chim

You had a lot of good questions after the Margo Seibert shoot last week, even to the point of telling me I was breaking a Scott Kelby Rule. (For the record, Ibreaking Scott Kelby rules.)Besides — and believe it or not — that lens selection was totally driven by the light. No joke. That, and more of your Q's answered, below. __________Mike Scott asks:Chimping? What's that? Actually, I did have a giant white foamcore I could duck behind to kill the sun andconfirm all of my predictions.It's available light, man. I just went through the lens, in-camera meter and tweaked it until it looked good.Funny one, that. I shot on daylight balance and let the warm sun do what it wanted. This is what I got. (Talking about the lead photo on the original post here.) When I tried to tweak it, or "fix" it in post, it would never look as good. So I pretty much left it alone. It is very close to straight out of camera.__________Robert Davidson asks:Hmm. Didn't even think of that. I might have taken it off, if I'd thought about it. But since that UV filter is on the X100s full-time for protection, I splurged and bought a good one. A B+W UV in 49mm is not very much money — and great glass.__________Babylon asks:Well, given my entire lighting kit was a couple speedlights (of which we only used one) and some white foam core, you'd probably be pretty safe in assuming we did not bring a water truck. Or even a bucket. And you'd be right. We were dodging rain. Lemons -> lemonade, right?__________Dylan Alvarez Asks:1. Three: me, Margo and her sister, who did her hair. You know how Annie Leibovitz' 13th assistant is in charge of spontaneously starting the applause at the end of a shoot? We don't got that.2. Dude, I did not even pull out a speedlight until it got dark. This is super-lightweight stuff. And I assembled the foamcore reflector a couple hours before the shoot on a whim. Traveling light like this makes iteasier for a shoot to be fluid and improvisational. The ideal gear pack is: A camera and a lens. Everything added to that will introduce some friction into the process.3. 'Cause it was for the Howard County Arts Council.4. Actually, I wore the same clothes for the whole shoot. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) We would shoot for five minutes, then I would scout/set up for five minutes. So figure ten mins total per setup. She'd take the five-minute scout to change outfits. She is a stage actress. They change clothes like a NASCAR pit stop.__________Taras asks:Can't remember on the X100, (seem to remember it is on the buttons on the left) but is much better on the X100s: Just rock the top of the input wheel with your right thumb and dial it wherever you want.__________Luthman Photography asks:It would look totally different. This is actually more of a faux-clamshell than a ring light, and that's all down to where you put the lens hole. (I left more reflective light above than below by moving the hole below center. That was by design.)__________Aaladexter asks:Unless I am purposely shifting colors, I tend to hang out on daylight. This is to let the light do what it is gonna do, and look at it. Then augment with flash (which is consistent with daylight settings) and gel the flash if needed to blend or accent.__________Ivan Boden asks:Looks fine to me, too, Ivan. First off, Ia 50 for portraiture. It is the perfect tight horizontal portrait lens as far as I am concerned. And shooting a head-and-shoulders horizontal keeps you far enough away so they don't go all bulbous on you. In fact, a head-and-shoulders 50 is very 3-D feeling and intimate, as you can see.Plus, the 50 was driven by light. I wanted the foam core reflector in as close as practical, both for intensity and size of light source. An 85 or 105 would have forced me to move the camera (and light) back, and would have made for a lesser image IMO.__________Ivan Boden goes on:Seriously, what bonehead is telling people not to shoot portraits with a 50? I mean, it can be a beautiful lens for that. Not to mention fast, sharp, light and cheap…__________Ivan finally names names:Oh, Jesus, Mary Joseph and The Saints. If Scott Kelby told you to jump off of Adobe Bridge, would you? And besides, any time someone tells you to "" do something in photography, it is probably a good idea to think about exactly doing that thing.And never forget that.__________Finally, Nathan Johnson notes:Yes, I did! Doesn't she look great? Make sure to go see her inon Broadway starting in February.__________Next: Loren Wohl's Chokra and Awe