Mike Richards Photography Blog

Lots of new “toys”.

Mike — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:10:00 +0000

Steve Chapman’s (panocamera.com) Nintendo DS Camera Controller which I purchased awhile ago has been open sourced as Open Camera Control.

Palm has released the beta version of the native Plug-in Developer Kit (PDK) for the Palm Pre, though unfortunately they don’t have support for Linux yet.

I finally got around to completing the assembly of the Camera Axe I got for Christmas.

Seems like I’m constantly tinkering with site updates I added 29 new images to my galleries and Fotomoto released their API last month which I integrated with SimpleViewer.

How To: SimpleViewer 2 and SWFAddress.

Mike — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:07:54 +0000

As this is an update to an existing post I will dispense with a basic introduction. The major difference between this post and the previous is that the new version uses Actionscript 3. Here is the deep linking example of SimpleViewer 2 and SWFAddress 2.4.

What you will need to download:

SimpleViewer Pro 2.0.1
SWFAddress 2.4
If you don’t have it Adobe Flash Professional

Make a new folder on your desktop – you can call it whatever you would like, for the tutorial I’m going to call mine gallery.

Extract the file you download from the SimpleViwer site, simpleviewer-pro.zip.

Copy all of the files in the flash_embed folder into your gallery folder. You will find the Flash Embed example in the SimpleViewer folder you created when you extracted the simpleviewer-pro.zip under simpleviewer-pro2_1/examples/flash_embed.

Rename simpleviewer_flash_embed.fla to simpleviewer_swfaddress.fla, delete simpleviewer_flash_embed.swf and simpleviewer_flash_embed.html.

Unzip swfaddress-2.4zip

Copy the asual folder found in swfaddress-2.4\dist\as\3\com\ to gallery\com\.

Copy swfaddress.js from swfaddress-2.4\dist\js to the gallery folder.

In the gallery folder right click new>text document. Rename the text file to index.html.

You should now have all of the files you need in the gallery folder:

com folder
images folder
thumbs folder
gallery_1.xml
gallery_2.xml
index.html
simpleviewer_swfaddress.fla
simpleviewer.swf
swfaddress.js

In your gallery folder open index.html and copy the following code into index.html:

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Simpleviewer Gallery with SWFAdress</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfaddress.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var flashvars = {};
var params = {};
params.scale = "noscale";
params.allowfullscreen = "true";
params.allowScriptAccess = "sameDomain";
swfobject.embedSWF("simpleviewer_swfaddress.swf", "galleryContent", "900", "670", "10.0.0", false, flashvars, params);
</script>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
object {
outline:none;
}
body {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="galleryContent">
<p>In order to view these galleries you must have <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">Adobe Flash Player</a> installed.
If you know that you have Flash installed, then please ensure JavaScript and/or Active Content are enabled.</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

In your gallery folder open simpleviewer_swfaddress.fla with Adobe Flash Professional. Delete all the buttons and the text box, with the exception of the Load Gallery 1 and 2 buttons. (Feel free to change the background color so it’s not so hard to look at.)

Now select the code layer’s Actions – Frame within the simpleviewer_swfaddress.fla document and replace the existing code with the following:

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//Mike Rchards - mikerichardsphotography.com
//This code is provided free without guarantee and is "AS IS".

//import required classes
import flash.display.*;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import com.asual.swfaddress.*;

//turn off stage auto resizing
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;

//Init variables
var svAPI:Object; //svAPI is the object to call API methods on
var swfLoaded:Boolean = false;
var galleryURL:String; //used when switching between galleries
var imageIndex:Number;
var svLoader:Loader = new Loader(); //loader to load SimpleViewer swf into
var galleryShowing:Boolean = true;

//the default galleryname should be the same as the name of the xml minus .xml
var defaulGallery:String = "gallery_1";
var currentGalName:String ="";

//add svLoader to the "mcLoader" stage movieclip on the main timeline
mcLoader.addChild(svLoader);

