Canon and Sony News for May 2017 (Page 5)

From B&H:

OPTIC 2017 is four days of presentations, gear trade showings, live demonstrations, portfolio reviews and gallery exhibitions, plus a cocktail party, a sunset photo cruise and a New York Botanical Garden Photo Walk.

Please see complete daily schedule of activities to customize your OPTIC experience. The Main Stage on June 4th and 5th will be Livestreamed. All lectures will be available to view at a later time, so you can relive OPTIC 2017 and not miss a single exciting presentation! The first two days of OPTIC 2017 (June 4-5) take place at the New Yorker Hotel on 8th Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets. Doors open at 9am. OPTIC trade show events and lectures are free and open to the public; however, we do request that each attendee register to attend, either in-person or for the Livestream

Register Now

Keynote Speaker: Brooks Jensen
Special Guest: Art Wolfe

Additional Speakers:

From the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom YouTube Channel:

Lightroom tips and tricks in 60 seconds or less from longtime Lightroom team member Benjamin Warde

B&H carries Adobe Photography Plan subscriptions.

Tim Grey, instructor at the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging, provides tips on how to create subtle and realistic looking HDRs.

From the Photos in Color YouTube Channel:

You know that perfect wedding photograph with the confetti, the guests and the married couple laughing and having a great time. Well its simple to get you just have to follow these 10 wedding photography tips. Wedding photography is definitely a skill and having a few wedding photography tips and tricks up your sleeve can go a long way. With this technique you don't have to worry about getting that important wedding portrait or missing that perfect wedding photography moment. Just set it up, get the settings right and you are good to got. This wedding confetti photo is always a favorite and is almost guaranteed to become someones Facebook cover which is always great for you wedding photography business.

Amazon carries paper confetti.

From the ExpoImaging YouTube Channel:

Tom Bol demonstrates how to capture a striking portrait of an athlete using three flash units and 3 Rogue 3-in-1 Flash Grids.

Note from Sean: For my taste, the background is a little too underexposed in the final image. I think I would have gone with a 1-stop or 1.3-stop underexposure (instead of 2-stops) in regards to ambient light, which would have aided in filling in some of the shadow areas on the subject as well as bringing up the exposure on the background.

Thoughts? Sound off in the comments.

B&H carries ExpoImaging Rogue products.

Upper Saddle River, N.J. (May 10, 2017) – Manfrotto, a leading global innovator and manufacturer of premium photo, video and lighting support products and accessories, announces the launch of two new Lastolite by Manfrotto products: the Joe McNally Ezybox Speed-Lite 2 Plus and the Smoke/Concrete Urban Collapsible Background.

Joe McNally Ezybox Speed-Lite 2 Plus - A quick and easy way to create a soft, flattering quality of light from your on-camera flash.

The Ezybox Speed-Lite 2 Plus includes Joe’s preferred white interior for a softer/creamier look, as well as a removable internal diffuser and a deep recessed outer diffuser to reduce any unwanted spill of light. The 8.5” x 8.5” mini softbox features a unique, design-patented folding mechanism with an innovative twist lock silicon strap for a quick and secure attachment for your flashgun, making it an ultra-portable, quick assembly softbox.

Incorporated within the internal folding mechanism are also two magnets that enable quick attachment of the Lastolite by Manfrotto Strobo Honeycomb and Gel Holders for creative control of the light from the flashgun.

Key Benefits:

• Recessed outer diffuser
• White interior
• Internal diffuser
• Extremely lightweight construction
• Quick to set-up and collapse
• Unique mechanism to attach to a flashgun

Distinctive vintage style, great for portraits, fashion and product photography.

This versatile 5’ x 7’ reversible background provides a timeless hand painted backdrop look that subtly complements the chosen subject. The darker of the two surfaces, Smoke, offers a combination of grey tones with a subtle hint of green and features a dark vignette effect. The reverse surface, Concrete, offers a more evenly distributed grey tone texture. Collapsible to a third of its original size due to the sprung steel band, this background is quick and easy to collapse for ease of use and storage. The background comes with its own carry bag, making the product easy to transport and safely store.

