Saturday, September 17, 2016

Product Photography using Strobist/Off Camera Flash Technique, Video Tutorial



Hey guys, just wanted to share a video of me explaining how I did some of the earlier strobist product photography shots that I did. I created this video to further show my perspective on how the whole photography process from start to finish.

In the video, I went for the "low key" look which means dark background and high contrast look on the images. This helps to create that interesting visual "pop" on the images to capture the attention of anyone who looked at your photos.

I photographed 3 different kind of products of different size and texture, so that you can get a feel of how the technique will apply to just about any small product that you will photograph. I used my trustee GX8 with the 12-35mm f/2.8 lens to do the whole thing, as well as to video myself on some parts of the tutorial. For the semi-top-down view of the photography process footages, I used my LX100.

The main thing that I want to emphasize here is that you have to experiment and repeat until you get the best result that you are looking for. By moving things around and change the settings a little bit on both the camera and the flash, you will gradually alter the look of the image a bit, and after a few repeat and observation, you will surely nail the look that you want.

Here is the video, I hope you enjoy the tutorial, cheers and God bless you :)


Thursday, September 15, 2016

8 Months with the LX100, What Do I Want From the LX200?

Hello people, today I want to share my experience on using the Panasonic Lumix LX100 for 8 months, as well as what I think the successor of the LX100, shall we say LX200, should be.
  

  
As a little background to the story, I originally purchased the LX100 because I was having a real tough time trying to nail a environmental portrait strobist-type pictures under a harsh, bright, sunny day, because my other cameras can only sync at around 1/250s, which means I have to close down my aperture quite small, around f/8 or f/11, which at that point the flash will have to be fired at a very high power.
  


  
The LX100 was the solution of that problem, and it solves the problem rather nicely. And I bought it, originally, solely for that purpose only. I can now fire at 1/1000sec and still have the flash sync to the camera using radio triggers, and now I can shoot at f/2.8 or f/4 insted of on f/8 or f/11, which makes the pictures look nicer too with the shallow depth of field effect. Combined with the fact that it has great 4/3 sensor as well as nice optics, it produces some of the most stellar strobist environmental portraits that I've ever taken.
  
  
But now that time has passed, I found myself to be using the LX100 for so many other things besides strobist environmental portraits. It is now acting as my everyday carry camera(EDC), and since it is always with me all the time, I rarely use my smartphone for taking picture anymore.
   


  
There are many other things that I really love with the LX100. The great 24-75mm optics with large f/1.7-2.8 aperture really makes it a great all around camera. The dedicated control dials for the shutter, the aperture, and the exposure compensation are really nice too, I can set things even before I turn on the camera, which is really nice. The picture quality is great, the AF is relatively fast though not always accurate, and the video is just superb. It is really superb, and with the addition of 4K, it really is the perfect travel video camera. Low light, while isn't great, is doable as long as I don't go above ISO 1600. It really is a photographer's compact camera, but with great video features.
  
  
For 8 months, I traveled with it, carry it in my EDC bag all the time, and I can now safely say that this camera is an "almost" perfect EDC camera for me, both for stills and for video. I really enjoyed the stills and video results coming out from this camera, the images and video footages look very nice and professional. It's now a real extension of my hand, and whenever something interesting comes up anytime, I can reach the LX100 in my bag to document it when I don't have my big boys within reach(the GX7 and the GX8).
  
  
However, nothing is perfect, and the LX100 is not an exception. Now that the LX100 is already 2 years since its original launch date, I really think it's time for Panasonic to come up with a nice follow up for the LX100. Maybe it'll be called LX200? And Panasonic got the chance to make it right this time, and make it even closer to a perfect camera.
  
  

Here's what I have in mind. The small size of the LX100 combined with great optics and a decent 4/3 sensor means it's a decent compact camera. 

   

It's supposed to be carried everywhere and make great stills and video. Combine the great controls and usability with great stills image quality as well as nice 1080p and excellent 4K video modes, and what you get is the "almost perfect " advanced compact camera. 

   

Almost perfect, not perfect.

  
  
Now that the market is travel photographers, enthusiast photographers, and casual videographers, it is almost inevitable that most of them will try to use the LX100 as an ultra decent vlogging camera, but unfortunately it is not capable of doing that. And that's a shame! Why?
  
Because it doesn't have any mic input and articulating touch screen that can be flipped! 
   
  
  
Okay no touch screen fine, I learned to live without that. But for casual video and vlog, you need the articulating flipping screen! And to not include an mic input jack on this great little video-able camera is just a plain stupid decision! Many companies make small travel microphone like the Rode Video Micro for vlogging, and the LX100 could have been the perfect match for this kind of accessories, but apparently Panasonic missed this opportunity 100%. And that isn't helped by the fact that the onboard mic sounds like garbage.
   
