Archives For Reviews

Oahu, Hawaii (HI), USA

Review: Induro Tripod and Ballhead

Varina Patel —  January 24, 2013

Just a few weeks before we left the mainland for a trip to beautiful Hawaii  we were contacted by Induro. They wanted to send us a couple of tripods and ball heads, and they hoped we’d share our thoughts about them here on our blog. The trip to the islands would be a perfect opportunity to put the tripods through the paces, so we agreed. They sent us each a CT113 carbon fiber tripod and a BHL1 ball head, and off we went. We used the tripods while we were on location… and what did we think? Well… put it this way. We’ve already sold our old tripods. We like our new Induro’s that much.

Cost

First of all, the complete package costs less than our old tripods did – and the tripods come with a tool kit and a carry case with a shoulder strap. The tools come in a little pouch that I keep in my camera bag, and I think most people will really appreciate having a carry case for travel and storage. Of course, cost isn’t everything. The real question is whether or not the tripod can stand up to the abuse we throw at it.

Lightweight, Stable, and Sturdy

Hawaii is definitely a great place to abuse a tripod. It’s got everything. Sand, salt water and spray, rough terrain, dirt, heat, humidity, pouring rain… you name it. And we sure as heck weren’t sitting around on the beach enjoying margaritas while we were in paradise. We were traipsing all over the islands, getting nice and sweaty and dirty – and carrying our tripods everywhere we went.

They held up just fine. They were incredibly sturdy – both Jay and I agree that they felt sturdier than our old tripods… even though they weighed a few ounces less. These are carbon fiber tripods, so they are lightweight as well. We’re carrying a lot of gear out there, so we’re always conscious of how much our gear weighs. They feel very stable no matter the terrain, thanks to the solid construction and wide-stance cross-braced “spider”.

Comfort Grips

We also appreciated the comfort grips. These may not sound important, but when you get up early in the morning and you are carrying around a tripod in chilly weather, you hands can get mighty uncomfortable as you work with cold metal parts. Even a pair of gloves isn’t enough to keep the cold from creeping through. Chilly mornings were much more comfortable because of those comfort grips, and they are great for really hot conditions too. In fact, I was pretty grateful for them while we were shooting lava on the big island. We were so close to the oozing orange lava that my face and forearms were getting pretty uncomfortable in the heat… and my tripod was heating up, too. But it wasn’t a problem at all. The comfort grips kept my hands from burning, and they held up just fine in the heat. The grips did get wet when it rained, but because they are made of closed cell foam, they dried very quickly. (Most of the bubbles in closed cell foam are unbroken, so moisture doesn’t work its way deep inside. Closed cell foam is also more durable and longer lasting.)

Feet and Legs

I was a little concerned about the feet of the tripod when we were shooting on the lava beds. The ground was so rough and hot in this area, that the Vibram soles on my hiking boots show some obvious damage. The woman leading the tour tells us that she replaces her hiking boots about once a month. But the rubber feet of my tripod held up just fine. If you are worried about heat damage to the rubber feet though, the tripods also came with metal spikes. These are great for ice and uneven terrain as well.

Sand is another problem for tripod users. It tends to work its way into every little groove, and cause damage to threads and leg locks. Induro’s leg locks are moisture and dust resistant – and we found less gunk than we expected when we cleaned our tripods after the trip. We were happy with that. Some sand did get into the threads, though – that’s to be expected. No matter the brand, we highly recommend cleaning your tripod regularly if you use it in sand or mud or salt water or dust… you get the idea. We also recommend extending the lower legs a bit whenever you shoot in something you don’t want in the threads. If you can avoid pushing the leg locks into the muck in the first place, you’ll have a lot less cleaning to do… and a lot less damage over time.

The leg locks themselves work beautifully. A quarter turn releases the leg, and it slides smoothly out for a very quick setup. I could easily loosen both joints on one leg together for an even faster setup. Tightening them is just as easy – and they’ll stay nice and tight with a gentle twist. We like the three leg segments on the CT113, and there are four segment models available for those who want a tripod that will fit neatly into a smaller carry-on bag. The legs also move independently of one another – which is very important for us. We need to be able to adjust the legs to any length and any angle for maximum flexibility no matter the terrain.

Other Features

A few extra features came in handy while we were working. The spring loaded weight hook is great for stabilizing the tripod in windy weather, and the bubble level can help you get your horizon straight. The center column is reversible – which is great if you want to shoot at a very low angle – and grooved, so it won’t rotate when you adjust it. You can also purchase a shorter center column if you need one.

