24 Hours, 24 Videos: Welcome to 2009

So here it is: 2009. And after our 24-video marathon run through 2008’s memorable moments, hopefully you’re feeling suitably entertained and fired with enthusiasm for the year ahead.



But before we move on into the unknown, let’s take closer look at some of the videos we have featured through the day – be it for the sake of Auld Lang Syne, or just for kicks. Because here at YouTube there is nothing we like more than a bit of backstory to place a video in context.

Weezer: Pork and Beans

Weezer's video hit YouTube on May 23. Drawing on 24 of the biggest viral hits the site has seen to date -- from "Dramatic Chipmunk" to "Miss Teen USA 2007 South Carolina" to Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain" -- the video salutes some of the most memorable moments and people in YouTube's history, generating more than 15,500,000 clicks in the process and creating (dare we say it) a video that transcended the sum of its estimable parts.

Christian the Lion

This story of an unbreakable bond between man and beast was one of the most talked about videos of 2008. It briefly chronicles the true story of a lion being reunited with the two men who raised him, years after he'd been released back into the wild and become the leader of his own pride. The actual reunion took place in 1972, but this archive footage was rediscovered and posted to YouTube earlier this year. If one video saw tears stain the leathery cheeks of the battle-hardened YouTube Team over the past 12 months, this was it…

Frozen Grand Central

The New York-based collective Improv Everywhere have become firm favorites on YouTube, thanks to their unique public hijinks. Videos like "No Pants Subway Ride" and "Food Court Musical" offer good examples of their large-scale pranks, but the elaborate public performance "Frozen Grand Central Station" was especially popular. The video features more than 200 people simultaneously freezing in place at Grand Central Station in New York City; the reactions of onlookers are as striking as the stunt itself. They claim to ‘cause scenes’ – they don’t lie.

Where The Hell Is Matt?

Matt Harding is best known as the goofy guy who danced his way around the world. But Harding's frankly risible grooving has brought inspiration and joy to millions of people -- over 14 million have viewed it on YouTube alone. As one observant user said: "It shows that no matter how different we are on the outside, inside we all just want to dance, laugh, and have fun."

Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up

Chances are that at some point in 2008, you or someone you know experienced a "Rick Roll": a bait-and-switch prank that dupes you into watching the video for Rick Astley's 1980s hit "Never Gonna Give You Up." The joke even transcended the Internet with organizers of football games, parades and rallies "Rick Rolling" unsuspecting attendees. But perhaps the ultimate "Rick Roll" occurred on April Fool's Day, when YouTube rigged up every feature to the video. Then he was pronounced Best Act Ever by MTV Europe after – you guessed it – an internet poll. You naughty, naughty people.

Will.i.am: Yes We Can Obama Song

When Barack Obama delivered his concession speech after the New Hampshire primary, little did he know he was providing the script -- and the inspiration -- for the most-watched political video of 2008. Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" music video, a celebrity-studded mash-up of Obama's speech, became an instant viral sensation upon its release in early February, and arguably had a massive influence on Election '08 and popular culture. Seen over six million times just on Will.i.am's official YouTube channel, the video has inspired voters, young people, and satirists alike.

Fred Loses His Meds

Who says you can't become an overnight success on YouTube? Not 15-year-old Lucas Cruikshank, or Fred Figglehorn as he is known to fans, who created a Web series in which he plays a hyperactive six-year-old with anger management issues. Fred's hyper-kinetic videos quickly caught people's attention and helped make him the fastest-rising star in YouTube history. The above video (his second) was Fred's first to break a million views, jump-starting his meteoric rise to his current position as the No. 1 Most Subscribed user on YouTube.

Star Wars according to a three-year-old

This sweet-faced little lady became a YouTube sensation with her retelling of the original Star Wars movie. Fans of the film can go on for hours discussing the plot, but this three-year-old sums it up in less than two minutes. If not the most detailed description of Star Wars ever, it's arguably the most adorable. Warning: Spoiler Alert.

The Miley Cyrus Story

Not only did Miley release a hit song (and video) this year with 7 Things, which inspired several user-generated parodies (some of them nearly as popular as the original), but the Hannah Montana star also launched her own YouTube channel, MileyMandy with best friend Mandy Jiroux. The girls have used their channel to vlog and generally horse around for their audience of over 292,000 subscribers, and it's also where they post their M&M Cru dance battle videos, which together have notched nearly 15 million views and took the world's "biggest online dance battle" to a whole new level.

Super Mario Rescues The Princess: Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade

As the creator of Family Guy and American Dad, Seth MacFarlane has had a tremendous impact on animated entertainment. This year, MacFarlane opted to launch Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy exclusively on Google and YouTube. Not only was this a groundbreaking event for online video, it also showcased the financial opportunities that online advertising can offer film-makers (not that this comes as much surprise to members of the YouTube Partner Program).



Now we’ve had our say, we’d love to hear what you made of our end-of-year round up. Leave your comments below – it wouldn’t be YouTube without a little back and forth now, would it?



Here’s to a video-rich 2009. Happy New Year!

The YouTube Team

Scott Hargis Interview Tonight: 8 p.m. PT

UPDATE: The interview, very much worth reading, is archived here.

Long-time Strobist reader and architectural photographer Scott Hargis, whom we have mentioned before, will be doing a live chat-style interview on Photo Camel tonight, at 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time in the US (which is GMT -8).

Scott specializes in efficiently shooting architectural interiors for real estate, and makes heavy use of his speedlights in the process. If you are into small-flash interior lighting and Scott is talking, you'll wanna be listening.

:: Scott's Website ::
:: Scott's Flickr Stream ::
:: How-to Article (via Photography for Real Estate) ::
:: Photography for Real Estate Flickr Pool ::
:: Photo Camel Architecture Forum ::

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Reader Spotlight: Paul Morton

To pull off this beautiful close-up shot of a guitar, reader Paul Morton, of Phoenix, AZ, had to solve several problems: The guitar was black, the chrome sees everything, and table had to separate from the body of the instrument.

Paul used a total of five speedlights, and a healthy dose of ingenuity. Take a moment to reverse engineer it before making the jump to see how he did it.
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Says Paul:

"My girlfriend inherited this guitar. Well, actually, her sister did -- and I have had it for 3 months to shoot. Needles to say It's about time I give it back. So I have been playing with it. As it is black and the chrome is pretty much white, I noticed the colorful anchors to the strings. I love different, close-up angles like this and the colors were a bonus. I wanted the neck and strings in the shot so everyone would know it is a guitar and I liked how they appear to be moving due to the shallow depth of field."

He goes on: "It was fairly difficult to get the light on that chrome bar the strings are anchored in. I liked the gradient light in the top part, which came from an SB-26 firing into my ceiling, but the side facing the camera was black until I put a piece of foam-core around my lens and fired two strobes into it. It kind of worked out like a ring light, although it wasn't round. I also used a couple SB-26s at the other end to light the table and seperate the body. ..."

The trick to lighting chrome is to light what the chrome sees. The reflection creates your tone. Paul built his white wall of foam-core around the lens to give something nice and consistent for the chrome to reflect. This is a classic technique for shooting objects which are highly specular. And it doesn't get much more specular than chrome.

