Dave Frost Photography - Canvey Island » Photography – General

Me, Myself and I

Dave Frost — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:06:38 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted any pictures of me, or indeed pictures with me in them. This is partly because I’m usually the other side of the camera, and partly because I’m such an ugly barsteward. I’ve been thinking about a shot like this for ages, and today, finally got round to having a play. The edit was a quick and dirty one as a proof of concept, but I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out under the circumstances.
Set up wise it’s fairly straightforward all you need really is a tripod, but in this case I also used a Speedlight 430EX.
Settings should be manual, this helps to ensure that the exposure is the same for each shot which in turn makes it easier to blend post production. (fortunately it’s a grey day so didn’t need to worry about changes in ambient light as the sun went in and out).
To take the pictures, I set the camera on timer, pressed the button and adopted my poses. OK, was a bit of running about, but hey, I need the excercise.
Once taken the three pictures were imported into Adobe RAW, and all given the same, desaturated treatment.
Then, I opened them all in photoshop, and copied two as new layers into the third one.
Thereafter, it was simply a matter of using the eraser tool to remove the bits I didn’t want and reveal the “me” underneath.
Job done.

Was all good fun, and I managed to convince the kids that my brothers had popped round while they were at school. Confused the hell out of them as they know that I have no brothers.

PhotographyBB Magazine # 20 released

Dave Frost — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:43:47 +0000

Blimey, another month passed already.¬† Just a quick one today to remind everyone (or to let everyone know) that the 20th Edition of the PhotographyBB magazine was released yesterday.¬† Dave Seram, the editor, and founder of PhotographyBB said today;

‚ÄúThis theme of this month‚Äôs edition is ‚ÄòIt‚Äôs Processing Time.‚Äô Often we find ourselves with a large collection of images gathering digital dust on our harddrives as they remain in their un-processed state. This month we‚Äôre looking at using all the tools including Photoshop, Photomerge, ACR, and even Adobe After Effects in a series of processing related articles. We‚Äôll be showing you how to remove people from an image easily without having to use the clone tool, as well as some other exciting stuff!‚Äù

The magazine is free to download from the website HERE

PhotographyBB was founded in Oct, 2006, and is a division of PowerButton Central (2004).
For more information, visit the PhotographyBB website at: http://www.photographybb.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/photographybb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photographybb

The Penny Drops

Dave Frost — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:06:47 +0000

Tried something else this afternoon. Wondered (thanks to an inspired post by someone else earlier on the Talk Photography forums) how difficult it would be to photograph a spinning coin, indoors. The answer was of course bloody difficult. Especially as the lens I was using just wouldn’t, or couldn’t maintain focus on the coin. Ended up focussing manually, in AV mode at a variety of shutter speeds. No flash used in this one, but like the water droplets, am quite keen to try this again with Flash and Without.

Another water droplet for your viewing pleasure.

Dave Frost — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:40:36 +0000

Decided there’s too much blue on this site already, so posting a photo taken with flash, but white balance set to tungsten doesn’t really help. Decided I needed to balance it ou with this one from the same shoot.

Water droplet shapes

Dave Frost — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:36:58 +0000

Had some fun at the weekend, playing with my new wireless flash triggers, a kitchen sink and some water.¬† Was a bit slapdash with the setup in that I didn’t clean the sink or worry too much about the choice of lens.¬† Basic setup was;

Camera – Canon 30D attached to a very very cheap sub ¬£10 tripod.

Flash – Canon 430ex, with cheapy wireless trigger/receivers

Sink – One scratched and dirty stainless steel kitchen sink

Breadboard – One scarred and scratched wooden one (propped against the taps and used as a reflector for the flash)

Water, around 2 pints of, sloshing around the bottom of the aforementioned sink.

Was going to use my remote shutter release as well (for the very first time since I bought it several months ago, but decided not to.¬† Setting wise, the flash was in manual mode, dialled down to 1/16th power.¬† The Camera was in Manual, with Aperture set at¬†f7.1/f8.0 and a shutter speed of 1/250, focal length was 50mm using the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

So, with the tap dripping slowly, and the flash aimed squarely at the breadboard, I proceeded to attempt shutter murder by firing off a hundred or so shots. Most of them were rather uninpiring captures of an empty sink, but one or two were worth keeping. Next time I try this, I’ll be making sure the sink’s clean and I’m going to invest in sometheing a little more colourful as a reflector !!

Photo Fail…….. Things you shouldn’t post on Facebook

Dave Frost — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:38:05 +0000

Often, people do rather silly things.¬† Taking photos of oneself in Pink Undercrackers and pasting it onto Facebook is kind of asking for trouble.¬† It really doesn’t take long for things like this to get spread all over the internet……..

Send me the bill – Suddenly popular

Dave Frost — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:12:22 +0000

For some unknown reason, a photo of mine that’s never ever been viewed on Flickr at all, has suddenly started to get some hits.¬† All of the sources for this are “unknown” so it will remain a mystery as to why it’s suddenly become so popular.

I’ve no idea what make or model this bird is.¬† The kids called it Pinocchio, because of it’s massive beak.¬† Not the best photograph in the known universe by a long shot.¬† If I find out why it’s got popular, I’ll let you all know.

Roche’s Point Lighthouse

Dave Frost — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:07:29 +0000

Roche’s Point Lighthouse

Originally uploaded by DaveFrost

A rather dismal day welcomed us to Ireland as we sailed past Roche’s Point on our way to berth at Cobh. Taken handheld, hanging off of the back of the Independence of the Seas. There will be more to follow as soon as I get round to processing them all.

queen victoria

Dave Frost — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:22:54 +0000

queen victoria

Originally uploaded by DaveFrost

First of the cruise photos to make it to the site.
This is the Cunard Queen Victoria as she glided silently up the Solent past the Independence of the seas. It was fairly early in the morning, the weather was awful and I had no tripod.

Minerals and Metals

Dave Frost — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:25:26 +0000

Minerals and Metals

Originally uploaded by DaveFrost

The final entry for the August Photographer of the year round.
A bit of a makeshift shot as the arty ones I set up for all turned out rather badly. Was only as I sipped this contemplating abject failure I realised that the answer to the theme was evaporating before my very eyes.

Taken against the sun, exposed for the sky then dialled down to underexpose by 1 stop then dialled in -2 on the 430ex.

The bottle was hand held in my left hand while I adroitly operated the camera with my right. Quite pleased with th result but wasn’t what I wanted for the theme