Friday, April 30, 2010

365/120 Macro/6

This barely qualifies as macro because if you really tried, a regular lens could probably capture this uncropped. Regardless of the "macro" qualities, I still found it fascinating, and it'll keep people wondering for hours.

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/80sec and ISO 800.
Plasma and Lightning

Thursday, April 29, 2010

365/119 Macro/5

I was in the mood for coffee, and then I looked at the spoon sticking out of the cup and wondered what it would look like immersed in bokeh. Well, here it is, in it's bokeh-ful glory!

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/100sec and ISO 100.
Spoon

I believe I just heard the noise of a myth shattering! It's a sweet sound!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

365/118 Macro/4

Everyone knows how hard it is to focus in the world of the small, especially when you're doing a head-on shot at a large aperture, but here's where LiveView is really handy. I set it to 7x zoom, which seems to give the best compromise between really close zoom and still having a clue what you're looking at.

I took this shot at pretty much the closest distance the lens would still focus, and I walked into the world of non-existant Depth Of Field. In LiveView at 5x or closer, you can see the DOF, and breathing wrong would knock the picture out of focus. At viewable image sizes, it probably wouldn't matter much, because Unsharp Mask would make short work of any tiny little bit of unsharpness this would cause. I wanted this photo cropped at 50% however (I wanted to get a little closer, I need an extension tube, badly), so tight focus is top priority.

Focus looks to be bang on. I made sure to mount my camera on a tripod and turned on mirror lock and the self timer.

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/200sec and ISO 100.
Flame

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

365/117 Macro/3

You won't be able to tell much detail from the small size here (500px wide, the "original" is 1000px wide), but I took this one just to demonstrate how shallow DOF can get in the macro world. The selected aperture was barely enough to get a whole grain of salt in focus.

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/3.2, 1/100sec and ISO 400.
Seasoning Adobe

Monday, April 26, 2010

Macro/2 Reshoot

Since today's photo was a little OOF due to incorrectly chosen aperture, I decided to reshoot. This time I took a few moments of extra time and paid attention to detail a little more.

50mm f/2.0 @ f/8.0, 1/200sec and ISO 800 (it was raining, what can I say).
Flower 3

365/116 Macro/2

Getting a little more serious today, so I went outside to photograph some flowers and greens. Here's what I found:

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/4.0, 1/160sec and ISO 400.
Flower 2

Sunday, April 25, 2010

365/115 Macro/1

Oh yes, it's finally that time. Macro week! I think this following photo is the most appropriate for my personality, since I always have something to say.

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 (duh) @ f/2.0, 1/50sec and ISO 800. WB set to "Tungsten" and then tweaked to a more appropriate temperature (I took this at 5.30 AM, with only one CFL bulb as my light source).

Two Cents

Saturday, April 24, 2010

365/114 Shadows/7

This following photo required a little more advanced light, because obviously the difference between sunlight and its shadows is too great to be captured by most digital cameras. I used a little fill flash to throw some light into the shadow areas and then did some burning and dodging in PS to restore the contrast from the original scene.

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/4.0, 1/250sec and ISO 100. Flash at 1/16th power (manual mode).

Kota Shadows

Friday, April 23, 2010

365/113 Shadows/6

Photo number six in this series, a sculpture a friend of mine gave me when I moved. I think it's a wonderful example of artistic complexity (the sculpture, not the photo), and it has many surfaces onto which a shadow can fall, so it's pretty much perfect for the theme! Also, don't mind the sticker at the bottom of the photo, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to clone it out, or remove it before shooting.

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/8.0, 1/250sec and ISO 160. OCF @ 1/16th power.

Sculpture Shadows

Thursday, April 22, 2010

365/112 Shadows/5

Shadow through blinds!

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/100sec and ISO 100.
Shadow through blinds

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

365/111 Shadows/4

Everyone seems to be doing this classic, so just this once, I'll follow the crowd.

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/11, 1/100sec & 1/160sec and ISO 100.
Ring in Book

I used two exposures and combined them to preserve some detail where the name was engraved in the ring. The main (longer @ 1/100sec) exposure blew the highlights to where some letters were gone, so the 1/160sec exposure helps preserve that detail!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

365/110 Shadows/3

Macro day, again (am I getting boring yet?). All pretty much within 10 feet of eachother too, which I thought was funny, because they're all completely different photos, other than the fact that they at least have shadows in them to some degree.

