Updating the lazy leg lightstand has been on my to do almost since posting the original tutorial. Although easy, effective, and cheap, the hitch pins never seemed like the best solution to the modification.
Several visits to hardware stores, confused sales staff ‘you want to do what with that tripod?’ and a little bit of luck ‘check out a plumbing supply store’ and I’ve got a new better, sexier, (as sexy as lightstands and hardware can be) quicker, solution to the lazy leg modification.

Everything has changed: the only similar part in this modification is when you drill out the rivet which connects the supporting arms to the lightstand’s leg.
Nothing has changed: The lightstand modification solves the same problem with a very similar solution. The only thing different is we toss out the hitch pin and add a sliding collar, known as a ‘Split Ring Hanger’ which can be found at your local plumbing supply store.

The original blog post and video can be found here

Whats on your bucket list?
No, not the olympic medalist, sky diving, everest climbing list. I’m talking about your ‘Big Goals in Photography’ list. You are on your death bed, what photography related objectives must have achieved by this time to die without regrets?

Having a photo bucket is more than ego strokes and bar stories.
The list keeps you on a focussed path towards milestones in your personal, artistic and business goals. Without an idea of where you want to go, how do you know if you are getting there?
As artists we don’t often have the milestones set up for us with massive group celebrating, we don’t have a university commencement ceremony and wear funny hats, we don’t have ribbon cutting on a new development. Having a list helps recognize your achievements on our paths in life.
Success; what do we define it by? A bucket list is a great way to track successes. If you mark success at a specific point, will you have the same drive to continue working? If success is single destination, you are finished once you arrive there. With a list you continually track your progress, growth and achievements, without coming to a definitive end to your learning.

‘Get a picture of me/taken by me, into a magazine’
I made this goal before I was really interested in photography, however its now one of the lines on my photography bucket list. On July 21st 2010, I crossed it off. The image is in Bike Magazine’s 2010 Photo Annual. Although I partially completed this goal earlier (photo taken by me) it wasn’t fully completed until today.

A sample of my list;
-Photoshoot from a Heli
-Photo of me or taken by me, in a magazine. July 21 2010
-Cover
-National Geographic (pretty sure that one is on every photographer’s list)
-A whole bunch of specific photographs (but those are secret till i get those shots)

I hope you start your own list if you haven’t already. And share with others when you’ve crossed one off. Share with your friends, -photographers or not- and celebrate the milestones, and successes. To share with this photo community, share on this blog, or, I’ve created A Flickr Group which you can join, and when you scratch one off your list share the moment with us!

The images made by ‘Generation S’ (Generation Strobist) show one of the biggest movements in technique and style of shooting pictures there has ever been in photography. The transition, lead by fearless leader Dave hobby has taught so many the importance, technique behind, and tools needed for manipulating light captured.
Here are the Top Five generation ‘S’ errors and oversights

1; Lighting faces from low angles
Every day we see people lit from above, the lights in your room are on the roof, the sun and bright sky are above you. We almost always see people with light from above, yet all too many generation S photographers light from low angles. Light stands get heavier and more expensive the higher they stand, they’re more vulnerable to falling and destroying your gear, but photographers should be after great images, not excuses.

2; Over-lit and Over-powered
Over-lit: How much lighting is really needed to make a great picture? Of course it depends on the concept, location and other variables, but have you considered the natural light, or what about just slightly modifying the light that’s already around? Try one reflector/mirror, a window, the light reflecting off a building downtown, or just one strobe? You can do a lot with a little if you see the light as you camera does, and how you can use it. Simplicity is Sexy
Over-powered: When that rim light is at zone 15 you might be able to tone it down a bit. When you’ve send your subject into convulsions you might have enough strobes pointed at them. I’m sure we all threw too many joules of energy at our subjects the first time we played with some off camera flash, but all the power isn’t necessary all the time.

3; Ignoring the best natural light.
Screw Mother Nature’s best efforts, we can make our own light and it’ll be better than her’s. Right? Well, not really, especially if you’re shooting on location; we can’t quite over-clock your sb800+CTO gel to light up that mountain range/cityscape/baseball field. Why force lighting on location when the ambient light sucks?

