Tag Archive for: Sony

How to make wow images with sets and colors

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Sets really add something

Often when I mention sets people think about big-budget solutions, but the opposite can be true, and mostly is in my work. In this article, I combine sets and colors to create WOW images.
It’s almost a sport to create cool-looking sets without breaking the bank.
So we also look for cool stuff on fleamarkets, attics, etc. you would be surprised what kind of “junk” you can buy for next to nothing that works great in a photoshoot.

And sometimes you use what’s there.
In this case, a customer brought in a huge projector for me to calibrate and it was packaged in a flight case. So…. yes indeed why not use it in a photoshoot?

Today a small tutorial on how to spice up a small set with a touch of color.

Model: Claudia
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Below the video, the results of how I made WOW images with sets and colors

Model : Claudia

How to make WOW images with sets and colors How to make WOW images with sets and colors

 

Read this blog for more sets with Claudia and colors 

First images with the Sony A7RV and it’s a huge upgrade

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During the Photodays 2023 I got the chance to shoot with the new Sony A7RV.
I’m still using the Sony A7RIV which is a great camera, but to be honest I was shocked with the upgrade.
Because I was shooting demos 3 days almost back to back and I used the A7RV only during the last day it really caught my eye how much more “depth” there seems to be in the images.

I’m not saying the A7RIV images are flat, but the A7RV does seem to be a little but more 3D, probably due to a different way of sensor processing, it’s subtle but clear when you know your camera. Now that wouldn’t be worth an upgrade, but the much faster and MUCH better (accuracy) autofocus is without any doubt. Much better with eye detection and now also with a load of AI options for trains, planes, animals and even chosing the correct eye. YES SONY, now I can use the eye focus (probably, still testing this). Also the display is a huge upgrade, tethering speed is faster and the display is now finally fully adjustable (I really missed that).

I’ll be using the A7RV a lot more so if you have any questions let me know.
I can confirm that tethering to the iPad Pro with Cascable works.

Today in the blog some of the results from the last day at PhotoDays 2023 Brussels.
Models : Nadine and Felisa.
Do remember that these kind of images are shot during a trade show on our booth during demos, so short time periods where I have to pay more attention to explaining what I do and the crowd than taking the photo, so there are often far from perfect, but I just love the styling Nadine did, so I had to share them.

Strobes : Geekoto GT400/GT250/GT200
Modifiers : Geekoto small softbox, Rogue magnetic system and Flashbender
Backgrounds : ClickBackdrops
Tethering : IQ Wire 10mtr to iPad Pro running Cascable

 

Wireless goodies for Sony shooters

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Shooting tethered is without a doubt one of the most valuable pieces of advise I can give, direct feedback, your customer can see and select images, you can do a pre-edit/selection, check focus and when working with manual focus lenses you can even do some bracketing if needed with the aid of Capture One’s awesome focus overlay (it shows everything that’s in focus as green).

Now most of the times I shoot tethered via USB-C and use my Tethertools cables and Tetherblock for this, plus some Tethertools extension locks and those together give me a pretty rock solid connection up to just under 15mtrs which in most cases is more than enough. However when shooting on location things do change a bit.

I love my Dell XPS series laptop but in all honesty outside the screen isn’t that bright and the battery… don’t get me started on that, yeah it’s ok but nothing more. A while ago we started experimenting with my Huawei M5 tablet and the build in Sony wireless app. That worked like a charm at home and in the field, the Sony sends over small JPGs and keeps the RAWs on the card and the app works great on Android (NFC) and “ok” in iOS (have to keep making a connection via password or QR), the M5 has more lightoutput than my laptop and being on location not having to carry a laptop, cables and extra battery pack + table for the laptop is a big plus, we now just use a tablet with a shade (hoodman).

