Tony Roslund | Studio Life

We've spent the past few weeks sorting and pairing images to be printed in our 2016 food & beverage portfolio, the one we show to prospective clients we're hoping to work with, and it's pretty amazing. 

Our Brand Manager, Paul Terrell, spent countless hours finding just the right crop, pairing, and printing the 11x14 pages here in the studio, then bound them all into our plexiglass portfolio from Lost Luggage.

We had the opportunity to share this new piece with a potential client yesterday, and the reaction was exactly what we'd hoped for. The client's senses were clearly stimulated, not only from the mouth watering images, but also by the tactile feel of the Moab Lasal paper on which we chose to print.

As vibrant as the images are on the iPad, there's still something about seeing those big beautiful images on soft matte paper, that digital portfolios just can't replace.

Our new portfolio book is complete! Time to show it off. #foodphotography

A photo posted by Tony Roslund (@tonyroslund) on Jan 19, 2016 at 4:42pm PST

A peek at the intro of our latest portfolio. Our Brand Manager @pterrelldesign did an killer job pairing everything up. We'd love to meet with any interested agency, biz, or organization to show it off! #foodphotography

Ever tried to photograph a subject, only to find out that you don’t have enough depth-of-field to get the whole thing in focus? Typically our first reaction is to stop down (choose a greater aperture) to increase our DOF. Unfortunately that doesn’t always give us the results we expect. The first issue is that even with our lens stopped down to its maximum aperture, we still may not have our subject completely in focus. The second problem is that when we stop down our aperture, we are often trading that increased DOF for decreased sharpness. This is something known as diffraction. Every lens has a sweet spot that gives us the absolute best image quality possible from that lens. But imagine if you could use that sweet spot of your lens (somewhere around f/5.6, f/8, or f/11 on most lenses) and still get the entire image in focus. This is where product, food, jewelry, and even nature photographers (macro shooters) employ a technique called Focus Stacking. The technique is pretty simple; take a series of photos, each focused on a different portion of the subject, and merge them all together in post-production to get one REALLY sharp image. This kind of sharpness is normally not possible with just a single frame. But when we set our aperture to that sweet spot, and shoot several frames, we are able to achieve the impossible (or at least our clients will think so).

Sure there are other factors in getting sharp images, such as camera shake, and shutter slap … but these issues are easily resolved by using the right tools and techniques. More on that later.

In one of my previous videos on Jewelry Photography for Catalogs, I introduced the technique using a Really Right Stuff Macro Focusing Rail. There are other manufacturers, but I like RRS products b/c they’re bulletproof. Basically a focus rail is a rail on which a camera mount slides forward and backward via a threaded shaft that’s turned with a knob. The movements created by turning the knob are very fine adjustments, allowing the photographer to have finite control over how much movement is being used. Basically, you back the rail all the way up, focus on the near portion of your subject, take a shot, turn the knob so the camera moves a little closer to the subject, take another shot … repeat as many times as necessary to move through the entire subject. Sometimes it can be as many as 20–30 images, depending on focal length, aperture, distance, and size of subject. Then we take all those images and dump them into software that detects the portions of each image that are sharpest, and combines them all into one REALLY sharp image. Adobe Photoshop is capable of this, although I’ve found third-party software like Helicon Focus to be more accurate.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a macro focus rail, you could just refocus on the subject, taking photos after each turn of the focus ring. This is not as accurate and can produce some less than optimum results due to the optics changing in the lens as you turn the focus ring, distortion of your subject, large difference in perspective, and a myriad of other problems. But, if you’re just testing the waters, it’s worth a shot!

