A Photo Day at the Don Valley Brick Works

Posted on December 7, 2012 by owencherry

Portt and I had a great photo adventure at the Brick Works this past May. Naturally, we were armed with way more gear than we should have been. Although far more developed than the last time I’d visited (over 10 years ago) there are still many cool details that reflect how the building once was.

Here are a few shots with the D7000 and Nikon 35mm f/1.8

And some HDRs with the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8

This next shot was with the D300s and 17-55. I’m using two lights, controlled by CLS and triggered from the onboard flash. The rim light, coming from the back right of the image is a snooted SB-700 at +1EV. The main light is a SB-900 with full CTO gel through a Lumiquest Softbox LTz at +3EV. Exposure compensation on the camera was dialed down to -2EV to dim the ambient and WB was set to Tungsten to cool everything down.

This setup is extremely portable. Two small light stands and two Speedlights. The Lumiquest snoot and softbox both fit in the laptop slot of my camera bag.

Finally, here are couple shots with the Bronica ETRS. First, with the 75mm f/2.8 EII and second with the 40mm f/4 MC.

Thanks for looking!

Cheltenham Badlands in Winter

Posted on December 7, 2012 by owencherry

Winter isn’t normally a time when one visits the Badlands near Cheltenham, ON. In the spring/summer/autumn they are covered with a swarm of GTA weekend tourists making it difficult to get any shot without people. I grew up in the area and much of my family still lives near there so I get to see the bizarre, red elephant backs throughout the year. Last weekend, on the way to visiting family, I was treated to a beautiful dusting of snow on the north side of the ridges. Better still, there was not a soul to be seen!

Here are some shots with the D300s and Tokina 11-16/2.8 (first two), the Sigma 50/1.4 (third) and Tokina 50-135/2.8 (fourth). I love how out of place these images are with southern Ontario and how only the occasional footprint gives them a sense of scale.

After the Parade

Posted on December 7, 2012 by owencherry

A few weeks ago, Mitzy and I went to Montreal for her birthday. After a walk through Parc Lafontaine we planned to hit up St Catherine for some shopping. Instead, we ran straight into the Santa Clause Parade. The sea of people was impenetrable, so we headed south to Chinatown. On the way I was lucky enough to grab a quick shot of this group of raggedy haired girls waiting for their bus. I was even more lucky to have the girl on the right look right at me and awkwardly smile. The super-fast autofocus of the D300s and Sigma 50mm f/1.4 combo also helped.

Fun with Velvia

Posted on December 7, 2012 by owencherry

Over the past year I’ve been borrowing my uncle George’s Bronica ETRS as a fun diversion from the world of digital. I’ve shot about 10 rolls with the camera now and I’m loving the camera. It’s taught me to slow down and think hard about each shot. A roll of 120 film only has 15 shots on it, requiring considerably more focus than shooting digital (or a willingness to waste a lot of film). This summer I had four rolls of slide film developed at Dwayne’s in Kansas, two rolls of Provia 100 and two of Velvia 100, and tonight I finished scanning the last roll.

Here’s an image that anybody following my Flickr site will recognize, since I also shot it digitally and with my Nikon N80. This is with the MC 40mm f/4.

I think of all the versions of the image, this Velvia shot is my favourite. The tones are natural and soft. I did have to bump up the foreground with curves and a gradient mask. I also painted in a flat curve with ‘Screen’ blending over the waterfall and trees along the horizon. It’s a shame that I didn’t take this photo a few minutes earlier, as the setting sun reflects from just a small patch at the far end of the falls The next two were taken in my mom’s garden on Velvia with the 75mm f/2.8 EII

The next two photos show the dual nature of the MC 40mm bokeh. On some images, like the first, it is incredibly harsh. I find it almost painful to look at, although the sharp bricks in the foreground really pop with a 3D effect. The image of the barbed wire shows that the bokeh can occasionally be nice with this lens. The downside to shooting film, of course, is that it took me months to even see what kind of images this lens could produce. Now that I have a better gauge of the lens’s strong points (sharpness, distortion, colour) and weak points (bokeh, vignetting with filters) I’ll be able to use it more effectively.

Thanks for looking!

“Vintage Faded” Look

Posted on December 5, 2012 by owencherry

Lately I’ve been playing with a “vintage faded” editing technique, where I push the shadows and pull the highlights so they clip early. Combined with a bit of cross-processing using the new RGB curves in Lightroom 4, I’m getting close to a look I’m happy with.

I’m finding that the RBG curve tool is extremely sensitive… moving a point on the curve has a strong impact on the image. When focusing on a single image there’s no problem. When trying to batch convert or save a generic preset I find that a curve that looks great on one image looks terrible on another. Maybe I should create a series of curve presets with increasing strength.