Equipment

What’s are the three most important pieces of equipment for available light, performance photography? Fast glass. Fast glass. And, more fast glass.

It’s that easy. In low or changing light, it’s best to use fast glass. Both Alan and Scott try to shoot lenses no slower than F/2.8. Each carries at least one lens in the F/1.4-1.8 range. So do I.

Why? Because we face a dilemma when shooting in low light. We want to get a proper exposure without running the risk of capturing a lot of noise. Although there have been great improvements in the ability of our chips to capture data in low light while limiting the amount of noise, the general rule of thumb — the higher the ISO the more noise, generally proves true.

Here’s the challenge: the three variables that control the amount of light to reach our sensor are: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. Because we are shooting hand held, often with long lenses and subjects that move, most of us want to shoot higher shutter speeds; Scott and Alan often shoot at 1/250. For sports and color guard performances (where they toss flags, rifles and sabers), I often start at 1/500. These faster shutter speeds are a must.

And, to avoid noise, with even the best cameras, most people want to shoot at ISO 1600, or less (although with the newer cameras, people are getting good results at ISO 6400).

So, starting with a fast shutter speed, and constrained by the ISO, the best way to avoid noise and get more light to the sensor is with a fast lens. An aperture of F/2.8 lets four times more light reach the sensor than an aperture of F/5.6. Assume for the moment that we can get a proper exposure at 1/250, F/2.8, ISO 800. To get that same exposure using a lens at F/5.6, we would have to bump the ISO to 3200. That’s a huge difference — one that with many sensors will introduce serious noise.

Zoom lenses play an important role. I wasn’t surprised to find that Scott and Alan, both Nikon shooters as am I, carry the same lenses I take to most performance shoots, the 24-70 F/2.8,  and the 70-200 F/2.8. In addition, we usually carry a faster prime lens — I carry the 50 F/1.8 which is an incredible bargain and can be purchased for less than $150. Sometimes, to capture something different, I carry my 16mm FishEye which is also a F/2.8.

Why the zooms? Because, when we are stuck in one place and cannot move to or from our subjects we rely on the zoom lenses  to frame our images. In the studio or in a space I control, I choose where on the lens I want to be, and walk to and from my subject to frame it. That does not work during performance photography. Zooms are helpful.

But, fast zoom glass, though nice, is not essential. The best camera and lenses to use are the cameras and lenses you own. Some of my best shots were made with my Canon G11 point and shoot; in fact, it’s so good that I sometimes carry it as a back-up instead of my Nikon D2x. Want to shoot performances? Do it. Don’t let your perceived lack of equipment discourage you.

And, fortunately, there are post-production/processing work arounds for equipment imposed limitations. For example, there is some excellent noise reduction software that is quite effective; I use both Imagenomic’s Noiseware and NIK’s Dfine.

Another technique I share with Scott and Alan is to “take advantage” of noise by converting to black and white. Voila! The noise becomes “grain” and gives the image a nostalgic, old world “film look”. There are a lot of great ways to convert to black and white. My favorite is Silver Efex Pro 2.

What you carry in your bag will be defined by your style. Unlike Scott and Alan, I carry two meters, a Sekonic 758, and a Sekonic C500R Color Meter. I’ll talk about using both in a moment. The key is to travel light and self contained; everything should fit on our back or belt. Large, dark, crowded venues are not the place to leave unattended gear cases.

My favorite equipment tip from Alan? Carry ear plugs — lots of them — ear damage is an occupational risk for concert photographers. Why lots of them? Alan makes friends of his fellow photographers AND the security folks by passing them out. Hard not to like a guy who comes with “freebies”. (Actually, Alan and Scott are two of the most likeable guys I’ve met on the “photo teaching circuit”; both are self-effacing and unassuming. It’s hard not to like them and I think that goes a long way in their getting and maintaining access.)

The oddest thing I carry?  Knee pads. Often, we have to stay low, on our knees, to stay out of the spectators’ line of sight. Do that for a few hours, or in the case of a tennis tournament for several days, and you will hurt. The pads may look dorky — but it’s hard to make a fashion statement draped in camera gear, anyway.

So much for what we carry — let’s talk about how we use it.

Step 1. Location Scout — Locking In On The Lighting

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. — John Wooden

Be it in a studio or on location, we all share a common goal — to get a perfect exposure, one that captures what we are seeing with our eyes. It’s a lot easier to do in the studio where we can control all of the variables. It’s much more difficult to do on location where we cannot.

So, to close the preparation gap, when possible, I scout a location before a shoot. Be it a stadium, church, auditorium or club, I want to know as much about the lighting as I can — particularly the quantity, quality, location and color temperatures of the sources of light.

More often than not, these venues  do not create  lighting schemes for each performance. They tend to have preset lights in place that they modify in intensity and change with gels and some times diffusion. By switching lights on and off, they control which parts of the stage are lit. However, there are situations where there is no one “switching” between lights — and the lighting pattern at the start of the performance is the same pattern that exists for the entire performance. Or, the exact opposite may occur; the lights may be programmed to randomly change, in every way — intensity, quality, color and duration. In either situation, with a couple of steps a performer can move out of the light, completely, or the light can change so significantly that we must adjust our exposures or lose the shot.

My protocol is simple: I draw the location, put symbols to represent the lights — their location, type (including color temperature for white balance purposes) and intensity. I also note how the light sources are modified — be it by barn doors, gels or diffusion.

To check the quantity of the light,  I use my light meter to take a series of readings — I walk across the stage, metering every couple of feet, marking my diagram to indicate every spot in which the light either increases or decreases by a full stop; if I cannot get onto the stage, I use the spot metering function of my Sekonic L-758 to grab my readings from a distance; the “spot meter” gives me a “reflective”  as opposed to the preferred “incident” reading. (“Reflective” reads the light bouncing off the subject and is less accurate than an “incident” reading which reads the light before it hits the subject. The meters inside of our cameras take reflective readings. So, one might do a scout metering with the camera — but it is a lot more difficult to get precise, consistent readings that way.)

To assess the quality of the light, I look at the modifiers; diffusion will soften it, bare bulbs will throw hard light, the closer the light to the subject, the broader the shadow transition line. More often than not, there is little or no diffusion on the lights; and, the light placement is controlled with something like barn doors which stay constant throughout the performance.

The next thing I do is figure out the White Balance setting for the shoot. This is usually the greatest challenge. Many venues mix light sources — we find tungsten, halogen and fluorescent and daylight all in the same space. This is particularly true in churches and reception halls. There are a couple of things I do to minimize the risk of color cast.

I take a reading with my Sekonic C-500R. This is by far the best way to deal with the situation. The meter gives me a specific color temperature reading, in degrees Kelvin. I then set a “custom white balance” in my camera to that number. Perfect.

