Testing the Lumiquest Snoot

What can I say, I'm a sucker for dramatic light and any gizmo that allows me to get that kind of results and it also happens to be very portable it's a good candidate for a place in my camera bag. Last week, I purchased a Lumiquest Snoot and it wasn't until today that I got the chance to test it. I'm dying the try these tools (Snoot and the HONL grids) outside but the frigid temperatures in Toronto have kept me indoors for most of February.

The setup for the accompanying shots was very simple, just one (1) SB-800 with the snoot on at 1/32 power and triggered via Pocket Wizards.

1. Light set at camera left, slightly above subject, post processing in Lightroom for the cross-processed look


2. Light set at camera left, slightly above subject, post processing in Lightroom for the cross-processed look


3. Light behind camera and slightly to the left, post processing in Photoshop via Nik's Color Efex Pro with additional refinements in Adobe Lightroom

Testing the HONL Grids

Ever since David Hobby featured them in his blog, I had been contemplating getting the HONL grids (1/8 and 1/4), as well as a speed trap to attach them to my SB-800. Last week I finally broke down and ordered them and they arrived in the mail today. These are my first test shots with the 1/8 and 1/4 grids. as well as the speed trap. They basically concentrate and soften the light beam from the speedlight giving some very dramatic results. In these shots there's not a whole lot of ambient light because I killed it with aperture and shutter speed but I can already envision quite a few cool applications for the new acquisitions:

1. SB-800 with 1/8 HONL grid above subject at camera left. Power set at 1/32, triggered via Nikon's CLS. Post processed via Nik's Color Efex Pro


2. SB-800 with 1/8 HONL grid above subject at camera left. Power set at 1/32, triggered via Nikon's CLS. Post processed via Nik's Color Efex Pro


3. SB-800 with 1/4 HONL grid above subject at camera left, small golden reflector handheld by subject at camera right. Power set at 1/8, triggered via Nikon's CLS. Post processed via Nik's Color Efex Pro

First Published Image

Back in December of 2008 I was contacted by one of the staff at Hambly and Woolley Inc. She was the project coordinator for a publication for Tourism Toronto called Toronto Magazine. She had found one of my pictures from the Beaches Jazz Festival and wanted to use it for a section of the magazine on the Queen St. Streetcar line. At the time the hired photojournalist, Simon Hayter, had started working on the photo essay (I'm assuming late fall), the Beaches Jazz Festival had already passed so they wanted to use my picture to fill that void. Needless to say I was pretty excited about being published for the first time. It's not the front cover but you gotta start somewhere, right?

I picked up the magazine last Friday from the offices of Hambly and Woolley Inc. You'll probably find this magazine at an information centre or some other tourism related office and it's also being distributed overseas by Tourism Toronto.

Here's the front cover of the magazine:


My photo is the one on the right hand top corner of page 35

The Beauty of Available Light

While I'm a big fan of the Strobist movement, sometimes the best light is the one that is available, whether it's beautiful sun light or the light coming from a lamp on the ceiling of a greasy spoon diner.

In the following two shots the different sources of light (big windows at the front end of the restaurant and plenty of artificial light inside)in this diner provided for some very interesting colors, which were further enhanced with Nik Color Efex Pro Film Effects.





Then there's always the beautiful light produced by the last rays of the sun before the sunset

Warmer Weather, Sick Again

Well, today is well above the freezing mark and I'm spending it inside my apartment as I've come down sick with a cold again. That can only mean one thing, either go through old shots or do self-portraits. Well, let's just say that I look just like a feel, which is not a good thing. I found a couple of old shots that never made it to Flickr because they needed some post processing added:

On this one I had to clone out a good chunk of a translucent umbrella that was showing up on the left upper corner of the frame:


This one needed a bit more colour and contrast added to it:


I also added more colour and created a blurred background for this one:

Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0

I've been experimenting with this wonderful package for the past couple of days and I can honestly say now that it's become a regular tool y my post processing arsenal. Today I decided to go for a random photowalk, which took initially to Cherry Beach near downtown Toronto. It was a cold morning but not as cold as previous ones when I'd end taking self-portraits and playing with different lighting setups. Anyways, I tend to digress. Here are a few samples of what you can achieve with some of the filters present in Color Efex Pro 3.0 also in conjunction with Nik's Viveza:

Before:


After


Before


After


Before


After


Before


After


Before


After


I did screw up the landscape shots a bit, as I left the ISO at 800. Thank God the D3's 800 ISO is very clean.