NYChildren

Photograph one child from every country on earth. Each child lives in New York City.
This in an interesting concept by Danny Goldfield. But so far I can’t see any Swedish, Norwegian or Danish children. Maybe you can?

http://www.nychildren.org/

I wan’t that 5DII!

Wauv! It’s been a while since the last post! But now the topic is the same again: The Canon 5D Mark II.
New York freelance photographer, Robert Caplin, used a Canon 5D Mark II to produce a music video for his sister Etana.
I Wan’t this camera!

See it here on sportsshooter.com (open a new window) – http://www.sportsshooter.com/special_feature/caplin_thistime/index.html

This Time - Robert Caplin Video

EOS 5D Mark II

Go and see the new sample video from the new Canon Eos 5D MKII. It’s made by Vincent Laforet and it is awesome! See it here >>:

Sharpness

Again, I’m impressed about the sharpness and ammount of details when seeing the results from the 70-200mm 2.8 IS zoom.

This is an older image from 2004 (I think) and it is Kira Skov from ‘Kira And Tge Kindred Spirits’. She is is naturally beautiful – and the 70-200mm does not let anyone in doubt.

New gear – lastolite EzyBox

I just picked up these two babies. I’ve allways wanted to shoot portraits, but the Profoto and Bowens equipment are a rather large investment for me right now. So I’m hoping this will make a nice alternative until my money-situation is better.

Now I’m testing them to see how handy they are when packing them with all the other gear in a camera bag.
I will be back as soon as possible with some photos made with them……

How to: Sekonic Flashmate L-308S

I have had the Sekonic Flashmate L-308S for almost two years now. But it has’nt been my best friend – I’m not familiar with it. I think I know how to use it, but the results is’nt any good.

Do you have any tricks or how-to’s? Some say the built-in lightmeter in a camera is allways the best. Others say a lightmeter is more reliable.

Any help?

Big and heavy – but I love it

Yesterday I was shooting a fashion show in central Copenhagen. The theme was recycling and fair trade. I was there to photograph the models. The weather was warm and the sun was shining…hard! So I experimented with flash to avoid harsh shadows. It worked out fine in half of the photos.

I know now that I have to bring two camera houses when doing fashion work with models. I usually position myself at the end on the ‘runway’ and the girls ends up pretty close to me – almost to close when using the 70-200mm 2.8.

The photo above was made when the girl was within 5 meters. The shutter speed was 1/5000 sec. and the aperture 3.2. The fast shutter has obviously something to do with the sharpness. It’s a crop of the original shot witch is 4 or 5 times bigger than this. See below.

Though the 70-200mm 2.8 IS is big and heavy it’s it is worth the effort. Without a doubt.

Note to: Sexual herassment

Today DR is bringing a story on sexual herassment on the website www.dr.dk. The funny thing is that the photo they bring is just like mine on the same topic I posted here March 7. The setup: hand slapping the woman’s behind must be universal

See it here:
http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2008/04/26/200053.htm

High-speed flash

When working outside in bright sunshine, I find it difficult not overexposing the sky. If I’m doing a portrait and measure on the person the sky almost always wash out completely. And that’s bad because a nice saturated blue sky is always ‘a hit’.

Yesterday I was on a job shooting a group portrait of three cabel workers. It was outside next to their company car. The sun was shining and I had the 24-70mm 2.8 zoom attached to my 5D. Pointing at the guys and the car the meter said something like 1/125 and f/3.2 at ISO 200. If I was to aviod the blue sky from washing out the measuring had to be something like 1/1000 and f/4. That meant two exposure values to far from each other. Neither one would do any good if I was to do it in one shot without flash.

Then I tried with flash. But it didn’t work out with the x-sync at only 1/200. Still to much light. I finally went for the high-speed setting on my 580EX. I remembered that with this setting any shutter speed can be used. A setting at 1/400 and f/6.3 with the flash at -3 produced the best result. I still miss some saturation in the sky, but going for a faster shutter speed would mean more flash and maybe reflexes in the mens faces and the car. Besides that, a nice blue sky is always done with a high shutter speed

Canon Eos 5D, 24-70mm 2.8, 1/400 and f/6.3 ISO 200 with the flash at -3

Canon Eos 5D, 24-70mm 2.8, 1/125 and f/3.2 ISO 200

The last photo clearly show that the sky is almost burned away due to the slow shutter speed – washed out.

Low light scenarios

Two days ago I went to this break dance event. Break dance is coming back up to the surface now after years, and that’s great!

I was disappointed though about the poor lighting conditions. So I went deep into my camerabag for my flash. After just one shot with it, breakers came up to my deeply concerned and saying they would prefer that I did’nt used it. “It’s really a bad thing for us! It breaks our concentration”. I said that it was almost impossible to shoot without it due to the low light. We finally came to an agreement and I turned the flash down by -3. Still it was a hard task to get a decent photo of the fast moving breakers.

Canon Eos 5D, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM @ 1/100 sec. f/2.8, Speedlite 580 sat to -3.

Though I tried shooting with less flash, others did not. Maybe I should care about myself and do like he did.

My question is: How do you deal in situations like this?

Canon Eos 5D, EF 50mm f/1.4L USM @ 1/200 sec. f/1.4.

Later on the evening I did this photo. It was on a scene and the lighting was far better.