Paul continues:

"I setup a quasi-ring flash with the foam-core around the lens and an SB-26 and a 580EX on either side firing into it. Because there is no eye in the photo to show a catchlight, the square sheet worked fine. I added the other sheets on either side of that to further fill in the large chrome nuts on either end of the string mount."

"The sb-26 to the left with the big starburst is firing up into the ceiling to fill the top of the strong mount as well as the strings and neck further down. Two more SB-26s are fired into the table to light it up, because it was getting kind of dark down there. I put a gobo on the right flash because it was lighting up the neck and the chrome tuning knobs that are closest to the camera in this shot."

"I shot at 1/40th to 1/200th of a second and from F16 to F11. I also worked between ISO 100 and 200 -- it just depends on the shot. I would lower the shutter speed to bring in some ambient, and closed down the aperture to make the blacks go black. I put the camera on a tripod so I could play with light position and the camera settings until I got the light I wanted."

This is a classic example of building light a single zone at a time and solving the problems one-by-one. In the aggregate, this is a very tricky photo. But broken down into segments, it is very doable.

Nice shot, Paul. Makes me wanna play it. Tuned to an open chord, of course. 'Cause I pretty much suck at anything other than the easy slide stuff.

(Keith Richards, white courtesy phone, please...)

Many thanks to Paul for the great caption info and especially for the setup shot. When you add setup shots and good lighting info, it makes a huge difference for the people viewing your photos who want to learn.

If you guys get a chance, cruise over to Paul's photo and leave a comment.

More Bert, On Location

It's my birthday today. So I am taking the day off and handing the keys over to "Baritone Bert" Stephani, who is back with another one of his smooth-voiced, small-flash lighting videos from Confessions of a Photographer.

For the newbs, note how quickly and easily Bert constantly adjusts his lighting to vary the effect. He just grabs them and goes, whether he is backing the light up to get more even lighting over a larger area or hitting his model with 12:00-high umbrella for an Iggy Pop look.

Remember, the more you do this stuff the easier and more intuitive it gets. Just do it.

Now, if you'll forgive me, I will be spending the next two hours with my senile self trying to figure out where I left my car keys -- and yelling at kids to get off of my lawn.

UPDATE: Well, I can honestly say that I did not expect this on my birthday... (Thanks, guys!)

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YouTube Partner Program: Now in the UK

When we announced the expansion of the YouTube Partner Program late last year, our goal was to offer some of the most popular and prolific original content creators in the YouTube community an easy way to generate revenue from their videos on the site. (For a quick recap of how the program works, see our previous blog post.)



Like the Internet itself, the YouTube community crosses borders and cultural boundaries. As part of our ongoing plan to reflect international user contribution to our service -- we've already localized our service for 18 countries -- we're excited to announce that once again we are expanding the YouTube Partner Program, this time by rolling out the program internationally. First stop, the United Kingdom. Now anyone living in the UK can apply to become a partner at uk.youtube.com/partners.



The program has grown significantly since its initial launch, with millions of video views each day earning revenue for our partners. We look forward to bringing the YouTube Partner Program to more international users in the near future. To where will we expand next? Stay tuned…



The YouTube Team

Education Roundup

The upcoming Feb 16th and 17th Orlando, Florida lighting seminars are sold out. But there is lots more education stuff on the menu, including more upcoming seminars, after the jump.
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Education Notes

• I am in the process of venue selection for the Mar. 15-16 seminars in Phoenix, AZ. More details coming soon.

• Scott Kelby's new tome, The Digital Photography Book, Vol. 2, is out, following the wildly successful Vol. 1. I helped edit the chapter on flash, which, like the rest of the book is vintage, nuts-and-bolts Kelby. It is reviewed by a Strobist reader Ivan Makarov, here.

• Registration for the Northern Short Course (Rochester, NY, Mar. 13-15) has opened. I will not be teaching there this time due to a scheduling conflict. But they have a very strong roster of speakers this year, including my long-time friend, Chris Usher, whom I will be very sad to miss. These NPPA things are always killer deals and you should definitely try it out if you are in the Northeast USA.

• I will be doing four two-hour workshops at the Southern Short Course (Charlotte, NC, Mar. 27-31) geared toward working photojournalists and environmental portraiture. These NPPA things are ridiculously cheap, and tend to sell out quickly. (Last year's was $75.00 for all four days of speakers and workshops.) Registration is not open yet, but it pays to keep a watch on the site.

Charlotte, BTW, is starting to come on as a Strobist meetup city: See the recent garage-shoot video, here.

• John Harrington just posted a truckload of new gear videos on his Assignment Construct site. It is becoming clear to me that John is single-handedly supporting the entire photo gear industry at this point. I am thinking his next video will be on how to choose the best U-Haul trailer to carry it all.

UPDATE: John has a great video, from the photog's perspective, on covering Bush's last State of the Union Address last night, posted here.

• Long range planning, I will be teaching long-form, multi-day seminars in Dubai (UAE) in late April / early May. If you are in that area of the world (Dubai is an easy flight for many) I'd love to see you there. There are others teaching -- people you will most definitely want to see -- but if I told you about them now, I'd have to kill you. More details coming soon.

One Day, 24 States

Next Tuesday, February 5, may be the most important day yet in the 2008 race to the White House. Dubbed "Super Tuesday," it's when voters in 24 states take to the polls to vote for their parties' nominees. This year, half the delegates for each party's nomination are up for grabs.



We've created a special Super Tuesday channel on our You Choose '08 platform. Not only can you submit your political videos to the channel, but you can also tag them to a Google map to show the world where you're uploading from.







Zoom into the states to get a close-up view or scan across the map to follow the campaign through the eyes of voters, candidates, and news teams. We're already seeing some great content:







Keep watching, and if you live in one of the 24 Super Tuesday states, be sure to get out and vote!


Yours,

Steve G.

YouTube News & Politics

On Assignment: Steve at Google

Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to spend several days on the Google campus. For a guy like me, that borders on being a religious experience.

I have never been more intimidated than I was while setting up to spend all day teaching to a room full of fifty Google employees. On the one hand, I was absolutely certain that I was the dumbest guy in the room. But on the other hand, the whole campus just oozes with camaraderie and collaboration. Which adds a whole new (and very cool) layer to the enlarged frontal lobe thing.

But when it was all said and done, I could not remember ever having hung out with a more broadly intelligent and fun bunch of folks. Add to that the amazing environment that Google has created for their people, and you have a remarkable place to spend a career.

I won't get all of the perks and bennies of being a Googler, because there's a lot. But I will take a moment to give a shout out to the food -- all free -- and prepared by 5-star chefs. These guys know how to get their grub on.

Just imagine being on a cruise ship, every day, three times a day, but with better food. (Lobster tacos, anyone?) It is said that some Googlers do not even keep a fridge in their house. And yes, the campus coolers were stocked with ice-cold DMD's.

That food is from all over the world, and top notch. But they still know how to bring it down to street level: All hail Chef Dave's Special Bacon Fried Rice.

