About Me
My job as your photographer is to do more than just put a face to the name. I bring experience, professionalism, confidence, and a relaxed persona that produces photographs that instill a sense of trust and confidence in a potential client or customer. When you don’t do that, you will fail to get everything you can out of a brochure, website, or press release. The picture is critical.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but you rarely hear about the reactions to a poor quality photograph. Professional photography when presenting yourself or company to the public is a necessity.
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Tag Archives: camera
Should I use a light meter with a digital camera?
I was recently asked the question in the title, there is only one answer.
Get one, use it.
Simple really, as a photographer you paint with revealed light and shadow, that’s all. Why would you hesitant to utilize a tool to designed to report the variances you cannot see in a way you can use?
Do I shoot without one, yup, sometimes. Do I rely on the camera’s metering, yup, alot sometimes. But I never leave home without a light meter in my bag.
-- Weather When Posted --
- Temperature: 91°F;
- Humidity: 42%;
- Heat Index: 93°F;
- Wind Chill: 91°F;
- Pressure: 29.82 in.;
Posted in Just a quick thought
Also tagged digital, Digital Camera, Get One, home, Hoot, Light, Light And Shadow, Light Meter, lighting, Lot, one, Paint, Paint With Revealed Light And Shadow, Photo, Photograph, Photographer, Photographers, Photographs, Shadow, shoot, Tool, Use It., Variances, Yup
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Contact Me
Suggestions & Contribution:
I’m open to any suggestions, comments, questions and contribution (ie. guest blogging). If you have ideas that would to share with me, please contact me here or send me a mention on Twitter @rkd_photography.
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Also tagged adult, Amp, art, background, beauty, black, Blogging, Blue, business, caucasian, Communication, Connection, Contact, D700, digital, equipment, fashion, female, Flickr, hand, Help, holding, human, Image, information, isolated, Job, Light, Looking, male, man, model, nikon, occupation, Pace, People, person, Photo, Photograph, Photographer, Photographers, photographic, Photographs, Photography, Photos, picture, portrait, professional, RKD Photography, shot, space, studio, Support, technology, Us, white, woman, Word, work, young
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Nikon Speedlight umbrella test
When I decided to start playing with Nikon’s Creative Lighting System (CLS) I took this series of photographs to try and understand the difference between a shoothrough umbrella and a reflective one.
I also used this test to learn how to use the Commander mode on my D300 to change the power settings of the Speedlights.
SB-800 on left into 32 inch Photogenic white umbrella: SB-600 on right through 48 inch Wescott umbrella. Controlled by D300 Commander mode.
- Top half of photo: both at half power
- Bottom half of photo: Both at full power.
Posted in Lighting tests
Also tagged art, CLS, Controlled, creative, d300, Flickr, Hoot, Light, lighting, Lighting System, man, Modes, nikon, nikon d300, Nikon Speedlight, Nikon Speedlights, one, People, Photo, photogenics, Photograph, Photographer, Photographers, Photographs, Photos, Power Settings, Reflection, Rig, Rkd, rkdauph, Sb, sb-800, shoot, speedlight, Stan, stand, Test, Umbrella, Wescott, White Umbrella
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Boston’s coolest vandals
Train tagging and graffiti have always interested me. This day was the first time I stopped to look and had my camera with me. I spent over an hour walking among the parked train cars. Some of the graffiti artists obviously took both pride and a lot of time to make their traveling art.
One car was marked “R.I.P. Crash Erwin” another ” Rust never rests” and who is Jenn?
Check out the full Train Graffiti set on my Flickr Photostream.
Posted in My Photo; My Comment., Things
Also tagged 5d, art, Boston, Crash, Erwin, Faa, Flickr, Flickr Photostream, Graffiti Artists, Heir, Lot, one, One Car, Photo, Photos, Pride, Rail, Rig, Rkd, rkdauph, Rust, Train, Train Cars, Train Graffiti, Traveling Art, Vandals, Walk
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Nikon D300 & SB-800 Speedlight Flash Diffusion Test
On camera flash photography has always challenged me. I learned photography, in West Germany during the early ‘70s, using natural light only, black and white film and developed my own prints. My first experience, in the early ‘80s, with a flash gun was a reunion of flight school classmates and our families. We paraded the kids through the living room, onesies, twosies, you know the drill, and I took whole family photos too. The garish, over exposed pictures with that damn hard edged shadow (like the top center picture) was embarrassing when the color prints arrived. Who needs a flash? Not a REAL photographer anyway; so, back to natural light for more than 2 decades.
