a mini tutorial - before&after of a british short hair

i really enjoyed taking photos of this fellow. i love british short hair anyway. for sometime i've been trying to capture a cool pose of this feline and i think i got one.

post-production of this photo was really fun and not really complicated. as you can see on screenshots, steps are really simple. hopefully it may be an inspiration to you.

raw shot itself is not really fancy, plus it's kinda under-exposed.

final result is this.

god knows what she was up to. but that short moment of thinking, gave me a chance of taking this shot.

equipment&settings, nikon d700 + nikon 105 f/2.8 Macro + nikon sb700.
f/3, 1/100 sec, manual exposing, flash bounced through ceiling. whitebalance auto, iso 200.


- after some cropping, main step was masking eyes and nose.

-after selecting right areas, used invert selection so we can modify the rest. reduced the saturation of rest for around -64, and reduced the saturation of whole photo for around -15.

after this step all you need to to is paint the chair leg off with the brush of color i used, which was grey-ish. and some vignette-ing to the right side.

thats pretty much all actually. thanks to nikon 105 macro prime lens, raw shot itself was sharp enough.

well the point is; as i always say, you can boost your shots with some post production eventhough they might look dull at first.

have fun.

incense-smoke photography tutorial

tutorial.. well, at least thats what it looks like to me..

once upon a time, i came up with the photo below. i wasn't really into smoke, incense type of photography
but as i find myself, secretly searching for these kind of shots and also trying to learn how to take them..
i thought to myself, well might as well give it a try.

so im gonna share the story behind this photo,
hopefully you'll be taking similar or better shots.






stuff you'll be needing;

- an external flash ( i should add, its a must)
- a black background (so smoke can pop in the shot) 
preferably something can absorb the light
- a reflector like a piece of white paper to the otherside so it can reflect the light from flash (this is actually up to you. not mandatory)
- incense and its thingy
- and a piece of paper to block the light reaching to the background, should look like this:



there will be some annoying minor problems but im sure you'll sort them as you go.

---

my setup was somewhat like this



and theres the external flash on the left with a blocker as i mentioned.



it should look like this once you're done with the setup

well this was my final shot.

take like hundreds of shots and pick the one you like. 

since you won't be able to control its form, you will need some luck aswell to capture the shape you want.

use negative effect on photoshop if you like to get the white background i used.

mine got some coloring and retouch too, nothing else really.

thats pretty much all.

have fun!

another "before-after" starring some dinnerware

well.. after these kind of editing, i really wish i was a living pixel in a photoshopped house of mine..crop this, clone that..  would be healthier economy-wise as every month i end up "having too much month at the end of my money".
meh.. housewares always been lowest in my priority list.

anyways, like most ecommerce websites, need to make items pop, so they can sell better.

- prepared some dinnerware for shooting. obviously these are simple and cheap but they are ok.

as well as shooting these dinner sets, i had to assemble them by myself. took few shots and searched for some stock kitchen photos.

- after some isolation, embedded them into some suitable kitchen photos.

not really handsome, splendorous tables but hope you like the work, which was obviously the point of this post.

laters.

more photoshop, less trouble

hiya!

we have been organizing a give away and the prize is a car! (e-commerce)
naturally it should look like a gift. but instead of setting up a gift ribbon for the car which would be really hard, we came up with an idea;

-prepare a gift ribbon on a toy car
-take a picture of it
-isolate the ribbon
-cover the real car image with isolated ribbon
-enjoy the result!

so the process was interesting and hope you guys like it too.
note: green ribbon was for a try-out. used red one, once we figured its doable, we started using the red one. 
(compressed pics, anything is possible quality-wise :))

peace.

Astrid & Chiyo & Bibi & Scooter (?!)

sigma 70mm macro f/2.8 @ f/7.1 - iso 250, 1/80 + sb600 @1/4.

nikon 35mm f/2 @ f/2.8 iso100 1/200 + sb600 @ 1/8

nikon 35mm f/2 @ f/2.5 iso100 1/60 + sb600 @ 1/2

also shared on:
http://www.facebook.com/bywonderland
http://www.facebook.com/momijihq

find me on instagram @verisakeet

peace.

momiji collection

took these shots at the office with some colored post-it backgrounds. admit it, they look cute!

the almighty nikon d4

nikon's new flagship D4.  the best DSLR that has ever been produced? imo yes.

creating videos with dslr cameras became really popular thus nikon finally made some proper improvements on video recording. this thing can shoot 1080p movies at 30, 25 or 24 frames per second with autofocus and it allows you to change aperture while shooting. Video is mono by default but ofcourse you can plug in some mics to improve sound recording.

higher resolution; 16.2MP CMOS sensor and its new expeed 3 chip offers insane range of ISO;  100-12,800  and extendable from 50 – 204,800.

another great thing about this camera, comes with new carbon fiber shutter so the shutter life is over 400k. (used to be around 150k)

lcd slightly bigger. 3.2"
new focusing system got classic 51 points and 15 of them are cross-type which makes focusing really precise and fast.

it has an ethernet socket! Its just crazy seeing a camera with wireless and ethernet sockets and yes you can reach the camera via wireless without instally any software whatsoever. the web interface allows you to control multiple cameras simultaneously, including the ability to release their shutters simultaneously. you can even autofocus anywhere in the scene, simply by touching your iphone/ipad screen. because this is all web-based, you don't have to be physically close to the camera. and as usual it has GPS chip aswell.