Okay, now I am getting all distracted. Back to shooting Steve, after the jump...
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The Need for Speed

Google prides themselves not only on being the best search engine on the planet, but also on being breathtakingly fast. That's a good skill to have when lighting a portrait, too. In this case, for instance, the sun was quickly disappearing behind the top of a nearby building on campus. (The building just past a full-sized T-rex skeleton sculpture devouring the remains of a Christmas tree, to be exact.)

So this was gonna have to happen within just a few minutes, or it wasn't going to look very good. Just for fun, I am going to run this one real time. Times are pulled from EXIF data. But please remember to allow for the fact that we are explaining the process as we go, which slows us down a bit...

(Fortunately, with these guys, you rarely have to explain something twice. They pretty much get it the first time.)


Time = 00:00

My lights are on stands, and I am walking to the shoot with them, just as if we were doing a few looks, shoot-and-scoot style.

First off, choose an angle. Grab a natural light shot to assess the ambient portion of the photo and check the sight lines. No problems here. Exposure, 1/400, f/4.5, ISO 400. That's an easy place to hit, and to move around, with flash.

Note all of those not-very-bright guys hanging out in the back.


Time = 00:10

We are now ten seconds into the shoot. Having placed a bare flash (1/2 power, if memory serves) I grab a test shot, blocking the light with my hand, to see what my backlight will do to the surroundings when blocked by Steve.

Everything looks fine. In fact, I am always amazed at what one hidden backlight can do. Here, it is working in spades, reflecting off of the glass and white aluminum and doing all sorts of cool things. More often than not when designing light, I start in the back and move forward.

Later, when editing at a less insane pace, I would realize that the people who were just hanging around in this test looked pretty darn good. Especially Aaron, back center right, leaning against the post with the "come hither" stare. (He is nowhere near that attractive in real life.)

I could use this technique (combined with a front light) to shoot a kickin' 10-person group shot, if needed. So I file that away somewhere, for later.

(EDIT: Second thought, I think there is some un-aimed, unadjusted front light kicking in here on my hand. See my head shadow. But it is not reaching back to the back guys -- it is too far and the gridded beam way to narrow to get them all like that. That's all bouncing backlight, I'd bet.)


Time = 00:56

Just for comparison: Note how useless a backlight test is if you do not block it with something when testing it.

That's an important thing to remember. I always travel with one hand, and a spare, just for this reason.



Time = 00:59

Less than a minute after first visualizing the scene, I am testing the second light -- from the position of the second light. This is critical when working fast, as it allows you to test both exposure and aim while seeing what your light will see. This light had a gridspot, so aim counts.

Then I waste twenty secs of precious sunlight talking about the fact that the front light is too dark. Adjust light to be more powerful. Shut up and get back to work. Note that I am not even bothering to focus these shots yet. No need. Why waste the time?


Time = 01:22

There, that's better. If memory serves, I am at 1/2 power on the back light, and 1/8 power on the front light, which is coming from just a little bit camers right in the final shooting position, and a little higher than Steve's face.

The power settings are not important. The thought process is important.

I see here that I would like a little more exposure in the sky. Open the shutter from 1/400th to 1/200th of a sec. Problem solved for first real shot, which is at:


Time = 01:44

We are off and running. Starting at 01:44, I am making photos I can use. For the next two and a half minutes, I concentrate on making good frames. Vary the angle. Get different expressions. Watch for changing ambient light and adjust the shutter if needed. Remind the fifty people standing behind me to leave a path in the tunnel, because people are actually needing to use it as we shoot.

In four minutes and change, we go from visualizing a two-light photo to having thirty usable frames to choose from. Not that we're stealing a car or anything. But I want my frames before the light goes away, simple as that. That's a good way to be able to work, and very doable when you have been lighting long enough for it to get intuitive.

Here's the frame I chose. For one thing, Steve wasn't blinking or picking his nose in this one, and the expression and lines both look good.

Someone asked about the reflection of the backlight in the glass. It is either too close to me (in the side glass) to see, or is hidden by a post. You can see it popping up in the first "real shot" frame, at time = 01:44.

I was working to fast to know or care why it was not a problem later. But if it had been a problem, I would have moved forward or back to hide the reflection in a white post and zoom the lens to recompose. Easy-peasy.

NOTE: You can see an available light / setup / compromise exposure shot, here. (Thanks, Jennn!)

And why, you may ask, is this man smiling? Because he, my friend, works for Google. And that's enough to make anyone happy:



Thanks to all of the Googlers for showing me such a great time on campus. I cannot remember a tenth of the stuff I learned, but it'll come back to me a little at a time, I am sure.

And to all of the new friends I met in Mountain View, if you ever get over to the new Washington, DC Google office and want to hang out, shoot me an email. I am only 20 mins from there.
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NEXT: Michael in Paris

The Drinks are On Them

This whole free info fountain thing works because a few very cool businesses make it work. Thanks much to Midwest Photo, PhotoShelter, Zenfolio, and ModMaster Flash, David Honl.

If you've got what it takes to flaunt your biz in front of 200,000 Strobist readers, I actually have an opening starting this month: 200p x 100p below the fold, at just $1.50 CPM. Click here for more info.

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Jill Greenberg, Monkeys and Sharks

(UPDATE: Adds more links, cover shoot video.)

Who did I wake up to find under my bowl of Frosted Flakes this morning but the Incredible Being of Lightness herself. Does this mean she has jumped the shark?

Maybe, maybe not. More inside.
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Note to this site's perfectly sensible foreign readers:

"Jumped the Shark" is slang for when anything has clearly reached its peak, and is on the downslope. It's from a "Happy Days" TV episode in which the writers had a lead character jump a shark on a motorcycle (correction, on water skiis) in a desperate ploy to save plummeting ratings. More here.
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Jill "Dingo Made Your Baby Cry" Greenberg has not been without notice on this site. She has what anyone would at least have to admit is a very interesting lighting style. And she has worked it to the point to where she is practically the Aaron Jones of the day.

As for her lighting, she can imitate Jill Greenberg better than perhaps anyone else on the planet, if that is a good thing. But as for her range, well, I would compare it to the number of facial expressions mastered by Keanu Reeves in his movie career.

(Okay, that's not fair. Keanu has mastered two facial expressions and is said to be working on a third.)

But now Ms. Greenberg is getting written up in family newspapers, aimed at the general public. Or at least The Washington Post, who had a two-page photo spread and interview in honor of her monkey show at the National Academy of Sciences. Usually a newspaper getting around to writing about something being hot is pretty much the death knell.



Her Washington Post piece, by the numbers:

9: Total number of her photos used in the Arts section today.

6: Number of photos which contained monkeys. I thought it was seven at first, but one turned out to be of American Idol host Simon Cowell.

75: Percentage of a page dominated by the lead photo. Seriously, Pulitzer Prize Winners do not get that kind of space.

9,000: Approximate percentage of dot gain on the photos in the spread. They looked pretty rough. This photo, bounce-fill-flashed and adjusted, does not do the monkey-howl-inducing repro justice. Welcome to the world of newspapers, your Jillness.


