The jury is still out on this photograph, but it’s an image I’d planned and as such I’m quite happy with it.

Ever since I took the picture of the toy box I’ve been toying* with taking more photos of things like kids dolls with slightly more morbid images embedded somehow. I could get all twee and talk about how childhood is but a step towards blah blah blah. But let’s be honest, I just thought they’d be fun to do…

The setup here was reasonably simple, doll and mirror on a black cloth with a black background and strobe diffused from camera right parallel to the mirror (pointing to the doll, not the mirror). Then, swap the doll for the death figure and a little merging later…

Like I said at the start, the image was one I’d planned. It may actually be the first image I ever drew a lighting diagram for. If I was to do it again, I might try to put a reflector on camera left to lift the left side of the doll, but I’m not sure to be honest.

 

 

*Puntastic!

 

I always wanted to know what sort of chickens laid the chocolate eggs?

That aside, this was shot in a soft box using constant lighting. Actual real lighting as opposed to improvised desk lamps or flashes or such. The kit itself is a loaner and I don’t think I break confidences by saying it was a bit of an ebay special so could be better, but if I ever do go back to micro stock this is ideal for that sort of isolation photography – you can post process an image pretty efficiently as the starter out of the camera is pretty damn close.

Anyway, I’m getting chocolate on my keyboard. Have a good Easter.

“Not as clumsy or random as a blaster…”

OK. I did it. I made a Jedi reference. But, I guess this truly is a weapon for a more civilised time.

I spent a lot of time tonight playing with how to make the background more black and less, well crap I guess. Long and short of it is I had the sword to close to the background which meant it was impossible to isolate in camera. My photoshop skills just aren’t up to the challenge.

Still, I thought I’d share.

While taking these my 4 year old daughter asked who owned the sword. When I told her she asked “Does he use it to go on adventures?” You know, I think he might was all I could say.

A long time ago I was loaned a sword. It’s sat in my care for some time without me ever taking a photo of it. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the subject, I’m fascinated by swords – Personally I think the world lost some of its beauty and honour when we stopped muzzle loading.

I didn’t take a photo of it because I was scared or it. It truly is a thing of beauty. It probably deserves a better still life photographer than me to do it justice.

But since I need to give it back, I decided I needed to try. And for the next few nights I will try, try and try again.

Thanks for kicking my arse on this Geoff.

More from the day out shooting.

I have been mostly eating

And playing with Mono Conversions…

One of the nice things about having photography as a hobby is that if you don’t pick up the camera a lot for a few weeks it doesn’t cost you anything.

Apart from a frantic weekend sorting pictures for my brother, I haven’t been taking a lot of pictures recently. Lots of reasons for it, but none worth wasting your time with. Interestingly, even though I wasn’t taking pictures, I was still reading other websites and magazines. I guess I’m still addicted to the camera.

Anyway, I picked up an unusual button flower vase at a recent craft fair. It made an interesting subject, so I thought I’d see if I could do something with it. Rather than break out light stands and umbrellas and reflectors I decided to see if I could just light it with available light…

So, these shots are lit with some halogen spots under my kitchen units and reflected with either a piece of A4 paper or a 60watt desk lamp. As basic as you could get.

I guess I could reshoot this and remove the highlights by diffusing the light some. But I kind of like them on it. It gives the image a more rounded effect or something

And in black and white…

As usual, thoughts on a postcard, or a comment box, or an email.

 

 

This was an experiment with light from a few weeks back. The objects were set on a table on top of and in front of a black cloth.the camera was tripod mounted and pre-focused then the lights were turned out. On a 30 second exposure in the dark, individual objects were lit for a few seconds with an old torch.

Nice neat way to get interesting lighting.

Happy Halloween…

Now the food game is over, I can use some of the other pictures I took for it.

I’ll post a full summary of the food challenge later in the week once I’ve had a chance to digest it… (sorry, I’ve been chewing over that pun for weeks…)

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – I need a book on flora and fauna.

My daughter got the shock of her young life today when she tried to eat one of the apples I’d been shooting.

Those lovely apples? They’re nectarines…

OK, before I get into this, does the background in this shot look ok on your monitor? On mine it looks black, but I know it’s not. I masked and painted out a fair portion of it, but I have no idea how to tell if enough is enough.

If not, let me know?

The HDR version of the red apples from yesterday wasn’t the only version of the picture I ended up with.

Whilst the original unedited picture had some merit (to my mind anyway), I quite liked this slightly overblown red version too…

How do you eat your jelly babies?

