This shot I called 'Sunrise over Pencil Beech'
I was trying to make a scene out of coloring pencils, was giving up on anything worthwhile, putting the pencils back in the box, then I saw this opportunity. I think it looks like a sunrise over a beech, with grass and sand in the fore, the sea and sky in the back ground.
It is a tad abstract, see how you guys feel.
Also, can you let me know, is there anybody out there that cares about the camera stats, I only ask out of laziness, I don't want to put them in if they are no use to anyone.
]]>This is another from my time in Antietam battlefield.
I wanted to make this look old, washed out and used up.
Is it just me or does this seem a weird thing
to do 'digitally?' The age of something must be more tactile than visual, so this being a purely visual medium to age something that is being refreshed constantly just seems to be weird, but I guess if it looks good, that is all a photo has to do isn't it?
I did the B&W conversion in silver effex pro. The remainder of the post was accomplished with LR4
1/500, @f4, ISO 100, focal length 40mm on a 24-105 lens, on a Canon 5d mk3
]]>I did the B&W conversion in silver effex pro. The remainder of the post was accomplished with LR4
1/500, @f4, ISO 100, focal length 40mm on a 24-105 lens, on a Canon 5d mk3
A fun shot with a fun bunch of girls, oh! and the Colester, he is not in this shot but he around.
The idea for this shot washttp://www.facebook.com/suzan.gibson.9
I loved the pigtails.
This is called 'Shhh don't tell anyone'
I had a three light setup, one either side c/w shoot through umbrellas, and one above to light the fence behind.
1/60, @ f2.8 on the nifty fifty lens.
The idea for this shot washttp://www.facebook.com/suzan.gibson.9
I loved the pigtails.
This is called 'Shhh don't tell anyone'
I had a three light setup, one either side c/w shoot through umbrellas, and one above to light the fence behind.
1/60, @ f2.8 on the nifty fifty lens.
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This was a fun shot, I call this: Armchair Scuba,it's just not the same.
I took this after looking at the FB page http://www.facebook.com/DiveTech it is a great place to work and Dive. I haven't dived for so long I missed it and this is my expression of that feeling.
This is actually a combination of 3 photos. I layerd them together in a prog call, Perfect Layers, for those interested. The rest of post done in Light Room 4
I set up the 'room' in my driveway, that is actually a garage door behind me.
Had a friend, Tommy, the lead singer/Guitarist in an awesome band called, Sonicnights: http://www.sonicnightsband.com/
Well worth a listen.
He had the pleasure of tossing the water over me. This is actually a self portrait, the astute will notice the remote in my left hand.
The stats:
640 sec, f2.8 on a 100mm macro lens. Had a remote flash set up both sides of me slightly in front, also one set up high to light up the back wall and limit the shadows. That light could have been a stop brighter, I would like to have eliminated the shadow of the water that you see above my rt. shoulder.
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An interesting shot I took at Antietam Battlefield, they had some re-enactors out there. that fore ground element is a rifle pyramid. I tried this shot at a wider aperture, the lens opens to f2.8, but the back ground detail was just mush.
Stats:
200 sec, f8 ISO 100, taken with the 100mm macro, on the 5d mk3
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On this photo I made a classic mistake, the ISO setting wa
s way higher than needed for this amount of light, the truth is I was taking a few shots in the shade and forgot to change my settings when I came into the sunshine. No major problems as it turns out, but still I would have preferred this shot taken at ISO 100. For those that do not know,ISO is the sensors, sensitivity to light, the higher the number the more sensitive, the problem with high ISO numbers is they decrease the quality of the picture, the better the camera, the less obvious the 'noise', but still you can loose edge sharpness due to noise correction.
The time to use high ISO's is when the light is low, you are indoors or you cannot use a flash, museums and the like.
Speaking of flash, I did use a fill flash on this shot, with that much brightness in the back ground, I would of lost Dyogee to the shadows if I did not light her up to bring the light hitting her from the front to a similar level as that behind, it also allowed the texture of her coat to come through.
Stats, 3200 sec, f4 4 100 ISO, focal length 47mm, on a 24 105 lens mounted to a canon 5d mk3
]]>The time to use high ISO's is when the light is low, you are indoors or you cannot use a flash, museums and the like.
