New Macro Flash from GODOX and Flashpoint

Godox is a pretty popular brand in the photography space. In particularly, for beginners, hobbyist or flat out budget-minded photographers. Yep, I use quite a few Godox kit in my content creation endeavors. Godox has now announced a new flash designed for macro photography. But wait, there’s more. . . .

Image: GODOX

Not your typical macro flash

Like a typical speed lite or off camera flash you can mount the MF 12 to the top of your camera or on a stand quite easily. But where this differs from any speed lite is not in its size, but in its ability to be mounted to your camera’s lens. With the help of an adapter, of course.

Image: GODOX

The adapter is quite similar to a step-up ring you’d use for larger ND filters, but instead of attaching a filter, you attach the MF 12. If you have more than one MF 12, you can attach them all around the circumference of your lens.

Image: GODOX

Having the MF 12 in this position is ideal for macro photography considering how much closer a macro lens can be towards the image subject, but this can also be used as a nifty ring light for portraits. Ring lights are great for high key images or images where you really want flat light with minimal contrast showing on your subject. Granted, the catch light created in the model’s from a ring light is not something I care for. I prefer a round soft box catch light in the eyes versus the rings show in the image below.

Image: GODOX

You can preorder the MF 12 from Adorama via the Flashpoint branding. It’s still a Godox, just the branding exclusive to Adorama. I think the pricing is quite fair based on the portability and capability. Can get a bit pricey if you order more than two, in my opinion. Let me know what you think. Dig it? Gonna get one? Check out the video preview below.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

"Ruthless Reviews" Ain't Bad At All, Right?

A little while ago I sat in our Mr Alex Lindsay’s Office Hours again. I love sitting in on that panel to attempt to answer questions from the creative community as well as LEARN more stuff for my own skillset. Periodically, he and the panel conduct “ruthless reviews” of each other. The reviews range audio, to video, to set, and so forth. All about making the online/virtual meeting experience better for the panelist and their audience. I was a part of this ruthless review and it was quite helpful. Click below to watch the first hour of q&a and then watch the second hour of the video as we get into ruthless reviews. Enjoy.

Screenshot via Alex Lindsay and Office Hours

Adobe Continues Performance Boost for M1 Macs

Coming off the heels of WWDC, Adobe announces more updates for its Creative Cloud product line. Specifically, those compatible with the Apple M1 silicon. A lot of the products have been supported for a little while with others still being in beta status, but today some performance updates were announced.

Performance Boosted

Adobe teamed up with Pheiffer Report to take a look at performance of the Creative Cloud apps running on M1 Macs from Apple. The test hardware included the M1 Macbook Pro (16GB RAM), Intel Core i5 Macbook Pro (16GB RAM) where both were connected to an Apple Pro Display XDR. Lots of benchmarking test were completed looking at Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and more focusing on not only the simple use of the user interface (UI), but also some graphic-heavy or CPU-intensive functions of each app. It’s found that on average, the Creative Cloud apps are 80% faster using the M1 systems. Pretty impressive. Adobe and Pheiffer had a bunch of charts and information here showing all the details of the testing.

With that said, the video editor for Adobe, Premiere Pro, is still in beta status. I’ve not heard anything bad about the beta other than a few “quirks,” but it’s believed that the beta runs circles around the Intel version on performance.

Better Collaboration Tools and More Tools for Lightroom

I tend to focus more on the photography side of things when it comes to the Creative Cloud. Yes, I use Premiere, and After Effects, but I open Lightroom and Photoshop more often. Unfortunately, I’m not on an M1 so I don’t see these particular performance boosts. But Adobe has added more ways to collaborate on the photography front with cloud collaboration capability. This allows you to get an extra set of eyes on your photos project and tweak the editing before clicking “post” to Instagram or whatever your platform of choice is.

