Birthday photoshoot

On Saturday I did a photoshoot for my sisters friends 25th birthday. I didn't do anything special, just a quick shoot of everyone who wanted their picture taken. Since the room was kinda small, I didn't have much space to play around with the lights, but I think I did get some decent images and I hope the people who attended are happy with the photos.

 My setup was pretty simple. I used 2 studio lights and a speedlight for triggering. One light was set up right hand side of the subjects and the other was in front. The speedlight was on top of the camera, pointing to the ceiling. I used my Nikon 18-105mm VR since the room was kinda small. Otherwise, I would have used 50mm 1.8G, because I think it gives so much better looking images.

 I said on Friday that I might post some images on Sunday, but I just didn't have the time to process all the photos that fast. Now I'm finished processing, so here's some of them :) 2 of the photos here are actually made with 50mm 1.8G before the party.

Lowepro fastpack 350AW

 Fastpack 350AW is a great backpack for traveling if you need to carry a lot of equipment. It's pretty big. It fits nicely all your first needed photography equipment(camera, lenses, flashes...). It also has a pocket for a 17" laptop and space for personal items(or whatever else you need to carry). You can also attach a tripod to the side of the bag with some straps. It's really awesome.
 Furthermore, this bag can be used in all weather. If it's really pouring, you can just pull out the bag cover from a small pocket underneath the bag, making it waterproof.

 I just got this bag today and it is even bigger than I imagined. I needed something where I could carry my photography stuff and personal items all in one bag when traveling. I looked around for some time and since I had heard good stuff about Lowepro before, I decided to get this one. It's my first camera backpack, so I really can't compare it with others. But what I have read elsewhere, it has served many people well, and they have been really glad to have this bag.

 Anyway, I'm sure I'll have many great trips with it, and I think that I won't run out of room too soon. :)

Here's some images I took of it

Tomorrow I'll have a small photoshoot for my sisters friends birthday. I will set up a small photo corner and then I can test out my studio lights :) I think you might see some images on Sunday.

Just a little longer

So here's a quick update. I ordered the D7100 in the end of last month with Tamron 24-70mm f2.8. I know my order has already arrived in Finland, and they tried to deliver it, but my relative is on a vocation right now :) So I'll get them on 1st or 2nd of March. Can't wait :D

 What I didn't say before is that, I also ordered a set of studio lights from Amazon. They have already arrived and I did a quick test with them. The lights are from a company called Walimex. In the set there was one 200W and a 400W light, 2x softboxes and 2x lightstands. I tested them to be sure everything was working and in order. I didn't know much about this set because there weren't any reviews about these products. But as much as I read about these lights on their site and compared to others out there, I thought these were the best for the money. First quick test showed me that I did a great purchase. But I think I still need to further test these out to get to really know them.

 First, the lightstands are pretty great, sturdy and heavy. They also have springs inside, so if I accidentally open the screw that holds the barrel up, it wont come down too hard and break my lights.
 The softboxes are also great. It was little hard to put together the first time, but I think I'm good now. The material seems very strong.
 The lights are made of rubbery plastic(felt a little like rubber when I held it). The modeling lights have 6 adjustable levels and are 150W. The flashes themselves go from 1/1 to 1/32. It can be set as a slave, so you can use other flashes to trigger it. It came with a long power cable and a flash sync cable. Also if you don't like it to beep every time you shoot, there is an option to turn it off.
 As i said, I still have to further test them. I'll post some images too when I do :)

Here's a link if anyone is interested: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Walimex-Pro-VE-200-Studioset-Softbox/dp/B004YITYJ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392574063&sr=8-1&keywords=walimex+ve200

And couple of images of the lights and a test shot:

Still waiting for my new stuff to arrive :) In the meanwhile working on my lightroom skills and learning new techniques.

Getting back into business :)

 It's been heck of a loong time since my last post here. Hopefully I'll be back online with some new photos and stories from time to time now. My good friend reminded me of what I was going for before I got into this slump.
 I have been out of photography since my last post pretty much. My motivation went down slowly, and last 2 months I haven't almost taken any photos. I started to forget the joy of photography. My friend, who is also a hobbyist, asked me a small loan, so she could buy herself a new camera. I gave her the loan, and by doing that, I started to look back at what I have created myself this past year. I saw that I did a lot of cool things and some great photos(atleast for me) :P and it brought back some old thoughts and feelings I had while doing all these things.
 I'm going to start all over with a new camera, and for the start, one new lens(whenever they arrive). I wanted to get a new camera already in last summer, but looking at the prices, I didn't want to invest into it just yet. I wanted to wait till it gets cheaper. Now, I started looking around the internet again and found a site where I can get it as cheap as it can get(probably). I'm going to get the Nikon D7100 to exchange my old D3100 out. Also, I'm going to get Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD. For me, it's a lot of money to invest, but if this helps me get my inspiration back, it's a small price to pay. New camera gives me a lot of new things to learn, and I'm already planning on what I'm going to shoot when I get it.
 I chose the D7100 because it gives me some things that I was missing when shooting with my D3100. For example: High speed flash sync. A lot of times I would have loved to use it, but there just wasn't this option on my camera. Also mic-in, since only one thing kept me from doing great videos. It was laziness. Laziness, because, if I wanted to get good quality sound, I'd have to record it on separate recorder device and then sync it with video later. I don't know why, but I never enjoyed doing that :P Then there is the better low light performance etc etc... You'll know when you have looked at what this camera is all about.
 I chose Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 because, it has a nice range and really great quality of what I have seen. Also the aperture of 2.8 all the way :)
 Right now it's all lagging behind the payment for the camera and lens because this company wont ship to Estonia. I have some family in Finland and I'm trying to buy it through them. Just some delays because of bank problems, which will be figured out tomorrow I hope :)

