^ RadioPoppers enable full TTL flash control for Canon and Nikon strobes. Unlike traditional wireless TTL, which relies upon a finicky line-of-sight connection between the Master and the Remote - RadioPoppers can transmit this TTL control through walls, in bright sunlight and over extended distances.

Off-Camera + TTL = Better Flash Photography

The number one opportunity to improve your flash photography is to unbolt your Speedlite from the top of your camera and move it… anywhere. If you rely on your camera to calculate the proper flash exposure or if you want to dial the flash exposure up/down independently of the ambient exposure from your camera, you have to shoot TTL (”Through-The-Lens”) flash. So, how to you combine getting your Speedlite off your camera and still maintain a communication link for TTL-flash? That’s the journey that led me to discover the incredible RadioPoppers.

The Basics of Wireless TTL Flash

Corded, Off-Camera TTL Flash
There are a couple of ways to get your flash off your camera and maintain TTL communications. The simplest is to use a special cord. Both Canon and Nikon make them. The cords are rather expensive ($65 to $75) and a bit short (2′ to 3′ coiled). They come in very handy when I’m moving quickly and want just an arm’s length of space between my camera and flash. I carry two with my Speedlites. (You can get amazing mods to off-camera cords here — but warm up your wallet beforehand).

Wireless, Off-Camera TTL Flash
The wireless approach to TTL-flash is based on having a direct (aka: “line-of-sight”) path between your camera and flash(es). You need a Master flash or flash-less Commander unit on your camera or you’ll need one of the Nikon bodies with a pop-up flash that can operate as a Commander. The sensor on the Remote unit (which everyone else calls a “Slave”) has to be able to see the signal sent out from the camera-mounted Master/Commander. When you venture off into the land of Wireless-TTL flash, you’ll quickly discover what I mean by “Speedlite Yoga” as you twist the head of your flash into obscure positions so that it’s pointing at your subject while the sensor is pointing at your camera. As you’ll read below, the line-of-sight issue is the Achilles Heal for Wireless-TTL Flash and the reason that so many pros loath it. It’s also the reason that RadioPoppers were invented.

Three other quick points about Wireless TTL Flash:  1 - Most of the time, I set my Master flash to that it communicates to the Remotes but does not actually fire during the exposure.  2 - There are 3rd-party flashes that claim to work with Canon or Nikon systems. I advocate that you should have the same brand of camera and flash.  3 - When Canonites say “e-TTL” and Nikonians say “i-TTL” - both are talking about their brand of wireless communication between camera and flash.

Off-Camera, Non-TTL Flash
There are a number of other techniques that enable you to fire your flash when it’s not parked on top of your camera. All of these break the TTL communication link and require you to set the power level on your flash manually (not bad, just different). Radio triggers, like PocketWizards and Skyports, are fantastic and expensive. Optical triggers and really long PC-cords are low-tech and less expensive options. As today’s focus is RadioPoppers and the future of wireless TTL-flash, I promise that I’ll write about off-camera, non-TTL flash soon. In the meantime, head over to Strobist to fill your head with great ideas on this topic.

Wireless TTL Flash Is Finicky
I admit it. Wireless-TTL Flash can be problematic to absolutely infuriating. It’s not that the concepts are faulty. It’s the gear. Wireless TTL is relatively easy IF the Master and Remote units can see each other and IF there’s not too little or too much distance between them and IF the sun is not too bright or at the wrong angle. That’s a lot of IFs.

Here are situations where traditional Wireless TTL Flash falls apart:

• I’m moving around the subject and not giving any thought to the need for the Master to be pointing directly at the Remote.
• The Remote is being moved around by an assistant who is not paying attention to the Master-Remote connection.
• I’m switching the camera from vertical to horizontal to vertical - which means that my Master is, then isn’t, then is pointing at the Remote.
• I want the Remote to be parked around a corner or directly behind the subject.
• I stuff the Remote unit into a softbox or hide it behind a shoot-through umbrella.
• I wander more than 30′ or so from the Remote.
• As seen by the Remote, sun is coming right over my shoulder - effectively blinding the poor guy.

RadioPoppers To The Rescue

RadioPoppers are the brilliant idea overlooked by industry giants and invented by a regular guy in Arizona. Rather than rely upon a visual connection between the Master and Remote, the RadioPopper system captures the electronic pulses being emitted by the Master and converts them to radio waves. The receiving unit then decodes the radio signal and delivers the TTL-flash message to the sensor on the Remote via a fiber optic cable.

With RadioPoppers, I don’t worry about much — other than staying creative with my camera and lights. I maintain full TTL control - including high-speed sync and flash exposure compensation - without getting shutdown because there’s not an absolutely perfect, line-of-sight path between the Master and Remotes. With RadioPoppers, I’m free to stick my Remotes into awkward locations. I’m free to wander a good distance from the Remotes. I’m free to strap a wide range of light modifiers to my Remotes and not worry about blocking the sensors. I get all these options without giving up the ability to dial my flash up and down from my camera.

RadioPoppers Are Not Perfect… Yet.
As of mid-November, 2008, RadioPoppers are still a first-generation product. Is this new technology rather expensive - yes. Is this new technology a bit buggy - sometimes yes. Is this new technology able to do something that no other gadget can do - YES! That’s why I remain a huge (and patient) fan of the Poppers.

