Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide ® Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide ® John Kraus Canon® EOS-1D...

Author: John Kraus

67 downloads 1362 Views 19MB Size Report

This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!
Report copyright / DMCA form

DOWNLOAD PDF

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide ®

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide ®

John Kraus

Canon® EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-40949-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEB SITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OF WEB SITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEB SITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (877) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: 2009927346 Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley Publishing logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Canon is a registered trademark of Canon, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

About the Author John Kraus is a freelance photographer working out of San Francisco, California, where he moved in 2000 after growing up and enjoying a diverse career in New York City. His career includes many years as both a Photographer and a Director of Photography shooting for national and global clients such as MCI, Coca-Cola, General Foods, and McDonald’s. Many of these dense global, cultural and cinematic influences form the foundation for the work he creates today. John works in several photographic fields — advertising, editorial, corporate and event work. It’s his belief that in all these fields he pursues a common vision — to show people and places in their best light through capturing moments that are beautiful, authentic and often quirkily unique. John’s work can be viewed on several sites, including www.johnkrausphotography.com and johnkrausweddingphotography.com. He invites one and all to visit them.

Credits Associate Acquisitions Editor Aaron Black Technical Editor George Maginnis Copy Editor Mary Louise Wiack Editorial Director Robyn Siesky Editorial Manager Cricket Krengel Business Manager Amy Knies Senior Marketing Manager Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Executive Publisher Barry Pruett Project Coordinator Patrick Redmond Graphics and Production Specialists Jennifer Mayberry Christin Swinford Quality Control Technician Dwight Ramsey Proofreading and Indexing Cindy Lee Ballew / Precisely Write BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

To all the photographers both living and gone who have ignited within me my passion for photography, I thank you all.

Acknowledgments

I

’d like to thank photographers Jon Roemer, James Russell, Steve Niedorf, Cameron Davidson and Tim Griffith who were all gracious enough to share their insights and/or allow work of theirs to be shown in this book. And, as always, special thanks to the lady in red.

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction

ix xix

Part I: Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III 1 Chapter 1: The Basics of Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III 3

What’s New at a Glance Navigating the Camera: Buttons and Dials Top of the camera Mode button AF-Drive button Using the AF-Drive and Mode button together Metering Mode/Flash Exposure Compensation button

3 5 6 6 6 8

8

Exposure Compensation/ Aperture button ISO button Main Control dial FE Lock/Multi-spot metering button Back of the camera Menu button Info button AF start button AE Lock/Reduce button AF Point Selection/ Magnify button Multi-controller Quick Control dial Quick Control dial Set button Off/On switch Playback button Erase button Function button Protect/Sound Recording button Bottom-right buttons Side connections Setting up Memory Cards Types of files RAW and sRAW files JPEG files Viewfinder Readout Live View Advantages of Live View Challenges of using Live View Activating Live View

8 8 8 8 8 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 14 14 14 15 16 18 18 18 19

Chapter 2: The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems 21

Chapter 3: Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot 43

How Menu Items are Selected and Organized Selecting your menu item How menus are organized Shooting Menu 1 Shooting Menu 2 Playback Menu 1 Playback Menu 2 Set-up Menu 1 Set-up Menu 2 Set-up Menu 3 Custom Functions Menu Clear All Custom Functions C.Fn setting register/apply My Menu Settings

Prepping Your Equipment for a Shoot Focusing Modes One Point Auto Focus Al Servo Auto Focus Automatic Focus Improving autofocus Manual focus Exposure Metering Modes Modifying exposure Exposure bracketing Flash Modes Drive Modes ISO Choices Types of digital noise Noise reduction techniques White Balance Modes Image Quality Modes Picture Style Modes Registering Settings

21 22 22 23 27 28 30 31 33 34 35 40 40 41

43 45 45 46 47 48 48 48 52 52 55 56 57 58 58 60 62 62 63

Part II: System Components 65

Chapter 5: Making Smart Lens Choices 81

Chapter 4: Tethered Shooting 67

Tethered Shooting Pros and Cons Pros Cons Software Capture One Pro 4.6 Canon software Improving USB Capture Rate with Macintosh Systems Computer hardware and capture speed Sending only small JPEGs to the computer Using Lightroom 2.0 for quick RAW tethering Troubleshooting in Tethering Environments General troubleshooting Specific troubleshooting for tethering issues One final note

67 67 68 69 70 71 75 75 75 76 77 78 78 79

Canon Lens System and Terminology Lens choices Lens terminology Prime versus Zoom Lenses Prime Lenses Tilt-shift lenses Zoom lenses L Lenses versus Standard Lenses My Ideal Lens List Specialty Lenses and Accessories EF extenders Extension tubes Macro lenses

81 81 83 84 85 90 92 94 95 100 100 101 101

Chapter 6: Working with Canon Speedlites 103

Part III: In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III 119 Chapter 7: Lighting Decisions 121

Canon Speedlites 580EX II 430EX II and 430EX Exposing with Speedlites Exposure considerations with a Speedlite E-TTL II FEL Manual exposure Add-On Modifiers for Speedlites Gary Fong Lightsphere Big Bounce Sto-Fen modifier Portable ring lights Off-camera setups Using Speedlites in Various Lighting Situations Daylight Low light Dim interiors and exteriors Remote Triggering with Speedlites

103 106 107 108 108 110 110 111 111 111 111 112 112 113 113 113 115 115 115

Planning a Lighting Setup Available Light Strobe Systems Types of strobe systems Power packs Monolights Strobe modifiers Softboxes Sotftbox control Umbrellas Umbrella control Reflectors Reflector control Lighting comparisons Special units Fluorescent and HMI Systems Fluorescent lighting systems HMI systems Tungsten Lights Portable Power Battery units Gasoline generators

121 123 127 127 127 128 128 128 128 129 129 129 130 131 132 134 134 136 138 140 140 141

Chapter 8: Advertising and Editorial Photography 141

Advantages and Limitations Advantages of the EOS-1Ds Mark III Limitations of the EOS-1Ds Mark III Avoiding Downtime Tethering for Advertising Lens Choices for Advertising and Editorial Photography Processing and Post-Production Work

Chapter 9: Photographing People 151

143 144 146 147 148 149 151

The 1Ds Mark III for Portraiture Portraits Formal portraits Informal portraits Working with the subject Lighting different subjects Lens Choices Photographing People on Location Photographing People in the Studio Beauty and Fashion

153 153 154 155 155 156 158 161 166 168

Chapter 10: Wedding and Event Photography 169

Initial Requirements of Architectural Photography Using the EOS-1Ds Mark III in Architectural Photography Canon 1Ds Mark III realities Jon Roemer and the 1Ds Mark III Architectural Shooting Techniques Architectural Post-Processing Techniques

189 191 193 195 198 100

Chapter 12: Landscape and Nature Photography 203

Considerations Know Your Client Event Challenges and Limitations Be ready Have backups close by Wedding Specifics Other Event Tips Educational events Corporate event challenges

Chapter 11: Architectural Photography 189

173 178 179 179 179 180 186 186 186 The EOS-1Ds Mark III System for Landscapes RAW versus JPEG Maximizing Dynamic Range Multi-point spot metering HDR merge Highlight/Shadow adjustment Stitching Images Vibrationless Shooting

203 204 206 206 207 207 208 209

Lenses Filters Post-Processing Work

Part IV: Appendixes

209 210 212

Appendix B: RAW Processor Choices 227

215

Appendix A: Maintaining the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III 217

Overview Canon Digital Photo Professional Capture One Pro Iridient Digital RAW Developer Adobe Lightroom 2.2 Adobe Camera Raw Aperture 2

227 228 229 230 231 232 233

Appendix C: Specifications 235

Cleaning the Sensor The EOS Integrated Cleaning system Manual cleaning of the sensor Updating the Firmware Calibrating Lenses Sending Your Camera in for Repair

218 218 219 221 222 225

Type Image Sensor

235 235

Recording System White Balance Viewfinder Autofocus Exposure Control Shutter Drive System External Speedlite Live View Function LCD Monitor Image Playback Image Protection and Erase Sound Recording Direct Printing Customization Interface Power Source Dimensions and Weight Operating Environment

236 236 236 236 237 237 237 237 238 238 238 238 238 238 238 239 239 239 239

Appendix D: Traveling System Example 241

Camera Case Lighting Case Stand Case Power Cable and Sandbag Case Extras You May Need

Glossary 247

Index 253

242 243 244 245 245

Introduction

W

hether you’re a professional photographer or advanced amateur who already owns the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III or rents one for assignments, this book is designed to get you up and running as quickly as possible, as well as provide a thorough reference whether on location or in the studio. At this point in time there are many digital camera systems to choose from. In the professional market it’s a major decision of which system to purchase — in terms of your image needs, your budget, shooting style, and personal preferences. And with choices that range from $2500 to $50,000 and more, it’s truly a major financial decision and investment as well.

Because the EOS-1Ds Mark III possesses both medium format as well as what are traditionally considered 35mm abilities, it functions extremely well, for the most part, in whatever aspect of photography you’re involved with. The medium format qualities include the ability to produce large files of tight detail and rich color. The 35mm abilities refer principally to the quick handling of the camera as well as its ability to photograph in very low light. The large file size of 21.1 effective megapixels covers most advertising and editorial assignments, and is more than enough for wedding and event assignments. Allowing print sizes up to 16 × 20 inches at 300dpi before any type of upsampling is needed, the image files offer a great deal of information to work with. Image richness particularly at ISOs between 100 and 400 is very close if not equal to medium format back results, especially when printed. The camera offers smooth highlight transitions as well as cleaner shadows, noise-wise, than earlier 1Ds models — an impressive achievement. However, beyond the rich image quality in the ISO 100 to 400 ranges, the camera produces excellent and useable large-file imagery through ISO 1600 — professional results over a wide ISO range. And a few photographers are creating strong work at ISO 3200 as well, although this certainly includes the need for noise reduction either in RAW image conversion or in post work. For technical photography, such as architectural work, the improved image quality combined with some of Canon’s lenses, such as the 14mm 2.8L II, as well as Canon’s tilt-shift lenses, offers a viable alternative to view camera solutions for many assignments. Although view cameras still hold a strong edge in terms of detail, lens adjustments such as swings and tilts, and lens choices, the 1Ds Mark III can produce beautiful architectural work. Why do I photograph most of my assignments with the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and why might you? It’s been my personal experience that many factors come into play in discovering which camera and system work best for you and the particular work you do — operating speed, quality of lenses, quality of the view on the LCD screen for checking the lighting and feel of a shot, battery life, aspects of tethered shooting, etc. Do you shoot handheld mostly

xx Introduction or on a tripod? Do you use available light or mostly strobe? Do you shoot action, portraiture, landscapes, events, products, fashion, or architecture? All these elements come into consideration and affect how well you can work in your chosen area with a particular system. As many of you know, image quality is just part of the equation. Reliability and operational speed are equally important for many of us, and here the EOS-1Ds Mark III shines. With speeds up to 6 frames per second, it’s fast, has an improved viewing system (both looking through the eyepiece as well as viewing image playback on the rear LCD screen), and a shutter-release system that offers minimal mirror-bounce vibration. It’s not perfect, but it’s very, very good. If you shoot solely in the studio, a Medium Format digital back and system might make more sense, and if you shoot solely available-light, then other options abound, such as the Canon 5D Mark II and the Nikon D3. The beauty of the 1DsIII is its flexibility — not King of any one shooting situation, perhaps, but Prince to all. As a people photographer who has worked with medium format digital systems, I find it a pleasure to shoot with the 1Ds Mark III — it’s fast, it’s not temperamental, it’s quiet, shoots in low light, can shoot hand-held with slow shutter speeds, and more. It works well for me, and I hope it works equally well for you. The start of the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide demonstrates how to navigate controls of the camera — where they are, what they do, and the choices that are there for you. A strength of the camera is that while you can, in fact, just about pick one up and start shooting away, there are many choices and gems you might not be aware of that could be most useful in helping to improve your work, workflow, and shooting style. My own experience has taught me that it’s worth the time to know your camera’s capabilities as thoroughly as you know your own. The book then focuses on how to take advantage of the EOS-1Ds Mark III’s various modes and settings to significantly aid you in obtaining the imagery you’re looking for. The guide goes on to explore tethering, lighting decisions, plus the strengths and weaknesses of the camera in various shooting situations, including photographing people, advertising, events, architecture, and landscapes. At the end you’ll find information on maintenance, RAW processors, specifications, and a glossary with terms used throughout the book. I hope you’ll read the book in the order that works best for you. Whether from start to finish, during focused sessions (like getting the menus down) or as an in-the-field aid when you need to troubleshoot a problem or look for options to help you make the best use of the camera during a particular shoot. Happy Shooting!

Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

P

A

R

T

I ✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Part Chapter 1 The Basics of Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Chapter 2 The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems Chapter 3 Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot

✦

✦

✦

✦

Navigating the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

T

he object of this chapter is to answer the initial questions you would have regarding how to operate the main controls of the camera, learn about new changes to the 1Ds Mark III system, and quickly gain the ability to begin operating the camera confidently and professionally. The 1Ds Mark III (along with the 1D Mark III) has a number of features that are new to the 1Ds/1D series. I’ll describe some of these, as well as offer a road map identifying and explaining all the buttons and dials on the camera beyond the obvious ones, such as the Menu Light button and the Shutter button. The 1Ds Mark III continues to use a control system that usually combines pressing a button with turning one of the two control dials on the camera. Once you learn and understand this system, it becomes an interface that’s easy and fast to work with.

What’s New at a Glance Although a revolutionary new camera design is often more exciting initially, there’s something to be said for the evolutionary approach Canon has taken in designing new generations of the 1Ds-series cameras. Canon’s designers and engineers have methodically been updating the EOS-1Ds series (along with the EOS-1D series) through three generations,

1

C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter What’s new at a glance Navigating the camera: buttons and dials Setting up memory cards Viewfinder readout Live View

✦

✦

✦

✦

4 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III each time making the cameras better and easier to navigate, with larger file sizes, less digital noise, and more options. Aside from the many subtle improvements and the larger 21.1 effective megapixels sensor compared to the 1Ds Mark II, here are some of the major changes you’ll discover as you explore the 1Ds Mark III:

✦ New mode — Highlight Priority. This new menu setting that nicely improves highlight details and tonal transitions.

✦ Extended battery life. The new lithium-ion battery seems to shoot forever, and is rated to 1,700 exposures.

✦ Live View. This new feature allows you to view the scene live on the rear LCD and take the photo. This also allows a live view on a computer screen when tethered by a USB cable to your computer.

✦ Improved Playback. Playback quality is better on the rear LCD in my opinion, which has been enlarged from 2 inches to 3 inches, with seven brightness levels to choose from.

✦ Improved image richness. Image capture has gone from 12 bit to 14 bit; this brings the richness of the imagery much closer to the 16-bit digital backs, particularly at ISO 100 to 400.

✦ Increased continuous shooting (burst buffer). The number of images the camera can capture before slowing down has increased from 32 Large/Fine JPEGs to 56, or 10 RAW frames. In my work, it’s rare when I’ve had to wait on the 1Ds Mark III to shoot the next image.

✦ Additional autofocus points. Autofocus points have increased from 7 to 19 cross-type sensors for enhanced focusing sensitivity, retaining a total of 45 focus points.

✦ New Multi-controller. Located on the rear of the body, this serves various functions from choosing focus points to navigating various settings.

✦ Dual Digic III Image Processor. The move from the Digic II processor has increased processing speed, as well improved image tonality with better detail and color reproduction. Later generations of Canon cameras, including the 21.1-megapixel 5D Mark II, are now utilizing the Digic IV processor with visibly better high-ISO low-noise characteristics.

✦ Self-cleaning sensor. I find this a huge step up from the 1Ds Mark II. The sensor automatically cleans itself whenever the camera is turned on or off, utilizing ultrasonic vibration to shake dust off the infrared absorption glass — the outermost layer in front of the sensor. You can activate this cleaning manually, and in the rare times that dust remains despite the cleaning cycle, you can append Dust Delete data to an image in order to automatically remove dust in Canon’s DPP software. See Appendix A for more information about maintaining the 1Ds Mark III. While I often had to clean the sensor as well as remove dust on images captured in earlier 1Ds models, I’ve yet to do either with the 1Ds Mark III.

Chapter 1 ✦ Navigating the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ Better menu access organization. The Menu system now utilizes better organization for easier navigation and thus faster selection of menu choices.

✦ Improved tethered shooting. This has gone from a FireWire to USB 2.0 connection, which is one area that I consider a drawback, at least if you tether using a Mac. In Chapter 4, you’ll find more detailed information as well as workarounds to tethering problems.

5

Navigating the Camera: Buttons and Dials To get you up to speed navigating the 1Ds Mark III buttons and dials, one thing you want to learn right away is the difference between the Main Control dial and the Quick Control dial — it’s easy to get them confused. The Main Control dial is the small dial just behind the Shutter button on the top of the camera. The Quick Control dial is the large

1.1 A front view of the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III with the 50mm 1.2 L lens attached

6 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

1.2 Main Control dial symbol

dial located on the back of the camera. Canon uses the symbols shown in figures 1.2 and 1.3 for each dial in the manual, so get to know them.

The settings described in the following sections are the combinations of buttons and a particular control dial typically used; 1.3 Quick Control dial however, you can symbol choose which dials to use for particular functions within the Custom Functions menu page. This overview is your principle introduction to the controls of the 1Ds Mark III. These control operations are designed very well — it’s harder to describe them than to actually use them. Once you learn how the control system works and where the controls are located, for the most part, settings can be made quickly and easily and without a lot of thinking, meaning the system gets out of the way of shooting.

Top of the camera The controls on top of the 1Ds Mark III are arranged in familiar order for those who have experience with either the 1D or 1Ds series. What follow are details on how the controls work in conjunction with either the Main Control dial or Quick Control dial.

Mode button Located at the top-left corner of the camera, the Mode button allows you to choose which

exposure value (either aperture or shutter) you want to set and which exposure value the camera will automatically set. Press the Mode button and turn either control dial to choose your preferred setting:

✦ A (Aperture Priority). You set the aperture while the camera sets the shutter.

✦ M (Manual). You set both shutter and aperture values.

✦ Tv, or time value (Shutter Priority). You set the shutter while the camera sets the aperture.

✦ Bulb. You set the aperture, and the shutter remains opened with sensor exposed as long as the Shutter button is pressed or locked in place with a cable release. You should use a cable release with the Bulb mode setting. Seconds and minutes can be read from the top LCD. Be sure to shut the rear eyepiece in these scenarios, as well as raise the mirror before beginning. See Chapter 2 for details on how access and to control mirror lockup.

✦ Program. (P) The camera automatically sets aperture and shutter speed, and also adjusts when an EOS Speedlite is attached to the camera, all according to internal programming.

AF-Drive button The AF-Drive button, located just below the Mode button, allows you to control various ways that autofocus can be set to work, as well as how the motor drive works. You press the AF-Drive button while turning either the Main Control or Quick Control dial.

Chapter 1 ✦ Navigating the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III FE Lock/Multi-Spot metering button Mode button

Exposure Compensation/Aperture button

7

Main Control dial ISO button

Metering Mode/ Flash Exposure Compensation button AF-Drive button

1.4 Top view of the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

✦ With the Main Control dial. This controls focus, allowing you to choose between One-shot and AI focus mode. One-shot focus mode chooses and locks the focus once the Shutter button is pressed halfway. AI focus mode continuously checks the focus of the chosen focus point (or the automatically chosen focus point) and adjusts continuously as the camera-tosubject distance changes.

✦ With the Quick Control dial. This controls the motor drive, allowing you to choose between Silent mode, single exposure, slow continuous motor drive, and fast continuous motor drive. Silent mode is a particularly useful mode in quiet or sensitive locations, and one that many photographers forget about. It is useful inside places of worship, with sensitive subjects, at high-pressure focused board meetings, and so on.

8 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Using the AF-Drive and Mode button together By pressing the AF-Drive button and the Mode button and holding (or pressing and then releasing these two buttons but beginning within six seconds), you can turn either the Main Control dial or Quick Control dial to set auto-exposure bracketing, which is initially set for three images. You can bracket from plus or minus 1/3 stop to plus or minus 3 stops. The exposures are initially taken in this sequence: prime exposure, under-exposed, over-exposed. You can control the number of exposures and the exposure sequence with Menu Page 6, Custom Function 1, Items 5 and 6.

Metering Mode/Flash Exposure Compensation button Depending on which control dial you turn while pressing this button, you can make your choice for the metering type you want, as well as for the Flash Exposure Compensation you want — that is, how much under or over the initial setting you want flash exposure to be.

✦ With the Main Control dial. Press the Metering Mode/Flash Exposure Compensation button and turn the Main Control dial to choose between Evaluative Metering, Partial Metering, Spot Metering, and Center Weighted Average metering.

✦ With the Quick Control dial. Adjust exposure compensation for EOS flash, from –3 to +3 EV.

Exposure Compensation/Aperture button With either control dial, this button, which is located on the top right of the camera, sets

exposure compensation, if desired, from –3 to +3 stops. However, I much prefer to set the Quick Control dial to perform the same function (Custom Function IV, Item 3, Choice 0).

ISO button Located on the top-right corner of the camera above the Shutter button, the ISO button allows you to set the ISO by turning either the Main Control or Quick Control dial. You can set ISO between 100 and 3200.

Main Control dial Located on the top right corner between the Shutter button and the ISO button, when used by itself, the Main Control dial controls whatever mode you’ve set with the Mode button. For example, if you set the camera to A (Aperture Priority), the dial controls the aperture. If you set it to Tv (Shutter Priority), the dial controls the shutter speed. As noted, the Main Control dial is used in conjunction with buttons that you press to obtain the settings you want.

FE Lock/Multi-Spot metering button The Flash Exposure Lock, or FEL, button works in conjunction with EX Series Speedlites. It’s used to lock the flash exposure at the desired point of the subject. Pressing the FEL button activates a preflash, after which you take the picture along with a second flash burst. This method provides a more accurate flash exposure, although at the risk of being less spontaneous.

Back of the camera The back of the camera contains both buttons, 2 LCD screens, and the memory card storage area. Once you learn the location of

Chapter 1 ✦ Navigating the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III the buttons and practice a bit, you’ll find it’s a system that is designed to respond quickly to your shooting needs.

9

✦ With the Main Control dial. You’re able to choose from the nine menu screens.

✦ With the Quick Control dial.

Menu button Located at the top-left corner of the back of the camera, pressing the Menu button accesses the menu system, which you control by using the control dials. Here’s how it works:

Info button

You’re able to choose a subject line within a single menu screen.

✦ With the Quick Control Set button (located in the center of the Quick Control Set button). You’re able to select one item within a single line on a single menu screen.

AE Lock/Reduce button

Menu button

AF Start button

AF Point Selection/Magnify button

Multi-controller

Quick Control dial Quick Control dial Set button

Playback button Erase button

Off/On switch Protect/Sound Recording button

Function button

1.5 Back view of the Canon EOS 1Ds-Mark III

10 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Info button

AE Lock/Reduce button

Located next to the Menu button, the Info button controls what sort of information you view. Pressed by itself, basic user settings display on the rear LCD screen, including color space, Picture Style, shots remaining on each card, and date and time. If you press it after pressing the Playback button, four options become available for viewing image playback on the rear LCD screen.

Located to the right of the AF-ON button, this button has two functions, depending on whether you’re photographing or playing back images.

• Full frame. The image fills the LCD frame, and above the image aperture, shutter speed, file number, and card number information are displayed.

• Full frame with file information. Image type (RAW or JPEG and the size of the JPEG is) and file name are superimposed over the image.

• Smaller image with histogram. A smaller playback image appears next to a luminance histogram. Below this, many details are displayed: Exposure mode, Metering mode, Picture Style, color space, date, and sequence number.

• Smaller image with RGB histograms. A smaller playback image appears next to three RGB histograms, one per color, as well as file type and sequence number.

AF start button Located on the top-right back of the camera, the AF start button (which appears as AF-ON) initiates autofocus without changing any other values.

✦ During shooting. AE (autoexposure) Lock button. After pressing the Shutter button halfway, pressing this button locks exposure, allowing you to recompose your shot and maintain the same exposure.

✦ During playback. Pressing this button reduces the image size in playback, all the way to a multiple-image contact sheet view.

AF Point Selection/Magnify button Like its companion (the AE Lock/Reduce button) button, this button has two functions, depending on the mode:

✦ During shooting. By turning the Main Control dial, this button allows you to choose individual focus points (although I greatly prefer the Quick Control dial or Multicontroller joystick for this). However, pressing this button along with turning the Quick Control dial also gives you the choice of complete autofocus (all focus points light up, indicating the camera will choose the focus point).

✦ During playback. Pressing this button enlarges playback images on the rear LCD from the smallest contact-sheet view (nine images at once) to the largest view of a single image at 100 percent magnification.

Chapter 1 ✦ Navigating the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Multi-controller

✦ Camera off

Located above the Quick Control dial, the Multi-controller joystick claims a range of functions:

✦ Camera on

✦ Pressing the controller directly down the Center focus point is chosen

✦ Quickly selects any of the 19 userselectable focus points, as long as you have the latest firmware, 1.1.2 or higher.

✦ Sets custom white balance shift navigating to Menu 1, and pressing Item 3

✦ Scrolls the image during magnified Playback LCD view

✦ Scrolls the image during magnified Live View shooting

Quick Control dial As noted throughout this chapter, the Quick Control dial is used with various buttons to affect a range of settings. In my personal setup, the Quick Control dial is used by itself to quickly override exposure from –3 to + 3 stops.

Quick Control dial Set button The button is located in the center of the Quick Control dial. Its main functions are:

✦ Use this button alone to engage Live View mode, once this has been enabled in the menu.

✦ Along with other individual buttons, this button allows you to set choices.

Off/On switch The camera Off/On switch located underneath the Quick Control dial, has three settings:

11

✦ Quick Control Dial enabled. The Quick Control Dial will not function unless the Off/On button is moved to its uppermost setting.

Playback button The Playback button, designated by a blue arrow and located beneath the large rear LCD, is used to control playback of images. It’s used in conjunction with the following:

✦ The Quick Control dial to move backward and forward between images

✦ The Info button to choose the playback information you want to see

✦ The AE Lock/Reduce button and the and the AF Point Selection/ Magnify buttons to move from contact sheet view to extreme close-up view; for example, to change the viewing size of the images in Playback mode

Erase button During image playback you can use the Erase button along with the Quick Control dial to choose the Cancel or Erase option, and then press the Set button in the center of the Quick Control dial to erase an image. This is an intentional two-step process to ensure that you do, in fact, want to erase a particular image.

Function button Located to the right of the Erase button, the Function button is a quick way to control the Compact Flash and SD cards.

12 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ With the Main Control dial. The Function button chooses which card you want to be shooting to and viewing from, assuming two cards are loaded in the camera.

✦ With the Quick Control dial. The Function button chooses what file type the chosen card is creating, in terms of size and the choice of JPEG or RAW — from small JPEG all the way to full-size RAW. You can also control these functions within the menu system; however, this is a fast way to work, once you learn to use it.

Protect/Sound Recording button Located to the right of the Function button, the Protect/Sound Recording button has two functions.

Bottom-right buttons These three buttons function the same way as their counterparts on top of the camera, and can be used when shooting in vertical mode, if desired.

Side connections The left side of the camera contains output ports for connecting the 1Ds Mark III to external devices. Four ports are protected by upper and lower rubber covers, and one is protected by a screw cap. The upper rubber cover protects camera and strobe connections. The lower cover protects video and computer ports. The screw cap protects the output for the WFE2 remote transmitter. Be careful to tightly fit these covers in place when not it in use.

✦ While turning the Quick Control dial, pressing this button takes you directly to the Picture Style menu page without having to wade through the menus.

✦ While pressing the Playback button, pressing the Sound Recording button protects or unprotects a chosen image; if locked, you can erase the card, and the locked images will not be erased. If you format the card, all images are erased, whether or not they are locked.

✦ While pressing the Playback button, if you press the Sound Recording button and hold it for three seconds, it allows you to make sound recording notations (up to 30 seconds) for the image. This is done by creating a WAV audio file with the same filename as the image file. 1.6 Side view of the Canon EOS 1Ds-Mark III with covers on


13

PC terminal Remote terminal Video Out terminal Extension System terminal Digital terminal

1.7 Side view of the Canon EOS 1Ds-Mark III with covers off

✦ Port 1: PC terminal. This is used to sync to an external strobe.

✦ Port 2: Remote terminal. This is used to connect with any N3 terminal Canon accessory, such as a remote cable release RS-80N3.

✦ Port 3: Video Out terminal. This output allows playback of images on a TV screen. The Video Output can be set in menus either to NTSC (U.S.) or PAL (European) signals on Setup Menu IIII 2, Line 4 (Video System).

✦ Port 4: Digital terminal. The Digital terminal sends an output signal that serves two purposes:

• You can connect to any Canon printer that supports PictBridge

for printing images directly from the camera.

• More importantly for professionals, this is the output that tethers to computers — either to download cards or to capture and display incoming images straight to the computer. See Chapter 4 for more information on tethered shooting.

✦ Extension System terminal. This is for mounting a WFT-E2A wireless transmitter, for wireless transmission of images. So far, most people I know who have bought a WFT-E2A wireless transmitter are not satisfied. The word is that it’s not quite ready for prime time.


Setting up Memory Cards The Memory Card slot cover is located on the far-right side of the camera back. The cover is opened with a counter-clockwise turn of the latch, which is located next to the Off-On switch.

speed is three times as fast as the 1Ds Mark II, even though the pixel count has gone from 16.7 to 21.1 megapixels. Microdrives also work in the CF slot; however, they are slower and not recommended for use when using the Live View function.

1.9 A CF card and an SD card 1.8 Memory Card slot cover, open position There are two slots for card insertion: on the left is a CompactFlash (CF) slot, and on the right is a Secure Digital (SD) slot. You can assign any type or size of file to either card, as well as choose to use the cards sequentially (when the first card is full, the second begins to record) or simultaneously (to back each other up). The 1Ds Mark III also allows the use of the newer Ultra Direct Memory Access (UDMA) CF cards. Using these cards, the writing

Types of files The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III can record both RAW and JPEG files. Each file type has several variations, as noted in the following sections.

RAW and sRAW files As you probably know, RAW files contain the advantage over JPEGs of containing noncompressed imagery with full color-range capture. Most professionals prefer to shoot RAW on assignment due to the potentially


15

higher image quality, as well as the opportunity to fine-tune image data in post-processing that might not be chosen during JPEG capture, particularly color temperature range. However, by shooting in RAW, you must convert to another file type in post to use the file either online or in print.

JPEG files

New to RAW capture with the 1Ds series is sRAW, a file type that contains the same uncompressed RAW qualities but is smaller in size — approximately 6 × 9 inches at 300 dpi (14.5MB) compared to a full RAW capture of approximately 12.5 × 19 inches at 300 dpi (25MB). Thus, you can capture many more RAW files to a card if you don’t require the full RAW size.

The 1Ds Mark III JPEGs are exceptionally good, and, depending on the subject, it’s often difficult to tell the difference between JPEG and RAW file captures. I find JPEGs adequate for scouting or informal shooting, although I still prefer shooting RAW for most of my work — you never know when you’ll capture a strong image and want to print big or perhaps license for stock sales. JPEG files are still lossy files, meaning some data is always lost. Due to that fact and the extra control one has in post-production with RAW files, RAW files tend to be the file of choice for professionals in most situations.

Although DPP reads sRAW files, many other RAW processors do not read the sRAW format. The one time I used sRAW, the client changed their mind about the file sizes they needed, going from small files to huge files. Since then, I rarely use sRAW.

JPEG files are compressed files with color temperature chosen at the time of capture. The 1Ds Mark III offers four JPEG file sizes, as compared to the two file sizes available with RAW capture. All the image file formats available with the camera are listed in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 File Types and Sizes for Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Image Size

Pixels

Print Size

RAW

Approximately 21.0 megapixels (5616 × 3744 pixels)

A2 or larger (16.5 × 23.4 in.)

sRAW


Approximately A4 (8.3 × 11.7 in.)

Large JPEG

Approximately 21 megapixels (5616 × 3744 pixels)

A2 or larger (16.5 x 23.4 in.)

M1 JPEG



M2 JPEG



Small JPEG



16 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III In the past, one great disadvantage of JPEGs was the inability to easily change color temperature or hue. Now many of the newer software processors, such as Adobe Lightroom 2 and Apple Aperture 2, allow you to apply the same color temperature sliders to JPEGs as you do to RAW images. However, keep in mind that a large amount of the available color information hasn’t been captured shooting JPEG, and so the color range is limited. Be careful when shooting images with subtle gradations with the JPEG format, such as skies or seamless backgrounds with graduated exposure lighting on them. This is where you’ll most quickly encounter visible and unwanted JPEG compression due to the ‘lossy’ nature of JPEG capture.

Viewfinder Readout The viewfinder of the 1Ds Mark III represents a major advance over the 1Ds Mark II. It provides the highest magnification and widest coverage of the EOS-1 series cameras to date, including film cameras, and accomplishes this along with 100 percent coverage. The bottom line is that it’s a pleasure to compose through. There are many data readouts on view within the viewfinder, although they don’t intrude on your concentration when shooting — if you need them, you have them. The main readouts are along a bottom horizontal row. Starting from the left side, you can check Metering mode, Exposure mode, Flash Exposure information, High-Speed Sync indicator, FE (flash exposure) Lock, flash exposure bracketing in progress, shutter and aperture values, exposure compensation, white balance compensation, shots remaining, ISO speed, and the focus confirmation light.

I’m happy to report that only the functions being used light up; thus, it’s actually a clean and fast system to read. In my typical setup, I see the Exposure mode indicator, shutter speed, a plus sign indicating exposure compensation is on, shots remaining on the card currently being used, and ISO. On the right side of the viewfinder is a vertical readout. This includes a scale that reads out exposure compensation on the right and flash compensation on the left. Below that is a number indicating maximum capture bursts available at any one time. Set to RAW with Noise Reduction turned off, this would read 10 to begin with. Below that is an indicator revealing what shooting mode you’re in, taking both cards into consideration if two cards are inserted. Thus you might see RAW twice, JPEG and RAW (indicating each card is writing a different file type) or JPEG twice. At the bottom of the right-side readout is the battery level indicator. If the battery icon is filled with stripes, the battery is at 100–70 percent, three stripes indicates battery level above 50 percent, two stripes 49–20 percent, and one stripe 19–10 percent. One stripe flashing indicates the battery will be exhausted soon and that it is a good time to exchange with a fresh battery and recharge the one just used. No stripes with the battery icon flashing is the official recharge warning, although I personally don’t like to take the battery that low. Also available for evaluation on the camera-top LCD are shutter speed, aperture, metering mode, exposure mode, flash mode, regular and flash compensation, one-shot or AI continuous focus mode, and shooting mode (silent, single shot, lowspeed continuous, or high-speed continuous motor drive).

Chapter 1 ✦ Navigating the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Center spot metering circle

17

Area AF ellipse

Focusing screen

AF point : Cross-type points : Assist AF points Exposure level indicator Max. burst

JPEG icon Metering mode

RAW icon Battery check

Manual exposure AE lock AEB in-progress Multi-spot metering Flash-ready Improper FE lock warning High-speed sync (FP flash) FE lock FEB in-progress

Focus confirmation light ISO speed Highlight tone priority display ISO speed icon Shots remaining Recording media full (Full) Standard exposure index Exposure level scale

AF point selection mode ( AF, SEL [ ], SEL AF) Recording media indicator (Card*) AF point registration ( HP, SEL [ ], SEL HP) Shutter speeds Buld (buLb) FE lock Busy (buSY)

Overexposure Flash overexposure

Aperture

Exposure compensation Flash exposure compensation White balance correction 1.10 All possible information available in the viewfinder display

Flash underexposure Underexposure


Live View The 1Ds Mark III uses its own flavor of Live View, along with the 1D Mark III, the 40D, 50D, and 5D Mark II. Live View allows realtime viewing of the image, either on the rear LCD screen or on a computer video display when the camera is tethered by USB cable to the computer with EOS Utility active.

Advantages of Live View Live View offers several advantages and opportunities, including the following:

✦ Live View makes it possible to place the camera in positions where normally it would be difficult, if not impossible, to view the image through the eyepiece; now you can view either on the rear LCD or on a computer screen.

✦ By tethering to the computer, you can view a much larger image to evaluate details of the image: composition, focus, prop placement, and so on.

✦ You can activate a grid overlay both on the rear LCD and on the computer monitor, as well as various aspect-ratio frame lines to aid in precise evaluation.

Challenges of using Live View Live View also presents a few challenges on the 1Ds Mark III:

✦ Autofocus is disabled when using Live View; however, using the Point Selection/Magnify button, you can zoom in on the image and focus for precise adjustment. You can also use the Multi-controller joystick for moving around the image.

1.11 Live View as seen on a tethered computer screen

Chapter 1 ✦ Navigating the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Some photographers value and use this function to carefully check focus when shooting groups of people with the camera mounted on a tripod. Using Live View, you can keep the composition locked while simultaneously zooming in on the Live View image, using the Multi-controller joystick to move about the image and check focus on each individual in the frame.

✦ Due to the extra heat generated by the rear LCD being on, there’s the possibility of noise being generated during Live View. Although not a problem during initial exposure sequences, Canon recommends shooting no more than 300 images at 73°F/23°C or 230 images at 32°F/0°C.

✦ Hard disk-type microdrive cards are not recommended using Live View. Solid-state CF and SD cards are fine.

✦ Live View should be turned off if you are shooting long exposures.

✦ You should not point the camera at the sun while using Live View or you might damage the sensor.

19

Activating Live View Follow these steps for activating Live View:

1. Be sure to switch the Auto/ Manual focus switch on the lens in use to Manual.

2. Navigate to the Live View function settings options in the Set-up 2 menu. Navigation of the camera menus is discussed in Chapter 2.

3. Choose to Enable Live View, You can also turn the Grid Display On or Off from here, if desired.

4. Once Live View is enabled, press the Quick Control Dial Set button Control dial the Live View image on the rear LCD. You do not have to turn the Live View Enable function off when not using Live View; just don’t press the Quick Control Set button. The button remains set to enable live view whenever you press it. For more information on Live View, refer to pages 109-114 of the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III owner’s manual.

The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems

2

C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter How menus are selected and organized Shooting menu 1 Shooting menu 2

L

ike all modern digital camera systems, the Canon EOS1Ds Mark III is actually a computer as well as a camera. With the multitude of choices available to set and customize modern cameras, any system should have intuitive and organized menus, but many others often don’t. If you have waded through long and disorganized menu lists with other cameras, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. For the 1Ds Mark III, Canon designers rethought and greatly improved the menu system, with nine clearly organized menu screens, every one of which (save two) can be viewed without scrolling. It’s a system that’s both quick to learn and easy to utilize in the field, considering the wealth of choices.

How Menu Items are Selected and Organized It takes five steps to select from among nine menu screens divided into five groups. Each group has a color-coded icon associated with it, which displays on top of the rear LCD screen once you press the Menu button. I’ve attempted not only to clearly explain how each menu item functions, but also to offer notes, tips, and warnings that

Playback menu 1 Playback menu 2 Set-up menu 1 Set-up menu 2 Set-up menu 3 Custom Functions menu My Menu settings

✦

✦

✦

✦

22 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III I have acquired from my field experience, about which selections work best for me, and perhaps may work best for you, too.

Selecting your menu item These are the five steps that you follow to select a particular menu item. Once the item is selected, you’ll find either one or multiple choices, depending on which menu item you choose.

1. Press the Menu button. The Menu display appears, allowing you to choose which menu screen you want.

2. Press the Multi-controller to the right or left to choose which of the nine menu screens you want to access.

3. Turn the Quick Control dial once you’ve chosen a menu screen to scroll to and highlight the menu item you want to access.

4. Press the Set button. Located in the center of the Quick Control dial, pressing this gives you access to the choices available within the selected menu item.

5. Turn the Quick Control dial to scroll through the menu choices, and press the Set button to choose your selection.

How menus are organized Menus are organized into five distinct groupings, each representing a unique function. There are color-coded icons for each menu,

located at the top of the large rear LCD screen, when you press the Menu button.

✦ Shooting menus. There are two Shooting menus, which offer you image capture choices beyond whatever can be set with the camera’s buttons and dials. The icons for Shooting menus are red with a white camera shape.

✦ Playback menus. There are two Playback menus that control how to erase, protect, and print images. They also offer various choices for what you want to see while you play back an image, offering more detailed playback choices than can be made solely with the Playback and Info buttons. The icons for Playback menus are blue with a white playback arrow.

✦ Set-up menus. There are three Set-up menus. Most of the settings are decisions you initially make and then rarely change. One exception is LCD Brightness, which you’ll want to set to the prevailing conditions on an individual shoot. The icons for Set-up menus are yellow and display a crescent wrench.

✦ Custom Functions. There is one Custom Functions menu containing four sets of Custom Functions to choose from: Exposure, Image/ Flash Exposure/Display, Autofocus, and Operations/Others. Although these sets can be lengthy, with up to 17 items per set, you should get to know them. The Custom Functions icon is represented by an orange camera. This Custom Functions list is organized differently from previous 1Ds models.

Chapter 2 ✦ The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems Shooting menu 1

Playback menu 1

Shooting menu 2

Set-up menu 1

Playback menu 2

Set-up menu 3

Set-up menu 2

23

My Menu

Custom Functions menu

2.1 Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III menu icons

✦ My Menu. A most welcome addition to menu organization, the My Menu screen allows you to choose the menu items you most frequently access, saving the effort of searching through the menu system to locate these settings every time you want to use them. The My Menu icon is represented by a green star.

Shooting Menu 1 Shooting menu 1 covers white balance and Picture Style choices, which are all about the coloring and ‘look’ of your imagery. The following list goes through each menu option and explains a little about the feature.

White balance Custom WB regist. WB SHIFT/BKT Color space Picture Style

2.2 Shooting menu 1

✦ White balance. This allows the same group of choices as pressing the function key and turning the Quick Control dial. You can choose between Automatic White Balance (AWB), six preset white balances covering various daylight conditions, strobe, and fluorescent. You can also manually choose your own Blue/Amber color temperature from 2500 Kelvin to 10,000 Kelvin, and finally choose a stored custom white balance that you created. I find that AWB usually works exceptionally well. Particularly when shooting RAW files, I find it’s usually a good setting to work from, as I can always adjust color and hue when I’m processing my RAW images. Choosing a white balance is more critical when shooting JPEGs, as JPEGs can’t capture the full color range that exists within the scene, as previously noted.

0, 0/ 0 Adobe RGB Standard

✦ Custom WB registration. This setting allows you to use personally registered Custom White Balance information as your white balance choice. You can either register your Custom White Balance using an image already taken, or take an image and register the white

24 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III balance from it. Custom white balance is extremely useful if you often return to the same location or studio that contains light whose color doesn’t appear as you want when using any of the preset white balances. Rather than having to create custom white balances each time you shoot at this location, just choose the registered custom white balance previously obtained. This is most useful in locations containing mixed light sources, such as daylight combined with fluorescent, and so on. To capture and register an image, follow these steps: 1. Select the Custom WB regist. by pressing the Set button. 2. Choose the Custom WB button in the upper-left corner of the screen, and then choose which number to store the Custom WB as. You can create and keep up to five separate Custom White Balances. 3. Select the Record and register image option by pressing the Set button. 4. Take a photo of the purest white or light-gray card you have. Be sure to photograph it in the light you’ll be using to shoot in. The WB for Custom WB obtained message appears along with Set WB to “1”, or whatever number you chose.

✦ WB Shift/BKT. This menu item offers two useful choices: White Balance Shift and White Balance Bracketing.

• White Balance Shift. By moving the Multi-controller around, you can create a color bias in the blue/amber range as well as the green/magenta range. This color shift applies to all white balance

settings, including AWB. It’s as if you’ve created a custom filter and placed it over the lens. Using White Balance Shift is one way to apply a unique color-palette look to a particular assignment.

• White Balance Bracketing. By turning the Quick Control dial, you can bracket the white balance over three consecutive image captures. There’s a threestep range to choose from, and you can also choose whether the bracketing is occurring along the blue/amber or magenta/ green axis. I really don’t see a need for White Balance Bracketing in RAW capture, although in JPEG capture, this might be useful for capturing color-correct artwork and product. However, in that case, you would probably want to shoot in RAW mode anyway.

✦ Color space. This allows you to choose between the two main ICC color profiles: the wider-gamut Adobe RGB (for images that will be processed), and the smaller-gamut sRGB (useful primarily if you’re shooting images going straight to Web, where sRGB is the more accurate ICC profile to use).

✦ Picture Style. This menu item allows you to choose between nine Picture Styles. Each Picture Style can be customized to your liking, with level-setting choices of sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone. There are also behind-the-scenes settings that Canon implements for various preset styles. This is one of the menus that break the rule with the new menu system of not needing to scroll up or down to access all settings; although you’ll see the six preset Picture Styles, you must

Chapter 2 ✦ The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems scroll down using the Quick Control dial to access the three User Defined Styles line choices. These settings more truly affect JPEG files than RAW files. However, if you view RAW files that contain Picture Styles using Canon software such as DPP or EOS Utility, you will see the Picture Style chosen and can, in fact, process with those settings. However, you can also completely change the look at this point and revert to another Picture Style or any settings of your choice, if you shot RAW. If you’re shooting RAW files with Picture Styles and you want to see that look in your RAW processor, then you must use Canon software such as DPP and EOS Utility. If you open the file in other RAW capture or conversion software, you will not see the Picture Style in the RAW file.

To access any of the Picture Styles, do the following: 1. Select the Picture Style menu option by turning the Quick Control dial and then pressing the Set button. 2. Use the Quick Control dial to scroll up and down to choose a particular Picture Style. 3. Press the Set button to choose that style. 4. If you want to change the settings within a particular Picture Style, press the Info button instead of Set. This takes you to the settings menu for the chosen Picture Style. 5. Use the Quick Control dial to scroll to the desired menu option (for example, Contrast), press the Set button to enter that setting.

25

6. Turn the Quick Control dial to make your adjustment, and press the Menu button to return to the Picture Styles menu, and then to the first Main Menu page. JPEGs with Picture Styles retain their look in other programs. Be forewarned, however, that JPEGs captured in Monochrome mode cannot be returned to color, as no color information is retained within the file.

