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Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape fame has recently returned from leading a two-week photographic tour of China. As he always does after such trips, Michael has posted a series of very well-written articles about various aspects of the tour:

• When Failure Is Not An Option – how to secure your digital files when travelling
• China In The Bag – what worked and what didn’t on a 2 week shoot in China
• Panasonic LX-1 Field Report – how this 16:9 format digicam made out in China
• The Classic Chinese Landscape – Guilin and Huangshan
• China Workshop Members’ Portfolios – photographs submitted by members of the expedition
• A China Archive – photographs from China in October 2005 that have appeared on the Luminous Landscape site
• Street Photography In China – a look at the tools and techniques for shooting in a foreign country

While you’re at the Luminous Landscape site, don’t forget to check out Michael’s Bangladesh book. I’ve ordered for my Christmas stocking, have you?

Filed under: Equipment,Photographers,Technique
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Check out this: Adrian over at FoundPhotography.com has built a medium format pinhole camera out of Lego!

Not long ago, he also used Lego parts to convert a Polaroid 95a Land camera for use with 120 roll film.

Now that’s a resourceful photographer!

Filed under: Equipment
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For loads of information and tutorials on lighting principles, equipment lessons and lighting lessons, check out the Photoflex Lighting School web site.

This site is devoted to teaching photographic lighting principles and product expertise. Learn how lighting equipment is set up to produce great results when shooting portraits and products. Follow these easy-to-use lessons to learn the secrets of great lighting techniques. New lessons and tutorials are in the works, so visit often.

The articles are geared to show you what to do with Photoflex products, but obviously the principles apply just the same to other equipment brands.

While much of the site is free, some of the articles cost $0.99 to access. A small price to pay if you need to know how to light a particular shot!

Filed under: Equipment,Technique
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Have you ever used a product like the Lumiquest Big Bounce to give more diffuse lighting when shooting with flash? Have you wanted to try one but been put off by the cost?

Well, here’s a great way to see what all the fuss is about. Thomas Bauer has a plan on his web site that you can download and print out to create your own flash bounce device. You just cut out the shape, fold along the dotted lines, and affix it to your flash. Easy!

Once you’ve got your flash bounce working, do some experiments and see the difference it makes to shadows on flash-lit portraits. You’ll especially notice the softening of the edge of shadows cast by the person on the wall behind them, which looks much nicer than a harsh flash shadow outline.

If you’re happy with your results, you might still like to pay for a Big Bounce or similar to get a more durable solution.

Filed under: Equipment
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Bob Atkins has posted a thorough explanation of Photographic Lens and Filter Cleaning.

The article describes how to use blowers, brushes, lens cloths and tissues, cleaning fluids and other products to clean your lenses and filters properly. It addresses the issue of cleaning mutlicoated lenses and filters, which can often be a frustrating experience because dust and smudges show up so much more readily on them.

Lastly, Bob gives some suggestions on various reasonably-priced cleaning products that any serious photographer should own.

Filed under: Equipment
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There’s a lot of interesting information in these ‘lessons’ on how to use your Manfrotto products.

We’ve produced a series of practical photography lessons in collaboration with webphotoschool, aimed at helping you get the most out of your Manfrotto equipment in different “real-life” photographic situations.

The lessons give you valuable information on how to tackle different subjects from still life to macro, from nature photography to portraiture, indoors and out.

Each lesson has been produced using different Manfrotto tripods and heads and gives detailed information on every step of the shoot from setting up the tripod through to making those fine adjustments in framing, lighting and technique that can turn a good photo into a great one.

Of course, the information in these articles is not strictly for Manfrotto owners. Although the example refer to various Manfrotto equipment models, the general techniques are translatable to any brand of tripod.

Filed under: Equipment,Technique
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Canon has recently launched a new site showcasing its CMOS sensor technology: The World of Canon CMOS Sensors

The site is broken into four sections:

• Image capture
• Technology
• Full-frame appeal
• Shooting options

If you’ve ever wondered about how digital image capture works, what types of issues engineers have to deal with in sensor design and manufacture, and how all this benefits us photographers, then this is a site you’ll enjoy.

Filed under: Canon,Equipment
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Ralf Lange has written an article for The Luminous Landscape titled Digital View Cameras In Use And On The Go.

A short while ago I went on a one-week photo trip to Poland. Because I was not sure which of my cameras would suit me best I decided against all reason to lug the entire collection with me and test the load limit of my station wagon with my Canon, my Contax, and my Arca Swiss. To my surprise it was the view camera which in the end yielded 12 of the 15 quality photos. Of course, any statistic of this sort always depends on the motive – sports and action photographers need not read further at this point. Chances are that those of you who predominantly use a tripod and/or shift lenses on 35mm and medium format cameras have also pondered the pros and cons of a view camera in the past. While most photographers still associate a view camera exclusively with a studio environment, recent developments allow the use of view cameras on the go with ease. This is made possible through the recent addition of wireless digital backs to the market, which can be fitted to light-weight view cameras without difficulty.

Ralf certainly has access to some high-end gear!

Filed under: Canon,Equipment,Phase One
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Luminous Landscape contributor Richard Sexton has written up a fascinating report on his recent visit to Better Light, makers of incredibly expensive large format scanning backs capable of amazing quality and mind-blowing resolution.

Better Light’s middle-of-the-line scanning back, the Super 6K-HS, has a resolution of 6,000 x 8,000 pixels (48 megapixels) with a sensor area of 72mm x 96mm. This one costs USD$14,995 – and you still have to buy the large format camera, lenses and laptop before you can shoot anything. The top-of-the-line Super 10K-HS scanning back has a resolution of 10,200 x 13,800 pixels (140 megapixels!) and will probably cost over USD$20,000 when it’s released. At that resolution, a single 48-bit full-res image will take up 1.7 GB of disk space!

In his report, Richard compares the Better Light scanning backs with 4×5 film and his Canon EOS 1Ds Mk II, with very interesting results.

Update:

It seems that the Better Light photos in Richard’s comparisons were down-sampled to match the resolution of the 1Ds Mk II, which obviously doesn’t do the digital scanning back full justice. Better Light (the company) has released a follow-up article to clarify things.

Filed under: Better Light,Canon,Equipment
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The WhiBal white balance reference card is a fantastic tool for getting your white balance right when it really matters (e.g. fashion or product photography, difficult lighting conditions, etc).

It’s a little business-card-sized bunch of cards that you take a reference photo of in each lighting situation you’re shooting in. One card is white, one black, and two are grey. When you get back to your computer to edit the photos, you can set the white and black point of your image to recreate the correct exposure and contrast, and use one of the grey cards to set the colour balance of your image.

This tool is not just for digital photographers – film shooters can benefit too. If you shoot negatives, you can make test prints of your reference shot to get the right colour filtration for neutral output. If you shoot slides, you can’t directly modify the white balance of the slides later, but if you need to scan them you can use the reference shot to ensure you scan your good shot with the right exposure and colour corrections.

If colour accuracy is important in your photography, or if you’re just sick of mucking around in Photoshop trying to get skin tones to look natural, WhiBal could help you. And it’s only about USD$45 (USD$50 outside US).

Filed under: Color Management,Equipment
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