I had loads of fun today. Went around the park and saw that the Children were playing in water. I had the 24-105L on so I had an amazing time clicking portraits of careless, happy children. Someday these kids will be stuck in a company somewhere... writing stories for custom software development... walking around the city downtown... feeling happy for kids playing in water :-)
Ended up getting interviewed by dogstar7 (http://www.youtube.com/user/dogstar7) on the price for peace. Interesting view that the world was appalled and brought about peace after US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki 64 years ago. Dogstar7 asked me if there was a guarantee that the same would happen again, would I support the US bombing civilians for the greater good?
Really? I mean it's a good argument. Thinking of it as an alien (having no interest in human life) I probably would support the movement. But then again as an alien why the hell would I be interested in human peace anyway.
Like I said to him, I don't think peace peace is really possible at all. I think it's just that we are here, alive right now and we see atrocious things happen and we feel really bad about ourselves and the state of the world. But this is exactly what has been happening throughout human history. I think we'll keep having these problems and keep learning to live with them.
Sometimes I wonder if the human ability to adapt is a blessing or a curse.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
The Honeybeeeeee
Sunday afternoon with a macro lens and a nice flowery patch in the park in Chicago downtown.
The hard afternoon light makes the pictures a bit over saturated... not to mention I increased saturation the day before and left it like that by mistake.
But it's a totally amazing feeling to be able to count the hair on a bee :)
The hard afternoon light makes the pictures a bit over saturated... not to mention I increased saturation the day before and left it like that by mistake.
But it's a totally amazing feeling to be able to count the hair on a bee :)
Sunday, November 30, 2008
The Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro!!!
Hey! Long time. There is a neat photoshop trick to get around the detail problem that I talked about in the last post. More on that later though.
Today's subject is my new lens :D. The 100mm macro from Canon. I have a 18-55 kit lens and a 50mm f1.8. I wanted to get some telephoto range and also wanted a macro lens.
I looked at the 100mm macro, the 75-300mm USM and the 75-300 USM IS. Frankly speaking the zoom lenses are extremely disappointing. For $500+ the lens has a very bad zoom rotation. These lenses NEED image stabalization by the way. The difference is about $350! But if you are planning to do any wildlife / lowlight photography you just can do it with these lenses. Even the IS only gives marginally better results.
The image stablized 70-300 + the 100mm macro were way over my budget because I needed a bag as well. So I decided to get just the 100mm and a "KATA" sack. If you are looking to buy a camera sack which can also hold your laptop, I strongly suggest these bags. Lowpro is insanely over-priced.
Today's subject is my new lens :D. The 100mm macro from Canon. I have a 18-55 kit lens and a 50mm f1.8. I wanted to get some telephoto range and also wanted a macro lens.
I looked at the 100mm macro, the 75-300mm USM and the 75-300 USM IS. Frankly speaking the zoom lenses are extremely disappointing. For $500+ the lens has a very bad zoom rotation. These lenses NEED image stabalization by the way. The difference is about $350! But if you are planning to do any wildlife / lowlight photography you just can do it with these lenses. Even the IS only gives marginally better results.
The image stablized 70-300 + the 100mm macro were way over my budget because I needed a bag as well. So I decided to get just the 100mm and a "KATA" sack. If you are looking to buy a camera sack which can also hold your laptop, I strongly suggest these bags. Lowpro is insanely over-priced.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Managing Detail
Having extremely light and dark objects in frame is always challenging. Especially when they are white and dark green and when these are the colours of a flower and it's leaves...
You want the detail in both the flower and the leaves. But here's what happens if you don't pay attention.
Shooting a 1/400, f/2.8 this is what I got.
The leaves are perfect but the flower got overexposed. This is exactly what happens when you leave the camera at evaluative metering.
Since I had the RAW, I toned it down a bit. This is what it looks like @ -1 EV
The flower is perfectly exposed here.
The flower being the subject this is an acceptable picture. But really, the leaves could use a little more light. Fill in flash won't work because it's the background that's under exposed and not the foreground. Anyone got any ideas around this?
You want the detail in both the flower and the leaves. But here's what happens if you don't pay attention.
Shooting a 1/400, f/2.8 this is what I got.
The leaves are perfect but the flower got overexposed. This is exactly what happens when you leave the camera at evaluative metering.
