Click on the photo to see the full-res version

I had the opportunity to rent the Canon TS-E 90mm ƒ/2.8 from BorrowLenses for about two weeks, and wanted to do some quick, “non-scientific actual working conditions” focus testing with it. It’s a manual focus lens so the issue isn’t about auto-focus—it was strictly an issue of if I’m satisfied with the focus quality. And (spoiler alert!) it does a good job for how I use my camera and lenses.

I’m pretty picky about my focus when it comes to photographing food, and I’m also considering buying this lens so I wanted to make sure that if I do buy it then I get something I’ll be happy with. So, just before doing a food setup in my living room I set up the camera on a sturdy tripod and photographed this lens cap at ƒ/2.8, ƒ/4 and ƒ/5.6. I like to have shallow DOF in my food photos, and I’ll often set the aperture to ƒ/4 or ƒ/5.6 when using my 70-200mm lens.

At ƒ/2.8 the focus is really soft, but I find that this is pretty common in any non “L” Canon lens (and, in my experience, L-glass tends to be a bit softer at its widest aperture). It gets better at ƒ/4, and I really like it at ƒ/5.6. If (when) I purchase this lens I’ll probably be photographing at ƒ/5.6 anyways, since that’s what I do a lot of my food photography at when using my Canon 70-200 ƒ/4L IS lens.

Another thing is that at the wider aperture (ƒ/2.8) the CA (chromatic aberration) is pretty significant. It’s still visible at ƒ/5.6, but not nearly as bad. Either way it’s an easy fix in Photoshop, but it’s always nice when there’s not much editing involved.

In a nutshell I really like this lens, not only because of the focus quality. I’ll be posting again soon on the blog about some of the other cool features of a tilt-shift with food and portrait work.

A big thanks to BorrowLenses for the complimentary lens rental. If you’re considering renting gear, or buying gear and want to check it out first (like I did) then I highly recommend checking out their website. :)

Canon 60D, Lensbaby Composer, Double-Glass Optic, Heart-shaped aperture, 1/80 sec at ISO 250

Yesterday afternoon I traveled out to Park City with my friend Dave (a.k.a. dav.d). We walked around, took a few photos and talked with a few other photographers too (I may have even convinced someone to buy the 60D, lol). I didn’t make too many photos, but this one is my favorite … Dave and his mohawk! I totally love my Lensbaby and need to use it more often.

In other random news I have some new fun gear coming my way soon that I’m super excited about. It’s basically some equipment I’ve wanted for a while and a super good offer fell into my lap that I just couldn’t refuse … it’s used, but still super rad. I’ll post more on that when I have it in-hands. :)

Congratulations to Ea Gesika Acaylar from Quezon City, Philippines, Josh Foxworthy from Sunbury, Ohio and John Tilyard from Sydney, Australia … who will each be receiving a signed copy of my new book Canon EOS 60D: From Snapshots to Great Shots! Thanks to everyone who commented … and have a wonderful week!

Canon 60D, Lensbaby Composer, Double-Glass Optic with heart-shaped aperture, 0.4 seconds, ISO 100

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend and that your week is filled with family, food and fun! My posts will be sparse this week as I catch up on editing and other random chores around the house … but the first week of January I’ll be back with the book-giveaway drawing (check out the post and enter here!), video tutorials and some more behind-the-scenes of my photo-shoots.

Have a great week everyone!

It’s official! My new book, EOS Canon 60D: From Snapshots to Great Shots, is in-stock and available to order! Earlier this year I wrote the Canon 7D version of the book, and so when the 60D was rumored to come out I was asked to revise my book to work for the 60D. This is the second book I’ve written for this Snapshots series … of which there are a ton of other books written by several other amazing and talented authors. :)

So, to kick off my book release I’m going to be giving away THREE signed copies of my book to my readers! Everyone is eligible … all you have to do is comment on the blog for a shot at one of the books! Be sure you include your email address so I can contact you for your address if you get picked.

Comments will close on January 4th at 12:00 MST, and shortly after that I will randomly pick the three names. Good luck!

Update: The commenting period for this giveaway is now closed—winners will be announced shortly. :)

This photo is a quick shot of the bag “in action” while finishing up a photo-shoot.

A few weeks ago I was at Pictureline, and this cute little bag, the Lowepro Versapack 200 AW, caught my eye. I was going to be visiting family in a week and thought it wouldn’t hurt to have something a bit more compact and lighter than my hard-core Lowepro Vertex 200 AW. So, I brought my gear in to the store (I wanted to see what would fit), was happy with the results and bought it.

