the lady in red saved my lens

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D AF used to be my favorite lens, being the fastest lens that I have in my arsenal. Aside from being reasonably priced, it is dependable in low light photography with its aperture set at wide open. It is likewise capable of producing smooth blur or "bokeh" which is pleasantly silky at f/2.8 and wider. Being a prime lens, any amateur photographer or hobbyist alike shouldn't leave home without this "normal" or "standard" lens tucked inside their camera bag.

Lately, I was tempted to sell this precious gem and get myself a real portrait lens as what they call an 85mm f/1.8 to be. Last July 14, we had an out of town photoshoot in Batangas City and the location of the shoot is an old ancestral house of the Acosta-Pastor clan situated along D. Tirona St. in Batangas City.

When the magic hours started to set in, I went shooting outdoors and replaced my ultra wide lens (Nikkor 12-24mm f/4G) with my estranged normal lens (Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D). The drawback of using a fixed focal length lens is that your composition will be limited to cropping the image unless you resort to what we call in jest as "walk zoom" shooting where you either step back or move forward to get the framing you want for your image.

A little bit inconvenient but getting used to it should be a part of your work attitude. Patience being a virtue in photography, I did my composition by walking to and away from the model just to get that desirable framing in my viewfinder. The resulting images when seen after each click of the shutter is very rewarding to the visual senses. Rich and smooth bokeh will make you smile when you chimp after each and every push of the shutter release button. On this particular shoot, I fixed my aperture at f/2.8 since I had a terrible experience in the past when I availed of the widest aperture where the shallow depth of field ruined my photos.

ISO setting was dialed to ISO 200 to afford a little flexibility and to maintain a cleaner image. The shooting started off with Clarisse in red dress as my model. I started with the shoot by letting her pose by the Steinway piano sitting upstairs and with the aid of my reliable Nikon SB-800 speedlight, I balanced the lighting exposure provided by the available light coming from the window and the fill in light provided by the speedlight. The result - an astonishingly clean image of a lady in red dress with a smooth background of the fully furnished old Spanish style living room of the olden days.

Working outdoors, I kept the same setting but this time shooting in available light during the magic hours of the day. When we say magic hours, we usually refer to the window of time beginning 4pm up to 5pm in the afternoon where the outdoor lighting of the setting sun is occasionally diffused by the clouds above.

After the shoot and upon seeing my photos of Clarisse, I resolved not to sell my normal lens and decided to keep it for good. A wise decision indeed for the obvious reason that having a cheap lens like the 50mm f/1.4D would afford you few luxuries in composition on low light conditions. You just have to muster enough patience in walking to and from your subject to get an image which will suit your shooting style. That I don't mind at all and for now, this Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D will stay here for good. Thanks to the lady in red for without her as a very inspiring subject, I would have parted with this lens when I was visited by my lucid intervals.

For this shoot, I would like to give credits to the following who made this event possible: Igor for inviting us to join him, Gina Pastor and family for being such a gracious host, King for doing the make-up and to my fellow shooters, Joel, Tipoy and Jobert. Of course, we would also endeavor to thank our pretty models namely Clarisse, Sheena, Erika and Jonah.

Apple at Eco Park

At the heart of the city lies an ecological park located near Fairview in Quezon City. Frequented by weekend promenaders, the La Mesa Eco Park is a favorite shooting venue among wedding photographers and hobbyists like me. One sunny Labor Day became a memorable day for having met this wonderful lady named Apple.

Gifted with natural talent of showing different emotions, she became a darling among some flickerians. A very patient girl, she can pose under the sun without qualms and complaints. This photo on the left is reminiscent of a scene from the classic "The Sound of Music" movie with her dress and the flower on the foreground providing a perfect subject for the grassy and hilly slope background. This photo eventually made it to the Nikon Stunning Gallery on May 15, 2007.