Here are the available Picture Styles you can choose from:

✦ Standard. The images appear vivid and sharp.

✦ Portraits. Designed for skin tones and slightly sharp detail.

✦ Landscape. Vivid blues and greens, with a very sharp detail setting.

✦ Neutral. Natural colors and subdued images. This Picture Style is designed with post-processing in mind.

✦ Faithful. The image appears dull and is most faithful to what the RAW file is actually capturing. This Picture Style is also designed for post-processing.

✦ Monochrome. To create blackand-white images, use this Picture Style. In this case, the settings are Sharpness, Contrast, Filter effect, and Toning effect. The Filter effect emulates traditional filters used in black-and-white photography and includes None, Yellow, Orange, Red, or Green. The Toning selection choices include None, Sepia, Blue, Purple, and Green, and function as traditional toning chemicals used to create a color tint within a blackand-white image.

26 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ User Defined Styles. Canon leaves space for three User Defined Styles, which you can set up and retrieve to implement whenever you want. You can access these menus in the same way as the other Picture Styles, and can make choices regarding the level settings of Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation and Color tone. The following series of images is the same RAW 1Ds Mark III image, processed using four different Picture Styles in Canon’s DPP software. Other than the same identical slight center dodge, the images were untouched in Photoshop.

2.4 Neutral Picture Style

2.3 Standard Picture Style

2.5 Monochrome Picture Style

Chapter 2 ✦ The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems

27

✦ JPEG quality. This setting allows you to choose the quality of JPEG capture — in other words, the amount of compression. The higher the number, the lower the compression, and thus the better the quality. However, higher quality also means larger files. Most people leave this number at 8. You also can set individual quality levels for each JPEG size available. For scouting locations or non-serious snapshot moments, having a lower-quality setting greatly increases the number of files that can fit on a card. Just remember to return the setting to your normal quality level before you start your real shooting.

✦ Image size. This setting allows you

2.6 Monochrome, Sepia Tint, Red Filter Picture Style

Shooting Menu 2 Shooting menu 2 focuses mostly on file settings, including Dust Delete data. The following list highlights the specifics of each available setting.

JPEG quality Image size Review time Beep Shoot w/o card Dust Delete Data 2.7 Shooting menu 2

,S 4 sec. On Off

to specify the image size for each card in the camera, if you’re using both a CF and an SD card. Each card can be set to a different size. You can also press the Function button to adjust the image size setting. The information appears on the left side of the rear LCD panel, located at the bottom of the back of the camera. Use the Main Control dial to choose which card you want to adjust, and the Quick Control dial to choose the image size for that card, from Small JPEG through to RAW. Whichever card has the black arrow pointing at it is the card you’ll be viewing when you play back captured images. I always use two cards: an 8GB CF card and a 2 or 4GB SD card. I have the CF card set to RAW and the SD card set to Small JPEG. I have the cards set to mimic each other, not capture sequentially. Thus the SD card becomes an ongoing, backup fail-safe system for the main CF card, should anything go wrong with that card.

28 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ Review time. This setting controls the amount of time a playback image automatically remains onscreen while shooting. Choices are Off, 2, 4, 8 seconds, and Hold. Four seconds usually works for me and helps retain long battery runs. Of course, you can always press the Play button to view an image for as long as you’d like.

✦ Beep. This setting controls whether the focus-confirmation audible beep is turned on or off. For highly sensitive locations, you can turn the beep off and still confirm focus when the chosen focus point lights up. You can also set the Drive Mode to Silent at this time, creating the quietest operational settings of the 1Ds Mark III.

✦ Shoot w/o card. You can shoot without a card by selecting the On button. I’m not a big fan of Shooting without a card. Even when shooting tethered to a computer, I want to have a card inserted as backup in case I lose my computer connection. On my first shoot years ago with the original Canon EOS-1Ds, this setting was turned on without my knowledge and I shot for 15 minutes with nothing being recorded. Never again! It could happen to you, too.

✦ Dust Delete Data. This is part of Canon’s dust removal system for the 1Ds Mark III. Although the ultrasonic dust cleaner works very well indeed, occasionally, you might notice dust spots that are not going away. In this case, you can create a Dust Delete file which appends itself to all future incoming images, both JPEG and RAW. The file is so small that it barely

affects image size. If you open these images in DPP, the dust spots are automatically removed at this point. Here’s how to do it: 1. Select the Dust Delete menu option by turning the Quick Control dial and then pressing the Set button. The camera automatically performs three cleaning cycles. 2. You are prompted to take a photo of a completely white object that fills the frame, at a distance of .7 to 1 foot (20 to 30 cm). The camera only records the data if the white surface is absolutely clean, to prevent anything on the paper being read as dust on the sensor. 3. Assuming a successful data capture, a Data Obtained message appears, at which point you select OK on the bottom of the menu screen by pressing the Set button. Even if you process with other RAW converters, it’s a good idea to follow this procedure every now and then. If you do encounter a dust problem that the auto cleaning system can’t handle, you can always bring the images into DPP to have any dust spots automatically removed.

Playback Menu 1 Playback menu 1 centers on DAM (digital asset management) within the camera. Within this menu, you can protect, rotate, erase, print, transfer, and copy images. The following list explains the features available from this menu.


Protect images Rotate Erase images Print order Transfer order Image copy 2.8 Playback menu 1

✦ Protect images. Using these functions allows you to protect or unprotect images, even when you erase a card. You can select individual images, all images in a folder, or all images on a card. You can also clear all images in a folder or on a card. In all cases, you use the Set button and Quick Dial button to navigate, and the Set button to select or deselect protection for an image. When you format a card, protected images are lost along with everything else. Do not format a card until you have retrieved all images you want to keep.

✦ Rotate. This line item allows you to scroll through images during playback using the Quick Control dial, and then to rotate a chosen image by using the Set button.

✦ Erase images. There are three ways to erase images with this setting. If you choose Select and erase images, you can scroll through your card and press the Set button each time you want to erase an image. Once you’re done selecting images to be erased, you press the Erase button, the bottom-left button beneath the Rear LCD Panel, and all selected images are erased at once.

29

Beyond this, you can erase all images in a folder or all images on a card. You can also erase images at any time while playing back images by pressing the Erase button.

✦ Print order. This setting allows you various ways to print directly from the 1Ds Mark III to a PictBridgeenabled printer. As with the approach behind protecting or erasing images, you can select by image, folder, or all images. When selecting by image, you can specify how many prints you want of that image, and whether you want the date and/or time imprinted on the image. Although this option is seldom used by professional photographers who will want to refine the images in post, it’s a good option to remember on a job if you have a small PictBridge-enabled printer with you. There’s nothing like handing out good-looking prints to the client and art director, if you can obtain them.

✦ Transfer order. This line item allows you to select which images to transfer to your computer, and in what order the transfer should occur. Although I’ve never personally needed this function, I could see it being a very useful item for those under a news deadline. For example, if you’re shooting a sports or news event and need the quickest possible workflow to move your best images out of the camera and into your computer, this would come in handy. Once again, you can select by image, by folder, or all images.

30 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Even under deadline, you can download your images and select individual images from the computer. However, if you mark your best images as you shoot by using the Transfer Order function when you have a break, this would certainly save time during downloading.

Highlight alert AF point disp. Histogram Enlarge display Image jump w/

Disable Enable Brightness AF point 100 images

✦ Image copy. This function allows you to copy images from one card to the other within the camera. Whichever card is the card being currently viewed becomes the default source card, while the other card becomes the destination card. Once again, you can choose by individual image, choose by folder, or choose all images. The Image copy function could be useful, for example, if an image taken during a shoot needs to be retouched or referred to as you continue shooting. Transfer the image to an available card, hand off to the tech or art director, and do it all without needing to go through your computer. Pretty cool.

2.9 Playback menu 2

Highlight alert is not visible while composing the image with the Live Preview function; however, it is visible once the image plays back.

✦ AF point disp. When enabled, this setting allows you to see which autofocus point or points were active during exposure. You will see the auto focus points that were used lit up within the last two of the four playback display choices: the Shooting Information Display and the Histogram Display.

✦ Histogram. As you probably know

Playback Menu 2 Playback menu 2 allows you to control what you see when you play back an image on the camera’s LCD. The following list discusses the various options available from this menu.

✦ Highlight alert. Enabling the Highlight alert feature displays an all-too-clear highlight warning for every image shot. Any part of the image that is overexposed will flash brightly. The alert is visible both during shooting, when the playback image comes up briefly, and while viewing a series of images being played back.

already, the brightness (luminance) histogram displays the image’s brightness levels from left (dark) to right (light). You can also view histograms on the 1Ds Mark III by individual color to double-check that all colors are within the brightness tolerance range — neither too underexposed nor overexposed to lose detail — unless that’s what you want on a particular image. This particular histogram item allows you to choose between brightness or RGB histograms while viewing images in the Shooting information display. The Histogram display always shows both brightness and RGB histograms.

Chapter 2 ✦ The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems ✦ Enlarge display. This selection determines where the image being played back will zoom to — either the center of the image, or the chosen focus point used when taking the picture.

✦ Image jump. The Image jump selection allows you to maneuver through images in various ways, by using the Main Control dial. You can jump by individual image, jump 10 images ahead, 100 images ahead, or by Date, Folder, or Screen. Whenever Image jump is activated, a bar appears over the main LCD Monitor, displaying the jump method as well as the image location.

31

✦ Auto power off. This allows you to set when the camera will automatically shut off power, with choices from 1 to 30 minutes, and finally Off, where power remains on until you manually turn it off. I have my camera set to 1 minute, as the camera turns on so quickly.

✦ Record func+media/folder sel. This is one setting you might want to return to and adjust, according to the demands of the particular assignment. There are four options to choose from:

• Standard. Even if both a CF and SC card are inserted in the camera, only the chosen card is recorded to.

• Auto switch media. The cam-

Set-Up Menu 1 The Set-up menu 1 covers additional settings for files and cards, many of which you’ll choose and rarely change, including file numbering and naming, card assignments, and card formatting. The following list explains each option in more detail.

30 min. Auto power off Record func+media/folder sel. Continuous File numbering File name setting On Auto rotate Format

era records to the initially chosen card. When that card is full, the camera automatically switches over to the other card, thus expanding the image capture limit.

• Record separately. The camera writes to both cards simultaneously. Each card can be set for any file format, covering the full range from small JPEG to fullsize RAW.

• Record to multiple. The camera records the same file sizes to both cards simultaneously. Each card can record an individual file size or RAW (including sRAW) plus any size JPEG to card during each capture.

✦ Playback. This chooses which card 2.10 Set-up menu 1

is being played back on the rear LCD panel, whether during shooting or during playback.

32 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III The Playback selection also controls which file size choice per card is sent to the computer during tethered shooting. Thus, if you’ve selected RAW capture on Card 1 (the CF card) and Small JPEG on Card 2 (the SD card) and Card 2 is the playback card, then Small JPEGs, in this instance, will be the file size transmitted to the computer. See more about tethered shooting in Chapter 4.

• Folder. This chooses which folder to record images to, assuming you have more than one folder on the card. Although I rarely use multiple folders, it’s a worthwhile option if you’re working on several assignments simultaneously and shooting directly to cards — in other words, not tethered to a computer.

✦ File numbering. There are three settings to choose from:

• Continuous. The camera generates continuous file numbers irregardless of whether cards are removed and switched.

• Auto Reset. The file numbering resets to ‘0001’ each time a new card is inserted or a new folder created.

• Manual Reset. When you choose this setting, a new folder is selected and file numbering resets to ‘0001.’

In terms of digital asset management, I personally recommend keeping File numbering set on Continuous so that file numbers aren’t duplicated. Although the file count does reset to 0001 after 9,999, this presents far fewer potential conflicts than continually resetting the file numbering system. For example, if I have a file numbered 7352 and I want to see all versions of it (RAW, Web JPEG, processed, and so on), I can search the computer for that file number and I’ll get all examples of the image I want. Imagine the confusion if I have multiple images with the same number.

✦ File name setting. Every image name is a combination of a fourletter/number code along with four capture sequence numbers. The four-letter code is initially set by the factory and unique to each camera. You can, however, change the fourletter code to one of your choice by using the Erase button to delete letters, the Protect/Sound Recording button to switch between the file number window and an alphanumeric choice list, the Multi-controller to scroll through the list, and the Set button to choose a letter or number. Although I’ve never needed to switch from the factory-set four-letter code, I can imagine a studio with multiple photographers or cameras taking advantage of this selection to organize filenames according to their own unique ID system.

✦ Auto rotate. Vertical images are automatically rotated to be upright in the viewer. You can apply this setting to the camera’s rear LCD as well as a computer screen if tethered, or solely to the computer screen.

Chapter 2 ✦ The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems I prefer to apply this setting to the computer only. The problem with applying Auto rotate to the camera’s rear LCD screen is that you lose a lot of ‘real estate’: an image shot vertically becomes much smaller to view, as the LCD is horizontally set.

✦ Format. The simplest menu setting, this is also one of the most important and most dangerous. You use this selection to format cards inserted in the camera. Choose which card you want to format, press the Set button, and then confirm by pressing the Set button again. Although most sources recommend formatting the card often, never forget that all images are erased, even ones you’ve protected. Protected images are protected when you erase a card; however, as noted previously, they are not protected when you format the card; they will be lost.

Set-Up Menu 2 Set-up menu 2 covers a variety of options, from setting the brightness of the rear LCD to choosing how to control an attached Canon Speedlite. The following list outlines each option available from this menu.

✦ LCD brightness. This allows you to set the rear LCD brightness, choosing from seven levels. By pressing the SET button you see the current playback image along with a vertical black-to-white step-scale.

33

LCD brightness 10/23/'08 08:24 Date/Time English Language NTSC Video system Battery info. Live View function settings External Speedlite control 2.11 Set-up menu 2

When evaluating exposure through playback, be sure to check the histogram rather than the images themselves. If your LCD is set to the brightest level, for example, an image that is underexposed can look great when you should actually be opening up the aperture or lowering shutter speed (which you’d know from looking at the histogram instead).

✦ Date/Time. You set the date here, including the sequence you prefer to see of day month and year. For example, the U.S. uses mm/dd/yy. Other countries use different sequences. You set the time as well here.

✦ Language. You can choose from 18 languages.

✦ Video system. This item lets you choose the type of video output signal, whether NTSC (U.S.) or PAL (most of the world).

✦ Battery info. A very useful readout, this allows you to read the percentage of remaining battery capacity, as well as whether calibration is

34 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III recommended the next time you charge the camera. You can also read the amount of shots taken with the battery since the last time it was inserted in the camera, as well as the recharge performance of the battery. To calibrate the battery, insert it into the charger and, while the CAL/CHARGE button is blinking red, press the CALIBRATE button. This discharges the battery first and then fully charges it.

✦ Live View function settings. This allows you to enable Live View shooting as well as choose whether to turn the Live View Grid overview on or off on the rear LCD screen.

✦ External Speedlite control. Depending upon which Canon Speedlite is attached to the camera, you can control the flash settings from the camera. These can include Flash mode, Shutter sync, FEB bracketing, Flash exposure compensation, exposure type (evaluative or average), and whether flash firing is enabled or disabled. Pressing the Info button clears all flash settings. You can also control Flash Custom Function settings with the appropriate Speedlites. You must have a Speedlite that can be externally controlled, and attached to the camera in order to access the External Speedlite settings. I prefer to control flash exposure compensation by pressing the Metering mode selection/Flash Exposure Compensation button on top of the camera and then turning the Quick Control dial.

Set-Up Menu 3 Set-up menu 3 offers ways to save and register camera settings, clean the sensor, and upload new firmware. The following list explains the various options in more detail.

Save/load settings on media Regist/apply basic settings Clear all camera settings Sensor cleaning Firmware Ver. 1.1.2

2.12 Set-up menu 3

✦ Save/load settings on media. All camera settings can be loaded to one of the memory cards, or downloaded from a memory card. This is a great tool in two situations: first, to apply your camera’s settings to another 1Ds Mark III body if, for example, you are renting a second body, need to send yours in to the shop, and so on. Second, to save the full range of your camera setup from a particular location for future return assignments at that location. Record settings to a separate card that’s used just for storing settings and is always part of your kit. Settings for time/date, language, video system, C.Fn III-7 (Autofocus microadjustment) and C.Fn IV-11 (focusing screen) are not saved.

Chapter 2 ✦ The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems ✦ Regist/apply basic settings. This allows you to register one set of basic settings that you can instantly retrieve. Included are shooting mode, white balance, drive mode, metering mode, AF mode, AF point, color space, image size, and Picture Style. This is useful if you have a basic setting set you like and you want to return quickly to it after making multiple setting changes on a particular assignment. It’s similar to the Save/Load settings feature; however, it is quicker to operate. With this function you can very quickly move to your one registered set. The Regist/apply basic settings menu is the second menu that breaks the rule of not needing to scroll.

35

Custom Functions Menu The Custom Functions menu is the eighth of the nine menu screens. The Custom Functions are organized into four areas:

✦ C.Fn I: Exposure ✦ C.Fn II: Image/Flash exp/Disp ✦ C.Fn III: Auto focus/Drive ✦ C.Fn IV: Operation/Others These functions allow you to customize the camera to your preferences, in terms of camera operations as well as adjustments that affect image parameters.

✦ Clear all camera settings. This clears all camera settings to their defaults.

✦ Sensor cleaning. This setting is where you enable Auto cleaning (every time the camera turns on or off). It also allows you to activate Auto clean instantly, if during a shoot, you notice dirt on playback. Finally, there’s the option to manually clean the sensor. Refer to Appendix A for more information about cleaning the sensor.

✦ Firmware Version. This is where you activate the updating of the camera’s firmware, and it only works if a firmware update is loaded onto a card that is inserted in the camera. Refer to Appendix A for more information about updating the firmware.

C. Fn I : Exposure C. Fn II : Image/Flash exp/Disp C. Fn III : Auto focus/Drive C. Fn IV: Operation/Others Clear all Custom Func. (C. Fn) C. Fn setting register/apply 2.13 Custom Functions menu Because the Custom Function menus contain up to 17 choices, I find it most helpful to refer to tables for each menu, allowing a quick overview and fast selection. Table 2.1 covers C.Fn I, Table 2.2 covers C.Fn II, Table 2.3 covers C.Fn III, and Table 2.4 covers C.Fn IV.

36 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Table 2.1 C.Fn I — Exposure Custom Function

Function

Description/Options

C.Fn 1

Exposure level increments

Choose from among 1/3, 1/2, and 1 stop.

C.Fn 2

ISO speed setting increments

Choose between 1/3- and 1-stop increments.

C.Fn 3

Set ISO speed range

Choose from the lowest (50, designated as L) to highest (3200, designated as H) ISO range.

C.Fn 4

Bracketing auto cancel

Determines if auto bracket settings will be cleared when the camera is turned off.

C.Fn 5

Bracketing Sequence

The order in which exposures are taken when using auto bracketing.

C.Fn 6

Number of bracketed shots

Choose from three to seven shots.

C.Fn 7

Spot metering link to AF point

Links spot metering to the active focus point. If set to ‘Disable,’ the center focus point will be used.

C.Fn 8

Safety shift

Allows the camera to shift the chosen aperture, shutter speed, or ISO to attain the recommended exposure.

C.Fn 9

Select usable shooting modes

Enables or disables various shooting modes.

C.Fn 10

Select usable metering modes

Enables or disables various metering modes.

C.Fn 11

Exposure mode in manual exposure

You can choose a particular metering mode to always be used during manual exposure.

C.Fn 12

Set shutter speed range

Allows you to set the shutter speed range anywhere between 1/8000 second and 30 seconds.

C.Fn 13

Set aperture value range

Allows setting of the aperture value range, from f/1.0 to f/91. The available extremes are dependent on the lens being used, of course.

C.Fn 14

Apply shooting/metering mode

Allows you to register settings to the AE Lock button. You can assign the shooting mode, metering mode, shutter speed, aperture, or exposure compensation.

C.Fn 15

Flash sync. speed in Av mode

Gives the option to lock the flash sync speed to 1/250 second, so that this will be the only speed available when using an attached flash.


37

Table 2.2 C.Fn II – Image/Flash Exposure/Display Custom Function

Function

Description/Options

C.Fn 1

Long exposure noise reduction

Set to Off, On, or Auto.

C.Fn 2

High ISO speed noise reduction

Applies noise reduction to all ISO speeds, particularly visible at high ISOs. This noise reduction is actually applied only to JPEGs during capture, but affects Noise Reduction settings in DPP for RAW captures. Keep in mind that this slows down camera operations.

C.Fn 3

Highlight tone priority

Creates better highlight tonality; ISO starts at 200, at the cost of a slight increase in shadow noise.

C.Fn 4

E-TTL II flash metering

Choose the Evaluative or Average metering method when using Canon Speedlites.

C.Fn 5

Shutter curtain sync.

Choose 1st-Curtain (flash at the beginning of the exposure) or 2nd-Curtain (flash at the end of the exposure).

C.Fn 6

Flash firing

Enables or disables the firing of an external flash connected to the PC terminal.

C.Fn 7

Viewfinder info. during exposure

Determines if the viewfinder info is displayed during actual exposure.

C.Fn 8

LCD Panel illumination during Bulb

Allows you to leave the LCD Panel illuminated during long exposures, useful to keep track of exposure time in dark environments.

C.Fn 9

Info button when shooting

Displays camera settings or shooting functions on the LCD Monitor, when shooting. You should try both and see which works best for your style.

Table 2.3 C.Fn III – Auto Focus/Drive Custom Function

Function

Description/Options

C.Fn 1

USM lens electronic MF

Enables electronic manual focus after One-Shot AF for particular lenses.

C.Fn 2

AI Servo tracking sensitivity

Allows AI-Servo tracking speed to be set from slow to fast. continued

38 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Table 2.3 (continued) Custom Function

Function

Description/Options

C.Fn 3

A1 Servo 1st/2nd image priority

Choose between focus, focus tracking, and continuous shooting priorities.

C.Fn 4

AI Servo AF tracking method

Instructs AI Servo focusing whether to stay on the main subject of focus or to switch focus to any closer subject that comes into view.

C.Fn 5

Lens drive when AF impossible

Instructs the camera to keep attempting focus or to stop searching. Prevents super telephoto lenses from becoming extremely out of focus due to focus searching.

C.Fn 6

Lens AF stop button function

Offers many choices on how AF works, including switching from One Shot to AI Servo as you hold the button down, when IS (image stabilization) turns on, and more.

C.Fn 7

AF Microadjustment

Allows you to make fine focus adjustments to individual lenses or all lenses mounted on the camera. This is normally not needed; use with caution! For instructions, see Appendix A.

C.Fn 8

AF expansion with selected point

Enables AF points surrounding the chosen AF point to aid in focus; this is useful for moving subjects.

C.Fn 9

Selectable AF point

Allows a choice of the inner 9 focus points, the outer 9, or all 19 AF focus points.

C.Fn 10

Switch to registered AF Point

Allows you to switch to the registered AF point by pressing the Multi-controller.

C.Fn 11

AF point auto selection

Allows you to enable or disable automatic focus selection, as well as choose either the Main Control dial or Quick Control dial to enable automatic focus selection.

C.Fn 12

AF point display during focus

Control whether AF point remains lit after focus is achieved.

C.Fn 13

AF point brightness

Choose Normal and Brighter settings for an AF point.

C.Fn 14

AF-assist beam firing

Enables or disables the Canon Speedlite AF-assist beam.

C.Fn 15

Mirror lockup

Allows the mirror to be locked up for tripod shooting to aid in minimizing focus blur due to mirror vibration.

C.Fn 16

Continuous shooting speed

Allows you to choose the speed of both Low Continuous (1 to 4 fps) and High Continuous (2 to 5 fps) continuous-speed modes.

C.Fn 17

Limit continuous shot count

Allows choices from no limits on a continuous shot count, to manual selection from 2 to 99 shots.


39

Table 2.4 C.Fn IV – Operation/Others Custom Function

Function

Description/Options

C.Fn 1

Shutter button/AF-ON button

Allows different ways in which the AF-On button can aid in focusing, such as turning Ai-Servo focus on and off.

C.Fn 2

AF-ON/AE lock button switch

Allows you to switch the functions of the AF-On and AE Lock buttons.

C.Fn 3

Quick Control Dial in metering

The Quick Control dial can be set to function in various ways when metering is active, from exposure compensation to AF point selection to ISO speed.

C.Fn 4

SET button when shooting

Includes seven settings that you can assign to the Set button when ready to shoot. However, any of these settings will be overridden if Live View is enabled, at which point pressing the Set button shows the Live View image.

C.Fn 5

Tv/Av setting for Manual exposure

Allows assignment of the Shutter and Aperture buttons to either the Main Control dial or the Quick Control dial.

C.Fn 6

Dial direction during Tv/Av

The turning direction on the Quick Control dial for shutter speed and aperture can be reversed if desired.

C.Fn 7

Av setting without lens

Allows setting of the aperture, even if a lens isn’t attached. This is included primarily for photographers who are switching a super telephoto lens between multiple camera bodies during shooting.

C.Fn 8

WB+ media/image size setting

Allows you to assign either the menu screen or rear LCD panel to view and adjust white balance and image size settings.

C.Fn 9

Lock/Sound Recording button function

Controls use of the Lock/Sound Recording button. The Normal setting is to protect an image, or record an audio note if pressed and held for two seconds.

C.Fn 10

Button function when QCD Off

When set to 1, both control dials as well as the Multi-controller are set to Off. This is useful if you want to lock all image settings.

C.Fn 11

Focusing Screen

Use this setting to match the various choices listed to the focusing screen in use, to obtain correct exposures.

C.Fn 12

Timer length for timer

The timer can be set from 0 seconds to 60 minutes. continued

40 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Table 2.4 (continued) Custom Function

Function

Description/Options

C.Fn 13

Shortened release time lag

Shortens the release time of the shutter-release. In Normal mode, there is an extremely brief pause included to stabilize the camera.

C.Fn 14

Add aspect ratio information

Allows various aspect ratio cut-off lines to be added to Live View shooting. These lines will also be seen in playback when not shooting with Live View. The image capture remains full-frame; however, if processed through Canon DPP, you can see and apply the crop while processing the image. You can also remove the crop at the DPP stage.

C.Fn 15

Add original decision data

Data for verifying whether or not an image is original; this is used for purposes such as lawenforcement issues.

C.Fn 16

Live View exposure simulation

During Live View, this setting lets you choose whether the Menu screen shows simulated exposure or the LCD auto adjusts the exposure.

Clear All Custom Functions This menu is certainly concise, and might come in handy if the camera is operating in ways you don’t expect. You can clear all Custom Functions to eliminate those settings as the potential problem. However, before doing this, I strongly recommend registering your main, personal Custom Functions choices with the next menu choice, ‘Fn. Setting register/apply.’ This way, you can clear all Custom Functions, and almost instantly return to your favorite Custom Functions settings by applying one of your registered settings.

C.Fn setting register/ apply As mentioned, this setting allows you to register your settings, and better yet, up to three

unique groups of settings. For example, you might have one set for Lit Portraiture, one set for an Available Light event, and one set for Architecture. There are three actions available to register settings:

✦ Register. When you choose this command, you’re taken to the register screen and have the option to choose Set 1, Set 2, or Set 3 as where you’d like to register your current settings. You make your selection using the Quick Control dial and Set button.

✦ Apply. This setting allows you to choose from whatever sets you’ve previously registered. As you scroll each set, you see an overview screen of which settings are on or off. Not very useful, but it’s there.

Chapter 2 ✦ The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Menu Systems ✦ Confirm Settings. This once again shows an overview screen of all four Custom Functions settings, with indicators next to each number of a particular Custom Function, as 0, 1, *, and -.

My Menu Settings This menu setting allows you to set up to six menu items and/or custom functions. It’s a wonderfully fast and easy way to access these functions, much quicker than wading through the menu system, even one as nicely designed as the 1Ds Mark III system is.

41

here that you control My Menu. Select the My Menu Setting button and press the Set button to find the following, using the Quick Control Dial and the Set button:

✦ Register. By pressing the Register command, you’re taken to a list of over 90 settings and Custom Functions to choose from. When you find one you’d like to use, press the Set button to choose it, turn the Quick Control dial to select OK, and then press the Set button to activate it.

✦ Sort. This button allows you to sort your chosen items in the priority you want, again increasing operational speed.

✦ Delete. Use this to delete any items

Highlight tone priority High ISO speed noise reduct’n Live View function settings My Menu settings

you no longer want on the My Menu screen. These items will remain in their normal locations.

✦ Delete all items. All items are deleted from My Menu, but once again will remain in their normal locations.

✦ Display from My Menu. Another 2.14 My Menu sample settings Once you’ve added your chosen items, you’ll find them listed on this screen. The bottommost item is called My Menu Settings. It is

time saver, when set to Enable, this has the My Menu screen appear as the first screen visible whenever you press the Menu button. If set to Disable, it’s positioned as the final menu screen.

Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot

B

eyond camera setup lies the craft of prepping all your equipment for an upcoming assignment, and doing the most you can to minimize equipment surprises on the day of the shoot. Trust me, you’ll never get rid of all the problems, but you truly can minimize trouble when the clock is ticking by thoroughly preparing before each assignment. Now that you know what options exist within the Canon EOS1Ds Mark III system and how to locate and operate them, it’s time to look at why you should pick particular settings for various shooting scenarios. If you photograph one type of assignment over and over (say studio portraits, or available light events, or architecture), you might find that you rarely change your preferred mode and menu settings. However, if your job types vary from one assignment to the next, your choices might change frequently as well.

Prepping Your Equipment for a Shoot I began my professional career, like many others, as an assistant. However, in my case, it was as an assistant cameraman on commercials, features, and documentaries. Being responsible for extremely technical equipment to work extremely

3

C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter Prepping your equipment for a shoot Focusing modes Exposure metering modes Flash modes Drive modes ISO choices White Balance modes Image quality modes Picture Style modes Registering settings

✦

✦

✦

✦

44 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III well (Panavision and Arriflex 35 camera systems, for example) when many thousands of dollars are at stake each hour, you learn how to prepare properly for a shoot — or you find another career. The main approach I learned that has served me well for many years, whether for motion or still photography, is to check, doublecheck, and thoroughly test your equipment before a shoot. Even if it all worked perfectly a week ago, or a day ago, nothing helps guarantee a smooth day technically more than hooking up the system you’ll be using, confirming that it all works, and solving problems if they reveal themselves. In the case of current digital still photography, this includes testing the camera and card, lenses to be used, on-board flashes if used, strobes and other external lights if used, power sources (whether gasoline or battery generators), checking that batteries are charged, wireless transmitters and receivers, your tethering cables, computer and software if performing tethered capture, and so on. Whether you perform these functions or you have an assistant to do it for you, whatever system you’ll be using, test it all out. I can’t tell you how many unexpected problems I’ve discovered this way that get solved before the shoot and before the client shows up. This approach applies not just to working professionals on money jobs. In my mind, it’s equally important for fine art photographers as well as advanced photo enthusiasts photographing just for the love of it. For example, if you’re traveling to a remote location to grab a once-in-a-lifetime moment, you certainly don’t want to discover at that point that your batteries are too low to function. Check, think clearly, and double-check.

Another factor in proper preparation is to have backups, both to your camera system and your shooting plan; for example, if your lighting or composition plan doesn’t pan out, what other choices could you plan for and have as backups? Bring a spare body (rent if you don’t own), have an assortment of lenses that can back each other up, bring backup cables, spare batteries, and so on. Many photographers and assistants prepare equipment using a checklist, where all equipment that could possibly be used on the shoot day is listed, and checked off once tested. Checklists are also great for packing your cases and loading up the car or truck; there is nothing worse than forgetting something you need to work with, and discovering it’s missing after a two-hour drive to location. Not to mention a cross-country plane trip. The craft of troubleshooting is an art in itself. The main rule I use is to take out all the variables and, bit by bit, add them back into the system to confirm where the problem is and how to fix it. For example, if I’m testing the tethered setup that includes the camera, tether cable, computer, and external hard drives, and the computer isn’t reading the camera (sound familiar, anyone?), then the first thing I do is take the system apart. I check the following: Is the camera capturing images by itself properly? Does the computer seem okay? If so, I connect the tether cable. Are the camera and computer now speaking to each other? If not, I try another cable, and so on. Often you discover there’s a simple solution after you have spent a great deal of time looking for a complicated one. But the bottom line remains: test this all before the shoot.

Chapter 3 ✦ Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot Beyond all the system preparation lies prepping your 1Ds Mark III itself. What focus mode will work best for your upcoming shoot, which exposure mode, color temperature choice, and so on? I personally like to make these choices before I arrive on location — you never know what emergencies will pop up that encourage forgetfulness or mistakes once you’re on set. Not that you can’t change these settings, but file size and type, focus mode, metering, exposure, fresh cards and batteries, and so on — I try to set these all, in advance, to be ready for the first shot of the day as soon as the camera is pulled from the case. The remaining sections of the chapter are explanations of the various modes and systems, and the range of choices they offer. The previous chapters were about how to locate and access these various controls and options. This chapter is about why you would use a particular control or option on a particular shoot.

Focusing Modes There are three main focusing modes: One Point Auto Focus, AI Servo Continuous Auto Focus, and Manual Focus. Following are descriptions of what each does and why you’d want to use it.

One Point Auto Focus For my work, at least, this is my most used focusing mode. Used primarily for still moments, it works well even in moving environments, depending on how quickly you’re able to operate the camera — every bit of motion is often composed of many

45

still moments. However, for subjects walking or running or otherwise in constant motion towards or away from the camera, this mode is the wrong choice! Focus on the subject by placing the focus point you’ve chosen over the area you want in focus, and press the Shutter button halfway down. If focus is achieved, the internal focus light will light up and the focus confirmation beep (if enabled) will sound.

✦ Choosing the focus point. There are two ways to select the focus point. The first is to press the Auto Focus button and use the Main Control dial to select points vertically, and the Quick Control dial to choose points horizontally. However, I much prefer using the Multi-controller for focus point selection, an option available since firmware update, 1.1.2. Move the Multi-controller around to pick from among 19 focus points, or press the center button to choose the center focus point. If you don’t have the latest firmware, you can download it from www.usa.canon.com/consumer/ controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcate goryid=139&modelid=15710# DownloadDetailAct

✦ Focus Lock. This is when you press the Shutter button halfway down to achieve focus, and then recompose the camera while keeping the Shutter button half-pressed, then fully pressing the button down to take the shot. It’s a common technique, although Canon suggests other techniques for improved sharpness.


3.1 A feathered friend. This was a good situation for one point focus, although typically, gulls don’t stand and pose on a table for ten minutes. This one was special. ISO 100, 35mm 1.4L lens, 1/125 second at f/6.3.

AI Servo Auto Focus AI Servo is Canon’s method of automatic continuous focusing, used for focusing subjects that are constantly changing their distance from the camera. The AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, as the camera’s computer uses an AI program to not only find focus but also predict where the subject will be when you take the photo and set focus accordingly.

There are two methods: single point AF AI Servo, and AI Servo combined with Automatic Focus point selection. In single point AF AI Servo, you select a focus point and the camera will track and predict focus using just the chosen point. In Automatic Focus point selection, the camera initially focuses on the central focus point, and then passes off the focusing to whatever points the subject moves to.

Chapter 3 ✦ Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot In AI Servo mode, the camera’s focus confirmation beep does not sound, nor does the focus confirmation light illuminate. This doesn’t mean focus isn’t being achieved; rather, the focus is changing continuously as the subject is being tracked and future focus is being predicted. Refer to the Custom Functions menu tables in Chapter 2 for a wealth of options on how to customize AI Servo focus to your particular needs. This includes tracking speed, how to pause tracking using the AF-ON button, and so on.

3.2 A newly married couple tries to escape after the ceremony — a great time for AF-AI Servo, in this case, single point AF-AI. 1Ds Mark III, 24-70mm L lens at 24mm, ISO 200, 1/640 second at f/4.0, Highlight Tone Priority.

47

Automatic Focus In this mode, the camera chooses the autofocus point. Autofocus is activated by pressing the AF Point/Magnify button and turning the Main Control dial until the outer ring of focus points all light up simultaneously. Once you’ve done this, the camera will choose the focus point by itself. Although this is not as predictable as single point focus, it’s sometimes quite useful, for example, when you’re shooting fast action shots with a lot of people in them. I use this function at times when I’m shooting reportage and releasing the shutter without looking through the camera — for example, holding

3.3 Celebratory moments can be a good time for autofocus, off-eye shooting. 35mm 1.4L lens, 1/125 second at f/2.0, ISO 1600. Speedlite 430 EZ with Fong Diffuser.

48 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III the camera low by my waist for a low angle, or over my head for a wide angle point of view looking downward. This method allows me to shoot from both low and high angles as well as to grab images that people don’t pose for, as they don’t expect the shutter to be released.

Improving autofocus There are several ways to improve your autofocus technique. Although it’s usually okay to focus-lock by focusing and then reframing, Canon recommends using the focus point that’s nearest the subject and thus requires the least reframing, particularly for subjects close to the camera. This is quite easy to do using the Multi-controller. There have also been a range of opinions regarding the accuracy of Canon lens focus attainment in AI Servo mode with both the 1D Mark III and the 1Ds Mark III. This applies to the most extreme circumstances, such as sports photographers shooting high-speed action with super telephoto lenses. A few folks have found that setting the AF Microadjustment to minus 1 for all lenses helps to obtain a higher percentage of tacksharp images. You can also try different settings of C.Fn III, Item 2, AI Servo Tracking Sensitivity. Factory-shipped in the central position, you can move the arrow from slow on the left to fast on the right, depending on your shooting situation. Other photographers have found no problems whatsoever with this issue, and so the point, once again, is to test out your own equipment and techniques for the challenges of each unique assignment, and test out before you’re ‘on the clock.’ Refer to Appendix A for information on the AF Microadjustment procedures.

Manual focus Some professionals still prefer Manual focus as the best way to obtain the most accurate focus. This certainly works with objects or subjects that are not moving; however, it is more difficult with moving subjects. It’s a lost craft for many photographers, and many autofocus lenses don’t have the right action or ‘feel’ for successful manual focus. It’s also quite difficult to focus with the standard focusing screen that comes with the camera; however, other screens exist that are easier to manually focus with, such as the Canon Ec-S Super Precision Matte screen. Be sure to set the C.Fn IV, Item 11Focusing Screen, choice to the focusing screen that’s being used. If you don’t do this, exposure might be off, as the exposure system needs to account for the different transmission qualities of each focusing screen. Also be sure to change this setting back to your normal focusing screen if you interchange focusing screens. If you’re not sure what the name of the screen is, you can see it on the focusing screen tab if you look very closely, or use a lens as a magnifier to read the screen’s name.

Exposure Metering Modes There are five principle exposure modes: Evaluative, Center-Weighted Averaging, Partial, Spot, and Manual exposure settings. There are also ways to modify exposure, bracket exposure, and evaluate exposure during image playback. The following section describes what they are and offers suggestions on how to use them. But first, here are a few initial recommendations:

Chapter 3 ✦ Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot

49

✦ Check the histogram. Checking the histogram display after exposing the image is the best way to evaluate exposure, and much better than trusting simple image review in the rear viewfinder, as previously noted.

✦ Expose to the right. Although dependent on the particular image, most folks expose ‘to the right,’ meaning to have the histogram as far to the right of the display as you can without clipping the highlights. All three images are of Dawna Watkins, interior designer, San Francisco. These are examples of underexposure, normal exposure, and overexposure. You might agree that not one exposure is the correct one; it depends on the individual image and the art direction of the particular ad, magazine, Web site, or publication.

3.5 Normal exposure. ISO 100, 1/50 second at f/2.0

3.4 Underexposed. ISO 100, 1/160 second at f/2.0

3.6 Overexposure. ISO 200, 1/60 second at f/2.0

50 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Here is more detailed information on the various metering modes available on the 1Ds III. Each mode has its unique advantages according to the lighting environment at hand as well as your personal style of shooting. This is one area where experience is the main teacher, in terms of what exposure modes work best for your style in different lighting environments.

✦ Evaluative. This mode is my first choice most of the time. The camera’s computer evaluates the levels in various parts of the frame, taking into account the selected focus point. It then predicts exposure using, in part, the data gathered from thousands of images taken during research and development.

3.7 This image of Dawna Watkins was part of a test shooting where the subject dressed in black, stood in front of a white background, and I tested Evaluative, Center-Weighted Average, and Spot readings with a hot light tungsten setup. In this particular case, all examples were surprisingly close, within one stop of each other. 50 mm 1.2L lens, 1/500 second at f/1.6, Evaluative metering.

Chapter 3 ✦ Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot I find that for my work, a +1/3 exposure compensation is often a good place to begin exposure capture.

✦ Center-Weighted Average. A more traditional method, this takes a reading biased towards the center area but averaged for the entire scene.

✦ Partial. Here the camera reads approximately 8.5 percent of the frame, at center — thus it’s a large spot reading. This is good if the background is considerably brighter or darker than your main subject area.

51

✦ Manual Exposure setting. As it implies, in this mode, the camera makes no exposure guess whatsoever — it’s up to the user to manually set the aperture and shutter speed, using the Main Control dial and Quick Control dial to do so. When shooting with external strobes, use this system. Either take an exposure reading beforehand using a flash meter, or set the exposure on a guess and then adjust for the proper exposure using the histogram display. In this case, you are, in effect, using the histogram to function as a light meter.

✦ Spot. In this case, the camera reads approximately 2.4 percent of the frame, at center. This is as close as you can get to a true 1-degree spot reading with this camera. It’s used in situations similar to partial reading but even more extreme, such as a wide shot of a model dressed in white against a dark background. You can read what type of exposure you use in the DPP information window; however, Evaluative is referred to as Split Metering.

✦ Multi-Spot Metering. A great capability of the 1Ds Mark III is multispot metering. Assuming your subject will wait for you, in this Spot metering mode you can take up to eight spot meter readings that the camera then analyzes to obtain the best exposure. You do this by first setting the metering mode to Spot reading, and then pressing the FEL button as you place the viewfinder’s inner circle over the areas you want to be included in the camera’s analysis and exposure result. I’ve found this is the best method of obtaining the most accurate readings with the maximum dynamic range.

3.8 Cassi. Shot using a strobe system and manual exposure. 85mm 1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/8.0. Often you need to adjust the exposure decisions the camera makes for you, based on the lighting scene at hand combined with your knowledge gained from previous experience. You can do this either by modifying

52 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III the exposure to what you think will create a better result, or by exposure bracketing — shooting a number of frames at different exposures as a way of helping to insure you’ll get a proper exposure.

Modifying exposure Exposure compensation is enabled by pressing the Shutter button halfway and then turning the Quick Control dial clockwise to add more exposure, or counter-clockwise to take away exposure. Learning to make the right decisions and do so quickly is a matter of experience and taste. If you don’t have this ability already, practice makes perfect,

as they say. We learn the limitations of various exposure methods in various settings and compensate exposure accordingly. And if catching the moment quickly is not an issue, you can always refer to your histogram to make the correct compensation on the next image capture.

Exposure bracketing As noted in Chapter 1, press the Mode and AF-Drive buttons simultaneously to activate Exposure Bracketing, and turn the Quick Control dial to set the range of exposures. And don’t forget your custom choices, available in C.Fn I- Exposure:

3.9 Image exposed to retain highlights with its histogram

Chapter 3 ✦ Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot ✦ C.Fn I, Item 4: Exposure Bracketing auto cancel. Choose if you want exposure bracketing to cancel when the power switch is set to ‘Off’

✦ C.Fn I, Item 5: Exposure Bracketing Sequence. Choose the sequence in which exposures take place. This is normally set to center exposure, underexposure, and overexposure, in that order.

✦ C.Fn I, Item 6: Number of Bracketed Shots. Choose the number of bracketed shots, from three image captures to seven, all of varying exposures.

53

Exposure bracketing is a useful feature if you want to ensure accurate exposure and are willing to give up the disk space that this requires. One way that people use it is for images whose exposure range exceeds the range of the 1Ds Mark III, which is almost nine stops. In an image that exceeds the 1Ds Mark III’s exposure range, you’ll see in the histogram that there’s no single exposure that can capture the full range of brightness levels. Landscapes on a sunny day with areas both in sun and deep shadow are a perfect example. In cases without subject movement, you can take images with

3.10 Image exposed to retain shadows with its histogram

54 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III various exposures and combine them in Photoshop CS3 or newer using the Merge to HDR function (File ➪ Automate ➪ Merge to HDR). The images need to be processed as 16 bit and will merge to a 32-bit file.

The following figures show you an example of an image that exceeds the 1Ds Mark III’s exposure range, and two images can be merged into one HDR image in Photoshop to retain all the detail.

There is also a program called Photomatix that many prefer, if you find yourself using this technique often.

Once I have a file with all the information contained in it, I can choose what data to hold and what to let go of or modify. Like any other image, the HDR image also traveled through various Photoshop workflows to give me the rich, detailed, somewhat desaturated image that pleased my eye.

For shooting without a tripod, you can also use exposure bracketing planned for one HDR image by using a fast shutter speed and fast frame rate to quickly obtain multiple exposures.

3.11 HDR image that combines both images to retain details throughout the exposure range with its histogram. Notice that the histogram isn’t perfect; getting the imagery you want is more important than the technical aspects of the histogram.


Flash Modes There are several flash modes on the 1Ds Mark III that apply to Canon Speedlites. Of course, there’s a whole universe of flash and strobe lighting to be addressed later. For now, let’s look at the Canon flash modes. The 1Ds Mark III uses Canon’s latest flash technology, known as E-TTL II Autoflash. It’s a welcome improvement over the former version, called E-TTL, which needed a preflash to attain exposure. The E-TTL II system also uses improved lens focusing distance data to adjust its setting. Because I and many others often use various modifiers over Speedlites to soften their look, there’s a bit of trial and error to figure out how to adjust flash exposure to work for you. Being able to see the image immediately on the rear LCD is a huge advantage in this area, as compared to shooting with film cameras and backs, where the only way to have any idea of lighting was to shoot expensive, harsh, and contrasty Polaroids, and then wait two minutes for them to develop. Following are various ways you can set the camera to expose while using Speedlites.

✦ Evaluative. The E-TTL II system reads the flash in the same way the camera reads Evaluative exposure in continuous-light conditions.

