It's Christmas Season Again!

Which means it's time for Christmas photos at the mall again!

This year my very talented wife painted some backdrops for me and I am taking photos at the Mall@Reds in Pretoria from the 5th until the 24th of December. She also sewed all the costumes for the kiddies to dress in that you can see on the table in the photo below.

Here is a basic setup shot:

And what the final result looks like:

There is also a "Fantasy Forest" backdrop and a typical Christmas Manger scene.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Simple Product Photography Set-Up.

Simple is always good!

And the result:

A well used toy car from "Cars"

Same setup as here: Seamless White Background - How To 

Shades

Another day another product shoot!

Nikon D90, manual mode, 200ISO, f11, 1/200s, Nikon 50mm f1.8D, Nikon sb700 and sb600 bounced in umbrellas left and right high. Set-up shot below.

Stock card seamless white background held up against the wall by duct tape. No photographer should ever be without duct tape!

This would have worked much better with a light tent... but I don't have one. Someone recently told me that photography is about problem solving, so sometimes you just gotta make a plan!
Note to self: get a light tent...

There's no BizNiz like ShowBizNiz!

A step into the not so distant past...

Who would have thought at the time that just a few years later Kodak would have abandoned slr's forever!

Check out this article about the then brand new and top of the line DSLR from Kodak: DCS 760 delivers crisp, clear photos.

Another "Portrait in a small place"

Click HERE to see the set-up shot and more info for this photograph.

Portraits in small places

So you don't have a studio, and the wife won't let you convert the spare room either, and the garage is full of junk, so what to do to be able to use that shiny dslr and the speedlights you got for Christmas last year and you've been itching to put to good use? Well you make some compromises and improvise. I have been living in a small apartment for the past year and don't have much space, but I can still setup my lights for a two light pic like the one below:

Here is how I set it up:

By using the curtains as a backdrop and squeezing the lights in between couches and side tables I managed to get a fairly good two light portrait set-up. Behind the model is my Strobist DIY Beauty Dish on a tripod. To the right and high is a shoot through umbrella on my junky tripod converted to super cool light stand. Nikon sb600 in the beauty dish and sb700 in the umbrella, both triggered via Nikons very cool CLS system. Easy peasy!

Studio session with a Famous Fashion Icon!

Probably the most recognized face on the planet, and for all the wrong reasons. If you would like to practice portrait lighting setups on a small scale Barbie is your girl though! She doesn't charge much, she is very co-operative and always has a friendly smile. Oh, and she never complains about working long or odd hours.

Here is my small scale studio set-up:

The light on the left is my Strobist DIY Beauty Dish draped in a swathe of thin white material that basically turns it into a small softbox.

The Barbie doll was set into a cake and decorated for a 6 year olds birthday party.

Venetian Painted Mask

Face painting is not just for children!

Portrait of a Man

The eyes are the windows to the soul, and in photography we can capture that part of the reflection of the human soul for all the world to see. Isn't it all the more important then to make sure that all of our photographic skill is focused on capturing a persons eyes first and foremost and deal with the rest of the person as being only secondary to a successful portrait?

Bowl of Rice

And below the set-up shot for "Bowl of Rice".

Normally I would try to get rid of the light spill from the flash shooting into the umbrella, but in this case it actually helped with the light I was trying to achieve by reflecting some light from slightly behind the subject.

Nikon D90, Nikkor 50mm f1.8D, f4.5, 1/200s, Nikon sb700 flash shot through a white umbrella with the wide angle flash diffuser out, hand held.

Assortment of E6 slide film for sale

PLEASE NOTE - ALL SOLD OUT!
I recently sold off my beloved film cameras (except for the Olympus Trip 35) and so I am letting my film stock go as well. If you are in South Africa and interested in 35 rolls of expired but frozen for years film then drop me a note at thephotophile@gmail.com and we can make arrangements for delivery. There is Provia, Velvia 50, Kodak EPR 64, etc. The works for only R300!

The usual set-up shot follows:

Olympia Express

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority, hand held with VR on, 0.25s, f8.0, 18-105mm kit lens at 18mm, Auto White Balance, edited in Corel Paint Shop Pro X3.

Swing and Puke

Nikon D90, Shutter Priority, hand held with VR on, 0.5s, f5.6, 18-105mm kit lens at 18mm, Auto White Balance, edited in Corel Paint Shop Pro X3.