//listen for SWF loaded
svLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.INIT, onViewerInit);

SWFAddress.addEventListener(SWFAddressEvent.CHANGE, handleSWFAddress);

function handleSWFAddress(e:SWFAddressEvent) {
var address = SWFAddress.getValue();
var path = e.path;
var arr:Array = path.split("/");
var galName = arr[1];
var imgId:Number = parseInt(arr[2], 10);

switch(galName) {
case "" :
// If the gallery name is empty set to the default gallery.
if (isNaN(imgId)) {imgId =0;}
galName = defaulGallery;
loadGallery(galName, imgId);
break;
case currentGalName :
if (isNaN(imgId)) {imgId =0;}
imageIndex = imgId;
break;
default :
if (isNaN(imgId)) {imgId =0;}
//If the galName is not the currentGalName load the new gallery.
//Prevents swf from being reloaded every time you update
//the address from clicking a thumb
if (currentGalName != galName) {loadGallery(galName, imgId);}
break;
}

//Adds just the gallery name to the browser title bar. The title is taken from the gallery XML title.
SWFAddress.setTitle('Simpleviewer With SWFAdress : ' + galName);

// Example of how to add the gallery name and image ID to the title bar.
//SWFAddress.setTitle('Simpleviewer With SWFAdress : ' + galName +' image ' + imgId);
}

/**
* This function loads the SimpleViewer SWF
*/
function loadGallery(galName:String, imgId:Number){
currentGalName = galName;
galleryURL = galName + ".xml"; //url;

//unload previous simpleviewer instance
if (svAPI != null ) svAPI.dispose();
svAPI = null;
//flash 9 - unload
if (swfLoaded) svLoader.unload();
//Flash 10 - unloadAndStop
//if (_viewerLoaded) svLoader.unloadAndStop();

SWFAddress.setValue('/'+galName+'/'+imgId+'/');

imageIndex = imgId;

//load simpleviewer swf
var urlReq:URLRequest = new URLRequest("simpleviewer.swf");
svLoader.load(urlReq);
swfLoaded = true;
}

function updateGalleryUrl(e:Object){
var path = SWFAddress.getValue();
var arr:Array = path.split("/");
var galName = arr[1];
//We are disregarding arr[2] because we are being
//passed the new image id, imgIndex, and don't need the current one.

currentGalName = galName;
// SWFAddress.setValue updates the address bar and calls handleChange(event:SWFAddressEvent)
SWFAddress.setValue('/'+galName+'/'+e.data+'/');
}

/**
* Fired when preloader is available
* Can set flashvars at this point
*/
function onViewerInit(e:Event):void{
trace("onViewerInit");

//listen for
Object(svLoader.content).addEventListener("svComplete", onGalleryLoaded);
trace("setViewerFlashVars");
var options:Object = Object(svLoader.content).embedOptions;

//set gallery.xml url based on current galleryId
options.galleryURL = galleryURL;
options.firstImageIndex = imageIndex;
}

/**
* Fired when gallery has completly loaded (SWF + XML)
* API is now available.
*/
function onGalleryLoaded(e:Event):void{
svAPI = Object(svLoader.content).api;
svAPI.setSize(mcLoader.mcFrame.width,mcLoader.mcFrame.height);

//Init Event Listeners
svAPI.addEventListener("svImageChange",updateGalleryUrl);
}

//Init Button Click Handlers
mcButton1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,loadGallery1);
mcButton2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,loadGallery2);

//Button Click Handlers
function loadGallery1(e:Event){
loadGallery("gallery_1",0);
}

function loadGallery2(e:Event){
loadGallery("gallery_2",0);
}

Save (Crtl + S) simpleviewer_swfaddress.fla.

Export (Crtl + Alt + Shift + S) simpleviewer_swfaddress.fla as simpleviewer_swfaddress.swf into your gallery folder.