Speaking of flash, I did use a fill flash on this shot, with that much brightness in the back ground, I would of lost Dyogee to the shadows if I did not light her up to bring the light hitting her from the front to a similar level as that behind, it also allowed the texture of her coat to come through.
Stats, 3200 sec, f4 4 100 ISO, focal length 47mm, on a 24 105 lens mounted to a canon 5d mk3
This is Mikeli, second session.
http://www.photofortytwo.com/p1039571683
This is the link to here first.
For those that read yesterdays entry, I talked about the 'rule of thirds' you can see it evident again here. The centerline of the fac
http://www.photofortytwo.com/p1039571683
This is the link to here first.
For those that read yesterdays entry, I talked about the 'rule of thirds' you can see it evident again here. The centerline of the fac
e lies along the 1st vertical third, the eyes along the top horizontal third.
I knew the eyes, as nearly always in a portrait, were going to be the main feature. So I took a lot of trouble focusing on them. Bringing them to life even more in post, by turning the photo into a B&W then bringing back the color in the eyes, it is subtle, but thats how I like it.
The light on this shot was two speed lights. One high to camera right, behind an shoot through umbrella. The second, up high to the left behind model to light her hair, she has dark hair , with a dark backdrop, I needed to light the top rear of her head to separate her hair from the background. This light was twisted off so that just the edge of the light beam touched her hair, didn't want to much light and overdo things.
The post on this shot was done mainly in light room 4 with the B&W conversion done over in Silver Effex Pro.
The Stats:
200th sec, @f2.8,ISO 100. 100 mm macro lens. Two 580 exII speed lights.
I knew the eyes, as nearly always in a portrait, were going to be the main feature. So I took a lot of trouble focusing on them. Bringing them to life even more in post, by turning the photo into a B&W then bringing back the color in the eyes, it is subtle, but thats how I like it.
The light on this shot was two speed lights. One high to camera right, behind an shoot through umbrella. The second, up high to the left behind model to light her hair, she has dark hair , with a dark backdrop, I needed to light the top rear of her head to separate her hair from the background. This light was twisted off so that just the edge of the light beam touched her hair, didn't want to much light and overdo things.
The post on this shot was done mainly in light room 4 with the B&W conversion done over in Silver Effex Pro.
The Stats:
200th sec, @f2.8,ISO 100. 100 mm macro lens. Two 580 exII speed lights.
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I find I need to state the purpose a little more clearly about this here photo of the day thing. I am doing this to try to put my site out there, trying to spread the word, as it were. For those that know me personally, know, I do not like sitting against a computer. So to that end, if you like my photos, or, if you want to help me out personally, then spread the word I need to see the viewers numbers go up, also, a little more interaction, otherwise this is just a chore that I can give up, who amongst us does not like getting rid of things off their lists.
This is a shot from Antietam. I think it is time appropriate, would corn a big thanks giving veggie'?
This is guess maybe maze, not overly sure of the difference, for all I know this could be the start of a Bio-Diesel crop, with it having dried on the stalk, it is probably animal feed. Anybody out there know whats what in the corn/maze world?
A pretty stock image this, if any of you look at the back of your camera and see what looks like a "Tic,Tak-Toe" overlay and didn't know what it is for, well it is to aid in composition, when you compose a photo you should, for the most part, try to put the main aspects of the shot on the lines, either horizontal or vertical, using the intersection of the lines to bring a viewers attention to the more important portions of the composition.
In this shot the cob sits on the first third of the photo, now use your mind and put the corn in the middle of the shot, for me doing that turns this from an OK photo into a "blah" photo.
Next time you are out with your camera, try using that simple rule, known as 'The rule of thirds'
try putting the horizon on the top or bottom third if you are taking a landscape, same as the eyes if you are taking a portrait. If you are trying to make an environmental portrait, one showing a person within area pertinent to them, try putting them on the third and gather the room they are in into the remains.
The stats for this shot are:
1/640, f2.8 ISO 100. Taken on the 5d mk3 c/w 100mm macro lens.
All post done in Lightroom4
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ay going to be able to make a landscape shot, I only had 20-30 yards of viz.
Out on the railway bridge looking for some inspiration, saw a whole bunch of great looking webs and searched this one out, not being to tatty or crammed against others.
