it should be here within the next couple of weeks. I'm having to sell my 7D as well as my Hasselblad (croak) to pay for it, but in the end I think its worth it.

Keep checking up on the blog to see my review/thoughts on the switch to full frame.


---I should note that the 7D is more than ok at taking stills. It has great resolution, but there was softness in the images that I didn't appreciate. The 8fps was great, but I think I used it in the field once. It has great features, but just wasn't for me.

New Lights

Had a quick shoot with Tiffany earlier last night. This was the result. Not 100% happy but pretty pleased with the end product.

Will post lighting info later

Mammoth Media

New videos I've made for Mammoth Printshop!

Mammoth Style from Zac Henderson on Vimeo.

Printing Anamanaguchi from Zac Henderson on Vimeo.

Meddin Studios Video

Intro and Meddin Studios from Zac Henderson on Vimeo.

It was late when I made this video, and apparently I was quite confused because I kept referring to Meddin studios as Metter. The studio is in fact named Meddin Studios.

South Magazine And Other Happenings.

It always seems like I begin every blog post with a statement about how long its been since I've posted last. This time is no different. Its been a while.

Anyway, things have been happening and I'm eager to share them with you!

I've been shooting for The South Magazine for a couple months now and have been enjoying it greatly! Most of what I do for them is "scenes" photographs, which is essentially going to parties, dinners, events, and fundraisers to photograph whoever is there so that The South can put them up on their website. This is The South's way of staying up to date on who is attending what, while also allowing the public to do the same in addition being able to purchase prints. If you follow that previous link you can look through the galleries and find several that I've photographed. On top of working scenes, I was able to photograph my first editorial piece just the other day. I can't give out any specifics about what the article is about, but I'm excited to see it in print.

Classes have been going well for the most part. I'm still loving the heck out of Large Format. I'll definitely have to buy a 4x5 outfit whenever I have the money. I'm looking at Horseman and Toyo, but its so far in the future it doesn't really matter what I'm looking at at this point. Midterms have come and gone, and I need to start thinking about my final. And when I say I need to start thinking about my final, I mean I need to start really racking my brain because I have a one page formal proposal due Monday.

In Project seminar I'm working with the 4x5 Fujifilm instant films FP 100-C and FP 100-B. The tones the FP 100-C put out are beautiful and I love 'em to death, but the film is ridiculously expensive. I've already spent over $100.00 on just a few packs of film. The results are fantastic, though. Here is an example self portrait. I think I'll be shooting similar portraits for the rest of the quarter. The only problem is that I need new people! If you're in the Savannah area and wouldn't mind posing for a hot second send me an E-Mail. I can't promise you the print but I'll surely scan it and give you a digi copy.

As it turns out, my light meter has been giving me false readings. I've had a Sekonic L-398A meter for the past year and a half(?). It would be a great meter if it would work. Its an analog meter with a amorphic silicon photo cell so that it never needs batteries. It doesn't do flash readings but it does do incident and reflected readings. Its easy to read and its relatively inexpensive, especially when considering how much one would be saving without having to buy batteries. But, of course, the unavoidable problem here is that it doesn't work. I've had two of these meters and have experiences problems with both. The first one I got had an issue with the needle. It had WAY too much play, so if moved the meter at all the needle would shift dramatically. And no, I wasn't moving the meter from pitch black to direct sunlight. The second one I got I've had for a while. I think it was working fine for several months, but I never did truly test it to see if it was giving me accurate readings. I guess this would have been a good idea, but its a light meter and I'm supposed to trust it, right? Anyway, I was noticing significant underexposure on my LF negatives and it turns out the meter was giving me false readings. Boo.

I tried to order a Sekonic L-308S Flashmate from Mac-On-Campus, but little did I know it was on back order, so I've been waiting for a while. BTW, if you're a student and you need to buy any kind of photographic equipment, check out MOC. Their prices are pretty impressive.

I guess I'll go ahead and wrap things up. Feels good to be writing again. Expect more posts more often. 'Till next time.

War Eagle.