^ Early in my career as a Poppaholic: rubber bands and black gaffer tape. Look really close... you'll see that I didn't get the white ball on the fiber optic taped down properly on the Remote's sensor. So, this flash would not fire.

If you’ve tried Poppers and not been satisfied, implement the following and give them another go:

• You have to have a roll of Black Gaffer Tape (”BGT”) to make Poppers work reliably.
• The clear plastic sleeve that holds the ball to the end of the fiber optic needs to be permanently attached to the fiber optic with thin strip of BGT.
• The placement of the fiber optic probe onto the Remote sensor is critical - especially with smaller units like the Canon 430EX. If your flash is not firing, it’s probably because the little white ball is not exactly on the sweet spot. Study the Popper manual for the details. Move the ball around until you find the sweet spot.
• Once you find the sweet spot, use the BGT to securely tape the white ball in place. Don’t use a tiny piece of BGT for this. Use a big piece of BGT, because you also need to…
• Black out the entire sensor with BGT. Take no chances with a bit of sneaky sunlight getting in.
• Make sure the other end of fiber optic has not pulled out of the receiver - even just a bit. A small strip of BGT can help with this.
• Make sure you have fresh batteries and make sure the Poppers are turned on… seriously.

There are a number of RadioPopper mods discussed on the web. Many will void your RadioPopper warranty. My suggestion is that you break out the BGT in the near term and keep an eye on the RadioPopper blog for news about the introduction of second-generation models.

Poppin’ Reno With RadioPoppers

Last summer, shortly after I received my RadioPoppers (a transmitter and three receivers), I did what any normal shooter would do - I headed to Reno. Land of the free and home of the strange (at least just before and after Burning Man). Actually, Reno is a great place to shoot. Brilliant, high desert sun. Forests and peaks nearby. The Truckee River and Lake Tahoe. Weathered and abandoned buildings out in the desert. Colorful people. My good friend, MD Welch, who I met through a Joe McNally workshop, lives in Reno and set up a number of shoots with… colorful people. [That's MD in the white shirt serving as my stunt double for the demo shots.]

Shoot #1 // Truckee River Woman - Shooting Beyond The Range of Traditional Wireless TTL Flash

^ Truckee River Woman - Of course my first Popper test would be to jump in a river.

^ Just off the bank of a river is not exactly the place you'd want to use larger strobes (Quantums, Rangers...). Here's a perfect situation for Speedlites and e-TTL.

When you’re shooting an avid kayaker who likes to wear large sequins, it makes sense for everyone and everything to be in the water at the same time. Right? Here’s where I got my first taste of RadioPopper joy. The two Remotes were winged out on stands as shown above. Without e-TTL, I would have had to change the settings manually as the sunlight continued to fall. Without e-TTL, I also would have had to make more trips across the slimy and treacherous river bed. One wet slip was enough for me. Without the Poppers I would have had to stay within 30′ or so of the remotes. So, thanks to the Poppers, I was able to back up a considerable distance with my 70-200mm to shoot long and create a narrow angle-of-view while still controling my Speedlites remotely.

Shoot #2 // True Love - Forget About Where The Remote Is

^ The position of the Remote created the dramatic falloff in this mid-afternoon portrait on a brightly lit porch.

^ With RadioPoppers, you don't have to change the position of the Master when you suddenly decide to move in close or switch the camera from vertical to horizontal.

It’s not everyday that I meet a young woman who has “Mommy” tattooed beneath a heart on the inside of her arm. Sunlight was blasting in from everywhere during this mid-afternoon shoot. In order to settle the viewer’s focus on the truly interesting part, I had to create some dramatic falloff by moving the flash in real close. As shown above, the Speedlite was “fishpoled” in over the top. Here’s another example where e-TTL shines. I could dial the intensity of the flash up and down without touching the Speedlite or breaking up the flow of the shoot. Thanks to the RadioPoppers, I could also jump from horizontal to vertical and move in and out without having to stop and point my Master back at the Remote with each switch.

Shoot #3 // Battle Born Derby Demons - 2nd-Curtain Sync, Popper-style

^ Catching the essence of the Battle Born Derby Demons. With 2nd-curtain sync, the flash fires just before the end of a slow exposure.

^ The RadioPopper Remote-On-A-Stick trick enabled me to focus on capturing the Derby Demons at just the right spot on the track.

Catching the essence of the Battle Born Derby Demons (Reno’s flat-track roller derby team) proved to be another great test of the RadioPopper system. Imagine mixing a cocktail of Olympic speed skating, mud wrestling and a rock concert in a downtown park. You’ll get close to the feeling of a Derby Demon bout.

Two things quickly became evident as I tried to create photographs that portrayed the experience: 1 - a static (think “sharp”) image would not do and 2 - I had to catch the skaters as they passed through my slice of light light rather than try to chase them with it. As for for #1, it was evident that 2nd-curtain sync and a slow shutter speed were perfect. As for #2, my solution was to hoist a Speedlite and Popper atop a tall stand and zoom the head out to the max of 105mm. Thanks to the Popper, I could dial the intensity of the flash up and down until I found the right combination of slow-shutter and strobe — which continually changed as twilight merged into night. The Popper also allowed me to wander along the track and shoot my lit zone from a variety of angles without any concern about the Remote being able to see the Master.

Other Random Thoughts About RadioPoppers

Canon or Nikon should have invented this technology a long time ago. If you take out the AA battery, the electronic workings of a Popper aren’t that big. I hope that one of the big guys licenses this technology and builds it right into their Speedlites / Speedlights. The enthusiasm about e-TTL / i-TTL would explode.

RadioPoppers do things that Pocket Wizards, Skyports and other “dumb” triggers can’t do and vice versa. As you’ve already read, Poppers can do something that no other device can — namely deliver TTL flash control beyond the boundaries of normal e-TTL or i-TTL. What Poppers cannot do is control a wide range of devices like studio strobes or trigger remote cameras. Even if you get Popper-fever, you’ll still want/need another form of wireless triggers to use with other types of flash. $orry.

I’ve no doubt that RadioPoppers will continue to evolve and that many of the current quirks will go away. As much as I love BGT, I believe that it won’t always be necessary to have a roll handy when shooting with Poppers.

Have You Popped?

If you’ve used the Poppers, for better or for worse, add a comment with your experiences, insights and feature requests. I’ll make sure that the guys at Popperland see them.

High-speed sync enables daylight flash at wide apertures by changing the way the flash fires.

According to the 1931 song, only “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun.” Thanks to high-speed sync, flash photographers can now be added to the list. High-speed sync enables shutter speeds way beyond the norm for flash photography. It also opens up a new realm of creative opportunity.  Many shooters are intimidated by high-speed sync. In reality, it’s really easy to use if you have the right gear (say a Canon DSLR and a 580EX or a Nikon DLSR and an SB800).

Flash Photography Basics

I think of the amount of the flash as the duration of the flash. A speedlite ["speedlight" in Nikonese] firing at full power emits a longer burst of light than it does when firing at quarter power. When measured in a tiny slice of time, say a microsecond (one millionth of a second), the actual brightness coming out of the flash per microsecond is the same. At full power, the flash is just illuminating for more microseconds than it does at quarter power. [Note to uber-geeks: yes I know that it takes a few microseconds for the flash to reach full intensity and after peak intensity it falls off for a few microseconds, but let's not be too uber.] Looking at this backwards, if you want to freeze motion with flash, then use a high-powered strobe set to a low power setting.

The amount of flash can be controlled by the photographer, by the flash or by the camera. In manual mode, the photographer dials the amount of the flash up and down. [I do this often. To find out when and why, you'll have to wait for a future article. High-speed sync is way cooler than manual.] Some camera-mounted flash units have photo-sensors that will control the duration by measuring the amount of light coming back from the subject. [I think of this as "almost-matic" technology and never use it.] Today’s digital cameras have truly automatic technology in which the camera and the flash talk during the exposure. We refer to this as TTL - Through The Lens - flash. e-TTL in Canonese and i-TTL in Nikonese.

Sync speed is the fastest shutter speed that you can use during flash photography without “screwing up” the shot. If you use a faster shutter speed, a portion of your frame will not be illuminated by the flash. Ever have a flash photo with a dark band along one side? You shot faster than you sync speed. Of course, one shooter’s screw up is another shooter’s creative technique. Check out this video by David Ziser for an alternative look at purposefully  shooting faster than your sync speed.

The type of shutter in your camera (or lens) establishes the sync speed. View cameras (remember them?) and most medium-format cameras use lenses that have built-in leaf shutters with metal blades that open instantaneously from the center of the lens. Leaf shutters can synchronize with a flash at any shutter speed [technically, any shutter speed that is longer than the duration of the flash].

Single-Lens-Reflex cameras (film and digital) have shutters in which two curtains move across the focal plane. The interval between the curtains is the shutter speed. Essentially the exposure is a slit moving across the focal plane. For normal sync, SLRs must fire the flash after the first curtain is fully open and before the second curtain has started to close. Most DSLRs have sync speeds in the range of 1/125 to 1/250. At faster shutter speeds, there is no point when the entire sensor is exposed all at once - so normal sync is not possible.

Slow shutter speed = wide curtain gap, normal sync fine

Fast shutter speed = narrow curtain gap, must use high-speed sync

There are also cameras with electronic shutters that enable faster sync speeds (typically up to 1/500). Theoretically, electronic shutters can sync at any speed - but currently there are limitations caused by sensors over-heating… someday this will be really handy technology.

How High-Speed Sync Works

High-speed sync only works with dedicated TTL systems. The camera has to be able to talk to the flash. Further, you have to enable high-speed sync on the flash (Canon) or in the camera (Nikon).

With standard sync, the shutter has to be completely open when the flash fires. So, the camera fires the flash at the instant that the first curtain is fully open (”1st-curtain sync”) or at the instant just before the second curtain begins to close (2nd-curtain sync”). If you’ve ever seen a flash photograph taken at a really slow shutter speed where headlights of a car trail, that’s 2nd-curtain sync. [My cameras are always set to 2nd-curtain sync.]

With high-speed sync, the camera actually changes the way the flash fires. Rather than a single, strong burst, it tells the flash to send out an ultra-fast series of low-power, strobe pulses. Because the strobe pulses are so close together, the light appears to be continuous. So for the duration that the narrow curtain slit is traveling across the sensor, the flash is “always” on.

