Nikon Shotguns the Web With Goodness
Hey, you. If you are a Nikon shooter and use CLS, you definitely want to head over to Nikon's site for three new free lighting vids. Heck, even if you aren't a Nikon type, it's worth the watch for the McNally lighting theory tidbits.
There are three vids so far: here, here and here.
Big props to Nikon USA for moving into high-quality, free instructional video on the web to make their customers better shooters. Every company oughtta be doing this. Really.
Not leaving well enough alone, you can also get Nikon World for free on your iPhone/iPod Touch. And if you are on Twitter, you can follow Nikon there, too.
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As for the Canon equivalents, lessee…
Oh yeah: Fake Chuck Westfall is busy on Twitter. Mind those virgin ears, tho (or cubicle passers-by) -- as Chucky frequently uncorks the odd NSFW rant.(Seriously, if Canon or any of the other major camera manufacturers is doing good quality lighting videos, sound off w/URLs in the comments.)
-30-
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Posted at 12:00 AM.
46 Comments:
Canon Lighting Videos?
* Crickets, crickets, crickets.
i thought thats what the Strobist DVD was for lol
Please don't feed Chuck's ego. It can't take much more.
Canon Cannons the Web with....
Fodder?
Great Videos as always from Joe McNally but it really, really, REALLY sucks the iPhone app is only available to customers in the USA.
Why are Nikon and Apple are more than happy to take my money as a non US resident yet deem me as not worthy enough to enjoy freebies such as this iPhone app?
Hei, actualy Canon E-TTL and Nikon CLS systems work quite the same.
I could do everything McNally is talking about in "Hot shoe diaries".
And just about the same way. Only need to know what every Nikon word means in Canon language and its just fine ;)
So every time someone puts out a CLS video - u knwo it works on Canon too.
*Sigh* He is more like a sales man to me now.
Amazing video's showing us how joe really thinks throughout a whole shoot.
Oh here we go ....Fan that Fire!
Canon has some great VHS Video on the 430EX and they are in black and white
McNally reminds me of a moustache-less Ned Flanders from The Simpsons.
Has anyone else said that before?
Have you ever tried directing penguins?
Those 3 video's are nice... really!
I counted 12 video's/tutorial's at the CANON dlc (Digital Learning Center)
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=ArticleFilterAct&categoryID=3&typeID=-1&productID=-1&x=49&y=31
hey David, don't know how to get in touch - but do adorama or bhphoto sell bungee balls? otherwise where can you buy them int he states? thanks Jase
McNally comes in two flavours?
Normal AND serious, didn't know that.
Great post! Love the videos!
Just when I spend 3 months calming down after someone reminds me of the Canon wireless flash system, someone does it again ... there goes my festive mood. I am a Canon user and I just do not know what they are waiting for. Anyway they have released this ... http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/masterclass/canon_flash.do which is nowhere what Joe McNally does for Nikon.
Check out Joe's hair. Not sure I've ever watched a video where his hair wasn't out of place. He looks all professional in this one.
Hey, they already have Joe and he is the best! Who could Canon get? LOL!!
Debbi
Wow, Joe rocks the house again! I'm just gonna go watch those Canon videos made by.... oh... right... I forgot, there are no Canon videos. Especially no Canon videos highlighting the awesome power of the Canon wireless flash system, because the Canon wireless flash system blows chunks! Oh well, I wonder if Canon is looking in on this amazing site, paying any attention at all... not as far as I can tell (I'm a ten year plus Canon shooter)
David - Christy Zuccarini here (from PPC back in the day). If/when you ever have time, I need some help figuring out how this is done: http://www.yokoo.etsy.com. I want to set up something similar in my house to photograph my crafts - it can't be too complicated, right? What is she using here? Any ideas???? Thanks!
Canon - Nikon - It's all good. Watch the vids, catch the message, not the advertisement.
Canon wireless system does the same thing that CLS does? I don't think so! Until Canon stops restricting it's users to pre-determined ratios and lets us adjust our flash power in minimal increments like Nikon does, they will always have the inferior system. But it's like they all say, Canon makes the best cameras designed by engineers, and Nikon makes the best cameras designed by photographers...
Not a video, but a series of tutorials put together by Olympus and photoflex:
Olympus Digital School
It seems like it was put together a wee while ago now - maybe Olympus are producing a series of videos to bring it up to date....
Jase said...
hey David, don't know how to get in touch - but do adorama or bhphoto sell bungee balls? otherwise where can you buy them int he states? thanks Jase
December 18, 2009 7:02 AM
You can get them at Home Depot or Lowes.
Paul- I beg to differ you can do everything about the same way Joe does in HSD. A majority of his low light and night shots he does off-camera-rear-curtain-sync. Something that Canon is unwilling to give its customers and yet is such a trivial matter on Nikon bodies. I know this having owned a 5D2 for a spell, and yes I was able to do OC rear sync, but only after jury rigging an optical slave to the front of a canon flash that had pocket wizard connected to it that could then fire the remotes in rear curtain.
With my Nikons I'd have simply rolled the knob over to rear and used Nikons wireeless triggering or my pockeet wizards, either combination would work.
I don't know of any 580/430/ste2 combination that will allow you to trigger your slave flashes in rear curtain.
Nice videos! Thanks for the post!
The Profoto blog - http://blog.profoto-usa.com - is definitely another good resource out there right now.
I found out the hard way that 2nd curtain wont work with canon using cybersyncs. By buddy I was shooting with had a D300 and laughed. I was actually embarassed.
