Frita

Originally posted: July 26, 2008
Updated: July 27, 2008

Here's a little more detail on this photo:


I shot this with the SB-800 on about 1/32 or 1/64 power into a white door.

Here is the original photo:


Post-processing in Photoshop:
1. Adjusted levels a touch (brought whites in)
2. Copy layer
3. Use Unsharp Mask at a very large radius (~80px) at a relatively small amount (~35)
4. Desaturate this layer
5. Adjust opacity of this layer to liking (I think I was about 75%)

Question: Does anyone know how to apply an Unsharp Mask as a seperate layer?

DIY Macro-Studio Revisited

So I busted out the DIY macro-studio that I put together a little while back (and I remember to take a couple set up shots this time ::pats self on back::).

The first one I just shot this chess piece on a blue infinity-sweep with each flash slightly angled from the back side. There flashes were set at something like 1/16th power. The two flaps left on the front side of the box at as gobos to prevent flare.


Here is the end product. All the crap you see in the blue is just what you get when you buy the cheapest poster board.


Next, I decided to move one of the flashes inside the box macro-studio to light the background. I could have done this from outside the tracing paper diffuser and used something to gobo the light so it only hit the background. But I wanted to play with a strong specular highlight behind the chess piece. I also used the black granite tile I previously used to produce a good reflfection the first time I played with DIY macro-studio.


...and here is the final result.

OKC Memorial (continued)

Here are a couple more from the Memorial. Any and all feedback is welcomed.

OKC Memorial

Some photos from the OKC Memorial I took the other day.

Camp Registration

Here are a couple more from Camp Crimson. I know the two posts are probably out of order, but these are from the first day when campers were registering.




courtesy OU Student Media

Camp Crimson

As part of OU's orientation-type camp, Camp Crimson, in-coming freshman built cardboard boats and then raced them in OU's outdoor pool. Here are a couple from the take. I'm pretty sure the next boat race of these kids' college experience will involve Solo cups and not cardboard boxes.




I'm pretty sure I have better photos compositionally from this push to the finish, but I keep coming back to this one because of the guy's face in back.

thedarkknight

mustgosee. nowsleep.

My days...

...have looked a little bit like this lately.

It's not fun, but it's paying my rent for the time being.

New Camera

So as many of you might already know, my Canon 40D crapped out. It was still under warranty, so that was good. However, it pushed me over the edge with Canon. It was the second Canon DSLR that stopped working for me in the past 6 months (that reminds me, I need to go pay the $200 it cost to fix the AF on my other Canon, since the AF broke 3 days after the warranty expired - super). And I digress. Back on topic, fed up with Canon, I decided to make the switch the Nikon. I've been really impressed with everything I've read about the D300. With a little finagling and a good bit of luck, somehow I got Circuit City to exchange my broken camera for the D300. So I'm officially a Nikon man. 

Because of all of this, I don't have any fourth of July photos and missed a couple excellent potential photos that I wish I could've had a camera for, but I'm happy that I was able to get the D300. 

So I ordered a couple SB800 Speedlights to make use of Nikon's CLS (Creative Lighting System). Waiting for those to come in, I decided to build a makeshift, DIY macro studio. I sprung for a $6 piece of black granite tile and a $6 100W, 4500K light bulb (it was the highest wattage light bulb I could find around sunlight temperature). If I remember the next time I bust it out, I will take a couple shots of my setup. For now here are two images that I made while using the macro studio, the aforementioned light bulb, and a piece of aluminum foil on cardboard as a reflector. Because of the low power of the bulb, I wasn't able to get too much DOF out of these guys. I didn't want to up the ISO too high (I think one is 800 and the other 1600), and I didn't want too long of a shutter speed (otherwise the background would have been too gray), so I just stopped the aperture down as much as possible. 

Oh by the way, these are Fimo Clay figurines made by Jon Anderson.  They're pretty incredible if you have a chance to read about how they're made.

Reading, PA

These are from the Pagoda in Reading. It's this weird Chinese influenced building at the top of the hill bordering downtown Reading. It's very random, but also sort of an icon for Reading. And Lauren was very patient with me, as you might've noticed. I put a couple more up on Flickr, to avoid being redundant here.