"Springtime In Italy"

"Springtime In Italy"
©David A. Ziser

OK, I know you think I might be a little crazy with today's title, but It's all I could think of with the crocuses, those little yellow flowers playing so predominantly in the composition.  Crocuses are generally one of the first flowers of Spring in the States but we are in Italy in October and they are all over the place here at the Castle.

I made this image at ground level - yes, the camera was sitting on the ground.  With the fisheye on the camera, I figured I could really bring the bright yellow color of the flowers into play in my composition. using my off camera flash added the dramatic light to our beautiful model, Cici, and I think we pulled off a pretty cool image.

Lighting is from camera left, 3 Canon 600EX-RT speedlights fired in High Speed Sync mode.  HSS allowed me to use the super fast shutter speed to really darken the sky for the added dramatic effect.  I’m loving these new speedlights for this feature alone.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Canon 8-15mm fisheye at 15mm, F8.0 @ 1/1000 second, ISO 200.  Enjoy!  David

"View From Above"

"View From Above"
© David A. Ziser

This is another one of my favorite images captured at yesterday's wedding shootout. Although I worked in this church at previous shootouts during Photoshop World Las Vegas, I've never had the opportunity to work with my new Canon 8–15 MM zoomable fisheye lens. I thought yesterday would be the perfect opportunity to give it a try. 

The problem in composing this photograph was the placement of the crucifix above the couple’s head. I was able to get it slightly above their head when I had the camera at eye level position. That just wasn't good enough for me. Instead, I chose to use the “live view” feature of the camera which allowed me to lift the camera arm's-length over my head, recompose the image, and shoot away.

I love the much higher vantage point for this image. It features a bride and groom predominantly in the foreground but, with the fisheye lens attached, this image still captures the full expanse and the wonderful architecture of this modern church.

Lighting was accomplished by having my assistant hold one of my Canon 600 TX – RT strobes, camera left, pointing directly at the subjects. I chose to not shoot through my Zumbrella in this case, because in our first attempts, I was throwing too much light on the ceiling which was a distraction to the image. So, we zoomed the flash to a much tighter lighting pattern to restrict the light only to the couple and not any spill of light to the surrounds. I love the final results of this photograph.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Canon 8–15 MM fisheye lens at 15MM, F5.6 @ 1/100, ISO 1600. Enjoy! – David

p.s. Rest of post coming later today.  DZ

"Rabbi For The Day"

"Rabbi For The Day"
©David A. Ziser

I love this image and made it during the Bar Mitzvah celebration of young Jack on Saturday morning. I decided to give the HDR feature a try on my Canon 5D Mark III. I believed all the elements were there to give me a fairly compelling HDR image. The scene had rich colors, decent contrast, and, I thought the addition of the fisheye lens would seal the deal for me.

I switched on the HDR feature on the camera and set it to Art Vivid and shot away. Since I was shooting handheld I worked carefully to keep all three images pretty much in register for the duration of the three exposures. Upon close inspection it looks like I did a halfway decent job. The problem, when shooting these kinds of events in HDR mode, isn't so much that you're moving camera, it's more the fact that the subjects in the scene are moving as well. I chose a pause point in the ceremony in which Jack and the Rabbi were not moving much at all.

The exposures were made and the camera worked it’s magic on the images.  In any event, I think it's a cool photograph in a cool location of Jack's “Rite of Passage”.

Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Canon 8–15mm fisheye lens at 15 mm, F5.6 @1/500 second, ISO 4000. Enjoy! – David

Quick Hit Monday: Re-Visiting The Fish – New Alternatives For Wide Angle Photography

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I realize it's been a couple of days since I last visited with you here DigitalProTalk.  I'm about neck deep in the my new book and spent quite a bit time both on Friday and today adding about 8,000 more words to my opus. The weekend was also quite busy – we had a high school graduation to photograph on Friday and that included a special portrait set up where we could photograph requested photographs for families desiring family portraits.

After getting in around 10:30 p.m. Friday night, transferring images to the computer, backing up the images, recharging the flashes, and grabbing a little dinner it - was pretty late when we turned in. That didn't change the fact that we had a super early wake-up call the next morning. We had a be at the synagogue at 7:45 a.m. and begin photography by eight o'clock in the morning.

Normally I do an entire series of photographs of our Bar Mitzvah boy on the Thursday of his last rehearsal before the Saturday event.  But in this case the family wanted all the photographs done on Saturday morning. That was no problem, it just meant a much earlier start time than usual. Anyway, everything went “smooth as silk” and we got a fabulous coverage of young Jack’s Bar Mitzvah Celebration.

This was another special weekend for me as I've worked with Jack's family now for many years photographing his two aunts weddings were Jack was the ring bearer in both. That was a number of years ago but it's been fun watching Jack go from a rambunctious, high-energy kid to a poised 13-year-old  young man who conducted himself and his Saturday morning service with polish, class, and confidence.   What can I say I love my job.

Re-Visiting The Fish – New Alternatives For Wide Angle Photography

Anyway, at Saturday's event I had the chance to explore some more shooting possibilities with my new Canon 8-15mm zoomable fisheye lens. As I began to work on this post today one thing led to the other and before long it was developing into another marathon post.  My plan is to break it into two parts. Today I like to share with you my experiment from Saturday morning shoot in which I did several interior photographs of the synagogue with the intent of removing the fisheye distortion with Lightroom 4 to see what the rectilinearly corrected wide-angle lens photographs look like.

First Try – Super-wide From Left To Right

Let's take a look at the first image. It was still early in the morning and nobody else had yet arrived at the synagogue. I stood at the entrance of the sanctuary,  with the fisheye lens on my Canon 5D Mark III and set it’s focal length of 14mm. The image below is the first image out of the camera. 

Now take a look at image – Figure 2.  This is after I applied the lens correction  from Lightroom 4. You can see that I have the rectilinearly correct image I wanted and, not only is it cool photograph, it is the widest angle photograph you can take with any lens camera combination. The field of view for this image is 140° wide.

 

Second Try – Super-wide From Bottom To Top

Now let's take a look at the next two images – Figures 3 & 4. This time I wanted the widest field of view from bottom to top. I rotated the camera 90° and took the first image.

Then, over to Lightroom 4 or apply the lens correction feature.  And, once again you see I get a very nice result – a super-wide angle 140° rectilinearly correct image.

 

Third Try – Super-wide Oblique From The Side

Let's do one more from the side of the sanctuary. This time along the left side of the synagogue looking out from the front of the Temple to the back of the sanctuary.  I love the effect I have in the first fisheye image – Figure 5.

 

But, with a little Lightroom 4 magic on the image once again it's a great wide-angle view of the interior of the sanctuary – Figure 6.

For me, as I mentioned last week, I think this becomes a great tool for those of us interested in wide-angle photography. As I said earlier in this post it gives us a means of creating the widest angle images possible of any lens/camera combination available today

And Now A Super Wide Portrait.

Next  let's try it on a "portrait photograph". After Jack and his family arrived we kicked into high gear and proceeded to take all the family photographs and several individuals of Jack with the open Torah before him on the bimah. I always enjoy getting a couple fisheye photographs with the torah in the foreground in our young Bar Mitzvah in the background.

Look at our first image – Figure 7. It's a great fisheye photograph of Jack reading from the Torah.

Now let's look at the second image once I let Lightroom 4 work its lens correction magic on the image – Figure 8.  Now we get a super-wide angle view of Jack reading the Torah. The net effect of the new composition is that the Torah completely fills the foreground adding impact to this portrait.

When making a conversion I also got some vertical distortion of of our subject because of the pixel bending going on  in Lightroom’s 4’s lens correction feature. I did a slight vertical correction of that distortion in manual mode. In effect,that made the Torah look even larger but it reduced  a lot of subject that I had picked up from the earlier transformation.

In any event, as I said before, I've got an exciting new tool my camera bag that lets me create images  that not many of the competition are creating here in Cincinnati, Ohio. Remember, it's always the difference that makes a difference. Stick your head above the crowd just slightly and your potential clients will notice.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today I got a few more things on my plate that I need to tend to. So how about I plan to see everybody sometime tomorrow for another technique Tuesday. Once again it's going to revolve around pixel bending and some of the new tools we have at our finger tips to make it pixel bending  almost effortless. Everybody have a great rest of the evening and I'll see you sometime tomorrow.

Adios, David

Technique Tuesday: The Only Wide Angle Lens You’ll Ever Need!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Just to bring you up to date, let me tell you what’s happening around here - it’s all good stuff.  Yesterday, I typed the first 2,200 words of my new book, “Make Your Lighting Exciting”.  I just started typing and the words started flowing – a very good thing for an author ;~) 

Anyway, the book in now on the “front burner” an I’m giving it TOP PRIORITY over everything else here at the studio, including daily posts to DPT.  If I’m going to finish this thing by the end of August, that’s how its’ going to have to be the next few months.  The first words I type each day will be for my book – no exceptions! 

Don’t worry, I’m not giving up on the blog for that time period but look for the blog posts to come later in the day.  I figure 2,000 words a day and I can have the book hammered out in no time.  Total words for my Captured By The Light book last year totaled about 65,000 words so you can see I’m on a “tear’ this time around.  Hey, they always say to write your second book first because you know what you’re doing ;~)

That’s the quick update from me today.  How about we get on with a super-cool Technique today.

The Only Wide Angle Lens You’ll Ever Need!

OK, not really but with what I’ve got to show you today you’ll be surprised to see what I pull off with my new Canon 8-15mm Fisheye lens.  The cool thing is that it has little to do with Fisheye photography.  Today it’s all about super- duper extreme wide angle lens photography.  How wide – how about 150 degrees rectilinearly corrected wide angle wonderfulness!  That makes the new Canon lens the new wide angle winner in that department.

OK, so you’re asking, “How in the world can I use a fisheye lens as a regular wide angle lens?”  It’s easy folks, Lightroom 4 and it’s built in lens correction feature. That’s the point of this week’s lesson. Today’s post answer’s the question of what the REAL “Field of View” is for a rectilinearly corrected fisheye image.  OK, I’ll let the “cat out of the box early here. 

Using the Canon 8-15mm fisheye on my Canon 5D Mark III full frame body, I will show you can achieve a true rectilinearly corrected image with a “Field of View” that ranges from 150 degrees down to a still super-wide 133 degrees depending on the zoom setting of the lens.  The studio image below is shot with the Canon fisheye at 14mm corrected in Lightroom showing a 140 degrees “Field of View”! Nothing else comes close to this wide angle feat!

Hopefully I’ve got your attention with this intro.  I’ve spent a lot of today developing and organizing the data and the images for this post.  Why not hit the PLAY button below and enjoy one of my favorite Technique Tuesdays ever.  OK, on slight word of caution – I did get little carried away on today’s tutorial and it does run a little long – about 34 minutes long.  But it’s still worth every minute of you time.  I think (and hope) you get a kick out of the video today.  Enjoy!!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I’ve still got to get my 2,000 words under my belt for today – yes, I gave DPT first billing today because I got so wrapped up into putting things together this morning so now I’ve got to get moving.  I’ll plan to see everybody here again real soon.

Adios for now,  David

"Times Square Straight Up"

"Times Square Straight Up"
©David A. Ziser

This is one of the last images I captured at Times Square last night.  We were near 46th Street looking back down Broadway.  Before me were all the buildings, lights, and "glittereeze" that makes Times Square such a photographic Mecca.

I framed up the cornucopia of dazzling lights and billboards and shot away. The camera was pointed nearly straight up at the night sky which gave me the unique perspective of showing the building both before me and behind me. Zooming back to the full circle (full circle on the full frame 5D Mk3) 8mm setting on the captured this image.

Because of the range of the scene brightness, I had to select an exposure that would capture the true feeling and excitement of Times Square.  The HDR effect helps eliminate any hot spots too. 

Camera specs: Canon 5D fitted with Canon Fisheye lens at 8mm, F5.6 @ 500 second, ISO 6400.  Enjoy!  -David

"Architectural Beauty”

"Architectural Beauty”
©David A. Ziser

Here is one of the last images I captured while at the church last week for my Master Class.  It is also one of my favorites. Look how the architecture swirls around the bride framing up her beautiful face.  I’ve positioned her in the bottom right quadrant of the frame which balances the image nicely with the rest of the space in the frame.

Not only are the colors pleasing, but the lighting on her face is really beautiful too. The lighting  was created with my Quantum strobe shooting through my Zumbrella giving the perfect and most flattering loop lighting on her face.

Two things surprise me about this image.  The first is the lack of severe distortion in my bride.  I thought I would have seen more, especially at the edges.  I’ll experiment more with the lens next week and see what happens.

The other even more amazing thing about this image was the quality of the the 24x36 inch print I printed.  I inadvertently selected the JPG file instead of the RAW file to print but the finished image was out of this world – sharp and clear. Now for the real question; “Does everything need to be photographed at full resolution?”  More later on that remark.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Canon 8-15mm Fisheye at 15mm, F5.6 @ 1/30 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy!  -David

"Come On and Party On!"

"Come On and Party On!"
©David A. Ziser

Here is another image I made at the past weekend’s wedding.  I enjoy jumping back with the band and shooting towards the dance floor – band in the foreground and the revelers in the background.  It makes for a great party pic for the wedding album.

I changed it up this time though – I shot it in HDR mode on the Canon 5D Mark III. That really added to the brilliance of the colors throughout the image. I really like how the cymbal in the foreground also picked up and reflected the rich, red colors on the ceiling.  Look how I positioned and balanced the rich colors framing up the musicians and guests in the scene.

Even though the image was shot with my new fisheye, I used Lightroom 4 to remove the fisheye effect from the image.  Sure, I could have used one of my wide angle lenses but the “fish” is what was on the camera at the time. It’s kind of a wild image but I still like it as a pretty cool party photograph for the w3dding coverage.  Hope you like it too.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Canon 8-15mm Fisheye lens at 15mm, F 4.0 @ 1/1250 second, ISO 12,800.  Enjoy!  -David

"And Liberty For All"

"And Liberty For All"
©David A. Ziser

You guessed it.  This image was made during our tour of the Capitol Building on Wednesday.  It was my first visit and I was impressed.  Heck, I even got a chance to catch a glimpse of Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader, John Boehner. Like I said – right in the middle of it all ;~)

This image was made from the dead center of the rotunda.  I pointed my camera straight towards the dome 180 feet directly overhead, set my camera to HDR, and shot away. The result worked out quite well.  Notice that even with the use of the Fisheye lens there is no “give away” till you notice the curve of the framed paintings at the corner of the image.

I warmed the original image up in Lightroom 4 to give the image a softer feel but that was about the extent of my post processing.  Now do you want to hear the rest of the story.  If you look closely at the mural in the center of the dome, you can see George Washington holding court with heaven’s dignitaries.

This mural is called the The Apotheosis of Washington. Brumidi, the painter, depicted George Washington rising to the heavens in glory, flanked by female figures representing Liberty and Victory/Fame. A rainbow arches at his feet, and thirteen maidens symbolizing the original states flank the three central figures. The word "apotheosis" in the title means literally the raising of a person to the rank of a god, or the glorification of a person as an ideal. George Washington was honored as a national icon in the nineteenth century. Just thought you might like to know.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Canon 8-15mm Fisheye at 14mm, F6.3 @ 1/320 second, ISO 3200.  Enjoy!  -David

Technique Tuesday: Fish, Fish–Go Away!

Good Morning Everybody,

Photoshop World Washington, DC is wrapped up and we have the next two days off in the city. I’ve got a brand-new Technique Tuesday for you today so why don’t we get right to it.

Fish, Fish–Go Away!

The idea for this Technique Tuesday came when Michael Wiacek and I were sitting around the Speakers lounge at Photoshop World.  I just picked up my brand-new Canon 8–15mm zoomable fisheye lens and was shooting a few photographs with it.

I was curious to see if I can remove the fisheye effect with this lens correction feature in LR4. I know what you’re thinking – why in the world did I get then lens if I wanted to remove the fisheye effect?  Hey, I just wanted to see if I could do it, that’s all ;~)

As soon as I tried I was left with this BIG gray hole at the bottom of the image. I could have removed it the “constrained crop” box checked but Mike and I (mostly Mike) had an idea on how we could remove it in Photoshop.

All I can say is that one thing led to the other and before long together we had it pretty well figured out.

Another thing that happens when you use the lens correction feature in LR4, it tends to turn your subjects into munchkins if they are positioned pretty far back within the scene. So, we had that problem to solve, too. Hey,  why not hit the PLAY button below and see how we solved the problems and came up with a very, very cool image.