Canon’s Japan site has a useful diagram here. Fear not, it’s in English.

The upside of high-speed sync is that I can use virtually any shutter speed. The downside is that the output of the flash is greatly reduced. I often have to use several speedlites to get enough light when shooting at high-speed.

Freedom of Aperture With High-Speed Sync

High-speed sync gives me more creative freedom (aka: wider apertures). This is the main reason that I use it. Let’s say that I’ve been commissioned to shoot a portrait of a rising music star and that the only time she’s available is for 20 minutes at noon. Given that the sun is straight overhead, I’ll have to fill her face somehow. If I use a shiny reflector, she’ll squint and probably complain. So, I want to use a fill flash (or two) pushed through a white umbrella to soften the shadows.

With regular sync, the fastest I can shoot on my Canon 5D is 1/160. [Yes, I know the Canon specs say 1/200. But, in my part of the universe, it's really 1/160.] So, under the blazing sun, at 1/160, my widest aperture for a good exposure is f/13. That’s way too much depth-of-field for my portrait style. One option, would be to slap on my Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter and dial in several stops of neutral density. But, then I can’t see the magical expressions on my subject. The better choice is to turn on the high-speed sync on my 580EX (literally a quick button push). Now I can (almost) pick the aperture that I want to use. The reality was that there was too much sun. At 1/8000, the widest aperture I could get was f/5.6 - still, much better than f/13.

Taming The Sun With High-Speed Sync

Another benefit of high-speed sync is that you can overpower the sun with a small speedlite or two. In the photo above, you’ll note that the sky and background (basically, everything lit by the sun) is underexposed. Why? Two reasons. I wanted to make my subject the dominant element (aka: the brightest part of the picture). I also wanted to reduce the competition between the geometry of her arms and the geometry of the lattice. How? I set my overall exposure at -2 EV and my flash exposure at +2 EV. That’s about all the thought I put into it. I let the digital gnomes in my camera do the calculations.

In the following shot, you’ll see the underexposed daylight at left and the effect of the high-speed sync at right.

At left: Daylight only. At right: Canon flash at high-speed sync.

Setting Up High-Speed Sync

On Canon 580-series or 430-series speedlites, your flash must be set to ETTL mode. Then push the H-button until you see the H-icon on the screen. You are now in high-speed sync mode. Frankly, I keep high-speed sync on all the time. I shoot in aperture-priority (AV) mode 99% of the time - meaning that I’m almost always more concerned about controlling depth-of-field than I am about stopping motion. There’s no harm in leaving high-speed sync on. When I dial to an aperture that enables a shutter speed of 1/200 or slower, the camera automatically operates the flash at normal-sync mode - meaning that the full power of my speedlite is available.

On Canon Speedlites: Mode must be ETTL, then push the H-button. That's it. High-speed sync is activated.

On Nikon systems, it’s called Auto FP High-Speed Sync. As I understand it, you activate it in your camera rather than on the flash. Nikon shooters are encouraged to add comments relating to the specifics for their cameras.

Watch High-Speed Sync In Action

Watch this video of Joe McNally shooting high-speed sync in the sand dunes of Dubai. Thanks to the Strobist, David Hobby, for putting it together and launching it on the web.

Why did Joe use so many speedlights? You’ve already learned that high-speed sync greatly reduces the output. So if you have one speedlite and want to double the output (get another stop of light) you have to add a second speedlite. Then if you want another stop of light beyond that produced by two speedlites, you have to add two more speedlites. If you want third stop of additional light, you have to add four to the (one plus one plus two). So for three stops, you went from one light to eight. [Stay tuned... I've decided to round up as many 580EXs as I can and start firing them off en masse for a future article on this most-confusing concept.]

Wireless, High-Speed Sync with RadioPoppers

The opening image was shot using three 580EXs, a 430EX and a mess of RadioPoppers. One 580 was camera mounted with the Popper transmitter. It acted as the Master, but did not fire during the shot. The other three speedlites were mounted ala McNally on a C-stand at camera right and zoomed out to 105mm so that the light was concentrated along the length of the subject.

The Poppers provided eTTL control without too many hiccups.  The biggest issue was making sure that the fiber optic was placed exactly over the sensor. Not a biggie after we figured it out. Using the Poppers enabled me to forget about maintaining a line-of-sight between my Master and Slave units. I could work with my subject without concern for where the rack of speedlites stood. In short, I think RadioPoppers are great. New technology, yes. Rather expensive, yes. A bit buggie, yes. Able to do something that no other gadget can, YES. More on the Poppers to come soon.

RadioPoppers + Canon 580EXs = Wireless, High-Speed Sync

I carry a bunch of seldom-used gadgets that rumble around the bottom of my gear bags. Some have been around for years. I can’t find the courage to remove them because they might come in handy one day. Last week, it was the Cardellini’s turn to come to the rescue.

I was shooting on location - 30 miles from my studio. My assignment: photograph Frank Cullen - an environmentally conscious contractor who is building a large, straw bale house. My client, a home building magazine, wanted a photo of Frank and the straw bales. Turns out that the perfect corner for the shot - in terms of interesting geometry - was also being blasted by the midday sun.

