I find it funny how 2 art students would win a photojournalism contest and then reveal that all the pictures that they submitted were staged. The British Journal of Photography writes about it here.
What I find interesting here is that the winners studied the winning pieces and photojournalism’s cliches. I know that this would probably spark a lot of talks and hopefully, progress.
This picture was supposed to be used for an ID that turned into a glamor type portrait. I guess I’m just looking for reasons to shoot.
The set-up was fairly easy — 1 softbox on top and 1 reflector below to bounce the light. 1 softbox to light the background to make editing easy.
Personally, I think that the exposure is around +1/3, give or take, on the highlights. With some make up and what not this would’ve been perfect.
Looks like Olympus is catching up with the market. The Olympus E-P1 (Digital Pen) seems like it’s one of the most advanced point-and-shoot cameras so far.
Advantages of this over other leading non-dSLRs in the market is the interchangeable lenses, this uses the same sensor as some of their dslrs, HD video capture, multiple exposures, and being able to create slideshow movies in-camera. Seriously, this one is much better than the dSLR that Im’ using right now, although I doubt that clients will take me seriously if they see me using this one.
The camera doesn’t have a built-in pop up flash but it does have a hot shoe. An external flash is sold separately. Alternatively, you can snap a flash trigger there and use speedlites/studio strobes to go off camera — functioning exactly just like any other dSLR.
Invesp lists down Top Photography Blogs. If you’re done reading all the articles in your RSS reader, then I would suggest that you visit the list and add some more sites like I did.
Apparently, Invep sampled 20,000 sites and based their calculations based on RSS memberships, Yahoo incoming links, Google PageRanks, etc. One thing that you might want to take note of, is that a lot of these sites are actually technical/gear/tutorial sites. Although there is nothing wrong with that, but there are some really nice photography sites that are not included in the list — most of which just simply feature their portfolios.
Had some free time today to do an exercise. This one’s probably one of the most challenging table top photography I had to do because of the set up. But it gets easy once you get the hang of it.
Dean Collins is a renowned photographer. He taught advanced lighting classes during the 80s and apparently, he’s one guy who knows how to use the different gear they had back then and he understood how light works. His lectures are pretty much scattered in Youtube and they are still very much applicable in this day and age. Of all the videos, what got my attention is his take on digital photos, manipulation, and stock photos. This was shot in 1998 and most, if not all, are pretty accurate.
Here’s a cool way to trigger Canon EOS Dslrs — use your iPhone. But seriously, I don’t think it’s very much worth it but it looks cool though.
I’ve been very busy lately working on a couple of sites and might have a big shoot sometime soon. Here are some inspiring photographers to check out.
I know a number of photographers who, once they’ve bought their external flashes, would stop exploring the various usage of that powerful light. I’m saddened by the fact that they’re already content with using their flashes on-board their camera and not realizing their little speedlites can do more than that.
Speedlites these days can be triggered without them having to be on top of your camera and that’s one of the strengths of today’s technology. Furthermore, if you’re using your camera’s proprietary speedlite, you enjoy the benefit of letting the camera adjust the power of the flash for you.
I love the versatility and the quality of light the small speedlites give me. I can have a studio in the middle of the forest, at the beach, or anywhere else for that matter. You don’t have to lug around long cables and heavy equipment to set up your lights. You can place them in small places and make a big difference in your photo.
For comparison, I made an impromptu shoot during work and took different shots of my friend using flash (so forgive me for the extremely horrible portraits) and here’s what happened: Continue reading