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/7.1, 1/80sec (underexposed to protect highlights, then bumped back up a stop. Exposing an extra stop actually blew the highlights here), ISO 400. WB @ 5400K.
Screw Shadow

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/8.0, 1/80sec and ISO 400. WB @ 5400K. Same story with the exposure.
Cracked Paint Shadow

Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/4.0, 1/100sec and ISO 400. WB @ 5400K.
Tulip Bud

In the third photo, it's once again painfully obvious how much I depend on Olympus software to do the initial post processing. The colors simply don't come out as good in Adobe Camera Raw (Either in Lightroom or Photoshop). If anyone has an answer for me, please do share.

Monday, April 19, 2010

365/109 Shadows/2

Not very interesting, but I do have to say I love these colors, again. Take a hint Adobe! Olympus has much better color rendition than ACR, at least make a few default curves for the E-3 or something!


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/8.0, 1/250sec and ISO 100. OCF camera right @ 1/16th power.
Pill Bottle

Sunday, April 18, 2010

365/108 Shadows/1

My wife volunteered to be my subject tonight, so I went with ultra dramatic light, and thus shadows, which is what we're working with here.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/250sec and ISO 100. OCF camera dead right @ 1/8th power. WB @ 5400K.


Mama 2

Saturday, April 17, 2010

365/107 Framing/7

Kiddo gets to be my subject one last time this week! Yes, I know she has a finger chop on both sides of the photo and she's dead center. It's the last photo of the week and I really didn't feel like fighting with her to get a "great" shot when this works just fine.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/160sec and ISO 400.
Alexis Framed

Friday, April 16, 2010

365/106 Framing/6

I'm not sure if this works, but I made a promise to give it a try, so here it is:


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/8.0, 1/250 and ISO 400. OCF camera left, bounced off colored card.


Water Drop Frame

Thursday, April 15, 2010

365/105 Framing/5

Not sure if this is walking a gray line with money laundering laws, and if someone has any idea if it is, please let me know and I'll take it down. I just found this very fitting to the theme!


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/11, 1/250sec and ISO 100. Flash @ 0EV compensation, on camera.


Dollar Frame

Yet more macro!

Our red tulips are starting to bloom also, which called for another macro. Lots of bokeh again, and I really should start shooting these earlier, maybe with a light modifier to block out some of the harsh mid day sun, because closed flowers don't make interesting photos.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/4.0 1/160sec and 400 ISO.
Red Tulip

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

365/104 Framing/4

A trip to the rose garden today! I discovered something new, something a little more on the bad news side of things. The 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 does not like backlit subjects. More precisely, it creates a lot of haze and flare when you're photographing backlit or partially backlit subjects. A lot could be fixed in post processing, but I'm a little disappointed. I guess that's what I get though, for trying to save money by getting the cheaper lens! Next time I'll just have to use the 50mm for backlit portraits.


Lens and camera settings:
14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 @ 27mm, f/3.0, 1/125sec and ISO 100.


Alexis at Park1

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

365/103 Framing/3

Shooting creatures in their natural habitat would keep them at ease right? Yeah, that's what I thought too, but apparently that doesn't apply to 4 year old girls. She hides in this hamper all the time, so I figured it'd make a good frame, which it does, but she didn't seem to be too entertained by the idea.

I converted this to B&W because there simply was no helping the bright pink and orange color casts, well nothing I could do in a reasonable amount of time anyway.

Lens and camera settings:
14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 @ 25mm, f2.9, 1/100sec and ISO 800.
Alexis in Hamper

Monday, April 12, 2010

365/102 Framing/2

My little one has to be my all time favorite subject! She finally smiled with a natural smile, and I finally got a tack sharp shot!


Olympus might not be the best at some stuff, but they absolutely rock at colors. And I mean rock, as in when Queen used to be the all-time greatest rock band type rock. The following was taken with the following in-camera color settings: 5400K white balance, Vivid color tone and sharpness set to -2 and contrast to -1. Underexposed by 0.6 stop to preserve skin highlights and pushed back up to +0.6EV in Oly processing.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/125sec and ISO 200.


Alexis Framed 2

Sunday, April 11, 2010

365/101 Framing/1

A B&W silhouette today! Color didn't add much, but I think the B&W really tells a story. Sometimes, B&W is really just the way to go.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/1000sec and ISO 100.


Alexis Framed

Saturday, April 10, 2010

More Tulip Macros

Yeah, I might have to start a separate blog as a spinoff, because these macros are cluttering up my 365 too much.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0 - 4.0 (depending on DOF needed), 1/60 - 1/250 (depending on light) and ISO 400.


