c h r o m a s i a

rhowan meets the holga

I recently got hold of a new lens ;– taken from a Holga 120S and glued to a body cap – but haven't really had time to try it out, at least not seriously. I did spend some time snapping shots of Rhowan this morning though, and this is a heavily modified version of one of them (i.e. there's a lot of added blur in addition to the blur/soft-focus caused by the lens itself).

When I've got a bit more time I'll try and shoot some more material with it as I think it has a lot of potential, especially for portraiture.

As always, let me know what you think.

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11.29am on 19/7/08
Canon 5D
Holga 120S
not sure
1/30
manual
n/a
evaluative
100
no
RAW
RAW Developer
1x1

maurice #2

This is the second shot of Maurice that I mentioned yesterday, and while it's clearly not as lively as yesterday's, I like this one too. That said, I doubt it will be to everyone's taste, so feel free to tell me what you think.

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3.08pm on 16/7/08
Canon 1Ds Mark II
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
45mm
f/4.0
1/1250
aperture priority
+1/3
evaluative
100
580EX II (off-camera)
RAW
C1 Pro and Photomatix Pro
minor

maurice #1

This is the first of two shots of Maurice, a Blackpool based cabaret singer I photographed yesterday afternoon. My brief was to produce some images that could be used to promote his act, some of which needed to include a recognisable local landmark, so what better landmark to include than Blackpool Tower.

In terms of the post-production: this is a combination of a straight shot and a pseudo-HDR image. I used the HDR version to bring out the detail in his trousers and waistcoat - both of which are a dark brown pinstripe - as despite the use of fill-flash these still appeared too dark in the final shot.

As always, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

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3.14pm on 16/7/08
Canon 1Ds Mark II
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
42mm
f/2.8
1/2500
aperture priority
+1/3
evaluative
100
580EX II (off-camera)
RAW
C1 Pro and Photomatix Pro
minor

against the pale sky #3

This is the third and final shot in this sequence: the second shot of Harmony and my favourite of the three.

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10.43am on 10/7/08
Canon 1Ds Mark II
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
200mm
f/5.6
1/500
aperture priority
+2/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
RAW Developer
1x1

against the pale sky #2

This is the second of the three shots I mentioned yesterday, though in this instance this is Rhowan rather that Harmony. Of the three, I think this is my least favourite of the set, but I'd be interested to hear what you think.

And if you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/against_the_pale_sky_2.php

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11.30am on 10/7/08
Canon 1Ds Mark II
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
150mm
f/5.6
1/500
aperture priority
+1/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
RAW Developer
minor rotation

against the pale sky

As I mentioned yesterday, I took Rhowan and Harmony to see the wreck of the Riverdance yesterday morning, and while I only got one shot of the boat that I'm happy with, I got three of Rhowan and Harmony. Unusually, I have two of Harmony that I like and just one of Rhowan. This is the first one of Harmony.

As for the post-production: this one was processed almost exclusively in RAW Developer using LAB curves. RAW Developer has a great Curves, tool that includes the 'a', 'b' and Lightness curves in addition to the standard RGB curves, and if you have a Mac I'd suggest you give it a try. Unfortunately there isn't a PC version of this programme.

Also, if you're unfamiliar with LAB Color mode you might want to take a look at my first LAB Color mode tutorial that explains the basics with respect to the various LAB channels.

As always, let me know what you think.

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10.43am on 10/7/08
Canon 1Ds Mark II
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
135mm
f/5.6
1/500
aperture priority
+1/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
RAW Developer
minor rotation

riverdance #9

I took Rhowan and Harmony up to see what's left of the Riverdance ferry this morning. Since it got stranded at the end of January there have been several attempts to re-float it, all of which failed, so they're now dismantling it instead. I imagine that it's going to take quite some time.

As for this shot: it was taken from a similar position to this one, and it's an HDR image, constructed from a bracketed sequence of seven shots using Photomatix Pro.

I didn't get any other decent shots of the boat, but did get several of Rhowan and Harmony - well, two of Harmony and one of Rhowan - that I'll post over the next few days.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and I haven't posted the EXIF data but the sequence was shot at f/8.0 at 200mm.

untitled #68

I don't know what it is about Rhowan, but even when eating an ice cream she can look as though she's a million miles away.

On another matter: if I don't post much over the next day or so, don't be surprised. My server (a ReadyNAS NV+) has fried its power supply and I'm currently waiting for a replacement - and keeping my fingers crossed that the disks aren't fried to. Once I get back things back to some sort of technical stability I'll post more regularly again.

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5.11pm on 1/7/08
Canon G9
f/5.6
1/60
aperture priority
+1/3
evaluative
80
44.4mm
no
RAW
Lightroom
1x1

for racing

This is another of my 'testing my new Canon G9' images – a three shot HDR of a tyre on Blackpool beach, processed with Photomatix Pro. On the whole, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

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5.11pm on 3/7/08
Canon G9
f/5.0
1/125, 1/500, 1/2000
aperture priority
n/a
evaluative
80
14.8mm
no
RAW
Photomatix Pro
3x2

independence

Despite the fact that we're based in the UK our biggest audience has always been in the US. For example, in the last 12 months we have had 878,731 US visitors - distributed across all 52 50 states: 136k from California, 67k from New York, 54k from Texas, 39k from Florida, and so on. By way of comparison, in the same period we have had 235k visitors from the UK, 108k visitors from Canada, 49k from France, and so on. In fact, according to Google Analytics we have had visitors from a total of 205 countries, including the Vatican and Antarctica, but the bottom line is that almost a third of you are based in the US.

So, on that basis: happy Independence Day :-)

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1.00pm on 29/6/08
Canon 1Ds Mark II
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
65mm
f/8.0
1/320
aperture priority
+2/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
RAW Developer
3x1