Category Archives: Gear

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Nikon’s New D90 DSLR - Is this a mini RED camera?

August 28, 2008 – 9:07 am
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="900" caption="Image #1 | New Nikon D90 Digital SLR Camera - from Nikon Press USA"]Image #1 | New Nikon D90 Digital SLR Camera - from Nikon Press USA[/caption]

Update: A collegue sent me a link to the following Nikon D90 commercial. My recommendation is to watch it all the way through. It has encouraged me to really consider this camera as a potential addition.

August 26th, Canon press release day. Canon unveils their new DSLR called the 50D to replace the not-so-old 40D. It seems like a nice incremental upgrade, but I’m not a Canon guy, so I’m not the one to ask regarding their stuff. August 27th, Nikon press release day: Nikon D90. Wow. I have to say that the rumors were correct and video is included on this new DSLR from Nikon. So, what does this mean?

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By Michael | Also posted in General Discussion | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

Getting Beyond “Line-of-Sight” for Nikon’s Creative Lighting System

July 17, 2008 – 5:23 pm

A couple posts ago I mentioned why I like to use speedlights to enhance or overpower the ambient light to get a certain mood or create specific light for my subjects. I personally like to use Nikon’s Creative Lighting System, or CLS, since it gives me some advantages over using a manual flash. CLS works very well when there is a close proximity between the master signal flash, and the remote flash; however, sometimes with more complex lighting assignments the master and remote flashes can’t physically “see” each other (i.e., like when placing the remote flash in a separate room to simulate a fill light and the master flash signal doesn’t actually reach the remote.)

The remote flash depends on seeing the master speedlight’s “pre-flash signal” for it to trigger, so sometimes CLS may fall a bit short in some circumstances. The Nikon flashes (SB-800 and SB-600) have a small window located on the side of the flash as the remote light sensor. If the remote flash doesn’t see this signal, its flash will not be triggered with CLS. In order to be certain that your remote flash will trigger in these cases, you need to use another device. That’s where my trusted radio PocketWizards come in to play.

The PocketWizards are great devices and since they are radio triggers, they have a superior range over the standard “light” triggers that come with the SB-800/600. This also means that you don’t need to have a “line-of-sight” for the master and remote speedlights to work properly. With PocketWizards, I set the remote flashes manually to a specific ratio (i.e., 1/8, 1/16, etc.) and generally base the ratio on a few test shots and then go from there. Here is an example of using the PocketWizards.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Image #1 | PocketWizard Off-Camera Flash"]PocketWizard Off-Camera Flash[/caption]

The great thing about using an off-camera flash is that it produces wonderful highlights that you cannot get with a camera mounted flash. You can see the edge detail in the bride’s hair, and also the shadows that are visible makes the image appear more three-dimensional compared to a standard on-camera flash unit. When shooting in an indoor location (like the reception photo above) where the exposure value (EV) doesn’t change, using a manual flash does not have too many issues. However, it’s when you are moving around to different locations is when manual flash can have some drawbacks, and if you have any “line-of-sight” issues then CLS is no longer a solid alternative.

Unfortunately, there has not been a solution for these issues until this year. The recent development is called the RadioPopper (I will go over this device in another post), developed by a professional photographer. This is a great flash addition for those of us who use proprietary flash systems like CLS and want to have a longer-range radio trigger. There are great benefits to this new technology, 1. it works just like CLS - all of your controls are exactly the same, 2. you can use specialty features of your flash/camera like FP or high-speed sync which is great for using flash in high ambient light and being able to control the depth-of-field with a wide-aperture, and finally, 3. the ability to go beyond line-of-sight and high-background light to ensure you get a positive trigger from your master flash. The transceiver essentially captures the pre-flash signal from your master speedlight then transmits that same signal via radio to the receiver on the remote. Ingenious, and really a leap forward for those of use who use flash.

The following image was shot in the evening in San Francisco where the bride and groom would normally only be lit by ambient light. I used the RadioPoppers for this shot. The light was positioned off to the camera left, and used to provide a direct light onto the subjects. We shot all around the city that night, and it was great to be able to make adjustments to the remote flash (SB-800) directly from the master flash (SB-800) located on top of my camera (Nikon D300) instead of having to run over to it and make manual adjustments. Although this is a new technology (and there were some misfires) it did perform well.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Image #2 | Using the new RadioPoppers for Off-Camera Flash"]Using the new RadioPoppers for Off-Camera Flash[/caption]

You can see that I was able to get a great directed light to use to highlight the subjects. Since we were constantly moving it was nice to have all of the control at my fingertips and to not miss a specific moment. I’m very pleased with the image.

In the near future I will create another post with more specifics regarding the RadioPoppers. Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the comment area. Thanks for dropping by.

By Michael | Also posted in Art, Technique | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Using Nikon’s Creative Lighting System - Setting the Mood

July 9, 2008 – 2:56 pm

As I mentioned in a previous post, I want to talk a little about Nikon’s proprietary Creative Lighting System or “CLS” as it is known amongst us Nikonians (view Nikon’s tutorial here: Nikon’s Wireless CLS Tutorial.) I sometimes use this flash system to enhance my subjects who may already be in good ambient light. What it allows me to do is to create my own vision of how light falls on a subject through the use of a master and an off-camera slave flash system using CLS equipped Nikon speedlights.

