Planetaki Planet photography

driver for IBM Web Cam 33L4889

2010-03-22T09:24:36+00:00

can you send me IBM pc camera 33L4889 Drivers
Category: WebCam

The Most Powerful Light In Your Bag

2010-03-22T06:08:27+00:00

Last year I photographed Michael Stebbins for Rep Stage, which is how I got to know him for the Glass Menagerie photos.

The Smith Theater, where I shot him, is big and dark. In fact, I had shot someone else there about twenty years earlier for a magazine assignment -- and the Smith Theater had kicked my butt.

I brought every light I had (many, many watt-seconds worth) but I still did not have what I really needed -- the understanding required to work in a big, dark setting.

I even had with me the exact of piece of gear I needed. It was just that I just didn't know how to use it.
__________

Time is Your Most Powerful Light

My mistake at the time was trying to light that big cavern with flash. The best I could do was to light a section of seats and have the rest of the cave drift into darkness. And this was with several big White Lightning flashes.

There's a perfectly good explanation, too -- I was young and stupid. What I should have done was to use a longer ambient exposure to let the theater to light itself, and add just a little bit of light to my subject.

A Lighting Photographer's Best Friend

All you need to tame a big, dark space (before you add light) is a tripod. But if you are not going to buy a decent tripod, don't even bother.

The one you are looking at on the left is my sidekick for the last 25 years -- a Gitzo Reporter Performance tripod with a Slik Pro Ball head. There are a lot of places where you can cut corners in lighting gear, but your tripod should not be one of them. And frankly, most people do cut corners on their first tripod.

This Gitzo was my third or fourth tripod, if memory serves. And back then, it was pretty much the only brand to buy if you were serious about it. I resisted and bought a few crappy tripods, because the Gitzos were very expensive at the time. And they came in two choices -- heavy steel and heavy steel.

But times have changed, and now tripods are made out of things like carbon fiber and manganese alloy. Which means lighter weight, but still very strong. And there are other companies making good tripods, too. Which is a good thing, because Gitzo tripods have gotten just silly expensive.

So why should you fork out for a good tripod, and how do you choose?

As to the first question, I tripod is not worth a hill of beans if it won't hold your camera rock steady. Seriously, what's the point? If you cannot leave your shutter open for 30 seconds and get a sharp frame, the tripod is not doing the one job it was designed to do.

And being able to keep that camera still means you can light people in big, dark spaces.

Take the photo of Stebbins, above. Rather than trying to nuke the place with more power (like I did as a pimply-faced newb) I now understand that you let the theater ambient come to you. Then you finesse your subject with small amounts of flash.

In fact, this is one of those times when a Profoto or AlienBee might not even be able to dial down far enough to help you. They might give you a maximum (i.e., widest) working aperture of f/5.6 or f/8, when you'd really rather be able to work at f/4 or f/2.8. Why do you want to work closer to wide open? Because of the corresponding shutter speed.

In my case, I underexposed the theater by about two stops by shooting at 1/20th of a second at f/4. That made the ambient light in the room become the fill. Which let me light Michael with very modest amounts of light from three speedlights.

(Of course, the theater was lit with tungsten light. So I had to shoot on tungsten WB and gel the flashes to bring it together.)

In the end, it's the room that does the heavy lifting. It lights itself -- if you can just keep your camera steady enough long enough for it to happen.

And that's the irony of the Big Dark Room. It scares you as a lighting photographer until you realize that you are only a half-second or so away from that room looking beautiful and subdued. You just have to be able to keep your camera perfectly still while the shutter is open. Then you finesse just the areas you want with a small flash or two.

In that sense, I would feel perfectly comfy heading into a portrait assignment in a big dark room with just one speedlight and an umbrella. As long as I had a good tripod to bring it all together.

Tripod Buying 101

First: Don't buy a crappy, no-name tripod. You'll only have to repeat the process later. Trust me on that one. I learned the hard way.

Second, don't buy too much tripod. Buy enough to support whatever platform you are using. That will allow you to point your money towards good quality rather than just buying a larger piece of crap. If you shoot with a DSLR, buy a tripod that is designed for s DSLR. Don't waste money on the next size up in hope of more stability.

One exception might be if the tripod is going to do double duty (i.e., supporting a telescope, etc.) or if you plan to tether and want to mount your laptop to a dual plate up top. In that case, buying bigger might make sense to get the flexibility.

Carbon fiber or alloy? That's up to you. My recommendation is, unless you are a backpacker, go with alloy. Carbon fiber is nice, but I am looking for the most stability and quality per dollar. That's a personal choice tho, obviously.

As for the head, get one matched to the tripod. No sense in getting great legs and a crappy head, or vice versa. I like ball heads because they are very fast. But if you shoot, say, architecture, you might want to be able to adjust your axes independently.

One thing I would absolutely recommend is to choose a tripod with a stability hook. This allows you to hang your camera bag from the bottom of the tripod's center column for greatly increased stability.

Buy for the long term, and/or consider buying used if you are on a budget. You may only be dating your DSLRs for a few years each, but you'll probably marry the tripod.

And there is no reason your tripod shouldn't last a lifetime.

E:61:10 ERROR MESSAGE ON DSC - T300

2010-03-22T01:54:36+00:00

i have an DSC T300 and appears the error E:61:10. any idea how to fix it? please help meee!
Category: Digital Camera: Sony

How to extend the RS60-E3 remote switch?

