E-Bay flash triggers with Fuji X-Pro1 and Canon 430EXII

I've had a radio flash trigger rom E-Bay for a a while now and tried it out with a Vivitar flash I had. However I've moved that on now and the only flash units I have are two Canon 430EXII.

Nothing on the telly on new year's eve, so I decided I'd have a little bit of a play with these triggers.

I set the X-Pro1 to manual and the aperture wide open on the Fujinon 18-55mm OIS.

The 430EXII was set to manual and attached to the flash trigger receiver.

These images were taken in a pretty dark room

I softened the flash on the third image with a clip on cover.

Processed from RAW files in LR and Tonality.

Fuji X-Pro1, Fujinon 18-55mm OIS

Fuji X-Pro1, Fujinon 18-55mm OIS

Fuji X-Pro1, Fujinon 18-55mm OIS

Canon 5D2 and some 1940's style makeup

Topsy tried out a new image today, her take on the kind of 1940's women-workers glamour. 

I used the Canon 5D2 and the Canon USM 85mm f1.8 and 50mm f1.4 with a couple of Canon 430EX II Speedlites.

Processed in Lr and PS CC

Canon 5D2, Canon USM 85mm f1.8

Canon 5D2, Canon USM 50mm f1.4

Canon 5D2, Canon USM 85mm f1.8

Artist Jake Attree and Fuji X-Pro1

I was videoing the artist Jake Attree at work in his studio n Halifax today, for a documentary on his relationship with York and how it influenced his work.

After we had finished and were just about to leave I grabbed a quick portrait with my X-Pro1 and the Fujinon 18-55mm. 

Processed in Tonality.

Fuji X-Pro1, Fujinon 18-55 OIS

Pixelmator - First proper try

Continuing on from the last post, I further explored the alternative Apps to the Adobe CC.

I've had Pixelmator for a while now, I bought it on my brothers recommendation but having Adobe CC, and having used Ps and Lr for years never really got around to giving it a serious go.

It was Tonality that revived my interest in Adobe CC alternatives. I found Tonality to give excellent results and its Photos App plug in made me explore more.  This led to me giving Pixelmator another go, and spending a bit more time on it this time around.

I loaded up a Canon RAW image and tried out the various effects on layers. Pixelmator uses drag-and-drop to place the effect on the chosen layer, this in turn brigs up an adjustment window and the effect of the slider can be seen in real time.

Layers can be made visible by checking or unchecking a box, a right click reveals more functions as expected.

Saving can be in either Pixelmator's native format or in Photoshop PSD format. Images can be exported in the usual formats and there is also an Export to web function for smaller web friendly files. 
Disappointingly there is no option to re-size the file on export, something which I would find very useful. I searched the internet to see if it was just me missing the function, but it wasn't and others were frustrated by its absence also.

All the images were edited using Pixelmator only.

Apple Photos App with RAW files

I thought I'd give the Apple Photos App a try for some proper photo post production, just in case I ever have to stop Adobe CC for any reason.

I think its a reasonable assumption that as Apple have EOL Aperture and built into Photos the ability to read most of the RAW file formats, including the Fuji Trans-X, that they will continue to enhance the features and capabilities of the Photos App.

There is also the scope to use Apps like Tonality as plug-ins in Photos, so the opportunity for third parties to develop interesting technologies as well.

I chose a couple of images from the last post.

For this image I converted to BW in Photos and then used Tonality as a plug in to adjust further.

This image was processed completely in Photos, including cropping, sharpening, noise reduction and Definition (Clarity in Adobe)

The JPEGs were exported from Photos. The Export dialog makes it easy to choose quality, and to resize and select the destination.

So far pretty impressed, its basic, but not all images require lots of layers and hours spent on them in Ps.

I was hoping that the Pixelmator, the well thought of image editor for OS X would have a plug in for Photos, well, it does but its only a distortion tool and of limited use to me. I'm sure it can't be far off though then the round trip for those images that require more PP would be complete.

Feeling more confident wit Photos, I performed more adjustments on this image.

Nudes with Canon 5D2 and 100mm USM f2.8 Macro

Another dull Sunday, the housework had been done, and, not feeling like joining the throngs out Christmas shopping we got he the Canon gear out, a couple of video lights and found some single cream in the fridge ...

Processed in Ps, Lr, Tonality and Nik effects.

Canon 5D2 and 100mm USM f2.8 Macro

Canon 5D2 and 100mm USM f2.8 Macro

Canon 5D2 and 100mm USM f2.8 Macro

Canon 5D2 and 100mm USM f2.8 Macro

Different make-up look, different camera.

An Autumn/Winter make-up look and, as it was to hand, some shots taken with the Fuji X-Pro1 and the Fujinon XF18-55mm OIS lens. Window light only.