✦ Average. The E-TTL II system takes an average reading, similar to Average exposure when metering in continuous-lighting environments.

55

✦ Adjusting On Camera or Flash. Set-up Menu 2, Item 7: External Speedlite Control, allows you to control the flash from the camera, or to control all settings from the flash, dependent on the particular Speedlite. These choices include:

• Flash Mode. Choose between Evaluative and Average.

• Shutter Sync. Choose between first curtain or second curtain shutter sync. With first-curtain sync, the flash fires at the beginning of the exposure and the shutter then stays open to record the existing ambient light. With second curtain sync, the ambient light is recorded first and then the flash is fired.

• Flash Exposure Bracketing. This allows you to take three images in succession with three unique flash exposures, similar to normal non-Flash Exposure Bracketing. Exposure range goes from –3 to +3 stops settable in 1/3-stop increments.

• Flash Exposure Compensation. As you can do with ambient light exposure compensation, you can also set Flash Exposure Compensation from –3 to +3 stops. I’ve found myself using all the settings depending on the shot. If I’m shooting with a Speedlite to fill attractive available light (for instance, in AV mode), I often set flash compensation between –1 and –1 2/3. Once again, though, it takes your own experience to get a handle on the art of flash exposing!

56 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ High Speed Sync (FP Flash). The normal flash sync speed limit is 1/250 second with the 1Ds Mark III and Canon Speedlites. However, you can set the flash to High Speed Sync and shoot faster than that.

✦ FE (Flash Exposure) Lock. By pressing the FEL button, you can take a preflash and lock the exposure at a particular part of the scene. The following shot will fire the Speedlite with the stored settings.

✦ E-TTL II Wireless Autoflash. Used with multiple Speedlites, you can shoot multi-flash setups with no connecting cables. Keep in mind that you’ll need Speedlite to light stand converters or some other way to mount flashes not attached to the camera.

Drive Modes There are six drive modes: Single, Silent single, Self-Timer, Low-speed continuous, highspeed continuous, and Bulb. As explained in Chapter 1, you choose the setting you want while pressing the AF-Drive button atop the camera and turning the Quick Control dial. The setting choice is visible in the top-right LCD window.

✦ Single. This is the choice I use most often, and with single-point autofocus; the two work well together. This is a reliable way to obtain the desired shot, as long as the subject isn’t in constant motion, particularly to or from camera (as compared to left to right, where focus distance might be more consistent).

✦ Silent single. This is a valuable drive mode to remember in locations where you want to be as quiet as possible — whether a Nature setting, a religious service, and so on. Camera noise is greatly reduced, creating a less intrusive and more intimate setup. You have to release your finger from the Shutter button to advance, which slows things down a bit. Silent single mode is designed like this so that you can take the exposure, not release your finger, move the camera to a quiet area, and release your finger at this point. Thus you are making the camera even quieter by advancing the shutter much more discreetly.

✦ Low speed continuous. The camera shoots at approximately three frames per second, and can be used with all focus modes.

✦ High speed continuous. The camera shoots at approximately five frames per second; this is useful for capturing fast action like sports or a quickly evolving moment. As noted in Chapter 2, these initial frame rates can be custom adjusted using C.Fn III-16: Continuous Shooting Speed. Low continuous speed can be set from one to four frames per second, while fast continuous can be set from two to five frames per second.

✦ Bulb Exposure. This setting is used for timed exposures over 30 seconds — the limit you can designate with the 1Ds Mark III. This is obviously necessary to use with tripod and cable release, along with setting the mirror to the up position and waiting to release the shutter, using C.Fn III-15: Mirror Lockup.

Chapter 3 ✦ Choosing Settings When Preparing for a Shoot The cable release you need to use is Canon’s Remote Switch RS-80N3. It attaches at the side connections portal, and works well. You can move a built-in coverplate over the switch when you begin exposure, which will lock the Shutter button in place. To release the button, slide the cover back. Another option is the TC-80NE, a cable release as well but with many additional capabilites. It includes a self-timer that can be set to trip the shutter up to 100 hours later, an interval timer that can be set to trip the shutter for any period up to 100 hours, a long exposure setting that will keep the shutter open up to 100 hours, and an Exposure count that allows you to set the number of exposures that will be taken, up to 99. It’s recommended that you enable C.Fn II-1 — Long exposure noise reduction. This works with RAWs as well as JPEGs. However, keep in mind that the camera creates a black file to determine what is noise and remove it. This can take as long as the exposure to execute. Thus, a five-minute exposure requires up to an additional fiveminute black exposure. You can set the Custom Function to On, Off, or Auto. I tend to leave it on Auto and let the camera decide if it’s worth the extra time. You can continue to shoot as the camera is executing the exposure reduction when utilizing Live View; however, you will not see the Live View image. As long as the number ‘1’ or higher is visible in the Maximum Burst indicator in the viewfinder, shooting is possible, though.

57

ISO Choices Making the best possible choice on what ISO to use for a particular shot is always a mental balancing act. On the one hand you usually (though not always) want the richest image quality possible, obtainable from the lower ISOs. On the other hand all the subtlety in the world is lost if the images are out of focus due to using a shutter speed that was too slow, necessitated by the slow ISO choice. It’s considerations like these along with many others that lead you to the ISO choice you decide on for a particular shot or location. Following is my experience of how various ISOs look when shooting the 1Ds Mark III.

✦ ISO 100 to 400. The 1Ds Mark III is virtually noiseless from ISO 100 to 400. (You can also shoot at ISO 50; however, you lose a bit of dynamic range at this range — the camera can’t record detail in as wide a range of exposure.) ISO 100, to my eye, is the creamiest, most resembling a medium-format digital shot. However, I wouldn’t hesitate shooting just about any job up to and including ISO 400.

✦ ISO 800. At ISO 800, noise starts to become visible, but it’s quite minor and more like film-grain in quality than it used to be. I’m constantly surprised at how good ISO 800 looks on this camera. You’d likely want to use noise reduction in DPP, or Noise Ninja (or other noise reduction programs) in Photoshop to clean up the image, but depending on the image, you might like the texture that the noise creates.

✦ ISO 1600. ISO 1600 has noise that is more visible, but is still very useable. Particularly if the image is not underexposed at ISO 1600, whatever noise is there can be easily removed.

58 Part I ✦ Exploring the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ ISO 3200. ISO 3200 has more visible noise, as well as dynamic range reduction. If you know or learn how to reduce noise in its various settings, this is a useable and not extreme choice. Not underexposing is more critical. But that said, I’ve underexposed a stop and a half at ISO 3200 and ended up with a usably clean image after removing noise in post. Thus, the image was effectively shot at an effective ISO 8000. However, I wouldn’t recommend this approach as a reliable part of your exposing technique when using the 1Ds Mark III. Good-quality high ISO imagery is becoming quite a bit better with the latest generation of digital cameras, including the Canon 5DmkII. The Nikon D3 in particular has gained a wonderful reputation for great-looking, low-noise images at ISO 6400 and beyond. Enabling High ISO Speed Noise Reduction, C.Fn II-2, does a really good job at minimizing noise; however, keep in mind that it applies to JPEGs only. If shooting RAW with this High ISO Speed Noise Reduction turned on, the correct settings are transferred over to DPP, and DPP will process the image with this noise reduction if so desired. Keep in mind that turning High ISO Speed Noise Reduction on does use a lot of processor power, and thus slows down the capture rate.

Types of digital noise There are two types of noise in any digital image: luminance noise, a pattern-like noise most visible in shadow areas, and color noise, usually seen as green and magenta

patterns of dots. Both types of noise exist in all images; however, they become more apparent with higher ISOs, as you most likely know. The 1Ds Mark III has excellent low-noise qualities, particularly if you don’t underexpose; it’s very clean. Newer Canon Pro cameras such as the 5DII, which employs the new Digic IV processor, will have better noise in JPEGs due to the more powerful processors; however, RAW noise levels remain very close at this point.

Noise reduction techniques There are many noise reduction choices, and you just have to try them out and see what works best for you. If you use the latest version of DPP (3.4.1 at the time of this writing), the noise reduction is very good. I’m also a fan of Noise Ninja, which you can use in both Photoshop and Aperture. Capture One 4.5 has much improved noise reduction results, to my eye, compared to earlier versions. A new program, Topaz DeNoise, shows great promise of pushing the limit of possible noise reduction. I had a hard time locating images shot at ISO 1600 with the 1Ds Mark III where I could find significant noise. If you check the bride’s arm, the side of the wedding cake, and the black sky, you should be able to see what little is there. Figure 3.13 is the same image as figure 3.12, with Noise Ninja noise reduction applied. Notice how the bride’s arm, the cake, and the black sky are smoother and relatively free of noise.


3.12 Jesse and Andrea taken in low light, ISO 1600, 35mm 1.4L lens, 1/85 second at f/1.4. Processed through Aperture with no noise reduction applied.

3.13 Jesse and Andrea with Noise Ninja

59


White Balance Modes You can control White Balance in your images by choosing one of nine mode choices in the 1Ds Mark III: six presets, Average White Balance, Custom Color Temperature off a white tone recorded image, and manual selection of the Color Temperature in Kelvin. You can also shift any designated setting with the White Balance Shift tool in Shooting Menu 1, as previously noted.

✦ AWB. As noted in Chapter 2, Average White Balance usually works surprisingly well on the 1Ds Mark III. Particularly when shooting RAW, it always gets me close enough that I can then fine-tune the color when I’m processing the RAW files.

✦ Preset White Balance settings. The six preset WB settings are:

• Daylight. 5200 Kelvin. Based on a sunny, clear day at noon.

• Shade. 7000 Kelvin. Based on being in the shade on a clear, sunny day — thus, a lot of blue light.

• Cloudy. 6000 Kelvin. As you’ll notice, this falls between Daylight and Shade settings.

• Tungsten Light. 3200 Kelvin. For traditional, indoor lighting. Although often warmer appearing (that is, a lower temperature), it’s a good quick choice when shooting indoors under tungsten light, and often offers a better look than remaining on AWB.

• Fluorescent Light. 4000 Kelvin. There are various color temperature fluorescent bulbs, and this is an average choice. Fullspectrum color-corrected fluorescents also exist, which much more closely mimic either tungsten or daylight color.

• Flash. 6000 Kelvin. I often prefer a higher WB setting to let the flash go a little warm. Of course, this depends on personal taste. If shooting product, you often want to be as accurate as possible with color temperature, so use this setting in those conditions.

✦ Custom. Described in Chapter 2, getting a color temperature reading off a white card is the best way to determine color temperature on a specific shoot and location. This is worth doing if you’re having trouble getting the colors right, whether skin tones, wardrobe, or other problematic subjects. Some people shoot a white card for color temperature holding a onequarter CTB (color temperature blue) filter over the lens. This way, the custom color created will be accurate in the green/magenta spectrum with just a touch of warmth (and precisely so) in the blue/amber spectrum.

These two images of Aja are the same RAW image with different color settings applied in Capture One 4.5.


3.14 Aja warm, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/7.1

3.15 Aja cool, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/7.1

61


Image Quality Modes While RAW is the main choice for most professional work, JPEGs also look very good coming out of the 1Ds Mark III. Depending on your workflow, delivery demands and other factors — such as whether images are for scouting and casting purposes or delivery as final art for offset printing — there’s a choice for every situation, ranging from 2.4MB to almost 32MB per capture, when shooting both RAW and Large JPEG at the same time.

✦ RAW. RAW files are 25MB in size and offer the biggest and cleanest full-spectrum capture. All color temperature choices can be made after shooting. Captures per card and maximum burst rate are more limited when you are shooting RAW images. Burst rate is the number of images that can be captured in a row before the camera needs to pause and catch up.

✦ sRAW. At 14.5MB, sRAW gives you full RAW capabilities but with a much smaller file. As noted in Chapter 1, be aware that many programs other than DPP do not read this format.

✦ JPEG. With file sizes ranging from Small (2.2MB) to Large (6.4MB), JPEGs offer many choices, although you should always keep in mind that color data is more limited and image compression is occurring. Depending on the image being captured, large JPEGs can give you quality that is

incredibly close to RAW with a much smaller file size and much greater maximum burst rate: 63 large JPEGs on a UDMA card compared to 12 RAWs, a huge difference. High ISO processing in-camera is also a real advantage of JPEGs in terms of workflow speed, although it does slow down capture speed. All in all, it’s a format to keep in mind, but you should also be aware of its limitations.

Picture Style Modes As described in Chapter 2, Picture Styles affect JPEG capture primarily, and only apply in RAW captures if the images are processed using Canon’s DPP software. One use for Picture Styles on assignments is to create a nicer-looking image that is closer to your vision of the final processed image, so that the client or art director can see it more easily, whether on the rear LCD screen or on the computer monitor, if tethered. Often punching up or bringing down saturation will help tune an image to your liking, and you can also play with sharpness and contrast. Possibly the best use of Picture Styles is for imagery that will end up being finalized as black and white. Utilizing the various options of virtual filters and color casts available in the Picture Style Black and White menu, you have a huge advantage in working with the lighting and other tonal options, such as makeup and wardrobe, while you are on set and shooting.


Registering Settings As noted in Chapter 2, you can register basic camera settings in Set-up Menu 3. You can register one group of settings in-camera, and multiple groups of settings by recording different groups of settings to a card. If you find there’s one group of settings that you use most often, this is a great way to instantly return to your basic setup after making many switches for a particular shoot.

63

If you find yourself repeatedly using unique groups of settings on different types of locations, it’s worth the time to set up and record these settings to a card so that they’re instantly retrievable. You can name each group of settings to quickly know what each set is used for. I recommend keeping all settings on one card that you set aside just for that purpose.

System Components

P

A

R

T

II ✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Part Chapter 4 Tethered Shooting Chapter 5 Making Smart Lens Choices Chapter 6 Working with Canon Speedlites

✦

✦

✦

✦

4

Tethered Shooting

S

hooting tethered involves instantly (well, almost) sending files from the EOS-1Ds Mark III to a computer and monitor through a tethered cable. It has created a radical change in how advertising assignments, in particular, are run. Once the exception, tethered shooting is more or less the rule on a job where art directors and clients are on set and want to see what’s going on. Gone for the most part are the days of shooting murky Polaroids that are small, contain caustic chemicals, and take two minutes to process, and then explaining what the photograph will really look like. For better or worse, the image comes up on a large computer screen with much more clarity and detail than ever imagined before.

C H A P T E R

✦

There are many reasons for shooting tethered, and a few reasons not to do so as well. The big reason in both cases is that, by shooting tethered, you’re able to share the live or incoming images with other members of your creative team, including the art director, stylist, and client. Some photographers feel a loss of control going this route, while others prefer it. Personally, I’d rather receive the input up front than find out after the fact what the art director or client really wanted.

Pros Tethered shooting is invaluable in terms of being able to view an image that you have just taken, presented on a large monitor, with image details, lighting, color, and other image characteristics much more thoroughly presented and viewable

✦

✦

In This Chapter Tethered shooting pros and cons Software Improving USB capture rate with Macintosh systems Troubleshooting in tethering environments

✦

Tethered Shooting Pros and Cons

✦

✦

✦

✦

68 Part II ✦ System Components than on the camera’s rear LCD screen. Or for that matter previously on a Polaroid, as mentioned earlier. And another advantage in this digital age is the huge increase of disk space available on a hard drive compared to what’s available on a CF card — even a 16GB one. One unique advantage of shooting tethered is the ability to place an overlay of an ad either within the capture program or physically over the monitor to make sure the images being captured fit into the layout as well as the “feel” of the rest of the ad. This capability can be both a blessing and a curse, but when you want and need it, it’s there. Finally, with programs such as Capture One, you can take a test image, adjust the image to your liking, and then have all the settings applied to all incoming captures. Lightroom II can do this as well. This is a wonderful capability as far as I’m concerned. With the addition of Live Capture on the EOS-1Ds Mark III, a live image can be sent to the computer monitor or external monitor. For a still life with many elements, the composition can be arranged before capturing a single frame, and adjusted from there.

Cons On the negative side are the equipment hassles that can occur when you are shooting tethered. For a number of years, tethered shooting was often hit or miss regarding its reliability and stability. And it’s still not a completely mature and foolproof technology.

Photographers currently shoot very big files flowing down very small channels, and often in fast sequence; I think photographers tend to push the capabilities of whatever is the most current system out there. Nothing slows things down or creates more pressure than having the actors all warmed up, or the available light just right, when suddenly the computer can’t capture or the camera freezes. It’s at this point that one fondly remembers shooting film, or shooting without being tethered, as some photographers still do. However, in reality, most art directors and clients are now expecting to see the images appear on a nice big screen for their instant review and input as the shooting is occurring. Common sense should come into play regarding tethered shooting. Shooting tethered in a studio or interior location tends to be easier than shooting tethered outside. For example, power is available, and the interior light usually makes it easier to see the monitor. Yes, photographers build blackout tents or have special covers for shooting outside, but they all take time to set up and still make the incoming images difficult to see accurately. I try to remember that if the tethered aspect of the shoot is getting in the way, to the point of losing a shot, I can always unchain the camera and myself, and capture images to the camera alone. These situations include tethered technical difficulties, losing exterior light, losing a subject’s energy, and being obligated to vacate a location at a particular time. I believe the client would rather get the shot without tethering than lose it entirely.

Chapter 4 ✦ Tethered Shooting

69

4.1 The assistant stands in for the first lighting and tethering test of the day, confidently awaiting results. 85mm 1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/15 second at f/8.

Software I’m happy to report that capturing software for tethered use has become more stable. Individual camera systems often have their own software; in Canon’s case, EOS Utility and Digital Photo Professional (DPP) combine to

make a reliable tethered workflow. You can also use Capture One Pro 4.6. These are the two setups I’m personally familiar with, and I discuss them in the following sections. The software for both setups is available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms.

70 Part II ✦ System Components Aperture 2.2 (Mac only) also has tethered capabilities, but at this point, not for the EOS-1Ds Mark III. The EOS-1Ds Mark II and all 1D Mark II bodies are supported. I’ve been campaigning with Apple to add the EOS-1Ds Mark III to the list, as Aperture 2 is a program I very much like to use. You can check available cameras that tether with Aperture at http://support.apple. com/kb/HT1085.

Capture One Pro 4.6 All in all, I’d have to say that Capture One Pro, from the company Phase One, has the best and most mature tethering system, which works with Phase One camera backs as well as many brands of cameras, including Canon. For months, the EOS-1Ds Mark III could not tether to Capture One. No one really knows if this was a marketing move (to help sell Phase One camera backs) or plain lack of manpower at Phase One to get the job done. The good news is that Capture One 4.6 now works with the 1Ds III, 1Ds II, and all 1D II and 1D III systems, as well as the 5D, 40D, 50D, and 5D II. Thank you, Phase One.

Capture One Pro has several workflow and other advantages that I appreciate, although you’ll find that most RAW capture tethering programs have advantages and disadvantages when compared to each other. Among other points, here’s what I like about Capture One Pro 4.6:

✦ Sessions system. You set up a tethered shoot by creating a new session — a master folder with subfolders pre-named for convenient organizing. Choose File ➪ New Session. A dialog box opens, offering text fields where you can fill in the session name and place the folder location, as well as four prenamed subfolders that you can rename:

• Capture subfolder. Where captured images are directed.

• MoveTo subfolder. A folder for saving selections if you want- or for whatever purpose you choose. Drag images from the browser, or select an image and press Ô+J. This is an alternative or enhancement to ranking images by number of stars or colored labels alone.

On a Mac, be sure to have Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later installed before using Capture One Pro 4.6.

• Output subfolder. Where all

One bit of advice is to always have a second tethering program installed, learned, and tested. Whatever program you end up choosing, if there’s a problem, it’s sometimes easier to switch to another program than to try to figure out what’s wrong with your current system. In the case of Capture One Pro for Canon cameras, there’s also the ongoing reality of the time lag from when a new professional Canon body is released and when it’s made available for use with Phase One products.

• Trash subfolder. When you

processed images initially reside. delete images in the particular session you’re working on they are moved to this folder. Images are not deleted permanently unless you instruct the program to do so. This allows a way to send images initially thought of as rejects to review later, if you want.

Chapter 4 ✦ Tethered Shooting ✦ Applying adjustments. You can apply pre-determined adjustments to incoming images, a fantastic option. For example, I’ll take a test shot, tweak the color, add a touch of saturation, perhaps add a subtle curve, or apply a style. In the Camera Window of Capture One there’s an area called Next Capture Adjustments. Among other choices if you choose Copy from Last, all of the settings made to the image you just worked on are applied to images as they come in and open on-screen. Thus, you, or you and the art director, can create a look you like and see it on every incoming capture.

✦ Open any folder. You can instantly open any folder without needing to import it. This is a great advantage even on tethered shoots. For example, you might want to refer to an image from an earlier shoot, or to a finished image; just navigate to that image and open it up.

✦ Other enhancements. Compared to earlier versions of Capture One Pro, I find the quality of the captured image on screen is much improved, and the Sharpness and Noise Reduction sliders are subtler, offering more control. The Color Editor, which used to be a separate mini-program, is now part of the main program, and it’s one of the great strengths of Capture One, once you learn its capabilities. You can also set up capturing to a backup drive during capture, which offers good insurance. For me, the following steps outline the safest way to plug in, regardless of what software you are using:

71

1. With the camera power off, connect the cable to the camera first, and then to your computer.

2. Turn the camera on. 3. Turn the capture software program on. I believe this is the best way to protect the camera, as well as have the software recognize the computer and establish a connection.

Canon software Canon has a number of software programs that are freely available to any Canon user. The two main programs that I use are EOS Utility and DPP, or Digital Photo Professional. EOS Utility 2.5.1 is Canon’s current method for establishing a connection between a Canon camera that shoots tethered and a computer, whether Mac or Windows-based. As of this writing, the current version of DPP is 3.5.2. You can set EOS Utility and DPP to communicate with each other. Thus, if both programs are open and set to communicate, as you take each capture, the image appears first in EOS Utility and then in the DPP window. To set up this communication, follow these steps:

1. Open EOS Utility. This is the initial capture program.

2. In the EOS Utility main window, click the Preferences button located at the bottom-right corner. The EOS Utility Preferences window appears.

3. Click the drop-down menu where Basic Settings appears. This is located at the top of Preferences window shown in figure 4.3.

72 Part II ✦ System Components

4.2 The EOS Utility main window

4.3 The EOS Utility Preferences window

Chapter 4 ✦ Tethered Shooting 4. Scroll down the menu choices to Linked Software and click to select it. The options change.

5. Choose Digital Photo Professional as the software to link.

6. Select a Destination folder from the same menu you used earlier (located in the upper left corner). The options change.

7. Choose the folder you want to save images to, or create a new one, and then click OK.

4.4 The EOS Preferences Destination folder

73

8. Go back to the main EOS Utility window (figure 4.2), and click the Camera Settings, Remote Shooting option. You see the window change to a Camera Control window. From here, you can control f-stop, exposure mode, color temperature, file type, exposure compensation, and ISO — all the basic settings normally controlled by the camera. You can also activate Remote Live View shooting from here, as well as initiate an Intervolometer program for timed sequences. All in all, very cool!

74 Part II ✦ System Components 9. Take a test image. The image first appears on your camera’s rear LCD screen. Then it appears in an EOS Utility Quick Preview window. If DPP is not open yet, it opens itself, and the capture then appears in DPP. In DPP, you can control whether the Light Table view is active. This is where the image appears as a thumbnail as it arrives or is in the enlarged view where the image displays as big as you set the DPP window. A histogram is viewable on the side. Doubleclicking the image or pressing the 100 button on top of the image instantly takes you to 100 percent view to check focus.

installed. This also greatly increases buffer rate — how many images the camera can capture in one sequence while shooting in RAW and tethered modes.

If you don’t want the Quick Preview window to appear, click the Quick Preview button located at the bottom of the Camera Control window, second from the left.

This tethering system works very well, both on Windows as well as Macs that have System 10.5.6 or later installed. However, if you’re a Mac user working with Mac OS 10.5, you’ll notice one challenge early on. As mentioned previously, Canon chose to use USB 2.0 over FireWire as the way to connect the EOS-1Ds Mark III to a computer. This might be the right move in the long run, but at the moment, Apple USB drivers are relatively slow. Thus, if you capture with a Windows machine or Mac’s latest OS, a RAW file appears in two seconds or so, while even on a fast Mac, the timing for RAW capture and display is closer to five seconds on System 10.5. However, I have two nifty workarounds for this (which are explained in the following sections) that allow rapid capture and display using Macs, at least Macs with Leopard 4.5 The EOS Utility Camera Control window

Chapter 4 ✦ Tethered Shooting

Improving USB Capture Rate with Macintosh Systems There are two methods that I’m aware of for improving capture speed while using Macs with USB tethering, as the EOS-1Ds Mark III requires. But first, you should consider your computer.

Computer hardware and capture speed Obviously, the faster the computer processing speed, the shorter the time from shutter release to image capture and preview. Capture speed is affected by several hardware issues:

✦ CPU. The CPU (central processing unit) speed and the number of CPUs are major contributors to speed. The Mac Intel machines of the past few years are fast, and each new generation tends to be faster than the last. My machine contains a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU set.

✦ Memory. Purchase as much memory as you can afford and your particular machine can accept.

✦ Hard drive speed. The speed of the hard drive affects how quickly it can write the processed image to disk. Current hard drive speeds range from 5200 rpm to 7400 rpm.

75

Sending only small JPEGs to the computer Here’s one way to shoot tethered and get very quick previews on the computer monitor using the EOS-1Ds Mark III tethered to EOS Utility and DPP on a recent-generation Apple computer. The EOS-1Ds Mark III allows you to record to both CF and SD cards at the same time. One option is to have both cards record all incoming images simultaneously, with each card set to whatever file size is desired. In this case, you’ll save to RAW on the CF card (card slot 1) and Small JPEG on the SD card (card slot 2). You’ll set up the camera to send only the small JPEGs to the computer while recording the RAWs in the camera. This way, capture speed is much faster due to the smaller file size being transferred, and RAW files can be downloaded later. Follow these steps:

1. Press the Function button until the card number and file size icons appear at the bottom-left of the rear LCD.

2. Use the Main Control dial to select each card slot (1 or 2) and the Quick Control dial to select the file size for that card. Choose RAW for slot 1 and JPEG Small for slot 2.

3. Press the Menu button and use the Main Control dial to navigate to Setup Menu 1.

4. Use the Quick Control dial and the Set button to choose Rec. separately.

76 Part II ✦ System Components 5. Use the Quick Control dial to move one item below the Record function to the Playback selection. This selection normally controls which card is played back on the rear view LCD screen. However, it also determines which image is sent through the tethering cable to the computer.

6. Choose card 2. In this case, card 1 is recording RAWs within the camera, while card 2 is recording to camera as well as sending the images it’s capturing to the tethered cable and the computer. And this is a good one. In EOS Utility, click the bottom-left button in the camera control window labeled Preferences, and then choose Remote Shooting. Once you do so, click to activate the Save also on camera’s memory card option. If you don’t do this, you’ll end up only with small JPEGs saved, as RAWs have been recording neither to the CF card nor to the computer!

7. Also in Setup Menu 1, you can set captured image rotation, with independent choices for how images are viewed in the rear LCD on the camera, and how they come into the computer and are viewed on the monitor. I prefer the second selection (the monitor icon only), which allows me to see images not rotated on the rear view camera LCD (thus as big as possible); however, images will auto-rotate during tethered shooting to whatever capture and viewing program you’re using.

Using Lightroom 2.0 for quick RAW tethering You can capture with EOS Utility in Windows and send the images to Adobe Lightroom 2, either on the Windows side or the Mac side. Steve Niedorf, one very smart pro, has figured out all the quirks and graciously allowed me to include this information in this book:

1. Start up the computer in Windows and install EOS Utilities. Install the most recent version of EOS Utilities.

2. Install MacDrive 7. In the MacDrive settings under Dualformat set drop-down menu select Show window files. (Otherwise, you will not be able to install Windows programs off discs.)

3. Install Lightroom in Windows if you don’t have it installed already.

4. Plug in the camera. Plug your camera into the USB port and turn it on.

5. Go to EOS Utilities. EOS Utilities may start on its own; if not, you need to start it.

6. Go to Preferences. Choose Preferences ➪ Basic Settings ➪ Show Camera settings.

7. Select the Auto power off option. 8. Create a Destination folder. Go to the Mac Desktop, and create a folder called watched.

9. Back on the Windows side, select Remote Shooting from EOS Utilities Preferences window.

Chapter 4 ✦ Tethered Shooting 10. Choose a filename. 11. Choose the image rotation. Choose Remote shooting, and then click Rotate image.

12. Open the Linked Software tab and choose None.

13. Take a test shot. When you are ready, take one test shot. The program creates a file with today’s date and sends the image to the watched folder. Go to that subfolder in the watched folder, and remove this test image.

14. Start Lightroom. Start Lightroom, and set the preferences for a default catalog to prompt you when starting up.

15. Set up a folder. Set up a folder on the Mac side with your job title, and put the LR catalog in that folder.

16. In Lightroom choose File ➪ AutoImport ➪ Enable. This sets Lightroom to auto import.

17. Choose File ➪ AutoImportSettings. 18. Choose the watched folder you created earlier in Step 8. This directs the program to the watched folder and the subfolder with today’s date.

19. Choose a destination. Go to the Destination Folder in EOS Utilities preferences and direct it to your job folder on the Mac side where it creates a folder there.

20. Take a test shot. Take a test shot; within three to six seconds, the file appears. Then go to Develop mode by clicking on the Develop tab in Lightroom.

77

21. Adjust the image the way you like it and then Choose Develop ➪ Set Default Settings. All of the ensuing images will be corrected. You are now ready. When I shoot people, I use the quick preview program with EOS; this pops up the current image in about two seconds. When I have more time or when testing, I use Lightroom to preview.

Troubleshooting in Tethering Environments This subject is worthy of a book in itself; however, here are some suggestions for troubleshooting workflows when tethering won’t work. Problems are only likely to happen when you’re on an actual job with money on the line. There are two areas of information to learn: general troubleshooting and specific information for tethering issues. Nothing beats having a knowledgeable digital technician on the job who knows the camera system, computer setup, and software being used. And it’s never a bad idea to check that they know your particular setup. Similarly, nothing beats your purchasing equipment from a knowledgeable camera dealer. You might pay a bit more for equipment than you will from an online discount site, but a dealer who knows their stuff can save the day in situations when equipment doesn’t work. I strongly recommend Capture Integration as one example; they are great people who know their stuff (www.captureintegration.com).


General troubleshooting These suggestions apply in all situations, and are a great place to start troubleshooting any computer-related problems you might be experiencing. Suggestions are based on my Mac experience, although I’m sure that many also apply in the PC-Windows world.

✦ Restart the capture program. Turn off the program and turn it back on; this is sometimes all you need to do.

✦ Log out. Quit all programs, log out and log back in to the Finder, and then turn the program back on.

✦ Restart the computer. ✦ Repair disk permissions. Using Disk Utility, which is normally found in Applications/Utilities, choose your main disk and click the Repair Disk Permissions button.

✦ Unfreeze your computer. If your computer freezes or stalls, follow these procedures:

• Press Ô+Option+Esc. This allows you to choose the programs from which you want to force quit.

• Press Ô+Ctrl+Power button to restart your computer.

• Press the Power button for ten seconds to force a shut down.

• Reset the PMU. If none of the previous three options work, one other option specifically for Mac portables is to reset the PMU, the System Management Controller. You can refer to the Apple Knowledge Base to find out how to do this for your specific machine.

✦ Use troubleshooting software. There are several good computer repair and troubleshooting programs available. One great troubleshooting assistant is AppleJack, which is available for free at http:// applejack.sourceforge.net/. I also like TechTool Pro very much.

Specific troubleshooting for tethering issues Some of the suggestions that follow could have been placed in the previous section; however, they have particular importance when encountering problems while shooting tethered, in my case, to Mac computers.

✦ Restart the software and camera. Turn off the camera and quit the program. Turn the camera back on, and then restart the program.

✦ Restart the computer. As mentioned previously, if restarting the software and camera doesn’t work, restart the computer as well.

✦ Switch cables. Switch your tethering cable for a new one.

✦ Disconnect the hardware. Disconnect any other hardware connected to the computer, including external drives and monitors. Making your system as simple as possible is a smart way to a faster diagnosis.

✦ Trash your Preferences file. Trash the Preferences file of your capture program and restart the program. On the Mac, the Preferences file is located in Users/Library/ Preferences. Normally it starts with “com.apple.” For example, the EOS Utility preferences are found in the

Chapter 4 ✦ Tethered Shooting file com.canon.EOS Utility 2.plist. Trashing Preferences can also solve problems with RAW processing and image-editing programs.

✦ Untether! Finally, remember that you can always untether and shoot to a card within the camera.

One final note It’s often the little things that count. One small but important weakness with tethering with the EOS-1Ds Mark I and Mark II was that the FireWire cable always fell out, as there was no good way to secure it. Some photographers tried gaffer taping it down, while others used rubber bands; a few products came out, but nothing really worked. With the release of the EOS-1Ds Mark III (as

79

well as the 1D Mark III), Canon came up with a smart and professional solution: a plastic piece that prevents the USB cable from slipping out, and a screw lock-down for this piece that screws into the Extension System Terminal, normally used for the wireless transmitter, WFT- ET(a). It’s appropriately called the USB Cable Protector. There’s even a place on top of the lockdown screw to temporarily screw in the protection cap that’s normally protecting the contacts inside the Extension Terminal. Beware, however: this tether cable lockdown is so effective that one needs to be extra careful that the cable itself is laid out in a way that no one will trip on it; if the cable is yanked, it will pull the whole camera down, as the cable does not release itself. Be careful!

4.6 The USB cable inserted but now locked in with the USB Cable Protector

5

Making Smart Lens Choices

U

tilizing the improved 21.1 megapixel sensor, the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III allows you to experience just how good, or not so good, various Canon lenses are. As has always been the case since the beginning of photography, the lens is as important an aspect of image quality as every other system component, if not more so. It’s never just about the sensor and processors, or film stock, for that matter. For photographers using the EOS-1Ds Mark III, it’s more important than ever to know which lenses work for you, as well as your clients, and to test them out before using them on a job or personal project.

Canon Lens System and Terminology Canon currently manufactures and markets 56 full frame lenses, including two EF extenders. EF is short for Electronic Focus and signifies any lens with autofocus that fits in the EF mount introduced by Canon in 1987. Of those lenses, 26 are L (for luxury) lenses, the professional line. Depending on their particular discipline, I’d guess that photographers typically own three or more lenses. I currently own six L lenses and three EF lenses, and am also considering three more Ls. It never ends, unless you do only one type of shot or framing, which occasionally happens. Certainly the more types of jobs you do, the more lenses you’ll find that you need.

Lens choices There are all sorts of reasons, of course, for choosing a particular lens, whether you are purchasing or renting. For example, what focal lengths do you need? How close or far will you be situated from the subject? What exposure levels will you be

C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter Canon lens system and terminology Prime versus zoom lenses L lenses versus standard lenses My ideal lens list Specialty lenses and accessories

✦

✦

✦

✦

82 Part II ✦ System Components shooting in? What’s the print size and reproduction quality of the final artwork? Not to mention what type of budget do you have to work with? (Not a minor consideration.) Some photographers, in particular photojournalists, prefer the Canon L zooms for the wider range of focal lengths with fewer lenses. A 16-35mm L zoom, 50mm L fast prime, and 70-200mm L zoom will cover most of their needs. Advertising photographers and others might choose prime lenses for the typically better optical performance and better handling, due to the lighter weight and smaller size of each lens. Some (like myself) find themselves in low-light environments at times, and also like the look of a shallow depth of field. For this group, lenses with extra large apertures are the key, and the L prime lens lineup is the way to go. For those photographing landscapes and architecture, wide lenses are typically most useful, as well as tilt-shift lenses, particularly for architecture, to help correct optical problems such as perspective distortion — the leaning building syndrome, also known as keystoning. Canon manufactures five tiltshifts: the 24 TS-E, the 45 TS-E, the 90 TS-E, and the recently introduced 17mm TS-E as well as the 24 TSE- II. Tilt-shift lenses also allow you to increase or decrease the focus a lens can achieve, and are used both ways. You’ll see examples further on.

5.1 Interior rotunda, 14mm f/2.8L II lens, ISO 200, 1/500 second at f/3.5

Refer to Chapter 11 to learn more about Canon’s tilt-shift lenses.

The relatively new Canon 14mm f/2.8L II lens is a great match-up for the EOS-1Ds Mark III — one of the best examples of lens and sensor working beautifully together to provide the range, sharpness, and color richness typically associated with medium and large formats. The lens is clean, lines up well, is small in size, and provides striking imagery, in my opinion.

5.2 Mall interior, 14mm f/2.8L II lens, ISO 400, 1/200 second at f/3.5

Chapter 5 ✦ Making Smart Lens Choices As with all super-wide lenses, you want to be as precise as possible in how you position the lens relative to the image field. Just a little pan or tilt makes a huge difference in terms of squaring up the shot, or being a bit off angle.

For those photographing sports, Canon’s professional telephotos, known as the “white lenses” are mostly where it’s at — super telephotos with exceptional image quality, image stabilization on most, and excellent operational speed. The L zooms are also handy in this field. As the EOS-1Ds Mark III sensor magnifies the qualities of any lens — both good and bad — I’m sure you know that it’s a neverending journey to discover just which lenses

83

work for you. In this chapter, I focus on Canon lenses, although other choices abound, such as Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, and Zeiss lenses with adaptors. In particular, I’ve been working with some newer lenses that work exceptionally well with the EOS1Ds Mark III: the 14mm f/2.8L III as I already mentioned, and the 200mm f/2.0L lens, a gorgeous piece of glass.

Lens terminology Canon has a long list of abbreviations to describe aspects of various lenses. It’s a good idea to learn these conventions, as they’re most helpful in quickly discovering some of what each lens has to offer. Here are a few of the most common abbreviations you should know:

5.3 Blimp in the clouds, 200mm f/2.0L lens, ISO 200, 1/1000 second at f/2.8, handheld

84 Part II ✦ System Components ✦ EF. Electronic Focus. You’ll find EF on all EOS lenses except for a few special ones such as the TS-E tilt-shift lenses, which only focus manually.

✦ FL. Fluorite elements. Fluorite elements are used in conjunction with Low Dispersion glass.

✦ UD. Ultra Low Dispersion glass. UD helps to minimize chromatic aberrations such as the purple fringing one occasionally encounters between dark and bright objects (for example, branches with a bright sky in the background).

✦ USM. Ultrasonic Motor. A more refined version of EF, it is faster and quieter, using ultrasonic vibration to induce motion that turns a rotor. USM lenses also allow you to manually focus while the camera is still in autofocus mode by rotating the focus ring.

✦ IS. Image Stabilization. A built-in image stabilizer allows you to take hand-held shots at slower shutter speeds that would be impossible without this feature. IS is particularly useful for still subjects, as objects in motion will blur at slower shutter speeds. Used in the long lenses, IS is available in other lenses as well. For example, the 24-105mm f/4.0L IS zoom lens includes image stabilization along with the second-generation 70-200mm, the 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS. Altogether, 11 Canon lenses currently utilize IS.

✦ DO. Diffractive Optics. Another Canon world’s first, diffractive optics reduce the size and weight of lenses without any quality loss. Currently available in the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DO IS USM lenses, as well as the EF 400mm f/4 DO IS USM lens. Now you know what all those letters mean!

✦ TS-E. Tilt Shift. The name for Canon’s three tilt-shift lenses that allow shifts for perspective corrections and tilts for focus corrections.

✦ APO. Apochromatic Optics. Optics that employ SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass as another method to correct chromatic aberrations, when various color wavelengths don’t line up properly with each other. This increases image resolution and decreases color fringing.

Prime versus Zoom Lenses Image quality in a lens, whether prime or zoom, is influenced by various factors. These include the following:

✦ Lens sharpness. This sharpness should not be just in the center, but in the corners as well. The image should also be sharp, not just when the lens is stopped down, but also when it’s wide open.

✦ Lens contrast. This refers to how rich and crisp the contrast range is. Often a factor here is internal flare, and normally the more optics, the greater the flare.

✦ Rectilinear versus lenses with distortion. This refers to how tight the geometries of the image are. All sorts of distortion fit into this area:

• Barrel distortion. The image seems to bulge out from the center.

• Pin cushion distortion. The image seems to pull away from the center, like the top of a pin cushion.

Chapter 5 ✦ Making Smart Lens Choices • Vignetting. There is darkening in the corners of the image, which often creates a nice effect, though not always wanted.

✦ Color rendition. Different lenses record color differently, some better than others.

✦ Build quality. How rugged the lens is determines how reliable it is. Is it weather-sealed? Can it take a bump or drop and keep shooting?

✦ Operational controls. How does the lens feel to operate? Is it responsive and quick? Is the zoom or focus ring pressure just right — not too loose and not too tight?

✦ Size and weight. Do the size and weight work for your hands? Does the camera balance well with the lens on it?

✦ Bokeh. Bokeh refers to the quality of the out-of-focus areas in the image. Normally the more aperture blades and the rounder the aperture opening, the more attractive the bokeh is, particularly in out-offocus highlights.

✦ Lens speed. This refers to how fast the lens is, that is, how wide the lens opens up. An example is whether the maximum aperture is an f/4 or f/1.4. This affects several things: of course, the wider the aperture, the lower light levels you can shoot in, the narrower the depth of field is, and the brighter the image is in the viewfinder. Depending on your style, you might never need or want “fast glass.” On the other hand, it could be the most important factor when you are choosing a lens.

85

The bottom line, of course, is how much you like the look the lens creates, and all these qualities come into play. Add it all up and you have what many photographers refer to as the “mojo” of a lens — that indefinable quality that makes a certain lens have a special and valued look; and it’s different with each lens. For some beloved lenses it’s the color quality, for other lenses it’s the quality of the transition from sharp to out-of-focus areas. Part of this quality can be described by studying the characteristics in the previous list, but there’s also an indefinable quality that certain lenses bring to the imagery.

Prime Lenses Following is information on a group of Canon prime lenses that I have found work very well with the Canon 1Ds Mark III. These are almost all Canon L lenses, and most of them have very wide apertures. The Canon tilt-shift lenses also possess special value when used with the 1Ds III, allowing optical corrections necessary for certain fields such as architecture and product photography. Everyone might have their favorite lens, but many would agree, in the Canon line, that the 85mm f/1.2L is one special lens. It’s very fast, very sharp, and normally has good contrast and wonderful color. Also due to the lens being able to shoot at such a wide aperture, images shot wide open or near to it tend to have extremely sharp focus that then transitions to out-of-focus areas very quickly. Thus the viewer’s eyes are drawn to the subject, and any distractions in the background all but disappear. Be aware, however, that it’s slow to focus, as there’s so much heavy glass to move. The 85mm f/1.2L II lens has improved focusing speed.


5.4 Summer and fall. 85mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/2000 second at f/2. I’d add the new 50mm f/1.2L to my choice of favorite Canon lenses. It just has that added bit of sharpness and richness that makes it special. It’s not that the 50mm

f/1.4L is not a good lens; it’s often fine, and has the advantage of being smaller, lighter, and cheaper. But shots with the 50mm f/1.2L lens have a quality that I can see and

Chapter 5 ✦ Making Smart Lens Choices

87

feel, where the imagery is richer and tighter. Like the 85mm f/1.2L lens, part of the quality of this lens has to do with the juxtaposition of how sharp the in-focus areas are compared to how soft the out-of-focus areas can go when shooting wide open. The lens also exhibits very good color renditions.

5.6 Poker, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 1600, 1/60 second at f/1.2

5.5 Lake girl. 85mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 640, 1/400 second at f/1.2. The 50mm f/1.4L is a good lens as well, and offered me detailed images in low light before I owned the 50mm 1.2L lens. However I’ve never been a big fan of this lens — it’s not great wide open, and the build is not on a level with other L lenses. This is my opinion only, of course.

5.7 Brushes, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 800, 1/60 second at f/2.5


5.8 Fire eater, 50mm f/1.4L lens, ISO 1600, 1/100 second at f/1.4 I’d include the 35mm f/1.4L as another favorite lens. Very sharp wide open, it’s my main lens in low-light reportage shooting. Using this lens wide open and shooting at ISO 1600 or 3200, you start to obtain imagery that’s special. Particularly if you process through the latest version of Capture One image detail and noise reduction are easily controlled.

As you can tell, I’m a big fan of Canon’s fast L primes. I shoot with the 135mm f/2L, which is also a special lens. I don’t own the 24mm f/1.4L lens, but I’ve heard good things about it. And now there is also the 24mm f/1.4L II lens, with promised improvements in optical quality.


89

5.9 San Francisco dawn, 35mm f/1.4L lens, ISO 320, 1/250 second at f/2.0, 1Ds III

5.10 Four favorite L lenses: 14mm f/2.8L, 35mm f/1.4L, 50mm f/1.2L, and 85mm f/1.2L


Tilt-shift lenses I’ll go into the shift lenses more in Chapter 11, but for starters, the 90mm f/4 TS-E is the sharpest of the bunch, razor sharp. Keep in mind that these lenses only focus manually. The 24mm TS-E has a reputation for not being the sharpest lens in the L group, but so far,

my experience is that it’s very good — perhaps because it’s wide angle, and photographers using manual focus often don’t get the focus right. With the EOS-1Ds Mark III, it’s now easy to achieve perfect focus with this lens by using the Live View function and zooming in on the image in the Menu window to see the shot magnified.

5.11 Thin man and fat lady. 24mm TS-E lens, ISO 200, 1/1600 second at f/3.5.

Chapter 5 ✦ Making Smart Lens Choices I was also happily surprised at just how good the imagery was with the 24mm TS-E on non-architectural or landscape images. Keep in mind the 24 TS-E II lens that should be available by the time this book is published is supposed to be better optically than its predecessor. I was very impressed how much incredible detail the 24mm TS-E lens could pick up when taking a photograph of this very small street cover in figure 5.12.

5.12 Close up, small street cover. 24mm TS-E lens, ISO 500, 1/500 second at f/3.5.

91

The 45mm TS-E is very interesting as an alternative normal focal-length lens, as is the 90mm TS-E for portrait lenses. Although originally designed (one would think) to add focus and correct optical problems, I value these two lenses for their ability to direct the viewer’s eye to the desired part of the frame by taking the rest of the frame out of focus. Yes, you can do this in post-production, use a Lens Baby, and so forth, but it’s not the same. It’s a special look.

