Erik Sacré

As I write this, the year is coming to an end. Looking back I see I did not write that much, nor did I take that many pictures. Shame on me! I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, so I will not promise anything will change…

Having said that, I thought it was time to try something different. I wanted to create a shot using the technique of lightpainting. For the following shot I put my camera on a tripod and I threw some CD-boxes on the floor I carefully designed the scene. I set my camera to manual mode, 200 ISO, 15 second exposure. The room was fairly dark. During the exposure I used an LED flash-light to light the scene, and put some accents where I wanted them. Because of the cold light emitted by an LED, I set my camera’s white balance to about 8000 Kelvin.

After a couple of tries, this is what I got:

My first lightpainting experiment

This is the way the picture came out of the camera. No post processing at all.

These days there is a lot of debate about the usage of Photoshop. Personally I don’t like to do a lot of post processing. Most of my images only see Lightroom.

When I made pictures in Switzerland, I got a bit sloppy. A lot of the pictures were cropped differently from the one I captured, and I even used Photoshop to clone out a couple of disturbing elements. I was not happy about this, so I decided to pay more attention to the point of capture. In fact I decided to use my X100 in Jpeg-mode (gasp!) and don’t process the resulting pictures at all.

So here we are a couple of weeks later. The experiment was somewhat successful. Until I saw following image:

Original image - no post processing

I’ve made this shot in a restaurant. I didn’t use flash. I like the gist of the picture, but I wished I would have had more control over the lighting conditions. So despite my no-post-processing-rule, I opened up Photoshop and made some minor adjustments.

I darkened the overall picture, and masked out the subject so she remained as bright as on the original picture. I also made sure her table and drink were sufficiently bright. Finally I brightened her eyes even a bit more than in the original picture:

Selectively changing brightness

Most of these changes, if not all, could have been done at the point of capture, by using proper lighting. However, it would have taken more time to setup, and the moment might have been lost. So it is really so bad to use a little bit of Photoshop?

Last week I read a review of the Fujifilm X100, a fairly compact retro-looking camera with an APS-C sensor and a 23mm f/2 prime (equivalent of 35mm on full frame). I was instantly attracted to its design. I also liked what I read about the analog controls. Despite the well-documented quirks I decided I wanted to have this camera.

It took some effort to find one. Seems like they were sold-out everywhere.

I charged the battery, and started playing with the X100. I was impressed by its results, and by its comfortable operation, with an aperture ring on the lens. A very clear optical view finder that is larger than the captured frame.

I discovered during my vacation in Switzerland that I was getting sloppy. Too many pictures required additional cropping, or some raw manipulation. I even had 2 pictures on which I used to clone-tool in Photoshop to get rid of a disturbing element!

So I decided to challenge myself. I will use the X100 as a training tool. I have it set to JPEG (yes, you read that right), and I am not touching the pictures coming out of it. No re-cropping, no recovering highlights, nothing! It makes me train my vision, and it forces me to pay more attention at capture time.

One of the first shots

Drinking some tea

Sitting in a bar

Where is the key to the castle?

My dog in the kitchen

I still have some work to do, but overall I’m happy with these results. I had to adjust a bit to the wide angle prime. However, I find it to be quite effective and pleasant to use.

More pictures can be seen in this Flickr set.

I’ve been to Switzerland… Even I need a vacation every once in a while!

I decided to take my D300 with the 18-200mm and a Sniper strap. In addition to animating my girl friend I really wanted to do a lot of photography. I am very fortunate to have a patient and supportive partner. The week turned into one extended photowalk.

Planes of colour

Swans, water and clouds

Door to the lake

Mountain view

Explaining

More pictures can be seen in this Flickr set.

This past weekend I decided to do a little bit of shooting. I didn’t have an idea where to go to, or what to shoot. After a while it occurred to me that I did not have to go that far. I had never really taken the time to walk through my own neighbourhood with a camera. So I ended up doing a mini-photowalk nearby.

I used a D700 with a 70-300mm for all pictures.

Sometimes it is just about colour

Colour and reflections

Walking away

See more in this Flickr slideshow.