The photo on the left was taken at the Shell Flower Terraces, a favorite spot for taking prenuptial shots by wedding photographers. This is my favorite among the photos on this set. The model is simply emotive here and a fill in flash from an off-board Nikon SB800 speedlight contributed some dramatic lighting for this image.

Taken in available light near the Orchidarium, this photo shows Apple's knack for emotive posing as well as her versatility on producing different angles of view for the photographer to capture with a press of the shutter release button. Her simplicity without ever trying is very alluring.


The photo on the right was taken at the dock of the pond and was a capture of a candid moment when she was caught off guard who, upon calling her name, instantaneously looked at me while I was clicking for this shot.



The lagoon at dusk with a boat on the background is another marvelous backdrop for this kind of shot. Using a single off cam Nikon SB800 speedlight mounted on a deflector umbrella, this photo was captured using Nikon's Creative Lighting System of remotely triggering an off board flash in the commander mode. You may also configure the setting in such a way that the built-in light will contribute some fill-in light frontally into your subject.

This image is likewise a favorite of mine and using the same lighting set up mentioned above, the dark waters on the pond with faint reflections of light on the background is a fitting enhancement for a black on black theme photo.

Many thanks to Nuah Alpha Princess for being such an amazing person inside and out.

Workshop at the Ranch

This project was inspired by Dave Black’s Photography whom I admire most for his unselfish effort of educating us with his lighting techniques and experiments on exploring the capabilities of Nikon Speedlights more particularly the SB800. Last April 7, 2007, I had a chance to apply what I’ve read and learned from his site and put into action my SB800 and a friend’s SB600.


Night shooting is the perfect occasion to do some experimentation on strobe lighting and how a different placement of the lights would change the mood of an image. By arranging the speedlights and adjusting their flash intensities, one can see dramatic changes on the image being produced. Just take a shot then look at your LCD display and do the adjustments right in your camera’s menu until you like what you’ve been seeing. That’s how Nikon makes life easier with its advance wireless i-TTL flash system. One is spared from going to each individual speedlights to do the adjustments.


Most of the sample photos posted here were the product of the classic three lights set-up - one speedlight on each side of the subject while a fill-in light from the built-in flash of the D200 was fired to further clean up the shadows.

The photo on the right was taken with the SB800 mounted on a deflector umbrella and was positioned on the right side about 50 degrees from the model. The SB600, fitted with a Stoffen diffuser was placed on the left side and beamed towards the model. The third light source came from the built-in flash of the D200 which was fired to fill-in some light. All of the lights' flash intensity settings were configured in TTL using the Commander Mode of the D200 and were triggered wirelessly in CLS fashion.

The photo on the left was taken on the poolside with Alyssa and Ylla posing together. Due to prevailing low light condition on the poolside, the ISO setting was pushed to ISO 640 to increase sensitivity. Shot in the Manual Mode, the focal length was 75mm, the shutter speed was set to 1/50 sec. and the aperture was f/6.3. The same three lights set-up was employed with the SB800 mounted on a deflector umbrella being placed on the right side while the SB600 with Stoffen diffuser was placed on the left directly beamed at the models. A fill-in flash from the D200 was also deemed necessary.

The photo on the right is a classic example of lighting the background to improve contrast and separation of colors. The placement of the lights being the same, the ISO was set to ISO400 but the flash intensities of both speedlights were increased. At 35mm focal length, the aperture was set at f/5.6 while the shutter speed remains constant at 1/50 sec. Since I was shooting with the VR on, a slower shutter speed can be safely selected to capture more light from the background.

With Alyssa sitting on the step of a steel ladder, a colored beach ball instantly became a good accessory for this shot. The lights placement being the same, the focal length was noticed at 56mm. The two Speedlights were in the Remote mode and are mounted to lightstands. Each of the speedlights are located approximately 12-15 feet away from the subject. With slight variation, the photo below utilized only one SB800 mounted on a deflector umbrella placed on the right side and slightly angled to light up the back of the model. With a fill-in light coming from the D200's built-in flash, a moody image of Ylla was captured sitting in front of colorful playpen as an interesting backdrop.