  
So maybe Panasonic wants to protect their higher end GH4, G7 or GX8 of course because they want those cameras to be their de-facto enthusiast video cameras, which makes sense, but in my opinion adding flipping screen and mic input on the LX100 won't eat into the GH4, G7 or GX8 market at all. People who choose these high end ILCs need these cameras to become their primary workhorse, while the LX100 is more of a decent complementary or travel camera rather than a full blown workhorse camera.
  
It doesn't mean that if you empower this kind of complementary camera with the same features as the workhorse camera it'll suddenly turn into a workhorse camera. The form factor matters, and the fundamental design of the body, the controls, usability, performance, as well as the ability to change lens can't be compromised. And thus in my opinion the LX100 should not eat those GH4, G7, or GX8 cameras.
  
I, for example, have both the LX100 and the GX8, and boy oh boy both these cameras have completely different roles. Assuming that the LX100 now have a mic input and articulating screen, I will still need the GX8 badly for what I do; The GX8 will perform much better and snappier on event reportage, serious photography session, and serious video production sessions than the LX100. It's a true workhorse camera that can't be replaced with something like the LX100.
  

So here's what I want from the LX200, Panasonic. Will you please listen to what I will say carefully, and consider these points carefully, Panasonic.

  
1. Fully articulating touch screen that can be flipped, like the one on the GX8, G7, and GH4.
2. Mic input! Mic input! Full blown 3.5mm jack, not the stupid 2.5mm mic input jack like the one in the GX8, that's just plain stupid. Headphone input would also be nice but not priority. Don't you dare leaving out the manual audio control in the software, Panasonic.
3. Better stabilization.
4. Better performing sensor. We need to push the low light capabilities of the camera.
5. To hell with the multi-aspect ratio cow poo! Give us full 4/3 sensor coverage with no crop.
6. 16MP is enough, 20MP will be better but megapixel isn't priority as long as it is sharp. Low light is more important!
7. Faster and snappier camera. The startup time of the LX100 is really slow and it's not helped by the fact that the lens retraction is also slow during startup, and the time needed to open the gallery is also slow. Give us mechanical zoom like your 12-32mm lens, or like Fuji X20, to hell with this crappy slow motorized zoom!
8. Better 1080p bitrate please, 4K as good as the LX100, and please give us Cine-like color profile at least if you don't want to give away V-log profile on your cameras.
9. Weather sealing, please, please, please?
10. Did I mention fully articulating touch screen?
11. Same overall size as the LX100, don't blow the size up too big like the jump from GX7 to GX8. Make it like the jump from GX7 to GX85.
12. Better EVF, doesn't need to be big, just give us a slightly smaller version of the GX8 viewfinder.
13. Built in ND filter, 3 stops or so.
14. To hell with the stupid iA button that I kept pressing on accidentally! If not, at least please give us the option to customize it into a regular Fn button.
15. Did I mention 3.5mm mic input jack?
  
I can tell that if the LX200 has all the greatness of the LX100 combined with all the points I mentioned above, it will have the potential to instantly kill the Sony RX100 series, the Canon GxX series, and even some low end DSLRs like Canon Rebels or lower-end Nikon for video(not for stills though, although if Panasonic work really hard on the still aspect, Panasonic will eventually kill them too!). It will not definitely eat into any of the advanced DSLR or Mirrorless market, though it will probably hurt the lower end mirrorless like the Panasonic GF or Olympus' lower end PEN-Lite market.
   

So please Panasonic, don't screw this one up...

  
 
I hope that the LX200 will produce higher quality still image when compared to the LX100. It should have a better low light performance and the ability to resolve fine detail better than the LX100. Megapixel increase is always nice, but in my opinion there is no need to go really high on the megapixel.
  
I also really hope that people will be able to vlog properly using my version of LX200, and what they will have in their hand is the compact camera that can shoot ultra nice video, with option to add little microphone to improve their vlog quality.
  
  

Vlog is a huge thing today, and thanks to social media platforms trying to encourage more video contents in their veins, people now want to create and to record vlog, more than ever. 

  
No, I'm not talking full professional video production style with caged cameras on a rod with some follow focus rig and external monitor on an arm, but just a casual little footages taken with tiny little pocketable cameras that looks like nothing and can be carried everywhere, with decent video quality and the option to improve the audio on camera using external mics.
  
  
   
Let me tell you, I'm not really a brand loyal user. I don't owe any allegiance to Panasonic or Olympus or Sony or Pentax or Canon or Nikon. So if Panasonic refuses to listen to this suggestion, it's fine, and if some other companies end up making the exact camera with my version of LX200 spec above, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it no matter what the brand is. But since the LX100 is such a nice camera, I do have some faith that Panasonic does have what it takes to build my version of LX200.
  

   
So yeah, I really hope that my version of LX200 will become reality. Now please excuse me while I'm enjoying some down time with my beloved LX100.
   
I hope this post is informative enough for you. Until next time, cheers and God bless you :)