I am excited to share a first look at the brand new RICOH PENTAX DA 645 28-45mm f/4.5 ED AW SR Lens with you.
HD PENTAX DA 645 28-45mm F4.5 ED AW SR Lens Review
I only had the chance to spend a little time with the lens so far, but I can tell you that it is
massive!
super sharp
fast (as in focusing speed)
has nice bokeh (for a wide angle lens that is)
optically stabilized (SR)
has nano coating (reduces glare)
has less distortion than the 25mm f/4
accepts standard filters (82mm)
well built
weather sealed
works really well with the 645Z
has a great workable zoom-range for a wide-angle lens
I actually prefer this over the 25mm f/4, because it is a much more versatile lens at a similar price point
has virtually silent autofocus (in case you want to shoot video with it, this would matter)
has a nice feel to it, and balances well
In case you wonder: this is not a walkaround lens by any means. While it handles really well, it requires some serious commitment when you shoot with it. If you shoot on a tripod, this won’t matter, but handheld is quite intense (as is with any heavy lens). As I said, I was only able to use the lens for a short period of time, and right before its official announcement, but I already took it out and shot some active lifestyle images with it.
I will have more images with detailed BTS from my next shoot, and a full review soon, but this is a strong contender for becoming my favorite lenses for the RICOH PENTAX 645 system.
It’s no secret, I love my Broncolor Move 1200L packs.
I love them so much, that I take them with me almost everwhere I go. They became part of my shotkit, and Broncolor does a good job providing a backpack/trolley when you get on eof their kits. It looks pretty good next to my other bag I often use, and I can attest that the backpack is working (although you may not necessarily want to haul this around on a hike, as the pack with two heads is heavy).
Gotta love the broncolor move 1200L
What I noticed though is that when you use the backpack as a trolley to bring the move packs and heads on set, they are quite bulky and not sturdy enough at all for a tough on-location life. What I mean is that they take up space in your car or truck in a less than most efficient way, while only providing little protection against rough handling. This issue becomes worse when you are forced, as I was recently, to check this backpack and hope it’ll all survice the lovely and careful handling by TSA and airport employees. One of my kits had an umbrella and softbox inside, and both were bent somewhat after the flight. The backpacks are also rather bulky to store. They don’t really fit into my shelves, and they take up quite some space on the ground. I am sure you movepack owners out there have experienced this as well. For me, there was only one solution: get rid of the backpacks (repurpose them), and create my own custom carry cases.
So when I started out with my design, I wanted to make sure that these cases can be locked, that they are air- and watertight, that they have solid and durable wheels, that they come in bright colors (much easier to spot on the conveyor belt), that they look unsuspicious from the outside, and that they can carry at least two move 1200L packs at any given time. While I initially wanted these cases to be carry-on’s, I soon abandoned this idea, because available cases were simply not able to caryy two packs and a few accessories reliably. I also wanted to focus on portability and versatility on the shoots that are more local to me, so I ended up settling for the smallest size possible (which is no longer a carry-on). Next up was to decide on how many packs I want to be able to fit into these cases, and whether I wanted to include the heads as well. I decided against putting the heads into the same case. Here’s why: I figured that I could design a case that would house 8 heads, or simply use an off-the-shelf case to keep lamp heads together. Getting heads into the same case with the packs would just have made it much heavier, and also much bigger. So this is what I ended up with:
move pack custom case
This is the smallest case I could find that was able to accomodate two Broncolor move 1200L packs, as well as some accessories. After thinking about it for a while, I also decided against adding room for spare batteries. I only twice ran out of battery power on a location shoot, and whenever I shoot near an outlet, I can always use the broncolor power adapter to charge the batteries while I am using the packs. It is that the 1200L packs are just so powerful, and I get so many flashes out of them, that it is unlikleyu that I will run out of power, even with only one battery per pack. The cutout of the foam looks like this:
move pack custom case
As you can see, the case allows to securely and safely carrry two broncolor move 1200L packs, as well as up to four RFS2.1 trasmitters. Although not designed for it, the cut outs will also fit some pocket wizards if that’s your poison. I prefer RFS 2.1, because it allows me to control the modeling linghts, as well as the output on each channel for several packs. This comes in handy if one or more of your lights are in remote or difficult to access locations, or simply if you work on your own, or with a lazy assistant As you can see, the packs fit nicely into the custom case:
move 1200L case
What I wanted to make sure when I designed the case is that the move packs would’nt move around when you toss the case, or even have to ship it somewhere. As you can see below, the packs slightly extend through the top of the base foam, which provides just enough pressure on them with the lid closed.
move pack custom case
That said, I love that new case. It provides a safe and secure way for shipping and carrying two move packs to almost anywhere. Next up? A case for four packs, my lampheads, and one to hold a para88 & para133 at the same time. Want one of these for yourself? Message me, and I can hook you up!