To test you must upload the files to your server.

Make sure to upload all of the following files and folders:

images folder
thumbs folder
gallery_1.xml
gallery_2.xml
index.html
simpleviewer_swfaddress.swf
simpleviewer.swf
swfaddress.js

The browser history is updated every time you click a thumbnail, thus enabling the browser back button. You can now link to any image via a nice URL and as you click on thumbnails you can watch the address bar change. You can also directly link to an image.

This code is provided free without guarantee and is “AS IS”.

Everything At Once and More

Mike — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:58:12 +0000

SimpleViewer 2

SimpleViewer 2 has been released and I will have an update of my SimpleViewer SWFAddress code shortly. Most of the code is done – I just have to do some testing. You can check out ~~a preview~~ example here. Update: the post has is up here.

Borrowlenses.com

I recently rented a lens from Borrowlenses.com and over all it was a good experience, but there were a few issues. They have strict address requirements, which in some ways are understandable based on the value of the gear. This does however limit shipping to basically your business or home via FedEx with a signature requirement, no hotels and no P.O. Boxes. The other issue was that the lens was sent to me very dirty, good thing Photoshop can fix it, but still would be nice if had been cleaned before it was sent.

Fotomoto

I have set up Fotomoto for selling prints on my site; it is a nice service for those photographers who don’t want to deal with ecommerce and shipping headaches. They have a simple script that you embed into the gallery page that automatically identifies your images and adds a purchase button to them. I have received some test prints and have to say that both prints and the shipping packaging was amazing. Unfortunately the Fotomoto script does not currently support flash and API has yet to be officially released. So in order to get it working with my site I had to use a intermediary until they release the API.

Mailbag:SimpleViewer and ecommerce

I have had several messages asking how I integrated SimpleViewer with my ecommerce app. Because of how Fotomoto works I’m not sure how well you will be able to translate it to another ecommerce app/service, but here is the basics. This currently works for SimpleViewer 1.9:

Use this post, Hyperlinking Main Images, to make your image clickable and/or add a purchase button. I then use Flash’s external interface to send data about the current image to Javascript in the page. The javascript opens a page in a modal window with the image in it that the Fotomoto script grabs, does it’s automated ‘magic’ and that’s it.

How can you adapt this to work with your ecommerce app? That depends on what options the app/service have, but every situation is going to be different.

Disclosure: no one paid me to write any of these reviews, though I do work with Airtight Interactive.

Asphalt, empty lots and a train without hurry or schedule

Mike — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:16:30 +0000

July has been full of projects in all shapes and sizes and a few have finally dwindled to a close, so that now I can no longer put off another post. I have long been curious about Centralia, and over the 4th I was in Pennsylvania so we took some time to satisfy my curiosity. Only a few buildings are left. Mostly it consists of empty lots and withering asphalt. The mine still burns, evidenced only by tendrils of smoke, a few residents remain and it has become a drive-through curiosity.

A sad old road.

The structures and the residents are slowly being replaced by wildlife.

Replacement residents

Beyond this there is little left of this town, sad as that may be, I was seeking something to photograph and luckily for me, my father-in-law had just the thing. So the next day we headed in the opposite direction just into New Jersey. Here we explored abandoned railcars relics that skirted the edge of the Delaware.

Railcar

Empty seats

Conrail railcar

Jordan Spreader Gauges

Abstracting a train

You can see more images in of both Centralia and the railcars in my galleries.

HDR: A hate love relationship

Mike — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:36:18 +0000

As a majority of internet users are at this very moment in the process of uploading a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image to Flicker, I will assume that most of you know what they are. For those few who do not know, simply put, they are a mapping of several images of the same subject consisting of variable exposures merged together using a piece of software such as Photomatrix. This process allows your to achieve neutral exposures throughout the image and otherwise improbable/impossible images with tone mapping.

