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Following my experiment with shooting the Christmas tree lights reflecting in the front lens element of my 50mm f/1.7 I had the thought that it might be interesting to turn the lens around and see what things looked like through the lens. Again, this was in the interest of trying to find new ways to shoot Christmas tree bokeh (though, the old ways still work pretty well).

The set-up for this shot was pretty basic:

The 50mm lens is perched on top of a flashlight to get it up to the right height with the Pentax K10D on a tripod. The lamp to the left provides fill light for the front of the lens. I used the rule of thirds to frame the shot (knowing that I was going to crop to square later to eliminate the flashlight). I set the ISO to 100, zoomed to 55mm and selected an aperture of f/5.6 (the largest aperture my kit lens can achieve at 55mm). I dialed in the focus on the front of the lens manually before tripping the 0.6 second shutter with the 2 second delay self timer.

Post processing in Lightroom was limited to cropping, white balance (tungsten) and my usual mix of standard processing tweaks for this camera:

• Clarity: 39
• Vibrance: +25
• Sharpening: 48
• Detail: 49
• Defringe: All Edges

Everything else was left at the Lightroom defaults.

The main thing to take away from this photo is that it doesn’t take much effort to do this kind of stuff. From start to finish this shot took me less than 5 minutes (including taking several test shots and set-up shots for this post with a 2nd camera). The only set-up required was balancing the lens on the end of the flashlight and tilting the lamp shade a touch to get the light right.

December 17th, 2008 | Tags: 50mm f/1.7 SMC-A, Adobe Lightroom, bokeh, booleansplit, Christmas tree, Flickr Friends, how to, living room, Pentax K10D, Wikipedia | Category: photos | Comments Off

Sometimes cool pictures just come from thinking outside the box a bit. Here I was sitting in front of the Christmas tree contemplating what kind of unique Christmas tree bokeh photo I could take when I thought of my recent experience capturing bokeh with my pocket camera. I got to thinking that my 50mm f/1.7 lens might make a good subject for a shot, rather than simply the tool for capturing them.

The set-up for this shot was pretty simple. I placed my Pentax K10D DSLR with the 50 attached on the coffee table in front of the Christmas tree. Next, I set my Panasonic Lumix FX07 on the table in front of the K10D and framed up the shot. I wasn’t happy with the vertical angle so I placed a quarter under the front edge of the bottom of the Lumix to prop it up a bit.

As you may be able to see, I also dialed in -2/3EV in exposure compensation. I’ll save it for another post, but understanding and properly using exposure compensation is one of the most important steps to good photography. Anyway, at this point all that was left was to do was fire, download, crop, and post.

In my opinion, the photo turned out pretty nice. I may try and re-shoot it with my K10D and 18-55 kit lens (with the 50mm not attached to the camera). If I do I’ll post the result here.

UPDATE:

Re-shoot with the K10D and processed through Lightroom. This was one of those shots where when you see the image for the first time you say “whoa”. Pretty cool stuff!

Behind the scenes:

Photo stats: ISO 100, f/5.6, 55mm, 4.0sec, IS off (tripod), 2 sec self timer release. Cropped, adjusted white balance and added a bit of sharpening in Lightroom.

December 15th, 2008 | Tags: behind the scenes, bokeh, booleansplit, Christmas tree, lens, macro, Panasonic Lumix FX07, Pentax K10D, reflection | Category: photos | Comments (2)

I had to make a run to the recycling center today and decided to stop by Wallace Center (the building on Auburn University’s campus that houses the Industrial and Graphic Design programs). I thought the place might be deserted on a Saturday during Christmas break. I was right and got some very cool photos with my Pentax K10D and Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7 SMC lens. Lucky thing I always have my camera handy!

The photo above was shot hand-held at ISO 400, f/4.0 at 1/25 second. The K10D’s in-body IS helped ensure a sharp shot. I later processed the image as black and white in Adobe Lightroom.