Gettin' Busy and Photoshop's Black Magic

Spring quarter has started for me here at SCAD and things are in full swing. I'm taking Project Seminar 1, Large Format (SWEET), and 20th Century Art. Large Format looks to be really awesome, but I'm nervous about Project Seminar and I'm not sure quite yet what to think of 20th Century Art. I'm uneasy about Project Seminar because we have SO MANY CRITIQUES. We have to have around 12 new prints every week and I'm not used to shooting that many images in that time frame. What's worse is that the project and process I'm working on is quite time consuming. So yes. Scary. I'm loving Large Format and I really think I'd like to use view cameras after the class. I guess my biggest problem is staying proactive and not wasting time, 'cuz that's something I do so very well.

Anyway, on to the Industry. Adobe announced Photoshop cs5 a few days ago. This is planned obsolescence at its finest, but hey. Whatever.  The new version has cool stuff like 3d brushes and a few other cool features, but the most notable of which is the Content Aware feature. Just watch the video.

Insane, right? Apparently now if a photographer missed a shot he can wake up content aware which will then read his mind and compose a completely new photograph. That's a little far fetched, but this is some of the craziest stuff I've seen. The algorithms and mathematics behind this has got to be immensely complicated.

On another note, Adobe also released a second beta version of Lightroom 3. Here's hoping its going to be awesome.

Fujifilm's new baby. GF670

This is why I love Fujifilm. This is Fujifilm's new FILM camera, the GF670. The medium format camera is obviously a folding model, and is aimed at professional photographers. Fujifilm plans to release it at PMA this year.

Two thumbs up for Fujifilm for going against the "grain". This is a great pillar for holding film up as still being available in the near future. Its wonderful that a MAJOR player in the photo industry is still  manufacturing and developing film, but is also making NEW film cameras for PROFESSIONALS. This camera isn't some Polaroid replacement for the hipster masses, although Fuji does have one of those (which is cool in and of itself), but this is a brand new classic style film camera aimed at working professionals. If this isn't a bold statement about how film still has a role in the professional workplace, I don't know what is.  Fujifilm has also been taking out whole page adds in high end photography magazines advertising film and posing the question, "In a digital age, is it possible to have a renaissance in film?". Fujifilm certainly thinks so, and I'm one hundred percent behind them.

Canon 7D. 21 days in. Rerereview.

I've reread my initial "review", if you can call it that, of the 7D a few times, and I've come to the conclusion that the post really didn't do justice to the camera. Note, probably no review I can provide can be fully counted on, but I feel as though maybe I should tell a little bit more than what was said in the beginning. Now that I've really had the time to shoot with the camera I can provide a more "mature" depiction of the camera, rather than the "Oh I just got it now I want to talk about it" state of mind I may have been guilty of earlier.

As stated before, the camera feels very good in hand. The body is designed quite well, and it feels snug and not as bulky as it could. The buttons on the back of the body have nothing to hide, and everything is well placed. A couple of the most useful physical features of the camera are the Quick menu and the One-touch RAW + Jpeg buttons. The quick menu is essentially what the name sounds like...its a quick menu. Press the button and you'll see your settings neatly displayed on the LCD which can be easily navigated through and changed, you guessed it, quickly. The instant RAW + Jpeg button is useful if you're shooting Jpegs just for the fun of it, and then you see something really cool so you need to quickly record a RAW image as well. I do not find much use for this feature, however, considering I shoot entirely in RAW. I would also imagine that most people using the 7D would be doing likewise. Of course the feature works both ways, so If you're shooting RAW and you also want to record a Jpeg you can do that as well, but I can't really think of a practical application where you would be unable to make a jpeg from the RAW image later... Lets not go there.

Also as as stated previously, the menu controls are logical, but some features can be a little buried. The 7D also has a feature which allows the photographer to write his or her copyright information into the metadata which is just super. Since I'm upgrading from the XT I'm not used to this feature and I'm so glad its there. Something else great about the menu is that you can customize pretty much every button on the back of the camera. Very very cool. I've found that having image quality assigned to the SET button in the middle of the dial is the most useful for me.