Tulip 1
Tulip 2
Tulip 3

365/100 Capturing Motion/7

I'm going out with a bang on day 100! Literally, because when I installed my oven's new ignitor upside down by accident, there was a small gas explosion. No-one got hurt and the situation was rectified quickly by putting the ignitor in the right way.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/20sec and ISO 800. IS on, WB @ 5400K.


Flame

Friday, April 9, 2010

365/99 Capturing Motion/6

Today I decided to drop trying to capture the moment and take control over silly things like composition, light and subject matter. I purposely left the color temperature a little more yellow, because the white balanced photo looked almost sickly pale. This photo showed the most motion, so it's the one I'm keeping. I might have chosen a faster shutter speed if I were to try this setup again.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/4.0, 1/20sec and ISO 1000. WB at 2800K (Tungsten).


Pills in Motion

Thursday, April 8, 2010

365/98 Capturing Motion/5

I have motion today, but I have to admit I wasn't really trying. I haven't really been into this theme, and honestly I can't wait until next week. I did capture something else that I feel was incredible!


Lens and camera settings:
14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 @ f/4.0, 1/20sec and ISO 100.
Traffic


And then about 10 feet from that position, I noticed some really nice light:


50mm f/2.0 @ f/4.0, 1/60sec and ISO 800. PP in Olympus Master, and then noise correction done in PS.


Glowing Tulip Glowing Tulip 2 copy

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Off topic macros

It's far removed from the 365 themes, unless you believe that this is somehow the slow "motion" of a growing leaf (makes me wish I'd done a time lapse macro), but I liked these a lot, so I'm putting them up here.


There won't be any camera settings, but they were all processed with Olympus Master, and then post "tweaked" with PS, but there was hardly any work needed, they're practically SOOC.


Leaf Buds 3
Leaf Buds 4, Oly Colors
Leaf Unbudded 1
Leaf Unbudded 2


I might have forgotten to put a border on one of these. Also, the first one was actually fully processed in ACR, 10 points to the one who can tell why ACR colors are just not quite "it"!

365/97 Capturing Motion/4

To take this photo, I set my camera to take a long exposure (f/22, 8 seconds), on a tripod and then dropped a balloon and manually set off my flash a few times. Here is the result!


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/22, 8 seconds, ISO 100. OCF handheld flash @ 1/4th power.


Falling Balloon

365/96 Capturing Motion/3

Because people asked for it:


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/8.0, 1/250 (max sync speed) and ISO 400. Flash @ 1/16th power, OCF. WB @ 5400K


1
2
3

Monday, April 5, 2010

365/95 Capturing Motion/2

Smoke! It's ideal, because it always looks like it's in motion, even with flash, which I used here.


Lens and camera settings:
14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 @ 35mm, f/8.0, 1/250sec and ISO 400. WB @ 5400K and OCF @ 1/4 power.


Smoke

Sunday, April 4, 2010

365/94 Capturing Motion/1

A water drop macro today! I realize some of you might recognize this stuff from my flickr, but I say that this one is by far the best one yet! I'm going to build a water drop rig, so I can have my drops land in a predictable spot, rather than just guesstimating when and where it lands and pressing the shutter for good luck.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/8.0, 1/250 sec and ISO 400. OCF at 1/8th power camera right, WB @ 5400K


Water Drop 2nd Gen


I used f/8.0 for more depth of field, which was necessary to capture the drop and the crater, and it helps grabbing focus as well. I had a sandwich bag with a tiny hole in it suspended over a loaf pan with water in both, a drip was falling about every 1 to 2 seconds. After I had the focus set (using manual focus, of course), I just watched the drops fall for a second and started pressing the shutter just after the water had left the bag. My reaction speed leaves something to be desired, I missed quite a few shots! Of course I don't need to mention that the whole deal was shot using a tripod. You can't really do these hand-held.

365/93 Green With Envy/7

Some more macros today, because I ran out of time. Uhm, well they're green aren't they? I envy those who take awesome macros, but I'm working on it!


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/8.0, 1/125sec and ISO 400.
Popping Buds 1


50mm f/2.0 @ f/4.0, 1/125sec and ISO 100.
Popping Buds 2

Friday, April 2, 2010

365/92 Green With Envy/6

A Lock & Lock container, Nikki style! Because I envy the brightness she would have gotten with this particular green color.


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/13sec and ISO 1000. IS on, WB @ Tungsten (2850K)


Greeeeeeeen

Thursday, April 1, 2010

365/91 Green With Envy/5

My daughter thinks that we all need to envy her and her green dino. Oh to be a kid again!


Lens and camera settings:
50mm f/2.0 @ f/2.0, 1/100sec and ISO 100. WB @ 4850K.


Dino