Ballhead

The Ballhead was very solid and locked firmly in place – even when we were using our heaviest lens combinations. I noticed absolutely no slippage whatsoever. The ballheads did take a little getting used to for us because they were built differently than our old ones. The knobs are located on opposite sides of the base and require a little more tension to turn than we’re used to. On the other hand, the spring loaded quick-release has a double safety lock that prevents accidental release – that’s is pretty darned important when you are trusting it to hold on to thousands of dollars worth of gear. We also liked the lock limiter tension control on the head lock knob. It let us adjust for the weight of different cameras and lenses as we worked. It was a bit tight when the tripod first arrived, but a quick twist with a coin loosened it up, and after that we could turn it easily with the pad of our thumbs. The ballhead also has a pan action lock and a 360-degree graduated base scale for positioning your camera for panoramic photography. Oh yeah – and a bubble level too.

Overall, the Induro CT113 tripod and BHL1 ballhead are exactly what we need when we are shooting on location. They are lightweight, sturdy, and flexible – and they have lots of features that add value. They held up to shooting in a variety of difficult conditions, and were easy to clean as well. (Keep an eye out for our new How To Clean Your Tripod video. It should be ready for release in a few days!)

I know some of you already own this tripod and/or ballhead. Please jump in and tell us what you think of Induro gear. I know that many of our readers are looking for great gear, and good information makes it a lot easier to make tough decisions!

To learn more about composition and photography check out out eBooks below:

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snapseed

Snapseed is Smart – and Fun!

Varina Patel —  November 8, 2012

Snapseed lets me make changes based on forethought – not just playing with sliders. That’s important to me.

Yep. I’m a professional photographer. And I admit it – sometimes I shoot with my iPhone… and I still want my photos to look good. I don’t expect amazing results at large size. But if I do take a shot with my iPhone, I like to do a little bit of post-processing. To that end, I’m always looking for good apps that will let me take my iPhone photography up a notch. Snapseed by Nik Software (recently acquired by Google) is one of the apps I’ve been playing with lately, and I like it.

I took this shot of Mount Hood in Oregon with my iPhone 4. The original photograph is just ok. It’s certainly nothing spectacular. Because I have very little in-camera control with my iPhone, I wanted to do what I could in Snapseed to give the image a little more pop.

When I’m working with any photograph – in-camera or in post-processing – the first thing I do is think about what I want to create. My original image showed more sky than I wanted – this image is about the mountain, not that big stretch of blue… pretty as it is. I also wanted to bring out the snow on the trees in the foreground – I felt that it got lost in the original. And I wanted to be able to shift my white balance a bit, because the original image was too blue. The question was – could Snapseed let me create my finished product according to my own ideas about what I wanted to produce? Or would it end up being an experimentation sessions – where I ended up with something nice… but not necessarily what I had in mind before I got started? It turns out, it was a little bit of both.

My first order of business was to crop it. I wanted a pano crop – not the straight out of the camera size that showed too much sky and clutter in the foreground. Snapseed lets me crop to a variety of preset ratios – or create my own, which is what I did here. I also decreased the saturation, adjusted the contrast a bit, added some texture, and adjusted the white balance. Each of these changes was easy to make – and with the help of on-screen tips, I didn’t have any problems creating the finished product I wanted.

Here are some of the features that I like…

Snapseed offers helpful tips to using the app. Very helpful!

The interface is easy to learn. For a first-time user, the tips that pop up on-screen are invaluable. Once you’ve spent a few minutes playing with the options, you’ll find that you have tons of options.

I like options. :)

I can add adjustment points and make targeted adjustments to those areas. Nice!

I like the selective adjustment options very much. They let me target adjustments to specific areas within the frame – similar to what I do in Photoshop with layers and masks.

My photo fills the frame, and options appear when I put a finger on the screen.

The compare button lets me see the changes I’ve made as I work, so I can decide if I like them no matter where I am in my workflow. If I don’t like the effects I’ve applied, I can tap the back button and try something else. I can also use the Loupe tool to take a look at specific areas at full size. Definitely good.

I have tons of options – frames, grunge, drama, focus, black and white… even tilt-shift!

I also like being able to add frames and grunge effects – it’s fun to play with all this fun stuff. Snapseed is great for adjusting color balance, contrast, exposure, and saturation as well. Here’s another sample image that shows what the app can do. I took the original photo with my iPhone 4 – and made simple adjustments. I took this shot late on an overcast day, and I couldn’t get enough light to capture a properly exposed image without a tripod. So, I brightened it up in Snapseed. The image was also way too blue, so I adjusted the color balance to warm it up and produce cleaner colors. The photo won’t look like much blown up to full size – but that’s really not the point. It looks really nice on my iPhone, and it shows the beauty of the scene.

It’s easy to make specific adjustments without experimenting with presets. But I can use presets if I want them!

Now, there is one thing that I want to point out. I deliberately increased saturation too much while working with one of my photos – making sure that I lost details in my highlights. Then made a few other minor adjustments, and went back to decrease the saturation again later. I couldn’t get that detail back without starting over from scratch. That simple experiment tells me that Snapseed isn’t using all the data from my original file as I make changes. It’s constantly throwing away data that isn’t being used at that moment. That’s not at all unexpected – we want our apps to work fast, and saving all that data would slow this thing down. A lot. Still, it’s something you should be aware of if you are using Snapseed. Use the undo or back buttons rather than trying to reverse a change later in your workflow by shifting the same slider. Easy enough.

