Staff photos FA77 ltd
Foolishly I sold my copy last Summer, to raise funds for a holiday.
I've just bought another, which arrived just minutes ago.
I'm shooting more portraits these days. Looking forward to revisiting the little black jewel.
I know it's slightly off topic but would you mind explaining your process for choosing the correct gel for the flash and what make you use?
CaptureLight Ltd
flickr
"I carry a camera to capture memories and the occasional photograph worthy of sharing"
I simply read the gel titles and make a stab at the one I think will balance the light.
I bought one of those gel test blocks and I just rip them out and tape them to the flash.
It was an odd sort of tungsten light, so I warmed up the flash and set the white balance in RAW to tungsten ( I think) may have been fluorescent, but in any case, just experiment.
CaptureLight Ltd
flickr
"I carry a camera to capture memories and the occasional photograph worthy of sharing"
There were about 5 different temperatures of light bouncing around and mixing behind the model to produce a yellowish light so essentially I was looking for a yellowish gel to balance it.
Then tell ACR that everything was yellowish
Mainly because it's not actually clinical ( even though that was the brief ) but it is bright and fairly modern and the nice lady looks fairly relaxed and comfortable with the shooting.
The choice of a shallow DOF is the key to this shot IMO. It manages to portray an office environment while fuzzing out the depressive ethos of it, which would have only been distractive and put a negative vibe on the subject.
I don't think it's easy to shoot an office scene and make it look attractive or clinically staid so well done on this.
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Lenses: Pentax DA 10-17mm ED(IF) Fish Eye, Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO DG, and more ..
Flash: AF-540FGZ, Vivitar 283
Here are some of their products:
Large Hadron Collider cooling tubes.
Reaction Engine Cooling Tubes - 'make them look small!'. These tiny tubes enabled this revolutionary engine to be developed. I had to re-cut them and polish the ends on a little jig as the magnification makes them look really scruffy! I gave them several ideas.
This is the one they chose:
These are the ones I like
Regards
David
The image of the pipes and ant, was that taken with a Pentax 100 macro? It works really well.
I found the Sigma looked good at shoots, giving an air of authority, but was too heavy and large to carry for hobby shooting. It seemed to miss focus quite often. I didn't give it a very fair shot as I sold it after 6 months, but the 77 just hit the mark right away and is such a little gem it's always with me. I bought an LX film body just to work with the 77, I'm so taken with it.
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1753 posts
16 years
Plymouth,
UK
I went with the 100 macro, the DA*50-135, but started with the 77 ltd.
I have taken almost all the staff shots for Fine Tubes and a load of macro and product shots, but this series may interest you.
Brief was for a clinical, bright, modern look. I chose to use the large office as my backdrop. It's lit by strip lamps and windows and comes out very yellow and grimy looking if left to the camera.
Here, I used one off-camera strobe, gelled to match the strip lights and reflected off an umbrella. Shooting through the umbrella would have been less precise and risked flare in the lens.
When I only had the K10d I had to fire flashes down the office to light up it up, but the K5 is more than capable of picking up the ambient light and leaving the strobe to light the model gently.
I think the FA77mm Ltd has made a beautiful job of rendering this image. Over the years, I have used the 100 macro and Sigma 85mm 1:4 (least successful), but I'm happiest with the 77.
The job needs to be very quick and not disturb the other staff, so it's a nice little challenge
F4, 1/40th, 400iso
Plymouth Photographer