However the Sony app is great at home but it fails miserably in more demanding situations.
I’m working on a series on mobile workflows with the iPad pro and smart devices instead of laptops so during our trip to SA Joburg I decided to shoot wireless for the first time in a tradeshow environment, and can tell you “DON’T EVER DO THIS YOURSELF” it was a disaster, some images came in in seconds others took 25-30 seconds, shooting from the same location not 3 mtrs away from my tablet. Literally unusable. But what than?

As you know I LOVE Tethertools but their great CaseAir doesn’t support Sony (yet) so I looked online.
CamRanger is coming soon for Sony, but I’ve been hearing that for at least 5 years now.
CamFi I already tested a year or 2 ago and although it did work it lost connection a lot and the app was…. well not that impressive. But I found out they have a new one, enter the:

CamFi pro
And trust me after the iPhone pro the name pro in my opinion has lost all it’s value (yeah I’m still an Apple fan boy but calling the 11 a pro…. nah) So what does this CamFi pro promise. Well actually quite a lot, and some things even blew my mind.

First off it promises much faster transfer speeds, well let me burst that bubble, yes it’s fast, in fact it’s VERY fast, but don’t expect to shoot RAW, not going to happen, not now not soon (maybe for still life or nature, but not far fast shooting like fashion or movement), but JPGs… well that goes REALLY snappy and I really mean REALLY. I’ve set my camera up for small JPGs and full size RAWs, in the new Sony menus you can find an option where you actually tell the camera to shoot RAW+JPG and only send the JPGs to the PC (yes this now also works for Capture One).

Ok what can it do with the app:
Autoview (handy for what I do, shoot image comes in, shoot, repeat)
Live View (can be cool to show the attendees how I make my composition, and awesome for other shooters, like remote cameras etc)
Time Lapse (always handy)
Focus stacking (cool for Macro)
HDR (Yep…. not a real fan of Highly Destructive Retouching, but… yeah ok it’s cool)
Video recording (ok that’s also handy)
Multiple camera control (yep you read that correctly, awesome for sports shooters with several cameras)
Auto print (yeah… well ok it’s there)

Transfer speeds are given as 10MB/s which I believe, again it feels really snappy.
And remember you’re shooting small JPGs so it’s almost as fast as RAWs via USB.

Capture one and Lightroom
And now it gets freaky
What if I told you that with this device you can just connect your camera to Capture One/Lightroom and those apps THINK you are shooting wired? In other words you see the camera, you can select everything and images come in like normally with USB, pretty cool right?

Yep and it works as advertised, setup is a breeze, just a small software app you run before you start shooting and you’re done.

My conclusion
You might expect a hallelujah conclusion after reading this, right?
Well it is, but…. and someone told me once that everything before but is useless, so let’s dive in.

First up.
Startup time is pretty long, but that’s pretty standard, but I would have loved for that to be a bit faster, connecting the camera works in 60-70% of the cases, don’t worry, if it doesn’t work just unplug ONLY the camera and connect it again, it never happened to me that it failed a second time, not once (and I used it a lot)

Second up.
And this is the big one.
This thing is HUGE, and I mean…. I don’t have a clue where to put it. It can’t be on the hot shoe because I need my trigger there, I don’t want a cage around my camera (I think) because I normally don’t want it on and it feels weird in my hands (I shoot with a grip) When I look at the case air you can just let it dangle next to the camera via a small cord and it’s fine. The CamFi pro…. never, it’s really big. But that also means build quality is like a tank, it’s very durable and it screams PRO device in every single way.

Third up.
Battery life is ok, they claim 6 hours, but my experience is about 4, which is more than enough (plus I got a loan unit so I don’t know how they treated the battery, I know I’m super aware of how to treat them so with me the batteries often stay in peak performance) but again 4 hours is more than enough

Fourth up.
Distance.
CamFi claims 50mtrs and I can only confirm that I did a test which was absolutely stunning.
During Photoshop World I walked all the way to the back of the room (those rooms are huge) and remember there are many wifi signals there, and the CamFi didn’t miss a beat, maybe it was a milisecond slower but all the images came in just fine and fast enough, WOW, that’s awesome.