The problem with a macro focus rail is that it doesn’t do anything to combat the biggest complication in the technique … human error. With a macro focusing rail the photographer has to physically touch the rail (which is connected to the camera) introducing the possibility of camera movement or misalignment. It also relies on the photographer’s estimate of how far to turn the knob between each shot. Using a shutter release cable and mirror lock-up will eliminate the possibility of camera shake, but you have to remember to actually use them. But the biggest problem I have with the technique is repeatability. Often times, I create several versions of a subject, lighting different portions of the subject or making small changes in each image, with the intention of compositing them into one final masterpiece. This technique relies on having absolutely identical images in order for my retoucher to be able to paint/mask the areas we went to incorporate into the final. When we aren’t focus stacking, I simply don’t touch the camera and just introduce a bounce card, additional light, prop, whatever. When focus stacking, I need to do the same thing, but it’s not just a single frame and the camera is not stationary. So, we need each stack to be identical in movement. As a human, it’s just not possible, this is where this video comes in. A colleague of mine introduced me to a motorized focus rail called Stack Shot.

Stack Shot is basically a macro focus rail that has a motor and is controlled remotely. This eliminates much of the human error I talked about earlier. It allows me to get repeated incredibly accurate, repeatable movements, over and over and over again. The video describes it pretty well, but in short, you program your starting point, stopping point and tell the unit how many images you want to capture between those two points. The unit automatically splits up the distance into equal movements, and does all the work for you. This is completely customizable and the device is actually WAY more capable than what I’ve described in my video, but that’s how it works in it’s simplest form. One of the coolest features of the Stack Shot is the ability to connect the brain to your camera and have the unit trigger your shutter after each movement. You can even program a pause between each movement before triggering the shutter so that any vibration from the movement has stopped. Badass.

The kind folks over at Resource Magazine invited me to be a guest on the Rewrap podcast this week. Have a listen: 

The wait is over! RGG EDU launched Tony's tutorial this morning, and it's already selling like hot cakes. This week only, RGG EDU is offering $25 off with promo code 25OFF, making this comprehensive and valuable guide an even better deal. If you need further convincing, take a look at the trailers.

Not only is Nudo Ramen House one of our favorite places to eat, the design of the space has achieved international recognition for HDG. Our images of the restaurant have been recently featured in two design magazines, Hospitality Design and House Trends in Portugal, as well as Wonderful Machine's February 26th Blog. We are honored to be working with such amazing and talented people and are looking forward to every project they send our way. 

As we've mentioned before, we're wading (or plunging) into video production. Here's a behind the scenes look at how we helped make an already spectacular space magazine ready.

The Backstory

When we finish a project and are ready to deliver files to a client, we used to burn CDs, then DVDs, then thumb drives, and eventually moved everything to the cloud. I've tried just about every solution out there and we always come back to Dropbox. I like that I can easily copy a folder of images from our server, and drop them in a client's folder via the Finder on Dropbox. From there I can right-click on the folder and get a link to the folder which I can email to my client. The client simply clicks the link and is greeted with a clean interface for browsing the files and has only one option . . . download the files (unless they're Dropbox users as well, in which case they also have the option to add to Dropbox). No passwords, no pages to navigate through, just a big button that says DOWNLOAD. That's about as easy as it gets! 

A Few New Features

Recently Dropbox added the ability to set time limits which files are accessible, kind of a nice feature (although not something we really use much) if you want to give your client the opportunity to download the files and then clear the space on your Dropbox account.

Another feature they've added is the ability for WebDAV access. Why do we care? Let me explain (this is where it gets geeky) . . .

The Problem

I have a 1TB Dropbox account. When you install the Dropbox app on your computer, the Dropbox folder on your computer syncs with Dropbox in the cloud. This is what makes it so easy to drag/drop client files from the server to Dropbox in the cloud. The problem is, that some of my computers have small-ish SSD drives (128, 256, or 512GB) and I end up filling the entire disk with Dropbox items that I'd rather just keep in the cloud. Fortunately Dropbox gives users the ability to perform Selective Syncing, which basically allows a user to define which specific files/folders they want to sync between their computer and the cloud. I can easily deselect my Client Downloads folder (the place where I drop all finished files for delivery), but then I lose the ability to drag/drop from my server to the cloud, instead having to resort to the Dropbox web interface for uploading client files. That defeats the whole K.I.S.S. process.

