Cookie cut your own bokeh shape, example

Follow up on photos I said I would make using DIY bokeh.

1/250th f 1.4 ISO 400
1/60 f1.4 ISO 400

I found that as you upped the aperture, the shape will eventually vignette onto to the image. You can see that here.

1/1600th f5.6 ISO 320

maybe video of shoot later as I find a tape deck to export

galleries and new pictures

hello! Ever wondered about Dallas Art galleries? look no further! here's a list taken from a sheet from one of my photography classes:

http://500x.org/
http://Afterimagegallery.com
http://andorgallery.com/
http://barrywhistlergallery.com/
http://bathhousecultural.com/
http://conduitgallery.com/
http://craigheadgreen.com/
http://thecontemporary.net/
http://dunnandbrown.com/
http://fwcac.com/
http://www.gpgallery.com/
http://www.hollyjohnsongallery.com/
http://www.the-mac.org/
http://martywalkergallery.com/
http://mfagallery.com/
http://panamericanart.com/
http://pdnbgallery.com/
http://road-agent.com/
http://williamcampbellcontemporaryart.com/
http://trustthepublic.com/

Also, here are some of my recent photos.


Model: Maria-Luiza Popescu
Comments: This is from the January 15th shoot. With all the "campus beautification" going on, we've been limited on where we can shoot on campus. I chose to work with this construction, because it can make a good juxtaposition to the model.


Model: Kimmy Tran
Comments: I decided to go to denton one day to take photos of my friend, kimmy, and we find a good field to shoot in. You can see one of my strobe lights in the background actually, but I cleared out the bar in photoshop.



Model: Charilyne Rojas
Comments: This is at Mockingbird station and I didn't use any strobe lights/reflectors.


Model: Quyen Nguyen
Comments: I revisited the park off campbell and jupiter, but in the daytime this time with my friend, Quyen.

More of my photos can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hubertduong/

Cookie cut your BG highlights, bokeh shapes

Every lens can create bokeh, it is the quality of bokeh which differs.
An old post but you can read how to make your own bokeh shapes here.
I'll post a picture after I find the necessary materials to do this.

Shoot from Wednesday

More from Alex, Daniel, and me later.
Model: Amelia

1/1000th 3.2 ISO 200
85mm
SB 24 @ 1/2 power, shoot through umbrella
triggered wired via pc sync cord

1/200th 4 ISO 200
85mm
SB 24 @ 1/2 power, shoot through umbrella
SB 80dx @ 1/32 power, bare, camera left

A sighting & Pop Talk Thursday

Just an observation outside of campus. Yeah, I spied for like 10 minutes from indoors looking out the window. I saw a lady photographer taking a corporate portraiture of a businessman by the outdoor water fountain beside the Richardson Public Library. Some equipment I saw, though I wished I grabbed my camera to spy. A triangle reflector some 60 inches high clamped to a light stand. A monolight? triggered by a cubish receiver, maybe pocket wizard. No power pack or electrical cords mounted to a wall so it seems all battery powered. Don't know what camera but it was on a tripod.
I noticed too that she demonstrated posing to the model by posing herself. Didn't catch audio. I think it's almost a secret how photographers communicate with models. No books or online articles showing this but a couple of videos do such as one in the Strobist DVDs. (The film lets run an entire photo shoot so you hear dialogue)
Seems the best way to get the inside scoop on photographer-model communication is to join us on our shoots on campus. Observe how we do things, impossible to be shown in tutorials or books.

Pop talk, I'll bring my gear Thursday from 3PM to 4PM and anyone is welcome to come and ask questions how we do things with our shoot. Will meet at the Patio at SU.
Pop...as in popping flashes.

One Year Ago

This video was made last year for PMA 2008 by DigitalCameraInfo. I wonder if there will be another video like this for PMA 2009, which starts on March 1st.

Camera show pictures

Good show, lots of interesting gear. I was able to get 30 ft of PC sync cables for $6 and a hotshoe to PC male adapter for $7.
Alex arrived at the same time as I did and got some lenses.
There were a couple of manual flashes that would've done nicely with our kind of shoots but I already have more than enough. Small gallery of our visit here.