this dslr is just awesome and its price is great too. its just 5800€ ^^ (probably every lens+camera i've ever owned would worth less in total)

keep your shots cleaner than your camera

are you one of those photoshop haters? well you came to right place coz i prefer paint shop pro ^^
jokes aside, there are some ways to take your shots from good to awesome. so are you kind of a person who presents his shots without any post-production or even without any quick photoshop edits whatsoever? well if so, that sucks imo.

iam sure cleaning some unnecessary stuff from your shots wouldn't kill ya. i myself still not great at cleaning up but i usually create whats enuf for me.

check out some shots i got. (after and before cleaning) looks a bit better. wudn't you agree?

sigma 70-200 f2.8 @ f2.8 200mm, iso400 1/200

  it's not that great but still makes your target pop! some clone brushes, usual stuff and extra DOF effect thats all  

sigma 70mm macro f2.8 @ f2.8 iso100, 1/2500

clone brush and usual stuff thats all.

cudn't resist. fish tank 20lt water and sunlight with some reflectors, no fancy stuff.

don't slack and go clean some of your photos. they might look a lot better once you show proper care. peace.

ok theyr sharp, but whats da secret?

ok having well focused shots is one thing, and sharp shots another. so i'd like to share some hints with you to get your shots sharper. some of them will fix your out of focus shots aswell. (i'm not gonna get into photography for dummies 101 like slow shutter speeds cause blur images bla bla here.)

ok, most of mid level photographers are familiar with these hints but those of you who are not, listen up!

before you start reading make sure you SLR is properly calibrated.


- get a proper tripod
would be better if its not made in china. like a basic model of a Manfrotto will do the job. you need to keep your camera still. say you dont have a tripod for the moment, try holding your breath before hitting the button, rest the camera on your face, and rest your body on a wall or desk i dunno just try not to move.

if you got image stabilizer on your lens or camera, and wondering why that on/off switch exists since it always good keeping it on, well this time its not. IS,VR and stuff like that will go crazy on a tripod. so that switch actually works here. you need to turn image stabilizer off.

- get a remote controller
most of nikon model's IR codes can be found on the internet so you can set up your universal remote controller for shutter control. or get one from dealextreme for any camera brand for like 3$.
whats the point of keeping camera still with a tripod if you are poking shutter button with your finger while trying to get the shot.
ok this time you got a tripod but no remote. then use self-timer for the delay so by the time it goes of, tripods movement will be ceased. so you'll get a clear shot.


- use lower iso
well, since we are talkin about tripods, remote controllers who needs ISO then? no need to ruin your shots noisy. lets say you don't have a tripod with you. then read above and use less iso. try not to exceed iso 1000. 

- go get some prime lenses and try them
if you wanna use your SLR as a point and shoot camera, dont try prime lenses. get a tamron 18-270 or sometin, hell you should even stop reading.

you have to use your feet with prime lenses. they got no zoom at all. a focus ring and thats it and i'll keep this brief and not gonna get into pros and cons of a prime lens.

if you want your pics sharp, use proper zoom lenses which are usually expensive, or try some prime lenses. like start with 50mm f1.8 which costs less than a crappy mp3 player. if you are little bit interested in macro shots, go for macro lenses, you'll be shocked how sharp they are for normal uses.
so.. no zoom usually means sharper photos. ofc there are some crazy zoom lenses, thats why i just used word "usually".


- use higher f-stops
try to use high aperture numbers like f/7.1 - f/8. longer focal lengths will be less sharper comparing to short focal lengths. lets say we got a 18-70mm lens. lens will provide sharper pics at 18-35 comparing to full zoom 70mm. as shot gets softer you could make it more sharper by increasing the aperture number.

ok, most likely 70mm will give you f/5.6. now take the pic, take a look and now set it to f8, make proper adjustments to get enuf light. take another pic. check it out on lcd at %100 crop and you'll notice its much sharper than the one you took at f5.6

another important note, don't dont think higher aperture means sharper pics. most of lenses stop giving sharp photos after f/11. becomes worse at f/22. so its best keeping it around f/8-f/11.  
yes background will be leless diffused, theres no way to prevent it except a good post-production.

btw f8 is just a number that usually gives best results but all lenses got their best aperture value which is the sharpest point of that lens.

here some test shots i got with a cheap 70-300 lens. great lens for starters but terrible after a point. no need to give names. check out F numbers, as it gets higher, photo gets sharper!

lens: 70-300mm
left f/5 @ 200mm
right f/11 @ 200mm

so unless you are after a really shallow depth of field, boost your photos with some sharpness by giving some aperture numbers. you got a f/1.8 lens? try setting it to f/3.2 instead of f/1.8

- apply some sharpness 
use photoshop or a simple image editing software to give some little sharpness to your photo. don't ruin it with ridiculous numbers. it will cause noise. a sharpen brush would help alot. but an out of focus shot is still an out of focus shot, giving sharpness will only make it worse!

- and last step soft pics are great too!! don't forget that.

sigm 70mm f/2.8 macro @ f9

%100 crop

sigma 24-70 f/2.8 @ f14 - 35mm

%100 crop

i luv my shots sharp!

vans baxter - sigma 10-20mm @ 10mm f/4

%100 crop

nikon 35mm f2 @ f/8

%100 crop

sigma 70mm f2.8 macro @ f/5

%100 crop

not saying soft shots suck, but yes im obsessed with sharpness!