Self Portrait

I recently had a project through the photo club to create a self portrait. We saw many examples exhibited - they ranged from the mundane to excellent images that obviously required much thought and skill in their execution.

I am posting this because, as a photographer I rarely get to the other side of the camera. Here is my example of what I consider an average entry into the topic of self portrait.



This image was created by cutting a circular image out of a photo of me, and copying it as a layer over the image of the camera - positioning it right over the lens. I selected the portrait layer and softened the edges a bit so the edge was not hard. I also used the distort > lens tool to slightly alter the portrait so it bulged out in the middle - as it was on a curved surface. I then adjusted the opacity of the portrait layer to 60% so the natural lens reflections would show through. (I darkened the highlights of the lens reflections as well) The last step was to merge the layers.

A friend of mine (and awesome photographer), John MacLean, has a great photo which he created for the assignment, he has given me permission to show it here.



I love this!!!

3 Light setup

In the process of taking the previously posted photos, I shot a few 'setup' shots. Here are the three lights , one at a time to show each effect, and how the final setup comes together.


...and here is a basic diagram of the above (or close to it)...

Faces of Alex

When I was shooting the kids 'school' photos the other day - I had to promise Alex that he could make faces for some of the photos. He made a lot of faces - they were awesome! We got the requisite portraits, and some funny faces as an added bonus. We just had to make a composite of a few!



I sampled the colours of the backdrop and shirt to make the background.

My own School photos!

A day off afforded me some time to shoot my own kids 'school' photos - they turned out well. Hope's shot is straight out of the camera!




And this one of Alex had only a minor exposure adjustment.



These were shot with my Canon 50D, with 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 lens. I had 2 umbrellas - one main and one fill (with flashes in them), and a flash on the background.

I'm number 1 !

Just tooting my own horn - this month my images were chosen for first place in our photo club's web and projected competitions. Here they are:

Projected Competition




Web Competition



YAY!!

New Camera Story

Recently I did a photo shoot where I was using both of my digital cameras...the Canon Digital Rebel XT and the Canon 20D. A couple of times I fumbled with the settings on the XT as it is more finicky when handling exposure compensation and exposure lock (and different to the 20D).

I decided that it was smarter to have another body that was the same. My options were anything in the 20D-50D line. I scratched out the 20D/30D as I was not comfortable buying something used that was that old (although mine works fine). That left the 40D and 50D. The 50D was a little more $ than I wanted to spend, and after some research I felt that the additional benefits that the 50D offered over the 40D was not work the price, especially when comparing the price of a new 50D to a used 40D.

To my delight I found a Factory refurbished 40D - I thought great! Some peace of mind as it is factory refurbished, and a good price! After receiving it in the mail, a quick test showed it was defective...

I called the store and they had no other that I could exchange it with. I returned it.

After some searching, the only other 40Ds that I found were $100+ more than the first one, and at that price, I started looking at the 50D again.

In the end I got a 50D, and I am happy as I have the latest technology, a NEW camera, with warranty, and it matches my 20D perfectly. There are still debates on the quality of the high ISO performance, but I am satisfied with what I have seen so far.

The XT is already sold - with the money going to fund the 50D purchase - now I just have to sell a few more things....

Photo Fredericton Field Trip to the Moncton Zoo

Our Photography Club went to the zoo in Moncton yesterday - it was better than I expected! They had Halloween happenings for the kids, and the weather cooperated for the most part.
I just got my new (refurb.) Canon 40D the day before, and brought it along to try it out. Too bad it had issues out of the box, so I switch to my trusty 20D, and shot all my photos with my Canon EF 70-210mm f3.5-4.5 USM lens.
In record time, I have selected and edited a number of my fav photos from the trip.



-André