This is my very first image captured by utilizing the Radiopopper system. Thank you Kevin King for getting these to me, all the way in Mexico no doubt!

I am such a bad professional. I ripped the bag open to reveal my new set of RP’s just 45 minutes before I walked out the door to a wedding 2 days ago. I ran around my place like a crazy man testing for a few minutes, but really didnt do much pro testing on these units before I unveiled them at a pro gig… shame on me eh? My client will be so disappointed that I tested a new product out at her wedding…

Shame on me…

here is my first TTL RP frame

The down light is from a ceiling lamp in the bathroom…
the rp slave is located just in below the bride’s right arm, next to the sink in the bathroom…

I didnt use the RP’s too much at this gig, but I did play a little
More test results coming!

Cheers!
mateo

Edited to add…. If you are a pocket wizard junkie (like myself) TTL is a foreign language that takes some serious time to learn to speak. If you want to use baby steps to learn to speak the RP language of TTL, then try this technique…

This is a REQUIRED element for those testing the RP who are use to the PW system….

good luck

After reading flashflavor and seeing our work day in and day out, do you ever wonder what it is that we do to get the business that we get walking in the door week after week? Well, In this FF post, I am going to give you my true secrets. I’m telling you this because letting this secret out isnt going to diminish my “true fan” base. Hopefully, this post can be about some inspiration for you. For the last 5 years, we have been very client driven and have done all or everything to build a fan base. We have been doing everything we can to go ALL out do deliver the most amazing imagery, delivering tip top customer service, and separating ourselves from the rest!

 

The secret to success for the creative artist is finding 1000 true fans. The content of this article is 100% copyright Kevin Kelly Genius, Blog Author, Book Author, Wired Magazine Co Founder amongst other affiliations… Kevin writes about obtaining 1000 true fans:

…the gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day’s wages per year in support of what you do. That “one-day-wage” is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.

One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

 

To read the rest of this amazing eye opening and career starting article, please go read Kevin’s Kelly’s article about 1000 true fans…

 

Kevin nailed it here folks. This has been the key for my survival and the motivation behind all of our development since day 1. This article is only 1 month old however, it is the answer to any artists search in life to find clients.

Flash flavor’s motivation has been nothing short of a straight line down the path of finding 1000 true fans… My motivation with Flashflavor has the Karma approach in mind. If I give and give and give, if I’m lucky , on of these days what goes around comes around… I’m not selling anything (yet) on FF… However, I guess one of these days I’ll be offering a workshop or selling some sort of software and hopefully, my “true” fans will shine for me I must be getting somewhere because as I write this post, we are receiving 1000 unique visits every day Hey!! thats a start!

 

Now take some time, and bookmark Kevin’s blog on your RSS feed or write about him on your blog. While you are at it, bookmarking Flashflavor would help me out in many many ways, por favor!

 

Cheers & start finding your true 1000 fans!

mateo

I was unloading batteries today after a recent shoot. We stage all of our gear on a table as we pull old batteries out and put new ones in. I looked down at our equipment pile and got to thinking about a Flashflavor post. Since ALL our gear is mixed up, how the heck do we know whose is what? Once you start to build a nice equipment inventory, its about darn time that it get cataloged or labeled so you know what ya got!

We are a studio with 4 maybe 5 shooters at a given time. It is crucial to us that we have our ducks lined up in a row! Yeah, a Sb-28 is just the same as the next one but I have found that ALL my equipment seems to come to life and we experience problems with our gear at almost every wedding. How do you identify the problem what it is happening to? For at least 4 years, I worked with a pile of gear in and out of bags. When I found my wife, Sol Tamargo, I knew that something had to change. After the 2nd time of “hey, you got my batteries” or “do you have my pocket wizard, I’ve only got 2 and I should have 3″ or whatever.. I was SICK of that.

If you label your gear, you will actually know what is yours… novel thought eh? Ok, lets say that you are a 1 man / woman show and you know exactly what gear you have and therefore there is no need to label anything… Sounds like my thought train for my first 4 years. Guess what? Your WRONG!

Why? Everything we use BREAKS at one point or another. Especially in the world of pocket wizards.. I have pulled my hair out a time or two switching cables, changing receiver units, checking batteries…when something fails, its important to identify it and move on. We have experienced MAJOR problems with the Pocketwizard system specifically. The short PC cords are poorly made for our work environment. With tugs, pulls, and catches, these things fail.. oops, there goes another $20 to buy a new one. So we started labeling our PC cords… Yep, i have them all labeled. If we have problems with one on assignment, I pull it out of operation, make a mental note of the cord’s labeled number, tuck it away in a special place, and switch to a backup.

This kind of mindset works with ALL your gear. We have tons of slave flash units. Flash tubes go out (afterall, the SB-28 has been discontinued for years). PC posts break, zoom heads go out, flashes get thrown in the ocean…heck, a plethora of problems greet you at every wedding. Its about dang time that you can identify your problem unit, put it aside, and address it later in the shop if necessary.

Ok, I hope your getting the point. Check out these photo examples of my gear pile and their labels. I purchased my label maker for $29 at a local office store… you can too

LABEL IT.

WE even label our rechargeable batteries. These things have a life expectancy so at some point, they will fail. We recommend that you put a few different color rings around them when you buy them new, make a note somewhere citing the date when those colored batteries were purchased. It helps if you can identify which photographer gets which batteries… Also, I’ve included our trusty labeler in the lower left, next to a few of our batteries

You can see that we actually label our gear with the first initial of the photographer who owns that particular unit. Everything has a label, lenses, camera bodies and tripods! Give this a try Hope this helps?

Cheers!
mateo

I was pleasantly surprised this week to find out that photohsop user magazine published a story I wrote about the trash the dress phenomenon. I was very excited to be featured (along with my wife) next some seriously talented folks. I had a chance to meet one of the photographers published in the article at WPPI, Cliff Mautner. I also parked myself next to the Nikon booth to hear him speak about making magical images… That guy is unbelievable! Check him out!

