Single-Serving Photo

There’s this guy… Let’s call him “Carlo Allegri.” That’s his name, after all. He was born in Bermuda and raised in Toronto, and all he ever wanted to do was take photographs. He started as a photo-journalist and worked his way up over many years to finally become a senior entertainment photographer for Getty in Los Angeles.

The dude loves Profoto gear. Wait, you don’t know Profoto? They make some pretty high-end on-location strobes and other lighting accessories. (Buy ‘em from B&H.) Two 2400 watt-second strobes with basic reflectors, a battery pack, and a case to carry them in is going to run you around $2,500, and then things go up from there.

Anyway, if you’re into off-camera flash, Allegri is someone you should idolize. He has perfected what he calls “guerrilla lighting” wherein he can set up a shoot for an A-list celeb, snap off 20 or 30 photos, and have them off on their way in sometimes less than five minutes. This guy can not only capture the mood and emotion of the individual, but also throw together a creative lighting setup in as much time as it would take you to imagine doing it.

Speed isn’t everything. There is a huge amount of technical savvy and creativity that goes into a successful photography career, especially working for Getty and operating at those high-stakes levels. Still, when it comes to photographing a movie star, pop singer, or even a CEO, you are going to be in demand among publicists and agents if you can pull it off in the time it takes your subject to walk from the stage to their dressing room.

Read more about Carlo Allegri and see some of his great photos on Profoto’s blog

The Internet is all a-flutter about this announcement Greg Yaitanes made via Twitter that the House, M.D. season finale (airing next month on FOX) was shot entirely with a Canon EOS-5D Mark II. This makes the 5D Mark II the first video-capable digital SLR camera to ever have been used to film a “prime time” television episode.

Yaitanes, who is a co-executive producer and director of House, M.D., said that they chose the 5D Mark II because they wanted to be able to fit the camera into “tight spaces,” they used mostly Canon prime lenses as well as the 24-70 and 70-200 zooms, and that no brackets or stabilization tools were used. I can’t wait to see how the episode looks!

The video was recorded onto large CF cards (Yaitanes said “18gb,” but I think he meant 16 GB), which afforded only 22 minutes of shooting before tossing in a new card.

You can read PetaPixel’s summary of the Q&A that has taken place so far via Twitter for more luscious details, and read engadget’s coverage as well as Gizmodo’s coverage. If you ladies and gents who are technology-inclined don’t already check out those two blogs on a regular basis, you may want to add them to your news reader of choice.

I know I talk a pretty serious game most of the time, but I also like to have fun now and then. I recently stumbled upon a pretty hilarious series of videos by a guy named Donnie Hoyle called “You Suck at Photoshop.” They’re basically Photoshop tutorials, but presented in a rather cynical, somewhat spiteful, and utterly entertaining way.

Trust me, if you have a few minutes, just watch one or two of these and you’ll see what I mean. I should mention that there is some coarse language, so try not to get in trouble watching these at high volume in the office, OK?

• You Suck at Photoshop #1
• You Suck at Photoshop #2
• You Suck at Photoshop #3

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.