Oh, do I miss the good old film days, when all we had to worry about was white balance. Regardless of where we used a particular film, if the light source matched the emulsion composition on the film, we got nice colors. STOP. REWIND. I TAKE THAT BACK!
I do not miss those days. In fact, thinking about it, while digital color calibration is more complex, it is also much more refined, and it allows you to adapt to a changing environment on the spot, without having to change your roll of film, or using a filter. So no, I do not miss those days, but there are some thoughts I want to share with you about color calibration, and why it is important today.
Why Color Calibrate?
See, not all sensors, and most importantly all the processing of sensor data, is equal. Additionally, lenses often introduce a color shift. With some lenses, this high contrast, punchy look is preferred, but what if you switch lenses? What if you shoot with several cameras, maybe a main body and one or two backups? If these are the same bodies, color shift will likely be minimal, but what if your backups use different sensors, because they are different models? Even if they use different firmware versions, the rendering of colors can be different.
Imagine you shoot an event or assignment, and you change lenses in between. All of the sudden, some of your images may look different. Yes, you shoot in raw, and yes, you will be able to correct that color shift in post-processing. Doing so, however, can be very time intensive. Your solution to this problem is to color calibrate your cameras and lenses to a known baseline. Once all your images are color calibrated, any post-processing you will apply then will get you the same and consistent results. So how do we do that?
It is actually rather simple, if you use Lightroom and CameraRaw, if you use some other programs, such as CaptureOne for example, this process is less intuitive. For the purpose of this post, I will focus on Lightroom and CameraRaw, as this is straightforward for these tools. To get started you need a MSCCPP color calibration target. One of such targets is the colorchecker passport. I actually prefer the passport to other targets, because it also has a greycard, as well as additional calibration patches that make your post-processing workflow much faster and more consistent.
Shooting the Target
For the purpose of this quick tutorial I recommend you shooting in a controlled environment, meaning that when you take pictures of your target with different cameras and lenses, you should use the same time of day and location, or even better simply use a flash mounted to your camera (there is no need to make this overly complicated). What you then do is take a shot of the calibration target. Make sure you properly expose the image, as colors look different, if your image is under, or over exposed. To do this, use a light meter. If you do not have one at hand, you can use the greycard on the colorchecker passport with the lightmeter built into your camera.
I strongly advise you to set a custom white balance before you start shooting. You only have to do this once if your lighting conditions don’t change (hence why using a flash is coming in handy). Simply consult your camera’s manual to find out how to do that. The colorchecker passport has a grey target, so this is easily done with the tools you already have. If you do not set your whitebalance, you will have to do this later in post and then EXPORT each file, to make sure that the new white balance has been set. This is just an easy way to streamline your workflow and keep your results consistent.
Once exposure is dialed in, shoot away. Take one image of the colorchecker passport, filling at least half of the frame. Do that for all of your lenses and camera bodies. If you have two bodies and 5 lenses, you will end up with 10 images (each lens on both bodies). Make sure you shoot in RAW (not s-raw), and if you can, shoot in DNG, as this will save you one additional step in this process. When done, you should end up with one image for each body and lens combination you have.
If your raw file format is NOT DNG, you need to convert those files first before you proceed, or use a tool provided by X-RITE, which will allow you to create a profile right out of lightroom. To keep this universal, I will focus on the DNG workflow. So assuming your file is not DNG, simply use the free adobe DNG RAW CONVERTER to convert your raw files into DNG files. If you have set the correct whitebalance before you took these images, you are ready to go. If not, you will need a program, such as lightroom for example, and use the white balance eye-dropper on the 18% grey patch to adjust your white balance. You need to do that with every single image, and then export these images as DNG with the correct white balance set (if you use lightroom, there is an export preset that automatically creates a profile, but in order to keep this simple, we will focus on the DNG approach).
