Bacon Lettuce Photo

by Joe

The image is part of a series called watch. Sometimes you get a vague suspicion that you’re being observed, and I was/am trying to relay that feeling with this series. It’s not particularly strong on its own this way, but I’m planning to have the rest of the series finished sometime this summer.

As for the technical aspects, it was fairly quick and dirty. I used 2 Nikon SB800 speedlights triggered via CLS. One was set on the ground behind the crate and aimed through the handles to cast the shadows. It was set to 1/4 and had a florescent gel on it. The second light was fired into a wall at camera left about chest level at [I think] 1/64 power and had an amber gel. I used a Nikon D300 and 28mm f2.8 prime - the exposure was 1/250th at f8 to kill ambient light and provide the depth of field I wanted. Also, shot in 14-bit to retain better colour tonality and shadow detail.
For processing, I did minor curves and white-balance adjustments in Adobe Lightroom 2, exported as a 16-bit TIFF. Then, some selective dodging to the tv and legs, and colour balance adjustments in Photoshop CS3.

Lighting, whether natural or artificial, is the most important element of photography. Lighting can create the mood and add an element of emotion to your images. This is a perfect image to display the eerie feeling created by just adding some lighting.

Make sure to check out Levi’s blog to see what else he’s up to. Also his awesome Royksopp post.

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by Joe

I like street photography because I find fascinating how many expressions, feelings and emotions human beings can ‘create’ and how many ways we have to convey them. In my recent works, and in this picture, I am trying to capture the ways we can make an emotional impact on the world around them with something else other than our faces… with our mere presence, with our gestures, positions, movements, shadows, silhouettes…

This photo was taken in Trafalgar Square, London.
I wanted to get this low angle feel so I went down just a few steps on one of the square staircases so to have the camera (with my 50mm f1.4) almost level with the ground.

The main message I wish to convey through this photo is the juxtaposition of two status of the human existance: who stays still, observes, waits, maybe unable to move… and who, even struggling, tries to move on.

Stunning black and whites. What I admire most about Fabuchan’s style of photography is that it’s very natural, lots of contrast, and he’s not afraid to point the camera at someone. Even I have a hard time doing that in fear of offending or getting a stink eye.

Here are some specs on the image:
Exposure: 1/5000 sec
Aperture: f/1.4
ISO: 200

Because Fabuchan has so many great photos, I’ve decided to insert a slideshow showing some of his other works:

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by Joe

Shot this one in Rome at the end room of “Musei Vaticani”.
Use a wide angle lens on my nikon d300 (Sigma 10-20 mm )
Exposure: 0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 10 mm
EV: -0.30
ISO: 640

I love this staircase, I recognized it immediately as the one belonging to the Vatican I visited a couple years ago. The black and white gives the photo a feel of antiquity. The grain in the wood and detail of the embossed staircase. Well done Federico.
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by Joe

It was a dark and stormy day in rural Pennsylvania… hazy in more ways than one as we returned from the Roy Pitz Brewing Company in Chambersburg. My girlfriend and I have both been shooting digital for a few years now and whenever we travel it ends up taking twice as long because we shoot everything (30,000 photos in the last 18 months).

Cut to the chase: Over the hills in the distance we caught sight of clouds rushing down the side of a mountain.

Me: “Get off at the next exit!”
Girlfriend: “Are you sure? You don’t even know where we are?”
Me: “Just get off and go north.”

After a series of U turns and backtracking we end up coming over the crest of this hill and knew I was in the right spot.

Truth be told, I’m not 100% happy with the outcome of this shot, but I love the mood and the texture. Its an HDR (5 exposures - blended with photomatix) shot with a sigma 10-20. I love shooting from the hip or setting the camera down with this lens.

Note: Its important to have a spotter when laying down in the road

Thanks Marty, this is a great example of an HDR. Very well done with nice perspective, angle, and point of view.

The best program for creating HDR’s is photomatix. It is payware but definitely worth it.

by Joe

I took this photo of Hilary at 1:30 on a very bright and sunny day. Walking through a garden we came across a path under a bridge. I asked Hilary to step into the shade and took the shot. A lot of the light in the photo is sunlight reflected off the pavement. I love how the other side of the bridge frames her into the photo.

In photoshop I used a pair of Hue Saturation Lightness layers to convert to black and white and a curves layer for the split-tone.

Jason Samsa
jasonsamsa.com

Nikon D300
Nikkor 24-70mm at 55mm
f/2.8 @ 1/1250 sec.
RAW conversion using Adobe Camera Raw CS3