Author: ludwigdesmet

Composition and light – AKA – the struggle for a good shot

Uncategorized

hi,

Yesterday I had evening classes photography. I am currently in the module about people and portrait photography, and we had the task to make some combined environmental+flash light shots from some of our colleagues in class.
We had a hard time finding a current output outdoors, schools apparently avoid these at all cost. We only had limited cable (30m) and no battery pack to power the monoblocks.

I just want to show you the process we’ve worked trough, in order to get what I call a good shot. (I’m not pretending being perfectly capable of producing the ultimately composed shot, … just trying my best in producing a decent image)

This is the spot we started working in. I just made this shot to see how well I could reduce ambient light by just closing the aperture. Shot at ISO 160, f18 and 1/200 sec. All shots with Canon 17-40 mm f4 and 5D mark II.

I decided to open up aperture a little, and lower the iso value. (lens performance is best at an aperture value of 11-16, in general) so for the next images I worked at ISO 100 and f14, 1/200 sec. We setup a monoblock at about 3 meters distance from the subject, and 5/6 full power (Bowens G500). A standard reflector completed the setup. As you can see, I’m aiming straight into the sun, and I get a little flare spot on his belly.

This image was ok for light, but a bit boring, and my subject seemed like very far away, so I closed in a little, and got a lower camera angle, to make my buddy Bart look more impressive. At the same time, Bart is covering the sun and I get rid of the flare.

Still a bit boring, so why not try jumping (with the basket goal in mind)

Bart wasn’t much into jumping yesterday evening, so we abandoned after a couple of shots. Let’s try getting a little closer.

Hmm, not bad, but not good either, the building in the back doesn’t say anything, and I get no depth in the image.

Now the line on the pavement adds a little perspective, but the building still isn’t of great value, let’s try a horizontal orientation.

Now that is what I call perspective and depth, although mu subject is a bit far, and not really standing out from the background. (in the mean time, we changed the position of the flash, and I have turned to f11 to compensate)
Time for some close-up work then. I also asked Bart to close his eyes till just before the shot, and then open them a bit wider, because we had rather bright environment light and he had ‘peeping eyes’.

And for the final shot:

Some shots during the break. Claire was sitting in front of me, enjoying a warm coffee. All shots with available light with 50 mm lens. First at f5 1/15 sec.

Although this shot is not bad, I’m wondering what she is holding in her hands, … Let’s try vertical, I opened up the aperture to make for a safer shutter speed: f2.5 at 1/25 sec.

Oh, she’s having coffee, right, but I would get claustrophobic if I stayed too long in such a tight frame, so I leaned back a little to re-do the horizontal shot.

That says a lot more to me, she’s having coffee, in a sort of bar, and there’s other people, … Notice how I moved my subject of centre, to get some dynamic in the image.

After the break, Claire wanted to do something with the red lockers. All images taken with Canon 135 mm f2 @ f6.3 and 1/160 sec.
We set up one flash again, bare light with standard reflector we measured f6.3 at the subjects distance. It looked very very boring to me, and to Walter also, obviously.

How about you Bart, wouldn’t you like more light in here?

So I decided it was time to get out the second flash and put it further away in the corridor, set at full power because quite far away from the subject.

Now how’s that for a change. The reflective floor and ceiling make for a nice light-pattern all over the image. Some reflections are blown-out, but I don’t mind.
Some further compositing work. This is my first shot of Walter only, posing with his gear like a real pro.

I thought the light was great, but the compo was cluttery. I missed the lockers here. I tried a horizontal shot.

This was better already, but I found it had too much disturbing elements at the right side. I moved a little to the right, and aimed a little to the left. I had seen that I had the rear flash straight into the camera, but I still wanted to give it a try.

The composition was good, but clearly the flashlight is pulling a lot of attention away from the subject, so I moved back just a little, keeping the same viewing angle as much as possible. Note the beautiful line starting in the lower left corner, leading the eye into the image. Here too the subject is off center, at about 1/3 from the right. This was my final in this setting:

We worked with 3 Cactus V5 transceivers, we had one monoblock set to cell (making it react to the first flashlight) and we could shoot with two photographers at the same time.

