The Photographic & Digital Imaging Show

[redwatch]

i got an opportunity to go to The Photographic & Digital Imaging Show in Toronto last Friday May 14th. I went to a couple of seminars and saw lots of stuff. The best part of the show was the Shooting Center & The Lens Center.

The Shooting Center was a huge section of the hall which was set up to demonstrate different lighting set-ups and different subjects. For the stills, they had three custom motorcycles set up with different lighting systems on each one. You could rent lenses if you wanted to, and if you liked one, you could apply the rental cost to the purchase of the lens.

For live action, they had a circus crew there doing different acts. The one I saw was a juggler who was juggling three flaming torches. Let me say, without a good, fast lens, it was a very difficult thing to shoot! It was a real eye-opener for me. With what I was travelling with, I had a difficult time taking good shots. I started off with my Nikon 70-210mm f/4.0 - 5.6. Without a flash it was all but useless. It just isn't fast enough to snap good photos in focus. It did make for some interesting blurry shots though:

With a Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens, I was able to get some shot which were in better focus, but the distance was too far away. This is an un-cropped shot:

Out of around 60 photos, that was the only one that was even half decent! I have some learning to do, but that was what made the show so helpful for me! I understand the practical applications and uses of different lenses, but in use, I still have some work to do

Here's a couple of the motorcycles they had on display:

This Vintage Harley was pretty interesting (and very dusty!). They let me try out the Bowen 400 Lighting system they had setup with a Pocket Wizard II Sync Transmitter which mounts onto the flash hotshoe of the camera. It was kind of interesting, but I don't know if I would have the patience to setup lights and back drops for photo shoots.

The seminars were somewhat interesting. The first one I went to was about color management and the importance of calibrating your monitor so what you see on the screen is what should be printed. Also learned about ICC color maps and all the different ICC profiles that each manufacturer uses for printers and monitors. It was pretty interesting. It was hosted by Datacolor who make the Spyder 3 line of monitor and printer calibrators. Not badly priced and definitely seems like a pretty important tool for photo editing and printing.

The second seminar was on Macro photography (which I am sure some of you have noticed I am really in to!). I must say I was a little disappointed. The presenter was interesting enough, and definitely good at macro photography. However, he spent 30 minutes showing us macro shots he had taken, and then had 15 minutes left to go over the equipment he used. Didn't really learn anything new or interesting at that one.

The other thing that I saw at the photo show which was really cool was a Gary Fong Puffer Flash Diffuser. It's a $20.00 little diffuser which sits in front of the stock pop up flash of most D-SLR cameras.

Here is what a picture would look like without the diffuser (the gentleman working at the booth was kind enough to pose for me)

And here is the same subject but with the Puffer installed on my camera:

A very nice, subtle difference that makes it look less "Flashy"! I definitely plan on picking up one of these little gems. In a pinch, without a decent flash, they make the on-camera flash very usable!

Oh, and one other thing. I got to try out a bunch of lenses while I was there. The one that is definitely on my must have list is the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. This isn't the best example of what it is good at, but the following picture was taken standing about 2 feet away from the big poster that is on the right hand side of the shot:

[dbutlerman]

Cool Red! Looks like a fun stop! and +1 on the wide angle lens. I really want a good one!

[OSRep]

And here is the same subject but with the Puffer installed on my camera:

A very nice, subtle difference that makes it look less "Flashy"! I definitely plan on picking up one of these little gems. In a pinch, without a decent flash, they make the on-camera flash very usable!

Thanks for sharing Red. Looks like the puffer gave the kind gentleman a slight on the spot tan

[redwatch]

The puffer is a pretty amazing little tool - especially for $20.00! Nothing will beat the quality of a good speedlight flash, but in a pinch, when carrying a light load, the puffer could actually make the on-board pop up flash moderately usable!