About a month ago I upgraded my pocketwizards to the newer MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 units. My main reason for this was to use the high speed synch for off camera lighting with a Canon 580 during daytime shoots. I was somewhat skeptical about how well this would work but after doing a lot of research figured I would give it a try.

For those of you who don’t know what pocketwizards are, they simply are radio transmitters. You plug your flash unit to one of the pocketwizards and mount another one on your camera so that you can trigger a flash off camera. Since it uses a radio signal to trigger the flash you can put the flash behind objects and still have your flash work perfectly. I have used the Pocketwizard plus 2 units for years now and absolutely love them, they work every time and are totally reliable. I wanted to upgrade to the new Pocketwizard units for 2 reasons; being able to use TTL flash off camera and high speed sync. I’ll quickly walk through what both of these mean and then give some thoughts about working with these new transmitters over the last few weeks.

First of all what is TTL? SImply it stands for Through The Lens metering and is the cameras ability to measure the light level of a scene through the lens and change how much flash power is provided to properly expose for the scene. I used to have reservations about TTL and exposure seemed to be off pretty often but it seems like with the latest Canon gear (they are using a technology now called E-TTL II) I got very consistent results with every shoot. The benefit of TTL when you are shooting an event like a wedding is that the flash pretty much does all the work for you, it knows the exposure of the scene and how far the flash is from the subject so can give you just the right amount of light to expose the scene properly. One of the most challenging parts about photographing weddings is you are always rushed for time. Sometimes you have 5 minutes to shoot a few images of the bride and groom and really don’t have time to meter the scene and take time to setup gear. Out of all the images I shoot with light 90% of them are off camera and to be able to set the flash to TTL and not have to worry about flash exposure is great.

The other benefit of these new pocketwizard transmitters is the high speed synch. This will depend on the type of camera and flash you are using. Some systems will use pocketwizards HyperSync technology that allows you to Sync up to 1/500th of a second. But the really cool part is if you use a recent Canon camera with a Canon 580 EXII flash you can use your flash at any sync speed. Yes, ANY sync speed even 1/8000th of a second without any type of setup. If you are new to high speed sync here is a little article explaining what it technically is: High Speed Flash Sync . Being able to shoot portraits outdoors at any shutter speed is such a huge advantage in my mind it made up for the price of these in a second. Normally when shooting outdoors in the bright sun if I wanted to use flash to fill the scene I would be shooting at ISO 100 and when you are limited to a top sync speed of 1/250th of a second you are usually shooting around f/8 or higher for your aperture. That means a lot of depth of field which I am not a fan of for portraits. I usually want my portraits to focus on the subject not the background and want some good separation from the subject to background so love to shoot at f/2.8. That used to be impossible with a normal flash but now that I can shoot at any shutter speed, I can crank the shutter up to 1/2000th or more and get a nice low aperture like f/2.8.

With the camera on TTL you can also very quickly under or overexpose the image to get some very dramatic things with the background. Look out for a post on how to do that later on this week. Here is a quick shot taken at sunset with just one light on the couple but underexposing the image by 2 stops to get a very dark and dramatic background. You can use this same trick to get shots in daylight that look like they were taken at night, so many uses for this type of lighting.

Aside from these 2 great benefits there are a couple other improvements they have made. First of all though let me give a quick overview of the difference between the two units.

Pocketwizard MiniTT1 – This is a transmitter only unit. A transmitter is just used to sit on your camera to transmit the radio signal to a receiver unit (or a transceiver unit). The new MiniTT1 is just as the name says, Mini. Its such a perfect size, very low unlike the older units that I had which stood up 5 inches and had a little antennae on the top. These have no antennae and are so small I normally leave them on top of my camera body all day even when not using it. The other improvement to these units (the FlexTT5 has it as well) is they now have a hot shoe on top. Before you used to have to use different cords to connect the unit to your flash but now you just pop the flash on the hot shoe. This also means you can still have a flash on camera which is pretty handy for a little fill light at a reception, while still triggering your main lights which are off camera.

Pocketwizard FlexTT5 units – This is a transceiver unit, which means it can be used as a transmitter on your camera or as a receiver. They are only about $20 more than the MiniTT1 so most people would ask why get a mini and a Flex vs just 2 Flex units? For me the size of the mini just works so much better. The FlexTT5 is still very small but about 3 times the width of the Mini.

From the few weeks spend with these new Pocketwizard radio transmitters I have to say there is nothing negative I have to say about them. If you don’t currently have a transmitters to sync your flash and camera I highly suggest these and even if you have a set of older pocketwizards (or another brand) I still suggest them. Even though they aren’t cheap (about $220 each), the benefits make them totally worth the price in my mind.

