September 7th, 2012 | 
Do we need to run PHOTIGY Live via G+ hangouts?
I am still in search for a better format of our Studio Insights (or assignment review) bi-weekly handouts. It seems that Google Plus hangouts made not for live shooting/tutoring, but more to be… well, to be the place where photographers hang out and chat. May be this is what we need to do instead of live shooting?
Hundreds of photographers watch our recorded hangouts off-line, but we couldn’t get even 10 people joining us during the live photo show. It tells me that I can do the same weekly photography assignment critique and shooting sessions off-line, and then post recorded video. Such video will be even better and more interesting, as I can take extra time to edit it and leave only the most valuable pieces in it.
Instead, we can have some of our Q&A sessions to go live on G+ hangouts, on a bi-weekly basis. Every other week I’ll be interviewing guest photographers of Photigy Live, so we are good there.
What do you guys think? Please vote on the pool below or add a comment if you have another thought.
Loading ... Here we go, the weekly assignment, and a little live photo shot.
The video from “Shooting Glass of Water” G+ Hangout
Weekly Photography Assignment Submissions Gallery:
[easyrotator]erc_8_1346996023[/easyrotator]
The winner shot (by Don Clark)
Congratulations, Don!
Great job, I am glad you’ve joined our photo community. You will be getting goodies from BHphotovideo.com wirth $100 or more.
Our shot we did during the hangout
This is the shot we did during the hangout. Well, almost during it: because we did not get exact splash shape I was looking for while doing it LIVE, we spent an additional 15 minutes and finished the shot after the hangout ended. Like in many cases when working with splashes, it can take extra time to get exactly what you need, and this shot was not an exception.
Must also add that this is a composite shot, Genia Larionova created it from a few splashes. Which is another common thing when shooting liquids:-)
Cognac Wave water splash
As you see, we went back to gold gels and clear water idea. The lighting setup (it’s all on the video) was not changed, just 20 more shots added to the set.
The Next Photo Assignment (deadline 09/19/2011) is
The image of a flower. Creative, emotional image, not a plain macro shot. Got it 
? Submit on the photography forum , link will be posted soon.
Please do not forget to vote on the pool, we need your opinion!
P.S Thank you Joshua Geiger for helping me with the shot and during our hangout.
About The Author: Alex Koloskov
The lighting magician, owner of AKELstudio, Inc.
Hi Alex,
As i see in the video at around 22min and you also tell there is a diference in color temperature between the two einsteins that are derivated from the grids.
Do you notice at the same setings without modifieres diferences in color temperature betwen all yours einsteins?
Thanks,
Pedro
No, I did not notice this when I had E640 w/o any modifiers.
Most likely it was a reflector/honeycomb grind i had on those lights. One of them were casting some color…
Alex,
I am a long time occassional viewer / follower (at least a year) of your blog and I believe I have an answer to why you are loosing Google Plus Hangout interest.
Let me start by stating that your work is terrific. I have been photographing people for 35+ years and am always open to learn new ideas. I have incorporated some of the techniques I learned on your blog into my work.
Over the last year your blog design changed and became more complex to use. As your blog design became more complex, it also became more difficult to navigate in order to find specific articles. For example, your old design listed articles, something I miss in your current design. For unknown reasons, the search frature on photigydoes not work. Therefore, to find the old posts, I have to start at the end of an existing post and click on the more posts link until I find the article I am looking for.
Likewise, I find the forum difficult to navigate: the forum text on my computer monitor looks jumbled and is extremely hard to read. It needs to be simplified.
Additionally, I have trouble logging into the Google Plus hangout. I therefore settled on watching the hangouts at a later time.
As your blog became more complex to navigate and more commercial (meaning that it appears that you charge for almost everything on your website), I found myself loosing interest. I suspect others are experiencing the same problems.
As a computer programmer, you know that the success or failure of a program depends on the user interface. If you want more people to use your blog, then you need to simplify your design and make it easier to navigate. If you want to make your blog more user friendly, you may want to consider using a format similar to Adoroma’s web site (the both offer free online tutorials and sell related camera equipment.).
I hope my comments help you improve your site.