Photography – Page 31 – a sibilant intake of breath

Dealing with battery self-discharge

The most annoying thing about rechargeable batteries is the way in which they ‘self discharge’ – slowly tracking towards dead even when nothing is drawing power from them. It’s actually a characteristic that grows more annoying the more batteries you have. Now, due to all the photographic gear I lug around, I need at least twenty AAs to ensure that I back a backup set for all devices. There are few things more frustrating than to spend a couple of weeks carrying around a big sack of batteries, only to discover that they are all dead when you need some. This happens especially often in cold weather.

The solution I have devised is based on grouping batteries into sets. I have devices that require 2, 3, or 4 batteries at a time, so I have made sets of those sizes. The batteries in each set are marked with the same letter, and held together with an elastic band when not in use. Obviously, any set can be used with any device that requires that number of batteries.

If one battery you put in is weaker than the others, the whole device will fail when it does. As such, it is important to charge the whole set at the same time. In addition to that, it is vital to remember to top up the sets regularly, rather than forgetting them long enough to kill them. Finally, to maximize their lifespan, you should use a charger that can put in energy slowly, preventing overheating. I use a La Crosse BC-900 and am very happy with it. It charges batteries at 200mA, by default, thus prolonging their lives. It can also ‘re-condition’ batteries that have lost most of their capacity. Given the number of batteries my growing collection of flashes makes me juggle, I may even end up getting a second one, so I can charge them eight at a time.

I hope somebody eventually comes up with affordable AA and AAA cells that you can charge, leave in a backpack for a few months, and still count on being able to use.

Studio experimentation IV

In preparation for some ongoing photo projects, I have been experimenting with different kinds of two-strobe arrangements. Andrea very kindly volunteered herself as a subject. We tried different umbrella arrangements (both shoot-through and reflective), background lights, rim lights, and some ceiling bouncing. I was firing my 430EX II using my radio triggers and using the optical slave on my LP120. While the latter flash has a longer cycling time than the 430, that can be counterbalanced somewhat by using it as a fill light at a lesser output level.

In keeping with my approach for this series, the photos on Picasa are not digitally altered.

Next, I want to try taking some portraits in an interesting outdoor environment around sunset, balancing ambient and flash light. The mill near Chaudiere Falls would probably offer some interesting backdrops.

Flash practice

Now that I have two strobes, the accessories required to use them, and the relevant theoretical knowledge from Light: Science and Magic, I need to start getting some more practice in flash lighting of various subjects, in different lighting circumstances. I am curious about situations in which my strobes are basically the only source of light, as well as about those where they are supplementing available ambient light (with the balance established by varying shutter speeds and flash power).

Portraits are my top priority.

Digital cameras beyond megapixels

As I have been telling friends for quite a while now, megapixels are no longer a key metric for deciding between different digital cameras. For relatively inexpensive cameras with small lenses, there is probably no advantage to having any more than about six megapixels, in terms of the quality of images you will get. Indeed, having too many pixels crammed onto a small sensor can start to decrease image quality, as pixels that are overwhelmed by the amount of light hitting them ‘leak’ into neighbouring ones. Images from sensors with unnecessary megapixels also clog up memory cards and hard drives, and mean that you need a very powerful processor to deal with large numbers of them at a time.

Akira Watanabe, manager of Olympus’ SLR planning department, has declared that twelve megapixels is adequate for all consumer purposes. Furthermore, he has declared that Olympus will now focus their attention on other issues, such as dynamic range, colour reproduction, and low-light image quality.

From a photographer’s perspective, this is very good news. I have taken plenty of great photos with a 3.2 megapixel camera, and subsequently blown up some of them as large as 11 x 14″. At the same time, most small digital cameras have poor performance in low light and problems addressing dynamic range. At this stage, improvements in those areas are a lot more valuable than cramming more pixels onto their sensors.

Of course, it will cause a bit of trouble for people selling cameras in big, non-specialist retail outlets. When I worked for Staples, I was never given any information on products beyond what was written on the little information card in front of it. While it is easy to say: “This camera has eight megapixels, that one only has seven,” it is a lot harder to test, understand, and express more subtle photographic characteristics.