Image by Adobe

Far as the editing tools, the AI tool found in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) which enabled you to convert an image to a much higher resolution image is now available in Lightroom Classic as well as Lightroom. This Super Resolution feature touts increasing your photog resolution by up to 4X. In my experience, the previous iteration was “ok.” Wasn’t great, but it did make a difference.

Adobe has a lot more information on its blog regarding the updates for Lightroom, Photoshop with its new custom brushes, Illustrator and more. I guess I better get myself ready to install these updates as well as find a way to get my hands on an M1 Mac. Ha!

I Shared My Experience Shooting Photos in China

A few years ago I had the opportunity to cover CES Asia in Shanghai, China. It was my second opportunity to visit another country for my work and my first time in Asia. It was AMAZING and I’ll never forget it. A little while ago, I was approached by my man Steve Brazill to be a guest on his podcast Behind The Shot to discuss a particular photograph I captured while I was in China. No, it’s not the photo below, but if you click on the photo below, you’ll be able to watch the video and see the image I captured. For the record, the show below was actually captured in China. THANKS for checking it out and thanks to Steve Brazill for having me on. And thanks for buying me a beer. 🤜🏾

Images by Ant Pruitt - all rights reserved

Nikon Announces Rebates and Deals on Cameras

As an Adorama affiliate, I’m notified of certain deals regarding photography gear quite regularly. Sometimes, the deals are not all that, but then there’s the deals like this one going on for the Nikon line of photography. At the time of this blog post, Nikon is offering up to $500 in rebates on select camera bodies and camera bundles. Here are a few of note below.

Lenses

Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.6- 5.6. Was $596, now $396.

NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G AF-S BUNDLE. Was $1696. Now $1546.

NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G AF-S Bundle was $196. Now $166

Cameras

D780 FX-Format DSLR with 24-120mm kit lens bundle was $2796. Now $2496.

Z50 Mirroless with 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 kit lens bundle. Was $996. Now $896.

Those are just a few of the items I thought were worth mentioning. Go to Adorama via my affiliate link to see more of the deals. Thanks for checking it out and supporting my content.

I'm Trying The NFT World

Ok so I FINALLY created something to put into the NFT market. What is NFT, you ask? Well it’s basically a way to create digital art/items for the world of crypto. A better explanation is found here at the 3min45sec mark on the show. Explanation was offered up by Mr Trey Ratcliff, one of my favorite photographers.

Why try NFT?

My answer to this question is a question. Why not? I have a couple crypto wallets with some assets just sitting there. No I’m not rich on crypto, but it was just sitting there. I figured I could use it to invest in myself and see if I could earn a few more dollars with my work.

Creating an NFT wasn’t too difficult for me, but creating an NFT account was a little bit more challenging. At least, I can see why it would be challenging. I had to move crypto assets around into an Ethereum (ETH) currency, figure out an NFT marketplace to utilize, create a profile said marketplace, upload my content, connect a crypto wallet to the NFT market and see what happens.

Over on Twitter, Miss Roxanne has a very nice thread to help walk you through selling NFTs. She did a lot of the leg work for you. You just have to follow the steps. The thread is here. Be sure to give her a follow and thank her for this aide.

View my NFT (UPDATE: The below NFT has sold, but I added more)

You can get a look at my NFT on the official market on this link. Here’s a watermarked screenshot of it. If you can afford to take a look at creating your own NFT work, I say do it. It’s a bet on yourself. I’m listing this initially for just a few days. If it doesn’t sell, I’ll re-list it later for a longer duration. Either way, I’m happy to be trying this out as a digital content creator.

I'm Teaching at the Wanderers Photography Workshop

Coming this fall, October 10-14 2021, I’ll be an instructor at the Wanderers Photographic Cultural Experience. I must say, I’m honored to have this opportunity and look forward to being there.

The workshop will take place in New Orleans and will be a hands-on workshop as myself and three other great photographers will work with attendees on certain photography styles. My focus will be more on street photography and cityscapes. Other styles include food/beverage photography and concert photography. Each instructor is truly passionate about their craft and do a great job sharing resources to help make you a better photographer.

