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The “Photo Cards – Lighting Edition” application is launching on the top three mobile platforms to provide maximum availability to photographers as a handy resource in the field or on location. This application provides the user with 16 lighting setups and diagrams, instructions specific to each lighting setup, and a photo taken with that lighting setup.

Sacramento, CA, September 04, 2011 –(www.photocardapps.com)– The “Photo Cards – Lighting Edition” application is now available at www.photocardapps.com for the top three mobile platforms. This application provides the mobile user with 16 different lighting setup cards, each with a lighting diagram, instructions specific to that lighting setup, and a photo taken with that lighting setup. There are seven setups that were created with 1 light, six setups created with 2 lights, and three setups created with 3 lights.

This application serves as a great resource whether the photographer is just starting out with lighting and posing as well as for someone looking for some new ideas for some different lighting setups. The photos for this application were all taken in the studio, but can easily be replicated hot shoe camera flashes, studio strobes, or even reflectors and natural lighting setups.

The concept for the cards was developed as part of an instruction DVD published by John Hoeft. The DVD provides training on studio lighting (www.photographydvds.com) and is aimed at beginning and amateur photographers that are looking for good foundational information on lighting in a studio environment. The response to the printed cards that were included with the DVD was so positive that this electronic version was subsequently developed for mobile computing devices.

“I have always loved sharing my passion for photography with other photographers and developing this application is a real personal milestone for me,” said John Hoeft, owner of HoeftPhoto and author of the Photo Cards – Lighting Edition. “When I was developing these materials I tried to put myself in my audiences shoes and give them what I was really looking for when I first started shooting with flashes and strobes. I think this application with its 16 lighting setups and 54 example photos is what I would have found to be quite beneficial when I was struggling with this type of lighting early on.”

The “Photo Cards – Lighting Edition” application is available now for Apple, Android, and BlackBerry platforms and the link to each can be found at www.photocardapps.com, All trademarks are property of their respective trademark owners.

About HoeftPhoto:
John Hoeft is a local part-time photographer in the greater Sacramento, California area with over 35 years of photography experience. In addition to the usual photography pursuits John is also very active in the instruction of photography to local photographers. He currently is the Organizer of three local Meetup groups in the Sacramento, California area with over 650 total members. John will typically conduct 1 or 2 hands-on workshops per month for small groups of students on a variety of photographic topics.

More Information about the Photo Cards is available at www.PhotoCardApps.com

Setup:

• Einstein
• Small light stand
• Vagabond Mini
• 8′ feet from subject (test target)
• 7″ reflector

This is a pretty basic setup and since what I was testing was refresh time, problems with RF interference, and speed of refresh I did not do anything elaborate.

First test was two fold refresh times and accuracy of lighting increase.

As it happens my Sekonic L358 with the PW module read exactly f2.8 at ISO 400 and 8′ at minimum power, almost like I had planned it :angel:

Min power f2.8 refresh <1 second
+2 stops of power f5.6 refresh <1 second
+2 stops of power f11 refresh <=1 second
+2 stops of power f22 refresh 1 second
+1 stops of power f32 refresh <2 seconds
+1 stops at full power f45 refresh ~4 seconds

Plugged into an AC outlet at full power was ~2.5 seconds

Not super scientific on the timing but it will give you a rough idea.

Next I set the light at minimum power and shot some high speed shots at 10FPS with my 1D MKIII. At minimum power and 90+ frames there was only a slight shift in power from frame 1 to the final frame. I was able to duplicate these results up to +2 stops. Again not overly scientific but now I know if I want/need to shoot an action sequence with the one light I can do so up to 10 FPS at ISO 400 and f5.6 with a the subject ~8 feet away. Also through out this test not one black or dark frame so it also showed me that the consistency was there as well as that the RF problems I had seen before had been fixed! [COLOR="Red"][I] Disclaimer – you can’t do this with a regular AlienBee light, this capability is part of the beauty of the new Einstien lights with their IGBT circuitry similar to that in a off-camera flash where it only dumps as much light as it need for each pop and is ready for the next that much quicker at low power settings.

Last test was with the Einstein and a AB1600 both connected to the battery pack. Both at 1/2 power was ~3 seconds with the AB1600 lagging by almost a second. I believe this is due to the Einstein charging its capacitors fulling and them only discharging what was needed for the half power pop where as the AB1600 only charges as much as it needs for the pop dialed in and therefore has to recharge fully for the next. I set both lights to max power and popped them and got a ~5 second recycle with the AB1600 again being the limiting factor. Plugged both into the wall and got a sub 3 second recycle times.

My conclusions:

- If you every shoot and do not have access to an AC outlet you need this in your bag, which it will actually fit in :w00t:
- This is in my opinion much better than the standard Vagabond with the weight and size savings.
- The Einstein light is now ready for prime time with the RF issue resolved!!
- The only pluses I see for the original Vagabond are:

• They make a great sand bag for a light stand in the field at 18+ lbs (ugh!)

