ISO100 – Page 3 – Sloth Shots

2015-01-11

January Bonus Challenge | Macro

Hmm, each month there’s a bonus challenge, the submission with the most likes gets to be the Facebook forum banner for the next month, I voted against the idea as I felt competition may bring out the nasty side in people – now, do I feel a little bit of a hypocrite saying I wasn’t interested in competition but still taking part in the monthly challenge? Yes, a bit, though Macro is something I wanted to “have a go” at and I was interested in the monthly challenges before that! (my excuses sticking with ’em :p )
I’ve actually got some magnification filters on order from Amazon but not sure if they’ll make it from the US to Aus in time so tried my hand at reverse free-lensing. Benny was kind enough to step in and model for me as it’s about three am and everyone else is asleep, I also figured such a precarious set-up didn’t lend itself to nature photography, especially the wee critters staying still long enough as I got so close to them!

Nikon D5100
35mm Prime Lens
ISO100
f/1.8 (manually held open all the way)
SS 1/80 sec

I lit him with my ring flash set-up off camera as a permanent light so I could get the depth of field right, it’s very small, only enough to cover his left eye and not even reach all the way to the right – which is incredible when you contemplate how large a Lego head is!

So this was fun, looking forward to doing it more ‘properly’ when my filters get here and I can shoot something a little more interesting! #Spaceship

So set-up on the kitchen counter with Benny and the ring flash, plus me balancing the prime lens the wrong road around single-handedly whilst holding the aperture switch open with my index finger.

I found the camera would only shoot in manual mode as it wasn’t getting the aperture information through, both Shutter priority and Aperture priority refused to fire (I guess the latter being fairly obvious why)

Link to the original Facebook thread here.

[edit]

Actually, it’s just occurred to me I never thought about the focusing ring whilst doing all this, it will’ve been in the position I last shot in, not sure if I’d’ve got a greater depth of field if it’d been focused all out/all in – maybe something to play around with later.

2015-01-06

Week 2 | Sparkle/Shine

Darling Harbour Christmas tree – it Sparkles whilst its reflection Shines 😉

Nikon D5100
55mm-300mm DX Telephoto @ 180mm
ISO100
f/20
SS 30 sec

The tree loses a little detail due to the scintillation from across the bay (you could see the live view ‘wobble’ through the haze) but I think the reflection more than makes up for it, I love how the trees bracket it too.

I’ve been aiming to keep the photoshopping to a minimum for this but had to flip it so the 2015 was showing the right way around (also took the liberty to straighten it a little too as the tripod’s only so good at holding in place).

Similar to last weeks challenge I used Helicon Remote on the tablet to help focus with a large live view (manually setting the focus was a case of slight touches either direction to get it just right) and then fire the shutter without introducing any wobble to the camera (though I could have used a corded/wireless remote I guess).

Another handy feature is the bracketing macro it has, I set up a bunch of instructions 30 secs / 100 and then adjusted the aperture down a step for about fifteen pictures until I found the best f stop for the early evening light.

To give a sense of scale, here’s a set-up picture of the cam on the ‘pod, live view streamed to the pad and the tree somewhere over there in the distance!

Link to the original Facebook thread here.

2015-01-03

Week 1 | Self Portrait

I get that this is a great way to introduce everyone to the photography challenge, it still doesn’t mean I’m happy this side of the camera! 😉

Nikon D5100
35mm DX Prime Lens
ISO100
f/1.8
SS 1/4000
DoF ~ 4.5cm

Given this is supposed to be a challenge each week to improve yourself (so the only one you’re cheating using an old pic or straight off your phone is yourself) I wanted to get the most out of it and tried to get the best image I could without any photoshopping (apart from raw conversion and resize for the internet).

With that in mind I Googled the infamous “Golden Hour” I’ve heard much about, found myself a location nearby where I’d be in direct sunlight and sat looking like the ultimate narcissist snapping away at myself with my camera being remotely activated from an app on my tablet giving me a live view to check focus.

Was fun, made me think about the challenge with the light (had maybe ten minutes before it dipped behind some housing and was gone), looking forward to next week! (where hopefully I’ll be on the right side of the camera :p )

This is a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ on how the photo was taken, I was using my tablet along with Helicon Remote control software, this is a handy little app that allows you to have a large ‘live view’ on the pads screen and zoom in to set the focus just right along with some other fancy features (it’s bracketing system is brilliant).

Link to the original Facebook thread here.