5.13 Portrait using a 90mm TS-E to narrow focus


5.14 The Canon tilt-shift lenses, left to right: 24mm, 90mm, and 45mm

Zoom lenses In terms of the zooms, I’d recommend using only the L zooms when working with the EOS1Ds Mark III. There are just too many optical problems with the non-L zooms that will manifest when captured by the big sensor. Although the L zooms are inherently slower than the L primes most of the time, some of them are very good indeed. You’ll find photographers disagreeing about which zooms are better or worse, and some of those discussions actually concern whether the lens being referred to is a good sample as well as properly calibrated. Some of the most used zoom lenses are:

✦ 16-35mm f/2.8L II. Redesigned recently and improved, this is a great focal-length range for documentary, in-the-street shooting. Some folks love the full range, although I’ve never liked the look of the lens at 16mm — but it’s there when you need it. My friend

and fellow photographer Jon Roemer tells me the lens is very strong from 20-35mm.

✦ 17-40mm f/4.0L. This lens is just a bit more telephoto, and less expensive than the 16-35mm (as of this writing, the street price is approximately one half of the 16-35mm.) The 17-40mm is a stop slower, however, although with better lowlight high-ISO camera performance, it’s a lens worth checking out. Pros I know like this as a walk-around lens, but don’t consider its quality to be on par with the L primes.

✦ 24-70mm f/2.8L. I use this lens often for reportage, and it’s very good. Perhaps I lucked out with a good sample, but I can say that with my 24-70mm L lens, even wide-open images usually look good. It’s not as perfect as a prime lens, but offers very solid imagery; looking at an image captured with the 24-70mm, you don’t think it’s a zoom lens image, just a strong image.

Chapter 5 ✦ Making Smart Lens Choices ✦ 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS. The workhorse of many professionals, this is a highly respected lens. Imagery is detailed, and colorful with good contrast. It’s never been my cup of tea, although I can’t tell you why, other than for my work, if I want a zoom, it’s usually a wider one, or I’m shooting with longer primes.

93

✦ 70-200mm f/4L. There are two versions: with and without image stabilization. I haven’t used it, and so I can’t comment on quality, but many photographers like this lens — particularly if they need a 70-200mm lens in their kit but it’s not their main lens. It’s both less expensive and smaller than the 70-200mm f/2.8L lenses.

5.15 The boys. Taken in a studio setting. 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, ISO 125, 1/125 second at f/9.


5.16 The girls. Taken with available light. 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, ISO 200, 1/40 second at f/2.8.

L Lenses versus Standard Lenses This will be a short section. Many of the standard primes are fine, although I generally don’t trust them for professional jobs and try to avoid them, with a few exceptions. Most of the primes are pretty good, however, and fine for backup and other uses.

Here are some issues to consider when working with Canon’s non-L lenses:

✦ Build quality. Most of the standard primes are built out of cheaper plastic materials and won’t hold up in the field as well as the L primes. All L lenses have better weather sealing, keeping out both dust and moisture that can work their way into the standard lenses.

Chapter 5 ✦ Making Smart Lens Choices ✦ Wide open. I don’t really get decent results shooting wide open with the standard primes. Stopped down a stop, they all tend to perform much better.

✦ No USM. A number of the standard primes don’t have USM focusing, which means, among other things, that I can’t have the lens focus and then tweak the focus with the focus barrel. I have to switch to manual focus to be able to manually focus.

✦ Internal flare. The standard lenses tend to have less antireflective coatings and thus more internal flare shows up, creating a milky effect in the image.

✦ Slower speed. The non-L lenses use smaller apertures and are thus not as useful in low-light situations.

95

✦ Non-L zooms. These lenses are not my cup of tea, from my limited experience. Most of them have a variable widest aperture, which closes down as you zoom in. In many cases, they might be fine, but the combination of slower speed, weaker build quality, and weaker optics, tells me that these lenses are not a good match to the EOS-1Ds Mark III.

My Ideal Lens List Everyone will have their own list of ideal lenses for use with their EOS-1Ds Mark III and their style of shooting. For me, the following list contains what I like (and most of what I own). Notice that the 70-200mm and 16-35mm zoom lenses are not included, which is not a critique of them — they just don’t fit into my style normally, and I rent if I need them for a particular assignment.

5.17 Size comparison of 50mm f/1.2L, 85mm f/1.2L, and 24-70mm f/2.8L lenses

96 Part II ✦ System Components ✦ 14mm f/2.8L II. This is well built, is strong optically with a rectilinear 114-degree field of view, and is small in size. As mentioned, this is a superb lens when you need the super-wide shot, such as architectural images, whether interiors or exteriors.

✦ 24mm f/1.4L. A fast and sharp wide lens that is great for groups of people at low-light events.

✦ 24-70mm f/2.8L. As noted, mine works very well and could be the one single lens I would choose — if I had to make a choice. Some folks swear by the older 28-70mm L as having improved image quality.

✦ 24mm TS-E. Always keep this lens in mind when shooting architecture or landscapes, if not to purchase, then to rent.

✦ 35mm f/1.4L. Another main lens, tack sharp as noted, great in low light, not too wide for environmental portraiture, yet wide enough to cover many situations.

✦ 45mm TS-E. This lens gives you a lot of creative control, a bit like a mini-view camera.

✦ 50mm f/1.2L. This lens offers better detail, contrast, and color than the 50mm f/1.4; it just feels right on the 1Ds III and can take advantage of the full range of detail coming off the 1Ds III sensor.

✦ 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro. For the occasional macro or detail shot, this lens works well for me. I’d use other Canon macros, however, for a full-on macro assignment. Beware of flare on this lens.

✦ 85mm f/1.2L. This lens is great for portraits, low-light, and rich color. Don’t leave home without it.

✦ 135mm f/2.0L. I find this is the longest lens I normally need. I can also add the 1.4L II Extender to have a 200mm f/2.8 lens. It’s very sharp, and offers rich color.

✦ 200mm f/2.0L. This lens is too good not to covet. In a class by itself, it is closest to the rest of the super-telephoto white lenses. The lens is the same height as the 70-200mm, but is quite a bit wider and heavier. Adding an EF 1.4x II extender, it becomes a relatively small, and very good, 280mm f/2.8 lens. It offers great detail, very strong internal flare control, and is super bright in the viewfinder; it’s a lens you’ll be both glad and sorry you’ve checked out — with a price tag over $5,000, it’s hard to justify unless you shoot telephoto all the time. If you don’t purchase one, see if you can rent one in your area, when called for. Here you’ll find a brief test that I performed comparing the 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS at 200mm with the 200mm f/2.8L lens. It was a bit of a hazy day — not perfect testing conditions. That said, I found that all the setups did well. The 70-200mm is actually a bit wider at 200mm than the 200mm f/2.8L lens, which was a surprise. There was also a bit of vignetting, with image quality perhaps 80 percent there, compared to the 200mm f/2.8 L lens. Perhaps not noticeable in offset printing, but certainly on the screen or in a large artisan print, the 200mm f/2.0 L lens wins at its one focal length. I was also very impressed with the 200mm lens with EF 1.4x II extender. It offered very good-looking imagery, although I’m sure if I looked closely at the pixels, I could find degradation somewhere. To my eye, the imagery looked fantastic. This lens costs a lot of money, but it’s definitely worth it.


5.18 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS and 200mm f/2.8L with lens hoods attached; these lenses are of similar heights, but the 200mm f/2.0L is much wider and heavier.

5.19 A detail from the 200mm f/2.0L image

97


5.20 A detail from the 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS image

5.21 Downtown. 200mm f/2.0L with an EF 1.4x II extender.


99

The Controls of the 200mm f/2.0L Telephoto Lens The Canon professional telephoto lenses have a very well-thought-out operating system, designed for operational speed, along with other enhancements, all geared towards obtaining sharp images. Some of the controls are so well designed that you wouldn’t know they were there unless someone told you. Here’s how they work:

✦ AF-MF switch. Allows you to choose auto focus or manual focus. ✦ Distance Range. Allows you to choose the range of focus — either full range (1.9m to ∞) or a shortened range that takes out the closest distances, which keeps the lens from traveling its entire focus range when it is searching for a target to focus on.

✦ Stabilizer mode. Allows you to choose from two modes: 1 is for general shooting, mostly handheld, while 2 is for panning shots where all your movement is left-to-right and not up and down.

✦ Focus preset. Allows you to preset a particular distance and return to it instantly. For example, if you’re covering a baseball game and your main shot is the pitcher, you could preset that focus to immediately return to it if you refocus on something else.

✦ Set. Allows you to lock in the Focus preset by pressing the Set button. Instantly recall that focus by turning the serrated ring located just in front of the manual focus barrel. AF Stop button Serrated ring

AF Stop button

Continued

100 Part II ✦ System Components Continued

✦ AF Stop buttons. The four buttons located around the front black ring of the lens are the AF Stop buttons. They were originally designed to stop AF focus and instantly lock the focus as if you were in One-shot mode. If someone stops, or the lens is being fooled by people running past in the foreground, you can tell the lens to stop searching. The buttons are placed where your left hand will naturally be, in various positions (or right hand if you’re a lefty). And with the addition of the EOS-1D and 1Ds Mark III series, you can choose what the buttons can do for you with a select group of Image Stabilizer super-telephotos, including the 200mm f/2.0L. These choices can all be found in Custom Function menu III-6, as follows:

✦ C.Fn.III-6-0. Lens AF Stop Button Function. This is the default and traditional setting. Autofocus is suspended when the button is pressed, and resumes when the button is released.

✦ C.Fn.III-6-1. AF Start. AF operates only when the button is pressed. ✦ C.Fn.III-6-2. AE Lock. If the AF stop button is pressed while exposure metering is active, AE lock takes effect in AE. As a result, the button helps to control exposure.

✦ C.Fn.III-6-3. AF Point. If the camera is set for manual focus point selection, pressing one of the Stop buttons instantly switches it to autofocus point selection.

✦ C.Fn.III-6-4. One Shot: AI Servo If the camera is set for one-shot AF, pressing one of the buttons temporarily switches it to AI Servo AF mode.

✦ C.Fn.III-6-5. IS Start. If IS is on, the lens image stabilizer only operates when one of the Set buttons is pressed.

✦ C.Fn.III-6-6. Switch to Registered AF Point. In this final selection, pressing one of the Set buttons selects a previously registered focusing point.

Specialty Lenses and Accessories These accessories allow you to get closer to the subject, either by increasing the focal length or extending minimum focus. Thus you can have any one lens act as three: in its normal mode, as a closer macro type lens using extension tubes, and as a longer lens than it normally is by using and EF extender.

EF extenders Placed on the rear of the lens, extenders increase the focal length at the loss of exposure. Optical quality of the current extenders is very good. Canon manufactures two extenders: the EF 1.4x II Extender and the 2x II Extender. As the name implies, the 1.4x Extender magnifies the focal length 1.4 times at the expense of one stop exposure. Thus, the 200mm f/2.0 lens becomes a 280mm f/2.8 lens. The EF 2x II Extender doubles the focal length, but at the loss of two stops.

Chapter 5 ✦ Making Smart Lens Choices The extenders are designed to work with a specific group of lenses only. These include any fixed focal length lens over 135mm (other than the 135mm soft focus lens), as well as the 70-200mm L series of lenses, and the 100-400mm IS zoom lens.

Extension tubes Extension tubes allow you to focus closer than minimal focus allows, and are often used for macro photography as well as tight portraits. Canon makes two extension tubes: the Canon Extension Tube EF 25 II, and the Canon Extension Tube 12 II. The 12 II is the more useful for me, while the 25 II focuses closer. Kenko also manufactures extension tubes for Canon and is less expensive. No optics are used in extension tubes — all they do is lengthen the distance from the back of the lens to the sensor. No exposure compensation is necessary as it is automatically read by the camera’s metering system.

101

Macro lenses Canon manufactures four macro lenses: the 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro, the 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro, the 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM, and the Macro Photo MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Manual Focus lens. Tamron and Sigma also manufacture macro lenses for the Canon EOS system. I carry the 50mm Compact Macro with me; it’s an inexpensive and decent-quality lens, though watch out for flare, particularly in backlit situations. For the occasional macro shot, it works well for me.

The 25 II is recommended for focal lengths of 50mm and longer. The 12 II is compatible will all lenses except the 15mm fisheye, the 14mm f/2.8L, and the MP-65mm f/2.8 macro lens (a manual focus macro lens that can fill a 35mm frame with a grain of rice). If you need it, there it is.

5.22 Happy child. ISO 640, 35mm f/1.4L, 1/30 second at f/1.4.

Working with Canon Speedlites

6

C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter

T

his chapter is the most relevant for those photographers who shoot on location and hand-held. Not that you couldn’t use the information that follows for a studio setup or location tripod shoot — the Canon Speedlite system is quite versatile, and includes infrared line-of-sight wireless technology that allows multiple Speedlites to be used simultaneously. That stated, my focus here is for those advertising, lifestyle, and event photographers whose work involves capturing elusive and compelling moments in the best light possible. This includes both knowing how to find the most attractive available light, of course, and also how to take advantage of an onboard or wireless strobe to best complement the location lighting that exists. Much of this information would apply to non-Canon flashes as well, but I’ll be focusing on Canon’s Speedlites.

Canon Speedlites The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and Canon Speedlites make for a happy combination, due to better results at high ISOs and improved communication between camera and Speedlites. Although there are five different Speedlites, I’ll be looking at the two main units used for general-purpose professional use: the 580EX II and the 430EX II (as well as the 430EX). Both of these units are quite capable, each with different advantages and disadvantages.

Canon Speedlites Exposing with Speedlites Add-On modifiers for Speedlites Using Speedlites in various lighting situations Remote triggering with Speedlites

✦

✦

✦

✦


6.1 Getting Ready. ISO 640, f/1.4, 35mm 1.4L lens, 430EX Speedlite. Aside from the 580EX II and the 430EX II that will be detailed, the other Speedlites are:

✦ 220EX. Small and non-swiveling, this Speedlite is designed for automatic operation only, on-camera.

✦ Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX. Designed for macro work, the unit consists of a controller that mounts on top of the camera in the hot shoe, and two mini-flashes that are mounted on a ring that attaches to the front of the lens and can be adjusted to any position around the ring.

Chapter 6 ✦ Working with Canon Speedlites ✦ Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX. Canon’s other macro light solution, this is a circular lighting ring that mounts in front of the lens, with the controller once again mounted on the hot shoe. It’s E-TTL controllable (E-TTL is explained later in the chapter). Although it is a ring flash, this unit is not suitable for fashion or advertising ring-light work— it’s just too small to match the quality of the larger, commercial ring flashes.

There are two other components to the Speedlite system, each allowing the flash to be used off camera. They are:

✦ Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2. Mounted on the camera, this little unit can control from one to three

105

sets of Speedlites, each set containing multiple Speedlites. It works with the 580 and 430 series Speedlites, as well as some of the older models, such as the 550EX.

✦ Canon off-camera shoe cord OC-E3. This cord allows you to connect the 1Ds Mark III and a single flash to each other, allowing use of the flash off of and away from the hot shoe. This is useful when you’re looking for more dramatic lighting angles, bouncing off side walls, and so on. Finally, along with other manufacturers, Canon offers an external battery back to enable more captures without changing batteries. This is the Compact Battery Pack

6.2 The ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter on top and the OC-E3 off-camera shoe cord below it.

106 Part II ✦ System Components CP-E4. The battery pack is worn on the waist, containing eight AA lithium, alkaline, or rechargeable NiCd or NiMH batteries. It works with the 580/550/540 series Speedlites, but it does not work with the 430 series. You can access information on the Canon Speedlites through any of the global Canon Web sites.

580EX II The largest and most capable of the Speedlite line, the 580EX II includes improved dust and water resistance, particularly combined with the EOS-1D/1Ds Mark III. It has a noticeably improved build and feel over the original 580 EX, including the quick-lock setup for attaching the flash to the camera’s hot shoe. Many of the functions of the 580EX II can be set and controlled either from the camera or the flash. On the camera you can make the selections under Selection Menu 2, the External Speedlite Control menu These choices include the following:

✦ Flash Mode. This allows you to choose between E-TTL II metering and the Manual setting.

✦ Shutter Sync. This allows you to choose first curtain or second curtain shutter sync.

✦ FEB. Flash Exposure Bracketing allows you to set up your range and shoot in sequence.

✦ E-TTL II. This allows you to choose between evaluative or average metering.

✦ Flash Firing. This allows you to enable or disable flash firing. With flash firing turned off, the camera will still make use of the low-light focus assist beam, if chosen.

✦ Wireless Transmission and Reception. The 580EX II can work as either a controller or slave in controlling multiple flashes. For example, with a 580EX II on the camera, you can wirelessly control from one to three individual or groups of 580 or 430 series Speedlites, as well as some earlier generation models, to create multiple strobe setups, all controlled from the Speedlite mounted on the camera. Among many good points, the 580EX II includes a retractable catchlight panel; this is similar to attaching a white card to the back of the flash when pointed up, a common technique that helps to add a bit of fill light, or create a catchlight in the subject’s eyes. The unit also includes a built-in wide panel that extends the wide-angle flash coverage from 24mm to 14mm. The 580EX II, along with the EOS-1Ds Mark III, can operate in high-speed sync mode, allowing you to record images beyond the maximum sync speed of 1/250th second. (The 430 EX II and the 430 EX can do this as well.) This is particularly useful when shooting portraits in aperture priority mode, or other instances when you want to have a wide aperture to soften the background, and thus you’ll have a shorter shutter speed to contend with. Unique to the 580EX II is an external automatic flash exposure sensor, located at the bottom front of the unit, above the hot shoe and within the red plastic auto assist light area. This sensor falls in the category of everything old is new again in that it operates without the use of E-TTL or any other exposure information coming from the camera, similar to how automatic flashes used to control themselves.

Chapter 6 ✦ Working with Canon Speedlites

107

6.3 The 580EX II and 430EX with Velcro attached. Notice the various sizes. Though not as accurate as E-TTL normally is (and thus all the work to develop E-TTL II), sometimes a flash that reads the light all by itself does a better job. It doesn’t care what lens is on or how E-TTL is set, it just does what it does. This sensor has a 20-degree angle, and so is fairly tightly controlled. It is not as good for mixing ambient and flash light as E-TTL; nevertheless, the Automatic Sensor is a useful and much-asked-for addition to the Speedlite series. Every photographer should test it against the normal E-TTL exposure methods to determine which methods work best for in particular circumstances. As of this writing, you can find a full description of how to implement the automatic flash exposure sensor at the Canon Web site.

430EX II and 430EX A bit less powerful than the 580EX II, the 430EX II and 430EX are considerably smaller and lighter than the 580EX II. Due to its less obtrusive profile and lighter weight, I prefer the 430EX II Speedlite for most of my work. While very similar, the 430EX II has some noticeable improvements over the 430EX:

✦ Better build quality. It now has a metal foot, one-touch, quick-lock mechanism like the 580EX II.

✦ Faster recycling. It offers 20percent faster recycling than the 430EX.

✦ Full flash control on camera. The 430EX allows only partial flash control from the camera, while the 430EX II now allows full control like the 580EX II.

108 Part II ✦ System Components Both the 430EX and the 430EX II are excellent Speedlites, and both are still available with a $50 price difference between them. One point to keep in mind with either of the 430 units is that in wireless mode, they can only function as a slave — they do not transmit, so can’t work as a controller. If you want to use wireless Speedlite setups, you’ll either need a 580EX (or 550EX) unit or the ST-E2 wireless transmitter. To get an idea of the lighting effect before shooting with either flash, press and hold the Depth of Field button on the camera. The camera quickly strobes for one second, allowing you to preview what the strobe quality will be, including its directionality and so forth.

Exposing with Speedlites Here’s how I approach exposure using Speedlites or other Canon-compatible flash units, along with explanations of some of Canon’s technology as it relates to Speedlites. There are many techniques for exposure control with Speedlites and the Canon 1Ds Mark III; figure 6.4 shows just one of many examples.

Exposure considerations with a Speedlite For all I know, everyone might have a different approach to exposure with flash. So much depends on the images you’re going

for and what matters to you. If you don’t care about the background going dark in interiors, things get quite a bit easier, and you can flash away. If you want to capture the existing lighting ambience of a location as well as provide the level and quality of light you want for your main subject, the technique becomes a bit more involved. My own goal with Speedlites is to use an interior location’s ambient light for exposure, and to use flash to embellish what available light is there. Of course, this is dependent on what ISO you are willing to shoot at, and how fast your lenses are, among other things. For interiors, I’m strongly biased towards the L primes, so that I can pull in as much ambience as possible, utilizing wide apertures before I add in the flash, but only if enough light is there, and it’s attractive. I’ll often remain on Aperture Priority and use the flash for catchlight and frontal fill only, adjusting the flash exposure normally somewhere between –2EV and 0EV. I utilize a second approach as well. The previous technique is all well and good if you are able to obtain the necessary shutter speed and aperture that you want. However, all subtle and smart ideas will be ruined if your image is out of focus due either to lack of depth of field or the shutter speed being too slow. Often for me, these core settings might be 1/80 second and f/2.5, regardless of how fast my lens is. Of course, this depends on the shot and the moment; for example, is the subject still or moving? Is it a single person or a two shot? All these factors impact decisions of ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed, needed depth of field, and so on.

Chapter 6 ✦ Working with Canon Speedlites In those cases where I can’t obtain the aperture and shutter speed I need, I switch over to manual exposure on the camera and set the aperture and shutter speed to what I consider to be technically acceptable in the particular shot or sequence. At that point, the Speedlite takes exposure precedence

109

over ambient light — I’d rather lose the background than have an unusable, out-of-focus image. In these cases, I usually set exposure compensation from 0 to +1. Of course, this all depends on the particular situation, the modifiers on the flash, and the look I’m going for.

6.4 Shutter Priority with the 430EX as fill flash, using Lightsphere. ISO 400, 50mm 1.2L lens, 1/125 second at f/1.8.


6.5 Manual mode, 430EX Speedlite, ISO 1600, 35mm 1.4L lens, 1/125 second at f/2.0.

E-TTL II E-TTL stands for Evaluative Through the Lens, and it refers to Canon’s technology of emitting a very brief preflash that the camera’s computer reads after the light has passed through the lens, at which point the Speedlite is adjusted in order to obtain more accurate exposures. E-TTL II, Canon’s current flash evaluation system, is quite a bit different from E-TTL, the initial EOS system for evaluating flash exposure. E-TTL made its exposure determination based on the chosen focus point. However, people would often focus and recompose, and this would interfere with E-TTL being able to provide an accurate reading. A preflash was taken at the time of the shutter release being pressed halfway to lock focus, not at the actual moment of the picture being taken.

E-TTL II changes all that. It does not take any focus points into account. Rather, when the Shutter button is pressed, a very brief flash exposure is first taken and evaluated, and then the shutter is released and the correct flash power fires. In my own experience, it’s quite accurate most of the time.

FEL E-TTL II is normally so good, particularly in evaluative mode, that you might not need FEL (flash exposure lock) as much as you’d think. But when flash exposure doesn’t seem to be getting it right, you can always press the FEL button, which takes a preflash and locks in the exposure. Do keep in mind, however, that E-TTL II takes an instant preflash as well when the shutter is released. As a result, you only have an advantage if, for example, you zoom or move in to a subject, press FEL, and then zoom out or move

Chapter 6 ✦ Working with Canon Speedlites back to your wide composition. Consider a bride dressed in white surrounded by people dressed in black. In a wide shot there will probably be too much dark information, even for E-TTL II Evaluative to figure it out, and the white wedding dress would be overexposed. This is a case where moving in, pressing FEL, and moving back out should obtain a better exposure. Do keep in mind that E-TTL II tends to use a lower exposure setting than E-TTL would to avoid over-exposure of highlights in the frame.

Manual exposure I always use manual exposure, of course, when working with studio strobes and setup shots. As mentioned, I also use manual exposure while doing reportage when I need to set the aperture and shutter speed to values of workable tolerance. In the case with Speedlites, the flash is being told how much exposure to provide to properly illuminate the subject with the chosen f-stop and shutter speed while in manual mode.

Add-On Modifiers for Speedlites There are a vast array of modifiers out on the market that offer ways to adjust a Speedlite’s light quality, most often to make a more attractive and less harsh lighting effect by softening up and spreading the light. Here are a few that I use and recommend, based on the circumstances of a particular shoot. You can also find accessories whose job is to limit the light spread, when light is spilling to where you don’t want it. One place to look is www.honlphoto.com.

111

Gary Fong Lightsphere The Lightsphere is a translucent unit with a detachable dome that fits onto the front of the Speedlite. It comes in several versions and sizes for various cameras (www.gary fong.com). I currently use the Lightsphere II. Normally you point the Speedlite straight up with the Lightsphere attached. The concave dome can be attached to the Lightsphere and is most often used in rooms with low ceilings, as it spreads the beam. The Lightsphere works by spreading light. There are vertical ridges along the side of the Lightsphere that resemble antique halophane lamps and work the same way in terms of spreading light. As the flash is fired, these ridges capture the light and radiate it 360 degrees. Meanwhile, the light also continues upwards, either directly to the ceiling (without the dome) or through the dome to the ceiling. The dome also bounces light back down and out through the sides. In the right situations, this unit works wonderfully, providing soft illumination both outwards and upwards, giving the look of several lights. However, keep in mind ceiling and wall colors; the unit works best in rooms with light, neutral-colored walls and ceilings. Obviously in a room with green walls and maroon ceilings, you’ll find a different effect, and not necessarily a pleasing one. The Lightsphere is less efficient outdoors as there are fewer surfaces to bounce off of. You can always point it forward so that it acts more like direct flash with diffusion in front.

Big Bounce For interiors with dark or colored walls and ceilings, I prefer using a Lumiquest Big Bounce or similar reflector (www.lumiquest. com). When there’s nothing to bounce off of, the Lightsphere can look a bit harsh —


6.6 430EX with Big Bounce, 580EX II with Lightsphere II, and Sto-Fen in between after all, it’s a small light source. Lumiquest makes a number of reflectors that mount on top of flashes and work with the flash pointing up. What I like about the Big Bounce is that it’s bigger as well as using a doublebounce technique, where the light hits the solid white reflector and then travels through diffusion material.

Sto-Fen modifier Sto-Fen makes the ubiquitous small, white, block-shaped translucent box that slides over the top of Speedlites and other portable flashes. You’ll most often see the Speedlite pointing upward at a 45-degree angle. The light qualtiy emitted by the StoFen modifier lies between direct flash and softer as well as bigger modifiers; it aims light at the subject as well as in all

directions. A big advantage of the Sto-Fen is its small size, which makes it easy to carry around and pack up.

Portable ring lights New to the game are two portable ring lights that are large enough to have a flattering fashion look. Both of these units attach to the front of the flash and use no power of their own. They are:

✦ Ray Flash. This unit has a rightangle connection that slips over the flash head and then connects to the ring flash, which is using the light from the strobe itself. The ring flash is then situated to fit around the lens. You have to order the proper model for your particular flash.

Chapter 6 ✦ Working with Canon Speedlites ✦ Orbis Ring Flash. This unit is a one size fits all. It has a larger and softer ring flash; however, the flash can’t operate mounted to the camera — it either has to be stand mounted or the strobe/ring flash combination needs to be held with one hand while the camera is held with the other. I often use studio ring flashes; however, I have no personal experience using these two new products. I’ve seen promotional shots that claim to be taken with them, and they look quite nice — good enough to think about using.

113

pay is that, when shooting handheld and holding both the camera as well as the Speedlite, your left hand is now holding the Speedlite, and so operating the camera now becomes a one-hand operation. It does take some practice, but it offers many instant lighting opportunities, particularly in rooms with good bounce surfaces, such as white walls and ceilings, and warm wood floors. Of course, there is always the option to mount the Speedlite on a stand and the camera on a tripod while we’re at it. This is an option often not appropriate while doing reportagetype work where you’re following the action as it unfolds. But for portraits and other occasions where the pace can be controlled by the photographer, it’s a great way to go.

Off-camera setups With the Canon EOS Speedlites, there are two ways to shoot off-camera: wired or wireless. There is the OC-E3 off-camera shoe cord, the ST-E2 wireless transmitter, and the 580EX II when used as a transmitter as well as a flash.

Using Speedlites in Various Lighting Situations

In all cases, the idea is to create options for placing the flash somewhere other than directly above the camera in the hot shoe. Some folks prefer using Stroboframe brackets that allow the flash to mount in two positions that are easily switched: higher above the camera than normal, or off to the side. In either situation, you have light that is less flat and offers more light-modeling possibilities. When the flash is the main source of illumination, this becomes more valuable and important. When the flash is operating as fill light to available light ambience, this is less of an issue; in fact, the flash being near the lens is usually what you want if you are using any light as a fill source.

Speedlites are of value in most shooting situations, although various approaches are needed in each situation. With the wide latitude of the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III’s sensor, the first question to ask is whether the flash is actually needed.

The ST-E2 wireless transmitter offers more freedom than the OC-E3 cable, even if you are using just a single flash. The price you

Daylight A workable exposure level will almost always be there in daylight, you don’t need a Speedlite for exposure. The issue is more one of controlling contrast as well as achieving the look you want. Oftentimes this can be done without using your Speedlite by choosing your camera angle carefully to make the best aesthetic use of the available light, and other times, if an assistant is there, by holding a flex-fill or other reflector to bounce light back toward the face. I’m

114 Part II ✦ System Components always looking for the best light and seeing if using the Speedlite is, in fact, the most appropriate way to light the subject. Always look for where white light might be bouncing; sunlight hitting a white building that’s off frame might provide better fill than anything lighting equipment on site could do.

In general, I work with the Lightsphere II and inverted dome both outside and in as my main modifier, outside either pointed up for a softer fill or pointed forward if I need more impact. The other modifiers would work as well; this just happens to be what works best for me in most situations.

6.7 430EX, ISO 200, Highlight Priority, 24-70mm 2.8L lens, 1/640 second at f/2.8

Chapter 6 ✦ Working with Canon Speedlites

Low light The EOS-1Ds Mark III has opened up possibilities of photographing with professional results in low light that were previously unavailable. This is particularly true when you combine using your Speedlite with the Canon L-series primes, and shoot toward the wide end of the aperture.

115

In low light, there are several questions that you need to ask:

✦ Is there enough exposure to take advantage of the interior ambience and use the flash as fill light?

6.8 This is an example of using your Speedlite as fill flash to supplement attractive though low-level available light. 430EX Speedlite, ISO 800, 24-70mm 2.8L lens at 70mm, 1/125 second at f/3.5.

116 Part II ✦ System Components ✦ Once exposure has been determined, is the available light attractive? Some low-light scenes are gorgeous, while others don’t help at all. Your eyes and experience will be your main guides, and if necessary, test images will reveal how the light is looking.

✦ What are the walls and ceiling like? This has a great deal of influence on what techniques and modifiers you’ll use. For me, white walls and ceilings usually mean that I use the Lightsphere or off-camera bounce. Off-colored walls and ceilings might do better with the Big Bounce, as that modifier is pointing straight at the subject rather than off walls and ceilings. Every situation

is different, which is one of the challenges and joys of working with Speedlites as well as mixing flash with ambient light.

Dim interiors and exteriors At a certain point, the lighting level is too low for the above approach. When I can’t obtain enough available light illumination to use a fast enough shutter speed or have the aperture stopped down to maintain sharp enough images, I go to plan B: manually choose the f-stop and shutter speed that will work for me, don’t worry about the background going dark, and shoot away utilizing my Speedlite as the primary lighting source. I use various modifiers in this case;

6.9 This room was extremely dark to the eye. 430EX Speedlite, ISO 800, 35mm 1.4L lens, 1/85 second at f/2.8, with a strobe bounced off of the wall, which happened to be a nice shade of white.

Chapter 6 ✦ Working with Canon Speedlites at the moment, I favor the Big Bounce in most situations due to its relatively large light source as well as the fact that I’m avoiding bouncing the light off of walls and ceilings that may be too tinted to produce attractive coloration.

Remote Triggering with Speedlites The Canon remote system is surprisingly robust, offering control one would think only available with a commercial strobe system. Keep in mind, however, that all flashes must be in line of sight of each other to fire, as the wireless system is based on infrared visual communication. One way of working with the ST-E2 remote transmitter, which was discussed earlier in the chapter, is with a single flash as the receiver, which allows you to hand-hold the camera with total freedom.

My favorite site for information on working with small strobes is http://strobist.blogspot. com.409497fig0610.

Here’s how the 580EX II and the ST-E2 transmitter allow you to control multiple flashes:

1. Attach a transmitter to the 1Ds III. Attach either the 580EX II or the ST-E2 to the camera and turn it on.

2. Set the channel on both the transmitter and strobes. You can choose from channels 1 to 4. This enables you to avoid mixed signals if other Canon wireless camera and flash systems are in use at the same location. Otherwise, the controller and slave flashes can all be set to channel 1.

Of course, a few bits and pieces are involved in setting up Speedlites on stands and having them perform like bigger strobes: an umbrella swivel to mount strobes on stands, a small umbrella or two, adaptors to use a Speedlite within a softbox, and so on. Once you pull some of these elements together, it’s a liberating experience to create a multiunit lighting kit that can fit in a small bag. A very good source I’ve found for these small strobe accessories (stands, umbrellas, umbrella swivel adaptors) is Midwest Photo Exchange (www.mpex.com).

117

6.10 Rear view of the ST-E2 remote transmitter, showing the controls

118 Part II ✦ System Components 3. Turn on all receiving flashes and set them to the slave function. When communication is established, the red focus assist light blinks once per second on each receiving flash.

4. If you want to have control of lighting ratios from the 580EX II or ST-E2, set one flash to Slave A

and one to Slave B. You can then set lighting ratios form 1:1 to 8:1 wirelessly from the controller. This is useful for adjusting lighting from the camera position. Up to three groups of strobes can be set up when wireless control of lighting ratios is not being used.

In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

P

A

R

T

III ✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Part Chapter 7 Lighting Decisions Chapter 8 Advertising and Editorial Photography Chapter 9 Photographing People Chapter 10 Wedding and Event Photography Chapter 11 Architectural Photography Chapter 12 Landscape and Nature Photography

✦

✦

✦

✦

Lighting Decisions

M

any books have been written about lighting. This chapter’s aim is to give just a glimpse of various lighting techniques that work well with the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III. This chapter is targeted at two groups of photographers. One group consists of those who might have a great deal of camera experience but less lighting experience. The second group is those photographers who are coming from earlier generations of cameras — where low ISO was a must — to this current generation where excellent results can be achieved at lower light levels, opening up all sorts of lighting possibilities.

7

C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter Planning a lighting setup Available light Strobe systems Fluorescent and HMI systems Tungsten lights

Planning a Lighting Setup No matter what the assignment, there is always a range of details to consider when planning a lighting setup. These considerations break down into two areas: first, the capabilities and limitations of the location, talent, schedule, and equipment; and second, the look you’re going for — meaning the energy, feel, and emotion of the light. Here’s some of what I think about when scouting locations and planning a lighting setup:

✦ Contrast Range. What is the exposure contrast range of the location, and how does that compare to the contrast range the camera can capture? Reining in exposure is an early part of the plan to achieve a successful image. The EOS-1Ds Mark III has almost nine stops of contrast range. Particularly with Highlight Priority turned on, this covers a lot of ground.

✦ Exposure levels. What the ambient exposure is on location, and what exposure you can achieve in the studio, are primary concerns. The EOS-1Ds Mark III, with its greatly enhanced quality at lower light levels,

Portable power

✦

✦

✦

✦

122 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III opens up many possibilities for different kinds of lighting when, in the past, people shot only at ISO 100, sometimes up to ISO 400. And some still do. However, depending on the assignment, I’ve seen strong results certainly through ISO 1600, once a photographer has her or his own sharpening and noise reduction techniques acquired and in balance with each other. I still think ISO 100 is the best looking, although I do believe advertising could certainly be shot through ISO 800, assuming your exposure and contrast range is under control.

✦ Color temperature. Obviously more of a concern on location than in the studio, the color temperature of the light greatly impacts decisions on what lighting instruments to use. (For those who don’t know, color temperature refers to the color of the light). At one point, strobe or very bright tungsten lights were the only real options, and any variances from pure daylight or tungsten color temperatures on location were overpowered by these lights. Now you have the option of working with lower light levels, which not only saves time and money, but also opens up beautiful qualities of light that couldn’t be expressed as subtly using strobe. Is the location lit by daylight? Tungsten fixtures? Fluorescents? A mixture of different sources? These all lead you to consider a variety of options that will be most appropriate for the particular assignment.

Many photographers have found the EOS 1Ds-Mark III to do particularly well in mixed lighting situations that tend to not render as nicely with Medium Format digital backs. Whether it’s that the14-bit color range of the 1Ds Mark III has an advantage over the 16-bit color range of digital medium format backs in these situations or some other factor, the 1Ds Mark III integrates colors quite well. Color temperature is not only about the color of light sources affecting the location. For example, what colors are the walls and ceiling? A white ceiling offers far different bounce—light opportunities and affects the room completely differently than a light-green ceiling. Obvious, yes, but it is easy to forget when you are first scouting a location. Remember to look up!

✦ Budget and schedule. Every lighting setup, no matter how big, has a budget and schedule associated with it. You might come up with a brilliant lighting setup, but if you have one hour available at the location and the setup takes three hours, it doesn’t really matter. Knowing how long a lighting setup takes as well as costs, in terms of equipment and crew, is a skill gained only by experience. In the same way, learning what are the simplest and fastest ways to produce the richest look is a skill gained over time and treasured once learned.

Chapter 7 ✦ Lighting Decisions ✦ Lighting look. In my opinion, only after evaluating the basic realities listed here can the photographer think clearly about an actual lighting look that’s appropriate to the desired layout and feel. Do you want the look to be dark and mysterious? Bright and over-the-top cheery? Do you want it to appear to be available light or enhanced available light (where it looks naturally lit but has edges, backlights and, so forth)? Do you want the look to purposely appear more surreal, fantastic, theatrical, and not really connected to any light you’d actually see in the real world? These are all valid considerations.

✦ Plans for post work. Many strong looks in current photography come from planning, up front, what part of the look will be achieved by lighting and lenses, and what part will be achieved in post processing. Although pushing film stocks and cross processing were available when shooting film, the opportunities for image manipulation have exploded with the ongoing refinement and power of computers and software programs. Certain looks may be lit very quickly and flatly because the photographer has, in fact, a much different plan for the final image. Another way to look at it is by using this equation: equipment + lighting/lenses + production design (from casting to set to props, wardrobe, and makeup) + post work = the look.

123

Available Light Oddly enough, a good place to start with lighting setups is to talk about setups where no additional light is needed at all. You can find great-looking available light through what your eye tells you over time, as well as the experience of which images that looked beautiful retouched well, and which didn’t. Low light levels are less of a concern now, due principally to the greater light sensitivity of the current crop of digital sensors than previous ones, not to mention the sensitivies of film stocks. High quality fast lenses also help, of course, particularly the Canon L large aperture primes such as the 50mm 1.2L. Often in the past, images illuminated by available light at the location that looked beautiful to the eye just didn’t have the exposure level required to render nicely. Now many of those images can be captured beautifully. Of course, you need to take depth of field and shutter speed requirements into account in assessing if enough light is, in fact, available for the requirements of the shot. Contrast range must be considered as well. To the rescue comes the histogram, which gives a good indication of whether or not the sensor can capture the scene’s exposure range. I’m personally fine with occasionally letting the exposure go off the low or high end, but I certainly prefer that to be a conscious decision rather than an overlooked one. Letting windows burn out in an interior is one example; sometimes that’s perfectly fine for the image, while other times it’s a reshoot — it all depends on the image.

124 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

7.1 Underground. Taken with beautiful available light. ISO 400, 1/400 at f/5.0.

The viewer on the EOS-1Ds Mark III, when set to its brightest setting, can produce beautiful-looking images that aren’t really there; the image may be strongly underexposed and you can’t tell looking at the small screen. Thus it’s always a smart idea to check the histogram and know where the values are actually falling.

Particular times of day and particular locations are often good candidates for available light, or just a touch of fill, either with a fill card or some fill flash. Early morning and late afternoon can have that quality, as well as before sunrise and after sunset. All these times fall into the magic hour or golden hour category as commonly called, although some refer to this term to mean only before sunrise or after sunset.

Chapter 7 ✦ Lighting Decisions

7.2 Girl at picnic table, taken in midafternoon, using dappled light through trees. Normally not considered a great time of day to shoot outdoors, the surrounding trees created their own golden hour. ISO 200, 1/1600 second at f/1.4.

Interior locations with high ceilings, large windows, and white or warm-toned walls offer potential. Look especially at older buildings, both industrial and residential, that were built before electric light was common and window light was designed to be the main source of lighting. This will yield better results in warm climates than cold, as

125

7.3 Young girl at old cabin on lake, using available window light. This cabin was built for summer use only, thus has many large windows providing natural light. ISO 1600, 35mm 1.4L lens, 1/40 second at f/1.4. architects constructing buildings in cold climates always had to think about the heat loss inherent when installing windows. When outside, I often look for sides of buildings that are painted white, and which the sun is bouncing off of. This often produces a beautiful quality of light that can either be used as the principle light illuminating the scene, or as a fill light — a light source that fills in the shadows.


7.4 Mother and baby boy outside in the shade, picking up sunlight bounced off a white wall, ISO 125, 50mm 1.2L lens, 1/400 second at f/2.8.

More often than not, if you have the time and assistance, just a touch of fill light or edge light (a light source from behind the subject that creates an edge of light on the

cheeks, arms and legs) makes an image. Whether from fill flash, a fill card, or an edge light, that little kiss of light can add just the sparkle needed to make an available light

Chapter 7 ✦ Lighting Decisions image work. Always keep the subject’s eyes in mind in this respect: just a touch of light to reflect in the eye is what’s needed, often referred to as catch light.

127

issue, strobes are hard to beat. Strobes also offer more exposure power than any other light source.

Types of strobe systems There are two types of strobe systems: power packs that take one to multiple units, and monolights that are self contained. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Manufacturers for both power packs, power pack strobes and monolights as well include Profoto, Sinar Bron, Briese Lighting, Elinchrom, Calumet Photographic, Bowens, Norman, Dynalite, and Speedotron, to name some major players.

7.5 A good man. Image shot using available light plus one Deva 200 as front fill, ISO 200, 85mm 1.2L lens, 1/640 second at f/1.8.

Strobe Systems Strobe systems are the more traditional way to go in terms of professional lighting. I’m sure they remain the first system of choice for most shoots. Particularly in the studio, where multiple color temperatures aren’t an

One major concern should be whether various kits and light modifiers are available at your local rental house. In the U.S., my experience has been that Profoto, Broncolor, and Speedotron, among others, are widely available. Briese Lighting has excellent packs and modifiers, but they are difficult to rent in the U.S., except perhaps in Los Angeles and New York City. Be sure to check your local area if you’re making an investment into a lighting system and plan to rent equipment that will work with your system. Of course, you can mix and match manufacturers, but then, adaptors for one light won’t fit onto another.

Power packs Power packs allow light level control of all units that are plugged into the pack from the pack itself. In other words you don’t adjust each strobe’s brightness at its location. This is particularly helpful when strobes are hung above the set or otherwise hard to

128 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III reach. On some units, ratios can be set and then the overall intensity of the lighting brought up or down. Renting and purchasing decisions include price, power pack capacity in both watts per second and number of outlets, whether or not the power pack is asymmetric, and range and availability of light modifiers for the particular system you’re renting.

Monolights There are several advantages to monolights. One advantage is that each unit is self-contained; thus, if one monolight goes down, the others are still functioning. Whereas if a power pack goes down, all strobes that run off the power pack can no longer be used. Another advantage of monolights is the distance they can be set away from each other without having to connect to a power pack. Monnlights are available from the same manufacturers who provide power pack systems. One brand appreciated for its price-to-quality ratio is AlienBees (www.alienbees.com). There is one other choice: battery generators, which are strobe power packs with batteries that are charged and can then be used away from power. These units are covered later in this chapter.

Strobe modifiers Strobes are almost always used with modifiers, and these fall into several categories. What you’re looking for is the right combination of throw, spread, wrap, hardness or softness of light, and controllability.

Throw connotes how far the light with a modifier can project, spread how wide it can spread, wrap how the light can wrap around the subject, and controllability the various ways that you can control where the light goes, and doesn’t go.

Softboxes Usually rectangular in shape, these modifiers mount to speed ring adaptors that connect them to the strobe system being used. Softboxes come in a range of sizes, from extra small all the way to huge boxes. Brands include Chimera, Photoflex, Profoto, Elinchrom, and Calumet Photographic. My favorite is Plume Wafer softboxes. They’re more expensive but very well made, with an interior baffle system to create light that is incredibly even across the area of the front material. Striplights are long, narrow softboxes used for long, soft-edge lighting as well as other effects.

Softbox control You can utilize various items to control the light output of softboxes. Most common these days is a soft grid, also known as a soft egg-crate, a fabric web containing rows of horizontal and vertical lengths of material that are fitted together and attach with Velcro to the soft box. These modifiers fold up into a little pouch, great for packing. Available from Lighttools, Photoflex, and other sources, these grids can often cost more than the softboxes they go on. They can be ordered in various configurations, often from 20 degrees to 60 degrees. I tend to use 40-degree grids most of the time. The

Chapter 7 ✦ Lighting Decisions lower the degrees, the narrower the beam of light; the bigger the degrees the wider the beam of light.

Umbrellas Umbrellas can range in size from the smaller, rain-sized umbrella units to something as large as 11 feet in diameter. The Paras, made by Sinar Bron, Profoto and others, have a unique light quality of being soft but also punchy and crisp. The Sinar Bron Para FB comes in 5-foot 7-inch, 7-foot 4-inch, and 11-foot sizes. Profoto supplies 5-foot, 7-foot, and 8-foot reflectors. Chimera makes an OctaPlus unit that quickly converts from 5 feet to 7 feet. I own an Elinchrom 74-inch Octa Light Bank, although smaller Octabanks are also available. Photoflex units are called Octodomes and are available in sizes from 3 feet to 7 feet. Some of the units, such as the Elinchrom Octabank, work off of a double-bounce principal, where the strobe is aimed into the umbrella, and then bounces back and through diffusion material. This makes for a very soft, creamy quality light. An inexpensive and portable version of this setup is the Softlighter II by Photek (www.photekusa. com). It’s an umbrella with a front diffusion that collapses easily and delivers beautiful light. The Softlighter II is available in 36-, 46-, and 60-inch diameters.