IMO, she is could go either way. One direction being Annie, Avedon and the like -- the fabric of American culture -- and the other being Fonzie, suiting up to jump. Nothing against the quality of the photos -- they are stunning. But any specific technique, so heavily used, is always in danger of suddenly going out of style. Witness Aaron Jones and the Hosemaster craze of the late '80's.

It will be interesting to see just how long the ride lasts.



At least a little longer, apparently, as shown in this Fast Company magazine video of a recent cover shoot. I did notice the way she just lights the backgrond from behind the paper, to keep things clean and wire-free. (Yes, I'm so pathetic.)
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Slideshow: You, Imitating JG
Washington Post: Greenberg Feature
Jill Greenberg's Website
YouTube: Fonzie Jumps the Shark (Thanks, Brian!)

Site Update 1/23

Check out these enjoyable changes that just went live, thanks to the local crew here at YouTube!



NEW VIEW FOR VIDEOS TAB



We've improved your video browsing experience by fully exposing the search options on the Videos page (searches like 'Most Viewed' and 'Recently Featured' were previously found via dropdown menu). This makes it easier to find what you're looking for quickly.



RECENT COMMENTS



To display the most recent comments you have made on YouTube videos, choose the new 'My Recent Comments' setting in your profile. On your channel page, users can also click 'View All' to see all comments you have ever made.



As always, feel free to share your thoughts with us on these new additions.



Yours,

The YouTube Team

More Fun in Seattle: Full Write-up

All things being equal, I would rather shoot someone than be shot by them. But that wasn't gonna fly last Sunday when I popped in on the Seattle Flickr group meetup while on a trip to see Chase Jarvis.

But getting shot at is a small price to pay for getting to see one of these legendary Seattle Strobist meetups first-hand. Darien Chin, the guy who did the cool multi-flash car shot, had another one of his speedlight-hungry concepts in mind for me. So I got to be the model for a change.

More on that, and the video Chase Jarvis' crew made from the evening, after the jump.
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Now that I have been to one, I can tell you that attending one of these Seattle shindigs is a total hoot, and worth flying 3,000 miles for. I spent the evening walking around talking to people and checking out all of the various setups. But I also had a turn at getting shot in Brittney's famous bear hat (and in about a dozen other ways) and trying to keep a straight face when Robyn kept requesting an particular type of not straight face. I'd say more, but this is a family blog.

Suffice to say that this group knows how to have fun.

The photographic highlight of my night was getting shot by Darien Chin (AKA Knottyy on Flickr) in the photo seen at the top of the post. It was a great example of the collaborative spirit of the evening -- Darien stole borrowed speedlights with Pocket Wizards from as many people as he could find.

He arranged them on the floor, set mostly on 1/64th power. There was one at 1/32nd power which was aimed a little up to catch my face. My job was to sweep them up, like so much trash.

The fill light was from an White Lightning monobloc in an octa, which was on a large light stand which itself was being held up by volunteers to get extra height. For those of you who I have not met, I am very tall -- about 6'11", and you have to take special measures to light me form the top. (Hey, whatever it takes.) It was positioned overhead and a little behind me, to bring up the shadows. (You can see a setup shot here.)

Add a few more speedlights (clearly we did not have enough in the frame yet) to light the background and to separate me from both back sides, and we were ready to go.

This was a cool concept for Darien to think up, much less to execute. He did some with Chase in the frame, too, to up the average attractiveness quotient a little.

This was not an easy shot to pull off on a technical basis. But having fifty photogs in the room made for no shortage of ideas and opinions. Nice one, Darien. But get a prettier lead subject next time...

Here is the video Cody shot from the night, including some pretty spiffy time-lapses that show just how big this hangar was:



Chase has a post with a lot of back story on his site, here. Check it out if you are thinking of having one of these in your own town. (And if you are not thinking that, you should be...)
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After that it was off to Chase's new studio for one of those cool "after parties" which I almost never get invited to. Great food, great people and lots of good conversation. Chase and the crew know how to roll, and this place is equipped to the nines.

A couple hours into the evening, someone broke out the Wii set (on a huge projection screen, of course) and a long string of Guitar Hero battles soon followed. Chase offered up some respectable riffs as the host. But it turns out that Danny Ngan, whom you may know as the guy who does all of those jumping photos on Flickr, is like, a 9th-degree Guitar Hero black belt. Dude can wail.

I think there was actually some close-up video done while Danny, who is seen playing above, with chase watching. But it is pretty useless because the camera was only filming at 30 frames per second. Seriously, he was amazing. Just throwing up six-digit scores left and right.

The Seattle folks are taking this lighting meetup thing and running with it. But there are lots of other meetups happening all over the world now. You can search for one here, and I highly recommend trying it.

Just do not challenge Danny Ngan to a Guitar Hero contest, because he will smoke your butt. And watch out for Robyn if she shows up, too. She'll bust you up laughing and then shoot you when you lose it.

Thanks for a great night, guys.
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:: Slideshow from the 1/20/08 Seattle Meetup ::
:: Chase's Report Here ::
:: How to Plan a Meetup ::

Political Platforms Launch in the U.K. and Spain

This week, the You Choose '08 platform, our hub for American political content, gets made over for the United Kingdom and Spain. These new platforms include the official YouTube channels of the major political parties in those countries and allow you to interact with local politicians through video. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already gotten the conversation started:







In Spain, where federal elections are just over a month away, voters have the chance to ask the candidates questions on live television through a special partnership with RTVE, Spain's largest broadcaster. Much like in our CNN/YouTube debates, Spanish voters are submitting video questions for the candidates, who will then answer a handful of them in six live television interviews.



Citizens and candidates around the world are using YouTube for political expression, as we've seen recently in Kenya, Japan, Australia, and Myanmar. And as we continue to launch localized versions of our site, we will continue to build areas where you can learn more about your leaders and interact directly with them.


Yours,

Steve G.

YouTube News & Politics

Seattle Strikes Again: Hangar Meetup Video

The Seattle crew has posted their video from the latest weekend meetup, raising the bar yet again on their peer-to-peer lighting meetups. I was able to pop in on this one -- and if I would have known they were this fun, I would have started coming long ago.

Just the usual: Fifty photographers, a rented airplane hangar, a ridiculous amount of lighting gear, nine models, a table full of way too realistic-looking weaponry and an "after party" at an insanely cool local studio.

There's a full write-up, including photos a vid by Chase's guys, coming shortly. But I thought you guys might like this look at how the Seattle folks roll.

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A New And Improved YouTube For Mobile

Today we're excited to announce the official debut of YouTube for Mobile, featuring a new and improved mobile website, m.youtube.com! Until today, many of you who tried watching videos on m.youtube.com from your mobile phones may have longed to see a wider selection of videos and more community features that you've come to know and love on YouTube.com. Now you can, and here's what's changed:

• Millions of videos: YouTube for Mobile now features tens of millions of videos, which includes most of the videos already available on YouTube.com and your own uploaded videos.