David Ziser was also featured (a talented photographer and photoshop artisan). I have featured David’s work here before on FF. I was hoping that I would get a chance to meet him at WPPI as well but with 1 zillion other photographers buzzing around everywhere, it was rather impossible to accomplish all my must see photographer goals…next time David!

SO, if you are in the neighborhood of a bookstore, pick up or sign up to receive a copy of photoshopuser magazine. Those guys working with Scott Kelby really have it going on… OH, I had a chance to meet up with Dave Cross at the Leaving Las Vegas shoot a few weeks ago. I’ve watched numerous episodes of him on Photoshop TV… Also, a special thanks for RC over at layersmagazine.com for asking / motivating me to write this article!

Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for the Magazine. Sol Tamargo & I have this very dramatic vision for the future of our Trash the Dress sessions. I’m not sure how long our clients are going to keep asking for them, but with the insane amount of worldwide buzz going on, I dont see it stopping anytime soon, especially with the destination wedding environment. We have 25 TTD sessions booked this year! Look out for some more crazy video’s coming soon!

Cheers!
mateo

PS, the photoshop guys & gals did a super job on the graphics… thanks again

I am very excited to see the birth of the Radiopopper this year. This write-up will serve as a initial preview of my experience with this revolutionary unit. In order to give a full review, I will need this baby on a few of my wedding gigs. I hope to be shooting with them at my first few weddings in April. We haven’t used TTL at a wedding with off camera slaves in a long long time. Heck, I can’t tell you when. I love to change up my game, so the popper is an exciting new tool in my tool box!

We spent an hour or so the other day with these units. Ordinarily, Flashflavor photo subjects will be wedding related. I ask for your forgiveness with this post as we didnt have time to organize any test bridal models during the short term planning we did to organize this shoot.

I spent some time with a few other photographers to get some play time with Radiopopper (RP). We each got a chance to set up a makeshift subject and shoot each one of these subjects to test the strengths of RP. We tested firing 3 different flash groups TTL using the 580 EX II as the master unit and 3 remote slaves all in different groups, set to different ratios. Group A, Group B, and Group C. I didn’t actually do any test shots with these flash settings but hopefully, I can get a copy of the images from Stillmotion to showcase here.

When it became my turn to play with the flash, we found our way inside Battista’s Hole in the wall, a rustic Italian food joint with some serious history in Vegas. I wanted to add a little life to my test subject and on the spot, I found a cute little old guy who made a SLAM of a subject. Sorry to bother you with the details but I believe if you add a story line to a test subject, the impact of the lighting efforts actually make a lasting impression. Call me a dedicated photojournalist if you will

In these photo examples, I used 3 flash unites in 2 different flash groups, Group A + Group B. (Remember, this is TTL folks). Group A 1:1 and Group B 1:4. We had 1 Radiopopper transmitter attached to the ST-E2 and 3 Radiopopper receivers attached to 580 EX II’s.

In this setup shot, I was shooting a Canon 5d with a ST-E2 wireless transmitter on the hotshoe . I had a RP attached to the top of the ST-E2. Group A was set to 1:1 and Group B was set to 1:4. Basically, I’ve told Group B to fire with 4 times more light than Group A. Group B’s units are placed behind subject on bench and camera right. I dialed my exposure in so that the ambient would hang out. What impressed me most about this is that we were limited here with time, with little or no actual test time to get ti done right. I shot 5 or 6 frames in this spot in the restaurant and I liked his expression best in these few frames. The RP allows you to set it and forget it. If this had been a Pocket Wizard setup (i still love my PW’s), I would have needed more time to set each unit up and get the job done. I took 5 minutes with this guy. With this kind of pressure, I’m starting to love the RP!

 

Here are my frames (all shot at ISO 400, 1/100th at 1.4)

Gordie has been playing the accordion at Battista’s for an outstanding 27 years. His listeners range from hookers and prostitutes to drunkards and party goers to the occasional superstars. His favorite musicians were the Oakridge boys! Batista’s ceilings are adorned with props and the walls are covered with their menus and wine bottles and different photos from the past. Battista is filled with low lighting and a moody atmosphere. I wanted to take a chance to add some light that would accentuate the mood that was plastered all over the walls.

I love how the backlight has added some dimension here. Remember, set it and forget it mentality.

 

Initially, when we choose a location in the restaurant to shoot Gordy, we found a spot that seemed perfect. After my first several frames, I had botched exposures and misfires. After expressing my concerns that something wasn’t right, Kevin King (RP Creator), pointed at the link light on the side of the RP and noted that it was blinking, indicating that there was some type of interference. The moment I started to actually test this baby, I found a circumstance that actually challenged its performance. Apparently, the link light on the receiver unit that indicates it has a link with the other will stay a solid yellow upon its initial link up. After a fire, it will turn off and back on to indicate that it has linked up. If it intermittently blinks then it indicates interference. The receiving unit may or may not fire, depending on the circumstance. We walked literally 15 feet to another location in the restaurant and the problem went AWAY… hey, that was easy enough.

Ok, so now I’ve found a problem on the first frame I’ve tried to expose. In all honesty, this inst my first experience with Interference while transmitting to a slave flash unit… On numerous occasions, I have been using pocket wizards and experienced some sort of interference where my slave units WOULD NOT FIRE. I can recall one specific wedding where Sol Tamargo & I were both trying to trigger our Pocket Wizards. We each have 5 pocket wizards and 4 or so Slaves, each. So thats 10 pocket wizards, 8 slave flashes. In the heat of the moment, we tested all of our PW’s and slaves, traded sync cords, did just about anything possible to make it happen… NADA. There was some sort of interference going on and we could not nail it down. I’m not sure what went on as we never figured it out, but the point is that interference has happened to me before when using a device that transmits via radio signals. The bottom line is that I’m not too worried about this potential problem with the RP at this point. I’ll need some more testing time to give you more thoughts on this.