The custom functions are easily utilized, and can be very useful in the right situation . Just simply begin in manual mode, choose the functions and settings you would use to shoot in that given situation, and then assign them to C1, C2, or C3. I use C1 for standard daylight shooting, C2 for night shooting, and C3 for video.

Another great feature is the electronic level. Just hit info a couple times while your shooting and the level will come up on the LCD. You can also have it appear in the viewfinder through the activated AF points, but I haven't spent the energy to figure out how to do it. When I first read about the level, I thought it was cool, but I didn't think I would use it. Wrong. I've already used it several times in practical applications and its oh so useful, and in all my experiences, accurate.

I don't shoot a lot of fast moving subjects, but today I decided to go out and shoot my dogs just to play around with the all new AF. Love it. Its deadly. The 7D tracked my running dogs with ease, even when they were running towards me. The 8fps was also a very useful tool and a pleasure to listen to. Oh, the power.  The low-light AF also greatly outperforms the XT, but I'm not too sure how it racks up against direct competitors. Again, the 100% viewfinder is a blessing.

I've looked at the noise on the 7D SEVERAL times. Yes, I've been pixel peeping. What I've found is that the noise at high ISOs isn't as bad as I thought it was. I was actually just looking at a few JPEGS I took indoors in low light at 5000 ISO and I found the noise levels to be surprisingly manageable. Here are a couple screenshots of an image I shot in the middle of the night at 4000 iso. The Raw files were opened in DPP and then brought into Lightroom as Tiffs. NR tools were used in both programs. Taken with a Canon 50mm 1.8 II at 1.8 for 1/40 sec at ISO 4000.  The second image is at 100%.



Another point of interest is the apparent softness in the images viewed on the LCD screen. To some people, like me, this may cause some stress early on in the game. Its important to remember, however, that we're dealing with 18 megapixels, the image we're viewing on the LCD is a Jpeg rendition (even in RAW), and that every sensor depicts a RAW file differently, and that each RAW file put out any given camera needs a given amount of editing.

As far as video goes, I'm not going to pretend like I know stuff, 'cause I don't. After doing some research I've realized that in order to really fully get into video one has to invest in a plethora of other expensive gear that I'm just not ready to commit to by any stretch of the imagination. I'll dabble with what I've got and edit with iMovie. You can find a lot of other reviews raving about the 7Ds video capabilities.

A feature that I'm excited about, but haven't been able to test yet, is the ability to trigger multiple speedlights via the pop up flash. I haven't been able to play yet because as of right now I don't have any speedlights. Maybe soon? Should be very useful.

And I guess that'll wrap up my 3rd edition of the Canon 7D "review". Thanks for reading. Here are some sample photos taken with a similar workflow as mentioned above.

Light Pollution, A Continuation

, originally uploaded by Nach0o.

Light Pollution was the name of my final in my photo II class. The project was centered around man made light pointlessly illuminating natural objects.

A couple nights ago I gained some inspiration and decided to go out and continue what I started. Hopefully I'll keep it as an ongoing project.

This is one of the two I took last night. You can find the whole project here.

Canon 7D Review

A couple days ago I upgraded to the new Canon EOS 7D. I'd like to talk a little bit about it and give a brief, unofficial review to those thinking about purchasing.

But first, I'd like to give props to the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. This has been my camera for 5 years, and it has been a workhorse. I've learned so much from it, and it has performed consistently well up until a few months ago. I'm so glad the XT was my first DSLR, and I suggest it to anyone thinking of making a move into digital photography.

So, onto the 7D. (Be forewarned. I'll probably be making a lot of comparisons to the Rebel XT (even though they're not comparable) only because this is the only other DSLR I've been shooting with for any substantial period of time.

I'll start where pretty much everyone else starts. First impressions; the build quality of the 7D is very nice. The camera is weighty at 860 grams. This is a relief for me. It doesn't feel cheap, and I know that if it gets bumped a couple times there won't be anything drastically wrong (although this could be coming from the knowledge that the camera boasts a magnesium chassis and is weather sealed). The grip is very well designed and is quite ergonomic. I like holding it...

