Camera Profiles and the ColorChecker Passport — The What, Why and How

For a while it was a mystery. I just didn’t get it. No matter how I set the white balance in my Nikon cameras — be it preset or custom — when I opened my images in either Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) or Lightroom (which are, in essence, the same thing) the White Balance number would be way off....

Busman’s Holiday: Shooting with Hanson Fong and My New Profoto D1 Airs

Webster’s: Busman’s Holiday — a holiday spent following or observing the practice of one’s usual occupation. A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Hanson Fong, fresh off an appearance at the Houston stop on the Beauty and Beast tour, took a day off and hung out with me. So, how did we...

Q: I’m confused. What are the differences between “hot lights” and “strobes”?

Some form of this question has come up in almost every lighting seminar we’ve taught. With the convergence of still and motion photography — with the morphing of DSLR’s into de facto video cameras, this question is quite timely. As I’ve mentioned before, I learned my lighting on film...

Q: Does it matter which color space I select in my camera?

Answer: Yes. No. Maybe. Confused? Read on. With all of the attention properly being paid to color management, I’ve been asked whether it matters which color space one uses in the camera — and if so, which one to use. Without going into an in depth discussion of the concept of “color...

Lighting Framed Artwork: Beating the Glare

Nowhere is the battle against specular highlights more pronounced than when one tries to photograph a framed piece of artwork. “Specular highlights” a direct reflection of the light source on a subject, also known as “glare”, is the bane of all who try to photograph reflective...