The Nikon D3 and D300 (and I assume the new D700) have excellent image quality (IQ) at high-ISOs; although, that doesn’t mean you should only shoot with available light. Flash can dramatically change the way a subject appears in your image even during the day. Yes, I know we Nikon users are finally happy to go “ambient-only” now that we finally can with the new sensors, but there are times when the use of a carefully applied flash unit can create a unique look.

CLS allows a master flash speedlight (in my case the SB-800) to control a no-limits number of speedlight slaves (I usually use another SB-800, and sometimes an SB-600 when needed) that includes the Nikon SB-800 and SB-600 (and also the new SB-900.) What this system allows is complete exposure control of all your speedlights, all from the back of the master flash control panel. This extra level of immediate flash control is great, especially when the lighting is changing quickly (in this case I was in a wooded area and the sunlight changed and moved through the trees and with the clouds) or if your flashes are dispersed away from you; however, the bad part is that all of this control is communicated via signal-flashes. A signal-flash is a very difficult to see by eye flash that the master sends out to the slaves. If you have your flashes located relatively nearby and positioned correctly, that is no problem. When they are out of sight, well… that can be another issue entirely that I will address in an upcoming post.

The following photos illustrate this off-camera, master/slave technique. Last week when I was working with the two bridal couples, the use of flash immediately came to mind. Although I could have shot the assignment with ambient light only and had perfectly satisfactory results, the addition of off-camera flash allowed me to get a more high-fashion effect. Also with the addition of a strobe, you can more easily create “catch-lights” in the eyes of the subject which creates a more vibrant response when viewing the face.

My goal was to match and to somewhat overpower the natural sunlight. This is done by properly setting the ratio of the master and off-camera slave flash. To do this you have a flash located off camera in a location that makes sense. In this case I placed the flash to my right and slightly above the bride’s face and upper torso. This created a highlight area that overpowered the regular ambient light (the sun.)

Using just the available light would have produced a nice image, but the possibility of additional shadows might have been more noticeable, and it would have changed the look and overall contrast of the subject versus the background. In this case, the bride is well lit with an almost “spotlight” type effect and since the flash has a quick fadeout, the background is rendered as being slightly darker giving a more dramatic effect. To me, the additional light creates a more interesting image.

For this assignment, I set the ratio of the master between -2.0 to -3.0EV and the slave at +0.3 to +1EV. The master flash reduced some frontal shadows, and the slave flash produced angled light to the camera to create the visual highlight effect. The best part is that if these settings don’t work, I can reset the EV range from the back of the master flash, and try again.

For those of you who already own a D70/D80/D200/D300 and a SB-800/SB-600 Nikon speedlight, you already have a master and slave. The on-camera flash can be set as a master flash and you can use your SB-800/600 as the remote. The on-camera flash and remotes can be adjusted on the camera LCD just like the SB-800 control panel. The only caveat is that you have to use Channel 3 / Group A as the master settings. Give it a try and see if you can come up with some interesting images that have more impact than an ambient only image.

Regina using CLS Lighting

By Michael | Also posted in Art, Technique | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (7)

Is the Newly Announced Nikon D700 the F100 for the Digital Age?

July 2, 2008 – 10:29 am

Nikon D700 DSLR

Wouldn’t it be the case… I’m out of the office for a day and Nikon drops the big annoucement.  The new full-frame Nikon DSLR - the D700 (retails for $2999.) This camera was officially announced on July 1, 2008.  For long-time Nikon users, this is a significant announcement. This reminds me of when the film F100 was announced, many photographers (like me) were thrilled to have about a 95% F5 in a more compact, lighter, pro-performance camera. Again, with the advent of the D700, we may really have a true, full-frame D3 lite.

Additionally, now the discrepancy Nikon vis-à-vis Canon regarding camera offerings is shrinking even more. Now that Nikon has reached or surpassed Canon in regard to image quality at high ISO (I guess it depends on who you ask) the only area that Nikon is lacking in is with a high-megapixel studio camera (like the Canon 1Ds MkIII.) Although unannounced, there are many rumors that a new Nikon DSLR will also be announced this year to compete at the 1Ds MkIII high-megapixel level. For people like me, a super high-megapixel camera isn’t really what I need to do my job well. However, this new D700 sounds like the killer-app for wedding photographers. Great high-ISO performance, lighter weight (about the same with a grip though), and the option to use standard 35mm-type lenses - sounds pretty appealing to me.

Many of you already know from reading my previous blog that I’m using the Nikon D300’s. I think the D300 is an amazing camera, and now I can capture subjects in conditions that would have been very challenging in the past. I feel free to raise the ISO to 3200 in camera to get those low-light subjects without compromising on digital “noise” or the smearing or muddling of pixels. Whether I decide to get the D700 is something that I will consider later on in the year, or perhaps purchase one next year as a compliment to the D300’s.

If any of you are planning to get a D700 this month, let us know what you think once you have a chance to use it.

Along with some new tilt-shift Nikkor lenses and a great new Nikon Speedlight SB-900 (retails for $499) [I'll be blogging about some uses of Nikon's Creative Lighting System in the near future] these are certainly exciting times in the world of photographic artists - especially if you’re a Nikonian.

By Michael | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)