So now you have a bunch of DNG files, one for each camera/lens combination. Simply open the X-RITE DNG profile creator (Adobe has a similar tool which I personally prefer), and load your first image. Follow the instruction and name your profile so that you are able to recall and assign this later on, where applicable. For example if you shoot a Pentax K3 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens, you may want to name your profile “K3-50mm-1.8-smc”, and so on. Once selected, the application will create and save your DNG color profile and make it available in both Lightroom and Camera Raw. Lightroom does a good job in automatically picking a profile once it has been created, but occasionally you may have to manually select the correct corners.
When you start to work with your raw files, all you have to do is select the correct color profile for your camera/lens combination, and all of your images will more closely and consistently represent true colors. The advantage is that you can swap out bodies and lenses during a shoot and still get comparable results for your post-processing baseline. This not only results in more natural looking skin colors, but more importantly in a more accurate representation of what you actually intended to capture.
One last note on this matter: If you add a filter to your lens, such as a CP for example, you will introduce a color shift. Some filters are worse than others, but keep that in mind. Often this shift is desired, but sometimes it may not be at all. A quick workaround is to just shoot your colorchecker passport again and create a new color profile for this setup. The same goes for a change in color temperature. This is in particular apparent when you shoot outdoors and into the sunset for example. While I have found that using a calibrated profile and applying correct whitebalance somewhat solves this issue, colors will shift, and look different in your final image. I can therefore recommend to shoot your colorchecker passport once again in those extreme conditions, and simply create a new profile. This 5-minute step will not significantly slow down your workflow, but you will notice the difference in your images.
Unfortunately, if you are using CaptureOne, you are out of luck, because CaptureOne does not support DNG color profiles. You can create an ICC profile, but there is no automatic matching of colors to baseline swatches available. You have to manually match colors to swatches by using their known RGB values as a reference. If you know of a better way, let me know, because I find this approach rather limiting and tedious.
A few weeks ago we were joined by ABC7 Television during a fashion shoot for Cynthia Design. Our model was Lauren Foulk and HMUA Jenelle Prieto, both of which are amazingly talented, and super fun to work with.
ABC7 Television
ABC7 Television was doing a piece on Greentoe (click link and use coupon GREEN25 to get $25 off), which allows you to save money on all kinds of consumer electronics, including photography equipment. It probably isn’t a surprise to many of you, that as a professional photographer, I have to invest significantly into equipment; any discount or savings I can get are always very appreciated. Because I have bought from Greentoe before, and had a great experience (while also saving a lot of money along the way), I was asked if I was willing to talk to ABC7 TV. The result you can see below:
Honestly, I buy my equipment at many different places, but frankly, Greentoe is just such an easy one-stop shopping destination. Simply look for an item on their site, compare regular prices, then make an offer. It’s like bidding on ebay, without the change of getting outbid, only getting items from authorized resellers, and without the hassle of having to wait until an auction ends. Sometimes your offers are accepted right away, but often Greentoe will get to work and ask resellers in their network to bid on, or accept your offer. Once that happens, it’s all straight forward from there. Your card will be charged, the item is shipped, and if you are unhappy, you can return it for at least 14 days.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, I can tell you that it has been working really well for me, and as Greentoe is expanding their product offerings, more and more items can be had for less than retail. Why would you want to pay full price, if you can get your item at a discount? Oh, did I mention that the price you pay includes shipping and taxes?
Seriously, I thought I should share this.
ABC7 Television #alexmunozphotography #fashion #abc7 #greentoe
I finally received my official certificate for being a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) in the mail today. Being a certified professional photographer in Los Angeles is quite the privilege, as there really are only just a few who have earned this certification so far. What is a CPP you may ask? Well, a CPP must demonstrate technical and practical knowledge in the field of professional photography. In other words, putting the camera in automatic and shooting away won’t qualify you for the CPP at all. Here’s why you would want to consider a CPP for you next photo session:
Because when things matter, you’ve only got one shot. And there’s no substitute for experience.
These days, photography is practiced by anyone with a smartphone, but it’s mastered by few. When it comes to those once-in-a-lifetime moments—when you’ve got one shot at getting it right—you better make sure the person behind the camera is a pro. A proven professional photographer that is.
There’s no greater proof than when the letters “CPP” follow a photographer’s name. They designate a Certified Professional Photographer, someone who is putting in the extra work to stay above the rest. It assures you of this photographer’s professional knowledge and experience, while also declaring that photographer as one who has achieved and maintains a higher standard.
