Second Look

Recently, I shot a bottle of Rakia from Bulgaria (Stress Reliever) which proved to be really tricky to shoot. I reused the light setup to take another take on the vodka bottle that I shot a few months back when I was "Reviving The Kit" lens.

Light Diagram from the Rakia Bottle shot

I'd show the vodka bottle that was shot a few months back and the a few weeks ago side-by-side. I'd love to hear what you think is better.

Reviving The Kit

Second Look

So, what do you think is better?

Stress Reliever

Looking back at my archives, it's been awhile since I last did something and wrote something that involved photography. These past few weekends, I have been a little busy with it again and it started with the photo below. Click on "Read more >>" below for more details about the shot.

Rakia

Multiplicity

Have anyone of you watch 'Multiplicity'? Well, I just somewhat did that trick in a photographic way in my case. I guess being bored gives you a little time in your hands to make it a little interesting and creative and make something like this:

Multiplied myself into five (5) one to work each day of the work week -- in my dreams! So how was this possible? It's very easy to do but composing it will take a little challenge.

The photo above, took six (6) shots in total. Five of them was for the five poses and the sixth shot was for exposing the window to get a some details outside of the window. It is important that your camera is in Manual settings and AF in manual too.

The recipe:

• pick an aperture that will give you enough DOF;
• pick an ISO that will somehow be sensitive enough depending on your environment;
• pick your shutter speed according to your previous settings to get a good exposure;
• set your camera on a tripod;
• set it to timer mode -- it'll be easier if you have a wireless shutter release;
• after getting your shots, layer all the shots on top of one another and erase the areas you don't want to be seen and reveal the other poses in the other layers using your favorite editing program;

So it was just that easy, right? Get out and experiment!

Cheers!

A Night Of Food And Photography

A couple of days ago, some from our photography group had some sort of a mini-tutorial/sharing on food photography thus a night of food and photography.

Mini Studio Work

From the recent post 'Be Your Own...', I worked again in my mini studio to practice product lighting but this time with a different light setup. Slightly different from the previous setup.

Be Your Own...

It's been awhile since I wrote a post and I hope that this new post can be an interesting one.

Be your own boss is what I can think of to finish the hanging title when I see the photo below.

On-Camera Flash And Small White Room

Last week I had a chance to participate in an open photo shoot organized by Terry Jorgensen at The Bulb Studios. It was my first time to shoot in a studio with those big mono lights with their big soft boxes. The first shot I took with those big lights made me drool over them and makes me wanna get myself some of those lights too. I will someday.

Okay let's get back to the title of this post before I get carried away with those big lights introduction. What I really wanted to share and concentrate on was my favorite shots that I was able to take outside of the studio, actually it still inside the studio but away from the big lights -- the reception area of the studio. The reception area that was about, maybe 10 feet by 30 feet with a ceiling height of about 10 feet also. What was great about the reception area was it's painted white all over -- the walls, floor, and ceiling. One more thing, the entrance to this area was a glass door that allowed lots of light to enter into the room.

Model: Cathy Frey

The photo above was shot in the reception area. The reception door is on my left (model's right) side. I had my speedlite on my camera and from what I've learned, direct on-camera flash isn't really flattering at all. I have been practicing how to bounce flash with on-camera flash and I believe this is one big accomplishment for the little speedlite. I bounced my flash towards my back angled up about 45 degrees. This filled up the room with light scattering all about and bouncing all around the walls and ceiling and floor and created this big soft light source. As a result of this, the shadows behind the model and the motorcycle was almost eliminated and created a wrap around light on the subjects. As I didn't have much experience with big studio lights but have ample experience on bounce flash, I was able to get this awesome shot! Below is another shot on the same setting.

Model: Cathy Frey

At the opposite end of the studio entrance was the reception desk and it had a stair case on it's right side still painted white. Again, I was able to use it as my "own" small studio with only having my speedlite as the light source. I applied the same technique as I have done above but tweaked the angle of the flash.

Model: Stephanie Gaña

In the photo above, I believe the flash was toward my back-right hand side. On the next photo, the flash was on the opposite side as the model change positions, I had to adjust the direction of the flash. If I didn't change the direction of the flash, I would've lit the model's hair instead of her face.

Model: Stephanie Gaña

I was able to make good use of the white walls and on-camera flash using bounce flash techniques. I have to thank Neil van Niekerk for his tutorials on flash photography techniques. I did quite learn a lot from his blog on the use of on-camera flash bounce.

The rest of my photos from this photo shoot session can be seen here: Heroes & Villains Open Photo Shoot by Terry Jorgensen.

Again, thanks Terry for the spot and opportunity.

