Flash Photography with Cristian - Part 1

No picture today, the weather was not great and I was not inspired. Instead you get a free flash workshop. :)

Imagine you are out with friends drinking and want to take some pictures, I know this is not difficult to imagine. Now, you have basically two options, you can use the on-board flash:


...ugh, maybe not.

You could boost the ISO and get a picture with a lot of noise:


This is much better but still not great.

Now you are out of options or are you?

Well, you could try to use a huge external flash and bounce it but seriously, would you want to carry this on a night out? Most likely not.

There is however another way to get great pictures and all it requires are things you would already have if you are out drinking with friends, beers and other colored drinks. If your camera has a pop-up flash (which most proper cameras have) you can use it together with your drinks to create great flash images.




All you have to do is enable the flash and hold a glass in front of the flash but not the lens and take your picture (see the 2nd picture in this post). Hold it as close as possible to avoid shadows but even with shadows it you can create great effects.


Try experimenting with different colored drinks and have fun but drink responsibly or you won't have enough of the drinks left to take more pictures. ;)

Mayday Protesters

Yesterday, I got my new Olympus 14-42mm m4/3 lens. While it's pretty plasticky and a very slow kit lens with f3.5-f5.6 it is small enough when collapsed and good as an all-rounder lens for holidays, it was also cheap enough. Still, I hope either Olympus or Panasonic will release a decent zoom lens for m4/3 like the one on the LC1 and not more of these useless slow kit lenses.
Today, I got the chance to try out the lens and take some pictures of the May Day protests. It performed very well although the zoom was counter intuitive for me since it's the 'wrong way round' compared to the LC1. It would have also been nicer if it would ocus faster or at least not be so slow when zoomed in.
Still, I really like it and would recommend it over the Panasonic kit lens because of the size and cheaper price. Sure, the Panasonic is optically better and has IS but neither are good or fast enough so I rather take the smaller and lighter lens.

Don't ask me how but all pictures I selected for this series ended up being taken at 84mm, will post more at different focal lengths in the next days.

Enjoying the Conversation

GF1, f6.3, 1/80, ISO 200, RAW, 40mm

Today I got the chance to go to the top of the Gherkin Tower during lunch. Unfortunately the weather was not great but it was still very nice and the glass roof certainly gives a different atmosphere.

Looking Up/Down

GF1, f2.8, 1/250, ISO 400, JPG, 40mm

Tower Bridge

GXR, f6.3, 1/570, ISO 200, JPG, 50mm

Just some fun with the color modes of the GXR. It is great that Ricoh offers this much customization as it allows for some interesting effects, shame this is burried so deep into the menu system to be more usable.

1.. 2.. He's after you

GF1, f6.3, 1/500, ISO 100, JPG, 40mm

In the last time I did not get arund to post much on other blogs and did not always reply straight away to comments on my blogs, although I have been folowing them. I tried to catch up with a few things and spend less time in front of a computer.
I will start posting more on other blogs and will ry to keep my responses more timely. Thanks for all your comments.

Island in the Sky

GXR, f7.1, 1/1620, ISO 200, RAW

London Marathon 2010

A small series of this year's Virgin London Marathon 2010. All pictures are taken with the Panasonic LC1, my favorite camera for these events despite the very slow AF.

5 Macros

After doing a pretty bad job with the new Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro lens last week, I had to go out again and try to master it. Now I got more of a feel for the lens and how to use it better, which means mostly avoiding using it at f2.8 ;).

I have decided to post a small series with some of the pictures I took around Greenwich park today. All are JPGs out of the camera and I like the results a lot more than last weeks pictures.

Deliveryknight

GXR, f5.6, 1/250, ISO 200, JPG, 50mm

Blue Shirt

GXR, f6.3, 1/176, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm

Two Guys

GRD III, f6.3, 1/310, ISO 64, RAW

Street photography or picture taken on the street?
Whatever it is, it is not a very good picture ányway but will help me for my Street photography workshop as an example of bad street photography. ;)

Now the reason why I posted this picture is to hear your thoughts on what is good street photography and what is bad street photography?

