I was reading an article this morning about DSLR accessories and how a company, Zeikos is producing low cost DSLR accessories like batter grips, remotes, off-camera flashes and off camera flash cables.

The prices of these Zeikos accessories is much lower than the Nikon or Canon alternatives. I cannot attest to the quality but at that price they’re worth a buy for anyone hesitating because of the high price. Many of the prices are comparable to the Craigslist or eBay used prices on similar camera accessories used.

Cheap Zeikos dSLR Battery Grips

• Effectively doubles your shooting time
• Lithium-ion rechargeable battery in the grip or 8 AA cartridge plate
• Improves stability & has vertical firing release with lock
• Zeikos battery grips for Nikon Cameras
• Zeikos battery grips for Canon Cameras

Cheap Off Camera Cable (TTL)

• The Zeikos Off-Camera Flash Cord maintains all on-camera flash functions, including TTL, for one Speedlight used off-camera.
• Zeikos off Camera Cable for Nikon or Canon

Cheap Wireless and Wired SLR Remotes

• The Zeikos  Remote remote switch with or without a cable which replicates all functions of the camera’s shutter release button.
• Handy for taking pictures of subjects that are difficult to approach, or to minimize vibration for close-ups and time exposure.
• Zeikos cheap remotes
• Cheap Zeikos wired remotes
• Cheap Zeikos wireless remotes

Zeikos Cheap Off Camera Flash

Featuring an automatic and manual power zoom, a swivel flash head with 30, 45, 60 and 75° tilt movements, and provides 7 different power ratio levels.

• Digital LCD Display
• Cheap Flash for Canon EOS Cameras
• More Zeikos Flashes

After reading a post about how orange and teal color grading is ruining the movie industry in this post: Teal and Orange – Hollywood, Please Stop the Madness. I thought – why not create a quick and dirty Photoshop action to mimic this effect in a flexible way for anyone to use on a photo. So here it is, my Cinema Orange/Teal Color Grading Action.

Download the Cinema Orange/Teal Color Grading Action Photoshop Action

It’s very versatile and works beautifully with portraits as well as architecture and landscapes, enjoy! Post links to any photos you use this preset in, I’d love to see them!

I was going through some of my old Lightroom catalogs when I came across a shoot I did last year. I was looking through my five star flags and found a few interesting shots that I realized I had edited entirely in Lightroom. I really liked these shots and thought they would make great presets so here’s one of the few I found.

Cloudy Glow Portrait Preset

I call this preset cloudy glow because of the way it brightens the skin to a soft glow with a bright white “cumulus” look about it. Okay or I was just being a little dramatic with my naming but I thought it flowed well.

Download the Cloudy Glow Lightroom Preset for Portraits
Need help installing? DPS has a good article for you on how to install Lightroom presets

It’s very versatile and works beautifully with head shots and portraits. Hope you enjoy! Post links to any photos you use this preset in, I’d love to see them!

Small objects too bright? Photo from you digital camera overexposed, bright or washed out? Use the white card trick!

When using a point and shoot camera you are usually a slave to it’s built in intelligence and capabilities. It makes technical decisions like ISO, shutter speed, fstop and whether the flash should fire. Sometimes you can’t even override these decisions.

This is part of what makes consumer digi-cams or digital point and shoot cameras so appealing, it takes the work out the technical behind photography and believe this: sometimes I’d rather use a little pocket camera rather than my DSLR.

So what can you do if you are not a photographer and you want to photograph something on a dark color, maybe even in a light tent. All of the photos in his post were taken with my < $200 Canon pocket digital point and shoot camera using the Impact medium light tent kit from B&H Photo.

You get close and you end up with this:

Try this trick: hold a white side of an index card or the back of a recent pizza delivery slip at the same distance and near the subject or object. Have the camera auto focus (where you push the shutter half way and depending on the camera you’ll see a box try to find the face or focal point of the picture and will focus in on that point.

Pull the paper away (while still partially pushing the button) and then finish pressing the button and voila!

Tech Notes

Why does this work? Because the camera detects faces and the focal point based on the contrast between colors. By having both black and white (the two ends of a spectrum) the camera has to allow for all colors from black to white to be covered instead of just the darker colors where it tried to lighten the picture to make lightest part it could find white.
Kind-of like when you increase the brightness on your computer screen.