• Community on the go: You can now access your YouTube account, your Favorites, your own uploaded Videos and your favorite Channels. You can also share, rate, and comment directly from the mobile website to other YouTube users.


• Mobile phone uploads available within moments: Now if you upload videos from your phone to YouTube via email/mms, they will appear within moments on both m.youtube.com and www.youtube.com. This means you can easily share videos you capture on your phone with your friends and family. All you need to do is create a mobile profile at www.youtube.com/mobile.


• Global: Global: YouTube for Mobile is available and localized for the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Germany, and Russia.

As long as your phone and mobile operator support streaming video, anyone can access YouTube for Mobile simply by going to 'm.youtube.com' in their phone browser. There are a couple requirements for supporting YouTube for Mobile:

1. Your device has to support RTSP streaming. To determine if your mobile device supports this type of streaming, you may want to check your device's manual to find a description of its specifications.


2. Your service carrier has to allow streaming videos. You may want to contact your carrier for more information about the availability of data streaming on your mobile device.

In addition, we're also releasing a beta version of a YouTube for Mobile downloadable application. It's different from the YouTube for Mobile website (m.youtube.com) because it is a Java (J2ME) application you install on your phone, whereas m.youtube.com you access via your phone's web browser. The app is available in US and UK English and supports the following phones:

• Sony Ericsson k800, w880
• 
  
• Nokia e65, n95, n73, 6110 navigator and 6120 classic

To download the app, simply point your phone browser to m.youtube.com and if your phone's one of the above, you should be prompted to download and install the application.



You may be wondering, "Is YouTube for Mobile the same as what's available on the Helio Ocean or Apple iPhone?" In a nutshell, yes -- YouTube for Mobile is all about bringing video to mobile phones. We believe in providing the best user experience possible for all users, which in some cases means different YouTube solutions for different phones. Overall, we're pretty excited about working with our partners and users to make YouTube for Mobile better and better over the next year.



So point your phone browser to m.youtube.com and check out the latest changes today! And if you've got any feedback for us on YouTube for Mobile, leave us a comment on this blog entry or post a video response to the video below, in which YouTube for Mobile team members Andy and Dwipal tell you about the new features:







Best,

The YouTube Team

Shorty 2.0: LP632 Swivels Get Updated

UPDATE -- 3/27/08 -- These things are proving very popular, and are now on backorder. They are subbing out a different swivel, which also has the set screw. See here for more info and a pic.
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The $16.99 LumoPro LP632 "shorty" umbrella swivel mounts have been updated. They are now sporting better build quality (bolts for the head instead of rivets) and a "set screw" for the newer, metal-shoed flashes. Which means no more wobbly $300.00 strobes.

This pretty much takes care of my quibbles with the first version, leaving a very compact model that gets the job done. If space is at a premium in your lighting bag, these could very well get the nod over the larger standard swivels. Although some will still prefer the bigger ones for ease of adjustment with the big friction lever.

:: LumoPro LP632 -- Original Report ::
:: LP632 Product Page :: (Still shows old photo.)
:: Standard Umbrella Swivel (L101 Entry) ::

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New YouTube Known Issues Page

In an effort to keep users more informed on current bugs, fixes, and quirky site issues, we've launched the new YouTube Known Issues Page.



When possible, we'll also tell you about temporary workarounds that can solve the problem until our engineers have fixed it completely. If you find something on the site that doesn't seem to be working quite right, come here to find out if we've already addressed the issue. If one of the issues matches a problem you've experienced, please let us know by clicking "This is my issue!" That'll help us understand which problems are affecting the most people so we can get to them as quickly as possible.



You can find the Known Issues link in the right column of most pages in the Help Center.



We'll update the Known Issues page often. Please note that if there's a more widespread problem (like the homepage disappearing!), you can go to the Help Center homepage where we'll broadcast the issue in a bright red box we call the Status Module. You can review past Status Module posts here.



Keepin' it real,

The YouTube Team

I Go Away For a Week, and This is What You Do?

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

In addition to de-jet-lagging and climbing Mount Unanswered Email after a week-long trip to the West Coast, I was also behind on looking through the Strobist Flickr pool to fave pics for the gallery.

In one week, one hundred and five pages of new photos had been added. That's over three thousand new pictures. Suffice to say there was some nice stuff in there.

I am working up a post from the awesome Seattle meetup on Sunday night. (I crashed it for the free food.) Also, there will be some On Assignments from the two lighting seminars we did. Those will be coming soon. And if you are expecting an email from me, have patience -- I am pedaling as fast as I can.

If the embedded slideshow above does not work for you (it is slick-looking, but a bit buggy) you can see the standard, big version here.

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Using Speedlights with Landscapes

You might not think a small flash -- or even a flashlight -- could make such a big difference in a landscape photo. But the trick is waiting for the ambient to come to you, and being selective about what you light.

More pix, and how they were made, after the jump.
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In Elphotoman's light-painted photo of a campsite (above) he combines a flash inside the tent (with a cooling gel) with light painting on the trees.

The exposure is 30 secs at 2.8, which tells you how low the ambient is. Even so, there is still tone in the sky (which is important remember when choosing that shutter speed) to get a sense of depth in the photo. Click on the pic (as with all of the pics in this post) to see more info on how it was done.


Shot mid-afternoon on a foggy day, Gregory Pleau was able to increase the exposure level on the stump with an SB-600 at camera right. This allowed him to underexpose the ambient-lit snow to create a mood for the whole scene.

There is another strobe (an SB-800) presumably lighting the branches at left to a lower exposure, too.


This stand of beeches, by Patrick Eden, also combines light painting and strobe. The strobes (the effects of which are hard to see at this resolution) are coming in from camera right on some of the trees in the background.

Again, waiting for the ambient to drop low enough to allow you time to work is important. Especially if you are light painting, too. Just remember to use the shutter to control the tonal range of your waning sky.

Last but not least, JohnTPleaser uses the technique of spotlighting a portion of his shot (in this case a date palm, in Costa Rica) which was done in the daytime in mottled shade.

Note that he is shooting into the ambient light, which creates shadows in the camera side of the trees. This allows him to bring up the tree and add some texture with a strobe mounted on a voice-activated light stand at camera left.

The above landscape photos jumped out at me during a recent scan of the Strobist Flickr pool. Have you been experimenting with small flashes out in the wild? Hit us with some URLs in the comments.

Pocket Wizard Multimax: Now USB Enabled

I have been locked away teaching all day, but wanted to note the announcement of a new version of the Pocket Wizard Multimax. RobGalbraith.com has a comprehensive write-up on it. Which is great, because I need me some serious shut-eye.

(Thanks, Rob!)