After my turn was up, Ed Pingol stepped up to the plate and took the RP’s outside. He wanted to test the high speed sync abilities and used 2 slave units. I don’t have any of the TTL settings at this point, but I do know that he used a ST-E2 on the hotshoe and 2 groups on the slaves, A & B. One unit was 3-4 feet away, camera right and the other unit was 6-8 feet away, camera left. I was a spectator

 

Camera: Canon EOS 40D | ST-E2 set to High Speed Sync
Exposure: 1/8000 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 100 - Focal Length: 17 mm

The model is my wife, Sol Tamargo

I’m loving the use of high speed sync with these RP units!

 

Well, for now, I’m going to close with those photos of my HOT wife…thanks Ed! Thanks Kevin for giving us a chance to play with your new toys! I look forward to working with these units at my next gig. I will be doing a writeup on what it is like to use the RP’s in a live environment where the pressure is ON!

Thoughts or comments about the TTL system and Radiopoppers innovative way to use Radio Signals…. please give us a shout or feel free to drop off your ideas.

I’m really curious as to how many of FF’s readers actually use Manual slave flash operation or TTL…

Cheers!
Mateo

 

**Update**

I didnt have too much time when I originally wrote this post, so I’ve added one more image that showcases a long distance field test in “ideal conditions” meaning open range without any interference. In this photo example, i’ve added a field test shot at 300+ feet. I’m the spec off in the distance under the arrow holding the flash that is actually being triggered at that distance. We tried several frames where I would stick my hand in front of the antenna and some where Kevin would face the opposite direction to test if and when the slave would trigger. Anyway, here is the football field test…

F3.5 1/4000 ISO 50 ST-E2 trigger on Camera.

photo by Kevin King

and a zoom of this frame to see the slave being triggered.

 

***Update 2***

I got a few frames from Stillmotion’s tip top shooter, Amina Myriam Wojcik. We were all tag teaming along with the crew who was testing the RP’s. Here are a few of her photos and her 2 cents… She shot these with a Canon 5d and a Tilt and Shift lens… She also has added a cool X-process flavor to her shots…
Amina writes:

At WPPI, I had a chance to check out the Radio Poppers. The group went on two shoots with them, one at a really cool restaurant called Battista’s Hole in the Wall, and on in the desert just outside of Las Vegas.

Because of the different shooting conditions, sometimes I was using one external flash, and sometimes more. I tested them at different ratios and groups, as well as channels and different levels of exposure compensation.

I found that it was easiest to use the ST-E2 with the Radio Poppers, since the ratio controls are right on the back of the unit, and really easy to access. The 580 EXIIs are great for it too, but it takes a little longer to switch settings, so if you’re in a time-crunching situation, be sure to have your “fit-in-your-pocket’ ST-E2.

The Radio Poppers worked at all settings reliably and allowed me to use high-speed sync in bright daylight without worrying about line of sight. It was awesome when I could light some guys playing hacky sack so easily. Now, focus was another issue! Ever tried shooting moving objects with a tilt-shift, at 2.8 in bright daylight with flashes behind your subjects? Not as easy as it sounds!

But it was super fun, and we all got some awesome shots out of it

Above four images credit: Stillmotion’s tip top shooter, Amina Myriam Wojcik.

 

Thanks Amina & the still motion crew for your help!

I’ve been spending my time these last few days hanging out at WPPI in Vegas and finally got to meet up with Kevin King, creator of Radiopopper. Kevin is a pretty rockin photographer and an awesome entrepreneur as well!

Kevin let me play around a bit with this killer device and he even told me that I may be able to get my hands on a set pretty soon so I can experiment with them at my next wedding on the 29th. I hope to be doing some killer testing on this device as I just may have a new weapon to my arsenal! r….I fired this baby off TTL at 1/8000 at 1.4…(i’ll have to get Kevin to send me a few of those shots to post here as I was using his camera for the quick test).

I’ll keep you posted on my results…keep an eye on this guy, radio popper may be a big friend of FF very soon!

Ps, jump over to strobist to read about David’s meeting with Kevin recently….

Cheers!
matt

We have been very lucky in a sense that our clients commission us to fly all over the world and shoot in some super exotic places. One of the requested sessions is typically an after wedding session where there are no rules and the dress likely will end up in the sand or swimming in the ocean. This allows for total creative freedom.

I wanted to share another one of these sessions we shot recently in the Dominican Republic. We ended up spending the whole day with these folks driving across the entire country and exploring a few locations. Shooting in these conditions is risky as you never know what the locals are going to do to you, and sometimes, equipment is in danger. I’d like to cite a specific example where I was in the water with my wast belt of lenses and for this particular example, I was helping Sol with the flash and we were under exposing the background as the bride and groom were splashing each other. I was also shooting (bad idea). Somehow, I ended up tossing a Nikon SB-28 slave and pocket wizard into the ocean. Lets just say that was the end of those pieces of equipment. $130 for the flash, $189 for the PW and a nice SHOCK to my face as the flash does not like water… I had my SD-8A batter pack plugged in, when I unplugged it I got a jolt!

Here is Sol’s photo just moments before the flashes death…

I walked back to the shore to sulk and drop that now useless equipment and snagged this frame of Sol shooting…

Since we had tons of backup, I added a CTO gel to another flash and shot this frame of the bride on the sand (special thanks to our taxi driver for holding the light (he has a cameo in the slideshow with a brides reflection in his shades).

Here is Sol’s version of this a few moments later when the groom decided to enjoy himself…

 

If you want to check out our entire adventure across the Dominican, check out this TTD Slideshow.

Well, I hope you enjoyed these TTD del Sol moments. Maybe you had a smile or two after visualizing me tossing that flash in the water. Moral of the story, dont try to shoot and assist at the same time, just dont do it!

Cheers & thanks for checking us out here at FF!

Mateo

How much can I begin to say about the fun that we are having with our subjects. Our clients are escaping to a wonderful destination location and planning the wedding of their dreams. Why not dream a little more and go out on an exotic excursion to be photographed in the land of fairy tales? This is exactly what we are doing with our sessions and I often need to pinch myself.