I would like to thank Lissa Co for being a gracious host and for inviting us over at their farm house in Lipa City, Batangas. Modelling credits goes to Alyssa and Ylla while make-up and styling was provided by Myca. To my other companions in this shoot namely Igor and Airic - thanks guys!!

2007 Manila International Auto Show

The 3rd Edition of the Manila International Auto Show was held last March 28 up to April 1, 2007 at the same familiar venue at the World Trade Center inside the CCP Complex, Manila. Compared to last year's event, it is less prominent with the noticeable absence of Toyota among the exhibitors. Fewer booths were seen and there's a remarkable decrease in the number of attendees.


The event is an annual venue for car or motoring enthusiasts to take a closer look at the latest models and brands of cars and other motor vehicles available locally.

As usual, gate entrance fee was pegged at P50.00 per head which will entitle the guest to roam inside the venue and perhaps take pictures of pretty ladies and the cars they are promoting just like what i did when i went there for a peek. Entertainment is likewise offered on various times of the day and I was privileged to see Jennifer Lee (the girl on top photo) in person on the day I visited the venue.


From my observation, Subaru came in as the most flashy exhibitor during the entire duration of the event. Since this edition of the show was the baptismal year of their participation, they paraded their popular Impreza line, a perennial contender in the World Rally Championship racing. The Subaru Impreza WRX is a turbo-charged 2.5 liter class all-wheel drive automobile.

Predictably, if there are good-looking cars, there must be some charming and pretty girls along side these gorgeous cars. Sarah, an Elan International model was among the familiar faces I saw gracing the Subaru booth, of which I was lucky again to have been granted the privilege of taking a few snapshots of her. This photo of Sarah made it to the Nikon Stunning Gallery days after it was posted in flickr.

Joanne, another pretty lass and upcoming model is likewise seen here among the Subaru girls.

Another exhibitor, Motolite, a local manufacturer of motor vehicle batteries came up with a different theme. They showcased a highly modified car, replete with colorful paint works and lighting effects to demonstrate and show off their batteries' superiority in providing power to a motor vehicle.

my NSG photos

The NSG is the term i coined to that flickr-oriented website found at www.nikonstunninggallery.com . I started tagging my photos with "nikonstunninggallery" as early as August 2006. I was very much elated when my initial offering was picked by Nikon and that was the portrait of Camille taken at a bar (see lower-most photo).

Diane Claire
Originally uploaded by ronrag.

The NSG site is a Nikon sponsored Flickr gallery of "stunning" pictures shot from, and taken by, a Nikon camera. It is supposed to showcase "stunning" photos from the point of view of Nikon inasmuch as they are the ones who pick and choose which photos qualify to their standards as worthy of being publicly displayed in the NSG website.

April
Originally uploaded by ronrag.

Nikon chooses an undetermined number of photos which they feature and add to the gallery once or twice a week. The frequency and the days when they pick the "stunning" photos are invariably unpredictable to make it more appealing and exciting to Nikonians who wishes to see their photos featured and added to the gallery.

Kiomi
Originally uploaded by ronrag.

Here are some tips that i have logically discovered on how to increase your chances of making it to the NSG. Your photos should have EXIF files showing that it was indeed taken by a Nikon camera (that is obvious, right?) As much as possible, tag your photos with Nikkor lenses you used in taking those photos. Nikon wants to highlight the superiority of their lenses too and they know very well what lenses they have in their archives and what lenses they do not manufacture. I've submitted quite a number of photos taken from Sigma lenses and only one of them was inadvertently picked (i guess) by Nikon.

Nikon girl
Originally uploaded by ronrag.

Since they only select photos once or twice a week, post your best photos tagged with "nikonstunninggallery" three to four days after they made their last pick. No matter how stunning your photos were, if they were posted right after they had already made their selection, chances are, those photos will be overwhelmed by succeeding photos posted right after yours. Nikon only sees the latest posted images first and by the time they have seen your photos, they have already picked and selected several photos as their featured photos of the day.