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

Pocketwizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 review, review of the pocketwizard miniTT1 and FlexTT5 Transciever for canon wireless flash. Digital photography reviews and photography tips by digital photo buzz.

As a wedding and portrait photographer I tend to sometimes get caught up with my client jobs and the business end of things.  This can take up so much of your time you forget to work on any personal projects.

Awhile back I exhibited some of our fine art work at a fundraising event at a local venue.  I got to show some of my own personal Fine art from an Italian series I did awhile back.  I haven’t been doing a lot of my fine art work in the last few years since we have been so busy with weddings and portrait work.  This event was awesome and it really felt great to get out there and show some of my personal work.  A lot of my past personal art series I have printed up and stored away in boxes.   I really love a lot of this work and this got me thinking a lot about why its been so long since I have done any personal projects.  I have always loved to travel and really get inspired by telling stories and capturing the feel and the essence of a new place.  Traveling to a new location gets me excited, soaking up the culture, the food and the drinks while creating a story and art along the way.  Travel has always had a special romance to me, even the craziness of a airport or train station has always been so interesting to me. I also used to do a lot more conceptual art series and still have a handful of ideas I think would make really a interesting body of work I just still haven’t started them.

We met a lot of great people at the event last night who all loved my work, and it was so much fun to tell the stories behind each image.  At the end of the night it made me realize that as an artist doing personal work can be so important.  It can help you grow so much and that can feed right into your clients work.  One thing I realized after viewing all of these images that have been in boxes for awhile was that some of my favorite images were taken with my good old Holga camera that I have had for about 15 years.  I used to use it often at weddings but lately its been collecting dust.  A lot of the work from this Italian series that I love are shot with the holga and printed  either in a sepia tone or black and white with acrylic oils over them.  It gives the work such a nostalgic, romantic feel to it and also matches the feel that I love to create for weddings.  This evening made me bring the holga out of retirement and dust it off again for some new use.  Im going to break out that T-Max film from the freezer and start popping some rolls off at weddings again and can’t wait!!!  I’ll definitely be posting some images on the blog so look out for some new artistic stuff.  And for all you photographers out there remember to take a little time and shoot for your soul, it will re-energize you and get you focused on your passion!

If you have been working on a personal project I would love to see it! Post a comment below with a link to one of your current projects.

Once you have put all the time and effort into editing your photos and getting them just perfect in Lightroom the next step may seem small but there are many different options you have to choose from when it comes to exporting.

For my workflow for weddings or portraits I always keep the original RAW files for anything I need to modify in the future and export a jpeg file to upload to my online proofing company and to use for creating the album and other products. I save my jpeg files as 80 quality which creates a much smaller file compared to 100 quality but there is very little difference in quality even if you are making a medium sized print. I will also do a normal sharpen to the image and thats it. You do have lots of other ways to export your images with Lightroom and depending on what type of photography you do and how you present your images there should be a way to fit your workflow. Check out the second video below for an overview of all the different ways you can export images.

Here is a quick video on how to export your images to jpeg files using Lightroom 2. For all of the Lightroom 3 users out there the steps are going to be very similar.

Also here is a great little video on all of the different output options for Lightroom 2.

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

I learned a new tip randomly the other day that is one of those really small tips but can help to save a few steps. When you shoot a lot, and have a stack of cards to download at the end of the day saving a few steps can add up to a lot of time savings in the long run.

When I used to download my cards I would create a folder within the client folder (I always name client folders Client Name and Date). All of the images would first be saved to a RAW folder until I went through and culled them to make my decisions on what would be black and white, color, etc… The other day I stumbled across the AutoImporter that is part of the Mac OS. It’s one of those little features that is built into the mac but not easy to get to and most people I am sure don’t even know its around. With this you can automatically download the images once you connect your card reader, saving a few clicks. Here is a quick guide on how to do this (Note: This is part of the Mac OS, sorry PC users)

First plug in your card reader to your computer and put in a card. Open up the Image Capture app on your mac (this is standard with all macs)
Select the card in the Devices section of Image Capture, then at the bottom of the left-hand column change the drop down selection to “AutoImporter”

Note: You can use this menu to specify which program runs when you connect a card (or a camera) to your computer. Other than the AutoImporter you can choose; Aperture, iPhoto, Image Capture or Preview.

It’s a good feature to automatically open a program when you connect your card reader but the AutoImporter is really where the time savings comes in. The AutoImporter will automatically download your images and can be customized a little bit to save them to a specific location.

To set the AutoImporter preferences, you just need to open the separate AutoImporter app. To find this is a little tricky, here is how to navigate to it. In the Finder, navigate into the top-level System folder, then drill down into Library -> Image Capture -> Support -> Application.