Uh, except for the great Photoshop Gotcha. We cannot assume that Photoshop recognizes the Kelvin temperature settings we use in our cameras — either those that use a preset or those that use “custom” readings. For Nikon shooters, there appears to be a discrepancy at every setting. Nikon’s “Flash” setting is 5400K. When I use Photoshop, it opens those images in the 6000K range. It’s not a big deal; I simply batch correct all of the images to 5400; but if you don’t know to do that, you will have a color cast when none should exist. (As one might expect, Nikon’s own Capture NX2 reads the files, perfectly, and opens the images to the exact Kelvin setting used.)

If I can’t get a meter reading, I try to take a reference shot using a Gray Card or an X-Rite Color Checker Passport. This gives me an accurate starting point for post production. (And, when I can’t do that, either, in post production I’ll use teeth or the whites of eyes to set the WB point.)

OK, I’m a bit anal. I over prepare which may be especially foolish because I cannot control ANY of the variables I’m researching. But, it gives me confidence and, when necessary,  helps me make informed guesses.

Stadiums and gyms add another wrinkle.

When shooting sports, outdoors, in the early fall, we usually start in daylight and then must make the transition to artificial light when the sun goes down. For a time during the transition, we are in a mixed lighting situation — and, as the light changes, we have to adjust our settings accordingly.

Indoors, I’ve been running into some odd, off the chart lights — like those I found in a new, beautiful, high school gym in Bryant, Texas. Looking up at them, one would swear that they were tungsten bulbs. But, they were not. And, that became clear when I looked at images shot in “bursts”; adjoining images had different color casts. When the camera was set at “tungsten”, none looked good. So, out came the C-500R. I got a series of readings, all around 4150K. The set my D3 to 4170 for the shoot, which was the closest I could come. And, I shot bursts — figuring that some in each sequence would be right. It proved to be a good move. When I got home, I did some research on 4150K and found out that the lights were Xenon Arc’s — and that they “cycled” between two adjacent color temperatures at a very fast rate. With my custom setting, in post-production my starting point was close enough to make all of the images useful. Bottom Line: We cannot assume things are what they appear to be; there are all kinds of new, “green” lights out there and we’ll have to learn how to master them.

A. Virtual Scouting — We don’t always have the time or opportunity to do on site location research. Fortunately, there are great Internet resources to allow us to scout with our computers. One of my favorite online communities — The Texas Photo Forum — has a section in which lists gyms and playing fields and photographers set forth the type of lighting and conditions one can expect on a shoot. I’m sure similar resources exist elsewhere.

B. Thou Shalt Honor the Lighting Director’s Artistic Vision — In his Kelby Training session, Scott Diussa makes a very important point: Our job is to work to maximize the impact of the lighting director’s artistic vision. Our job is not to overpower or neutralize it. If the lighting scheme calls for a purple cast, our job is to get an exposure that best reflects that purple cast. Our job is not to neutralize it or replace it with a choice of our own — which we can easily do with camera settings or post-production.

(To me, it’s like a client taking one of my images into Photoshop and changing it. That may not bother some people, but it bothers me. That’s why I don’t “sell” my images, I “license” them; and, my licensing agreement makes clear that my images are not to be altered, in any way, without my written permission.)

At the end of the day, we are trying to get a perfect exposure. I find that I do a better job when I am well prepared, and scouting is a part of that preparation.

Winter Guard Concert: PrairieFire Productions, Inc. © 2010

Perhaps, the most difficult venue I’ve photographed was the stage upon which Jenny’s Winter Guard gave its annual performance. There just was not enough light. And, what light existed lit only very few small portions of the stage. This was one of those times where a performer would go from light to dark in a couple of steps. To make matters worse, group shots were almost impossible because some of the group members were in the black hole while others were lit. Why was it like this? Because the lighting was set to maximize the performance, not my photography. The performers were tossing things into the air; they had to look up to catch them and did not want to be blinded by the lights. To the audience, it looked great. And, that’s what mattered. Me? I got enough shots to fill in their yearbook.

Some times, that’s the best we can do.

Step 2. Camera Settings

A. Shoot RAW

This seems to be a universal practice amongst all sports and performance shooters. RAW gives us the ability to use post-production to overcome the limitations discussed above.

B. Exposure Mode

There are many people who choose to shoot in one of the Priority Modes — Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority. By doing so, they use the computing power in the camera to try to get a perfect exposure.

In low light situations, in an attempt to maximize the light to the sensor, many shoot in Aperture Priority mode; they set the camera to the greatest aperture the lens affords and tell it “Never stray. Stay here, no matter what”. And, the camera will. The risk in this setting? To get a shot in very low light, the camera will have to go to a very slow shutter speed — one that cannot be successfully hand held — thereby resulting in movement and out of focus shots.

Scott, Alan and I shoot in Manual Mode. We choose our shutter speed and aperture; they remain constant until we change them; the responsibility is ours, not the camera’s.

Our starting settings are discussed above. Scott and Alan are so good at doing this that they can get their initial settings by instinct and experience. They will look at the situation, tweak the shutter and aperture settings, shoot a frame or two, and then tweak again to optimize the exposure.

I’m not that good. I start with a meter reading from my diagram.

In manual mode, when the lighting changes — either because a performer moves to a darker or brighter spot, or because the lights themselves change —  we have to start twisting dials. To maintain proper exposure, we change either the shutter, the aperture, or both. With experienced shooters like Alan and Scott, this is fluid and seamless. It’s more difficult for me; I’m embarrassed to say that in the heat of the moment I’ve moved the wrong dial, or the right dial in the wrong direction; I am haunted by a series of flag performance images of Jenny, shot during a half time performance, that were so underexposed as to be unsalvageable, because I moved the aperture dial in the wrong direction.

There are a couple of “cheats” that help those of us who shoot in Manual Mode but are at risk of making mistakes.

First, even though we are in control of the camera, the internal meter continues to function. We can glance at it to make sure our settings are not too far off. To use it effectively, I set the camera to the “spot metering mode”; if I want to take a quick reading make sure to meter the face of the performer.

And, second, my favorite “cheat” — setting the camera to use manual settings while activating Auto ISO. As we’ve discussed, there are three variables we can use to get a perfect exposure — Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO. Most of the time, while shooting in manual, the ISO remains constant. We usually choose a value that gives us the greatest sensitivity while minimizing the risk of noise. Alan and Scott start with a very safe ISO in the 1600-2000 range.  I do, too.

However, in situations where I’ve not scouted, or in situations when I know that the light intensity will vary beyond a range I can control with shutter and aperture adjustments, I’ll use Auto ISO. In essence, I tell the camera to internally adjust the ISO to get a proper exposure using my selected shutter and aperture settings. In some ways, this is a “priority mode”; the camera can take some control away from me. But, I see it as an Negative Priority Mode. I’m telling the camera, “I don’t care about ISO, do what you want, but leave my shutter and aperture alone.” In the Nikon, I can limit the camera’s discretion. I can tell it that it cannot adjust ISO above a chosen setting — for me usually 6400.

