I live in the us now since over 4 years and whenever I get home the first thing I desperately need and want to eat are:

• smoked salmon on white bread
• a soft boiled egg
• senfgurken (cucumbers pickled in mustard and vinegar)
• good Italian food (bruschetta,carpaccio basically antipasti in general)
  
• good vodka...
  
• thueringer bratwurst
• met broetchen (ground raw park with onions and spices on white bread)

I'm done with the first 3 things, the 4th comes tonight and the rest comes in the next couple of days.

ok once it is not raining Finland is actually very nice...



so yes it was fun to take some pictures there today and I start to understand why claudia would sell a kidney to be there!

Finland is:

- cold
- dark

conference was:

- interesting
- learned something

getting a nice picture:

- priceless

why does F/2.8 work here and the other eye looks great



but the same F/2.8 does not work here




just frustrating, not enough light for F/5.6 - F/8 and not enough DOF for this. But I still love the lens and it was so much fun to work with her.

well the workshop at Preston castle is done and it was just an awesome experience to work with so many photographers. Explain things to them, give them ideas what to do with the models when they felled unsure. Pointing out interesting lighting situations. And the best was that the instructors just let me do my thing, since I seemed to get it right more or less.
I did not had the chance to take many pictures and directed and assisted more.

Things like,

• why don't we put her in the front of the window and you see how the sun shines over her shoulder and gives it this nice rim light effect? Now we put the reflector in front of her to bring her face on the same level.
• or if we move these models about 3 feet more to the left, well this gives you less clutter in the background

It was also nice to see the differences between the models and how they acted around the photographs, how they got excited when people actually showed them the pictures they took. Just to treat them as humans and not as subject.

For me it was a great opportunity to work a day without a flash and rediscover the use of ambient light and a reflector. But for this you always need an assistant or be able to hold the camera with one hand very still. Which was my biggest issue, most of the pictures I took are blurry, since the flash did not freeze the motion and you really have to keep your shutter speed high.
And boy the D200 sucks above iso 400, it's just a nightmare an you loose all details in the eyelashes.

You can find the gallery of my pictures here

And here are the best shots from today,

The differences between getting it right in camera and getting it right with post processing.

I took this picture over a year ago when I got the D80 and spend several hours to improve it with photoshop and to make it perfect. Adding layers, blurring parts of the skin adding several contrast curves to make it look 'professional'



And it was taken with just a single SB-600 and an omni bounce directed at the ceiling on camera

Now let's look at this picture



It has a similar look too it from the black and white conversion and I spend like 2 minutes on it post processing. Basically adjust the contrast and convert to black and white. Done

The difference is not the camera or the settings. They are more or less comparable. F/3.5 (90 mm) vs F/5 (200mm) gives a similar depth since the distance was more important in this case. The 200mm had maybe a bit more DOF since I was a a bit farther away since I wanted to get the shoulder in the picture.

The shutter speed is 200 vs 250. Which does not matter since the ambient light is basically knocked out in both cases.
Now the big difference I that I now have a rough understanding of what I'm doing (I still have a lot to learn) and that I used much bigger light sources which softened the skin for me. I still use a SB-600 speed light (2 actually), but thanks to the use of the umbrella (40") and softbox (28"x28") which are placed about a foot away from the model, well the skin is much softer and we have this big reflections we all love so much.
You can see the exact setup in her earrings (second picture) or in the eyes (first picture)

The first copy I got of the 17-55mm F/2.8 was pretty bad and just didn't work for me. But the ebay copy if got for so much cheaper is just amazing. I did not do any landscape with it yet, but the results I get from it pretty much speak for them self. It does help to have a pretty subject.






I also feel less and less the need to buy yet another lens. Can it be that I'm at the stage were I'm happy with what I have and actually concentrate more on taking pictures?

This would be truly awe full...

I would trade my D80 for another D200 in an instant. Now I have two cameras and today is shot like 300 pictures with the D200 and only 60 with the D80. I actually swapped lenses between the D80 and D200, since it just felt so much better to shoot with it.

And I finally managed to take some pictures of anamica. I just did not do her beauty justice, but maybe get another try in January. But I start to love the 17-55mm F/2.8 lens. It has some kind of unique look to it and I also start to prefer the D200 to the D80. It just works better except for high iso and shot's in the darkness. For some reason I got a lot of issues with sensor blooming.

The complete gallery can be found here








Now I just want two AB800, a large softbox + grid, a vagabond II battery pack and 5 cybersync receivers and 2 cybersync transmitters.

But this won't happen before I know that I stay in the US.

• we are in a financial crisis
• they don't work in Germany since they are 110V
• I don't really want to lug them around, they are pretty heavy...
  

I will buy another appollo softbox for sure, the light it produces is just to nice and it works better than expected.

Defiantly my favorite shot from the day and...



Yes I admit I was totally going after the 'james dean' look in this picture



And I think the lightning turned out pretty well, even if the original was using much harder light and it came more from the front above him. But you have to be nice to the skin of a woman or they never come back...

James dean picture is linked from here and I defiantly going to do some similar stuff.

Dream as if you live forever, live as if you die today.

James Dean

One of the best pictures were I was able to reveal her black hair nicely since it was very dark. The disadvantage of the hair light is that It spilled to much and so I got this ugly shadow on her leg and left to her leg :(

I need to gobo the light next time.

I really like this picture, but it also shows that the D200 collects dust at awful speeds and I have to clean it yet again.

I mean I changed the lens maybe 5 - 6 times since the last cleaning...

another strobist meeting and we are making progress with learning how to use the softbox.

Lesson of the meeting:

• if it's dark, don't trust the display since your eyes get more sensitive to light (it's obvious, but i keep forgetting it)
• I really have to learn how to read histograms
• if you shoot in the dark, bring a powerful flash light (in my case I should buy one)
• find a way to mount a flash light
• don't forget to use your white card

what I'm good at?

• relax people and comfort them
• stupid jokes

what differs me from other photographers?

• the model is the middle of the attention and not just a prop
  
• I really try to work with the people and relax them if they are nervous or make them laugh
  
• provide as much feedback as possible
• keep as much distance as possible and shoot mostly at 150-200mm outsides, 35 - 55mm does not really work for me most of the time

anyway some pictures from the last night

Kiko (just during talking and playing with her, gallery is here):







Kim (posed, by scott and taken by me):

we making progress MAP

it looks like obama is going to make the race!

correction we are definitely making progress here and it looks like the USA has it's first black dude as president.

Originally uploaded by Vimages

Nice example lightning which actually works quite well on men and is pretty easy.

2 x SB-800 as rim lights
1 xSB- 600 in soft box as key light

Definitely going to try this with the next male victim I find...

Ok all 600 pictures are sorted and we ended up with 200 usable pictures and maybe 30 which I consider good and 2 - 3 which I consider perfect.

But I really have to learn how to light a guy, since none of the pictures of Michael turned out as i wanted them to be. Men and women seem to be different...

Differences in the D80 and D200...

D200



D80



two cameras with the same chip and the same weakness seem to produce the same images quality when you use the same lens on them.

What are surprise.

So were is the difference again?

Basically it's just in the handling, speed and the stability of the body.

All I can say is thank you Kimberly Vincent.

One of the pictures from you is more or less the best picture I have taken so far. And I honestly do not know how to improve it.

The complete gallery can be found here

Best Picture so far"







Highlights from today: