Photo Book Round Up

Jason Dunn over at digitalhomethoughts.com has done a great job at comparing the major players in the photo book world. His 14-page, comprehensive analysis ends with this conclusion.

I'm glad I've used Adorama and I have to check out inkubook.com.

Photo Book Round Up

Lyubov-2

Lyubov-2
Originally uploaded by Arclight Images

SB900 in large softbox behind model and angled up towards ceiling to prevent lens flair. Dynalite in Photek Softlighter II camera left....a little overkill, but hey, it was set up. Great light set-up from Kelby Traing.

Model portfolio shots for Lyubov (model mayhem #354228)

Lyubov-3

Lyubov-3
Originally uploaded by Arclight Images

model portfolio shots for Lyubov (model mayhem #354228), she was very professional and a lot of fun to work with. Location - Skylands Manor in Ringwood, NJ

Lighting- Sun at her back right...SB900 in a Westcott Softbox with a 1/2 CTO gel camera left...white balance set to florescent to add blue to the background. Retouched in Lightroom.

Lyubov 1

Lyubov 1

model portfolio shots for Lyubov (model mayhem #354228), she was very professional and a lot of fun to work with.
Lighting - My flashes were acting up, so I broke out the silver reflector and had our VAL (voice-activated lightstand) hold it at the top of the stairs to direct the sun down at model for a hairlight, seperation from the back, and to light the edge of each stair. He was a big help, I need to bring an assistant more often. I used my SB600 and Orbitz ringflash for fill on axis. Retouching in Lightroom.

Great New Music !!

Beer & Portraits

Beer & Portraits-6
Originally uploaded by Arclight Images

Hanging at a friend's on a Saturday night...camera comes out....Beer & Portraits.

SB900 with Lumiquest III camera right and just out of frame. Nothing easier than setting a flash to TTL and putting it just out of frame, It creates just as soft a light as a softbox five feet away and you can hold it in your other hand! Sepia post in Lr.

arclightimages.com/

Self-Porchrait

Self-Porchrait
Originally uploaded by Arclight Images

Warm weather in NJ this weekend so I shot this on my porch. Needed a new icon for all these damn social media sites!!
Strobist- SB900 with Westcott 28" Apollo Softbox camera left but almost on axis...sun behind. Post in Lightroom.

Pop-Down Flash

Pop-Down Flash
Originally uploaded by Arclight Images

We all know that pop-up flash sucks, but it was all I had at the time and this fence just looked awful so I used it. Since I only wanted the bottom half to get the flash and knew I could flip it in post, I turned my camera upside down so the fence would get more of the flash. It made a big difference..it's still a crappy shot, but at least I learned something.

Left half shows the pop-up flash and the right half shows the pop-down flash.

Daylight Fading

Snow Shot
Originally uploaded by Arclight Images

My son Evan out in front of our house in Ringwood, NJ. He's giving me the typical 'today Dad!' look. If my wife was taking it he'd have a smile from ear to ear.

Strobist - Nikon D300 with 50mm 1.8 lens set to 'daylight' color balance to heighten the blue background and I was holding my SB900 at arms length camera left with a full CTO gel to compensate for the 'daylight' and warm him up (figuratively, I brought him inside right after this to literally warm him up)
I've wanted to try this technique for a while.

Three, Two, Onesies

Onesies -1
Originally uploaded by Arclight Images

Product shots for great sequence onesies at convertibledesigns.com

strobist- SB900 in a softbox camera left...white foam board for bounce on right...silver paper from underneath and silver reflector above...retouched in Lightroom...masking and color background in Photoshop.