The first line of attack was to fly a Westcott Scrim Jim with a full-stop silk. Essentially I wanted the sun to act as a fill light on Frank. To get the scrim in the proper position, I had to fly it high - using the two C-stands that I had in my truck.

The next step was to light Frank at a level so that the fully sunlit house would not dominate. I also had to light him so that his deep-set eyes would not fall into shadow. I’d just used both of my C-stands for the scrim. How to support the Chimera softbox and Quantum Q-flash? That’s when the MacGyver nerve started twitching.

“Let’s see. Use the scaffold. No. The step ladder! And the spare arm from the C-stand with the… baling wire?” Rather than look like a total hack, I pulled the Cardellini Clamp from the bottom of my grip bag and used it to turn the ladder into a stable lightstand for the softbox. [Detail shots below.] I added a couple of Canon 580EXs with a shoot-through umbrella on the other side of Frank and voila!

About The Cardellini Clamp

The Cardellini Clamp was invented by Steve Cardellini - a veteran of the film industry. Basically, it’s a 5/8″ threaded bolt, two wide plates and a large star-nut.

Cardellinis are versatile creatures that will grab onto almost anything… pipes, fence posts, large lumber, doors and yes, ladders. The width of the plates provides plenty of grip surface. You can use them to hang heavy lights. At the other end of the spectrum, you can use them to hold a piece of lightweight foamcore as a fill card.

Cardellinis come in a wide range of lengths and with different pin and plate configurations. When made by Matthews Studio Equipment, they are also known as “Matthellini Clamps.”

Need to add one to your gear bag? Click here to see the range offered at B&H Photo. Click here to see them at Adorama.

In the midst of all this, the following came to me quite innocently. Amy received the link in an email. Call me tired. Call me emotional. The first time I watched it, goose bumps covered my arms. I’ve watched it a  dozen two dozen times since. Smiles break out whenever I show it to friends.

I’ve been lifted up and reinvigorated. Our world truly is an amazing place filled with people of all shapes, colors and sizes. I believe (again) that our current tribulations will pass. Thanks to a guy named Matt and his friends in 43 countries.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

If you have fast broadband, click here to watch a High-Def version.

Like many great movements, it started as a simple idea and spread like wildfire. Read the story here. If you want to download a legit personal copy for free, click here.

What’s this have to do with being a photographer? Nothing and everything at the same time.

Epson Stylus Pro 7900

Epson has officially unveiled the newest generation of their 24- and 44-inch pigment-based, inkjet printers: the Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900. [True confession: my inner-geek gets all tingly at times like this.]

My initial assessment is that the Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 offer a slate of great innovations that focus on three goals - finer print detail, faster print speed and expanded color gamut. Among the new technologies are:

• a new MicroPiezoTFP™ print head that spits out incredibly small droplets more accurately and more rapidly.
• the new UltraChrome HDR ink set [my favorite feature] - which now includes orange and green inks. Way back in the Photoshop 2.5 era, Pantone invented Hexachrome by adding O and G to CMYK. I’m very interested in how far this new ink set will expand the color gamut of Epson’s pro printers. For more about color gamuts, read the PixSylated article on Simple Truths About Color Management.
• automatic black ink switching [my second favorite feature] - just five words on this… “thank you” and “it’s about time”.
• high-capacity ink cartridges - 11 individual ink cartridges are available in 150, 350 and 700ml capacities. Let’s see, 11 inks would be: Photo Black, Matte Black, Light Black, Light Light Black, Cyan, Light Cyan, Vivid Magenta, Vivid Light Magenta, Yellow, Orange and Green. [No word of a partridge or a pear tree from Epson, yet.]
• optional built-in spectrophotometer - the Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 can be ordered with a built-in X-Rite ILS20 spectrophotometer. For color-critical work, this new SpectroProofer™ technology will automate the creation of color profiles.

My Conclusion: we’re gonna have to get a really big Christmas tree this year.

Check out the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 site here.

Check out the Espon Stylus Pro 9900 site here.

Epson Stylus Pro 7900 / 9900 Press Release

EPSON AMERICA ADVANCES PROFESSIONAL INK JET PRINTING WITH NEW EPSON STYLUS PRO 7900 AND 9900 PRINTERS

24- and 44-Inch Printers Feature All-New Epson UltraChrome HDR Ink Technology Offering Creative Professionals Unmatched Color, Quality and Performance

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Oct. 23, 2008 – Representing a level of technology unprecedented in Epson’s history, Epson America today announced its next generation of professional ink jet printers – the 24-inch Epson Stylus® Pro 7900 and the 44-inch Epson Stylus Pro 9900. This Epson Stylus Pro series incorporates Epson’s latest achievements in photographic ink jet technology, including Epson’s MicroPiezo TFP™ print head with new Epson UltraChrome® HDR Ink technology, to deliver a higher level of print quality, increased performance with speeds almost twice as fast as previous models, and the widest color gamut ever from Epson Stylus Pro printers.