While visiting family I didn’t need a huge camera kit, but still wanted to take some “work” photos, so I needed more than just my 60D (which I still brought, btw). Here’s what I was able to fit in the bag:

• Canon 7D with grip (body cap on)
• Canon 60D with 28mm f/2.8 lens attached
• Canon 70-200 f/4 L IS lens
• Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens
• Lensbaby Composer lens
• Giottos Rocket Blaster
• iPad
• iPhone
• Wallet
• Some miscellaneous cords and accessories

What I like about this bag:

• It doesn’t look like a camera bag. It does come in a black color as well, but the color of the one I got doesn’t scream “photographer!”. That can be nice when walking around town, in an airport or just any random place where sometimes photographers aren’t welcome.
• It has a separate compartment (on the top) for gear and other random stuff.
• It fits really well under an airline seat and is definitely small enough for carry-on.

What I don’t like about this bag:

• It doesn’t really sit very flat. As you can see in the photo above, it wants to fall over and that can make it difficult when quickly getting things in-and-out of the bag.
• There is no little “side pouch” for putting anything small, like a phone. I don’t really put much in my pocket so it’s inconvenient to carry this around as my only bag since there’s no easy access for my iPhone.
• The top pouch is kinda difficult to open and close. You have to lift the flap each time, and the odd shape and angle of the zipper makes it kind awkward.

Overall I like the bag a lot, and it was worth the purchase. The down-sides are not a deal-breaker for me, since the best thing I like about this is the size and look, and the fact that it holds quite a bit of gear. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a small camera bag for day-trips or travel.

Canon 7D, Canon 28mm f/2.8 lens, 1/125 sec at f/4, ISO 100

As a stock photographer who shoots mostly lifestyle and food images, a big part of what I do is I try to light my subjects so that they don’t look like they were lit. Make sense? Well, I basically want there to be no unnatural shadows, crazy lighting, etc. I love to use studio lights but I always want the focus to be on the subject and the activity going on in the scene and be lit as if it were outdoor light, window light or just normal indoor lights. You’d actually be surprised at how much work can go into a shot to achieve this … sometimes it’s really easy, but sometimes it’s also extremely challenging.

When I was visiting family last week my dad was really cool with modeling for me. He used to have to use a CPAP machine to help him breathe at night, but lost a bunch of weight so doesn’t need to use it anymore. But since he still had the machine handy I thought we would do some stock images with him sleeping with the mask on.

Window Light: Canon 7D, Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens, 1/10 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

When I first set up the bedroom the light outside was nice and cloudy so it gave a soft, diffused look to the bed. I was happy with this light, but it was way too dark for me to get any real shots (the shutter speed, at 1/10th second, was too slow to hand-hold, and the aperture, f/2.8, gave too little depth-of-field for my tastes). So, I positioned a White Lightening x800 with a 32×40″ foldable softbox just in front of the window (see photo at the top of this posts … this was rental gear from BorrowLenses.com—see yesterday’s post for more info). I used my handy light-meter (yes, I use a light meter), metered to f/4 and then took another test shot:

White Lightening x800 light: Canon 7D, Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens, 1/125 sec at f/4, ISO 100

The image above looked so close to the original that I didn’t even need to make any changes. Both are completely un-edited, btw … they are straight out-of-camera with no adjustments applied. Oftentimes I don’t have a starting point for my images (I have to create the light with nothing to compare it to) but I usually know what “look” I’m going for. These two images were just perfect examples of how studio light can be used to make it look like no studio light was used. :)

Bottom-left image: Canon 7D, Canon 70-200 f/4L IS lens, 1/60 sec at f/4, ISO 100

I have a pretty good relationship with the guys over at Borrowlenses.com (an online camera equipment rental business). I’ve used their services in the past, and every once in a while they offer me a free rental … being a social media geek sure doesn’t suck sometimes. ;)

So, a few weeks ago I got an email from Josh over at BorrowLenses asking if there’s anything I’d like to try out. It was perfect timing! I was planning a short trip out to Nebraska to visit family, and was also planning on doing some stock images with my dad. I was originally just going to take a small speedlite setup and some PocketWizards, but after getting the email from Josh I thought it would be a good time to try out some of their rental lights.