The menu system makes sense and is very logical. Some features (like extended ISO) are a little hidden, but once found they can easily be found again. I haven't been able to wrap my mind around the Custom settings (C1, C2, C3,), but I also haven't put forth THAT much brain power into them yet.

What I like best about his camera is its 100% viewfinder. There isn't a whole lot of sensor to go around, and this  feature is a great way to make the most of what there is. What is also great about the viewfinder is that its not nestled too closely to the LCD screen, so you don't have to squeeze your face up to the back of the camera to look inside. Something else thats pretty cool is the 8 frames per second this camera can force. Really useful for sports, and something nice to have for those of us who do a little bit of everything.  The 18 megapixels isn't too shabby either, and is a HUGE upgrade from the 8 megapixels on the XT. Although, once you get to a certain point, megapixels really don't make THAT much of a difference. I think Canon may have done better to have kept the 15 megapixels as on the 50D and, in doing so, brought the price down a wee tad.

The noise levels on this camera are a bit of an issue for me. The noise section of the DP Revew review for the 7D and competitors can be found here. On that review, the 7D holds its own and does pretty well. In my experience I've found noise levels to be pretty high, especially when shooting in low light (the reason for using high iso). When I got the 7D I expected it to make the XT look like a kid with a new drum set, and it does do a lot better in low light, high iso situations, but not to the extent I expected. Then again, I may have had unrealistic expectations. Canon IS packing 18 megapixels into an APS-C sensor.

The Video feature is easy to access and manage for the most part. When in Manual mode, you can still adjust shutter speed, iso, and aperture while shooting. You can also take stills while recording video which is nice.  I just don't know if I have the computing power to manage the massive files. imovie also isn't the ideal editing software, or so I am told... Anyway, from what I've played around with the quality is fantastic and well worth its chunk of overall retail price. This is going to be the area where I may catch a little heat, but I did not choose the 7D for its video! Was that someone fainting in the audience? The 7D is going to be my primary still camera for several years until I move into full frame. But that's not going to stop me from using the 7D's video awesomeness. I just may not be able to use it to its full extent for a little while. I can easily see myself making a few bad short films whenever I have the time. You can see a few clips I took for The War Eagle Reader here.

In summary:

Cosmetically, the camera is pretty. It is weighty, but still feels good in hand.

Menu controls are easy to use, but some features a little hidden.

Video easy to access.

Convenient button options on back of camera.

8 frames per second is quite fast.

Not a great low light/high iso camera

And there you have my sporadic, splotchy, quick and rough review of the Canon 7D.

Canon 7D Test from Nach0o on Vimeo.

Getting things underway.

So, to begin this blog, I want to write about a thought that I've been having for a while now.

A couple years ago a friend of mine and I were in a field throwing the Frisbee when we saw another group of people playing a larger game. He insisted that we try to join in. I protested and tried to keep the game between the two of us. Being the kind of person he is, he, then and there, tried to dissect my unwillingness to join the game. He said "I think I know the problem. You've spent too much time behind the camera." His statement was certainly convicting. I had spent a lot of time behind a camera taking pictures of other people doing other things. I had gotten into a few sports but had quit for one reason or another. Had I really spent too much time behind the camera? Was I really just on the outside looking in to a world of activity while I sit helplessly behind a window taking note? No. Yes, a camera can be used as a tool to remove one's self from a situation. Journalists in a war zone would be thought of as sick if they did not have their cameras and were only there to observe. As long as they have their cameras between them and the action they are "non combatants".

But photography is so much more than just a documentation. Documentation is the obvious use, but I don't believe I photograph in order to document. To be honest, I don't know why I take pictures. It feels right I suppose. It feels natural. I love the feeling of satisfaction I get when I look at a photograph I just took and know it to be "good" in my eyes. I get feelings from mine and other photographer's photos. They make me think and they also allow me to appreciate an image that I may not have been able to see before.

So I don't think that anyone can spend "too much time" behind the camera, as long as they themselves are satisfied with what they are doing.