Tech Savvy (Nikkor 70-210mm)

Nikon D90, Nikkor 24mm f/2.8

100 ISO, 1/60, f/5.6, 24mm

SB-600 Camera Left

I purchased this lens while looking for a film camera from a buddy classmate back in Orlando, and not able to come to a conclusion with the camera it self I was able to haggle the lens in to my procession. Now with enough available light to shoot with this lens I would consider it my favorite with it amazing film like tones as detail begins to thin out.

The Lens

This Lens was released in February of 1988 and discontinued in 1993. This lens was release to update former lens AF Zoom Nikkor 70-210mm f/4.0s with a cheaper and much more advance lens. With today zoom lens adjusting focal lengths by twisting the lens, The Nikkor 70-210mm f/4-5.6 uses a pull and push method to adjust focal length manually. Using this lens with the Nikon D90 video function is ideal as it has a manual aperture ring that allows Nikon D90 users to override the auto aperture setting allowing you to have a fluid shift from different lighted areas (no random light changes from your camera creating confusion to audiences.) This lens will never leave my collection as I upgrade to full frame cameras this beast will be my go to lens for epic zoom shoots.

The Photo

Currently located away from most of my equipment this shoot started as a challenge creating a brolly-box out of paper (Reflected SB-600 into curved 8”x11” white sheet of paper, reflected light went through 8”x8” white sheet of paper.) defusing the light for

Practical Lighting

Nikon D90, Nikkor 70-210mm f/4-5.6

1600 ISO, 1/125, f/5.6

Key light above subject and fill from cameras flash.

Good day all, I hope every one had a good holiday season. Through out my absence on the blog I have pick up on a few new hobbies and darts being the most recent. Above you can notice a carefully placed double bull, which is under a beat up utility light from Lowes. My favorite part about creating this particular image was the use of my Nikkor 70-210mm lens I got from a buddies old film camera. The Lens its self is amazing not using the rings like today’s lenses but in stead a pull and push method that allows zooming in and out (Next “Tech Savvy” will include all the fancy information you might want to read about.).

The Photo

The photo was shot simply with a light over the dartboard facing down toward the subject (The Dart). The basic idea was to have the lens at max focal length (210mm) and the lowest aperture (F/5.6) only to separate my subject from it surroundings. With my depth of field shallow and the shot composed I still needed to use a little more help from my camera’s flash (Very rare that I would use my on camera flash for any thing.). Prior to the decision to shooting this I wanted to capture the subject in mid flight but it is really difficult to shoot bull’s-eyes several times in row (I’m not that good).

Post

Post Always starts with my favorite little program Adobe Raw (Personal Preference) with some minor touches. A minor increase in contrast, a little clarity and some exposure adjustments then we move on to Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is next with a custom vignette with the burn tool and my official watermark for Guajardo Photography.

Thanks for following and I cant wait for you to read up on my Nikkor Lens in the next Tech Savvy Post.

Natural Lighting

The Story

Above is Alex Age 17 looking to make it in the modeling world. Alex saw my portfolio on a site called Model Mayhem before it was deleted and wanted to recapture an image I have shot prior. Alex and me setup a time where we were able to be in Baldwin Park area where the sun was behind the trees for the Sun’s glow. Alex enjoyed one tree and I Like the diffusion the light got as it past through the Tree’s leaves so we adjusted our photo for a soft glow to fill the shot. The day of the shoot was amazing, as all the things that needed to happen did no rain, very bright and lack of inhabitants in the area. I snapped a few shots to test the look of the light my Nikon D90’s LCD monitor and previewed them to Alex. With Alex’s approval we began the shoot starting with some simple directions, lower your left shoulder, look to the left, and lift on arm. I have worked with many models in my short career but none of this caliber she was a professional published in many magazine and ready to hit 18 next week to start a new phase of her modeling career. Alex was nice and charged me nothing for my service; it was a TFP Time for Print, which is a trade for photos for time. This was Alex first unpaid shoot in 3 years and I felt very proud since she like my service enough to find me.