I had a small setup shipped out to Nebraska and had everything I needed to do a few stock shoots. They have a good selection of lights, and I opted to go with equipment I was familiar with … So, I pretty much stuck with Alien Bee/White Lightening branded equipment, since that’s what I use in my studio. Here’s what I rented:

- Alien Bees Ring-flash ABR800
- 30″ Moon Unit
- White Lightening x800
- Foldable soft box (32″x40″)
- Two 13-ft light-stands

I still could have gotten some good images without the extra gear, but using them really helped add light that I wouldn’t have had if I only used one speed-light. Plus, I really wasn’t planning on checking luggage for my flight, so having the gear already at the location made it simple to pack light … (no pun intended). :) The only photo-related things of my own I ended up bringing were my camera/lenses, a light meter and some PocketWizards.

All in all I really like Borrow Lenses, and would recommend them to anyone who is looking at renting photography gear. The process is simple … They ship out the gear, you use it, then you ship it back in the same box and just use the pre-printed FedEx label that came with the shipment. They have a pretty good selection, and using rental gear is also a great way to try out stuff you’re thinking of buying.

In the photo above, the light to the right of the frame (White Lightening x800 with soft-box) is used to fill in the light on the face and brighten it up. The light on the left (ring-light with moon unit) was used to brighten up the background (ambient light wasn’t enough). Some ambient light was helping the image, but the two lights made the colors “pop” more and evened out the light in the scene.

Canon 60D, Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens, 1/5 sec at f/2.5, ISO 3200

A few weeks ago I went to the Kiss concert in Sandy, UT and they only had half of the stadium filled. Instead of sitting in my assigned seat I hung out towards the back of the stadium opposite of the stage and was able to take some photos with my 60D. I got some okay shots of the stage but, when I wasn’t photographing the security guard (who asked to have his photo taken, lol) I also had some random fun with the in-camera filters. I think the miniature-effect, as seen used in the photo in this post, is going to end up being my overall favorite.

I’ve had my new Canon 60D for one full week now, and thought I’d share a few things about it … both what I like and what I feel needs improvement. I have a few high-res/long exposure photos I’ve also uploaded for you to check out, but this isn’t a crazy in-depth scientific review, (I’ll leave that to the expert reviewers). I wanted to share some of my thoughts on a more user-friendly basis with the camera.

A few of these I already mentioned in my previous blog post, after only having the camera for a few hours, but thought they were well worth repeating in this more detailed “review” of the camera. I’ve had a few solid events to use the camera with: one was a full fledged stock (work) photo-shoot, and the other was a night-time/sunset photowalk, so I didn’t just tinker around and find things randomly. Many of these observations were discovered when I actually needed them, so it was all very organic process.

Articulating Screen: Yes, I really do like this feature. I’m not sure if I’d want it on my pro bodies, but for a small compact-ish DSLR this feature is really fun to have. One of the great things about it that you might not realize is the ability to flip the screen completely around to hide the LCD monitor. This is a bonus for two reasons: #1 is that you can keep yourself from chimping all the time, and #2 is that you can keep that screen protected while in your bag, sitting on your car seat, etc. I also like that I can lift the camera up really high and shoot down on something. I’m shorter than most people, especially in a crowd so it’s nice to be able to get those shots without having to guess on the composition. I guess the only “bad” thing about this screen that I’ve noticed is that when it’s turned outward (so I can see the screen) then it sticks out more than most LCD screens do, which means my nose touches it a LOT more than my other cameras.

Buttons on Back: The buttons on the back of the camera had to be re-arranged and limited due to the articulating screen. The biggest changes to these are that, when compared with the 50D there is no “Picture Style” button (which I rarely use and won’t even miss) and the Multi-controller is also changed (also known as the “joystick”). It’s now an up-down-left-right button that reminds me of a Nikon feel, something I never did like about those cameras. As long as they keep the joy-stick in their pro-line bodies and also keep the scroll wheel (Quick Control Dial) in place then I’m totally okay with it.

Buttons on Top: The buttons on top of the camera, just above the LCD panel, are nicely recessed and not sticking out nearly as much as some of the other cameras. I also really like the little bump on the ISO button … makes it easier to find when I’m in the middle of shooting (looking through the viewfinder) or in a dark environment and it’s hard to see the labels. This is a nice improvement and I hope to see this on the newer pro cameras when they are released as well. And, on a side note I really do like the slanted LCD panel … I don’t think it will really make a difference in my shooting but it’s kinda cool looking.

SD Card Slot: I’ve never really used SD cards with my DSLR cameras, so this is new to me. It’s not much different than using a CF card, except that I’m more likely to lose my SD cards and I don’t have a very fast card reader for it and I had to buy some SD cards to actually use with it. It’s nothing, IMO, good or bad, just worth mentioning.

