Its been quite a while I wrote a post. Things are keeping me busy. Not a lot happening on the hobby front.
To say, got a lovely Canon Speedlite 430ex ii as V'day gift and its sickening to my stomach to say this - I have not yet learnt to do it in manual mode.
But got to play with the camera and bokeh for the "attempted vday themed pictures". A couple of them turned out well.
The set up was like this: A dark colored background - preferably black, a bunch of natural light and some holiday lights over the backdrop.
The lens opening is circular and that is why we see circle bokehs of lights in the background. To get shaped bokehs it is simple - one needs to change the shape of the lens opening. For this, all I did was to change/modify the lens opening with a precut piece of paper.
To explain: cut desired shape in a piece of construction paper (not necessarily black). Let it be small - really small - a little smaller than a cent. Cutting it too big would let in too much of light and the result would not be as appealing .
With a piece of cellophane tape, tape it around the lens - nice and snug, that there would not be a gap for any light to enter from anywhere else, but only through the cut shape of the paper. Prime lens should keep things simple since with it you will not have to adjust the zoom at any point.
Now the settings part: by putting a paper in front of the lens and blocking in a lot of light, the images are prone to come out under-exposed. So pop up the ISO to the next level and decrease the shutter speed. It is all set.
I just have the end result. The ones of the actual setup has gone missing. Means, one more victim due to my 11 pm editing and making copies of images. Also the picture showing the lens with the heart shaped cut out paper pasted to it, is gone too.
And the pictures after very mild editing like straightening and cropping:
Will soon make a post on the pictures of the spring flowers and my trial and error pictures with the Speedlite on.
To say, got a lovely Canon Speedlite 430ex ii as V'day gift and its sickening to my stomach to say this - I have not yet learnt to do it in manual mode.
But got to play with the camera and bokeh for the "attempted vday themed pictures". A couple of them turned out well.
The set up was like this: A dark colored background - preferably black, a bunch of natural light and some holiday lights over the backdrop.
The lens opening is circular and that is why we see circle bokehs of lights in the background. To get shaped bokehs it is simple - one needs to change the shape of the lens opening. For this, all I did was to change/modify the lens opening with a precut piece of paper.
To explain: cut desired shape in a piece of construction paper (not necessarily black). Let it be small - really small - a little smaller than a cent. Cutting it too big would let in too much of light and the result would not be as appealing .
With a piece of cellophane tape, tape it around the lens - nice and snug, that there would not be a gap for any light to enter from anywhere else, but only through the cut shape of the paper. Prime lens should keep things simple since with it you will not have to adjust the zoom at any point.
Now the settings part: by putting a paper in front of the lens and blocking in a lot of light, the images are prone to come out under-exposed. So pop up the ISO to the next level and decrease the shutter speed. It is all set.
I just have the end result. The ones of the actual setup has gone missing. Means, one more victim due to my 11 pm editing and making copies of images. Also the picture showing the lens with the heart shaped cut out paper pasted to it, is gone too.
And the pictures after very mild editing like straightening and cropping:
The above pictures were taken very much next to a window on a nice and sunny day, with abundant sunlight coming in. The mug is lit by the natural light. And I kept the back drop far off - like atleast 3 ft away from the mug so that appears dark enough. Also getting close to the subject makes the bokeh bigger and makes the subject stand out.
The above set tells all about the shaped lens opening and the regular lens opening.
Will soon make a post on the pictures of the spring flowers and my trial and error pictures with the Speedlite on.
