No matter how careful you are in your career if you shoot long enough eventually you will experience the cold sweat and fear of losing images on a compact flash card. Anytime you go through that it should cause you to immediately examine your workflow for holes that could allow for the loss of your digital images.
Such a thing happened to me a few weeks ago. Luckily everything worked out in the end but those are some scary moments when you are trying to figure out where all of those precious images could be.
At our studio we are as careful as possible with any card that goes through a camera. We have a strict order to how cards are prepared for sessions, used, stored, downloaded, and backed-up following a shoot. No system is perfect, however, and requires constant re-evaluation to make sure it's effective in protecting your digital assets.
In our particular workflow I recognized a need to have a copy of our cards made on-site immediately following a session. That's where the latest device to enter our workflow came in: the Nexto DI eXtreme card backup device.
The very same day we hard our own little scare I jumped online and 2-day aired this puppy. We've been using it religiously the last several weeks and have it permanently cemented in our shooting routine.
At it's core the Nexto is basically a card reader connected to a portable laptop hard drive. It's only purpose is to make identical copies of cards as they leave the camera and store them on the hard drive. That way before we even leave our shoot we have 2 copies of our files. It allows for very quick transfer of RAW files from our cameras, and our video guys are even using it to backup the video files from their 5D Mark II and 7D cameras along with the audio files from field audio recorders. Besides copying the files blindly, the unit also checks the integrity of the files and notifies you immediately if a file is faulty or damaged. I can't imagine having better insurance than to know everything is copacetic before leaving a big shoot. If you know something is wrong before you leave, at least you have an opportunity to salvage the shoot.
If you're not afraid to live a little dangerously, I recommend buying the cheapest model available with the 250GB capacity hard drive. You can easily replace the hard drive yourself, but you will void the warranty as soon as you remove the stickers to get to the screws. The manufacturer doesn't even offer a 750GB option, but I was able to add a drive of that size myself for only $120. That should allow us to backup around 6 weeks of sessions before clearing the older sessions off for additional space. During the editing process in our workflow at any given time we have at least 3 copies of the original image files for safe-keeping. During the first week following a shoot we will have 5 copies of the image files. I know it seems a bit paranoid, but our livelihood depends on the images we capture so you can never be too safe. Here's the breakdown of the locations:
1.) Original card from camera - after a non-wedding session the cards sit unused for around 2 or 3 days before being reinserted into the lineup for formatting and reuse.
2.) As soon as the card is removed from the camera it goes into the Nexto to create a duplicate of the card
3.) After returning to the studio each photographer downloads the card onto their laptop for editing. Using Adobe Bridge or Lightroom to import the files, it simultaneously writes a copy to an external hard drive dedicated to card backups. Each photographer has their own hard drive that is used only for this purpose.
4.) Each machine uses the built-in Time Machine backup feature of Mac OS X to create another backup of the images.
All of the information you might be looking for is available here on the manufacturers website.
I'm not going to do a full breakdown and review of this thing, but I will hit the highlights. I'm a working professional in a busy studio and this is what matters to me:
Here's my 2 cents. This thing sells for $267 from B&H. If it stops you from screwing up JUST ONE CARD in the course of a year's shooting it's MORE than paid for itself. Can you imagine telling a bride you accidentally lost or formatted a card from her wedding? I can't. This thing can't guarantee you'll never screw up but I'm definitely going to sleep better knowing I've always got an extra copy of my images.
I've been on a big lighting kick for the last couple of years for our portraits. I've been studying and working relentlessly and invested thousands of dollars into flashes, stands, radio triggers, modifiers, and everything else you can think of.
I've always enjoyed the creative possibilities using flash offers, especially using multiple lights and the ability to shoot where there is little or no natural light.
With all the great things using flash offers there's one thing I'd never really considered until I saw it as plain as day on the following two photos. I shot the first sequence using flash. Then, seeing how nice and soft the natural light was I killed the strobes and went to natural light only.
You can see side-by-side the difference. They're both straight out of camera with no processing at all. The natural light photo on the right is certainly nice and flattering. It's what 90% of photographers shoot during every session and any one would be happy to have taken it. With a little processing in Photoshop it would be a great image.
Upon further inspection there are three things that really strike me.
It's amazing to me the night-and-day difference between the flash and natural light photos. After seeing it for myself I think it's safe to say I'm never going back!
-Mike
I've been meaning for some time to get some lighting diagrams on here to share some of the things we've been doing with our off-camera lighting. Here's my first stab at putting something together to explain my theories...
We were shooting Jordan Elliott's recent senior session in the Pittsburg High School Gymnasium. I was looking for something moody with a Sports Illustrated look. I had the opportunity to pick up a new 3' strip softbox with a grid attachment and was eager to try it out for the first time in the field.
My first thought was to use a high shutter speed and low ISO setting on the camera to kill off any ambient light from the fixtures in the gym. Now my exposure would be 100% from the strobes I had with me. The first setup was pretty straight forward with the stripbox set to the left of Jordan. I had it positioned about a foot over his head to provide a nice falloff of light towards the ground. I also turned Jordan's body away from the light slightly to provide more dimension to his figure. I turned his face back into the light to provide the nice modeling and shadow.
I started by setting the exposure with the main light on Jordan and then worked to light the dragon logo on the floor. I used a Canon 580EX speedlight with a grid attached to concentrate a pool of light on the logo without lighting the entire area. Using the grid focuses all of the light in a tight circle with a nice natural fall-off of light around it. This was positioned about 10 feet in the air on a light stand angled down. To set that exposure I just increased the power until I liked how it looked on the back of the camera's LCD.