What I'm Looking For

What I've been looking for since I started using Dropbox years ago, is a way to have instant access via the Finder to my Dropbox files, giving me the freedom to drag/drop files between my server and the cloud, while not taking up any space on my hard drive (SSD). Additionally, I'd like the ability to get a link which I can share with my client without having to use the Dropbox web interface.

The Solution (almost)

Enter DropDav. This $5 monthly service harnesses the newly released ability to access Dropbox via WebDAV protocols. I don't even have to install proprietary software to make it work. This means I can use a desktop client like Panic's Transmit which offers the ability to connect to WebDAV services, such as Dropbox. With Transmit, I can automatically mount a WebDAV server to my desktop like any other connected drive, giving me complete access to Dropbox via the Finder, without taking up any room on my internal drive! I even went a step further and created a shortcut to this remote location in my Finder's sidebar, giving me identical functionality that I had with the native Dropbox app . . . almost. With the native Dropbox app, Finder gives you the ability to right click on a file and generate a link which can be shared with clients. This functionality is not part of the DropDAV solution, which still requires me to access the Dropbox web interface in order to fetch that shared link.

A Better Solution

I don't mind paying a small monthly fee for a valuable service, but if at all possible, I'd rather pay for something once and be done. And while DropDav solves my space issues for Dropbox, it does nothing for my other cloud storage services like Google Drive, box, and the many others available. I knew I couldn't be the only one dealing with this issue in this day of SSDs, so I did some searching and found an app called ExpanDrive. This is the solution I was looking for! You can connect multiple accounts, even the same type of accounts . . . for example, I have two Google Drive accounts, and I can connect them both! Backspace, Copy, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SFTP, FTP, and more can all be connected using ExpanDrive. The software will automatically mount each of these connected cloud storage services, making them instantly available like any other connected drive on your computer. Best of all, there's no monthly fee!

Conclusion

Hello! My name is Emily Smith Goodner, I'm the new Studio Manager here at Roslund Photography. I hesitate in capitalizing my job title. I just started last week and as of yet, have very little idea of what I am doing. Once I get the hang of this job/adventure, I'll capitalize the heck out of it.  For example, this is my very first blog post. EVER! My educational background is in History and film production, but in the years since graduation I have mostly been a barista and plumber. I blame the History portion of my degree for that.

I am really excited to be working with Tony and his crew,  the quality of the product this studio turns out is absolutely amazing.  Before Tony hired me, he invited me to Seattle to attend a worksop at the Black Rapid studio that they generously sponsored with Capture Integration and RGG EDU, so I could see exactly what Roslund Photography does. My outsider's verdict: commercial product photography consists of smoke and mirrors and beautiful lies! I left the workshop enlightened and totally flabbergasted. We were using Tony's Phase One IQ140 along with an IQ260 sent over by Phase One, and a Leaf Credo 40 on loan from Capture Integration. High res cameras pick up every contour of a product, every light reflection, every spec of dust! Each facet of the product must be tightly controlled to ensure the item or items are at their most visually appealing.

(These will see into your soul. Make sure you are pure, sinless, and free of all fingerprints and dust.)

The whole experience changed my perspective on not only photography, but advertising, editing, and all the technology that goes with it. The first time in Tony's studio expanded that sense of wonder and curiosity. Twenty feet of black peg-board lines one wall, neatly organizing the countless tools a studio needs. I'm in Mac heaven around here, little apples glowing as they facilitate the technological demands of an industry gone totally digital.  I am certainly old enough to remember dark rooms and film. The dark room here is a combination of storeroom and time capsule, the equipment gathering dust and getting buried under piles of old photography detritus. 

I have learned a lot over the years regarding pricing and bidding commercial photography. I still have a lot to learn. I've made mistakes (lots of them) and had some victories (fortunately). Sometimes as photographers we feel isolated on this emotional roller coaster of wins and losses, but the fact is, no matter where you are in your photography career, no matter how big (or small) your clients are, we're all struggling with the same issues when it comes to bidding a gig.