Probably nothing too amazing about this picture, though I do like the colours. What’s more important for me is that I asked the person who had the sweet stall if I could take some pictures of their wares.

I’ve read lots of guides about talking to people when shooting in a market or fair and they all say people tend to be very friendly and willing to share or to let you take pictures. I’ve tried it before and it’s something I still find uncomfortable doing.

But if I can get pictures like this as a result I may well try to do it more often.

And, also, jelly babies? I eat them by the handful!

Ever since I read the post by Paulo about lighting the cocktail glass, I’ve wanted to try Dark Field Lighting.

I mean, even before we look at the science of it, it sounds like something sci-fi. I can just hear some alien captain telling his crew to fire up the “Dark Field Engine”.

Oh go on. You know you thought it too.

Anyway, when it comes to lighting, it’s a great technique for photographing glass. My understanding of it is that you need to light the object indirectly, providing a rim light only. To do this, you’ll need a few things.

• A flash gun you can trigger remotely
• Something white/light coloured to reflect the flash (I used a wall)
• A tripod and camera
• A black card or black background (I used a t-shirt and black card)
• A dark place to work

(It’s a good thing to try now when it’s dark early)

Basically, place the object you want to shoot in front of a black background. Make sure the background isn’t too big (bigger than the image you’re shooting is all you need). Now, behind the black background, place your flash gun. In my case I pointed it away from the black card and bounced the light off a wall but you might use a translucent sheet to shoot through if you wish (it’s just important to diffuse the light). Set the camera up for a 6 second exposure, focus it (and change the focus to manual) and then turn off the light. Open the shutter, fire the flash and hopefully…

My result is OK. If you want a good example of it, check Paulo’s picture.

There are a few lessons I learned while trying it.

1. In a dark room, shutter speed is irrelevant so you can’t use it to control exposure. Instead you need to use the power on the flash gun. But be warned, I think a higher power on the flash equates to a longer exposure so if you’re trying to capture movement you may well introduce blurring
2. Be sure where everything is before you turn off the lights…
3. Make sure the glass is clean. Very very clean. This lamp looked clean to the naked eye, but look at the dust on it and in it
4. Make sure the room is clear of clutter if possible or cover it out with black sheets in some way. If you look at the reflection in my image, you can see my dining room chairs off to one side

All in all, it’s a good thing to try. I believe it’s covered in the book Light Science and Magic and it’s on my Amazon Wish List so I can find out more.

Can you imagine the feeling of dread as the lookout on the Titanic yelled those words?

Well, that was probably a lot more intense than the dread I felt as I popped open the boxes with my latest attempt at clear ice cubes.

However, like the Titanic, it seems I too was doomed to failure.

This time I'd tried to use de-ionised water. It was the closest to purified I could find (if anyone knows where I can get some, please tell me!). The ice was clearer, but still not great. I guess for round three I'll boil the bugger and see what happens.

Anyway, after lots of fruitless cursing at it I smashed it up so it would melt faster and not lie in the sink with an accusatory glare all night. As I looked at the pieces, I decided to have a bit of a play.

(f/3.5, 1/250sec, 100mm, ISO-200, 06/10/2008)

OK, this has been toned quite heavily to give it that odd blue glow. It's not great. In fact it reminds me of the turkey giblets quote from last year. But since I share the good and the bad, I thought I'd show you my lack of progress with ice.

I don't know if you've ever been to Donegal or the west coast of Ireland, but in my experience the kitchen is always the centre of the house. You're a visitor and a guest when you're taken into the living room and you'll be treated with courtesy and warmth, but you're a true friend when you're taken into the kitchen and handed a mug of tea.

 

This is the third shot from the old house in Donegal. It only exists because of the magic of Lightroom.

I only had about 30 minutes to explore the house and I'd got distracted by the amount of things to photograph. As a result I didn't pay as much attention to the camera settings as I should have and it cost me badly.

I did consider what I wanted and decided to try and keep everything in focus. I also decided I wanted long exposures to make sure all the ambient light would work and the colours would filter through (the living room picture for example).

What I didn't consider was the impact of trying to use f/22 in such a dark environment on a camera with an automatic shutter speed of 30 seconds. Being too wrapped up in seeing what I could see, I didn't actually consider what the camera was seeing and only later did I discover that a lot of pictures were simply too dark.

I always said this blog was about me learning to take pictures. This was a lesson I could have done without...

I was allowed to take a look around a house this weekend. I don't normally get into the emotional side of photography, but given the pictures and the subject I felt maybe it was time to try to supplement what I had rather than just tell you what I did.