Key Benefits:

• Extremely versatile with two unique backgrounds in one product
• Quick to set up and collapse with pop-up construction
• Carry bag included for safe transport and storage

The Lastolite by Manfrotto Joe McNally Ezybox Speed-Lite 2 Plus and the Smoke/Concrete Urban Collapsible Background are now available nationwide:

Nikon has posted their full year financial results for the financial year ending March 2017. In the "Business Environment" section of its Presentation Material, Nikon notes that its Imaging Products Business suffered from "continued market decline and downward pressure on profitability."

Financial Results (PDF:954KB)
Financial and Business Data (PDF:89KB)
Presentation Material (PDF:526KB)

• Business Update and Future Strategic Direction (PDF:201KB)
• 2017/3 Financial Results, 2018/3 Forecast (PDF:312KB)
• Reference Data (PDF:241KB)

From Photoshelter:

12 new photographers share behind-the-scenes video, lighting diagrams & gear lists

We’ve partnered with Tether Tools for the second edition of How I Got The Shot. Inside, 12 new photographers break down how they arrived at their final vision -- sharing work in commercial, fashion, portrait, automotive photography, and more.

Each photographer pulls back the curtain to walk through:

• Behind-the-scenes videos of their shoots
• Lighting set-ups
• Post-processing workflows
• Logistics and gear

Also learn from photographers like Jeremy Cowart, Easton Chang, Glyn Dewis, and Brooke Mason how to collaborate on set and connect with a subject in unique ways.

Most importantly, walk away with tons of inspiration for your next project!

Get the Free Guide!

From the B&H YouTube Channel:

B&H is proud to present its Women of Influence series. Polly Morgan is an award-winning cinematographer who worked up the ranks of the filmmaking world. Having climbed the cinematography ladder, Polly got her start on big-budget films, eventually leading her to the BSC. Today, she continues her work as a cinematographer in both film and television.

Polly Morgan's Work
http://www.pollymorgan.net/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1329360/
https://www.instagram.com/pollymorgan/

by Sean Setters

I often draw inspiration from the educational videos we post to the site, and one video in particular posted last week intrigued me. In the video, Mark Wallace used a small string of LED lights held in front of the camera lens to create an interesting bokeh effect for portraiture.

I love it when inexpensive tools can be used to create unique imagery, and the LED lights Mark used for his video cost less than most memory cards. Wanting a little variety, I purchased a set of 4 strings (2 warm white/2 purple) which are powered via AA batteries.

After the LED lights arrived, I enlisted my neighbor to sit for a short portrait session. Being a kindergartener, I knew I would only have a few short minutes of optimal attention span for creating the portrait I had in mind.

The Setup

Intending to emphasize the foreground blur, I used a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM affixed to a tripod mounted EOS 5D Mark III.

For the lighting on the subject, I used a radio-triggered Canon Speedlite 580EX with a LumiQuest SoftBox LTp (now discontinued, but available here) camera right. For the background, I used an Impact 5 x 7' Black/White Collapsible Background held up by a Lastolite Magnetic Background Support atop a Matthews Maxi Kit Steel Stand. After a couple of test shots, I decided to add a white reflector (foam core board) camera left to fill in some of the shadow area on the other side of the subject.

Camera settings for the shot were f/1.4, 1/160 second, ISO 100.

Things I Learned

• In order to maximize the shooting time with the subject, I used a super clamp to attach the LED lights to an extension arm (affixed to another light stand) and draped the lights in front of the lens. The upside to this particular setup was that it allowed me to specifically and easily position the subject within an area of the frame that was unobstructed by the LED lights. The downside, of course, is that there was no variation in lighting between shots. If working with a subject with a longer attention span, simply holding the lights in front of the lens and embracing the significantly varied results would likely work well.
• When photographing a child of this age, having a medium height wooden stool is a great posing aid. Being positioned higher-up than normal helps instill a sense of importance that helps keep young subjects in a good mood.
• My initial thought was that the lights would need to be positioned very close to the front of the lens for an optimal effect. However, that didn't necessarily prove to be the case with the 85mm lens I was using. When positioned very close to the end of the lens, the LED lights tended to be too large and distracting for my taste. For the shot above, the lights were positioned about 12" from the end of the lens, and as you can see, the out-of-focus LED lights are still quite large in the frame with the f/1.4 aperture in use.
• I thought I would have to use a longer shutter speed or a higher ISO to get a bright exposure from the LED lights, but their proximity to the camera and the wide aperture being used meant that I could use a typical studio shutter speed of 1/160 second at ISO 100 for the exposure.