Blinked published a post today that totally reaffirmed that fact, and it helped me step back and realize that I'm following the natural order of things. Some days I just want to sell everything and find another career. I figure nobody is ever going to hire me again, and my time must have slipped by without even knowing it. Other times, things are going so good, I'm afraid to go outside for fear of an anvil falling on my head like in the cartoons, ending all my good fortune. The fact is, if you work at this profession, I mean really hustle and don't just sit around waiting for the phone to ring, you can continue to feel anxious and wake up in a cold sweat after every bid, just like the rest of us.

Do yourself a favor and read this article published on Blinkbid's blog. It's hands-down the best summary of life in the fast lane of commercial photography.

My studio receives client inquires anywhere from once per week to several times a day.  Obviously not all of these inquiries turn into paid work, some are a downright waste of time. Dealing with client inquiries is not my favorite pastime, but if everything goes to plan, at least a few of them get me behind the camera and end up paying the bills. Here’s a few things to keep in mind when making initial contact and responding to client inquiries.

Kicking off the registration to my upcoming Product Photography workshop in Seattle with a little discount! First person to register with code ROSLUND50 gets $50 off the registration fee!

As your photography archive grows, so does the need to handle and protect that data. What happens if your computer doesn’t boot, or an image file won’t open? What if your home or studio gets robbed, or worse, catches fire? What if your backup drive fails, or your laptop gets stolen? These are all questions I ask myself when planning my backup strategy.

I’m a photographer, not an IT professional. Everything in this article is from my own experience since I switched to digital in 2001. I use a Mac, so if you’re on a PC you may need to do a little research to find the equivalent to some of the steps I’m going to talk about here.

Bootable Backup

Many people think that if they use Mac OS X’s Time Machine to backup their computer they’re protected if a drive doesn’t boot. But Time Machine doesn’t make bootable backups. For backups to be restored from TM, you need to have a working OS. The solution is to create a bootable drive which would allow you to hold down Option+C during boot, select the external (bootable) drive as your start-up disk, and you’re up and running. There are several pieces of software (both PC & Mac) that will allow you to create bootable backup drives, but my favorite is Carbon Copy Cloner. Trying to resolve technical issues and restore operating systems with a client standing in your studio can be a stressful situation. By creating a bootable backup, you can get back in the game quickly and replace/restore your main drive when time allows.

Copy to second card during capture

Now that we have a solution to our bootable drive backup, we need to start thinking about protecting our images from the moment we create them. Most DSLR cameras these days have two card slots and will allow the user to setup how those slots are configured. While setting your camera to fill one card at a time so you don’t have to change cards as often may seem like a good idea, it doesn’t provide any protection of your data if something goes wrong. If you want to incorporate redundancy into your workflow, this is a good place to start. By setting up your camera to write both cards at the same time, you’re getting two copies of your data in case one card fails.

Shooting Tethered (*updated Dec 2014)

When shooting tethered, you need to make sure your files are backed up while you’re shooting since you’re probably not writing to the memory cards. Once again, with an application like Carbon Copy Cloner, you can create “tasks” to automatically copy files, folders, or entire drives to a second location. I have a Retina MacBook Pro with an internal SSD with G-Technology D-Drive ev connected via USB3.0. I have created a task in CCC which automatically copies my “Tethered” folder from internal drive to the external drive every 15 minutes. This way if my main drive fails, I know I have a second copy on the external.

Copy To Second Location on Import

Most cataloging apps, like Adobe Lightroom or Capture One, allow you to define a second location to store images during import. This way when you ingest images from your memory card, or during tethered capture, you can create a backup of your images automatically. Just don’t make the second location on the same drive as the original location.

Where To Store Files?

Although they can be stored on the local drive, storing your image files on a remote drive or networked drive is likely a better option. If you have large catalogs of images, you may need a RAID system in order to create a volume large enough to accommodate all your files. By getting them off the main hard drive of your computer, it will allow your computer run faster and enable you to setup a backup system that’s accessible from any computer and expandable to fit your needs.

