Ghosts In The Machine
Finally got round to finishing off a roll of film I had sitting in my Lubitel 2 TLR Camera.
Lets just say it has a problem with light leakage… It did however give some interesting images with bits burned out of them…
Lubitel 2 Camera, Ilford FP4 125 ISO Film (expired) Shot at different ISO’s because I forgot what film was in the camera, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Negative Space Portrait
This is definitely one of my favourite shots that I have taken recently.
A portrait within a portrait…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Fuji Neopan 400 ISO Film, Canoscan 9000F Scanner.
More Scanner Action: Cemetery Panos
Still playing around with the new scanner and finally getting to scan some stuff which I havent been able to scan properly before like these cemetery shots from a Noblex Swing Lens camera.
I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed with the scanner in the fact it’s not really resolving the grain as much as I would like… maybe it just needs some tweaking and more experimentation… other than that its a really kick ass piece of kit! Scanning black and white as 16 bit image rocks!
All these image were taken just after the sun went down using Delta 3200 ISO film which makes them look a bit ethereal with no shadows.
Noblex 135U Camera, Ilford Delta 3200 ISO Film.
Just Uploaded 3 Photo5 Competition Entries
finally got round to uploading some of my Canon Photo5 Entries.
Single drop of water with a picture of a cityscape inside it hanging from the head of a pin.
Bubblegum Portrait
Incense Black and White
Still have to do:
Confetti Motion
Inspired by sound
Only about a week to go so will have to crank it up to get the last two done… Wish me luck
How It Was Done: Water Drop Shot
Ok so I havent done one of these in a while and the entry’s for the Photo5 competition have closed so theoretically no one can copy this for the competition.
Anyway here is the finished image that I submitted to the competition….
Competition Brief: Eye Dropper
This brief is asking you to use your lens to look closer. Use the eye dropper to place drops of liquid in any arrangement you want. You can use a single drop, or as many drops as you like.
And you’re not limited to just water – feel free to use liquids of different colours and consistencies, such as milk or tomato soup. Just make sure you get close.
OK that seems simple enough…
I had the idea to suspend a drop of water from the head of a pin and using a slide projector somehow get an image into the drop (at this point I want to say that using Photoshop wasnt an option that I really wanted to use).
Equipment Used: Kinderman Slide Projector, Nikon D70s with 50mm f1.8, 2 x Nikon PK13 and 1 x PK12 Extension Tubes, Tripod, Cullman Macro Rail, Various supports like chairs, 1 x Pin, Bluetac and a 42″ translucent reflector (used later on)… Oh and various slides.
So I set up the projector at the same height as the camera and blasted a slide onto the drop of water (which took at least 15 minutes to get to stay on the head of the pin) which produced the following image.
Even at 1/5000th of a second this was about as good as it got… Not really the look I was going for…
Step 2: Place a 42″ reflector in front of the projector to act as a screen… At the moment the projector is about 1.5 metres away from the water droplet.
Ok at this point I stop thinking “what the heck am I doing this is never going to work I must be crazy”! And start seeing a small glimmer of hope projected down a very bright slide projector.
However still not really what I had in mind when I initially set out.
Step 3: Time to move everything back away from the projector… now about 3 metres away still with the reflector in front acting as a screen.
I keep forgetting stuff… The slide was projected onto the screen upside down so that it was right side up in the droplet.
OK now we are cooking but still not quite right.
This is what the setup currently looks like (the images are from a point and shoot so sorry about quality/focus issues)
My studio is soooo sophisticated 🙂
Who needs a macro lens when you have a bazillion extension tubes…
Opps almost forgot to say that I added a small pop of speedlight at the pin just to give it a bit of a catch light.
Anyway I found that by moving a reflector backwards and forwards I could alter how much of the image would appear in the drop so after a lot of stuffing round (293 images from the first shot) this is the image that I liked the best…
This is the file straight off the camera with no processing
With a bit of straightening and a saturation boost and not to mention all the dust removal here we go 🙂
And before I forget here is a scan of the slide that I used…
All droplet shots on Nikon D70s with 50mm f1.8 Lens with 2 x Nikon PK13 + 1 PK12 Extension Tubes.
Last 2 Canon Photo5 Images
Here go the last two images I entered into the Photo5 competition.
If you missed the earlier ones they are here
Not quite as happy with these ones cause they were a bit rushed. I would have liked to have done the spray can one in The Alley but unfortunately time was against me.
f5.6 @ 1/40 Seconds
The one below is the inspired by sound entry but basically just turned into me having a bit of fun with Xmas lights, a power drill and some LED lights. It kinda fits the brief… Sort of 🙂
f11 @ 61 Seconds
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8, 200 Iso.
Nodal Ninja 360 Degree Panoramic Images
Wow! That title is a bit of a mouthful.
This week I have had the fun experience of borrowing a Nodal Ninja (or as Amanda calls it a “Noodle Ninja”)
For those of you who don’t know what this is… It’s basically a device that enables you to pivot around the absolute centre of your lens when you are taking images to stitch together.
unfortunately WordPress doesn’t display these too well since they are really wide, but you get the idea…
All the below images are made up of 22 images stitched together with Photoshop.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, Nodal Ninja, Induro Tripod.
Canon Photo5 Competition Registration
Just sent off pre-registration for this years Canon EOS Photo5 competition (Click here for last years competition)
After you register they send you a small box with 5 photo briefs in it which you have to shoot. It was pretty fun and I especially enjoyed working out what I was going to shoot.
If you are in NZ or Aus registrations open on the 10th of Sept… Check it out and have a go 🙂
Last year the briefs were:
Hundreds and thousands for a Macro shot
Practically Black
Some paint powder for a “Splat” shot
A pair of cardboard glasses for a portrait
Bokeh masks to create Bokeh effects
Thought I would show last years entry (and yes I know I dont shoot canon but who cares…)
Hundreds and thousands
Splat
Practically Black
I ran out of time to do the other 2 briefs but managed to get some test shots done
Here go a couple of Bokeh test shots…
Nikon D70s, Various Lenses, ISO 200.
More NDX Goodness
As promised here goes some more NDX shots.
This filter gives a colour cast if you havent noticed and I find some of these shots hard on my eyes but they definitely have more of a post apocalyptic feel to them. The other reason I usually convert them is in the upper left hand corner and is more apparent when there is just sky. My Nikon D70s gives me a nice pink cloud effect which is really annoying on really long exposures and is apparently caused by the contacts with the autofocus system heating up, you don’t get it with manual focus lenses (all mine are auto focus so havent tested this out to see if it is true or not)
NIkon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 200, Cokin NDX Filter. All exposures f8 at around 10 Minutes
NDX Filter Shots
All these images were taken with a Cokin NDX filter which reduces light by a massive 13 stops, ie you can’t see anything through it.
They are all around 10 minute exposures in the middle of the day with lots of people around but because of the long exposure they seem mostly deserted.
I converted them to black and white because unfortunately the filter has a colour shift which is near impossible to correct.
I like they way they feel…kinda deserted and slightly disturbing.
Not entirely happy with the result and will go back and do again possibly when it is more overcast so the shadows aren’t as problematic.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 200, Cokin NDX Filter.
Cross Processed Flowers
When you cross process Fuji Velvia 50 ISO (develop a colour transparency film using a colour Negative process) you get a lot of green.
Nikon F5, 50mm f1.8 lens, Fuji Velvia 50 ISO film Cross Processed
Fire in a Bottle
Another shot from the “Fire in a Bottle” series.
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8 lens. f1.8 at 1/80th of a second. ISO 200
Darkhalide Photography 
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