VW Beetle Hoodie

In relation to my previous post: Volkswagen Photoshoot -- Die-cast, I received an email from a website design firm recently asking for my permission for them to use one of my photos that I took of the VW Beetle die-cast about a week ago as they would like to use it for one of their campaigns for their new website.

Naturally, I was flattered that they'll going to use one of my photos. :) Here's the photo they've asked permission to use:

VW Beetle 1/24 Scale Die-cast

I received another email from them with an attached e-newsletter they're going to use or are using with the VW Beetle photo of mine with an appropriate byline and I just wanted to share it with you how it looks:

Infotex E-Newsletter

This opportunity is a real big inspiration for me. Now, I'm really looking forward for more sets with die-cast toys. One more thing, this photo was taken only with a kit lens and only shows that creativity is what matters and how it's executed, right?

Session With The 85mm

I was able to setup a practice session with Canon's EF 85mm f/1.8 last Sunday. The place where the session we went to was indeed nice and have probably lots of potential spots to shoot. But due to the private and high-class nature of the place, I was on my toes for anyone that might make us wrap-up prematurely. Brought  along the kids during the practice session to add a little distraction.

I've planned to shoot with ambient light only and some flash when possible. Oh well, the ambient light setup was a bit tricky as the afternoon was overcast. Moreover, add some wind and drizzle into the mix.

See what I mean? Though it wasn't drizzling when the photo above was taken. We were able to take shelter on a small play area for kids when it drizzled. It was a nice area as it has an open door and huge windows where an adult can easily pass through. It's a good opportunity for good light but if I were to consider the direction where the light should come from and and the subject's position, it meant I should be out of the play area?! Come on, it's drizzling outside.. =) Here's a couple of shots:

f/3.2, 1/100sec, ISO 200

Both photos were retouched to remove some blemish on the skin as the light direction emphasized it. Additionally, the corner where these two photos were taken was dark and it drowned the her into the background. I fired a flash behind her which is more evident on the second photo to give space between the subject and background. I liked how the black and white post processing worked on the image and the accent made by the flash behind her. =)

After the drizzle, we went back to the hut where we left our stuff and went on a break. After a light meal, we tried to get some snaps with one of the support beans of the hut. I had my 4-year old daughter hold up the flash for me when I took this shot. What a dandy light stand. =)

f/3.2, 1/320 sec, ISO 200 +  flash with diffuser cup

Jolly after the snack. =) We then headed out again since the drizzle had finally stopped but still very overcast. We found some steps and leveraged the steps for a different angle -- from a low point of view.

f/3.5, 1/160, ISO 200

The spot on the steps was very windy and we decided to look for a better spot. We strolled further after steps and found this green bench beside a tree. The sun was behind the tree and the bench in front of the tree. It's a good spot indeed. The sun peeked a little from behind the tree and somehow gave a slight rim light on her on the following photo below:

f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO 800

I wanted a shot seeing the green bench and how it complemented the green background and the flowery dress.Using the wind too to open up her face a bit.

f/3.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 200

f/3.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 200

It was a fun practice shoot with the 85mm but as I reviewed the photos, I was a little disappointed on the sharpness of the photos. Since the 85 is a longer focal range that I am used to using -- 17-50mm, it's really important to take note of the DOF and should be careful where to focus. Still the day ended well, a little exhausted but truly worthwhile.

f/5.6, 1/50 sec, ISO 800

Well, I guess I will be looking forward for another practice shoot with the 85mm. =) The next photo is not taken with then 85mm but I just thought it's worthwhile to post the cast and crew (supportive wife and adorable kids). =)

f/5.0, 1/80 sec, ISO 400, flash bounced on roof of the hut

Cheers!

Coffee Assignment

I am a part of a young and passionate photography club called Quezon City Photography Club (QCPC). It's a growing club in the city where I currently reside.

One of the club members wanted to start of with something like of a contest or some sort and we ended up having a monthly themed assignment. For the month of March, we have a coffee-based theme.

I joined this activity to push my creativity and as well as to develop more my photography skills. It's really a part of learning I guess. When this theme was announced, it came to my thought that for sure there'll be lots of coffee cups and saucer and teaspoons photos. I wanted to be different so I thought of using coffee beans. Using just coffee beans was too simple of a shot and I don't how to make it more interesting.

Then I remembered seeing an ad on the TV of coffee beans being roasted. I wanted to recreate this picture I have in mind.

So, I was able to loan a half-cup of coffee beans from a colleague of mine from work. Here's the result of my session with the loaned coffee beans.

Hot Beans

I wanted an effect that looked like that the coffee beans were recently roasted and are still venting off steam.

Hot Shot

Took a shot glass and I wanted the same effect as the one on top.

Spilled Beans

Tipped off the shot glass and still trying to get the effect on hot coffee beans.