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)

There are several variations of RAID available, but the four most common are:

RAID 0 = No redundancy (max size)

RAID 1 = Mirrored (50% total size)

RAID 5 = Spanned across multiple drives (60–80% of total capacity), 1 drive can fail

RAID 6 = Same as RAID 5 but 2 drives can fail

I won’t dive deep into RAID types in this article, there’s plenty of information around the internet to bring you up to speed on how it all works. I’ll leave that to the IT professionals, but the biggest advantages of RAID systems are their ability to survive limited hardware failure, and their virtually unlimited size.

3–2–1 Strategy

Now that we have our data on a dedicated external drive we need to think about how protected that data is. IT professionals have long promoted a 3–2–1 backup strategy for secure, redundant backup of your data, and it certainly applies here. 3 backups of your data, on 2 types of media, 1 of those off-site.

Putting It All Together

Hang on, this is where it gets complicated. You can probably store all your files on a single external storage device, whether that’s a 2TB drive, 4TB drive, or 24TB RAID system. Look at how much you shot in the last few years on average and figure out how big of a drive you need to store several years worth of data. Maybe you can fit it all on a single drive, maybe you need a massive RAID system. Either-way, that’s the main storage for your files, so this is where you want to spend your money. But remember that RAID systems only protect against hard drive failure. They don’t necessarily protect against file corruption/deletion. In order to do that you need to have a backup of your primary files. If you’re thinking RAID 1 accomplishes that, not quite. RAID 1 is an exact mirror between drive A & B. The problem is that information is instantly copied from one drive to the other. If something goes wrong on Drive A, it also goes wrong on Drive B. We need to create an opportunity to restore corrupted data from the uncorrupted copy. This is where a second drive (whether it’s a single disk or a RAID system) comes into play. By using an automated application like Carbon Copy Cloner to make daily backups of your main drive, you’ll have a second drive to restore from in the event something goes nutty on the main drive.

Now we have 2 copies of our data (you still with me?). We need a third to complete the first part of our 3–2–1 backup strategy. We have a couple options here. For our third copy, we need to be on a second type of media (the “2” in our 3–2–1 strategy). In Ancient Greece they used CDs and DVDs for this, but in today’s digital photography world, those methods are slow and small. Not to mention that optical media fades over years. Instead of optical media, we can use “The Cloud”. Companies like Backblaze and Crashplan allow you to store unlimited amounts of data on their servers. It’s a great way to go and covers the “2 types of media” and “1 off-site” parts of our 3-2-1 strategy. There is a downside though, it’s slow to start and slow to recover from. This is where I cheat a little on our 3–2–1 strategy. In addition to creating my third media copy on a second type of media, I also use a third drive to take off-site. Confused? Let me break it down for you:

Drive A copies to Drive B every night at midnight. Each week I bring in Drive C from off-site and replace Drive B (taking Drive B off-site). Guess what app I use to accomplish this? CarbonCopyCloner automatically runs a task to copy everything on Drive A to Drive B or Drive C when it’s reconnected … so all I have to do is unplug Drive B, plug in Drive C and it starts to copy anything that’s changed since the last backup. Can it get any easier?

Now I have a 4–2–1 backup strategy, even better!

The Gear I Use (*updated Dec 2014)

I use three G-RAID Thunderbolt drives from G-Technology. I also use a G-Drive Mini as my Time Machine backup (keep in mind TM likes 2x size of your main drive, my main drive is a 240GB SSD). I also have G-Tech G-Dock with G-Drive ev units which come in both HDD and SSD versions to create copies of our tethered folder in the field. The ev drive is stored/carried separately from the laptop by my assistant. When we get back to the studio, we can shove the G-Tech ev drives into the G-Dock and copy all the files to our main Studio A drive, and ultimately to Studio B and the cloud. The next piece of gear we purchase, that will make this a truly bulletproof backup, is a Network Attached Storage system that can automatically sync with a duplicate NAS system off-site. This will solve the issue of something happening to the G-Raid drives and having to wait to restore from the cloud. We’re reviewing a few models now and will update once we’ve made a decision and incorporated into our backup strategy.

A Few Closing Thoughts