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Community Council Update

They came, they saw, they conquered! During their visit to YouTube HQ in November, the Community Council had the opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas directly with 'Tube staff from various teams and participate in usability studies. Through ongoing discussions with YouTube and beta feature testing (like video recommendations and a new home page design in the works), users bgirl5, bradofarrell, sarrycrey, tlg847, and visiblemode have made great strides in representing the community's voice within the product. Here's a rundown of features YouTube's Community Council has brought their influence to thus far:



features recently implemented with the help of council input:



--RSS LINKS ON VIDEO BROWSE PAGES



--'MOST ACTIVE TODAY' & 'PREVIOUSLY POPULAR' VIDEO SEARCH



--SUBSCRIPTIONS UPDATE - (Closed and suspended accounts now automatically removed from subscriptions)



features scheduled which are coming soon:



--CHARACTER COUNTER FOR COMMENTS - A visual counter letting you know when you are approaching the character limit when writing comments on videos.



--RECENT COMMENTS - A module on your channel page showing all the videos (& comments) you have ever commented on.



To continue the cycle of feedback and discussions going between the community, the Council, and YouTube, we invite you to send us your ideas for new features, site improvements, and your input on the following list to suggestions@youtube.com.



items currently in progress or under consideration that we'd like to get more community feedback on:



--'VLOGGER' TYPE CHANNEL - What type of specific features would you like to see for a vlogger account type?



--'YOUTUBE BASICS' VIDEO - A brief video with educational step-by-step instructions for things like: how to report issues to Help Center, how to make the most of your channel design, etc.. What are some helpful tips you think would be cool for newer users?



--MORE CHANNEL STATS - What kind of stats related to your channel would you be most interested in seeing?



--VIDEO RECOMMENDATIONS - These could be based on what types of videos you and your friends watch, add as 'favorites', channels you subscribe to, etc. (ie. "If you like this channel, you might also like...").



--DISCOVERING NEW COMMUNITIES - Offering new ways for YouTubers to find other like-minded users and sub-communities more easily.



--EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS - We have heard many requests for improvements on our notifications system and want to get your take on changes you would like to see made to emails and getting updates from YouTube in general.



--FULLSCREEN PLAYER - What features are you interested in seeing on the full screen player?



--'FRIENDS' MANAGEMENT - Improving managing and organizing 'friends' on your channel.



--COMMENTS/VIDEO RESPONSES PER INDEX POINT - Referring to a specific point in the video you are commenting on or making a video response for.



Remember to send your thoughts on the features above to suggestions@youtube.com and we'll check them out. (Note: this email address is for feature requests and ideas only. Please contact our Help Center if you are having an issue you need immediate assistance with).







Our goal is to continue bringing forth ideas and feedback from you, and the Council, and turn them into actual features on the site which will benefit the overall YouTube community. Rest assured, this group has been working diligently to turn users' suggestions into realities.



This message has been brought to you by your friendly YouTube Community Council.

Until the next update...



The YouTube Team

The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful

Comment moderation is a bit slow and unanswered emails are piling up. But the important thing is I am having a great time in California. Met lots of neat folks at the Googleplex yesterday, ate some gourmet food (lobster tacos, anyone?) drank strawberry mojito smoothies and occasionally talked about lighting for a few minutes.

As a user, I have always been impressed with the whole Google experience, and now all the more so having met some of the people who make it happen. That's Steve, who we shot in the habitrail, pictured. More pix from the shooting portion of the seminar are here.

Saturday's lighting seminar in Santa Clara is right on track. Checked out the room and it looks great. If you are attending, please remember to bring your PayPal email receipt as your ticket.

It's darn near shorts weather here, but back home we got four inches of snow. Hope there's still enough left when I get home Sunday for a snowball fight.

(Look out, Ben. I'm comin' for ya...)

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Lighting 102: 4.3 -- Assignment: Cross, Balance and Sculpt

Now that we have played around with restricted light in a blunt-instrument sort of way, it's time to learn to finesse it to go for something a little more subtle.

Just because that beam of light is tight, does not mean it has to be garish. By combining a couple of different lighting controls, you can tweak restricted light to do just about whatever you want.

More after the jump.
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As an excellent example of what I am talking about, I offer this moody, full-length portrait by Katherine Gaines, AKA ambienteye, whom you may remember as having taken the cool film noir shot from last week's discussion. Click here to open the shot pictured at left in a new window, bigger for reference.

I'll be a little less formal from here on out and refer to her as Katy. I can do that because I have seen her wake up one morning. Although, to be fair, it was at about 11:45 a.m., and it was over two hours into one of my lighting seminars.

Katy is quite the night owl, and doesn't normally do mornings. So I was quite honored that she even showed up for a Sunday morning session.

Her well-executed photo calls into play at least three different light control techniques: Crosslighting, Balance and Restricted Light. Let's look at them, in order.


Crosslighting

Katy's main light in this photo is the late afternoon sun. (This could also be done in the early morning, except for I am pretty sure that someone else would be shooting it.) It is defining the scene, and as such is considered the main light even though it is not coming from camera front.

It's coming from back camera right, about 30 degrees above horizontal. I am pretty sure it is the sun (as opposed to a flash) because of the even quality of the light. That tells me it is pretty far back. You could do this with a strobe, but you'd have to be pretty far away with it (and high to get the angle).

NOTE: If you were going for a sodium vapor street light look, you could gel the flash with a green fluorescent gel and a 1/2 CTO and simulate a puke green sodium vapor streetlight quite nicely, thank you.)

Her flash is pointed fairly close to back at the sun. (Not possible to get an exact crosslight because of he wall.) This creates a zone of 3-D wrap-light which makes for a well-defined subject.


Exposure Balance

No secrets here: Katy has the two light sources balanced pretty close to even, exposure-wise. It is safe, and still can be quite interesting if you are restricting the light.

Remember, each of these controls works individually, but they can be combined with other techniques for great effects.


Restricted Light

This is the control that makes the picture, IMO. (Lighting-wise, anyway -- the color scheme, wardrobe, body attitude, etc., all rock in this photo.)

As for light position, she placed her snooted Nikon SB-600 down lower, at camera left, to just get up under the hat. But the use of a snoot creates a beautiful fall-off to the strobe's light, calling attention to his face but fading out as the light travels down the subject's body.

By the time it gets to his hand, it is there but it is not there. By the time it gets to his feet, it is gone. This shows you how dark the subject would have been on the shadow side without the added light.

This is just a cool technique when you consider the lighting equipment involved: A speedlight and a cardboard tube.

But there is some seeing involved here, too. You have to be able to previsualize what you want and make it happen. Which brings us to this sections's assignment.
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Assignment: Cross, Balance and Sculpt

This time around, we'll be aiming a little higher on the subtlety meter than film noir. Your goal will be to take advantage of some directional light, and then to sculpt some restricted light into the scene in such a way as to add interest to your photo.

You do not have to crosslight it, either. For instance, Katy could have shot this guy from against the wall (current camera left) in profile, and filled under his hat with a snooted strobe in front of him as he faced away from the wall.

The point is to be able to learn to go with the interesting ambient that is presented to you, and to selectively improve it through some off-axis fill -- exactly where you want it. Add to this the ability to control the fall-off via grid shape and light position, and you can start to see the possibilities.

Here are the specifics. Tag your assignment as:

Strobist
Lighting102
assignment
crossbalancesculpt (note -- one word)

The assignment is due Thursday, Jan. 31st. You can view the completed exercises of others, here. There is a discussion thread set up for this post here.