See the Difference Certified Professional Photographers Make
Consistency. CPPs know how to achieve great results—every time. You get a strong collection of images that tell your story, not a few lucky snapshots, and you will work with someone who knows how to produce a quality image under any circumstances.
Technical Skills. CPPs are more than picture takers. They are students of art, lighting, posing, fashion and even interior design. They combine these elements to create images that fit your unique style and become works of art you will treasure for generations.
Unique Artistry. CPPs have the skills to create unique, customized works of art—not cookie-cutter pictures. They follow an artistic vision. It’s your story captured as a collection of art.
Professionalism. When you hire a CPP, you know you’re getting someone who is willing to go the extra mile to deliver the best possible images. They are business owners who thrive on customer service and satisfaction, and they continuously aim to produce products that exceed your—and their—best expectations. These images are keepsakes whose stories you’ll tell time and time again and treasure forever.
Just about anyone can take a good picture every now and then. But when life’s biggest moments are unfolding and there’s just one chance to capture that perfect memory, don’t risk it. Entrust your photography needs to a Certified Professional Photographer and see the difference for yourself.
I recently had the opportunity to work with Marita and Lauren on a fashion shoot, featuring couture by ENGINEERED BY REMY. We had multiple pieces to showcase, and access to Profoto equipment with Mola light modifiers, in addition to help by Janet and Kevin. We also had an amazing team of 4! Makeup Artists/Hair Stylists to work on the models. To make a long story short: we had a great time and ended up with some amazing images. In addition to the fashion images we also took some closeup portraits for the portfolios of the models. Am I teasing too much? You can see one of Marita’s images above.
Did you know that any still or motion professional photography in the City of Los Angeles, and most publicly accessible parks and property in the LA County area, need a permit? Many photographers operating within the LA city boundaries do not have a permit when they are taking pictures, but why is that?
Not Professional
Most of them are simply not professionals. Meriam-Webster says that “a professional is participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs <a professional golfer>“. By definition then, if your photographer is not taking images for gain or livelihood, they are maybe a semi-pro at best. But this is not really about whether your photographer makes a living or not. This is about attitude, professionalism, and goals. Attitude means that a professional photographer should follow rules and regulations. These rules are in place for a reason (and not just for the city to make money): to protect other citizens, public property, and clients alike. Professionalism starts with knowing the rules and following them, but it also means that as a truly professional photographer, your photographer is fully insured for at least $1 Million (some counties require a minimum of $2 Million). One of the requirements to even get a permit is to be fully insured. If your photographer did not apply for a permit, or claims that they don’t need one, that can only mean two things:
Your Photographer is not insured, which puts you in danger. What happens if something happens during the photo session?
They do not consider themselves a professional photographer, and as a result, neither should you!
The Los Angeles Charter and Administrative Code clearly states in Section 22.350:
No person, as defined in Section 11.01 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, shall use any property belonging to or under the control of the City of Los Angeles for the purpose of making any commercial motion picture, or still photograph, of, or including such property, without first having obtaineda use permit to do so from the City Council, or whomever the Council by order, resolution or ordinance may delegate such authority. No such use permit shall be issued until the permit applicant has paid the application fee and the use and service charge required in connection therewith, and until the permit applicant has furnished proof of insurance with coverage as required by the Director of the Office of Administrative and Research Services in a form approved by the City Attorney.
I have heard it before that some professionals try to argue themselves out of this by claiming that what they do is not considered commercial, and that only whenever they would do this for a client, let’s say an advertising agency for example, then this would be considered commercial. This argument, as much as any assumptions with it, is wrong.
If you pay your photographer, then this is a commercial transaction. You pay them to take images of you. But what if you don’t pay them? Well, if the photographer (or you) are using these images for financial gain (meaning to advertise and get paid work out of this), then the purpose of the photo session was of commercial nature.
So before you hire someone, make sure they have a permit for the location you are shooting at. Furthermore, if they do not, insist on one, and while you’re at it, make sure they are insured. As a certified professional photographer (CPP) I am fully insured, and only shoot on location, if a permit was obtained first (if one is required at that particular location). As you may have noticed, I have a permit to shoot at many places in the greater Los Angeles area. These include most beaches, many parks and other locations. Alternatively I shoot in my studio, on our downtown L.A. rooftop, or any other location that is worth exploring. Interested? Get in touch with me for details and to book a session.
As you can see, the packs fit nicely into the custom case:
Hang in there, as my next update will show you what we ended up with.