Thank you for reading, hope you found some interesting tips here.

Ludwig

exhibition

exhibition, Personal Pictures

I am currently taking part in a group exhibition with the ‘Kwaremontse kunstkring’, a group of artists working with a varied range of media: Aquarel, oil on canvas, ceramics, jewelry, glass art, and myself as a photographer.
This time I’m presenting a more artistic selection of my work, where as in the ‘WAK’ exhibition, I have mainly presented landscape photography.

here are some pictures of the current and the past exhibition.
You are still very welcome to visit the exhibit. It runs till june 3rd, and is open every wednesday saturday and sunday afternoon, from 2 pm till 6 pm.

North Sea

landscapes, Personal Pictures, personal tips & tricks, Tips and Tricks

Hi,
long time since I posted some new images. I have been busy preparing the two exhibitions and that is now over, with the last exhibition opening this saturday evening. You are still very welcome to come visit the exhibition. (wednesday, saturday and sunday from 14:00 h till 18:00 h. in ‘de Oude Brouwerij’ Ronse.)

I have been to the North sea on april 22nd, and I wanted to show you some images I brought with me. I have further experimented with the ND Grey filters, I used them before in Calais/Cap-Griz-Nez too.
Here I used only the ND 1000 filter, which blocks about 8 stops of light, and let’s pass only 1/1000th of the light. This allows for long exposure times in plain daylight.

The technique is quite simple: you setup your tripod (best a good sturdy one, because when the sea surface is coming over the breakwater, you get some nasty winds blowing you almost out of your clothes.) and make your best composition possible. Verify your normal exposure. Now without further touching your camera, switch to manual focus if not already done, screw on your ND filter and calculate your new exposure time. In my situation, I had to lengthen the exposer time x1000. E.g. 1/100 sec without filter became 10 seconds with filter.
Then wait for the sea tide to come up. Get cold, try to protect your camera from waves splattering on the rocks, almost get blown over, get wet feet, get a rain shower on your head, and then decide you tried your best and try to find some shelter.

All images taken with 17-40 mm on Canon 5D mark II, exposure times of about 50-60 seconds. Aperture f1/16 up to f1/22. The first shot is composed out of 4 exposures, I converted the images to BW in Lightroom, then added a blue’isch color cast in Photoshop.

Hope you liked them, click for bigger version!

ludwig

Workshop announced

personal tips & tricks, Tips and Tricks

I just announced a new workshop for starting photography enthusiasts. It will run over 4 saturday afternoons, and will cover the basics you’ll need to improve your summer holiday pictures. More information on www.charlemagne-art.be .
If you happen to know somebody who’s interested in improving his/her photography skills, this is the occasion. Spread the word.

School show

people, Personal Pictures

Hi there,
the boys had their annual school feast in the last weekend of april, and I made some shot from the children’s performances. Difficult conditions, dark tent, unstable light conditions (showlights) and quick moving kids.
I decided to go fully manual, and high ISO, to allow for quick shutter speeds. I only had my 135mm f2 with me. I aimed for 1/500 sec shutter speed, with full open aperture. I focused manually too, since the 5D II couldn’t follow the action in these circumstances.
Some shots I’m proud of, I hope you find them good too. Click for bigger view!

thank you for watching!

Hallerbos shoot – BTS

landscapes, people, Personal Pictures, personal tips & tricks, Tips and Tricks

A 10 minutes behind the scenes video from our shoot in Hallerbos.
Some parts are english spoken, in-video conversations are mainly dutch, without subtitles, but nevertheless great to look at. 😉

thanks to Martine and Raf for filming

Enjoy!

Exhibition

exhibition, Personal Pictures

For those interested in seeing my work printed:
I’m all excited about two group exhibitions in which I will take part in the next few weeks.