Picture yourself in the middle of a muddy deep dark hole and bats are flying around, everywhere. Watch out, if you step in the wrong place, you will be up to your knees in quickmud and sinking fast. Oh, there are little round balls of bat poo everywhere… I am stepping on them with every step through this mud cave. Insert bride and groom in this non-friendly environment and you are slap in the middle of a del Sol TTD. It gets cleaner and eventually becomes a “Wash the Dress” session.

I’ve talked about one of our previous sessions before HERE and if you have seen that, you will see something familiar. We added a little color to the background again but this time, we used a mix between the amazing power of the video light and a red gelled flash flavor. The combo worked very well for the looooow light circumstances. I am hoping that my viewers can live vicariously through this session and help us keep the TTD phenomenon alive. You can do this by posting this TTD link in your blog. Show it to the world, tell a friend or neighbor about this insane video you watched. Del Sol is making a huge effort to keep an interest in the TTD session.

checka lo this video from the session

Many thanks to our friends Paul & Rachel at Playa Weddings for the awesome video work.

 

OK, OK, OK, I’ve used red flash gel in the past to add some sauce to the frame… Well, I thought the flava was oh so nice…. Anyway, here is a set of images that we got recently while doing a little spelunking.

Here are a few of my favorite photos… JUST an FYI. The del Sol studio has been undergoing a little brand development. Sorry for all the inconsistency… But you are beginning to see some of the results of our new face. This is our new blog template with the new logo. New blogs for Flashflavor and del Sol coming very very soon!

and this is the “scene setter” from the bat cave…

We we were getting stuck in some serious knee deep stuff in there… (shot courteous of Sol Tamargo)

Sol also snagged this killer frame. If you have been curious up to this point as to some specifics about our lighting, we would like to introduce you to the power of video lights. In ALL these frames, we are using a very inexpensive low wattage SONY Video light. Makes for some pretty sexy fill, eh?

100% Sol Tamargo…

and another one from Sol

Ambient light all over the background of the cave…. the sun was beaming into the cave producing this beautiful light quality that was being reflected all over the place by the ripples that we were causing by our movement through the water… her is an example of total ambient with a tad bit of low power flash flavor fill. In the video, you can see what I am talking about with ambient splashing everywhere.

This shot sets up the ambient beam of light that helping us with these frames…

 

Again, the movie file at: www.delsolphotography.com/ttd/ttd2 Please, throw the link to this around to share the love. The more people (clients included) helps our worldwide efforts to keep the TTD thing going!

Thoughts? We had some serious fun on this one. It is our hopes to perpetuate the TTD phenomenon for the next few years. We believe that fun times and exotic locations such as this continue to stir the imagination. Do you?

Cheers!
matt

Have you ever been shooting and had this miracle blessing where an off camera strobe (not your intentional flash) just appeared from the background / foreground and illuminated your frame, thus delivering a magical image that was totally unplanned and seemingly excellently executed? If so, then you should be thankful to be LUCKY

Well, in our few years of shooting we have been lucky enough to see a random strobe appear.
In this photo example, Sol Tamargo squeezed off a pretty cool shot of the bride leaving the church and kissing her mother. You can see the camera toting dork in the background (me) with my associate just next to me, holding a remote flash. Sol was not intentionally triggering this flash when she composed this frame, it just happened. The resulting photo is….luck!

I like this photo because it is a strong exit moment. Bride embraces mother prior to getting in the limo. I’ll take luck

 

Accidental flash flavor can also come as a gift from the typical film shooting family grandmother or family relative. In this frame, our our associate Melissa. She was shooting the processional with a 24-70 when the mother of the groom squeezed off an award winner. Timing a camera shutter from a handheld P&S camera is impossible… try timing that to ISO 1250, 2.8 at 1/40th. I’ve been lucky enough to get a handful of frames with a shutter going off. I really liked the effect this one had on our image.

 

Lastly, I wanted to finish up with some humor. Sorry if this offends some folks, I laughed out loud after I shot it. The bride saw this photo on the LCD and just about made me show it to the entire dinner table. This was just some random golfer at a golf club. The groom was terrified to see this out of the corner of his eye…Anyway, my associate was using a flash and had placed the strobe on the top of the lockers. Having no idea that it was actuallly receiving a signal from my transmitter or that it was even there! I got this lucky nicely lit bounce light frame. Wow, sometimes when you dont plan things, they still come together! YEAY!

 

I’ve talked about a few other random accidents before…
Accident 1
and one of my favorites
Accident 2

Anybody else have any happy accidents to share that involve a strobe or some crazy flash moment. Please share your images with the Flash Flavor Flickr image pool

I know everybody is totally annoyed with me that I only update this blog once every 7-8…ok, maybe 9 days or so. SORRY. I’m busy shooting and traveling, really, I promise! Anyway, I need that time to muster up content that is actually worth something, so this week, I want to post something that I think will help a few of my readers grow closer to actually nailing the shot they initially envisioned!

Sound easy enough? Well, with some practice and some studying, its totally doable! In this post, I want my readers to consider the tools that help us do what we do! Before anybody gets started reading this post, I would like to give some tips that will help ANY photographer, regardless of skill level, reach the next level!

Lets start with my toolbox. First off, we use Canon 5d’s, L series Glass, off camera flash triggered by pocket wizards and we also use PHOTOSHOP.

I want this post to feature a little Props to Adobe for engineering such an amazing piece of software…Before I get into the description of how we use PS, I would like everybody to know that we shoot JPG files on our 5d at the 1 step compression Large setting. Sol & I have been shooting weddings for 6 years now and combined, we haven’t yet shot a RAW file for a client. I DO NOT want this to turn into a raw vs. jpg argument, because I really want this post to be about that topic… But what I do care about, is that you understand that we shoot JPG files and we think that shooting the correct color balance, exposure and composition is extremely important to get RIGHT when you squeeze the trigger. Raw has its benefits and I love the format however for us, it doesnt work for our production process.