Where did the smoke come from you might be asking. The smoke came from some incense and I waited for the smoke to be wafted towards the coffee beans for an effect the smoke comes from the coffee beans itself.

The one that I entered in our club's themed assignment is the 'Spilled Beans' as it has some other element in the photo which is the shot glass and making it not look too bare like on the first photo: 'Hot Beans'.

All photos were taken at 85mm, f/11.0, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, Off-cam flash with the setting below:

Black background and coffee beans were set on top of a glass table for the reflections on the beans. The snooted flash allowed the environment to be dark and only shed light onto the subject. The reflector bounced of some light from the snooted flash to fill-in some light on the right side of the photo where the shadow should have casted due to the position of the flash.

Position of the flash was considered for two things: 1) to get the texture of the coffee beans and 2) to shine light on the smoke just like the way I did on my smoke photography.

Cheers!

Flowers Delight!

Over the weekend, my wife together with my two daughters and I, went to church early and ate out for breakfast as I wanted to go to the Orchids Festival that was just recently concluded last March 7, 2011. These were taken at the Quezon City Memorial Circle where the festival was held.

I wanted to be early so I can still have soft natural light and didn't want to use flash in this occasion. Indeed the day was blessed with magnificent light. I really like taking photos of flowers under ambient light. Flower photography is my first love in photography and I can't wait to get myself a true dedicated macro lens for this (but it has to wait for awhile).

So let me share some of my favorites which I am very happy to share with you along with some description of the photo.

Here's an orchid where my intention is to focus on only one or two blossoms and let the others in the cluster blur in the background. Though the other blooms are blurred, it retained it's general form, shape, and color suggesting that the only focused bloom is part of a group and not a solo.

f/3.2, 1/200sec, ISO 200

Here's another bloom where I intentionally took a shot of the top part only of the cluster and show the color and the remains of the previous night's rain on them.

f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 200

A close-up shot (not a macro) of a bloom from a cluster of orchid blooms where I intentionally shot only one to reveal the patterns and color of this particular bloom. Actually, if you can look closely, there seems to be an alien's face (similar to movies -- big eyes, small mouth, and probably a third eye on the forehead) there in the pattern.

f/3.2, 1/320sec, ISO 200

This particular bloom is quite interesting for me as this variety is very seldom seen. The common color of this bloom is pink. I am actually trying to grow the common variety of this in our garden.

f/4.0, 1/125sec , ISO 200

I remember that this is my second shot from the series of photos that I have taken from this trip. My wife actually spotted this particular bloom for it's peachy color. The shallow DOF was intentional as I wanted to introduce dimension to the flower. I hope I achieved this. :)


f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 100

Ain't that delightful? Thank you for viewing. I hope you were enjoyed the photos as I enjoyed taking photos of them.

Share your delight and mine by sharing this blog entry to your friends.

Cheers!

Studio or Not?

Previously, I posted my favorite photo from a recent portraits photoshoot session here. That was ambient light only. These ambient light only shots were only additional shots after the actual session.

Here are some of those studio shots -- not!

I was commissioned to do some portraits to be used for a debut invitation. Client wanted a studio session but I didn't have one so I improvised. The client was willing to go to our place and I planned out where the shoot will take place and I've picked our veranda which was spacious enough to move around and of course it has lots of good ambient light!

I didn't rely only on the ambient light that's coming from the left of the subject. I had to mix it with artificial light from my flash. I positioned it at the subject's right side to act as a filler so I'll have two sides with light. Balancing the output of the flash was a bit tricky since I have one light source that's varying in intensity as the clouds move across the sky. :) I guess that's why on the first photo, the right side has a warmer (yellow-orange) light.

Here's an overview of my setup. Can you see Mr. Sun on the right side smiling? :)

I would like to have more opportunities to have this kind of sessions in the coming weeks. :)

By the way, I did edit a little on the background to make it that white and remove the not so visible creases on the white cloth used in the background.

Original Background

Edited Background

With additional lighting, I could have done it without any editing. Next stop, additional light. :)

Cheers!

Beautiful Ambient Light

Last weekend I was able to take another portraits session and I just want to share this ambient light that I was able to use -- soft and just beautiful.

Sharp Eyes

It even created wonderful catch lights on the eyes and casted soft shadows. It's one truly a softbox made in heaven.

This was taken in full shade at around 11:00 AM where the sun is probably almost peeping from the edge of the roof where we were.

Hearty-artsy!

Last night, my eldest daughter asked her mom to teach her to draw hearts. After that, she was on her own drawing hearts and would occasionally ask me if it's okay to draw big hearts and in return I would reply 'yes, of course it's alright'.

After awhile, she asked for her crayons and kept bugging everyone when she wasn't able find her crayons. When she finally was able to find her crayons, she went back to her table and continued doing her own thing.

