Category Archives: Lockdown Logs

Co. Down, Lockdown Logs, Still Life

THE LOCKDOWN LOGS #58

The Lockdown Logs

Dateline: May 30th 2020

Comber Spuds

Janette brought these freshly-dug new Comber potatoes home today.  This morning they were in the ground.  Tomorrow, they will be boiled, (Over here, we don’t peel these potatoes, we just scrub them and boil them in their skins – when ready the skins will almost fall off them) salted and served with lashing of butter.  The Comber potato is a waxy, flavoursome food, and a protected brand.

I photographed them in the Studio-Pod, under two Elinchrom D-Lites, with the Fujifilm X-T2, and Nikkor 50mm MF lens, against a green chromakey background.  F=50mm, f/5.6 @ 1/125th sec on ISO400.

Comber-SpudsUP

Lockdown Logs, Photo-Technique, Still Life, Training

The Lockdown Logs #56

The Lockdown Logs

Dateline: May 28th 2020

Coalport Figurine Chromakey

In the Pod today, playing with a small green screen set-up, to see how the light works best. I’ve set a small Coalport Lady Figurine on a table, with a green-screen background.  There’s a D-Lite just behind my right shoulder and natural light coming from the left of the figure.  The D-Lite is set low, not to be a key-light, but to simply reduce any shadow cast by the Coalport figure.

I’m using the Fujifilm X-T2, with a Nikon 50mm manual focus lens and the camera set for focus peaking.  F=50mm, f/5.6 @ 1/60th sec on ISO200.

Here’s the result:

Coalport-UP_

Here’s the set-up: Continue reading The Lockdown Logs #56 →

Lockdown Logs, Studio

The Lockdown Logs #52

The Lockdown Logs

Dateline: May 22nd 2020

I’m still working out the best settings for lighting in the socially isolated Studio-Pod.  Here’s what it looks like at the minute:-

C26783C8-E4BB-40F3-890D-097076988086

I’m sitting behind the desk, looking at the pencil-mug in the light tent, through the Fujifilm ‘Cam Remote’ App on the iPhone.  Here’s what I’m seeing (Although obviously, I’ve processed the image)…

Pencil Mug UP
Fujifilm X-T2, with Nikon 50mm lens, manual focus with focus peaking.  F=50mm, f/8 @ 1/125th sec on ISO160.

 

 

 

Lockdown Logs

The Lockdown Logs #51

The Lockdown Logs

Dateline: May 21st 2020

The Ding-Thing!

Second photo of the day, and I’m still setting up the lights in the Studio-Pod, so I’ve two Elinchrom D-Lites, one suspended on a ‘goose-neck’ thing, and fitted with a Softbox, the other on a stand, and fitted with a white, shoot-through umbrella.  This old bell has been around our various business premises for many years, so I shot it using the two lights. I set it into an open light tent, to control the light around it, and give a white backdrop.  Used the Fujifilm X-T2, fitted with a Nikon 50mm manual focus lens, and focus-peaking on the camera.

Bell

So, Fujifilm X-T2, F=50mm, f/8 @ 1/125th sec on ISO400.

Lockdown Logs

The Lockdown Logs #49

The Lockdown Logs

Dateline: May 20th 2020

 

There’s a Dobbies flower pot thingy outside the Cocoon.  Apparently it’s been there since Christmas, and I’m only seeing it now!  Anyway, here’s a macro shot of some of the wee flowers in the pot-thing.

I shot it with the Fujifilm X-T30, with a 200mm Macro Nikon Lens, F=200mm, f/5.6, 1/1000th sec on ISO3200.  Manual focus with focus peaking.

DSCF5722_UP

It looked quite surreal, so in post-processing, I added a watercolour canvas effect…

Flowers Watercolour CanvasUP