Another wedding photobooth

I did another photobooth at a wedding last week and it worked out really well.  (Pics are here on flickr)   The biggest improvement this time:  A laptop for instant review. People really seemed to react to being able to see their antics on the screen and I think this is a "must have" for future setups.   I did this by having Lightroom 4 in tethered mode, in the loupe module with no toolbars visible.   Valuable sides effects being the ability to check focus if needed, and no work required at the end of the day to download cards.

If I had it to do again I would have an external monitor visible for public reviews but not have the keyboard accessible.  There were a few people who always wanted to go back and review previous shots or delete bad ones and that's a level of fussing I don't want to allow.

Also, next time I'd like to bring some props. :-)  Some hats, a feather boa, or something like that.  In this case though, people had no trouble having fun.  (And the reception was dry too!)

Lightroom 4 is here!

As you probably know, I'm a big fan of Lightroom.  Well, Lightroom 4 was released minutes ago, so you might be able to say you saw it here first. Get more info from Adobe.

I really liked the preview version that was released earlier this year and I'm sure they've integrated a lot of feedback into the final version.   Not sure if they integrated any of my feedback...

Behind the Scenes on Georgia's shoot, and folding a big reflector

I took some pictures with Supermodel Georgia last month, and those pictures have been getting some great reviews Flickr.  Let's go behind the scenes on that shoot briefly.

As you can see, I have a large white paper backdrop lit by two Alien Bees strobes.   There's a Canon 580 EX on manual mode as a hair light just out of frame on the upper right.  The yellow tool caddy is my stand-in for checking exposure and lighting.

Most of the shots are full-length on the white background but sometimes girls look better with a lower key background.  When I want to switch to a black background quickly I use the Botero 037 black/white foldable reflector hanging from a lightstand. It's really quick to switch from the room-filling white backdrop to a 3/4 length black backdrop and the only real drawback is the length, as you can see in this shot:

I just put the lightstand holding the backdrop straight on the white paper.  You can see the home-made snoot for the hair light in the upper right corner.   The black rectangle on the left is a large piece of foam core board I use to block the camera's view of the left strobe, to but down on lens flare, glare, and washout.

Once you've got the lighting mostly right, two backdrops to switch between quickly, and a model, the only thing left to do is shoot!   The results are here on Flickr and there's a mix of black and white backdrops.   Notice how the black background shots don't include the feet?

Well, there's one more thing left to do, and that's clean up afterwards.   Somehow that reflector folds into box the size of a large pizza and sometimes it's not obvious how to do it.  You especially want to look like you know what you're doing when you're in front of a paying client, so watch the following video and practice!

Fold a large reflector like a pro

or if you hate music:  http://youtu.be/sIn4_wHwfL4

PIPA and SOPA

A lot of major websites are taking themselves offline today, or at least changing their logos in protest.  We here at Brian Johns Photography World Headquarters are not altering the website, but we still want to raise awareness of the issue. PIPA and SOPA are toxic to to the culture of user generated content on the Internet and here's why:  SOPA means that if a user uploads somebody else's copyrighted content to a website, the website can be liable for extreme damages.   If SOPA/PIPA are enacted, websites that rely on user-uploaded content will have to either strictly police every single upload (which probably isn't possible) or change how they do business.

The main proponents of SOPA/PIPA are the big media conglomerates which love to sue people out of business.   You can see how this would stifle the online creativity and sharing.  Most "2.0" style websites would probably have to shut down and small companies with no legal staff would be foolish to start up.

How does this affect Brian Johns Photography?   Well, we don't accept user uploaded content here, so I don't have to worry about that.   In fact, this law might even be good for us in the short term - let's say a website posts a photo of mine without permission.   I could theoretically take over the domain as punishment!

So why are we opposed to it?   It's the principle of the thing.   I support every single SOPA/PIPA protest action I've seen today and I encourage you to learn more about the issue and express your opinion on it.

Ships still sink

There were two recent headlines about large ships sinking in the last week:  First, a ship that ran aground on a reef in Australia or New Zealand finally broke up.   Second, a brand new, modern, huge, high tech cruise ship ran aground and sank off the coast of Italy.  The cruise ship that just sank was only a few years old and cost $500 million dollars. I was at lunch with coworkers when the Australian ship was on the news and a coworker said "Ships still sink?"  What he meant was why, in 2012 with all the technology we have, do ships still sink?

My first reaction was to dismiss his question for being so naive, and marvel about how sheltered Internet geeks always think that "real world" problems don't exist at all, just because they don't exist in the world of sheltered Internet geeks.  I'm always amazed at how "theory people" don't understand that in the real world, there are physical consequences when things go wrong.

In our world of software things go wrong all the time - code fails, data gets lost, processes get restarted, etc., but the consequences are usually tiny.   These are all the results of mistakes or carelessness somewhere in a complicated system.   Well, the same things happen in other professions too.  And when they do, bad things happen.

But yeah, it sucks that big ships still hit reefs and rocks these days.

Lightroom 4 public beta is here!

Adobe just turned the public beta of Lightroom 4 loose!  You can can all the info here: http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/2012/01/lightroom-4-beta-now-available.html I'm going to make this entry short because I want to go watch the 8 YouTube videos they havejust posted, which you can see here:  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL66FBC9F268C533EF But I'll take a minute to comment on the marque features they're touting:

• New develop process for 2012.  Haven't seen it yet but the new process for 2010 was so phenomenal that it was like getting a whole new camera.
• Blurb integration.  I make Blurb books!  This could be great!
• Geotagging.  Thank god, finally.  Haven't seen the details yet but hopefully it's cool.
• Video features.  Meh.  I have very little interest in this.

I just wanted to post this quick note so perhaps you could say you saw it here first.  I know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of tonight!  (watching videos, downloading, and processing)