Happy New Year!

Quite a high ISO used for this image but it is fun to try and us other light sources.

Best Wishes for the New Year!!

Painting with Light - again

I have figured out that 30 seconds is okay as a starting point with the camera on manual mode. You need time to light around the subject. I started with f/16 and adjusted up or down until the image was light enough but not burnt out.

Use one focus point, focus on the eye and switthc to manual focusing.

The subject has to sit compeltely still. Work on the eyes only once, to retain sharpness. I you look at the text "Converse" in the top image you can see that it is not sharp. I lit it early and then went back later. OK for the sweater but not for the face.

Decide whether you want to spread some light on the background, or instead work with a black backround.

I recommend shooting in raw or at least raw + jpeg. If your image is too red, you introduce noise when adjusting a jpeg image.

"Stir" the torch when painting, to even out the light. Make sure to light the sides of the hair. On the red image you can see that the hair is not lit properly and blends into the background.

If you work with a completely dark background it is easier to work with a blond than a dark model.

And - for the top image I added a b/wh layer that I reduced the opacity of. Thus the pale colours.

I have only started playing with this type of images but this is my notes so far.

Annual Report 2009

A summary of my photographic journey in 2009.

Escaping Oslo

Most of the shoppers have vanished by the 24th, since this is our big night with the Christmas dinner and opening of presents. I had some last minute shopping to do and brought the camera. The temperature has gone up again, which makes the snow heavy and wet and perhaps more visible.

This image was taken at 1/400 sec. I would have preferred a longer shutter speed to make the snow appear as stripes instead of dots. But you don't always have the time to fiddle with the settings.

Postprocessing in Camera Raw I pulled the Clarity slider almost all the way to the left. This adds a dreamy feel to the image.

If you perfer a hint of colour in the image you can reduce the opacity of the B/W layer in Photoshop.

Which version do you prefer?

Merry Christmas / God Jul !!

I have to credit my aunt Bjørg for this image, taken on Christmas Eve in the sixties. It is me in the front, my parents and my brother. I remember being very proud because my granddad had made a bed for my doll, and my mum had made the duvet. So proud I had trouble holding back a smile. My brother was given the cat -we had it for many years. It was incredibly soft, being made of real rabbit skin...

And a lesson to learn (of course  :-)   ) is the low viewpoint she chose. sitting on the floor.

On where to set your focus

For both of these images I have chosen to set the focus on the glass I am shooting through, and not what you actually see ouside the window or in the reflection. One tip is to try and hold the camera pointing 90 degrees onto the glass.
For the image with the reflection this would obviously not work, as all you would see was a nerd with a camera :-) But choose an aperture that keeps the spots on the window pane sharp in focus.

A Quiet Day at Hukodden

Oslos most crowded beach in the summertime but blissfully quiet in the winter. I've done lots of landscape photography in this area when I first seriously took up photography two years ago. I do like a little life in the landscape. Next time I'll bring some bread for the swans instead of pretending to.

In lanscape shots try to avoid placing the horizon in the middle of the image. It usually works better if it is one third from the top or one third from the bottom of the image. According to the rule-of-thirds. And according to me :-)

Escalators and Moving Walks

I was fascinated by an image I found on flickr, showing a person standing still on a moving walk, while the world was flowing by. The inspiration has led to these images. One from the Gardermoen airport, with the camera on the moving walk, and two from the west escalators at Nationaltheatret train station.

You must set your focus distance manually first. It seems to me that a typical good shutter speed is 2-3 seconds, and the trick is to hold the camera steady on the rubber hand rail. i haven't tried using a tripod on the walk itself but wouldnt put it past me :-)

The value of light

The sunbeams hit the water, and evening light is reflected back onto the hull of the boat. When scouting for interesting reflections try to pick a location where your main subject is lit up by the sun, or by artificial light.

Blue Sky

Winter brings amazing sunsets. Clear skies also bring cold days, like the -10 C below outside as I write this :-)

This is an other shot from the rampant of Akershus Fortress in Oslo.

The composition rule called "Rule of thirds" is about drawing two vertical lines and two horisontal lines across the image, making 9 equal rectangles. According to this rule you would typically have the dark foreground here covering 1/3 of the height of the image. The people would be placed in the left intersection, and the tree in the right intersection.

