A Little Drama Courtesy of Photoshop

During a recent train ride I saw dramatic clouds hovering over West Oakland, so I had to stop and snap off some shots with my trusty Canon P&S. I like this picture because it has a very apocalyptic look to it. But of course it didn't look that way in reality. Using Photoshop I adjusted the contrast, altered the brightness, cropped, and rotated the picture (to straighten out the "cross"). As you can see below, the original picture isn't half-bad, but not nearly as intense. I try not to rely on Photoshop too much, but in this case, I think it really improves the photo. What do you think?

Late Night Shopping Spree

I'm doing things in reverse: I just bought lighting equipment for my non-existent DSLR. Why? Two reasons: 1. I can't plop down $2K+ for a Nikon D300 and a lens until later this month at the earliest. 2. Comparing prices online was torturous, so I did not want to repeat it again when I actually was ready to buy, so I just bought it.

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From B&H:
Manfrotto 001B Nano Light Stand, 6' $56.50
Wescott umbrella: white satin,
removable black cover, 43"          $24.95
Impact umbrella bracket with swivel
mount and flash shoe                $13.95
Shipping                             $7.25
Total                              $102.65
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From Amazon (through Adorama):
Vivitar 285HV flash                 $85.75
Shipping                              Free
Total                               $85.75
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From AlienBees:
AlienBees CST remote transmitter    $59.95
AlienBees CSRB remote receiver      $69.95
Shipping                             $6.35
Total                              $136.25
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Grand Total             Don't want to know
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The remotes were only available from the manufacturer, AlienBees, but the other items were offered by a large number of vendors. To keep myself sane, I limited my shopping to Amazon, Adorama, B&H, and Midwest Photo Exchange (MPEX). Price comparisons are simple until you factor in shipping. It took me about an hour to figure it all out. Was it worth my time? Probably not, but I like bargain hunting. Speaking of Amazon, I'm bummed. I've had the D300 sitting in my shopping cart since May. Nearly every time I sign in I get a price alert. It'll usually tell me that the price has gone up or down by $0.50. Tonight the price went up $22.00! Dang it! That was a kick in the shin. That said, now that I have lighting equipment coming, I don't think I'll be able to resist signing up for a month of free Amazon prime and just buying the darn camera now! Ok, enough ranting. Some of you may have noticed that my lighting purchase mirrors the basic kit on www.strobist.com. That's because the kit is inexpensive and seems highly functional. Since I'm new to all this, I like that combination. I will let you know how it works out...after I get my DSLR. Since this is a blog about photography, I should post a photo. I don't have a nice picture to put up, so here's a picture of my collapsing fence. I should be putting time and money into fixing it instead of devoting so much effort on silly photography! It's 3:12 am California time and I have to be at work in a few hours. Time for a little shuteye. Cheers!

Macro Photography on a Budget

Work let out early today in anticipation of the upcoming holiday weekend, so I found myself at home doing nothing but reading Strobist. I came across an article about making your own macro photo studio for less than $10 and was inspired. But I didn't have a box laying around and was too lazy to drive over to the local art supply shop. Deciding I'd rather eat than play with cardboard, I walked over to the kitchen to find some food when I noticed that the sunlight coming through my window, which is covered with a thin white paper curtain, cast beautifully diffused light onto my dinner table. I saw a couple of ripe avocado and thought what the heck, let's snap some shots. At this point I have to confess that I do not own an SLR. Well, I do own an old Ricoh 35mm, but nowadays I only take pictures with my trusty Canon SD500. I'm looking to buy an SLR soon. Plus I figure if I can learn to take good pictures with a P&S, I should be able to take fantastic pictures with an SLR. At least that's the hope. I liked the warmness of the light cast by the diffused sunlight and wanted to see how the onboard flash compared. Verdict? Onboard flash ruined the shot. Update: My buddy Mark pointed out that the picture below is not a fair comparison since the composition and background are completely different. Update: Below is the nearly the same composition, but with the onboard flash set to automatic. Simply horrible. I then took some pictures of my iPhone. I love all the reflective surfaces on it. Unfortunately the screen is a murky shade of black. Not very interesting. I wanted to reflect some of the light coming in from my skylight onto the top of the phone, but I lacked a stand and reflector. I tried aluminum foil, but it didn't work very well. I also would have needed to grow another set of arms to hold it! Lastly I snapped some shots of my pocket knife. Rigging it was fun: it's scotch taped to my banana holder.

In all these pictures I would have liked to experiment with adding a second light source, perhaps aimed slightly behind and on the camera left side of the objects. I was also going for a seamless bottom-to-background look, but I lacked a large enough piece of posterboard/paper. I used a hole-punched piece of paper instead. That's the reason why some of my pictures (e.g. the knife) are so tightly cropped. So that's that. My first foray into macro photography with diffused light is complete. Not a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon. Question: If I want to mix incandescent light sources with diffused sunlight, will my white balance get thrown off? Lessons learned: 1. Build the macro photo studio box. 2. Until the box is built, buy some butcher paper or something bigger than an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper! 3. Buy or make some stands (or grow two more arms). 4. Buy a decent SLR with a couple of flashes (someday). 5. Shoot more colorful items!

Welcome to baby fisheye

This blog is my photography journal. As I experiment with different techniques and equipment, I will put up what I've done, discuss what I was trying to accomplish, and talk about what I learned. Comments from you are most welcome.