“We continue to innovate, refine and expand the limits of professional ink jet printing with every new introduction of an Epson Stylus Pro printer,” said Mark Radogna, group product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson. “The Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 printers truly redefine what’s possible from ink jet printing, offering creative professionals a superior printing solution. The new Epson Stylus Pro series is poised to dramatically redefine commercial, flexographic and package proofing, as well as professional photographic and fine art printing.”
Based on unique high-density pigment chemistry, Epson UltraChrome HDR ink technology offers all-new Orange and Green inks, and when combined with Epson’s innovative AccuPhoto™ HDR screening technology, delivers the industry’s most advanced ink jet printing technology. The result is greatly enhanced photographic print quality with exceptionally fine photographic blends and transitions, and highly accurate highlight-to-shadow detail. In addition, Epson UltraChrome HDR offers excellent print permanence ratings for color and black-and-white prints and outstanding short-term color stability for a broad range of mission-critical proofing applications.

Also new to the Epson Stylus Pro series is an optional high performance, in-line spectrophotometer for commercial proofing applications. Developed by Epson in partnership with X-Rite®, the SpectroProofer™ incorporates a high performance X-Rite ILS20 spectrophotometer for extreme measurement accuracy. When driven by the latest front-end RIP software, Epson’s SpectroProofer can automate virtually any color management process in today’s printing workflows.

Whether producing sellable color or black-and-white photography, fine art reproduction or producing color accurate commercial and flexographic proofs for client approvals, the new Epson Stylus Pro series offers a range of features and next-generation technologies that allow creative professionals to produce their vision without compromise.

Key features and benefits include:
·         Ten-Channel, High-Precision MicroPiezo TFP Print Head: Produces a maximum resolution of 2880 x 1440 dpi and variable-sized droplets as small as 3.5 picoliters with highly accurate dot shape and placement to greatly decrease print times while optimizing photographic quality; latest ink-repelling coating and auto nozzle verification technologies virtually eliminate clogged nozzles
·         Automatic Black Ink Switching: Both Photo and Matte Black ink cartridges are installed simultaneously, enabling the printers to automatically utilize the optimal black ink mode to deliver maximum black density for the chosen media; auto-sharing black ink channel on the MicroPiezo TFP print head ensures a fast and efficient switch that is managed via the front control panel
·         Epson PreciseColor™ Manufacturing: Evaluates and adjusts each printer’s performance at the manufacturing stage, ensuring consistent color output from printer to printer and print to print, eliminating the need for internal calibration devices
·         Epson ePlaten™ Media Loading Technology:  Simplifies the roll and cut-sheet media loading process with automatic media loading, movement, skew adjustment, and tracking, including electronically controlled roll media back tension and automatic roll media rewind upon release
·         Professional Media Handling: Handles virtually any media type, roll or cut sheet, up to 24- and 44- inches wide via a unique straight-through media path; a printer and driver-based media identification and synchronization system ensures error-free media use
·         New Rotary Cutting System: Includes a durable rotary cutter for use with roll paper capable of cutting virtually any media type, including most canvas and fine art papers, in less than two seconds
·         Intelligent High-Capacity Ink System: Features 11 individual ink cartridges available in 150, 350 and 700 ml capacities with “on-the-fly” ink cartridge replacement for increased productivity; pressurized ink cartridge technology ensures reliable ink delivery at all print speeds, while dramatically reducing the physical size of the ink cartridges
·         Easy-to-Use Front Control Panel: High-resolution, 2.5-inch, color LCD offers improved viewing of printer status with a simple button layout for all navigation and basic printer functions

Epson Stylus Pro Series and myEpsonPrinter.com
The new Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 are compatible with myEpsonPrinter.comSM, a unique Web-based printer information and management system that is currently available for free while in beta. The site enables commercial printing professionals to monitor print jobs and consumables virtually in real time, including tracking ink and media consumption, managing printers at remote locations, robust reporting, and intelligent support, allowing Epson Stylus Pro printer owners to manage their Epson printer investment. For more information visit www.myEpsonPrinter.com.

Availability, Service and Support
The Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 will be available in November 2008 through authorized resellers for $3,995 and $5,995 (MSRP) respectively. They are supported by a standard Epson PreferredSM Limited Warranty, a one-year program that includes toll-free advanced telephone access Monday through Friday and usually next-business-day on-site service in the unlikely event of any hardware failure. Optional Epson Preferred Plus Service Plans are also available, offering one or two additional years of protection.

About Epson America Inc.
Epson offers an extensive array of award-winning image capture and image output products for the consumer, business, photography, and graphic arts markets. The company is also a leading supplier of value-added point-of-sale (POS) printers and transactions terminals for the retail market. Founded in 1975, Epson America Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency. Epson America Inc. is headquartered in Long Beach, Calif.

Canon has just launched it’s fall rebate program for a wide range of lenses and speedlights. Through January 19, 2009 you will save up to $125 instantly on select Canon products when purchased through authorized dealers and resellers. Unlike other rebate programs, you get the savings up front at the time of purchase rather than as a check several months later.

You’ll see the discounted price on the sites of your favorite vendors. Here are screen-grabs from my favorite online sources. With this promotion, if you don’t see the rebate amount up front, you won’t get it.

Canon rebate at Amazon

Canon rebate at Adorama

Canon rebate at B&H

Of course, the promotion is not limited to online sources. (I just happen to live near the middle of nowhere.) Your local Canon dealer can offer the same discounts.

