Horse Statue I

Horse Statue I
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

So, do we all like productphotography? Yes we do!

At least, when the photographs are executed right. There are alot of photographs in the productphotography group floating around not executed well. I've done it number of times too. Just take a look at the first few pages of my Flickr page, you'll see alot of bad macrophotography.

Many people doing macro and/or/thus productphotography do not consider the background and it's impact it has on the overall picture. For example, many of my first macro shots have horrible grey-ish backgrounds, while I really wanted to have a white background. Also the lighting of the subject is bad, and the focussing point is hardly ever spot-on. Usually the focus lies on something other than the main subject of the photograph, thus drawing the viewers attention away from your subject.

To produce white backgrounds, correct lighting and spot on focus points, one has to do one thing; take time. As with any form of photography, the only way to produce good to superb shots is to take your time. Check composition, lighting, focus, depth-of-field, angle. Then check it all again, and make adjustments as needed.

I think the picture I made above, named 'Equinity', is an example of good lighting, good background, good focus. Ofcourse the composition is debatable. Some people do not like the stretch of white in front of the horse, they would've cropped the picture tighter. I, on the other hand, like the bit of white on the right. It gives the horse room to go (as if it's going anywhere, but you catch my drift).

Anyway, I really like this picture alot, and I'm quite proud of it. I like it's simplicity and contrast. The border only adds to the picture.

What do you think?

Greetings,

from Coen.

PS. This picture is available for purchase at Oypo (Dutch) and Fonanza (Dutch)

Nice composition on my cat

MyCat
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

Isn't this a wonderful picture of my cat?

Sure, I know what you are thinking; 'why the hell would his cat be of any interest to me?'
Well, most likely, she's not of any interest to you.

But I do wanted to share this pic because I generally find it quite difficult to make a photograph of something so 'moving'. Moving targets aren't my strong points, with photography that is.

I do like this picture though, nice composition, quite sharp and nice lighting.
Yes, I know, the cats back is overblown. That's like the most terrible sin in photography. But I still like the damn picture. Overblown or not, the shadowy face makes up for it.
I especially like the blurry background.
And the fact, and I probably shouldn't say this for the people who haven't noticed yet, that the background is terribly slanted, doesn't even really bother me in this photograph.

All in all, this is one of the only pictures of my cat that came out well.

Wrangler Button and Trouble at the Railways

Wrangler Button
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

So. This was one of those days.
One of those days in which everything doesn't quite seem to work, or go well.

I went to school today, followed exactly two classes. Well, not really followed, as they were boring as hell, so it was more like reading the newspaper for the length of two classes :D.
So I really didn't pick up any of it. I just couldn't get myself to focus. Oh well, it happens.

After those two *horrible* hours, I went on for another four of them, doing so-called 'machine parts'-exersizes. These are really study-specific exersizes, which involve looking up alot of formulas, going through heaps of tables, using alot of formulas, and reading alot of theory. This needs to be done on your own or with your 'study-group'. In any case, alot of time spent, little work done.
Today, Erik and me actually were quite serious, and worked quite hard. We worked for about four hours straight, and to let you know how much work is involved with one exersize; we finished three (!) exersizes (in four hours!).

After all that painstackingly hard work, we went home fatigued, hoping to catch diner at home. Ofcourse Erik, who lives quite near our university, arrived home about 30 minutes after we left school.
I, on the other hand, arrived home about 220 minutes after we left school! That much? Yes, that much. (BTW, this is Holland, so that IS quite much).
Now, ofcourse, I live in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam, and my university is in the neighbourhood of The Hague. Travelling from Amsterdam to The Hague takes about 90 minutes.
So what happened?

The train before us, just as we were about to pass Amsterdam Sloterdijk on the way back, had a packet on board which could possibly contain a bomb. So we stood there, in our train, for half an hour. Ofcourse, people were getting mad. I really never understood why people get all mad at the railway service? It's not like they can help the fact somebody left a packet on one of their trains. They also can't help the fact that the police has to arrive first, assess the situation and remove the packet before any train can start moving again at that particular station.

Anyway, we went back to Schiphol, were I got out of the train, and took one that takes another route to Amsterdam Central. All in all it cost me 130 extra minutes of travelling. And as it was around dinner time, I was getting quite hungry too :D Really annoying, the human need for food.

I have to say though, I do not like the fact many people commuting in the Netherlands are so small minded to not be able to see beyond their own little problems. No one considers the fact that maybe it's quite difficult to run a railway service, especially with possible bombs on trains. Instead, they just whine and whine at the first sign of trouble.

But enough about my pitty little problems (wouldn't want to contradict myself by whining a whole post about my problems, now would I), more pictures!