Umbrella control Umbrellas are generally chosen for their wrap, spread, and softness, not their controllability. One exception is soft grids that Photoflex supplies for their 3-foot and 5-foot units. Generally, however, if the light needs

129

to be directed and shaped, umbrellas are not the way to go unless you have a large crew and plenty of flags and big pieces of foamcore to set up and control the light spread.

Reflectors Reflectors are shells that fit over the front of a strobe and are normally made by each individual strobe manufacturer for their particular units. There are a range of reflectors, from small units used to control just a bit of light fall-off when bouncing into ceilings, to long, narrow reflectors meant to throw a narrow beam of light a long distance. When reflectors are listed, normally the angle degree spread is listed alongside the unit. A light reflector commonly used these days is known as a beauty bowl or a beauty dish. This is a wide-angle unit that is normally white, sometimes silver, and usually in the 17-inch to 27-inch range. This is most often used to light the face and has a soft yet directional and punchy quality. You can also use a grid on some of the units that controls the spread of the light, as well as diffusion socks to soften it. The most used beauty dish is probably the Profoto 65° Softlight reflector with 20-inch diameter, although I’m partial to Elinchrom as well as Mola reflectors. Molas are special reflectors designed and manufactured by Walter Melrose in Canada (www.mola-light.com). The units are a bit heavy and unwieldy, but they create beautiful light. I own three of them. Their sizes range from the 22-inch Demi to the 43.5inch Mantti, each with unique characteristics. The reflectors can be difficult to

130 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Molo 28” Soft

Einchrom 16” Maxille

Molo 33.5” Euro

Einchrom 28” MaxiSoft

Einchrom 17” Mini Soft

Molo 22” Demi

Einchrom High Performance 10”

7.6 Just part of the reflector collection transport, but are wonderful in the studio and often worth the effort. You can also now buy soft egg crates for the Molas, available from Lighttools (www.lightttools.com). You need to separately purchase and install the appropriate speed rings onto each Mola to match the strobes you’re planning to use with it.

Reflector control Using 7-inch reflectors, you can typically place a round honeycomb grid in front of the light to narrow its spread. These grids are normally available in 10-degree, 20degree, 30-degree, and 40-degree sizes.


131

Lighting comparisons Following is an interesting test of two strobe reflectors as well as available light. Comparison testing is an important practice to learn just how different light modifiers compare to each other, in terms of ease of setup, quality and controllability. The initial image, 7.7, is shot with the Elinchrom Maxisoft; notice the gentle quality of the light and falloff. The second image, 7.8, is the exact same setup, except now lighting with a 22-inch beauty dish with a honeycomb grid attached. The final image uses available light only, the source being a large sliding glass door. 7.8 Summer girl, lit with a beauty dish. ISO 100, 1/125 second at f/9.

7.7 Summer girl, lit by a Maxisoft reflector. ISO 100, 1/125 second at f/5.6.

7.9 Summer girl, lit by window light. ISO 200, 1/125 second at f/2.2.

132 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Special units Special lighting units refer to equipment not used as much as the main gear mentioned, but invaluable for certain situations. This list is endless, but includes the following:

✦ Lanterns. Chimera makes lanternlike units that strobes or hot lights can attach to. These are particularly useful for lighting in the round, such as above a round table where people are seated.

✦ Fresnel adaptors. Fresnel lights are typically hot lights used in theatrical and film production. They have a directional, even quality that is easily controlled. They’re excellent for throwing shadows, patterns, and so on. Many of the manufacturers make Fresnel housings in which their strobes can be mounted.

✦ Profoto hardbox. This is a unit that the strobe fits into, creating a sun-shaft quality, with a narrow

7.10 Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III with a Ranger ring flash attached

beam, crisp shadows, and specular reflections.

✦ Ring lights. Ring lights are circular flash tubes that fit around the camera lens and produce a somewhat shadowless light with bright highlights. Their look as key lights goes in and out of style, but they have one great quality: they allow anyone to look good using one light. It’s a complementary look for people both young and old. I currently use a Ranger ring flash along with the Ranger RX-AS battery pack, both manufactured by Elinchrom. In addition, I often place a Hensel Octa Haze diffuser in front of the ring flash. This unit takes the ring flash’s light and bounces it backwards and then forwards through diffusion, creating a double-bounce ring flash. I find the combination of these items very useful in many situations, particularly where time is a concern.

7.11 Hensel Octa Haze mounted on a ring flash


7.12 Young family lit by a single ring flash with Octa Haze and available light

7.13 Bride and best boy, lit by a ring flash and Octa Haze in a deeply shaded environment

133


Fluorescent and HMI Systems Primarily aimed at the lighting needs of the video and film industries, fluorescent units and HMIs (constant source or hot lights whose color temperature matches daylight) offer some wonderful lighting opportunities for still photography as well. Particularly with the greater sensitivity of the EOS-1Ds Mark III sensor, as well as other current models, these systems have become a more viable option in certain situations. Both systems are constant-light sources, allowing you to see the effect of the light on the subject before you shoot. Both systems also allow the use of daylight color temperature fixtures, which are essential to film and video shoots, as strobes are not an option for motion picture or video productions. Each has its advantages and drawbacks, as explained in the following sections.

Fluorescent lighting systems Fluorescent lighting systems use special bulbs with a choice of daylight or tungsten color temperatures. These colors are much more exact than the common fluorescents you can buy at a hardware store. And therein lies one of the first great advantages of these units: they work both in daylight and tungsten environments, and all you have to do is switch out the bulbs to go from one color source to the other. Don’t even think about using fluorescent units outside, unless you’re looking at a night-time close-up. That’s my opinion at

7.14 Photo of two 200-watt Diva-Lites least. These units can have a beautiful quality, but they are just not bright enough to be very functional in an exterior daylight environment. Inside, though, is another story. Particularly in an interior with daylight color temperature, these units can work very well. Several companies manufacture and market fluorescent units and systems, but I personally prefer Kino Flo (www.kinoflo.com). Some other sources are www.coollights.biz, www.videssence.tv, and Mole-Richardson Co. (www.mole.com). Although more expensive than most of the competition, Kino Flo products are designed by lighting people for lighting people, and at least for me, the research and design is always appreciated. They come in an enormous range of sizes, from the 9-inch Mini-Flo (a favorite of cinematographers to hide inside tight spaces


135

7.15 Two sisters lit by two 200-watt Diva-Lites. ISO 200, 1/30 second at f/3.5. such as car interiors on night shoots), up to the 16-lamp 6-foot by 6-foot Blanket-Lite. Quite a range! My particular favorite of the Kino Flo units for still as well as video and film is the Diva-Lite.

Available in a two-bulb 200-watt version and a four-bulb 400-watt version, the units are relatively lightweight, and contain builtin dimmers, barn doors, a diffusion skirt, a baffle, and a very good mounting system. I’ve used them alone, with strobes, with bright bulbs in Chinese lanterns, and with HMIs.


7.16 Lake girl. Lit by a 200-watt Diva-Lite from the right and filled with a Photek Softlighter II and Ranger RX-AS from camera left. ISO 200, 1/60 second at f/2.8.

HMI systems HMIs (Metal Halide Iodide) light sources have many types of fixtures that emulate, for the most part, similar fixtures in the theatrical and film tungsten-light world. The advantages of HMIs include the fact that they are daylight-balanced, they efficiently use

power, they have a cooler beam than quartztungsten units, and they include lights that can throw long distances as well as generate good shadows. The disadvantages of HMIs are that they are very, very expensive and usually quite heavy. These are most often items you want to rent

Chapter 7 ✦ Lighting Decisions and not own, and they are meant for jobs with a large and experienced crew, unless you’re using just one or two fixtures. This is often the case for still photographers: one 1200-watt HMI Fresnel or Par light, either direct or most often through a soft box, makes a very useful and attractive daylight source for portraits and small groups. HMIs work well outdoors; however, you’ll find out quickly that you need the larger units if you’re going to use them. This would normally mean starting with 4,000 watt units or greater for daylight shoots. The Arri 18000 watt HMI Fresnel is a particularly useful instrument, and can be yours for only $33,000, without stand.

137

My particular favorite and recommendation for a small, powerful, and multi-purpose HMI is the Joker-Bug 800, available from K 5600 Lighting (www.k5600.com). A funny name, but a great unit. A basic kit costs about $6,400, and is available from BarnDoor Lighting (www.filmandvideolighting.com) as well as other suppliers. The light is not cheap but it’s incredibly versatile. The Joker-Bug 800 can be used though a soft box, which is quite common. However, it can also be used through a modified Leko or ellipsoidal spotlight; these are lights typically used for theatrical stage work, and they can use various lenses to project differentangled beams. They also have a place to

7.17 Seamless shot, on location, lit with two Diva-Lites. ISO 100, 1/30 second at f/3.2.

138 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III insert gobos, which are small metal disks that have cut-out patterns in them, everything from random breakups to leaf patterns and windows. I’ve often used this setup along with both tungsten and HMI units as a way to throw a very hot, very narrow pattern onto the set — an effect like a random beam of sunlight. You achieve a daylight effect that was previously only possible using a very large fixture and many flags or cutters, and grip stands, to block the light.

Tungsten Lights Tungsten lights are units that give off a color temperature of 3200 Kelvin. Household bulbs are tungsten but these are usually a bit warmer. MoArrst traditional white lights used on stage, video, or film have been tungsten lights.

✦ Fresnels. These units have lenses with concentric rings that help focus the light. They are sharp and even, and are great for cutting the light either with barn doors or grip equipment.

✦ Pars. These are sealed beam units with lenses that fit in front, allowing the user to control the degree of throw and spread of the light (how narrow or wide you want the beam to be). They are good for long throws, bouncing, overall color fills on stage with rows of pars, and so on.

✦ Softlights. Traditionally these are metal units that bounce the light into a white shell, which then sends the light onto the set. Normal configurations go from 500 to 8,000 watts.

✦ Lekos. These units have built-in Most tungsten fixtures these days use quartz bulbs. Most do not need transformers and can plug right into electrical outlets. They can run on either 110 volts or 220 volts, depending on the country you’re in, the bulb inserted in the lamp housing, and, of course, the correct plug to interface with whatever electrical distribution system you’re using. Major manufacturers of tungsten lighting include Mole-Richardson Co. (www.mole. com), ARRI Group and others. Of course there’s a huge selection of sizes and types of fixtures, even more so than with HMIs. Here are a few:

shutters, and they can take patterned gobos, as well as irises, to create a varying circle of light. Used primarily for stage work, they’re most useful and unparalleled when used to control small areas from far away. Beyond this is a whole world of lighting; this entire chapter is just a taste of what’s out there. Two of my favorite instruments not fully described here are Dedolights and Chinese lanterns. Dedolights (www.dedo light.com) are expensive instruments that work beautifully. Primarily small in size, they run on 12-volt bulbs using transformers to


139

7.18 Two Dedolights with built-in dimmers on power cables. Color temperature does shift as the lights are dimmed. step down the voltage from 110 volts to 12 volts. Instead of using Fresnels, Dedolights are made from an Academy Award-winning multi-lensed optical design, creating the most even spread of all lights with very good illumination per watt. Dedolights are excellent as small units that are highly controllable. Two of my Dedolights are shown in the following figure. These units are small but carry a punch. They contain dimmers built into the power cord, which makes them extra-convenient on a set. I use them in constant-light environments when I require little hits and splashes of light. Two are used in the figure 7.19 of the dancing couple.

One other lighting technique that I use, which is also used in the previous photo, is hanging Chinese lanterns with dimmable bulbs. You can buy a lantern setup from Chimera and others, although many photographers often use regular paper lanterns that they rig up themselves. They’re inexpensive and provide a great source of warm, 360-degree light. In the photo of the dancing couple, a lantern boomed off of a grip stand is illuminating the couple’s faces, while Diva-Lites are used as edge lights and Dedolights as background splashes. Dedolights can also be purchased and rented in HMI configurations.


7.19 Old couple, young love. Lit from above with a Chinese lantern, edged with a Diva-Lite, with hot splashes using Dedolights. ISO 400, 1/100 second at f/1.8, 85mm 1.2L lens.

Portable Power

Battery units

Portable power comes in two versions: those types that run off a rechargeable battery and those types that run off of gasoline. In either case the photographer is freed from having to be an electrical outlet, opening a world of possibilities.

These units that run off rechargeable batteries are expensive and desirable. Due to the fact that they’re running off a stored charge, they are silent as compared to a gas generator. The most common, perhaps, is the Profoto Pro-7b, a 1,200-watt generator used with Profoto lights. I’m partial to the

Chapter 7 ✦ Lighting Decisions Elinchrom Ranger RX-AS; it’s built well, with all electronics at the top of the unit and the battery below. Due to this configuration, you can actually use this unit in inches of standing water without any trouble, although I wouldn’t recommend it. The RX-AS unit is asymmetrical in how the two lighting outlets are set up. They’re arranged in a 2/3–1/3 split. Many find this more convenient than each outlet outputting the same wattage. Another thing I love about this unit is that the range goes from 6.5 watts to 1,200 watts; that is something like eight stops of range. It has a fast recycle time of 2.5 seconds at maximum power, and easily generates 250 flashes at full power. There are many fans of the Hensel Porty as well, which is a reliable weather-proof unit.

Gasoline generators Gasoline generators offer the ability to power items other than strobes, such as computers and monitors. The brand I know is Honda, and my guess is that their generators are ubiquitous. You can rent or purchase them in sizes ranging from 500 watts to 6,500 watts. Generators need to supply clean sine-wave current so that any electronic equipment is not damaged. When used with expensive

141

AC power packs, some folks believe it best to use a gasoline generator with twice the wattage capacity as your pack, to ensure that there are no problems when the pack recycles its power. Thus, if you are using a 2,400-watt pack, you would use a 5,000watt generator. However, I’ve also heard from a few photographer friends who use one Honda 2000 generators to power two 1,200 WS Profoto packs as well as a laptop, with no problem. Rental prices for gasoline powered generators range from $75 per day for a 1,000-watt generator up to $295 a day for a Crystal Sync 6,500-watt generator. Do keep in mind (it’s hard to forget) that unless you rent an expensive blimped generator, these machines can be very noisy; after all, it’s a combustion engine you’re running. A blimped generator is a unit that is surrounded by sound dampening materials. Usually it arrives housed within these materials on board a truck.

Remember to have extra gasoline with you if you’re going to be away from civilization, plan on long usage, or just don’t want to run out of power in the middle of production no matter where you are!

Advertising and Editorial Photography

8

C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter Advantages and limitations

T

he Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, along with the Canon L lenses, is an excellent system for many advertising and editorial assignments. Depending on the market you’re shooting in and the particular advertising agency involved, there might be prejudices one way or the other in terms of what camera system to use, but the reality is that many photographers are working with the 1Ds Mark III on assignments and obtaining excellent results.

Avoiding downtime Tethering for advertising Lens choices for advertising and editorial photography Processing and postproduction work

Advantages and Limitations In the world of advertising photography, it’s important to know your options on all levels, and certainly in terms of equipment choices. The EOS-1Ds Mark III continues to hold the title, in my opinion, of best overall camera. However, it’s certainly not the best choice all the time. I’m thinking particularly about the relative merits of the 1Ds Mark III versus a digital medium-format system that offers a larger sensor and thus larger files, as well as sharper lenses. Depending on the assignment, that might matter a lot, or not.

✦

✦

✦

✦


8.1 Hockey family. A combination of studio strobes and Kino Flo fluorescent fixtures help create a soft light look with impact. ISO 200, 1/30 second at f4.

Advantages of the EOS-1Ds Mark III Just some of the system’s advantages for advertising, in my opinion, are listed here:

✦ Reliability. The 1Ds Mark III tends to be very solid and reliable, which is an important consideration. It has a very tough build, its batteries last forever, it’s weather resistant, and tethers well.

✦ High ISO/big files. The combination of high ISOs, along with big files, is quite appealing. Depending upon the assignment, I could certainly see ISO 800 working if it offered a unique advantage, such as beautiful low-light ambience. Just make sure you have a properly exposed image and histogram.

✦ Operating speed. The 1Ds Mark III is faster in all respects than medium-format systems. It generally offers faster autofocus, as well as multi-point autofocus and six frames per second shooting rate.

Chapter 8 ✦ Advertising and Editorial Photography ✦ Non-posed subjects. Due to the faster setup and capturing, I find it a better choice for people in motion, lifestyle settings, children and babies, and animals — whatever moves.

✦ Mixed lighting. The 1Ds Mark III tends to do better in mixed light.16-bit digital medium format systems tend capture excellent color in single color temperature environments whether daylight or tungsten, such as strobe only, sun, or sun with strobe. However deep shade and daylight/fluorescent/ tungsten mixes have proven to be better handled well by the 1DsIII’s 14 bit sensor.

145

✦ On location. Due to all the reasons in this list, I’d give the nod to the 1Ds Mark III for much non-posed location work. For posed images, more factors come into play in choosing the appropriate system.

✦ Live View. The Live View system offers a huge advantage when taking product shots, at least for me. To be able to arrange with a live view is wonderful, not to mention a live view on a big screen, if you want. Certainly, with a locked-off frame in a position that is difficult to view through (such as straight down and high up), to be able to see the image live and on a big screen is a fantastic advancement.

8.2 Lab doctor. This shot was challenging because the right person to play the doctor needed to be cast (the client wanted someone both attractive but not too model looking — a real-person look), and the lab was a working lab and could only be used for a limited time. ISO 400, 1/60 second at f/4.0.


Limitations of the EOS-1Ds Mark III No camera is perfect; however, the 1Ds Mark III comes very close as it is versatile and gets great shots in a variety of situations, especially advertising and editorial type work. Not without its limitations, here are a few things to consider when working with your camera:

✦ File size. Canon’s 21 megapixel

sensor records images at 5616 × 3744 pixels. This translates to 12 × 18 × 300dpi with no up-sampling, however excellent prints can be made up to 20 × 30 inches and beyond. For most advertising offset printed work this is usually plenty big. However for images that require very large prints to be seen by the viewer standing nearby, there’s a potential advantage in using a medium-format digital back such as those made by Phase, Leaf, Hasselblad and others. For very complicated jobs such as ones created with many images which are then layered together into a single master file in PhotoShop, there’s certainly a rationale for using a larger sensor, to obtain a larger file.

✦ Softer files. Due to lenses not being quite as sharp combined with its anti-alias filter, 1Ds Mark III files will not be as crisply sharp in great detail as images taken with medium format systems.

✦ 14-bit color. The 1Ds Mark III is getting very close to the richness of other systems, but still, 16-bit (when it’s not a problem) can be bolder. Although I’m finding 1Ds Mark III files to look better and better, particularly when processing

RAW images through the Aperture software from Apple. And, at ISO 100 it’s very hard to tell the difference between 14 and 16 bit.

✦ Tethering. The 1Ds Mark III is currently tethering very well, particularly when using Capture One Pro. Tethering is much more stable and less error free than it once was. However I still personally believe that the quickest and most stable tethering occurs with a Phase One Digital Back tethered to Capture One Pro. The bottom line is that the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III works very well in many, if not all, advertising and editorial assignments. You do have to consider client and agency production manager preferences and biases — some photographers add matte boxes to their Canon setups principally to have the camera look more impressive. I’ve found that, for the most part, it’s the photographers who think the impressiveness of the camera system matters. Normally I’ve observed that clients don’t know or care what system is being used, as long as they get the images they’re paying for and the shoot goes smoothly with minimal downtime. Four-color CMYK offset printing tends to be the great equalizer; a file that is noticeably richer or more detailed on the monitor or on a photographic print won’t show its higher quality when printed on an offset printer and reproduced in most magazines and newspapers. I’d say one exception is the more expensive and usually smaller-run magazines or brochures that use high-gloss paper and higher-end printing. In these situations, perhaps the advantage of a medium-format back and lens system will be visible — for example, in large, glossy car advertisements, or advertisements with diamond and other jewelry with many details and highlights.

Chapter 8 ✦ Advertising and Editorial Photography

147

8.3 Education campaign. Other than the careful arrangement of the shot, this student was not used to the number of exposures sometimes necessary to capture a strong moment. I thank him for hanging in there! ISO 100, 1/60 second at f/4.9, 85mm f/1.2 lens.

Avoiding Downtime When the clock is ticking and thousands of dollars are at stake each hour, nothing is more disturbing to the client than downtime —

when equipment problems force the shoot to grind to a halt. And problems will usually occur when the light is just right, or when the models are finally in the right mood — in other words, at the worst possible times.

148 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Having equipment that behaves properly is a craft in itself. There are a few obvious approaches that bear repeating:

✦ Know all the equipment. Know the gear you’ll be using, inside and out, or make sure someone on your crew does, whether an assistant, digital tech, or whomever. Study the manual, study this field guide. Bring either or both with you on location.

✦ Test the setup. The day before a shoot, I always try to plug in and connect all the equipment that I plan to use — cameras, lenses, sync transmitters, tether setup, lights, whatever. By plugging everything in and taking some test shots, you have the simplest method of determining that everything is working, and that all the equipment you need is there.

✦ Have backups! Plan for the equipment to break down, and decide ahead what you will do. And not just major items; backup cables will often save the day when you have equipment malfunctions.

Tethering for Advertising While different photographers have their own opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of tethering in terms of the creatives’

and clients’ input, I believe tethering is here to stay for many advertising assignments. I’d also, personally, rather make the requested change during the shoot than find the client is displeased after the fact. Tethering is finally getting much more stable for most camera systems. On the Macintosh, the release of Mac OS X 10.5.6 suddenly created a huge improvement in USB bus speed, which had been a major problem with tethering the 1Ds Mark III to a Mac. Although the use of Boot Camp and Windows XP remains a viable option, tethering on a Mac through USB is now a workable setup, including the transmission of RAW files, with the proper system and capture software. I’ve been working with Mac OS X 10.5.6 and Capture One 4.6.3, on a MacBook Pro, and RAW files pop up in around two seconds, and fully resolve in four seconds. This is a great improvement! At present, the EOS 1Ds Mark III does not show the image on the camera’s LCD when tethered to a computer using Capture One. However, if you shoot with EOS Utility and tell the program to save to the card as well as to the computer, images do show up on the LCD as you shoot. By being able to see the capture on the camera’s LCD, the photographer can stay away from the big monitor and the crowd surrounding it, and at the same time have the ability to check the shot as well as the histogram. See Chapter 4 for more detailed information on tethered shooting.

Chapter 8 ✦ Advertising and Editorial Photography

8.4 Office workers. This ad shoot with multiple subjects was a good time for tethering, in particular because we were shooting with hot lights, including HMIs and Kino Flos, and thus didn’t have a huge depth of field. ISO 200, 1/60 second at f/4.0, 85mm 1.2L lens.

Lens Choices for Advertising and Editorial Photography Due to the improved abilities of the 1Ds Mark III sensor to pick up fine detail, it picks up lens imperfections more easily as well. Because of the increased quality demands of advertising work in particular, I’d suggest L primes as your first choices, especially the following:

✦ 14mm 2.8L ✦ 24mm 2.8L II ✦ 35mm 1.4L ✦ 50mm 1.2L ✦ 85mm 1.2L ✦ 135mm 2.0L ✦ 200mm 2.0L ✦ The white lenses ✦ Any Canon tilt shift lenses

149

150 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III For more details on specific lenses, see Chapter 5.

Canon L zooms can be great, but you must be careful. The 16-35mm II lens is strong after 20mm, I’m told, but not great below that. The 28-70mm 2.8L can be very good, but you need to test the lens. The same goes with the 70-200mm L. If at all possible, stick with L primes and your optical quality should be very good.

One reality with Canon lenses is the image quality can change sample to sample. I find this particularly true with the zooms. Some photographers purchase three copies of the same lens, test them out and then return two. Make sure you know the return policy of the store before doing this! One warning on shooting wide open with fast L lenses: there is less depth of field than is apparent in the viewfinder. This is also

8.5 Education campaign. ISO 100, 1/320 second at f/2.8, 50mm 1.2L lens.

Chapter 8 ✦ Advertising and Editorial Photography true of other cameras with fast lenses. So if you are shooting, for example, with the 50mm 1.2L at f/1.2, you’ll have even less depth of field in the actual file than you’ll see through the viewfinder. Be very careful and check your image playback, particularly on a big screen, if possible.

151

Processing and PostProduction Work When the shoot is over, keep in mind what a large part processing and post work — retouching and other image manipulations — have on the look of the final image. Especially for more graphic-looking images, a lot of this work is done in post. All photographers have different

8.6 Doting dad. Taken with available light, and the look was created in postproduction. ISO 320, 1/320 second at f/3.2, 14mm 2.8L II lens.

152 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III programs that they value, whether a particular RAW converter, sharpening program, or color enhancement program. These skills are often as important in image creation as the planning, lighting, directing, and shooting of the image. One final thing to remember is that advertising production is a team effort. Never forget this. Just within the photographic team itself you have the photographer, producer and

production assistants, the main photo assistant and other assistants, stylists responsible for makeup, hair, wardrobe and props. Model makers, food stylists, animal wranglers, hand models, principal talent models, background talent, location scouts, casting agencies, retouch specialists … and every one of these people — and often many more — help create the quality of the project you’re working on. Treat them well and you’ll be well-treated in return.

9

Photographing People

T

his chapter is not meant to be the final word on how to photograph people (there is none); rather, it’s a series of examples of what’s worked well for me when photographing people. The 1Ds Mark III along with Canon lenses is a good choice for people photography, due to the combination of operational speed and image quality. A great expression can occur in a fleeting moment, so it’s important to have a camera, skill set, and the right attitude to capture it. Whether on location or in the studio, the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III excels in this area.

The 1Ds Mark III for Portraiture It’s worth taking a moment to think about some various systems for shooting portraits. After all, many of the greatest portraits were taken with view cameras and film. Where does the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III fit in? No one camera is perfect for every situation. Here, as throughout this book, my opinion is that the EOS-1Ds Mark III remains generally the best option —- not perfect for every situation, perhaps, but able to handle just about all portrait situations extremely well.

Portraits Although there’s a huge range of assignments and situations that involve photographing people, I tend to look at portraiture in terms of two main camps: formal and informal.

C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter The 1Ds Mark III for Portraiture Portraits Lens choices Photographing people on location Photographing people in the studio Beauty and fashion

✦

✦

✦

✦


9.1 Suburban family. ISO 200, 1/60 second at f/5. Of course, there are all sorts of variations between the two portraiture types. I personally like to light and pose formally when I can, but then let the subject and image unwind, open it up to the moment. On the other hand, you can take a formal portrait using available light on location, where there is less control to a certain extent, but perhaps the available light is perfect, just requiring the right touch of fill light from a bounce card or two. The variety of portrait shooting situations is endless.

Formal portraits Whether in the studio or on location, formal portraits, to my mind, are more about aesthetics than emotions and capturing the

moment. If it is about the moment, it’s about the created moment, not the found one. The successful formal portrait usually entails strong control of the lighting, the pose, the background, the wardrobe, the hair and makeup, and the props. It’s a formal statement directed by the photographer. The subject is often asked to hold the pose, and thus the only changes might be in facial expressions. For posed portraits, particularly in the studio while using strobe, the EOS-1Ds Mark III has some terrific assets:

✦ Reliability. I’ve had much less actual on-shoot problems with the 1Ds Mark III than other cameras.

Chapter 9 ✦ Photographing People

155

✦ Great skin tones. The 1Ds Mark III tends to handle all skin tones very well, with the caveat that Caucasian skin can go a bit red, and red saturation needs to be pulled down a touch, whether in the RAW conversion stage or in post-processing.

✦ Slow shutter speeds. Due to having a well-dampened mirror as well as a smaller mirror than larger medium format systems, the 1Ds Mark III tends to capture sharper images at slower shutter speeds. Raising the mirror first and then shooting without reflex makes all cameras more vibrationless, but to me this is not an option when photographing people — I want to see the moments as they’re unfolding.

Informal portraits Informal portraits are more focused on capturing a real moment, a true emotion, an unexpected gesture, or a surprise. It might be shot with the subject seated, standing, at work, or running, and another world opens up with this type of approach. For informal portraits, particularly off the tripod and on location in mixed light, the 1Ds Mark III holds its own and is perhaps the best solution. The sensor and dual processors handle mixed, colored light very well, the camera can shoot in low-light environments, images can be hand-held at slow shutter speeds with a high success rate, and so on. The camera can also shoot at a high frame rate per second, which is sometimes a useful technique, even with a non-moving portrait; a quick burst of exposures might capture an elusive and wonderful facial expression.

9.2 Cassi. 50mm 1.2 L lens. ISO 800, 1/100 second at f/1.8.

Working with the subject All photographers hopefully learn early on is that every subject is different: different looking, with a different personality and different energy. The perfect way to direct one person might be a disaster with another. The small beauty dish that looks beautiful on a 16-year old model with near-perfect skin and perfect makeup over that perfect skin (not to mention the retouching to follow) might look just terrible on a 45-year-old executive. Thus, the main bit of advice I can offer, if you don’t know it already, is to never forget that every person is different and needs individual attention and interaction. This might be less true with models, where the particular shoot is about locking a pose and not really expressing in the face. But I’d bet that, even in that case, one person needs

156 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III to be handled differently than another. It’s just how it is. And great models often choose their own poses and expressions, and are artists in their own right. My work more often entails photographing real people, such as non-actors and nonmodels. This adds a major challenge in that these people are usually not naturally comfortable in front of the camera. It also means that, more often than not, their value to their life and work is not based upon their looks, and so they might be trickier to light and photograph properly. However, these same subjects often offer a wonderful opportunity: if you can get them warmed up and comfortable in front of the camera, you have the chance to achieve more natural and uncanned moments than with talent that is trained and media-savvy. Once again, it depends on the individual. I try to always be welcoming and function as a host as well as photographer. I like to chat a bit and make some connection to get a feel for a person. I’m also studying their face at this time to see how it expresses. Once photography begins, my actions and energy totally depend on the individual: Do they like a lot of direction and energy tossed their way? Or are they more effective if we keep things quiet and soft in energy? All this affects the pose. No one, whether real person or professional talent, wants to experience the photographer or crew freaking out. At least, I’ve never seen it help. As a life-long practice, when something stops working, I have the choice to remain calm and find a quick solution, or to tense up and transmit that fear of being in trouble. I unfortunately cannot say my record is 100 percent at doing this well, but I keep trying.

In any situation where troubleshooting is needed, it’s extremely worthwhile for you, the assistant, or tech, to have a logical, smart, and fast troubleshooting approach — to know from research and past experience what the most likely and simple solution is and to take it from there. Often if tethered to a computer, a restart is all that’s needed. Sometimes parameter RAM needs to reset, sometimes disk permissions rebuilt, or a cable switched out. The photographer doesn’t necessarily need to know how to do these things, but, trust me, someone on your shoot better know how! When money’s on the table, whatever can go wrong often will.

Lighting different subjects A lighting skill that takes nothing but time and practice to learn is knowing what lighting will work with which subjects, and, of course, with the feel you’re going after for a particular assignment. Many advertising photographers who photograph people end up with a lighting style that they try to adhere to; after all, it’s part of their visual brand. Even in this case, I’m sure adjustments are always being made to accommodate the particular individual in front of the lens. I once worked as the Lighting Director for a famous filmmaking team. Sometimes we’d shoot testimonial commercials when we might film 50 people a day. And not knowing who would make it into the final edit, everyone had to look good. It was a major learning experience for me, as I’d light the first person, and for the sake of argument, let’s say they looked fantastic. The next person would come in and the light would look terrible on

Chapter 9 ✦ Photographing People them. I was determined to find the perfect light, and slowly learned that while some lighting setups do have a higher percentage of looking good on anyone, everyone requires individual lighting adjustments. Here are some things to look out for in this regard:

✦ Facial shape. The shape of the face has a huge effect on lighting. A round face might make a wraparound softlight look beautiful, while a narrow face might not carry over light onto the far side of the face at all. Thus, a beautiful wraparound look becomes a sidelight with harsh falloff and a dark far side of the face.

✦ Noses. Nose size and shape greatly affect lighting. Not that big or small is better, but you must be careful. Particularly when using more small and directional light, a large nose will, of course, throw a bigger shadow. Depending on the shot and mood, this can be good or bad, but it’s always something to be aware of.

✦ Hair (or lack thereof). If your planned look on an assignment is based on a beautiful hairlight for glow, as well as separation from the background, and the person comes in and is bald, obviously changes need to be made. Often, taking all backlight off the head and adding a small glow to the background is an effective solution.

✦ Skin blemishes. These include acne, wrinkles, age spots, scars, beard stubble — the list is endless. Normally, the smaller the light source and the more to the side,

157

the more these defects show up. A top-soft setup (a softbox, umbrella, and so on) slightly above and just to the side of the camera is often the safest way to overcome skin problems. (But will it work for the shot? That’s another story.) Always keep bottom fill light in mind if you’re lighting from the top — either a fill card or actual soft lighting unit — from below and/or behind the camera.

✦ Skin color variations. There are many skin tones, on all types of faces — Caucasian, Asian, AfricanAmerican — it’s a world of color. This can be a problem, particularly with group shots, such as a wedding party where some folks are very magenta, others green, and others yellow. I kid you not. Makeup when available can help, and so can retouching. Often lens choice and lighting minimize or maximize these differences.

✦ Wardrobe. Particularly with shoots involving real people, no matter what they’re told to wear, they might show up with something different that then creates a problem for lighting. A person with dark skin and a bright white shirt is an example. It’s a good idea to have a plan in place for blocking light onto the bright colors or adding to the darks if necessary. Of course, this can be somewhat alleviated in post processing with dodging and burning, as long as you’re not exceeding the histogram range during the actual exposure. Be that as it may, the more problems you can solve at the time of the shoot, the better.

158 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III A good idea when shooting people without a wardrobe person or budget is to have them bring multiple choices of clothing to increase the chances of finding something that works.

There are other examples as well, but this gives you an idea of important elements to look for and to be prepared to handle when lighting a variety of subjects in a variety of situations; this is the life of a professional photographer.

Lens Choices Although many EOS lenses work well for portraiture with the EOS-1Ds Mark III, I tend to prefer L primes to bring out the richest detail that the sensor can offer. That said, sometimes getting the moment is more vital than obtaining optimal image quality, and that’s when I turn to an L zoom. In my case, this is almost always the 24-70mm 2.8L.

✦ 50mm 1.2L. One of my favorite lenses these days, mine is very sharp, and very rich. This lens, particularly when used at ISO 100, creates the richest imagery I’ve seen yet on the 1Ds Mark III.

✦ 85mm 1.2L. This lens is fast and creates very sharp, very rich colors. I use it from wide open at f/1.2 all the way to f/8 and f/11, although normally I aim for f/1.8 on low-light images. I value the lens for many reasons, including its ability to photograph at low light levels, yet still maintain crispness, as well as its ability to pull the subject from the background with its super-shallow depth of field and very attractive bokeh when wide open or near to it.

Particularly with zoom lenses, it’s a good idea to have them tuned by Canon every now and then, perhaps every two years, and certainly if you become aware of a lens problem. With their larger size and more mechanical parts, my experience is that a zoom goes out of register more quickly than a prime lens.

The 70-200mm 2.8L is a workhorse lens and is used by many photographers for portraiture. I generally shy away from it, preferring the 135mm 2.0L or 200mm 2.0L if I want a long lens. Normally, the lenses I use for portraiture are:

9.3 Boy by window. 85mm 1.2L lens, ISO 1600, 1/1000 second at f/2.0.


159

9.4 Jenny comes up for air. ISO 100, 85mm 1.2L lens, 1/6400 second at f/1.4. Vignette added in post production.

✦ 35mm 1.4L. This is a favorite environmental portraiture lens. It’s wide enough to bring the environment into the shot, and at the same time not so wide that you can see optical curves. It’s very sharp at f/1.4.

✦ 90mm TSE lens. The 90mm TSE, along with the 45mm TSE, offers some wonderful portraiture opportunities. Allowing a bit of view camera-like control, you can have one portion of the image very sharp and let another portion drift into deep softness, which helps to direct the viewer’s eye.


9.5 Young girl on a rainy day. 35mm 1.4L lens, ISO 800, 1/250 second at f/1.4.

✦ 200mm 2.0L. I use this lens, along with the 135mm 2.0 l lens. The 70-200mm also works in this situation, when you have to reach out to pull a face in. Of all the strong optics on the 1Ds Mark III, my choice would be the 200mm 2.0L when viable; it creates wonderful optics.

✦ 24-70mm 2.8L. A workhorse for me, I like this lens for portraiture when things are happening fast and loose, and I want to be ready for anything.

9.7 The tree surgeon up a tree. Notice the fine detail. 200mm 2.0L lens, ISO 200, 1/500 second at f/2.0.

9.6 Mother and child. 90mm TSE lens, ISO 200, 1/125 second at f/2.8.


161

9.8 Teens a-popping. I was set up for a group of four people when this entourage arrived. 24-70mm 2.8L lens, ISO 125, 1/125 second at f/11.

Photographing People on Location I’m a big fan of using the EOS-1Ds Mark III on location to photograph people, as I’ve

already mentioned. Its ability to work in low light and mixed color temperatures, as well as the implementation of highlight priority, combined with the use of L fast lenses, opens up a wide range of shooting opportunities.

162 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III One technique already demonstrated in Chapter 7 (on lighting) is the use of Kino Flo fluorescent lighting, particularly in my case, Diva-Lites. It’s not that I have anything against strobe lighting; it’s just that often I prefer the available low-light look and don’t want to override it. Also, by using a constant-source

light and not a strobe, I can more easily see what the light is doing. The following image is lit with two Diva-Lites. I love the creamy, bright highlights as well as the falloff on one side, somewhat like the effect of a directional ring light.

9.9 Meredith. 50mm lens, ISO 200, 1/40 second at f/4.

Chapter 9 ✦ Photographing People The 1Ds Mark III, along with fast lenses, also offers the opportunity to grab images that are low light but look great to the eye. The image in figure 9.10 uses available light shot at ISO 250, with the 35mm 1.4L at f/1.6. Part of the look, of course, is how the image was adjusted in the RAW processor; going a bit cool added the feel I was looking for.

163

Figure 9.11 shows another available-light image. As with all my images, work is done in post to bring out the look I want, but notice the great detail that is there in the file to work with, such as the detail in the hat.

9.10 Young marrieds. 35mm 1.4L lens, ISO 250, 1/400 second at f/1.6.


9.11 Friendly fellow. 35mm 1.4L lens, ISO 320, 1/125 second at f/1.6.

Figure 9.12 uses available light in a dark location. In color, it contains a beautiful orange tone, but I thought perhaps it was a bit too much for offset printing. So, I converted it to black and white, which pulls the image design together. Don’t forget that you can set your Picture Style to a black and white look and be able to see black and white previews while you’re shooting. However unless you shoot RAW you are stuck with the black and white image because when shooting in a black and white Picture Style while in JPEG mode, no color information is recorded.

9.12 Renata. ISO 400, 50mm 1.2L lens, 1/40 second at f/1.4. Converted to black and white. Photographing babies and young children requires a special set of skills, as well as a real enjoyment of kids — or else you’re in trouble. Planning when to photograph is part of the secret, and similar to photographing senior citizens: you have to work around their nap and eating times. Don’t even think of interrupting their schedule!


165

Some photographers who do a lot of this work have an assistant who shakes toys, makes noises, and so on, to get the baby’s attention. I try to avoid that when I can and prefer to actually engage with the baby or young child. Once they become a bit used to your being around, they often calm down. The biggest trick, however, is being extremely quick with your shooting technique, especially with babies. The looks I see that are attractive and compelling are often incredibly brief, and so you want to be ready to catch them. It’s also a reason I often prefer available light or setting up a Kino Flo for a bit of fill, so that I’m not having to rely on the recycle time of a flash. If I use flash, it’s usually an on-board Speedlite with a modifier. I find that I use all these techniques, depending on the situation. Figure 9.13 was captured by following the action with a mother and child. In this case, I had a 430EZ Speedlite attached to a David Fong Lightsphere set up as a little fill. The following image is of Luana, a child I know. There’s nothing like photographing people who are actually in your life in one way or another. Luana usually doesn’t pose, but granted me a photo audience for this very briefest of moments. The image was adjusted in post processing to achieve the painterly colors I was after.

9.14 Luana. ISO 100, 50mm 1.2L lens, 1/200 second at f/1.4.

9.13 Happy mom and baby. ISO 500, 1/60 second, f/2.8 with a 35mm 1.4L lens.

166 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Figure 9.15 is a non-posed shot. Once again, speed was of the essence. I was photographing a school picnic as part of a personal project on school culture and noticed these children. They were receptive, but also feisty — sticking their hands in front of the lens, turning away, and so on. The image below was captured during a very brief moment. I was shooting with the 35mm 1.4L lens, with a square crop in the finder with blacked-out sides. If planning to end up with a square image, there really is something different about looking through the lens and seeing a true square; you’ll find compositions that you would not normally find when just trying to imagine where the square frame is.

Photographing People in the Studio Photographing people against a seamless background is easy to do poorly, although it appears a simple enough task. Because a seamless background is usually so minimalist, the viewer is that much more aware of the face of the subject and every detail of wardrobe, hair, makeup, and lighting. In my experience, it’s often ‘less is more’ in terms of lighting, although this depends on the photographer. One style in vogue now includes a key light, fill light, two edge lights, backlight, and glow on the background — six

9.15 The boys and the girl. ISO 400, 35mm 1.4L lens, 1/400 second at f/3.5.

Chapter 9 ✦ Photographing People lights minimum. I tend to be more of a fan of single-source light with a glow on the background, as you can see in figure 9.16. Figure 9.17 is lit by a similar large softbox, lighting both talent and background.

167

Figure 9.18 is of Aja, whom the camera loves. She has great skin tone, eyes, form, and a fun personality. We worked our way up to this image, starting very quiet. using softlight and a background glow.

9.16 Mike Yohay. ISO 200, 1/125 second at f/9, 50mm 1.2 L lens.


9.19 Aja and Mike share the frame. ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/8. 9.17 Boy band. ISO 125, 1/125 second at f/10, 24-70mm 2.8L zoom.

Beauty and Fashion I really can’t speak much about fashion, as I rarely shoot it, although I know fashion work that I love. For me, as a viewer, it’s a combination of beauty and personality; I’m not a fan of the drone look, whose aim is for the model to be out of the way of the clothes. But if you add a concept, elegance, a story? I’m in Heaven. Have you ever seen Richard Avedon’s photo of a woman in a gorgeous gown standing next to an elephant? Every time I see that image, it feels fresh to me.

9.18 An Aja moment. ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/7.1.

Chapter 9 ✦ Photographing People I can say that fashion is as much about the clothes, makeup, hair, and set as it is about the lens choice and lighting. It’s a team effort to end up with an image that is simply elegant and powerful.

169

There are a several areas of expertise in fashion. First, there’s catalog work that can go from somewhat dull to exciting, sensual, and glorious. James Russell is of the latter group,

9.20 The Decisive Moment, Russell Style. ISO 400, 1/1250 second at f/2.5, 50mm 1.4L lens. © James Russell, 2009

170 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III whose work I find glorious whether he’s shooting catalogs, ads, fashion or sports for that matter. Although he might shoot 1,000 frames a day, each is a wonderful image in its own right, down to the makeup, hair, lighting, and models — you name it. He works alongside his wife, Ann Rutherford. You can see their work at www.russellrutherford.com. James photographs with several camera systems, including the 1Ds Mark III. Here’s what James has to say:

Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, and many more. Each photographer brings a unique vision and approach to their work. A third area is runway photography, which, in my mind, is closer to shooting sports than anything else. The models walk down the runway, you’re in a crowded space jostling with other photographers, and you’ve got to get the shot. Here you’re talking less about aesthetic skills than operational and technical

“I own Leica, Phase, Nikons and Canons and all have specific uses, all have allowed me to recover my investment, though in the end I’m not judged by camera make, zip code, or the car that I drive. The defining factor is the photograph and not the photograph I want to take, the photograph I have to get. There is a big difference and with all the cameras all the equipment my studios own, as of today the Canons cover more territory than the other makes. They go to high iso reasonably well, have a very large and featured lens line and enough megapixels to allow for deep post processing. I travel the world and all four sets of cameras go with me wherever we work and I routinely shoot multiple camera makes on a day and when we sit down to do our final edit, the majority of the images is Canon.” A second area is photo shoots that are going for a small group of great images, such as an editorial fashion or beauty shoot, of a model or a celebrity. Or it could be an advertisement for a clothing line. The greats include

9.21 Mike, lit by a single Mola Setti. ISO 100, 1/125 second at f/9, 50mm 1.2L lens.

Chapter 9 ✦ Photographing People skills, being able to work quickly and smoothly to get the shot and capture the movement, keep things in focus, and, all in all, make the clothes look good.

171

Figures 9.21 and 9.22 are a couple of fashion images that I like. I enjoy Mike’s energy and movement. The shot of Nicki I enjoy for her expression as well as how the light falls on her face.

9.22 Nicki, lit by a Mola Euro. ISO 200, 1/125 second at f/5.6.

Wedding and Event Photography

10 C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter

W

edding photography assignments are usually a combination of reportage — unposed images that witness the scene and tell the story — and posed portraiture, where photographer and subjects meet and create an image together. Each area emphasizes a different set of skills. In reportage the focus is on how to work quickly, both in terms of decision making as well as operating the equipment: how to find the shot quickly, how to operate the camera and change lenses quickly if needed, and how to use the available light most beautifully as well as add any additional light quickly. The posed portraiture component also needs to be quick, however often will entail more intricate lighting setups as well as directing skills to both arrange a group properly and then get the pose and energy you’re looking for out of your subjects.

Considerations Like any job, wedding photography can be done sublimely with great artistry, or handled coarsely and uncaringly. The challenge for working photographers is not only to gather the skills and experience to be good at this work, but also to differentiate themselves with clients from all the less trained or less dedicated photographers out there who will always do it for less money. My approach is to have a bottom line that I won’t go below in terms of budget, and whatever job I take on, to do it with all the skills and passion I have. Whether an advertisement, wedding, corporate event, or educational setting, my goal is to capture the best images available within the situation. Once you accept an assignment, it’s your obligation to give it your best — or not take the job.

