PhotographyBanzai.com

Hey, it’s been a while! I’ve still been taking photos as usual, but this website hasn’t seen updates in a long time. A lot of my photo updates go on my Cosplay Banzai Facebook page (recently rebranded) due to convenience. Personal websites, in my experience, don’t get much traffic with articles like this. Most of this site’s traffic are my old Pentax equipment reviews. Here are a few photos I took at a local cosplay photography meetup. The meetup is usually centered around photos with horses that we have available, but we still mostly just take photos of the cosplayers by themselves. It’s really just a big group of friends hanging out and enjoying a mutual hobby (while we also eat, drink, and have a bonfire). Stuff like this is what it’s all about! Now on to the equipment talk. The equipment I pull out when I’m serious is still Nikon DSLRs. Cameras and Lenses (use both at once most of the time): Nikon D600 with a 50mm f1.8g lens: This was attached to my backpack’s strap lugs directly ...

In this video I go over using a PS4 DualShock controller when reviewing and culling photos. It’s an ergonomic and quick way to go over large numbers of photos in your initial review process.  Using a game controller in Adobe Bridge! In my case I use Adobe Bridge CS5, which has limited support for keyboard shortcuts. The related video about using a controller to cull photos in Adobe Bridge. Get a Sony DualShock 4 Wireless PS4 Controller through my links: B&H Photo Video , Amazon , Best Buy , and eBay . As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases!  You can use whatever controller you want as long as you have the ability to mimic keyboard inputs. The DS4Windows program I use has full macro support, which is great.  Configuring DS4 Windows to work with Bridge. The PS4 controller drivers: ds4windows ( github source ) Adobe Bridge shortcut list Here is how I have mine set up: – D-pad = The arrow keys on the keyboard so you can navigate through the...

I attended an event hosted by my convention/photographer/cosplayer friends “ Cosplayer With A Camera ” and Hikikomori Sama at the Chicago Botanic Gardens .  They have had the event there for a number of years, but this might be the last. The garden has some pretty restrictive policies on photography, which makes things difficult for us.  This year they tightened the policies even more and we had some aggressive staff on carts show up toward the end of the night. The garden itself is really large and beautiful, which is of course great for the pictures we take. Here are a few highlight photos from the event:  All I brought for the event was the Nikon D600 and 50mm f1.8g lens. It’s a nice combination that allows you do a decent amount without the extra bulk and hassles. Along with that, the overcast skies helped a lot with getting nice photos. Shade and uniform outdoor light are great for simple natural photos that don’t need much editing afterward.

My friend and fellow photographer Kings Cosplay set up a photoshoot at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, IL. Though we had our fair share of issues such as part of the park flooding, we did manage to get a decent amount of time to take photos. Besides getting some photography in, I enjoyed the exercise and scenic views! I brought a pretty simple camera kit. The Nikon D600 along with a 28mm f1.8 and 70-210mm f4 lens. I also brought a single flash, but only used that for around 5 photos. My go-to for most of the event was the telephoto. I like the photos out of that ~$200 old used 1980s telephoto lens just as much as anything else. The lens is weirdly shaped, ugly, and with old school screw-drive AF, but does the job well. 

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...

I attended Anime Central 2015 on May 15th and 16th. I have a few general hallway style photos as well as quite a few from photoshoots. Photo links: Facebook Gallery Here are a few highlight images from the convention: I tried to stay pretty mobile camera equipment wise as usual with conventions. I brought the Nikon D600, 50mm f1.8g, and two Yongnuo i-TTL flash with wireless triggers. I used the flash quite a bit, mostly when I had helpers to hold them.  Lightstands would have been helpful, but it’s added bulk I don’t want to carry around. In the future, I’d like the find something even smaller than those mini-lightstands, but so far I don’t see anything on the market that would fit the bill.  I think the photos turned out pretty decent considering the limited equipment and time. I hope everyone who attended ACEN had a fun time.

It’s difficult dealing with a large number of photos. Over the years I have accumulated a lot and I’ve also deleted a lot. Though I’m sure not as much as some people, right now I have around 1.25TB. Before I go into more specific details about my personal quest to get things organized and backed up to some degree, I wanted to mention the main purpose of this article. To get things organized into the most logical format possible, it was difficult finding something that would work, at least on Windows. After some experimentation and searching I wound up using Exiftool . It’s a somewhat simple command line tool that can do batch processing on images and source EXIF data in that process. Other tools I found didn’t work as I had expected, or were a hassle to use. In Windows, you download the standalone EXE from Phil’s Exiftool website , extract the EXE, rename it by removing the (-k), and copying it to the C:\Windows directory for ease of running from the ...

Two friends and I recently attended a gaming tournament that centered around the game StarCraft II . We were only able to attend that Saturday and Sunday, driving all the way from Illinois. StarCraft II is a real-time strategy game that is popular in the professional gaming scene. This is the first gaming tournament I’ve been to and I feel it was worth the trip to try something new and just see what professional gaming is about first hand. A cool event!  This specific event was connected to the company RedBull that are famous for their energy drinks and sponsoring of non-traditional and extreme sports. The event location was well laid out and the live video production team they had was impressive. From a convention photographer’s perspective, I really enjoyed the high production values of the tournament. I also thought that the event staff I had interacted with were friendly, polite, and helpful when I had questions or needed something. Overall, it was a worthwhile experience for m...

I was able to attend Anime Central on the 16th and 17th. Most of my time spent was with private photo sessions, but I did take some hallway cosplay photos when I had free time. Facebook General Gallery Facebook Lolita Fashion Show Gallery Facebook Photo Session Favorites Gallery A few highlight images: I decided to focus on camera equipment and not lighting for this convention. A Nikon D600 with a 28mm f1.8 lens and a D7100 with a 50mm f1.8 lens. I also used a small reflector a small handful of times when I was able.  The vast majority of the photos were taken with totally natural light and edited in Photoshop to my preference. 

Though I’ve used Photoshop in some fashion since the early 2000s, I’m always learning or re-learning things about it. To improve the speed of editing, there are a few things that make a big difference. I’ve been trying to incorporate the keyboard more into the editing process because it does speed up editing a lot. I use Photoshop CS5, so if something doesn’t work for you then there might be a difference in how things are done for your version. Holding the space bar down will allow you to drag around the photo while keeping your current tool. There is an application level setting that you can change to have the scroll-wheel perform zoom and it doesn’t change your current tool selected. I always enable that whenever I need to (re)install Photoshop. The clone stamp tool is my go-to tool for editing cosplay photos. It’s easy to clone out harder to manage spots and areas with this tool compared to the others I’ve used. It takes more effort to use than the other related tools, so I try to u...