Music is freedom

Last Saturday I was in Umbria, and I had the chance to attend a very nice event which was taking place on the Isola Maggiore, one of the three island on the Lago Trasimeno, in Umbria.

This event, called Music for Sunset, is a very nice music festival which is held around on the small island, involving several different artists and genres.

When we reached the place, there was a pianist playing on the harbour, and the music he played was really nice.

It was already quite late in the afternoon, and sunset time was approaching. A magnificent view was then offered to us: the sun was going down just behind the pianist. That was a magical moment, when the colours and the music were melting together, giving life to an incredible spectacle.

The clouds were just that much above the horizon, which permitted the light to pass through. I was expecting an amazing sunset.

I tried to get in the best position for photographing this subject, which actually meant lying on the ground, just a few centimetres from the water, with (trust me!) big risk of falling into the water with my camera.

I tried taking several shots, hoping for the perfect moment, which eventually happened. While playing, the pianist suddenly looked above him. Music, sunset, and inspiration, all was there at once. I looked into my camera screen, and there it was, the photo I was looking for.

Now, it's a real pleasure to share it with you.

I hope this image can render the feelings I had at the time, and that you can enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoy taking it.

Sunset on Lago di Candia

A few weeks ago, we finally had a sunny Saturday  and I decided to call a friend of mine, and to go with her to Candia Canavese, a small village not far from Torino. There is a nice lake there, and I wanted to take some pictures at sunset time.

After about 40 minutes of train, and a nice walk, we finally got to a place on the lake which offered a nice view, an interesting subject, and it was also the right time of the day.

I set my tripod and framed to get an interesting composition. For shooting, at first I wanted to take a long exposure shot; so I mounted an ND1000 filter, calculated the exposure time, pushed the trigger and waited.

Unfortunately, while the boat looked rather still, it was actually slowly moving, which caused the image to be too much blurred.

For this reason, I decided to remove the fiter, and to go for a shorter exposure time, long enough to blur the water, but not enough to let the boat move. 1/2s looked to be perfect, when closing at f/16. On a FF, this aperture is closed enough to grant for a very long focus depth, still without introducing diffraction problems which would then affect the image definition. Also, shooting at ISO100 granted for a low noise image.

In post processing, I then corrected the exposure, and applied some local curves, I increased the saturation in some zones, and applied some final sharpening.

The result is the image in this post.

The dock and the boat, with their blue, cold dominant, are a good subject for foreground. Their lines lead to the hills in the background. Here, the sight is lead to left, were the warm sunset colours give a sense of calm and peace.

Daisy

The scientific name being Leucanthemopsis alpina, very similar to the Bellis perennis, and commonly know as Daisy, this flower, for some reason, immediately recalls childhood, joy, freedom, to me.

It's probably because it's so easy to be found on the alps, where I've spent a lot of time when I was a child, "trekking" with my parents on the mountains around our comfortable flat in Sauze di Cesana, a small (very small!) village not far from Torino.

I have many memories of that place, and that period. When we finally left the flat, I was 9. It's 19 years ago now... That sounds so much! Still, I can remember it very well: the garden surrounding the house, the child I was playing with, and Champion, a german shepherd dog who turned out to be one of my best friends ever.

Believe me, it's not that I've never been on the mountains again since. We bought our own flat then (well... my parents did) in Briançon, a nice city on the other side of the Alps, in France... but, to put it simply, it has never been the same again.

Anyway, it happens, sometimes, that some little details, some colours, some perfumes, some tastes, they recall us something from the past, of a lost time which will never really come back, but which will not get lost anyway.

Daisy, to me, is one of those little details, and that's why is somehow quite recurrent in my photos, whenever I can find a nice one.
This was the case for the one I'm showing you here. I was on a photo-trekking around Chamrousse, on a warm, sunny middle august day. I just had lunch (I had prepared some tasteful rice salad to bring along with me) on the shore of a magnificent mountain lake, and it was time to go back down. I was walking on the path, when I sow this wonderful daisy, standing there just by the side. On the background, the mountains were standing proud against the sky, so I had this vision.