Considerations Know your client Event challenges and limitations Wedding specifics Other event tips

✦

✦

✦

✦


10.1 The hunt for the garter. ISO 1600, 1/80 second at f/1.4, 35mm 1.4 L lens. Capturing all the events at a wedding well demands multiple talents and techniques:

✦ Find the moments. You need to creatively find story moments as they happen in front of you, in real time, before they’re gone forever.

✦ Fast operation. You need to capture those moments quickly and ensure they are technically correct — well framed, properly exposed, and in focus. Thus the speed skills of a good action or sports photographer are required.

Chapter 10 ✦ Wedding and Event Photography ✦ Lighting choices. You need to know whether or not to add light to the scene, and how to do it.

✦ Portraiture. You need to know how to frame a portrait, light and pose the subjects, and ease them into a mood where they might reveal their most interesting and attractive personas.

175

✦ Social skills. You need to be able to interact well socially, as well as be invisible when necessary. In addition to wedding photography, there are many types of event assignments, but the principal ones are:

10.2 Young love. I found the best position to shoot in available light and used fill flash. These two were holding hands by themselves and looked up briefly at the camera. ISO 200, 1/1000 second at f/3.2, Highlight Priority, fill flash, 24-70mm L zoom lens.

176 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ Social events. Weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, awards dinners, and other social events, whether business or personal. There’s almost always a formal element, a reception, a meal, and dancing or other fun diversions afterwards.

✦ Corporate events. These can include board meetings, group seminars, PR events, and huge parties for all the employees.

✦ Educational events. These involve capturing a teaching and learning environment, from toddlers to post grads, graduation ceremonies, posed portraits of distinguished guests along with other situations. The same skills noted earlier that are needed to capture great wedding shots apply to all of these event types as well. The 1Ds Mark III is, to me, the perfect camera for wedding and other event assignments. Here are the main advantages it offers that you should know about:

✦ Operating speed. The camera’s operational speed advantages are hugely important at events, including fast focus point selection, AI Servo focus tracking, fast continuous shooting of up to six frames per second, and fast handling in terms of making camera setting adjustments (whether choosing the focus point or adjusting exposure).

✦ Highlight priority. Particularly for outdoor events such as weddings, I’ve found this to be a giant improvement from earlier 1Ds releases. I could always tell Canon images compared to medium-format images by the blown-out highlights. With Highlight Priority activated, this happens much less frequently. Skies have clouds, color, and tonality. They’re not white. It is amazing! 10.3 The welcoming hostess at a formal wedding celebration. Shot unposed with fill flash. The shallow depth of field helps bring attention to the hostess by pulling the background out of focus. Shooting parameters were discussed beforehand with the hostess in terms of images wanted. ISO 400, 1/125 second at f/1.2, ISO 400, 50mm 1.2 L lens.

✦ Large file size. The large file size allows you to make large prints as well as crop tightly. Other cameras, such as the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, share this ability; however, they cannot operate as quickly in terms of FPS and focusing.

Chapter 10 ✦ Wedding and Event Photography

177

10.4 Handsome and happy father of the bride. An on-the-go portrait, highlight priority worked well to hold detail in highlights and the blue sky. ISO 200, 1/400 second at f/2.8, fill flash, Highlight Priority.

✦ Canon L fast lenses. Nikon is getting some great results in low light and with new zooms, but Canon still has the edge on fast lenses. And for this photographer, at least, that’s very important.

✦ Low-light shooting technique. Much better than previous iterations of the 1Ds series, at this point, the EOS-1Ds Mark III captures beautifully at ISO 1600 and sometimes well at ISO 3200. Not as well, perhaps, as the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, however, particularly in JPEG mode.

178 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ Dual cards. Take advantage of using the SD card to back up the CF card. Thus, if you have a catastrophic failure with the CF card, your instant backup is there. I tend to set my CF card to RAW and my SD card to JPEG small; that way, I get thousands of images on the SD card, and can still output 5 × 8 prints at 300 dpi from the files if needed.

Know Your Client It’s important to know your clients and what they expect of their particular job. I find this to be especially true with weddings and

corporate work. Often you have to probe to find out what is really wanted beyond neutral coverage. With weddings, there’s a lot of scheduling to discuss, either with the wedding couple or the event planner. In particular, when the formal portraits are taken is a big decision. These are often the images that the couple is not overly interested in initially, but that end up being the most important images in terms of their legacy value for the couple, as well as the print order for the photographer. With corporate work, is it close-ups for the Web site or annual report? Is it group shots capturing teamwork? Often only when you ask will these choices be discussed and decisions made on the clients’ side.

10.5 An informal formal portrait, using a ring light with Octa Haze. The nature of posed portraits can be anywhere from dead serious to unabashedly playful as in this image. ISO 100, 1/25 second at f/7.1.

Chapter 10 ✦ Wedding and Event Photography With educational events, I’ve found it’s important to discover what values the client wants to be expressed; for example, what is the culture and unique character of the institution being portrayed? This also applies to corporate jobs. These cultures and values are, in fact, different from one organization to another. One institution I shoot for is mainly concerned with showing diversity and team learning. Another business likes to focus on individual achievement. It took a year to discover what one major client, a Fortune 500 company, most wanted from me, whatever the job: a way to view and store their images in the smallest physical package possible due to how small the offices are in the marketing department. The solution ended up being a bound booklet with big, framed contact sheets and DVDs in an insert envelope on the back page. Don’t get me wrong — the photography came first — but I swear this is what they appreciated most. Clients are clients!

Event Challenges and Limitations Different events offer a variety of challenges that need to be solved. Weddings probably offer the most challenges of all, due to the importance of the event, the length of the shoot, and the incredible range of shooting situations you’ll find yourself in. The following sections outline some of the essential information you need to succeed.

Be ready With all event shooting, one huge element exists that is often more challenging than much advertising work: there are many

179

moments that happen just once and need to be captured quickly, creatively, and technically well. This can demand much of your technical abilities, which you have to perform instantly, in the moment. You have to be in the right place, at the right time. You have to have the right lens on the camera. You often want to pre-set the camera’s controls to get the image when it happens, and you might have just a second or two to do it. And there are no acceptable excuses for missing the shot. If you think it’s easy, you haven’t done this type of assignment. I suggest you try it once, or observe a photographer who is proficient and qualified at this type of work.

Have backups close by Because there are no acceptable excuses for missing a shot, you must have backups when photographing events. If you don’t have a second camera body, rent one. One way or another, have two on-board flash systems on hand. If you’re shooting with strobe lighting setups, have backups. Batteries? You bet. Principal lenses? Right again. In my case, I currently use my Canon 5D as the backup body. I own two flashes. I travel with multiple lenses — the 50mm focal length is redundantly backed up with my 24-70mm 2.8L zoom, my 50mm 1.2L, my 50mm macro, and my 45mm TSE lens. I also have the 35mm 1.4L as well as the 85mm 1.2L on either side of these lenses. You get the idea: be covered if equipment goes down. Trust me. Camera equipment just loves to fail right before a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Be ready, and be backed up.


10.6 Jump moment! You only get so many jumps out of a group like this, so have a shooting plan ready — in this case using the ring flash. Also quick decisions are needed to choose the proper combination of f-stop (to add depth of field) and shutter speed (to stop motion). I would have preferred a faster shutter speed for this type of shot, but that’s about as far as you safely want to go when using a studio strobe unit. ISO 200, 1/200 second at f/4.5, Highlight Priority, ring flash.

Wedding Specifics Weddings, in particular, offer multiple challenges, creatively, technically, and socially. These include ongoing lighting changes, being in the right place to capture the story, and maintaining a welcoming and fun relationship with the bride and groom Here are just a few to watch out for in particular:

✦ Wide dynamic range required. Brides in white dresses and grooms in black suits or tuxedos says it all. This is just the time for using Highlight Priority. The goal, of course, is to retain detail in white as well as black fabric. Not to

mention faces, tablecloths, skies, and more. Check your histogram. Utilize multiple averaging spot readings when you have the time. Always stay mindful of this issue, or it will come back to haunt you.

✦ A shot list. With so much going on, it’s important to work on a shot list, normally with the wedding couple beforehand, and carry it with you. Remember that you need wide frames as well as tighter imagery to tell the story. When the couple dances their first dance, you hopefully have the time and plan to get a big, wide shot as well as move in close to capture the intimacy of the moment.

Chapter 10 ✦ Wedding and Event Photography ✦ Daylight lighting extremes. Weddings often go from bright sunlight to dark interiors. And bright sunlight is often in a high-contrast situation with bright highlights and deep shadows.

181

In those wonderful moments when the scene is lit with low-angle, diffused sun from three-quarter front, you’re in great shape. How often do you think that happens? Be prepared outdoors for fill flash or bounce cards, finding the moments

10.7 First dance, wide shot. In telling the story I needed to move quickly (and quietly) as I wanted both a wide shot to take in the scene, as well as a close up with another background. ISO 400, 1/320 at f/2.8, 24-70mm L zoom lens.

182 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III sometimes creative — solutions: nervous brides; pastors and rabbis who don’t want any photography during the ceremony because of interference by photographers in the past (by moving around too much, blocking the audience’s view, making too much noise, and so on); and, event coordinators who are hurried and stressed (except for the really good ones, bless their souls). The point is that you want to be your most welcoming, relaxed, enjoyable self. If people feel comfortable around you, they’ll relax as well. They’ll let you in, and to me, this is the way to achieve intimate imagery. If your people skills aren’t honed, you can always shoot from far away with a telephoto lens, but to me, it’s just not the same thing. 10.8 Getting ready. A good story moment. Shooting wide open at f/1.4 helps to focus the viewer on the bride. ISO 640, 1/250 second at f/1.4, 35mm L lens. when people are standing in attractive light, and so on. And always think of the best spot to place yourself in relation to the sun.

✦ Interior lighting. As discussed earlier, dark interiors offer a world of challenges. Is the light attractive enough to shoot using only the available light and no flash, assuming you have fast lenses and are set at a high ISO? Is the light not quite there and needing fill flash? Do you have light modifiers with you? It’s a long list and skill set to develop the techniques that work for you and then have them (as well as the necessary equipment) at your instant disposal.

✦ Social skills. You are often dealing with a variety of situations, each calling for different — and

Make sure you’ve eaten well before arriving. Arrange in advance for a meal to be there for you at the reception — you’ll need it. Have energy bars and water; that is, do whatever you can to keep yourself physically energized, hydrated, and fueled.

✦ Formal portraits. Good formal portraits are a skill set in themselves. My aim is to capture enthusiastic and attractive portrait moments, often at a quick speed, as there’s usually not enough time to shoot at a normal pace. You need to remain relaxed, and have lighting setups that are both attractive and fast to implement. At times, natural light will be just right, and all that’s needed is a touch of fill flash or bounce cards. Quite often, more powerful light is needed. I regularly choose among several light sources, depending upon conditions, including these two:

Chapter 10 ✦ Wedding and Event Photography

183

10.9 Happy mom and daughter. ISO 400, 1/80 second at f/4.0. 24-70mm zoom. Moments like this can’t be re-shot after the fact. This is the first meeting of the bride and her mother after the ceremony. Only one face and eyes closed, it still captures the energy and intimacy.

• Ring light. I use the Ranger ring light with Hensel Octa Haze modifier. Fast, soft, glowing, hand-holdable (although this is eventually painful), it’s a very good solution.

• Elinchrom Octa or similar large source light. These offer quick setups, great skin tones, and good wrap.

184 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III For both of these light sources, I use a battery unit— in my case, the Elinchrom Ranger RX-AS. Of course, you can choose from Profoto and many others. The point is to have quiet and portable power so that you can photograph outside without taking the time to find outlets and run extension cables.

10.10 Just married. Choosing when to get the posed images is a joint decision. In this case it was agreed that right after the ceremony, I’d have a few minutes to take some images like this. ISO 125, 1/200 second at f/2.8, 24-70mm zoom lens.

10.11 Bride and bridesmaids, one-light setup. In this case I had a situation where an attractive background with some distance from the subjects just didn’t exist at the location. The ring flash and octahaze were the best solution in this case — everyone looks healthy and glowing. ISO 200, 1/125 second at f/6.3.

Chapter 10 ✦ Wedding and Event Photography ✦ Capture the love. Not to sound too corny (how to avoid it?), but the point of wedding photography, at least to me, is to capture the love: the romance, hope, and best wishes from all those attending that a wedding symbolizes. All the

185

technique and gear in the world means nothing if you can’t visually find and capture the love. This, of course, involves your own spirit, your ability to work very quickly (both in terms of finding the moment with your eyes and then

10.12 Bride and pastor. ISO 500, 1/160 second at f/2.8. An intimate and loving moment as the bride prepares for her wedding. I needed to project a welcoming energy and be invisible at the same time. Very few people are usually invited in to be with the bride as she prepares. I find it a visually strong part of the story, and am always honored to be part of this intimate group.

186 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III capturing it with your camera), and building the trust and friendship, even if just for the day, of the wedding couple and family. For the day of the wedding, you should feel, and hopefully be treated as, part of the family.

Other Event Tips While weddings often present many more challenges that other types of scheduled events, educational and corporate events are not without challenges of their own. The next few sections look at each event type briefly and touch on some important considerations.

Educational events Shooting educational events (actually, any event) involves the skill to be invisible in plain sight. Learning environments can often be intimate; students, whatever their age, are used to a specific group, a unique tribe, and being in a particular class. I find it best to arrive early and to be introduced by the teacher or professor, say hi to everyone, and then get to work. I start from farther away and slowly work my way into the group. Whenever possible, I shoot without a flash or with the least amount possible. And soon enough, I’m just part of the day. As with any assignment where people are involved, the more time you can spend with your subjects, the better. Returning multiple times, spending time with the subjects during breaks in shooting — these are all ways to get people to relax in front of the camera and allow the scene to unfold with more truth and life.

Corporate event challenges Every corporation seems to have a different culture. And often the culture comes straight from the top. If the CEO is relaxed and welcomes input, that often trickles down. Similarly, if the CEO is impatient, quick-tempered, and doesn’t welcome input, that also filters down. If you’re photographing executives, it’s good to know up front whom you’ll be interacting with. Some executives, CEOs especially, expect and demand speed and quick solutions. And they have a right to: these people lead incredibly full days with schedules that would exhaust most of us. Thus at any corporate event or photo session with upperechelon people, you want to be prepared and have your main setups tested beforehand. Push for getting as much setup time as possible. Have someone sit in who resembles the boss for lighting tests. Do all you can to be prepared, relaxed, and welcoming when the VIP arrives. As alluded to earlier, it’s essential to try to obtain the information (from marketing, public relations, executive assistants, or whoever is responsible) about what’s wanted on corporate event assignments. One assignment might involve the desire to show people working with smiles and enthusiasm. Another might want to see the seriousness and drive on the faces of those involved. On another day, they might be looking for the younger employees in the crowd to attract new blood. Or perhaps images that represent diversity with a range of multi-ethnic faces within the same frame. Hopefully, I’m getting my point across: there

Chapter 10 ✦ Wedding and Event Photography are many ways to judge the success of an assignment, and the principal judgment from the clients’ point of view is based on whether or not the images they were looking for (whether they were clear with you or not about this) are delivered. There are local customs and taboos to keep in mind with global corporations as well. I’ve been told that some Asian cultures don’t appreciate limbs being visually cut off, meaning if you’re showing arms in the frame, you have to show hands as well. The California Casual look that’s perfect for Silicon Valley might not impress clients in Germany. Similarly, smiles that communicate friendliness in some cultures signal lack of seriousness in others. These are all considerations worth taking into account.

187

A final note on photographing CEOs or other top management: It’s your job to make the executive look good. Sometimes the assistants to the executive are afraid to speak up if something is wrong with the image—for example, if a hair is standing up, or the tie isn’t perfect. That’s their choice; I consider it my job and responsibility to let the executive know I need to adjust something and do it. I’m there to project and protect their image. However, at the same time, you need to know the difference between a mistake and something that could be a touch better, and the patience and schedule of the executive involved. If it’s the difference between a sketch and an oil painting, rather than an acceptable or unacceptable image, sometimes it’s best to leave the sketch as is, if the executive is pressed for time.

Architectural Photography

11 C H A P T E R

✦

A

rchitectural photography, photographing the exteriors and interiors of buildings and other structures as accurately and as creatively as you can, would appear to be a fairly simple craft — that is, until you try to do it yourself. There is a range of requirements for this type of work that is fairly specialized unto itself, and it takes a huge amount of learning and practice to become technically proficient at it. It’s possibly the principal area in photography that demands the most optical precision and least distortion. Architectural work normally is about buildings, but also includes bridges, factory structures, and other exterior and interior spaces.

Initial Requirements of Architectural Photography ✦ Get wide. The huge physical size of large buildings, often without room to back up, as well as the physical limitations of small interiors with the same problem of not being able to get back far enough, often combine to demand a very wide-angle lens, yet come up with an image without the distortion that is typical of wide-angle lenses.

✦ Aim for optical perfection. Architectural images should be as optically perfect as possible. Some of these areas of perfection include the following:

• Straight and level. The goal is parallel lines and precise right angles, to keep verticals at 90 degrees and horizontal lines dead-level. You want to have as little impact on the designed lines of the space as possible.

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter Initial requirements of architectural photography Using the EOS-1Ds Mark III in architectural photography Architectural shooting techniques Architectural postprocessing techniques

✦

✦

✦

✦

190 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III • No lens distortion. Various ways in which the lens can distort the image need to be corrected. These include barrel distortion (where the center of the image bulges out at you), pincushion distortion (where the center of the image is pulled away from you), chromatic aberrations (when color fringing occurs), and keystoning, which is when a building appears to be falling backwards.

• Obtain even sensor illumination. Using shifts and tilts (to be explained further on) can affect how the light reaches the sensor, particularly with technical cameras that have larger shift capacity.

✦ Strong overall image quality. You want to capture the image with the finest detail you can, along with the color being as rich and/or precise as the image requires. For example, a particular interior space might have very precise custom colors used in its design, and interior designers want those colors precisely captured.

✦ Elicit an emotional response. Accomplishing all the technical demands isn’t the end, of course; in

many ways, it’s the beginning. As with any other photograph, you hope to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Do you want the building to look majestic in scope? Awe inspiring in its accuracy and detail? Do you want to show how well the structure blends into the environment? Is the goal to convey power? Delicacy? Tradition? Mystery? All these can be sought after, and hopefully accomplished, by how you take the photograph and then modify it in post production. Once you take in both the technical and creative skills necessary to produce top-notch architectural photography work, it gets a bit easier to understand how tricky it is and why few photographers are great at this type of work. In figure 11-1, you can see a great example of how the 1Ds Mark III can, in fact, produce strong architectural images. The 14mm 2.8L lens is super wide and optically quite good. The 1DsIII sensor does a good job of tight detail along with a big contrast range. I’m happy that you’ll be receiving a viewpoint of a very good architectural photographer in this chapter: Jon Roemer, who photographs architecture along with other types of assignments and works with the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III for all his work.

Chapter 11 ✦ Architectural Photography

191

11.1 Mall interior. 14mm, 2.8L II lens. ISO 800, 1/400 second at f/4.0

Using the EOS-1Ds Mark III in Architectural Photography With architectural photography, photographers mainly use their Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III along with the 14mm 2.8L II lens, the 24mm TSE lens, and the 45mm TSE lens as the main lenses. It will be very useful for you to know about sets of equipment and approaches that photographers are using at this point in time for architectural assignments. It’s the only way to understand how the camera works well.

As of Spring 2009 Canon released 2 more lenses in its quest to provide the tools necessary for the architectural photographer. Most exciting is the 17mm TS-E tilt shift lens — the widest lens available with tilt and shift controls in the full frame 35mm market. The second is a new and improved 24mm tiltshift lens — the 24 mm TS-E II. Neither of these lenses were available at press time for editorial testing and review, but they look very promising, indeed.


© 2009 Jon Roemer

11.2 The Lewis Library at Princeton University, designed by Frank Gehry. 14mm 2.8L II lens, ISO 100, 21 seconds at f/8. A great example by Jon Roemer of what the 1DsIII is capable of in this field, I find this image to represent the building well with a drama that’s all its own.


Canon 1Ds Mark III realities The following are some of the principal qualities of the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III that make it a contender in the architectural field. The Canon system doesn’t offer as wide a range of adjustments nor as great a dynamic range as other more expensive options, but it does an incredibly good job at a much lower investment cost to the photographer.

✦ 14mm 2.8L II lens. This lens is quite excellent and has a huge angle of view, wider than the 24mm XL lens available on the ALPA. Optically, it’s excellent if not perfect. The lens works very well with the 1Ds Mark III sensor to pull in maximum detail.

193

✦ 17mm TS-E lens. The newest lens (as of this book’s release) offers tilt and shift capabilities in a very wideangle lens. If it operates as well as expected this lens offers a great solution for Canon photographers.

✦ Easier handling. The 1Ds Mark III is smaller to transport, with less pieces to get lost, and so on.

✦ Limited tilt and shift movements. The 24mm TS-E lens offers 22mm of shift total, 11mm in each direction.

✦ Reflex viewing. As is always the case with reflex viewing, having the ability to look through the lens before you release the shutter offers a more accurate and predictable way of capturing the precise image you want, including the tilt and shift adjustments you make.

11.3 Big skylight. The combination of the 1Ds Mark III along with lenses such as the 14mm 2.8L II, can capture a great amount of fine detail. Highlight Priority aided in maintaining detail in the sky. ISO 400, 1/2500 second at f/3.5.

194 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ High ISO availability. Clean high ISOs open up a world of lighting possibilities, such as capturing the beautiful low light of magic hour, and so on. You can hold the shutter open on a MF back, as well as on the Canon. However, to start with higher clean ISOs offers an advantage, particularly at times where the camera can’t be locked down firmly enough for long exposure. An example would be shooting on a windy day.

✦ Live View. Live View gives you the ability to compose before pressing the Shutter button and is a fast, efficient way to work. Either by working off the rear LCD, or, better yet, on a computer screen if you have one along and are tethered to it, Live View allows you to compose and view the image on-screen with more detail and feel than you can get perhaps by looking through the viewfinder. Live View also allows for precision focusing when using

manual focus lenses such as the Tilt and Shift lenses. By zooming in on the live image you’ll find it much easier to obtain sharp focus than looking through the viewfinder with a manual focus lens.

✦ Auto focus. Although not always a concern when you can photograph at f/11 or determine hyperfocal distance, it sure is nice to have this feature along when using autofocus lenses.

✦ Greater depth of field. Often in other areas of shooting one is looking to open up the 1Ds Mark III’s aperture and thus have a narrower range of focus, to look more medium format by pulling the background out of focus. In the case of architectural work, however, depth of field is usually your friend, and the 35mm-sized sensor offers greater depth of field per/stop than the larger 645 aspect-like frame of medium-format digital backs.

11.4 A nicely designed space in a small apartment. The actual distance to the TV wall is only 9.5 feet. Only the 14mm 2.8L II lens could pull this off in my opinion. ISO 100, 1/8 second at f/4.


Jon Roemer and the 1Ds Mark III Jon Roemer is a gifted photographer who finds himself shooting different types of assignments on a day-by-day basis. The following are some comments from Jon, as

195

well as images from a recent project capturing the Lewis Library at Princeton University. You can see more of Jon’s work at www. jonroemer.com. Here’s what Jon has to say about his choice of the 1Ds Mark III for architectural work:

© 2009 Jon Roemer

11.5 Inside the Lewis Library. This image is a seamless composite of six images: two to cover the exposure range, and the other four to capture the various subjects. ISO 100, 1/4 second at f/11, 24mm TSE lens.

196 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III “My work is a mix of people and place photography. One day I am shooting portraits for an editorial client, another day I am photographing a building for an architectural client. The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III excels in this environment. It can easily bounce between the two disciplines and provide a level of image quality that leaves room to spare. Additionally, Canon’s support via its lens lineup and professional program are also reasons why I stick with them. That said, there is room for improvement. It’s well accepted amongst pros that Canon needs to update its wide-angle lenses. Canon is working in this regard, having released updates to its 14mm, 24mm, and 16-35mm lenses. This is helpful but often falls short. It’s common practice to have to add post-processing steps including chromatic aberration removal, lens distortion

correction, and perspective correction, when using the Canon system to photograph architecture. I have found that with the 20-plus-megapixel resolution of the 1Ds Mark III, especially, you must test each lens so that you can pinpoint its strengths and avoid its weaknesses. No one digital camera system is perfect for everything. You can certainly achieve a higher level of image quality in architecture photography by using a digital medium-format back in combination with a pancake-style view camera and optimizedfor-digital-view camera lenses. But that rise in quality comes at a huge jump in price and significant changes to your on-location and post-production workflow. You’ll need to decide for yourself which system is best for your needs or your clients’ needs.”

© 2009 Jon Roemer

11.6 Looking upwards, Lewis Library. 14mm 2.8L II. ISO 100, 1/13 second at f/8.


197

Another Perspective: Tim Griffith and the ALPA 12 MAX/Phase One P45+ Tim Griffith is an award-winning architectural photographer who photographs around the world. (You can see more of his work at www.timgriffith.com.) His comments follow: “When well handled, such as in Jon Roemer’s case, the Canon files can be very good and for a lot of applications are probably comparable to the MF files when reproduced at smaller scale. What I find frustrating and/or limiting when using the Canon is that the available lenses dictate how you compose an image rather than selecting the right lens for the right view and refining that. It seems that getting maximum results from the Canon relies solely on post-production (in terms of correction lens distortion, chromatic aberration, perspective, and so on), whereas shooting with an MF back on something like an ALPA MAX (or similar) allows you to get most of the way optically straight to the chip. In addition to that, the sharpness across the field and the implicit control that comes with shooting the larger format provides me a greater degree of confidence in the resulting images. It’s a never-ending argument with tangible benefits on both sides. My outlook is that some circumstances are better with each of the platforms. For the range and scale of work that I do, I much prefer to shoot with larger-format cameras and a digital back.”

© 2009 Tim Griffith


Architectural Shooting Techniques ✦ Keep it level. Not that every job requires the camera exactly level, but it sure is a good place to start and is often one goal of the camera setup. And remember that level happens in three dimensions: parallel to the object so the horizontal lines in the subject are horizontal in the frame of the camera; keeping the camera true in terms of side to side — that is, neither the left nor right side of the camera is closer to the object; and keeping the camera true in terms of front and back — that is, neither the top nor bottom of the camera is closer to the object. Normally you refer to these as level, pan, and tilt functions. The more lined up these settings are when you take the exposure, the less work there will be in post processing.

✦ Tilt-Shift lenses. The basic premise with Tilt-Shift (or for Canon, TSE) lenses is to keep the sensor plane completely parallel and lined up with the building, and to use the shift to look up. This is how you avoid converging parallel lines.

✦ Get high. The higher the camera is placed, the less correction is needed from the détente level and true position of the lens. That is, the less shift that needs to be applied, or the less that you have to tilt up, knowing there will be correction work in post production. Thus, think about bringing along a tall tripod as well as a tall ladder, and rope, sandbags, and other equipment, to lock it all down. This

approach also has the advantage of eliminating foreground objects that are low in the frame.

✦ Find the light. When the time is available, choose the light that is most appropriate for the image’s goals. You can take advantage of light to bring out the skin of a building, if interesting texture is involved. Light can be used to create depth by placing the camera so that the building has backlight and well-chosen shadows. Light can add mystery to an image. Just like any other type of image creation, light plays a huge role in the depiction of the object and the emotional response of the viewer.

✦ Multiple exposures. Multiple exposures are often necessary to capture a location’s dynamic range when it exceeds the image sensor’s maximum limit. These exposures can be placed on separate layers in Photoshop and masked individually, so that the layer elements show through when you want them to. You can also take these layers and Merge to HDR, which might be all that is needed.

✦ Image stitching. As discussed in the Chapter 12, image stitching — shooting multiple shots of different frames and combining them in Photoshop — may be employed if the object is too large to capture in one frame or if you want a larger file size. Multiple shifts on a lockeddown setup are a great way to do this. With Canon, the body is locked and the lens shifts. Normally with EOS-TSE lenses, three exposures are taken: left, center, right; or up, center, down.


199

11.7 Find It. 24mm TSE lens shifted, ISO 200, 1/85 second at f/3.5.

✦ Image stability. Remember to do all you can to keep the camera free of vibration as well as movement, particularly during long exposures. This includes bringing the mirror up beforehand, using a cable release, having the tripod locked down, blocking the wind if there is any, and so on.

The Arca Cube is a much beloved camera head for those who consistently do this type of work. Allowing very fine adjustments on all three axes independent of one another, you are able to elegantly and effectively lock in the camera position.

200 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III however, get very good results when a bit of skill and elegance are used in post-production. This is particularly true for images that will be seen in offset printing. Here are some avenues to explore to get the best results from your post-processing work:

✦ Optical correction tools. A number of tools exist to optically correct the image, both built within Photoshop and as plug-ins available to be purchased and used in Photoshop. There are also standalone programs, in particular DxO Optics Pro. DxO does a very good job on lens problems such as distortion, keystoning, and color fringing, although it lacks some of the Perspective tools. I don’t use this program, but it’s been highly recommended. In terms of the Photoshop and plugin tools, these are the best options I’ve found: 11.8 Big building, little man. Using a 24mm tilt-shift lens helped keystoning by using the shift function. I wasn’t able to get quite as much shift as I needed, and applied further correction in post-production. ISO 200, 1/500 second at f/4.

Architectural Post-Processing Techniques Due to the lack of fine tuning as well as the limited amount of shift on the TSE lenses, images shot on the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III system tend to require more post-processing work to line up optically. You can,

• Perspective tool. This tool is a standard part of Photoshop. Found in the Transform submenu of the Edit menu, this tool offers many options in terms of adjusting all three axes of the image. Use it with caution, however.

• Skew tool. Also located in the Transform submenu of the Edit menu, Skew sometimes comes in handy in conjunction with the Perspective tool.

• Warp tool. Another of Transform tools, the Warp tool lets you work with the entire image or just a part of the image. This is definitely a cheat tool, in that it allows you to


201

11.9 Tiny kitchen. ISO 200, 1/2 second at f/4, 14mm 2.8 L II lens. literally warp or disfigure parts of the image to make them look better. That is, it can warp warped elements to make them appear normal!

• Plug-in corrections. There are two plug-ins that I use: PT Lens and LensFix CI. Both are similar, and both are very good. These plug-ins access the same database of a great number of lenses, and so optical issues such as barrel or pincushion distortion of those lenses can be corrected manually or automatically. The plug-ins also allow finer perspec-

tive control than the Photoshop Perspective tool. Buildings and other objects can be leaned downward or away, the left or right side can be pulled in or pushed out, and so on; it’s a virtual reset of adjusting the camera’s position on the three axes. Keep in mind that you do end up cropping the images as the adjustments are made.

✦ Merge multiple exposures. As mentioned previously and throughout this book, capturing the same frame at various exposures allows multiple options to pull in all exposure values.

202 Part III ✦ In the Field with Your Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ Stitching. As mentioned earlier in this chapter along with the technique earlier in this book, the multiple frames photographed to work together are layered into one file, all layers are selected, and then the Auto-Align feature is used to align the images together.

✦ Sharpening. Various sharpening techniques are used to bring out details in the image without oversharpening. These can include

Smart Sharpen, Unsharp Mask with a relatively low amount of sharpening applied and high radius, PhotoKit Sharpener, and so on. As always, there’s a balance between bringing out detail without increasing noise. And you may often tend to over-sharpen images just because you can; a more film-like effect could entail less sharpening while adding a subtle grain layer.

Landscape and Nature Photography

12 C H A P T E R

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Chapter The EOS-1Ds Mark III system for landscapes

O

ne thing I’ve learned is that the more time you spend in one place, or keep returning to one place, the more is revealed to you. I’m fortunate to live in San Francisco, and so every day offers a continuing lesson in how each day is visually wonderfully unique. Although many think of landscape or nature photography as a relaxed and slow type of experience, which it certainly can be, chasing the light is always an adventure, not to mention the physical work often involved in getting to the right location. Particularly during the golden hours of dawn and dusk, the light is changing second by second. You can go through a world of lighting in 20 to 30 minutes, from deep dawn to sunrise and then to bright sky, or from sunset through darkening dusk and into night. Thus, strong skill sets are required in terms of knowing your gear and having the ability to operate quickly.

The EOS-1Ds Mark III System for Landscapes The EOS-1Ds Mark III sensor, along with some of the great Canon L lenses, allows for prints up to 16 × 20 inches at 300dpi, although I’d guess that in reality, they could be up to 24 × 30 and beyond. The system’s ruggedness and reliability are real factors to take into account as well.

RAW versus JPEG Maximizing dynamic range Stitching images Vibrationless shooting Lenses Filters Post-processing work

✦

✦

✦

✦


12.1 San Francisco dawn. ISO 200, 1/1000 second at f/2.5, 135mm 2.0 L lens. The 1Ds Mark III does wonderfully well in many situations. And although photography is about the camera, the final image is, of course, about more than the camera: your vision, shooting techniques, and post work all combine to create the quality and value in an image.

RAW versus JPEG To my mind, landscape work is an important time to shoot RAW, although personally I shoot RAW on most assignments these days. Yes, JPEG often works well, but the question is what part of the information is being compressed and lost, and what isn’t.

Chapter 12 ✦ Landscape and Nature Photography Particularly where there are subtle tonal transitions, such as banding in the sky, shooting RAW guarantees that you’re capturing as much smooth tonality and range as the sensor and camera are capable of, thus it’s especially critically here. You also have a much wider range of color options while processing a RAW file than adjusting a JPEG; you can still change the

205

color in a JPEG, but much of the range outside the chosen White Balance setting will not have been captured. This won’t really affect the image quality if you’re happy with the color temperature as recorded by the camera. But if you want to change to a different color temperature much less information has been recorded than on the RAW file and the images quality will suffer.

12.2 San Francisco dusk. ISO 100, 1/3 second at f/10 using RAW capture. The subtle sky tonal transitions would not do nearly as well if the file format was JPEG.


Maximizing Dynamic Range One huge concern, as always, is getting the maximum dynamic range out of the sensor without being over- or underexposed. The 1Ds Mark III offers several ways of doing this. A principal method is the use of Highlight Priority when there are bright values in the image. This tool has created a huge improvement in highlight detail. There are other techniques, as well, as explained in the following sections.

Multi-point spot metering The ability of the 1Ds Mark III to take multiple spot readings and average them is a godsend in this type of imagery, or any work where you want to pull in maximum dynamic range. And it is much faster than taking multiple exposures to discover which one works. As a refresher, you set your metering pattern to spot, and then you press the FEL button repeatedly to take multiple readings. You can take up to eight readings, which will be averaged to the best possible exposure. Choose the image elements you want to remain within range. If you know from experience that part of the scene is extremely dark and you’re going to let it go into silhouette, avoid reading that part.

12.3 A good example of when Multi-point spot metering helps obtain an accurate reading. ISO 200, 1/1000 second at f/2.8, 35mm f1.4 L lens. You can adjust the metering technique to your own preferences, but the main point is that you can take up to eight readings to quickly obtain the best exposure without having to shoot multiple tests. Almost every time I’ve used this technique, the histogram has been just where I wanted it to be, with no or very little over- or underexposure.

Chapter 12 ✦ Landscape and Nature Photography

HDR merge The HDR (high dynamic range) merge technique can play a huge role in extending dynamic range. With the 1Ds Mark III, you can set an exposure bracket sequence, fire the images as quickly as keeping the camera vibration-free will allow, and then use the Merge to HDR feature in Adobe Photoshop. For landscape work, this is a real option and brings the 1Ds Mark III back into contention in terms of handling images with wide tonal range.

12.4 Big cloud. ISO 400, 1/90 second at f/3.5.

207

Highlight/Shadow adjustment The Highlight/Shadow adjustment in Photoshop acts almost as a virtual HDR. By moving the shadow or highlight sliders, you can raise shadow values as well as lower highlight values. As long as detail is there to begin with, this can make quite a difference. When the detail doesn’t exist, of course, you should have shot a bracketing sequence with HDR. Often more detail is there, lurking within shadows and highlights than you think, however, as in figure 12.4 where the Shadow/Highlight tool, along with other techniques, was used to raise the shadow values in the image.


Stitching Images

3. Choose Edit ➪ Auto-Align Layers.

If you want a much bigger file, you can always take multiple images and stitch them together. Photoshop versions CS3 and CS4 do an amazing job of stitching images, and it’s a simple procedure:

4. Choose Edit ➪ Auto-Blend Layers.

1. Drag all images into one document, as separate layers.

2. Click the bottom layer, hold the Shift key, and then click the top layer. All layers should now be selected.

Choose Auto option normally.

5. Crop to taste, and that’s it! The easiest way to align images while you shoot is to use a tilt-shift lens. Once you’ve worked out your desired framing, lock the camera off. Make sure the camera is level. Then take three images, setting the shift position to left, center, and right. The three images will be optically aligned and can be combined in Photoshop by stitching them together.

12.5 Surfer at dusk. ISO 400, 1/180 second at f/2.8.

Chapter 12 ✦ Landscape and Nature Photography

209

Vibrationless Shooting

Zoom lenses tend to have more elements and thus flare more easily, which takes out the richness of darker tones in the process.

Vibration is always an issue when you are going for the sharpest images possible. This includes the vibration transmitted by the photographer as well as the vibration created by the camera due to mirror slap, when the mirror races up to move out of the way at shutter release. The rule of thumb is to never shoot with a slower denominator than the focal length of the lens — for example, with an 80mm lens, don’t shoot below 1/80 second. Although I’ve shot much slower with the 1Ds Mark III with good results, if sharpness counts and you have the time, using a tripod and cable release is the traditional way to steady the image. However, the 1Ds Mark III offers a second and often better choice for raising the mirror: Live View. In Live View mode, the mirror is already raised. Thus, using Live View and a shutter release offers an easy way to shoot without mirror slap.

Here are the lenses that I prefer and use the most for my landscape and nature photography:

Lenses A world of opinion will be out there on the topic of lenses and landscapes. In general, I personally try to avoid zoom lenses and stick with Canon L Primes. One advantage of zooms is that they can be set to a focal length that doesn’t exist in a prime, although, of course, you can always go wider and crop in. But if you want to retain the full image and a certain frame, and you can’t physically move to where you need to be, zooms are the answer. Do stick to L zooms, however, and be aware of flagging the lens, meaning keeping direct light from entering, particularly hard sunlight.

✦ 14mm 2.8L. Many landscapes just look better wide, and so the 14mm 2.8L II rectilinear lens is a great lens to have in your kit. But it is seriously wide, and it pushes the background away from what the eye sees. However, when you need it, there’s nothing like it. Be very careful to level and adjust verticals as you see fit.

✦ 24mm TSE. The 24mm TSE lens offers a wide frame-size, along with tilt-and-shift correction. For example, when shooting upward with trees in the frame, if you want to avoid keystoning, a shift adjustment will surely help.

✦ 50mm 1.2 L. I love the 50mm 1.2L for detail, and so for scenes where it’s in the proper focal length range, it’s a good choice. I’m able to pull out detail in grass, for example, that looks more like what you would expect from a medium-format digital back or 4×5 film exposure

✦ 85mm 1.2L, 135 2.0 L, and 200mm 2.0L with or without extender. As usual, the 85mm 1.2L is always superb. And the 200mm 2.0L is extraordinary. It also does very well with a 1.4 extender, making it into a 280mm 2.8L lens. The 135 2.0 L lens fits nicely in between these 2 lenses in terms of focal length, and is wonderful when you wish the shallow depth of field as well as the shorter shutter speed that opening up to 2.0 offers.


12.6 Wildflowers. This is a negative view of the image, created in Photoshop by inverting (Image ➪ Adjustment ➪ Invert). Why did I invert? This is where the image led me. ISO 100, 1/1600 second at f/1.4, 50mm 1.4L lens. Of course, if you’re photographing distant objects, there is a wealth of Canon L telephotos — the white lenses — that have superb optical qualities. However, they are big and expensive. If you don’t own one, they’re certainly worth considering renting if you are traveling and plan to photograph animals in the wild, for example.

Filters Although so much work can be done in the digital post-production world, there are still solid reasons for using physical filters, particularly graduated filters. These filters work in a matte box in front of the lens and gradually

transition from a chosen neutral density (ND) value to clear. There are color graduated filters as well. You choose which ND filter to use, and also if the transition is narrow or wide. Usually, the longer the lens, the narrower you want the transition to be, and the wider the lens a wider grad transition will often work best. It takes experimentation and time to learn what works best for you.

✦ ND graduated filters. The real advantage to ND grads is that they can bring areas of the image that would be out of exposure range (no matter how perfect your exposure is), back into range, and thus retain detail and tonality. With the

Chapter 12 ✦ Landscape and Nature Photography 1Ds Mark III, you have close to nine stops of range. However, if nine stops are taken up by the main area in your image, and the sky is beyond that range, then an ND grad placed over the sky will bring it back into range.

✦ Color graduated filters. In this case the filter transitions from clear to a particular color, such as clear to orange to make the sky appear warmer, or even from one color to another. A wealth of these filters exist to choose from. A nice quality of an optical grad is that it allows you to place the grad just where you

211

want it; the filter moves up and down in the matte box—thus you can see the effect while you’re shooting, rather than imagining how it will look. And your image is that much more complete straight out of the camera, thus saving time in post-processing. Keep in mind that best results are achieved if your horizon is as level as possible and beware of buildings and mountains that might jut out from the horizon and change color or exposure in ways you don’t find pleasing. These filters are items to consider. Your own experimenting will tell you whether you prefer physical filters or to emulate these effects in post production, as in figure 12.7.

12.7 Sunset image, with blue/sepia virtual graduation added in post-production, using the PhotoKit Color 2 plug-in. ISO 200, 1/320 second at f/3.5, 24mm TS-E lens.


Post-Processing Work As in all other areas of digital photography, a lot of the imagery has to do with post-processing work adjustments that are possible these days. From the choice and settings of the RAW processor through to Photoshop and all the tools it contains, as well as all the plug-ins that exist, you’ll find a world of options to help you achieve your vision. There are now many RAW processor choices to choose from. I will say that Iridient Digital’s RAW Developer is one great choice

for landscape work. It has fine shadow and highlight recovery, excellent color tools, and in my mind, the best noise reduction and sharpening tools of any of the RAW processors. RAW Developer helps make any image look its very best. You can find more details about RAW Processor choices in Appendix B.

Within Photoshop, I enjoy using many techniques: Smart Sharpen if sharpening is needed, the Noise Ninja plug-in to reduce noise, and the Alien Skin Exposure II plug-in to create looks that emulate a wide range of films stocks, both color and black and white.

12.8 Cloudy day with a range of post-processing work applied to get the imagery I liked. Tools used include Exposure II presets, some work in the Topaz Adjust plug-in, Photokit Color II, adding a grain layer In CS4, and so on. ISO 400, 1/160 second at f/4.0, 50mm lens.

Chapter 12 ✦ Landscape and Nature Photography The plug-in Viveza from Nik software is an excellent tool for creating instant masks that can select an area and then let you apply changes to just that area. It’s a long list and an expensive one. The goal is not to own every plug-in that exists

213

even if you can afford to. The goal is to find and use the plug-ins that open up opportunities to achieve your particular vision. Many of these programs offer a free trial period, which is a great way to test out a program and determine if it’s worth the money to purchase it.

12.9 After the rain and before the night. This photo actually required very little post work. Believe it or not, that’s what it looked like. ISO 320, 1/200 second at f/1.4, 35mm 1.4L lens.

Appendixes

P

A

R

T

IV ✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Part Appendix A Maintaining the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Appendix B RAW Processor Choices Appendix C Specifications Appendix D Traveling System Example Glossary

✦

✦

✦

✦

Maintaining the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

A

A P P E N D I X

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Appendix Cleaning the sensor Updating the firmware

O

ne of the many joys of working with the EOS-1Ds system is that the cameras are built like tanks and require very little maintenance. The EOS-1Ds Mark III has made preventive maintenance even easier due to a variety of advances:

✦ Ruggedness. The 1Ds Mark III is designed to withstand heavy rain (particularly using weather-sealed lenses). It is weather-sealed against dust and dirt as well.

✦ Temperature range. The camera is officially stated to work between 32 degrees and 113 degrees F. I have no doubt it exceeds those specifications. This prevents major breakdowns and necessary repairs caused by the camera’s exposure to extreme environments.

✦ Battery life. The Battery Pack LP-E4 captures 1,800 images at room temperature and 1,400 images at freezing temperatures. That’s one less item that has to be pulled off the camera and replaced in hostile environments. The more rugged and ruggedly designed, the less maintenance.

✦ Dual cards. If recording in Mirror mode, a breakdown within the main card that could be catastrophic to an assignment is negated as the same images are being recorded onto the SD card.

✦ Ultrasonic sensor cleaner. The sensor cleaner, along with the Dust Delete data, has eliminated most sensor dust issues, long a plague to photographers.

Calibrating lenses Sending your camera in for repair

✦

✦

✦

✦

218 Part IV ✦ Appendixes ✦ Micro adjustment. With the ability for the user to fine-tune the precision focusing between individual lenses and individual 1DsIII bodies Canon has made it much easier to keep lenses calibrated as tightly as possible and thus produce the most accurate focusing, minimizing the necessity, time, expense, and trouble of sending cameras and lenses in for this type of servicing.

✦ User-controlled firmware update. Along with earlier iterations of the 1Ds line, you can update the firmware rather than having to send the camera in for firmware updates. It’s fairly impressive, when you look at all the ways Canon has worked to improve the protection of both the equipment and captured image files. If you have experience with medium-format digital systems, you might be even more appreciative than most of how special and thorough this list of safeguards is. What follows is a description of how these various systems work, as well as ways to go beyond them with additional maintenance.

Cleaning the Sensor Sensor dust used to be a major problem with earlier iterations of the EOS-1Ds , just like it is with most, if not all, digital cameras that lacked some type of sensor cleaning system. Due to the sensors’ build-up of electrostatic charge, they attract dust like magnets attract iron. By incorporating the Self Cleaning Sensor unit as well as Dust Delete data, Canon has all but eliminated this problem. I’ve owned my EOS-1Ds Mark III for about a year now, and so far, no dust has been detected on the sensor.