Jorgette
Originally uploaded by ronrag.

Avoid putting signatures or watermarking to your photos. Nikon wouldn't want you to be that famous, you know!! Another point to consider is to refrain from too much image manipulation and tag or post only photos that are natural looking or those photos which are minimally photoshopped.

Ruby
Originally uploaded by ronrag.

Be considerate to others and let them have a share of the limelight too! When you already have a featured photo on the first page of the NSG, refrain from posting any further. Wait until your photo moved down to the second or third pages and that would be the best time to tag your candidate photos again. Lastly, don't fool yourself - make sure that what you're posting are indeed "stunning" photos from your own honest to goodness assessment!!

Camille
Originally uploaded by ronrag.

The Nikon CLS

When dusk sets in and the sky turns into a sunny overcast and you’re on an outdoor location shoot where guerilla-type of shooting is the name of the game, this is where the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) reigns supreme over its main rival, the Canon e-TTL wireless flash system.

With just a flick of a button, you can turn your Nikon SB-800 into a wireless slave flash unit and aim it at an angle where you can achieve better lighting effects to be triggered by the D200 in the commander mode. The niceties of the result is that you can expose the background and at the same time light up the profile of your subject. Doing this without a flash would overexpose and wash out the background or if the shooting is done with an onboard flash, soft or even harsh shadows would appear in the most unpleasant places. Results gained from previous experience usually dictates where you would intuitively place your slave flash unit to attain a natural lighting with less prominent shadows.

In the sample photos shown, Nikon’s CLS was called upon to light up an extremely difficult lighting situation. With shadows falling in and the face of the model appearing as darkly lit, a fill in flash becomes a necessity. I set the CLS of the D200 in the manual mode with the built-in flash acting only as a pre-flash trigger to avoid contributing further shadow cast on the background. The SB-800 acting as remote flash to fill in some light on the face of the model was placed below the eye level. Flash compensation was set at -1/8 EV which is just enough to clean up the subject where the use of a flash is not too obvious. The main advantage of doing this is that the use of a fill in flash would not blow out the highlights which can hardly be corrected even in Photoshop.

The last of the sample photos was taken under extreme conditions where darkness was starting to set in so I increased the Flash Compensation to -1/2 in the manual mode. The result – an acceptably well-exposed shot where the background was still captured with so much ambience to impart the time of the day when the photo was taken.


Modelling credit goes to Erica

Toned Black and White Photos

Kiomi
Originally uploaded by ronrag.

As they say, presenting a nude photo in black and white or duotone is more dramatic and it evokes emotion. That's why after shooting some nude portraits in colors, i searched the net and found another way of converting a color picture into a high contrast black and white using the Calculations Option in Photoshop CS2. After opening your photo, go to Image -> Calculations.


There are a lot of choices as your Source configuration but I found this combination: Background-Gray, Background-Gray, Pin Light, New Channel as the most suitable for my purpose. Click OK and voila... you now have and instant high contrast black and white photo. This is perhaps the simplest way of converting a Color photo into a striking Black and White.
You cannot, however, save the photo in the JPEG format unless you go to Mode -> Grayscale then Save. It doesn't have to stop there... you may want to improve it further by applying a simple toning technique and here it goes. Bring down the dialogue box again Image -> Mode -> Duotone. Then after seeing the Duotone box, choose Type: Quadtone.
You can find 4 different presets in the Quadtone and in the PANTONES folder, i selected this option Bl 541 513 5773. Click the LOAD and hit OK. To save your processed work, you will have to convert it back as an RGB file in order to save it as JPEG file. IMAGE > MODE > RGB then Save the file.


