Update: Flower Series on MM

Hey,

So I ended up tossing the first Flower Series photo on MM.  So if you click on this link it will send you to my portfolio.  There you will have to switch the "work safe" thing to "off" since it is a fairly risky photo.  But it will be the most risky of the bunch I am sure.

Hope you enjoy,

Tom

Update: Flower Series

Hey,

I thought I would like to share some exciting news.  I have started getting photos for my Flower Series.  So this series will be a group of photos which will have one photo from each different shoot I do with a flower theme.  This way I have only one excellent photo from each shoot which forces me to plan one stellar shot.  So hopefully by the end of it I will have a good sized series of amazing photos.  I will upload the photos on here and Flickr once I have a good enough group of photos to call it a series because currently it is a Flower Photo, and not series.  I may post them to Model Mayhem in my portfolio there sooner than my Blog and Flickr.  If I do jump the gun and add them to MM I will let everyone know and add a link to it from here.  So once I have a couple of these I will post them up.  So stay posted for those.

Also my SB-900 is going quite well and I am quite impressed with it.

Thanks for following,

Tom

Photo Shoot: [J]

Hey,

So I got the photos edited and I think they look great.  Hope you enjoy them and stay posted for more photo shoots to come!  Also you can check out more of these and my other photos on my Flickr.

Portrait - 50mm f/1.4 D

Portrait - 50mm f/1.4 D

Portrait - 50mm f/1.4 D

Thank you for viewing my blog.

Review: Initial Review of SB-900

Review: Initial Review of SB-900


Well, where do I begin.   

Thoughts and Opinions:

This is one beast of a flash, and I am pumped to have it now.  From my first impressions of taking the flash out of the case I loved it's design.  In the case itself the diffuser and gel holder is in the bottom zippered area while the flash is in the velcro flapped case.  Most might toss this case straight into the garbage however I have a full Nanuk 925 hardcase so I am going to keep it. I will also keep the flash in the case it came in and carry it in my lowe pro sling back.  I will also keep my other lighting gear in there as well (since my case is full).  

So now the flash.  It's big, it's bad and it's huge.  First off, one reason I got this flash was the on and off (as well as remote and master) switch.  This switch is much easier to use and offers much better functionality.  The SB-600 isn't that great in terms of turning it on and off as well as to the remote mode.  The zoom function is also easy to use as well as changing through the modes.  The modes are easy to understand so far and it is not so different from the SB-600.

Usage:

All I have done is just played around with the settings so far however I have a couple of shoots planned so it will get it's work cut out for it.

Pros:

From my initial thoughts,

- Ease of use

- Power

- Functionality

Cons:

- Large (However that is for power I am guessing.  Also the head has to be large to allow for a 200mm zoom)

- Heavy (but a workout is never terrible)

(I am being optimistic but I will let you know after a day of shooting with it)

Sample Images:

None at this time.

Conclusions: 

I am looking forwards to using this flash in the near future for sure.  And I will let you know what I conclude after I use the flash.

Update: Sneak Peak [J]

Hey,

So I just did a shoot yesterday and I am just editing the photos now so I thought I would toss up a sneak peak for my followers on my blog and Facebook.  I did this shoot just before I got my SB-900 in the mail so this is potentially my last shoot with a single SB-600.  Well I hope you enjoy the sneak peak and stay posted for the rest of the photos!

Portrait - 50mm f/1.4 D

Portrait - 50mm f/1.4 D

Update: 100,000!

Hey,

So I know some people on Flickr might have this many views on a single photo but I am still excited to announce that I have 100,000 views on my Flickr account.

Just thought I would share.

Tom

Update: SB-900

Hey,

So I decided that my 50mm f/1.4 D is perfectly fine for my use.  I was drooling over a 85mm but the bokeh of my 50 is spot on and I always end up having it on my camera in a shoot.  Doesn't matter if I start with my 35mm or 105mm Macro, the 50mm will end up on my camera and not budging.

And since I don't need to save up for a 85mm and that I am getting more into shoots and macro work I decided after thinking for awhile now that a SB-900 would be best for where I am right now.  An 85mm would still be amazing but I think it would just bring more compression into my photos and maybe a little better bokeh which to me right now is not worth over $1000 for.  I was thinking about the SB-700 since mostly what I wanted was more ease of use.  However there is no point in partially upgrading if I know that I will probably end up wanting a SB-900 later so I might as well only upgrade once.  Also the SB-700 is less powerful than my SB-600 I have now.

So a SB-900 is on it's way now.  It should be good and it wont fit in my case ahah but oh well.  I will just put all my lighting jazz in my lowe pro sling bag.  Also I do have two flash stands and umbrellas so I am set there.

