Archive for June, 2008
Usually I don’t get bogged down in any post work beyond tweaking contrast and saturation (I love a saturated sky) but this shot was an exception. I had shot it on my way home from work on a whim, my eye having been draw to it because of the dramatic clouds and the bright and round lettering of the graffiti. The only problem was a pesky telephone cable that stretched through the center of the picture. I tried various cloning methods to try and cover it up but eventually settled on some tight cropping and rearranging of the composition. Here’s the original…
Heavy changes but it is balanced a little better sans the telephone poles and cable. Still learning my way around Gimp, though. It bugs me that I wasn’t able to really blend in the my pasted area. :-/
I’m finally coming around to the conclusion that while I have a patient model in Gabriella too many of my shots are junk when taking them indoors. What I think I need to step it up is a decent flash with a diffuser and, more importantly, a faster lens. The former is nice in lighting up an area and helping bring attention to the focal point of the picture but the latter means I can leverage the natural light and not blind her as she darts about the house.
In the lens department, I had my heart set on an 85mm f1.8 but in reviewing most of my indoor shots they all seem to cluster around the 50 mm range. That’s good news for my wallet as the price difference between the 50mm and 85mm f1.8 lenses is a solid $250+. That said many of the reviewers on Amazon while liking the 50mm f1.8 overall question its build quality and recommend going up a level to the f1.4. Of course they do. That erases $200 of savings but likely will result in a lens that will last years of chasing my daughter around the house.
Time to fillout a requsition with Management.
Baby slept in late yesterday which afforded me the leisure of taking some photos of her sleeping, or Peri being watchful, and a nice slow walk to work. Outside of that bliss was a fire that was raging at the midpoint of my commute.
In the darkest part of that smoke is a multi-family house.
This is the house where most of the third story was gutted from the blaze. After seeing this I couldn’t wait to get home to my family.
One of these days she will guess my password then the real fun begins.
Scorcher of a day Tuesday with terrible lighting and most of my shots being worthless either because they were washed out or just a crap composition that no amount of cropping would save. Then again, shooting in the middle of the day doesn’t make for the best lighting. Win some, lose some.
