I have to admit that my snapography project for April 2014 was very minimalistic, with only 3 photos. I've been extremely busy with my current photography job for one of the US home decor retail company, which is one of my excuses for not having time for personal projects. However, these three photographs also show what I would like to focus on in the next few months - to use more natural light in my work.
First time I heard about Fracture's glass photo prints was on the Tips from the Top Floor podcast few weeks ago. They advertise that the Fracture glass prints' colors are vibrant and beautifully saturated. Does it mean that Fracture's glass prints don't reproduce colors as they appear on calibrated monitors? I answer below this and many more questions you might have about Fracture's glass prints.
I thought it was a great idea to order a print from Fracture as a gift for a friend. I also took the opportunity to investigate closely the print for this short review.
Read MoreI finally was able to put together a video on how I shot the Starbucks espresso coffee mug for the 'photo breakdown' series. If you haven't seen the photograph yet, it's just below the video.
Let's start February 2014 with some freshly roasted Starbucks coffee in an espresso mug from Portugal. This was my recent photography project on which I spent quite a lot of time fine tuning lighting and figuring out how to arrange the shot and how to capture smoke from the coffee grains. The latter was probably the most challenging because I wanted to capture everything in-camera without photoshopping in post-processing and with minimal editing. I plan to either write a detailed article or record a video soon explaining how I shot 'Starbucks Coffee Espresso Mug from Portugal with freshly roasted grains'. In the meantime, I leave you with the photograph.
Every photographer struggles with creativity from time to time. I think that every photographer should see the movie 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' to get inspiration and to understand how to overcome the creative blockage.
Read MoreI got last Christmas a set of Domke Protective Wraps, which are produced by Tiffen. You can get these on Amazon for about $15 in 3 different sizes (11", 15" and 19") and in a variety of colors. They are designed to protect lenses and camera bodies when storing photo gear or transporting it, for example in a backpack. I think these are great but I don't think they will completely protect your gear. I explain why in the video review.
I've recently partnered with an awesome photography website, LightingRumours.com, as a contributing writer. The website's main focus, as the name says, is about lighting gear and rumours about the upcoming flashes and continuous lights in the photo industry. However, I'll contribute to the website mainly with tutorials on how to use speedlights when photographing people and products, how to use light modifiers and how to achieve desirable results with minimum gear.
Two of my articles have already been published on LightingRumours.com and these are "Back to Basics: what are speedlights and should I get one?" and "Built-in TTL and its implications for the photo accessory industry"
It's my first winter in Memphis, TN and although I was warned there won't be any snow, I wasn't expect temperatures below 0 Celcius (32 Fahrenheit). In fact, it was much colder than that and really sunny. It was a great opportunity to visit Johnson Park in Collierville. It's only 5 minutes from where I live but there was still one part of the park I didn't have a chance to see before.
Many people have been asking me how I shot the Breaking Bad Walter White Pint Glass photo. The setup for this photo is very simple and I got an idea for it from Laya Gerlock's work and his lighting techniques.
I crumpled aluminum foil (lots of it) and attached it to a couple of foam boards, which I then put against the wall. In order to get the nice bokeh effect of light reflecting from the foil, I used Nikkor 50mm f1.4 lens and I shot the photo in f1.4.
I used only one speedlight, Nikon SB-700 with a blue gel on it. I used Phottix Odin TTL to trigger the flash manually with 1/64 power. The power of the flash will vary depending how far the subject and the background are from the camera.
Because the subject is a glass, the light goes through it quite nicely and there is no need for extra light.
The glass stands on a white 24"x24" acrylic sheet and the blue effect (and the reflection) comes entirely from the speedlights (no photoshop used). I put some water in the glass and added blue and green food coloring for the effect.
There is almost no editing, only small Lightroom processing, like cropping, little bit of vignette and clarity adjustments. That's all!
Camera: Nikon D7000
ISO 200
Aperture f1.4
Shutter 1/60 sec
As a photographer, I like Collierville Town Square because it's packed with a variety of photoshoot locations. I've recently discovered a secret location at the town square that seems not many photographer's are aware of, until now.
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