Apr 22, 2019 | Field Reports
Profoto B10
I’ve anxiously been waiting for this to arrive at the office, the new Profoto B10! I already have in the locker (which I love) the Profoto B1 & B2, amazing tools serving my storytelling brilliantly. So why add the Profoto B10? There are three main reasons, it’s only 7″ long and fits into my Think Tank Security. It is both a 250ws studio flash AND LED constant bi-color video light. And, and this is the biggie, uses all the light modifiers I already have for the B2! The space saving, power packing multi purpose aspect of the Profoto B10 along with working seamlessly with my other Profoto to me is simply genius!
I have done all my testing with it and will be doing my first editorial shoot with it this week. I plan on bringing you a BTS video so you can see for yourself how, what might seem like a big investment, will more than pay for itself in your photography!
Apr 17, 2019 | Field Reports
There’s really not much to say other than, I love it! The Vello Universal Bounce Diffuser slips over any pocket flash head and brings an instant softness to the light. The back or top side is black to prevent light spillage. The inside of the back, black side is silver bouncing light out which is nice. It weighs nothing and goes flat in your pocket or bag. And it’s only $9.95.
Apr 16, 2019 | Field Reports
To be totally upfront, I am perhaps not the best one to be offering this advice, so take it with a grain of salt. It’s that time of year when photographers, pros and hobbiets a like are thinking about how to best spend their tax refund. I know because the emails are flooding in asking me which body or lens over this or that body or lens should they buy. I usually ask one question, what will move your photography forward, that piece of gear or time out shooting? Time is money and for many, time is harder to come by than money. There is always a pause in the conversation when I ask this question.
With that said, a brand spanking new Nikkor Z24-70f2.8 as I type is on a truck for delivery to me today. The 24-70f2.8VR is a VERY important lens in my kit! It’s a killer lens, very sharp producing gorgeous images. It attaches to the D5 and together, they are a lethal combo! They are also heavy!! So, when I already have the Z24-70f4 why would I use refund funds to add another 24-70 to my kit? Well, I’m actually selling my 24-70f2.8VR because I primary use for this zoom is photographing statics and folks and typically with flash. When it comes to my favorite body for this it’s the Z6 now, not the D5, so it only makes sense to go lighter (the Z24-70f4 is killer for video so it stays in the locker). But here’s the thing, I’m only taking a temporary loan with my refund, until I sell the 24-70f2.8VR, using those funds for time in the field for an event I want to go and shoot in July. See, to me, time shooting is a better use of my capitol then gear which is why my kit is so minimal. I hope I’ve helped your dilemma more than muck it up with this thought :-)
Apr 3, 2019 | Field Reports
Gtr Sandhill Crane
captured by Z6 / 500PF
“If you could buy just one body ….” if only I had a penny for every time I’ve been asked that question the past forty years, I wouldn’t have to have a blog! This is not a new question nor dilemma for photographers and I have no doubt this question was asked back in the day of wet plate photography. And I have no doubt that no matter the year or version of the camera body, the answer still comes to the same one and it’s one photographer’s DON’T want to hear!
First, the answer for me and my photography, the Nikon D5 is the one and only body if I could only have one (which, as we know, I don’t have just one so what a dumb question :-). There are lots of reasons for this from its size & bulk to operation to files. None of this might apply to YOUR photography and that’s the answer most photographers don’t want to hear. Some who talk to me about this are under the impression that the camera body will solve all their problems. They might, but as my mom always said, it takes two! In this case, it takes the PHOTOGRAPHER and the camera! Capturing action is a big complaint (cause it has to be the camera, can’t be photographer). The camera has to have the correct settings set by the photographer and the camera to keep up with the action (done by the photographer) to do its job. Autofocus speed is only as good as panning smoothness. I have two photos here taken with the Z6 and Z7. I have NO issue shooting any action with these bodies and capturing sharp images. That doesn’t mean you’ll experience the same thing. That’s because it’s the PERSON behind the camera that truly counts. That’s why in the question which camera to buy, photographers aren’t thinking it all through as it’s a partnership and that’s where there is body confusion!
Apr 2, 2019 | Field Reports
G-Tech 4TB G-DRIVE
For a long time, I have traveled with a copy of my Gallery Images so I can take care of my clients while I’m traveling. This is the third time I’ve “updated” my 4TB drives for this traveling gallery. This time, I went with, and love the G Tech 4TB drives. Why did I choose these? Well, I first sent a G Tech 4TB to Brent and asked him to test it by attempting to edit a Z7 video from it using both Premiere and Photo Mechanic 6. Brent found the write speed permitted easy editing and scrubbing of that 4k video. That was good enough for me.
Product Highlights
4TB Storage Capacity
Micro-USB 3.0 Interface
Bus Powered
Supports Time Machine & File Vault
Aluminum Case
Plug-and-Play
Includes Micro-USB 3.0 Cables
Preformatted for Mac 10.10+
Windows Compatible with Reformatting
Using rync, I was able to create new copies of my Gallery Images in a snap! It makes all the difference in the world to our business and I just wanted to pass that along.
Mar 26, 2019 | Field Reports
Putting it succinctly, it keeps me in business! I simply love Photo Mechanic 6 because it took an already really fast DAM and throttled it up to light speed for ingesting, culling and organizing my digital file. I used it two weeks ago when I had captured 12628 images in three air-to-air missions to ingest and cull all those images in less than four hours. That’s huge!!!