So there you go. I like Snapseed. It lets me make my own decisions about my photos – but it also offers all kinds of fun options if you just want to see what you can do. It’s well thought-out and well designed, and worth the price if you enjoy this kind of thing.

To learn more about photography check our webinars and eBooks below:

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SmugMug

SmugMug Makes us Happy

Varina Patel —  August 16, 2012

We like SmugMug. Yep. We really do. In fact, both Jay and I are now using SmugMug’s gallery and print services to handle our print sales. The reason in simple. Prints are a pain, and SmugMug made it much easier.

Here’s Your Discount Code

SmugMug Pro account 20% discount code: SMUGMUGPATEL

Making Our Own Prints

Many of you know that Jay and I have been making our own prints for years. We hesitate to have others print our images because the process is complicated. There are all kinds of details that are important. Just getting the colors right requires an understanding of color profiles, color spaces, color gamut, color calibration, printers, ink types, paper types, and so much more… and in the end, it seemed like less trouble to just do it ourselves. But in reality – it’s not easier. It’s a lot of work. We were dealing with each and every order on our own – and because it was such a pain, we weren’t making any effort to market our prints. That’s a lot of lost revenue if you think about the potential for print sales over time!

So, when SmugMug gave us a call, we were more than ready to listen. Especially after I finished up handling the large canvas print that had to be packed and shipped overseas to a Army base in Japan. What a hassle!

We spent some time getting everything set up on SmugMug – and playing around with all kinds of customization options for our Pro accounts. But now we’re live and ready to go. You can click on the Prints link at the top of the page to access our prints directly from our websites – or you can click here to get to Varina’s Prints or Jay’s Prints.

Getting Started

There are lots of little things that I like about SmugMug. The fact that my keywords are uploaded along with my image. So, my gallery is fully searchable. The fact that I can use HTML or CSS to customize my site. And the easy customizer works well, too – so if you don’t have experience with programming, you have tons of options to work with.

Smart Galleries are Awesome

One thing I was concerned about with this whole transition was uploading all my images. This wasn’t going to be about uploading a handful of scaled-down, low-res images. I needed to upload high-resolution image – upsized and prepared for large size prints. But you know what? There wasn’t a single glitch in the upload – and it was quick too. Rather than sorting my photos into a bunch of different galleries, I uploaded everything into one – my “showcase” gallery. Once the images were all there, I sorted them into smart galleries – which are such a great idea. I simply tell my mountains gallery to include all images with the keyword “mountain”. I can add keywords until I have all the images I want in my smart gallery. Smart indeed.

Changes I’d Like to See

There are definitely a few things I’d want to improve. First, the images that appear as thumbnails for each gallery on the gallery page are randomly selected from the gallery they represent. (Actually, you can choose your thumbnail images – See my update at the end of this post.) Which seems like a good idea because each time you visit the page, you get different image. But some of my galleries overlap – the same image might show up in two or more galleries. So sometimes, two different galleries show the same thumbnail image. Not cool. And although there are lots of themes I can choose from, there’s not a lot of variety. I’m changing the pattern and colors of the background and text – but not the layout itself. I’d like to see some really cool basic themes that don’t need lots of CSS or HTML. I think everyone should be able to choose their layout, border sizes, images sizes, button styles… everything… without having to get their hands dirty with coding. I don’t mind the coding – but people tell me I’m kinda weird. :) Most people don’t want to muck around with cascading style sheets.

And Props to SmugMug for Listening

But I also think SmugMug is listening to their users. Really carefully. And I have absolutely no doubt that they care what people want and are working to make it happen. So, I suspect that these changes won’t be long in coming. Plus – they have an amazing team of programers who will help you out with whatever customizations you want. At one point, my “pro concierge” had my prints section looking pretty much like the rest of my website. In the end, I decided to choose a standard design so that it’s clear you are leaving my site to order prints. But maybe I’ll go back to it – or modify it slightly. I did keep the code – of course. ;)

The Important Stuff – PRINTS

So this is all well and good – but what it really comes down to in the end is print quality. Right? And of course, we didn’t ignore that. SmugMug works with four different printers – and you can choose the one you want to work with. We chose BayPhoto because we’d heard really good things about their prints. We ordered a collection of prints on a variety of papers – and metal – and they look fantastic. Really. They look absolutely great. Each and every one of them! I took some photos of them for you – and I’m showing them below – but you have to know that seeing a photograph of a print isn’t the same thing as seeing the print itself. I really wish I could just put a print in your hands so you could see them for yourself. Still – it’s better than nothing.

I had them print one of my favorites shots from Iceland on Canvas – which looks amazing. I love the textures in the canvas and the smooth gradients in the colors.

You can click on the image below to see the canvas detail.

