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Follow Up Review Of The Hasselblad H3D-11 31

Hasselblad H3D H4D Images By Ken Kneringer

Taylor Q

So after 2 years shooting the Hasselblad H3D-II 31…. The camera had some horrific focus problems that kept me from shooting it for almost a year. I would shoot it, but always back it up with my Nikon D3, didn’t trust that I would get a single image in focus unless I focused manually.

Hasselblad had the camera back several times to fix the problems, and looks like the 3rd time was the charm. Camera now works as it should!

In my first article I said that the image quality was number one, and it still is even after some very impressive releases from both Nikon and Canon in the 35mm format. This camera still has a look and feel to the images that is unique to Hasselblad and the skin tones are amazing right out of the camera. My Nikons have great image quality, but we constantly fight the magenta/red in the skin tones. The images seem to have more dynamic range than the 35mm’s but I see it mostly in the shadows, with the highlights blowing out faster than my Nikon under the same lighting conditions.

The images almost always need a tad bit of color noise reduction as well as moire adjustments on certain fabrics and hair. Again, if I am shooting fabrics, I want to shoot tethered to check image quality. If I start to see a lot of moire, it is sometimes easier to switch to the D3X instead of fighting it in post.

Updates to the included Phocus software has made image processing easier and faster, my first article showed my total disdain for Phocus. The improvements make it much better, but still not close to Capture One from Phase One. I will also comment that when shooting tethered, which we do for our commercial and dance photography, the Phocus software crashes on my iMac forcing us to reboot. Nothing is lost, just a PIA, for us, clients, etc, as we put the shoot on hold while my assistant get the software up and the camera back online.

All in all a great machine, but probably not at home shooting fast moving portrait or seniors as many do today. The camera still has that old “film” medium format feel to it, slower, more purposeful, better suited to a planned shoot that demands the highest image quality and enlargement.

The photo in this post is pretty much SOC, except for very minor blemish removal.

Read my original review of the Hasselblad H3D Medium Format Digital Camera

Download The Demo File (it’s HUGE!)

Fashion Shoot With Toni Marie For Seniors Ignite

Toni Marie

I had the pleasure of working with Model Winner Toni Marie while shooting this video for Seniors Ignite. Toni is everything a model should be. Be sure to check out Seniors Ignite, a great resource if you are a senior photographer looking to improve your bottom line!

The image with Toni Marie kind of laid back on the chair was interesting. I remember as I was shooting this image that in the back of my head I was thinking that I wasn’t going to like it very much because the lighting wasn’t exactly the way I wanted it. There was a lot of downlight from the skylights a ton of light coming in from behind her in a window that was going to end up in the image itself. There was light reflected in, but not as much as I would have liked and not from the direction I wanted. I could have reached for a flash, but I wanted to keep it as much natural light as I could because the primary use was going to be video.

Anyway to make a long story short – this image ended up being one of my favorites from the shoot. A little burning in post, a color overlay, and Toni Marie came together to make this image amazing.

SEE THE VIDEO

Photoshop Brushes – Airbrush Mode

Senior Model Pictures - Indianapolis Indiana

Madison

Many don’t understand what the airbrush setting does for a brush in photoshop.

Take a black brush on a plain white background, Use your mouse (not your pen) click on the image and hold the mouse button down. A spot will appear on the background as you would expect.

Turn on the airbrush mode, do the same click and hold and you will see your spot on the background spread as if you were holding the button down on a spray can of paint.

If you are doing retouch work, especially detailed work, make sure you don’t have your airbrush turned on, as it will be very difficult to “hold a line” with out the brush “bleeding” into other areas!

Workshop-Senior Pictures

Alyssa C and Marisa S

Once a year I like to host a workshop for other photographers from places all around Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio to come and learn about various aspects of senior pictures.

The most recent senior picture workshop I hosted was at my studio and focused on lighting and posing for images. I called on two of my amazing models, Alyssa C and Marisa S to come help me out, which they graciously consented!

For posing, we went out in front of my vintage Land Rover, just walking on the sidewalk and, of course, actually in the studio. I was able to talk through each pose and both my models and the aspiring fantastic senior portrait photographers learned something.

The very different and movable locations allowed me to teach different lighting as well – indoor and outdoor. The outdoor lighting turned out amazing. We were able to capture the now popular sun shining through images and soft images. The indoor lighting was easy to teach as well was the posing. The photographers picked up on the material quickly and I hope/think they had a fun time shooting as well.

After the camera stuff was taken care of, I walked the senior portrait workshop photographers through what we did here for sales and retouch. Otherwise known as “the boring side of photography.” However, the work comes with both.

Overall, it was a very educational experience in which everyone learned a little something. Myself, along with the other photographers were also able to capture a lot of great images, too. Below is a preview.