First is part of the ‘Amateur artists week’, opening this friday at 20:00 h. I will be showing some nice landscape works (4) and one environmental model portrait, all in large format prints (up to 220×57 cm!) The exhibition will be open on saturday, sunday and wednesday-afternoon from 14:00 – 18:00h , from this saturday28/04 till next week sunday)

Next exhibition is the ‘Kwaremontse Kunstkring annual exhibition’, with a local group of artists, presenting a wide variety of genres. There I will show more artistic works (5) and one portrait, also in large format. This exhibition opens on 19/05 at 20:00 h and will be open till 03/06.

Both exhibitions take place in ‘Oude Brouwerij’ Priestersstraat in Ronse.

You are of course very welcome to visit both these exhibitions. I will not always be present, but if you give me a call, we can meet. 😉 . If you can make it to one of the openings, there will be a drink and a little bite.

Cheers!

Ludwig

Hallerbos part 1

landscapes, people, Personal Pictures

I did a shoot last Sunday in Hallerbos, with models Jessika and Sari. I’ll show you some of the images of the shoot with Jessika.
We had a great time, and we got some great pictures as a result. My first goal was making some composed panoramic images. I shot a lot of poses of Jessika, and then some images left and right of her. I picked out some nice poses to compose a wider final image. The largest pano’s are about 100 Mpix in size, large enough for a very wide print 😉
It was quite a challenge to picture her in the middle of the flowers, because you are actually not allowed entering the flower beds. We worked at some path crossings to achieve these results.
I am currently making a BTS video that shows a little more of the day. Make sure to come and check this page again soon!

After the wedding dress shoot, Jessika tried to get warm again (12°C outside), and then she changed for a nice ‘roman style’ blue dress, almost matching the colors of the Hyacinths -bluebells-. She also brought a kind of an antique bird cage. We shot for another 45 minutes, and at the very end of the shoot, we experimented a little with off camera flash. One single Canon flash, triggered with Cactus V5 transmitter. I had an assistant with me, and she handheld the flash. This allowed for quick changes in position and distance, and very much liked the results. I’m especially fond of the last image, I think it got a sense of drama in it.

Don’t forget to click them to view a larger version.
thank you for reading, come again soon!
Ludwig.

Côte d’Opale

landscapes, Personal Pictures

Some pictures I took on our family trip to Calais – Cap Griz Nez and Cap Blanc Nez.
The use of an ND filter and long exposures make for foamy sea-surface. I loved experimenting with it an will surely go back there for some more of these. All three with the Canon 17-40 mm on 5D MarkII.
Don’t forget to click them to see a bigger version.

Remember, all of my images are available for sales. they are perfect for your modern home decoration. 😉

Ludwig

Free shoot results

people, Personal Pictures, Uncategorized

Hi, 

some weeks ago I offered a free shoot to my FB and other followers (FB followers are more nearby than my blog followers) I wanted to show you some results. Berlinda won the free shoot, and she received her pictures already.

– she was very pleased –

So I asked her if I could post some images of her daughter, a real natural poser and fun to work with.

Here they come: All done with natural light and one reflector. 50mm and 85mm lens.ImageImage

 

Hope you like them too!

Ludwig

 

Workshop Bert Stephani

Internet tips and tricks, Tips and Tricks

Hi,

Last week I had the chance to follow the workshop ‘advanced speedlight techniques’ with Bert Stephani, contemporary portrait and fashion photographer from Steenokkerzeel, near Brussels.
There were three participants, of the four spots available. We had some coffee to start with, typically Bert I guess. 😉
Bert is easy going, cool, relax and above all, willing to share his experience. We had an interesting day, full of practical tricks and tips.