NEXT: Discussion: Cross-Balance and Sculpt

Michel Gondry Edits Our Home Page

For many film lovers on YouTube, seeing Michel Gondry, the incredibly
talented, award-winning filmmaker behind films like Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, be an active member of our
community has been nothing short of amazing. (You've likely seen his Rubik's Cube video and "deblending" techniques.)



So who better to curate the home page during the 2008 Sundance Film
Festival than Monsieur Gondry himself? A Sundance veteran, Gondry will
head back to Park City, Utah, this year with his latest – and much
anticipated – film, Be
Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black and Mos Def.



But, first, he'll program a festival of sorts right here on YouTube. His eclectic selection of picks is currently gracing our home page.



Enjoy,


Sara P.


YouTube Film

Strobist Perk: Special PhotoShelter Pricing

Grover over at PhotoShelter has put together a light box with some cool work by Strobist readers who also happen to be PhotoShelter members. And he is offering a special deal for the site's readers until the end of January.

There are only 50 slots, and this is just for us. So don't go telling people over at Photo.net, OK?

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Hello, Sundance!

This evening, the 2008 Sundance Film Festival opens for business. By Saturday, the streets of Park City, Utah, will be mobbed with filmmakers, film lovers and those who love filmmakers. Isn't it convenient, then, that you can watch the festival - one of the most influential in the world - unfold from the warm glow of your computer, without having to worry about snow drifts or velvet ropes?



Indeed, for the next week you can find coverage of the festival, direct from Sundance
Channel, the festival's official broadcaster, updated daily in the spotlight and featured videos of the href="http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=rf&t=t&c=1&l=&b=0 ">Film & Animation category. Look for filmmaker profiles, red carpet premiere coverage and interviews from the Sundance Channel's Park City studio, including an interview with the winning filmmaker from
YouTube's first ever film competition, Project Direct.



Are you a filmmaker determined to brave the elements and head to Park City yourself? Let us know! A contingent of us YouTubers will be pounding the pavement, speaking on panels, watching films and talking to filmmakers, and we'd love to hear from you.



Ready to get started? Check out this classic moment from the 2004 Sundance Film Festival with Mr. Sundance himself, Robert Redford:







Happy film going,



Sara P.


YouTube Film

Amid Violence, Kenyans Connect on YouTube

It's been almost a month since the results of Kenya's presidential election sparked protests and riots in the East African country. When sitting President Mwai Kibaki won over opposition leader Raila Odinga, claims of a rigged result sent hundreds of protesters into the street, sparking tribal warfare and governmental crackdowns on protesters. The violence has killed hundreds of Kenyans and displaced over 350,000 citizens. Today, Odinga called for rallies in 42 locations nationwide, leaving many bracing for more violence.



Just a few months before the election, Kenya's largest broadcaster, NTV Kenya, started a YouTube channel to broadcast news from around Kenya. Though Kenya's third-world economy affords less than 1% of its citizens broadband Internet access, NTV Kenya's YouTube presence has become a critical way for the Kenyan diaspora to connect with what's happening back home. The channel already has almost 3,000 subscribers and is one of the top 100 channels viewed in the last month on YouTube. The channel documents the death and violence, but it also broadcasts the efforts of the international community to rescue the nation from internal strife, as demonstrated by this playlist:







A conversation amongst YouTubers -- Kenyans and others -- has developed over the conflict there, and the National Democratic Institute (a global nonprofit that provides election assistance in Kenya and other fledgling democracies) has started a channel that documents the election efforts in Nairobi and beyond. This video of an election line in Starehe shows just how thirsty Kenyans were on December 27, 2007, to cast their votes:







While Kenya's future is uncertain, YouTube remains a window into the challenges the country faces – in other words, you don't need expensive satellite TV to catch the news from the region or footage of the chaos.


Yours,

Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics

David Honl Lighting Video: Belly Dancer

American photojournalist David Honl, who is based in Istanbul, has posted a video of a belly dancer shoot. In it, he uses his snoots, gobos and gels to create zones of light in a very small room.

I like his idea of gobo'ing a flash on the bottom to keep the floor from being too hot in the foreground. Always neat to see other peoples' workflow.

David manufactures light modifiers and sells them via his website, with grid spots for speedlights coming soon. More info at his site.

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Playing With a New Light: Two Approaches

Thousands of miles apart (and brought together by the magic of Photoshop) readers Tanya Shields and David X. Tejada both made ring flash adapters recently. Then they proceeded to test them out on a nearly identical subject. I found the differences in the way they tested their new lights to be very interesting.

More after the jump.
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Canadian amateur photog Tanya Shields, (left) built her ring light adapter out of common household items. It's a neat approach, as attested to by the fact that I immediately went out and ripped the design off. I built mine in about three hours (one good movie, one so-so movie) from cardboard, parchment paper, foil-backed tape, gaffer's tape and glue.

Total (prorated) cost: Under $5.00.

Yeah, yeah, I know: "What about the cost of your time, David?"

Well, first of all, I like making stuff like this. I also like watching movies. And my accountant will tell you that my time does not in fact appear to be particularly valuable in the monetary sense anyway.

Long-time pro David X. Tejada, (right) whose lighting videos have spent so much time on Strobist that they keep a toothbrush here, made a spiffy new hardware store ring flash. (He shows you how to build it here.)

While the two ring lights are very different in construction, they create fairly similar light sources. What you'll get from these designs is a typical ring flash look, flavored by the fact that the ring will likely be a little hotter on the side closest to the flash.

Some may see the lack of absolute consistency as a hindrance, but I would prefer to think of it as a feature. The ring is going to fill all the way around, with likely about a stop or so difference between the flash side of the ring and the other side.

Since the rings are very portable and hand-holdable, you can choose to put the hot side on the top or bottom by rotating the ring. The hot bottom will give you more of an in-your-face ring shot look, whereas a hot top will give you more of a subtle ring look.

(Incidentally, this is the first time that the terms "David X. Tejada" and "hot bottom" have ever appeared on the same web page.)

Anyway, through some freakish and coincidental force of nature, both Tanya and David both proceeded to test their new ring flashes out on a young man wearing a hoodie. The similarities in light source and test subject matter struck me as interesting, and made me think about two completely different approaches to thinking about the same light source.
________________________


Tanya did exactly what very many of us would have done: Walk around here house shooting anything or anybody who would sit still long enough. Her self portrait up top was done with her ring flash, too.

When I made my first ring flash, I did just about the same thing. The light just puts a whole new spin on just about everything. And you are like a kid in a candy store -- a weirdly 3-D, flattish, wrapped-shadow candy store. You go out and shoot a memory card full of photos that each like all of the other ring flash pix out there.

Nothing wrong with that. You just can't help yourself. It's too fun.


But someone like David, who has been around the block a few times, tends to think of the ring flash a component in a multi-light scheme. This is an approach that many of us can learn from.

Take the example above. David shot his nephew (and fellow Strobist reader) Ian, using a similar ring flash to Tanya's model.