NAS Raid Storage

So all of the behind the scenes stuff isn’t always about shooting. This week the plethora of files that we produce finally came to a head. We had exhausted all of the space on our Dell servers and it was time to upgrade our storage.

I did quite a bit of research and finally ended up choosing to go with a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. I was very nervous because we had purchased these devices in the past and they just didn’t work. They were simply too slow for a professional photographer.

Much to my surprise the new NAS devices perform exceptionally well. We purchased a Netgear 4 Bay Pro Plus and we are loving it so far. We installed 4 – 2 TB drives in the enclosure and about 20 minutes of simple setup and it was ready to roll.

The next step was to sort through files from 2004 forward, and move them on to the new NAS RAID server, about 600,000 files total! Three days of 10AM to 4AM work days and BooYa! we were done.

Total expense – about $1000 for the NAS and drives, a back up power supply for $39, and three days of labor for 3 employees.

Our client files are now protected by a RAID system that allows us to hot swap drives for 0 downtime. The RAID NAS device is backed up once per month and the drive is stored offsite for triple protection of all our valuable client files and data.

Nikon D4 Review

Nikon D4 Camera

After saying time, after time, after time I wasn’t going to purchase the new Nikon D4, I picked one up a couple of days ago. Here are my first impressions after shooting stills and video over a few sessions.

First the bad.

One of my favorite functions on my D3 was the ability to lock both the aperture and shutter wheels. Nikon made this very simple by pushing a button on the top left of the camera and turning the wheel until a lock indicator showed up in the LCD display next to the aperture or the shutter speed. The Nikon D4 still has the ability to lock the wheels but the function has now been moved into the menu. I firmly believe that if changes like this are made from one camera to the next, the ability to assign the button in firmware should be provided. I know this is a little thing, but when you use it as much as I do, it becomes a pain in the butt.

The next problem is also a little thing, but the screen size changed 2 microns – just enough that all of my screen protectors from the D3 no longer work on the Nikon D4. While on the subject of the screen, resolution and display is amazing, but the color not so much. The images displayed on the screen are just flat out green and the contrast isn’t as good as the D3. How did we go backwards in screen quality? The D3 had one of the best displays I have ever worked with – what happened on the Nikon D4?

One other negative in my opinion is the new card slot from Sony. I just don’t get it. There are some speed differences, but to the end user, I don’t see any huge differences at this point – Canon has been recording 1080 video to CF cards with no issues for the last few years.

I guess while we are talking about bad, the price tag certainly has to be mentioned. With the new Nikon D4 a full thousand dollars more than expected. The added thousand dollars has many asking if it’s worth it. Especially with the D800′s price point, functionality, and imager.

Now the good.

Let talk video first – Nikon hit a home run with the video on the D4. It has all the bells, whistles and resolutions expected on a flagship DSLR, the magic is how they did it. All of the controls are exactly where they need to be for both video and stills. Not an easy task with the ever increasing number of controls needed on a modern DSLR with video. ISO, white balance, shutter, aperture and focus can all be changed “on the fly” while recording. The video at 1600 ISO looks like 200 from the D7000, and the color is amazing. The autofocus works very well while recording on lenses 70mm and shorter, I had quite a bit of trouble trying to autofocus my 70-200mm Nikkor. It took a very long time to respond and most of the time wouldn’t find what it was looking for. Luckily most people aren’t using long lenses for video.

Stills are what I expect from Nikon. They are a tad bit on the magenta side and skin tones from the JPG files are not quite as good as the Canons. The JPG’s are better than the D3, and using Capture One for raw files, the Nikon D4 files are almost exactly the same as the D3. Incidentally, in my opinion the D3 files from Capture One are simply the best DSLR files available today.

Shooting the Nikon D4 is very much the same as the D3 except for a noticeable change in the sound of the shutter. There is something totally different inside the camera, probably due to the live view and video. The Nikon D4 made some much needed changes to the controls layout. The D3 had issues with the AF and shutter release buttons on the vertical grip, and the AF button on the horizontal grip. The D2X had a small “shield” that protected the AF button from accidental presses with the thumb, Nikon removed this on the D3 causing all kinds of focus issues until the user figured out what was happening. The AF and vertical shutter buttons were simply in the wrong place on the D3 – problem solved for the Nikon D4. The Nikon D4 has the most useable vertical arrangement on any camera that they have ever produced. Vertical feels almost as good as shooting the camera “normal”. I am glad they got it right, but something tells me the D4 will spend a great deal of its life shooting horizontally for video.

