Phil Hackett's Photography Blog

Barbed wire

2012-02-26T22:56:00.002Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 35 mm, 3 exposures, ISO 100

Experiment with water droplets

2012-02-24T21:26:00.000Z

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

Blogging on....

2012-02-21T22:24:00.000Z

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

2012_52 Week 7 - Root

2012-02-19T23:43:00.000Z

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

Cooking outdoors candid, Souq Waqif, Doha, Qatar

2012-02-16T22:20:00.000Z

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

Gold Mosque, Katara, Doha

2012-02-15T23:44:00.000Z

HDR - 3 images blended in Photomatix.

FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, ISO 200

Beach at Doha

2012-02-13T23:52:00.000Z

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

Waiting for the plane....

2012-02-12T21:48:00.000Z

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

Souq Waqif, Doha, Qatar

2012-02-10T21:37:00.000Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/105, ISO 1600, No Flash

Grey parrot at the Souk

2012-02-09T21:02:00.000Z

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

2012_52 Week 6 - Industry

2012-02-08T19:00:00.000Z

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

Mid-afternoon kip

2012-02-06T15:57:00.002Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/5.6 @ 23 mm, 1/210, ISO 200, No Flash

War Mask

2012-02-05T19:43:00.001Z

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

Off to Qatar and UAE

2012-02-04T16:02:00.002Z

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

Colour version of Secure, by request of Martin!

2012-02-03T21:02:00.000Z

A subscriber to the blog asked to see the colour version of yesterday's shot!

2012_52 Week 5 - Secure

2012-02-02T23:42:00.000Z

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

2012-02-02T00:33:00.001Z

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

Tanjia

2012-02-01T00:06:00.000Z

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

I just liked the light....

2012-01-30T23:51:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2.8 @ 100 mm, 1/1250, ISO 400, No Flash

Pond dipping

2012-01-30T00:04:00.000Z

A candid taken wide-open on the Zeiss 100MP. I loving the thin depth of field and smooth bkoeh from this lens. The lighting was lovely yesterday - golden winter sun.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/2000, ISO 100, No Flash

James on Burn's night

2012-01-28T23:58:00.000Z

James trying the silly hat / wig that I wore for most of the evening! Processed with a free Lightroom plugin I found on the web - google 'Matt's Sin CIty" Used Canon 50mm f/1.4 and bounced a 580EXII off the ceiling with the white card out.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2.8 @ 50 mm, 1/300, ISO 400, Flash

2012_52 Week 4 - Sweet

2012-01-27T23:43:00.000Z

Week 4

I had this crazy idea of some sinister sweet-beings coming to attack. I wanted hard lighting with clear shadows so I used a gridded studio strobe and a reflector for fill.

Not sure what I think of the result!

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 100 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Lou on a bench

2012-01-27T00:20:00.000Z

Colour Creative - CP2 in Lightroom.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/70, ISO 400, Flash

Vase of Flowers

2012-01-25T00:32:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 50 mm, 1/200, ISO 100

Is that my dinner coming?

2012-01-24T00:27:00.000Z

One from a while back that never got to see the light of day!

Canon EOS 5D, f/2 @ 85 mm, 1/125, ISO 200, Flash

Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance

2012-01-22T23:54:00.003Z

Saw this show today - very impressed. Thought I'd grab a shot near the end of the final dance. I needed a high ISO as the theatre was relatively dark. The shot needed some processing to get rid of the shadow of the person's head in front of me.

I used NoiseNinja to reduce the noise from using a high-ish ISO. (1600)

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/2000, ISO 1600, No Flash

One hotel room - lots of different styles.

2012-01-21T18:07:00.000Z

Today I thought I'd share how you can get quite a few different styles into one shoot. Admittedly the model and I were there for about 3.5hours (not including unloading/loading the car), but I think we managed quite a few different styles from one session.

Firstly a studio strip-softbox firing along the length of the bed. No other lighting at all. You can actually see the band of light across the model. I liked the way this made the background darker and gave interesting shadows across the shot.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/5.6 @ 35 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Next, was yesterday's main blog shot using a large octabox

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/5.6 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

For this shot I had Hannah stand on the bed and I fired the strip box almost parallel to the wall.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/5.6 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Now we setup a studio with white backdrop for more tradional portraits. First one was lit by a strip softbox with two gridded reflectors on the hair - one each side and from above. As there was no light on the background it simply went mid-grey in tone. I may photoshop out the creases at some point!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/10 @ 102 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Changed to a black background and beauty dish (40cm) for this shot.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/11 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

For this one there was a strip softbox camera left and a gridded reflector giving a pool of light camera right.

