Goodbye Signor Vignelli...

Massimo Vignelli passed earlier on May 27. 2014, after a long illness.

Many of my students will know him from the movie "HELVETICA," where he was presented as the elder-statesman for the camp of modernist design voices in the film who were outspoken in their support of the helvetica font.

To me he was the guru of branding in communicative design, and a contemporary extension of the clean and efficient aesthetic expressions of guys like Rietveld and van der Rohe.

I remember (from the early days of computer-driven design) hearing the story of how Vignelli insisted that all designers start their work with a moleskin idea book—pencil and paper first—before even touching the computer. Whether that was apocryphal or canon doesn't matter. It represents a 'clarity of thinking and ideas' (as Vignelli expressed in some interviews) that resulted in a design solution that effectively and efficiently communicated.

RIP  Mr. Vignelli.

check out the Times article on  Mr. Vignelli's passing.

Equivalent Exposure Rule…

Have you ever marveled at an experienced photographer who can nail exposure pretty much right off the bat?

Well, they got that way by first learning (in fact memorizing) some of the exposure equivalencies, and then doing a buttload (years) of shooting and applying that knowledge in real world scenarios.

I once met an advertising photographer they teasingly called "Old Oneshot." Back in the days of film, they used to provide a polaroid of the shot to you while they processed the medium format transparencies. Old Oneshot prided himself on being able to nail a shot with one polaroid (although he did fire off a minimum of three bracketed shots after nailing the exposure to be honest).

A little basic knowledge can go a long way.  Knowing the fundamentals of exposure equivalencies can really help your technical game. While you may not memorize them (ala Zak Arias or Jared Polan–many of the pros who have attended photo school for four years memorize these), you will be more technically skilled.

Check out the full lesson (click on the image link).

Rainy Day Photography Idea: Water Drops

Upon viewing my attempt at this exercise, my twenty-something son mentioned it could quite easily be: paint, milk, or pig's blood (yech). Whatever you use, a great rainy-day activity is to set up a mini studio and shoot water drops (the cleanup of water is easier than those others). You'll actually get very 'in-tune' with your equipment doing this exercise. You'll have to figure out manual focus, exposure, and of course TIMING.

The world of digital makes for a much easier time doing all of this. I remember trying something like this in college (when we shot film) and developing 71 exposures of crappy shots, and 1 passable, yet blurry shot. The ability to make adjustments on the fly while viewing your shots on the LCD or tethered lightroom computer makes it much easier, but still a great learning experience.

I used a boom stand with a ziplock sandwich bag as my water drop source. A simple paperclip near a tiny hole in the bottom of the bag was my regulator. The bag was binder-clipped to the boom arm.

I used a glass dish (yeah… I know there was a pyrex logo on mine…but you could easily use one without the logo, or a plastic tray if you prefer). The reason I used glass was so I could slide colored paper underneath, and we only have pyrex bakeware in the kitchen. For an exercise its OK.

I also used an off-camera flash (580-style knockoff) and some colored paper folded in a "V" so it could stand up across from the flash. I used a small paper reflector near camera as well. The camera really needs to be steady--so a tripod is a must.

You'l also need to manually set everything–including focus. To focus, I used a piece of styrofoam on a skewer where the water was hitting, and then removed it after I set focus (auto will NOT work with this). My speed was set between 1/100 and 1/200 (sync speed for flash). Aperture was based on exposure, since dof was not a huge issue in such a small zone. 

I used a wireless trigger set between the flash and camera, but could easily have used a flash cable. For every successful shot I had, there were four or five crappy ones (but the odds are MUCH higher than with film). Try it and let me know your results!

HYPOCRISY? COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

I have dealt with increasing numbers of people who have mentioned dealing with "cognitive dissonance" in their lives in some way. Some may simply refer to this as "Hypocrisy," or hypocritical behavior—which I believe is sometimes too much of a simplification of things.

Here is a great article, in fairly simple language, that deals with the topic.
Check it out when you have time for a good read.

MACRO on the cheap… (wit' a couple o' TIPs).

I'd love to have a macro lens to play with (–anyone have one they'd like to give me?). I just don't have the cash at this point. If I  COULD make it pay for itself, I'd probably consider buying one. In the meantime, I'll try the time honored method of photographers-on-the-cheap everywhere, and use a decent set of aluminum macro tubes.

I bought the pair that I used in these photos for about 10 bucks. Back in school (80's), there were guys who did the old (turn the lens around) trick… and  a few who crafted reverse lens mountings using mailing tubes. These were always great for fiddling around with macro, but clearly not a solution that you'd want to use with paying accounts.