Another thing that bears mention is the autofocus. The change from the D2X to the D3 was a painful one for me. The D3 focuses quite differently than the D2X and it was a painful learning curve for me to get the D3 down. The D4 is AMAZING. Autofocus is BLAZING fast and extremely accurate for stills. On top of that it will pretty much focus in the dark, all I can say is wow.

Will add a couple of images and a video soon!

Senior Pictures And Photography Schools By Ken Kneringer

senior pictures indiana by studio k and ken kneringer

Emily 2012

While there are many photography schools available along with programs presented by the photography organizations, it is always better to get one on one training to better your photographic skills. Studying with seasoned professionals at a photography workshop is usually the best way to become a better photographer in the shortest amount of time possible. I learned early on that while more expensive, studying with the best photographers in the country made me a better image maker, better at business, and set my photography career on the fast track to success. I learned that a photography workshop was the best money that I could invest.

There is a trend in the country today to get training, especially for photography, from online forums and blogs instead of photography schools and workshops. I can’t say this for ALL of these online resources, but for MOST of them, you get exactly what you pay for.

Wading through thousands of opinions from everyone takes time and the quality of the information is usually poor at best. Many of the members and owners of these forums and the writers of the blogs haven’t any credentials, many aren’t really professionals, and many have failing businesses. Not a place to get the training needed to make it in today’s very competitive photographic market. You need top notch training, because today, you must differentiate yourself from the competition to succeed.

While there are still several quality photography schools available, you still don’t get the one on one training that will accelerate your learning curve. A photography workshop is still the number one source to learn the craft of photography.

Ken Kneringer is a PPA Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, And PPA Certified Professional Photographer. Ken has a successful store front business that photographs over 100 high end seniors, several dance studios, and has photographed agency models, pageant winners, spa model winners, and playboy playmate of the year – Julie Cialini. His averages for senior pictures are well above the national norm, and he also gets above normal averages for most of his other work as well. Ken has been an instructor at the prestigious Winona photography schools, a fashion shooter for the Senior Portrait Artists for four consecutive years, an instructor at the After Dark photography schools, and a speaker at several local and national PPA sanctioned photographic organizations. While Ken is known nationally for his senior pictures, he also does other types of photography as well.

If you are looking for the best money to spend for photography schools or lighting workshops, Ken’s photography workshop is the best money you will ever spend especially if your business is senior pictures! Take your photography to the next level, get your average sales for senior pictures up to where they need to be to make a good living, and get your clients to love you for what you do instead of what you charge.

Ken teaches studio lighting, digital photography, outdoor photography, photoshop, and studio flash at his photo workshops and photography schools.

Learn to use studio lighting kits by Profoto and Photogenic, as well as studio lighting modifiers from Larson, Westcott, Elinchrom, and Mola to make amazing fashion inspired senior pictures. Learn posing, interacting with models, getting expressions from clients, shooting to sell, and making amazing images that sell every time.

Watch the website/blog for current workshops, prices vary depending on the number of days, and the subjects covered.

OCF-Off Camera Flash-With The Elinchrom Ranger Quadra

Senior Pictures Indiana By Studio K Photography And Ken Kneringer

Sydney

The Elinchrom Ranger Quadra has become our go-to setup for outdoor lighting. We still have the 11oo watt-second Ranger and still use it for the times that we need to over-power the sun, but the Quadra is now our workhorse. The Quadra is light, fast and has just enough power to match the sun when used with our 39″ Elinchrom softbox.

There is a lot of recent hula-bulu about OCF ( off camera flash ). We have been using it for years, but not in the same fashion as the “new definition”. The new definition seems to be all about getting the sky to go blue and not paying full attention to the light on the subject. Many times the light is harsh, contrasty and the color is way out in left field.

We use natural light where we can, but most of the time we augment the natural light with flash. Yes, you can add flash and still make it look very natural! Part of making sure that the flash looks natural is to make sure that you know your color temperatures. The Elinchrom Quadra and our Elinchrom Softbox puts out light at around 4850 degrees Kelvin. Shoot that into shade at around 7000 degrees Kelvin and you have a mess. Make sure that you gel the Elinchrom to match the color temperature of the ambient light, once that is done the light blends beautifully into the ambient and looks absolutely natural!

Keeping the light in some kind of modifier will soften the light for portraits and give your finished images a more polished look. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for harsh, contrasty light. I just don’t think it needs to be applied universally to every image. I still believe that you CHOOSE the light that is proper for the subject and the look of the final image. We choose soft boxes in the studio for most of our portrait clients, why wouldn’t we want to do the same outdoors?

Using I-Opener To Speed Up Your Workflow

I-Opener from Imagefire is one of the most amazing workflow tools available for photographers. We use it for several things – batch sizing images, running our “One Minute Pretouch Actions”, but most importantly, making ALL of our finished images in a single batch. In the time it takes for you to open a couple of photoshop files and “save as JPG”, I-Opener will have processed an entire order (typically around 20 images or so). Think that’s cool? – that isn’t even scratching the surface!

