20 Oct 2011
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.
5 Oct 2011
4 Oct 2011
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?
26 Sept 2011
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.
19 Sept 2011
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:
4 Sept 2011
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.
3 Sept 2011
Snr. Puke Machine
Nikon D90, Aperture Priority, hand held with VR on, 0.0769s, f8.0, 18-105mm kit lens at 18mm, Auto White Balance, edited in Corel Paint Shop Pro X3.
2 Sept 2011
Jnr. Puke Machine
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.
31 Aug 2011
Two Speedlight Portrait
So I have been trying to
Nikon D90, manual mode, 18-105 kit lens, zoomed to 105mm, f22, 1/200s, ISO200, Nikon sb600 to camera left and behind Ben shot bare and sb700 camera right with shoot through umbrella with both fired wirelessly via Nikon's nifty CLS system. Edited in Corel Paint Shop Pro X3 (which is going for a bargain price right now btw!).
Toyota LandCruiser FJ62 4X4 Station Wagon
I am selling my trusty Toyota LandCruiser FJ62 4X4 Station Wagon.
Well looked after. Motor professionally redone last year by Toyota SA. Comes with bull bar, roof carrier, high lift jack, 4x metal Jerry Cans, full alarm/immobilizer/anti-hijack system, Dobinsons shocks and springs all around, recovery strap, window tinting and cd/radio. The "real deal" for overland travel through Africa!
If you are in the market for a good used 4X4 (and you live somewhere in Southern Africa!), then send me an email at thephotophile@gmail.com
And just in case you are interested, here is the obligatory set-up shot, it is a photography blog after all!
Nikon D90, 18-105 kit lens, taken in the middle of the day but in shade, zoomed to 52mm, manual mode, f8.0, 1/200s, ISO200, Nikon sb600 camera right and sb700 camera left fired wirelessly via Nikon's uber cool CLS system. I underexposed the shot a slight bit and let the flashes sort out their own exposure themselves via iTTL, this had the effect of a darker background which made the vehicle stand out. Isn't technology wonderful!?
21 Aug 2011
16 Aug 2011
Still Life - Taken with a Nikon F801s
An old photo taken with a Nikon F801s and a junky Quantaray 35-80 zoom, in the late afternoon sun. This was my first attempt at a still life just after I had bought my very first SLR. While not a great photo in technical and artistic terms, it still holds a special place for me.
13 Aug 2011
Seamless White Background - How To
Just in case anybody was wondering how complicated it is to do a seamless white background product photo shot like the one below, I have included a shot at the bottom of this post to show how simple it can be done.
...and the promised setup shot:
Really not complicated at all! The flash was triggered via Nikon's cool CLS system. The groovy light stand is explained at another post here.
12 Aug 2011
Orange Stack
Nikon D90, 18-105mm kit lens, manual settings, 1/60s, f16, ISO 200, SB600 flash bounced into an umbrella from camera left and a little high, white cardboard sheet against a wall to provide a seamless background, edited in Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3.
11 Aug 2011
Dining Room in Totius House, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Taken with the amazing Olympus Trip 35 on Ilford XP2 Super 400 film, developed at local lab and scanned on my CanoScan 5600F. The camera wouldn't let me take the pic because the light was too low, so I took it off auto and set it to f2.8 and voila! Got the photo anyway! I think it looks moody.
Also featured on the Olympus Trip 35 Cult blog.
4 Aug 2011
“It is one thing to photograph people. It is another
to make others care about them by revealing the core of their
humanness.” - Paul Strand
A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion .... All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. - Richard Avedon
A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion .... All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. - Richard Avedon
24 Jul 2011
19 Jul 2011
16 Jul 2011
Pentax Z-10
New toy, YAY! I will post photos and a basic rundown of how I like, or don't, this Pentax Z-10. I can already see that the power zoom is going to be a PITA.
12 Jul 2011
Philz
Nikon D90, Nikkor 35mm f1.8, 1/100s, f2.0, ISO 200, hand held, giant lightbox in the sky (read cloudy).
2 Jul 2011
30 Jun 2011
Hi, my name is Lanthus and I'm addicted to coffee...
...but it's a good addiction right? And besides I can give it up any time I like! I rule the coffee...
...wanna go for a cuppa?
11 Jun 2011
Not the 50mm f1.8!
After all the trumpet blowing for the Nikon 50mm f1.8 I decided to shoot the following portrait with the 18-105mm cheap plastic mount kit lens that comes with a lot of Nikon crop sensor cameras as part of the bundle. It was shot as wide open as it could go at 105mm, which is f5.6, hand held in natural light with VR on. I think the results are very acceptable.
Post processing was done in Corel Paint Shop Pro X3.
Post processing was done in Corel Paint Shop Pro X3.
31 May 2011
Break Those Damn Rules!
Who made up the rules, and why do we have to follow them?
