Pocket Dispo Sample Images (and short "review")

I recently purchased a cheap plastic lens called the Pocket Dispo that apparently is made using old lenses from disposable cameras in order to give an old school film look... if that is what you want. I got the basic version for Nikon f-mount and attached it to my D750. Then I carried the camera around for a couple of weeks and took some sample pics just to see what the result is. I'm inquisitive that way.

I have come to a few conclusions, and the first is that it is really small, light and flat making it very easy to carry around. The second is that it kind of simplifies your shooting by just taking away so many options that in the end your fancy digital camera becomes a a simple point and shoot camera. That was weirdly liberating in a way... no options, just point and click. Cool.

I should probably explain my camera setup at this point. It was really quite simple, full manual mode with auto iso activated to take care of the exposure to a degree. I set it between 64 and 8000 iso to be able to handle a wide range of lighting conditions, and after some test shots increased the exposure compensation to +0,3 to be more pleasing to my eye. At higher iso it gives some grain that I think enhances the "film look". A win. The only other control you have is shutter speed and I adjusted according to need.

As you can see from the photo above the results are quite cool, just what you would expect from an old film disposable camera, very soft around the sides, never quite sharp anywhere in the frame, distorted... well quite awful really if this is not the look you are going for but just perfect if you think it's the arty look you always wanted from your expensive digital camera.

As a walkabout setup it's quite good actually because without the big dslr lens attached to the front of the camera people are not intimidated in the least and so you won't have the kind of reactions you normally get when walking the streets taking pics with humans in. You get ignored, and that's a good thing. Also, no focusing. Point & click, point & click. Awesome.

These photos were all taken in raw simply because my cameras are all set up to photograph in raw all the time. In retrospect I would probably have done better to shoot in jpeg and let the chips fall where they may. As it is I had to run these all through DxO PL8 at standard settings to get jpegs that I could post online. Any improvements would be pretty much what I would get with a normal jpeg setup in camera anyway.

I converted several of the photos to black & white and I think they suit the "arty" look quite well, almost as if this is what I was actually striving for all along... instead of them just being bad quality. 😋

So in summary, if this is the look you are going for then I 100% recommend that you go ahead and lay out the small amount of money it takes to purchase the Pocket Dispo. If however you are expecting great quality images from your camera then you would be better served spending your money elsewhere. This lens is not for everybody, it is a "one trick pony" that does what it does and you must really want what it does. In the right hands I'm sure it will be a great tool that will turn out wonderful photographs to fulfill a certain photographers vision in a fantastically affordable way. In the wrong hands... well just bad.

Here are a few more pics to give you a better idea of what it does:

 

 

New Studio Backdrop

Some time ago I got a new collapsible background from an online retailer and since then it has been sitting behind my regular backdrop while I got on with the time consuming daily routine that fills our lives. I have just started two weeks of leave time and my pledge was to spend more time behind the camera. Hence... out with the unused backdrop, camera, flashes and the plastic model. All pics taken with my D850, 24-120mm f4 lens, three Nikon Speed-lights, one shot through a large soft-box for the main light and two small light shapers for the back accent lights one of which had a blue filter added for effect. All were triggered via an SU-800 Nikon wireless commander.

Final image first:

 

 

Next a "pullback" shot to show the rear accent lights and the main light on the right: 

Next up with only the main light: 

 ...and one with only the rear accent lights:

The last two pics are just to show what happens when one changes the point of view lower and higher:

All in all I think the backdrop gives a very pleasing effect with it's warm colours and sets off the blue highlight colour quite nicely.

 

Three Quick Portrait Setups

A quickfire portrait photo session in order to do three different looks in succession by just adding, changing or moving a few speedlights. Always fun to keep the old hand in by way of this type of practical exercise.

I used a Nikon D850, Nikon 85mm f1.8 lens, four Nikon Speedlights all triggered wirelessly via a Nikon Speedlight Commander SU-800, ISO was 64 and aperture at f1.8 to get that shallow depth of field.

