Pink Flower

This evening I had an hour to spare as my wife was out. I decided to try to snap some pictures of some flowers we got at the weekend.

I had a rough setup in my head and decided i wanted to try use off camera flash in TTL to light up the subject.

Firstly i finaly got the SB600 in wireless TTL, the first time like this since i got it about a month ago! anyway, i managed it and fired a few test shots.

I mounted the 600 on a tripod to the left and my D90 was in portrait so had on camera flash firing from the right. I turned off the main light in order to make WB settings easier to determine and then played with a couple of aperture settings to get the right exposure and DOF.

I managed to get a few that looked reasonable, I exchanged the piece of black card i had as a backdrop for a black throw we have and then it all began to come together.

I adjusted curves to blacken the background and 'burned' the clips out which held the flower, you could just make them out. I created a duplicate layer and erased through to bring back the shadow on the top of the stem as the curves had make it solid black.

Below is the final result. Pretty pleased for 15 mins of photos and a few minutes of editing!

Shaped Bokeh

Evening All... I say all, its probably just me lol!

Anyway tonight my dear wife is out for someones birthday and my darling daughter is in bed. I thought I would take the opportunity to try create some bokeh having read some threads on DPS.

I went to the stationers today and bought the only craft punch available which hapened to be a love heart. Whilst listening to my beloved Leeds Utd get beat by Southend (booo) I began my blue peter task of making a disk to cover the lens and a mechanism to fit it over the lens.

I cut a long rectangular piece, as deep as the lens and run it around the outside of the lens, then stuck the disk on the front ensuring very little light could enter from the joints. I guess its like a cup with a heart shaped hole in the bottom!

I got the christmas lights out but as usual they didnt work, as time wasnt on my side and dinner was calling me I decided to take the shades off the lamp in the corner and photograph that instead.

The result was quite pleasing although the colour was not how i had seen it. I adjusted the colours using the colour channels in CS3 and added a vignette.



Another bokeh picture is below, I took it at some traffic lights and managed to capture the red and my sat nav!

Bold colour and Legs!

Like any other red blooded male I am a great fan of womens legs!

When I was shopping with my wife we came across some red heels which i thought would look great in a picture. She bought them and in teh wardrobe they sat, getting more use from my 18 month old daughter. Weeks later we then passed some tights which she decided would enable he to wear the heels with a skirt... then she recalled she had a ridiculously tiny skirt that he had never worn! I added the three together and this is what i got!!!



I took this in the kitchen, she was stood on a box covered with a table cloth and i fired the flash at the wall. I had a few issues and used some tools in CS3 to fix the background, which i have since noticed isnt perfect.

I thought it had quite a devil wears prada look to it and quite like the image.

I like the colours moreso, bold reds against the black starkly contrasting the white of the flash. I did have some issues with stray light from teh flash and have a lot to learn about off camera lighting.

Fifty Two

Soooo, sorry I havent updated for a while things have been a little hectic.

I should have some time now and begin to update as I try new things.

I have to make an effort to photograph because I have signed up for a fifty-two set in Flickr. This means i get to concentrate on lighting and self portraits a hell of a lot more.

I had an idea for my first, actually thought of the idea before signing up but if the cap fits and all that. Some of them arent perfect but the gist of the item is there.



Just me having a shave (after specially going out to get shaving foam which i dont use!!).

I thought it came out well...

I'm home!

As you were aware I have been counting the days away until my honeymoon and my chance to have a rest... that and the chance to take millions of pictures of Malta!

Well hence the delay since my last post I got just that.

Not quite as I had imagined mind, my daughter takes a lot of looking after, especially overseas where there are added dangers of crazy roads, swimming pools and heat.

Still, I think I managed to get some keepers and varied styles away from standard holiday shots.

Here are a couple of my favourites, the rest are on Flickr under my Malta set;







As you will see from my set, i spent quite some time on long exposures and night shots. Mainly to capture the movement of the waves to create the 'misty waters' effect however I also had in mind the star shaped lights too.

Anyway I hope you enjoy looking and I will post some How To processing tips later.

Style

You may have heard me refer to style, on my blog and on flickr.

I'm still trying to find my style, I look on my flickr and this guy... http://www.flickr.com/photos/fchouse/ I believe has a great style.

I know what I like but the problem is I like too much and do a bit of everything. I do however think that I am falling into a style of saturation. Much of my processing involves use of the hue/saturation sliders. Either to bring on a strong contrast and heavy saturation or removing traces of saturation to barely noticable levels.

I would like to be a master of portraits but would be even more happy if I could grasp off camera lighting, I cannot justify the cost to try at the moment. I have got an SB600 now which will help wet my appetite for further off camera flash projects.

Another guy that deserves a mention with regards to developing techniques to enhance your style is http://yanikphotoschool.com/personal/yaniks-photo-school/ he has some great tutorials and never ceases to amaze me with some of teh hints and tips.

Realisation

It's taken a while to get to this stage but having had time to reflect over the past couple of days I have realised that I have actually changed my stance on processing.

When i first set out on my photography journey my use of Photoshop was to "save" a photo. So as I took the shot I thought, i'l get that crop right in CS3 or I will touch that up later...

Now my thoughts are based on enhacements, just yesterday I was taking pictures of items on a walk, signs, olde looking shoppe fronts to try to enhance the picture as opposed to save it.

I think this has come about because I have started to understand photoshop actions and how to apply certain tecniques. I think my advice on this would be to use the B&W presets, cross process etc and just tweak them as opposed to taking on the daunting task of doing it all. Making a mess of processing is detremental to confidence and I beleive photos only get better with confidence.

I did some work on this sign, to me it had some interest and the detail, dirt and grit on the sign was bound to make it have character. I opened it in CS3, adjusted the shadows and highlights to bring out the shadows to add some grit for the desaturation to take hold of. I the reduced saturation and added a strong vignette using lens correction.

I think it turned out pretty good.



Due to the above I am now quite pleased with my photography process. I have had a lifetime of interest however I would say my real journey commenced 18 months ago. The first 6 months of which were snapshot heaven at 3fps, the remainder a will to boost the creative artistic side.

I now consider composition for every shot, can use manual (although often use A or S) and know my way round processing software. I think my next progression is lighting and accurate setups, that should take me onto a diferent tier.

Taking that into account any new photographers out there, don't give up. It comes with practise and experience. I must have taken more than 12000 pictures since I was SLR'd and am learning every day. Read as much as you can and try to develop a style.