Tilt en Shift

Vanavond ben ik een beetje aan het experimenteren gegaan met de tilt en shiftlens die ik tijdelijk in mijn bezit heb. Het gaat hier om de Canon TS-E 24 II, dé allerbeste lens die Canon maakt. Of was het nu de 85mm 1.2L? Nou ja, hij is in ieder geval supergoed. Nog nooit zulke scherpe foto's geopend in Lightroom. Wel met de hand scherpstellen, helaas.
Wil je meer weten over lenzen? Kijk dan op www.photozone.de.

Goed. Ik ben meteen met de lens (ja, ja, ik moet objectief zeggen) naar een hoog punt in Eindhoven gegaan. De parkeergarage aan de Mathildelaan is daarvoor wel geschikt. Hij staat in het centrum en je kunt er gelijk (betaald) parkeren. Op het dak kun je redelijk goed drie kanten opkijken.

Hier een aantal foto's en een filmpje.

Hierboven horizontaal een lokaal scherp deel ingevoerd met tilt, maar vergeten om de gebouwen recht te zetten met shift. Natuurlijk met een lange sluitertijd (30sec, F/9, ISO400, Canon 5D mkII) zodat de treinen en auto's mooie sporen maken.

 Typisch gevalletje miniaturisatie. De auto's van de politie zijn eerst scherp en het PSV stadion op de achtergrond is expres wazig gemaakt.

 Hier een verticale tilt krijg je ook een miniatuurwereld.

Een stukje skyline van Eindhoven met prachtige rechte gebouwen. En als we over scherpte praten dan is de geelverlichte Jezus op de kerk in de verte (links) nog prachtig te zien. (Klik op de foto voor een vergroting.)

Weer het spoor, maar dan vanuit een andere hoek. Afgeleid door de trein weer vergeten de gebouwen recht te tilten.

 

In het filmpje een aantal standen van de lens.

En daarna gauw naar huis, want verrek wat is het koud...

Cyclist in the dark

Last week I also made this portrait of my brother-in-law on his racing bike. This is what you can do with two off-camera flashes in the dusk in autumn.

Setup: Low angle camera position. One flash on camera right with CTO gel, another flash on camera left with a CTB gel, both on 1/4 power to keep the flash short to freeze the motion. Then in post processing I darkened the trees and added more blue in the background. Also made the bike pop out by working on the details.

Workshop Portrait photography in Eindhoven

The first portrait workshop of Foto Fluvius, held on 19 november, was a big success. In a small group we explored the secrets of portrait photography with our regular model Leila, inside and outside, natural light and speedlites, examples and errors. The bottom line was that everybody enjoyed the day very much. Main goal accomplished!
See here some shots we made.

Marc's shots...

Nice and simple - natural light from the side window, with reflector on the left.

Shallow depth of field example. Same setting as first image.

Some fire escape route climbing for some framing. This is outside, obviously, with one speedlite-in-softbox.

Natural and simple background and low point of view for an interesting image, and a gold reflector for a sunset-glow effect.

And some extra... Levitation practices.
Also see the Komt Dat Schot blog for many more images via link on the main page.

Full concentration...

 Chunkit is probably texting to his love...

These photos are Piet's.

Result of balancing inside light with outside.

Here some how-it-is-done pictures.

Showing off, or appreciation?

Some nice natural light shots...

Roy's shots, with some post processing.

Our setup in the park.

Marc holding the reflector

This is how to photograph levitation... but now you still don't know how to do it.

An hour in the woods of Geldrop

The beautiful weather with a completely blue sky was a nice bonus for yesterday's family photoshoot with two little girls and their parents. We went to the woods around Geldrop, close to Eindhoven, to find some shade and nice early-autumn backdrops. Of course I threw my car full of equipment while at the end of the day I only used one off-camera light.


My lovely assistent Marjon was so kind to take some 'how it's done' - photos to add to this photo series. 

Note that I am the one with the camera in my hands, not the father of the family in pink, who is testing his 'how to let my children smile' - poses (which is good!), but does not see that his girls are almost lost in the woods.

Next time I ask my assistent to build up my softboxes, so I can concentrate on compositions instead.


Here some results of the shoot.

 

How it's done...
The 'how it's done' photos are made with my Canon 450D with 10-22mm wide angle lens. 
The first two portraits are made with a 85mm/F1.8, set to F2.8. With this large aperture you have to be carefull that both faces in the same plane. Else one may be out of focus due to the thin depth of field. 

For the first portrait I used a bare speedlite (Metz 58), which gives a bit of harsh shadows, which I like. Also I can easily overpower the sun, although we are in the shade here. 

In the second portrait I added an easy-softbox on a light stand. The light is about 45 degrees high, and 45 degrees to the front of the girl. I did not pay much attention to the so called feathering of the light over the face, but the result is nice and soft anyway. The low sunlight gives a nice glow over her jacket. 


The last photo is made with the 35mm lens, set to F6.3. Already a 35mm is quite wide-angle, so the depth of field is quite thick. By slowing it down to F6.3 you can have all people in focus, even when they are obviously not in same plane like here.

Along came a spider...

Some days ago I noticed this giant spider (for dutch ideas, that is...) and yesterday I managed to find him back in our front yard. It was still in his deep sleep under the light. Digesting I guess, regarding it's huge size.
I took it to my studio and took some pictures. He surely didn't like the flash light. Whenever I flashed he started to walk faster. Well, you have to do something to be star.
Don't you worry: after the photoshoot I put him back where I found it. No harm done (I hope).

Click on the picture for a large version..

How it's done...

