Review Digital Camera World 12-03-2013

Digital Camera World

The Next Generation in Online Meetings GoTo Webinar is a new, affordable, do-it-yourself Web event service that doesn't require a consultant. Get $10 off after your complimentary trial. From our sponsors

Best portable flash kit: 6 top models tested and rated Dec 3rd 2013, 00:01, by jmeyer Do you fancy a portable yet powerful flash kit to use outdoors? We test six of the best portable flash kits available to see which overs the best combination of quality and value for money. Earlier this year we tested a range of complete studio flash kits. They all came with a pair of flash heads, lighting stands and umbrellas or softboxes, as well as the same drawback – their reliance on mains electrical power. So, while they're portable, they're of limited use for outdoor shooting. If you're photographing outdoor events and need to add extra illumination for portraits or just for foreground areas in general, a battery-powered flash system is more suitable. Battery-powered kits commonly comprise a single lightweight flash head, or sometimes a pair of heads, plus a power pack and mains-powered battery charger. The power pack usually plays host to the controls for setting flash power, helping to keep the weight of the heads to a minimum. However, portable kits don't generally come with lighting stands, umbrellas or other accessories. To test the flashes, we fired them through a translucent umbrella at a subject two metres away. Best portable flash kit: 01 Bessel WP6 400 Ws Price: £400, $640 This single-head kit weighs 7.2kg, including the supplied flight case. Power adjustments and control of other features like the audible ready beep and modelling lamp are handled by the power pack. The 400Ws head is compact and lightweight. A full charge takes five hours, and enables 400 full-power flashes. The modelling lamp is a halogen bulb, but its use drains the battery. There's only a single output on the battery pack, so you can't add an extra flash. Controls are intuitive, and adjustments are precise, in 1/10th f-stop increments through a nominal seven-stop range. Using a shoot-through umbrella at a distance of two metres, the power range enabled apertures of f/7.1 to f/14, at ISO100. Verdict Pros… Good build quality, easy to use and competitively priced. Cons… No provision for adding an extra flash head. We say… A basic kit for a bargain price that performs well. Score: 4/5 PAGE 1 – Best portable flash kit: 01 Bessel WP6 400 Ws   PAGE 2 – Best portable flash kit: 02 Calumet Genesis GF400 + PowerPort Duo 1000   PAGE 3 – Best portable flash kit: 03 Bowens Small Travelpak Kit + Bowens Gemini 400Rx   PAGE 4 – Best portable flash kit: 04 Lencarta Safari Li-on Portable Flash PAGE 5 – Best portable flash kit: 05 Elinchrom Ranger Quadra Hybrid One Head PAGE 6 – Best portable flash kit: 06 Priolite M-Pack 500J Frankfurt Kit PAGE 7 – Five things to look for in a portable flash kit READ MORE 8 flash photography mistakes every photographer makes (and how to avoid them) Flash photography tips: external flash techniques anyone can understand Flash photography made easy: master everything from pop-up flash to multiple flashguns Flash photography basics: every common question answered How to use Lightroom to reclaim highlight and shadow detail Dec 2nd 2013, 12:19, by jmeyer Adobe Lightroom offers powerful tools for highlight and shadow recovery that can go a long way towards rescuing your images from common exposure problems. Find out how to use Lightroom to reclaim lost detail and stop wasting otherwise good pictures! High-contrast scenes make it more difficult for your camera to record the entire range of tones from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights. This photo, taken on a sunny afternoon, is just the sort of scene to cause problems. At times like this a little subtle tonal adjustment can work wonders by pulling features out of dim areas like shadow of the castle here and also clawing back detail in overexposed skies. If you shoot in raw format, it's amazing how much unseen texture your image contains. Lightroom has some very good tools for teasing this out. These range from basic tonal sliders that target different parts of the tonal range to localised tools that let you work on different parts of your image. SEE MORE: Adobe Lightroom 5 – is this the game-changer you’ve been waiting for? In this tutorial we'll show you how to use Lightroom to improve shadows and highlights with subtle tweaks to the Basic sliders, then get stuck in with the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter tool to improve specific parts of the image. How to use Lightroom to reclaim lost detail 01 Import and improve tones Go to the Library module, click Import and find the sunny_before.nef, then hit Import. Click the Develop Module and go to the Basic Panel. Set Temp 5800, Tint +13, Exposure +0.42, Contrast -13, Highlights -68, Shadows +34, Whites +33, Blacks -16, Clarity +16, Vibrance +18, Saturation +25.   02 Lighten the castle Grab the Adjustment Brush from the Toolbar and check 'Auto Mask' in the tool panel on the right. Paint over the castle (hit letter O to toggle a mask overlay on or off) then set Exposure 0.44, Shadows 24, Clarity 27. Paint over any other dark shadows you want to lighten.   03 Reveal the clouds Click Mask: New at the top-right, then uncheck 'Show Mask'. Paint over the brightest clouds, then set Contrast 21, Highlights -20, Clarity 33. Set two more pins and paint more masks, one for the grass with Exposure 0.44 Saturation +30, and a second for the boats and water with Clarity 51.   04 Darken the sky Grab the Graduated Filter, hold Shift and drag down from the top to the horizon. Set Exposure -1.57, Temp -19 to darken the sky. Next, de-emphasise the bottom-left corner by dragging a diagonal gradient inwards, then set Exposure -0.56, Contrast -53, Clarity -79.   05 Boost the colours Tweaking the saturation of colour ranges can help to emphasise detail. Go to the HSL Panel and click Saturation. Set Yellow +22, Green +16, Aqua +32, Blue +38. If you prefer interactive colour control, click on the target icon at the top-left of the panel, then drag over colours to alter them.   06 Add punch The Tone Curve lets you lighten or darken parts of the tonal range by dragging different parts of the curve line up or down. Drag down slightly near the bottom, then drag up on the middle to lighten the midtones. Pin the top part of the line back in place to preserve the highlights. Tools for shadow and highlight recovery Basic Panel sliders Use the Highlights and Shadows sliders to reveal detail. The Whites and Blacks sliders set the extremes of the tonal range. Adjustment Brush Paint over an area with the Adjustment Brush, then use the tool's tonal sliders on the right to improve it. HSL Panel Tweak eight different colour ranges by altering the Hue, Saturation or Luminance. See the clipping The Highlights and Shadows sliders found in the Basic Panel enable you to lift dark areas and recover detail in bright patches. If you hold Alt while dragging a slider, the image will change to display any clipped pixels. This makes it easier to see which areas need recovering. READ MORE 14 photo editing tricks and tips every landscape photographer must know How to replace a sky: Photoshop effects to make your landscapes more attractive Dodge and Burn: how to master one of the most vital photo editing skills Rim lighting: simple Photoshop effects to enhance your landscapes Professional photo editing tricks: how to get perfect skies in ALL your raw images

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions