At that point i knew i don’t like shooting with something, that will take my mind of the model and the actually shooting since i would need to watch out that the flash doesn’t fall down. So i figured i’d do it with a little mod. I just added the Velcro tape and done. It’s also easy to take the flash out/put in.

Now even if i shake it really hard it doesn’t fall down. The Orbis ring flash is really well made so i don’t think it will break because of the weight of the flash. Easy and cheap mod. Maybe the Orbis guys should put some Velcro tape in the box?

Here are some pics of the mod with Velcro.

It’s a great light modifier and i’ll be having a lot of fun with it.

You can learn a lot just by looking at each of his photos and analyzing them. The backgrounds are hand painted in my opinion. The flower seems to be positioned either next to the window if he uses natural light or he uses a window between the flower and his studio lights to make those nice shadows. The straight lines of those shadows that make diagonals work really good on our eyes. A really nice feeling not having a seamless background.

Robert Mapplethorpe also uses a really nice format that fits the flowers well, it’s almost a square(1 by 1), but that almost makes a really big difference. He also puts all those elements in a way that he creates balance. Every element works really well with other elements of the whole flower art photography.

I’m one of those Flickr too people and here is a list of my favorite Flickr Groups i enjoy reading everyday.

Strobist – http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/
One of the most popular blogger that sleeps with his strobes and gives tips and tricks on using them on his blog at www.strobist.com His group has lots of good photographers that really like to help people.

LightSource – http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightsource/
Light source is a really popular podcast site that interviews the world’s most known photographers and not only that since even they listen to their podcasts.

One Stobe Pony – http://www.flickr.com/groups/one_strobe_pony/
A nice small group that like doing pictures with only 1 strobe. Amazing work here.

Seamless and cyc – http://www.flickr.com/groups/seamlessandcyc/
A group made by Zack Arias for the lovers of the seamless background photography.

OneLight workshop – http://www.flickr.com/groups/onelightworkshop/
A group that is dedicated to the famous OneLight workshop from Zack Arias. If you haven’t seen his work, do it now!

Through the viewfinder – http://www.flickr.com/groups/throughtheviewfinder/
I really unique style of taking pictures, you can’t fake these with Photoshop that easily. really enjoyable photographs.

Iluminacion – http://www.flickr.com/groups/iluminacion/
This group is dedicated to teach people about lighting which is extremely important. If you control light, you can make photos that can blow your mind.

As a Nikon user, i have also some Nikon Groups, Canon users can find similar ones for them too!

Nikon D80 Group – http://www.flickr.com/groups/d80/
Since i own a Nikon D80 i need to know a lot about it, how it works, what works best and how to get most out of it. Search the flickr to find your own little group of fans of your camera. I bet there is one or two.

Nikon CLS group – http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikoncls/
A group dedicated to the Nikon creative lighting system. A good guide to know more about our equipment.

Nikkor/Nikon lenses – http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikkor/
We usually don’t know which lens is good/bad and which one to buy. We just know we all want sharp images and the lenses are a big part of it.

So these are my favorite groups and i learned a lot from them. Getting better takes time so you should start right away.

Siri Kaur has a different method of doing portrait photography because it’s simple. Shooting a good portrait really comes out when the subject is relaxed since then all of his character comes out and brings that glow out you can never Photoshop. Siri Kaur has it’s portrait people right in that calming point where they are just that. Also where will they be more relaxed? In a studio with those big octabanks or in their known environment as there home or somewhere where they fit?

That is what’s simple about Siri Kaur’s photos, that is what makes these portraits better then others and not the 10.000€ camera,lenses and the equipment. It’s about the subject and his personality. Have that in mind when you shoot portrait next time. Until then enjoy the photos of Siri Kaur.

Just look at the photos and tell me, is there something that isn’t supposed to be in the picture? Isn’t that the perfect balance of subject and background? They fit really well together, each has it’s own personality, the personality of the subject. Amazing!

More can be found at www.sirikaur.com.

The tilt shifting lens let’s you create blurry images that are tricking our eye as an optical illusion ignoring the blurry part of the image.

The “fake” tilt shifting photography is a method of using a photograph and Photoshop to manipulate the image so you get the same effect. It works well and is for all of those people who don’t have money for buying a tilt shift lens, but would like to try out the technique.

I will me making and posting a Tilt Shifting tutorial with Photoshop tomorrow so make sure you come back or subscribe to my rss .

Here is a sample of a tilt Shift technique in time-lapse:

Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

That is why lot of people that see his work for the first time and are using the tools of the digital age, would say that his photography is processed with Photoshop. But in those days, Photoshop didn’t exist.

His photos show a really good use of the lens, blurring and depth of field, lens vignetting and all those problems we want to get rid of or want to make with the today’s tools. But Mihai Mangiulea uses this things on a different level and gets amazing results. Even the color and white balance, the correct use of the film, lighting, time of the day etc. is all well planned to give the viewer a unique experience.

Mihai Mangiulea fine art photos are surpassing today photographers even after handful of years after they were made.

Most of the women and even men think they are disgusting so they don’t even touch them. Meaning there is a photography niche open where less people work in and it’s easier to be at the top.

Also finding these unique insects can be a challenge. I know of a easy way to do it though. Go out in the woods and find smaller trees or and orchard,bring your camera (macro lens) and a white sheet or 2. Spread them out under the tree and the only thing left is to shake the tree until insects fall down. Usually you will be surprised how many different insects you’ll find on a tree. you can’t see them since they blend in with the wood and leaves but once they’re on the white background, you’ll be able to notice them in no time. Shoot some photos now!

Now if you’re not disgusted with them, pick up a big one and put him back on the tree or leaf etc. and shoot him in his natural surroundings. This is way easier then to look for them on the tree

Here’s the amazing work of Jo Whaley and more can be found at her website.

The first noticed thing is, that he isn’t using a usual photographic format as in landscape, portrait, golden cut or any other. He’s using the polaroid like one which is 1:1. Today photographers usually use the basic landscape one, or the even bigger panorama format so that that can get as much as possible into a photo with a wide lens. Eric Fredine is different and his main focus is in my opinion on photographing the figure and composition of a landscape. His goal is to take a picture, that is in harmony with the rules of art theory so it becomes pleasant to the eye.

Let me try to explain it on one of Eric Fredine photos. The picture number 19 below is a perfect example of a harmonic diagonal. Try to look at the picture by “erasing the sky” in your mind and looking just the land/sea. They are split and make a diagonal that starts from bottom left and goes right and up making the sea push the land down becoming a harmonic diagonal. That means it’s in balance if it was made opposite we would feel that the sea is falling down on the right. But now, it isn’t going anywhere, just down.

Another art theory basic is the well known rule of thirds, but breaking it makes the image more dynamic since there are other elements like composition and proportions involved. So in the end, everything is in perfect balance.

…By the way, i may have used some words wrong since i’m don’t know the right terms – english is my second language but i promise i’ll work on it

More of Eric Fredine’s work can be found at his website.

The second problem is that most ideas are combined with more then 1 art techniques and we need more software. Photography usually needs Photoshop/Lightroom, video needs After Effects, flash animations may need coding etc. So in the end either we learn everything by ourselves or we work with others. But the result with combining these tools is amazing.

Magnus Engsfors is one of those people that does know how to use his tools and he’s doing it as a pro. He published a video called “Suddenly” on Vimeo. Here’s a comment quote on how he did it:

It was shot with one Canon Eos 5D and a single external ProFoto flash while I was hanging in two ropes stretched across the scene. Then some heavy masking and retouch in Photoshop before the layers was lined up in After Effects to add camera movement and particles and such things.

3-4 progams used to make 1 great video. Impressive!

His greatest strengths are in my opinion fashion and beauty as his work slowed the time around me and took me with his images and perfect lighting to the moment he clicked on the camera. What really amazed me that in his photography, he uses the “clone technique” when you merge 2 photos together. On the first one the model is on the right and on the second on the left, cutting this image in half will result in a picture similar to the number 15 below.

But what really made me look closely was that the model was jumping in high heels. And in jumping i mean she was quite high up. And since those fashion shoes aren’t meant for sport and the high heals make women fall down even when they walk, it came to my mind that this is kinda dangerous! So i pictured how it may look and how was the landing and… yeah i think she had to jump couple of times, maybe fall some or all those tries which kinda equals twisted or broken ankle…

Now the second thing is, that those models still pose with the body and the face even in the air. They’re confident and there isn’t a single trace of them being scared of the landing in those things. So Melvin Sokolsky had to take the shot at the perfect time since doing that jump multiple times could bring a lot of pain to the model. It’d be really nice to see how the shooting went for such kinds of shots, the behind the scene video for this would be brilliant.

More of his work can be found at his webpage at http://www.sokolsky.com.