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)

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!

Chrono

Chrono
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

This was really the first photograph I took with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor I wrote about in my previous post.
It is a picture of my brothers Festina watch. I like the overall colour it has, and I also noticed that the macro-lens shows just about everything.
Also, the Depth-Of-Field of my macro-lens is amazing! Depending on your f-number, it can be very small, really just a DOF of 1mm or less, to about a few centimeters to very large.

Since in the macrofunction, the lens' Autofocus function does not work properly, it ghosts alot, you have to focus manually. Now, this wouldn't pose a problem if it weren't for the incredible sharpness this lens produces. Even if you are just a tiny tiny bit off with focusing it's going to show on the photo. Very difficult. It can be your enemy, but it also can be your greatest friend.
I have discovered that, combined with a very small DOF, you can really pick a subject out of everything inside the frame. Really useful.

Oh, did I already mention the Bokeh the lens produced is superb? Well, it is. Really silky. Even moreso compared with my 18-70mm lens.

Cheers!

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