From here double click the AutoImporter application to launch it. Then select AutoImporter -> Preferences, and here you can setup your preferences. First, you can change the desination folder using the pop-up menu at the top of the box. Then you can create a new custom-named subfolder. To create your own custom name for each folder imported just drag and drop each of the label items that are in blue on the right into the filename field. You can add your own text also to create any type of custom naming structure. I setup my cards to download to a Import folder on my desktop and name each import with the date and a sequence. After I have everything from the shoot imported then I just drag these folders to the appropriate place to store them.

That’s it. Once you have your preferences set every time you connect this card to your computer it will automatically download all of the images to the folder you specified and name the subfolder accordingly.

To continue with this weeks wedding theme here is a excerpt from an eBook app that I created for the iPhone and iPad awhile back.

Photographing the wedding details, don’t forget the small stuff

Some of the details brides have spent thousands of dollars on and months planning. Get to know your clients beforehand and on the day. Find out what’s important to them and look for all of the details no matter how small they might seem. Sometimes you need to ask questions to find out whats really important. Once I had a client who hid a little broach in her bouquet that had a photo of her grandmother in it.  You wouldn’t normally see it but after chatting with her and asking her about her grandparents she told me about it.  All of these little details are so important to your clients.

During the hustle and bustle of the wedding you can sometimes forget to slow down and look for details. I make it a point at least during two parts of the day to slow down and take a few minutes to capture details. The first time is right when I get into the room where the bride is getting ready. After chatting with her for a few minutes and making sure the day is going great, I take a few minutes to capture images of her details. I get shots of her dress, shoes, flowers, rings, jewelry, etc… Anything that I can find in her room that I know has meaning and tells part of the story of her day. You might not have a lot of time to be creative here but think of ways to shoot these items a little bit different. You might have shot the brides shoes the last 6 weeks straight but try and find a new angle to photograph her shoes, or someplace unique to hang her shoes from. Try and think a little different every wedding and have detail shots that really stand out.

I also focus on the reception room before people are allowed in. Try and spend at least 5 minutes in the reception room before any guests are allowed in. Capture wide room shots that show the overall look and feel of the room. Get in close and capture images of the favors on the table, the table settings and centerpieces. Again try and get creative with these shots. Instead of getting just a wide shot of the centerpieces try and get in tight and use a shallow depth of field to focus on just one flower in the centerpiece. Use a different type of lens like a macro lens or a fisheye lens to give you a unique look at the details.

This image was a quick shot of the bride and grooms rings taken in the bridal room. The desk in the bridal room had a really cool and shiny surface so I shot a few close up shots of the rings reflecting on the desk. The shot was alright but still felt a little bare. Then I remembered her shoes had a lot of sparkles on them and thought that would look really good as a extra background element. I framed the rings around the shoes and it gave the final image an extra visual pop.

Tech Info
Canon 5d
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1/60 @ f/2.8
ISO 1000

This is part of an eBook style app that was created for the iPhone and iPad titled “Wedding Photography 101: A Guide to Taking Better Wedding Photos”. This app gives you 10 real world tutorials on way to get more creative wedding photos. Also since it’s an app more lessons are being created and additional features that will be added for free down the line!.
Get Wedding Photography 101 now in the App Store for your iPhone or iPad.

Since our contest this month is on Wedding Photography I thought it would be great to gather together some amazing wedding images to help inspire. Here is a good mix of different types of wedding images to get those creative juices flowing.

One of my favorite ad campaigns has to be Apple’s “Think Different” slogan and the TV ad they created back in 1997 which looking back was the start of a very pivotal time in their company. As many of you know the start of the 90’s were not good years for Apple, they were taking huge losses and really on the brink of going under. They had some great fast desktops but were only geared towards people in the creative business not ordinary consumers. Then in a strange twist of fate, Apple bought NeXt, a software company started by the old head of Apple Steve Jobs. Upon Jobs return some major change happened, they created the iMac in multiple colors that spoke to the everyday consumer. It was a computer that not only ran great but had a beautiful design to the case of the computer as well as the traditional attention to detail in the Mac OS system. This started them back on the road to profit. And now today, after a few more innovative products Apple is one of the top leaders in the tech industry.

So how can we apply this to our photography businesses? What I think really set Apple apart was they really took this “Think Different” slogan to heart. Before the iMac computers came in beige boxes. Companies focuses on what was inside the computer and didn’t have any care about the design of the box itself, or the keyboard or mouse. Those were just tools that people used to run the computer but what mattered most in their minds was the function of the machine. Apple took their slogan and started to think differently about the outside design of the computer as well as the inside design. So the question is how can we as photographers Think Different? What can we offer our Client that is unique, something totally new and fresh? It doesn’t have to be a new product either it can be how you approach your customer service different. Maybe your marketing plans and having those be something totally unique and different. The main point is taking that step out and doing something that has never been done before.

