Lost in a Cornfield

Today I am presenting another photo from the wedding I shot last weekend. It was really hard to choose one as there were many worth sharing but at the end I chose this image in the cornfield. Even though the couple is small, they are the first thing an eye gets attracted to. The couple is positioned according to the rule of thirds with many lines pointing to them (some of the lines are only suggested in the cord field and in the clouds) and I thing it works quite well. I used my on-camera flash for a fill. First of all, I could shoot at 1/250 even though my camera can synchronize only up to 1/200 but using the Pocket wizard MiniTT1 allowed be shoot little bit faster. I also zoomed in the flash little bit and pointed it to the couple in order to avoid blasting off the corn close to the camera and adding more strength to the flash. The rest was fixed in Lightroom. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L IS at 24mm, F8 @ 1/250, ISO 50.

Brazilian Samba

Here is a recent photo I took at a local meeting of dances here in Aalborg. The photo is of a local group called Poco Loco dancing samba. The stage was very nicely lit but the dances were dancing on the floor under the stage which was essentially completely dark. I quickly grabbed my flash that I otherwise didn't use at all during this shoot and bounced it over my shoulders back to a relatively high ceiling. This created a nice balance between the foreground scene lit by my flash and the background with ambient light. I also like the central composition of the photo showing the foreground dancer, two dancers little bit behind and the band playing in the background. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 F4 L, F4.5 @ 1/200, ISO 1600.

Grandma, Daughter and Mom

A few months ago I was asked to take a quick portrait of a daughter, mother and grandmother in a restaurant while visiting Czech Republic. I had no extra lighting equipment except for my on-camera flash. So I found a piece of white wall, posted the family tightly together and bounced the flash over my right shoulder against the ceiling, with the wide angle diffuser on. This created very pleasant soft light source, even if the ceiling was very low. The final step was to get the right expressions on their faces and to take the photo. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 70mm, F4 @ 1/125, ISO 800.

Quick Family Portrait

We were having a family celebration this Monday where I took a portrait of the young family featured in today's post. I like to be challenged by the environment that I don't know beforehand. It is a good practice in finding good backgrounds and angles. Normally, I would not place the family at the exact center but thanks to the simplicity of the scene and a dominant decoration at the top of the frame, I think it works very well in this particular image. The almost shadowless lighting was achieved by bouncing the on-camera flash backwards against the ceiling. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L USM at 32mm, F4 @ 1/125, ISO 800.

Sunset Portrait

Today I was visiting a summer house of my parents and we experienced a beautiful sunset. I had luckily my camera with me but only a limited set of accessories (read it as one on-camera flash). I was thinking how to light the portrait of my parents and then I saw a white fishing house on the shore, moreover with relatively white wall where I directed my flash to in order to bounce the light back on the scene. Finding the right spot for my parents to stand was little bit tricky (see that attached photo with the location of the fishing house and the place where they stand) but we managed and pulled out a nice photo with great directional light. The same photo with a direct on-camera flash would be flat and artificially looking. The light coming from the right direction was the key to this more pleasing portrait where the light looks definitely natural and more attractive. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L USM at 35mm, F8 @ 1/125, ISO 800.

Reflections

While taking portraits of Veronika we found some rain water puddle from yesterdays' storm and I immediately though of taking some photo with reflections. I simply asked her to place one of her hands to the water, which provided a nice diagonal shape in her body and took the shot with little bit of on-camera fill-in flash. The resulting image worked best in sepia toning. I should keep in my mind to use natural reflections more often in my photography, one or two such shots are always a nice addition to the series of portraits. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II at 70mm, F4.5 @ 1/400, ISO 100.

Flower Romance

Here is another simple portrait of Veronika. Using F4.5 at 200m blurred nicely the background, allowing my model to pop out. It is important for portrait photography that hands look natural, which is most easily achieved by occupying them with something, in this case by holding the flowers. I only asked my model to place the elbows further away from the body so that there is some air between the body and the arms, making the figure visually slimmer. I used on-camera fill flash. As I shoot mostly in manual and the image was taken shortly after the jump below, I forgot to change the settings. Normally, I would go for 1/500s at ISO 100. Nevertheless, the expression after the funny jumps was more important for me because if I was fiddling with the camera settings, she could get quickly tired and lose the expression. All over, I think that the final result is pretty pleasing. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II at 200mm, F4.5 @ 1/1000, ISO 200.

Carnival Beuaty

I took this photo during the Aalborg Carnival and I decided to post it today. First of all, the dancer is very pretty but there are a few other elements that make this photo to pop up for me. The composition follows the golden rule of third and she is presented on the light background and the negative space on the right is darker which adds some balance to the scene. The dancer's face is in almost a perfect classical 2/3 view (she is photographed so often so I guess that she knows how to pose without any thinking :-) and my on-camera fill-in flash is used to add some catch-lights to her eyes. Because I was close to her at the telephoto end of my lens, F5.6 was enough to provide a pleasing blur of the background. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 159mm, F5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 400.

Bye, bye

Well, after presenting a few photos from the carnival, let me close this topic for a while with this detail photo. I like the expression in her eyes and the small catch lights created by the on-camera flash used as a fill in. I have also finished scanning some older films on which I captured my trip to India in 2001 and they came out quite nice. I will present a few of them in my next posts, so check out my blog soon again! Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 28-105 F3.5-4.5 USM at 83mm F7.1 @ 1/160, ISO 200.

Brazil, Brazil, ...

Indeed, you can see Brazilian samba danced in the streets of Aalborg once every year. I particularly like this photo because of the expression in the dancers face and the nice colors. As usual, I used an on-camera flash to soften the shadows. In these situations I normally put the flash compensation to -1 EV or more to make the flash "invisible". Too much flash would destroy the picture. I believe that I used the Lumiquest Mini Softbox as mentioned in the previous posts. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 28-105 3,5-4,5 USM at 43mm, F5,6 @ 1/250, ISO 400.

Carnival Parade

Here it comes, the carnival parade! Beautiful colors, happy people, loud drum music and lots of dance ... enjoy. Again, a little bit of on-camera flash was used to fill in. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 28-105 F3.5-4.5 USM at 43mm, F7.1 @ 1/250, ISO 200.

Out of the Blue

I could not resist to post another photo similar to the previous one. I like the drama expressed in the picture and the nice colors dominated by the blue sky at the background. I used my on camera flash, probably with the Lumiquest Mini-Softbox, to fill in the shadows. The leading lines on both sides of the photo really help to guide the attention to the main subject. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 24-105 4L at 24mm, F16 @ 1/250, ISO 400.

Aalborg Carnival

Let's post some photos from Aalborg Carnival today. The carnival takes place every year in May and it is an exciting event (if you ever travel around, make sure you don't miss it). I chose to start with this picture, while not a typical carnival photo, as it shows a nice atmosphere and is compositionaly pleasing. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 24-105 4L at 24mm, F7.1 @ 1/250, ISO 400.

Merry Christmas

Yesterday I have got a new toy: a selective focus Lensbaby Composer. This is one of the very first pictures I have taken with it. I am surprised to see how sharp this lens is! Take a look at 100% crop from the area in focus. It is pretty amazing but also quite tricky to achieve a good focus with this lens (manual focusing is the only option here). I am looking forward to more experiments with this new piece of equipment. I have a feeling that it has quite some potential. By the way the lighting was achieved by my on-camera flash pointed to the wall on my left. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Lensbaby Composer at 50mm, F5.6 @ 1/30, ISO 800.