Needed the tri-pod for this one. Also the 12 -24 mm wide angle lens. Never an easy lens to use this one. It tends to distort the image a lot, also , with it being a wide angle it has a really large depth of Field, so getting areas of the photo to blur and concentrate a viewers gaze, on a particular portion of the photo, this takes a bit of extra care when composing the shot. You really need to anchor the photo, otherwise you just have to much sharpness in the image, the viewers eye needs somewhere to languish, and to take brief forays out into the rest of the photograph. In this, the cobweb serves well, you should find your gaze going back to it then roaming out to explore the rest of the photo coming back again to rest on the spiders web. To make sure the web was obvious enough, I had to make sure the camera was high, to contrast the web against the tree and water.
This is a great technique when using a wide angle, always find something, anything, to put in the foreground, otherwise the eye will not be able to settle anywhere, the picture will be a confusing one.
In this shot I decided to use the wide angle so that a good portion of the dilapidated bridge, and the shrouding fog could lend there collective weight to the tension in the photograph. What I really needed was a cool looking dude in a wide brimmed hat and full length coat to be walking towards the camera, misting breath disappearing in the fog.
The stats:
1/80 sec, f5 ISO 100, on a tripod with a 12-24mm lens set to a focal length of 17mm. Camera was triggered by an intervalometer.
]]>Out on the railway bridge looking for some inspiration, saw a whole bunch of great looking webs and searched this one out, not being to tatty or crammed against others.
Needed the tri-pod for this one. Also the 12 -24 mm wide angle lens. Never an easy lens to use this one. It tends to distort the image a lot, also , with it being a wide angle it has a really large depth of Field, so getting areas of the photo to blur and concentrate a viewers gaze, on a particular portion of the photo, this takes a bit of extra care when composing the shot. You really need to anchor the photo, otherwise you just have to much sharpness in the image, the viewers eye needs somewhere to languish, and to take brief forays out into the rest of the photograph. In this, the cobweb serves well, you should find your gaze going back to it then roaming out to explore the rest of the photo coming back again to rest on the spiders web. To make sure the web was obvious enough, I had to make sure the camera was high, to contrast the web against the tree and water.
This is a great technique when using a wide angle, always find something, anything, to put in the foreground, otherwise the eye will not be able to settle anywhere, the picture will be a confusing one.
In this shot I decided to use the wide angle so that a good portion of the dilapidated bridge, and the shrouding fog could lend there collective weight to the tension in the photograph. What I really needed was a cool looking dude in a wide brimmed hat and full length coat to be walking towards the camera, misting breath disappearing in the fog.
The stats:
1/80 sec, f5 ISO 100, on a tripod with a 12-24mm lens set to a focal length of 17mm. Camera was triggered by an intervalometer.
I like this kind of shot, one showing the flowers against the sky, this is a shot for a patchy sky you need both blue sky and cloud for the texture and contrast.
This was taken out at Manassas battlefield, that can be a sobering place. To think of what went on here, you would think that people would learn that you fight a war to get peace. I can only imagine how disappointed some of the soldiers from this battlefield would be, to learn, that we are still fighting wars. Now I am not saying they sacrificed their lives in vain, or that some wars should not be fought, just that we have not seemed to have learned any lessons from them.
Like that scene at the end of "Saving Private Ryan" Tom Hanks lying bleeding mortally wounded, telling Pvt Ryan to "Earn this"
I can imagine the soldiers that died saying that to those who have benefitted from their plight, to us.
Sorry about that, went of on an melancholic tangent for a sec. I had a very sad experience Saturday, it kind of left its mark. hence the prickly subject I guess!
Now this is going to be a rarity, I do not want to make a habit of a photo on Sunday. Day of rest and all that. Just on a rare occasion.
The stats: Shot on a 5d mk3 c/w 24-105 lens.
Shutter speed 1/2000 @f4,ISO100 and 97mm focal length.
Of board the flash out high to Camera left.
I did a little extra post on this shot, I exported from Lightroom 4 to On Ones "Perfect Photo Suite" in the "Focus" I blurred the ground and leaves to emphasize the sharpness and draw your attention to the flower head.
Sharpness and Saturation were added in LR4 also I removed a few small bits of debris from the petals, oh and I needed to evict an aphids or two.
