Archive for March, 2011
My Slave Sister Myself: 2011 Female Eye Film Festival Best Documentary
Last week, New Jersey filmmaker Gwen Ragsdale was awarded the Vistek-sponsored Best Documentary prize, for My Slave Sister Myself, at the 2011 Female Eye Film Festival.
“My Slave Sister Myself is a gripping, documentary film about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, it’s effect on enslaved Africans and its lasting impact on African Americans today. First person narratives describe slave women’s traumatic experiences and draw a parallel between feelings deeply embedded in the souls of today’s Black woman. The similarities are stunning! The film also exposes how slavery shaped perceptions about Black manhood. This ground breaking film pays homage to African slave descendants and sheds light on perceptions about today’s ‘Angry Black Woman’ and the ‘Black Man’s Sexual Prowess.’ Men and women; young and old alike will greatly benefit from the information this film conveys. My Slave Sister Myself will elevate your consciousness and enable you to gain an awareness of your own inner slave sister or brother.”
“This film doesn’t point blame, or assign guilt, nor does it seek to judge,” said Ragsdale in her acceptance speech, “It simply reveals…”
My Slave Sister Myself is Ragsdale’s second documentary film (her first, titled Lest We Forget, was awarded the 2007 HBO Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival Best Documentary Award) and she is the founder of the Lest We Forget Film Productions & Traveling Slavery Museum.
Vistek is proud to be sponsor the Best Documentary award at this year’s Female Eye Film Festival and looks forward to doing so again next year for the festival’s Tenth Anniversary Event!
Elinchrom D-Lite 4: a Portrait Lighting Seminar in Review
First – I really want to thank everyone who came out to my Portrait Lighting Basics class on Saturday, March 19. We had a great (sold out!) class. Hopefully some of our students will share some of their photos on our Flickr Page. All you have to do is join the group, and then you can add some of your photos.
For those of you who have never attended a Vistek Semiar, here is a quick video clip (that I shot with my iPhone) of what you can expect from one of my Portrait Lighting Classes.
This class ran for 3 hours and, as with all my classes, we shot tethered to a 52″ Plasma display so that all of the students can see what we’re up to. Everyone who attends has the opportunity to shoot the exact same pictures that I do, and to learn lighting from scratch. In this class I decided to show everyone how versatile the Elinchrom D-Lite 4 kit is (follow the link to see everything that the kit includes.)
• The first shot we did was with one Soft Box, directly on Camera Right. We set up this shot to create a very dramatic look, and used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to process all of the images you’ll see below.
• With this second shot, below, we brought the soft box forward to Camera Right at a 45º angle at about 6′ high, aimed slightly downward. Still we’re only using 1 main light.
• For this next shot we decided to leave our light source in the exact same spot, and switch to a Medium Photek Umbrella.
I processed this shot 2 ways: first is a B&W Infrared look that I created as a preset in Lightroom, and the second is just straight colour, with a bit of skin softening. By the way I’m teaching my introductory Lightroom seminar at Vistek, on Saturday, April 2 in our downtown Toronto store.
• Next up we went back to the Elinchrom Porta Lite soft box that comes with our D-Lite 4 kit, as our main light, in the same position. We’ve also added in a 30″ Silver Lastolite reflector as fill on Camera Left and a 10º grid spot on our second light (as a hair light) behind our model & aimed at her hair from behind, on camera left.
• In the shot below, we’ve added in a Lastolite Triflector kit which surrounds our model with reflectors to Camera Left, Right, and below her in front to add fill. Our main light is now directly centered in front of our model from high above. We still have our second light in the back to Camera Left & behind our model as a hair light.
• This is our last shot for this lesson. What we’ve done differently is taken our grid spot and aimed it at our Lastolite Collapsible background just to give it a slightly different look.
All of the images were shot with a Canon 1DS Mark III with a 100mm 2.8 macro lens.
Also used on this shoot were:
That’s what you can do with your Elinchrom D-Lite 4 kit – pure and simple. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. And, if you already own an Elinchrom D-Lite 4 kit, why not share some of your best shots on our Flickr Group?