After a stressful week at work, I decided to go for a walk and take my trusty but noisy D300/18-200mm. I set the camera to a high ISO, so I could make reasonably sharp pictures, even with the emerging low light (i.e. the sun was setting).

While we passed the Flemish fleet:

Flemish fleet

My soulmate is just as cheerful as yours truly, as evidenced in the following shot. You can really tell she’s enjoying the experience:

Cheerful soulmate

A deep thought crossed my mind when I saw this reflection of the day’s end:

Reflecting on the day

Meanwhile some people were learning to dance, in public!

Learning to dance

More pictures in this Flickr slideshow.

Last Thursday I was invited by one of our suppliers to go to the racetrack at Zolder. Those who know me will realize I did not hesitate for one moment, before saying ‘yes’.

On track

So… I spent the afternoon walking around in the paddock, looking at a variety of cars that were doing free practice runs, taking some snaps, and drooling all over the place.

Some repairs needed

I also got the opportunity to be driven around the track, at high speed, in a Posche. 3 laps only. It was over, just like that! But it was amazing… The smell, the noise, the sensations, the extremely late braking, the rocket-launch-like acceleration. I want MORE!!!

View my picture in this slide show.

Last Saturday I participated in a “Create that light” workshop by Tom Museeuw, a.k.a. Fotofolio. I had been looking forward to this workshop for a long time. Using a wide variety of California Sunbounce products, Tom creates beautiful pictures of children.

During the first part of the workshop, Tom explained his vision on lighting. He talked about many things, such as location scouting, composition, reading the light and an incremental approach to enhancing the light using a variety of tools. The morning session ended with some reverse engineering of his shots. What can I say? Out of the 5 pictures we got, I got 1 right.

After lunch we got some tips & tricks, and then we went outside to play with the beautiful teen Chiara. It was gray and windy, but fortunately it kept dry. Carrying the larger Sunbounce Pro reflector proved to be a challenge, not because of the weight (it is extremely light), but because of the wind. Kite surfing sprang to mind…

First Tom showed how to use reflectors…

Fotofolio and a SunMover

…after which we were divided into two small groups. Each group had to find a location, and, well…, create that light. Here is a shot of the ladies creating some light:

The Ladies

Using their lighting setup, I created following shot:

Borrowing that light

This is my own attempt at creating creating the light:

I gave it a shot

Finally, Tom picked a location and ended the shoot with an interactive demonstration. Here is a behind the scenes impression:

Action!

And here are a couple of the shots I got using this light:

Chiara by the tree

Chiara by the tree, part 2

We went inside to finish the day with some information about the workflow for a commercial shoot, and some questions and answers. It was a very enjoyable workshop. I learned a lot, and I hope I will have the persistence and patience to put this into practice… lots of practice.

More pictures can be seen on my Flickr stream.

This post should have been written last November, right after all of the other non-written posts of 2010. Somehow 2010 consumed me, and took away most of my non-professional energy.

Anyway… Back in November I had seen “A day with Jay Maisel” on Kelby Training. This inspired me to take my scouting camera, which is a Nikon D300 with an 18-200mm all-rounder. I wanted to walk, and take pictures, without using any speedlights, umbrellas, reflectors… Just see what is available, and possibly using walls & bridges (reminds me of a John Lennon album) to give some direction to the light.

I was hand-holding the camera on this gray day. Following Jay Maisel’s advice, I bumped up the ISO, sometimes to the point of generating extremely noisy pictures.

Using window light I created following shot:

Christine

By the time we returned to the car, it was dark. We passed these unusual street lights, which made me want to make this (very noisy) shot:

Ostend by night

This Flickr set shows more results.

Today was a very sunny day in Belgium. This seemed a good day to continue my learning experience involving the Elinchrom Quadra. So I called upon my parents to be today’s subjects. This time I remembered to bring light stands, so nobody had to handhold the light.

I looked for the correct exposure, and dropped it down about two stops. I added one Quadra head, and did some test shots to find the right setting. Here are some results:

Serious parents

Cheerful parents

Crazy parent...

See more on Flickr.