A friend, and long time pro photographer, looked at my portrait photography last year and the first thing that struck him was that I often didn't use the traditional method of framing single person portrait photographs and mostly used "landscape" instead. It got me to thinking about why we have rules at all in photography. Quite often in our attempts to follow these rules (rule of thirds etc.) we make dull, boring, yawn, the same as all the other, yuck, please shoot me now, looking photos and sometimes when we inadvertantly break the rules the result is quite pleasing, and a breath of fresh air to me.
Maybe we should discard the rules and strike out to make photographs that stir the human soul instead. Can emotion ever have a formula? Heck, I want a photo to move me in some way. It should either make me happy, or sad, or nostalgic, or angry, or any damn thing but impressed with how well the photographer has handled the technical aspect of his mundane subject so well.
I would feel a lot more righteous about all of this if I didn't fall into the same trap myself on such a regular basis... oh well, back to the drawing board.
28 May 2011
Strobist DIY Beauty Dish Portrait
Taken with my Strobist DIY Beauty Dish. I fire the Nikon SB600 wirelessly in the Strobist DIY Beauty Dish by raising the D90's onboard flash and using it as the commander. By setting the onboard flash at minimum power it has the added advantage of raising the light in the shadow side of the models face just a slight bit.
25 May 2011
My Genuine German Beer Mug!
My step daughter in London picked this up for me at a boot sale and sent it to me in South Africa. It's simply the best Christmas present ever! It still says W-Germany on the bottom so it must be fairly old, and although used it's still in great condition.
It might just be me, but a beer certainly seems to taste better when I drink it out of this classy mug!
It might just be me, but a beer certainly seems to taste better when I drink it out of this classy mug!
18 May 2011
6 May 2011
Look For A Different View!
So one thing I like to do is find a different way of looking at a scene that's been done a thousand times before. Reflections, unusual angles, or just the videographers LCD screen! Hope his work isn't copyrighted, or he may sue me for using his material, even if it is just a fraction of a fraction of a second...
5 May 2011
Sometimes you have to get down and dirty!
In this case it was down on my belly in the aisle of a packed church with people looking at me funny... but I got the shot I wanted!
Note to self: humility is good for me.
3 May 2011
Cafe Riche at Night
I took this a while back on a Canon 350D and the kit lens in crazy low light, hand held. It came out a lot sharper than I anticipated. It's a late night bar on the western side of Church Square in Pretoria, South Africa.
26 Apr 2011
25 Apr 2011
24 Apr 2011
Ibanez Acoustic Bass Guitar - 1
After putting it off for the longest time I finally got to start regular practice with my bass and I suddenly realised why I wanted an acoustic bass instead of a regular electric bass. It's the sound you see, it's just more organic somehow, even when plugged in. Love it!
23 Apr 2011
How to deal with heavy back-lighting.
Leave the camera on auto and you will end up with an unattractive, boring, black silhouette every time. Take a test shot, check it out on the cameras LCD screen, adjust exposure compensation to overexpose, re-shoot, check LCD screen, readjust exposure compensation to taste, re-shoot and voila! Easy peasy!
Nikon D90, Nikon 35mm f1.8DX, 1/160s, f2.8, aperture priority, +4 exposure compensation, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X3.
9 Apr 2011
The Death of my Ibanez RM80 Mixer
After many years of faithful service my ancient mixer accidently toppled off a table during a gig and landed on the floor with predictable results. Because it is so old nobody even wants to look at it for repairs so I had to go and get a new mixer... boohoo, and sob!
But the upside is that I could now use it for some photographic fun! Yay!
First the original pic:
Then I got to messing about with the Virtual Photographer plugin in Corel Paintshop Pro X3:
Groovy Baby, Yeah!
But the upside is that I could now use it for some photographic fun! Yay!
First the original pic:
Then I got to messing about with the Virtual Photographer plugin in Corel Paintshop Pro X3:
Groovy Baby, Yeah!
1 Apr 2011
Pretoria Skyline
After an absence of a few weeks I feel I need to post something quickly while I have a few minutes to spare. I have been on the road and generally just too busy to get to the blog and will probably be in the same state of being for a couple of weeks more. Please forgive me and enjoy this pic of my hometown of Pretoria.
Ciao, and see you soon!
Ciao, and see you soon!
16 Mar 2011
Old Ford
From a wedding I shot this last weekend:
I just love these vintage cars and I often wish someone would produce cars this shape today with a modern engine. But then it probably wouldn't have the same soul that these genuine oldies have.
Nikon D90, Nikon 35mm f1.8DX.
I just love these vintage cars and I often wish someone would produce cars this shape today with a modern engine. But then it probably wouldn't have the same soul that these genuine oldies have.
Nikon D90, Nikon 35mm f1.8DX.
8 Mar 2011
I know which one I like...
...but which one do you prefer and why?
Maybe you could also share what you might have done differently.
Maybe you could also share what you might have done differently.
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