The details for this shot are:
1/60 sec @ f8, ISO 100, shot on 1d mk4, c/w 24-70 lens set to a focal length of 70mm.
For want of a different, hopefully, human model, I had to make do with the marionette again.
I had a blast with the light set up but this with the fire was 'way cool' Just to assure you that this shot was all captured with one click of the button, apart from a little touch up with Lightroom this is (SOOC) Straight out of Camera.
No one was harmed during the making of this and yes Claire the house is still standing.
To get the right light , this time I had to put a 1/2 cut of CTO gel over both flash heads, you have to remember that flash/speed lights come out of the factory set to daylight color, so if you are trying to take a shot using fire, or at least wanting it to look like fire is the main source of light, you need to change the color temp of the light, to achieve this you can use a gel called 'Color Temp Orange' put it over the lamps and hey presto! A much more realistic lit image. Put yesterday and todays image together and you may see the difference, it is subtle.
This time , because I am using fire rather than LED's I had to stop down the lens all the way to f22 39 sec exposure. the rest is the same as yesterday, getting the puppet to seem to be in the centre of the fire was a trick, I had to have a black out flag in just the right spot so as not to have the rear portion of the fire shine through the doll. Enjoy, and please feel free to spread it around.
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Sorry todays photo is a tad boring, it is of our little mutt, Miss Minnie Scule. Happily mixing it up with any and all of nature. This shot is particularly poignant to me, it was taking this that was distracting enough to make me lose my bearings and get lost in the woods at Manassas battlefield for over 3 hrs, just wondering lost. I can be a total pillock sometimes.
On to the stats 1/125 sec f4 ISO 100 camera 5d mk3 and a 24-105 lens with a focal length of 24mm. I had an of board flash high camera left to provide the catch lights and to eliminate the shadows.
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A nice litte panorama, this was taken out in horsey country, Middleburg.
This place looked pretty run down, but I think it was still working.
I never intended this to be a B&W, but on a closer look it works much better thus, the color option, though the flowers in the foreground were a nice pink/purple, was just not enough to make the composition compelling enough to keep. The post on this shot was done first in Lightroom then in Silver Effex Pro. The shot taken on a 5d mk 3 c/w 24-105 lens set to 67mm focal length, the shutter speed was 1/250 sec, at f4 on ISO 100.
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Echinacea in the Clouds
1/25 sec, f22, ISO 100 taken on the 5d mk 3 c/w 100mm macro lens.
This shot was taken at Meadowlark Botanic gardens.
I am fairly sure it is an echinacea, but a white one.
Enjoy it.
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This was a great photo to make, it is of the unstoppable Scout, with the indomitable Michele.
These ladies make a great team, Michele, works as the soccer coach for the local Vienna team, Scout is one of there MVP's what great form she has, Oh! to be young and flexible again.
This photo was taken under a little bit of pressure, the fading fall sun was disappearing, it was being swallowed up by the distant tree line, the shadows cast were great, just getting a bit thick.
I am not going to give away all the tricks for this shot, got to keep you guessing a bit.
The background is not quite as I would like it, I think I would like to try this shot on a proper soccer field, with goal posts behind. With maybe a bit more setup time.
I like this shot, I think Scouts position is perfect, and she is so Accurate with that ball, nearly every shot had the ball perfectly placed, unfortunately for Mom, she never managed to duck every time, Michele, I hope the headache has worn of a little by now!
The tech details, are:
1/40 of a sec, f8, ISO 100, using a 100mm macro lens, just 'cause it's macro, does not mean you can't use it for other stuff. The Camera was the 5d mk3. I had two speed lights set up one for each model, both set up and triggered remotely.
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This is a fun shot to take, nearby is a great set of derelict railway tracks, full of stories and atmosphere. I confess to having to put this yellow flower in the this spot, it was sacrificed for the greater good of the photo, a good death!
first thing to say about this shot is, it was hot, very damn hot, and laying down on the ground to take this shot was very uncomfortable, the heat burned my belly several times. I figure that if it don't hurt a little you should be trying harder.
I tried to find out what type of flower that is, not much luck, if any of you know pass it on.
I guess it is the juxtaposition of man made and nature made that draws me to this shot. No matter how strong us humans think we are, nature will always have the upper hand, it will take back this planet, and do it in the most beautiful of ways.