Jay wanted to see what his brilliantly colorful shot from Glacier National Park (Montana) would look like on metal. The glossy surface definitely makes the colors pop – but it’s a little too shiny for my tastes. I do think some images would look amazing as a high-gloss prints – just maybe not landscapes. :) Regardless of my personal tastes, the print was perfect. Smooth, shiny, and amazing color. Wow!

The metallic paper was my favorite of the ones we tried. I knew I was going to like this one – and I wish I could show you how amazing it looks… but it’s tough to see what I’m talking about unless you are standing in front of the print itself. The metallic paper makes the photo glow. Really. It’s a gorgeous, subtle glow that makes the shot of Cannon Beach in Oregon feel alive. Completely awesome.

And finally, the semi-gloss. We’ve been printing on paper pretty much like this stuff for years, and we wanted to see how the prints would compare to ours. We couldn’t see any difference in this shot from Dry Tortugas in Florida. Which makes us happy.

And just to shake things up, we ordered a coffee mug and a t-shirt too. All merchandise is printed through EZPrints – and they did a great job. Both the t-shirt and the mug look pretty darn good. Merchandise! How fun is that? My kids all want to drink from the mug with my photo on it . :)

So, there you go! If you are as tired of handling individual print sales as we are… maybe this is your solution. We’ll post updates now and then to let you know how our accounts are doing – and how we like the whole process. And just because we love you guys, we asked for a special discount code to save you some cash. When you sign up for a Pro account with SmugMug, just enter this special 20% discount code: SMUGMUGPATEL

If you’re already using SmugMug, let us know what you think. Your comments can help others make better decisions!

UPDATE: We got a really nice email from Ann at SmugMug, who wanted to point out that there actually is a way to set the thumbnails for each gallery. She says, “It is done with a gallery level tool called Feature Photo. So, to set the thumbnail for any gallery you would open up the image that you want to have featured, and then open the tools menu top right in the gallery. You’ll find Feature under the heading This Photo > More. That sets the thumbnail image for any gallery and turns off the random rotation through your images.”

So there you go. SmugMug really is listening. I told you so! ;) Thanks so much, Ann!

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Joby_1271

Gorillapods for Pros? Awesome!

Varina Patel —  July 12, 2012

Ok, so I recently wrote up a review of Joby’s Gorillapods. Our kids use them with their point-n-shoot cameras. They’re great for that. But what about us? Those little Gorillapods can’t handle a Canon 5D Mk III with a long lens. So, we don’t get to join in the fun. Right? Wrong! Joby makes some serious gear for serious photographers. This is cool stuff!

Check out the fantastic system they sent us to try out! I was stunned by the solid construction and the strength of these things! They had no trouble holding my Canon 5D Mk III steady… even with a 70-200mm lens attached! And better yet… they even make a ball-head with a quick release clamp… That just happens to fit my acratech ball head clamp. So, I don’t have to switch clamps to go back and forth between my regular tripod and my Gorillapod. That’s just cool. (You should have seen my grin when I took a look at that ball head. Heck yes!)

All right. I hear you. You’re asking why I need a gorilla pod if I already have a perfectly good ( and rather expensive) tripod. Well, I love my tripod. No doubly about it. And I won’t be trading it in anytime soon. But there are times when it’s a liability. First and foremost – travel. Sometimes a big, bulky tripod is more trouble than it’s worth. It’s tough to fit them into carry-on bags, and their unwieldy on a plane. (I once knocked a guy upside the head with my tripod on a flight to Baltimore. Poor guy probably has brain damage! I felt terrible!) a Gorillapod will fit neatly into your carry-on bag. No problem.

Have you ever taken a trip where there’s a weight limit for your luggage? Or you only want to check one bag… Or want to avoid checking a bag altogether? Yeah. Me too. That’s where the Gorillapod comes in handy.

What if you want to visit the botanical gardens or some other place where tripods are forbidden? The Gorillapod is much more likely to make it past that over-zealous security guard at the front gate.its small enough to be discrete, but sturdy enough to do a great job… Just about anywhere.

All right. So that’s why I like having one. The real question is, does it work? And the answer is yes. Surprisingly well. The flexible legs let you hold your camera steady just about anywhere. At first, the legs seemed pretty stiff to me – but they loosened up just a little after a few bends. I don’t want them getting too loose, though. I need something strong enough to make me feel good about letting go of my camera so I can get a really sharp shot. As soon as I got comfortable bending those legs (no need to be gentle – they are sturdy as heck), I realized I could do more with it than I thought.

I set it on top of a fence post. I wrapped the legs around the post to keep it secure, and fired off a few shots. Sweet. Then, in order to capture a shot of a dandelion, I got down on the ground. I bring my tripod down low like that all the time (for macro shots, or images where I want to get really close to a foreground object that is close to the ground). My tripod goes pretty low – but lots of tripods don’t. This Gorillapod let’s me go as low as I want. So even if I bring along my regular tripod, I’ll have this one as backup in case I really need to get down there.