Pretty pumped for the SB-900 and I will definitely give it a good workout before I review it.  From my research it is quite the flash so may take a while for me to actually use most of what it has to offer.  I have usually only had one flash on my models when I do portraits so I am pretty excited to double that to two haha.   Anywho, stay posted for new photos that may have SB-900 in their tag.

Update: Flickr

Hey,

So I have now started back up at school so I am a busy bee again.  However I still aim to keep up the blogging and such anyways.  I just wanted to say I have 99,816 views on my Flickr account and I am sooo pumped to hit 100,000.  

Just thought I would share my excitement.

Tom 

Update: Photos:

Hey,

So I managed to make a contact at a local flower store.  This means I can get scrap flowers as well as they may want me to take photos for their website.  I call that a good day.

I got some more flowers and one of them was a very nice orchid.  Also I decided to add some water drops into the scene.  I like the extra detail as well as the reflections in the droplets. So without further adieu:

Orchid & Water Drops - 105mm VR Macro

 And I like trying black and whites so this was my B&W one.

Orchid - 105mm VR Macro

Hope you enjoy!  And don't forget to check out these photos are more on my Flickr.  Lastly if you have any questions please don't hesitate to e-mail me at tomhouston7@gmail.com.

How To: My Macro Shoot

How To: My Macro Shoot

I was wanting to take some photos so I went out and bought a Daisy to do some macro photography with.  This was the first time I have done "serious" in-door macro shoot and I like my results.  so I thought it would be helpful to explain how I got the shots that I did.

So the gear I used was:

- Camera (Captain obvious)
- Tripod
- Macro lens (105mm VR Macro f/2.8)
- SB-600 (Since I lack a Macro flash/ring)
- Light stand (To hold said flash)
- Wireless Shutter Release

- Stool
- Flower (Gerbera Daisy)
- Vase

So what did all that look like?  Well I decided to take a photo of the setup with my phone to show yeah.  However as I mentioned there, it was with my phone so sorry for the quality:

My Macro Shoot Setup

So I had my SB-600 left of camera pointed at the daisy which was mounted on my light stand.  The D90 with the 105mm VR Macro lens on my tripod.  I had a lamp lighting the flower however I had my flash set to overpower the lamp so it didn't effect my photo.  The lamp was just so I could see the flower so I could focus on it.

To the right side of the photo you can see the light getting by my black curtain which is what I used as a black background to get this effect:

Gerbera Daisy - 105mm VR Macro

Where as I used my wall for the white background however it wasn't white enough for what I wanted so I used a sheet of printer paper.  So I held a sheet of printer paper behind the flower to get a white background as seen here:

Gerbera Daisy - 105mm VR Macro

As for other details, you mostly get the shots you want after experimenting.  I didn't really have an idea of certain photos I wanted, I just tried different angles, lighting and backgrounds.  As for camera settings, you have a lot more control over them inside than you do out in a garden.  I was continually changing my aperture and shutter speed to see what effect it had on that on the photos.  Usually I am restricted by aperture when I do shots outside since I want a very fast shutter speed to freeze any motion from wind or my hand shaking since I mostly shoot handheld.  Another tip I can give is keep checking your histogram to make sure nothing is too far off the left or right side.  As well it helps to have the most information in the centre of the histogram and as close to the top of the of the chart as possible without going off the top.  The larger the area in the histogram the more information in the photos usually.  

Also I just thought of one thing I did that was extra was I washed off some pollen of the petals.  I was doing some 1:1 shots so I wanted to make sure I didn't have extra pollen on the flower. 

I hope that helps and again any and all questions are welcome.  Just send me an e-mail at tomhouston7@gmail.com and I will gladly answer your questions.

Photos: Macro

Hey,

So I was doing more writing in my blog than I was doing photography lately so I decided to change it up a bit.  I went out and bought a Gerbera Daisy and decided to do a macro shoot.  Usually I am crawling around in my mom's garden when I am home taking photos of flowers.  However this time I wanted to control all the variables.  So here is a sneak peak and then I will put of the flowers and how I got the shots:

Gerbera Daisy - 105mm VR Macro

Gerbera Daisy - 105mm VR Macro

Stay posted for more photos as well as how I setup the lighting and such.  Hope you enjoy!

Focus: Megapixels

Focus: Megapixels

I decided to write this from a question I got from my cousin.  He asked about upgrading cameras.  So I will go over one of the main selling points of a camera that a lot of people base choices on.  Common question is "how many megapixels does it have?"  First off, what is a megapixel? Lets start there.

