Some Lessons from a Pro..

NO! This is not about Photo tips... it's more about "creating a cover".

I believe it is easier to show than to explain.

I was "hired for free" at the thesis discussion of Univeristy pal as a photographer for the session.
I felt really honored for the trust he had, and so I happily agreed on shooting the session (182 photos!)

[YEAH I know I've not published anything in several months... But my camera has not settled on a shelf collecting dust!]

So this post is about the real difference a professional (or serious amateur) editor can make on a photo^_^
I'm not talking about photoretouching (ok ok there a little of it there) the real focus is on the "Cover" composition...

Cover?

Yeah! cover!
I've created a blurb photobook of the session and I needed a "pro" cover... so I turned out to my dear sis in order to have some work...

Ok so before starting the usual information from Exif.
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Nikon AF 50/1.4
ISO: 200
Aperture: f/1.4
Exposure: 1/25s

The real tricks behind this photo was to call my friend while the other were turned the other way toward the official photographer^_^




Obviously this photo was not "ready" for becoming a cover, moreover I did not tought it as a cover!
So I called for help and my dear sis come out with the following setup... just astonishing!



TO publish some more photos soon^_^

Sunset's Gradient in RL

If you have ever seen a graphic software you are familiar with gradients.
One ofhte most famouse on is sunset - sunrise gradient slowly going from red to blue.

Sometime you can have it in Real - Lufe too, i've discovered!

The following photo shows it. (it is not straight out of the camera! it has been sharpened and realigned and cropped... but nothing in the colours have been touched in PP!)

Image's Data:
- f/5.0
- 1/20"
- ISO 400

P.zza del Plebiscito - Naples

This picture has been taken in one of the main squares in my city.
It pictures one old church that is really similar to the Pope's one in Vatican (I do not remember which one has been copied by the other one^_^).

Once every year, near christmas, our government pays some artist to decorate this square.
This year they have chosen to decorate it with several neon light that write "I Love Differences" in several languages.

I was in the square with a couple of friends and decided to take this shot.

EXIF reads:
ISO 640
Exposure = F/22
Shutter Speed = 2s

Frankly?
I really can't imagin what I was thinking when I set up the camera!
Today I would have setted it:
ISO 200
Exposure = F/11
Shutter Speed = 20s

It would have been far sharper (and with less noise!)

a Sad Dog

This is my dog, the photo was taken some day ago (12th of March) when the new lens arrived.

I post this as in these few days the dog is suffering by some aches we cannot identify...
Nothing to worry too much about as it is only puking what he eats...
I remembered this shot and decided to publish it...
Heal yourself fast Ranma!

From the Image's EXIF:
Exposure Time: 1/39 sec.
ISO Speed Rating: 200

Obviously flash did not fire!

Here and Now (even better than last night)

Here I am in front of the PC.
Yesterday the light was off and I was playing to Battle For Wesnoth in my Linux box.

I find that game very intriguing... so I advise you to try it out (it's free!)!

My PC has one of those light emitting fan. I had never noticed the nice effects it have in the night.
Last night I tried to shot a photo of it...
With a screenshot of BfW it was not a reallyl inspiring one... so I got an idea.
Use the monitor of hte PC to display the image from yesterday and shoot another photo of the fan...
I would have done it on the instant but the battery was too low to shoot (not joking!)... So I had to wait...
For the second shot I have used the AF Nikkor 50mmm 1:1.4 I've bought used last week.

I've used a shutter speed of 1/25 and an ISO setting of 400 so I have succeeded in using f/4.0

Waiting for sunset

Here in ITaly we play rugby... just to say it all our most widespread sport is soccer, then you'll have many other more famous sports and in the end you'll have rugby... but we play it!

Our national representative (Italy Rugby Team) plays in the 6 Nations' Tournament every year.
England, France, Galles, Ireland, Italy and Scotland meet each other in the field once every year... it's really a show time!

Last Sunday we went seeing the match in the house of a frien d of ours (Italy has lost! :() and after losing the game I realized there was an almost perfect vignette to portrait.

I've taken this shot in portrait and later cropped to have a landscape as I was not fully sure how the sun reflection on the cars would have been after working with GIMP...

To say it all the effect was awful... so I cut them out!

The original photo was taken with a Nikon d300 and the 18-200 VRII, it was taken at F/13 with a shutter speed of 1/200" and at ISO 200.

glasses

This photo is an experiment in aperture...
I wanted to get only the reflection on some glasses you can find in a Castellammare's Pub where we usually go Friday's night.

The read light is from one of the neon enhanced mirrors you can find in pubs (I really do not know how properly address them) but I've enhanced the red component in PP when setting up UFRAW to import the photo in GIMP (yeah I know it is not PS3... But I have got that^_^)

This obviously has cancelled exif datas. But If I remember well this was taken with the d300 with 18/200 VR with a shutter speed of 1/3" and an aperture of f/4.0 (some more than f/3.5 as it is not taken at 18mm).
Obviously it was shot with a low ISO setting (200 or 300 ISO... seriously no more than that!).