Using Auto ISO has risks. One must be diligent because, like pure manual mode, we have set limits and unless we adjust them, when exceeded, we will not get proper exposures. And, if we set the ISO range too high, we will be be capturing noise. But, I don’t worry about noise. My noise reduction software takes care of it.

C. White Balance

Although most shooters, like Alan, use Auto White Balance, I do not. I prefer to use a Custom setting, as discussed above; if I cannot get a custom reading, I use the Programmed setting that most closely matches the source; most often, that is a “tungsten” setting. In the newer cameras, Auto White Balance does a very good job. However, I do not use it because one of my favorite instructors, Jim DiVitale, taught me that it is easier and more effective to correct the white balance of a batch of images all shot at the same color temperature than it is to run a batch process when all of the images have been shot in Auto — at different temperatures. Auto works and it’s easy. I’m stubborn. I never use Auto.

D. Continuous Servo Auto Focus Mode — Spot or Dynamic

There is a lot of movement in performance photography. Our subjects rarely stand still. Therefore, most of us use the Continuous focus mode. Once we initiate the focus mechanism (either with the shutter button or a programmable button on the camera), when the subject moves, the camera follows it and tries to keep it in focus.

Depending on the amount of movement, we have to decide how big an area we want the camera to read in establishing focus. We can use a Spot, or a Dynamic area. If the subject is somewhat still, or does not move too erratically or far, spot works well. If there will be greater movement, we can use more focus points in what Nikon calls a “Dynamic Area”.  Autofocus on modern cameras works so well that I don’t think the choice between spot or dynamic is critical in what we do.

E. Continuous Release Mode — Shooting Bursts

When I first started shooting sports, I had a film camera without an auto advance mechanism. I learned to shoot a camera the same way I learned to shoot a gun. One shot at a time. Aiming carefully, taking a deep breath, becoming still and at one with my tool of choice — making each shot count.

When I switched to my first digital camera, I retained my one-at-a-time shooting style. What a dolt. The failure to take advantage of the ability to shoot bursts, when appropriate, was just plain dumb. (And, a bit arrogant. I used to look down my nose at photographers who, at sporting events, were shooting bursts with so many frames that I thought they were shooting movies. My thought: if you can’t get it in frame with one frame, you don’t belong here. Arrogant. And, very wrong.)

Shooting bursts allows us to capture the nuance and subtlety that are the essence of an artistic performance. Things change in portions of a second and burst let us capture them.

For sports and color guard, I set my camera to shoot what Nikon calls “Continuous High Speed” (Ch on the dial) at 9 frames per second.

However, just because I can shoot 9fps, does not mean I use them all. I’m at my best when I use my film camera/gun training and use the trigger sparingly and carefully.

Final Thought: The most important thing to take on a performance shoot?

The answer is simple: Reasonable Expectations.

With so many variables beyond our control, it is unreasonable to expect that all or most of our frames will be keepers. They won’t be. And, we should not feel bad because of that.

The truth is that most of the great photographers I know throw a lot of images away. We see their work in magazines or winning contests and we assume that all of their images always turn out right. They don’t.

The key is to continually push ourselves to learn and get better — to increase our ratio of “keepers”. And, to never let unreal expectations take the fun out of what we do.

Thriller (©PrairieFire Productions, Inc. 2009)

This image was shot under some terrible conditions — strong backlight and movement made finding a shooting angle difficult. But, it is the strong backlight that makes the image.Images on either side of this one were not useable. But, this one was and, on that night, that was good enough for me.

But Wait! There’s More!

Kelby Media Group has graciously given me permission to incorporate a portion of one of the segments from  Alan and Scott’s Concert Photography course. I chose this sample because it represents a few of the things that make these guys such great teachers: (1) they are practical and to the point; (2) their images rock; and (3) they are really nice guys. I’ve watched these lessons a few times and have learned quite a bit from them. This is copyrighted material, to be used for personal use and not to be distributed in any way.

Note: Depending on the speed of your computer connection to the ‘net, you may want to allow a moment for the video to load before playing it; with slower connections, it will stop and “buffer” while streaming, only  to start up again; I find this very frustrating and prefer to wait until I can see that at least a third has loaded before I Double Click the arrow button.

Thanks, Kelby Media for allowing me to show this.

Note: My screen shots are captured in IShowU HD Pro. I tried several programs that capture screen action and found that this was both easy to use and offered  more bang for the buck. Although I have a YouTube channel, I don’t publish most of my  videos. I make a lot of them to capture “odd” things I’m doing in post production  so that if I later, if have a grey moment and can’t recall how I did something, I have a video that shows me each step. I’ll do a full review of iShowU, and explain more about why I got it, in an upcoming post.

(Copyright: PrairieFire Productions/Stephen J. Herzberg — 2011)

In the onOne review I wrote:

The upside of shooting tethered is: (1) the ability to control the camera without having to work through the menus on the small LCD screen and turning the dials on the camera; (2) the ability to see a much more accurate display of the image on the computer screen; (3) the ability to focus and fire the camera without touching the camera or looking through the viewfinder; (4) the ability to view the actual image on a real screen, not the faux image on the camera’s LCD screen; and, (5) with live view, the ability to get feedback as to what the image will look like BEFORE the shot is taken.

For many, one of the downsides has been finding the right software package. Some cameras come with free software; my Canon G10 did and I’m pretty sure all of the Canon DSLR’s do too.  My Nikon’s didn’t. So I bought and use both Nikon’s Camera Control Pro 2 and DSLR Remote Pro. Both are strong performers and to me worth the investment.

But, not everyone can use DSLR Remote Pro; it is an iPhone application. If you don’t have an iPhone — you are missing out on what I believe to be the best software bargain in photography and one of my favorite tools.

Some who are not sure that they will find benefit in tethering, or use it that often, are not ready to purchase Nikon’s Camera Control Pro 2 which has a list price of $180 (to Nikon’s credit, it has a free try it before you buy it, full function, 60 day trial period).

On the Windows side, there appear to be some some solid free programs and some  low cost alternatives like TetherPro. I’m a Mac guy so I’ve not been able to try any of them but from what I’ve read they appear to be worth trying.

On the Mac side, low cost alternatives have been hard to find. And, that’s why I was so pleased to stumble onto Sofortbild. It is a “shareware” program. What’s “shareware”? It’s a program we can download and use for free. But, we are strongly encouraged to “donate” to the developer to reward and encourage his efforts. Try it. If you like it, send him some money.

So what does it do? Quite a bit. Let’s take a quick run-through the set up and features:

Step 1: Create a file on the desktop for the captured images. Depending on what you want to do there are a few alternatives. I open that folder in Adobe Bridge. When the images are captured, they are immediately available in Bridge for evaluation or adjustment. Others use the similar, but a bit more complicated, procedure I wrote about in the newsletter to send them into Lightroom. Sofortbild will also open up and send the images to either iPhoto or Aperture.