In my photos, I often put a subject on a foreground, using the background as, well, a background. This was the case: my subject was the Daisy, but I wanted to transmit my personal meaning of daisy: a symbol of peace, a sign of the mountains, a wish of freedom.
So, I put on my 50mm f/1.4, closed down a bit (f/5.6) to ensure a depth of field allowing to have the flower pretty sharp, and to still recognise the background, leaving it out of focus anyway.
This way, the flower becomes my subject, and the mountains behind become my feeling, what that flower means to me. The result works well.
This is how a selective focus can be used to "write down" emotions, to describe our feelings.
Photography is poetry, after all!

Sunrise Coffee

What is coffee to you?

For many, is a way to begin a new day: that touch of energy to let the morning go the way it should.

And what's the best way to drink coffee? Well, I guess, sitting on a balcony, sun rising, calm and peaceful.

Well, I wanted to re-create this kind of atmosphere, but that's not easy, when you don't have any balcony, and it's 3pm on a hot middle august day. So... how to do that?

That's were strobes come to help: if used correctly, they can allow you to control the light the way you want.

For this shot, I didn't use any unbelievable instrument: just two strobe lights, a reflective surface, and a coloured gel.

The more important thing was actually to balance lights such that the effect might result in a photo as "natural" as possible.

First of all: the sun-effect. For this, I was putting my 580EX II on camera right, just a bit higher than the subject, and as far as I could, with just a CTO gel on it, to give this yellowish colour one should expect from a sunrise. This eventually gave me these long, rather hard shadows. They really look like natural, don't they?

By only using that light, anyway, I would have had too much contrast between the right and the left side of the subjects, this resulting in either over or under-exposed images.

To comply with this, I was using a silver-reflecting surface just next to the subjects, on the left.

Moreover, I was using a strobe on subject top, shot against a reflective umbrella, to gently fill light all over the scene.

The effect can actually be seen by looking at the very soft shadow below the coffee cup.

White balance was on normal flash light, without gel, such that, by using it, I could get the gentle yellow cast.

Finally, I placed the coffee capsules to fill the frame and help creating a more balanced composition.

The final effect is quite natural, and makes me want to have... one more coffee please!

Place Saint-André

I took this shot yesterday evening: I decided to go out, and try to find some spots I liked.

I've been out for about 2 hours, and essentially took two photos only. Well, this one is the second one.

You might wonder why two shots only in two hours? It's an avarage of one hour per photo!

The reason is simple... and complicate at the same time. I'm trying to improve my composition skills, and this requires a bit more of time to study for a good location, a good subject, and, well, a good composition of course.

Moreover, this photo is actually a night-time HDR, which means: several exposures, each of them several seconds long.

For this particular picture, for example, I was taking 7 different photos, then I merged them to create a High Dynamic Range image that I finally tonemapped and reduced to a 16bit image.

This allowed me to correctly expose for some hard lights (due to two big lamps on the near building facade) and the deep shadows.

Also, HDR can help to increase a lot the micro-contrast, thus giving very detailed images in all light ranges, from highlights to shadows, passing through midtones.

Of course, for such a photo to be taken, a good tripod is required.

Also, because of rather long time exposures, I was taking a dark shot for each real shot, to reduce the noise.

The final result is the one you can see here.

Seongsan Ilchulbong

Day 1
After the very long travel, I arrived to Seongsan Ilchulbong, 성산일출봉 in Hangul alphabet. I had heard plenty of nice things about this place: it's an ancient volcanic cone, located on the eastern part of the island, and its name can be translated as Sunrise Peak. There's a big extinct crater on top of it, surrounded by sharp rocks, just like a sort of crown.
I got to my hotel, facing the peak, and went out for some pictures at around sunset time; I was still a bit tired from my long travel (and also, from jet-lag, as there's a 7 hours difference, during summer, with respect to France), but I didn't really care. I was there for taking pictures and seeing nice places, and that's what I wanted to do then.

I took quite a few shots, then I decided this one was the best. The sight on the peak was really impressive.