Used gear this weekend at Grapevine

Just wanted to repeat that there is a camera show this Saturday and Sunday. Seems I will be going sometime on Sunday. Also if you plan to go, research older gear for your camera make. You might find something interesting there but have no idea how acclaimed or bogus rated it is.
See here for more info.

Lighting study

I proceeded with test shots to get lighting down, posing not considered at this time.

I guessed a shutter/ aperature combo. I first used 1/1000th at f8.0 but the image came out too dark. ISO is at 200 since that is as low as my D70 will go. I used an SB-24 @ 1/4 power diffused on a silver 43" umbrella.

This is my second frame, this time at 1/1000th and f4.5. The image is too light this time because of the open aperature; it caused too many highlights on the shirt.

This is my fourth frame. 1/640th at f 5. I got the lighting settings down in 34 secs. I subtracted the time between the 4th frame and 1st frame as indicated in EXIF -- this is an instance where I would not need a light meter, of ANY KIND! Any adjustments made afterward was to change the ambient lighting, or feel of the atmosphere.

I asked Sheila to tighten up her scarf, move hair to one side, and some other details, but not all, and then took this picture. 1/500th at f 5.

Thanks, Sheila.

My First Post

I was invited to a photo shoot last Thursday by Long and had a chance to take a crack at some black and white photography. It was a bit of a departure from the norm for me since I usually shoot in color, but our model Julian had a lot of great facial features that, surprisingly, looked even better in B&W. Check him out, here's Julian.

We began began with his eye glasses on.


Then removed them and discovered these great contours around his eyes and cheeks. In addition to the strobe used to highlight the right hand side of his face, we also tried to reveal more of his left hand side (and more of those great contours) by filling it in with a second strobe.


Long also took a quick shot of Julian with my camera under a same exposure but in a different pose. Very dashing.


For my first shot at B&W photography, I'd say it went pretty well. Many thanks to Julian and his infinite patience.

Doug Kim

Building up a lighting kit

Here are my recommendations for a portable, one light/flash kit.
#1
Westcott light stand 7.5 ft $29.90 free ship

#2
Impact umbrella adapter $13.95 + $4.95 ship

#3
Your choice of flash (if going the manual route) ~$100 used
Look on ebay for an SB-24, SB-28, SB-28dx, or SB-80dx.
Since they already have a PC port, you won't likely need to buy any adapters.

#4
Westcott silver lined umbrella 43" $20.20 + $4.95 ship

#5
Your choice of flash trigger $20 - $250

I currently use the recommended light stand, umbrella adapter, and silver umbrella. This is good for starters. If you already have a flash lying around, you might need an adapter for the flash to communicate with your chosen triggering system; different flashes will probably need different adapters - some universal, some proprietary. I recommend the flashes listed in #3 because they have PC ports built in and almost all triggers come with some way of connecting to the PC port.

A miscellaneous observation

I have been seeing recurring reports, comments, predictions, claims, etc. across the Nikonians message board that Nikon gear is going up in price (and may continue) due to economy. But don't let that affect our shoots.
Anyways, Alex suggested that we lure more models to our shoots by displaying "free photos" in large writing during our shoots. I'll give that a try on our next get together.

Shoot from Thursday 15th

Hubert directing

We thank the models for sharing their time with us.



Finding suitable poses for models have not yet become second nature to me yet. I hope the other photographers are getting better results. Anyone is welcome to schedule photo shoots, just let us know and we can make it happen.

North Park Mall Shoot

So none of the other people in the club post on this except me and Long! :( Sadly, one of the club members, Eugene Lee, is moving on to new and better things and has gotten a job in New York. You can see his photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/nokturnull/.

Anyways, as Long stated earlier, we did a shoot at North Park Mall in the courtyard at the request of one of our models for the day. *Note* nobody we have taken pictures of are professional models, they're all either friends or random people from UTDallas. A new member, Alex Chi also joined us and you can see his photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/30596419@N05/ . Daniel Song also joined us and his photos are here: http://flickr.com/photos/danielsong/ . My own photos are here: http://flickr.com/photos/hubertduong/ and these are some select photos of mine:


Model: Teresa Nguyen
Comments: I crouched at a lower angle to get this shot. I made sure Teresa was in the path of the sun so it'd be illuminating her back and pointed a strobe camera-right towards her side as you can tell from the shadow. Also, I put a strobe at full power camera-left with a softbox on it.



