Thursday 31 January 2013

The Crystal Building by Siemens

 
Loved the reflections in the glass. The foreground was very dark so I decided to do an HDR using three exposures. Expures then fused in Photomatix.
 
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/2.8 @ 24 mm, ISO 100

Escalators

Canon EOS M, f/2.8 @ 22 mm, 1/40, ISO 800, No Flash

Tuesday 29 January 2013

ExCel London at night

The more I use the EOS-M the more I'm impressed with it. The performance at higher ISO is great as this picture shows, and the pancake lens is impressive even wide open. I really like the touch to select focus and shoot option.
 
EOS-M, 22mm f/2.0 STM, 1/60s f/2.0, ISO 1600
 

Monday 28 January 2013

Northampton at night in infrared

Thanks to Bob Latham for lending me his IR converted Canon 450D. I think it is around a 665nm conversion.

This was a quick test shot - I just desaturated the colour a little and upped the clarity in Lightroom.

Canon EOS 450D, f/4 @ 24 mm, 1.6s, ISO 400, No Flash
 

Sunday 27 January 2013

Fungus on wood

A close-up using the Eos-M and my Zeiss 100mm f/2. I really like the Eos-M for Macro work. I might do a review of the camera at some point, but for macro it is great to have a light body with an excellent live view.

I had the camera on a monopod to help me steady it. The touch-screen zoom helped to ensure critical focus - I was so confident of being in focus at the point of taking I only shot a single frame.

I loved the winter light on this.

 Canon EOS M, f/6.3 @ 100 mm, 1/250, ISO 400, No Flash

The last of the snow

Testing the EOS-M with the kit zoom. It's actually very sharp from wide open and handles nicely.
 
 

Canon EOS M, f/6.3 @ 18 mm, 1/800, ISO 100, No Flash

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Tracey Fisheye Portrait

Fisheye's aren't the most flattering lenses for portraiture but they give a unique look.

Here I lit Tracey with flash and deliberately underexposed the background with exposure compensation.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/4 @ 15 mm, 1/800, ISO 800, Flash

Sunday 20 January 2013

2013_52 Week 3: Gravity

Well I risked life and limb for these shots! I stood about 1/3 of the way down a sledging slope and used my 135L at or near wide open (f/2.0) to capture these shots. All need a little boost in exposure to get the snow white.

To assemble the tryptych I first cropped the middle shot to get the subjects a similar size in the frame to the other two and then used the Lightroom print function.

All were taken on the 1Ds3 - thank goodness for its good servo AF!
 

Saturday 19 January 2013

Mother and child snowy portrait

Asked mother and child in the park if they'd like their portrait taking...

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/2 @ 50 mm, 1/500, ISO 100, No Flash

Thursday 17 January 2013

A quiet lunchbreak

Candid of lady sitting having a quiet smoke over lunchtime.
 
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/2.8 @ 200 mm, 1/1000, ISO 200, No Flash

2013_52 Week 2: Season

For this week's topic I considered doing something with spices, but then decided to go for a wintry portrait.

I spent some time waiting for a suitably wrapped-up person to walk past and asked if I could take a couple of shots. The kind lady agreed, and here is my favourite.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/4 @ 200 mm, 1/200, ISO 200, No Flash

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Theresa on a chair

 
One @Lencarta softbox firing from behind and camera left.
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/9 @ 85 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Sunday 13 January 2013

Peace Pagoda - de-fished HDR

Just around sunset I took this three shot HDR of the peace pagoda on my Canon 8-15L Fisheye.

I mostly liked the result, but felt the fisheye distortion detracted from the shot. I used the lens profile in Lightroom from Canon's 15mm f/2.8 fisheye to combat some of the distortion. I include an original fisheye frame for comparison.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/5 @ 15 mm, 1/320, ISO 800


One frame un-edited:

Saturday 12 January 2013

Out for a walk with Geoff

I took Geoff on his first outing - I was hoping he might meet some old friends. I got the impression he was happy enough.

Taken with the 85mm f/1.2 L wide open.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/1.2 @ 85 mm, 1/400, ISO 100, No Flash

Normal for Norfolk

When this chap appeared under that shop name I really had to take a frame!

Canon EOS 7D, f/2 @ 135 mm, 1/3200, ISO 100, No Flash

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Solitary Grave

The excellent Canon 24mm f/1.4 MKII wide open, HDR.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/1.4 @ 24 mm, 1/1600, ISO 100

Tuesday 8 January 2013

First shoot with Geoff

This is my first studio shoot with my latest model, Geoff. I'm planning to do mostly location shoots with him, but I felt he could do with getting comfortable in front of the camera first.

Geoff is lit with barn doors and gels from camera left and a gridded snoot from camera left.

Many thanks to Mary Townsend who managed to find Geoff for me.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/16 @ 85 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Monday 7 January 2013

Great Orme / Llandudno at sunset

Had a quick play with my Lightcraft ND500 (8 & 2/3 stop) ND filter minutes from sunset. I blended three long exposures to try and soften the water.
 
 
I'm quite impressed with the filter  - it doesn't appear to have a strong colour cast from my (very) limited testing, and I'm looking forward to some other opportunities to use it.
 
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/4 @ 24 mmISO 100

Saturday 5 January 2013

2013_52 Week 1: Sin

Hi all

I plan to do the '52 challenge this year (one themed photo a week). The first week's theme is sin, so I chose 'Lust' and adapted an existing shot for it. Usually I'll shoot a new photo.

This was shot with just a gridded beauty dish firing across Joel from camera left. I deliberately de-personalised the shot a little as I felt the face might be a distraction from the theme.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/7.1 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Thursday 3 January 2013

Natalie Rim-lit Profile Shot

Natalie rim-lit with a @Lencarta strip box behind camera left and Octabox camera right.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/9 @ 85 mm, 1/160, ISO 100

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Natalie Silhouette

I had very little space for this sort of shot. I lit the background with a pair of softboxes and no light on Natalie. I then darkened the image and used selection tools in PSE to cut out Natalie. Finally I expanded the canvas and flood-filled.
 
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/8 @ 50 mm, 1/80, ISO 100

Wood in the winter sun!

Hello - apologies for the gap in posting - normal service now resumed!

This was taken today on the traditional walk to invigorate after the excesses of New Year's Eve. I loved the warm winter sun falling on these logs.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/4 @ 135 mm, 1/1000, ISO 100, No Flash