Wow I had a lot to tell today :D
Anyway, hope to be back soon and with my new setup!!

Macro reverse ring

 I haven't been very active here in Blogger lately. Sorry about that. But I didn't forget about photography. I have still been doing some macro photos, and now I took it to the next level.

 I want to tell you about a great little thing called "macro reverse ring". What it basically does is, you can reverse your lens on your camera, so the front element of the lens faces the camera sensor. This lets you get really close to your subjects and give you better magnification, so you get cheap yet reliable macro lens of your, for example, kit lens. I bought it for 9.90€, so it was cheap.

 The reverse ring screws directly to your lens filter slot. As seen in the picture:

Shooting with the lens

When it comes to shooting with this lens, with the reverse ring on, it gets a bit more difficult than usual photography. Since you need to get really close to your subjects, it's harder to get the results you want. There are few reasons for that:

*When getting close to your subject, for example a fly, it will get scared and fly away, you have to be extremely patient and move slowly. Before, I used my Tamron 18-200mm, and the minimum range it could focus was 35cm, with the reverse ring, my kit lens focuses at less than 5cm or so.
*You pretty much can't use a tripod when shooting in closest range you can get, since the tripod will just get in the way in most cases. You can however find something to lean on.
*You have to manually adjust your aperture with the little slider in the back of your lens. Since the lens is reversed, all you can set up in you camera is shutter speed and ISO.

There may be other reasons also that I can't think right now...


Using the flash

 I mostly use my flash as a primary source of light, so I can totally freeze the moment. Since I don't have the high speed flash sync, I can't go over 1/200th shutter speed when using flash. It's usually enough, but sometimes when you have some wind or the subjects move around too much, you will see the movement on the image. For that I use my flash at 1/4 to1/1 power. I completely underexpose my image and the flash corrects the exposure for me(without the flash the image is almost completely dark). Since the flash goes off for so short time, it helps get the image easier even when the object is moving.

Overall, the reverse macro ring was a great buy. I get so much closer to the subjects, and I love the images I can make with this. Really recommend you try it also if you have a DSLR and a kit lens or something lying around the house.

Some images taken with the lens reversed

The amazing Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 VC Di USD

Recently I've been looking to buy a new lens. I wanted something that has really nice image quality and which isn't too expensive. I came across this Tamron 70-300 f/4-5.6 VC Di USD. Read some good things about it, but wasn't sure, if it really was that good, so I decided to borrow and try it for a day.

Pros:
*Really inexpensive
*Fairly light compared to size
*VC work really well
*Image quality is very nice
*Focusing and zoom ring move very smoothly
*Has vignetting, but that doesn't bother me
*Focus speed is ok, but not the fastest
*Nice zoom range

Cons:
*Feels plasticky
*The VC makes some noise
*Chromatic aberration

 So, I did a series of tests, and came to conclusion that this lens performs really amazingly. I tested the aberration, image quality, vignetting and distortion. I have to say that it passed all my needs for a lens.
  The image quality is great.
  There is some vignetting, but it isn't too bad. After f/11 it was completely gone and even at f/4 there was very little of it.
  There is aberration though, you can mostly remove it with some editing, but sometimes, in the most extreme cases, you have to make the best you can, but you'll still have some.

                        Chromatic aberration tests

70mm, 1/500, f/7,1, iso200

70mm, 1/1000, f/4, iso200

70mm, 1/640, f/5.6, iso200

300mm, 1/640, f/5.6, iso200

300mm, 1/400, f/7.1, iso200

Distortion

Wont post the vignetting test photos, because there will be too many of them, and they are boring :) Instead, I'll just post some images of Tallinn and some other things, so you'll see how nice images I produced with this lens.

These are all straight from the camera
only saved them to jpeg

In the end, I decided I wouldn't buy this lens. I can't spend any money right now. But in the future, if I have any free money, I will certainly consider this one. And, I recommend it to anyone who are looking for great zoom.