First two images processed in Lr and Ps using Nik SFX

Fuji X-Pro1, Fujinon XF18-55mm OIS

Fuji X-Pro1 and the Fujinon XF18-55mm OIS

Fuji X-Pro1 and the Fujinon XF18-55mm OIS processed in Tonality & Lr

One last quick snap

After our shoot Topsy was watching a Korean variety TV program on her MacbookAir, I saw she was obviously finding it hilarious, so grabbed a quick photo using my Fuji X-Pro1, with the 18 - 55mm Fujinon XF lens, which was the nearest camera.

Fuji X-Pro1, Fujinon XF 18 - 55mm OIS

Processed in Lr

Another miserable winter Sunday ...

Another dull windy December Sunday afternoon, so Topsy got out her makeup, she went for an Ava Gardner classic Hollywood glamour style, and I got out my Canon gear and we had a quick available light shoot.

Sunlight was fading fast so the ISO was set at 1600 and I shot wide open on the Canon 100mm f2.8 USM Macro and the Canon 85mm f1.8 USM.

Processed in Lr, Ps Nik effects and Tonality for the BW.

Window light portrait with Fuji X-Pro1 and Fujinon 18-55mm

Low winter window light portrait.

Different post processing in Lr, PS, Nik effects and Tonality

Fuji x-Pro1, 18-55m Fujinon XF

Fuji x-Pro1, 18-55m Fujinon XF

Fuji x-Pro1, 18-55m Fujinon XF

Fuji x-Pro1, 18-55m Fujinon XF

Fuji x-Pro1, 18-55m Fujinon XF

Fading Rose Olympus Pen EP-1

Setting winter sun and the beauty of a fading Rose captured with an Olympus PEN EP-1 and Zuiko 14-42mm kit lens.

Olympus PEN EP-1 Zuiko 14-42mm Processed in Lr and Ps CC

Olympus PEN EP-1 Zuiko 14-42mm Processed in Lr and Ps CC

Olympus PEN EP-1 Zuiko 14-42mm processed in Tonality

Wet Sunday afternoon experimentation

Very wet, windy and overcast Sunday afternoon, so with nothing much else to do we got the Canon 5D2 kit out and had a play with some lighting.

During the session I used:
Canon 5D2, 2 x Canon Speedlight 430SXII, Canon ST-E2 IR flash trigger, Canon 50mm f1.4, 100mm f2.8 macro, 70-200mm f4 and 85mm f1.8.

The files were processed from the .CR2 raw files in Lr, Ps, Nik effects and Tonality.

Canon 5D2, Canon 50mm f1.4, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 50mm f1.4, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 50mm f1.4, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 50mm f1.4, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8, 2x Canon Speedlight 430SXII

More with the macro ring on the Olympus PEN EP-1

Experimented a bit more with the macro ring on the Olympus PEN EP-1.

I really like the soft dreamy quality I get with this cheap macro ring.

Olympus PEN EP-1 Zuiko 14-42mm  + Polaroid macro ring attachment

Olympus PEN EP-1 Zuiko 14-42mm  + Polaroid macro ring attachment

Olympus PEN EP-1 Zuiko 14-42mm  + Polaroid macro ring attachment

WD My Book Pro

Fast storage is always required for the best performance if you use a lot of media.

As well a photos I shoot video and produce audio.

Prior to migrating to Mac as my platform I used to back up media on WD USB drives, copying video and audio files to be worked on to a much faster G-Tech e-SATA drive.

On Mac I use an Apple Time Capsule for back up and a Lacie Little Big Disk SSD Thunderbolt drive for AV files I'm working on.

However, now I've got a couple of documentaries that I've just started work on, so needed a larger drive that would be capable of editing HD video.

I looked at the Lacie d2, the add on SSD was a tempting idea, but it is expensive for what you get. Then a colleague mentioned that Western Digital have an educational webstore with huge discounts for those of us who work in education. I logged on to the site and found the recently released WD My Book Pro Thunderbolt/USB3 6TB RAID with £200 off!

A quick Google revealed this drive to be well reviewed so it was a bit of a no-brainer.

Install on Mac was a doddle, it comes ready formatted in HFS+ so its just a matter of plugging it in and powering it up.

I ran a Black Magic speed test and for a spinning drive its the fastest I've ever had. Easily fast enough for HD video editing. I believe the My Book Pro used two of the WD Black Enterprise quality hard drives.

The supplied WD utility software lets you set up the drive as either RAID 0 (for speed), RAID1 for a bit of data security and JBOD. RAID0 is the default and as this is to be an editing drive I have left it in that state.

Macro ring on Olympus Pen EP-1

Ever wondered what those cheap macro rings that screw onto the front of your lens are like? No? Well I did so bought one from Amazon for £11. It also came with a Fisheye adapter.

Sitting around tonight I saw the Pen all alone on the shelf so I thought I'd see what the screw-on rings were like.

Well they work, in that it is possible to go very close to the subject, almost touching it with the lens actually, focussing is by moving lens until the desired focus is achieved.

I was actually impressed by the results in a sort of LensBaby effects way.

Images tweaked a bit and resized in Lr.