Step 2: Connect the camera to the computer.

Most of us will use a USB cable.

Caution: If you want to extend the USB cable beyond 16′ so that you have freedom to roam, you should not use an ordinary USB extension. You should use what is known as a “USB repeater cable” which has some form of signal amplification built in. The range of an ordinary USB cable is 16′. The danger when tethering is that with a weak signal, we may drop off the computer and your images will not get to the hard drive — and most of us will not notice until it is too late.

Step 3: Launch the Software and turn on the camera.

Step 4: Go to the Preferences Panel, seen here, and adjust the settings:

First we identify our desktop file for the captured photos.

We name them. I’ve stopped using DSC and started using my initials; that’s how file naming is set in my camera.

The drop down menu shows that you can import into “None”, Aperture or iPhoto. Since I’m using Bridge, I choose “None”

Even though Sofortbild has a very good viewing window, I probably would not use “Show pictures after capture” because I view and evaluate them in Bridge.

I really like the optional  ”Inspector” panel.

It includes an RGB histogram to let us see whether we are having serious clipping problems. (We must remember that this is based on a .jpeg image, because there are no RAW histograms; if we are shooting RAW we have some room for recovery and probably have not “lost” the data.

There is a “Nikon” section with some camera data. I found a big bonus here — it gives me a frame count for all of the shots on my D3. There are a lot of programs that do this for Nikon owners using Windows, but this is the first I’ve found that let’s me do it, easily, on my Mac. The read out tells me that I’ve activated my shuter 8,495 times.

The EXIF and TIFF menus present just what we’d expect them to present. Nothing new here — and not stuff I’d probably need to see when shooting tethered.

But, there is one menu that fascinates me.  I love all things technical whether they are helpful or not —  the GPS/Google map is one of them. If your camera is enabled for GPS — each time you take a shot the exact location coordinates are entered and a pin shows up on the map. Now, that’s cool.

Step 5: Control Your Camera and Shoot Away — It’s that easy.

Warning: I went a little nuts here — playing in Photoshop to make a composite out of Sofortbild’s main window to show you all of the drop down menus at once. I once heard Jullieanne Kost say that if you are working in Photoshop on a Saturday night — you need a life. Uh. Hmm.

So, here is the main window:

The red bar across the top is what I call a “status bar”; it tells us things about the camera, the lens and some of the settings that must be made on the camera or in its menus. The settings are “dynamic”; as the camera or lens changes, the read out changes.

The red bar across the bottom contains a series of drop down menus that allow us to change shutter speed, aperture, white balance, ISO, and image quality. Note that I had my camera set in “Manual” mode; If I had chosen other modes, I would not have all those choices — for example in Aperture Priority I can choose the aperture but not the shutter speed (because it is set by the camera to maintain the aperture; the opposite would happen if I were in Shutter priority.)

The buttons above the top red bar control camera functions and invoke special settings.

The camera icon activates the shutter. The clock, the Self Timer. The BKT is for Bracketing. The last one is for Interval Shooting. The last three include a lot of easily set options. And, one last thing, as seen on the preferences menu above, Sofortbild has a built in HDR program.

That’s a lot of functionality in a “shareware” program.

As good as this program is, I’m going to stick with Camera Control Pro 2 because it does a couple of things that I need.

Both CCP2 and DSLR Remote allow me to shoot in Live View — which I’m doing a lot, lately.

CCP2 lets me set the camera menu items using the computer; and then it lets me save a set just in case I need to reload them.

However, if you don’t need those functions, or are hesitant to invest a lot of money in tethering software Sofortbild is the right place to turn. It’s simple. And, it works. What more can you ask?

Oh, one last thing. If you do end up using it, send the developer a donation. Let’s support the people who are developing top end programs and “selling” them at reasonable prices.

(Copyright: PrairieFire Productions/Stephen J. Herzberg — 2009)

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. The image didn’t look bad, but the Kelvin number wasn’t right. For example, with the flash setting used on my D3 — which Nikon tells me is set at 5400 — ACR would open the image at 6150 Kelvin.

"As Shot" Kelvin Reading in ACR

So, I began to wonder — If ACR was wrong on this fundamental setting, what else was it missing?

Followed by — Why was this happening?

And, finally — What am I going to do about it?

At the same time, the proponents of Nikon’s own software, NX and then NX2 were proclaiming that no one could render a .nef (Nikon’s RAW format) image more accurately than Nikon could. And, they were right.

Out of the camera, NX2 gave me a better starting point than the Adobe software. But, with a bit of adjustment, I was able to get good results with either of the Adobe programs. But, let’s not denigrate the importance of an accurate starting point.

If the idea is to get it as close to “right” in the camera as possible, then the idea should be to get it into the our post production software as close to right as is possible — and for my Nikon images, until recently, that meant using NX2. Said another way, what good is it to work hard to get a perfect exposure in the camera if the post processing software ignores the effort and opens the image to its own specifications?

For Nikon users, the solution might be to use NX2. I am a big fan of NX2; when appropriate I use it. But, because I often go beyond its scope , most of my work is done in the Adobe programs.

And, that’s where the ColorChecker Passport comes in. For the first time, I think I can do that.

The ColorChecker Passport allows me to use the Adobe programs confident that my starting point will be dead on accurate — not just for Nikon cameras in general, but for my individual Nikon cameras. And, not for generic lighting situations but for the actual lighting conditions under which the images were shot. Said another way, Passport makes sure that the image as captured in the camera is the starting point in my Adobe post production software.

Camera Profiles Control the Software’s Starting Point

There is nothing sinister here. No matter the camera, Adobe (and all other post production software developers) want us to have an accurate starting point.

So, the developers create individual “profiles” so as to read the data from each camera manufacturer in the most accurate way possible. For all of us, no matter what camera we shoot, the key is how good that profile is — how accurately it reads and depicts the image as it imports it.

Their task is challenging, especially in a world without a standard RAW format and one in which some camera manufacturers want to compete with Adobe on the software front; in those cases, there have been allegations that the manufacturers have held back information making it impossible for Adobe to get a profile 100% right.

Finally, no matter how bright the software engineers — there are factors for which they cannot account. All cameras are, to some extent, different. A “standard” profile cannot account for the idiosyncrasies in my particular D3 or your Canon. And, my D3 will be different from my friend’s.

Despite the difficulty, the profiles are really pretty good. A tweak here and a tweak there and we can take our properly captured image and get it looking pretty good — the starting points are close enough that it does not take much work to get things right.

But, there is an insidious problem with a profile that is very good but not perfect. We end up making the small adjustments with no standard of reference — we proceed by eye and, therefore, can miss the mark.

Adobe’s Built In Profiles

Most of us have probably not spent much time thinking about the built in profiles. In fact, had I not wanted to know why the WB was off on my .nefs, I would have never done the research that ultimately led to this article.