The Photo

The photo its self is just a happy accident from an earlier photo from a past candid shoot with a buddy of mine. The light source was the sun shining on the back of my model, the sun it self is extremely bright and glared the lens of my Nikkor f/1.8, 50mm lens and I had to make the discoloring of this effect less visible. The photo was candid it had the feeling that the model was not posing in the original and this was very difficult to establish with Alex and it took several suggestion on both part to accomplish this feat.

Post

Adobe Raw “For The Win” helped me the most when correcting the glared discolor in the original and the new photo that is shown above. This was very simple barking the greenery and increasing the contrast in the discolored areas. On this photo I also was able to use the eyedropper tool to select sample of color around the discoloring to blend the odd colors our.

Conclusion

Every photo I take with a model I learn everyone is not the same and other learn with a different approach and with Alex help I learned new techniques and with trail and error I new how to correct the image I capture to the satisfaction of my self and the client.

One Light Masterpiece

Nikon D40, 50mm f1.8, 5-foot Octa-box on camera right, Models are facing camera to the left of light.

First I would like to say this is one of the rare photos I have taken of myself. Second do not tell my girlfriend that this photo is on my blog (she will most likely destroy any future life plans I have, and I enjoy life.) So strait to the back-story I bought these gas masks a few days prior to this photo for intentions of an idea I have for the future, and then there is the revolver which was used to scare some random people at my house that where not invited (prior to this moment me and my roommates decide theft or destruction to our property was not acceptable so... well you can guess what happen.) anyways guy left as we opened our back doors and then the story of the cowboy had is nothing we just happen to have one in the house. That’s is just the beginning, our friend David (I’ll say his first name is pretty generic) was assigned to come up with a black and white photo scavenger hunt and one was a couple photo. So this was an easy check off, the girlfriend plus some weird props and me equals an awesome outcome.

Not mention above this photo was shot outside so the lining in the background is a fence (that why it dark on the bottom on the photo and lighter as you look up the photo.) so Above this photo is originally shot in black and white with camera setting and away from my awesome Nikon D90 the down grade version, the D40 was the camera used with my 50mm lens. Disclaimer I am a strobist photographer (I use strobes and flashes off camera) and David was not allowed to use my primary lighting equipment so we used my 5-foot Octa-box, which is a continuous light (Dodged a bullet) with a 1000 watt light. So this photo is shot with a huge light with diffusion on camera right facing talent with a soft glow. The image was captured with 500 watt blub lowering thebrightness meaning we had to switched to a open aperture of F/1.8 to get the depth between the focus on the barrel and the out of focused mask.

Post is always the end of this blogs but due to the project that David had to do he was not allowed to edit it so once the class was over I got the jpeg image then cropped and vignette the image to make it a little more cinematic adding some contrast with the curve options in Photoshop. (Didn’t use raw since the image was captured in a fine Jpeg) thanks for listening to the jabber and please look out for my next post that the gas masks were actually bought for. (Depending on the model I may have to censor this image, doesn’t that sound promising)

Working WIth LIght

Nikon D90, 50mm f1.8, SB-600 on camera left, Model faces the light

Watching movies and surfing the net me and my roommate got bored (this happens often after playing popular first person shooters) also with the knowledge of our model friend was going to be here for some quick snaps we decided that we needed to try new poses and I needed to try new lighting set-ups. Spending just a couple minutes to get the ideas to pop and the few hours to go through all the poses and lighting set-ups we got this beauty.

Above you have a photo of my roommate (talent) this image was captured with a Nikon SB-600 at ½ power through foam cooler ($3 at your local gas station) to a wall back at my talent. My talent is facing the defused light, which is very soft now that it is reflected several times. In order to get the contract between my talent and the wall behind him is simple it just having your talent get far away from the wall as possible for completely back and closer if you would like the opposite effect. Now once these steps are completed we need to go in to post to get the color pops and the vignettes.

