Too Early?

[Chris Dodkin]

After a request from SWMBO to 'get the **** Christmas Cards ordered' - I came up with a cunning plan, which only involved buying a couple of new pieces of photographic gear and a small tree!

The tree came from a craft store, and I bought some mini decorations to give it a nice red pop.

The shot was lit with off-camera fill flash, using a new off-camera flash cable on the X-Pro1 (The Canon off-camera cables work perfectly with the Fuji flash guns).

Initial exposure was set using a rather natty Sekonic spot/ambient lightmeter which happened to arrive this very afternoon from Amazon

I set the required shutter speed for flash sync, then metered for the aperture (and ISO).

The Flash was set to manual and metered, and set at 1/16 power to provide a nice fill against the sunset lighting.

The final image was shot RAW then tweaked in NIK before exporting to iPhoto.

iPhoto was then used to select the card design and order online.

SWMBO is happy - the task is complete, and my camera bag has some nice new toys for me to play with... I mean shoot next years Christmas Card with!

 

[Steve Boykin]

HA!!!!!!!! Awesome shot too!!!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Worth the effort. Well done, and smart thinking!

 

[Beth Anthony]

nicely executed. if swmbo is happy then it bodes well for the rest of the christmas season. congrats, you'll live through the rest of the year.

 

[Brian Moore]

I need some glass for my Canon 7D. A Christmas Card photo,...yessss!

Well done Mr. Dodkin. And a nice shot, too!

 

[Dave Green]

Superb bit of work - but yes - TOO early! Xmas should at least stay in December! LOL!

 

[Ahmad Bhai]

Genius to keep the SWMBO happy

My SWMBO made me buy Xmas pressies for the kids three weeks ago !

 

[Pete Askew]

Excellent Chris. Nice story and even nicer shot. And now you're fully prepared. You've got the cards sorted. A tree. Decorations. And even a sack!

- - - Updated - - -

Which Sekonic by the way?

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Excellent Chris. Nice story and even nicer shot. And now you're fully prepared. You've got the cards sorted. A tree. Decorations. And even a sack!

- - - Updated - - -

Which Sekonic by the way?

Thanks Pete - I got the Sekonic L-758DR, so should be all set for a while now!

Dave - for some reason SWMBO likes to do the cards at Thanksgiving, so ordering now was required (apparently)

Ahmad - I feel your pain

Thanks Brian - it's all in the pitch... which is why I haven't told her about the new toys yet!

Beth - If only life were that easy...

Thanks Rob and Steve - One of my rare moments of clarity!

 

[Pete Askew]

Nice meter. I have the D (I don't use radio triggers) in the German studio.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

for some reason they won't sell the non-radio version in the US - you can get it on EBAY, but all of the official channels say "Available in Europe only"

So I figured I'd invest and be ready if I ever go for radio triggers

Have you tried the whole Sekonic Exposure Target calibration thing?

Looks expensive...

 

[Pete Askew]

Yes, for the technical stuff. But, to be honest, I found that it made no real difference in my setup. I'm not sure if the application is compatible with the latest Mac OS either (I still run Snow Leopard due to my scanner).

 

[Paul Lange]

Great idea Chris and wonderful photo too. Will she twig when all the cards are the same though? Looks like you need to buy some more gear and take a few more different ones to get yourself out of trouble!

 

[Pete Askew]

I reckon he must have taken more. He's holding out on those though otherwise we won't be getting a surprise at Xmas.