May 2009

Vampirism Unleashed! Experiment Successful

by Victor Augusteo on May 18, 2009

Last friday, me and my friend conducted a photoshoot by the theme of “Vampire vs Slayer”. The shoot idea was from them, they asked me to take photograph for it. We have two model dress up as Vampire and Slayer. It was amazing.

Technical Specs

I use my loyal Nikon D80 with 18-135mm kit lens. Planning to replace this one with the 18-200mm VR, but still haven’t got the chance. For the lighting, I set the built-in flash in commander mode, with SB-900 and SB-600 as the slaves. Have some trouble triggering it, as sometimes it fires and sometimes it doesn’t. Might consider getting wireless module in the future. Lucky we have two people to help to hold the flash. All the photos were taken at 1/5′ ISO 200 with varying aperture. Turns out it isn’t a really good decision by me. If I were to use ISO 800-100, the background lights will get into the image and give better context of the graveyard.

Enough babbling, lets get to the photos!

Photo 1: The make up was totally done by the models. Truly awesome. We also used some fake blood drops on her mouth. This photo scream SCARY!

The make up was totally done by the models. Truly awesome. We also used some fake blood drops on her mouth. This photo scream SCARY!

Lighting 1: This photo is lit by one light from right side and the built-in flash. For some reason the left flash didn’t fire, but it turns out alright.

Photo 2: SB-900 pointed down on the right side to light up the grounds and the grave. SB-600 pointed up on the left side to give a little bit detail on the shadow.

Photo 2: The Vampire parrying attack

Lighting 2: SB-900 pointed down on the right side to light up the grounds and the grave. SB-600 pointed up on the left side to give a little bit detail on the shadow.

Photo 3: Victory for the Slayer... unknowingly...

Photo 3: Victory for the Slayer... unknowingly...


Lighting 3: One light from left side pointing to the big cross, and one light from right side of the models.

Photo 4: The wounded vampire crawl back to her tomb to recover and prepare for revenge!

Photo 4: The wounded vampire crawl back to her tomb to recover and prepare for revenge!


Lighting 4: Using only one light from the front to light the tombstone and the model.

Photo 6: The vampire is ready for revenge!

Photo 6: The vampire is ready for revenge!


Lighting 5: Easy one light from the left side.

Photo 6: Climax finale, Victory for the vampire

Photo 6: Climax finale, Victory for the vampire


Lighting 6: One light to flash the background leaves and another one from the front pointing at the models.

Honorable Mention: Behind the scenes

Honorable Mention: Behind the scenes, feeding the vampire :p

What do you think? Please take your time to comment and critic my photos :)

Tutorial: How-To Photograph Fireworks Without Tripod!

by Victor Augusteo on May 13, 2009

Sometimes you are presented with a good photographic opportunity, out of the blue. You are just having fun walking around the river bank with some pals, while suddenly you hear loud bang and beautiful lights filling up the night sky. You take out your camera and prepare to take the next one (you always bring your camera with you, right? :P ). You set your camera to aperture priority and tried to take some shots, but because of the low light (heck, the sky is pitch black) your camera set the shutter to 2 seconds to compensate. You got the shot, but its totally blurry. You then change to setting to shutter priority to 1/50 second to avoid camera shake. But all you are getting is pitch black images. You wonder what you should do now?

I reckon most of you have experienced that type of event before. Now we will explore several options you can try to (hopefully) get a decent night shoot without using tripod.

Increase the ISO rating

Maybe its just me, but I think grainy images is much better than no usable image at all.

ISO 400 1.6" f16 - My first try of the night. I was bracing against a light pole to gain stability. Notice the fireworks are sharp but the background lights are very blurry. Which give this image a little bit more additional impact.

ISO 400 1.6" f16 - My first try of the night. I was bracing againts a light pole to gain stability. Notice the fireworks are sharp but the background lights are very blurry. Which give this image a little bit more additional impact.

Bracing Your Camera/Your Body Against Something Solid

There is two way of doing this. If you are using SLR without swivel screen, the it will be lots of trial and error. But if you have point and shoot with swivel, this will be easier. This is fairly easy. Just put your camera on the ground/fence/car or anything solid, but pointed up to the fireworks, with your right hand on the shutter, but bracing on the solid object. Usually with some practice you can get pretty good steady images.

ISO 400 f4.5 1/2" - I brace my camera on the fence to get this shot. Set the focus manually to infinity, then we are good to go.

ISO 400 f4.5 1/2" - I brace my camera on the fence to get this shot. Set the focus manually to infinity, then we are good to go.

The other way is to brace your body against a big solid object. Maybe a solid wall or a electric pole. Make sure you dont destroy it :)

Well, thats it for now? Do you have any other tips you would like to share? Drop em in the comment area.

Tutorial: How To Use Rule of Thirds in Digital Photography

by Victor Augusteo on May 9, 2009

The rule of thirds is a very useful tool for composing images in photography. And to top it off, it’s free! Doesn’t require any add on equipment to your camera, any shoe mounts, anything like that! This article will attempt to demystify the mysterious Rule of Thirds. This post is a follow up from my basic photography tutorial and tips for point and shoot camera.

To follow this rule, simply take a photo and divide it up into three sections vertically and three sections horizontally. Now, as you can see from doing this there are three boxes on the top, three in the middle, and three at the bottom. The box in the middle of all of them is the center. This compositional rules basically advises you not to take pictures in that middle box. When you put the object smack bang in the middle, not only it look amateurish, but it is also boring.

Put the object into intersection of thirds

Put the object into intersection of thirds

What this does is makes you have to try and position the subject so that he/she or it is not dead center. This creates more visually interesting images.

When you take a photo of a person, the main focal point will be the eyes. Now, you can take a photo of a person dead center, however, follow the rule still! Put the eyes anywhere but the middle box. You can put the eyes in the top box instead. Their body will be dead center but their face will be in the upper area.

Photo from DPS rule of thirds tutorial

Photo from DPS rule of thirds tutorial

Now, when you follow this rule you also need to be careful to leave plenty of head room when shooting people. This room is space around the head and will make your photo not look claustrophobic. Also, if your person is looking towards the left, leave plenty of room at the left side of the photo and less on the right.

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) on the thirds

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) on the thirds

So what software can you use to help you with this?

Lightroom is always my favourite post processing software. When you use the crop tool in lightroom, you will be presented with the rule of thirds helper to let you crop better.

Lightroom helps you compose better with rule of thirds

Lightroom helps you compose better with rule of thirds

So even if you forgot to compose the rule of thirds, you can have that peace of mind knowing that Lightroom can fix it for you later. However, do not grow dependent on it, as you lose pixels/resolution every time you crop.

Further Reading on Rule of Thirds

You can learn more from these resources:

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