Conclusion

For a relatively small investment, a small strand of LED lights will likely be worth picking up for anyone interested in augmenting their creative portraiture capabilities. The lights are small, relatively easy to pack (for nighttime on-location shoots?) and utilize a power source that many photographers have in abundance – [rechargeable] AA batteries.

Give this fun and easy technique a try!

We have a winner!

Joe M. was randomly selected from our newsletter subscribers to receive a MindShift BackLight 26L Backpack. He sent us his address and will be receiving his new backpack in the very near future. (Congrats!)

Didn't win the drawing? You can still get your MindShift Gear BackLight 26L at the following retailers: MindShift Gear | B&H | Amazon | Adorama

B&H is listing tomorrow as its expected availability date for the Sigma 100-400mm F/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary Lens.

The Sigma 100-400 C lens was announced in February alongside the 14mm f/1.8, 135mm f/1.8 and 24-70mm f/2.8 Art lenses. The 100-400 C is the second lens of the group to hit the streets, following a little more than a month after the 135mm Art's release.

From the Canon Imaging Plaza YouTube Channel:

Introducing the first half of a tutorial series on filmmaking with Canon EOS (seen above).

LESSON 1 : Why shoot video?
LESSON 2 : How to craft a story
LESSON 3 : The importance of frame rate and resolution
LESSON 4 : How to expose for video
LESSON 5 : Camera Movement and stabilization

The second half of the Movie Tutorial series can be found here and includes:

LESSON 6 : The use of sound and music
LESSON 7 : Choosing lenses
LESSON 8 : Staying in focus
LESSON 9 : Editing video
LESSON 10 : Conclusion

From the Canon Australia YouTube Channel:

If we’re always looking for inspiration in the same places, we’re likely to come up with similar results. But what happens when you start finding ideas outside of your own art form - even outside of visuals altogether? Can our other senses be just as powerful sources of inspiration when it comes to creating unique images?

Manfrotto has introduced a new series of bags – the Manhattan Collection – intended for mirrorless photographers "...who commute and need their essentials to be close at hand to survive the everyday urban life." [Manfrotto]

At its introduction, the Manhattan Collection consists of the following:

Manfrotto Lifestyle Manhattan Mover-50 Camera Backpack

• Holds Mirrorless, 70-200 f/2.8, 4 Lenses
• Padded 15.6" Laptop & 9.7" iPad Pockets
• Top and Rear Access to Camera Gear
• Padded Insert with Movable Dividers
• Front & Side Pockets for Accessories
• Front Pocket with Straps for Tripod
• Padded Shoulder Straps with Connector
• Top Handle, Trolley Strap, & Waist Belt
• Rain Cover Included

Manfrotto Lifestyle Manhattan Speedy-10 Camera Messenger Bag

• Holds Mirrorless, 3 Lenses, Accessories
• Padded Compartment for 12" Laptop/iPad
• Front Flap with Buckles and Top Zipper
• Padded, Touch-Fastening Dividers
• Front, Back, and Side Pockets
• External Tripod Connection
• Top Strap Handle
• Adjustable, Padded Shoulder Strap
• Durable, Water-Repellent Ballistic Nylon
• Rain Cover Included

Manfrotto Lifestyle Manhattan Changer-20 3-Way Camera Bag

• Holds Mirrorless, 70-200 f/2.8, 2 Lenses
• Padded 15" Laptop & 9.7" iPad Pocket
• Carry as Backpack, Shoulder Bag, or Tote
• Zip Closure Top & Interior Dividers
• Front, Back, & Side Pockets
• External Tripod Connection
• Dual Strap Handles, Shoulder Harness
• Adjustable Shoulder Strap with Pad
• Trolley Strap
• Rain Cover Included

B&H has the Manfrotto Manhattan bags available for preorder.