I recorded a series of videos for Sigma America and they have them in their youtube channel, but somehow they’re unable to upload them in higher quality so I uploaded them myself – although without their intro. You have to imagine it. :) I hope you find something useful and don’t forget to watch in HD!
Author Archive for Carl Rytterfalk
This post is in Swedish.
Idag och i morgon kommer jag (och Fotograf Martin Carlsson) att finnas på Frölunda torg och fotografera den som vill finnas skrattande med på en stor vägg tillsammans med hundratals andra skrattande människor. Till min hjälp så finns det några kända svenska komiker på plats bakom mig som kommer göra allt i sin makt för att få bilden så trovärdig som möjligt. Dessutom får du bilden utskriven och kanske signerad?! :) Gratis! Kom! Om du säger Foveon så fotograferar jag dig med min SD15, i övrigt kommer jag använda Canon. aaaaa
11-15:00 Lördag (Erik och Mackan)
11-15:00 Söndag (Peter Wahlbeck)
Now I moved so much away from my initial setup that I feel that I will show you a picture or two of what my current setup actually looks like. Woohoo! I will post some in the comments section. The above shot is slightly cleaned up – the gold surface was slightly scratched and some dents so I repainted the middle reflection and the bottom left - but other than that it’s the original photo – I’m now very satisfied with how reflections works – and if I change ring reflections still look beautiful. I must say that the pure IQ that the Sigma SD15 gives is extremely high. I’ve been looking at other photographers works with jewelry and once you go closer it just doesn’t look good. This shot is available in full size as well. A bit too full really. :)
This time I didn’t use anything else than LR3 and PS5. The only thing left now is to continue with OOF – and see where I should stop before text is readable. This shot is ISO50, 105mm, f11, 1/160s.
I noticed that it’s more or less impossible to get correct focus at more then one ring at a time (at f7.1) – so I took three shots and combined them in PS.. :) It’s really late too, I should go to bed. hmm.. This is a Lightroom 3 conversion of SD15 file, not bad – but not as good as from SPP.
I’m pretty much set now with my setup – this last shot had no changes, no painting except taking away a little dust – although getting the background WHITE is time consuming when there is so much blur to deal with. The foremost black corners will also be a little bit less black – one white foam infront of camera is missing.
Final capture for day four: We had a long talk today, me and the jewelry guy. He wanted the text within each ring to be unreadable so we decided that taking each text away using PS would take way to long, but using a wider aperture could work instead. I had to move the light quite a bit (I used lowest power at f20 on those last shots) and now I had to use a semitransparent white circular reflector in-between the softbox and the “set” . I finally got a working F8. I could go all the way down to f5.6 but then it was hard to see anything exept one or two diamonds in focus.
I also wrapped the whole sets bottom in golden reflective material – and it seams to work pretty nicely. There is a 3000px version of the below image.
EDIT. Late Evening, day three. Last edit for tonight.
This last one has very strong colors because I selected “vivid” color mode in SPP. No added saturation - actually I pulled it back a bit in PS. The full size shot, with all it’s flaws.
Continue reading ‘Jewelry photography, Day three.. (Update)’
Alright, it’s not really day two, but at least it’s first shot! I dealed a little with it in Photoshop and will play more with reflections to get the right feel (but not in Photoshop, but on the set). What do you think? It’s ISO50. I think I will get more black in the corners of the ring, like a black frame somehow. Also it’s a little too tilted. :) But that’s not the important part right now.
Right now, I only play with fake rings – will get the real stuff when it’s time for the real deal. About 200 of them.
Light from above, two paper reflectors on the side. Elinchrom Quadra. Sigma SD15, Sigma 70mm.
I’m getting slightly nervous because in about three weeks I’ll be one of the speakers at the highly acclaimed photoshop day and I’m there to talk about three layered photography and simple editing – most likely show a different workflow for us that uses external developers. But still I want to make it interesting for the audience. It will be held in Göteborg, Malmö and Stockholm.
Could you guys help me with short simple topics that could help me bring “me” into this day? :D PLEASE! What would you like to know if you were sitting in the audience?
EDIT! First, I want this post to be first so I can get some more input. Thanks for email everyone (you know who you are). Also, today I received my long awaited SD15 (the REAL one) and I’ll start shooting with it from today. First tests shows really nice IQ and a perfectly aligned mirror. (my pre-version was slightly off). I also finally got myself a trigger and will be able to do long exposures. jaij!
The knife maker. Shot on Marstrand using SD14 + Sigma 50mm 1.4 and using sun as main light and Sigma 530 DG and back shape light. ISO50. Now, ISO50 is such a compressed format that you really need to expose with great care. His shoulder is totally white and if it was shot at ISo100 it would still be information there. There is, if I convert to Monochrome but because it’s only info from one or two channels (Showing strange colors if still shown) Sigma has decided to erase everything in those areas.. I had lots of overexposed ISO50 shots yesterday and I regret shooting at ISO50. Stupid me.
If you look closer you’ll see a light shadow in his glasses, that’s where the round shape of a tiny beauty dish were before I erased it using LR3. Strong sun from the back and the Sigma 530 DG from slight above using a beauty dish making the sharp light disappear. SD14 + 50mm 1.4 + ISO50 (or more ISO25). Too much light entered the 50mm so I had to emphasizes those shadows and the hat quite a lot.
The oldish couple. Shot using 10-20 with sun as main and 530 DG as side light. Slight green color on the left shows where 530 is placed. SD14 and ISO50. This came out slightly dark, best viewed at full size.