• Will likely last longer if you are shooting for hours

• You can hook up a bunch of lights to them

For what it is worth I tried the DIY version of the battery pack and it was not a great success! Having used it only makes me appreciate this little guy so much more!!

I mounted the Vagabond pack to the base of my lightweight stand

I have large hands but this thing is tiny compared to the original Vagabonds!

• Day One was “Overview” with a quick rundown from image capture to print.
• Day Two naming and organizing your images.
• Day Three is a great look at DNG versus the RAW format.
• Day four is editing.

If you take a lot of images and/or don’t have a great deal of time to process then then a good workflow is essential. My greatest weakness is not doing a better first cut once I upload new images. Because of this I spend to much time in later steps continuing to plow through the images that are not worth keeping. In my experience after awhile you will recognize a good or great images right away and those are the ones to spend your time on. My two best time savers have been getting a fast card reader (Kingston FCR-HS215/1) and uploading all of the images to their directories and letting Lightroom generate the thumbnails overnight. This way the next day I can sort through the images with a fresh set of eyes and don’t have to wait for the thumbnails to generate. During Football season I generally sort through ~4,000 images and narrow that down to 500 to post to my web gallery. For me a good efficient Workflow is key.

Adobe has released a beta version of their new web based version of Photoshop! This is a slimmed down version of Photoshop but still very powerful and useful. You have to sign up for your free account that includes 2 GB of online storage. The interface for uploading your files is quite simple to navigate and use. Once the images are uploaded rotating and adding captions to them in the gallery viewer is quick and easy. The editing of a full sized image (10 MP JPEG) was slow for me. I realize this is a beta but still I was a little let down by the extremely slow response to edit a single image. Once you have done your editing you can share them with other users, email them, or use them in your Photobucket or Face Book gallery. I recommend you check it out and reserve your custom URL today.

Adorama Imaging Resource Center (AIRC) editor Mason Resnick is posting a new photo tip everyday until July 4th 2008 on their website. This is his second such article of this type. From September through December Mason posted his first 100 in 100 and no is on to part II. Every five days he tackles a new subject for five days with a new tip each day. So far he has done shooting in low light, sports/action photography, digital camera scene modes, shoot to sell – successful eBay photography, and make ultimate-quality digital prints. The page is located here and check out last years list here.

Tired of the same old gallery templates provided in Lightroom? There are a number of places on the web that have free downloads to change things up a bit. “Lightroom Galleries” not only has some neat gallery add-ons that you can download for free but tutorials, news, and a user forum as well. The latest addition is TTG Panic Gallery from the Turning Gate website. If you like their galleries you are encourage to donate.

For along time now the Canon 200mm 1.8 lenses has been one of the most sought after lenses of Canon photographers. The image quality is heralded as one of if not the best in the canon line up. Some might speculate this is because the lens was discontinued in 2004 and therefore everyone wanted what they could not easily have. Canon recently introduce its replacement in the form of a newly designed 200mm 2.0 lens now with image stabilization. The new version is available for $5,999.00 which will continue to likely drive the price of the old version us which can typically be found for around $3,500 to $4,200 on the web and eBay. This lens has found a great niche among photographers that do portrait work for its very shallow depth of field and for indoor sporting events where flash is not practical or often not even allowed. Canon’s product page.

When the Adobe Lightroom Beta came out I was on of the many that downloaded it and played around with it but honestly I was no blown away, at first. As I played around with it more and more and discovered some of the new tweaks and features. Soon I started really looking at it and how it could improve my workflow I got excited. I eventually purchased the Scott Kelby Lightroom book and then I started seeing the improvements in my ability to import files, tag them, and catalog them. I like the fact that Lightroom treats all files (RAW and JPEG) as if they were negatives and does not alter them. I do sport photography and a typical day is shooting close to 4,000 JPEG photos and then having to short them and select the 10% to 15% that I will process and post for purchase. Lightroom has really reduced the amount of time required for my end to end workflow.

Click to see at Amazon.com

The Canon EOS 1D Mark III is definitely a step up from the EOS 10D and EOS 20D that I have previously shot with. I shoot a lot of sports so the blinding fast 10 FPS is a must and a noticeable upgrade from the 20D’s 5 FPS. I was an early adopter and suffered from the early focus problems when I shot outdoors in the sun. The camera has since been fixed and shots as I would expect. The autofocus is very fast and was the upgrade I was looking for as well. The dual memory card slots are very convenient and prevent running out of storage space and having to switch at the worst times. The brighter viewfinder is also a welcome sight too. All of that being said I personally think the best upgrade or improvement is the low noise at the high ISO ratings. I find the 800 ISO shot compare well with the 400 ISO shots from the 20D. The 1600 ISO is also very usable and produces great snapshot sized prints with little or no grain. I have nothing bad to say about this camera. Link to Canons 1D Mark III product page