Rebates on Canon Lenses

EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM - Save $125
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM - Save $100
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM - Save $100
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF 300mm f/4L IS USM - Save $85
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF 70-200mm f/4L USM - {Non-IS version} - Save $80
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM - Save $80
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM - Save $75
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM - Save $70
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM - Save $70
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF 17-40mm f/4L USM - Save $50
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS - Save $50
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM - Save $35
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM - Save $30
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

Extender EF 1.4x II - Save $25
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

Extender EF 2x II - Save $25
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

Rebates on Canon Speedlights

Speedlite 580EX II - Save $50
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

Speedlite 430EX II - Save $30
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

Speedlite 430EX - Save $30
Amazon
B&H Photo
Adorama

Click here to see the Canon site for details.

The Strobist - David Hobby

I had the great fortune to get a seat last Sunday for David Hobby’s Strobist lighting seminar in Los Angeles. [If you're a student of lighting and just said "Stro-who?", then let me be the first to welcome you to our planet. Check out the Strobist site and we'll see you back here in a couple days.]

To say that a ticket to the Stobist workshop is a hot item is an understatement. Two days x 50 seats = 100 happy photogs. 24 hours = more time than it took for both seminars to sell out. If you’re among the legions who wished they could attend a Strobist workshop, then let me ease your pain (or pour salt on your wounds) by sharing some of the highlights of the day. [Read on, I promise you'll also find links to sources of info on virtually every concept presented during the seminar.]

Highlights of the Strobist Lighting Seminar

The whole day is about getting over the intimidation of using off-camera lighting. It’s also about making new friends and coming to understand that you don’t have to have a huge arsenal of gear to make striking photographs. Here are the highlights:

1. (For better or for worse…) You spend a day with David Hobby. David worked as a photojournalist for 20 years (the last 10 at The Baltimore Sun). This life experience of rapidly crafting stimulating photographs in the field with next to nothing is at the core of the Strobist psyche. (As far as I know) David has nothing to hide. He shares his insights and experiences freely (except for the cost of getting in the door… For the truly free version, read Strobist online.)

2. You meet 49 other Strobist affectionados. The day started with everyone introducing themselves to the group. Meeting David is cool. Getting in touch with a bunch of other local shooters who are trying to learn about off-camera lighting is… priceless. My tally showed that we had about 40 “amateurs” (those who shoot because they love to), a handful of “semi-pros” (those who shoot because they’re hoping to give up their day jobs someday) and a trio of “pros” (the weary and downtrodden, like me). Seriously, at any level, being in contact with a gang of local shooters is a great asset.

3. You see and fondle Strobist gear. David shows up with two carry-on sized suitcases filled with the very same gear that he writes about on Strobist — the same gear he uses on commercial shoots. Ever see a snoot made out of a spaghetti box? Haven’t checked out the cool snoots made by Honl? Seriously. David proves that there’s a gear solution for every point on the time-money continuum. [As in which to you have more of - time or money?]

Strobist Gear

4. You learn the 7 Strobist ways to control light. [Think of them as the Seven Noble Truths of Strobism.] David has done a brilliant job of breaking his approach to lighting into 7 distinct tasks. Freebie: they are listed here in the Lighting 102 series on Strobist, which you can check out for free. If you’re just starting out, you may want to look at Lighting 101 first.

5. You watch David craft a series of portraits using the concepts and gear that he’s just presented. Here’s a couple of shots of David in action.

Click here to see these two shots as captured by David. Each was a two light set-up. Really.

6. You can have a beer with David afterwards. As is typical of most (soon-to-be-extinct) newspaper shooters, after a hard day’s work, David hung out with a cold one in hand and talked shop for an hour or so. It wasn’t about lighting as much as it was about hanging out with photographers.

More insight into Strobist & David Hobby

1. What David started as a humble venture into blogging on February 28, 2006 has grown into an international community of photographers. There are more than 36,000 members in the Strobist group at Flickr. They have meetups around the world.

2. David’s still in it for the real photographers. Given that both Saturday and Sunday sold out within 24-hours, I asked him why he didn’t get a bigger room so that more than 50 people could attend each session. David said that he wanted the day to have an intimacy so that everyone could get their questions answered. “A group of 75 or 100″ David said, “turns this into a lecture”. Another attendee asked “if you can sell out 50 seats at $150, why not raise the price?” David’s response? “Then I’d end up with a bunch of rich doctors and lawyers rather than photographers who really need to learn this stuff.”

3. Will the Strobist workshop becoming to a town near you? Probably not, but don’t cry about it. David said that he plans on doing three seminar weekends in the fall and three in the spring. There’s a lot of the country in between these six lucky cities. Are you a jet setter or an ex-pat? Then, you can catch him (and a whole bunch of other great shooters) at Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai next March. Not heading to the Mideast next spring? Then, for $139, you can buy the Strobist Lighting Seminar DVD here.

How to get a ticket to a Strobist seminar

1. Read Strobist. When you see something like the following, pay attention. The LA seminar announcement appeared just below the Lighting Q and A on Friday, September 5. You’ll note at the end that it says “Registration opens on Sunday at 8:00am local time.” Even if you missed it on Friday, you could have caught the heads-up post by RSS. [If you don't use a web reader, click here to read my post about photography blogs and look for the section on RRS.]

The Heads-up about the LA Seminar - posted on Friday.