We have I-Opener set up to……. Open each finished photoshop file in a directory, create a new folder named printer images, flatten to a JPG, rename and save in that folder at full size, create a new folder named lab images, flatten to a JPG, change the colorspace from Adobe to sRGB, rename and save in that folder at full size – create a new folder named Facebook images, flatten to a JPG, rename, change the colorspace from adobe to sRGB, put my logo on the image and save in that folder at “longest side 500px” – create a new folder named animoto images, flatten to a JPG, change the colorspace from adobe to sRGB, rename and save in that folder at the optimum size for animoto – create a new folder named wallets, add my logo and a text area for the seniors name, rename and save in that folder as a layered psd file, 2-1/2×3-1/2 – all of that in about 2 minutes for 20 -24 images. The only think we need to do from there to finish the order is to open any of the wallets that need to be personalized and add the seniors name in the text area, another minute or two.

It isn’t hard to imagine the time savings – 24 images x 5 minutes of time saved x 200 clients – that is a WHOPPING 400 HOURS OF TIME SAVED!!!!!!!! Multiply that by a rate of $16/hour = $6400 saved per year, 5 years that is a new car!

So… a program that can do all of that must be expensive right? How about $59 last time I checked! What is the down side? It takes a little bit to set up, but we have presets available that will make the task a lot easier.

Ken Kneringers Photoshop Actions

After what seems to be a lifetime behind the computer, the latest version of my photoshop actions are now available. All the testing has been done for CS3, CS4 and CS5. If you have purchased the photoshop actions from me in the past, the upgrade is FREE!! What is new? All of the photoshop actions are updated to use less “copied layers” and use primarily adjustment layers for everything. We added new brush presets, a new action called “Shade Kicker” that is super cool and changed the way the “Kick It A Little” works to provide less color shift with a nice contrast increase. We also updated all of the included how-to videos and retouch videos.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with my action set, it is designed to give you great color and contrast in your images, speed up your workflow and help you produce better images faster. It isn’t a bunch of color shifting stuff or black and white conversions, just great workflow and amazing color. It is the same photoshop actions that we use every day in our workflow.

We have other educational and workflow products available including retouch videos, pretouch actions, presets for I-Opener, Capture one videos, and more to come for 2012.

If you want to order the products, textures, photoshop actions, or if you purchased the actions from me previously and just want an update, call 317-882-9500, give us your info and we will get them out to you ASAP!

Hasselblad H3D-II 31 Review

Hassy H3DII-31

I have to start with the reasons I purchased the camera. First was the flash sync speed of 1/800th. We use our elinchrom flash a lot outdoors and the added sync speed comes in handy. Second, and more important, is image quality. We have always put image quality first – it is how we built our business. The image quality of the Hasselblad H3D-II is unreal. Skin tones are amazing (although they do have that “peachy Kodak sensor” look), image detail is sick, and the finished images have a certain “feel” that is not obtainable with 35mm equipment. Don’t get me wrong, we LOVE our Nikon D3/D3x, we use them for 80% of all that we do, but when detail is king - the Hassleblad wins hands down.

What I like – the camera has a nice feel to it, is very intuitive and is a joy to shoot. Image quality is amazing. The lenses for the camera are also incredible. The 100mm f2.2 is razor sharp when it needs to be for fashion/commercial and can be softened down by opening up to produce beautiful portraits.

What I don’t like - the LCD viewing screen is a HUGE disappointment. The color on the screen is truly hideous, you can’t judge anything from it including exposure. If it weren’t for the menu system, the camera would be better off without the screen, it just ticks you off that a camera this expensive has a screen that can’t live up to an $800 Nikon.

The included Phocus software is also a huge disappointment. Things that are extremely fast and easy in Capture One, are slow and painful in Phocus. The software reminds me of what comes as standard with most cameras, image quality is there, but the workflow is too slow for everyday use. Products like C1 and Lightroom are designed for workflow, not just to process raw files. I am quite sure that after working with it, I will become faster with it, but it will not measure up to C1.

The batteries are just simply too small for the camera. Keep a good supply of these puppies on hand if you are shooting all day. The camera is set up to save as much power as possible – to the point of being totally annoying. I had to adjust the power saving features to make the camera more useable, but pay the price in battery life. If you are going to shoot all day with this, make sure you have 4 or 5 batteries laying around. Probably not out of line for a big power hungry machine, but I guess I am spoiled by my Nikon gear where one battery will let me shoot for 3 days.

See the updated review of the Hasselblad H3D-II after using it for several years