It's fascinating seeing the stroboscopic video; a really interesting technique. The other ones are just a mix of some simple light shaping tools...oh...and having three assistants.
That's the only downside. That stroboscopic shot needed the creative genius of Joe McNally, three assistants, probably a few hours of set-up and trials, as well as thousands of dollars worth of strobes, not to mention the rest of the rig. Sure one can do this with one strobe but it ain't as easy as he makes it out to look; it's sisyphean in nature.
The Nikon videos were excellent. Big props to you, David, for posting this for everyone!
Ok.
Which of Canon or Nikon users PS their pictures on Mac or PC?
Sorry, couldn't resist, I had to add some oil on the fire...
That's not Chuckie.... it's Syl Arenas as a youngster.
C'mon Syl, give us some Canon videos!
You know what else is great about those three Nikon videos? Unlike a lot of commercial web video content, which is locked up behind prerolls and other tricks, these are downloadable.
You can right-click/control-click on them and save the .flv files to your hard drive; then you can watch them at your convenience. I opened them in Quicktime Player and resaved them as .movs, so I can watch them on my AppleTV, iPod, etc.
Oops, it just occurred to me that maybe Nikon didn't intend this, so let's NOT all tip them off by thanking them, okay?
A. So, what have the nikonites ever done for us?
B. Well, there's the second curtain innit.
A. Oh yeah, the second curtain. Well we gotta second curtain, on camera.
B. Power settings not ratios.
A. OK, OK ratios. We know about the ratios.
B. 200mm flash zoom then...
B. Videos.
B. Focus Points.
A. OK, OK, OK ,apart from the second curtain, the power setiings, the zoom, the videos and the focus points what have the Nikonites ever given us?
B. Joe McNally.
In the second video he uses a big softbox with the SB-900. Does anyone know which one that is. I was always under the impression that there are no big softboxes for speedlights.
Any hint appreciated.
Thx
This is the first team I have seen Joe speak, I have read his books and follow his blog, so I was a little surprised how bland he came off in the video.
A lot of photographers I follow on the internet are Nikon shooters. I only started messing around with photography a year or so ago, and since the Rebel line of cameras are the only ones I heard of at the time, I went with Canon. Now I am very pleased with the Rebel that I purchased, and am happy with the 5DMKII that I got later, but the more I hear about the Nikon features, and all of the cool stuff that is built in, the more I wonder what its like on the other side. If I had not bought so much Canon specific stuff already I think I would make the move.
This is my first post here, I want to finish by saying thank you David. You are an inspiration to everyone who has picked up a camera. I may never be an artist like yourself, but I truly enjoy exploring the concepts you have outlined here.
Is anyone else having trouble playing the Control of Color video on the Nikon website? I really want to watch these but I just get "error on page" and they don't play. Other videos on Nikon's "Learn and Explore" will play, but not these.... boo hoo! Thanks, ~Nancy
Hey I just followed Ranger9's tip and saved the video to my hard drive and now I can view it; guess I didn't have Adobe Media Player updated.. anyway - GREAT STUFF! Thanks.
Wow. That third video is very inspiring. Especially when Joe busts out the multiple exposure. Say what you want about being able to do it easier in post, I still believe that there's nothing easier than doing it in camera (and I'm only 24). Pretty inspiring to think Joe could be shooting an F6 with Velvia 100 or Kodachrome and still pull this off!
Videos 1 and 2 I felt I'd already been taught by David H. Number 3 I found really interesting!
And whilst I'm here, I've been looking to take my photography to the next level and I didn't know how - until I discovered this site. Thanks David!
And you'll be pleased to know that, retrospectively, I named my son after you in 1986.
Jim Palfreyman
Some good stuff, but he really is pushing TTL and letting the chips do the thinking. A little jarring to hear after lots of folks pushing manual, manual, manual.
This comment must be preceded by noting the fact that I work as the public relations person for MAC Group, distributor of many awesome brands. See http://www.macgroupus.com for the gory details.
That being said, we're especially proud of two lines of lighting equipment: Profoto (http://www.profoto-usa.com) and Creative Light (http://www.creativelight.com). With both these brands, we make sure that, in addition to the great products, we produce some great instructional videos. Check 'em out!
From video 3 - Repeating Flash "We'll put a rail above them and hang lights from it....they'll be the SB-900" <*gasp*> How many speedlights are on that table?!?! I'm sure he's got more but a crew of assistants are needed just to trade out AA cells and keep them all charged up!
great vids btw...
@Christy-
of course I remember you, but I kinda need some kind of contact info to reach you
. . .
:)
I have been out of the photo stuff for 23 years, so excuse my ignorance on some things.
I think the two first videos are a real disappointment. McNally has in excess of $25K in equipment, and a minimum of 2 assistants. The point of the video was supposed to be lessons on using light to (re)color your images.
Cutting to the chase... I think David has done a much better job of explaining light and color than this Nikon spokesman (my take there). Not only a better job of explaining, but better images for illustrating the concepts.
Any photographer who has the extensive equipment McNally is using likely knows all that. For the person starting off, the rambling about the integration of the highest end strobes, connected to a very high end camera, using computer controlled light modification struck me as ridiculous.
Give me David's ability to eloquently explain light and color, and do so with equipment within the reach of the amateur enthusiast.
Hello Strobist,
We have put up your post on the Nikon CLS system on our Wednesday Rundown videos links. Those are some great videos you found. Thanks for all your pour into the community.
-Jerrit
fstoppers.com
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