Popular Photography - February 2015 USA

HOW *
TIPS & TRICKS
Retro
Laser
Reflector
What it is: For Paul C.
Buff strobe units, this
22-inch light modifier
($85, direct) is one
of the few that can
lengthen and broaden
strobe output across an
11- to 30-degree beam
spread.
ARNI MAGNUS
QUICK TIP
GIFT RAPT
“MY APPROACH to cityscapes is
simply to take as many pictures
as possible,” says avid shooter
and financial information
professional Arni Magnus, who
lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. “I
shoot from far away, up close, by
tilting the camera, and revisiting
the buildings at different times of
the day, even in different seasons
of the year. Minor changes in
lighting can radically change a
cityscape’s appearance,” he adds.
Great advice. For this shot of
Düsseldorf, Germany’s fittingly
named Colorium building,
Magnus looked over his many
images of the city’s waterfront
business district and chose this
one for the building’s boxlike
design and, of course, its color.
“The building strikes me as a
giant present, covered in colorful
wrapping paper,” he says.
To accentuate the building’s
boxy qualities, Magnus zoomed
in tight and tilted the camera
so the building’s edge formed
an attention-grabbing diagonal
slicing through the center of his
composition. Finally, he cropped
the building into a square to
underscore its gift-wrapped
qualities. —Peter Kolonia
With architecture,
color can help
Arni Magnus
shot with
a Nikon
D80 and
18–135mm
f/3.5–5.6 AF
Nikkor, with
an exposure
of 1/80 sec
at f/7.1,
ISO 320.
METADATA TEMPLATES
30-SECOND SOFTWARE
Creating metadata templates in Adobe Photoshop Bridge is an easy way to
attach copyright and contact information to images. Metadata templates offer
more than 50 fields of information that can be filled, saved, edited, and resaved.
To start, open Bridge and select the images to which you want to add metadata.
Go to Tools > Create Metadata Template. Name your template, add text to the
fields you want to include, and click Save. To add the same metadata to other
images, select the images and go to Tools > Append Metadata. Select Edit or
Replace to make changes to images’ metadata as needed. —Theano Nikitas
How it works: The
Retro Laser (shown
here with the Einstein
E640 and Baby Boomer
bracket, not included)
is similar to a beauty
dish, except that light
reflected off its shiny
inner surface is hardened,
not softened.
Why use it: The Retro
Laser reflector adds
throw to a light source;
the company says
exposures of f/16 at
40 feet, ISO 100, are
possible when it is paired
with the Einstein E640.
POPPHOTO.COM POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY 33