I just got back from a couple of weeks in New York and while I was there I checked out what would have to be the biggest photographic store in the world… surely.   Nothing prepared me for what I saw when I went into this incredible store…seriously.

I walked in downstairs (it’s a two story shop that must almost take up an entire city block in Manhattan).  The first thing that hit me was the video camera section.

Just one of about 4 big islands of video cameras

I was blown away at how many cameras were set up for you to play with…. cameras, lenses, pan & tilt heads, tripods, grip gear…. you name it.  I spent about 30 min walking around this area with my jaw open… then I moved into the audio gear…  There was a whole sound proof room full of microphones to test.  DJ gear!  Editing Equipment, cables, you name it.

Finally I asked somebody…. where are your digital SLRs?   Oh thats up on Floor two!  So I took the escalator up to the second floor and I was even more flabbergasted.   It was dominated by all things SLR, but also had computers, printers, bags and accessories.  I stood there in a daze (literally)… my brain and wallet were overawed.  Finally I asked one of the hundreds of sales guys (literally)  what do I do.

He pointed me to a short line of about 5 people and said wait there and you’ll be called to speak to a sales consultant.  As I moved forward to the front of the line I ended up under an accoustic dome… and this robot female voice whispered in my ear “please go to consultant number 53″……. Consultant Number 53!!!  Holy Moly how many are there….  As I walked up to my designated sales consultant, I looked around and I saw that there were in fact 67 consultants behind the benches…. all spots were full.  And these 67 were just for digital SLR sales!

Click on this image to view it full-size.

Look at the above image… against the wall you can see the numbers above each consultant for as far as your eye can see.   I am only showing you about 1/4 of the DSLR area.  To my right were another 24 consultants,  behind me were all the Nikon, Canon & Sony booths as well as printer areas.

When I got up to see my sales guy (his name was Joel) and he was very knowledgable… he had an embedded monitor in the counter and we started talking about how he could fulfill my needs of the day…. I was still blabbering incoherently and overwhelmed.  Joel was used to this… he said the shop is literally overwhelming to many first-time visitors.  He said he has seen foreigners literally crying because they are so confused and overwhelmed.

As we started getting down to business, Joel would tap a few keys on the computer,  then the next thing he would bend down and pull out the item we just ordered.   Thats when I noticed the most amazing conveyer belt system I have ever seen.   I make a request… Joel keys it in the computer…. Instantly in the basement warehouse the item is picked form the shelves and dropped into a little basket which then whizzed up two floors,  flys underneath all the counters and magically pops out at Joel’s feet in about 60 seconds.  It’s incredible!!!

I asked Joel about the shop, and he gave me these incredible facts!!!!

• 1700 employees work for B&H (shop floor,  warehouse, office)
• On the second floor of the shop alone there are between 250 and 350 employees working!

If you guys are ever in New York, put B&H on your list of must-see tourist destinations.

Brent

I’m just putting together my next Off Camera Flash workshop, I’m getting a bit of interest to run the next one of these.

I’m thinking about doing something pretty different for my next workshop providing I get enough numbers.  I’ve found a wicked studio that I am looking to rent and shoot in for the day.  Tons of props, and absolutely wicked ambience.  Check it out.

If you want to find out more about my Off Camera Flash workshop, then click on this link.

Drop me a note if you are interested in coming so I can confirm numbers and book the studio if have enough.

Brent

I would like to have more control over light placement (overhead view etc.)  but it’s still interesting to play with different lights, gels, setups and see the effect on a 3D person.

Follow this link to try it out for yourself.

Brent

After much back and forth between the Nikon D800 and D800e I have finally decided to go for the D800e which does not have the anti alias filter.

Q. Why the D800e vs the D800?

I read a lot of different articles on both cameras.

I checked out as many 100% crop images shot with each camera as I could find and I came to the conclusion that the difference in sharpness was definitely noticeable.  I’m always thinking about image quality when I’m shooting and post processing my images, so for me it makes sense to start with the highest quality image I can capture.

Q. What about the moire issues?

From everything I read, this seems to be more of a theoretical issue than a practical one that you run into regularly.  I read plenty of articles about the reality of moire patterns and the general consensus was along the lines of “I’ve been shooting with a Leica for years and I have only ever had one or two images that showed the slightest signs of moire”.

So anyway… decision made.

I’ll hopefully get the camera at the end of April, lets hope my old D700 holds out until then…. I think it is on its last legs.

