Nick’s headshot with a homemade ring light
Posted by Craig | Filed under lighting, setups, studio
(Photos of the setup are below)
Shooting with Nick was a lot of fun. He was really laid back and up to try anything. I spent about a half day with him before he was heading back to New York to finish up at NYU. He just got a part in an off Broadway play, so he was really excited to go back to NYC with new headshots.
After doing all of my usual natural light setups with reflectors and such, I busted out my new ring light (some people call it a ring flash, but it doesn’t flash, so I’m sticking with ring light). My dad and uncle are both talented woodworkers and electricians. I showed them a ring light someone else made and they gave it their all. The result is amazing. Such a clean design. All wires are hidden, it has two dimmer switches, and sturdy mounts that work on standard light stands.
The setup for this shot was pretty easy. I positioned Nick so that he was between two windows, about 8 feet from the wall. I knew that this would create a bluish (cold) background and frame his face. The next step was figuring out how close to have him stand to the light. After some experimentation, I had him pretty close to the bulbs so I could see the lights in his eyes very clearly, while not interfering with his pupils.
The most difficult part of this shot was getting the white balance just right. The warm light from the bulbs was hard to mix with the cold light from the windows. I spent about 30 minutes in Adobe Lightroom
Here are some shots of the setup:
Sensor cleaned!
Posted by Craig | Filed under accessories, cameras
Well, I think I’m out of the woods with what I thought was a ruined camera, though I’m about $3,000 in the hole after replacing my 5D and buying all of the cleaning supplies. I needed to have the 5D right away and knew I wouldn’t get the cleaning stuff for several days, so I had a camera over-nighted with the hope that I could sell it once I got mine cleaned. I checked into rental prices and there was no way I was going to pay $150/day for the 5D.
On Tuesday I got the Smear Away, Sensor Clean, and pack of swabs from Visible Dust. I carefully cleaned the sensor and…(drumroll, please)…my Canon 5D is like new!
Here are the results:
There are a couple of dust specs near the upper right of the frame, but that’s to be expected and should blow off easily, but I’m going to leave it as is for now.
So now I have a 5D to sell and will try to get it up on eBay tonight. I’m hoping to get close to $2000 for it.
Whew!
Visible Dust Debacle
Posted by Craig | Filed under accessories, cameras
I noticed some dust on the sensor of my Canon 5D the other day and decided to give the VisibleDust Arctic Butterfly a try. Little did I know I’d be sitting here an hour after using it, sick to my stomach and wondering if I will be purchasing a new 5D.
Here’s what my sensor looked like before the “cleaning”. Some dust is visible, but this is at f/22 and it doesn’t show up on most of my shots. I tend to stick around f/8 or so.
After a couple of passes with the brush, I was horrified.
F#%K!
Following the instructions on the support page, I ordered some Smear Away, Sensor Clean, and some Ultra MXD-100 swabs. They should arrive on Friday. I’m REALLY hoping that this works and isn’t a $2600 lesson to never do this again.
Aftermath
Posted by Craig | Filed under books, photographers
As it’s September 11th, I’m reminded of the amazing photo book Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive
Joel was the only photographer given unrestricted access to ground zero after the event, giving us an intimate view that news cameras could not.
Late last year, Joel was featured on The Candid Frame, a wonderful photography podcast by Ibarionex R. Perello.