For this shot I needed a fast shutter speed, mainly because lying still on hot coals ain't easy and I didn't want camera shake to be an issue. The shallow depth of field that a wide open aperture would have given me, would have to little detail of the sleepers going back, I think I would have lost the repetitive element of the tracks to the bokeh.
Bokeh for those not familiar, is the out of focus areas around the main subject of a photograph.
I stopped down my aperture to f22 the lens I was using will go all the way to f32. So I could of had a lot more focus, as it was I could get a shutter speed of 160th but that meant I had to raise my ISO to 400, don't normally like to do this, the higher the ISO the worse the picture quality. So this is a compromise I made with the scorch marks on my gut.
The lens was a100 mm macro, on the Canon 5d mk3
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I was out yesterday exploring for a photo, you know this photo of the day thing puts the pressure on one!
So I went to Lake Accotink park, http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/lake-accotink/
Not much going on just a couple of runners a cyclist or two. The sky was looking rather good so I wanted to get a shot using the sky for the main bulk of the photograph, but needing something for the photo to anchor on. Then I see the canoes, initially I wanted to get a shot from the other side, but they had a horrid looking chain connecting all the boats together. From this direction I am looking into the sun a wee bit, it is high off out of view, camera left. The trouble with that is that it cast a shadow over this side, and that darkened them enough to make them just a black mass' to compensate, I opened them up with a fill flash coming in from above the camera. All post production is done via Lightroom, please feel free to leave your critiques. And pass this on to your friends.
The stats for this are:
250th sec, f10, ISO 100 with a focal length of 15mm on a 24-105 lens mounted on the Canon 5d mk3
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Today I have this as my offering, it's called:
The Dollar is Up!
I have always found money to be a good thing to have around, especially when you need to make a photograph, I was looking at the mess of my penny jar when I come over all inspired, you would probably be surprised at to how long this shot takes, but for those who care here are the stats: 2.5 sec @ f8. ISO 100, 100mm 2.8 macro prime lens on a 5d mk 3 off board flash, away camera right, with gold reflector to fill on the left.
To get the Dollar to appear distinguished from the others, I had it elevated on a stiff wire from underneath. Some of you wise froods out there may ask why not open up the aperture to gain a shallow depth of field, the lens is a fast one, it goes to f2.8, to them I say Ha! I wanted the sharpness and best contrast, thats you get at the sweet spot of the lens. Normally between f8-f11, this is common with all lens, after all they have to operate at their best somewhere. Unfortunately, that is also a point that, creatively speaking, is the most hum-drum and boring, it is a middle of the road aperture that nearly only works well when, what you have as the main interest in a photograph is all in the same plane and parallel to the sensor of the camera.
This does not hold true for all lens' they do have a thing called a tilt shift lens that effectively skews the focal plane of the lens.
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Okay I am going to try to post a new photo avery day, this is going to be a challenge because inspiration can be difficult to get. To that end if any of you out there have a word or phrase you would like me to try to capture it would help
me out, like a lot, the more inspiration I have the more cool photos you get to look at.
This is todays shot, it is of the Freeman's store here in Vienna, the flowers are to the best of my search skills,
Gorgeous Red and Yellow Gaillardia fanfare Flower. I think feel free to pipe in with any corrections.
For those that have an interest, the shot was taken on a 5d mk 3, c/w 24-105 lens.
Exposure stats:
Shutter 1.6 sec at f22, iso 100 and a focal length of 45mm
I had a flash set on a sync cord just of to camera left to make the colors of the flowers pop out a little bit.
Please feel free to spread this to as many folks as you can, I would appreciate it.
]]>This is todays shot, it is of the Freeman's store here in Vienna, the flowers are to the best of my search skills,
Gorgeous Red and Yellow Gaillardia fanfare Flower. I think feel free to pipe in with any corrections.
For those that have an interest, the shot was taken on a 5d mk 3, c/w 24-105 lens.
Exposure stats:
Shutter 1.6 sec at f22, iso 100 and a focal length of 45mm
I had a flash set on a sync cord just of to camera left to make the colors of the flowers pop out a little bit.
Please feel free to spread this to as many folks as you can, I would appreciate it.