The other way to remove tourists from your shots

Hey guys,

As promised here is the other way (actually one other way there are others) to removed undesired tourists from your vacation shots.

For that you are going to have to use a bit of photoshop.

I am not going to go to much into the details as you can learn more about it here (the video is very interesting but if you want to see just the part about tourist removal you can jump to 49 min)

But the idea is to take a series of shot without moving, waiting for tourists to move like this

Then open the photos as layers in photoshop (meaning they are on top of each other), auto align them and then mask away the tourists using the clean portions of each layer.

In the end you get something like this:

The secret to this is simple, the more you wait the easier your job will be.

So next time you are on vacation somewhere, be patient and take multiple shots of places ! You'll end up with the perfect "tourist free" shot!

Jeremy

Another cool headshot for a friend

Hi everyone,

It looks like headshots might become a real thing for me now. A friend of mine needed a new one for a role he is trying to get and so we setup a time early his week to shoot.

This was a good occasion for me to test out the Sony A7 in real conditions as well as practise my skills in lighting.

Now, I am not someone who shoots a lot, for example this photoshoot was only 38 shots. Out of it, my friend picked 10 (hey 1/3 ratio is not too bad!)  that he liked and one that was the clear winner.

From then a bit of post processing and here is the result:

I used my trusty Vivitar 135mm f2.8 for this shot. I had one main light at full power on his right side and a second light for filling the shadows at 1/5 of the power.

The great thing about shooting men is that retouching in generally easier than with women. The skin texture is expected to be rougher and veins actually give character to the person.

All in all a good experience for me, I am really happy with the results and the A7 did the job perfectly. It looks like I will have to add a new section for headshots in my portfolio.

Don't hesitate to shoot me a comment if you need to update your profile or resume picture as well!

Jeremy

Spring is here, get your camera out!

Hola hola,

Don't know about you, but I love spring. Whereas in most cities I've lived in, it meant the sun is coming back, here in LA it a little bit the opposite, we get a bit more rain than usual. However the cool thing is that most of it happens at night and we still get beautiful sunny days as usual. They are just a bit colder, which allows the vegetation to grow back before the burning summer.

So wherever you are, take this opportunity to get out and take some cool photos. 

Jeremy

Why every new aspiring photographer should consider mirrorless cameras

Hi everyone,

today is gear advice day on the blog. I get a lot of requests from friends asking me what gear they should by to start in photography. 

Like mot people, they are considering DSLRs as their first buying option. After all if it looks professional it must take good photos right?

Let's go over the basics here and I will tell you why DSLRs are not necessarily a good thing for you  and why mirrorless cameras probably have what you need.

First let's be clear, the camera is not taking the photo, YOU are. A camera is just a tool. And in today's age any camera can take a good picture if the photographers knows what he is doing. Saying "your camera takes beautiful pictures" is like saying "your paint brush does beautiful paintings" or "your guitar plays beautiful songs". Your camera is only doing what you ask it to do.

Does this mean a better camera won't take better pictures?

Of course not. With a better camera you can take better pictures. Extremes conditions (low light, sports...) become possible/easier with better cameras.

But that's not all.

Most people think they have to buy a big heavy DSLR to take better pictures, this was actually my first mistake in photography. I bought a Canon Rebel T2 (Kiss x3 or 500D). While i loved it at the time, i quickly realized that it was simply too big for me to take it all the time. And it got worse and worse... in the end I was never taking it with me and I was taking pictures with my iphone instead. What a shame!

Then I discovered mirrorless cameras. They are simply DSLRs without a mirror... brilliant! It means you get DSLR quality, without the size and weight. (because the mirror takes some space to flip up and down)

Here is a comparison between my old 500D (actually the 550d but it is the same size) and my current NEX-6. It is half of the size! And the pictures quality is exactly the same if not better.

Trust me on that one, the best camera is the one you can take with you all the time. So if you are just starting in photography, no need to go for big bulky DSLRs. Save this for when you decide to become pro and you will have very specific needs (even though a lot of pros are also going for mirrorless cameras these days,  see Trey Ratcliff, Zack Arias or Frank Doorhof)

Anyway, after all this blabla here are a few recommendations for people just starting out in photography.

These are all good step-up from point and shoot or phone cameras and any of this can take amazing pictures. I am trying to keep the budget below $500.

Sony NEX-3N

Probably the best value camera on the market right now. The sensor in this thing is the same as most amateur DSLR and at this price point there is simply no argument against it.

Fujifilm X-A1

The fujifim equivalent. A bit more expensive but they have a good choice of lenses of very high quality. The Image quality you can get from this Fuji camera is really cool.

Sony Alpha 5000

A higher end model, a bit more pixel and more refined features.

Of course ou don't have to start with a Sony camera, the other big system in mirrorless world today is called Micro four thirds or m43. The gret thing about this system is the number of lenses available, it is simply incredible! However the sensors are a bit smaller so image quality is a bit inferior to the bigger sensors above, most noticeably in low light. But don't be scared , these are still excellent contenders and they are most of the time even smaller than the one above.

The only drawback of m43 is that the good entry level models seem to be a bit more expensive than the cameras mentionned above.

Here are 2 good ones

Olympus OM-D-EM10

Amazing little camera that looks like an old school SLR. You can adapt a lot of old lenses on this and it has in body image stabilization to help in the process

Panasonic GM1

So compact that is looks like a point and shoot, but underneath the hood it is a small powerhouse.

To finish, I am going to tell you about another big advantage of mirrorless cameras (any mirrorless). I briefly mentioned it in the OM-D Em10 section above but, because these cameras do not have a mirror, the distance between the sensor and the back of the lens is very short. This  means that by just buying very inexpensive ring adapters you can put any lens on these. These are almost universal! The only catch is that a lens with an adapter generally becomes entirely manual (focus and aperture control), but you can get really cool old lenses for a very good price this way. I'll demonstrate this in future articles .

Here is for example a Canon FD lens on my Sony NEX-6 camera:

On this picture, the first silver ring is the camera original E-mount. The black ring adapter sits between the lens silver ring and the camera silver ring.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions on these cameras, I'll be happy to help you out!

Jeremy