Joe Farace

I’ve been writing about and playing with—emphasis on play—Lensbaby lenses since they were introduced in 2004 and ten years later they’re still coming up with new ideas. All their products, including the Medium Format 3G with "Marvin the Martian"-like antennae, have been interesting and the new Lensbaby Velvet 56 portrait lens not only looks like fun but appears to be the most practical Lensbaby product ever.

The studio lighting genie is not going back into the bottle anytime soon and LED light sources are finding their place in more and more camera rooms. Clever and versatile lighting systems such as Rotolight’s new Anova V2 and their compact RL48-B battery-powered portable lights are part of the reason why.

Instead of visions of sugarplums, it’s gadgets, gizmos, and software dancing through digital photographers’ heads during the holidays. Presented for your approval is a collection of fun and affordable tools to put a smile on your face and make imaging next year easier and more creative. You can use this column as a shopping list for your favorite photographer or grab a Sharpie and circle the goodies you want and leave it near where your spouse eats his or her Cap’n Crunch. It’s worked for me.

If there is any one technical aspect that has not changed in the transition from film to digital it’s been the pursuit of “perfect” exposure, which is ultimately dictated by the latitude of the capture medium. Latitude is the extent to which film or an imaging chip can be overexposed or underexposed and still produce an acceptable result.