A megapixel is one million pixels.  Mega is just a prefix for a number and a pixel is a really small square of light that makes up images on a sensor/screen.  So the more pixels you have effectively, the more detail and resolution you should have in your photos.  So if you have a lot of pixels you can have more detail and such.  However, how many is enough?  Using the new iPhone 4 as an example, they have more pixel detail in their screens than our eye can see.  So for example, the screen detail could get more pixels and better resolution but we wouldn't be able to tell.  So there is a limit for our eyes.

So what is a good number of Megapixels (MP)?  I would say between 10-12 MP will be just fine for your average shooter.  However with that said you can get great photos with less than 10 MP.  And if you are lucky enough to be shooting with lets say a D3X with 24.5 MP then I am sure you can get good photos too.  So next I should answer what do these MP's do for you?

Well they let you do two main things from my experience other than make for more or less resolution in your photos.  First, the more resolution you have, the more you can blow up your prints to larger sizes.  Second, the more resolution the photo, the more you can crop it and still have it be a good resolution.  With my D90 at 12.3 MP I believe, I can print out a 2'x3' print of a photo I took with my kit lens(18-105mm).  So I have this photo that is two by three feet framed above my bed:

Haida Gwaii Beach - 18-105mm

It wasn't that large of a file, between 2-3 mb.  So not a lot of detail but the print looks amazing.  So why are there cameras with more than 12 MP?  Well for two reasons I know of.  One, is you can print out even larger photos without even thinking about it looking bad from lack of resolution.  That is why the D3X has 24.5 MP.  You can print off a billboard and not break a sweat with that camera.  Do most people do this? No.  And the other reason is cropping.

Some people don't want to crop images because they think you should keep all your resolution you can.  And also it is usually a compositional issue if you are cropping.  Some believe that composing your image should be done at the time of the shot rather than after.  But if you start with a lot of detail then you will still have hopefully a lot of resolution left after you crop.  So having more MPs let you crop photos more.

So after a point, MP's don't matter a lot if you are not printing 8 foot prints or cropping your photos right down to nothing.  So if you are getting a new camera or upgrading, keep this in mind.  There are many other features to look for rather than megapixels.  

Hope this helps!

Focus: Filters

Focus: Filters

There are many kinds of filters you can use however the main point I want to make is about protecting your lens but first, what is a filter?

A filter for a lens is a piece of glass that is somehow attached to the front of the lens to stop certain light or all types of light from getting through.  Some filters are for Ultraviolet (UV) light which has a small effect on your photos.  I believe it effects the blues of your photos but I could be wrong there.  Another main type of filter is called a polarizer.  This behaves the same as polarized sunglasses which I will explain more later.  There are also filters that just darken your photos called neutral density filters, aka ND filters.  These are like putting sunglasses on your lens to block out a lot of light.  There are also graduated ND filters that have a gradient or a change in darkness from the top to the bottom.

So why have filters? Well it depends on what you want to get from them.  And here is my major point... UV filters are $20-60 (or so) pieces of glass you can screw onto the front of most lenses but secretly do more than block the UV light.  They protect the front element of your lens!  If you accidentally scratch the front of your lens, and you have a UV filter on it, then you just buy a new one for under $100.  However if you didn't have a filter on the lens and scratch the front of it against something... then you have to replace the front piece of glass in your lens or buy a new lens.  Both of which are costly.  However just as the price difference suggests between a filter and the front element on your lens, there is a quality difference as well.  So this is where some people disagree on UV filters for protecting your lens.

Yes, it is almost a no-brainer to want to protect the front of your lens from scratching and such.  Also it is easier to clean cause personally I am way more hesitant to try to clean the actual lens than a UV filter.  However because you are adding a lower quality piece of glass on the front of your lens, it could effect picture quality.  How?  Not sure.  I haven't done much testing with my UV filters on and off.  But I just know the filters are not the same quality of glass so it would effect your photos a little.  How much much?  Not sure but I am will to sacrifice some quality for safety since if I scratch my lens then my image quality I know for sure will go down.  So would my bank account.

So now that my main advice point is made I will go into some detail on the other filters.  UV filters are usually the more inexpensive so they are often what is recommend to just always stay on your lens to protect it.  Now I will move onto the polarizers.