Useful-looking manual flash

The LumoPro LP120 manual flash is interesting for two major reasons.

First, it defies the design logic of the big camera companies. They want to sell snazzy proprietary technologies, like through-the-lens (TTL) metering. This flash generally omits them. The big companies also want to exclude low-cost, useful features from cheap products. That way, they can drive people to buy more expensive ones. For instance, Canon doesn’t include a PC-connection on its US$275 430 EX II flash, but it does on the US$400 580 EX II. The LP120 includes a built-in PC connector, hotshoe connector, 1/8″ jack, and an integrated optical slave. It also has output roughly comparable to the 430 EX II, for US$130.

Second, it seems that the flash was designed primarily to serve a single web-based community: the talented and flash-obsessed photographers at Strobist. That seems like the kind of thing that could produce a very clever trend, where like-minded people assemble with specific needs and niche products are developed to accommodate them effectively.

In any case, I am strongly considering getting an LP120 as a second flash. It would let me do more elaborate things than are possible using just a single flash and an umbrella. I have an upcoming photographic project where better portrait capabilities would be a distinct asset.

[Update: 24 March 2009] I got the LP120 flash today. My first impression is that it feels cheap. The battery compartment is finicky, and flash head doesn’t lock in place, and the flash emits a constant high-pitched whine when on. It certainly shows me part of why people shell out money for flashes like the Canon 430EX II.

We will see whether the photographic performance of the flash is better than the build quality.

Coen brothers ad on ‘clean coal’

The Coen Brothers – directors of favourite films of mine like The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou? – have made a short advertisement debunking the notion of ‘clean coal.’ It doesn’t have enormously much substantive content, but it does a pretty good job of saying: “Those promising that coal can be clean are lying to you.”

The ad was commissioned by the Reality Coalition.

Plants and infrared light

If you have ever seen plants photographed using infrared film, you will know that they have a weird glowing quality when viewed at those wavelengths.

Apparently, the reason behind this has to do with quantum mechanics and photosynthesis. Photons with shorter wavelengths (violet and beyond) have higher energy than those with longer wavelengths (red and beyond, in the other direction). Since only photons with a certain level of energy can be used by photosystems I and II in chloroplasts, plants reflect insufficiently energetic photons, rather than absorbing them. This keeps them from taking in uselessly low energy photons which would simply turn into heat, rather than powering their photosynthetic machinery.

Walkabout photo kit

My standard set of photo gear for walking around and taking photos has expanded considerably, of late. It now includes:

Canon Rebel XS dSLR
Canon Powershot A570IS
Canon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens
Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens
Lens hoods
Canon 430EX II flash
PC to hotshoe adapter
Sto-fen omnibounce diffuser
CyberSync flash trigger and receiver
Collapsable reflector
Ultrapod mini tripod (for A570IS)
Ultrapod tripod (for Rebel XS)
Polarizing filter
Lens cleaning equipment
Extra batteries (dSLR and AAs)
Plastic zip-loc bag, to prevent condensation when moving from cold to warm places

Among these, the polarizing filter is probably the least used item. The most useful item relative to its price is the Ultrapod mini tripod.

A useful and affordable addition would be a clamp for attaching the flash to things. The addition that I think would be most useful is a 70-200mm lens. It would allow for much better wildlife photography, as well as more capability at concerts and similar events.

Studio experimentation III

This weekend, I took my flash gear on location to shoot some baby photos for a friend of mine. Overall, I am quite happy with them. For the most part, they were taken using a shoot-through umbrella for diffusion, as well as manual flash power and aperture. A few use ceiling-bounced TTL flash, and others just natural light and a reflector.

As with the previous shots of my brother and tabletop objects, the linked image files have not been digitally manipulated.

At some point soon, I mean to experiment with shooting some backlit glass.

Studio experimentation II

Following up on my previous table-top efforts, here is a photographic lighting experiment on a human scale. My brother Mica kindly provided the material for the photons to bounce off of.

These all use manual metering for both flash and exposure (none of that ‘through the lens metering’ stuff). Lighting is provided by a 430EX flash, shot through an umbrella, and my white-on-one-side-soft-gold-on-the-other reflector.

As with before, these are original and unmodified files, with no after-the-fact digital alterations applied.