Last shot in the standard studio setup - octabox as the main light behind and above camera (slightly to the left), strip softbox as a rimlight firing in from 45 degrees behind the model.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/6.3 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Another one against the wall - this time bring the strip softbox out further and angling in to the model - about 45 degrees from the line of the wall.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/6.3 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Finally using the natura light in the bathroom + a little fill from an on-camera 580EXII

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/2 @ 35 mm, 1/640, ISO 400, Flash

Love lies bleeding and 2012_52 Week 3 - Sigh

2012-01-21T00:41:00.001Z

Had a rare day off work today and decided to spend it in a grotty hotel room taking photos of Hannah!

Firstly, Hannah had some great ideas for a themed shoot. More will be coming soon, but here's the first. Simple lighting here - an octabox pointing down towards the bed.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/5.6 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Next up is the third week of my 2012_52 project - 'Sigh'

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/11 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Sigh - behind the scenes view:

Improvised studio:

40cm white gridded beauty dish as key light camera left. Gridded strip box camera right. Gridded reflector as hair light (you can just see this behind the beauty dish) and a reflector with barndoors to light the black ground to make it slightly grey.

Rusty sign

2012-01-20T00:56:00.002Z

I just like the colours and textures in this!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/4 @ 100 mm, 1/160, ISO 100, No Flash

Rail detail

2012-01-18T23:37:00.002Z

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

Not to be moved

2012-01-17T22:45:00.000Z

The lighting was lovely early afternoon today and I headed for the local hobbiest railway for my lunch break. I used the Zeiss 100mm wide open (f/2.0) to draw attention to the sign. Shooting along the side of the carriage helps to give a feeling of depth.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/4000, ISO 100, No Flash

The blacksmith at work

2012-01-17T00:55:00.003Z

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/4 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 200, Flash

The blacksmith

2012-01-15T17:21:00.001Z

A blacksmith with 40 years experience. Recently got a new workshop at the canalside.

Photo taken using the manual focus Zeiss 100mm Makro Planar, with flash bounced off the wall on the left hand side to avoid that 'direct flash' look. I had the bounce card on the 580EXII up to give highlights in the eyes. I also include a crop - the Zeiss is unbelievably sharp! (Click the photo to see the cropped area larger).

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/5.6 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 400, Flash

Hedgepig!

2012-01-14T22:19:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/4 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 800, Flash

Telegraph Silhuoette

2012-01-14T00:09:00.001Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/5000, ISO 200

A winter sunset

2012-01-12T22:32:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/8000, ISO 200, No Flash

Still reflections

2012-01-11T23:19:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/1600, ISO 200, No Flash

Tit in winter sun.

2012-01-10T22:49:00.001Z

I love shooting in winter sun - you get a lovely warm quality to the light. This was taken handheld with the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 MKII and a Canon 2x II Extender. This is a great combination for getting decent reach with decent quality without having to buy a huge lens!

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/6.3 @ 400 mm, 1/400, ISO 800, No Flash

Tree silhuoette

2012-01-09T22:04:00.002Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/8 @ 140 mm, 1/5000, ISO 400

Project for 2012 - a '52 - Week 2 - Fear

2012-01-08T21:38:00.001Z

I went for the source of (I guess) the most common phobia.

I used the 580EXII off-camera and due to space requirements had to hand-hold the camera - this made getting the focus bang-on the eyes a challenge.

I did a manual conversion to B&W in Lightroom adjusting contrast, clarity, blacks, cropping and adding a vignette. The original shot is below as a reference.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 100, Flash.

Flying Swan

2012-01-07T22:38:00.000Z

I don't do lots of bird photography and hence have not invested in any of the longer lenses. For this shot I used my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS MKII with a Canon 2x MKII extender. The combination is surprisingly sharp (in my opinion the MKI version of this lens was terrible with the 2x extender) and is perfect for my occasional wildlife shots.

I liked the late afternoon winter sunlight in this shot.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/6.3 @ 400 mm, 1/1600, ISO 800

It's all about the light

2012-01-06T22:57:00.001Z

The subject in this photo is arguably nothing special, but I really liked the winter sunshine and the resulting colours and shadows.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/5.6 @ 23 mm, 1/400, ISO 400

Duck!