In some images this rule is broken on purpose, and show only a small foreground like the black area in the image above. If there is enough detail in the sky it makes up for the "mistake".

Here of course you could argue that along with the dark area of the sky it actually covers a third of the height anyway. :-)

Another Tram

It was snowing in Oslo on monday night - which inspired me to browse through some earlier winter shots. This image is taken with slow shutter speed - I think it was 1/25 seconds - while I was panning the moving tram with the camera. The slow shutter speed and the wet March snow accounted for the snow "stripes".

I discovered last winter that these "snow stripes" were easier to capture if you have the wind coming in from the side. Instead of having your back against the wind.  I usually bring an umbrella and carry a back-pack, and place the handle of the umbrella under the shoulder strap of the backpack, to have both arms free.

Painting with Light

A sneak preview from last night with the Foto Femme girls. We were trying out the painting with light technique. This image is taken with a 30 second shutter speed and a flashlight, in a completely dark room. The challenge is managing to sit still.... some room for improvement I guess :-)

View from the Rampant

The Akershus Fortress is right next to the town hall. The rampant is a good spot for a picnic or just an evening view of the harbour. These images were taken yesterday. It was a cold clear day with a hint of frost.

Silhouettes in the Sunset

This time of year the sun rises at approximately nine in the morning and sets at three. We only have six hours of daylight now. This also implies that the sun sets in a completely different place than in the summer.

From Oslo Town Hall you can view the sunset on a clear day like today.

In the first image the camera is on ground level. The sea is not visible. The second image is taken from a higher level and you can see the ferry arriving from Nesodden across the Oslo Fjord.

In addition I have tweaked the white balance.

Tram trip through Oslo

The first image shows the tram I am sitting on, reflected in the front window of the bus behind it.

The second image is taken at a slow shutter speed as the tram turns, so only the couple to the right is sharp.

The third image is a baby on a passing tram. I saw the scene come up and couldn't think of an other option but to switch to auto, to manage to capture the scene before it disappeared.

A night at the Opera

A preview from my new series.

Lace

Autumn Competition Results in Oslo Kamera Klubb

"Homeward Bound"

"Dream"

"Cones"

"Beach House"

All my collections were awarded so pretty pleased with that. :-)

The Brain is Alone

A band that had a concert in Oslo tonight has a song called Hjernen er alene, which literally means The brain is alone. I asked the people who set up the light for this dog - if it was for some reason? The lady explained that the dog was called The Brain. And was the dog of the lead singer in the band. I guess I should have known.

Reflections in layers

I like to add multiple "layers" in my images and three layers is usually what I im for.

In the first image the woman is looking straight at me in a mirror inside a shop. Her face is also reflected in the window glass itself, and the back of her head is reflected in a window across the street.

In the second image the two rightmost women are reflected along with the bike. The left woman is seen through the window and she is outside but around the corner. The third layer is the row of windows inside the shop.

Summing up POTY 2009 in Oslo Kamera Klubb

The longest lasting challenge of the year is the weekly submissions to the "Photographer of the Week" contest in the camera club. There are two categories - digital and paper.
The competition ended yesterday and I landed a second place in the digital category. 13 points, just one point below Roy who won with 14 points.  I love the exitement!

These are my awarded images (from both categories).

January 5th: "Doors" - 3rd

January 13th: "Water" - 2nd

Jan 27nd: "Under-Over-From Behind" - 3rd

February 2nd: "Triptych" - 2nd

February 16th: "Square" - 3rd

September 14th: "Stone" - 3rd

September 21st: "Style" - 1st

October 12th: "Texture" - 3rd

October 20th: (No subject) 2nd

November 3rd: "Reflection" - 1st

December 1st: "Portrait" - 2nd

Akershus fortress - the rampant

I selected a"Sunny" white balance to get the crisp clear blue. Also remember to set the focus point on the silhouettes and underexpose by 1-2 stops, to ensure that you get sharp silhouettes and avoid a burnt-out sky.

For the second-to-last shot I have converted to b/wh and then tinted the image.

The last one is only converted to s/wh. Simon was my model here and since the picture is taken from a lower level I asked him to come a bit closer so that I actually could see his legs.