I'd highly encourage the tubes at their minimal 10$ price tag. For about 75 bucks, I could have purchased some with the proper EF lens contacts for my Canon. [but hey..who am I? Rockefeller?]

Just a few tips from my afternoon with the tubes.

Boy! Coins sure are dirty close up.
I wound up using a “nifty-fifty” lens on the end of the tubes.  You can see slight chromatic aberration on the coins and oatmeal when shot against a black glass surface. I played a bit with the aberration-correction in Adobe C.R.E., but can still see the slight fringe on the left and right.

You can also see that by the time I got to the dime I had opened the windows more in my living room, and used my hands to reflect light onto the dime (may also want to try a very small piece of paper).

The lens is very tight to the objects, so the light is sometimes tricky.
Because of the lighting, you may wind up setting your shutter for as long as a few seconds, so a TRIPOD and using the camera's shutter timer or a remote is probably good form on these.

You can also see in the quarter how really shallow your depth-of-field will be. "IN GOD WE TRUST" is just trailing out  on the E and the T, and you can see on the front end STATES is outside the plane. Your aperture is not "communicated" through the cheaper tubes. It will read "0" and revert to your fastest stop (on my equipment at least).

I learned from others' posts on using these simple tubes that you can use the aperture lock on your camera with the lens mounted as normal…then unscrew the lens while aperture lock is still depressed, then quickly attach the tubes to hold the aperture at its last setting.  I used f 8 as a starting point with this "locking" technique that will give you more depth of field (as in the dime), but require more light and potentially exposure time.

The mandarin orange wound up a bit dark, so I fiddled with aperture and exposure time to get the texture. Its a bit dark (which I don't mind terribly given the light "valley" in the skin crease behind it. 

The rolled oats had a bit of the aberration on the farthest oat against the black background glass. I noticed you get almost "bokeh" effect of reflective items on the glass if the exposure is too high, so this exposure is the combo of acceptable aperture and focus against the moderated speed (1/6 sec).

To recap: 

these macro tubes (photodiox) are fun to experiment with…but I don't think that anyone doing macro with a proper lens is going to bother with these (even the higher end ones that do communicate between  your camera and lens).  A macro lens is just easier and more expedient in more diverse use scenarios.

You'll also need to have a tripod! No way to hand hold on some of these.

A  decent understanding of aperture, shutter-speed, iso and focus (and the dexterity/ability to manual focus while adjusting your tripod for distance) is also a must. 

If you don't have a good window letting light in, you'll also want good constant light as well (I use a CREE 6500K LED work light I picked up on sale at the hardware store, and use it on other items as needed).  OVERALL, it's well worth the 10 bucks to experiment with though.

Photography Two-cents…

I am a “graphic designer who does photography…” and not a pure photographer by training.

I  teach photography regularly, and I have always told my students that, first and foremost, I am a graphic designer. During the time that I went through school (early 80's), a part of my training included some basic fine-arts photographic preparation (and the world of darkrooms and black and white film). I feel comfortable around the medium (Although I had to adjust to digital like many of the old salty-dog photographers out there).

At any rate, I always feel compelled to make this distinction because there is occasion for Designers and Photographers to sometimes view things differently. The vast majority of the time though, it is a very complementary relationship, with the added experience and expertise of  each party resulting in a solid visual product. The experienced photographer typically plays a pivotal part in helping an AD achieve a communication goal.

Occasionally, with a media-driven process, there can be differing viewpoints. This is when my design background comes out. My message (the brand, the idea, the concept) has to be king. If it means cropping that photo much tighter than the photographer would like—so be it.

I also appreciate great photographic equipment (while I myself cannot afford it). It's awesome to shoot on a pro's 5DmkIII with pro L lenses! It makes sense for the pros to have great equipment, but anyone who cannot make a return on the cost of investment is not really getting what its all about. An old friend in Arizona  repeated the well recited mantra to me: “ beginners worry about gear, pros worry about light (and money too).”

Too often I also feel that equipment can often become an excuse for students not mastering the fundamentals or understanding basic technique. I have had more than a few students claim their work was subpar because they didn't have “camera X ” or “gadget Y…” as well as a handful with D800's shooting entirely in AUTO.

Learn the camera you have! Master the exposure triangle and light, and figure out stops to light ratios. Take great shots and set up interesting composition and angles.

Once you've mastered the fundamentals (and if you have paying gigs), dropping 5K might make some sense.