The EOS Integrated Cleaning system The EOS Integrated Cleaning system consists of the Self Cleaning Unit and Image Delete Data systems. The Self Cleaning Unit contained was designed specifically for the full frame sensor on the EOS-1Ds Mark III. Two piezoelectric elements apply ultrasonic vibration, which shakes off any dust accumulated on the infrared absorption glass, which is attached to the front of the sensor. The dust then sticks to absorbent material lining the glass. Along with this system, the shutter and mirror have been modified to reduce dust, and the low-pass filter uses a process to discharge static electricity. All I can say is, the system works.

Sensor cleaning Auto cleaning Clean now Clean manually

Enable

AA.1 The main Sensor Cleaning menu screen If you normally shoot wide open or close to it, and then photograph with the lens stopped down sharply, say for product photography, don’t be fooled by dust appearing in the images and thinking it’s sensor dust. More likely than not, it’s dust from the lens elements that has been pulled into focus from the added depth of field.

Appendix A ✦ Maintaining the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III The Self Cleaning Unit is activated every time the camera is turned on and off, unless instructed by the Menus system not to. Normally, just turning the camera on or off is enough to eliminate any dust that might have gathered on the sensor (actually, the infrared absorption glass, which is the outermost layer of the low-pass filter that sits above the sensor). You have three other options:

✦ Manually activate the Self Cleaning Unit.

✦ Create a Dust Delete file. ✦ Manually clean the sensor yourself. Please refer to Chapter 2, which covers the Menus system. Under Shooting Menu 2, you’ll see information on how to collect Dust Delete data. Under Setup Menu 3, you’ll find the controls to Enable Auto Clean, Clean Now, and Clean Manually.

Manual cleaning of the sensor Should you need to clean the sensor manually, there are several options. All involve selecting the Manual Cleaning option located in Setup Menu 3. Once you’ve taken the lens off, press the Shutter button; the mirror swings up and the sensor area is revealed. When you are finished, turn the camera off for the shutter assembly to close and reset the shutter.

219

Clean manually Mirror will lockup. After manually cleaning sensor, turn power switch to . Cancel

OK

AA.2 The final screen with instructions before beginning manual cleaning with an exposed sensor

Be sure you have a battery with a healthy charge or are plugged into line current. What you want to avoid is working with a battery that’s just about to run out, which could then close and damage the shutter during the manual clean process.

Here are some options for manually cleaning the sensor, in the order that I’d suggest — starting with the safest. Be sure, if possible, to have a flashlight or other specular, bright light source so that you can, in fact, see what’s happening:

✦ Air blower. Use a manual air blower as a first attempt at dislodging whatever dust might be on the sensor.

✦ Compressed blower. Compressed air also works, but be careful to hold the can straight up and test it before blowing onto the sensor to make sure no liquid is being discharged. You also want a straw tube attached to direct the air. (Some people like this method, others don’t.)

220 Part IV ✦ Appendixes

AA.3 Some items in my cleaning kit: American Recorder CO2 duster kit, compressed air, Eclipse Fluid above Pec Pads, Giotto manual air blower, and three different sizes of the Sensor Brush.

Even better than the big cans of compressed air (actually compressed difluoroethane) is using the small CO2 system from AmericanRecorder.com. Called the CO2 Duster, the carbon dioxide creates no residue and doesn’t break down installed lubricants.

✦ Antistatic brush. There are several antistatic brushes on the market. The concept is that the brush, upon making contact with the sensor, neutralizes the static that is helping to keep the dirt in place, and thus the dirt dislodges. The most well known is the Arctic Butterfly, which you can see and purchase at www. visibledust.com. According to the Web site, by spinning the brush

(it has a rotary motor) before you insert the brush, an antistatic charge is built up. You then insert the brush and swipe the sensor, at which point the dirt is attracted to the brush and gets brushed off.

✦ Sensor Swabs. Photographic Solutions (www.photosol.com) makes some very good products for sensors, lenses, clean rooms, and so on. The Sensor Swab is a onetime-use item and is available in full frame size. Used with Eclipse fluid (from the same folks), you put a drop of Eclipse fluid on the Sensor Swab and then make one pass from one side to the other. Leica, among others, uses this system.

Appendix A ✦ Maintaining the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III You might not need to use anything other than the occasional air blower. However, for the times when a piece of dust just won’t come off, these are some solutions. I must re-state, however, that I’ve never yet had a need to use these techniques with the EOS1Ds Mark III, as it does such a good job of keeping the sensor clean. Be smart when interchanging lenses, particularly when outside and especially when any particulates are in the air. A worst-case example is at the beach. Put your back to the wind and do the best you can to block any wind, sand, or dust from blowing into the opened lens mount.

Updating the Firmware Occasionally, Canon updates the firmware that controls the camera. It’s the firmware that contains and presents the menu items, for example. The last time Canon did this was March 3, 2009 to version 1.1.4. Firmware is software embedded in a chip inside the camera that controls how your camera functions. Firmware updates can improve performance, correct problems that weren’t found or addressed during manufacture, adds new functionality to an existing camera, and so on. Canon updates the firmware periodically, so it is best to check your version and Canon’s Web site at regular intervals. The 1DsIII firmware update 1.1.4 offers these improvements:

✦ Improved Live View ✦ Improved USB communication

221

✦ Updated camera error codes (codes that read out on the LCD monitor if there’s a serious problem with the camera)

Save/load settings on media Regist/apply basic settings Clear all camera settings Sensor cleaning Firmware Ver. 1.1.2

AA.4 The Set-up 3 menu shows the current firmware that is installed. To update your firmware, follow these steps:

1. Go to www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfo Act&fcategoryid=139&modelid=1 5710. This is the main page for the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III in the U.S.; Outside the U.S., you might want to go to the Canon site in your country.

2. Click the Drivers & Downloads tab. 3. Choose your operating system (OS) from the drop-down menu. A list of the downloads available pertaining to the EOS-1Ds Mark III appears, including firmware updates (you may have to scroll down the page to find it). If you don’t have the latest firmware, you can download it from this site.

4. Transfer the new firmware onto a memory card that that is already formatted and free of any images.

222 Part IV ✦ Appendixes 5. Insert the card into your camera. 6. In the Set-up 3 menu, choose the Firmware Version line item by pressing the SET button. Follow

Firmware update program Please Select new firmware version. Current Version is 1.1.2 Card1 : 1DS30112.FIR

Cancel AA.5 The camera is reading the latest firmware download installed on the CF card. In this case, you can see that both files are the same, and no update is necessary. the camera’s on-screen instructions to update the firmware. Make sure a fresh battery is installed, or be running off of external line current. You do not want to interrupt the firmware update while it’s downloading into the camera. If the firmware update is interrupted the firmware might be damaged, and the camera might have to go in for repair.

On March 3, 2009, the same day that Canon released the new firmware for the 1Ds Mark III, it also announced a potential focus problem for 1DsIII cameras that came off the line before June 2008. The central focus captures the focus precisely, but any of the other sensors are a bit soft. Canon is fixing this problem for free. Contact your local Canon service center to find out where to send your camera. This problem exists on some 1DsIIIs, not others, so it’s the user’s choice whether to send the camera in or not. When I tested my camera I found the problem did exist for me, and I sent the body in for the free repair.

Canon recommends two situations that call for using Microadjustment:

✦ If you see a tendency of the camera to consistently focus either in front of or behind where you actually focused, regardless of the lens that is mounted

✦ If you notice a particular lens consistently focusing in front or behind where you aimed the AF

Calibrating Lenses

I can add a third reason: If you’re a perfectionist in terms of wanting your equipment to function at its best, do as I do and test your lenses.

The EOS-1Ds Mark III and the EOS-1D Mark III are the first Canon cameras that allow users to make very fine adjustments to the focus plane on a lens-by-lens basis (as well as on an overall basis). The focus plane can be moved backwards or forwards in very fine increments. This is aimed at tuning the auto-focus to be as precise as possible.

So far, I’ve found most of my lenses to be spot on, with one or two needing minor adjustment. Obviously, the faster your lenses are, and the more wide open you shoot, the more critical this adjustment is. If you like shooting with the 85mm 1.2L wide open, for example, then it’s worth checking out if you suspect a problem.

Appendix A ✦ Maintaining the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III The general concept with this system is to manually focus a lens and then switch the lens to auto-focus, carefully watching the distance scale on the lens as you do so. Use the center auto-focus point only! If the focusing barrel doesn’t move or twitches and returns to the same spot, then your AF is calibrated to the lens. If the focus barrel moves away from the manual focus mark, then the AF needs to be calibrated. Although you can focus on just about anything, I’ve found the easiest setup is to focus on a pattern on your computer monitor that has been created specifically for this purpose. Using Live View to manually focus, as you bring the lens into sharpest focus, the pattern displays the most moiré. You can look on normal magnification or magnify the view; I prefer five times magnification. Then switch to auto-focus and see what the lens barrel does.

223

Moiré is visual interference that appears most vivid and noisy when the lens is brought into sharpest focus. You can access this pattern here: www.northlight-images.co.uk/ article_pages/cameras/1ds3_ af_micoadjustment.html#AF_ test_image. However, make sure to use this pattern on your monitor, not off a printed copy!

If you need to make an adjustment, go to the Custom Function menu and choose C. Fn III: Auto focus/Drive, then choose Item 7: AF Microadjustment. Three choices appear on the screen:

✦ 0. Disable ✦ 1. Adjust all by same amount ✦ 2. Adjust by lens

C. Fn III : Auto focus/Drive AF Microadjustment 0 : Disable 1 : Adjust all by same amount 2 : Adjust by lens

7

0 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 0–0100203 0 0 0 1 0 0 – – AA.7 The initial set of choices on the Microadjustment menu screen

AA.6 This is the moiré pattern that appears on your computer screen and then on the camera’s Live View screen when it has been framed and focused. The pattern is downloaded from the Northlight Images site.

You should set up your camera at least 50x away from the target based on the focal length of the lens. For example, for a 50mm lens, you’d want to be 50×50=2500mm, or 8.2 feet away from the focus target.

224 Part IV ✦ Appendixes Navigate to the choice you want, and press the Set button. Press the Info button to make the change. After pressing the Info button, you see a linear adjustment line starting at –20 (focuses forward) to +20 (focuses backwards). I’ve yet to see a lens need more than 5 or 6 points for the AF to get in line with Manual Focus.

C. Fn III : Auto focus/Drive AF Microadjustment

7

✦ These are not permanent

Backward

AF

+2 –20

–10

0

+10

Canon also suggests making this adjustment at the actual location and setup distance while on assignment if you notice any AF focusing problems. Here are a few further clarifications on using Microadjustment:

EF35mm f/1.4L USM Forward

Figure AA.9 shows an example of what the downloaded pattern looks like on screen when the camera and lens (left) have been brought into maximum moiré and thus optimal focus, and (right) where focus is not yet spot-on.

+20 SET OK

AA.8 The second Microadjustment menu screen where actual AF shift is implemented

changes. Microadjustment does not permanently change your lens or camera. The adjustment remains in effect unless intentionally disabled by the user.

AA.9 The pattern on-screen (left) shows that focus is achieved, and on-screen (right) that focus is not yet achieved.

Appendix A ✦ Maintaining the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III ✦ You can disable Microadjusment. If for any reason you want to turn Microadjustment off, click the Disable button as mentioned earlier. This does not lose the Microadjustment setting you worked on. As soon as you go back to Adjust all by same amount, or Adjust by lens, the camera returns to its previous setting.

✦ The adjustments stay with the camera body. Because the adjustments stay with the camera body, not the lens, if you use the same lens on different camera bodies, then you want to check AF accuracy on each body.

✦ You should adjust for a teleextender. If a lens is fine by itself but the AF goes off with a teleextender, run your tests with the tele-extender on. The EOS-1Ds Mark III considers a lens with a tele-extender on it as a separate lens, and recognizes when a particular lens and particular teleextender are on. Thus, you might have to adjust one setting up to three — one for the lens alone, one for the 1.5x tele-extender, and one for the 2x tele-extender. The camera remembers this and automatically switches to the proper Microadjusment setting to match the lens and extender combination that are currently mounted.

225

Sending Your Camera in for Repair Accidents do happen and equipment does break down at times. There are three methods in the U.S. for sending your camera or other Canon gear in for repair — using CPS, sending the camera to a Canon repair center, or using a local shop. The method you use depends on whether you’re a member of Canon Professional Services (CPS). CPS is open to professional photographers only. You have to qualify to be accepted into the program, and if you are, there are several advantages, including faster processing of repairs. Joining CPS was once free, but recently changed to a three-tiered structure (starting in January of 2009). If accepted into the program, you can choose from three levels of membership: Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Anyone interested has to apply, including current CPS members. Here are just some of the benefits that each level includes:

✦ Silver. Free, event support, lens turnaround of three to five days, repair discount of 20 percent

✦ Gold. $100 annual fee, event support, three-day turnaround, 30 percent repair discount, trial loan priority

✦ Platinum. $500 annual fee, event support, two-day turnaround, 60 percent discount on repairs, trial loan priority

226 Part IV ✦ Appendixes If you are not a CPS member, the other two methods are to send the camera to your regional Canon Service Center, or to send you camera to a local, private repair center. Whether or not you are a member of CPS, I recommend sending your Canon gear to Canon to be repaired, unless you have a local repair shop that is established and personally recommended to you. When you prep your equipment for shipping, send it in the original Canon box the equipment arrived in, if you have it, and use the box that the Canon box was shipped in as well. The original packaging does a good job of protecting the gear. It’s never a bad idea to wrap

the Canon box in plastic to help weatherproof it, just in case the main package ends up in the rain on a tarmac somewhere. Regardless of whether the gear is in original packaging, I suggest double-boxing — that is, placing the item in a second box, and surrounding it with two inches of protection on each side. This can be foam, bubble wrap, or even bunched-up newspaper — anything that helps to add some shock protection. Now that you’ve gone to all the trouble of packing your equipment with care, insure your shipment and make sure to send it via a method that can be tracked.

RAW Processor Choices

B

A P P E N D I X

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Appendix

T

Overview

he software you choose to process your RAW files and how well you can use it has almost as big an impact on image quality as which lens you choose, how you frame and light, or any of the many other steps that are now part of the process of moving a digital image or assignment from vision to finished file.

Canon Digital Photo Professional

Overview

Adove Lightroom 2.2

As you probably know by now, a RAW processor is the software that allows you to modify the RAW file captured when the camera is set to RAW mode. Usually the RAW file type is proprietary to the manufacturer. The RAW processor allows you to adjust many parameters of the image before processing the image to a TIFF, JPEG, PSD, or other file type commonly used in post-production. Some of the current RAW programs available now allow you to print directly from the RAW processor. There are many adjustment choices, including the following:

✦ Overall Exposure. This is an exposure slider that moves the entire file up and down in exposure value.

✦ Controlled Exposure Range. Each program contains various ways to adjust shadows, midtones, and highlights separately.

✦ Exposure Recovery. Each program allows recovery of shadow and highlight detail that previously would have been lost.

Capture One Pro Iridient Digital RAW Developer

Adobe Camera Raw Aperture 2

✦

✦

✦

✦

228 Part IV ✦ Appendixes ✦ Color Temperature. As all the color information in a scene has been captured to the best of its ability by the sensor and into a RAW file, many color adjustments can be made with RAW processors. All programs include adjustments on the yellow/blue and green/magenta axes. Many now also include tools to affect just a limited range of color and apply changes only to that small area.

using whichever is the most appropriate at the moment. The following sections include some of my observations about the various software programs I find most useful. These are my opinions gathered from personal experience. Your opinions and experiences may be different. Also, the software mentioned here is just part of the mix; there’s also Bibble and other processors. But, as I mentioned, these are the ones that I prefer and know work with the 1Ds Mark III.

✦ Sharpness. Sharpness can be set before processing in your imageediting software. Some folks prefer to do their image sharpening once the image is in the software. Others apply subtle presharpening in the RAW stage, adding additional processing during further post-production.

✦ Noise Reduction. All the programs have been improving their noise reduction algorithms. Some people prefer to apply noise reduction only once in their image-editing program; others use both opportunities to reduce noise — at the RAW stage, as well as at the image-editing stage. Happily, there now exist many RAW software processors that do a very good job with Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III files. From another perspective, because there are so many RAW processors, the choices can be a bit overwhelming and the learning curve steep to become familiar with just one of these programs, not to mention several. For myself, I’ve relied on several processors, depending on the job. Each one has unique abilities, as well as missing features, compared to the others. So far, rather than locking into one piece of software, I’ve been

Canon Digital Photo Professional Digital Photo Professional (DPP) is the RAW processor that comes with the EOS-1Ds Mark III, and can be downloaded for free from the Canon Web site. Unappreciated by many, the program creates very good files and is especially good in interpreting Canon color. It’s also the only program that can read crop marks if chosen while shooting. Thus, if you chose a 4:3 aspect ratio, for example, only DPP would show that. It is a simpler interface with more limited options than the other RAW programs mentioned here. When combined with EOS utility, these two programs also offer a robust but limited tethering environment.

Notice in figure AB.1 that the choices are quite simple, while at the same time, picture styles and crops selected in-camera are transferred over — a feature that is unique to this program. There’s a separate RGB window whose adjustments can be used along with the RAW tab’s adjustments, as well as a Noise Reduction and Lens tab.

Appendix B ✦ RAW Processor Choices

229

AB.1 DPP’s RAW controls

Capture One Pro With the current (as of this writing) version, 4.6, Phase One has a mature program that it has been developing and reworking over several years. Capture One Pro was always good, although it had many bugs to contend with due principally to the software being made to work with so many different camera systems. I find the current version in most respects to be a delight, particularly in terms of speed. This program is fast, in terms of bringing up images, making adjustments, and processing images. Its color engine has been completely redesigned and is much better, particularly with skin tones. Sharpening and noise reduction are also

much better than in earlier versions. It’s my current software of choice when I need to work quickly, and particularly with images shot in low light. The program also offers many ways to append IPTC data to files. Through working with the Capture One program over the years, Phase One has achieved a good balance between ease of adjustments and detailed control. The window shown in figure AB.2 is the Quick Control window, which has all the major adjustments in one interface: profile, histogram, white balance, exposure, and HDR. You can even process directly from this window! There are separate tabbed windows for file management, tethered capture, color correction, optical correction, cropping, image


AB.2 Capture One window, looking at the Quick View tab sharpening and noise reduction, image information, and metadata. This is a very intelligently designed user interface! I find Capture One Pro to have the best tethering software — very solid and smart at this point. It’s the best solution for making adjustments to a test image and having those adjustments be applied on the fly to incoming images. The program works well now with two monitors, and so one screen can contain technical information for the digital tech as images come in, and the other can be a large preview of the current capture. And they are better-looking previews in terms of detail and color than ever before.

The latest version of Capture One also allows you to capture images to two locations simultaneously; thus you can build a backup-drive file section as you shoot, rather than at the end of the day.

Iridient Digital RAW Developer Perhaps not as well known as some of its counterparts, RAW Developer produces beautiful imagery. If pure image quality is your goal, then RAW Developer is certainly a contender. It has some unique tools, such as a lightness curve adjustment, independent


231

AB.3 Iridient Digital RAW Developer cool/warm tint control for shadows, midtones, and highlights, and perhaps the best sharpening and noise reduction algorithms of all the programs. The RAW Developer interface contains one main floating palette that contains a number of tabs, broken down into Input settings (incoming exposure, profile, and color), Black and White conversion, Curves adjustments (including Lightness curves), Fine Tune adjustments (notice the unique tint controls for shadows, midtones, and highlights), Sharpen and Noise Reduction (the best, in my opinion), and ‘Out’ (which lets you control how the images are processed out). The second floating palette shows the histogram.

Adobe Lightroom 2.2 Adobe Lightroom 2.2 is one of the best programs mentioned here, and it has a rich workflow environment. As well as processing RAW files, the program offers good Digital Asset Management, which involves ways to add identifying notes to files, organize files, print directly from the program, produce Web sites, contact sheets, and more. Lightroom 2.2 is full of goodies. It has major sections that you choose from the top menu: Library (for file management), Develop (for RAW develop settings), Slideshow, Print (to


AB.4 Adobe Lightroom 2.2 interface

print directly from Lightroom), and Web (to create Web galleries directly from Lightroom). As you look at the Develop tab, you’ll notice the many similarities to Adobe Camera Raw. However, Lightroom contains many other goodies as well, lurking just under the histogram. There’s a refined cropping tool, a spot removal tool, a red eye reduction tool, a new and very cool gradient tool that allows adjustable gradients over the RAW image prior to developing, and finally a localized adjustment brush that allows very quick and quite good auto masking of selections, which you can then adjust in a variety of ways! I find Lightroom 2.2 to be the program of choice in terms of experimenting with files. It’s set up in a way that invites free-thinking exploration of image-tuning possibilities. It

also offers some fairly unique abilities, such as ways to easily choose parts of an image and apply adjustments to those areas only. Lightroom also works quite well in a twomonitor environment.

Adobe Camera Raw The eighth window allows you to both save and load settings. You can save all adjustments that you make or choose just the ones you want to save. This offers an easy way to save and apply particular looks that you like. A lot of folks are perfectly happy with ACR, and it certainly offers an easy workflow. Click on a Canon CR2 RAW image file and it opens in ACR, adjust the RAW


233

AB.5 Adobe Camera Raw interface image, and then send it on to Photoshop. For several reasons it’s not a regular choice for me, but this has to do with many qualities and is not a critique of the program. I’ve recently found turning off the Crop, Straighten, and/or Highlights & Shadows settings greatly improves Aperture’s operating speed. You can click each setting box to turn it off to make other adjustments, and when you click them back on, all settings previously made in those areas are active again.

Aperture 2 Aperture 2 is a wonderful program from Apple (available only for the Mac) that’s made big strides since its first version. It’s a

full program like Lightroom 2, and to a lesser extent, Capture One. I find there’s an extra bit of quality I can pull from 1Ds Mark III files here that I can’t get from the other programs, although as stated, they really are all very good. Aperture files often feel richer, more film-like, and more like medium-format shots. The drawback is that even with a relatively fast computer, the program is slow. I generally work on a MacBook Pro with 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 4GB of SDRAM, on hard disks with a lot of room. This is a quantum leap over my previous G4 machine. That said, when I drag an adjustment slider in Aperture 2, I often have to wait for the program to catch up, and that sluggish feeling can be, truly, a ‘drag.’ Similarly, an image that might process in eight seconds in Capture One could take a minute in Aperture 2.


AB.6 Aperture 2 interface Aperture 2 offers a very clean interface that gives you a great deal of fine control. There are three main tabbed windows: Projects, Metadata, and Adjustments. There are separate buttons on top that are self explanatory, as well as buttons below the image that offer controls such as leveling, tagging, cropping, red eye reduction, and more. The Aperture interface takes a bit of time to learn, but once you’ve mastered the controls, the program is almost intuitive in nature. Notice in the Adjustments tab that the first choice is RAW Fine Tuning. There are settings for Boost, Hue Boost, Sharpening, Edge Sharpening, Moiré, and Auto Noise Compensation.

I don’t think Aperture 2’s sharpening and noise reduction are the best of the group, but they’re very good. The bottom line is that I just like what I can do with the files in this program. All of these programs are now very good, and it takes a bit of time and experimenting to see which ones work best for your vision and workflow setup. One word of caution: all of these programs, at this point in time, want a fast system to work with. Perhaps they’ll function on a G4 machine or concurrent Windows version, but I strongly suggest upgrading to at least an Intel machine on the Mac side and a machine made within the last year or so for any of the programs to operate at a comfortable speed. The faster the processor(s) and the more memory you have to work with, the better.

Specifications Type Camera: Digital single-lens reflex AF/AE camera Recording media: Type I or II CF card, SD/SDHC memory card, microdrives larger than 2MB Image sensor: Full Frame, 24mm × 36mm Compatible lenses: All Canon EF lenses except EF-S lenses Lens mount: Canon EF mount

Image Sensor Type: High-sensitivity and high-resolution single-plate CMOS Pixels: Effective, 21.1 megapixels; Total, 21.9 megapixels Aspect ratio: 3:2 (same as 35mm film) Color filter system: RGB color Low Pass filter: In front of image sensor, non-removable Dust Deletion:

✦ Automatic Sensor Cleaning ✦ User-Activated Sensor Cleaning ✦ Dust Delete data appended to captured image

C

A P P E N D I X

✦

✦

✦

✦


Recording System Image types: RAW, JPEG, Simultaneous RAW+ JPEG Filename options: Preset code, User setting1 (four characters), User setting2 (three characters plus one image size character) File numbering choices: Continuous, Auto Reset, Manual Reset Picture Styles: Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, User Defined 1, 2, 3 Recording methods with two cards:

✦ Standard ✦ Auto switch media ✦ Record separately — specified image size for each card

✦ Record to multiple — same image size records to each card Image copy: Images can be copied from one card to the other

Magnification: Approximately .76 Eyepoint: Approximately 20mm Built-in diopter: –3 to +1 Focusing screen: Interchangeable types); Standard screen: Ec-CIV

(11

Mirror: Quick-return half-mirror transmission Viewfinder information:

✦ AF information (AF points, focus confirmation light)

✦ Metering and exposure (metering mode, spot meter circle, shutter speed, aperture, manual exposure, AE Lock, ISO speed, exposure level, exposure warning)

✦ Flash information (flash ready light, FP flash, FE Lock, flash exposure level)

✦ White Balance correction ✦ JPEG/RAW recording ✦ Maximum burst, number of shots remaining

✦ Battery check

White Balance Settings: Auto, daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten light, white fluorescent, flash, custom (total of five), specified color temperature setting, personal white balance (total of five).

Viewfinder Type: Eye-level pentaprism Coverage: Approximately 100 percent

✦ Recording Media information ✦ Depth of field preview (enabled with depth-of-field preview button, visible)

✦ Eyepiece shutter (built in)

Autofocus Type: TTL-AREA-SLR with CMOS sensor AF points: 19 AF cross-type points, 26 assist AF points, for a total of 45 points

Appendix C ✦ Specifications Focus modes: One-Shot AF, AI Servo AF, Manual Focusing AF Point Selection choices: Automatic 45 point, Manual 19 point Selected AF point: Superimposed in viewfinder, as well as in top LCD panel AF Assist Beam: Emitted by the dedicated external Speedlite

Exposure Control Metering modes utilizing 63 zones:

✦ Evaluative Metering ✦ Partial Metering (8.5 percent at center)

✦ Spot Metering — center spot (2.4 percent), AF point linked spot, multi-spot reading

237

Shutter Type: Electronic focal plane Shutter speeds: 1/8000 to 30 seconds, plus bulb Shutter release: Soft-touch, electromagnetic, or remote release with N3 terminal Self Timer: 10-second or 2-second delay

Drive System Drive modes: Single, High-Speed Continuous, Low-Speed Continuous, Self Timer Continuous shooting: High Speed, maximum 5 fps; Low Speed, maximum 3 fps Maximum burst: RAW, 12; JPEG Large, 56; RAW+JPEG Large, 10

✦ Average Metering Recommended exposure index: ISO 100– 1600, expandable to ISO 50–3200

External Speedlite Compatible flash: EX-series Speedlites

Exposure Compensation: Manual, +/–3 stops in 1/3- or 1/2-stop increments

Flash metering: E-TTLII autoflash

Auto Exposure Bracketing: +/–3 stops in 1/3- or 1/2-stop increments

Flash compensation: +/–3 stops in 1/3- or 1/2-stop increments

Auto Exposure Lock (AE Lock):

FE Lock: Provided

✦ Auto — Applied in one-shot AF with evaluative metering once focus is achieved

✦ Manual — Press the AE Lock button in any metering mode

PC terminal: Provided


Live View Function Shooting modes:

✦ Shooting Mode 1 Remote Live View shooting (with personal computer and EOS Utility software)

✦ Shooting Mode 2 Live View shooting in-camera Focusing: Manual Metering modes: Evaluative metering with image sensor Magnified view: Either 5x or 10x at selected AF point Grid display: Provided Exposure simulation: Provided

LCD Monitor Type: TFT color liquid crystal Size: 3 inches Pixels: 230,000 Coverage: 100 percent Brightness levels: 7

Image Playback Choices: Single image, single image+image size, shooting info, histogram, 4- or 9-image index (contact sheet view), magnified zoom, rotated image, jump by 1/10/100 images Highlight alert: Provided for overexposure

Image Protection and Erase Protect choices: One image, all images in one folder, entire card Erase: One image, all images with check mark in a folder, all images on the memory card (except images chosen to be locked and protected)

Sound Recording Sound recording with built-in microphone attached to the image File type: WAV Recording time: 30 seconds maximum per clip

Direct Printing Compatible printers: PictBridge-compatible printers Printable images: JPEG and RAW/sRAW captured with 1Ds Mark III

Customization 57 Custom functions C.Fn setting registration: Provided My Menu registration: Provided Save camera settings: Provided Register basic settings: Provided

Appendix C ✦ Specifications

Interface USB: For computer communication Video Out terminal: NTSC or PAL selection Extension System terminal: For WFT-E2/ E2A wireless transmission

Power Source Battery: Battery Pack LP-E4 with a life of 1,800 shots at 23 degrees C (73 degrees F) or 1,400 shots at 0 degrees C (32 degrees F)

239

Dimensions and Weight Dimensions: 156×159.6×79mm (6.1×6.3× 3.1 inches) Weight: 1210 grams (42.7 ounces), body only

Operating Environment

AC power: using AC adaptor kit ACK-E4

Temperature range: 0–45 degrees C (32– 113 degrees F)

Battery check: Automatic

Working humidity: 85 percent or less

Power Save: Provided Date/Time battery: One CR2025 lithium Startup time: 2 seconds

Traveling System Example

D

A P P E N D I X

✦

✦

✦

✦

In This Appendix

I

decided to describe my basic location system, though not as an indication of what anyone else must or should carry. Everyone’s approach is a bit different, and it should be. Depending on your style — whether you shoot local or travel by air a great deal, your workflow, turnaround time, budget, and type of assignments — your equipment will reflect all of these realities.

Camera case Lighting case Stand case Power cable and sandbag case Extras you may need

I tend to carry the same camera equipment much of the time, and vary the lighting equipment to suit the job. Equipment will vary due to the size of the shoot, of course, as well as other factors such as the color temperature of the location ambience, if the lighting ambiance is in fact going to be used — low light in particular can be overridden with a strobe. Strobes only? Kino Flo fluorescent? HMIs? Tungsten lights? So much depends on color temperature. Both my camera case and main lighting case have built-in wheels and extendable handles. Don’t underestimate the value of these features in choosing your cases! Your body will thank you at the end of each working day. Currently I have one basic lighting case that is strobe-based, where all my lights and most of my modifiers fit. In addition to the camera and main lighting case, there’s always a stand case as well as a case for power cables and sandbags. As the job gets bigger, I might add more softboxes, other reflectors, grip stands, an Elinchrom 6-foot Octabank, Diva-Lites, Dedolights, as well as more strobes when necessary.

✦

✦

✦

✦


AD.1 Camera case, cable bag, lighting case, and stands/umbrellas case Currently, I shoot with mono lights and one battery multi-head pack. This strobe inventory has less to do with a coherent plan and more with when my lights were acquired. There is the advantage of multiple independent sources in terms of backup redundancy, although I plan to add at least another multi-head power back to the main system eventually.

lenses are removed as per the requirements of each assignment.

✦ Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III body with two rechargeable batteries

✦ Canon EOS-5D battery with two rechargeable batteries, L tripod plate, AA battery insert

✦ RS-80N3 Remote Release ✦ Various bubble levels

Camera Case The standard case I use covers most assignments. Here’s what I carry, which is good for most portrait, advertising/lifestyle, and event assignments that I cover. And yes, this all fits in the one case, though normally one or two

✦ Assorted masked focusing screens ✦ Assorted CF cards in protective cases

✦ 24-70mm 2.8L zoom lens ✦ 35mm 1.4L lens ✦ 45mm 2.8 TSE lens

Appendix D ✦ Traveling System Example ✦ 50mm 1.2L lens ✦ 70mm Sigma 2.8 EX DG Macro lens ✦ 85mm 1.2 lens ✦ 135mm 2.0L lens ✦ Canon 430 EX flash with spare batteries

✦ Metz 54 MZ-3 backup flash, Canon adapter with spare batteries

✦ Flash accessories (Lightsphere, Stoffen, Big Bounce)

✦ ST-E2 Speedlite transmitter ✦ 03-EC off shoe cord ✦ USB tether cables for computer ✦ Lens cleaner, sensor cleaner, cleaning cloths, Giotto air blower

✦ One gray card and one white balance kit for color balance, one mini Macbeth color checker chart

✦ Minolta Flash Meter IV ✦ Color meter if balancing in mixedlight environments and adding gels to lights

✦ Flashlight, Allen wrenches, jeweler’s screwdrivers, gaffer’s tape

✦ Anti-shine makeup and makeup wedge appliers When necessary, I rent super-wides, other tilt-shift lenses, long zooms, or white lens telephotos.

243

Lighting Case The main lighting case I use is small, yet densely packed; it contains multiple heads, reflectors, grids, and more (see the following). The case is the Lowe Pro Pro Roller.

✦ Ranger RX-AS battery-operated power pack for two heads: 6 watt seconds to 1200 watt seconds range (spare batteries in car)

✦ Elinchrom Ranger standard strobe head

✦ Ringflash for Ranger RX-AS batteryoperated power pack.

✦ Hensel Octa Haze diffusion system for Ringflash

✦ Elinchrom 600 (1200 separate if needed)

✦ One or two Dynalite Uni-400 strobe heads. These are small, light, and almost indestructible.

✦ Multiple reflectors for Elinchrom and one set for Dynalite

✦ Pocket Wizard wireless flash system ✦ Elinchrom Skyport wireless flash system

✦ AC cables, sync cables ✦ Honeycomb grids, set of four ✦ Expendables (clothespins, gaffer’s tape, and various gels)

✦ Multiple Flex fills (white/silver/gold reflective, plus two diffusers)


AD.2 This is just some of what the lighting and stand cases contain.

Stand Case My stand case is pretty straightforward though it packs a lot. Here’s what it typically contains.

✦ Five stands at various heights, including super-low stand

✦ Two Photek double-bounce umbrellas with front diffusers, and two regular umbrellas

✦ Two tripods: Gitzo with Arca ball for camera, and tilt-all with crew on plate for my laptop computer to sit on (it’s strapped in place, and it’s case has an included hood).

✦ One extra-small softbox with eggcrate grid, and one medium (or small) softbox with egg-crate grid.

✦ Black wrap foil

Appendix D ✦ Traveling System Example

245

Power Cable and Sandbag Case

✦ A Boom stand — a rolling stand

Rather than a true case, for transporting cables and sandbags, I normally use a heavyduty canvas bag that carries non-breakables, such as power cables, outlet strips to distribute power, sandbags (actually smaller bags filled with buck shot), and so on.

✦ Rubber mats to cover cables on the

For air travel, this bag fits inside a heavyduty duffel bag — military style or scuba tank bags both do a good job.

✦ More strobe heads and generators

with a counter-balanced boom on the top. Mine is made by Redwing.

✦ Extra sandbags and cables ground where pedestrians cross them

✦ Computer with shade for tethered jobs, including back-up and troubleshooting disks

✦ Elinchrom Octa Light, or other large-light source light modifiers.

✦ Various beauty dish reflectors, Mola

Extras You May Need There are always a few extra things that you need to bring, which vary from job to job, but the following list includes items that I’ve had to bring to shoots on a fairly regular basis:

✦ Heavy-duty grip stands with arms, from one to a half dozen or more, depending on the job.

reflectors

✦ Backgrounds and stand systems when needed

✦ Ladders — always try to have one in the car

✦ More softboxes ✦ Tungsten package (Dedolights, 1K Fresnel, and so on)

✦ Fluorescent package (two DivaLites, plus more if needed)

✦ HMI package (two Joker Bug Lites, plus more if needed)

Glossary AE (Automatic Exposure) lock Enables the exposure to be locked until the shutter is released, allowing the camera to be reframed without the exposure changing. AF (Autofocus) The camera and lens automatically focus on the subject, using one of several choices set by the user, including single or multiple focus points, and single focus lock versus AI focus, where the camera automatically adjusts the focus point as it tracks the subject’s movement towards or away from the camera. AF lock A camera mode that locks the focus until shutter release, allowing the image to be reframed. Aperture Priority mode The mode where the user manually selects the aperture while the camera’s computer selects the exposure time. AV (Aperture Value) The number that represents how far open the aperture is, and thus how much light is being allowed through the aperture. The lower the number, the wider the aperture is and the more light is being let in. Also denotes Aperture Priority exposure mode on many cameras, including the 1Ds MkIII. AWB (Automatic White Balance) The color temperature setting that instructs the camera to automatically choose the proper white balance. barrel distortion A lens aberration that causes straight lines to bow outward towards the edges of the image.

GL G L O S S A R Y

✦

✦

✦

✦

248 Part IV ✦ Appendixes bit depth The number of bits per pixel, which determines how many colors and tones can be captured. The 1Ds Mark III utilizes 14-bit depth. bokeh The shape and quality of out-of-focus elements in the image. This is strongly affected by how many blades the aperture contains: more blades and a rounder aperture typically result in more attractive bokeh. bounce light Any light that bounces off a reflective surface such as foamcore, a white or silver lighting umbrella, the ground, the side of a white building, and so on. Bounce light has a soft, attractive quality, though beware of light that bounces off of nonwhite objects, such as a yellow wall or lightgreen ceiling.

CCD (Charged Coupled Device) One of the two main digital sensor types. A CCD applies a charge to the sensor prior to exposure that’s then converted to electrical signals upon exposure. chromatic aberration The phenomenon where a particular lens bends different colors at different angles, resulting in color fringing along high-contrast edges. The 1Ds Mark III’s biggest chromatic aberration problem is seen as magenta lines along these edges. CMOS (Complementary MetalOxide Semiconductor) A type of digital sensor with advantages that include less power consumption and thus less heat and noise. The 1Ds Mark III utilizes a CMOS sensor designed by Canon.

bracket To take multiple exposures within a chosen range of settings. Exposure and color temperature are two elements that can be bracketed.

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) This is one of the main color spaces used in photography, particularly where four-color printing is concerned.

buffer Temporary memory storage that holds data (such as a digital image) until it can be written to an internal card or external hard disk.

color balance This normally refers to the overall color in an image from capture through final print — that is, if the image appears with neutral black, gray, and white tones or is shifted either in the yellow/blue or magenta/green axis. See also color temperature.

Bulb The exposure setting that allows the shutter to remain open as long as the shutter release is held down or locked in the open position. camera profile An ICC color profile that aids in interpreting the colors the camera is capturing. There are average camera profiles for specific models. Custom profiles for individual cameras can be created as well.

color cast A color balance that is not neutral and continues a visible color shift. color temperature A light source’s specific color identification as determined by where it falls on the yellow/blue and magenta/ green spectrums.

Glossary

249

contrast The amount and quality of tonal range in an image. An image with more contrast has more extreme tones, while an image with less contrast has more middle tones.

flare Unwanted light that bounces around inside a lens, reducing image quality, particularly in terms of fogging shadow areas and lowering saturation.

DPI (Dots Per Inch) Refers to the number of dots a printer can apply within an inch.

Focusing screen The screen upon which the image is projected for viewing through the eyepiece and which is interchangeable with various choices available to the photographer. These include different focusing mechanisms and focusing screens with crop marks to indicate various aspect rations such as 1:1 (square) and 4:5.

DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) Allows direct printing from camera to printer. EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) A widely used data storage format that records image information which can later be accessed, such as the date the image was taken, the shutter and aperture settings used, the lens used, and the amount of exposure or flash compensation. extension tube A metal tube that fits between the camera and lens, allowing closer minimum focus. filter Any piece of glass or plastic that is placed in front of (or occasionally behind) the lens and possesses a particular optical quality. The range of qualities includes reducing overall exposure, creating a graduated exposure, changing the colors, and softening the image. FireWire A high-speed data transfer standard that allows devices to send information to each other. There are two current FireWire standards: FireWire 400 and the newer and faster FireWire 800. firmware Software that is implanted in a camera’s electronics. The 1Ds Mark III’s firmware is occasionally updated by Canon to include new and improved features, and can be installed by the user.

full-size sensor In the case of the 1DsIII a full-frame sensor is the same size as the area captured with 35mm film stock. gigabyte Often referred to as a gig, this refers to one billion bytes of information. Storage devices are identified in part by how much information they can contain, previously in megabytes, often usually in gigabytes, up to terabytes and beyond. gray card A neutral card that aids in taking accurate reflective light readings of the exposure, as well as the color of light striking the subject. Typically 18 percent gray, or middle gray, this was used originally for film, although a lighter gray reading is often more accurate with digital sensors. High-speed sync A setting available when using the 1Ds Mark III and Canon Speedlites, this allows the shutter to be set beyond its normal maximum value of 1/250 second. This is particularly useful when photographing outside in bright light while using fill flash to soften shadows.

250 Part IV ✦ Appendixes histogram A graph that visually displays the range of image tones from black to white, as well as how much information is contained within various parts of the exposure range. Histograms look like mountain ranges and are essential in evaluating exposure, particularly in determining if the image contains elements that are under- and/or overexposed.

kilobyte One thousand bytes of information.

hot shoe The mount on top of the camera where on-camera flashes are attached. The hot shoe contains electronic contacts that allow communication between the camera and flash.

lithium ion (Li-ion) A rechargeable battery technology that improves upon earlier Ni-Cad (nickel cadmium) rechargeable batteries.

IS (Image Stabilization) Technology that reduces camera vibration and thus assists images in not losing sharpness when recorded at low shutter speeds, particularly handheld, at least images without their own inherent motion. Canon uses IS within designated lenses; other systems have IS built into the camera. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) Used to refer to a file format that compresses the image data, resulting in images with smaller file sizes. The format is lossy (information can be lost) and you can often choose the level of compression — from 10 to 12, which results in the least compression and the highest quality, to low numbers that create smaller-sized files at the expense of loss of detail and unintended image artifacts. See also lossy. Kelvin (K) The scale that’s used to describe how warm or cool a light source is. For example, tungsten light is nominally 3200 K K; daylight with sun is nominally 5600 K.

light meter An instrument that measures the exposure level, built into most modern cameras. They are also available as separate devices that can read general reflected light, very narrow angle-reflected light (spot meters), flash exposure, and color temperature.

lossless A type of image compression where all data is retained. Thus the file size is smaller than a RAW image, but there is no loss of quality or detail in the image. lossy A type of image compression where data can be lost and thus the image quality is affected. JPEGs captured at low quality settings can display artifacts, lose subtle color transitions, and in other ways find their image quality adversely affected. Manual Exposure The camera setting where the user sets both the aperture and shutter speed, and the camera has no part in determining exposure. megabyte One million bits of data. megapixel One million pixels. microdrive A removable drive or micro hard disk that fits into the compact flash slot on a camera. Due to the moving mechanical parts, many users consider this less reliable than CF cards.

Glossary noise In digital imagery, this refers to unwanted visible artifacts that become increasingly yapparent at higher ISOs as well greater underexposure. There are two types of noise: luminance noise, which adds monochromatic noise to the image, and chrominance noise, which adds color artifacts to the image. pincushion distortion A lens aberration that causes straight lines to bow inward to the center of the image. pixel Short for pixel element, this is the smallest piece of data in a digital image. plug-in Third-party software that interfaces with existing and normally more complex software. Program mode The most automated exposure mode; the camera chooses both shutter speed and f-stop based on various computed criteria. RAM (Random Access Memory) A computer’s processing memory capacity. RAW The image file choice that has the minimum amount of processing applied incamera. Images are lossless, and a greater range of color temperatures can be applied during RAW conversion. RAW + JPEG One of the file-format recording setups on the 1Ds Mark III, this allows RAW data to be captured to one of two inserted cards, while JPEG data is recorded onto the second card. RAW +JPEG can also be recorded together onto the same card.

251

Rear curtain sync Applies to camera flashes such as Speedlites. This setting fires the flash at the very end of available light exposure, rather than the default position where the flash is fired at the start of ambient exposure capture. resolution How much data is available for an image. Resolution can be expressed as a megapixel value, pixel dimensions, dots per inch on a printer, and so on. RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) mode One of the primary color models in digital photography. Ring flash A flash unit with a circular flash tube designed to fit around the lens, although it can be used off-lens as well. It can also be modified with various accessories. shutter The mechanism in a camera that controls the amount of time light is allowed to strike the sensor. On the 1Ds Mark III, this range goes from B (bulb) exposure to 1/8000 second. shutter Priority mode This is the exposure mode where the photographer determines the shutter speed and the camera determines the aperture value. Slow sync Also known as ‘dragging the shutter.’ A relatively slow shutter speed is used along with flash exposure, allowing ambient light to expose more of the background. sRAW A proprietary Canon format, this functions as a RAW image with minimum in-camera processing; however, it is onequarter the resolution and one-half the file size. Thus, a 1Ds Mark III sRAW file is approximately 5 megapixels.

252 Part IV ✦ Appendixes standard lens A lens whose focal length most resembles how the eye sees. Open to interpretation, with ‘35mm’ systems such as the 1Ds Mark III, this normally refers to a 50mm lens, although some would argue as wide as 35mm. synchronize Also known as ‘sync,’ this refers to the timing of any two devices. It normally refers to the flash unit firing precisely when the shutter is fully opened. TIFF (Tagged-Image File Format) A lossless, non-compressed file format used by both Mac and Windows systems. It is often a popular way to save and deliver finished images. See also lossless. Tv Stands for ‘time value’ and is the same as shutter speed. Also denotes Shutter Priority exposure mode on many cameras, including the 1Ds MK III.

UD Signifies ultralow dispersion, a lens quality that helps to correct chromatic aberrations (see above) vignetting Darkening of the edges of an image, usually most apparent in certain lenses viewed with the aperture wide open. Although not desirable in lenses, vignetting is often added in the retouching stage to help draw the viewer’s eye to the center of the frame. Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) This system allows for wireless communication between one Wi-Fi-enabled device and another. For example, the Canon WFT-E2A attachment accessory mounts on the 1Ds Mark III and can send images wirelessly to the computer.

