Archive: December, 2009



Day 136 – Welcome Danbo

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Day 136 - Welcome Danbo

I got Danbo a week or so ago but have been crazy busy so haven’t had the chance to introduce him.

To be honest I don’t really like this pic much, but it’s late and it’s either this or nothing. So in the tradition of "365"…here it is for today.

This was the neighbours Christmas lights, was funny…just as I was getting my composition/camera settings together they turned off the lights to go to bed so I was stuck with what I had taken during setup!

On another technical note, still not happy with the D90 in a dark environment. 1/50th and look at all that noise. Either I’m doing something totally wrong (that’s always a serious possibility) or the D90 doesn’t like darker environments even at ISO 200 and around 1/50th. Hmm…

Strobist
Do the Christmas lights count?
Err…1 Christmas lights 1/1 power camera right (!)

Camera
Nikon D90
ISO 200
1/50th
f/1.4
50mm

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Day 135 – Mel

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Day 135 - Mel

So the story goes…I was trying another self portrait last night using the white background when along came Mel. Much better :)

I was lucky in that I had about 2 minutes to grab something, this was my favourite.

Thought I’d get in close with the 50mm this time, just playing with different compositions. Although I break a cardinal rule as pointed out to me, never have a subject looking directly at the camera…that is a no no. Also I did cut off the top of her head, I hope she’ll be ok ;) This shot has some healing in photoshop, apart from that it’s pretty much straight out of camera.

I wanted soft light on her face but direct umbrella wasn’t giving me what I wanted so I feathered the light a little which still gave me some facial definition.

Although the diagram below looks like I was using a white seamless…I don’t own one of those :( Instead it was the trusty off-white wall in our apartment.

lighting-diagram-135

Strobist
Nikon SB-80DX 1/4 power camera left and right behind subject with gobo’s to prevent the light wrapping around the subject too much
Sunpak 383 1/4 power into shoot through umbrella camera left for main light

Triggered using wireless triggers

Camera
Nikon D90
ISO 200
1/200th
f/5
50mm

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Day 133 – Flowers?

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Day 133 - Flowers?

With the birth of the twins I’m all out of whack and have had zero time to do any 365 stuff (not that I kept up everyday anyway!).

Reasonably quick setup tonight. I saw some white background stuff somewhere today so thought I’d try that.

Pretty simple setup with 2 strobes behind subject left and right to blow background to white. The background is just an off-white wall in the apartment.

Softbox as "main" light from camera left.

Also the flickr debut of the 50mm 1.4, looking forward to spending time with this guy ;)

Flowers were a gift for Mel from the girls at work. Always good to practice shooting flowers :)

Strobist
Nikon SB-80DX 1/4 power camera left and right behind subject with gobo’s to prevent the light wrapping around the subject too much
Sunpak 383 1/2 power into 28" softbox camera left for main light

Rim was from light bouncing off the background

Triggered using wireless triggers

Camera
Nikon D90
ISO 200
1/200th
f/6.3
50mm

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