A few more moments, she then suddenly showed me her work. A very hearty-artsy work and a very nice one indeed! :)

I just couldn't resist to take photos.

Here's Thea's Hearty-artsy work:

Of course, here's the artist and her work:

Very nice isn't it and very timely for Valentine's Day, right! :D

Macro By Reverse

Sometime December 2010, my beloved kit lens (Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS) broke it's AF. Probably an electronic problem within the lens. Anyway, I didn't bother to have it repaired as I need to upgrade my glass. Okay, enough of the intro.

So, what is this macro by reverse? It's a cheat on macro photography where a lens, such as the kit lens, is reversely mounted on the camera body by using a reverse ring adapter. Instead of having the lens mount correctly in place, the front element of the lens is fitted with this reverse ring adapter.

At first, when the kit lens was my only glass, I didn't bother to try this macro thing by reversing the lens as I didn't want my inner lens element be exposed out in the open. Now that I have found a replacement for the kit lens, I tried this cheat and I am absolutely going crazy over the photos I was able to get. Take note, this is my first try to do this.

Let me share you some photos:

This way of doing macro photography is quite difficult as the DOF on this reverse lens setup is very thin/shallow and the focusing is very much manual.

Now, I really want a macro lens! :D

Yellow and Green

This photo has been long overdue and it was only last night I was only able to check on it. After doing my levels adjust on the converted RAW to JPG, I just can't help but be amazed on the output of this flower shot.

I'm loving the colors, sharpness, and DOF so much. I don't know if it's just me but I really do love the outcome on this photo.

Canon EOS 1000D + defective AF 18-55mm kit lens @ 49mm, f/8.0, 1/160sec, ISO 800

Thank you for looking.

E-session: The other photographer

I was invited by a friend of mine over the weekend to shoot with him for an engagement session of his friends (the couple). He informed me that we were going to shoot with the organizing photographer. I thought this was a nice opportunity to test my 85mm f/1.8 I just recently acquired (thanks to my big brother). It was a good thing I had the 85mm on my 1000D and was able to stay away from the organizing photographers' view. I was trying my best to stay away from their view as not to disturb them as I was only a guest photographer. All my shots were like stolen/candid shots but I like most of them.

By the way, shots taken were somewhere between 10:30 - 12:00 noon with partly cloudy skies.

Joedex & Alyne's Engagement Photo Session (Best viewed full screen on black. Click on the image for the album photos)

Prenup: Joedex & Alyne

With regards to the performance of this glass was very nice. Fast and quiet AF. But after having the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 which was on the heavy side, I made some adjustments on holding the camera as it's very compact and light. Being it light and short, honestly I had a little difficulty on avoiding camera shake. Had to compensate with a little boost on the ISO.

Purple fringing is very evident wide open. I'm not sure if having the lens hood will minimize this. Oh well, will wait for the budget to arrive.

All in all, I'm happy with the 85mm.

Testing the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM

*Disclaimer: This entry reflects my personal opinion on the said topic.

It was a wonderful day for taking photos and was a great time to test the new lens -- Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM. Here are photos of two models, Christine and Ynah.

Build. The Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM on my hands feels solid and the weight is noticeable but not on the heavy side. Pairing it on my beloved Canon 1000D feels a great combination in terms of weight -- not too light and not too heavy.

AF. Relatively fast and spot on. Though as my camera tends to back-focus a bit, I have to do a little focus compensation -- not ideal but I have no choice at the moment. It is quite audible and not as silent like Canon's USM technology but I don't really mind at all. The front element doesn't turn during AF which is a good thing but the focusing ring on the barrel does and it's a little tricky when my fingers are slightly on the focusing ring and I think that disturbs the AF. I hope I get used to not getting in the way of AF. There's no FTM focusing and so I'm back to my focus compensation thing.

Sharpness. I haven't fully tested it but on the wide end (17mm) at wide open aperture (f/2.8), there a softness in the entire frame. Zooming to the telephoto end (50mm) at wide open aperture (f/2.8), I believe about 75-80% of the frame is very sharp.

Other. In some occasions, I sometimes hear something inside that there something that's wobbling or disengaging. I have to check this out on what occasions this happen particularly.

Below, here are some sample photos I took with the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS lens paired with my beloved Canon 1000D on a recent fun shoot.

50mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec

45mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec

Tried it to take a family portrait where the parents of this kid is intentionally put in the background and blurred. A softer blur could have helped better from a narrower DOF.

50mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec

At the end of the day, I feel good in having this lens as replacement for my AF-defective kit lens (Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS) and also for my nifty-fifty (Canon EF 50mm f/1.8). So, I'll soon be posting my nifty-fifty up for sale. As for my kit lens, I'll make us of it for my reverse lens macro shooting time.