Some of the lessons learnt:

• When setting up a light situation, use your hand as a stand in for your model. It’s freely available, and never bored with your tweaking lights over and over again. In the meantime, your model can freshen up or relax a while.
• When setting up a combined available/flash light setting, first expose for the available light, then the flash, and last but not least, take pictures.
• When taking pictures with a model, encourage your model, talk it trough the shoot, give clear posing instructions, … introduce mini-breaks from time to time to make your model relax, and to offer yourself some time to think about new ideas. Don’t break the posing flow or the contact between yourself and your model by looking at the results. When your light setup has been setup well, all images should be fine afterwards.
• Be relaxed and confident as a photographer. Whatever your mental status is, it reflects on your subject and in your images.
• Work your light situation in function of the story you want to tell.
• Don’t give workshop instructions and bake sandwiches at the same time. (first bakery products got carbonized)

Some of the strong points of the workshop:
• Bert has a large studio space – the barn – , offering plenty of possibilities, different light situations, props, …
• We could freely ask for personal advice on challenging projects and thus influence on the content of the workshop.
• The atmosphere is cool and informal

Some of the weak points of the workshop: Sorry Bert if this bothers you, I feel like I need to be complete for my readers.
• The workshop seemed not prepared and rather un-structured and slow-paced. I don’t know if this is typical for Bert’s workshops, or just on this particular occasion.
• Workshop was marketed ‘including teaching, model fee and bread lunch’, the teaching was there, the bread lunch too, but there was no model, so participants had to stand in as a model for the other participants. I have no problem with modeling as such, but it limits your ‘photography time’ during the day, and on our last ‘assignment’ only one person could be the photographer, so neither me nor the third participant had images from this setup. As a participant I felt I had not the same level of ‘hands on experience’ during the teaching, when I was acting as a subject.

some images taken during the workshop:

Lynn Studio shoot

people, Personal Pictures, photo gear

I wanted to share some pictures with you from my latest school work. Yes, I still follow classes in Photography. I’m currently in the people/portrait class, and the first studio shoot was to be done with one flashlight. We could use whatever modifiers we wanted, and we had to work towards a chosen sample image.

I had chosen this image as my goal for this assignment: I don’t know the photographer of this image, if someone knows, pls. let me know so I can credit the image.

I knew that it was going to be a fairly hard thing to get, this soft light coming from everywhere. I was pretty sure that I needed indirect light, so I chose for two huge reflector panels (Polystyrene boards, 1.20m wide at 2m heigh). I already had left the idea of lighting the background as in my sample image.
I had a perfect model for this picture, Lynn. She is a hairdresser, and specializing for make-up-artist, and she prepared herself the best she could, based on this example picture.
This is my setup:

I have been working with my 85 mm 1.8 in order to be able to just hide behind the reflector. Otherwise I had too much flare from the lightsource.

these are some results with this setup:


After that we tried a second alternative, the softbox, and one reflector to the left of my model. I experimented a bit with different positions for shooting, and different poses.

Result was quite satisfactory, so we decided to do a completely different setup, just for fun.
I wanted a very localized light, and I had no snoot available, so a gridded flash with barndoors did the trick.
I turned these images into BW because they made me think of these movie stars, longing for the hero to come back home.

Second half of the evening, we didn’t have the studio available anymore, so we did some freestyling in the hallway after that, with a reportage flash off-camera, combined with my Tri-Grip silver/white reflector. These are taken with the 135mm f2.

Hope you liked reading, feel free to comment!

In bed with Sue

Interesting Links

Last weekend I got a message on the ‘belgian weddings professionals’ facebook group about a 3 day online streaming course by Sue Bryce. Sue Bryce is what I would call a feminine beauty photographer, specialized in make-over shooting experiences. slightly based on the 80’s glamour, but totally reworked into a contemporary portrait style, with modern posing, make-up, hairdo’s etc. trying to create a unique experience for the women being photographed.
I took some quick glimpses of the course, in-between work, and I decided to immediately buy the course. At 99$ it is worth every penny. I’m only at the end of day one, in my viewing, and I’ve got tons of very useable tips already. Can’t wait to see the rest.

Sue’s website:
www.inbedwithsue.com

the link to the 3-day course: (sorry the price of 99$ was only during the course, now its some more)
www.creativelive.com/courses/glamour-photography-sue-bryce

I immediately used some of her posing tips in my first model shoot this week and I was very pleased with the results:

Disaster struck!

people, Personal Pictures

Hi,

I dropped my camera to the floor last week and my CF card broke.