That said, for the sake of the following photos, I’d like to throw some props to some of the resources that we have found very helpful in the development of our creative vision. Anybody heard of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals)? Well, if not, I recommend you rush and join their association and start sucking in all the excellent resources available through their network of professionals. Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, RC, Matt Kloskowski and you may want to check out PhotoshopuserTV. I have spent many a days logged into NAPP’s website following video tutorials and studying techniques to better my imagery… If any of these sites are new to you, I’d recommend taking some time to indulge in them!

I think its paid off. In the following example, I’ve got an image that showcase before and after techniques to emphasize how photoshop helps us make a prettier image We don’t rely on PS 100% for our imagery, but sometimes, it sure helps us tweak our images into some super magic!

This particular image wasnt shot with the best framing and exposure. PS was needed to “rescue” it. We were saved by the tools that PS offered us! I don’t want to explain exactly what I did as it took me about 8 minutes or so to make this photo work and look seamless. Just understand that sometimes, PS can make the difference in a saved shot vs a shot that makes the cut, but isnt quite the “one”.

In this photo example, we used a slave snooted speedlight (nikon sb-28 triggered by PW) that was set to 1/8th power with a full CTO gel. This photo was cropped, and touched up in PS using curves, patch tool, cloning tool, and history brush with a few masks and some custom actions to achieve the end result. I’ve included the BEFORE & AFTER images for full impact. The results are subtle and more appealing to my eye.

Canon 5d, ISO 50 2.8 1/160th with a 16-35 L at 16 mm.

After a little Photoshop Help…

To back up the usage of the CTO gel… I decided early on during this portrait session was shadowed by a setting sun with some very beautiful directional light that was very orange colored and replicating this look was something easy enough to do with the CTO.

The following image is NOT a Flash Flavor image, but included here to emphasize the available light quality and color and back up the decision I made to use the CTO gel.

 

here is another one that was shot with a snooted speedlight, a tad blown out. Slave was set to 1/4 power and just TOO close to the subject. Canon 5d, ISO 200 2.8 1/160th
As you can see, the color version is just a tad hot…its actually pretty blown out. BUT, contrast is ok, and with few custom PS actions and a B&W conversion, the contrast is sexy!

 

Anybody got PS or love it as much as I do… Isnt it a blast to use this software? Editing can get you down, but when you really know how to use the software, its a total BLAST!

Thoughts?

Cheers!

Matt

Our job as a documentary photographer is to showcase the mood and ambiance of an event. Often enough, 5-7 hours into a wedding is enough for us photographers to start to get tired and lazy on our feet. Have you told yourself or assistant “hey, we have shot this dancing stuff for hours, I’m going to start shooting less”? Well, I would totally agree that 50 drunk folks on the dance floor can start to look redundant!

I would suggest that the moment this question comes to your mind, OPEN YOUR MIND and start exploring the possibilities of creativity! What a better place to experiment with the flash! Heck, the flash doesn’t even need to be part of your creative exploration as your camera is a wonderful tool to play with.

Because this is flash flavor, I’ve included a few examples of our team using flash to SPICE up our time…

In this photo example, we decided to exaggerate the movement of the dance floor. I chose a moment when the bridesmaids decided to get on the floor and turn circles around each other. The blue color of their dresses helped the photo moment too. I cooled the photo down in PS to blend with the tones in the dresses and such. Our assistant can be seen in the upper right hand side of the frame with a flash stick. The slave was triggered by pocket wizard and set to 1/8th power bouncing off a very tall ceiling, meant to spill enough light on the entire room but not overpower the dragging movement. Its really a mix of the strong ambient and flash.

Canon 5d ISO 250 2.8 at 1/2 second

 

These two images came from a Greek wedding where they were throwing money at the bride and groom during a traditional Greek dance. I used many different approaches to get some great shots here, but these two occurred when I started “experimenting” with my flash. With the help of an assistant hand holding a slave triggered by pocket wizard, we set the flash to 1/4 power and set the head to a 28mm zoom. The instructions I gave him were to go over to the middle of this chaos and hide from me, aiming the flash in many different places.

For this frame, a 45 degree bounce off the floor, aimed camera left. Notice camera prospective!

Canon 5d ISO 1250 2.8 1/60th

Here, I change camera prospective and the flash is aimed at pretty much the same prespective. Added emphasis to make compositional lines drew your eye to the kid

Cheers!
mateo

merry new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have been traveling and traveling and I have landed in Atlanta for a week for a wedding. We are headed back to the Mayan Riviera on the 8th though, this cold weather stuff is not for me!

I wanted to share my new christmas present with you all, a box of goodies that every photographer likes to see under the tree.
We picked up a few more lenses, but I am most happiest about my new 85 1.2 and my new 35 1.4! How much fun and exciting is this!!!!!!!!!!! We are actually training another associate photographer and most of this stuff is for his camera bag…all the zooms and such. But nonetheless, can’t wait to try out my new 85 tomorrow. I am shooting a wedding in a big beautiful church tomorrow and a reception to follow in a HUGE Biltmore hotel ballroom! Images coming soon!

end of the year present

 

And for a little flash flavor:

I shot this wedding back on 11/3 in Atlanta. Last wedding of the year in US actually. This setup is all about mixing the ambient and your strobes so that you can emphasize keylights on our subjects and keep MOOD and ambiance in the room while at the same time, concentrating on strong compositional choices. The gentleman in the center is the bride’s father and was singing “The way you look tonight” with his buddies, a song that the groom requested that must be “played” by the band.

I set up 2 speedlights on 1/4 power, triggered by my sturdy Pocket Wizards. I had strong ambient light coming from camera right and from the band’s stage lighting. I wanted to balance those lights so that my strobes, set to bounce, could come down a tad softer on their jackets but also bounce far enough to light up the bride & groom, sitting 20 feet away, watching the performance.

Her is the best I could do with my images to tell the storytelling of the evening:

Canon 5d | ISO 500, 2.8 1/80th on ALL frames.

