Simple Click – Butte ..aful Sunrise
The Epson P7000 – Holly Cr*&!!!
If you’re a regular to the blog and website, you know I’m a print-aholic! I print for lots of reasons, self-learning, thank yous and profit are just a couple of them. So when the Epson P7000 came out, I was first in line to get one. It’s here and wow, what a printer! While it might look like the P7900, what’s inside is basically all new. The biggest thing are the new HDX UltraChrome Inks. The new automatic “Anti-clog” features don’t suck either. But you should just watch the video, it covers it all.
On a side note, with the introduction of the P7000 / P9000 and Epson Print Layout and Legacy Papers, basically everything on my Moose Print Lab is now obsolete! I will be creating a complete online class (you will have to pay for it) on my printing process. After so many requests from folks from my Print Lab Weekend Workshop and with the latest innovations, it seems like the natural evolution so keep an eye out for the class release. It will be right here on moosepeterson.com!
Secret of the Light
Ever since posting the photo of Mirasa as “Rosie the Riveter,” (middle photo) on Instagram, I’ve received one common question. What’s the light source? This was all part of our Photoshop World Precon and its exploration in the qualities of light to tell a story. It’s very indirect courtesy of an aircraft hangar which is a favorite light source of mine. You can actually see a example of how I make use of this gorgeous light in my Pilot Portrait class, Inside the Hangar. Now just being in a hangar is not the trick, there is more to it than that!
Mirasa “Rosie the Reverter”
captured by D5 / 105f1.4 AFS
The hangar at Stallion 51 is large and that’s part of the secret! It’s 85′ door opening and 85′ depth permits placing the subject at the right spot for the best light for them. In the top photo, Mirasa is very close to the hangar door opening. The light is very even this close to the door which doesn’t work for the structure of Mirasa’s face. Now shooting with the D5 / 24-70VR doesn’t help the light either. The 24mm is taking in more light on the sides and that brightness “flattens” the overall feel to the light. The middle photo here, the change up was moving Mirasa back in the hangar about 20-25′ from the door. I then switched up to the spectacular 105f1.4 AFS (I so love this lens!) shooting at f/1.4. The combination of moving back changed the light on Mirasa showing off her great cheek bones and letting light just skim over to the left eye. Shooting at f/1.4, I was able to grab a darker corner of the hangar setting off the light on her face. The whole thing took less than a minute but when working in a hangar as much as I do, it’s real simple for me to use that gorgeous light coming in from that huge door!
Mirasa “Rosie the Reverter”
captured by D5 / 105f1.4 AFS
Just for comparison, I wanted you to see this photo taken outside about an hour after the one from above. Once the God scrims came in, we took the models outside to continue our lesson in light. Mirasa is on the wing of a T-6 Texan so we are picking up a little reflected light from the fuselage. In addition, there is a gold reflector bringing up the light level and some warmth on her left side. Using a backlight pattern for separation, the lighting solution worked OK for a quick pick up shoot. But when you compare the light from the hangar in the middle shot to this one, the drama and quality and most importantly, the storytelling, the hangar light beats this all to pieces. The moral … always be looking at light because the best light can come from the most unlikely places. And that’s the secret of light!
Simple Click – Read Sign!
Simple Click – World’s Biggest Water Hazard
The Nikon 19T/S Lens
Late last year, Nikon released the PC NIKKOR 19mm f/4E ED Tilt-Shift Lens, a very esoteric, expensive, special use, amazing lens! This lens is not meant for mainstream photographers because it has a very specific application most photographers don’t need. I have the lens for one reason, shooting inside of hangars. But after mentioning the 19mm on the Podcasts, I had some folks ask just what a PC (perspective correction) lens does.
When you tilt a camera/lens up to take in all of a subject it changes the perspective of the scene. The classic example is that lines fall in on themselves (the bottom photo). For example the photo of the windmill, it’s on the edge of the frame and if taken with a wide angle lens, it would be tilting into the frame. It was shot with the 19mm so it’s standing up straight. If you look at the corrected and uncorrected photos of the lamp post, you can see how the top photo, the lines are straight (as much as the old building could be straight) and how the bottom photo the lines are all leaning in. Yes, you can correct of this to some extent in post as long as those lines are your only concern. But if you have like in my case an aircraft in a hangar, you correct the perspective in post and not in the camera and the aircraft get exaggerated and distorted (and shooting video, that’s not even an option). How does the 19T/S work?
Keeping perspective correct is a simple process. You just have to keep the camera back parallel with the subject. The problem with this is we normally need to tilt the camera up to get all the subject in the frame. With the T/S lens, you first set the camera parallel with the subject then you “Shift” the front of the lens bringing the subject back into the frame. The lens actually “breaks” in two with the whole front assembly doing the shifting or the titling. With that moving front, it is a manual focus lens only. Metering while vastly improved from the original manual aperture PC lenses of the 70’s, still takes a little thinking. It’s a gorgeous lens though working some cool magic. I’ll leave the titling aspect of the lens to another post, just wanted to cover the shifting here. Hope that answers folk’s questions.