Ghosts

During today's floral shoot my first shot was this buttonhole

It might look OK but on closer inspection the edges of the petals (especially noticeable on the inner most petals) had a ghost image...

 

I had the camera on a tripod, shooting with a cable, mirror up, indoors, no movement. The exposure was 2 seconds using flash plus two continuous lights on the background.

The 2 second exposure was to get the background ambient-light closer to white, the flash should make the subject exposure about 1/700 sec. If I shot at 1/160 the ghost went away.

It had me foxed for a while, head scratching, trying to figure out where the ghost came from.

Solution: I am using a tripod and I had forgotten to turn off the lens Image Stabiliser. I have read that IS can generate image movement when the camera is on a tripod; I would usually switch it off but often forgot and had never noticed it before.

I find it interesting that the ghost was only noticeable when I had a long exposure, perhaps that was why I had not seen it before.

Specifications: Canon 5DMkII and Canon 24-105L IS lens at 105mm, f/22, ISO 100

Dream Images 2

Some more dream examples

These have been created using only Lightroom (V4)

Irene Froy - Pastels

Yesterday I attended an interesting presentation by Irene Froy, "Pastels and More". Irene talked us through a collection of prints and walked - ran :-) - through the Photoshop process of several of the images turning them from straight prints to pastel, dream-like prints.

Today I started experimenting with her techniques for pastel images. Initial results below, Clearly I need to put in a lot more work.

Irene explained that the initial image should not be too contrasty, the flatter the better (mist and rain are good.) Being a fair-weather photographer I don't have too many of these to work with so did the best I could.

I have created my masks quickly as this is only an initial experiment to accustom me to the techniques, these are not meant to be final images or even the images I would use in anger. I would need to take images specifically with the end result in mind.

Click any image to view larger.

Original

Result

Original

Result

Original

Result

Please visit Irene's web site for examples of how this technique should be done.

Wedding Promotion

Wedding Promotion

Sweet Rose Floral Designer and Veedub (VW Occassion Hire) were holding a wedding promotion event in Bedford (UK) this weekend.

It was a little cold, overcast and damp. I took a few photos for them first thing this morning. Cropping close to avoid the clutter around their stand.

Forget Mugshots - Book Review

Forget Mugshots - David Duchemin

From Craft And Vision

David, with this book, continues to enlighten and encourage photographers in the art of portraiture. In over 30 pages he covers 10 topics to help everyone improve their pictures.

His topics include relating to the subject, the moment, the lens, multiple frames, how to identify a genuine smile, eyes, light, backgrounds, positions and posing. Anecdotes are carefully chosen to not only be interesting but also to reinforce each point.

With each topic David describes how to approach and accomplish this point, some inspiring example images, example settings and a creative exercise. The book can be read again and again and with these exercises can be used as a practical teacher, reinforcing what you have just learned.

If you are already an accomplished portrait photographer you may not learn many new things although the book can still be an enjoyable read. Raw beginners will want to start with an easier book as here David assumes you already know how to use your camera. For everyone else I would be very surprised if this book did not earn its keep.

For less than the price of a typical monthly photographic magazine this book is amazing value for money. The e-book sells for $5
 

Click here to visit Craft And Vision.