For a long time, I never knew the profiles existed. They are tucked away behind a tab in ACR, in an area I never really used, called “Camera Calibration” — the one shown here with the camera icon. Duh! So, that’s what that was for. Here’s a copy showing, in red, the icon to push to get to the section; notice it shows the standard Adobe profile, also in red; in the second image is the drop down list, itself.

Most of us probably have ACR 4.4 and Adobe Standard. The “D2x” and “Camera … ” profiles were downloaded and installed, a while back, from an Adobe site. They are attempts to more specifically replicate the output of Nikon cameras — with the latter set corresponding to the Nikon “picture control” modes that one can pre-set in the camera.

What you say, only Nikon profiles? No, but this is what you see on a .nef. If I had opened a .CR2, a Canon RAW image I would have seen different options.

The profiles in the dark blue frames are those that I created using the Passport; we will get to them, later.

The bottom line is that the Camera Profile is the starting point for all of our post-production work. The more accurate it is, the better our outcome will be.

So, the question is: How do we get accurate profiles.

For me, the answer is X-rite’s ColorChecker Passport.

Creating Our Own Profiles with Xrite’s ColorChecker Passport

In a sea filled with gimmick devices and promises of color correction panaceas, the X-rite ColorChecker Passport is the real deal. It is an easy to use, fairly priced hardware/software solution that allows us create and load custom camera profiles into ACR and Lightroom.

It’s elegance is in its simplicity.

It proves one of my core philosophical underpinnings “Less is more”.

With the Passport, anyone — no matter how unschooled in color theory or unsophisticated in the intricacies of ACR — can quickly create a profile/starting point that will make post-production adjustments easy and accurate.

What’s in the Box?

A small, unobtrusive, carry it in your pocket or around your neck, device containing three targets and a software disk. That’s it. The elegance is in the integration of the two components.

There are three “targets”.

The one on the bottom left is the 24 patch “Color Classic”. It’s used by the software to create the profile.

The one above it is the “Color Enhancement” target; it can be used to induce creative color shifts; for example there are several shades of gray that can be used to warm or cool white balance. It can also be used to make sure we are not losing shadow details or clipping highlights.

To the right of the double target image, we see the Passport opened to show a gray card that can be used as a target to custom set one’s white balance.

Putting it to Work

Photoshop, Bridge and Elements

Step 1: Load the software. Depending on which Adobe programs you have and how you invoke ACR, the installer will do one or both of the following:

For Photoshop, Bridge, and Elements — all of which use versions of ACR, X-rite installs a stand alone application. Whereas Lightroom is a one stop  shop, these other programs invoke another step, the use of the ColorChecker Passport application. It’s one more step but still magic.

For Lightroom, it installs a plug-in/preset that will find the target in an image and create a profile. It works behind the scenes and is absolutely amazing.

Step 2: Take a reference image with the target in it. This is pretty simple. If taking a picture of a person, have them hold it. If it’s a product shot, I use the built in easel function to put the targets in the picture.

A couple of things to watch for: Make sure the light hits the target in the same way that it is lighting the subject and that the target is evenly lit. And, make sure the target image is around 10% of the picture. If it gets much smaller than that, the software may have a hard time finding it.

Step 3: Open the image. As I mentioned, there are two ways to do this depending on whether you start in Lightroom or Bridge/CS4. Whichever way you create the profile, it will be stored in the same place and work in all Adobe programs that process RAW images. I’ll do it both ways for you.

I’ll start with the independent application route — the route I take because I’ve pretty much abandoned Lightroom and usually start in Bridge.

First, I opened the image in ACR — AND DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO IT — NO ADJUSTMENTS, NOTHING.

Angy Torres and the Target

Here’s the reference shot I took during a session with Page Parkes model Angy Torres. Angy’s make up was done by MUA Tree Vaello.

(I’ll have a lot more on these two later and in future articles. Both are superb at what they do and were kind enough to help me get the images for this review. Unfortunately, these images are dumbed down for use on the web; the lower resolution does not do justice to Angy’s beauty and Tree’s fine make up.)

The next step was to save the image as a .dng file. This is Adobe’s universal RAW file — a format into which we can convert all of our RAW images, without regard to our camera brand. The advantage of .dng is that Adobe guarantees that all of it’s future products will be able to process .dng images. There are no guarantees that the same can be said for their ability to support the .nef’s I took years ago. It is a good, safe format and I should use it more.

Having done nothing to process this image, I hit the “Save Image” button in the lower left corner of the window (circled in red). The “Save Options” dialogue box opens.

Nothing hard here — the critical thing is to make sure to save it as a .dng — in the File Extension drop down menu. I gave it a distinct name and put it on my desktop because I was going to immediately use it in the stand alone application.

Step 4: Create the profile in the ColorChecker Passport application. I opened the application and got the following warning screen. Bad me. I hadn’t calibrated my monitors within 30 days.

So, I stopped, pulled out the colorMunki, and made sure the monitors were just right.

This warning is beneficial. What’s the use of being so careful with the camera and creating spot on profiles if the monitor is off? A strong starting point demands an accurate monitor.

Here’s the working window of the application:

Nothing could be easier to use. The full instruction set is on the left. I dragged my .dng to the center and clicked create a profile

And, here I had a lucky moment — at least lucky for teaching purposes. I got the following window telling me that the target was not taking up 10% of the image and that I’d have to help the software find it.

(Now that I’ve got the hang of this, I make sure my target takes up more of the image space. But, the cure is simple, as seen here.)

To help the software find the target, you take the crop tool and put a green dot at each corner of the Classic  target — which in this case is the upper target. Line up the corners so that the little green boxes are inside each of the color patches.

Don’t make the mistake I did the first time I tried this. Use only the Color Classic target, not both.

Having isolated the target, push the “Create Profile button. You’ll get a dialogue box asking you to name the profile. The default is “Nikon D3.dcp” for a D3. I don’t use that name. I change it to something much more specific with a date and lighting scheme involved. If not, every profile would have the same name and I’d not know which to use or how to manage them. Hit save and the profile will be created and stored.

One final thing  – if the application within which you are going to use the profile is open, you must close and re-open it. When you re-launch the program, be it Photoshop, Bridge, Lightroom, or Elements, the profile will be in the list shown above.

Don’t be put off by the length of the step by step, written description of the process.

I made this profile in a couple of minutes. It is fast and very easy.

Lightroom

Using the passport in Lightroom is equally easy and a bit faster. The advantage here is that you never leave Lightroom.

Step 1: Open your image in Lightroom’s “Develop” module. And, then the magic begins. Without us having to do a thing, the Passport software finds the target and creates a profile.

Step 2: Go to File>Export in the menu bar. The following window will come up:

Name the profile, hit the “Export” button and you’re done. The profile is created and stored with all of the other profiles.

Once more, you have to remember to close Lightroom and then reopen it so that it can load the new profile.

Using the Custom Profile and Target Shot

OK, so we’ve created a profile. Now what?

Well, lots of things.

I take the target shot right back into ACR and use it create the baseline set of color corrections I will use for all of the shots taken that session with that camera and lighting pattern. Once I have things the way I want them, I will batch process all of the shots to my chosen standard.

1. Select the Custom Profile

2. Correct the White Balance:

Important Point: The custom profile we created with the Passport does not change our WB value. We have to do that on our own — for good reason. There is some creative judgment to be exercised here and the Color Enhancement target gives us the tool needed to experiment and dial in our preferred, fine tuned White Balance.

Shame on me. I don’t custom white balance before each shoot UNLESS I am in some very odd mixed light situation — like a church or football stadium. And, in those cases, I don’t shoot a target, I use my Sekonic C500R color meter and dial in a specific Kelvin number — which, unfortunately,  Adobe will partially ignore. Most of the time I use a preset — for Angy’s shoot, I used the Nikon flash setting. Outdoors, I prefer Cloudy.

How does the Passport help here? On the Enhancement target, It gives me a series of gray patches one neutral, some warmer and  some cooler to use in setting the proper White Balance.

Take a look at this shot from ACR.

Notice I’ve taken the WB tool from the top and placed it on one of the gray patches(bottom target, 3rd in from the left, upper/middle row). Now, look at the Kelvin degrees on the right. An image that was imported at 6150 has been corrected to a proper 5400. All with one click.

Why am I so cavalier about White Balance? Because I shoot RAW. When I shoot RAW the camera captures all of the data to hit the sensor — it throws nothing out. In post-production I can change anything and everything to get the exposure and color where I want it to be. All I need is an accurate starting point in ACR and I’m good to go. The Passport gives me that starting point.

If you shoot .jpegs, you will probably want to use the Passport’s white balance target to set the camera before the shoot. And, there are several other things you will want to do with the targets before you get going. For example, you might want to use the target to check your exposure to ensure that you are not clipping the highlights or losing detail in the shadows. Why? Because, once you start shooting .jpegs, the camera is throwing out information in order to compress the images. With that information gone, you ability to make corrections in post-production is limited.

(For more on the advantages of shooting RAW, you might want to read part of this article I wrote a while back.)

3. Batch Process: I batch process all of the images taken in that session with that camera and same lighting pattern to set the exposure and color profile. Note I said in that session. If I change the lighting, I shoot a new target. On the same set, that’s probably a little anal. But, I did take Angy onto another set, one in which I used my Profoto 600BR and a Ringflash in a mixed lighting situation and shot new targets.

4. Did all of this make a difference? Yes, definitely. But, the difference was subtle as one would hope it would be. The Adobe profiles were close. But, as they say, “Close only counts in horse shoes.” I definitely got a better starting point using the custom profile. Clicking between Adobe’s and mine, I could see a clear shift in color and tone. Said another way, slight color casts were removed and Angy looked like Angy. I could ask for nothing more.

Some Final Thoughts on the ColorChecker Passport:

There are other functions the Passport will help us:

One that I’ve not tried is the “Dual Illuminant Profile”. The idea is to combine two targets from different light sources to create one more general target. For example, if you are moving from rooms with tungsten lighting to outdoor daylight, you take a target shot in each area and the software will allow you to combine them into one profile. I’m a bit skeptical about the value of this and until I try it I won’t recommend it. In that situation, I’d take individual target shots and make individual profiles. In post-production I’d sort my shots and process all of those shot in daylight with my custom daylight profile and those shot under tungsten with that profile. But, to be fair to the Passport, until I try the Dual Illuminant I can’t really say anything about its value.

The main targets in the Passport are “consumable” and require careful treatment. These are better protected, more rugged versions of our old Greytag Macbeth cards — those expensive bigger versions of the Classic that required very special care. In order to get the right colors and surfaces, they are printed on special paper. Put an oily fingerprint on them and the color and reflectivity change. That’s why it’s important to handle them by their plastic edges and store them closed, safe in their plastic clam shell. The way the Passport is engineered, it’s easy to protect the targets.

There is one thing in the software I’d like changed — and from what I understand, a change is on its way. I’d like to be able to manage the profiles — discard the older ones after I’ve used them — so as not to clog or confuse the drop down menu. To do that, today, on a Mac I have to go to User>Library>Application Support>Adobe>CameraRaw>Camera Profiles and manually remove the profiles I no longer need. Until the profiles are easy deleted, I think it’s wise to give them very distinct names and to date them. That way, there will be no confusion as to which to use.

These quibbles aside, I really like the Passport and will use it on all of my shoots wherever they may take place. It’s nice to actually get something that works the way it is supposed to work — a product that helps us get the most out of our images. And, one that does not require and advanced degree to understand and use.

I like it so much I’m going to get another one so I can leave one in the studio and have one with my everyday “carry camera”.

A Few Words About the Shoot

The creative team was model Angy Torres, MUA Tree Vaello, and assistant Tom Folger. Tree’s participation was made possible by her sponsor – La Mer skin products.

The mission was simple — get some shots for use in this article. In addition, we decided to get a few head shots for both Angy and Tree to use on their websites and in their books.

It was easy to work with Angy. She’s got a great sense of humor and “go with the flow” attitude — but, when needed, she could be fierce. She’s definitely on my A list. She can be reached  by contacting her agent Erik Bechtol.

We used two lighting set ups; the glamour lighting pattern described here and a Profoto Ringflash shot onto a metal door background. I shot a reference shot for each set up.

Here’s one of the head shots. After using the custom profile, there were no color corrections of any kind made.

But Wait There’s There Will Be More!!!

I’ve been looking to add a make up artist to my team for quite a while. In Tree Vaello, I think I’ve found the perfect collaborator.

My first rule, no “high maintenance” people. Can’t deal with that. Tree is, as we’d say in California”mellow”. But that calm and cooperative demeanor hides the passion and fire of a true artist. Her work is amazing.

Truth be told, I’ve never worked that much with MUA’s.

So, I thought a cool article would be an interview with Tree as to what we, as photographers, need to do to get the most out of an MUA’s talents.

I’ll do it soon. Have some questions you want me to ask her? Send them in.

(Copyright: PrairieFire Productions/Stephen J. Herzberg — 2009)

As I’ve mentioned before, I learned my lighting on film and television studio sets — which, for obvious reasons, used hot or continuous lights, exclusively. When I reentered the world of still photography, I set out to master the use of strobes and flash units.

Today, I use both — so I thought I might best answer this question by comparing the strengths that each brings to the table and the contexts in which each might best be used.

First, let’s make sure we don’t get hung up in terminology.