2012-01-05T21:43:00.000Z

Simple shot,. but I like it - I think the wide aperture helps to draw attention to the duck. I've sought to further enhance this effect by adding a slight vignette. Manual focus, handheld.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/2000, ISO 800, Flash

Sky colours

2012-01-04T23:48:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/400, ISO 200

Project for 2012 - a '52 - Week 1 - Direction

2012-01-03T22:14:00.003Z

This is a project for 2012 - I enjoyed doing the photo-a-week project back in 2010 (see here) and fancied trying again this year.

Each week a new theme is posted. Participants then take a photo to match the theme and post it in a thread for others to comment.

The 'TalkPhotography' discussion thread is here

Rather than go with my first instincts of signposts or someone pointing, I thought I'd imply interest in a direction outside the frame.

I was deliberately challenging myself here shooting handheld with my Zeiss Makro Planar T* 100mm f/2 ZE. It is a manual focus lens so I thought wildlife might be 'interesting'.

Shooting at f/2 I was pleased with the sharp focus and narrow depth of field. I cropped slightly in Lightroom to put the eye on the thirds.

Week 1 - Direction
What the hell's that up there?

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/1250, ISO 400, Flash

Victorian Pump Tower

2012-01-02T20:52:00.000Z

This tower is at Sywell Reservoir where I had a pleasant new-years-day walk!

Three shots combined in Photomatix. A wide faperture of /2 helped to keep the tower in focus whilst blurring the foreground and background.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/400, ISO 100

Ladybird in Natural Light and Flash

2012-01-01T23:05:00.000Z

Happy 2012 all!

Two different approaches to the same subject - the first taken wide open in natural light, the second @ f/8 with flash - at this aperture (with a 1/300s shutter speed) the ambient light was basically removed from the exposure equation.

I like both in different ways!

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/250, ISO 400, No Flash

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/8 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 400, Flash

Favourite pic of the year!

2011-12-31T14:45:00.000Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Many thanks for looking at my blog - everyone from those who subscribe, through those who find me on Twitter / Facebook, to those who dip in and out!

I thought I'd finish the year with my favourite picture from the year, which I happened to take in January.

I carefully took two shots with all the lights in the same position so the shadows would look consistent and then spent some time combining the shots in Photoshop Elements.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 67 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Cat stare

2011-12-30T12:43:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/3.2 @ 125 mm, 1/200, ISO 200, Flash

Alert Otter

2011-12-29T23:13:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/4 @ 200 mm, 1/250, ISO 400, Flash

Lilly Anthers and Stigma

2011-12-28T21:14:00.000Z

Unusual for me - lit with diffuse natural light outdoors.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/4.5 @ 100 mm, 1/250, ISO 800, No Flash

Faery Figurine

2011-12-27T22:27:00.001Z

Lit with 580EXII off-camera with ETTL cord shot into a silver brolley. Very thin depth of field with a wide aperture (f/2.0) at close-focussing distance. Focus on face using liveview.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 100, Flash

Leaf veins

2011-12-26T22:32:00.000Z

Shot with the Zeiss 100mm Makro Planar. Camera on tripod focussed with live view on 10x magnification. Flash off-camera and shot through leaf to reveal the detail.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/8 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 100, Flash

Christmas Lights

2011-12-26T00:17:00.000Z

I've been admiring the lights on this house periodically as I drove past and finally decided snap them yesterday.

I used a thin dof (f/1.4) and focussed on the house to draw the eye to the 'Merry Christmas'. The highlight on the bottom right annoys me a fraction, but overall it's ok for a snap!

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/1.4 @ 35 mm, 1/200, ISO 800, No Flash

Christmas Candle

2011-12-25T00:04:00.002Z

Merry Christmas all!

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 35 mm, 1/320, ISO 800, No Flash

Water droplets + 100% crop

2011-12-23T18:19:00.001Z

Shot with the zeiss macro and off-camera 580EXII shooting through a white brolley. Included a 100% crop to show the detail in the droplets - it's worth clicking-through to see it large!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/5.6 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 400, Flash

Frozen by flash

2011-12-23T01:44:00.000Z

Kezia is pin-sharp despite the slow shutter speed of 1/5 second (handheld, although with an image stabiliser). The flash duration (580EXII on camera, gridded dish to camera right) is so short that the slow shutter speed was irrelevant - so little ambient light on Kez that the flash froze the pose perfectly. The slow shutter speed did allow the sky to reveal some blue to the camera though.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/3.5 @ 123 mm, 1/5, ISO 200, Flash

Skull smile

2011-12-21T22:23:00.000Z

This was a tricky one to light - I upped the ISO to 1600 so that the light from the candle warmed the left hand side of the face and I used a shoot-through brolley on the right to light the rest of Sarah.