I'd never been in the house before. I'd often past it and one summer years ago I stood at the door and talked to him about festivals and football. He'd lived there once, but even years ago it wasn't where he lived. But it was his home.

With his passing, the house was closed up. His children respectful of the memories and time was allowed to pass...

At the weekend, for too brief a time, I was allowed to intrude on those memories. I'm not a good enough photographer to do his home justice, but hopefully these pictures go some little way towards it.

 

Inside the house I could see the two lives lived there. On the one side, the home for a man and his family, on the other his place of work.

The family man with the memories laid out in the trophies and the religious items.  Whilst dust and damp had started to claim ownership, the family and the warmth of their love was still there.

 

He was a tailor in a time when people put value in clothes beyond the name on the label.The tools of his trade still present in the workshop, from the yellowing patterns to the hangers, its all still sitting waiting for the next customer.  Whilst in pride of place beside the window sits his Singer.

 

I took other photos in the house. Mostly they don't show the house well. Not because the house doesn't have a story to tell, but because I'm still not the photographer I'd like to be.

I'm not sure I'll be in the house again. I don't know if it's disrespectful to his family to tread on memories or if it's painful for them to open the house up to me. But if I am, I hope I can take something more from it.

OK, things have been a little slow, but I've been away on my holidays.

This time I took the camera.

I have some stories to tell, but they'll have to wait since I'm sleepy.

 

(F/7.1, 1/200sec, 250mm, ISO-200, 14/07/08)

 

Oh, does anyone know how to tell if this was a turtle or a tortoise?

I found him in Germany if that's any use...

I was out again on Sunday trying to take a photo of model cars racing. Yet again the wee blighters stumped me by being too small and moving too fast.

In no particular order I tried

• Pre-focusing on the track
• Using a really fast shutter speed
• Using continuous shoot mode on the camera
• Demanding my brother throw himself onto the track to make the drivers slow down

The first three had marginal successes. the last one, well let's just say the tire tracks on his head look well.

One shot I did get that I kind of liked was this. A little HDR to make it "gritty".

(f/8, 1/60sec, 55mm, ISO-200, 15/06/2008)

 

And yes, the car was stationary at the time....

"There be Dragons..."

Day 2 of this challenge and already I'm finding I'm spending hours thinking about the right shot before setting it up or doing anything about it. I guess that was the idea behind it.

Of course, today I think I fluffed it.

After Dermot's comments yesterday about backgrounds I spent a little more time considering what I wanted and made some adjustments. I also decided to get out my dragon so to speak.

 

(F/10, 1/160sec, 55mm, ISO-200, 24/05/08)

I'm not happy with this picture. I kind of knew as I pushed the button I wouldn't be and only afterwards realised my mistakes.

What I wanted was the head of the dragon with the sky in background. That was all.

But I got a few bits wrong that I can see.

1. the cropping is out. The little trace of the wing on the right and the dead space on the left. I think it would have been better in portrait.

2. ISO-200? Yeah, I forgot to change it back after yesterday.

3. The white balance was on flash. Somehow when I moved it from shade to daylight I got distracted and put it onto flash. I think this is what's left the odd fringing at the edges of the dragon, though that could be the excessive ambient lighting too (Damn you sun!)

4. The sky is blown out, possibly too over exposed

I like the depth of field in this, I wanted almost the entire head in focus, with the eye being sharpest. I also like the position, it gives a decent 3D perspective of the figure.

I guess if I was allowed two shots a day I might be able to correct a lot of this, but it's not anything I would typically have noticed until I was back at my pc (OK, ISO and flash white balance, maybe).

 

Right, I'm off out to see Satriani. Have a good one.

I've taken to carrying my camera when we go out at weekends. The little Slingshot bag I used (yep, papa's got -another- brand new bag. More on this later) was really handy for just tossing in the car or over the back of a pram.

Anyway, last weekend we were visiting some good friends for an impromptu BBQ and I noticed some excellent weathering on one of the patio chairs, so proceeded to snap.

Unusually, the original image from the camera was very constrasty and looked awful when I uploaded it (OK, it looking awful wasn't unusual but normally they look flat and awful). But I wanted to do something with the picture and felt it might look better in black and white. It's kind of ended up as something inbetween, but I do like the faded, weathered feel of it.

(f/4.0, 1/400sec, 50mm, ISO-100, 18/05/08)

For me, what's important about this image is the lines. I wanted to show the way the weather beaten lines are bracketed by the varnished areas - the back struts of the chair providing protection. I'm not entirely convinced I ended up with that.