Model: Teresa Nguyen
Comments: Strobe + softbox camera-left at full power and one camera-left behind the model pointed towards her at full power.


Model: Teresa Nguyen
Comments: I used a silver reflector on this one.



Model: Teresa Nguyen
Comments: Going to the mall was a good idea, because we got to work with this oversized safety pin. :) Strobe + softbox camera-left at full power and one camera-left behind the model pointed towards her at full power.



Model: Melanie Yenchai
Comments: I attemped to hold a reflector with my feet while I took this photo of Melanie at the Ft. Worth Zoo inside a carriage. Click here to go to the set on flickr.

Grapevine Camera show Jan 31 - Feb 1

I've been to this show three times in the past. Many individual and small business sellers but no big name companies I've seen before. It is a large convention hall where 30+ tables are set up. People sell camera gear; they come from in state and out of state. Most is old, used, and maybe collectible. It does not mean its all bad. You can bargain and try out lenses if you bring your own camera. I will be attending to search for a long PC male to PC male sync cord for wired flash triggering. And maybe I might get some old manual lenses.
Don't expect the latest and greatest from this show. It is mostly old gear.

It's five dollars to get in but here is a dollar off coupon.
Saturday 10am - 5pm and Sunday 10am - 3pm

Dress warm, shoot on Thursday

We'll have model Maria to help us try out posing and lighting techniques.
Starts at 1PM and will last till 3PM. I will be at the PATIO at the Student Union at 12PM if people want to meet up with me ahead of time to learn lighting basics so I can lend you my flashes to work with during the shoot.
If there is a change in time, I'll contact everyone to let you know the change.
call or email if you have questions.
214 718 2387
lpn071000@utdallas.edu

Friday 9th shoot

Hubert invited some of us to a shoot at North Park Mall.




You can see my small gallery here.

We might see images/links from other photographers who attended.

Good gosh. Daniel, Hubert, and me in another photo class.

Nikon SC-28 TTL off camera cord for sale - $40

I'm selling one of my less used gear. Everything you see in the picture is included. email sdfcommander2003@yahoo.com or call 214 718 2387Classifieds, welcome.

the second half of december: Hubert's Pictures

Ai Vuong and Sharon Park

I was able to get Daniel Song (club member) out to take photos with me on this shoot. You can see them at: http://flickr.com/photos/danielsong/ The models are a couple of friends of mine. Generally all of the people in my photos are friends of mine since I'm trying to take photos of people I'm familiar with. Anyways, we decided to go to the urban reserve, because I saw a nice picture of it in Paper City Magazine. Unfortunately it wasn't completely built yet, but it was intestering enough.



Model: Sharon Park
Comments: So Sharon has a scarf and she decided to tie it around her head and I also had a plastic pirate sword in my car for some reason and we had fun with it. :)


Model: Sharon Park
Comments: Although there were a few beautiful houses there, we decided to take pohotos in front of this reflective trailer.


Model: Ai Vuong
Comments: Ai decided to crawl into this and injure herself, hehe.

Max Roycroft and Kenneth

Eugene Lee (Club Member) went with me on this shoot. You can see his photos at http://flickr.com/photos/nokturnull/ . We took photos of Max Roycroft and his son, Kenneth, around the downtown Rowlett area.

Model: Max Roycroft and Kenneth
Comments: I used one strobe for this at 1/8th power. The nice ladies at Fronce' Frog Boutique allowed us to take photos inside their store.


Model: Kenneth
Comments: I grabbed a toy chainsaw from Max's house for the photoshoot and luckily we found an area with a bunch of broken trees.

Model: Kenneth
Comments: Eugene is hiding in the back with a strobe pointed at kenneth to achieve this type of lighting.

Amanda Phi

Eugene Lee (Club Member) went with me on this shoot. You can see his photos at http://flickr.com/photos/nokturnull/ . We decided to got o Los Colinas for this shoot.


Model: Amanda Phi
Comments: I think this is where a snoot for my strobe would of come in handy. Anyways, thanks to Eugene Lee and Laura Cromartie for throwing leaves, hehe.


Model: Amanda Phi
Comments: We used some mask that I bought from an italian sculpture store.


http://flickr.com/photos/hubertduong/