Polarizers can be normal (linear?) or circular.  But first I will explain what it does.  So first some physics.  Light travels as a straight line and when it reflects on uneven surfaces the light starts traveling in all sorts of directions.  So when light hits water, it reflects and sparkles but that light is now not all traveling in the same uniform direction.  So what a polarizer does, is it filters out the stray scattered light so that you only get light that is traveling in the same plane or direction.  So what this does is it lets your colours in your photos be more vibrant because there is less scattered and excess light to kinda "bleach" out your photo.  So the greens are brighter and more strong because there isn't extra light just increasing the lightness of the photo.  These filters allow you also to take pictures of objects that usually reflect a lot of light as well.  So like the surface of water, or a freshly washed car.  The polarizer will cut down on the scattered reflected light.  Polarizers can be non-circular or circular and that I believe just tells you how the glass is designed to filter out the light.  But all you need to know is the circular ones are more expensive because they filter out the light is a better way.  So if you do a lot of landscape photography this may be for you.  However, if you have a ultra wide angle lens, they are pretty much useless because the view is so large the polarizer wont be uniform for the whole photo since the view of the lens is so large.  However on my 18-105mm lens it was great.  Another disclaimer is that these filters let less light in which means you need sunnier days or a tripod to take landscape photos because it is like wearing sunglasses as I said.  So everything will be darker and your camera will want to compensate for that decrease in light.  Smaller aperture values (larger diameter) or slower shutter speeds or last case, higher ISO.

ND filters are filters that are not polarized however are used to just darken the photo.  So if you wanted to do a photo of the slower shutter speed on water like this one:

Lavender Falls - 17-55mm - Tripod

But it was a bright sunny day and you had to use to fast of a shutter speed to get the correct exposure, then you would wish you had just normal sunglasses to just block out some of the light.  That is what a neutral density filter does.  As the name implies, the density of the filter is neutral and is just a solid darkness.  The other type of filter in the category is a graduated filter.  These are like some female sunglasses where the top is darker than the bottom.  So if you nod your head up and down (I don't advise you do this in public) you will see that there is a difference is how much light gets through between the top of the lens and the bottom.  The filters (or some female sunglasses) are designed this way because usually the sky is darker than the ground so if you can darken just the sky or the top half of the landscape then you can bring the exposure difference of the sky and ground closer together.  In some sunsets for instance, the sky is very bright and colourful and the ground is dark so your camera cannot expose properly for both the very dark and very bright.  So these filters help darken the sky closer to the ground so you have a better looking photo.  Personally I have not used either of these filters (unless you count the nodding in female glasses) so I cannot give any tips on their use other than they are very useful.  But you have to know what you are doing to use them since they are definitely not a beginners tool.  Also if you have a lens that extends as you zoom, you will want to be careful because you can zoom your lens into the filter because these ones do not usually screw into the front of your lens.  They are plates of glass that you attach to a holder that fits onto your lens.  

Personally I don't want to be carrying around extra plates of glass however if you want some of your landscapes to be kicked up a notch, filters can do it.  But if you are just looking for a cheap (compared to replacing or fixing a lens) protection for your lens, UV filters are a good thing to have.  Someday maybe I will get some ND filters but I want to master what I have first.

Also just recently I bought a microfibre cloth.  This is because I usually use my merino wool shirts to clean off my filters if dust or water gets on them which isn't a bright idea.  So I was cleaning my filters off yesterday actually and three of them felt a little wobbly.  Not a great feeling.  After closer inspection I did see that the adhesive or whatever is holding the glass to the metal is going.  The three filters that are lose are made by Kenko.  One is on my macro, my 50mm and the other is a 77mm filter on my 17-55mm.  The Kenko filter on my 35mm is fine but I don't use that one that much compared to the others.  However on my Tokina 11-16mm, it has a 77mm UV Hoya filter which was fine.  So Kenko isn't that top quality I guess so I will slowly start replacing my filters now.  It is a bit of a pain since a new UV filter for a 77mm diameter lens is $100.  But again, still cheaper than a new lens.  So go with top quality companies for filters like Hoya, B+W or Tiffen.  So since I have a Hoya already and I trust it I will probably upgrade all to Hoya.  It will be expensive but worth it in the long run.  

Well I hope that helps!

Update: Model Mayhem

Update: Model Mayhem

I have heard about this site for almost a year now but never signed up because I wanted to have more of a portfolio to show as well as some more experience under my belt.  So I have mostly photographed friends to build up my photos as well as experience however I thought it was time to submit a profile on Model Mayhem.

After I tossed up some photos and made my short little bio thing on it, I sent it off to be accepted.  I just heard back today that I was accepted which is great.  Now I have another avenue to grow as a photographer.  I am also really excited because if I ever travel now and want to do a shoot anywhere, I will have the ability to find models and what have you in the area I am traveling.

Thought I would just update everyone on this and please feel free to check out my page on Model Mayhem.


Tom