Fish, Fish–Go Away! from David Ziser on Vimeo.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. I promised LaDawn I wouldn’t spend all day on my Technique Tuesday today and it’s already noon. Why? Because we’ve got places to go and things to see.

So, for now, we are out of here.  See everybody tomorrow, David

HD Video For Great Wedding Sequences, Cheap Fisheyes, & My New Wedding Camera ;~)

Good (late) Afternoon Everybody,

This day is really got the best of me hence, the very late post today. We returned home yesterday late afternoon from our wedding in the mid-Ohio area. 13 hours and over 4000 exposures later we wrapped the job.  I had a midmorning appointment today that took a little longer than usual and then spent some time importing those 4000+ photographs and videos into Lightroom 4. That's about the time I started getting sidetracked - to many new goodies to experiment with and too little time ;~)

A Cool Way To Get A Great Series Of Images!

One thing we tried this weekend was to use my Canon 7D to shoot HD video of the couple as they interacted romantically with each other. My game plan was to do the frame grabs from the HD video in Lightroom 4 and then create some album pages from the sequence of images I captured from the video.

It took a little bit of time to work through the sequence but once we figured it out LaDawn was able to create some really fabulous looking pages. I'll go into more detail about what I was up to in tomorrow's Technique Tuesday post.

My New Wedding Camera ;~)

I was also experimenting with my new iPad 3 at the wedding. Yes, I'm the proud owner of the brand new iPad. I opted for the Verizon version this time around because of one very compelling feature. The Verizon version has one very cool feature not yet enabled on the AT&T iPad. The Verizon feature lets you use your iPad 3 as a hot-spot supporting up to five devices once enabled.

I was already paying Verizon $60 a month for my MiFi hot-spot card. I was able to cancel the MiFi card subscription and then I re-upped for the 5gig data plan on my new iPad which gives me plenty of bandwidth for my web surfing and hot-spot functions. In effect it was a $35 monthly savings for me. After I cancel my 2gig data plan on my old iPad, saving me $25 a month, and I've saved $10 with the 5gig plan on my Verizon iPad leaving $35/month extra cash in my back pocket - where it rightfully belongs.

Photographing with the iPad is like shooting with a view camera. We've all seen plenty of blog posts around the web showing people shooting with their iPad but, with the brand-new 5 Meg iSight camera on the iPad 3 it really is a lot of fun.  The images look quite good and will easily enlarge to an 8x10 photograph.

It's also easy to get those images into Lightroom with the Photo Stream feature on the new iPad 3 and iCloud. With the Photo Stream feature enabled, any images I capture on the iPad are immediately sent to iCloud. There I can easily retrieve those images onto my desktop computer.

Once retrieved I simply import them into the job in Lightroom and I'm good to go. Do I plan to make my iPad 3 my new backup camera for my weddings – no not really. It's just kind of fun to play but more importantly the iPad is an integral part of our wedding coverages as I've mentioned many, many times. It's easy to do a quick selection of the images, get them imported into the iPad, and then have a slide presentation ready to go for your clients.  A great WOW factor for any photographer photographing weddings.

A Handy Dandy Fisheye Lens For Only $349!

Eric Cameron, a great photographer from Dover, Ohio came down and helped me with the wedding shoot this weekend.  It was great to have Eric on the job.  He has a terrific eye and a nice sense of timing in capturing the image.

Eric also brought along his Bower Fisheye lens [link].  It’s a totally manual lens but you can get the hang of it in no time at all.  It does a great job producing a full 180 degree field of view on the APS size sensor cameras like my Canon 7D.

Eric and I both had a good time “playing” with the Bower Fisheye lens for both stills and video.  The image quality, at first glance,   looks quite good to me – more later on our results.  Needless to say, it was a BEAUTIFUL wedding celebration with perfect weather. Chelsea and Joe were a great, easy going couple to photograph. The wedding party was fun. We captured some gorgeous images, and I can’t wait to take a closer look at them in Lightroom.

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I started working on my Technique Tuesday for tomorrow and I can't wait to tell you what I discovered. Why not tune in and I’ll give you the full report on the HD video experience I had.

On that note, I'm out here. Everybody have a great rest of the day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Adios, David

"The Last Rehearsal"

"The Last Rehearsal"
© David A. Ziser

Since this is a Bar/Bat Mitzvah centric post today, I thought I would feature anther image from Hannah’s “temple shoot” made the day before her Bat Mitzvah celebration.  Additional images are also featured in the following article.

This is an image which is the last in the series that I take of my young Bar/Bat Mitzvah’s. After roaming around and photographing various locations within the synagogue, I always end up at the back of the sanctuary.

I know it’s going to be a very wide angle shot many times incorporating my Sigma fisheye as I did for this image.  I really like how the wide angle lens modifies and accentuates the geometrics of this space.

I positioned my subject around “nodal point #1 – the bottom left corner of the frame, lit her from the right with my strobe through my Zumbrella at 1/4 power, and shot away. I really like how all the lines lead directly to the subject in this image. The balance of the strobe with the ambient is just about perfect making Miss Hannah really “pop” from the surrounds.

I used Lightroom 4 for most of the image modifications in this image, including the Lens correction feature which removed all signs of the fish eye lens – pretty cool isn’t it. I also used the “Content Aware Fill” in Photoshop CS 5.5 to remove an exit sign camera left.

When all is said and done, I think we have a very compelling portrait of our pretty young lady that I’m confident her parents will love!

Camera specs:  Canon 7 D fitted with Sigma 8mm fisheye, F5.6 @ 1/20 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy!  -David

"Ceiling Masterpiece"

"Ceiling Masterpiece"
© David A. Ziser

I captured this image at a wedding I photographed a few years ago. It was taken from the balcony at the historic Plum Street Temple in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. It is always a true joy to photograph in this beautiful location.

I love that the image literally shows the interior from front to back, accenting the magnificent detail of the vast ceiling. Some folks may have an issue with the fisheye effect but I don’t.  I really like what the Fisheye brings to these spectacular interiors.  It’s a sense of perspective not seen very often which, I believe, adds interest to the client’s finished album. BTW, I slightly increased the shadow detail and saturation in Photoshop.

Camera specs: Canon 40D fitted with Sigma's 8mm fisheye lens, F5.0 @ 1/50 second, ISO 1600 handheld.  Enjoy! --David

"Beauty All Around"

"Beauty All Around"
© David A. Ziser

This is one of my favorite “fisheye” images made a few years ago. I love the "dramatics" of this image created with my Nikon D1x which I owned a few years ago before I made the Canon switch.

The camera was fitted with Nikon's Fisheye lens - see fisheye lens article below - exposure was made with the naturally occurring illumination from the lighting in the church and the light streaming in from the stain glass window you see on the left.. The very low angle – I was practically on the floor -  picked up what looks like a ceiling panorama of the wonderful architecture of this beautiful church.

Camera specs: Nikon D1x fitted with Nikkor 8mm Fisheye lens, F5.6 @1/20 second, ISO 800. Enjoy! --David

"Surrounded By Beauty"

"Surrounded By Beauty"
© David A. Ziser

This is one of my favorite images from last week’s shoot.  I was shooting with my Canon 5D Mark II, a camera I haven’t been shooting with much lately.  I loaded it up with my Sigma fisheye and framed up the shot.

I was careful that Rebecca, our model, stand slightly behind the mosaic  on the floor.  Compositionally I wanted the mosaic to balance with the church dome above Rebecca’s head.

All the curved lines of the arches all around do a great job of concentrating viewer’s attention directly to the bride. The composition is completely symmetrical but I think it really works in the context of the field of view of the fisheye lens.

Lighting was balanced with the ambient and was coming in from camera right.  I remember needing to ask my assistant to move around even more to keep the light out of the image area. The fisheye lens is reeeaaaly wide! The 24x36 inch print I printed out for the class looked beautiful.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark II fitted with Sigma 8mm Fisheye lens F5.6 @ 1/40 second, ISO 1250.  Enjoy!  -David

"Beauty All Around"

"Beauty All Around"
© David A. Ziser

I love the dramatic effect of this image created by the use of my fisheye lens fitted to my Nikon D1x which I owned a few years ago before I made the switch to Canon. 

The exposure was made with the naturally occurring illumination from the lighting in the church.  I simply turned the bride’s face towards the light till I had the loop lighting pattern I wanted on her face.

The very low angle picked up what looks like a ceiling panorama of the wonderful decor within this beautiful church.