I have always tried to think of new ways to reach brides and as technology changes how I can apply that to my business. Lately I do have to admit that I have been slacking a little bit on this end. I have let the busyness of work and everything else get in the way of setting aside time to think creatively about my business. So as today is the last day of July I am going to commit time in August to sit down and think of some things I might be able to change about my business. I’ll report back at the end of August what I have come up with and at least one thing that I can do different with my photography. And I challenge you do to the same. Block off some time in August to just sit and think, write down all of your ideas and we will share them at the end of the month.

If you already have something that you do in your business that is totally unique and different let us know! Leave a comment below to help share your ideas and inspire others.

To end this post here is a photo of that first iMac and Apple’s “Crazy Ones” TV ad.

One question that all of my friends used to ask me when I first started shooting weddings was “That’s awesome you get to go to weddings every weekend and then hang out all week, what a great job!”. At first I didn’t want to even waste the time trying to explain to them every little detail of what it takes to really run a business. So my response would just be “Well there is still work to be done during the week, but it is pretty awesome”. Then after awhile, and people still thinking I kick back during my non shooting days, I wrote down a list of everything you have to do with a wedding that isn’t shooting and people were pretty stunned. Most people don’t know that a wedding can easily take up 40 hours of your time, it’s not just the 8-10 hours of shooting plus post production time. Today I want to share a little about some of the steps I go through with a wedding and why they are so important to your business.

First off I think it’s a good question to always ask yourself, who is my client? Sounds easy right, your bride and groom, definitely your client. Maybe the mom of the bride, she might buy a few prints. Is that really it? Once you really start looking deeper you see that you have tons of clients at a wedding. I see all guests and vendors as clients and want to get my brand in front of them. Your best source of business is always going to come from people that have seen your work and are in love with it. So I make sure that part of each weddings tasks includes things like sending images to the venue, posting a blog post (with a shout out to the vendors), and collecting the email address from people who viewed the event online. There are actually 17 different tasks that I do for each wedding, one is shooting the wedding and then there are 16 other tasks that all are about either post production or marketing. Here are just a few of the things we do after the post production work is done that is so very important to our business:

That’s not even half of the things we do for a wedding and just a top level overview but you can start to imagine how one wedding can easily take up a full week of time. Managing all of this information is also a key part of the process. You aren’t going to remember to do each one of these steps by just memorizing them. We used to use a nice fully functional CRM system but it really did too much and was cumbersome for what I really needed. All that I wanted was a way to enter all of these tasks on my calendar. That is where an app comes into play awhile back that I helped to create. Photographer’s Workflow is an iPhone app that let’s you quickly create workflows for different types of tasks (weddings, portraits, album designs, etc..) and with just a few taps add an event to your calendar. I’ll cover it in a separate post later today, so check back a little bit later for a full review of Photographer’s Workflow 2.0.

Edit – our other post reviewing the Photographer’s Workflow iPhone app is now up.

I know that everyone loves Lightroom presets and who doesn’t love free presets! I am always on the hunt for great presets to share with everyone and today have a nice group of Black and White presets. Since the topic so far this week has been around black and white film here are 6 presets that I use that replicate certain films. Download link is at the bottom of the page, enjoy! Also check out our post awhile back with some really cool artistic presets for Lightroom here: Free Lightroom Presets

Original Image

T-Max 100

T-Max 100 auto

Tri-X

T-Max 400 auto

High Contrast Black and White

Kodak CN film

Enjoy these Free presets, Download here: Black and White Film Presets – DigitalPhotoBuzz.com

This Post is Sponsored by AppEzzy – iPhone and iPad apps. Follow them on Twitter or Facebook

Yesterday’s post (Film vs. Digital for the Analog Junkie/ Traveling Photographer) got me thinking a little bit about my background and a few discussions I have had with some newer photographers at my workshops. I sometimes find it strange when I talk to photographers who have learned in this digital age and have never shot with film. Some people don’t really even know how film works, and it just amazes me because of how fast the switch to digital happened. I know it will be more and more common each for people to learn 100% in the digital workflow since digital has really taken the leap as the primary source of shooting for 99% of professionals out there. I don’t even know many camera stores that carry that many film cameras any longer.

So today just a quick question to get to know you all and what your experience with film is. If you can answer the one question below that would be awesome:

This post is sponsored by Collages.net