A few times a year, Nikon tends to go wild and put nearly all their current products on sale. Now is one of those times, with a big sale that lasts until May 29. Which deals are worthwhile and which ones are duds? I’ll go through each product one by one below.
Photography Life
The bigger your film size, the harder it is to find lenses that work well. For 8×10, the largest common film size, that rings especially true. So, what should you look for in an 8×10 lens? There are a lot of factors, from coverage to filter compatibility. Today, I’ll go through those factors and introduce the best 8×10 lenses.
Photography Life
DJI has officially launched the Mini 3 Pro, a drone that features high-end and novel capabilities, like 4K60 video, up to 47 minutes of flight time, and APAS 4.0 obstacle detection and avoidance. Importantly, the Mini 3 Pro with the Intelligent Flight Battery still comes in at under 250g. For my use of drones, however, image quality is the biggest factor – does the Mini 3 Pro deliver? In this first look, I’ll share the full details of the Mini 3 Pro, as well as some real-world sample photos from my hands-on time with DJI’s newest drone.
Photography Life
It started with a basketball player with a huge wingspan, a last minute order to a custom wing making outfit known as Mother Plucker Feather Company (yes, you read that correctly), an overnight drop ship to North Carolina, some creative use of c-stands, and then a long silence on my part after the shoot. Things get forgotten.
The combination of those elements above resulted in the simple fact that, twenty years after I commissioned the creation of these wings for a Sports Illustrated assignment, they’re still in my garage. They’ve traveled here and there, most recently to Romania, where I made the backlit banner picture above. We ran it on our Instagram feed this week, and there were….questions.
Soft, peaceful images tend to require similar light. The backlit angel was lit very simply, with a big, wide open, soft white Profoto umbrella, with a B1X unit firing into it. Very underplayed. Just a touch of light to banish the shadows. A fill, hovering just below the level of the ambient, light as a feather. (Ouch!) The sun is doing the heavy lifting here.
The above was again, simply opened up via a Profoto B1X into a 4′ Octa softbox. Small pop into an already soft light environment. I wanted the background to play well in terms of the exposure value as I like the decrepitude of the wall, and its powder blue, airy feel.
The angel images were shot with a Nikon Z 7, with the camera stabilized on a Gitzo systematic. One light, keep it simple, add wings. One of the hardest aspects of this trip was actually shipping the wings internationally. Seems they are made of real feathers from real winged creatures, so they had to be steam cleaned and certified as such to cross the border.
Love working in Romania, a country steeped in history, legend and lore. On the same day I shot the angels, I also made the picture below. This old lab I shot just as I found it. I put a Manfrotto Skylite panel in the window to amplify the window light and popped a flash through it, just a bit. Added a small, discreet bounce off the ceiling. It was a day of making my lighting unseen, unfelt by the eyes of the viewer.
I work in Romania with a truly intrepid production team, known as Idea Film, run by dear friends, Ionut and Andrei. They ease the way, know the players, and find great locations and talent. Always looking to return. Hopefully soon. The wings will fly again!
More tk…..
The post Calling All Angels….. appeared first on Joe McNally Photography.
Happy Mother’s Day Sunday to our Photography Life readers! Starting this week, instead of a roundup of just the sales and deals in the photography world, I’ll share the biggest photography news with you as well. Interesting things are happening this week with Capture One, Nikon, Canon, and more.
Photography Life