Hate to love, love to hate; I will admit that I find some of the more well-executed shots intriguing, but they tend to tone down the fantastical nature that others pursue. Many of the results are often so extreme as to challenge their grounding in anything resembling reality, though occasionally they can be hauntingly beautiful. The problems with this technique are multidimensional and can be found throughout the entire process. Those how use High Dynamic Range Images tend for the most part fall into two groups: those who use it as a tool to equalize the exposure in the image and those who “creatively” color with tone mapping.

The problem of the first group is that it can elicit a stagnation in skill and creativity. Yes, sometimes in some locations you cannot set up a bank of strobe to balance interior and exterior light or some circumstance may otherwise inhibit the shot. HDR does give you a way around these problems, allowing you to properly expose the entire image. However, if every time you are shooting in these situations HDR becomes the default answer, you limit your technical and creative growth. Depending on HDR also promotes the mentality of “oh I’ll just Photoshop that out later.” If the camera or subject moves or the lighting conditions change during the bracketing sequence, post production can be a bear. In-camera techniques tend to be far superior in quality and force you to use your most important piece of photography equipment, your brain.

Pursuing High Dynamic Range as art is problematic. You have to contend with its stigma as a fad and the fact that much of the process is automated. Using HDR for creative purposes can be fun and produce some very interesting effects. However, I have a hard time classifying it as photography; these stylized images often share more in looks with panting than photography. Most of the HDR images I’ve seen on the web take tone mapping to the extreme. Creating these images is no longer about realism, neutral exposures or a High Dynamic Range – it is about painting with tones. Painting photos with tones is not everything it’s made out to be. At the risk of angering digital painters over the comparison, given the time and skill required to create an image in both mediums I will forgo calling them anything beyond images. No matter how well composed, the knowledge that the software for producing these images – both the in-camera bracketing and digital post production – can be highly automated, does not elicit the concept of art within these images even if they were produced in a more manual method.

Should you pursue High Dynamic Range images? Most things can be good with moderation, if this is what gets you out taking photographs then by all means. Master HDR if that is what interests you, but do not limit yourself in both creativity and technique. I often see galleries where this is the only style of image throughout; often many of the images would stand stronger on their own. Like spandex and leg warmers when sensation moves on you do not want to be left in the teal.

How to: Adding SWFAddress to SimpleViewer

Mike — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:31:19 +0000

SimpleViewer is an flash gallery that has gained some popularity on the net. Like with anything in this world of ours, it has strengths and weaknesses. It’s primary strength is that it allows people who do not know a lot about flash to set up a flash gallery. One of it’s weaknesses is that it does not handle deep linking in flash. Adding deep linking to SimpleViewer allows you to link to an individual image within the gallery instead of just being able to link to the base Flash movie clip. In this article I will show you how to add deep linking to SimpleViewer using SWFAddress.

With the integration of SWFAddress, the browser history will update every time you click a thumbnail, allowing for the use of the browser’s back button. You also get a nice clean URL, and the updating of the URL allows users to link to individual images which wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

I will be focusing on a Multiple galleries example, but you could easily adapt this if you only have one gallery.

Here is an Example of the finished working code or you can check out my galleries.

First and foremost you are going to need SimpleViewer Pro, SWFAddress, SWFObject and Adobe Flash Professional, so if you don’t have them head over to their respective sites and grab a copy of each. Adobe offers a free trial of Flash Professional which you can use for 30 days. This tutorial is based on SimpleViewer Pro 1.9, SWFObject 2.2 and SWFAddress 2.4.

Make a new folder on your desktop – you can call it whatever you would like, I’m going to call mine gallery.

Extract the file you download from the SimpleViwer site, simpleviewer-pro.zip.

Copy all of the files in the Flash Embed example folder into your gallery folder. You will find the Flash Embed example in the SimpleViewer folder you created when you extracted the simpleviewer-pro.zip under simpleviewer-pro\simpleviewer_pro\examples\Flash Embed.
Copy all of the files in simpleviewer-pro\simpleviewer_pro\source folder into your gallery folder.