In Lightroom I then darkened the finger nails, lightened the eyes and upped the blacks to darken the background more.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 35 mm, 1/100, ISO 1600, Flash

Mediaeval Baebes concert

2011-12-21T00:16:00.000Z

A couple of snaps from tonight's concert - opening song and signing after the show. I'm impressed with the quality of the X100 especially given these were at ISO 1600!

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2 @ 23 mm, 1/30, ISO 1600, No Flash

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2 @ 23 mm, 1/75, ISO 1600, Flash

Old Typewriter Details

2011-12-19T23:00:00.000Z

I like the slightly abstract nature of these close-ups. These were taken handheld (not recommended) using a manual focus lens (Zeiss Planar 100mm) and live-view. Flash was bounced off the ceiling. I managed to get the desired effect, but it would have been lots easier with a tripod!

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/4.5 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 400, Flash

anon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 400, Flash

Flower patterns and family portrait

2011-12-18T22:20:00.001Z

Taken with a beauty dish from front. Pattern created in photoshop elements by copying the layer and expanding the canvas. I used the 100mm Zeiss Makro Planar ZE for this shot.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/6.3 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 100

Next up a family portrait I took for a work colleague. Lighting groups can be tricky and with restricted space it is best to go for a large soft centrally-positioned modifier. I used a large octabox and lit the background with a couple of bare studio flashes. I used the Sigma 50mm f.1.4 for this.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/8 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100,

Don't Blink & Headpiece

2011-12-17T22:27:00.002Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/5.6 @ 85 mm, 1/300, ISO 100, Flash

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/5 @ 85 mm, 1/300, ISO 100, Flash

A band's eye view

2011-12-17T01:31:00.000Z

I liked all the lights in this, but getting the exposure right was a challenge.

I bounced flash off the ceiling at -2 stops and tried different apertures until I was happy with the colour balance and overall brightness.

Old typewriter and flower with xmas lights

2011-12-16T00:20:00.000Z

Firstly a shot taken handheld (should have got a tripod really, but got away with it) using the 100mm Zeiss Makro. To light it I bounced flash of the ceiling to avoid glaring from the metal keys.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 400, Flash

Secondly a shot in low light when I really should have used a tripod. Even at ISO1600 and a fast aperture (f/2.0) it was still exposed at 1/30s - much lower than the 1/200s I would have wanted for hand-holding. I braced myself against a chair and tried not to breathe!

The flower had some fairly lights about 2 metres behind it. I love the way they've turned into disks of light.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/30, ISO 1600, No Flash

Sarah Reclined

2011-12-14T21:39:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 35 mm, 1/300, ISO 200, Flash

Rose

2011-12-14T01:09:00.000Z

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

The reflection

2011-12-12T22:40:00.000Z

Studio shot of flower, reflection added in PhotoShop Elements.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/5.6 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 100

Portrait of Alison

2011-12-11T22:45:00.001Z

This is a portrait of my cousin, Alison. The shot was taken handheld using the manual-focus Zeiss Makro Planar 100mm f/2.0 ZE. To ensure accurate focussing I used live view at 10x magnification.

There is a very slender depth of field shooting at f/2.0 at a relatively close distance - notice the near eye is perfect sharp (the Makro Planar is ridiculously sharp when correctly focussed) but even the far eye is starting to slip out of the depth of field.

Some might argue I should have stopped down to f/5.6 or so to get both eyes sharp, but I rather like the effect as it is in this particular photo.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 200

Mono Rose

2011-12-11T01:00:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/7.1 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 100

Lilly in studio lights

2011-12-10T00:04:00.000Z

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

This shot was taken using the Zeiss 100mm f/2 Makro Planar. The detail when view up-close is incredible. The shot is worth clicking on and seeing full size - it is a 100% crop.

Here is the lighting setup. Just out of frame on camera right was a reflector to soften shadows on the right hand side. Basically a studio flash with gridded dish on subject left. Black cloth background also draped over a table with a clamp holding the flower.