Here is my frame showing the placement of the 2 speedlights. Notice the strong band light coming from behind the speaker. The band’s light was my friend I used a PJ technique to add emphasis to the frame, layering the subject, waiting for the perfect moment where the bride & groom looked at each other with smiles. The bounce light is just barely reaching them and adds a keylight on their forehead…

This one from the other side, using the same layering technique.

Here is a better shot to showcase the results of my lights.

This one was just for fun, shot with my 200. I wanted to isolate dad on this one.

Ok, thats it for now. Hope this inspired you to shoot a room with more than one light, and consider the mood as well as compositional choices to make your storytelling dramatic. Remember, any HACK can put 2 lights in a reception hall. Telling the story is with your lighting and composition by preserving mood and ambiance is the way to go

 

Please share you compositional lighting storytelling at Flash Flavor Flickr image pool. Or drop us a comment here and show us por favor!

Cheers & have a happy new years!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I wanted to put up a small taste of flava over the holidays, seeing that I only update FF every week or so. We just got back from the Dominican Republic, 4 days of adventure with some cool clients! Today, we are with my family for some needed time off and I found an image to share with FF readers!

I pulled and old trick out of my bag a few weeks ago (dec 8, 2 days after my wedding)! I will occasionally put a flash or two under the table to light the reception table settings in a unique way, so that my clients will get to visualize their hard work and table setup, in a TOTALLY different way than brightly lit!

At this wedding, I was swimming in ambiance, the stuff was just everywhere. The wedding designer put special attention to lighting elements that would give the entire setting a mood to give the place the feeling as if it were in an outdoor ballroom, especially with the overhead lights. These were pretty powerful lights too, at 40 watts or so. I decided after several combinations that I wanted to turn them down, so I underexposed the background and added a single speedlight under the head table.

I could have exposed the background more, which i did in trial and error, but the moodiest image I could come away with had the pool’s reflection only showcasing the table and the overhead lights, along with the rope lighting on the trees…

slave speedlight set to 1/4 power

My point with this post is to showcase the many ways to change a setup with an added speedlight. Next time, I’ll use 4 speedlights in this situation, who knows…maybe add a little color!

And here is my straight ambient shot…I took this image within seconds of the above example.

Any thoughts or other examples on under table lighting? If you have one, please share it in the Flash Flavor Flickr image pool. Or drop us a comment here and show us por favor!

Cheers & merry Christmas,

mateo

I just wanted to say thank you David Hobby at Strobist for your kind words and recognition. David has helped both Sol & I achieve publication in 3 magazines, around the world… all in the last 2 months!

David Hobby is one of the super heros of internet marketing. If you sell anything marketed to photographers, you should be advertising on his site. He has zillions of readers and the come back again and again for a reason! He continues to keep the photo world informed and now he is offering a contest for folks who enter images into the strobist flickr pool!. I think that pool needs some HOT wedding photography representation! So if you are a wedding shooter, please submit your images there so we can represent!

 

Many Thank YOUS to all the people who called, wrote and commented on our blogs with congrats to us on our special day… The love is very appreciated.

 

 

Here are a few images that were shot by some of my photographer friends who were guests at my Dec 6 2007 wedding. Be sure to check links to their site to see a few more images from the sneak peek

***Disclaimer*** Sergio Photographer was the official commissioned photographer for this event, his mack daddy images coming soon! Sergio was digging on the FF at my wedding, so maybe we can see his techniques here

 

****UPDATE**** Checkalo Sergio’s photos: Sergio Photographer Slideshow
and his blog: Sergio BLOG

Here are a few of his images…

This one is ALL of my photographer buddies after a few BIG glasses of Don Julio…

 

Guest photographer friends:
These few images from previous FF poster, Mark Adams, from LaCour.

Ok, so I liked the Mayan Warrior thing!

And these from my amigo, Chris Savas. Chris works as a commercial photographer shooting events all over the world. He showed up to my wedding with a Mark III and a Canon 300 2.8 with a 1.4 extender… sheesh, that combo is heaver than me!

And here are a few from my amgio, Ben Chrisman. Ben Chrisman is a compositional FREAK! I am blown away by his stuff, just amazing work. He likely won’t be featured on FF because he doesnt slave flashes, nada! I’ve been thinking of doing and “Anti-Flash Flavor” post though… Ben would make a perfect candidate! Hit his blog to see several more of my wedding, including me SLAMMING tequila! Viva Don Julio Reposado

This one of Sergio in action

And these from my friend, Matt McGraw.

I took 15 dance lessons!

Here are a few from my bud, Patrick Williams

this is the group photographer shot….

THANK YOU to all my photog buddies who snapped a few frames, I’m sure I’ll be seeing some more here soon

Cheers,
mateo y sol

Have you ever seen a Mayan Ritual performed at a wedding??? I for sure hadn’t until my last wedding! I got this set of keepers at one of my last gigs in the Riviera Maya….

My 11/17/07 bride totally surprised her guests with an entertainment performance that I must admit, was absolutely unbelievable! I was getting ready to photograph one of the most insanely exotic sequences of images I have ever captured during a day of matrimony…

I was aware there would be evening entertainment, but 12 ornately dressed Mayan warriors with head dresses that will give you nightmares……uuhhh, na. didn’t quite visualize that!

So howa bout on the spot thinking of “what the hell do I do to make these images dramatic” type thinking… well, I put on my cap of creative flash how too… and came up with these images…

Actually, I didn’t have time to think, i just started shooting. I shot almost 100 frames of this 30 minute dance… here are a few of my fav’s…

Camera and flash settings: 5d, 1250 ISO, 1/30th, 2.8! If you have ever read any other of my posts, this would be old news to you. Slave flash set to 1/64th…. again, old news. I did occasionally boost the flash to FULL power… can you guess which ones?

Is this SICK or what??? at this point, I was becoming a Mayan Warrior myself…. These guys were flying around at MACH speed, going in circles, jumping in the air, screaming death chants! I was trying my best to move with the wolf pack until this guy got in my face (i think he was the leader of the pack)… but anyway, he literally looked at me and belted this whoooaaaaaaahhhhhh scream in my face, which I must admit, intimidated me….