BP

Sometimes it can be a bit tricky to find all of the sensor dust on your images, and then later on when you are doing some tonal manipulations you see some of the dust spots you miss become more pronounced.  This will make it much easier for you to see the spots of dust in your images.  As it turns out, my sensor is just perfect for demonstrating this as I haven’t cleaned it since returning from Namibia.

OK, Lets start by showing you a part of the image as it would appear normally.  Click the image below to see it at full size and you will see some of the sensor spots immediately.

Click this image to see it full size

Now the trick is to add a curve adjustment layer and throw the curve into a pretty radical “sine wave” like the curve to the left.  This will make your image look really funky and inverted, but have a look at what it does to the dust spots.  To see the difference, click on the image below and feel sorry for how woefully dirty my sensor is.

What do you think?  Cool?

Brent

Click to see image full size – Makes you want to cry doesn't it!

Brent, I was recently visiting your website (the newly designed) and I thought I let you know that it is extremely slow. Nothing really works for me. Menus are slowly appearing and when I select seascapes, for example, the page loads with thumbnail but it takes forever…. So, your site looks nice but behaves really slow. I used to read your post at least once a weak, if there was something new, but now I don't even fell like visiting your site anymore because it just takes too long to see anything, nothing loads correctly, and it sometimes freezes. Some other people may feel the same way. I thought I made you aware of this problem…. – Gregory B

So Greg and I got into a discussion about the site etc. and Greg also made some recommendations for providers of WordPress themes that he has found excellent.  So I took his advice and re-skinned my site yesterday.  I’ve still got a bit of tweaking to do, but the site is sure a lot easier to use from an administration perspective.  The last site was clunky to post, whereas this one is a breeze.

So I hope you like the new site, and I hope it performs better for all of you as well.

Brent

Yesterday I talked about the fun I had capturing these long exposure images using my 10 stop ND filter.   I put together this photoshop tutorial which explains how I post-processed this image.  I hope you enjoy it.

In the tutorial I refer to two plug-ins

Color Effex Pro from Nik

Tony Kuyper’s Luminosity masks

In this tutorial I talk mainly about combining luminosity masks when dodging and burning.

I hope you enjoy it.  Click on the image below to go to the tutorial.

Brent

After spending four days last week in a federal court (oh what fun)… I decided that I needed a bit of well earned “R&R”.  So I packed my swag, camera and laptop into the car and headed down to the South Coast for a few days of photography.  I had researched a few specific locations that I wanted to shoot, and I had a very specific style in mind for the shoot.  I wanted to really play with some long-exposure black and white “fine art style” seascapes.

I used my B&W 10 stop neutral density filter and shot both of these images at least one hour before sunset.  I really enjoyed this style of photography as it slowed me right down and made me think a lot about composition and the natural lighting on the rocks from the overcast sky.

I will do a tutorial on how I post processed these images because I actually used a whole stack of special techniques to gently manipulate the tones and do the dodge/burning.

Ended up dropping my 24-70 f2.8 lens during the shoot, so that was a real bummer…. looks like another insurance claim!

The funny thing about the two locations shown here, I’ve seen a lot of sunrise shoots in this location, but not too many sunset shoots.   I didn’t need to use any Grad NDs for either of these shots…. single frames could handle the contrast range easily at Dusk, whereas I would have no hope at Dawn.

• Planning the trip
• The Gear I took (focusing on the Off Camera Flash Gear)
• How I took the shots (live demo)
• Post Processing and tonal manipulations (live demo)

It should be a hoot with lots of video, live demos etc.  So if you have nothing to do on Wednesday night,  pop by and say hi.

Show starts at 8PM

More information can be found here.

Brent

I had put together a tutorial for the participants in my Off Camera Workshop, but I might as well share it with everybody.

Word of warning,  this tutorial demonstrates a couple of plug-ins (Radlab and Dirty Pictures).  I love both of these plug-ins and think they are absolutely fantastic. I contacted the folks at Totally Rad and they have been kind enough to give me a 15% discount coupon. More details below.  You can also download 30 day trial versions of these plug-ins if you want to play.

Here’s the tutorial (it’s 18min long) and it covers some advanced topics like luminosity masks, applying textures etc.   Enjoy.

Now after viewing this tutorial, you want to buy any of the Rad plug-ins  Click on the banner below and enter the coupon code TOTALLYRAD at the checkout and you will get a 15% discount (cool eh)?

I also want to point out that I get no commission from these guys. I promote their products (and Niks) because I think they make great software and I use their tools more and more as part of their workflow.