PhotographyBanzai.com

Last year, I went to an anime convention called Uchi-Con that's at a university in downtown Chicago. I wanted to see if I could take and post photos directly from the camera without editing. After each convention it usually takes me multiple days of editing, so I'd like to avoid as much extra work as possible.  For this event, I was using the Nikon Z5 and the Nikon 40mm f/2 lens. The reality is that the editing process afterwards is a massive amount of work. Ultimately, having ready-to-post photos right out of the camera would be a huge time saver, but as we will see throughout this article it isn't realistic without using your own lighting.  I adjusted the photo afterward so that the cosplayer is brighter. The main issue I ran into was white balance. At least on Nikon Z5 camera I was using, the auto white balance just did not seem good enough to handle the varied lighting environments all the time. Though, being true-to-life of the environment and getting a look that feels...

I recently joined in on a two-day photoshoot Kings Cosplay had scheduled with the local model Ari Jade. The theme was race queen with most of the secondary subject being motorcycles. Here are a few highlight photos: Day one equipment: Nikon 28mm f/1.8g lens Two flash with a stand, umbrella, and a 6×8″ diffuser. The first day was a bit rough photo wise. All we initially had to work with was a home garage and by the time we got out to a downtown parking garage later in the day it was really dark, so the background wasn’t usable.  The main issue I didn’t properly compensate for was the sodium vapor lamps the parking garage used, which produces monochromatic light. I also tried gels on my flash, which didn’t have a strong enough orange to match the garage lamps. The parking garage photos were best in monochrome. The garage lighting didn't work out well.  Day two equipment: 28mm f1.8 lens 70-210mm f4 lens Two flash with a stand and large 42″ brolly box softbox umbrella. I also had...

Yesterday I took some photos at a local arboretum for the person in the photos. Overall the results turned out decent, but I was having some issues with judging the level of exposure. I’ll talk about that more after the photo break. Here are additional example photo from the photo session: I again went with the combination I used for my event at the Botanic Garden in Chicago. As per usual, I shoot in RAW format and post process in Adobe Bridge / Camera Raw. Once I finish up with tweaking each photo, I run an automated batch process in Photoshop to create JPEGs. K-01 with 14mm f2.8 Used in aperture priority at f5.6 for the entire time. Some fill light and additional contrast was added to most images in post. K-5 with 55mm f1.4 Used with an external flash and in aperture priority with some negative exposure compensation. I didn’t deal well with some of the extreme exposure variation. I should have decreased the overall exposure more than I had in many of the situations. My aperture...

The last time there was a World Pentax Day, I took some macro photos. This time I went with action self portraits. Levitation: Jump split, aka. “Riding the imaginary horse.” “Pushing the imaginary lawn mower.” Handstand splits: Quite a set, eh? I’m thinking action bases photo are one of my favorite styles. I’d like to get more into this style in the future. I was thinking about using flash, but didn’t. In Av mode with a wide aperture around f1.8 – f2.0 and had the ISO fixed to 400 or 800. I pre-focused by putting a twig on the ground and zooming in on that in liveview. I didn’t bother using a wireless remote, so I ended up running around a lot taking various poses with the 12 second timer. I could use the exercise anyway. 🙂

Went on two small shoots this week with a friend. The first was just a survey of the location an the second we had a subject to photograph. I tried to stay out of the way as he was the one who rounded up the model. I used the DA* 55mm f1.4 SDM for both. As you can probably tell, the weather is getting bad around here. It’s quite cold outside and the conditions are usually dreary. Although I look out my window today and see a blue sky…

A friend and I has a small model shoot on Thursday. Our goals were to generate some useful example images for a basic photography panel we will be running at a convention soon. While I’m not sure the shoot was successful from that aspect, I think I did get some nice images. I was using the K-7 camera body, the DA* 55mm f1.4 lens, a Sigma 530DG Super flash, and a custom bracket. Used the camera primarily in Av, but I also controlled the ISO along with the aperture. 

I was recently asked by a friend of my sister to take some photos of her family. They were not interested in the classic posed portrait studio fair as they wanted photos that felt more natural. I was happy to oblige. Overall the session went well. The lights was overcast, but that was a good thing as lighting was diffuse.  The big negative of session was the wind, which caused issues with the mother’s hair as well as cutting the session a bit short. As any photographer knows, getting special shots where everything aligns perfectly will usually happen if enough shots are taken and enough time is spent on the session. My equipment for the session: Pentax K-5 camera + FA 31mm f1.8 + Sigma 530 DG Super flash + battery grip to even out the weight. Pentax K-7 camera + DA* 55mm f1.4 + Pentax AF-280T flash. The K-5 stayed around my neck and the K-7 was in and out of a messenger bag. Some thoughts about the session: High speed sync was always on with the Sigma flash. This should allow ...