Just a quick announcement to say that I have two week-long lighting workshops in Maine next summer.

Creative Lighting On Location will run from July 29 to August 4. The workshop will focus on my approach to using large strobes on location shoots.

Canon Speedlites Demystified will run August 19-25. Last summer, this workshop sold out. So, if you’re interested, don’t wait. You can see some of the great shots made by my students here. Also, you can read about a seven-light shoot I did during the workshop here.

I am pleased to announce that I have officially started working on my next book. Light and Lighting will be published in June by Peachpit Press (the publisher of my Speedliter’s Handbook). As part of Peachpit’s From Snapshots to Great Shots series, it will present fundamental concepts about light and various techniques of photographic lighting at a level accessible to novice shooters.

My main goal for the book is to take a photographer who is moving beyond the realm of the point-and-shoot and introduce him/her to the basics of how to use light in a variety of situations. Unlike the Speedliter’s Handbook, which heads deep into flash photography, Light and Lighting will explore the use and shaping of natural light as much as it does artificial light—flash, tungsten, fluorescent, and LED.

I’ve outlined eight chapters—although this is subject to change over the next four months as I actually write and shoot the book:
1.  The Five Characteristics of Light
2.  Available Light–Outdoors
3.  Available Light–Indoors
4.  Lights For Photographers
5.  Lighting Still-Life, Product, and Nature
6.  Headshots and Group Shots With One Light
7.  Headshots and Group Shots With Multiple Lights
8.  Action, Sports, and Motion

 The book is already available for pre-order here on Amazon. If all goes as planned, it will start shipping at the end of June.

Just before the start of FotoWeekend 2011 in Dubai, I had the good fortune to join Bobbi Lane for a sunset shoot at the Bab Al Shams Resort resort. Bobbi is a GPP-veteran — who mercifully shared her secrets about such things as dealing with a 12-hour time shift and also hauled me out on many great adventures in Dubai. Joining us for this shoot was Issa Saleh AlKindy, a talented Omani photographer (site here), who fortunately knows how to drive on highways that have many warning signs about random camels crossing the road.  I have to say, that even though I grew up in the desert of Arizona, I learned loads about desert shooting in the sands of Dubai.

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I learned this morning that a number of my blogging friends have discovered that a site is publishing entire posts from their sites. Three years ago, I ran into this same problem on my original blog, PixSylated. So, for the benefit of those who’ve just discovered that they’ve been ripped off, I’m republishing my story about fighting a web pirate in 2009. It was a quick fight. Within 24 hours the site was taken down entirely.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) provides very clear steps on what you should do. SOPA and PIPA are entirely different creatures. The DMCA has been alive and kicking for over 12 years.

To file a DMCA Take-Down Notice, you have to contact the ISP that hosts the offending content. Every ISP has their DMCA procedure buried somewhere on their site. Look for “Legal” in the page footer of the ISP’s homepage. If you follow the steps precisely (as defined by the ISP), a US-based ISP has no choice but to take down the material. If several offenses are reported, it is possible that the entire site will be taken offline.

Finding the ISP that hosts the offending site is the key. I detail the steps and provide search links below. For me, it started with a WhoIs search to determine the IP address for the offending site and then a search for the host of that IP address.

If you have additional resources or insights about fighting web pirates, please add them as a comment. The more that we all know about this, the better the web will be.

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Gels are an inexpensive way to turn a boring set into a space filled with ambiance. Three Speedlites, two gels, a random mirror, and a mini softbox enabled me to turn a small, unfinished cellar (above left) into the colorful set for a model’s portfolio shoot (above right).

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to gelling flash for dramatic effect. Most of the time, I start working towards an idea that I have in my head and then explore new opportunities as they appear along the way. So, I’ll walk you through the shoot I did for my friend Arian — one of my favorite workshop models here in Paso Robles – as a tour of my approach to creative gelling.

^ The entire shoot spanned 74 shots over 25 minutes. My hero shot happened at frame 69 — bottom row, second from left. As you’ll see, there were many turns in my visual journey.

My camera gear was my trusty Canon 5D Mark II with the Canon EF17-40mm f/4L lens, parked on my Gitzo tripod. Even though I can handhold 1/30″, I often lock my camera down in this type of shoot so that I maintain consistency of framing from shot to shot — which enables me to concentrate on the changes that I’m making to the light.

I fired three Speedlites – all Canon 580EX IIs – one in the hotshoe as the wireless master and two as off-camera slaves. You’ll find the details about my gel kit at the end of the article. I softened the blue-gelled Speedlite with the Lastolite Ezybox Speed-Lite mini softbox. The camera and flash were both run in manual mode for consistency from frame to frame. In fact, you’ll see that the only camera setting I change is the ISO.

^ Let’s head through the details of ten frames so that you can see the progression of my thoughts. (Tip: click through on any of the pix in this article to see a higher-res version.)

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The next three months offers a wide range of photo expos, festivals, and conferences. Here’s a quick survey of eight of the larger events.

PhotoPro Expo – Feb. 2-5, Cincinnati, OH This has to be the greatest value of all the winter events. $159 gets you 16 speakers, including Yours Truly. I’ll be doing Speedliting clinics on the tradeshow floor Saturday and Sunday. Plus, if you’re an early-bird, I’ll be giving away some special door prizes during my Sunday session at 7am! In addition to the great lineup of speakers and the tradeshow, there will be a print competition and, since it’s Super Bowl Weekend, parties every night.

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The other events are:

Photo LA – Jan. 12-16, Santa Monica, CA

Imaging USA – Jan. 15-17, New Orleans

FOTOfusion – Jan. 24-28, Palm Beach

WPPI – Feb. 16-23, Las Vegas

Gulf Photo Plus – Mar. 5-10, Dubai

Photoshop World – Mar. 24-26, Washington, DC

Palm Springs Photo Festival – Apr. 1-6, Palm Springs

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Lighting Persona, the second of my two December presentations in the Event Space at B&H Photo’s NYC superstore, is now on YouTube. In this video, I go through a number of shoots and the ways I shaped light to create the persona of the subject. Although my first session, Multi-Flash Speedliting (here on YouTube) was specific to Canon Speedlites, the concepts in Lighting Persona apply to all types of light — large and small, flash and continuous.

Click here for the HD version.

Click here for a standard-def version.

In the presentation, I talk about:

• Deciding Whether You Are a Pictorialist Or a Documentarian
• Why Lighting Is Really About Shadowing
• Controlling Ambient Light For Creative Effect
• Hard and Soft: Shaping Light To Match Your Vision
• Using Gels For Color Correction and Dramatic Effect

For a more detailed look at how I shoot with flash, including footage from a number of studio and location shoots, check out my Multi-Speedlite Course on Kelby Training.