Click to continue reading “Nikon D300 & SB-800 Speedlight Flash Diffusion Test”
-- Weather When Posted --
- Temperature: 51°F;
- Humidity: 49%;
- Heat Index: 51°F;
- Wind Chill: 49°F;
- Pressure: 30.33 in.;
Posted in Lighting tests, Things
Also tagged 70s, af-s zoom-nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8 if-ed, Amp, Aperture, Aperture Priority, art, background, Backgrounds, black, black and white, Camera Flash, Camera Flashes, Cat, CLS, color, Colors, Couple, Crowds, D2x, d300, Developer, diffuser, Duri, education, equipment, eyes, Eyes Of The Devil, F1, face, family, Feet, File Test, film, flash, flash diffuser, flash gun, flash photography, flash test, Flickr, Flight School, Focal Length, germany, girl, Girl In The World, girls, hand, Head, Heir, human, Human Face, Image, Images, Ink, Inti, Iso, Job, Jobs, lens, Light, Light And Shadow, lighting, man, Manikin Head, Modes, Natural, natural light, Nikkor, nikon, nikon d300, omni-bounce om-sb5, one, Ounce, Outsider, People, person, Personality, Photo, Photo Tip, photogenics, Photograph, Photographer, Photographers, Photographs, Photography, Photos, picture control file, Places, portrait, Portraits, Pose, Prints, pro, Quick Test, red eye, Rig, Rkd, rkdauph, rs-df100 flexidome flash diffuser, Sb, sb-800, Sb5, School Classmates, Shadow, shot, Shoulders, speedlight, Stan, stand, standing, studio, studio lights, Target, Test, ttl, west germany, White Film
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D300 Picture Control File Test
A test of the 4 included picture modes included with the D300 and 4 downloadable Picture Control Files; the 3 D2X modes and Ken Rockwell’s PCF.
JPEGs right out of the camera, just labeled and resized for here. Settings the same for all shots.
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/180)
Aperture: f/6.7
Focal Length: 85 mm
WB = Auto
To MY eyes on MY monitor, the D2Xmode1 comes closest to the colors on the actual painted wooden duck , Standard is close. Again, that conclusion is based on MY eyes on MY monitor.
Lighting with a SB-800 and SB-600.
cut and paste for 1412 by 1062 size.
Posted in Lighting tests
Also tagged Aperture, color, Colors, Conclusion, Cut And Paste, D2x, d300, eyes, File Test, Flickr, Focal Length, Ken Rockwell, Light, lighting, Modes, Paint, Pcf, People, Photo, Photos, picture control file, Rig, Rkd, rkdauph, Sb, sb-800, shot, Stan, stand, Test, Wooden Duck
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Revere, Ma
I went on a two day business trip to Cambridge, MA in March but did not have time to play much with my Nikon D-300. My airline flight was canceled back to DFW due to storms so I got a free night in Revere.
The area around the airport is interesting, the people showed little interest in me – while I was looking their way – but watched me like a hawk otherwise. After about 45 minutes and having 3 small groups of teenagers tell me what a nice camera
I had, I decided to head back to the room.
Posted in My Photo; My Comment., Places
Also tagged Airline Flight, business, Business Trip, church, Flickr, Hawk, Head, Heir, Light, Night, nikon, People, Photo, Photos, Rig, Rkd, rkdauph, Small Group, Small Groups, Storms, Teenagers, ttl, Ups
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Using the Nikon Creative Lighting System
This photograph was taken using a Nikon D-300, the Nikkor 28-70 f2.8 and 2 SB800s. One SB800 was placed high picture right behind Emily the other was hand held slightly high picture left above her head. Although I have the equipment to mount the flashes to either an umbrella or softbox, this session was done with only the Nikon defusser on one of the strobes.
I am becoming a real fan of the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) and the ability to control the SB-800s using the Commander mode on the D300. I’ve now used them in studio sessions as fill or hair lights, outdoors from as far as 30 feet away or the sole source of light as in this photograph.
The two cautions when using the system is to remember to have the sensor facing toward the camera and don’t step to far in front of the flashes. I spent nearly 10 minutes on one outdoor shoot trying to figure out why the flash wouldn’t fire, gave up and realized, the next day, that I had the IR receiver facing away from the camera.
CLS is a great tool, take the time to learn it.
Read about us being hassled by the Park Rangers in Washington, DC during this shoot.
Also see Damien Franco’s expansion of my photo tip about Seeing the Shadows over at www.yourphototips.com.
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