Thursday, April 30, 2009

Meet Talu and Pipo

I wasn't very enthusiastic about having pets at home. We had a fish, of which I took just a few photos, as I didn't want to scare him with the flash.
And now we have these two rascals.
They are adorable. Look at them, ain't they cuties?
This is Pipo:
meet Pipo
And this is lovely Talu:
Meet Talu
They pose like this while we clean their cages. I used the little point& shoot in Continuous shooting mode, very close to the hamsters, so I could capture those beautiful smiles they have.
do I look ok?

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Disappointing prints

A friend of mine had asked me to take photos of her daughter for a very important celebration - communion. She was really pleased with the result, the captures were just what she had imagined, the cards as she desired.
Then, the files were sent for printing.

DISASTER! Shockingly AWFUL colors, deadly tones. I felt horrible. Couldn't believe how the colors that were OK on several computers now were so dull.
Forum inquiries gave me the answer: the color scheme.
I had been processing the captures in Photoshop, and had been saving them as they were. The default scheme for Photoshop is Adobe RGB, while most lab printing schemes are sRGB IEC61966-2.1.
I gave it a try, and IT WORKED!

How can you change this color profile? The easiest is Save As, then in Color, click the second option.

It really makes a difference. Now the prints are just what we expected them to be.

Has this ever happened to you?

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Flowers, flowers, flowers

It's spring.
Everywhere you look, there's a flower.Either you like it white, or pure yellow, or delicate purple ...
Flowers are beautiful in the short distance,in groups
spring

daisy

or alone
margarita

but incredible at macro distance.
DSC_0195

Today I've been experimenting with flowers and light.
I used two SB800, one as master mounted on the camera, the other under the flower. The surface on which the flower was put was a plactic sheet like the one used as dividers for files. The effect was spectacular:
backlit
and with a dried flower:
DSC_0317

Experimenting with light, with new perspectives, with macro vision, with any new idea or technique, produces photos which need no processing, awsome and elegant.
Hope you liked them.