2. Don’t party on Saturday night. [You know who you are...]

3. Check out Strobist at 7:58am on Sunday morning and keep hitting the refresh button every couple of minutes whilst you rub the sleep out of your eyes. When you see the following, act without hesitation.

Registration opened - Sunday 8:00am Pacific.

Adding a copyright notice to your photos is critical before you send them out on the web or to clients. Fortunately, the task has just become a lot easier with Canon’s recently announced EOS 5D Mark II and 50D digital SLRs. Both cameras can be configured to automatically add your name and a copyright notice to each digital capture. [If you're not a Canon shooter, check out the links to important copyright sites at the end of this article.]

The process is simple. When you get your new camera, you attach it to your computer with a USB cable and use Canon EOS Utility to add your name and activate the copyright notice. Thereafter, every time you take a photo, a simple copyright notice with your name is added to the EXIF metadata embedded in the file.

Of course, in the era of Orphan Works legislation, it’s much better to append your complete contact info to the file. This is really easy when importing your captures into Lightroom [but that's the subject of a future post]. The fact that Canon now enables the coding of a basic copyright notice into their newest cameras, shows how important the copyright issue had become.

Click here to see the details in the Canon Digital Learning Center.

For more information on the importance of protecting your copyright, check out the great tutorial on copyrights offered by the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers).

Two other great sources for info on the subject of copyrights and metadata are UPDIG and the PLUS Coalition (Universal Photography Digital Information Guidelines and Picture Livensing Universal System).

The cat’s out of the bag. “CS-Next” is now officially CS4. I woke up a bit earlier than normal this morning so that I could watch Adobe’s premiere webcast on East Coast time. If you attended the keynote at Photoshop World in Vegas earlier this month, you saw the entire Photoshop presentation that was made on this morning’s webcast. It was exactly the same. Kudos to NAPP for talking Adobe into giving the NAPP-Hardcore a sneak peak.

The bottom line with the official launch webcast is that it’s impossible to go into any depth on a family of 13 different programs and wrap things up in 60 minutes. If you really want to learn about what’s coming in CS4, check out these sites.

Photoshop CS4 Feature Tour (watch hi-res on Adobe TV)

Photoshop CS4 Extended Feature Tour (watch hi-res on Adobe TV)

Adobe CS4 Learning Center at NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) - great online videos that explore specific features in good detail.

The Photographer Channel at Adobe TV.

The Photoshop Channel at Adobe TV.

The Lightroom Channel at Adobe TV.

The Adobe Creative Suite website.

The CS4 University at Lynda.com

Pre-Order CS4 Applications Today

The CS4 family will start shipping at the end of October. It will be the middle of November before all of the programs are shipping. So, if you’re looking to upgrade your creative suite, you’ll have to wait about 6 weeks. You can pre-order through the Adobe store - typically at full retail prices. My favorite source is Amazon. Click here to see the availability of CS4 items at Amazon.

As a professional shooter, I use Lightroom as a standard part of my workflow. Over the weekend, I turned Lightroom loose on a long-overdue, personal project. I’m now more fond of Lightroom than ever. The reason? Lightroom found photos of my kids that I haven’t seen in years.

Do you know the old saying about “the cobbler’s kids having no shoes?” Like a lot of photographers, over the past decade, I’ve stuffed photographs and scans onto many drives. As one drive would fill up, I’d add a new, larger drive to the system and keep going. Then Amy will ask a simple question like “did you find those photos from Tom’s graduation yet?” My reply before today was “They’re here somewhere… in triplicate, I’ll find them soon.”

It’s not that I’ve actually lost data. I run all my drives as mirrored RAID pairs in separate enclosures (using SoftRAID). I also have a rigorous backup system that copies all of that data onto external drives for long-term storage. [Check out Peter Krogh's DAM Book site and Image Mechanics' blog Death To Film for ideas and resources.]

My problem was the logic behind my file structure changed over the years and I never stopped to re-organize the legacy folders. I can easily locate images that I’ve shot within the past three years. Finding pix from five, seven or nine years ago… there’s the challenge.

Consolidating the old photos was always one of those non-critical (aka “non-money making”) tasks that I never got back around to dealing with. Eventually, I lost track of where I’d stuffed our earliest digital snapshots and scans. Now that I’ve found a new use for Lightroom, I’ve shed my Catholic-guilt about all of this.

How did I use Lightroom to find all of these old photos? Simple. I created a new catalog “All Pix”. Then I pointed LR to one of the six master drive pairs on my system. I did not point to specific folders on the drive - just to the drive. I then told Lightroom to “Import From Disk”. Lightroom surveyed the drive and imported all the images that it could. As the import from one disk was completed, I did the same for the next drive on the system. By the way, the importing can take hours for a large drive (like the one shown above). So it’s best to do this when you won’t need to do any other work in Lightroom.

Do I care that Lightroom is cataloging tens of thousands of images that I already have in other Lightroom catalogs? Not at all. I can edit the catalog later. What I do care about is that I can now quickly sort images by specific date ranges. Tom’s graduation? Early June, 2003. Bingo. Here’s the pix, love.

As you can see in the photo above, the catalog has more than 107,000 images in it. The current import has brought in over 28,000 images. That little 1998 family portrait has been MIA for years.

I know that when Lightroom completes it’s task of creating the master catalog, I’ll have many hours of work ahead in keywording, sort