derick_miller

Thank you all for the suggestions. I ordered the FLM CP10 because is is reputed to be quite stable, has infinitely individually adjustable legs and offers a fair range of heights down to under 2". We will see...

I use a strap from Hyperion (there are many similar--this one is inexpensive, many color choices and longer lengths available than others I have seen, but it comes from Greece, so delay is longer). It slides along your body, since it is a smooth cord. Easy to bring up. Hangs comfortably (again because is is round and has slight give). You can also loosely double-wrap it around your wrist if you want it as a wrist strap.

If only my local dealer stocked good table top tripods :(. They are pretty good, but they can't have everything.

Interesting. The base of the Sirui is a bit heavier, but it is sturdy. They recommend standing on a tripod leg with your foot to add more stability, which would break many other brands. :).

Thank you for the helpful suggestions! Especially about the slider plate. Using the tabletop head as the base for a monopod is a great idea to magnify usefulness of a gear purchase. It doesn't apply for me, since I have the Sirui P-324s monopod which has a removable tripod at the base. That tripod is fixed in height and substantial in weight and size (too much to fit my portable solution needs), but it is a useful consideration for future seekers. For future seekers: If it were going to support a monopod, I think the weight support ability would be more significantly challenged since the XX Lbs of camera plus head would be balanced atop the far end of a lever (the monopod). So a tripod to fill this roll should be more substantial than otherwise.

Fuji has much more than doubled their sales in the medium format market since the 50r was released. And they will announce the 100 on Thursday and it is expected to ship by end of June. They also now dominate the MF market. And the GFX 50r hit #1 in sales on Amazon and B&H a few times--amazing considering it is MF. So the statements about the camera being on the way out are not well informed. :). The price drop is about the pending new release. As for a One camera, One lens option: I vote for the GFX with the 32-64 zoom. You can do any sort of portrait including headshots. Having a longer lens is nice, but you can do fine with just the 32-64.

I am looking for a lightweight, strong tabletop tripod. The legs should support at least 11 Lbs/5 kg. The weight should be under 1 Lb/500 gr. The FML CP10 and Feisol TT-15 and Basicball are the top 3 contenders so far. I would like to have the option to mount the Benro GD3WH geared head on the legs. The most challenging load expected is a GFX 50r with an L bracket, RF flash controller and 110mm lens attached. Thank you for sharing suggestions.

You don't need a full-blown studio to practice. As suggested above, there are some moderately priced Godox units which will work as well as anything else for your purpose and are quite handy since they can run off of a battery. You don't need the TTL version for studio, which saves a little. For the cost of a few studio sessions, you can practice as much as you want and you have a handy tool. Get one good modifier and practice anywhere you can set up a lightstand. Both of the videos you shared use Beauty Dishes, which are a fashion standard, and reflectors. So, as your first modifier, it might be worth investing in a Beauty Dish. Mola is the gold standard in the fashion world, but there are inexpensive alternatives on Amazon. The big free-standing reflectors, being used with the black side out in Sadowska's video, look to be v-flats--easy and cheap to make, incredibly versatile. You make them with two sheets which are about 4'x8' (1.2m x2.4m), White on one side, black on the other. Tape the two together along one long end, so they can be in a V shape. They stand by themselves. Google search for how to make videos etc. Indoors is better so you are not pitting your strobes against the sun. A wall will do fine as a background. The images don't need to be perfect in all the location details, just to give you the option to practice with the lights. Once you nail a lighting look you like, perfect the other details and you have something to build upon. And the same skills work on location, so investing in a strobe and beauty dish can serve your other work:

I'm curious to hear how it went. My advice would be to hire an assistant with good lighting skills. This is a common practice in the industry.

Fuji There is a WCL for the X100 series which some think is a better lens than the original on the X100 series, but it does add bulk. If you don't need the viewfinder, the X70 has much to recommend it including being even smaller. The interchangeable lens cameras are worth looking at for wider lenses. The 18/f2 is tiny (a gem of a pancake lens) and could be paired with an XE series camera for "small with a viewfinder" or with the Xpro series if you want a rangefinder type viewfinder option (XPro1 can be had for a song, the Xpro2 is an impressive street machine). If you want wider than 18, the 16/f1.4 is an outstanding lens and rivals the Leica equivelent at a tiny fraction of the cost, but it isn't nearly as tiny and light as the 18/f2.

Mostly manipulating selective color or curves layers often with Chanel pulls, blend-if, luminosity masks or gradient. Brief trip into LAB with PPW Man from Mars.

I think there are options to de-fish the fisheye and get a wider angle of view than you can get with a rectilinear lens. David Ziser was mentioned above. He discusses his use of a Canon Fisheye zoom in this video, but the lessons apply to FE generally: I don't know if it's the lens or his software methods, but the edge results in the video are softer than they need to be. But he was using LR four and adjusting by hand in PS. I include it for its discussion of why you might want to use a FE lens and how it applies in the wedding context. The current version of Photoshop CC has wide-angle lens correction which has worked better for me with the Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye on a Fuji Xpro camera. Fisheye Hemi also works well: https://imadio.com/products/prodpage_hemi.aspx My experience is that it is worth trying FE Hemi variations and the built-in PS options, because some images fare better with one or the other. This is the most useful article I have found on de fishing and it covers a method to get better results out of using FE Hemi http://www.lonelyspeck.com/defish/ I also found some of this information helpful even though the review is about a specific lens: https://www.slrlounge.com/rokinon-12mm-f2-8-full-frame-fisheye-lens-review-urbex-extreme-adventure-photography-lens/ I know the thread is a bit old, but the topic is still relevant :).

Photographs have been manipulated since the very early history of Photography. And I do not mean just dodging, burning and contrast development. We have early example of HDR using more than one exposure. We have plentiful examples of early combinations of people from multiple negatives being combined in a single image. Images where sky and clouds are added in are plentiful. Painted images. Retouching of faces. Adding or removing items. What we do have as photographer is greater ease in using more powerful tools. But this is the whole history. At first you needed chemistry skills. Prepared plates, film, film of higher resolution and greater portability, color process. The cameras underwent a similar progression. The amount of skill you need to develop to create a properly exposed picture which is in focus has plummeted. The conditions under which you can create a proper exposure has expanded. The rate at which you can accomplish these tasks has accelerated by orders of magnitude. So I would agree that much has changed, but it has been on the typical trajectory of evolving technology. We are pioneers in the sense that all photographers have been pioneers--we all have to learn the craft amidst evolving technology. The basic problems remain the same: How do we learn to see? How do we learn to translate what we see onto a two-dimensional medium frozen in time plucked from a three-dimensional stream which rushes ever onward?

Normally you would like the light to be fully striking the inside surface of the umbrella without wasting extra light by spilling around the edge. This gives you the largest sized source and greatest efficiency in using your strobe for that. The best way to determine what you are getting is to take a picture of the umbrella from where your subject would be. Properly exposed (i.e. Not blown out), this gives you a good indication of how your light source is working, if there are hotspots, etc.

That is rare and worth hearing about.