For dinner, I've been invited to a Korean man's place, where we've had a nice Tteokbokki (떡볶이). He is an english teacher, and his pupils were at his place for english lessons. Really nice, as I've been able to talk to them. They were all very friendly, and I'm really happy I've had the chance to meet them.

After a beer with my new Korean friend, before going to bed, I had a look at the predicted sunrise time for the next day, as I wanted to see the Sunrise Peak... well guess?, at sunrise! I knew I would have been incredibly tired, but nothing could really stop me, so...

Day 2
I woke up early in the morning, and aimed at the sunrise peak, looking for a place on the beach where I could have the sun rising from behind the extinct volcanic cone. I finally found what I thought it was the best place, placed my camera and... waited for the sun!
The dawn was so fantastic, absolutely romantic I would say. I was thousands and thousands of kilometres far from home, waiting for the sun to warm the day... and it all felt like heaven.
Waiting there was worst the effort: I caught the very first "diamond" from the sun, and everything was next to perfect.

After sunrise, I went hiking up the Ilchulbong, where I took some more pictures of that strange but wonderful place.

As you can see, this one was shot in HDR, which gives these amazing saturated colors. It's a view from the top of the peak, toward the small village and the rest of the island.

In this final shot, you might notice the sharp rocks which surround the crater.
You're not allowed to go down the crater, as they want to preserve the place from turists.

Pretty soon I found out that temperatures can be really hot there. I was nevertheless able to have a nice run around the place, which again allowed me to find some very nice spots. Unfortunately, as I never bring my camera with me when running, got no photos of the nice places I've seen.
It was soon time for lunch, and I went for some traditional local food: a seafood soup, with their typical Abalone inside.

Then, after lunch, it was time to leave for my next destination: Seogwipo.
Goodbye Ilchulbong, I really enjoyed this place!

Two weeks in South Korea

For those who don't know about it, CPEM is the Conference on Precise Electromagnetic Measurements. It is hold every two years, sometimes in the States, sometimes somewhere around the world. It's an important meeting for people working in the measurements field, and particularly interesting for us as one of the main topics is about fundamental constants. As I am directly involved in an experiment aimed at determining the molar-Planck constant NAh, I had to participate too, and... Guys, this was a very nice experience, as the 2010 CPEM was in South Korea!

It was the first time, for me, for such a long travel... It was even the first time I was going outside of Europe, as I had only been in France, Ireland and Poland before.
The conference was lasting just a few days, but I decided to leave a bit before, such that I could travel around the country for sightseeing. A little of internet searching, to find the best spots, and a lot of excitement (and even a bit of fear, as I was leaving alone, and I would have met my colleagues only once at the conference place, on the second week).

I soon found out that Jeju, the island off the southern coast, was considered as one of the best places not only of Korea, but eventually worldwide, so my choice went for it, given my limited amount of time.

On June 6th, I left early in the morning from Grenoble (it was around 6 AM when I took the bus to the Lyon airport... damn!), then took the air plane from Lyon to Paris, where I had my coincidence for my very first intercontinental flight.
Flying on a Boeing 777 is a real pleasure: you've got your own monitor, where you can watch movies, documentaries, and much more.
The flight lasted around 10h, which is quite a lot for a direct flight. By the way, time will pass quite fast: you have some sleep, you're offered with food, and if you're lucky you can even find some interesting people to talk with.

The final destination of the flight was Incheon International Airport, but when I got there, after Passport check and custom controls, I had to move to Gimpo Airport, where I had my last flight to Jeju-do. In Gimpo, they've been so kind to allow me to get on the earlier flight, and they even offered me first class comfort (still I don't see why, but would you ever complain about that?).

When I finally arrived to Jeju, I took the final bus to my first final destination: Ilchulbong.

I got there late in the afternoon, one day after my leaving from home. That's where my real adventure started!

In the next posts I will tell you about my journey through the Jeju Island, and then through the rest of Korea.
Stay tuned!

Some sort of home studio photos

I was at home, some days ago, in the afternoon, and I was getting a bit bored, so... I took my camera, looked around me and wondered what I could do.

The answer comes quite easily: I have my new iPhone 3Gs, I have some apples, and I've just seen an inspiring photo on flickr. So, here we go!

First thing, I need some white background. Unfortunately, I don't have any large white cloth or anything similar, thus.. it's a hard task to start like this. No problem, I say to myself: some white papers will do a good job, surely. It's certainly not as a soft box, but that's not that bad either!

So, here we go: white papers on the table, overlapping each other, an apple, my iPhone, and a bit of light.

I set up my beloved Canon 580EX II on the stand, white umbrella opened, and I start playing around. Also, I think a bit of filling light might be worth, so I also open my gold reflector, and place my camera on the tripod, remote control in hands, and curtains down, so that the only light really comes from my source only.

I start shooting changing compositions, but what I get is not really what I'm looking for. The reason is quite simple: the apple is nice, the iPhone itself is nice, but... The screen of the iPhone is off, and it looks really sad!

So, here comes the idea: iPhone screen on, longer exposure time.

The iPhone screen, even if at full brightness, still is not bright enough compared to the strong light of the strobe. If, as I was doing, I shoot at 1/200, f/5.6, the screen just looks too dark.

So, easy solution, I rise the exposure time up to 1/4. This way, still the only light I have is the one from my strobe, since the room is otherwise almost completely dark. The rather long time exposure, on the other hand, permits the screen of the iPhone to be bright enough to appear.

Also: I want the main subject of the photo to be the apple, not the iPhone itself. The iPhone has to be there only to give a meaning to the apple; this is the reason for a rather short depth of field given by the f/5.6 aperture, which leaves the iPhone blurred, while the apple appears perfectly on focus.

The final effect is: the bright and colourful screen of the iPhone catch your attention at first, but since it is blurred, your attention is driven away. You start following the earphones, which, by making a loop around the apple, finally concentrate your attention on the fruit itself.

I like the final effect quite a lot; the strobe is camera left, while on the right I have the gold reflector for filling, which also adds a bit of warm tones.

The picture is taken with my now almost-always-on-camera 85mm f/1.8.

Still unsatisfied, I decide to try something completely new to me: smoke.

I have some incense somewhere in my house... It's one of those things I like to use sometimes, and that might eventually be useful to create a nice atmosphere in case some nice girl decides to come to my place ;)

I change the light set-up, place my strobe on camera right, with a snoot to direct the light in the direction I want, and I place my 5-in-1 reflector with the black side as a background; perfect, ready to go!

I light up the incense, switch off the lights and... well, the mood is really nice now, so let's start shooting.

The room is completely dark now, so I can hardly see the smoke coming from incense (next time I will do certainly differently). I focus on the burning part of the incence, rise the camera to keep the focus distance, at start shooting almost at random. From time to time, I blow toward the smoke, to create some turbolences, which is what gives that nice shapes to smoke pictures.

Meanwhile, my mother calls me on the phone:

It is really funny. Looking at the photos preview on my camera screen really makes me feel happy, just like a child.

Postprocessing is really funny too. Smoke pictures come essentially as gray shapes on a black screen; nothing you would scream about, probably. The nice thing comes when you invert the pictures: now you have gray smoke on white background, and if you add colours... you can get something amazing. Also, you can start playing with mirroring, overlaying, and so on...

Here's one example:

Doesn't this look like some sort of a woman portrait? I love this one. I simply mirrored the image and inverted again one of the two. Placed side by side, this is the result.

Also, I wanted to see what I could get by overlying the two mirrored images of another smoke picture:

This looks like a mermaid, doesn't it? I find this to be unbelievable: I wouldn't be able to paint, but letting the nature paint for me can be even better, if you consider this is only a matter of chance!

I also love the smoke revolutions on this one:

Here I only added some colour gradients; quite cool how the smoke rises, uh?

Finally, something really classic: just a blue tone added, all the rest comes from the smoke itself:

I think I would spend hours looking at how strange and unpredictable nature is...

In Salerno for a congress

I've been away for quite a long time now, and it's time to tell you why.
Last month I went back to Italy, because I had a couple of conferences to attend. What I will tell you here is about the second congress, the GMEE annual congress, which was kept in Salerno this year.
GMEE is always a nice place where to meet old friends and scientist from any part of Italy and, moreover, a good chance to visit new places, since it is always located in very nice cities.
This, as I said, was the year of Salerno, and I was really happy with that: I had never been there before, and we would have also gone to Paestum, an archeologial site not far from the city.

I decided to get to Salerno the day before, so that I could spend a bit of time alone with my girlfriend, and that I could also be a tourist for one day (and tourist means... plenty of chances to take pictures!).

Unfortunately, the weather decided for me, I was not allowed to take pictures. It started raining almost as soon as we got there, and it just stopped when the congress began. What a pity... Not so many chances to take pictures as you can guess.
That's mainly why I had to wait for the tour in Paestum for the first shots around. Well... let's say: it was worth waiting!

Paestum used to be an old city of the Magna Grecia, devoted to Poseidon, Hera and Atena, which was founded in the VII century b.C., and then became roman in 273 BC.
In the archeological site, you can still see three temples, conserved in a quite good status:
- the Hera temple, on of the largest greek temples, built around 550 BC.
- the Athena temple (around 500 BC)
- the Poseidon temple, actually also dedicated to Hera, built around 450 BC.
More infos can be found on wikipedia.

When we went to visit this place, the weather was perfect, fortunately, great for taking photo. But this was a quite unlucky week, as I didn't really feel well that day. Good enough, this didn't prevent me from taking some shots of the place.

As soon as you enter the archeological site, you can see two of the three temples right in front of you.

The Temple of Hera is really impressive, and it really makes you wonder how they were able to build so magnificent constructions, capable of resisting 2500 years of history (someone might argue that today's building can't resist that well... and he he would be often right we have to admit).

The lines and the columns intersecting really offer some good chances for some nice pictures (provided there's not too much crowd around).

Just by the first temple, you can see the second Temple of Hera, mostly known as Poseidon's Temple.

This temple is in a bit better conditions with respect to the first one, and it's also more little.

The time of the day and the weather were perfect for this pictures: already quite late in the afternoon, sun at back, and some clouds to give the sky some texture.
Adding a polarizing filter added a bit of saturation to the sky, and I think the temples gained a lot from this, as they really stand out.

On the other side of the archeological site, you can find the last temple, the Temple of Athena.

This is situated on the highest part of the site, well separated from the others. It's fantastic to see it standing with all its majesty.

The same temple at sunset, with sun setting just behind the temple itself... It really looks like a fairy tale, doesn't it?

I wanted to take some pictures at night, but... as I told you, I didn't really fell well that evening, and after dinner it was the worst time of the day, unfortunately. Bad chance, since the temples illuminated at night might have been a really nice subject to take pictures of.

Back to Salerno, the day after the congress was over, but I still had some time before leaving. Perfect to profit for some more pictures. Guess what? Bad weather again! When you say bad luck...
I still didn't feel quite well also, but... I really wanted to take some pictures around, and I went around the city.

In a short while it started to poor with rain, and I had to recover in the hotel, but before, I got the chance to find a very italian icon:

An italian boat, in a very wide sense!
Here it is, again, in black and white:

Just on the seafront, where I was taking pictures of the boat, there was also a little shoe, probably lost by some child. While wishing he wasn't feeling cold to his little foot, I profited for one last shot:

I focused on the shoe, and closed the aperture enough to let guess the italian flag painted on the boat behind, and I quite like the effect I obtained!

Salerno was a very nice city, and I'm really sad I didn't have many opportunities to take some more pictures. I really hope I will be able to visit the city again, and... let a nice weather assist me if this will happen!

Cheers, see you next time!