I don't have a close-up lens so I used a much cheaper Canon 250D close-up filter on my 50mm F/1.8 lens. Then you can get a bit closer to your subject. I used a white background sheet which I bought in the DYI store. You can bend it and use it for all kinds of 'product' photos. On top I had my 60x60cm softbox with flash. So the light is coming from right above only. The spider was walking continuously so camera was hand-held, 1/160s (fastest speed for my remote flash trigger) and F/20 for maximum depth of field. In my computer I made sure the background is completely white from corner to corner for a nice sterile look.
Don't you like the subtle shadows of the legs?

Portrait workshop (Workshop portretfotografie)

Yes! Now everyting is arranged for my first workshop portrait photography. Location, model, students, equipment and preparations.
Take a look at my website for more information. [LINK]
For now.... only in dutch.

I want to be a fire fighter!

Boys and toys... or Reds like red... or does every boy wants to be a fire fighter when he grows up? Anyway, I made this nice picture some days ago for a family potrait with red-heads only.

How it's done...

The photo is made on eye level, no flash and the carrousel is only spinning slowly here to avoid motion blur. Of course his mother is standing close to me for getting him to wave and smile. Never underestimate the spinning speed of a carrousel when taking pictures... I took enough photos to be sure I had a few good ones.
On my computer I darkened the corners to guide your eye to the subject.
Metadata: 70mm, F/4, ISO 1600, 1/2000s, no flash

Here some more photos, taken on the same day.

Business portrait Marielle

Marielle, owner of company Fairtrade-tassen, asked me to make some business portraits of her for promotional purposes. We made a nice series of photos, inside and outside the office. Both of us are very happy with the results.  

 

How it's done...

For this shot I used my new Canon 35mm F/2 lens to include a good part of the room in the picture, (full-frame camera). I set the camera on manual for ultimate control, and F/8 for a good overall depth of field. Note that with a relative wide lens like this one, the depth of field is very thick, which you can see in the photo: everything from front to back is sharp. A wider aperture could have worked here as well, like F/5.6 of F4.

Normally for portraits I use about a 1/100 sec (1/80 in this case), but to be very sure of a crispy sharp picture I used a tripod as well.

Exposure wise I used the above settings and played with the ISO to get the trees in the windows well lit. So, not too dark, not too bright. I ended up with ISO 400, which still gives absolutely noise free images with my camera. For a camera with a lesser noise performance I would suggest to keep the ISO as low as possible and slow down the shutterspeed instead. Like me, you would be working with a tripod of course.

Now, when I took the picture my subject, Marielle, was too dark. Therefore I used a speedlite (Metz 58) in a 60x60cm speedlite-softbox to camera right, 45 degrees from above and from the side. This light lit my subject well and bounced nicely through the room, giving it a natural diffused look, thanks to the white walls. Of course I had to move the flash a couple of times to make sure there were no unwanted reflections in the windows. The power of the flash was changed until both our subject, and the outside trees were all lit as intended.

Should I mention that all items in the frame, including the open window and spotless desk are set up with eye for detail?

Ramon (kopie van 17 juli 2011)

Afgelopen weekeinde bij mijn goede vriend Ramon geweest. Bleek dat zijn dochtertje bijna jarig was en een foto op haar verjaardagstaart wilde. En tja, dan moet je opeens presteren.... Gelukkig had ik mijn camera bij me (wanneer niet) en een hond (?!) om het plaatje compleet te maken. Jammer dat hij zijn ogen bijna niet kan openhouden. Maar goed, alsnog gefeliciteerd!

How it's done...

It was in the early afternoon, around 14.00h, with the sun in blue sky. I posed her with her back to the sun so it would light her blond hair and shoulders. On camera left I have clamped my bare speedlite to the table at the model's eye level, as there was nothing higher around. I underexposed the background first, and then filled in with enough power from the speedlite, all manual. You can see I used my centre focus point on her right eye (camera left), which is still in the middle of the frame.

Settings: 1/160 sec (Fastest time with this speedlite trigger sample. My others go to 1/200 as advertised.) to have a pin sharp photo and a dark background. F/9 for a good depth of field with a blurred and darker background, which was on about 2 meters behind her. ISO is 125. It was a fine adjust after initially 100.

I still wonder why my Canon printer prints this with a blue-ish glow on the wooden planks on camera right. Still nice, but not as intended. The image you see here on your computer looks more as it was.

Cornwall, Engeland (kopie van 16 juni 2011)

Tijdens onze reis door Devon en Cornwall deze foto genomen van overgebleven pomphuizen van tinmijnen uit vervlogen dagen. Deze staan prachtig aan de kust.

Bliksem boven de heuvels rond Montepulciano, Italie (kopie 17 mei 2011)

Niet zo prachtig als mijn eerdere foto van een onweer in Oostenrijk (die hangt op canvas in de woonkamer), maar toch weer interessant om te zien.

Ook als het niet bliksemt is het er heerlijk...



Oh, de instellingen? ND4 filter op de lens (om langere sluitertijden te forceren), F13 (voor de scherpte niet een te klein diafragma), sluitertijd is tussen de 8 en 15 seconden, handmatig scherpstellen en een afstandbediening die ik constant indruk. Daarbij geduld en een beetje geluk om na 100 foto's een goede te pakken te hebben. Ik heb geen statief gebruikt, want die had ik niet bij me. De camera stond gewoon op de grond in het gras.

Tante Annie 99 jaar (kopie van 9 april 2011)

De foto's van tante Annies verjaardag in Landsmeer, nu te zien via onderstaande link. (Ja, je moet zelf even een beetje knutselen...)

Nieuw!! Nu ook foto's van haar 95e t/m 98e verjaardag.

Gebruik deze link voor tante Annie: www.fotofluvius.nl/____.html (vul op de lijn onze achternaam in)