Selectively Coloured Sarah

2011-12-09T00:01:00.000Z

In this shot I reduced the saturation of the reds etc to zero to remove skin tones and reduced the saturation of the blues / greens so they were more subtle.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 35 mm, 1/300, ISO 200, Flash

Pyretta from the Past

2011-12-07T22:18:00.001Z

With this shot of Sarah (Pyretta) I added a sepia tone to give a vintage feel.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/3.2 @ 35 mm, 1/300, ISO 100, Flash

Sarah!

2011-12-06T23:04:00.000Z

I had a fun shoot with Sarah for about an hour this evening. This shot used a thin depth of field to blur the background nicely (f/2.0) and I used two 580EXII flashguns to light the picture. The main light was off-camera on a cord shooting through a white brolley above camera and to the left. A second gun was fired at the ceiling to give an even light across the background.

In lightroom I added a gradient filter to darken the bottom of the frame and added a slight white vignette.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 35 mm, 1/300, ISO 200, Flash

Split-toned Lou

2011-12-06T00:36:00.000Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/150, ISO 200, Flash

Christmas Lights

2011-12-05T00:14:00.001Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/125, ISO 400

Tayla headshot

2011-12-02T23:37:00.002Z

Shot with one 580EXII off-camera.

Foggy forest shot

2011-12-01T20:45:00.002Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/200, ISO 400

Implied nude

2011-11-30T21:36:00.001Z

I carefully composed and edited this shot to give the (false) impression the model was nude.

Lighting was from a flashgun firing into a sheet of paper to soften the light.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, 1/1000, ISO 400

Train Gubbins HDR

2011-11-30T00:06:00.000Z

One could successfully argue that this shot is messy and poorly composed, but I quite like it nonetheless.

FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, ISO 200

Tilt-shift hdr flower!

2011-11-28T22:12:00.000Z

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/4 @ 45 mm, 3 exposures, ISO 100

Followed?

2011-11-27T20:51:00.000Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/400, ISO 400

Tilted statue

2011-11-26T15:21:00.001Z

I'm borrowing Bob Latham's 45mm TS-E lens at the moment with the intention of trying some portraits with it soon. In the absence of a model, I thought I'd try a statue!

I took a series of 5 bracketed shots on the 1DsII and chose three of them to merge into an HDR. I wasn't happy with the grey-look of the statue so I used the adjustment brush in Lightroom (with help from the auto-mask option) to lighten the statue. The pre-Lightroom adjust (but post HDR) version is below for comparison!

Notice how the horizontal tilt on the lens has rendered the left hand side of the shot out of focus, but a plane of sharp focus has extended to the background on the right hand side.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/4 @ 45 mm, ISO 100

Pre-Lightroom adjustments:

Lights!

2011-11-24T21:07:00.000Z

I'm impressed with the quality of the output of the X100 at ISO 3200. I've added a little noise reduction in Lightroom, but to be honest, quality was impressive straight out of camera! This was handheld with a slow shutter speed.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2 @ 23 mm, 1/17, ISO 3200, No Flash

Trains and Courage!

2011-11-23T19:31:00.000Z

A couple of snaps with the X100 this lunchtime. First is an HDR of two images.

FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, 1/210, ISO 200

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/450, ISO 400

Another starey one!

2011-11-21T22:19:00.000Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2 @ 23 mm, 1/250, ISO 400, Flash

Desaturated Stare

2011-11-20T20:50:00.000Z

HDR capture to deliberately introduce slight halos, then selective saturation and de-saturation to obtain the unusual colour balance.

FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, ISO 400

Tilt-shift HDR vertical panorama!

2011-11-19T22:51:00.000Z

So - how many obscure techniques can I chuck in one shot?

Firstly its taken with a newly-borrowed 45mm TS-E lens kindly loaned from Bob Latham when the 90mm TS-E I had previously was sold! I tilted the lens to the left to shift the plane of focus.

I also used the shift facility to move the lens up and down and stitched the (bracketed and HDR'd) shots together in PS Elements!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/5 @ 45 mm ISO 200

Lou against the sky

2011-11-18T22:10:00.001Z

On camera flash, dropped ambient exposure a touch to darken the background.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, 1/250, ISO 400, Flash

Improvised lighting with the X100 for a portrait of Lou

2011-11-17T21:56:00.000Z

I really could have done with my Canon DSLR + off-camera flash guns or Lencarta lights for this shot. However, I had my Fuji X100, the little EF-20 gun and a Canon off-camera cord that happens to work with the Fuji.

