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Photos © Ono Shouichi

By Irwin Wong –Multi-light setups, gear reviews and lighting tricks are all worthwhile food for thought. But when people are looking back at your life’s work, will you be remembered for your lighting or for what you tried to tell the world with your camera?

In a long-spanning portrait series, Tokyo-based editorial photographer Ono Shouichi has (to date) photographed two hundred Japanese centenarians. The lighting, while there, is subordinate to the message. As it should be. Read more »

Strobist

There were a few misconceptions (and a LOT of questions) that popped up in the comments after I wrote about ditching the D4 for a used Phase One camera and back.

Videos, answers to Q's and some specific things that convinced me to make the jump, inside. Read more »

Strobist

While full frame sensor camera have enjoyed the use of fisheye lenses for a century, the newly created APS-C sensor cameras have remained lacking. Use of traditional fisheye would work, but the entire circular area would be cropped.

Enter the Sigma 4.5mm fisheye. This lens is built for cropped sensors, giving them a full 180° field of view withing a single frame. To achieve this field of view, the front element protrudes from the front metal of the lens, giving it the typical fisheye look. There is a focus ring and a distance scale, plus a small switch for manual or automatic focus. Because of the short focus distance and the overall size of the camera, the nearest in focus object can be as close as .75”/`19mm.

With a lens like this, a whole new world of images becomes possible. Shooting objects close is an easy subject as well as circles. Shooting converging lines takes on a new dimension as well as the night sky (which is one of the original intentions behind the development of the lens; atmospheric photography). I have some sample images later in the post to give you more ideas of how this lens can be used as well as the quality of the images.

I took this lens with me and my Canon 7D on a six week trip to Asia covering photo tours in Nepal and Bhutan as well as a personal week spent in India. I want to thank BorrowLenses.com for the lend of the lens.

Features

First, some stats from Sigma’s own site.

• Lens Construction 13 Elements in 9 Groups
• Angle of View 180º
• Number of Diaphragm Blades 6
• Minimum Aperture f22
• Minimum Focusing Distance 13.5 cm / 5.3 in
• Filter Size (mm) Insertion-type gelatin filter into rear of the lens
• Maximum Magnifications 1:6
• Dimensions (Diameter x Length) 76.2 x 77.8 mm/3.0 x 3.1 in
• Weight 470g / 16.6oz.

Use In Real Life

The biggest aspect of this lens to get used to is the field of view. More than once my feet were in the frame (even with fellow DPS writer Jim Goldstein warning me of this danger) and at times I could see my hand while manual focusing, or just holding the camera comfortably. There’s a mental extra to add before pressing the shutter release and that is to check the circle edge for any signs of the photographer behind the camera.

While in the field, I found the lens as comfortable as any other to hold and transport. It comes with a rear lens cap as well as a hood and lens cap for the front. Because of the bulging nature of the front lens, the lens hood (felted on the inside to create a firm attachment with the lens when in use) is needed to hold a cap. Additional filters can be used with this hood attached (72mm) if a narrowed version of the spherical world is okay. I did have an almost constant worry about scratching the front of the lens with it sticking out as far as it does (which is not much at all, but more than I am accustomed to). Therefor, the hood and lens cap remained on more than usual. A minor point.

Shooting with the lens is no different than shooting with any other lens. It opens to f/2.8 and can get seriously close to subjects. This helps as shooting with a fisheye point of view can be challenging. Getting close to the subject and helping it dominate the field of view, while still giving the viewer some place to ‘go’ in the picture, is even more exaggerated with this lens than with a standard wide angle.

Video with the lens can be interesting. Side moving objects go from small to large in the middle to small again and it can be a bit odd for some viewers. Images shot straight forward, backward or straight up give a good full view of the action. For some additional tips on shooting with this lens, I have written a post on Photo Tuts+ (and I’m sorry most of it is a Premium article, that wasn’t my choice) that describes 14 different scenarios when this lens would be useful.

You may be asking what that blue ring is around some of the images. It is flare caused by the extreme angle of the lens. It is normal and can be easily remedied which a circular crop.

Samples

Click on any sample to see a full sized view.

 

Conclusion

The Simga 4.5mm Fisheye is a treat to use and produces some stunning images. While use of standard front mounted filters limits the overall coverage, the fact that the field of view is so large negates the effectiveness of most options (NOTE: Filters can be used in the rear area of the lens but this was not tested). This produces a freeing effect as the filter needs to be used, mostly, as is, greatly simplifying image captures and focusing the photographer on creative use.

The lens does take some learning before stunning images emerge, but that curve isn’t long. It’s important to give yourself some latitude when starting out with this lens as experimentation is key to finding out what works for you.