Since I had the RAW, I toned it down a bit. This is what it looks like @ -1 EV
The flower is perfectly exposed here.
The flower being the subject this is an acceptable picture. But really, the leaves could use a little more light. Fill in flash won't work because it's the background that's under exposed and not the foreground. Anyone got any ideas around this?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Guitar Wednesday
So I am taking a week of from office. Which means I have loads of time to play WoW and take pictures. Pune is lovely these days. Nicely overcast. It creates a serene but romantic mood. There's nothing like taking portraits of my guitar :D
Here are two extremely moody pictures. And completely opposite of each other too...
1/200, f/4 @ ISO 400 (-1 EV)
This is the perfect mood I wanted to capture. All that's missing is a hot glass of chai and a plate of pakodas...
Here's the other one. Poster material. Of course this is processed later.
Here are two extremely moody pictures. And completely opposite of each other too...
1/200, f/4 @ ISO 400 (-1 EV)
This is the perfect mood I wanted to capture. All that's missing is a hot glass of chai and a plate of pakodas...
Here's the other one. Poster material. Of course this is processed later.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Bokeh
As I mentioned earlier, on the subject of Bokeh, I have read a lot about the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8. There are some pretty good examples of bad bokeh out there too. The problem arises when you have bright lights in the background. But with a normal background I quite like the bokeh produced.
Here are some examples,
1/30, f/2.8 @ ISO 200.
This two shiny pentagons are the effect of a shiny chocolate wrapper on the table. At f/2.8 they actually look like pentagons because of the 5 blade diaphragm of the lens.
1/60, f/1.8 @ ISO 200
This image shows the difference between the wide open aperture and the previous sample. The shiny spots are now blurred ovals rather than pentagons.
Problem with these pictures is, along with distracting backgrounds, the subject itself is glass which means you are not at it as much as looking through it.
On the other hand, here's an example of a better subject over a not very distracting background.
1/125, f3.2 @ ISO 200
Well, that's all for now. I am eagerly waiting for the weekend office outing. Will present some great portrait opportunities I guess.
Here are some examples,
1/30, f/2.8 @ ISO 200.
This two shiny pentagons are the effect of a shiny chocolate wrapper on the table. At f/2.8 they actually look like pentagons because of the 5 blade diaphragm of the lens.
1/60, f/1.8 @ ISO 200
This image shows the difference between the wide open aperture and the previous sample. The shiny spots are now blurred ovals rather than pentagons.
Problem with these pictures is, along with distracting backgrounds, the subject itself is glass which means you are not at it as much as looking through it.
On the other hand, here's an example of a better subject over a not very distracting background.
1/125, f3.2 @ ISO 200
Well, that's all for now. I am eagerly waiting for the weekend office outing. Will present some great portrait opportunities I guess.
Monday, August 4, 2008
The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
I insisted on getting the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II with my 450D. Although a very controvertial lens, it's main feature is it's price. At $80, it's a small risk. Some people had complaints about the bokeh. I did see some decent examples of "bad bokeh" that people had posted. After the first day of shooting with this lens though I am very positive. Maybe I just got lucky and got a really good piece.
Here are a few examples.
1/60, f2.2 @ 400 ISO
If you look at the image it's rendered beautifully with only Crazy Sid in focus.
1/60, f2.2 @ 200 ISO
Perfect portrait lens. Nice realistic colours. This is exactly what I was thinking about when I decided to buy the lens.
1/60, f2.2 @ 400 ISO
Decent picture here too. The only thing I'd want is a little more depth of field. I guess I have to practice shooting with Aperture Priority.
All in all I am absolutely thrilled to have my DSLR and a fast normal lens. Will post back with more examples soon.
Here are a few examples.
1/60, f2.2 @ 400 ISO
If you look at the image it's rendered beautifully with only Crazy Sid in focus.
1/60, f2.2 @ 200 ISO
Perfect portrait lens. Nice realistic colours. This is exactly what I was thinking about when I decided to buy the lens.
1/60, f2.2 @ 400 ISO
Decent picture here too. The only thing I'd want is a little more depth of field. I guess I have to practice shooting with Aperture Priority.
All in all I am absolutely thrilled to have my DSLR and a fast normal lens. Will post back with more examples soon.
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