Rubber grips on each leg-segment keep it from slipping, and it locks tight no matter how you bend it. I recommend making sure your camera is really secure before taking your hands off it. The Gorillapod will do its job if you make sure it’s got a good grip – but it takes some getting used to.

Have you used a Joby Gorillapod? Tell us what you think! I’m sure there are others who would benefit from your comments. Thanks for sharing!

To learn about photography check out our Ebooks below:

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Joby_9078

Summer Photography with the Kids

Varina Patel —  July 5, 2012

Need a fun, summer activity for your kids? Put a camera in their hands and see what they do with it!

Each of our kids has their own small camera. Six kids, six cameras… and six Gorillapods from Joby. We spent a few hours in the park seeing what they’d do with them. Their instructions? Get creative, and have fun. :)

And boy did they come through! Anna and Ellena used their Gorillapods to steady their cameras on a small tree for a portrait session. They set their automatic timers, put their arms around each other, and grinned like the imps they are.

Nick climbed high to take a few shots, and then used the flexible legs on this gorilla pod to prop the camera – nice and steady – between two saplings.

Anna hung her camera upside down from a branch, and then went low for some detail shots.

The lightweight flexibility of the Gorillapods makes them perfect companions for kids. They attach easily to the camera, and they are easy to remove. We like to leave the small locking-clip screwed into the bottom of the camera, rather than unscrewing it completely. That way, the kids can snap their miniature tripods on and off easily. There’s even a tiny lock mechanism that keeps the Gorillapod securely in place, so it doesn’t fall off in the woods somewhere.

The gorillapods are sturdy too. The kids aren’t always gentle with their gear, so that’s essential. Nobody has managed to break one yet – but not for lack of trying. ;) They’ve been twisted and contorted every which way… but that’s exactly what they are made to do.

I should point out that this little tripods aren’t just for kids. My grandmother has one. She travels extensively, and she carries the little Gorillapod with her. She uses it when she wants a photo of herself with her travel-buddies. It’s easy to set up on a table or a railing, and she can set the timer and then jump into the photograph. And when low light or shaky hands leave her photos blurry, she wraps the legs of the Gorillapod around a railing or a lamp post, and gets the shot she wants – no blur, no problem. I use a little one to hold a flash unit when I need a little extra light… and I have a larger one too… more on that next week! ;)

They’re small enough to fit in your pocket or your carry-on bag. They’re welcome in places that shun bulky tripods. They’re flexible enough to use just about anywhere. And best of all… they’re fun! In the end, that’s what it’s all about, right?

To learn more about photography check out our eBooks below:

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easycanvasprints5

Review: Easy Canvas Prints

Varina Patel —  November 28, 2011

How long does it take to produce a single photograph? It depends on so many factors… we might drive 30 minutes to the airport, travel 4 or 6 hours (or more) on a plane (plus layovers and delayed flights), spend three (or five or seven days) on location (not to mention hiking and waiting for that great light).. and we come home with two or three photos good enough to add to our portfolios. And then there’s the time spent in post-production. Maybe it takes just a few minutes… and maybe it takes a few hours. The point is… it takes a good long time from start to finish, and lots of work.

If I’m going to put that much effort into the photograph… I want it to look darn good when I print it. Jay and I usually print our own photos on our Epson printer. But when we want something out of the ordinary, we have to ask someone else to handle the printing for us. Recently, we checked out the photos to canvas services at Easy Canvas Prints. Here’s what we think…

The website is easy to use and well thought out. You just choose the size you want for your canvas, and then upload your image. There’s a handy automatic quality check built right in – so you can easily see if your photo is going to look good when it’s printed. I also appreciated the little “tip” bar near the top of the screen – it’s great if you haven’t done this kind of thing before. If you need more help, they have a FAQ page with answers to common questions. They have a variety of size and pricing options and they even offer photo retouching, red-eye removal, and black & white or sepia conversion.

You also have some nice options for border wraps – which is great.  I usually prefer the mirror wrap option, which works beautifully for landscape images where you don’t want to crop off the edge of your photo. But you also have the option to wrap the image, or add a colored border. The preview window really helps if you aren’t sure what you want.

And the finished product? Beautiful! The canvas arrived in the mail about a week after I placed the order – that’s 3 or 4 days  of turnaround time for Easy Canvas Prints, plus a few days for snail mail shipping. (Of course, they have faster shipping options if you are in a hurry.) The colors are vibrant and true to the original, and the details are just right. I chose a print with a range of color and tonality. I also wanted an image that had both fine details and smooth gradients. They handled both very well.  You can see the details in the close-up shot below. Keep in mind that a canvas print generally won’t look as sharp as a print on photo paper… but the details in this shot really are very nice.

The wrapping looks great – clean and professionally done – and the frame is made of wood, not plastic. The canvas is archival quality, so it should look great for a good long time. I tried to damage the canvas by scraping it with the edge of a coin (on the back, of course!) and I couldn’t leave a mark. That means the protective coating is doing it’s job. So, it’s going to hold up nicely to normal wear and tear… though I don’t recommend trying to damage your own prints! :)

So, there you go. We were impressed with the easy-to-use interface, the quality materials, and the lovely finished product.

