Rebecca in Bristol

Long time, no posting - apologies! Spending far too much time playing the guitar!

Anyhow - a shot from a night shoot in Bristol of the model, Rebecca.

Very little light so shot wide open (handheld) on a 50/1.2

 

 

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:50 mm

Max lens aperture:f/1.2

Exposure:1/50 at f/1.2

Flash:Not fired, compulsory mode

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Manual

Exposure prog.:Manual

ISO speed:ISO 1600

 

Derwentwater in the 'Golden Hour'

Photographers often aim to take outdoor pictures in the 'Golden Hour' - the hour before sunset. This is because you can get a beautiful warmth to the light and the low position of the sun in the sky often makes for more interesting shadows than when the sun is higher.

This was shot at the shore of the beautiful Derwentwater (or Derwent Water). I took two shots at combined them in Photomatix to retain sky and foreground detail.

 

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS 70D

Focal length:35 mm

Max lens aperture:f/2

Exposure:f/8

Flash:Not fired, compulsory mode

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Auto bracket

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Partial

2016_52 - Week 1 - Metal

I've decided to attempt the 2016_52 challenge having not completed one since 2010!

 

Each week a topic is picked and all participants attempt to take a shot matching the title.

 

Week 1 was metal.  Thought I'd try and get some molten metal! Used a 70D on a tripod (useful having the articulated screen!) and a 580EX2 off camera on a stand. Manual focussed, put it on a timer and tried to get lots of smoke!

 



Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS 70D

Focal length:105 mm

Max lens aperture:f/2.8

Exposure:1/125 at f/13

Flash:Fired, compulsory mode

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Manual

Exposure prog.:Manual

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Partial

Motech Photo Shoot

Sorry it's been a little quiet recently - shot quite a few weddings and may blog about those soon, but I thought you might be interested in a car photoshoot from the weekend for Motech. (http://www.motechperformance.co.uk/)

[Thanks to Mike of Motech and James / Dave for the 'loan' of their cars for the shoot.]

(You can see the full gallery of the shots here: http://www.philhackettphotography.com/motech)

Photographing cars is a challenging business - it's difficult to avoid getting hotspots from the lights; reflections can also ruin the shots.

I decided to use a 5x7 Lastolite HiLite with two Lencarta ElitePro 2's inside. I love the ElitePro 2's as I can control the power remotely - this proved invaluable when tweaking the output in the car shoot.

This was the basic setup:

The black background gave a plain backdrop and removed unwanted reflections from behind the cars.
I angled the soft 'wall' to give some variation in illumination from left to right, although I ended up increasing the power of the flashgun furthest from the car to make the drop-off less severe.

This shows the general effect:

In the first shot above you can see an octobox - I experimented with this as a fill light for some shots, but had it switched off for most.

You can see the reflection of the softbox here - note the more even lighting across the car:

For straight engine shots I used a softbox on its own:

When I wanted the front and engine I used the soft 'wall' to light the front of the car and a 70cm beauty dish to pool some light onto the engine bay:

We used a couple of ramps to angle the rear of the car for details of the exhaust system:

Camera / lens combinations - I mostly used a 1DsIII with the 70-200 f/2.8 II. For the engine shots I used a 50mm and I did take a couple of wider angle shots of the front of the M4 using my 16-35 & 24-105 zooms.

Sun over the Troodos Mountains, Cyprus

I loved the way the rays of sun were seeping through the clouds - used a gently processed 3-shot HDR to replicate how they looked to the naked eye.

 

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:105 mm

Max lens aperture:f/2.8

Flash:Not fired

Exposure mode:Auto bracket

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Pattern

JB

My colleague, John Bullock (JB)

Originally planned it as a colour shot, but preferred the mono version.

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:200 mm

Max lens aperture:f/2.8

Exposure:1/320 at f/2.8

Flash:Not fired, compulsory mode

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Auto

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Pattern

View across to Puy de Dôme

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:24 mm

Max lens aperture:f/4

Flash:Not fired, compulsory mode

Exposure mode:Auto bracket

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Pattern

Morning Mist

 

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:105 mm

Max lens aperture:f/2.8

Exposure:1/2500 at f/6.3

Flash:Not fired

Exposure bias:-1 1/3 EV

Exposure mode:Auto bracket

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Pattern

Le Méandre De Queuille

A beautiful meander, North West of Clemont Ferrand.

 

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:16 mm

Max lens aperture:f/4

Flash:Not fired

Exposure mode:Auto bracket

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Pattern



Chateau de Villemonteix

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:27 mm

Max lens aperture:f/4

Flash:Not fired

Exposure mode:Auto bracket

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Pattern

Vintage post office scales

Felbrigg Hall

 

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:50 mm

Max lens aperture:f/1.2

Exposure:1/80 at f/1.2

Flash:Not fired, compulsory mode

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Auto

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Pattern

Puy de Goules

Three shot panorama from the peak of Puy de Goules.

 

 

 

Camera make:Canon

Camera model:Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Focal length:16 mm

Max lens aperture:f/4

Exposure:1/1600 at f/5.6

Flash:Not fired, compulsory mode

Exposure bias:-1 EV

Exposure mode:Auto

Exposure prog.:Aperture priority

ISO speed:ISO 100

Metering mode:Pattern