First off a single light shot through a snoot:

Contrasty and dramatic

Snoot was high, right and slightly behind of camera

The second shot I retained the snoot and added two lights aimed at the background, the light to camera left had the standard included incandescent filter attached and the light to camera right had the standard included fluorescent filter attached, both to influence the background in different ways. The light in the snoot was filterless.

More textured interest on the background

The snoot was left in the same position as the previous shot

The final photograph I used four lights and changed out the snoot for a shoot-through umbrella, I also brought it much closer to the subject. This had the effect of giving softer light. I also turned the two lights I used for the background in the previous shot and highlighted the side of the subjects head from slightly behind while shooting a gobo strip of light at the background.

Much softer light with lots of sculpting, depth & interest

All lights visible in this shot

The final setup I had the lights in three groups, the main light (group A) was at standard exposure, the side lights (group B) at -3 & the background light (group C) at -2.5. This gave a pleasing balance of light, at least for my taste.

All the light modifiers are from Elinchrom attached to Godox adapters to be able to let me use my Speedlights, except for the gobo which is from Magmod. I find that the Elinchrom studio lights are great in a bigger room but in such a small space they are way too powerful forcing me to stop down a lot more leading to me not being able to use the narrow depth of field that I prefer.

Below are some pics of the Godox mounts with Speedlights inserted. This is a budget conscious way of being able to use one set of modifiers for both the larger studio lights as well as the much smaller Speedlights.

Snoot

Umbrella

Reflector

More Nikon 16mm Fisheye Experimenting

The Nikon 16mm Fisheye lens is a quite remarkable piece of tech in that it can actually record a full 180°. This sucker can see sideways! But straight from the camera the best I could get was this:

Not as wide as hoped and of course a little dull and dark... put it through DxO PL6, adjusted a few settings and discovered that there was more photo that was not originally revealed:

I then decided to squeeze a bit more out, played with the manual distortion buttons a bit as well and got this very wide and less fisheye looking photo:

Along the way I found that this lens really has very limited use but if used creatively in the right setting it can deliver interesting results. Not every bodies cup of tea, but interesting none the less.

Tulips in the Studio

Decided to shoot some tulips in my tiny studio. 

Nikon D850, 24-120mm f4 lens @120mm, f11, two Speedlights fired and controlled wirelessly via Nikons CLS & shot through an octobox to camera right and a gobo from under the table onto the background. Handheld throughout. I have posted a pullback shot at the end so you can see the light setup and layout.

 

...and lastly the promised pullback shot:

Rare Selfie Time...

It's not often that photographs get taken of me, mostly because I am always behind the camera. Today, just for once, I wanted to try out the portrait set-up that I have been shooting with the plastic head but using a real human head for a change and the only available (read "willing") sucker human at home today was me. So for better or worse you get to see my scruffy face today... 😱

First shot is a colour version of my scruffy face, second is the whole set-up but with the plastic head in my place, third shot is a 100% crop to show the totally insane resolution of the D850, and finally a B&W version of my scruffy face. B&W doesn't make me look any better though...

Colour version

Set-up shot

100% crop

B&W version

Final Fun With the Plastic Head (for now)

 Ok, just one more post featuring the world's most patient head-shot model. At least for now... it has been fun though.

As before I used my D750 and three Speedlights controlled wirelessly. The only change was using an Elinchrom softbox for the rear fill instead of the reflector I used before. 

Just two pics (plus one bonus pic...), the final image and a pull-back shot. You get the picture.

In the "bonus" pic below I just substituted some Christmas lights in the place of the Speedlight powered gobo used above to provide a somewhat sparkly background for a change.
 

Another Day Another Portrait Setup...

Another day another portrait setup in my little studio. This time my main light is an SB-910 shot through a gridded 95cm octobox, fill light is an SB-700 shot through a gridded 18cm reflector and the background light is an SB-600 shot through a gobo to provide a single ray of light. All speedlights are controlled wirelessly via Nikons CLS system useing an SU-800 Commander unit mounted to a D750. 