I'm shooting from on top of a 4 foot ladder to provide the perspective I was looking for. I had to go with a wide 16-35 mm lens to frame everything while hiding the lights past the edge of the frame. There's a little distortion caused by the lens but I think it works well in the is photo and is not that noticeable. Here's the diagram to help explain:
Of all the images we made during his session this one might be my favorite.
Same thought process as before. I wanted to completely knock the ambient light out from the nasty fixtures in the gym and work 100% with flash. We went with the striplight again for the main light on Jordan and removed the grid this time to allow a little more light to reach around to the far side of his face. You can really tell the difference between the two photos with and without the grid to see how hard the transition between the highlight and shadow side of his face is.
This time we brought in a third strobe over his left shoulder as an edge light to prevent him from merging with the black background. It really gives a 3D look to the image and makes him pop out from the screen.
Again, I had Jordan turn his body away from the light source and had him turn his face back into the light. I do this quite a bit to help show some texture and dimension to the clothing people are wearing. A lot of people like to have the subject turned into the light, but then you would loose all of that dimension and the lighting would become far too flat for my tastes.
The third and final light was flying 10 feet in the air at a hard angle shooting almost parallel to the basketball goal in the background. Again I went with a grid to concentrate the light on the bottom portion of the goal around the basket. I think it feels a lot more dramatic with the areas of shadow and highlight versus having the whole goal lit evenly.
I was lying flat on the ground about 30 feet from Jordan. He was standing at half court along the sideline with the goal at the other end of the gym. I went with a telephoto lens shot at around 200mm to provide the compression to make the goal seem much closer in the frame. It was shot at F5.6 to give adequate sharpness to the goal. The lighting really separates Jordan from the background, so I didn't want to go with too shallow of a depth of field. Sometimes I feel like with the background being too out of focus it actually calls more attention to itself than if it was just a touch more subtle.
Here's the diagram:
I hope to have more of these coming soon. Let me know in the comments or email me if you have any specific questions. Thanks!
-Mike
In case you've never seen what $15K in gear looks like standing in the middle of a river, now you have.
These images were taken during a recent senior session in Oswego, Kansas. The lovely Arin Billingsly was our willing subject during this mess and her mom Robin was nice enough to snap some shots of the FX Crew at work.
One of the things I preach to our team all the time is that we should never leave a good photo opportunity out in the field. If we've got a good idea for a shot, no matter how silly, we're going to go for it. This definitely isn't the first time I've been in the water with gear like this before. I've been chest deep in the Gulf of Mexico a couple of times with my arm extended in the air to avoid the crashing waves from completely submerging the camera, so shooting in the Neosho River is pretty tame in comparison.
The key for me is always using a Canon 1-Series body and L Series lenses. While not water PROOF they are definitely capable of getting more than a little wet without any trouble. It will definitely outlive any consumer level camera with all of it's gaskets and seals to protect it. We've always got backup gear on hand, but I figure why pay for the insurance if I never get to use it?? No incidents yet, but it's there if I ever need it.
Our chief concern during something like this is the safety and comfort of our subjects. Arin was excited and happy to do something like this. We'd never try to talk anyone into getting into the water unless they were comfortable with it. We kept her in the shallow parts and I was always there to offer her a hand and to assist her walking in and out of the river.
Working with a great team always helps, and I'm definitely spoiled in that area. I can pretty much mutter or grunt instructions and everyone knows exactly what I'm looking for. We shoot a lot as a group so everyone has a role and knows where to be and what to do.
On a technical note all of the actual images from the session were shot on my newly acquired but used Canon 1Ds Mark II. The majority of the images were shot using the Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS. The wider shots were on the 24-105 F4 IS. Lighting was provided by an off-camera 580EX fired through a 24" Softbox using Pocket Wizards.
Friday:
3:00pm - 4:00pm... Dance around in joy
4:10pm - 6:00pm... Prepare for senior session and get familiar with the camera
7:15pm - 8:30pm... Shot our first multiple HDSLR senior session
Saturday:
12:00pm - 6:00pm... Shot photography wedding
8:00pm - 10:30pm... storyboard/argue about shots we want in our test video
11:00pm - 12:00am... FIFA Soccer '09 break on the Xbox
12:30am - 4:00am... finish arguing about film concepts and theory whilst storyboarding the rest of the shots.
image taken from my phone of what clinton the intern wanted one of the shots to look like
Sunday:
3:00pm... wake up
5:00pm - 8:00pm... Clean the garage at the studio and set up lights for particular shots
8:00pm - 8:45pm... inhale amazing steaks that Annie made
9:00pm - 1:45am... shot video
2:00am... caffeine break
2:30am - 5:00am... finish shooting
6:00am... walk into my house just in time to say good morning to my mom who had just woken up
staying according to script
jib shot.. the dolly shots were accomplished by standing on a longboard and being pushed by a second person
Originally we had just planned on doing a few simple test shots but of course one thing lead to another and we couldn't keep it simple. Special thanks to Ian Youvan who came out to annoy us by shooting darts all over the place while we were trying to work and special thanks to Kurt Herron for being my stunt double when we needed two guys to operate the camera. Enjoy!
love,
Roylan and Clinton the intern
song: The Great Gig In The Sky
artist: Pink Floyd
album: Dark Side Of The Moon
This was a pretty sweet surprise for a Sunday afternoon! We are being featured on the Fstoppers Blog with Roylan's last Behind-the-Scenes of Morgan's senior session he titled "Flying Papers". This site is an amazing resource for professional and aspiring photographers and is viewed by thousands each week. We've already received over 1,400 hits in the first 8 hours it's been online. Great work team!