End conclusion
If you need a wireless solution and you are like me shooting Sony, I can highly recommend the CamFi pro.
If you’re shooting Canon or Nikon and you want that integration with Capture one or Lightroom go for it.
If you want something smaller that also works just fine get the Tethertools CaseAir, but that’s only for the size, in all honesty I’m blown away by the CamFi pro…. if I could find a way to mount it without too much hassle like screwing in a case and working like that I would even recommend it even more, you could use a coldshoe splitter of course but if you’re using an ETTL or HSS/HS system that won’t work.

I have to send the unit back soon, and I have to be honest I do feel a bit sad about that.
Who knows…maybe I’ll buy it when there is no good solution before the end of the year…but you never know. 😀

HIGHLY recommended.

 

 

 

images are not mine

First impressions Sony A9

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Ok I know some of you have been waiting for this so I decided to upload this quick review as fast as possible.
We actually just got the A9 in so these are my first impressions without shooting an image…. you might think “what the heck Frank… why?” but read on and you will find out very quickly why I wanted to do this.

 

Don’t get we wrong, I absolutely love my A7RII and I’m not planning on replacing that camera anytime soon, however…. there are some things about the A9 that will make it VERY VERY hard to give this camera back.

 

Wifi shooting
For years I’ve been telling Sony they had a real selling point for people like me that teach workshops, shoot in the field etc. in other words everyone that wants to see their images coming in for clients or attendees during workshops. Now there are solutions out there like EyeFi, CamRanger, Cam-Fi, Case-Air etc. but they are all external and in all honesty, on my Sony, I didn’t yet had ANY solution that worked like I hoped, broken connections, slow slow slow transfers, no options to just transfer RAWs and so on…

Sony’s own Play Memories is actually awesome, it blazingly fast transfers 2MP files (or full res) and it saves it on your phone/iPad or whatever device you connect. The problem…. you can only shoot looking at your LCD on the back, and although that’s not a REAL problem it’s pretty annoying, especially in bright sun, plus I love to shoot through the viewfinder.

But stop the presses……. SONY FIXED IT.
Now you don’t need an app in the camera anymore, just go to “smartphone control” and voila…. it works on the LCD and the viewfinder…. oh thank you Sony, this is a HUGE selling point in my opinion for everyone that loves to shoot tethered, because trust me this system works like a charm, most location workshops I’ve done in the last few months we actually used the wireless function and besides some issues we had with passwords (solved) it’s been rock solid.

 

Video recording
Of course you can still shoot 4K and 1-100fps special effects (slow-motion and super fast) but one of the HUGE frustrations of the previous generations is now also solved… you can now actually start the video straight from the shutter button instead of that little annoying hard to hit when vlogging button (I actually programmed my C2 button for start recording and always wondered why not the shutter)

 

The viewfinder
Sony is working with a so-called Electronic Viewfinder, this means that…. well in essence without making it more difficult than it is… you see what you get (or you can make it behave like an always bright enough viewfinder for in the studio). This is literally awesome and when you’re used to it going back is a drag and almost frustrating. The A9 has one of the most beautiful and biggest viewfinders I saw till now… one word is WOW, it’s like going from a big screen TV to the cinema…. love it.

 

The shutter
I think the A9 is missing a market if they DON’T advertise the camera for all those people that shoot on movie sets, classical concerts, churches, weddings etc…. let me put it this way…. do you need an SSSSSSILENT shutter? well, this is it. In fact, when I placed a card I wondered if my camera was actually shooting because there is no blackout during shooting but seeing the led for the writing to the card action made me realise I was shooting already. Now on the A7RII I also have a silent mode but this is very limited (but it is DEAD quiet, as in absolute zero sound unless you close your aperture and then you will hear a VERY VERY faint click which is actually the aperture closing and opening again)

 

Speed
OH MY…. this baby is fast.
Of course you’ve seen the adverts with xxx fps, but trust me it’s not just that, I tried some quick focus tests in a dark room and it’s spot on and tracks like crazy, also with a series of shot it seems the A9 just is very resistant to losing focus, it just keeps tracking the object (in a dark room) without any problem… wow. Sports and bird photographers will LOVE this.