Index NUMERICS 14-bit color, 146 14mm f/2.8L lens, 82, 89, 96, 193, 209 16-35mm f/2.8L II zoom lens, 92 17-40mm f/4.0L zoom lens, 92 17mm TS-E lens, 191, 193 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom lens, 92–96, 160–161 24mm f/1.4L lens, 96 24mm TS-E lens, 90–92, 96, 191, 209 35mm f/1.4L lens, 88–89, 96, 159–160, 163 45mm TS-E lens, 96 50mm f/1.2L lens, 86–87, 89, 95–96, 158, 209 50mm f/1.4L lens, 86–88 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro lens, 96, 101 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS zoom lens, 93, 97–98 70-200mm f/4L zoom lens, 93, 158 85mm f/1.2L lens, 85–87, 89, 95–96, 158–159, 209 90mm TS-E lens, 91–92, 159–160 135mm f/2.0L lens, 96, 209 200mm f/2.0L lens, 96–100, 160, 209 220EX Speedlite, 104 430EX II Speedlite, 107–108 430EX Speedlite, 110, 114, 116–117 580EX II Speedlite, 106–107, 117–118

A A (Aperture Priority) mode, 6, 247 Adjusting On Camera or Flash mode, 55 adjustments, Capture One Pro 4.6, 71 Adobe Camera Raw, 232–233 Adobe Lightroom 2.0, 76–77 Adobe Lightroom 2.2, 231–232 Adobe Photoshop HDR image, 54–55 inverting images, 210 Merge to HDR feature, 207–208 optical correction tools, 200–201 post-processing, 212 advertising photography advantages, 143–147 avoiding downtime, 147–148 lenses, 149–151 limitations, 143–147 post-production work, 151–152

processing, 151–152 tethered shooting, 148–149 AE (Automatic Exposure) lock, 10, 247 AE Lock/Reduce button, 9, 10, 11 AF (Autofocus) advantages of, 194 AF point disp option, 30 AF Point Selection/Magnify button, 10 AF-Drive button, 6–8 defined, 247 focus points, 4 AF lock, 247 AF Microadjustment, 48 AF point disp option, Playback menu 2, 30 AF Point Selection/Magnify button, 9, 10 AF Start button, 9–10 AF Stop buttons, Canon 200mm f/2.0L lens, 100 AF-Drive button, 6–8 AF-MF switch, Canon 200mm f/2.0L lens, 99 AI focus mode, 7 AI Servo Auto Focus mode, 46–47 air blower, 219 ALPA 12 MAX/Phase One P45+, 197 antistatic brush, 220 Aperture 2, 233–234 Aperture 2.2, 70 Aperture Priority (A) mode, 6, 247 Aperture Value (AV), 247 Apochromatic Optics (APO), 84 AppleJack program, 78 Apply command, Custom Functions menu, 40 Arca Cube, 199 architectural photography Jon Roemer, 195–197 overview, 191–194 post-processing work, 200–202 requirements of, 189–191 techniques, 198–200 Arctic Butterfly brush, 220 Arri 18000 watt HMI Fresnel, 137 aspect-ratio frame lines, 18 Auto power off option, Set-up menu 1, 31 Auto Reset setting, Set-up menu 1, 32 Auto rotate option, Set-up menu 1, 32–33, 76 Auto switch media option, Set-up menu 1, 31 auto-exposure bracketing, 8

254 Index ✦ A—C Autofocus (AF) advantages of, 194 AF point disp option, 30 AF Point Selection/Magnify button, 10 AF-Drive button, 6–8 focus points, 4 specifications, 236–237 Automatic Exposure (AE) lock, 10, 247 automatic flash exposure sensor, 580EX II Speedlite, 106–107 Automatic Focus mode, 47–48 Automatic Focus point selection, 46 Automatic White Balance (AWB), 23, 60, 247 AV (Aperture Value), 247 available light, 123–127, 162–164 Average flash mode, 55 AWB (Automatic White Balance), 23, 60, 247

B baby photography, 164–165 back view of camera, 9 background, seamless, 166 backups, equipment, 44, 148 barrel distortion, 84, 190, 247 Basic Settings drop-down menu, EOS Utility, 71–73 battery extended life, 4 importance of charging, 219, 222 life, 217 rechargeable, 140–141 battery generators, 128 Battery info option, Set-up menu 2, 33–34 battery level indicator, 16 battery pack, 105–106 battery unit, 140–141, 184 beauty dish, 129, 131 beauty photography, 168–171 Beep option, Shooting menu 2, 28 bit depth, 248 black-and-white images, 25, 62, 164 blimped generator, 141 bokeh, 85, 248 bottom-right buttons, 12 bounce light, 248 bracketing auto-exposure, 8 defined, 248 exposure, 52–54 White Balance, 24 brightness histograms, 30 budget, lighting, 122 buffer, 248 build quality 430EX II, 107 lens, 85, 94

Bulb drive mode setting, 6, 56, 248 burst buffer, 4 burst rate, 62

C cable release, 56–57 calibrating battery, 33–34 lenses, 222–225 camera case, 242–243 Camera Control window, EOS Utility, 73 camera profile, 248 Camera Raw, 232–233 Canon 135mm f/2.0L lens, 96, 209 Canon 14mm f/2.8L lens, 82, 89, 96, 193, 209 Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II zoom lens, 92 Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L zoom lens, 92 Canon 17mm TS-E tilt shift lens, 191, 193 Canon 200mm f/2.0L lens, 96–100, 160, 209 Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom lens, 92–96, 160–161 Canon 24mm f/1.4L lens, 96 Canon 24mm TS-E lens, 90–92, 96, 191, 209 Canon 35mm f/1.4L lens, 88–89, 96, 159–160, 163 Canon 45mm TS-E lens, 96 Canon 50mm f/1.2L lens, 86–87, 89, 95–96, 158, 209 Canon 50mm f/1.4L lens, 86–88 Canon 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro lens, 96, 101 Canon 5DII, 58 Canon 5DmkII, 58 Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS zoom lens, 93, 97–98 Canon 70-200mm f/4L zoom lens, 93, 158 Canon 85mm f/1.2L lens, 85–87, 89, 95–96, 158–159, 209 Canon 90mm TS-E lens, 91–92, 159–160 Canon Digital Photo Professional, 228–229 Canon Ec-S Super Precision Matte screen, 48 Canon Extension Tube 12 II, 101 Canon Extension Tube EF 25 II, 101 Canon L fast lenses, 177 Canon L lenses, 85–88, 149–151 Canon L zoom lenses, 81–83, 92, 150 Canon off-camera shoe cord OC-E3, 105 Canon Professional Services (CPS), 225–226 Canon repair center, 225 Canon software RAW files, 25 for tethered shooting, 71–74 Canon Speedlites 430EX, 107–108 430EX II, 107–108 580EX II, 106–107 add-on modifiers for Gary Fong Lightsphere, 111 Lumiquest Big Bounce, 111–112

Index ✦ C portable ring lights, 112–113 Sto-Fen modifier, 112 exposing with considerations, 109 E-TTL II, 110 FEL button, 110–111 manual exposure, 111 overview, 103–106 remote triggering with, 115–118 specifications, 237 using in various lighting situations daylight, 113–114 dim interiors and exteriors, 115 low light, 115 Canon’s Remote Switch RS-80N3, 56 Capture Integration, 77 Capture One Pro 4.6 overview, 229–230 tethered shooting, 70–71 Capture subfolder, 70 captured image rotation, 76 cards CF backing up, 27, 178 Function button, 11–12 loading camera settings to, 34 recording options, 31 slot for, 14 tethered shooting, 75–76 dual, 217 format, 29 gray, 249 memory JPEG files, 15–16 RAW files, 14–15 sRAW files, 14–15 SD backing up, 27, 178 Function button, 11–12 loading camera settings to, 34 recording options, 31 slot for, 14 tethered shooting, 75–76 catalog work, 169 catch light, 126–127 catchlight panel, 580EX II Speedlite, 106 CCD (Charged Coupled Device), 248 Center-Weighted Average metering mode, 51 central processing unit (CPU), 75 CF (CompactFlash) cards backing up, 27, 178 Function button, 11–12 loading camera settings to, 34 recording options, 31 slot for, 14 tethered shooting, 75–76

255

C.Fn I - Exposure option, 36, 52–53 C.Fn II - Image/Flash Exposure/Display option, 37 C.Fn II-1 - Long exposure noise reduction setting, 57 C.Fn II-2 High ISO Speed Noise Reduction setting, 58 C.Fn III - Auto Focus/Drive option, 37–38 C.Fn III-16: Continuous Shooting Speed setting, 56 C.Fn III-6 menu, 100 C.Fn IV, Item 11-Focusing Screen setting, 48 C.Fn IV - Operation/Others option, 39–40 C.Fn setting register/apply menu item, 40–41 Charged Coupled Device (CCD), 248 checklists, equipment, 44 child photography, 164–166 chromatic aberration, 190, 248 cleaning sensor dust spots, 28 EOS Integrated Cleaning system, 218–219 manual, 219–221 self-cleaning, 4 Set-up menu 3, 35 ultrasonic, 217 Clear all camera settings option, Set-up menu 3, 35 Clear All Custom Functions menu item, 40 Cloudy WB setting, 60 CMOS (Complementary MetalOxide Semiconductor), 248 CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black), 146, 248 CO2 Duster, 220 color balance, 248 color cast, 248 Color Editor, Capture One Pro 4.6, 71 color graduated filters, 211 color noise, 58 color rendition, lens, 85 Color space option, Shooting menu 1, 24 color temperature defined, 248 fluorescent light, 60–61 JPEGs, 16, 205 planning lighting setup, 122 RAW processors, 228 RAWs, 16, 205 color-palette, 24 Compact Battery Pack CP-E4, 105–106 CompactFlash (CF) cards backing up, 27, 178 Function button, 11–12 loading camera settings to, 34 recording options, 31 slot for, 14 tethered shooting, 75–76 Complementary MetalOxide Semiconductor (CMOS), 248 compressed blower, 219–220

256 Index ✦ C—E compression settings, JPEG, 27 Confirm Settings command, 41 Continuous setting, 32 continuous shooting, 4 contrast, defined, 249 contrast, lens, 84 contrast range, exposure, 121 controllability, strobes, 128 corporate events challenges and limitations, 179, 186–187 overview, 176 covers, port, 12–13 CPS (Canon Professional Services), 225–226 CPU (central processing unit), 75 cultural considerations, corporate event, 187 Custom Functions menu 200mm f/2.0L telephoto lens, 100 C.Fn setting register/apply menu item, 40–41, 52–53 Clear All Custom Functions menu item, 40 overview, 22, 35–40 Custom WB registration option, Shooting menu 1, 23–24 Custom White Balance, 23–24, 60 customization specifications, 238 Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK), 146, 248

D Date/Time option, Set-up menu 2, 33 Daylight WB setting, 60 Dedolights, 138–140 Delete all items option, My Menu settings, 41 Delete option, My Menu settings, 41 depth of field, 194 Depth of Field button, 108 Destination folder, Preferences window, EOS Utility, 73 Diffractive Optics (DO), 84 Digic IV processor, 4 Digital Photo Professional (DPP), 69, 71, 74 Digital Print Order Format (DPOF), 249 digital technician, 77 Digital terminal, 13 dimension specifications, 239 direct printing specifications, 238 Display from My Menu option, My Menu settings, 41 Distance Range, Canon 200mm f/2.0L lens, 99 distortion, lens, 84, 190 Diva-Lites, 134–137, 162 DO (Diffractive Optics), 84 downloading, image, 29–30 DPI (Dots Per Inch), 249

DPOF (Digital Print Order Format), 249 DPP (Digital Photo Professional), 69, 71, 74 drive modes Bulb drive mode setting, 6, 56–57, 248 High speed continuous, 56 Low speed continuous, 56 Silent single, 56 Single, 56 drive system specifications, 237 dual cards, 217 Dual Digic III Image Processor, 4 Dust Delete Data option, Shooting menu 2, 28 Dust Delete file, 28 DxO Optics Pro, 200 dynamic range, 180

E Ec-S Super Precision Matte screen, Canon, 48 editorial photography advantages, 143–147 avoiding downtime, 147–148 lenses, 149–151 limitations, 143–147 post-production work, 151–152 processing, 151–152 tethered shooting, 148–149 educational events, 176, 179, 186 EF (Electronic Focus) extenders EF 1.4x II extender, 96, 98 overview, 100–101 EF (Electronic Focus) lenses, 81, 84 85mm f/1.2L lens, 85–87, 89, 95–96, 158–159, 209 Electronic Focus (EF) extenders EF 1.4x II extender, 96, 98 overview, 100–101 Electronic Focus (EF) lenses, 81, 84 Elinchrom Maxisoft reflector, 130–131 Elinchrom Octa, 183 Elinchrom Octabank, 129 Elinchrom Ranger RX-AS, 141, 184 emotional response, eliciting, 190 Enlarge display option, Playback menu 2, 31 EOS Integrated Cleaning system, 218–219 EOS Utility, 69, 71–74, 76–77 equipment backups, 44, 148, 179 from camera dealers, 77 cases for, 241–245 checklists, 44 extra, 245 troubleshooting, 148 Erase button, 9, 11, 29 Erase images option, Playback menu 1, 29 erasing images, 12

Index ✦ E—F E-TTL II (Evaluative Through the Lens) Autoflash, 55, 110, 111 E-TTL II function, 580EX II Speedlite, 106 E-TTL II Wireless Autoflash mode, 56 Evaluative flash mode, 55 Evaluative metering mode, 50 Evaluative Through the Lens (E-TTL II) Autoflash, 55, 110, 111 event photography challenges and limitations, 179–180 considerations, 173–178 corporate events, 186–187 educational events, 186 knowing client, 178–179 weddings, 180–186 EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format), 249 exposure AE (auto-exposure) Lock button, 10 auto-exposure bracketing, 8 contrast range, 121 control specifications, 237 evaluating in playback, 33 levels of, 121–122 metering modes bracketing, 52–54 modifying exposure, 52 overview, 48–52 multiple merging, 201 overview, 198 Exposure Compensation/Aperture button, 7, 8 exposure range controls, RAW processors, 227 exposure recovery, RAW processors, 227 exposure slider, RAW processors, 227 Extension System terminal, 13 extension tube, 101, 249 Extension Tube 12 II, Canon, 101 Extension Tube EF 25 II, Canon, 101 external automatic flash exposure sensor, 580EX II Speedlite, 106–107 External Speedlite control option, Set-up menu 2, 34, 55

F facial shape, 157 Faithful Picture Style, 25 fashion photography, 168–171 FE (Flash Exposure) Lock mode, 56 FE Lock/Multi-Spot metering button, 7, 8 FEB function, 580EX II Speedlite, 106 FEL (flash exposure lock) button, 110–111 50mm f/1.2L lens, 86–87, 89, 95–96, 158, 209 50mm f/1.4L lens, 86–88 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro lens, 96, 101 File name setting option, Set-up menu 1, 32

257

File numbering option, Set-up menu 1, 32 file size, 146, 176 file types, 12 fill flash, 115–116 Filter effect, Monochrome Picture Style, 25 filters color graduated, 211 defined, 249 landscape and nature photography, 210–211 ND graduated, 210 FireWire, 249 firmware defined, 249 updating, 218, 221–222 Firmware Version option, Set-up menu 3, 35 580EX II Speedlite, 106–107, 117–118 FL (Fluorite elements), 84 flare, 249 flash Canon Speedlites 430EX, 107–108 430EX II, 107–108 580EX II, 106–107 add-on modifiers for, 111–113 exposing with, 109–111 overview, 103–106 remote triggering with, 115–118 specifications, 237 using in various lighting situations, 113–115 fill, 115–116 modes, 55–56 Orbis Ring Flash, 113 preflash, 8 Ranger ring flash, 132 Ray Flash, 112 Ring flash, 105, 251 settings, 34 flash control, 430EX II, 107 Flash Exposure Bracketing mode, Set-up menu 2, 55 Flash Exposure Compensation mode, Set-up menu 2, 55 Flash Exposure (FE) Lock mode, 56 flash exposure lock (FEL) button, 110–111 flash exposure sensor, 580EX II Speedlite, 106–107 Flash Firing function, 580EX II Speedlite, 106 Flash Mode 580EX II Speedlite, 106 Set-up menu 2, 55 Flash WB setting, 60 Fluorescent Light WB setting, 60 fluorescent lighting systems, 134–136 Fluorite elements (FL), 84 focus AF Point Selection/Magnify button, 10 AF-Drive button, 6–8 problems with 1DsIII cameras, 222

258 Index ✦ F—I focus lock, 45 focus point, 45 Focus preset, Canon 200mm f/2.0L lens, 99 focusing modes AI Servo Auto Focus, 46–47 Automatic Focus, 47–48 manual focus, 48 One Point Auto Focus, 45–46 Focusing screen, 48, 249 Folder option, Playback selection, Set-up menu 1, 32 folders, Capture One Pro 4.6, 70–71 food during shoots, 182 formal portraits flexibility of, 178 overview, 154–155 speed and lighting, 182–183 Format option, Set-up menu 1, 33 formats, card, 29 45mm TS-E lens, 96 four-color CMYK offset printing, 146 430EX II Speedlite, 107–108 430EX Speedlite, 110, 114, 116–117 14-bit color, 146 14mm f/2.8L lens, 82, 89, 96, 193, 209 freezing, computer, 78 Fresnels, 132, 138 front view of camera, 5 Full frame playback option, 10 Full frame with file information playback option, 10 full-size sensor, 249 Function button, 9, 11–12, 27

G Gary Fong Lightsphere, 111 generators battery, 128 portable power, 141 gigabyte, 249 Gold membership, CPS, 225 golden hour, 124, 203 graduated exposure lighting, 16 gray card, 249 grid overlay, 18 Griffith, Tim, 197

H hair, 157 hard drive speed, 75 HDR (high dynamic range) image, 54 HDR (high dynamic range) merge technique, 207 height, camera, 198 Hensel Octa Haze diffuser, 132–133, 183–184

high dynamic range (HDR) image, 54 high dynamic range (HDR) merge technique, 207 High ISO Speed Noise Reduction setting, 58 High speed continuous drive mode, 56 High Speed Sync (FP Flash) mode, 56 Highlight alert option, Playback menu 2, 30 Highlight Priority, 4, 176–177, 180 Highlight/Shadow adjustment, 207 High-speed sync, 249 Histogram option, Playback menu 2, 30 histograms checking available light, 123–124 defined, 250 evaluating exposure in, 33, 49 HDR image, 54 image exposed to retain highlights with, 52 image exposed to retain shadows with, 53 Info button controls, 10 HMI systems, 136–138 Honda generators, 141 horizontal lines, 189, 198 hot shoe, 250 hue, 16

I ICC color profile, 24 icons, menu, 23 Image copy option, Playback menu 1, 30 image erase specifications, 238 Image jump option, Playback menu 2, 31 image playback specifications, 238 image protection specifications, 238 image quality modes, 62 image size, 10 Image size option, Shooting menu 2, 27 Image Stabilization (IS), 84, 199, 250 image stitching, 198 indoor photography, 125, 134, 182 Info button diagram, 9 overview, 10 Picture Styles settings, 25 Playback button, 11 informal portraits, 153–154, 178 interface specifications, 239 internal flare, 95 Iridient Digital RAW Developer, 212, 230–231 IS (Image Stabilization), 84, 199, 250 ISO 100, 57 ISO 1600, 57 ISO 3200, 57–58 ISO 400, 57 ISO 6400, 58 ISO 800, 57

Index ✦ I—L ISO button, 7, 8 ISO choices, 57–59 ISO levels, 144, 194

J Joker-Bug 800, 137–138 JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) defined, 250 landscape and nature photography, 204–205 memory cards, 15–16 overview, 62 tethered shooting, 75–76 white balance, 23–25 JPEG quality option, Shooting menu 2, 27

K Kelvin (K), 250 keystoning, 82, 190 kilobyte, 250 Kino Flo fluorescent lighting, 134, 144, 162

L L lenses, Canon fast lenses, 177 prime lenses, 85–88, 149–151 versus standard lenses, 94–95 zoom lenses, 81–83, 92, 150 landscape photography filters, 210–211 JPEG files, 204–205 lenses, 209–210 maximizing dynamic range HDR merge technique, 207 Highlight/Shadow adjustment, 207 multi-point spot metering, 206 overview, 203–204 post-processing work, 212–213 RAW files, 204–205 stitching images, 208 vibrationless shooting, 209 Landscape Picture Style, 25 Language option, Set-up menu 2, 33 lanterns, 132 large JPEGs, 15 LCD brightness option, Set-up menu 2, 33 LCD monitor, 148, 238 lekos, 138 lens contrast, 84 lens distortion, 190 lens sharpness, 84 lens speed, 85

259

lenses 14mm f/2.8L, 82, 89, 96, 193, 209 16-35mm f/2.8L II zoom, 92 17-40mm f/4.0L zoom, 92 17mm TS-E, 191, 193 24 mm TS-E II, 191 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom, 92–96, 160–161 24mm f/1.4L, 96 24mm TS-E, 90–92, 96, 209 35mm f/1.4L, 88–89, 96, 159–160, 163 45mm TS-E, 96 50mm f/1.2L, 86–87, 89, 95–96, 158, 209 50mm f/1.4L, 86–88 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro, 96, 101 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS zoom, 93, 97–98 70-200mm f/4L zoom, 93, 158 85mm f/1.2L, 85–87, 89, 95–96, 158–159, 209 90mm TS-E, 91–92, 159–160 135mm f/2.0L, 96, 209 200mm f/2.0L, 96–100, 160, 209 advertising and editorial photography, 149–151 for architectural photography, 191 calibrating, 222–225 EF extenders, 100–101 extension tubes, 101 L lenses, 94–95 landscape and nature photography, 209–210 macro, 101 maintenance, 221 overview, 81–83 portraiture, 158–161 prime, 84–89 standard, 94–95 terminology, 83–84 tilt-shift, 90–92 zoom, 92–94, 158, 209 level photographs, 189, 198 light meter, 250 lighting available light, 123–127, 162–164 bounce light, 248 Canon Speedlites 430EX, 107–108 430EX II, 107–108 580EX II, 106–107 add-on modifiers for, 111–113 exposing with, 109–111 overview, 103–106 remote triggering with, 115–118 specifications, 237 using in various lighting situations, 113–115 choosing, 198 daylight extremes, 181–182 Continued

260 Index ✦ L—M lighting (continued) fluorescent lighting systems, 134–136 formal portraits, 182–183 HMI systems, 136–138 indoor photography, 182 look of, 123 low-light shooting technique, 177 mixed, 145 planning setup, 121–123 portable power battery units, 140–141 gasoline generators, 141 portable ring lights, 112–113 portraiture, 156–158 ring lights, 132–133, 183–184 strobe systems comparisons of, 131–133 modifiers, 128–130 types of, 127–128 studio, 166–168 tungsten lights, 138–140 wedding and event photography, 175 lighting case, 243–244 Lightroom, 76–77, 231–232 Lightsphere II, 112, 114 lithium ion (Li-ion) battery, 4, 250 Live Capture, 62 Live View feature activating, 19 advantages of, 18, 145 architectural photography, 194 challenges of, 18–19 overview, 4 specifications, 238 vibrationless shooting, 209 Live View function settings option, Set-up menu 2, 34 location portraiture, 161–166 locked images, 12 lossless compression, 250 lossy compression, 250 Low speed continuous drive mode, 56 low-light shooting technique, 177 luminance noise, 58 Lumiquest Big Bounce, 111–112

M M (Manual) mode setting, 6 M1 JPEGs, 15 M2 JPEGs, 15 Macintosh systems, tethered shooting with computer hardware, 75 improvement in, 148

Lightroom 2.0, 76–77 overview, 74 small JPEGs, 75–76 troubleshooting, 78 macro lenses, 101 Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX Speedlite, 105 Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX Speedlite, 104 magic hour, 124 Main Control dial, 5–10, 12 main window, EOS Utility, 71–72 maintaining camera calibrating lenses, 222–225 cleaning sensor dust spots, 28 EOS Integrated Cleaning system, 218–219 manual, 219–221 self-cleaning, 4 Set-up menu 3, 35 ultrasonic, 217 overview, 217–218 sending camera in for repair, 225–226 updating firmware, 221–222 Manual (M) mode setting, 6 Manual Cleaning option, Setup Menu 3, 219 Manual Exposure setting Canon Speedlites, 111 defined, 250 overview, 51 Manual focus, 48 Manual Reset setting, Set-up menu 1, 32 meals during shoots, 182 megabyte, 250 megapixel, 250 memory, computer, 75 memory cards. See also specific memory cards by type JPEG files, 15–16 overview, 14 RAW files, 14–15 sRAW files, 14–15 Menu button, 9 menu icons, 23 menu systems Custom Functions menu C.Fn setting register/apply menu item, 40–41, 52–53 Clear All Custom Functions menu item, 40 overview, 35–40 My Menu settings, 41 organization of, 22–23 overview, 21–22 Playback menu 1, 28–30 Playback menu 2, 30–31 selecting items, 22 Set-Up menu 1, 31–33

Index ✦ M—O Set-Up menu 2, 33–34 Set-Up menu 3, 34–35 Shooting menu 1, 23–27 Shooting menu 2, 27–28 merging multiple exposures, 201 Metering Mode/Flash Exposure Compensation button, 7, 8 Microadjustment, 218, 222–225 microdrive, 14, 19, 250 mirror lockup, 6 mixed lighting, 145 Mode button, 6, 7, 8 Moiré interface, 223 Molas, 129–130, 170 Monochrome Picture Style, 25–27 monolights, 128 motor drive, 6–7 MoveTo subfolder, Capture One Pro 4.6, 70 Multi-controller diagram, 9 functions, 11 Live View, 18–19 overview, 4 multiple exposures merging, 201 overview, 198 Multi-Spot Metering mode, 51, 206 My Menu screen, 23 My Menu settings, 41

N nature photography filters, 210–211 JPEG files, 204–205 lenses, 209–210 maximizing dynamic range HDR merge technique, 207 Highlight/Shadow adjustment, 207 multi-point spot metering, 206 overview, 203–204 post-processing work, 212–213 RAW files, 204–205 stitching images, 208 vibrationless shooting, 209 navigating camera back of camera AE Lock/Reduce button, 10 AF Point Selection/Magnify button, 10 AF start button, 10 bottom-right buttons, 12 Erase button, 11 Function button, 11–12 Info button, 10 Menu button, 9

261

Multi-controller joystick, 11 Off/On switch, 11 overview, 8–9 Playback button, 11 Protect/Sound Recording button, 12 Quick Control dial, 11 Quick Control dial Set button, 11 Live View activating, 19 advantages of, 18 challenges of, 18–19 memory cards JPEG files, 15–16 overview, 14 RAW files, 14–15 sRAW files, 14–15 new features, 3–5 side connections, 12–13 top of camera AF-Drive button, 6–8 Exposure Compensation/Aperture button, 8 FE Lock/Multi-Spot metering button, 8 ISO button, 8 Main Control dial, 8 Metering Mode/Flash Exposure Compensation button, 8 Mode button, 6, 8 viewfinder readout, 16–17 ND graduated filters, 210 negative views of images, 210 Neutral Picture Style, 25–26 Next Capture Adjustments, Capture One Pro 4.6, 71 Nik Viveza plug-in, 212 Nikon D3, 58 90mm TS-E lens, 91–92, 159–160 noise defined, 251 ISO, 57–58 Live View, 19 reduction, 58–59, 228 types of, 58 Noise Ninja, 58–59 Non-L zoom lens, 95

O OC-E3 off-camera shoe cord, 113 Octa Haze modifier, Hensel, 183–184 off-camera shoe cord OC-E3, Canon, 105 Off/On switch, 9, 11 One Point Auto Focus mode, 45–46 135mm f/2.0L lens, 96, 209 One-shot focus mode, 7 operating environment specifications, 239

262 Index ✦ O—P operating speed, 176 operational controls, lens, 85 optical correction tools, 200 optical perfection, 189–190, 198 Orbis Ring Flash, 113 outdoor photography buildings, 125–126 HMIs, 137 lighting extremes, 181–182 Lightsphere, 68 output ports, 12–13 Output subfolder, Capture One Pro 4.6, 70 overexposure, 30, 49

P parallel lines, 189, 198 Paras umbrella, 129 Pars units, 138 Partial metering mode, 51 PC terminal, 13 Perspective tool, Photoshop, 200 Photek Softlighter II, 129, 136 photo shoots, 170 photography styles advertising advantages, 143–147 avoiding downtime, 147–148 lenses, 149–151 limitations, 143–147 post-production work, 151–152 processing, 151–152 tethered shooting, 148–149 architectural Jon Roemer, 195–197 overview, 191–194 post-processing work, 200–202 requirements of, 189–191 techniques, 198–200 beauty, 168–171 child, 164–166 editorial advantages, 143–147 avoiding downtime, 147–148 lenses, 149–151 limitations, 143–147 post-production work, 151–152 processing, 151–152 tethered shooting, 148–149 event challenges and limitations, 179–180 considerations, 173–178 corporate events, 186–187 educational events, 186

knowing client, 178–179 weddings, 180–186 fashion, 168–171 indoor, 125, 134, 182 landscape filters, 210–211 JPEG files, 204–205 lenses, 209–210 maximizing dynamic range, 206–207 overview, 203–204 post-processing work, 212–213 RAW files, 204–205 stitching images, 208 vibrationless shooting, 209 nature filters, 210–211 JPEG files, 204–205 lenses, 209–210 maximizing dynamic range, 206–207 overview, 203–204 post-processing work, 212–213 RAW files, 204–205 stitching images, 208 vibrationless shooting, 209 outdoor, 68, 125–126, 137, 181–182 runway, 171 sports, 83 wedding challenges and limitations, 179–180 considerations, 173–178, 180–186 knowing client, 178–179 Photomatix, 54 Photoshop program HDR image, 54–55 inverting images, 210 Merge to HDR feature, 207–208 optical correction tools, 200–201 post-processing, 212 PictBridge-enabled printers, 29 Picture Style menu page, 12 Picture Style modes, 62 Picture Style option, Shooting menu 1, 24–25 pincushion distortion, 84, 190, 251 pixel, 251 Platinum membership, CPS, 225 playback, 10–12, 28, 33 Playback button diagram, 9 overview, 11 Protect/Sound Recording button, 12 Playback menu 1, 28–30 Playback menu 2, 30–31 Playback menus, 22 Playback option, Set-up menu 1, 31–32

Index ✦ P—R Playback quality, 4 plug-ins, 201, 212–213, 251 Plume Wafer softboxes, 128 Point Selection/Magnify button, 18 portable power battery units, 140–141 gasoline generators, 141 portable ring lights, 112–113 Portraits Picture Style, 25 portraiture beauty and fashion, 168–171 formal portraits flexibility of, 178 lighting, 182–183 overview, 154–155 informal portraits, 153–155, 178 lenses, 158–161 lighting, 156–158 on location, 161–166 overview, 153–154 in studio, 166–168 wedding and event photography, 175 working with subject, 155–156 ports, output, 12–13 post-processing work advertising and editorial photography, 151–152 architectural photography, 200–202 landscape and nature photography, 212–213 lighting, 123 power cable, 245 power pack, 127–128 power source specifications, 239 Preferences files, 78–79 Preferences window, EOS Utility, 71–73, 76–77 preflash, 8 prepping equipment, 43–45 Preset White Balance settings, 60 prime lens, 84–89 Print order option, Playback menu 1, 29 printing, 15 processing advertising and editorial photography, 151–152 post-processing work advertising and editorial photography, 151–152 architectural photography, 200–202 landscape and nature photography, 212–213 lighting, 123 processor, 4 Profoto hardbox, 132 Profoto Pro-7b, 140 Program mode, 6, 251 Protect images option, Playback menu 1, 29 protected images, 33 Protect/Sound Recording button, 9, 12

263

Q Quick Control dial AF Point Selection/Magnify button, 10 AF-Drive button, 6–8 choosing Picture Styles, 25 controlling playback, 11 diagram, 9 enabling, 11 Erase button, 11 exposure compensation, 8 Function button, 12 Mode button, 6 overview, 5–6 Protect/Sound Recording button, 12 selecting menu items, 19 Quick Control dial Set button, 9, 11, 22, 25 Quick Control window, Capture One Pro, 229–230 Quick Preview window, EOS Utility, 74

R RAM (Random Access Memory), 251 Ranger ring flash, 132 Ranger RX-AS, Elinchrom, 136, 141, 184 RAW + JPEG setup, 251 RAW Developer, Iridient Digital’s, 212 RAW files defined, 251 landscape and nature photography, 204–205 overview, 14–15, 62 Picture Styles, 25 processor software Adobe Camera Raw, 232–233 Adobe Lightroom 2.2, 231–232 Aperture 2, 233–234 Canon Digital Photo Professional, 228–229 Capture One Pro, 229–230 Iridient Digital RAW Developer, 230–231 overview, 227–228 tethered shooting, 75–77 White Balance Bracketing, 24 Ray Flash unit, 112 Rear curtain sync, 251 rechargeable battery, 140–141 Record func+media/folder sel option, Set-up menu 1, 31 Record separately option, Set-up menu 1, 31 Record to multiple option, Set-up menu 1, 31 recording system specifications, 236 rectilinear lenses, 84 recycling, 430EX II, 107 Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) histograms, 10, 30 Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) mode, 251 reflectors, 129–130 reflex viewing, 193

264 Index ✦ R—S Regist/apply basic settings, Set-up menu 3, 35 Register command Custom Functions menu, 40 My Menu settings, 41 registering settings, 63 reliability, camera, 144, 154 Remote Switch RS-80N3, Canon, 56 Remote terminal, 13 repair, camera, 225–226 Repair Disk Permissions button, Disk Utility, 78 resolution, 251 Review time option, Shooting menu 2, 28 RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) histograms, 10, 30 RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) mode, 251 right angles, 189, 198 Ring flash, 105, 251 ring lights, 112–113, 132–133, 183–184 Roemer, Jon, 195–197 Rotate option, Playback menu 1, 29 ruggedness, camera, 217 runway photography, 170–171 Russell, James, 169–170

S sandbag case, 245 Save/load settings on media option, Set-up menu 3, 34 schedule, lighting, 122 seamless background, 166 Secure Digital (SD) cards backing up, 27, 178 Function button, 11–12 loading camera settings to, 34 recording options, 31 slot for, 14 tethered shooting, 75–76 Self Cleaning Unit, 218–219 self-cleaning sensor, 4 sensor cleaning EOS Integrated Cleaning system, 218–219 manually, 219–221 self-cleaning, 4 ultrasonic, 217 damage, 19 full-size, 249 illumination, 190 specifications, 235 Sensor cleaning option, Set-up menu 3, 35 Sensor Swab, 220 Sessions system, Capture One Pro 4.6, 70 Set button, Canon 200mm f/2.0L lens, 99 Set button, Quick Control, 9, 11, 22, 25 Set-up 2 menu, 19

Set-Up menu 1, 31–33 Set-Up menu 2, 33–34 Set-Up menu 3, 34–35 Set-up menus, 22 17-40mm f/4.0L zoom lens, 92 17mm TS-E lens, 191, 193 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS zoom lens, 93, 97–98 70-200mm f/4L zoom lens, 93, 158 Shade WB setting, 60 sharpening techniques, 202 sharpness image, 146 lens, 84 RAW processors, 228 Shoot w/o card option, Shooting menu 2, 28 shooting continuous, 4 extra equipment, 245 food during, 182 low-light technique, 177 tethered with 1Ds Mark III, 146 advertising and editorial photography, 148–149 cables, 78 Capture One Pro, 229–230 Digital terminal, 13 improvements, 5 Live View mode, 18 Playback selection, 32 pros and cons of, 67–69 shooting without cards, 28 small JPEGs, 75–77 software for, 69–74 troubleshooting, 77–79 Shooting menu 1, 23–27 Shooting menu 2, 27–28 Shooting menus, 22 shot lists, 180 shutter defined, 251 specifications, 237 Shutter Priority mode setting, 6, 251 shutter speed, 155 Shutter Sync function, 580EX II Speedlite, 106 Shutter Sync mode, Set-up menu 2, 55 side connections, 12–13 side view of camera, 12–13 Silent mode, 7, 28 Silent single drive mode, 56 Silver membership, CPS, 225 Single drive mode, 56 single point AF AI Servo, 46–47 16-35mm f/2.8L II zoom lens, 92 size, lens, 85

Index ✦ S Skew tool, Photoshop, 200 skin blemishes, 157 skin color, 157 skin tones, 155 Slow sync, 251 small JPEGs, 15 Smaller image with histogram playback option, 10 Smaller image with RGB histograms playback option, 10 social events, 176 social skills, 175, 182 soft egg-crate, 128 soft grid, 128 softboxes, 128 Softlighter II, Photek, 129, 136 softlights, 138 software RAW processor Adobe Camera Raw, 232–233 Adobe Lightroom 2.2, 231–232 Aperture 2, 233–234 Canon Digital Photo Professional, 228–229 Capture One Pro, 229–230 Iridient Digital RAW Developer, 230–231 overview, 227–228 for tethered shooting Canon, 71–74 Capture One Pro 4.6, 70–71 overview, 69–70 Sort button, My Menu settings, 41 sound recording notations, 12 sound recording specifications, 238 special lighting units, 132–133 specifications autofocus, 236–237 customization, 238 dimensions and weight, 239 direct printing, 238 drive system, 237 exposure control, 237 external Speedlite, 237 image playback, 238 image protection and erase, 238 image sensor, 235 interface, 239 LCD monitor, 238 Live View, 238 operating environment, 239 power source, 239 recording system, 236 shutter, 237 sound recording, 238 type, 235 viewfinder, 236 white balance, 236

265

speed camera, 144, 176 lens, 85, 95 photographer, 174, 186 Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2, 105 Speedlites, Canon 430EX, 107–108 430EX II, 107–108 580EX II, 106–107 add-on modifiers for Gary Fong Lightsphere, 111 Lumiquest Big Bounce, 111–112 portable ring lights, 112–113 Sto-Fen modifier, 112 exposing with considerations, 109 E-TTL II, 110 FEL button, 110–111 manual exposure, 111 external control, 34, 55 overview, 103–106 remote triggering with, 115–118 specifications, 237 using in various lighting situations daylight, 113–114 dim interiors and exteriors, 115 low light, 115 Split Metering mode, 51 sports photography, 83 Spot metering mode, 51 spread, 128 square crop, 166 sRAW files, 14–15, 62, 251 Stabilizer mode, Canon 200mm f/2.0L lens, 99 stand case, 244 standard lens, 94–95, 166–168, 252 Standard option, Set-up menu 1, 31 Standard Picture Style, 25–26 ST-E2 wireless transmitter, 113, 115, 117–118 stitching images, 202, 208 Sto-Fen modifier, 112 striplights, 128 strobe lighting combining, 144 comparisons of, 131–133 modifiers reflector control, 130 reflectors, 129–130 softbox control, 128–129 softboxes, 128 umbrella control, 129 umbrellas, 129 mounting, 116–118 types of monolights, 128 power packs, 127–128

266 Index ✦ S—U synchronize, 252 System Management Controller, 78

T Tagged-Image File Format (TIFF), 252 TC-80NE, 57 tele-extenders, 225 telephoto lens, 83, 99–100 temperature range, 217 testing equipment, 44, 148 tethered shooting with 1Ds Mark III, 146 advertising and editorial photography, 148–149 cables, 78 Capture One Pro, 229–230 Digital terminal, 13 improvements, 5 improving capture rate computer hardware, 75 Lightroom 2.0, 76–77 small JPEGs, 75–76 Live View mode, 18 Playback selection, 32 pros and cons of, 67–69 shooting without cards, 28 software for Canon, 71–74 Capture One Pro 4.6, 70–71 overview, 69–70 troubleshooting general, 78 overview, 77 specific, 78–79 35mm f/1.4L lens, 88–89, 96, 159–160, 163 throw, 128 TIFF (Tagged-Image File Format), 252 tilt-shift lens architectural post-processing techniques, 200 architecture, 198 landscapes, 82 overview, 90–92 time value (Tv) mode setting, 6, 252 Toning selection, Monochrome Picture Style, 25 top view of camera, 7 Transfer order option, Playback menu 1, 29–30 Trash subfolder, Capture One Pro 4.6, 70 traveling system example camera case, 242–243 extras, 245 lighting case, 243–244 overview, 241–242 power cable, 245

sandbag case, 245 stand case, 244 troubleshooting equipment, 148 tethered shooting general, 78 overview, 77 specific, 78–79 TS-E (Tilt Shift), 84 Tungsten Light WB setting, 60 tungsten lights, 138–140 Tv (time value) mode setting, 6, 252 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom lens, 92–96, 160–161 24mm f/1.4L lens, 96 24mm TS-E lens, 90–92, 96, 191, 209 200mm f/2.0L lens, 96–100, 160, 209 220EX Speedlite, 104

U Ultra Direct Memory Access (UDMA) CF cards, 14 ultralow dispersion (UD), 84, 252 Ultrasonic Motor (USM), 84, 95 ultrasonic sensor cleaner, 217 umbrella control, 129 umbrellas, 129 underexposure, 49 updating firmware, 218, 221–222 USB Cable Protector, 79 USB tethering with 1Ds Mark III, 146 advertising and editorial photography, 148–149 cables, 78 Capture One Pro, 229–230 Digital terminal, 13 improvements, 5 improving capture rate computer hardware, 75 Lightroom 2.0, 76–77 small JPEGs, 75–76 Live View mode, 18 Playback selection, 32 pros and cons of, 67–69 shooting without cards, 28 software for Canon, 71–74 Capture One Pro 4.6, 70–71 overview, 69–70 troubleshooting general, 78 overview, 77 specific, 78–79 User Defined Styles Picture Style, 26 USM (Ultrasonic Motor), 84, 95

Index ✦ V—Z

V vertical lines, 189, 198 vibrationless shooting, 209 Video Out terminal, 13 Video system option, Set-up menu 2, 33 viewfinder readout, 16–17 specifications, 236 vignetting, 85, 252 Viveza plug-in, Nik, 212

W wardrobe, 157–158 Warp tool, Photoshop, 200–201 WB Shift/BKT option, Shooting menu 1, 24 wedding photography challenges and limitations, 179–180 considerations, 173–178, 180–186 knowing client, 178–179

267

weight lens, 85 specifications, 239 WFT-E2A wireless transmitter, 13 White Balance Bracketing option, Shooting menu 1, 24 White Balance modes, 60–61 White balance option, Shooting menu 1, 23 White Balance Shift option, Shooting menu 1, 24 white balance specifications, 236 white lens, 82–83, 189, 210 Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), 252 Wireless Transmission and Reception function, 580EX II Speedlite, 106 wireless transmission of images, 13

Z zoom lens, 92–94, 158, 209

Guides to go. Colorful, portable Digital Field Guides are packed with essential tips and techniques about your camera equipment, iPod, or notebook. They go where you go; more than books—they’re gear. Each $19.99.

978-0-470-16853-0 978 0 470 168 3 0

978-0-470-38087-1 978 0 470 38087 1

978-0-470-38627-9 978 0 470 38627 9

978-0-470-17461-6 978 0 470 17461 6

978-0-470-17148-6 978 0 470 17148 6

978-0-470-04527-5

Also available Nikon D300 Digital Field Guide • 978-0-470-26092-0 Canon EOS 40D Digital Field Guide • 978-0-470-26044-9 Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi/400D Digital Field Guide • 978-0-470-11007-2 Nikon D80 Digital Field Guide • 978-0-470-12051-4 Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 Digital Field Guide • 978-0-470-27031-8.

Available wherever books are sold. Wiley and the Wiley logo are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Photography/Techniques/Equipment

$24.99 US/$29.99 CAN

The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III is a serious camera with the po werful features that sports and portrait photographers and photojournalists need. Here, professional photographer John Kraus shows you how to take full advantage of the camera’s full-frame sensor, navigate its controls, get creative with its modes and settings, and use it with confidence for ev ery type of shoot. The more you know about your camera’s capabilities, the better the r esults you can achieve.

• Become familiar with the operating speed, lenses, large-file imagery, improved viewing system, and more • Learn to choose the best settings when pr eparing for a shoot • Explore tethered shooting options and effective use of EOS Speedlites • Get in-depth guidance for advertising, editorial, or architectural shots; portraits; and event and landscape photography John K raus has dir ected photography for commer cials and documentaries and is a longtime exper t in still photography for editorial, adv ertising, and corporate ev ent wor k. H e is also a gifted and creative w edding photographer. H is wor k can be vie wed at www .johnkrausphotography.com and johnkrausweddingphotography.com.

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 7D Digital Field Guide

Canon VIXIA HD Camcorder Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 40D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 50D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 40D Digital Field Guide

Canon PowerShot G11 Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XS 1000D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XSi 450D Digital Field Guide

Composition Digital Field Guide

Canon Speedlite System Digital Field Guide, 2nd edition

Canon EOS Rebel T2i 550D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XSi 450D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XS 1000D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XSi 450D Digital Field Guide

Nikon D700 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D300s Digital Field Guide

Nikon D300 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D60. Digital Field Guide

Nikon D300 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D60 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D90 Digital Field Guide

Photographing Yosemite Digital Field Guide

Photographing Yosemite Digital Field Guide

Nikon D3000 Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 40D Guide to Digital Photography

Canon EOS 40D Guide to Digital Photography

Valentine Mark III

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 Digital Field Guide

Photographing Washington D.C. Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 7D Digital Field Guide

Canon VIXIA HD Camcorder Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 40D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 50D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 40D Digital Field Guide

Canon PowerShot G11 Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XS 1000D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XSi 450D Digital Field Guide

Composition Digital Field Guide

Canon Speedlite System Digital Field Guide, 2nd edition

Canon EOS Rebel T2i 550D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XSi 450D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XS 1000D Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS Rebel XSi 450D Digital Field Guide

Nikon D700 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D300s Digital Field Guide

Nikon D300 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D60. Digital Field Guide

Nikon D300 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D60 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D90 Digital Field Guide

Photographing Yosemite Digital Field Guide

Photographing Yosemite Digital Field Guide

Nikon D3000 Digital Field Guide

Canon EOS 40D Guide to Digital Photography

Canon EOS 40D Guide to Digital Photography

Valentine Mark III

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 Digital Field Guide

Photographing Washington D.C. Digital Field Guide

Recommend Documents