With Silvia at Monte dei Cappuccini

Last week, I had a photo session with an old school mate, Silvia. I had not seen her for quite a few years now, so it was first of all a real pleasure to meet her again.
I decided to go again to the Monte dei Cappuccini. This is a very nice location on the hill over Torino.
At sunset time, this place is really perfect, as you have the sun setting just in front of you, with the city below.
We immediately climbed up the hill and reached the place in perfect time: sun was already getting low on the horizon, with a nice golden light, and the few clouds on the mountain were giving that mystic touch to the sky which looks perfect for a portrait background.
I set up my one-flash equipement while Silvia was getting confortable with the fact that, at that time, the place was not really empty as she might have wished.

As my set up was ready, we started shooting.
I wanted to profit from the still quite bright sunlight to give her that golden rim light which can really turn on a portrait.
Unfortunately, because of my still too little experience, I didn't pay much attention to the background, at the beginning. The place is surrounded by trees, and having them behind the model in these shots was not really a nice idea.

Silvia immediately found herself comfortable with shooting, and gave some very sweet expressions. The sun behind at 45 degrees camera left, and the shoot through white umbrella with the 580EX II at 45 degree in front of her, also camera left, added even more mood to her eyes. The trees in the background aren't really nice, I know, but the photo is nevertheless quite nice.

I also wanted to try a shot with the sun directly behind her.

The flash is again positioned at about 45 degrees on camera left, which gives the shot an almost "natural" light, with a lovely golden touch on her skin given by the sun itself.

Letting her holding on the balcony created by the brick wall, which looks on the city, gave me then a perfect pose for a more close up portrait.

The flash is again on camera left, in the white umbrella, but this time her face is more evenly lit up, with the sun which hits her skin on the left side.

The city from the high is such a nice background for some shots. Overall the Mole, which always inspires me a lot.

I decided to use the still quite strong available light to take a portait of Silvia with the Mole behind. The flash is again on camera left, with the white umbrella making it softer. I liked a lot this setup, as you can see, because it gives more the idea of the natural sun light (an effect that would have been lost by putting the light source at camera right, crossing the sun).

Finaly, it was time for a close up portait.

The flash on the left was a bit too low, giving an odd shadow of her nose on the face. Apart from this, I find this shot to be very nice, and this is also the reason why I choosed it as a conclusion for this post.

I hope you enjoyed this set as much as I enjoyed shooting.
Feel free to C&C my photos either here or on flickr.

Laetitia and Tiffany

Last week, a friend of mine asked me to take some portrait of her, and of course, I didn't say no to this gentle request. As I knew she had an older sister, I asked her to come together, so that she could maybe help me with my gear and, eventually, I could even bring some pictures of her.

As my friend arrived, she found herself a bit shy in front of the camera, so I decided to take some shots of the two sisters together, just to let her feel more confortable.

I set up my equipment (basically, I mounted my 580EX II on the stand, with the Cactus trigger and the white umbrella to shoot through) and started to take some pictures. The sun had troubles to shine through the clouds, but sometimes some ray of light came to us, and (as it was late in the afternoon) it was already quite low on the horizon, which gave me some nice cross light opportunities.

They were really sweet, together, and also pretty much collaborative, provided none of them is a real model.

When I asked them if they didn't mind lying on the grass, they didn't refuse at all, and this gave me the opportunity of taking this nice shot.
Flash was at 45 degrees on camera right, as you can guess. The light from the sun gave me some rim light on the hair, but nothing really strong.
I also wanted them to have some nice posing...

Again, they had no problem at all following my instruction.
The flash was at 45 degrees, left camera, and you can see some really low reflections of the sun light on the hair, again.
Also, the position of their hands gave me some light reflections on their faces (not so much, just a little bit).

Light went down pretty fast as clouds were covering the sky and becoming grey... that grey that can only mean it's-going-to-rain.

This gave me, anyway, the opportunity to work with a very dark background, which actually turned out to be completely black. Now I really had complete control of the light!
I didn't find it easy to work in such condition, but... with the help of this white stone column, I both had some natural reflector and a nice location for continuing my session.

As you can see here, main light is coming from camera right (through white umbrella) but the white stone is pretty well reflecting the light to fill shadows. Also, I had her sister Laetitia holding the silver reflector for even more reflections.
The only complain I have with Tiffany is about her dress: black is not really the right colour for such portraits... I would have preferred some white cloths, probably. The same of course for her sister.

Finally, I decided to play some Hide and Seek with Laetitia

Flash on the left, through white umbrella, creates some quite soft shadows on her face, with a final result that I liked a lot.

I really enjoyed this photo session. I asked them to train a bit on their smile, for the next portraits I will eventually take of them, but after all it was a nice evening, and I really have to thank both of them!

My first session: Flavia and her bags

This post is about my first photo session (at least, with someone who was not my sister).

My very best friend's girlfriend, Flavia, asked me to take some picture of her with the bags she produces at home. Of course, it was a pleasure to me.
We decided to meet us after work, as I thought the sunset time was certainly giving me a nice light to work with.

I also asked my sister to come with us, so that she could help me a bit, sure she would have enjoyed a lot.

While waiting for Flavia, I started taking some pictures of my sister.

I wanted to try some posing for later shooting with the bags, and my sister of course immediately found a nice way to do it!

We then went up to Monte dei Capuccini, a nice location on the hills facing Torino, and with a look to the West (yes, exactly... that's where the sun usually set).

When we arrived, the light was gorgeous, and we immediately started shooting.

I decided to use the still enough bright sun as a rim light from behind, and to overpower it with my flash, mounted behind an umbrella for a soft light, and positioned at 45 degrees of the model, camera left.

I didn't have to ask her to smile, as even her bag was doing the right thing.

Light changed pretty fast as sun went down, but it gave me time to take quite a few shot of her with this nice light condition.

As anyone taking pictures at sunset knows, anyway, the light changed faster than you can imagine, and, being my very first session of this kind, I had some difficulties in following it.

As sky was getting dark, I wanted to have a nice early evening background for her, with the magical addition of the Mole Antoneliana scraping the sky too.

Paying attention not to fall down, we took this shot of her with another of her very nice bags. The flash was positioned on camera right, through white umbrella, and with an amber filter on it to add some really warm tones to her skin. Also, I had someone holding a silver reflector on camera right for some filling.

As you can see, she was quite astonished we were still able to continue even with such a low light condition, but my flash was behaving really good! Not the same for me, as I lost many nice shots because of my yet too little experience....

Just before going back home, as light was getting now really too low, I took a shot of my assistant... oh, pardon... of my friend Ermanno.

He's really cool, don't you think? Using the same light set up I was using for earlier shots of Flavia, but with a much darker background now.

So, this is how my very first open air photo session went on.
We enjoyed ourself a lot, and I have to thank Ermanno and my sister for their help on that day!
I'm sure we'll organize again something together, maybe for some other "bag-session"?

The strobist lessons: Lighting 102, Unit 1.1

Yesterday evening, before dinner, I played a bit in my flat, and tried to take a self portrait, with far from excellent results.

I finally got at last at least one shot I liked, so I finally had my pasta and my salad, and of course an ice cream!

Then, after dinner (and after a stupid movie on tv) I decided to set up a bit of gear for the first lighting 102 excersise: Lighting 102: Unit 1.1 - Position (Angle).

I looked around me to find a good subject, as I didn't have any model to shoot at (the sad point of living alone).

Thus I grabbed my nice Dahu from the library (a souvenir of 2007 Universiade), and set him on a chair, with a black background, ready for some shooting.

Set my camera @ 1/200, f/5.6, and the strobe @ 1/128 of power, manual mode as usual.
I started to play with the flash around my subject, moving it in steps of about 45 degrees each time.

I started by setting the strobe at the subject level, from the front, then started to rotate around my teddy bear... oh, sorry, my teddy Dahu!

As you can see, rotating the strobe varies a lot the result. The light from behind (centre bottom) almost gives a mystical effect, the strobe from the front (centre top) is much flat. The absence of any other light, with the flash set so near to the subject (about 30-40 cm), gives very black shadows and a very black background, as expected. You might think it's not very well enlightened, but... this is an exercise, and a sort of experiment, after all, just to see what's the effect of such a setup on a certain subject.