If you’ve been Photo Mechanic 5, you’ll have basically seamless transition into PM6! All my settings from PM5 (here they are and will be updating soon) are instantly honored in PM6 so I was instantly working as I had previously, just so much faster. How much faster? My best example is that a 4k video from the Nikon Z can be scrubbed in PM6 with ZERO lag, delay, memory hold that isn’t possible is a lot of other programs. But there is only ONE way to see the speed and that’s to experience it yourself. You can download the FREE 30 day right here. And if you wanna see what’s all new, the mega list follows. Personally, it is simply, the best!!!
Version 6.0 (Initial Release) Build 2725
• Photo Mechanic is now a 64-bit application, which allows more and better caching of images to keep you working at your fastest and handle large high megapixel images. NOTE: Apple has said 64-bit will be a requirement for macOS 10.14 (Mojave) although their current public betas of 10.14 do not force this but instead give a one-time warning.
• Internal image caching improvements increases thumbnail / preview generation speed by approximately 2-3x (depending on various factors including source media).
• Ingest from Selection: all the power of Ingest but from a selection of images on a card or disk.
• Reverse Geocoding: using GPS coordinates embedded in your photos, insert place information metadata (city, state, country, etc.) into your images.
• Fullscreen support on macOS and Windows for both the Contact Sheet and Preview windows (including both at the same time on different monitors).
• Session Save and Restore: Photo Mechanic can optionally restore all Contact Sheet tabs and all of their settings that were in place when you last quit.
• Navigator and Favorites are now threaded so Photo Mechanic doesn’t have to wait for slow external drives or network volumes to load.
IPTC/XMP:
• Reading of IPTC vs. XMP metadata is now handled automatically. XMP is preferred over IPTC, but any IPTC fields missing in XMP are now included. For RAW files with both embedded XMP and an XMP sidecar file, the most recently modified XMP will be loaded. This is consistent with Adobe’s handling of conflicting IPTC/XMP metadata.
• The XMP Label (a string) can either be synchronized or not synchronized with the color class value (for Photo Mechanic this is a number from 0-8). By default, when synchronized, if the XMP Label field matches one of the values in the Preferences list of Labels, then the color class will be assigned. If unsynchronized, then the XMP Label field string is independent from the Photo Mechanic color class value, and the Label field can be edited directly in the Metadata (IPTC) Info dialog.
• Added Modifier Key Toggle to the “Copy to ‘Location Shown’ table” button which changes to “Copy to Loc Shown/Location” and instead copies to the other location fields/table.
Code Replacement improvements:
• Hot Codes!
• When pasting text containing Code Replacements, all Codes are evaluated at once.
New Render Cache:
• Caches slow-loading image types for faster subsequent access.
• Allows previewing of RAW files via the free Adobe DNG Converter.
• Plugin architecture for other third-party RAW renderers as they become available.
New metadata variables:
• {label} or {labl}: XMP Label for photo. This is the actual value stored in XMP, not the value interpreted by looking up the color class number (0-8) into the Preferences array of color class label strings (shown by the {colorclass} variable). This is useful when the XMP Label field is not synchronized with the color class.
Crop tool improvements:
• Crop View mode: allows you to see how your rotated crop will turn out. Press ‘p’ to preview a crop quickly.
• “Full Crop” button that starts your crop as a full-size crop that you can then modify.
• Holding down the Shift key while resizing from a corner constrains the crop to the natural ratio of the image being cropped and overrides any default crop constraints.
• Shows a fine grid when rotating crop.
• Settings changes now apply immediately to existing crops.
• Select Cropped command in Contact Sheet.
Slideshow improvements:
• Now has multiple transitions including a cross-fade.
• Allows on-screen soft edits (Adding Tag, Color Class or Star Rating) with visual feedback.
• Supports high DPI screens in full resolution.
• Text alignment options (left, center, right).
• Optionally draw a border around the image.
• Larger Render Text field.
• Added Up and Down arrow keys for advancing or going back a slide.
• Pixel inset option to control overscan on projection.
Find and Replace panel improvements:
• Now allows use of {variables} as replacement text.
• Whole words can be found and replaced.
• Regular Expressions allow for powerful search and replace.
Find panel improvements:
• Whole words can be searched.
• Regular Expressions allow for powerful matching.
Uploaders:
• Facebook uploader
• Dropbox uploader
• Amazon Cloud Drive uploader
• Revised Amazon S3 uploader
• Box.com uploader
Exporters:
• PM Classic exporter has been split up into simpler exporters.
• New Image Gallery exporter.
Miscellaneous:
• Added single-click Zoom toggle option for Previews.
• Mirrored rotation support for thumbnails, previews, and correct cropping. Also, new commands to mirror both vertically and horizontally (*NOT FOR JOURNALISM*).
• Reassign WAV file to a different photo.
• When updating metadata to JPEG files, Photo Mechanic now does edits on a temporary copy to ensure that any file system errors do not affect the integrity of the photo. This is especially important when editing photos directly off of a flash card (still NOT recommended).
• Added much better error reporting and retry capability.
• Blu-Ray disc burning support.
• Snapshot menus have a new menu item titled “Manage Snapshots” which opens the Finder/Windows Explorer showing the folder containing the snapshots. From there you can copy/rename/delete the snapshots.