Go on over to the website and check out the details. The space is limited and we’ve already had a few spots claimed. The website is here. I look forward to working with Freddy Clark, Steve Brazill and Andrew Scrivani. This event will be full of hard work, but also fun. As photography SHOULD be. Register today and/or share this with someone you think may be interested in the workshop. THANKS.

Image by Ant Pruitt. All rights reserved.

I Made Some FREE Lightroom and Capture One Presets

In between working on my shows and shooting, I’ve dabbled with creating some presets for my Lightroom* workflow. Now understand that using presets doesn’t mean your photo post-processing is finished. A preset should be considered a good starting point 90% of the time. I hate that many beginner photographers assume presets are a quick-fix for photo editing. But anyway. . . .

I’ve put together three different presets that I use fairly regularly because I tend to have certain looks and lighting in mind when I shoot. So here are three different presets for you to download and try for yourself. I’m not charging for these presets, but if you’d like to buy me a beer, I won’t turn it down. ;)

Cozy Morning

The Cozy Morning preset was created with the mind of a person that’s dragging a little in the morning and trying to get going. Exposure is dimmed, clarity and texture increased and the color temperature is moderately warm. Think of warm, Earth tones far as the color grading.

Image by Ant Pruitt. All rights reserved

Cigar and Whisky

With the Cigar and Whisky preset, I was shooting some test portrait shots. At the time, I was testing the Canon R6 and R5 for work. While shooting, I was wishing I had poured myself a whisky and grabbed a cigar. This is just a guilty pleasure of mine while I shoot or process photos. When I think whisky and cigars, I think of warm, soft images. The images aren’t as crisp, but still look good. Also, the color tones are warm.

Image by Ant Pruitt. All rights reserved.

Biscuit

The Biscuit preset was developed after shooting a couple shots of our dog named Biscuit. A few weeks after we got the dog, he spent a lot of time resting in window lighting. This lighting worked well with his white coat and really captured the “puppy” mood. The preset will increase exposure without clipping the highlights. It will also soften the middle frequency and slightly increase the higher frequency to enhance details where areas should be sharp, but soft where the areas of the image should be soft.

Image by Ant Pruitt. All rights reserved.

Use These in Lightroom or Capture One

These preset were created in Lightroom, but you can also use these in Capture One. I’ve not tried to do so yet, but apparently it’s pretty easy to import Lightroom presets into Capture One. Just follow the steps on this DIY Photography blog post here.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

Capturing Beautiful Macro Photos of Snowflakes With Don Komarechka

I’ve previously talked about shooting macro photography on my show at work. I enojyed sharing the bit of info I know about it, but I will not claim to be any good at it. Ha! Macro photography can be quite easy for anyone to do, but the “next level” maco photographers have some amazing skills and understand the science/physics behind getting the GREAT macro photograph. Hence, my man Don Komarechka. He’s known as the “Mad Scientist” with regards to his outstanding photography. So talented and skilled.

Prior to the pandemic lockdown, he shot a segment for DPReview showing off his process of creating beautiful macro photos of snowflakes. It’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at his workflow. Check out the video below. Also, below the video, check out his podcast. I was recently a guest on his show where we had a bit of philosophical chatter as well as nerdy chatter around the world of photography. I’m truly honored to have been a guest on his show.

VIDEO

Image credit Don Komarechka and DPReview

Photo Geek Weekly Podcast Episode

Compare Yourself To YOURSELF: My Chat on SmugMug Live with Alastair Jolly

A couple weeks ago I had the honor and pleasure of being interviewed by Alastair Jolly and the team at SmugMug. If you haven’t subscribed to the SmugMug YouTube channel, I highly recommend it. Lots of great discussions with photographers from all over the world.

In my chat, I shared a bit about personal growth in the world of photography, content creation and how I continue to work at this craft. Thing is, this message can apply to pretty much any endeavor.

Thank you to SmugMug for having me and thank you all for watching the video.