The best light condition to have nice details and shadows, to me, is whit light source at 45 degrees in front of the subject (top left and right). The light from the sides (center left and right) looks really nice to, for some strange effects. The light form 45 degrees behind (bottom left and right) seems to be perfect for a second light setup giving some rim light to the subject.

After this first setup, I moved the flash to a higher position, pointing downward to the subject, and repeated the loop around my poor Dahu (he was really tolerant, I have to say).

The flash positions in the frame are the same as in the first shot
Again, I'm not a fan of the light from the front, while again I prefer the light at 45 degrees front. The light on the sides leaves on of the arm in the shadow, giving the impression that he's missing one. The light from 45 degrees behind gives the impression he's missing on leg, this time. I find nice the one from behind: as a second light for hair reflection (maybe on a real subject) can be very interesting.

Now, last setup, with the light positioned below the subject, and pointing upward.

The light from the front seems to be from an horror movie, don't you think?
45 degrees front looks perfect as a second light to fill some shadows in particular cases. Side light have a strange look, but I like it after all... even if it's probably leaving the top part too dark, as it finds itself in the shadow. The lights from the back are, to me, only good for rim lights in some situations where you might need reflections from the bottom.

So, these were my (poor, I admit) results. For other's results, you can always look on flickr, by simply searching for the keyword

• strobist
• lighting102
• position
• angle

or, easily, clicking here.

Now it's time to go, breakfast time. See you next time!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.
This is a blog about photography, and in particular about my photo equipment and my photos.
I will try to keep it updated in such a way that you will be able to follow what I do, when I do it and how.

Just to tell you something about me: I'm currently a PhD student in Grenoble, France, but I was born in Torino in 1983, and I've been living there until November 2008.
I have many passions and hobbies: music, sports, science, technology... and, of course, photography.
This latest passion started mainly back in summer 2006, when, with my family, we bought our first D-SLR camera: a Canon EOS 400D, together with its kit lens, the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6.
I immediately fell in love with it, and started to try to get out of it all it could give me. I never followed any course in photography, I thought I didn't have time, but... internet, in that sense, is so helpful! I found any information I wanted, and, together with what I already knew, also thanks to my father's help, I started to play with this toy, trying to apply what I was learning by reading around the net: aperture, exposure time, ISO, white balance...

That summer I went to my beloved Sicily, near Messina... Where could I find a better place to try the camera, with nice sunsets on the sea?

I also had the opportunity to play with the Canon EF 55-200 f/4.5-5.6 USM, not a bad lens, which let me take some not so bad shots, at that time.

The sea was certainly the best subject for my first shots, as you can see.

Soon, that same summer, I added a new friend to the kit lens: the (in)famous Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM. A long range telezoom, with very low quality image... but at the time, I didn't know that, and I was so happy with it! With that equipment, I survived for a few years, by only adding some filters (a ND8 and a polariser) for some "special" effects, and improving the camera usability by adding a battery grip. My camera has, since, always been with me during my travels...

I've been in Paris, in summer 2008

I've been in Florence for some times.

Here's a shot taken in Gaeta

and here another one taken in Castel Gandolfo, with my girlfriend.

Summer 2008 was really plenty of travels around! Here's when I was in Provence with my friend Ermanno.

Of course, I always brought my camera with me when I went to find my Laura (yes, you've seen her in the shot of Castel Gandolfo!).

The Salento is a wonderful place to visit with her!

So, I was pretty satisfied with my camera and lenses, but... not enough! I wanted more!

In July 2009 I upgraded a bit my photo gear, by adding my now beloved Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM together with a Canon Speedlite 580EX II. With a light stand, a 5-in-1 reflector, a convertible umbrella and a very low price trigger, now I'm starting to deal with portraits, and I hope to expand my photo gear very soon with some more flash units and light modificators, and also, why not, some more lenses!
Of course, I will keep you informed on this! Just stay tuned