I chose the angle for the shot to give it more of a 3 dimensional feel. The struts when shot stright on didn't seem 'interesting'. I also chose a small f-stop to try to keep the background out of focus as well as allow the struts to fall slightly into and out of focus.

What I'm trying to do at the minute is understand what I'm taking before I take it and to make a conscious decision about what I want to achieve. "ooh, pretty" isn't really getting me good pictures, so I need to get to "ooh, pretty... Because..." and that means thinking more I guess. Geoff's comment on the boat pictures a few days ago kind of brought this home and made me realise I was too busy playing with photoshop to actually ask what I wanted to show in the picture.

This picture is one of a few where I'd actually done that before pressing the button.

When is enough enough?

I never know when to finish with the post processing of an image and when to just call it a day step back from Photoshop or GIMP or any of the other tools I've used recently.

Here's a good example.

(F/4, 1/200sec, 70mm, ISO-400, 03/05/2008)

 

This shot has been pushed through the Photoshop mill a reasonable amount. Curves, a slight cooling filter and a few other tweaks have been applied to make give it a bit more life. The original isn't worth posting, it's very dull and lifeless (to be honest I wouldn't even have looked twice at this if it wasn't for my weird emotional connection to this boat).

Now, I quite liked this shot and figured it was as close to OK as I could make it...

 

Then I loaded it into Dynamic Photo-HDR (the tool I use for all my HDR shots) and ended up with this.

 

So, here's the thing. Was it a step too far?

 

I like the water, I like the colours. I know it breaks my own opinion on HDR needing to look 'real' to look 'good', but apart from that I'm damned if I can decide which I prefer.

 

Maybe they both suck.

I'm not sure exactly what they're for - I'd suspect Shrimp, but since that season isn't until August, they may be for Green Crab or some other local shellfish. Either way, I liked the semi-uniformity of the two stacks.

 

I thought I'd also post the unedited picture (below). I think this might be a case of a photoshop too far, but I'm trying to find the vibrancy and richness other people manage, both through the lens and in the post edit stage. It's worth looking at photographs by Oswegan, Dynamic Perceptions, etc for good examples of rich, powerful images which don't feel over processed (if they've been post processed at all - I honestly have no way of telling!)

 

Potpourri!

I was messing on Friday night and took this while checking lenses for dust/dirt/little green men.

It quite struck me with it's uniformity. I wish I could say it was planned.




And for the record. Andrew suggested I call this post "Photopourri". I told him I thought that stunk...

I spent the bank holiday weekend in Donegal basking in some unexpected, but very welcome, blue skies and soaring temperatures.

I was also lucky enough to get out a couple of times with my camera. the photos are currently uploading, and I'll get onto that subject in a moment, but for now... Some Seaweed.

 

(f8, 1/100sec, 181mm, ISO-100, 04/05/2008)

Yeah, it's not great (are they ever?), but I liked the liquid effect on it.

 

Anyway, onto more important matters. I remember a time when I made mention of taking 100 photos over a weekend. Well, this weekend I arrived home with not one, but 3 and a half full memory cards. That's 7Gig of photo insanity. This leaves me with a couple of important things to consider.

1. Do I buy more/bigger cards? I'd really rather not run out.

2. Am I being too proliferate* with camera? Taking too many pictures, or too many pictures of the same thing?

3. do I need to start deleting on the camera before uploading?

Any thoughts?

 

 

*I do not think this means what I think it means, but I think you know what I mean...

What is it about old boats and stories?

With my wife coming from a fishing village I've got used to seeing old boats around the headlands and in the bays. All beached, left to rust or rot. Unlike old cars, they still offer a sense of romance or purpose - even if only to remind us of different times.

I saw the "Spinning Wheel" and wondered about it. Especially at the colours and grain of the old wood.

(f/8, 1/125sec, 46mm, ISO-100, WB- Cloudy)

 

Maybe she'll sail again.

This is the second shot of the rifle from the local gun club.

It only struck me when reviewing the images that I never actually took a shot with the entire gun in focus. There was no reason not to. It simply never crossed my mind. I've all manner of macro shots of the trigger, the stock, the barrel and lots of these shallow depth of field shots, but no single rifle shot.

I mentioned this to the owner of the gun and he just laughed. Apparently the single most common picture taken in those circles is of the entire rifle in focus and side on, so he's happy enough that I approached it from a different angle.

Still, the shot might have been nice...

I guess if you're going to shoot pictures of something you should take the obvious shots as well as the less obvious ones. You might regret it later...

 

(F/4, 1/2 sec, 50mm, ISO - 100, 31/03/2008)