My son and I race remote control cars for our hobby. One of my good buddies Cameron does too. He wanted to know how to shoot better product shots for his ebay stuff. So here I am at the track with an iphone and a bunch of random stuff, so I made lemonade out of lemons as they say.

So here is what I had to work with. I wanted to show how to shoot a product shot of this bottle of traction compound ( it’s something we use to soften up the rubber tires on our cars). I had a lamp, a McDonalds wrapper, a black towel and my iPhone.

The first thing I did was use the black towel as my backdrop and as with any product, I wanted to backlight. The problem was the light was too harsh. I needed some sort of diffuser.

Hello McDonalds wrapper. This will work perfect for a diffusion source. but how will I hold it on?

Lucky for me, I had a bit of cheese left over, at least I think it was cheese.

So here is what my final light source looked like. Not too shabby!

Here is the final set up, as you can see we made it work.

Here is our final image after processing through snap seed. Not too shabby for a little trackside education!!

The next time you think you don’t have the right equipment, think again. Make due with what you have and create some art!!

Kevin

Ask your WWKD question HERE or HERE

Canon just announced their new

200-400mm f/4 L USM

It’s only $11,800 so if you have money burning your pockets you can buy one for me!!

In reality if you are a sports shooter, this lens would rock!!

Ask your WWKD question HERE or HERE

Ask your WWKD question HERE or HERE

Adobe announced that it will no longer sell creative suite or stand alone products and go to a monthly or yearly fee. Basically you are going to have to rent what you used to own.

I understand this pricing model, but to me this is like pigs to a trough. They are doing this solely for money. There can be no other reason, as their cloud service over the past year hasn’t exactly been a huge success. I could understand this move if their client base was asking for it, but they aren’t. This is corporate greed, imho plain and simple.

Think about it this way. Adobe has tried to keep on a cycle of updating products every year to year and a half. Most of us update every other cycle, because the updates just don’t justify updating. This is because Adobe has bought out and killed the competition. They bought macromedia, which to my knowledge was their only competition in the photo editing department with fireworks. Freehand was also the only competition with Illustrator and that was bought. Same goes with Quark and In Design.

The only one they haven’t bought so far is Apple’s Final Cut, and it kicks Premiers butt in the market place. Competition is good, it keeps companies innovating and also keeps pricing in check. Once Macromedia was bought prices have steadily been climbing.

I found out first hand how Adobe works. I had bought CS2 suite. When CS3 came out I realized that I didn’t use anything except Photoshop, so I tried to update just that. Adobe wouldn’t allow this to happen. I was told I would have to update the whole suite. Once again corporate greed trumped users wants and needs. I find it hard to believe that I was the only one with this issue. I ended up finding an older version of PS and updating that.

I’m not saying that having the cloud service is a bad thing, but making all of us switch is just a big money grab. Give us the option to buy or rent and then when you actually see that the majority of us want the cloud service, then make the switch. It makes sense then.

I feel like a kid again and being told to eat my peas. Adobe, I don’t need you parenting me and telling me what I want. There are those of us who like to rent and those that want to own. Don’t tell me what I am.

It’s not that the price is out of whack, it’s the idea that Adobe doesn’t even care about our wants or needs. Corporate has just decided after decades that this is what we get for the good of their bottom line. Shoot I would love to tell my clients that they need to pay me a monthly fee to shoot them once a year, but I would have them rolling in the aisles with that one.

If we all make enough of a stink and noise, then maybe they will reconsider. Remember Netflix and those of us old enough the new Coke?

This looks to me like one of those really big corporate blunders that will haunt the company for years. One can only hope.

I for one make this pledge, that if Adobe stays with this pricing plan will be changing my workflow from Lightroom to Capture One or Aperture and then use my CS6 until it just won’t do what I need. That will probably get me a couple years anyway.

Make your objections known in all of your social media circles!!!

 Here is a petition to tell adobe what you think

Kevin

Well I finally decided to make the change over, for many reasons.

One of my main issues that I always had with Canon, was the autofocus system. They now have that fixed with the 5d mark3, the 1dx and even the 7d and the 6d. I have tested these cameras and have come to the conclusion, that Canon’s newer cameras actually outperform the latest Nikon’s.

Another reason for the switch is that I will be moving into more video and Canon is lightyears ahead of their counterparts in this.

Another issue that has been fixed is the speedlight issue. Canon’s just didn’t work as well as Nikon. You couldn’t have your main on ttl and the background flashes on manual, but once again with the 600 ex that issue is solved.

Now with the their new speedlight controller that works wirelessly, I am not longer a slave to an after market accessory to use my flash system via radio waves.

Another reason I made the switch is the wireless network capability of the 6D. As an educator, being able to have my students connect to my camera and be able to see my images come up as I shoot them, will be an amazing teaching tool.

It’s a big step for me, and I am looking forward to exploring what I can create with the new system. Sometimes change is good, just to get your juices flowing if nothing else. Stepping out of your comfort zone makes for more interesting work. Muscle memory is always and issue when you first switch. I keep hitting the video/ mirror up button as that is where the af on button was at on Nikon, but my thumb will learn to move over that half an inch in time.

I do have some trepidations, but in the end I will work past them. It’s not the camera, right?

Look for post in the future as I learn what this new system can do!

Kevin

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