Just returned from teaching a great lighting class with the Mentor Series in Austin Texas. Cowboys, barbecues and retro were the themes. I literally walked into my hotel room, saw the retro refrigerator, and started setting up my speed lights (see my instagram account for the final shot…’tombolphoto’). Also had a great time teaching with Read More
Tech Tips
Landscape Pro
I’m always up for new software that opens up some new possibilities. But when I saw Landscape Pro being used on a recent workshop to Cuba, I was a little unsettled. This program just seemed to go over the top in what it could do, and things looked a little overdone in the final shot. Read More
Portraits in the snow
The last thing most photographers want to do is go out in the snow in a howling snowstorm. Not only are you going to be frozen, but your gear is going to get wet, and if you are photographing models, they probably aren’t going to have a great time. If you are shooting adventure sports, Read More
Alien Skin Exposure X2
There is some terrific software being introduced that will give photographers some new editing options, including non-destructive editing similar to Lightroom. I’ve long been a user of Exposure, and they have really added some great new features in recent updates including Exposure X2. Exposure is best known for its brilliant analog film action presets. If Read More
D500 quick selection of flash control screen
Last spring I wrote on this blog about how to set a control button on your D810 to bring up the flash control window with one click. If you were using the popup flash as a commander, this gave you one click access to the flash control window to adjust your flash setting. Recently I Read More
Figuring out the best light on your trip
Most photographers travel to get their images, sometimes to a nearby town, other times to the other side of the globe. But how do you know when that Barvarian castle is going to be in the best light? I use an app called Light Trac. Basically you punch in the name or address, the date, Read More
A good reason to use multiple exposure.
I love multiple exposures. I used to figure out equations and exposure times back in the day with film cameras, but now all you do with a Nikon body is go to the shooting menu, choose multiple exposure, set the number of frames and shoot away. The camera figures out the exposure and seamlessly puts Read More
ND exposure calculations
Here is a quick note about an item that will make your long exposures go smoothly. Download Long Exposure Calculator to your phone (it’s free) and you can figure out those super long shots. Here is how it works. You set your camera to the correct exposure with the setting you want to use. Then Read More
PortraitPro version 15
I’ve talked about Portrait Pro in the past. If you want a quick retouch to a portrait, this software did a nice job. Some photographers thought the default was a little too much. But you still got good results in minutes. With version 15, you get even better results in a few seconds. This version Read More
AE-L/AF-L button; assigning commander mode
I just returned from Miami teaching a lighting class with Dave Tejada for the Mentor Series. We had a blast; South Beach is always a fun place to photograph people. This class focused on using speedlights, and using flash off-camera. One way to shoot flash off-camera is using a SU800 transmitter. Another way is turning Read More