If you are interested in turning your photos to canvas, check out the Easy Canvas Prints Facebook page, too -they have some great deals going on over there… hit the Like button, and you will automatically receive 50% off of your next order, and free shipping as well. Not too shabby.

Have you used the photos to canvas services at Easy Canvas Prints? Please comment on this post, and tell us what you thought – others can benefit from your experience!

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Myrdal Jokull, Iceland

Review: Canon 24mm TS-E F3.5L II

Jay Patel —  November 21, 2011

tse_24mm_586x186

Last week, we reviewed Canon’s 90mm TS-E lens – one of two lenses we rented from LensRentals.com for our recent trip to Iceland. We’ve been considering purchasing a tilt-shift lens, and wanted to try these our before making a final decision. Renting a lens is the perfect solution, and Lens Rentals does a great job for us, every time.

We posted a video in our earlier blog post that gives a breif overview of how a TS-E lens works. You can view the video at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom#p/search/0/0HRYlJUwzYA

Once again in this review we will focus on creative aspects of using TS-E lenses, rather than focusing on technical reviews.

Canon’s 24mm TS-E is a second generation lens. Besides improvement in sharpness, Canon adapted the lens to allow the tilt and shift axis to rotate independently of one another. This allows for an extra degree of creative controls that was missing in the first generation lens… and we love it! Unlike Canon’s 17mm TS-E lens (which has a bulbous front element), this lens can easily accommodate 82mm filters. On the downside, this lens is heavy and requires manual focusing. The lens hood is of limited use because this is a wide-angle lens… but it does come in handy at times. The lens is incredibly sharp, and the build is excellent. There is some reduced sharpness at the edges when the lens is fully shifted.

One of the biggest advaintage of a T/S lens is its ability to control the DOF beyond what a traditional lens can handle. While the exact procedure requires some experimentation, a T/S lens can allow a photographer to get very close to the subject and maintain a sharp focus throughout the image. In this example, I used the tilt functionality to get the foreground sharply in focus, and used the shift axis to compose my shot so that the foreground leaves were only inches away from my lens.

Another creative way to use a T/S lens is to build panoramas by moving the lens along its shift axis between exposures. Here is an example of a panorama captured with Canon’s 24mm TS-E lens. I took three separate shots – one at center, a second shifted all the way to the left, and a third shifted all the way to the right. I blended the three shots in Photoshop.

Canon’s 24mm TS-E F3.5L II lens offers an incredible opportunity to get creative. This is another expensive lens – and it’s different from what you are used to – so unless you are really sure you want it, take the time to try it out before you buy one.

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90mmTS

Review: 90mm F2.8 TS-E lens

Jay Patel —  November 17, 2011

For our recent trip to Iceland, we rented a couple of lenses once again – from LensRentals.com. Their service was excellent, as always. We placed the order a couple of weeks before we left, and the lenses arrived clean and in perfect condition – in plenty of time for us to get them packed up and ready to go. We highly recommend their services – and we know several other photographers who’ve rented from them as well. I haven’t heard any complaints yet! Renting lenses is a great way to get your hands on a lens to try it out before making an expensive purchase.

So, let’s get to it!

A tilt shift lens is a specialty lens that allows the photographer to control perspective without tilting the camera – instead, they can actually tilt the elements within the lens itself. You can also adjust the plane of focus so that everything within the plane is in sharp focus… or so that only a small area is in focus. Here’s a nice little video from Digital Rev TV that gives a really nice, basic overview of what you can do with one of these lenses.

http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom#p/search/0/0HRYlJUwzYA

This is a very compact and light-weight lens that comes with an integrated lens hood. It is one of the sharpest prime lenses we have used – it’s beautifully sharp even wide open. The lens is really solid – it’s well built, and made to last… which is pretty important, since it’s selling for about $1300.00. (Yet another reason to rent!)

There’s very little distortion with this lens, and you shouldn’t have problems with flare unless you are shooting directly into the sun. One of the drawbacks of this lens is that the axis of shift and the axis of tilt remained locked with respect to one another….we hope Canon will choose to correct this issue with newer models. And the knobs are also really little! Which makes them a bit difficult to adjust if your fingers aren’t very small.

A T/S lens can be used in variety of creative ways to capture images. Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of how to use the lens, we want to point out some of the creative ways you can use it.

First of all – it can be used just like any other lens… here’s a shot I took using LiveView to manually focus. (It’s important to note that this lens does not have auto-focus capabilities.) Because it’s a compact lens, I was able to sprint a half-mile with my camera and tripod to capture the gorgeous light over the mountains in Iceland.

On of our favorite uses for this lens is in creating panoramas. The process is simple. You set up your first shot as you would normally – and snap a photo. Then, you adjust the lens along it’s shift axis to the left and right to complete the panorama. Here is an example of a panorama series. After the images were captured, we combine them in Photoshop for the finished effect.