But David is using the flash as part of a triangle lighting setup, with two other speedlights positioned about 20 degrees behind Ian on each side. In doing so, he is completely wrapping Ian with light. Working about two stops above the ambient exposure (as David is) means that Ian is effectively being lit on another plane than the diffuse, grayish ambient.

___________

POP QUIZ:

Q: How would I know David is working about two stops over the ambient?
A: Because on a cloudy day, properly exposed snow would be rendered a couple of stops over medium gray - bordering on white. But David's snow is very close to medium gray. Bringing his subject up with strobe allows him to put the snow at any tone that he wants, from near-white to pitch black.
___________

Okay, back to the photo: Which means that not only can David get this cool separated (dare I say, almost Dave Hill-ish) look, but he could also do the warm gel / cool gel thing, or make that dropped-down ambient any color he wanted.

Mind you, this is not a typical look that will pop up every week in one of David's oil-rig annual reports or brochures. But one day when he needs to amp a boring portrait, will be able to whip this technique out to save the day and look like a hip young Gen-Y shooter in the process. (Don't worry, Dave. You're better lookin' than that Lawrence kid.)

Here's the point: The first thing someone like David T. does with a new light source is to get past the obvious and start to experiment with it as an integral part of a lighting scheme rather then as an end to itself.

To be fair, my first experiences with the ring light were much more similar to Tanya's. But I am learning to think more like David T. as I go forward.

________________________


UPDATE: Australian reader Sam Webster took his new ring adapter into the bathroom to shoot underwater portraits. I thought that was a neat twist, and a cool look for the water-themed series of shots he was doing for a local band.

He did a video of the shoot here. More of his pics are here.

Registration Opens for February Orlando Seminars

NOTE: The Orlando seminars for Saturday, Feb. 16th and Sunday, Feb. 17th, are sold out. If you are attending, continue reading for full info.

__________________________

Important Note:

Seminar Info and Registration Details

The class is to be held at the Embassy Suites Orlando - International Drive South. The address is 8978 International Drive, Orlando, FL. You can find a Google map here.

With these seminars, my goal is threefold: To refine your approach to creating light, to fill you with as many ideas as possible in a day's time and to have fun doing it.

We'll start with a roadmap for the day, which I will do my best to keep us on. But each session will take on somewhat of a life of its own. Which is a good thing.


Our Anticipated Schedule

Morning check-in/setup: 9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

Please plan to arrive between these times, as we will still be setting up before then. Anything you may see onscreen before 9:30 is not part of the event and is only used for projector testing purposes.


Morning session: 9:30 a.m. until approximately 12:30 p.m.

We'll talk about gear (I'll have a good gear selection there for a petting zoo) and take an extended, integrated look at what is essentially the Lighting 102 material in it's entirety. The focus will be on taking all of the things we talk about on the site in a day-to-day sense and integrating them to gain more of a holistic approach to lighting. Everything really is interrelated.


Lunch Break

On your own, approx. one hour, and we'll be looking for your nearby suggestions in the Flickr discussion thread related to this seminar. Link to a discussion thread will be posted shortly.


Afternoon Session:

~1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Assuming we have finished the theory stuff, we'll move into the practical/demo session. (Sometimes we go into a little overtime on the theory.) We'll get into some real-world lighting exercises photographing some models I will have cleverly hidden around the room disguised as ordinary attendees.

This is basically a lighting version of "Whose Line is it, Anyway?" with a focus on improvisational lighting based on available gear, the room, found objects, lighting mods, etc. I never know what ideas we will come up with, which is what keeps me equal parts interested in and petrified of the afternoon session. It's a good thing.

Shortly after each shoot, we will view each setup and discuss the results onscreen. This instant feedback in a group environment is an amazingly efficient way to drive home the thought and technique process. We can read and write all we want, but for photographers there is nothing better than "monkey see, money do."

The goal will be to incorporate lighting theory, room environment, assignment constraints and our available gear to create a photo that seeks to produce an photograph that is an appropriate response to our situation.

Working within that framework will allow us to concentrate on better freeing ourselves in the other areas: Creativity and subject/photographer interaction.

The entire day will be a non-stop flow of ideas and techniques, punctuated by spur-of-the-moment Q-and-A. I want you to bring lots of questions, and to feel free to voice the ones that pop into your head throughout the day. In fact, if you do not ask me enough questions, I will start throwing some questions at you.

You might want to bring a notebook and pen. (I will have a URL to download the presentation, so you can relax and listen.) And bring a camera if you want to shoot the setups as a visual reference. And dress is casual, so you won't feel out of place if I show up in shorts.

As with my philosophy for the website there will be no secrets and no posturing. This stuff is not rocket science. It's light. And the first step in learning to light is to realize that anyone can get very good at it.

We will plan to wrap up at about 5:00. But if we are still going (and they don't kick us out) who knows. Normally, a fair number of people come back to the hotel bar after dinner, where we discuss lights, darks, ambers -- whatever. Always fun.

If, for some reason, you require a cancellation after booking, refunds will be granted up until February 10th. After that time, you would be responsible for transferring your seat to another attendee.

Very Important: If, through events beyond my control, I am unable to present this seminar, refunds will be limited to the ticket price. As I already have airfare, hotel room and our venue rental paid in advance, I do not anticipate this happening. But I just wanted to cover all of the bases, in case I get run over by a bus tomorrow, or one of those Big Macs catches up to me.

Bases covered, I have to say that I am very much looking forward to this trip and especially to meeting many of you. As I do more of these seminars, I find that each session develops a vibe of its own. You put a few dozen photographers who are all eager to learn in a room, and what starts out as a simple stack of talking points turns into a rich, organic discussion that ends with everyone - including me - having a head swimming with new ideas.



You can see feedback from some of the previous seminars here:


London:
Post-seminar thread | Extended report

Seattle:
Post-seminar thread | Extended report

Paris:
Post-seminar thread | Extended report

Northern California:

Extended report I | Extended report II

__________________________


Registration Details

The cost for either seminar is $159.00. Both seminars are sold out.

To register for either seminar (with any major credit card) please click on the link at the bottom of the post, which will take you to PayPal. A PayPal account is not required to register. You will be returned to this site after successfully registering. Again, if you are in the process of registering and the seminar sells out, your fee will be refunded by the end of the day. Make sure your PayPal email address is one at which you can actually be reached.

Please leave your name and phone number (and a working email if different from the PayPal address) in the info box on the PayPal page, in case I should need to contact you.

I look forward to seeing you there. The discussion thread is here.

Play With the Foo Fighters at the Grammy Awards

Wanna perform with the Foo Fighters at one of music's biggest events of the year? We've got a unique opportunity for some talented instrumentalists to become a part of the All-Time Foo Fighters Grammy Orchestra during next month's televised awards broadcast in Los Angeles. Intrigued? The band explains it all to you here:






However, don't delay! The deadline is just about a week away, so be sure to get your entry uploaded by midnight on January 20 -- especially you university students in a marching band or symphony orchestra. This could be your chance to represent your college during this once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you need some last-minute inspiration, check out
these skilled players who have already taken a crack at it.



Good luck,

The YouTube Team