For post I always start in Adobe Raw, which allows me to use a raw media format that gives more, editing possibilities and is a much larger file type. First I crop the image then move and mess with my color correction and curves, after that I added the vignette and cranked the contrast to the level I prefer. Last in Adobe Raw I can alter the RBG so I dropped all color levels to 0 making it black and white (I did blue and green last that why I decided not to drop them) you can see here that the image has a blue/ green glow which was simple by moving the blue and the green levels to the adjusted levels you like. Next is the import to Photoshop to finish the post editing of this photo. First I saved the file to a .tif so I am able to import the file, then I sharpen the image and a few other basic items. Usually I add a watermark but at this time of capturing this photo I didn’t have a registered trademark.

Tech Savvy: The Nikon D90

The Nikon D90 is my weapon of choice with extraordinary functions this digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) is the top of its class. Nikon announced the Nikon D90 on August 27, 2008 to replace the D80 model. This prosumer DSLR camera was first to offer a video function that captured HD 720p Video at 24 frames per second (FPS) including mono sound recording. (With my undergrad in Film Production, the video function helps a lot when it came to choosing my camera.)

Features

-12.3-megapixel DX-format CMOS imaging sensor

-Continuous shooting as fast as 4.5fps

-HD Movie Mode

-3-inch super-density 920,000-dot color LCD

-11-point AF (autofocus) system

-Nikon 3D color Matrix metering II with Scene Recognition System

-Auto Active D lighting

-In-Camera Image Editing

-Low noise ISO sensitivity from 200 to 3200

-Built-in image sensor cleaning

-One Button Live View

-Comprehensive exposure control

-Durable, high precision shutter

-GPS geo-tagging

Why I got this Camera

My first DSLR camera was a Canon Rebel Xi, this camera got a lot of use but was lacking to the color quality I saw in my friend Nikon. Educating myself on other DSLR I learned about the Nikon D90 through a friend that purchased once it was released I was sold. The Nikon D90 features that made my decision easier are Built-in Wireless strobe remote. (My favorite function as a strobist photographer on a budget) Another feature is the HD movie mode and last is that the Nikon 90 allows the use of every Nikon lens letting me get professional lens I can use as I upgrade my camera’s body.

The Photo

The Photo above is my friend’s Camera with my Nikon SB-600 (strobe) and my Manfrotto M-190 Tri-pod (Sticks) equipped with a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens. The photo was taken by me after a photo shoot my friend and me conducted for a 365 photo projects. (I failed at this project but hope to start one in the future.) This photo was shot with natural light from the sun using a Nikon 90. The lens was a Nikkor 70mm-210mm f/4-5.6 all other information is lost to me at the moment. The Post of the Photo is simple with minor adjustments of contrast and color correction on editing software Adobe Camera Raw, and finishing with adding text in Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading about my camera (I stink at ending these) have some fun and take some photos. Also if you don't doing this 5 question survey to help me improve the quality of this blog.

Sources

Nikonusa

- http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Digital-SLR-Cameras/25446/D90.html

Wikipedia

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_D90

Adobe

- http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite.html

Candid Photos

First is a hearty welcome from your host; second is the bad yet good news. Good news I got a new phone but I am not going to sell it, (It is just amazing is all) then the bad news my new phone does not support the Strobox Application and will most likely not make an appearance in this blog till it is in the Android Application Store.

Let us move on, above is a photo of assorted crudités with Campagnarde (A.K.A. veggies and some dip). This photo is was simple not so much candid but on the spot and fast, with a simple framing and using the flash on my camera with my thirty-three inch Brolly box I can be much happier with this random photo from last night. (I went to a party if you must know and got a shot of the amazing food.) Back on topic the photo was snap mainly to demonstrate the CLS function on my camera to a guest who happen to come in with an identical camera. The Nikon D90 is an amazing camera with it 720p video capture and it wireless lighting function. (Canon came out with the 7D matching the wireless lighting function and toping the 720p for 1080p creating a true rival on it release) and is the only reason I can blog.

Post of course starts with me opening Adobe Camera Raw (photo editing software that allows one to edit a photo in it largest and most editable file type.) and adjusting the basic settings like Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, and Color Temperature. After that I added a 2x3 crop and a simple vignette to keep the eye direction to the sign. Last for post is export the file to a JPEG for Adobe Photoshop where I just fix a few minor errors on the photo.

Oh course that where I leave you with a photo and a description on the step to make it now pick up a camera shoot something.