Here he is again, keeping an eye on me…

This is one of my FAV’s from the sequence. I wanted to backlight this crew to showcase the layers of this madness. Fill with on camera 580…

here is a sneak peek at our setup… (only 1 slave speedlight)

and the grand finish…(this appeared to be a kill, one warriors strength over another)

I just thought I’d post this to help you out for the next time you encounter Mayan warriors…..

insane eh?

Thoughts?

Cheerios,

mateo

PS:

***Update*** I thought I’d give you a little heads up as to why it is that FF gets updated SO lamely… I’m just plain busy. 14 weddings in the month of November..no thanksgiving yum yum for this turkey! Both Sol & I and our Associate shooter are working our ARSSES off so its difficult to keep up with this blog. Just give me a break if you come back to see we haven’t updated this thing. Almost 100 weddings in 2007… whewwww…. I need a break! 2008 isnt any different… we already have 50 weddings booked up to MAY! What the hell is wrong with me????

I’m going to deviate from posting nothing but flash flavor and talk a little bit about why and how I got in the position I am in today. I constantly seek new inspiration and ideas. Every now and then, there are a few jems that stand out and I would like to mention them here.

There are a few photographers that I admire and have learned quite a bit from in the last 10 years. Nature photographer John Shaw, was a major source of inspiration for me. I love this quote from Shaw:

“Cameras and lenses are simply tools to place our unique vision on film. Concentrate on equipment and you’ll take technically good photographs. Concentrate on seeing the light’s magic colors and your images will stir the soul.”

**Update** Apparently, I’ve made a mistake, John Shaw was the individual to bring this quote to my attention, originally spoken by his friend, Jack Dykinga. Thanks to FF reader Todd Nordquist for bringing this to my attention.

It was my late grandfather, Art Eno, who willed all his professional camera gear while still living…(nikon f4 film rig and a zillion manual focus lenses and the mack daddy tripod). He also handed me Shaw’s first book on nature photography, which I read cover to cover a million times. I then bought and read every one of his other books. I shot transparency film for a few years and actually learned the craft. I was a pretty ok nature photog.
This book taught me how to use the camera and how to think about composition.

 

Secondly, if you havent had a chance to check out images made by David Roberts, please take a look at these few I found posted on an old school link from the WPJA’s site back in 2004. It was in 2003 that I was searching for photojournalism photographers and found David’s site. (NOT the WPJA). I wish his old PJ site was still up, ctphotojournalist.com but it says “new website coming soon”…. oh well. Anyway, back then, I had no idea what the WPJA was…All I cared about was that I found a photographer whose work was ALL FILM, and just some of the most creative work I had seen. I pretty much looked at every one of the photos on his personal site. I was truly amazed by his creative vision.

Photo © 2002 by David Roberts
I guess he had some of the first dibs on the trash the dress fad.

 

While I was in Guadalajara Mexico last week, I fell into the blessing of staying at a hotel whose neighbor parking lot was occupied by the majestic Cirque du Soleil touring production, Quidam. I ran across the street to buy tickets… These guys sell out every night! We got 2 tickets in the best section possible for only $75 each!!!!!! WOW, in Atl, the same seats go for $250! Folks, i’m here to tell you that Cirque is by far, the most amazing theatrical production company I have ever encountered. This was my 3rd time seeing Quidam. I’ll go back 100 more if I could. Quidam was my first experience with Cirque back in 1997.

Cirque brings together the most amazing technical elements. If you want to study lighting and composition, go to one of their shows… I’m in awe every time i go. I’ve seen:
Quidam (3 times)
Alegría
Corteo
DELIRIUM
Dralion
Varekai

Go check out one of these shows! If Cirque comes to your town (all the shows I mentioned are touring shows), I would consider it a SIN to miss the production! I have a BFA in Theatre. I’ve seen TONS of shows and other performances, NOTHING compares… One of these days, I’ll be hitting the Vegas productions… I hear they the jam pony!

Anybody have any thoughts? Been inspired by these people too? Please share your thoughts.

Cheers!
matt

As a follow up to my last post about dragging the shutter and keeping ambient, I’d like to showcase similar circumstances we experienced from last weeks wedding in a beautiful garden, very looooow lighting conditions. We wanted to photograph the first dance with a little added light, in order to make an exposure. We used a fast prime for a few shots without flash, which ended up providing a dynamic portfolio of the first dance…. so consider this when you shoot in similar conditions:

I set up two Nikon Sb-28 speedlights on 1/64th power, each at 45 degrees on the columns (the columns 1 away from center on both sides) aiming at the ceiling for a small bounce. It was important to me that we were able to expose the ambient light outside the gazebo and make it appear that we weren’t blowing the sky out of the conditions inside… If you look carefully, you can see the slave mounted on the left side cornice.

Disclaimer: I’ve been asked how do I get away with ISO’s over 1000… My answer: Canon 5d

We were shooting at ISO 1250 1/30th at 2.8 (my favorite reception exposure settings) slave set to 1/64th

and this one, to frame them up nicely

ISO 1250 1/30th at 2.8 (my favorite reception exposure settings) slave set to 1/64th

and this one, i put on my 50 1.4, shot this one at ISO 1600 1/4 at 1/30th… rather dark in there eh?

NO Slave!

Check out a slideshow of photographer favorites from Kellie & Kevin’s wedding. I had my lovely wife, Sol Tamargo assisting me on this one!

Anybody have any good PJ stuff to submit to Flashflavor? Is the image unique? If so, tell me why

Anybody have any cool low light stuff with slave help? If you want to submit them to the Flash Flavor Flickr group, please feel free to do so.

 

Comments?
Thoughts?

Do you hate this stuff?

Cheers!

