Canon G11 with Studio Strobes
So anywho, she found them these “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” T-shirts that have a speech bubble you can write stuff in. Yep, no more canned T-shirt sayings for this family.
Case in point, from my 5 year old:
Translation: You have the
Cheese Touch
Yes, you do.
And I feel sorry for you.
New Camera
That meant but one thing to me: PocketWizards
I love my pocketwizards and I love getting that flash off camera. So my goal was to do a studio session with the G11 and a strobist setup (will work equally well with my studio strobes, but they’re in the garage and the speedlight was easier) and see what it got me. The ability to have a backup/backup that can fire my portrait setup in a pinch was enticing, and what made me choose the G11 over the smaller point/shoots like the S90.
So here is a shot of a wood carving I recently bought in Mexico. I played around for awhile and came up with something I’m immensely happy with, considering this is a point and shoot camera.
Here are the details: Canon G11 f8/120 ISO 80 Canon 430 EX thru Umbrella w/ little slave flash behind the skull
Tats, Yo!
Its *really* hard to buy a point and shoot when you’re used to top notch quality DSLRs like the 5DMKII. Every time I pick it up, I lament the lack of quality in the output. Now I realize to expect the same is silly, but why carry a camera if it isn’t as good as the other one you have. My old Lumix LX2 was an awesome camera, but its showing its 3 or 4 year old limitations now, and I can’t really bring myself to use it anymore. Its fallen off my car going 40 mph, its suffered a few other scrapes, and still technically works, but I never use it.
I really need a small point/shoot camera because I do alot of backpacking and seriously hate carrying the 5D MKII for days on end. And for mountain biking where I crash every once in a while, which is not something you want to do on your top dollar DSLR. Of course, you can pelican case it (and I have) but its still a pain in the rear and slows the ride down.
So I splurged and got a Canon G11.
It came yesterday and
I’ve already dissapointed myself with 400 ISO and
above. That was to be expected, but still.
On today’s road bike ride, I threw it in my pocket
and shot a few lovely pictures along the ride in the
valley to the north west of my home. Its a lovely
place and shows why I love living here.
Here are a few pictures from the ride, shot with the
aforementioned camera.
These were all shot today, outdoors at 100 ISO and on a pretty overcast day. I’m moderately happy - as in its-not-my-5D-but-its-smaller kinda way...
Lightroom Tuesday!
Touch Your Nose
Its another Lightroom
Tuesday!
Each week I gather the best of the Lightroom-o-sphere
into one place for your edification, perusal and
gain. Lets get started, shall we...
- Mastering HSL in Lightroom from X-Equals PT 1
- Is there such thing as Preset theft? A look at the Post Production economy.
- LightroomKillerTips.com offers up The Vintage Look this week. Also a new Before/After video looking at post processing technique.
- Adobe releases Lightroom 2.7 this week - this is mostly a camera support update.
- Laura Shoe at the Digital Daily Dose takes a look at Clone vs. Heal when using the Spot Removal tool.
- Preset Heaven offers up some new presets for your edification.
- Michael Clark is holding several 2 day Workflow Seminars focused on Lightroom - cost is $400ish. More info here.\
- Optimizing Lightroom for your Canon 5D.
Thats it for this week. Have a great Tuesday!
Deception Pass State Park
Happily, she brought home 2 first place medals and a second place medal (for good measure).
If you listen closely you can still hear the concertina playing those crazy jigs.
Lets Ride!
This for example...
Click to Embiggen...
Lightroom Tuesday!
While I didn’t enjoy the
St. George/Hurricane area as much as Moab, it did
have its enjoyments. We rode several trails that were
a hoot. Its just that they didn’t compare to the
frame smashing fun of many Moab trails. The positive
was that the area was full of single track, whereas
Moab is mostly jeep trail with lots of ways to pick
your line (or crash as the case may be).
Still, a day riding a mountain bike in the desert is
nothing to be neglected...
Flashback Monday
Its another Lightroom
Tuesday!
Each week I gather the best of the Lightroom-o-sphere
into one place for your edification, perusal and
gain. Lets get started, shall we...