I tried direct flash and the lighting was horrid and harsh with deep shadows cast on the wall behind. I couldn't really mix flash and ambient because the background lighting was so low.

Solution? Tape a sheet of A4 paper around the flashgun and use that to soften the light. Lighting softness is dependent on the effective size of the light - by bouncing off the paper, the light gets softer. As you'll see in future posts I could position the light to get different effects as well!

The result is some nice soft shadows around the nose and on the background. I removed some of the saturation to give a colder feel to the shot.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, 1/1000, ISO 400, Flash

Botched modifier:

HDR Portrait

2011-11-16T22:03:00.000Z

Picture of Lou - fusion of two exposures in Photomatix with a vignette added in Lightroom.

FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, 1/80, ISO 400

Fuji X100 Self Portrait

2011-11-15T22:51:00.000Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/200, ISO 800, No Flash

Leaf detail

2011-11-14T21:09:00.000Z

Taken on the Fuji X100 in Macro mode with the external flashgun EF-20.

Manually set ISO / shutter / aperture to kill any ambient light. Removed some twigs and used a sharpness gradient to further blur the right hand side.

The resolution of the X100 + it's prime lens is incredible - so much detail!

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/8 @ 23 mm, 1/250, ISO 200, Flash

Salcey Forest Cottage HDR

2011-11-13T22:32:00.001Z

Three shots using the bracketing facility on the X100. Combined in Photomatix.

FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, ISO 400

Smokey the Loudest Purring Cat

2011-11-12T23:11:00.000Z

Guinness Record Breaking Smokey came to Northampton today!

http://www.smokeythepurringcat.com/

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/4 @ 23 mm, 1/105, ISO 800, No Flash

Lymington Quay

2011-11-10T22:49:00.003Z

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/5.6 @ 23 mm, 1/1600, ISO 200

Miniature Tenerife

2011-11-09T23:03:00.000Z

With this shot I tried to fake the tilt-miniature effect using gradient blurs in photoshop + a little saturation upping!

Again, probably wants viewing full-size, but is supposed to look like a model.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/5.6 @ 40 mm, 1/640, ISO 100

Tilt-shift lens for fake miniatures and dad!

2011-11-08T21:48:00.000Z

My friend, Bob (see http://www.boblatham-photography.net ) has kindly sent me a 90mm TS-E (Tilt / Shift) lens to play with.

The lens allows you to tilt the front element to change the plane of focus (either to drastically increase or decrease depth of field) and a shift facility which is especially useful in capturing architecture whilst keeping parallel lines looking parallel.

The lens rotates and this combined with tilting the lens can give some interesting selective focus effects which I intend to try on portraiture.

Anyhow, one effect you can achieve with a tilted lens is to make real-life scenes look like models. Todays pic is not a great example of this - taken at night in miserable weather & a fairly boring subject, but it hints at what is possible. The blurring of the top and bottom of the frame (made possible with the tilt) gives the effect.

Probably best to click and see large to get the full effect, although I intend to take some more convincing examples soon.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/5 @ 90 mm, 2s, ISO 100

Although I was keen to post something about the TS-E, the above shot is not the most exciting on the planet so I thought I'd add a portrait of my father taken at the New Forest last month. It is cropped from the full frame and was taken on the X100.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2.8 @ 23 mm, 1/125, ISO 500, Flash

Firework manipulation

2011-11-07T20:53:00.000Z

I decided to have some fun with a shot I took of some fireworks. I extracted the colour from the black, copied it on to several layers and rotated the contents of the layers seperately to make this pattern:

This was the original image:

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 40 mm, 1.3s, ISO 100, No Flash

Fireworks!

2011-11-05T21:41:00.000Z

Canon 1DMKIII on tripod, 17-40L.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 40 mm, 2s, ISO 100

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 26 mm, 2s, ISO 100

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/10 @ 40 mm, 1s, ISO 100

Panoramic Pond

2011-11-05T00:15:00.001Z

Taken at Summer Leas in Northants using the panorama facility on the X100. A few grads added in photoshop to darken the sky and right hand side while lightening the left.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/5.6 @ 23 mm, 1/210, ISO 200, No Flash