The above shot was slightly overexposed ISO50 shot, skin was overexposed in the color version – this version is equal to ISO25. These two guys are well known over at www.99.se Goflorp (handle) and Rei Trulsson.. Nice to talk a bit with to of my readers in real life. :)
Childhood friends passing by, had to take their picture. The 530 from the far right. I should have used one more flash on their legs, that would probably make this shot a lot better. And yes, the 530 was a little too powerful this time. SD14 10-20mm ISO50
And finally, three shots of Linn. I’m so happy to have her around so I can play!! :D
These last two could have been more worked on in SPP or LR but.. I didn’t. In the last shot the flash was slightly to close to her and skin is a little overexposed. Could work better as monochrome. All three shot using SD14 and 10-20mm. ISO50 on all.
All above images available as full size on flickr. Handle with care.
Today I had a wedding photo session – used Sigma 10-20 and Sigma 70mm together with my beloved SD14. Linn assisted (I LOOOOVE when she assists!) and on he way home we had a car full of gear, far away from home. What to do? Of course, we stopped and took some shots of each other. Sky was rapidly changing which made everything so much more interesting. :) And just for fun I used my new Chinese equipment. Two speed lights, stand and some transmitting equipment. Shot of me was way overexposed (ISO50) but in monochrome WB there was lots of information in blown areas so I turned it BW. Shot of me is also cropped some.
Btw, the cheap chinese equipment that brought works perfectly well together with the Sigma, (including DP’s) which is really nice! I had my Elinchrom Quadra in the car but – the Yongnuo YN460-II worked great, especially when two put together.
Everything developed using SPP 4.1 and post edited using LR3 (darkening sky some etc). Full size available at my Fall 2010 set at Flickr.
You might ask why I don’t use my Sigma 530 DG Super instead of some cheap chinese ones – well, as you see the light is on a pretty light stand and it’s windy, I don’t dare having my beloved and TTL working 530 on that one without someone being able to save it of it falls. The two in the background DID fall – and one broke but was easy to fix. :)
I was sitting in a small coffeeshop in Dali / China enjoying looking at passing people and this man turns up with some type of old looking scroll. (is it called that?!) Anyways, I’m not much for the tourist type of things so I declined buying although he insisted for a long time changing the price dramatically to make me buy it. He had this really nice way and we laughed together a lot. I didn’t want to buy and finally he continued his journey. I felt really bad about the whole thing, he was such a nice old man and he really just wanted a few coins to make this day work – he wasn’t a beggar and I’ve given them plenty of change but this guy who tried so hard I gave nothing but small talk.
I was hoping for him to return so I could give him something and to my great joy he did – about an hour or so later – and I gave him something similar to a dollar and his face shine like a small child’s. He said, Now I have dinner for tonight.
Picture taken using the wonderful little Sigma DP1. Full size image on flickr.
(Strobist info: Behind blue pillow is a gridded speed light. High left slightly infront of girl is a naked flash shooting at low power directly at subject). Camera: Sigma DP1 @ ISO400.
I couldn’t resist playing some today using my Sigma 530 flash – I brought with me a cheap transmitter from China as well that works pretty well, although not as smart as the one I have already from Elinchrom (Skyport). The Chinese version flashes as many times as it can until shutter is closed – so shooting indoors with low shutterspeeds and using the super fast Sigma gun, you will most likely get a strobe effect – lots of flashes in a short session. Nice if subject is STILL! People hardly ever is. Skyport never does this – it sends ONE signal not a continues flow. The Chinese version is a 10th of the price of the skyport.
Using the Sigma DP1′s fantastic ability to make colors is a sport in it self! Little sister holding the Sigma 530 and myself holding the second gun. Super simple setup. Without light this picture is totally dead. Camera, the Dp1 stands by itself on my Benro 91M8 tripodded monopod. Used in all shots above. :D
Playing indoors using the same two guns as in above shots. Myself being the tripod for the second gun. Not a perfect shot but still fun. :) (And yes, she was tired. :D)
Being outdoors a dull day as today isn’t always fun – incase you don’t have my gear! Then it’s FUN! One speed light (Sigma 530) with the grid, the tripodded monopod and a 2s delay. hmm.. perhaps it was 10s.
All shots edited using Sigma Photo Pro and uploaded using LR3.
A jewelry firm wants me to take photos for their catalog and I’m now deep into finding all kinds of information for jewelry photography and retouching. It will mainly be pictures of rings from above onto a white surface and my own experience you more or less see below so that helps and this time I have a much greater starting point although this guy, the designer is extremely picky – I saw some shots taken by another photographer for him, and really nice shots I might add but he was not satisfied with reflections and colors and of course wants me to perform much better.
So hopefully in the coming days I might be able to show you a thing or two from what I learn – and if you have any good pointers and ideas then please share! :) Both links, text and pictures in the comments field are welcome!
And finally here I open up my mailbox only to find 452 unread e-mail messages! aaaa.. some spam but many valid ones. :) Anyways, I’ve seen lots of comments and I will go thru them too! :)
Those fire shots from a couple of days ago made me wanna try SPP 3.3 again and I realize that I should try it much more in the future. Above shots are developed using SPP33 too even though I’m not sure it would differ that much from SPP4.1..
It’s also interesting to note that it’s the same light – well, more or less the same exposure too just a few minutes apart but I played differently with white balance in SPP. Which do you prefer?
Lots of new shots taken mostly with DP2 at my China 2010 set at flickr.
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