gyro? What in the world is Gyro and why would I need one?

This is one of the most frequent questions we get asked. So what is it? A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. The device is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation. This orientation changes much less in response to a given external torque than it would without the large angular momentum associated with the gyroscope's high rate of spin. Since external torque is minimized by mounting the device in gimbals, its orientation remains nearly fixed, regardless of any motion of the platform on which it is mounted. - borrowed from Wikipedia. In plain English - it's sort of a tripod without legs.

Our good friend Mike Duval from MKD Photography demonstrates how a gyro can be used to produce a beautiful story using latest video capable DSLRs. Head on over to their blog and leave them some love if you like this or have any questions on how it's done. Enjoy!

Give us a ring (877) 578-4777 if you need to rent one or place your order online here.

Studio update + Small flash tutorial

Hello friends!

Well, in the midst of the busy season here at LPTG we did manage to get the studio all set up and ready to go. As of today, LensProToGo Studios are officially open to public! All the details are going to be available here (the "Studio Space" link in the top menu) within the next couple of days. Stay tuned for a small video that tells all about us and what we are all about. And here is another educational bit from our friend Doug:

 Small Flash in the Middle of the Afternoon

So in keeping with our current theme – which is “tell me how to do it, not how it works” – I bring you today’s post on high speed sync.

Traditionally, when shooting with small flashes, you have to wait for the sun to start to set (or rise) to either overpower it or blend it with your light. So to make this photo in the middle of the afternoon, I used Nikon’s high speed sync mode (they refer to it as “FP sync in your manual”). FP sync will work with any of their newer flashes – the SB-600, 800 and 900. (For all you ever wanted to know about FP mode (and Canon’s high speed sync as well), check out this post at Strobist.com)

The most important thing to remember about this technique is that your shutter speed controls the ambient (non-flash) light in the photo and that your aperture controls the amount of flash that contributes to the image.

The drawbacks to Nikon’s high speed sync is that you’re almost always firing the flashes at full power, so you have to wait 2-3 seconds for the flashes to recycle and FP mode really limits the efficient distance to your subject. In order to combat the distance problem somewhat, I built a flash tree.

As you can see, I used four Nikon SB-800s firing at full power to make the top photo of the lovely Anna. High speed sync allowed me to shoot at 1/8000 of a second, whereas digital cameras typically limit your flash sync speed to 1/250 or slower. The overall exposure was 1/8000 at F/4 at ISO 200. 1/8000 got me the deep blue sky, and then it was just a matter of lighting Anna.

But as you can see high speed syncing consumes a ton of flash power – even with four flashes firing at full power my aperture was still only F/4. This also makes the use of (m)any light modifiers difficult, as most of them will eat at least a stop of light or more.

Oh, and does the model look familiar? She’s Anna Yu from Team Yu. We shot a bunch of setups last week, so she’ll quickly become a familiar face in these posts.

So the next time a client says, “I’m only free to shoot at noon, and it has to be today,” you won’t be scrambling to figure out a way to reschedule.

For more on this technique check out:

Joe McNally in the dessert

and the video that goes with it.

Questions? Did I lose you after the first paragraph? E-mail me or leave a comment here and I’ll do my best to answer all of the questions. If you want more Doug (and I mean, who doesn’t), you can find me at my site, my blog, and Twitter.

LAB Tutorial by Doug Levy

Good morning friends! Due to an overwhelming response to the last post from Doug, we've asked him if he would be kind enough to write more tutorials on photography.

A Tutorial for the Patience Impaired

I have the, “patience of a flea” as an ex-girlfriend once said. If it’s possible, my attention span is even shorter. With that in mind these LensPro post-processing tutorials are geared toward those of you with a likewise aversion to sitting still. I’m going to leave out as much of the “why” as I can and skip ahead to the good parts, the “how to” and the results. If you want to learn more, I’ve linked to other sites that can do a far better job of explaining complicated Photoshop “why’s” than I can.

In fact, let’s show you right off the bat the before and after images that I’m going to work with today so you can decide if you want to read on without having to scroll to the bottom to sneak a look at the “after” image (which is totally what I do).

Total editing time: 40 seconds (and less after you write an action to make the process repeatable).

Now the how to part.

After opening this photo and doing a basic raw conversion (all I did was change the camera profile and adjust the white balance slightly), I converted the image to LAB mode.

Simply put, LAB mode is a colorspace that allows you to separate luminosity adjustments from color adjustments (see? I told you I’d keep it brief).

Once I was in LAB mode, I added a curves adjustment layer, and moved both the top right and bottom left point closer to each other one block in both the a and b channels. (Don’t see the small blocks? Alt+click anywhere in the curves adjustment box.)

In LAB mode your regular red, green and blue channels are replaced by L, A and B channels.

After you’ve completed the adjustments, flatten the image (Layer > Flatten Image) and return to your regularly scheduled colorspace. Don’t know what that is? Check this out for more colorspace info.

One last thing, for a more intense effect, steepen the curve two boxes. This can work out especially well for punching up otherwise dull photos, but it’s easy to go too far. When I first learned this trick I wanted to go back and re-edit all my old color images, kinda like that wedding right after I got my fisheye lens where I shot 500 photos with it…

Anyway, that’s it for today, next week I’ll be back with another quick and easy lighting tutorial.

Questions? Did I lose you after the first paragraph? E-mail me or leave a comment here and I’ll do my best to answer all of the questions. If you want more Doug (and I mean, who doesn’t), you can find me at my site, my blog, and Twitter.

LensProtToGo on DTown TV!

Good morning all! A good morning indeed. The weather is good, we are getting ready to hit the road for the annual NECCC Conference in Amherst, MA this weekend. If you are there, make sure to stop by our table and say hi. We will have some nice Canon and Nikon toys to play with.

Now, on to the topic of the blog - we were pleasantly surprised this morning to be mentioned in the latest D-Town TV episode. If you shoot Nikon and are not familiar with D-Town TV, go there and bookmark it and check back weekly :) DTown TV is a weekly show brought to you by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski with KelbyTraining.com. Join Scott and Matt each week as they share their photography knowledge along with the coolest tips and tricks out there for Nikon’s digital SLR cameras.

Studio space update

Hi folks! We've been working tirelessly trying to get the gear shipped off to you in a timely manner and prep the studio spaces set and ready for you to use.So far we've added 4 ProFoto 600R lights,whole bunch of Wescott light modifiers ranging from 2x2 all the way to 54" octaincluding Bruce Dorn Asymetrical Stripbank (this thing is sweet!)

RedWing boom arm with extension, whole slew of light stands.Optoma 1080p projector to project 15' wide images/movies/slideshows... and a kick a$$ sound system to go along with that :)We have just received our portable (rather movable) partitions to divide the space as needed. Still waiting on our background roller transport system (any day now), a couple of Profoto D1 Air lights, various muslins, iMacs. I am sure I am forgetting something, but we hope everything will be here by the end of next week or sooner. I will post here as soon as we have everything set up. This place is going to rock your world :)