This time I have this picture I took a while ago of the button of one of my pants. While not executed perfectly, I do like the premise. I think I'll do it over one day. I think, when executed better, it'll be a picture worthy of Wrangler's Promotion Departement :D.

What's wrong with this photograph? Well, the 'Wrangler' on the button isn't quite sharp. Instead, it's focus lies on the 'Authentic' part of the button. Also, the jeans material itself is too dark. While this could've been easily corrected in Photoshop, I'd like to make my pictures as perfect as possible withouth the aid of Photoshop.
This does not mean however that I do not like to use Photoshop. It is a very versatile and useful tool in the creative process, but that's a whole other story. I'll devote a post on that later on.

Cheers,

Coen

Orange Shell

Orange Shell
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

Can somebody explain the appeal of this picture over any of my other pictures? Somehow this one is more popular than others.

I know my first few photo's weren't exactly 'ground-breaking' stuff [/sarcasm], and my later photo's still aren't, but I'd like to think I've improved a bit.

However, sometimes the best photo's are made 'in the heat of the moment'.

This picture was taken just after I finished eating my orange, and I noticed I had some really regular orange shell left overs. Maybe some of you always have really regular orange shell leftovers, but with me it usually turns messy.
It usually involves madly chopping and pounding away at the orange, because the damn thing (after I made several surgical incisions in the shell) just breaks apart. Pieces of actual orange 'stick' to the shell, so orange juice squirts out, right into your eye. After which you declare war on the fruit, and try to turn it into orange soup, with the help of a blender. So after I got my final revenge on the orange, I get another one and try again.

Aaaanyway. These shells came out relatively untouched, which was in and by itself quite a feat, and I was so ecstatic by it, I decided to photograph it. Luckely for me, right at that moment, there was an intense beam of sunlight directed into my room. I'm telling you, it was God's work, those untouched shells. This was evidenced by the intense sunlight that suddenly was.
So I planted the shells on a white surface and shot my photograph.

Personally, I think it came out 'nice'. Nothing in particular though, and especially compared with some pictures which can be found on Flickr, I am almost ashamed I didn't take more time to make it a better shot.

Preperation or not. It is still a relatively popular shot, and even received a 9 out of 10!

Well, that's all there is about this photograph.

I do still have something to say about a possible lightbox I am going to construct. A lightbox will especially come in handy to make shots as the one above better, more professional. I'd like to construct something much like the one featured on DIYphotography.net, only better.
I was thinking about conditions it needs to meet. The conditions I could think of were the following;

- It has to have an interchangable backdrop (blue,white,red etc)
- It can be taken apart, as to take as little space as possible
- It has to be sturdy. Probably constructed of wood or metal.
- It has to be about 50x50x50cm in dimensions.

I think I can come up with a solution to satisfy those demands. I've looked around on the internet for other people who constructed a light box. While I liked some ideas, I want to adapt it to my own situation, and to what I want, so I'll propbably design something myself.

Now I am finished.

Greetz!

My new 60mm Micro-Nikkor

I have just bought a new lens for my Nikon D80, so I now have two lenses;

- 18-70mm DX Nikkor (kit-lens which came with my D80)
- 60mm Micro-Nikkor

I bought it for a hefty sum of 450 euro's, but I can tell you; it was well worth it!

It is a Micro-Nikkor, which is Nikons way of saying it is a Macro lens. It has a focal distance of 60mm, and on my Nikon D80 (DSLR) counting in the magnification factor of 1,5x that would become equal to a 90mm on a 35mm body.
So by nature, this lens is perfect for portraits. I haven't tried that yet though.

What I have tried already is it's 1:1 reproduction capabilities (macro function). And I must say, macro photography is every bit as much fun as everyone says it is!
It just opens up a whole new world of possible things to photograph.

And so, after I had just bought it, I went berserk, photographing just about everything. But soon I realised that, although photographing everything small is quite fun, you can't just walk up to something and take a picture. Macro photography needs just as much preperation as any other photograph, or maybe even more. This is evident in much of my early pictures on Flickr. Looking back at them, I should've paid more attention to composition, background and the technical part of photography.

So now I have learned that essential lesson, it is my intention to take my photography of small things a little slower next time :D. Not the hasty "Ow this is cool! *click*....ow, but look at this! *click*..and that! *click*". That method does not produce the best photographs.

One of the things I think I need to make my macro-photography more succesfull is a so-called 'light-box'. Think of it as a box of 50x50x50cm, covered in white paper or cloth on the inside, and a white paper backdrop on the inner back of the box. Then putting some light bulbs over the box and voila; you have yourself a completely white enviroment.

I think I will construct one later on.

Anyway, I am really happy with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens, and hopefully continu to use it for a long long time.

Cheers,

Coen