Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Back to Basics

As an experiment, I decided to forgo the D-SLR, macro lens and flash set-up, and try to produce some shots with the most basic set-up I could get together.

Lighting is provided by a desk lamp from Wilkinsons reflected off the white side of an A3 piece of art board, with a peice of A4 paper folded in half on the other side to provide fill.
The background is another piece of card, and the figure is stood on a piece of black card.
I used two different cameras for this test, a Fuji s602z (a 3mp model from 2002) and a more recent Canon Powershot G9 (10mp, 2007).
Both cameras where tripod mounted.

Set-up Shot

Set-up Shot

Shot from the s602 and desklamp (left), and Canon G9 with flash (right)

11th Doctor - (Fuji s602Zoom) 111th Doctor 5

Not bad for an eight year old camera. Proof that you don't need loads of expensive equipment to take decent photos.

More photos here

Thursday, 21 January 2010

A Foggy Day on Mondas

Down in the Park

We've had a lot of fog where I live over the last few weeks (along with quite a bit of snow) so I decided to head out to try and take some pictures.
I had an idea for a shot in my head so I packed a camera, my 35mm f2 lense, a flash and a toy Cyberman. The picture was taken in Peoples Park in Town, lit with a bare Speedlight handheld camera left. To get the background to be recognisable I had to stop down to f8, so the shutter speed was a slow 1/10th of a second, which is why the Cyberman has a little bit of a "ghosting" affect.
I used Live View to compose the shot as I couldn't get low enough to use the viewfinder. Overall I'm quite pleased with it, and I'm going to try some similar ideas soon.

And yes I know it isn't a Mondasian cyberman :)

Wednesday, 6 January 2010

Superhighway

Fibreoptics  1

Harry got a new fibre-optic light toy for Christmas so I couldn't resist taking a few shots. :)

Tuesday, 5 January 2010

Desolate Snow

Lonely

I've finally got round to getting some of my prime lenses sorted out so they focus properly and accurately.
This shot was taken through my living room window in the small hours of the morning, with a shutter speed of 1/15 of a second. I braced myself against the window frame to steady the camera and came out with a pretty sharp shot.
Hopefully I'll post some shots with the 35mm f2 and 50mm f1.8 mkI soon.

Monday, 4 January 2010

Cyberman

DELETE

I know, I know, another Doctor Who picture, but I couldn't help it.
AND this Cyberman was FREE! How good is that?