Wednesday 23 March 2016

Canon G10 Powershot. Keep it in the glovebox.

We recently spent a week in South West Ireland.

I took my Fuji X-Pro1 as my main camera but for those occasions when I didn't want to carry around the Billingham bag full of kit I chucked my Canon G10 in the car glovebox.
I really rate this little camera.

Processed on Lr, Ps CC and Nix Effects

Old door in Kinsale Canon G10 Powershot

Detail of ships propellor, Mizen Head. Canon G10 Powershot

Snowdonia range from South /stack Holyhead. Canon G10 Powershot

Sunday 6 March 2016

Clamshell lighting with Neewer Eagle EG250 studio strobes

Another Sunday afternoon and another play around with the Neewer 3 head strobe kit I bought recently.

I tried out a "Clamshell" arrangement with the lights today. Two strobes fitted with softboxes one below and one above both angled to converge the light on the centre of the subject, hence the "Clamshell".
The power of the two strobes was initially set the same but I upped the lower strobe a couple of clicks to get a bit more light under the chin.

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro USM, 1/125th sec f6.3 ISO100

Processed in Lr CC




I gave these two images a dramatic B+W treatment which I really like.




Finally I placed a circular diffuser behind the subject and lit it with the third strobe. Before the subject took their place in front of the camera I took some test shots of the background, turning up the strobe until it was white, ideally I'd have liked some more distance between the subject and the background as the background became another light source and very slightly overexposed the subject's face, however it was so slight it was easily corrected in Lr CC.

I like the quality of light this arrangement gives, however the catchlight makes the subject's pupils into a rectangle, which some might think looks a bit strange. 
It is a signature look though I suppose ...



DPReview challenge, top 10.




A top 10 finish, pleased with that.