4; Technical first, concept second.
Photography is light, but images are concepts. You as a photographer are; concepts, skill, and vision. Lighting is what facilitates ideas; one of the bridges between a concept and presentation. When you shoot an image you use; lens choice, lighting (distance, spread, colour, quality), angle, composition, aperture/shutter/ISO, and every other technical skill you’ve learned to show people what you want them to see.
Use light as a mastered skill to convey your concepts; don’t rely on it as a subject or destination.

5; If I had… If I had…
We all want more gear, more assistants, a bigger studio, and more creative time. Make those things goals and find paths to work towards them. Sitting around using the excuses ‘If I had…. If I had…’ doesn’t make your pictures better, and the excuses don’t inspire great work.

Add Yours
Got beef with a trend? Add your opinion for Generation S failures

6; Having Strobes In Your Photos;
“A completely obnoxious trend. We get it, you have multiple flashes, no one is impressed. Hide them, re-compose, change your set-up but its not cool to leave them in your shot. There, its off my chest, a solid number 6!” -Baxter Redfern (Click here for his site)

**Note I made this list as a personal reaction to work I’ve seen by photographers who exhibit styles and techniques influenced by Dave Hobby’s blog. I don’t attribute these to any type of shortcoming or error on his behalf. In the nature of blogs being updated and adapting to trends and new ideas, I anticipate Dave has/will/would have recognized these trends, and comment on them.

Lighting vignettes interact with the textures of the object, and cast shadows showing how objects line up. The inverse square law of light can also help photographers show depth. Lighting vignettes are only similar to ‘regular’ vignettes in the way they make the perimeter of a photo darker. However using light goes far beyond the benefits of a post production (PP) vignette.

PP vignettes affect the image based on pixels already captured, not on the space you are photographing. PP vignettes generally bring down the brightness value of all the information around the perimeter of the photo. Depending on your methods you can add contrast and texture to the vignette, but it’s still only applying to the existing pixels.
In the same way that you can’t recreate beautiful/realistic split lighting in PP from a sunny day portrait taken at noon, you can’t recreate a lighting vignette.

Shooting with the band For the Weekend we crashed the Fall City Fall house, so we could utilize their photogenic wall space. -This was before FCF got evicted for playing loud music and being general dirt bags.

Lighting;
Key Light; shoot through umbrella a bit above the camera, to the right.
Hair Light; bare strobe top left, behind the subject, with a CTO gel. Cramped space made setting it up interesting; the strobe couldn’t drop to a low enough power, and was nuking the side of Colton’s head. Without a different strobe or neutral density in my bag I thought I was SOL. Wait… polarizers cut light, right? Perfect! I cut two stops of light from a strobe using a screw mount lens polarizing filter.
Light for Vignette; the subject is very close to the shoot thru umbrella, so before adding the 3rd light the background was quite dark –Think inverse square law-. I sat a strobe on the exposed furring strips in the ceiling (no drywall here) and zoomed it in. The zoomed in light creates a small pool of light on the wall; a vignette which interacts with, and enhances the texture of the painted brick.

To make a light vignette, use a strobe to illuminate only part of the visible area. The lit area should frame the subject, with light falling off towards edges of the image. Use either light fall off and the inverse square law, or the edge of the area a strobe is illuminating to make the light drop of closer to the edge of the frame.
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Lighting vignettes aren’t limited to portraiture, what about mountain biking with a lighting vignette? Lighting a location with depth, even more texture, and landscape makes light vignettes even more interesting and beautiful.

Key Light; cam left, high off the ground, zoomed in, bare head. The light isn’t hitting the entire frame equally; the bottom corners of the frame are outside of the strobe’s range because it’s so far zoomed in. These darker parts frame the bottom of the image, the black trees in the background make the upper portion of the light vignette.
Fill Light; cam right, bare head. Kept at a low height to avoid conflicting shadows on the ground, and keep out light vignette looking great.