The Boat

GF1, f16, 1/2000, ISO 160, JPG b&w, 100mm (Canon f1.8 50mm FD)

Crushed

GF1, f2.8, 1/1300, ISO 320, JPG, 40mm

Fun the Sun

GF1, f4, 1/160, ISO 200, JPG, 100mm (Sigma f2.8 50mm Macro MD)

While in town yesterday, I bought a new lens for my GF1. I really llike the adapters you can find for it and the wide variety of lenses you can use on the GF1. This for me is exactly the reason why the m4/3 format is currently the best format if you want a high quality compact camera with large sensor.
It is just so much fun to look for old lenses and see the different character they give to pictures.

There are also challenges to overcome when using these lenses, like the Sigma f2.8 50mm Macro lens for MD mount I got. It is really a very nice lens but quite heavy and big on the GF1. This is not the biggest problem, it is more getting anything in focus when using it wide open at the closest distance. The DOF is so shallow that it is impossible to get any decent pictures while handholding it. This is part of the fun however for me to try and master this lens.

Wheel in the Sky

GF1, f9, 1/3200, ISO 100, JPG, 40mm

Businessman

GF1, f5, 1/500, ISO 200, JPG 1:1, 40mm

Anticipation

GF1, f2.8, 1/640, ISO 200, RAW, 40mm

Nobody Around

GF1, f5, 1/20, ISO 400, JPG, 40mm

In Between

GRD III, f3.5, 1/320, ISO 64, RAW, 8.4mm

I recently received an email about my review of the Raynox QC-303 adapter and how it works on the GRD III. This prompted me to try it out, it has been a while since I last used it and I never used it on the GRD III.
Still, I wanted to also try something slightly different and thought of using the text mode with this but it was not really that interesting. This picture in b&w is closer to what I had in mind.

Covered

GXR S10, f4.1, 1/36, ISO 238, RAW, 50mm

Wasp

GXR, f6.3, 1/164, ISO 200, JPG, 50mm

Locked Out

LC1, f6.3, 1/80, ISO 100, JPG, 90mm

Waiting for the Train

GF1, f1.4, 1/160, ISO 800, JPG b&w, 80mm (Voigtländer Nokton f1.4 40mm M)

This picture was not taken today but almost a month ago. I posted it on request from Muddy to see how the b&w pictures from the GF1 come out with the Voigtländer Nokton f1.4 40mm lens. For this and because I had nothing better for today anyway.

Holding the Ladder

GRD, f4, 1/250, ISO 200, JPG b&w

People in Frankfurt

I decided to post a small series instead of only one picture today. No particular reason other than I wanted to give my impression on Frankfurt originaly but it ended up being only pictures of people.
Then again, don't people make a city to what it is? So maybe this gives a better impression of Frankfurt.

The Kiss

GRD, f3.2, 1/160, ISO 200, JPG b&w

Work has brought me to Frankfurt and while this is not as exciting as New York or a lot of other places, it is always great to travel and see different places. For photography every place can be interesting if you keep your eyes open.

On that note, Ricoh has asked me to hold a workshop on 'Street Photography with the Ricoh GXR and GRD', this workshop will be held at Foto Koch in Düsseldorf on the 29th May. You can find all the details here.
I am really excited about this and have to thank Ricoh for giving me this opportunity.

If you can't make the workshop or don't understand German, I am thinking of maybe organizing something with the LPMG at some point and might hold it again but this time in English.

There will also be a new Ricoh meetup, this has been long outstanding but due to the schedules of everyone involved it could not be done earlier. This time we have two possible locations with London and Amsterdam and might even have two separate meetups if the number of people justifies it. For all the details head over to the Ricohforum.

In a Bubble

GF1, f4, 1/1300, ISO 400, RAW, 40mm

Long Vehicle

GF1, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 100, JPG, 40mm

Dancing in the Street

GF1, f5.6, 1/1300, ISO 320, JPG, 40mm

Feeding Time

GF1, f5.6, 1/500, ISO 200, JPG, 40mm

Waiting

GF1, f4, 1/25, ISO 640, RAW, 100mm