Unzip swfobject_2_2.zip

Copy swfobject.js from swfobject_2_2\swfobject to the gallery folder.

Unzip swfaddress-2.4.zip

Copy the asual folder found in swfaddress-2.4\dist\as\2\com\ to gallery\com\.

Copy swfaddress.js from swfaddress-2.4\dist\js to the gallery folder.

In the gallery folder right click new>text document. Rename the text file to index.html.

You should now have all of the files you need in the gallery folder:

com folder
gallery1 folder
gallery2 folder
gallery1.xml
gallery2.xml
index.html
multiple_galleries.fla
multiple_galleries.swf
simpleviewer.fla
viewer.swf
swfobject.js
swfaddress.js

In your gallery folder open index.html and copy the following code into index.html:

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Simpleviewer Gallery with SWFAdress</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfaddress.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var flashvars = {};
flashvars.firstImageIndex = "0";
var params = {};
params.play = "true";
params.menu = "false";
params.quality = "best";
params.scale = "noscale";
params.allowfullscreen = "false";
params.allowScriptAccess = "sameDomain";
params.swLiveConnect = "true";
var attributes = {};
attributes.id = "galleryContent";
swfobject.embedSWF("multiple_galleries.swf", "galleryContent", "880", "560", "8.0.0", false, flashvars, params, attributes);
</script>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
object { outline:none; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="galleryContent">
<p>In order to view these galleries you must have <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">Adobe Flash Player</a> installed.
If you know that you have Flash installed, then please ensure JavaScript and/or Active Content are enabled.</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

In your gallery folder, navigate to com\airtightinteractive\apps\viewers\simpleViewer and open Thumb.as with Adobe Flash Professional.

Find (Ctrl + F) public function select() at line 247.

At the end of line 248 hit enter and add:

//This function is for the SWFAdress integration, the main part of which be found in multiple_galleries.fla.
//It passes the imageID to the SWFAdress functions when a thumb is clicked.
_root.updateGalleryUrl(mIndex);

Save (Ctrl + S) and close Thumb.as

In your gallery folder open simpleviewer.fla with Adobe Flash Professional.

Export (Crtl + Alt + Shift + S) simpleviewer.fla – save as viewer.swf into your gallery folder.

In your gallery folder open multiple_galleries.fla with Adobe Flash Professional.

Copy the following and paste into line 2 of the code layer’s Actions – Frame within the multiple_galleries.fla document:

//Import the SimpleViewer classes
import com.airtightinteractive.apps.viewers.simpleViewer.*

//Import the swfaddress classes
import com.asual.swfaddress.*
//the default galleryname should be the same as the name of the xml file minus .xml
// This is the gallery that will be loaded if the gallery name is null
var defaulGallery:String = "gallery1";
var currentGalName:String ="";

Remove what is now line 17, var galleryId:Number;

Change line 23 from loadGallery(1); to:

SWFAddress.setValue('/gallery1/0/');

Change line 27 from loadGallery(2); to:

SWFAddress.setValue('/gallery2/0/');

(If you would prefer to link to your galleries via a HTML hyperlink you can remove the buttons from the stage and use thelink. With this method, I could link to the example gallery2 with thelink.)

Remove lines 34 (function loadGallery(galId)) through 52 (which is the end of the document) and replace them with the following:

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//Mike Rchards - mikerichardsphotography.com
//This code is provided free without guarantee and is "AS IS".
// SWFAddress calls this function when the address changes
// (2 Ways: The Browser's address bar , or SWFAddress.setValue())
function handleChange(event:SWFAddressEvent) {
var path = event.path;
// The array with the address path information.
var arr:Array = path.split("/");
var galName = arr[1];
var imgId = arr[2];

switch(galName) {
case "" :
// If the gallery name is empty set to the default gallery.
galName = defaulGallery;
loadGallery(galName, imgId);
break;
case currentGalName :
if (imgId == null or imgId == "") {imgId ="0";}
_root.firstImageIndex = imgId;
ImageArea.getInstance().showImage(imgId);
ThumbArea.getInstance().selectedThumbIndex = imgId;
break;
default :
//if there is no image id load the first image.
if (imgId == null or imgId == "") {imgId ="0";}
//If the galName is not the currentGalName load the new gallery.
//Prevents swf from being reloaded every time you update
//the address from clicking a thumb
if (currentGalName != galName) {loadGallery(galName, imgId);}
break;
}

//If you have multi word titles you can hard code them
// with a simple if, if else and else statements.
// if (galName == "mytotallycoolimages"){
//galName = "My Totally Cool Images";}
//If you need to hard code wrap the next three lines in the else statement.

// Sets the first letter of the gallery name to be capital.
//You can safely comment these three lines out if you
//don't want this functionality
var firstLetter:String=new String();
firstLetter=galName.substr(0,1);
galName=firstLetter.toUpperCase()+galName.substr(1,t.length);

//Adds just the gallery name. You can safely change the text inside the quotes
SWFAddress.setTitle('Simpleviewer With SWFAdress : ' + galName);

// Example of how to add the gallery name and image ID to the title bar.
//SWFAddress.setTitle('Simpleviewer With SWFAdress : ' + galName +' image ' + imgId);
}
SWFAddress.addEventListener(SWFAddressEvent.CHANGE, handleChange);

// This function loads the gallery
function loadGallery(galName:String, imgId:String){

currentGalName = galName;
_root.xmlDataPath = galName + ".xml"
var theId:Number = parseInt(imgId, 10);
SWFAddress.setValue('/'+galName+'/'+theId+'/');
// use firstImageIndex to goto the correct image.
_root.firstImageIndex = theId;
mLoader_mcl.loadClip("viewer.swf",mcLoader);
}

function updateGalleryUrl(imgIndex:Number){

var path = SWFAddress.getValue();
var arr:Array = path.split("/");
var galName = arr[1];
//We are disregarding arr[2] because we are being
//passed the new image id, imgIndex, and don't need the current one.

currentGalName = galName;
// SWFAddress.setValue updates the address bar and calls handleChange(event:SWFAddressEvent)
SWFAddress.setValue('/'+galName+'/'+imgIndex+'/');
}

Save (Crtl + S) multiple_galleries.fla.

Export (Crtl + Alt + Shift + S) multiple_galleries.fla as multiple_galleries.swf into your gallery folder.

To test you must upload the files to your server.

Make sure to upload all of the following files and folders:

gallery1 folder
gallery2 folder
gallery1.xml
gallery2.xml
index.html
multiple_galleries.swf
viewer.swf
swfobject.js
swfaddress.js

This code is provided without guarantee and is “AS IS”.

My inner e.e. cummings

Mike — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:32:30 +0000

It’s hard to believe it has been several weeks since my last post. My lovely wife, CSS Guru and design wizard, has been rocking the site redesign with a little help from yours truly. We are very close to being finished, a little tweaking here and there, some gallery changes and finishing up the purchasing implementation. I channeled my inner e.e. cummings for my artist statement I hope you like it.

The Strobist Lighting Seminar DVD

Mike — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:50:01 +0000

The Strobist Lighting Seminar DVD is a set of 8 DVDs by David Hobby, released about a year ago in May of 2008. Essentially it consists of one DVD on equipment, 4 DVDs of a taping of his Strobist lighting seminar and 3 DVDs of example shoots. His method of lighting is quick and dirty, done with Speedlight flashes often in nontraditional ways.