Camera specs: Nikon D1x fitted with 16mm Nikkor Fisheye, F5.6 @ 1/20 second, ISO 800. Enjoy! –David

p.s.  This is the church I’m taking my Master Class to today – pretty cool location don’t you think? DAZ

"Tulip Dance"

"Tulip Dance"
© David A. Ziser

I made this image early on in my foray into digital photography.  I have to tell you, it was a kick then and it’s even a bigger kick today!  The challenge in the early days was making the transition from the square Hasselblad format to the rectangular DSLR format. It actually took me about a year to feel confortable with the switch.

Anyway, this image was captured back in my Nikon days. There was one thing I really liked about the early Nikon’s – they synced at 1/500 second just like my Hassy’s.

I always loved super wide angle lenses, especially the fisheye lenses.  Shooting fisheye lens can be quite the challenge.  You have to view the following tutorial to see why.

This image is also featured in our Technique Tuesday today, so give it a listen and I’ll go over all the details of the photograph.  I think you’ll enjoy the details of what went into this image.

Camera specs: Nikon D1x fitted with Nikkor 8mm Fisheye lens, F8.0 @ 1/200 second,  ISO 400.  Enjoy!  -David

Quick Hit Monday: Fisheye Fisheyes; Canon 60D Thoughts; LR3 Production: and HDR

Good Morning Everybody,

We arrived safe and sound into glittering Las Vegas, Nevada mid Saturday afternoon. We got settled into our hotel and enjoyed a relaxing weekend. My daughter, Elizabeth, is joining us on this trip – only her second time to Vegas and a first to Photoshop World. Only this time she is over 21 - uh oh.

All kidding aside, I wanted to show her around the city and introduce her to the world famous Photoshop World experience. We began the trip with a bang seeing our favorite Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas show "O" [link] on Sunday evening. We spending today making a short day trip over to Valley Of Fire, one of the most unique desserts in the US. I hope I have a few images to post from the visit.

Tomorrow is pre-con day at Photoshop World which means it will be lots of fun. I’m excited for this presentation/workshop because of some of the new techniques I've got planned for the shoot. Reflectors, 7 foot umbrellas, and my new LOVE LightZ.

This week may be a light blog week just because we are so busy with 3 programs, 4 booth demos, and the regular programming. I'll do my best to keep you posted on show happenings and keep up the DPT blog schedule too.

How about we get right to it. Here are a few of my Quick Hits for today.

A Zoomable Fisheye - Are You Kidding Me?

Believe me, I couldn't believe it when I read it either. Most of you know that I'm a big fan of the fisheye lens, but a zoomable fisheye - wow! Canon just announced this lens [link] with all their recent flurry of gear announcements and this one caught my eye.

Here is the deal as best as I can tell. On a full frame camera like the Canon 5D Mark II when zoomed down to 8mm you get a complete circle 180 degree view. I've been taking that same image on my Sigma 8mm fisheye for several years.

But here is the cool thing - zoom it to 15mm and you get a complete full frame 180 degree diagonal view on a full frame camera. It’s sort of like getting two lenses in one. Its not due to ship till January 2011 and will cost in the neighborhood of $1,400.

Hey, it could be worse. Canon's newly announced 400mm F2.8 IS lens is coming in at around $7,100! [link] I think this zoom fisheye really looks interesting. I can't wait to get my hands on it. Once again, here is the link to the complete story right here.

How About Canon's New 60D Camera?

I've been working on the CBTL tour this week and have been under water news-wise for most of last week. But, you can always catch up on the latest and greatest gear announcements at Über gear blogger, 1001 Noisy Cameras [link].  1001 must have spy microphones everywhere to come up with all the info his blog generates!

Anyway, I wanted to see what was up with the new camera and headed over to 1001's site right here. If you are thinking of selecting this camera, before to you make your purchase check out 1001's post. It is the “go to” Canon 60D post because of all the other links to blogs reporting on this camera.

My first impression is that the camera might be better suited for the video shooter. Yes, HD video is built in as well as an adjustable microphone - interesting. The camera is a bit more plastic, not a good thing, but does have a swivel viewfinder - a good thing for the video shooter.

It's rated up to ISO 12,800 but is definitely noisy at that range. Supposedly it has a chip similar to the 7D and T2i which means it should be useable up to ISO 1600 or even 3200 with a little LR3 thrown in.

