F/Stop Media Photography

SanDisk promises 32GB Extreme SDHC will be world’s fastest at that capacity: “SanDisk today unveiled the 32GB Extreme SDHC, promising that its read/write speed rating of 30MB/s will make it the fastest card of its capacity when it ships in August 2009. The company is also in the process of renaming its Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC cards, which will be known hereafter simply as Extreme SDHC. The renamed 4, 8 and 16GB models are expected to hit store shelves at about the same time as the new 32GB is released.”

(Via Rob Galbraith DPI.)

Adobe releases Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4: “Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4. The full, release version of the ACR update, that was originally posted as a release candidate on the Adobe Labs site, is now available for immediate download along with the Lightroom update. Both provide additional Raw support for Canon EOS 500D, Nikon D5000 and 18 Hasselblad models.”

(Via Digital Photography Review.)

Just posted! Nikon 50mm F1.4G lens review: “Just posted! Our lens review of the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm F1.4G. This version replaces the AF-Nikkor 50mm F1.4D we reviewed last year, bringing entirely new optics and a built-in AF-S motor which allows autofocus on all of Nikon’s DSLRs. On its introduction Nikon hailed it as ‘redefining the standard lens concept’, so how well does it live up to these lofty claims?”

(Via Digital Photography Review.)

Sigma: price and availability for 10-20mm F3.5 DC: “Sigma has announced the price of the 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM lens it announced in March 2009. The new lens, that will be sold in parallel to the older, variable aperture design, will cost £649.99. Sigma, Canon and Nikon versions will be available in July, with Pentax and Sony variants to follow in August.”

(Via Digital Photography Review.)

Just Posted: Nikon D5000 in-depth review: “Just Posted: Our in-depth review of the Nikon D5000. Nikon has been on something of a roll with its recent DSLRs and, with the D5000, we see much of the technology from the D300 trickle down to the entry-level for the first time. In addition to that 12 megapixel CMOS sensor, the D5000 gains a tilt/swivel LCD monitor to help make the most of its 720p HD movie capabilities. Is this enough to fend off the very competent cameras it will be up against? Find out in our full review.”

(Via Digital Photography Review.)

How to Photograph Water Drops with One Speedlight: “Ever notice those cool water photos that drop into the Strobist Flickr Pool?

Water droplet photography is very easy to get started with, and you can get as complex as you want. There are three tricks to making beautiful, time-scultped water pictures with a single small flash: Light placement, timing and flash duration.

More, plus two videos, inside.
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Water Photography Basics

(Very cool water drop photos by Andy W., top, and Steve P., both from the Strobist Flickr Group pool. Click the pic for bigger versions.)

First tip: You are not lighting the water. Since water is a specular object, you are lighting what the water reflects. So you light the area (most likely the backdrop) that you see reflected in the still water from your camera position

As for timing, that one is easy — just take the junk mail approach. Lots of water drops, lots of repetition, and something cool and unpredictable will come back. This is part of the fun. Just make sure you get your technical stuff down pat first, so when that perfect moment happens, you’ll have a winner.

Last, and speaking of technical stuff, you will want shoot in a (relatively) dark environment so the flash pulse can effectively be your shutter speed.

The first video below (a basic how-to) suggests a setting 1/16th power. That’s a pretty fast pop — about 1/11,000th of a second for an SB-800, for instance. But you can get even faster times if you drop the power further. And when freezing a drop of water, microseconds matter.

The tradeoff? Aperture vs. pulse length. You will need enough power to get you enough aperture to carry the depth of field you want. But don’t overdo the power to get excess aperture, as that’ll needlessly stretch the pulse length of your flash.

In lighting, everything is a tradeoff.

Check out this excellent ‘how-to’ video below, by Gavin Hoey. (RSS and email readers may need to click on the post title to view the videos.)

See? Easy, fun and cheap if you can get that flash off-camera.

And these same techniques can be amped up to yield more amazing photos. Artist Martin Waugh has built a career out of making art from drops of water. If you are into this kind of stuff, make sure to check out his amazing gallery to get a glimpse of just what is possible.

Just below, a video featuring Waugh from a segment of the Discover Channel show, ‘Time Warp.’ These guys are filming in 10,000 frames per second, which is Chase Jarvis Kung Fu territory. At the end, they actually have drops colliding with splashes in mid-air.

For me, other than the obvious cool factor, the takeaway from this video was a look into Waugh’s lighting. Background gets one color, and the top light gets another. This way, you get multiple colors in the water depending on the angle of the water surface being reflected.

A very cool project for a rainy afternoon, IMO. Or even better — offer to take the setup into you kid’s science class at school and let them try their hand at stopping time to study how liquids behave.

If you decide to try it and upload to Flickr, be sure to tag your photos with the words, STROBIST, WATER and DROP and upload it to the Strobist group. That way, they will come up in this search and we can all see them. (Check it out — there are already some killer shots there.)

Or if you would rather blog your water droplet lighting exploits for the whole world to see, make sure to include the intact phrase ’strobist water drop’ (no quotes) and we can all see it via this Google blog search.

ACDSee Pro 3 Goes Beta: “ACDSeeandtrade; Pro 3 is now available open for beta testing by photographers all over the world. ACD Systems International Inc. wants professional photographers from all over to participate in the best testing. Beta downloads are available at http://www.acdseepro.com.

‘Every new feature in ACDSee Pro 3 is geared around saving time and making a photographer’s workflow process customizable,’ said Cam Carmichael, product manager for ACD Systems. ‘Beta test participants will see a uniquely flexible image processing mode that helps photographers streamline and speed up the work involved in perfecting and preparing their photos for publication.’”

(Via digitalcamerainfo.com.)

Nikon Takes Top Camera Awards for TIPA 2009: “

Congratulations are in order for Nikon – our favorite camera maker won the ‘Best Professional Digital SLR’ award for the high-end, rugged D3x and the ‘Best Advanced Digital SLR’ for the popular D90 model.

”

(Via Nikonians News.)

onOne Software Announces Free Version of PhotoTools 2 – Photoshop Plugins With 14 Effects: “onOne Software today announced a free Lite version of PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition. PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition is a flexible, yet powerful, plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 and CS4 that utilizes the power of Photoshop Actions to provide a range of imaging tools, including effects, corrections and production automation, in a full-featured interface…(posted by Jennifer Apple for www.PhotoshopSupport.com)”

(Via The Photoshop Blog.)

SlideShowPro Director Hosting updated to 1.3.5: “All subscribers to our SlideShowPro Director Hosting service received an update to version 1.3.5 this past Friday night (that actually coincided with a back-end infrastructure update as well). Everything is working fine for the vast majority of users, though we…”

(Via SlideShowPro.)