Luckily enough my camera seems to be fine (Kudos to the magnesium body of the 5D II, only some exterior body-coating chipped off). So no reason for not posting anymore, then what has been the reason?
Work mainly. I have been overly demanded this last week, with finishing up my latest big assignment. I made about 40 minutes of 3D animation for a multimedia exhibition about the birthday anniversary of Mercator, 500 years ago. pls check out the link: www.mercatordigitaal.be for more info. I really had no energy left for photography, unfortunately. This should get better in the next few days, as I’m finishing the final touches on the last animation. So pictures will soon find their way to my blog again. I will take up the 85/85 project where I abandoned, and just continue the days to go.

Just wanted to share you this one. A homework from photography classes: take a portrait of your neighbor! And sorry, no this has nothing to do with the title of this post.

thank you for your patience, see you soon!
Ludwig

85/85 day 36-42

Personal Pictures, projects

6th week already for my 85/85 project. May I remind you that all previous posts have been updated every day during a whole week, so don’t forget to look back to earlier 85/85 posts to discover all images from that week.

Day 36 – 2012 02 03 – 13:24 h. – ISO 125 – f1.8 – 1/50 sec
One of our chickens had an off-day some days ago. … Can’t be a success every-time can it? With these quick changing, rather unusual weather conditions, I guess our hens lost track of seasons.
A quick setup on our wood dining table.

Day 37 – 2012 02 04 – 16:48 h. – ISO 125 – f8.0 – 1/80 sec
Belgium got surprised by snow yesterday. We had a new traffic jam record, about 1275 km, for a country of about 350 km long, that counts. 🙂
Very cold these days, -12° C this morning. Took some pictures late this afternoon, during my ‘dog-walk’.

Day 38 – 2012 02 05 – 11:55 h. – ISO 100 – f1.8 – 1/160 sec
My wife is a hairdresser, and sometimes she cuts hair of her brothers/sister/mother, …
Here her oldest brother is waiting for a haircut. The image was quite a bit underexposed, but I managed to get this one out of it. Kinda liked the dramatic contrast in the face.

Day 39 – 2012 02 06 – No image, due to sickness.

Day 40 – 2012 02 07 – 19:28 h. – ISO 800 – f2.0 – 1/60 sec
I had a really bad day yesterday, sniffing and sneezing all day long, didn’t really have my mind into photography, …
But today we had our first real lesson in portrait photography. We had 6 flashlights set up in different classes all with different modifiers. We could only use the modeling light, so care had to be taken not to get blurry images. We worked in pairs, to be able to photograph each other as a model. Walter was my companion of the day. I judged this my best shot. Light with barn doors, large insulating board to the left, as a diffuse reflector. Walter used to be a school director.

Day 41 – 2012 02 08 – 20:04 h. – ISO 3200 – f2.5 – 1/1250 sec
And another B&W image today, our two boys brushing their teeth before going to bed. I had done some high iso shots in the kitchen just before, and I liked this setting, my oldest sun was aware of my presence, hence the ‘hi’ finger.
With the EOS 5D mark II, ISO 3200 is fairly useable for color images, perfectly usable for B&W.

Day 42 – 2012 02 09 – 19:51 h. – ISO 3200 – f2.2 – 1/100 sec
Played around with my camera just after supper. The boys were playing on the floor, and the cat came in. She just paused to sit just in between our two sons, as to say, here I am, and I don’t really care what you are doing. High ISO’s to enable faster shutter speeds indoors without flash. I normally use flash white balance, so this came out too much orange. I prefer not to correct white balance to a neutral white, for this kind of shots, because then you loose the warmth of artificial lights. That’s also why they sell warm white TL bulbs, …

low light model shots

people, Personal Pictures

Did a shoot tuesday afternoon in Ghent, with model Annelies.
We got so cold during the shoot that we decided to go for a coffee late in the afternoon. Good moment to test my new 50mm 1.4. Very little light, not too much place for moving around. These are the results (heavily tweaked in LR I admit), think I’m gonna love my new lens.





All images wide open at f 1.4, 1/30th of a second, ISO 640.

