photostudio inspiration for home

Wouldn't it be nice having that 3.000 sq ft. studio with all the latest gadgets and lighting equipment you could ever find use for along with multiple cameras and lenses?

yeah well I would like it but then again I think I am short a few million $$ on that one. However there is actually quite a lot you can do at home at the kitchen table using anything from natural light with reflector cards, desk lamps and well any light for that matter.

Learning the basics behind light and the theory is well time consuming but strangely enough it's fun too. I just started reading a book on that (light, science and magic more about that later when I get further) and I have had a few aha moments as to why it works the way it works with studio light.

Anyway. I just recently found a great resource for those that would like to watch and learn and get inspired.
Photographer Jim Talkington is running a photostudio and on his website http://www.prophotolife.com you can find some really great video tutorials in his video library. Ohh and it may be worth to mention that these are free!!!!!

Mr. T. is easy to understand and it is really good information he is giving away here. If you want to improve your photography you can't help but to learn from him.

5 min studio shoot

With Halloween we had Uncle Dave and Aunt Linda visiting from Ohio (yeah that's a long drive).

So here is what happens when you have family see the portraits hanging just about anywhere and you are asked the question: "So you are doing those picture here in the house?".

Yep, scramble to do a 5 min setup hoping that you can wing it and get the light just about right in about no time.

With that in mind I did a kind of simple setup with the Alien Bee B800 in a octabox on camera right and the Nikon SB800 in a shoot through umbrella on camera left. A quick measure had the AB coming out with just under f/8.0 and the SB800 at f/5.6 or there abouts ;-)

Here is a drawing of the above description. Sooo much easier on the eyes ;-)



Ok first up is the toned and bw version of the sit down, look at me and ... smile



But that's no fun at all.... So of course there are a few others where it was actually fun and games. Somehow the "relax... this won't hurt a bit" doesn't always work ;-)

But here they are a little less formal.



Soo it was just about 10 min... but a fun 10 min :-)

Butterflies and such

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Here is another post with a line of photos from our trip to Hollins farm. This time looking at butterflies and bugs in that line ;-)

You can see the previous post on sunflowers right here.

Not that I am really the big expert on butterflies but Thanks to Cliff I now know that the next two photos is of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.



Here's a pretty orange one. Not knowing the name of it but hey let's call it Bob ;-)





And finally a couple of close ups made with a 105mm macro I borrowed from Cliff just to see how it works... yeah it's ... man it sure would be nice to have one of those ;-)

Sunflowers

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

One weekend after getting back from our trip to Denmark we went on a smaller trip (just about 20-30 miles) to Hollins farm to pick peaches and other fruits.

While being there I finally had a chance to get a couple of photos of sunflowers against a blue sky :-)

These photos are the result of the short but very interesting trip.

All of these I created as HDR images which I did by creating multiple exposures bracket around the measured value.
Being rather new to shooting for HDR creation I setup a 5 bracket exposure +/- 1 stop.

Here they are:

Food photography

Just like most of the world you probably know about Martha Stewart. You know all the good cooking, home making, tv shows and so on.

It's kind of funny in a way but I guess we are quite the little Martha Stewart family. I started with adding a tv in the kitchen and what better to watch while cooking and baking than the Martha Stewart show?

So now every episode is recorded and watched. Not "just" by my dear wife Jacki (which btw have a great cooking blog) but also our daughter Emma that just don't want to miss the show for nothing. I think she is paying more attention to Martha Stewart than the Little Einsteins.

Anyway to get on with the photo story... Jacki asked if I could grab the camera and snap a few photos for her food blog.
Now how could I say anything but of course my dear? adding a "let me just grab the flash too while I am at it".

So here is the setup in our kitchen:



Now to show how we prepare the tomatoes and spread them out on a baking sheet with a little bit of olive oil on it. How about getting a close up? and uh uh let's get one where we see your hand sprinkling the tomatoes on the baking sheet ;-)



And just like the cooking shows here are the tomatoes fresh out of the oven.



Ok before you say anything... I know... you don't sit on the table but on the other hand you have to be able to see something... right?
But yeah here is prepping for making a salsa to go along with the meal. Emma being the mini Martha has to be in on everything and we can even pose with parsley (bet that's a new one) ;-)



First we sort and cut the the parsley and pile it up. Gotta cut the stems off and chop it coarse.



Add all the ingredients to a food processor and tada you got the best salsa you could ever have.



Now this is an example what happens when you add a photo crazy husband with a dedicated wife that loves to cook and a mini Martha. It kind of all comes together :-)
Ohh and be sure to check out Jacki's food blog for some great food :-) http://accidental-cook.blogspot.com/

Taking a walk

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Being back home (yeah it's confusing) in DK there were a few opportunities to just go out and take a walk. Now that I have been living in the states for a good 4 years the landscape and all seem kind of new to me in some strange way. Now I notice things I never noticed before. If for nothing else then because Jacki is asking about it ;-)

Here are a few flowers lit by the setting sun.



Sometimes simplicity just works better than whatever you construct. The next photo is very very simple. Just a straw with a calm out of focus background. All with the setting sun.



As much as I like waterfalls and all that. A wheat field captured while dragging the shutter... It just does something. Hope you like them.



And finally a little extra from the beach with a very blue sky.



Hope it helped getting you all ready for Friday and you know... Finally it's the weekend :-)

of all the photography blogs out there

There is a lot of photography blogs out there in the big world wide web.

One that I would like to point you to is Rowe Portrait studios. If you should happen to be in or near IN this would be a very good photographer team to visit :-) If you are not in that area just drop by and visit the blog. It is well worth your time :-)

Double take

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Just playing around and trying to learn the "new" camera and what it can do. I found a good old technique build in. In the film days it was possible to arm the camera without advancing the film. By doing that you could get two photos in one or make a double take. Of course with film you would have to do a little calculation with exposure and all that but it was fun.

In the digital age you can tell the camera how many photos you want in one and it will automatically do the calculation for you... Now how cool is that :-)

Here is one of mom... Probably wondering what is he doing now... yep just taking another little snapshot that turns out slightly different than usual :-)



Here a little motion is added and it's a double take so... yeah it's different but kind of fun.



Ohh and before you move on. Check out the Emma and dad photo story

Smoke photos - photo exhibit

More in this series:
- Photos of smoke studio setup and lighting
- Photos of smoke post processing

A little exhibit of the artistic smoke photos. These are the first ones I got around to actually doing some post processing to.

I have used the techniques for post processing as described in my photoshop section and the setup is the one described on the "main" blog.

Here we go, hope you like them :-)





More in this series:
- Photos of smoke studio setup and lighting
- Photos of smoke post processing

All natural colors

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

For this photo friday I dug out a few photos that are a from the fall season. I wanted to get a few showing the colors of nature and what better season for that than fall. Well other than spring and well ... anyway I chose fall this time around :-)

I couldn't even begin to tell you about how many times I got the comment sounding something like "what are you going to do with a photo of a single tree with red leaves???" followed by something like that is crazy...

Anyway those comment sort of faded a wee bit after a similar shot ended up on the cover of outdoor photographer. Here it is:



The next one I have had on my desktop at work and somehow just started liking it more the more I look at it. I dunno why but... there's just something... for me anyway ;-)



Now I like waterfalls, water, mountains, fall colors and all that. Here I have tried combining a little bit of everything and get some punch by doing some simple color isolation. One by removing all other colors and the other simply by have the main yellow color "stick out" from the rest.



That's it for this week. Hopefully soon I will get some more from the mountains :-)