The deal breaker for me is the fact that, just like the T2i, no external sync connection. I just don't get why Canon did that. It just neuters the convenience of using off-camera flash and there are no easy work arounds if you want to use off-camera and on- camera flash simultaneously.

Don't get me wrong, the video aspects of the camera look to be the latest greatest with the swivel finder and all the added elements. So, maybe for me it works as a high end vacation camera, just not as a second camera in my gear bag, that is until I amp up my video shooting. I think that's where the 60D will find it's best fit.

Lightroom Post Production - The 10 Best Steps To Great Looking Images

One of my favorite Lightroom folks to follow is Victoria Brampton, the Lightroom Queen [link]. She just completed her latest Lightroom 3 book, “Lightroom 3, The Missing FAQs”. She really knows her stuff, always has some cool Lightroom tips and tricks, and points you to other solid content Lightroom posts.

In one of her tweets, she pointed to a great post  at the NY Times Gadgetwise blog entitled, "Ten Photo-Editing Tips From a Pro" [link]. As I read through it, I'm thinking that's a lot of what I do - hey, maybe that's why I like the post so much - because they're doing it, as Ol' Blue Eyes would say, "my way" ;~)

Hey, all kidding aside, this post really shows an intelligent step-by-step process to obtain better images. Here is the link right here.

One Of The Best HDR Tutorials I've Seen

I think I found this post somewhat by accident during my GoGo Inflight Internet surfing at 30,000 feet on the way to Las Vegas on Saturday. StuckInCustoms.com [link] is a fascinating blog by Trey Ratcliff for the traveling photographer.

I landed on the front page of the site and then began to explore the site a bit more. In the right hand column was a link to this HDR tutorial [link]. If you are an HDR junkie, you probably know all this stuff.

Hit Trey’s site anyway and check out his beautiful HDR images. But, if you are like me, and only dabble in the dark sciences of HDR infrequently, this is a good post on the subject. Once again, here is the link.

__________________________________________________________

Hey gang, that's it for me today. We are heading out to the Valley Of Fire for the day. We've packed a wedding gown with us and have talked my daughter, Elizabeth, into being my model for a few hours. My gosh, my daughter in a wedding gown - that's a scary thought ;~)

Oh. one last thing – LaDawn still needs volunteers for our CBTL tour especially in the earliest scheduled venues of Phoenix and Houston. You won’t miss a minute of the presentation. At the end of the evening, I’m buying the soft drinks or beers for any of the volunteers that want to stick around! E-Mail her at LaDawn@ziser.com and she’ll give you all the details.

Anyway, I'm going to run. Tomorrow is Pre-Con day but I'm still panning to get a Technique Tuesday up and on the air.

Hope to see everybody tomorrow,

David

"Garden Smiles"

"Garden Smiles"
©David A. Ziser

This image was captured in my pre-Canon days early into our transition into digital shooting.  I always loved the fisheye lens on my Hasselblad and was just getting used to using one on my digital gear. 

I decided I like the 8mm fisheye on an APS sized sensor.  I still get a nice effect and the image is easy to crop.  When taking these shots, it always looks like I’m taking a photograph of the flowers since I am so close to them because of their prominence in the foreground. 

I lit the image simply – assistant was behind the couple about 10 feet, flash on full power – 200 W.S.  We did a few takes and this one was my favorite.

Camera specs: Nikon D1x fitted with Sigma 8mm fisheye, F7.1 @ 1/250 second, ISO 400.  Enjoy!  -David

"Surrounded By The Light"

"Surrounded By The Light"
©David A. Ziser

I'm actually using his image as the title image of my Friday Photo School program today. It was made last year as part of a special series of images I captured for the bride during her wedding reception. The Phoenix Club, where this image was created has always been a very popular venue for weddings in Cincinnati, Ohio. Why? Because of the gorgeous staircase. This image is one of my signature shots I take whenever I'm shooting at the Phoenix - the clients love it. The fisheye lens seems to make the stairway caress the couple with it's arabesque lines. Because of the constrained space behind the couple, we positioned my Quantum flash about 2-3 feet directly behind the couple and set it to 1/4 power. Next frame up the shot and shoot away. Camera specs: Canon 50D fitted with Sigma 8mm fisheye lens, F5.6 @ 1/25 second, ISO 1000.  Enjoy! -David