Another interesting aspect of the TS lens is it’s ability to isolate a subject by adjusting the plane of focus. The shot you see below shows how tilting the lens axis blurs the area in front of and behind the subject. This is a neat way to isolate a subject within the frame.

 

This lens is great for photographing small objects – think how cool it would be to shift your plane of focus so that all the petals of the flower you are shooting are within the plane of focus… without shooting the flower from above! We loved it for super-sharp panoramas and isolating subjects within the field of view. We don’t recommend the lens if you don’t feel comfortable with a learning curve. Tilt shift lenses are very different from conventional lenses, and making the most of them requires practice and experimentation! If you are up for a challenge – rent one and see how you like it! I think we’ll rent this one again… it’s entirely too much fun to play with!

TS/E lenses offer an incredible opportunity to explore your creative side. What would you do if you get your hands on one? :)

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300f4

Review: Canon Telephoto EF 300mm f/4.0L IS Lens

Varina Patel —  September 22, 2011

Jay and I wanted to be able to photograph the wildlife in Glacier National Park – but our lens collection is geared towards wide-angle landscapes and macro photography. For shooting wildlife – especially when you can’t (or don’t want to) get too close to your subject – you want to have a long lens. But lenses are expensive – so rather than purchasing one we won’t use regularly, we rented a Canon 300mm f/4.0 from LensRentals.com. Of course, we didn’t think about renting a lens until the last minute (go figure), so we weren’t sure they could get it to us on time. We emailed to find out if they could do it, and they assured us they could. We put in the order Monday afternoon, requested overnight shipping, and the lens arrived Tuesday afternoon… so it was packed and ready in plenty of time for our 4am departure Wednesday morning.

I have to say, we were really impressed with LensRental.com – the service was excellent, the website was clean and easy to navigate, and the ordering process was simple. The lens was clean and in perfect condition when it arrived. And perhaps most importantly, their prices are more than reasonable. You can expect to pay extra for overnight shipping, of course – but they ship two-day standard… so plan a little better than we did, and you won’t have to take on that extra expense.

So, I know what you’re thinking (because I’m a little bit psychic)… you’re wondering why we didn’t choose a longer lens… or a wider one… or a zoom. Actually, the 300mm f/4.0 is perfect for us. It’s small enough to fit neatly in our camera bag – 22.1 cm long (8.7 in) without the lens hood extended, and weighing in at 1.19 kg (2.62 lb). That’s important since we do a lot of hiking and we don’t want to be lugging around a huge lens everywhere we go. It’s also smaller and lighter than the f2.8 version. As for zoom capability – we just don’t need it. We can use the lens on a full frame body for a 300mm focal length, or put it on our 1.6 crop factor body for 480mm. If we need more length, we can add our 1.4x extension tube – for a total focal length equivalent to 672mm… and that’s more than enough for our needs. When we are on location, we don’t want to bring more than we need. The 300mm f/4.0 was just right.

 

All right – let’s get down to the good stuff. This is one gorgeous lens. It’s an L-series (L is for Luxury) lens with first generation Image Stabilization capability. It’s beautifully sharp and quick to focus… which is great when your subject isn’t likely to hold still for long. It also has an integrated lens hood – easy to store and no fumbling with the dang thing when you need it. It just slides right into position. Image stabilization has two modes – one for dual-axis camera-shake correction, and one that handles a single axis for use when panning. In the latter case, the lens will automatically determine your panning direction – pretty cool. Minimum focusing distance is 1.50 m (4.92 ft).

Take a look at this shot of a ground squirrel. (No – not that photo… that’s Jay. The one below!) It’s incredibly sharp, and the soft background is a testament to the beauty of shooting with a wide aperture. You can see that f/4.0 is wide enough to get that soft background, but we’re still getting enough depth of field to get the animal in sharp focus. I took this shot from about ten yards away – and cropped a bit to get the squirrel out of the center.

Glacier National Park - Montana, USA

And here’s a 100% crop to show you how much detail we are getting out of this lens… click to see it full size. Keep in mind that this is completely un-sharpened. (Image Specs: f/4.0, 1/400, ISO 200) The finished image above has been prepared for web viewing and sharpened accordingly.

Take a look at some of the other photos we took with this lens during the trip…
The Bighorn Sheep were gathered near the Logan Pass visitor center on our first evening in the park. (Image Specs: f/4.0, 1/80, ISO 400) Jay took this shot with a tripod – be sure to turn off the Image Stabilization if you are using an IS lens on a tripod.

A few minutes later, a family of Elk wandered into the area. Jay took a few photographs in the fading light. (Image Specs: f/4.0, 1/160, ISO 1600) Even at a high ISO, the photos look excellent!

