Tuesday 28 February 2012

Summer Leys Sunset

This was a rather uninspiring scene, but I felt a 3-shot HDR lifted it a little!

Sunday 26 February 2012

Friday 24 February 2012

Experiment with water droplets

Thought I'd give some water droplet photos a go tonight...

Not the best shot ever, but a start! I used two flashguns - one snooted, one with a yellow gel and I coloured the water red.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/7.1 @ 100 mm, 1/160, ISO 100

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Blogging on....

Hi all

I've decided to reduce the frequency of my blog posts, but try and put more detail in about the intention / technique.

Also I'd like to do more guest photos, so please email me at info@philhackettphotography.com if you have some shots that might be appropriate!

Phil

Sunday 19 February 2012

2012_52 Week 7 - Root

The most difficult thing with this shot was trying to keep the plant in position. I poked a large screw through a black cloth and into the rear of the bulb and had that clamped in a alligator clip attached to a stand.

Shot was lit with the 580EXII firing through a gridded reflector. I increased the canvas size in Elements to add the negative space on the left which I feel balances the photo.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/8 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 100, Flash

Thursday 16 February 2012

Cooking outdoors candid, Souq Waqif, Doha, Qatar

One has to be discrete about candids in this part of the world. A small camera innocently languishing around the neck is ideal! I used a relatively small aperture and high ISO to give a large depth of field and fast shutter speed.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/5.6 @ 23 mm, 1/640, ISO 1600, No Flash



Wednesday 15 February 2012

Monday 13 February 2012

Beach at Doha

No messing with colours at all! This is what it looked like....

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/40, ISO 800, No Flash

Sunday 12 February 2012

Waiting for the plane....

How do you take a candid when you've got people sitting next to you? Pretend to be fiddling with the camera!


FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/160, ISO 200, No Flash

Thursday 9 February 2012

Grey parrot at the Souk

Doha's Souk has a street full of pet shops, mostly selling birds - here is a parrot on a perch outside one such shop.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/640, ISO 200, No Flash

Wednesday 8 February 2012

2012_52 Week 6 - Industry

Industry -



The construction industry is very visible in the Middle East where I am on business at the moment - they are throwing up skyscrapers at an amazing speed.



For this shot I surreptiously crept onto a building site in Doha, Qatar. It was night and I didn't have a tripod so I perched my camera on a breeze-block and set it to bracket 3 frames -3,-2,-1 EV if I recall correctly. I then blended the shots in Photomatix.



The HDR process accentuates noise so I corrected this in Lightroom before uploading.



If I'm being picky I might have prefered to avoid the hosepipe partially obscuring the vehicle. Unfortunately I was restricted on shooting position and in some ways I think it adds depth to shot.

FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 3 exposures, ISO 1600

Sunday 5 February 2012

War Mask

A war mask shot at the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. I put the Fuji right up against the glass to minimize reflections and help me hold the camera steady.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/125, ISO 800, No Flash

Saturday 4 February 2012

Off to Qatar and UAE

I'll be flying to Qatar as this post goes live - here's a shot from my previous visit to the region.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/5.6 @ 24 mm, 1/800, ISO 100, Flash

Thursday 2 February 2012

2012_52 Week 5 - Secure

Secure - studio shot lit by two strip soft boxes - one either side of model.

I asked Jwan to image feeling safe & secure and this is the pose she came up with. I loved the image in colour, but then liked the way the tones came across even more when I went to B&W.

Jwan headshot

Photo from shoot tonight. Beauty dish high camera left, strip box (gridded) camera right and red gel / barndoors on background.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/4.5 @ 100 mm, 1/160, ISO 100

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Tanjia

I've just edited this but it was shot about 18 months ago.

I used an array of softboxes to give light as if from an open window. The lights were close to the model, so I had to add the 'negative space' later in post processing.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/11 @ 35 mm, 1/125, ISO 100