Day One Hundred Sixty Eight
June 17th, 2009 | 50 Comments| [permalink]
168/365. I can't stop raving... I can't stop raving... I can't stop... ~ Dune — have some ecstasy
So... I've never personally done ecstasy, but good 'ol Flat Eric here seems to be havin' a blast. Oh, and if you curious about the tie in to Dune, have a throw back and watch the rave video.
Tonight started off with me wanting to take a photo of our new wedding rings... but then... somehow... it turned into this.
Ok, time for some more Q & A pulled from the most common questions I get from y'alls emails
Q: "How do you get such perfect focus on your self portraits?"
A: Well, perfect is debatable, but my technique is simply and works "most of the time" and with patience.
First, use your AF to lock onto something near by where you will be standing. Notice in near all my shots I'm near "something". Lock on those things. Then swap your camera back to manual focus, then start firing away with your remotes, timers, intervals, tourists... who/whatever fires it, your chances are now much greater. Even in this shot where I had a tourist press the shutter, I disabled the AF on them so they wouldn't have the option to mess it up. I knew "exactly" where to walk and stayed directly on that focal plane.
Secondly, use "spot focusing". You Nikon folk, it looks like this as explained by Rockwell (ignore what he says about it — it's still useful).
The "big dumb rectangle" is given too many options and doesn't know where to focus.... especially at night in busy settings like... oh I don't know... a city!
Q: I've been thinking about by *brand x* flash. What do you think?
A: If you haven't read this article I wrote on Flash Photography and pwning the inverse square law, do that now... and there's a section at the bottom which discusses a bit about "what flash do I buy?"
Personally, I LOVE the SB-900, but it's understood that for most folks it's a big commitment. The way I see it, it's like buying a new lens... except most great lenses can cost $1,000+. And in my world, my flashes are far more important and an influence in my photography than a pile of lenses.
Q: "Would you ever consider making a book with all these setup shots?"
A: Don't think it hasn't crossed my mind, but that's time I don't have right now. One day I'd love to throw together some of my most unique shots along with outtakes, alternate takes, and of course some extra commentary on how I arrived at each shot.
But you know... not now.
And finally, that link that usually ends up at the bottom....
setup, camera, strobist info: see here (pssst... 4 light setup!)