You can get creative with this lens, too – it’s not just for wildlife portraits. While waiting for construction vehicles to move aside, we took a few photos of the wildflowers blooming on the mountainsides. (Image Specs: f/6.3, 1/800, ISO 200)

And last – but not least – here’s a shot that just makes me smile. (Image Specs: f/4.0, 1/400, ISO 100) Sometimes the wildlife ham it up for the camera.

Glacier National Park - Montana, USA

To sum it all up – this is a beauty of a lens. Relatively lightweight, great for wildlife and other creative shots, and so so sharp. What’s not to love? And once we were home, we packed the lens back up in the box it arrived in, slapped on the shipping label LensRental.com provided, and dropped it off at UPS for shipping. Now, I’m ready to rent a couple of tilt-shift lenses for Iceland! We’ll write up reviews for those when we return!

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Using the Reflector

Review: Mike Moats Macro Light Control Kit

Jay Patel —  August 29, 2011

The Mike Moats Macro Light Control Kit includes a 24-inch Wimberly™ Plamp and two 14-inch Westcott™ Illuminator Reflector Panels – one is silver on one side and white on the other, and the other is a translucent white diffuser. It also includes the Finding Character in Nature ebook by Mike. I went out for a leisurely “test drive” on a lovely – and hot and humid – July morning.

At first, I felt like I was carrying around too much equipment. Tripod and camera in one hand, plamp and filters in the other – useful or not, I had to find a way to carry everything more easily. So, I clamped the Plamp onto my tripod, and hung the reflector panels from it. Now, I could carry everything with one hand. Problem solved. I chose a small thistle, and got to work. Lucky for me, I had my trusty side-kick along to document the process – thanks for helping out, Jay!

First, I set up my tripod then put the Plamp to work positioning the chosen thistle just where I wanted it. I’ll go into more detail about that fabulous little tool later – for now, indulge me while I go into some detail about controlling the light.

I deliberately chose a location in the sun because I wanted to put those illuminator panels to work. The backlighting was delicious but the intensity of the light made it difficult to capture the entire dynamic range with a single exposure. I wanted to capture good detail in the shadow areas without blowing out the bright areas, and that’s tough to do with a shot like this unless you happen to have a handy little reflector panel hanging from your tripod! The silver reflector bounced light from the sun onto the front of the thistle, enhancing all those prickly details. The back-lighting outlines the plant, without blowing out the highlights. Perfect.

I took a few comparison shots to show the dramatic difference a reflector or diffuser can make – take a look at the images below.

Here’s a shot taken without any reflector or diffuser. Notice the dark background. The camera can’t handle the entire dynamic range, so the photographer has to choose between capturing detail in the highlights, or capturing detail in the shadows.

Natural Light

For this shot, I used the silver reflector to bounce light onto the flower and the shadowed background. You can see quite a bit more detail back there, and the shadows on the flower aren’t so dark. You still get the backlit effect. This reflector is great for dramatic lighting.

Natural Light + Reflector

For this last shot, I held the diffused panel just behind and to the right of the flower to filter the strong, directional sunlight. I also increased my shutter speed slightly to get the exposure just right in the camera. Notice how soft and even the light is in this image. The diffuser is perfect when you want a more subtle lighting effect.

Natural Light + Diffuser

The best thing about these little panels is that you can really extend your shooting options and expand your time frame for getting good photos. It’s no longer necessary to confine your photography to times when the light is perfect. And there’s no need to purchase an expensive flash unit for spotlighting your subject. (Of course, if you already have a flash unit, you could use the diffuser panel to soften it and remove harsh glare, or the reflector to bounce the flash for softer, indirect light. The options are endless.)

Now, let’s get back to the Plamp. This deceptively simple little tool is enormously helpful. Any photographer who has tried to capture a plant portrait knows how hard it is to isolate a subject in a weedy field or an overgrown garden. For a clean composition, I needed my pretty yellow flower to stay just the right distance from my lens, at the just the right angle. I also needed to separate it from its brothers so that I could isolate it with a shallow depth of field. I’ve abandoned shots like this in the past because I couldn’t get the plant to stay where I wanted it… this time, it wasn’t a problem. You should have seen me grinning like an idiot out there.

The padded clip did no damage to any flowers I shot that morning, so the birds and the butterflies weren’t offended and the Plamp can be used to hold a reflector or diffuser too – you can even use it to hold other plants out the frame. For those who like a shorter arm, the Plamp snaps apart pretty easily. You can actually remove some of the little ball-jointed sections to shorten it. Personally, I like it as it is.

Mike’s kit is perfect for macro photography. The illuminator panels can be used together or separately, and when I fold them up, they take up very little room in my camera bag. They’re extremely lightweight and easy to carry, too. I store the Plamp in my bag by folding it into a tight little coil. Everything in the kit seems to be very sturdy, and I don’t see any reason why these tools won’t last for many years to come.

My only regret? I wish I had another kit. Two Plamps are better than one – one to hold the reflector, and one for the flower. And Jay and I are already fighting over those reflector panels.

The Mike Moats Macro Kit is available at the NPN/OPG Store.

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