PS… I’m traveling through the Mexican country side, headed today to this little city, Tapalpa. I love little adventures. We are spending the week in Guadalajara Mexico, where Sol was born and raised. Our ring designer is making our wedding bands and we are making a little visit… Its pretty crazy to be in the wedding biz and planning your own wedding at the same time…Friday, we are headed to Mexico City for a traditional Mexican wedding, totally different than anything most of us have ever seen… 400+ people strong and culture filled! Hopefully, we will have some killer flash flavor to share from that one !

saludos,

I often sit here wondering what I am going to do at the next wedding to change it up, making everything different.

One thing I’ve been trying lately that will certainly make you smile a little bit more in your pursuit is to try and use the ambient! Add a little flashflavor and you will be hooked!

I’m very happy shooting my receptions at ISO 1000 or 1250 with my Canon 5d and using my primes at wide open or my 2.8 lenses, shot with 1/30th of a second. That will pretty much allow you to BLAZE highlights in the background into your frame. Now, try adding a little flashflavor at a LOW power. This can be done in one million ways… If you have a static setup, flash on a stand, concentrate on small areas of the dance floor. Use the flash on 1/32 or 1/64 or 1/128 with these settings…. Bouncing may require you to add a little power, but may decrease the mood of the photo by making the scene look like a daylight lit photo. If you are going direct flash off camera, set it up on the lowest power and play…

Check this example out:

1/32 slave bounce camera left | ISO 1000, 2.8 1/25th

Also, try to add a snooted flash..I have found that my SB-28’s at 1/64th power are too often very bright, at about 4-6 feet distance to subject. I will often take a piece of paper to damper the light’s power. This works We shoot slow dances like this almost every wedding….ALL the following were shot with a snoot and 1/64th power on the slave…

Check these out:

ISO 1000 2.8 1/40th

and this one:

ISO 1000 2.8 1/15th…. how sexy is that light in the background????

With this one, I wanted to emphasize the background, but it was still semi daylight out side…

ISO 1000 5.6 1/10th… I had to get a little movement in the background. A small camera movement helped me out here big time!

Low light is also discussed in this FF post.

 

at night, drag and hang LOW with the power…. get some happy results!

Anybody have any good PJ stuff to submit to Flashflavor? Will the image wow the world? If so, tell me why

Anybody have any sexy low light stuff with slave flavor? If you want to submit them to the Flash Flavor Flickr group, please feel free to do so.

 

Cheers!

Matt

We are moving towards doing 100% destination weddings, BUT, we are still contracted here and there to shoot in a big church or cathedral, where you can expect DARK dungeon type lighting. I always find it a challenge when the ceremony starts at 7:30 pm in the summer, Catholic service, so you are easy looking at 1 hour ceremony and 15 minutes of formals… Basically, there is NO natural light outside for any bride & groom shots… oh well. Pull out the homemade snoot and make some magic, or at least try to

We use pocket wizards to trigger our remote slaves. However, have you ever have a night where things just didnt work? I can recall one wedding where I was convinced that ALL my pocket wizards were broken, or cables jacked up, who knows as nothing worked. In hindsight, I think there must have been some type of interference that caused total shutdown. Technical problem nights like that aren’t fun. I do find that sometimes, the pocket wizards become tricky as the PC cables tend to get bent, or just dont work. Often, I share the same slave as my 2nd photographer and we steal each others flash when we trigger the slave during a recycle and end up with a frame with NO flash.

I have spoken previously about Happy Accidents before in this post…however, today is all about a totally different type of happy accident!

Sometimes a non-working flash can be a happy accident! In this old church, Sol Tamargo stole my flash recycle, and we ended up with this happy accident.

This is Sol’s image, not the happy accident.

 

Don’t ask me how or why the flash didnt go off, I’m assuming I fired during her recycle. We had the slave set to 1/32 power. I called it a HAPPY ACCIDENT

I was pleasantly surprised to see this shot. My intentions were to see a flash on the couple, 100%….something about the grand background behind the couple that works well against their silhouetted outline. I needed to open my mind and not worry about needing that stupid slave. The lesson here is to think about your resources available, at all times. Ask yourself the question, to light or not to light? Then, try the frame both ways.

 

Anybody have any happy accidents? If you want to submit them to the Flash Flavor Flickr group, please feel free to do so.

Cheers!
matt

This is one of the things that we all must do, and the question is how do we do it dynamically?

The cake is an intimate object, sitting over there in the corner, next to nothing sometimes… but, often there will be a few candles and maybe some ambient light focused on the table, adding to the mood of the reception. Ok, so now we found some ambiance, now what? I recommend that you change up your game!

First, I would like to get you in the mindset of how we can utilize a room’s ambiance by focusing on the beautiful, sometimes tungsten colored light. On this first photo, we use no artificial light from a slave, just candle light…dont forget about this option folks!

 

Ok, so add a little flash at a very low power, 1/64 power in this case, zoomed to 85mm with about 5 feet of distance. Flash at a 45% angle on camera left, slightly aimed from high to low. Gives a nice little shadow detail on the icing writing. I’ve isolated the cake away from all the candles on the table. The Black & White frame from this sequence was very sexy to me…especially with the flashflavor coming in…

 

Typically, I’m not a big tilt guy for the sake of tilting just because… I am usually lining up other pieces of the frame to make the tilt work, but in this case, I knew that I had shot this cake 5 times from sunday and this way was going to be different. And, after paying attention to the highlight spots on the M logo from the above example, I decided to zoom on in and focus on the logo. This image ended up being a 12×12 print in the wedding album. Again, same flash settings as above.

 

And finally, add the homemade snoot to the equation and play with shadows…. simple stuff.

 

I have some more flavor to suggest with some other cakes, I’ll save that for an upcoming post Anybody have any thoughts on this? Care to share your examples and idears on our Flash Flavor Flickr group. Got some discussion threads going there, I think this thing could actually start to become educational!!

Comments? leave them here porfavor…

Have a blog? Flash Flavor is looking for you… we are trying to spread the word to other photographers, and through links on your photo blog, we are literally spreading around the world! I’m humbled by all the folks that have been sticking our link on their blog-roll. Too cool!

Cheers!
mateo