Extra dials
Don’t want to dive into the menu to change something like Speed modes, Bracketing, timer, Focus modes etc?
No problem, the A9 now has a hardware dial just for that, and also for some other settings, I really like this a LOT because the less I have to dive into a menu the better.

Thinking about tethering
I HATE those little USB connectors, they are fragile, can come loose and if you don’t use the Tethertools jerkstoppers you’re facing a huge repair when something goes wrong. The A7RII already surprised me with an awesome on board “jerkstopper” although it doesn’t work for my HDMI cables…. but the A9 ups the ante just a “bit” more with support for….. yeah NETWORK cable. Yes, you read it correctly you can just plug in a network cable…

You might wonder.. well Frank why so happy with this?
Well this is a big thing, in essence, it would mean LONG LONG runs without any form of extra boosters, extension cables etc. just a plain network cable, setup and FTP on the computer side, run Capture One and you’re all set, another big AWESOME.

 

Dual card slots
For some people very important, but for me not really, but hey it’s there.

 

New menu
I for one did like the old menu, but I have absolutely no problem with the new menu, it reminds me a bit of a marriage between Canon’s menu and the old Sony menu, it’s indeed all somewhat easier to navigate but again for me it wasn’t necessary but I have, to be honest I adapt rather fast.

 

New batteries
Ok this one is pretty neat (and not)
The Sony’s do “eat” batteries, on the internet, it’s often HIGHLY exaggerated like you can’t shoot a day without running through 4 batteries…. yeah well some people don’t seem to like Sony :-)…. anyway on a NORMAL shooting day I would run through probably 1-2 batteries and seeing I’m using a grip it normally means I come home and have to charge… no big deal… now video is another story, for the Vlog I can just barely make the whole day and have on average 20-25% left which is not that bad but also a bit scary… on the other hand…, just bring fresh batteries (I don’t really see a problem with this). Anyway, Sony solved it with new batteries which are supposed to run a lot longer… well we will see during the coming week in the UK where I will be using the A9 A LOT.

 

Microphone and headphones
for video, it’s nice to also be able to monitor the audio and with the A7RII this is possible but not on the A6500 which is a shame, but the A9, of course, does have both.

 

New method for video sampling
One of the MAJOR problems with CMOS sensors is the readout.
Due to the fact the sensor is not read out at once you will often see an effect called ROLLING SHUTTER, pretty nasty when you’re not careful and hardly noticeable if you plan your shots, but the A9 got “rid” of this… well let me put it this way it HIGHLY suppresses the effect, don’t ask me how but I guess they read out this sensor at an INSANE speed because the effect is really a LOT less visible, and I don’t mean 10% less, no I really mean A LOT (still testing this).

 

What the…. 
The one thing I don’t understand about the A9 is the lack of video settings for Log etc.
It’s like Sony deliberately handicaps the A9 to not make it too good for video, in other words, you will probably see an A9s for video that does have the Log settings… I think this is a BAD decision, just skip the A9s and make the A9 the perfect all-round camera.

 

What the…. 2
SONY why not a flip up or flip side screen.
The vlogging market is growing and this is REALLY something that is handy. I’m using an external monitor but it’s a bit bulky, or I just wing it (which works pretty well as long as you use the same lenses) but Oh My a flip up screen would be SO welcome.

 

Conclusion
As mentioned we just have the A9 and I need to do A LOT more testing but so far… I can only say wow.
And I wonder why a lot of the reviewers missed some of these points which in my opinion are incredibly important. But hey everyone looks at it differently I guess.
More about the A9 this week (starting tomorrow) in our daily vlog in the UK with tips, review, workshops and loads more. Follow our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/frankdoorhof for much more.

 

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