Battle of the 50’s

Personal Pictures, tests

Hi,
last week I bought a new 50mm lens from Canon. I had the 50mm f1.8 II before, but sold it last week, and I bought the 50mm f1.4 USM. Did I make the right decision? Time to find out.
So after my excellent, quick’n dirty test for the 85mm lenses, time to have the 50mm’s compared.
The images are rather big for your convenience, sorry about the download time.

On the left the 50mm f1.8 II selling for 90 Euros, on the right the 50mm f1.4 USM, selling for 299 Euros. (prices Art&Craft – Ghent jan. 2012)

Just before I shipped my old 450D and the nifty fifty (or fantastic plastic) I took some comparison shots with both of them.
All images are taken on tripod, with a Canon 5D II, with Live view magnification for focusing (manual mode). White balance set to 5600 (flash). The images have not been processed, except for my standard processing settings at Lightroom import, so they all present in the same way. All images are saved jpg compressed, quality setting 11, from Photoshop, with sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile attached, I don’t know what happens to the profile when publishing to WP.
I have chosen my subjects in a way to provide some real-life hard time situations for the lenses. Any comments welcome, suggestions, or if someone, or some big company wants me to do some tests on other lenses, please give me a sign. All images are done in my backyard, no exotic things going on here.

Now for the results, I will post some personal ideas, but you don’t have to agree on them, just my opinion.

Vignetting test


Some heavy vignetting on both of them, in my opinion a bit better for the 1.4 at 1.8. Note the color difference between the two lenses.

Sharpness test Same setup as vignetting pictures, 100% crops, click on the image to view full size.
Center:

Edge:

To me the 1.4 seems sharper on the entire line. I know a lot of tests seem to give opposite results and quote the 1.8 higher than the 1.4. A lot gets lost in the corners due to vignetting, but the center crop looks crisper on the 1.4.

Sharpness test2
Entire scene:

100% crops, click on the image to view full size.
Center:

Edge:

Here too I think the 1.4 is a tad sharper. This can be due to better contrast too. Same in the edge as in the center, although it is hard to see some difference at bigger apertures.

Flare test I forgot to do a test at 1.8 for the 1.4. So both of them are wide open shots.

The 1.4 clearly has more flare here, but also keeps a little more contrast in the center of the image. The cheap 1.8 does very well. I will take a shot at 1.8 with the 1.4 as soon as we get some sun in the morning.

Bokeh test Two different scenes, each time I show background and foreground bokeh. Sorry about the leaf that moved. These crops are at 50%, because in a 100% crop I couldn’t present enough image. You can see the entire shot in the top-righ corner.


To me there’s really very little difference, except that on the 1.4 you have a little softer when wide open, seems normal to me. On the other hand, when you look at the second sample you start seeing one of the biggest problems with the 1.4, purple fringing on the highlight edges.

Chromatic aberration and purple fringing center and edge crops at 100%. Note that the second image for the 1.4 is at f2.2

Entire scene:

Center crops:

Edge crops:

Ouch, that really really hurts! Never seen it soooo bad! Here the cheap nifty fifty clearly wins hands down. I made a little mistake, taking my second shot at 2.2 in stead of 1.8 for the 1.4, and it still is worse than the 1.8.
Also remark that both lenses loose contrast when stopping down too far. The branches are softer at f14 than at f7.1. I didn’t really got the image perfectly sharp with the 1.8 but I think the message is clear enough here. With the 1.4, CA on the edges never completely disappears until f14, and then contrast is gone already.

Personal conclusion
Am I happy with my new purchase, I don’t know yet. Practical use will need to prove.
– – – –
It has some serious problems with the purple fringing and Chromatic aberration, as well as with flare, compared to the nifty fifty.
It’s more expensive than the 50mm 1.8 (which really is a cheap lens for the image quality offered)
+ + + +
The sharpness results please me though, although I had read not so good reviews before, for me it is sharper than my copy of 50mm 1.8, and a little more contrasty.
It has USM autofocus, which is way faster and more accurate than the micro motor in the 1.8
It is more solidly built than the 1.8, which even has a plastic bayonet.
It is 2/3’s of a stop faster.
It is still quite cheap for a fast prime, at less than 300 euros.