2010-03-22T01:54:36+00:00

the 3/32" jack will NOT fit the female port on a Digital rebel XS.
Category: Hacks

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 Won't Release Shutter with Canon EF Lens

2010-03-21T22:23:02+00:00

Hello! Could you, please, help? I need an explanation. My Panasonic GH1 camera doesn't want to shoot a thing with Canon EOS lens (mounted with special adapter). . . .
Category: Lens: Adapter

Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG MACRO HSM Won't Auto-Focus

2010-03-21T22:23:03+00:00

I'm assuming that you have already played with the AF on/off toggle switch on the lens itself, right? Also, do you have two camera bodies? Have you tried this l . . .
Category: Lens: Sigma

Aqua Shot 26480 Driver

2010-03-21T22:23:03+00:00

i buy the 26480 (aqua) and .. first time i dont have the cable usb connection. second time i lost all the pictures and i dont know why. your stuff is really . . .
Category: Digital Camera: Sakar

Sigma SD15 - An Eminent Digital Camera

2010-03-21T08:45:50+00:00

The Sigma Corporation has unveiled a new Sigma SD15 Digital SLR camera this February. This is the latest model camera in the Sigma's SD series. Three digital SL . . .
Category: Digital Camera: Others

E:61:10 error message on DSC-T1

2010-03-20T22:05:17+00:00

I had to whack my T20 about 30 times to fix it. The last 5 times it was off and i hit it hard onto a mouse surface near the lens. Works great so far.
Category: Digital Camera: Sony

Tons of Lens Adapter for Micro Four Thirds

2010-03-20T22:05:17+00:00

Hello! Could you, please, help? I need an explanation. My Panasonic GH1 camera doesn't want to shoot a thing with Canon EOS lens (mounted with special adapter). . . .
Category: Lens: Adapter

NX5U HDMI output in 10b 4:2:2?

2010-03-20T22:05:17+00:00

I was reading an blog post on the HD-SDI port, and someone in the comments said it was no big deal because the HDMI port was capable of sending the 10b 4:2:2 si . . .
Category: Video Camera: Sony

dsc-w50 acess/turn off on again

2010-03-20T18:45:28+00:00

I tapped it and it didn't work. However, I then just pushed in on the lens with my finger and heard it click back a little further. It seems it wasn't telesco . . .
Category: Digital Camera: Sony

Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 -- The Upstanding Digital Camera

2010-03-20T18:45:28+00:00

The Olympus Stylus Tough-8010 is the latest "Tough" series digital camera released by Olympus. The shockproof, waterproof, crushproof, and freeze-proof body of . . .
Category: Digital Camera: Olympus

Samsung TL500 -- The Solid Digital Camera

2010-03-20T15:20:54+00:00

Samsung is a multinational conglomerate and the world's largest electronics company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Samsung manufacture more than 60 produc . . .
Category: Digital Camera: Samsung

4GB card won't read, how can my photos be saved?

2010-03-20T22:05:17+00:00

Hi, your problem is orcan solved with an special usb HC reader, the readers today cant read the higher memory cards and they came out with a HC (high capcitiy) . . .
Category: Digital Camera: Sony

Sony HDR-HC3 Tape Door Won't Close with C:32:11 Error Code

2010-03-20T12:06:47+00:00

DCR-HC27 code C:32:11..... 1.5V tip + the reset worked for me to get door to closed and everything seems fine for the moment. Fingers crossed I dont have to do . . .
Category: Video Camera: Sony

Sony DCR-HC38 Driver

2010-03-20T05:56:05+00:00

pLEASE SEND ME DCR HC38 DRIVER
Category: Video Camera: Sony

Error Code C:31:23?

2010-03-20T01:42:36+00:00

What can I say, works in England too. Not used the camera for a long time, few hard smacks and there she goes!! Debbie is a genius!!
Category: Video Camera: Sony

Shopping at the Souk

2010-03-19T22:16:25+00:00

Photos from Fil.ippo, André Pipa, **Anik Messier** really busy!, and atsjebosma.

Connecting Sony Handycam to Windows Vista Via USB

2010-03-19T18:24:39+00:00

Thanks for the help. After I restarted my computer, vista did not find the new hardware. Is there a way I can manually open it? What is it called? Thanks
Category: Video Camera: Sony

Exhibition in Istanbul

2010-03-18T23:45:49+00:00

Members of the Turkish Flickr group dostr recently put on a gallery exhibit in Istanbul. The exibition was called “Ruya” which translates as “Dream” in English. In this article you can see photos of the event and read more about it. (Even if you don’t speak Turkish the article is worth it to just check out the pretty pictures of the exhibit.)

Above are a few photos from the exhibition and of the exhibition. To see more from this group of photographers, check out the dostr Group Pool.

Photos from Hodolomax™, Tûba, Emre [ 2006 - 2010 ], g a m z e, and ışık tanesi.

How to Determine Nexxtech WebCam Model?

2010-03-18T23:45:47+00:00

So there is no label or text on the web cam??? Maybe you can search for a photo of it on http://images.google.com/ , which could help you determine its model.
Category: WebCam

Install PlayStation 2 EyeToy on Windows Vista?

2010-03-18T19:49:32+00:00

Camera Model #SCEH-0004 Silever tried installing it on vista and it didnt work :S ive tried this exact same installion on xp sp3 and it worked :S im confussed p . . .
Category: WebCam

Olympus FE-310

2010-03-18T19:49:32+00:00

I got a refurbished FE-310 and when I try to connect it to the computer, only One moment message appearing on the screen of the computer, and I don't see the ca . . .
Category: Digital Camera: Olympus

Light Fare: The "Jarvie Window"

2010-03-18T19:49:31+00:00

Here's a new use for your ring flash.

Salt Lake City-based photographer Scott Jarvie made a unique set of portraits using a Ray Flash ring flash adapter and an 8mm fisheye lens.

Gimmicky? Perhaps. Fun and creative? Yup.

Cue the flood of imitators on Flickr in 3, 2, 1…

(Thanks much to Ben for the tip via the comments section.)

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