Thanks to Kiomi for being such a fabulous model

The Nikon Rebirth

Last November 11, 2006, the Nikonians in the Philippines were given a treat by Nikon's local distributor, Columbia Digital Sales Company, in a party thrown for the purpose of reuniting, and igniting the passion of, the more gifted and privileged photographers who uses Nikon as a tool of their craft. The Canonians can boast and claim of having a better technology packed inside their DSLRs and a reliable local support service but ask a Nikon guy and he will have a gritting and intantaneous refutation to the contrary. Well, let's cut the crap and be more objective!! Whatever brand of camera you use, your photos will only look as good as your artful taste will dictate - that's a fact and we should leave it at that!

At the helm of the new management of soon to be known Nikon Philippines is Anderson C. Tan, President and General Manager of Columbia Digital Sales Company, a venerable guy who took over his father as the chief operating officer of this old but reemerging company, and who candidly promised to take the Nikonians into a higher level of satisfaction when it comes to service support and more dominating presence in the local photography industry.

Nikon as a camera brand has long been the choice of creative photographers and hobbyists and got a snag only when it can't cope up with the technology advancement made by its main rival, Canon, who now uses CMOS sensors in all their latest models of DSLRs, which if compared to Nikon's CCD image sensors, are known to be more power efficient thus, supposedly better in the field of noise management as theory would spell it.

Canon who manufactures its own sensors reigns supreme for quite sometime but Nikon, who either buys or have its sensors custom-made by Sony, didn't throw its towel and conceded defeat to Canon, when it subsequently regained its reputation in the world of digital photography as soon as it bagged several citations and consumer awards as a result of the world-wide acceptance of its better DSLRs. Reviews and consumer evaluation as well as feedbacks from professional users have it that a Nikon designed DSLR reproduces more vivid and richer colors. The user-friendliness of its features and the tank-like build quality, even in its plastic DSLR models, sets it apart from its main competitor's similar products.


Despite knowledge of Nikon DSLR's shortcomings, I would still prefer getting a Nikon anytime for the reason that, aside from what had already been mentioned and its publicly known reputation, i like Nikon's Creative Lighting System. Their DSLR's may not excel much on low light conditions when shooting on High ISOs but this system is, nonetheless, a more versatile tool in the field of flash photography. Using its wireless TTL system to the hilt, one can simulate a studio set up on outdoors thru the compliments of several SB-800s or SB-600s flashing like strobes in multiple lighting set-ups where the photographer can control each of the speedlights flash output from the camera itself in the Commander Mode.


Columbia Digital Sales Company revealed a new revolutionary face of Nikon and officially launched its newest offerings, among which is the "The One" Privilege Card, an exclusive service card for Nikon users who owns at least an item purchased from Columbia Digital Sales Company even if all the rest of the members' gear were sourced from somewhere else. The party was held at the Tavern on the Square located at Greenbelt, the hub of Makati's premiere entertainment place. Graced by at least 200 Nikonians, who were invited thru the online community, the event featured a mini fashion shoot where eight beautiful models paraded with Nikon's latest line of point and shoot cameras available in the local market today, namely, the Coolpix S10, Coolpix S9, Coolpix S7c, Coolpix L6 and the Coolpix L5.


These eight models were the subject of the on the spot Nikon Rebirth "Becoming" Fashion Photo Contest in four categories: The Bronze Beauty, White Wash, Color Splash and Yellow-To-Me, with the winner in each category getting a surprise package from Columbia Digital Sales Company. Deadline of submission of entries was yesterday, November 17, and winners will be judged by the "Big 3" Ad campaign endorsers, namely, Kai Huang, Lito Sy and Xander Angeles.

The best is yet to come for the Nikonians! Columbia Digital Sales Company will fortify its product range and marketing campaigns and will strive hard to accomodate even owners of gray market units, which unfortunately is killing their local presence. Despite this predicament, however, CDSC promises to lend a helping hand in uniting and making the Nikonians, a very proud and happy users and owners of Nikon products.

NB: the writer of this opinionated feature article has not, in any way, been paid by Nikon Corporation or by Columbia Digital Sales Company