Thank you for reading!

Ludwig.

85/85 day 29-35

Personal Pictures, projects

Day 29 – 2012 01 27 – 10:21 h. – ISO 100 – f2.2 – 1/400sec
The chickens in the backyard. They have no attention for me, since they just received their daily portion of maize. A rather difficult situation for the 85mm lens, with strong backlight coming trough the bushes. The lens hood helps a little but the purple fringing is still visible in the lower-left of the image. I mostly work with manual exposure and manual focusing, even so with these chicks.

Day 30 – 2012 01 28 – 19:54 h. – ISO 1250 – f2.0 – 1/30sec
I went to visit the Lightfestival 2012 in Ghent yesterday. Just a quick visit, because it was overcrowded and a not so pleasant experience because you just couldn’t get going. What we saw however, was rather impressive, and beautiful. Since there were so many people, I didn’t really care about taking good pictures, but this is one I took with my 85 mm. Handheld, so pushed the ISO’s quite a bit to prevent from camera shake. I have a quite steady hand for low shutter speeds, but this is about how far I can go with 85mm. 1/30th of a second, standing up without anything to lean on. The picture is not extremely sharp, but this is more due to the wide aperture and the high ISO number.

Day 31 – 2012 01 29 – 12:27 h. – ISO 3200 – f5.0 – 1/50sec
Played around some more with my new extension tubes from Kenko. This time I used the 20mm and 12mm together. My son is mad about the Cars-cars, and this was my subject during aperitif-time. Note the extreme shallow depth of field here, due to the very close focusing distance (guess about 30 cm approx. 1ft.) . Photoshopped the image for 5 minutes afterwards to give some more dynamics to it.

Day 32 – 2012 01 30 – 18:47 h. – ISO 160 – f2.2 – 1/50sec
Didn’t really find the time to take a picture today. My wife had a late meeting and I had to take care of cooking. Part of the menu can be seen here. Baked potatoes, yummie!
With a fast lens it is not really a problem to take handheld, no flash shots inside the house. with ISO’s at the low end, I managed to easily get 1/50th of a second. Have a good meal everybody!

Day 33 – 2012 01 31 – 18:17 h. – ISO 1250 – f1.8 – 1/20sec
I have done an entire shoot this afternoon with my 135mm, so I didn’t really have an image with the 85. I had to do some shopping at Bio-Planet Ghent before going to evening classes. This little detail on the parking lot struck me. A huge wheel of one of those gas-guzzling Range Rovers, and then this little tiny lost baby-shoe just next to it. A lot of things come to my mind then, …

Day 34 – 2012 01 01 – 20:11 h. – ISO 1000 – f8 – 1/200sec
I had a friend coming over yesterday evening, together with his lovely wife, and I had no problems convincing them to participate in my ‘Professions Project’. I had asked them before to bring something related to their profession. She did, he didn’t. Don’t count on the men, will you.
I have met Patrick in one of my earlier jobs, we were both DTP professionals, specialized in packaging prepress jobs. He on the Barco workstations, me on an Apple mac, with Artpro software (since then the two companies have merged their graphical systems and are known now under the name of Esko Graphics). I had a small loupe in my drawer, from those days of retouching images, dealing with dot gain compensation, plotting films, creating endless sleeve printing forms etc. … , … Thank you Patrick, thank you Veerle!

Day 35 – 2012 01 02 – 18:30 h. – ISO 640 – f4.5 – 1 sec
I had seen this shot before, even taken it, on one of my walks with our dog. Strong backlight from a sunset, with only the rails lighting up. It is freezing cold these days (-9 degrees Celcius at night) but we had some nice sunny days and that compensates. I had to be really careful not to shake the cam. I wanted the aperture a little closed for greater depth of field, and I didn’t want to push ISO’s too far. Kept the camera still on the bridge railing, with self-timed shutter release, to be sure not to move during the exposure.

So, this ends my fifth week. Are you still following? 🙂