I really like the quality of the light from the octobox, it is large enough to give a nice fall-off of light around the face, has two diffusers to soften and even up the light and doesn't show any hotspots anywhere on the face.

Final image

Pull-back shot so you can see where the lights are placed

Three Light Portrait

 The plastic fantastic headshot model agreed to sit for another portrait session today (well she didn't say no...) and I decided to go with three lights this time around. The main light is an sb700 shot through reflector with grid attached from camera right. Fill light is an sb600 also through a reflector with grid attached. The background light is an sb910 shot through a gobo and fresnel lens system from MagMod. All taken with a D750 and 24-120mm f4 lens at 120mm & aperture priority f5.6. The lights were all controlled and fired wirelessly via an su-800 Commander unit.

The first image is the final shot, followed by a pullback set-up shot and then main and background light individually just to show the effect each light has on the image, with final shot to show the fill in the shadows.

Final image.

Wide vs Tele - Which One is Best?

I am often asked why peoples selfies make their faces look distorted and my answer is always the same, serves you right you narcissistic fool! Well no, not really. But the right answer is that the lens on your front cell phone camera is wide and therefore distorts your face making your nose look big.

In regular photography shooting with a wide lens close up has the same result, whatever is closest to the camera looks bigger and therefore the resulting picture is distorted and not a realistic representation of whatever it is you are photographing.

However, this also opens up some creative possibilities. Deliberate wide angle distortion can provide some artistic flair, or interest, or emotional tension, or merely highlight a certain part of an object or product.

I recently took some photos of my beloved motorcycle and was using my nifty Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens. The first photo was taken at 50mm and the second at 17mm. Which is best? Well that depends on what you are trying to achieve, your own personal taste, etc.

The tele produces a realistic representation of the subject at hand,  but to me the wide angle produces an entirely more interesting and dramatic photograph and leaves the viewer with a little more awe and wonder.  But that's just me.

Tele

Wide

So which one do you prefer?

Mmmmm, beer! - Lighting is in Layers.

I like to think of setting up lighting as adding a series of carefully thought out layers. I normally start out with a background, work out the lighting for it and then slowly add layers until I match the vision I had in my minds eye for the particular subject.

Here is a final shot of a glass of beer and the can and then I will show the various "layers" of light as I added them in my quest for this photograph:

Three Light Product Photography Tutorial

Today I have a quick and simple "how to" on putting together a nice slightly low key product shot with three lights. Here is the final result and then I will go through the steps on how to build the lighting to get this photograph:

How to Enlarge Your Lightsource for Softer Light, easily.

I did a little experiment this evening just to demonstrate how to make a really large lightsource and give much more even light on your subject than just blasting away with direct light.

I have two 65x65cm light boxes that are quite handy. So here is a pic of them set up pointing directly at a nice Dutch vase. The camera was on the tripod in front of the table.

From here it looks like that should make for some pretty good light on the vase, but as we can see in the next photo they also leave some not so great specular highlights on the vase and two distinct shadow areas behind the vase.

Not a bad photograph as such, but we can do much better than that! So, in order to increase the overall size of the light source I simply faced the lights up at the ceiling. Of course I also had to increase the power output of the lights because the light now had much further to travel and the inverse square law robs us of light very quickly when we increase the distance the light has to travel.

As you can see from the pic above the light has now been spread over a much larger area. So what has that done for our lovely Dutch vase?

Well the first thing you notice is that the ugly specular highlights have vanished and the light is much more evenly spread on the vase itself. The second thing is that the shadows behind the vase have also disappeared. Overall a much more pleasing result!

If all you have are two speedlights instead of the bigger studio lights then don't be disheartened because the exact same principle still holds true and will work just great. Simply pump up the power a bit and let 'er rip, it will have a similar wonderful softening effect on the quality of light.

Happy product photographing folks!