Content and Presentation

The first DVD is basically a summery of Lighting 101 for those who have not read it on the Strobist blog. If you are new to lighting equipment or the Strobist blog this DVD will be helpful, as it details equipment and some of the homemade goodies the Strobists use.
In the four seminar DVDs David Hobby presents his style of lighting. He tries to get you to relax about shooting with off-camera lighting. He gives some hints and tricks about how not to be tied to modeling lights, light meters and the Inverse Square Law, with the intention of bringing about a “calm in the storm” for those new to off-camera lighting. This section was shot live, and as such is not as clean as if they had been shooting takes. Again, the content for this part of the DVDs comes from the site, Lighting 102 and David Hobby’s seminar.

The last three DVDs comprise the nine “bonus” shoots, which is the application of the previous five DVDs. In the first couple of shoots he gives you an idea for his technique and some of his tricks. The third shoot with the “kendo practitioner” is 8 minutes long – it seems abrupt, truncated, and feels a bit like padding. Don’t get me wrong; he gets some decently executed photos. He also shows you his method for dealing with subjects wearing glasses and how you can adequately light a large room for a group shot with several Speedlight flashes. The homemade lightbox macro shoot; he gets the shots and we are suppose to get the versatility of the lighting system, but it just seems a bit like filler material. The final shoot, of a mountain biker, has some interesting shots using flash dragging.

If you boil all nine shoots down, it’s the same thing over and over again. Does this show versatility in different environments and applications? Yes. Does he pull off the shots? Yes. Does this reinforce the concepts? In away, however at this point I find myself remembering from the seminar David Hobby saying “you are building a bag of tricks”, but what we are shown is the same few basic tricks in every shoot. The application section would have been stronger with few more trick and a few less shoots.

Production

I’m not sure of amount of involvement David Hobby had in the production process, but the production quality of The Strobist Lighting Seminar DVD is poor. It is understandable that the budget probably was not that of a Hollywood action film, but with an asking price of $139, one would expect more.

This departure from quality is evident in several areas including the limited use of chapters and very static tripod mounted video, but it is most evident in the sound quality. During the four seminar DVDs the attendees are making comments and asking questions that you cannot hear and David Hobby rarely remembers to repeat the questions. This leads to one way conversations, occasionally causing you to have trouble understanding what’s being discussed. During the example shoots David Hobby is wearing a lapel mic which is not suited for windy conditions, and several times he lays on the mic, making it difficult to hear and understand him.

Final Thoughts

It’s always good to get other perspectives and see alternative methods. Most of the content in the DVDs is on the Strobist blog, and if you feel like spending the time reading it’s there for free. If you are looking for a little more organization of the information or if you are one of those who digest information better by seeing and hearing it instead of reading it, this is where these DVDs will do well.

Should you buy them? If you are new to the concepts of lighting start elsewhere and come back later if you are still interested. I say this not because the presupposition is too high, on the contrary David Hobby does a good job making the material accessible to a beginner. You could certainly start here; however, I believe that artists benefit more by first knowing the traditional methods before learning how to break with tradition. This gives you a cannon of techniques that you can test new ideas against to better understand their validity and how and when to use them. Once you have such knowledge, you can better judge for yourself the value of these DVDs.

If on the other hand you have some (intermediate) experience in lighting these DVDs will give you a different perspective on lighting and what can be accomplished with small lights, according to The Strobist Motto: “Less gear – more brain – better light.”

Rating: 2.8 out of 5 stars

The Strobist lighting seminar DVDs – By David Hobby

8 DVD Set released May 2008

US $139.00

EU £102.35

In which I become sociable.

Mike — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:45:12 +0000

For someone in their late twenties and an avid technophile, I tend to have a “get off my lawn!” approach to the social web. That may just be the anti-exhibitionist in me. Twitter, Myspace, Facebook… corporatized reverse-stalking time sinks. Even blogs up until this point have not held a lot of interest for me. Lately though I have had some things on my mind to share, so without much fanfare or further ado welcome to my blog and my first post. In the works I have a post on SimpleViewer and SWFAdress integration, and a couple of reviews of lighting materials.