Creative Filters: These are fun, and I have a feeling that the only one I’ll ever really use is the “miniature” effect (see my blog post about it here). I personally don’t see any real practical use for the filters, since I mostly enjoy processing photos from my iPhone in this way, but it’s kinda neat to have. Maybe this is just a stepping stone to future enhancements of the Canon cameras … either way they are fun to play with.

RAW editing: This is a nice feature if you know you want to quickly blog an image or transfer it somewhere you want to use it right away without putting it through Photoshop/Lightroom (like with an iPad). What you can do with this is edit a photo (global adjustments like plus/minus a stop exposure, white balance, picture style and a few other things) and then save it on your card as a JPEG. It would be nice if you could actually overwrite the RAW file with those settings, like with white-balance, but it’s a fun and possibly useful feature to have when traveling if you need to output a JPEG really quickly.

No PC Terminal: This just seems weird to me … why would this be kept off the camera completely? I only discovered this while showing my camera to another photographer, and I’m not sure that this will affect my shooting … but I know it may be annoying for others. Just so you know what I’m talking about … the PC terminal is the place you plug in an external light to (like a studio light or flash). When I shoot in my studio I use PocketWizards, which just sit on the hot-shoe and don’t need to be plugged in, but not everyone has (or can afford) PocketWizards so the next best thing is to be connected to the light. With no PC terminal you have to find an adapter for your hot-shoe … they aren’t always real expensive, but kinda a pain to have to use.

No Micro-adjustment: This will probably not be a big deal to me, since I won’t be using the 60D as my primary “work” camera, but I have had some issues with the focusing on the 24-105 f/4L IS lens that I had to adjust with the settings on my 7D (blog post here). I don’t expect to be hung up over this not being in the menu, but it would be nice to have.

Video Dial: Since video is a new addition to this line of camera, they had to place it somewhere on the dial (I guess they didn’t like the way it sits on the 7D). I have to say that I really don’t like the way they placed it all the way at the bottom of all of the “basic modes”. I personally never use these modes, and all of the still-image shooting modes I use sit above the green square so having to dial all the way to the bottom is kinda inconvenient. It would have been nice if they set it in the middle somewhere, that way it’s not a near-full turn around to get to it. The only nice thing about it is that you know you’re there when it won’t go any further … might make it easier to find in a hurry, but I haven’t had to do that yet.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT:

I really like this camera. We can be as nit-picky as we want, but for the price-point and expectations I had I’m very happy with it so far. I’ve only used a 5DMkII and 7D from the canon line (my old film Rebel from 1997 doesn’t really count) so I have a little bit different view on what it could be like. For me this camera is going to be my “walking around” body that I take to social events, photowalks, etc. I’ll probably still use it for work but mostly just as a back-up or second body. It’s a much nicer size for taking around casually, and it will allow me to keep my 7D packed up and safe when I’m not in “work-mode”.

I used it at a recent stock photo-shoot (work) over the weekend as my second camera body. I wanted to get a good feel for it in an actual working environment and never had one problem. I didn’t even realize I had a different camera in my hand, other than the LCD being a little bit closer to my nose than my 7D was (and the fact that I still don’t have a battery grip for it … they should hopefully be shipping in a few weeks). At ISO 100 I am so far very pleased with the results. I rarely go over 100 for my controlled work shoots, so that’s something that is important to me.

I was also able to take it out with me to a night/sunset shoot and took some high-ISO long exposure photos with the camera. I have them below (click on each image for a full-res version) so you can decide for yourself what you think of the quality at those settings. It was in no way a controlled environment, but it’s a true example of a low-light poorly lit scene when a high-ISO is likely to be used.

There are obviously more details and features on the 60D that could be covered in a review, but these are the ones that really stand out to me and will affect my daily work and use of the camera. If you have any questions about it feel free to ask below in the comments … I’m also starting to write a book on the 60D with the “Snapshots to Great Shots” series (similar to my 7D book) that should be available in a few months. As soon as it’s available for pre-order I’ll be sure to post it here on my blog. :)

Click on image to see full-res

Canon 60D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens
Shutter Speed: 30 seconds
Aperture: f/9.0
ISO:  400

Click on image to see full-res

Canon 60D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens
Shutter Speed: 15 seconds
Aperture: f/9.0
ISO:  800

Click on image to see full-res

Canon 60D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens
Shutter Speed: 8 seconds
Aperture: f/9.0
ISO:  1600