Traditionally, the term “strobe” has been used to describe the device that creates a “flash of light from an electrical discharge”. In the old days, strobes were also referred to as “studio lights”; however, that label no longer fits as there are now outstanding portable strobe units for use both in and out of doors — like the Profoto 600BR I’ve written about and use. And, don’t forget our hot shoe flash units which, too, can be used in and out of doors also fit the definition.

In the old days, “continuous” lights were called “hot lights”. For good reason. They generated a lot of heat, quickly making the space in which they were being used, tropical. And, they were very hot to the touch. So hot, that I’ve got a pair of asbestos grip gloves that I wear when I’m using the old lights in my studio. These were the lights used by my photography heroes, Clarence Bull, Yousuf Karsh and George Hurrell -- the pioneers of the Hollywood glamour photo movement. I bought a set of four so that I can try to emulate their work.

Things have changed. the new “hot lights” aren’t hot. And, they’re being called “continuous lights” so as to distinguish them from the hot tempered, power consuming beasts of the past. Actually, any light that stays on is a continuous light — and videographers and photographers with varying budgets are using everything from regular household light bulbs — be they tungsten or fluorescent — to those halogen construction lights you can get at Home Depot or Lowes. Want a more “dedicated light”? There is a new generation of top end, continuous lights for photography and videography priced in ways that don’t put deep dents in our budgets.

Now the Practical Stuff

So much for the history and theory — let’s talk about the important stuff:

Shooting Video: By definition, hot lights, or continuous lights have to be used for shooting video? Why? Because of the continuous action the camera is capturing. No way a strobe can do that. And, this is probably the only area in which there is a clear, inherent advantage between the types of lights we are discussing. In almost all other areas, one can use either continuous lights or strobes. There are some differences in how one uses them but both will get the job done.

Metering: Continuous lights are like “ambient” lights; they are always on; so we meter them using the “Ambient” setting on our meter (On Sekonic meters, that’s the mode represented by the “sun”).

Ambient/"Lonely"/Corded/Transmitter

We meter our strobes using the “Flash” settings (on the Sekonic one of the lightning bolts). To measure our flash units, they have to be triggered — either by the meter or some other device. The Sekonic meters have three modes for flash metering: (1) the lighting bolt with the “T” — indicates that the meter contains a transmitter that will fire any light that contains or is connected to a Pocket Wizard; (2) the lightning bolt with the “C” is for use when we use a cable connection between our meter and our lights; when we push the metering button, the light fires; and, (3) the lonely lightning bolt, the one without an initial, is used when one triggers the lights by some external means not connected to or caused by the meter; perhaps the best example is the way I fire my D1′s with Profoto’s new “Air” technology; I set my meter in the receiving mode, push the Air button to trigger the lights, and the meter grabs a reading.

White Balance: Most flash units are balanced to be close to “daylight” settings, which is usually somewhere between 5400-5600 Degrees Kelvin. The WB “Flash” setting on most cameras is in that range. In the old days, the hot lights all contained Tungsten (Incandescent) bulbs with a rough range between 2800-3200 Degrees Kelvin, often represented on camera WB screens as a light bulb. Today, we can get continuous lights balanced to most color temperatures and we set our cameras accordingly.

The Role of the Shutter Speed and the Aperture Setting: The general rule is that the shutter speed controls the ambient light to reach the sensor and the aperture controls how much of the flash is recorded. Let’s apply the general rule to our current discussion of the differences between lighting with continuous lights or strobes.

Let’s go into the studio first — and let’s assume we are lighting with strobes. In this situation, the speed of the shutter is almost irrelevant. Why? Because the flash duration, which will be the source of light on the subject, is so fast, and it is on and off so quickly, that it really does not matter how long the shutter stays open; there will be no meaningful difference between an exposure shot at 1/30 or 1/250. Think about it this way. Let’s assume we are in a completely dark room and that the only light that will hit the subject will be from the strobe. If the room is, indeed, light tight, we can set a 2 minute shutter speed; if the only light during that 2 minutes is from the strobe, the only light to hit the sensor will be from that strobe — no matter how long we hold he shutter open. OK, so most studios are not light tight; and sometimes, we use our overhead (tungsten) lights while we are shooting. My experiments have shown that the overhead lights have no impact on exposure in reasonable shutter speed ranges, like down to 1/15 second.

In the studio, with strobes, it is the aperture setting that determines how much of that fast burst of light will hit the sensor. The bigger the hole, the more of the flash that gets in. It’s that simple. That is why when we measure and set our strobes, we are always measuring aperture values and setting our cameras’ apertures accordingly.

The general rule does not apply when we are using ambient light AND continuous lights are ambient lights. So, in this case, both the shutter speed and the aperture are used, in conjunction, to control the light to the sensor. Longer exposure: more light. Bigger aperture opening: more light.

Shutter Speed Revisited — Lens Movement: With strobes, lens movement is not a problem — even when hand holding a long lens at a slower shutter speed. Once again, the light influencing the sensor is so quick that it is like shooting at a very fast shutter speed. However, just as it is outdoors in daylight (continuous or ambient light), shutter speed is important when hand holding lenses using hot lights. Is this a problem or reason to choose one form of lighting over the other? Absolutely not. Just adjust accordingly. Shots that might be hand held with strobes can be achieved with hot lights by using a tripod or upping the shutter speed.

Shutter Speed Revisited — Stopping Subject Motion: A corollary applies when we try to stop subject movement in a frame. Let’s say we have a model on a trampoline and we want to capture the “freedom moment” of flight. With strobes, we can use slow shutter speeds confident that the flash will freeze the subject, in air, at the moment we fire it. In fact, some strobes are so fast that they can stop bullets mid air. With continuous lighting, we have to use a fast shutter speed to stop the motion without blur.

Shutter Speed Summarized: The key is to simply be aware of when shutter speed matters and when it does not. In my shooting, I move back and forth between using strobes and continuous lights. It took a few gray moments — slow shutter speeds with continuous lights — before it sunk in: I have to make conscious choices and changes when I move from one light source to the other. Do I favor one light source because of this? No. Each has its place. Each brings a different artistic dynamic. I just have to adjust my head as well as my camera to get the most out of either.

Controlling the Quantity of Light: Most strobes allow finite adjustments of the quantity of light over a range of f/stops. The better the lights, the more precise the adjustments. And, the better the lights, the more range of adjustments. The range is often discussed in terms of how many f/stops of adjustment the light provides. For example, my new D1 500′s offer 7 ranges of stops. On a 500 watt light, that is: 500, 250, 125, 62, 31, 16 and 8 watts — and all places in between. I’ve written before that the greatest mistake most of us make is to buy lights with too much power and too little adjustment downward. An 800w light with 3 stop range gives us: 800, 400 and 200 watts. Why do we care? Because, with too much light, we cannot use the lower apertures like 2.8 or 4 to get the limited depth of field and out of focus backgrounds we often desire. More often than not, less is more.