Upgrade to Semi-Pro Equipment

If you want to use a technique like this infront of clients you may want to consider upgrading your white card to something like a White Balance Card Set for under $25. Then you will also have a pure black card to use when trying to shoot light colored objects on light background. Remember the key to the trick here is the range of contrast from black to white no matter what color the subject or background is, it’s about range!

Sometimes browsing in the iTunes music store for good apps is hit or miss. Actually let me rephrase that – I find it’s always hit or miss. there’s a lot of apps listed in the category ‘photography’ that may not belong there.

There’s apps with pictures of sexy girls (not photography IMHO) and apps for editing and post processing photos on or taken by the iPhone and then there’s some great photographer tool style apps.
That latter group is my favorite and also where the Strobox app fits in. An app for photographers.

Strobox is a free app by Janis Lanka (@janislanka) and it helps you create quick lighting diagrams. Whether you are jotting down notes about a lighting setup for a photo to share with others or to use again later this is a great app to have on your device.

There are currently 25+ pieces of lighting equipment that you can move, rotate and place on your diagram including backgrounds, strobes, soft boxes, umbrellas and more.

The app saves your setups for future reference or generated a PNG that you can easily email to someone (or yourself.) I’ve used it multiple times to take note of lighting setups I’ve used in specific photos and ideas for lighting setups that might produce a cool effect. Here’s an example of a PNG I just created through Strobox.

Visit the Strobox Website or download Strobox through the iTunes Music Store.
Strobox graphics are from http://app.strobox.com/ and used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License

Photography gear can be expensive – sometimes you just need a special lens, camera body or lighting equipment temporarily. Be it for an assignment, project or just to try before you buy.
Many online photographic rental companies are popping up now – especially with the economy in some turmoil (in the US specifically) cause investing in new equipment isn’t always a priority as landing the right gigs to support more investments. And for those of us who prefer photography as a hobby – rental is often a great solution.

Most rental retailers deal primarily with Nikon and Canon equipment but some places rent Olympus, Sony, AlienBees and much more!
Here’s a list and details on reputable lens and equipment rental companies that do online/shipping for rental equipment across the US.


Borrowed Lenses is a great place to rent camera bodies, lenses, accessories, portable studio equipment and even camera bags!

Borrowed lenses

They carry:

• Canon Camera Bodies
• Canon Lenses
• Nikon Camera Bodies
• Nikon Lenses
• Tripods & Heads
• Lightmeters
• Tripods & Heads
• Lighting
• Camera Bags
• And More!

They’re located in San Mateo, CA and do local 3day (pick-up only) rentals. Otherwise they do rentals for 1-4 weeks (listed on the website) at really good prices. Renting a camera or lens is a great idea for an important shoot where you would benefit from more quality than you usual camera or to test drive some new equipment before you buy it. See their great (***** five star) Yelp reviews!

They also do sensor cleaning for only $45!!

Glass and Gear

Glass and Gear is located in Amherst, NH and do 3 day rentals locally through Hunt’s Photo in Manchester NH. Their website says they are planning to expand to rent through other Hunt’s locations (there are a number in the New England area!)

They rent:

• Canon Cameras & Lenses
• Nikon Cameras & Lenses
• Lighting
• And More!

Rent Glass

Rent Glass does rentals for 1-3 weeks at a time although their selection seems much smaller than borrowed lenses and Glass and gear.

They rent and ship:

• Nikon Camera, Lens and Flashes
• Canon Cameras, Lenses and Flashes

You can follow them on Twitter @rentglass.  They now operate out of Kansas City, KS (previously Orlando FL) and do allow for pickup but don’t list a special 3 day pickup rental period like most of the other lens and equipment rental places listed.

Lens Rentals

Lens Rentals is one of the few rental places that lists more than just Nikon and Canon.  They list some other great camera manufacturers.

They Rent:

• Canon
• Four Thirds (Olympus)
• Leica
• Nikon
• Sony
• Video Equipment
• Lighting
• Support
• Macro/Specialty

They are also the only rental place that I’ve seen that has a dedicated iPhone app (a lovely and well organized looking app too!). They’re bassed out of Memphis, TN and while they offer local pickup the shortest rental period they offer at this time is 1 week.