Thanks!
Gary Goldberg
Cotton Carrier Now Available!
The Cotton Carrier is an exciting new product line that is now available in all Vistek stores throughout Canada. This is an incredibly unique system that allows you to wear your camera – either on a waist belt harness or on a chest belt harness. After carefully reviewing both versions of this product, I would say that both have their own unique set of characteristics that will appeal to active photographers.
Here is a skateboarder in action – using a Cotton Carrier.
The other system, Cotton Carry Lite, will probably appeal to Photojournalists, Wedding, and Event photographers, as it is a belt system worn around the waist. It allows you to quickly ‘holster’ your camera and lock it in. I ran up a few flights of stairs with my Canon 1DS Mark III to test this sucker out (and you know that’s a pretty heavy camera) and it didn’t move on me at all. The picture below illustrates the belt system.
If you need help getting started with your Cotton Carrier there are some great tutorial videos here for you to learn how to set everything up.
We hope you’ll all enjoy this new and exciting product. I personally, give it 2 thumbs up and I’m looking forward to using mine in the upcoming months.
Customize your Workspace in Capture One
In Capture One, you can customize your workspace with easy-to-use tools that help you organize, compare and select your images.
Take advantage of your display to get a big, unobstructed full-screen view of your work where you can use every inch of your display to select and compare images side by side. Furthermore, Capture One allows you to work with images in a filmstrip view. You can use the filmstrip view in combination with the viewer to quickly scroll from image to image, making changes and comparing images.
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Drop It Modern Backgrounds
Recently I was on a trip to WPPI in Las Vegas and came upon this amazing booth by Drop It Modern Backgrounds. I met with Kelli who is COO of the company. We had a great conversation and, after I saw the quality of the material, I realized we had to have these at Vistek.
Many of you may know me from my days as a Salesperson at Vistek’s downtown Toronto location, but I’ve recently been promoted to Products Manager, Professional Photo for Vistek’s Corporate Offices (also in Toronto.) One of my jobs is going to be to acquire and bring new and exciting products like these new backgrounds to Vistek, for our clients to enjoy.
One of the things that most attracted me to their backgrounds were the colours and patterns; I really had not seen anything like them before. The material is top notch and very durable. If you’re a portrait photographer, you’re going to have a blast using these – they’re fantastic for headshots, boudoir, kids, babies, etc. They come in various sizes, but I should warn you, due to the nature of the material, each pattern is only available in limited runs; once they’re gone they’re gone.
For more information, please have a look at all of the various patterns and sizes on Vistek’s website.
Below are some pictures of the backdrops – and we should have these in stock at Vistek in the next few days.
Phase One’s Capture One Tips: Haze & Telephoto Lenses
When shooting landscape pictures with telephoto lenses, you will sometime see that the colors are influenced by haze.
It is not just a question of having the right White Balance. It also has to do with the fact that when an object is viewed over a long distance, it will be viewed through lots of air which in itself adds color to the object.
Sometimes, this colored haze just adds the right look and feel to the image but at other times it may just be an unwanted distraction to the landscape.
Capture One Pro’s levels adjustments tool for individual color channels is the perfect tool to deal with such haze problems.
The image on the left shows some typical long distance haze which makes the colors look a little washed out with a distinct bluish cast. The image on the right has been corrected with individual Levels Tools for each color channel. Not only has the bluish cast disappeared, but the blue sky and the green color of the mountain slopes now appear much more natural.
Read more about how to deal with haze on the Image Quality Professor’s Phase One blog >>
Control your Profoto lights from Capture One Pro
With the new and unique light control solution from Phase One and Profoto, you get wireless control of your Profoto light equipment from within the Capture One Pro user interface. This new solution makes photo shoots easier and faster while offering more creative freedom to experiment with lighting during a shoot.
You no longer have to switch between Capture One and the light control software nor is it necessary to do manual light adjustments on set. Consequently, you can stay focused on photography and get the job done faster.
Watch Adrian Weinbrecht use and comment on the Profoto Studio plugin for Capture One in his London based studio.
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