To adjust the early hot lights, and some of the current version, you have a couple of choices. First, you can change the bulb to one with less or more power. And, second, you can throw a screen in front of the light as I wrote about in my article on the RoadRags. Some of the newer generation of continuous lights have included rheostats to dial the lights up or down. And, some use multi-bulb heads; pull a bulb out of a 3 light fixture and you’ve reduced the power by 1/3.

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) — A Big Advantage of Continuous Lights: With continuous lights, the camera sees what you see. Well, almost. The human eye is so much more sophisticated than the best lens and sensor that it can see gradations that the camera cannot. But, by and large, you see where your light and shadows will fall. Yes, studio lights have “modeling lights” but even the best are not as accurate in terms of output predictability than is the continuous light. And, lest we forget, the modeling lights in most strobes are tungsten bulbs — a different WB temperature than the strobe itself; so if you are shooting live view, the modeling light will throw a color cast that will not reflect what the actual image will look like.

Most of the still life or product shooters I know use continuous lights most of the time. So do I when doing those kinds of shoots. However, as I will discuss, later, that does not mean that you cannot do this type of shooting with strobes — you simply use your strobes as continuous lights by shooting using the modeling lights. A strobe, with its modeling light on, is a continuous light so long as you don’t fire it. More on this, later.

Another question I get alot is: “Why don’t I just get a bunch of speedlights and use them as studio lights?” I’ve got 4 Nikon SB800′s and I’m about to buy an SB900. They can be used as “studio lights”, but there are a couple of caveats to consider. First, they don’t have the power of studio strobes or most continuous lights. And, when compared to most studio strobes, they do not recycle very quickly. But, the biggest disadvantage most of us face when using these lights is that they are the farthest thing we can get from WYSIWYG. Why? Because “hot shoe” flashes not have actual modeling lights; at best, my Nikons will throw a fizzle of light to let me know where they are aimed. How important is WYSISYG? To someone like Joe McNally, probably not very important. He can “see” with a bigger eye than most of us and will not miss the modeling light. Most of us will. But this, too, can be overcome by learning and experimentation.

Conclusion:

OK, you’re probably thinking “Almost 2,000 words — are you going to tell us which is best?” Yes I am. Strobes are best for some things and continuous lights for others. It’s that simple. And, that’s why I have both in my collection of lights.

What Do I Use and Why?

Profoto Strobes: All of my strobes are from the Profoto line.

I have a D4 Power Generator, 4 heads, and a Profoto Ringlight (which must be powered by a generator or battery pack.)  I’ve reviewed this set up, before. Main advantage — the heads are light, can be hung out of reach and turned on or adjusted from the pack or my laptop. This is a workhorse generator. It recycles quickly. It is the backbone of my lighting system. I’ve also got a Profoto 600BR — a battery  pack that will power both the Ringflash and the heads.

D1 Air

The new kids on the block are my 4 D1 500w Airs. These are “monoblocks” — each light is a self contained unit, power, controls and fan in one package. These units are truly portable; in fact, I bought them in a kit that includes stands, umbrellas and a rolling case. Some say the advantage of monoblock’s are that if one breaks, you still have the remainder working. If my generator breaks, I cannot use any of those lights. Fortunately, the D4 is a solid unit. I’ll be doing some in depth reviews of the D1′s as soon as I have more experience with them. Having shot with them twice, I am very impressed.

Why do I like my Profoto lights? Because they are consistent — across the lines — their color temperatures are all within 30 Degrees Kelvin. They are consistent in duration. Although the power pack recycles a little quicker than the mono’s, it isn’t that much quicker — the mono’s are fast.

I didn’t start out with these lights. Like most of us, I started out with less expensive lights. Good lights from a major manufacturer, but less expensive. Here are the mistakes I made. First, they were not consistent — the white balance for each head differed significantly from the others. And, they had a very narrow range of adjustment — not one was more than 3 stops. I had trouble mastering them from day one. Could I use them now? Sure. With all I’ve learned and all of my experience I am now almost good enough to work around their flaws. But, I was pretty frustrated when I first started out.

That’s why, in class, I recommend that the students start out with fewer very good lights instead of more average lights. There is a lot we can do with one or two lights and a reflector. I think it better to have 2 high quality lights than 4 moderate quality lights. The idea is to add more quality lights when we can afford them.

I made this same mistake with lenses, too. Bought more of the wrong ones only to sell them to get fewer of the right ones. But, that’s a story for another day.

Continuous Lights: I’ve got three different types of continuous lights in my collection.

Mole

My Homage to the Old Days: When I found a place in Burbank that was “restoring” the studio lights of yesteryear, I bought 4 of them — one Mole/Richardson 412 and 3 Strands. All are adjustable Fresnel lights. What that means is that I can dial in the size of the beam from one that is tightly contained to one that has a lot of spread. With the availability of the modern continuous lights, why did I buy them? Romance. Pure romance. And, a bit of nostalgia. I think they are cool. The Mole came from Disney studios. The Strands from a rental house. Just think of what they’ve probably seen. And, they are very functional. I’ve used them in many ways — from hard light portrait shots to background lights. They bring a very special energy to a shoot.

My Recognition of the New: Recently I’ve gone a bit more modern — I got a Photoflex Starlite QL OctoDome Kit. Much lighter, totally mobile, easier to use, less heat — the right way to do continuous lights. The kit comes with two bulbs, a 1000w and a 500 w, both of which screw in like regular light bulbs. I’ll do a full review of  these lights, soon.

My Third Set of Continuous Lights? My Profoto strobes. My strobes? Yes, my strobes. I just use the modeling lamps — continuous tungsten light. One smart thing Profoto did with the new D1′s was to include 300w modeling lamps. That’s a lot of light. And, I can use all of my Profoto LightShapers — soft boxes, grids, reflectors, snoots, barn doors, with them. No duplication needed. I’ve used my Profoto’s to light most of the video I’ve shot in my studio for the last couple of years.

The nice thing about having these choices is that because they are all different forms of the same tungsten light, I can mix and match them at will. And, I do.

(In fact, by using gels to correct for color temperature, I can mix and match the strobes, used as strobes, with the continuous lights — but that’s a story for another day.)

The Bottom Line: Light is light. Be it the sun, a hot light or a strobe, we can accomplish our goals if we understand the differences between the sources and how to control for them.

But Wait. There’s more!

Think you need a lot of lights to do a portrait? Here’s a video from Tony Corbell that shows us how to shoot  with one light.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDbRaBXsXco

Want to learn how to use continuous lights? Photoflex has a bunch of free lessons in their online Photoflex Lighting School. Try these out:

http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/Equipment_Lessons/Starlite/Dramatic_Portrait_with_the_Starlite_OctoDome_nxt_Kit/index.html

http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/Equipment_Lessons/Starlite/Basic_Portrait_with_Two_OctoDomes/index.html

(Copyright: PrairieFire Productions/Stephen J. Herzberg — 2009)