- Need to get stuff from iPhoto to Lightroom? Ok, what to do when you got suckered in by free software and realized its now time to Lightroom up.
- Sunset needs a boost? Split tone it, baby.
- Some tips on using the Blacks slider...
- DPE looks at fixing problematic skies...
- Lightroom 3 tethering walkthru.
- Two video tutorials on getting started with Lightroom from alittlephotoshop.com Video 1- where to store your images, Video 2 - Creating a Catalog
- X-Equals has a new set of film-styled presets for sale - Cold Storage Volume 2. I have a set of these in house and will be looking at them soon.
- Flashback - Plugins Galore - X-Equals looks at extending Lightroom.
- A look at the new Publish Services in Lightroom 3 Beta 2
- LRB Exhibition web gallery platform has been updated.
Looks like a light week with everyone looking into Photoshop CS5. Have a great Tuesday.
Dance Friday
Its another Lightroom
Tuesday!
Each week I gather the best of the Lightroom-o-sphere
into one place for your edification, perusal and
gain. Lets get started, shall we...
- Don’t forget that old backups can be deleted...
- Speaking of that, Laura Shoe looks at reclaiming hard drive space...
- A photographer’s ode to Lightroom.
- Stacking images in Lightroom.
- Aperture vs. Lightroom. A nice comparison.
- Don’t make these mistakes...
- A new version of Portraiture for Lightroom. Great plugin for skin retouching.
- Lightroom 2.7 now available for download...
- Stacking images for better organization...
- X-Equals rundown: Review of TTG Highside Gallery Pro 2.0
- Adobe released Photoshop CS5 this week. Shrug. A few good things for us Lightroom Jockeys.
- Smart Collection tips from Matt K at Lightroom Killer Tips.
Not Lightroom-related, but worth looking into:
Silly Friday
Lightroom Tuesday!
iPad
Its another Lightroom
Tuesday!
Each week I gather the best of the Lightroom-o-sphere
into one place for your edification, perusal and
gain. Lets get started, shall we...
- Lightroom-Blog looks at the Camera Raw cache...
- Stephen is considering Lightroom 3 vs. Aperture 3...
- Getting photos onto your ipad...
- Adobe has announced updates to Camera Raw and Lightroom 2...
- DPE looks at sharpening in Lightroom. And a tone curve.
- Lightroomsecrets.com looks at noise reduction in the Beta 2
- Lightroom panel tricks...
- An Aperture user looks at noise reduction...
- X-Equals rundown: Jpeg vs. Raw, Composition
- Lightroom Kill Tips looks at what the vibrance slider can do
- Get a free 24 hour pass to Lynda.com for learning all kinds of stuff about Lightroom (or other creative apps)
- Cropping tip for Lightroom 3 beta 2 from LightroomKillerTips.com
- John Beardsworth is cashing in with his new Pre$et for Lightroom.
- Laura Shoe has some tips for your Tone Curve...
That is it for this week. Cheers!
iPhone Exzibit
I picked up an iPad
today. Which is funny because I haven’t been
following them that closely. In fact, the release
date snuck up on me and the tweets started appearing.
The iPad looked fun, but I wasn’t sure where it would
fit into my world. Then a few photogs I know snapped
a bunch up as a nice way to show off their portfolio
at a Bridal event. Made sense.
And then I came down to SmugHQ and was blown away by
all of the iPads floating around. It took about 10
min playing around with one to see that this little
device is a good first step at breaking up the
monopoly the keyboard/mouse has had on everyday
computing.
And by everyday computing, I’m not talking about
geeks like me who live by their computer and do some
amazing stuff with power applications. I’m talking
about my wife and kids. My parents. Those people who
just want to check email, browse some news sites,
read a book and watch a movie or two. Those same
people who are now required to use and maintain a
complicated desktop or laptop built on an OS that is
powerful and complex and confusing.
Interaction geeks like me have been watching for
something like that for years, and with the success
of the iPhone, we knew something was up. I was hoping
the iPad would be the device, and with a few caveats,
it might just be.
I’ll be watching how it fits into the family room
when I get home...