Pro Photo Rentals

Pro Photo Rentals is based out of Boulder, CO and they offer a 4+ day rental options.  They don’t force you into weeks – you can rent a lens for however long you like (4 day minimum.) They do offer a local pickup for you Boulder Colorado local folks!

They Rent:

• Canon Cameras, Lenses & Accessories
• Nikon Cameras, Lenses & Accessories
• Olympus Cameras, Lenses & Accessories

You can find Pro Photo Rental on both Twitter @prophotorental and Flickr.

Aperture Rent

Aperturent is our last camera and lens rental service. They are run out of the Atlanta GA area and do offer 3 day local pick-up only rental terms.  Otherwise their rental time frames are between 7 – 30 days (weekly.)

They Rent:

• Nikon & Canon Lenses
• Nikon & Canon Cameras
• Nikon, Canon & Alienbee Lighting
• Accessories

You can find Aperturent on Twitter @aperturent on flickr or facebook.

Hey y’all recently I’ve switched our email update system to send emails more consistently. Since the postings here on LearnMorePhoto.com are quite sporadic I’ve switched to a monthly email system. Yes that mean anyone subscribed to the current (now old) email system needs to sign up for the new snazzy newsletter. Or sign up below.

This is even better than getting the free gels from Rosco or the cheap sample packs from B&H / Amvona. A Strobist gel kit.

This awesome Rosco Strobist 55-Piece Filter Kit is great for both color correcting your flash head to match your surroundings: fluorescent, tungsten and daylight. All of under $10! The kit includes the following:

• 46 color correcting gels
• 9 fun, colored gels, to play with
• See a list of all the gels included here

I also recommend picking up this adapter to hold your gels. It’s Velcro enabled so if you have Velcro on your flash head already it’s great – if not try the Honl Velcro Flash Strap also under $10.

It’s perfect for your Strobist 55 set gel kit – and handy for any other use of gels on your strobe – should you want to test some sample colors from the sample packs or cut down full sheets once you find a color you are crazy about! Well worth the $15 to add a professional look to your use of gels – duck tape and non-wind resistance doesn’t always cut it in the real world!

A bounce umbrella works very simply by taking the light from a light source and expanding it’s spread.

A bounce umbrella is typically lined on the interior with a silver, gold or white reflective surface and on the outside with black to reduce light from escaping.

To show you exactly I’ve put together some diagrams that show where the light goes. For this example we’ll assume that an umbrella is a cut of a perfect sphere. The focal point, through which all the reflected light passes, is 1/2 * radius of the circle, or half way between the sphere’s center point and the edge of the umbrella.

When the light hits the reflective surface it bounces back in a straight line through the focal point.

You can see where the reflected light hits the subject.

At first you’d expect to want to place your subject at the tip of the umbrella (like shown in the diagram) but that’s rarely the best idea – we’ll cover that in another article.

Check out our sister site, Single Strobe Photography to find some great shoot-through umbrellas to buy through some of out favorite online retailers, B&H and Amvona.

A shoot-through umbrella works very simply by taking the light from a light source and expanding it’s spread.

A shoot-through umbrella is typically white and a fairly thin or translucent white at that. The light is intended to travel through the umbrella to reach it’s subject.

To show you exactly I’ve put together some diagrams that show where the light goes. For this example we’ll assume that an umbrella is a cut of a perfect sphere. The focal point, through which all the reflected light passes, is 1/2 * radius of the circle, or half way between the sphere’s center point and the edge of the umbrella.

When the light hits the reflective surface it bounces both through the umbrella and some spill (usually about 1f stop) comes back in a straight line through the focal point. The light that gets through the umbrella’s surface travels in the opposite direction of the light that reflects back from the umbrella’s surface.

You can see where the reflected light hits the subject.

At first you’d expect to want to place your subject at the tip of the umbrella (like shown in the diagram) but that’s rarely the best idea – we’ll cover that in another article.

Check out our sister site, Single Strobe Photography to find some great shoot-through umbrellas to buy through some of out favorite online retailers, B&H and Amvona.