When I first entered the building I came in just on the other side of the doors at the end of this hall and headed up stairs. The motion activated light switches automatically turned on the lights at the end of the hall where I came in. Later, I came down another set of stairs at the opposite end of the building and entered this hallway on my way out. The automatic lights took a second to react to my presence before flooding the entire corridor in fluorescent light. I really liked the way the light at the end of the hall played off the walls and polished floor when half the lights were off, so I found the switch and turned off the lights at this end of the hallway before taking this shot.

After taking the black and white picture of the hallway, I decided to try a long exposure deep focus shot. Having not brought my tripod I had to improvise and simply set my camera on the floor. I got this shot by simply selecting  f/22 and ISO 100 in Aperture Priority mode and the camera dialed in 10 seconds for the exposure. I used the 2 second self timer to release the shutter without touching the camera. All I did in Lightroom was tweak the white balance and add a little sharpening.

These push pins adorn the gallery wall used by the Graphic Design program. Normally they are holding up student artwork and photography. Now they patiently await next semester. Hand-held, ISO 400, f/2.8, at 1/15 second. I tried f/1.7 but couldn’t get the focus on the push pin in the dim light of the hallway. Plus, I found the slightly greater DOF of f/2.8 did a better job of keeping the push pins in the distance recognizable.

This is the studio where I have spent the last 3 1/2 months. It’s a lot cleaner and quieter than it has been. I love the feeling of the vignetting this lens produces wide open. Hand-held, ISO 400, f/1.7, at 1/500 second.

One of the 3rd year studios. All the stools where upside down on the desks and the light filtering in through the windows facing the hallway was mesmerizing. I shot this hand-held at ISO 400, f/1.7 and 1/8 second. 1/8 second is starting to push the envelope of what the built-in IS can do on the Pentax. I could have bumped up the ISO but instead I just braced myself up against a wall and controlled my breathing. It took a few tries but I got a number of clear shots with some wonderful bokeh.

I love taking pictures in vacant and deserted buildings. I always find myself wondering what stories the things left behind could tell. Of course, it’s also pretty easy to creep one’s self out…

December 13th, 2008 | Tags: 50mm f/1.7 SMC-A, Auburn University, black and white, booleansplit, deserted, desks, hallway, INDD, Pentax K10D, push pins, stools, vacant, Wallace Center | Category: photos | Comments (2)

ISO 200, 50mm, f/1.7, 1/60sec, +2 EV, IS on

It’s quick and easy to get studio quality lighting in your home with almost no additional expense. Here’s a quick look behind the scenes of this photo:

As you can see, all I did was set up a couple of white boards on the kitchen counter under a fluorescent light. I learned this trick when I was Design Director at Griffin Technology. Most of the pre-2007 product shots were done this way on a cubicle desk using the fluorescent light under the overhead storage bin. I’m happy to say that today Griffin employs a professional photographer and has a full photo studio.

For this shot I dialed in +2 EV exposure compensation to adjust for the all-white background. By shooting RAW I was able to simply click the white balance eye dropper tool in Lightroom on the white background to dial out the color cast of the fluorescent light. I pushed up the exposure an additional +0.83 to get the high key look I was going for. Other than that, all I did was tweak the Vibrance a touch and added a bit of sharpening.

Here’s another composition using the same set up:

By the way, the subject of these photos is the wonderful Corbières Domaine De Fontsainte Gris de Gris 2007 rosé imported by Kermit Lynch. This is one of my absolute favorite wines. It has a unique combination of dryness and intense fruit flavors. I picked it up for less than $10 at Kroger. Real men drink rosé ;-)

December 12th, 2008 | Tags: 50mm f/1.7 SMC-A, Adobe Lightroom, booleansplit, Bradley Spitzer, Corbieres, counter, Flickr Friends, fluorescent, Fontsainte, Griffin Technology, Gris de Gris, k10d, Kermit Lynch, kitchen, Kroger, lighting, Lightroom, Pentax, rosé, studio, wine | Category: DIY, Tips & Tricks, how to, photos | Comments (6)