Category Archives: Using Equipment

Q&A: FLASH AND GUIDE NUMBERS

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Drew. Sunlight with Fill Flash. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

Sunlit Portrait with Fill Flash. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

Today’s question is brought to you by Powdermilk Biscuits.

Wait – wrong show. My apologies to Prairie Home Companion. (The delightful movie was on TV recently.)

Today’s Q&A is for all of you that learned to use Guide Numbers and manual flash exposure. If you are a little rusty in that department, or if you were weaned on TTL flash, you can brush up on how to use the guide number (GN) for your flash to determine a manual flash exposure by reading the Flash Basics article at my photography web site.  If you are a little rusty with f-stops and exposure, go here.

Now for the Q&A:

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PHOTO LESSONS FROM THE SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT ISSUE

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SI 2009 Swimsuit Cover

I kid you not. You can learn photography lessons in a lot of different places. A great lesson in lighting is to watch the movie Citizen Kane. Turn off the sound and study the use of light and shadow.

It may seem like big jump from Citizen Kane to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (and it is), but they both teach valuable lessons.

You will need to go out and buy the Swimsuit Issue. Then go to this online article [this link no longer works] at the New York Institute of Photography (NYIP) web site. Read the online article and check out references to the pages in the SI swimsuit issue. You will learn lessons in technique, lighting, focus, and detail. Seriously.

The NYIP web site [this link no longer works] is worth checking out on a regular basis for the free, ongoing photo lessons they provide.

Update, February 7, 2024: NYIP no longer owns the NYIP.com domain name so the links no longer work. This NYIP article is no longer online. The 2009 swimsuit issue is not readily available and I don’t know which photos are referred to in this photo lesson, so I looked for images of SI models that match the topics.

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MEMORY CARDS PART 1 – THE BEST WAY TO USE MEMORY CARDS TO AVOID LOST IMAGES

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Since downloading problems and lost photos are such common problems (based on the emails I receive) I am writing two articles about memory cards and lost photos. In the first article I dealt with the recovery of lost photos.  In this article I will deal with the best ways to use memory cards to minimize the chances of lost images.

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MEMORY CARDS PART 2 – LOST PHOTOS

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AN UPDATED VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE WITH REVISED LINKS IS HERE .
I received a question today from a person who is having problems downloading photos from his camera body (a Canon 5D Mark II) directly to his computer and using Canon software.

Since downloading problems and lost photos are such a common problem (based on the emails I receive) I am writing two articles about memory cards and lost images. I will deal with lost photos in the article, and how to use memory cards to minimize the chances of lost images in the second article.

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