Get a price on the Sigma 4.5mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye Lens< ?h3>

Sigma 4.5mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Cameras

Sigma 4.5mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Sigma 4.5mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Sigma 4.5mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye Lens for Pentax Digital SLR Cameras

Sigma 4.5mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye Lens for Sigma Digital SLR Cameras

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Sigma 4.5mm F2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye [REVIEW]

Digital Photography School

One technique I’ve seen used a lot lately on blogs, websites and even email newsletters is a hand drawn frame effect.

In this post, I’ll show you how to create an effect like this and save and use it for your images.

Step 1

Start with a new image in Photoshop. A good size frame is important to create as you can size it down but not size it up as successfully. Start with an image around 4,000 pixels square with a resolution of 300 pixels RGB color and transparent background.

When the image opens, fill the background with a color of your choice, I’ve chosen a blue fill color.

Step 2

Add a new layer and then select the brush tool and a smallish brush. You want something that is going to ‘paint’ looking a little bit like pencil marks so I chose the Chalk 11 pixels brush and sized it up to around 57 pixels.

Select black or a dark brown or dark gray color as the foreground color and hand draw your frame. It will help if you use a tablet to do this although that’s not necessary and a mouse can be used.

Draw the frame so it has closed inside and outside edges to make the next step easier.

Step 3

Target the Magic Wand tool and click inside the frame. This selects the inner portion of the frame.

Choose Select > Inverse to invert the selection.

Now hold the Alt key and click with the Magic Wand tool on the outer area of the image so you remove the outer edge from the selection.

To eliminate any anti-aliased edges, choose Select > Modify > Contract and contract the selection by around 12 pixels.

Step 4

Add a new layer between the frame drawing and the background and fill it with white.

Return to the frame layer and select the inside again, this time choose Select > Modify > Expand and expand the selection by around 12 pixels.

Add a new layer and fill the selected area with a black/brown or dark color. This is the template for your image.

Save this image as a layered .psd file so you can use it anytime in future.

Step 5

To frame an image, open an image to frame and this frame too.

Drag the background layer of the image into your frame image holding the Shift key as you do so to center it. Press Ctrl T + Ctrl 0 to size the image to size. Make sure the image layer is directly under the drawn frame and above the dark template layer.

Now, with the image layer selected choose Layer > Create Clipping Mask to clip the image to the size of the inside of the frame.

You can move the image layer using the Move tool so it is positioned as desired.

Now size and save the image for print or the web.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

How to Create Hand Drawn Frames in Photoshop

Digital Photography School

The best part about facing the oncoming winter in Maryland is knowing I am gonna bail for a week of 80-degree days in Dubai at Gulf Photo Plus. It's my favorite annual photo event of all, and the only teaching gig I am planning for the whole year.

Heisler's coming back. Dave Burnett is coming. Martin Prihoda, too. And of course many of the regulars will be there. On top of that, I'm especially excited to be teaching a completely different set of classes this year. Read more »

Strobist

One of the issues that always comes up for emerging photographers is dealing with contracts and negotiation.  Let’s face it – most of us are more “artist” than “businessman”.  we just want to make pictures and leave the legalese to someone else. 

Of course the reality is that to be a successful *artist* you must be a successful *businessman* as well. 

Go to any photography forum on the web and you will invariably find questions such as “how do I make a contract/terms for such and such a job?” or “the client sent me this crazy contract to sign, what do I do?”

In this piece, Bill Cramer of Wonderful Machine, Inc shows an actual contract negotiation he had with an editorial client, including exchanges, contracts and revisions.   This is a fantastic read for any photographer and a perfect example of how to do it right.  In particular, notice how he responds to the disagreement in contract terms – guiding the exchange to a mutually satisfactory agreement, rather than stonewalling and confronting. 

This is great stuff folks!

http://www.wonderfulmachine.com/wmideabox/pricing_and_negotiating_01.html

F/1.0

I shot the original ad for the LumiQuest Soft Box III back in 2008, using a pre-production sample. I love that light mod, and use it all of the time.

So when Quest Couch asked me to shoot a second version for the bigger LTp and left the subject matter up to me, I eagerly started looking for a subject. Read more »

Strobist

Just a fun shoot testing out some concepts for a classic “Vargas style” pinup…  thought they came out nicely…

F/1.0

[…] Photowalking […]

Comments on: Photowalking

Image and post by Erick Danzer. One of the ongoing themes in my own photography is that getting there is half the battle. Many awesome images require relatively little technical mastery, but a whole lot of effort to get someplace, and be there at just the right moment. A single image might be the end […]
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