What is your fun side of photography?

[gordo]

I wouldnt go so far as to say its a fun winter task, but I am trying to get over the dreaded procrastination and get cracking on digitizing the families analog photo collections, stemming back to somewhere around the early 1900s.

All sorts of work in regards of slides, negatives, direct copying from glued in albums etcetera, etcetera.
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I've been slowly working on the same thing, after Dad and Mom had passed I came into possession of all the slides, photos, and negatives. In addition to 21 years of my own. And hundreds of pounds of papers I need to go through, and scan stuff that might be important for the genealogy project. I've already done a lot of the photo stuff, have even more left to do before getting to the papers.

Not sure about you, but once I get rolling it feels good getting things done.

edit to fix some grammar

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

So I received yesterday the 2 LED lights and only one of the 3 GorillaPods (which is odd, they should all have arrived on the same day, but anywho). Today I did a little portrait test with them. I put my Sony a7R II with the Tokina atx-m 85mm f 1.8 on the GorillaPod Mini, which is rated at 500 grams capacity, of course, it was twisting but I managed to find a position where it was happy. (I have tested the mini tripod with both lights and it's more than happy to twist in any position like The Twisted Sister in the middle of a metal concert). I put the Ulanzi VL49 light on top of the camera hot shoe and blasted max light on the warmest setting about 3 meters away from me.

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(PS. Some moaning and b*$%ing to Sony, why can't they make a simple built-in system of WiFi communication with the phone app for remote viewing and control, took me half an hour to find it, download it, set it up, connect it and figure out the settings to control the camera. Also, the autofocus is so annoying and inaccurate half of my images were out of focus, for solo usage this is very annoying not to have accurate Eye Detection and Tracking.)

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Behind me I have a shelving unite and I put the Ulanzi 96 LED light with the warm filter panel on and max power to give my hair a highlight and definition. I did move around the light a little bit to find the right composition. I had some extra light on my light side from the window and I did, eventually, turned my living room lights on (3 sets of smart lights, one on the left side and one on the right side of the room) with the warmest setting and highest brightness.

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Here's some of the result:

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I had a very good hair day today so I wanted to try some "selfies" and play with the lights (it's hard to get my hair to "play" nicely as it usually gets greasy in about half a day, but on a good day it is fluffy and curls quicker then the British Olympic Curling team ... what do you mean it's not the same thing? ) I found the light to be a bit too low behind me. Also, the damn camera focused on my eyebrows instead of my eyes ... and I don't even have a Spock level of eyebrows.

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I move the light a bit higher, just put it on a box, and it looks quite a lot better. Now it's a good time to b*"$h and moan again at Sony, WHY AM I GETTING JPEGS when using the remote capabilities of the phone app when my camera is clearly set to RAW only? I only noticed this when I imported the image and my White Balance was very well balancing between Auto and As Shot options only, the lens profile was gone-er than Gone in 60 Seconds. Had to pull the exposure quite a bit because I was exposing it for RAW recovery so I got a sprinkle of noise in the image as well.

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This was the "final" image that I was happy with in terms of highlights on the hair from the LED light in the back. And the autofocus actually focused on my eye for once ... an eye for an eye I guess?

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I got in closer, about 1.5 meters away, but now it was a struggle to get the focal plane to cover both my eyes. Still learning what 85mm f 1.8 really means. I miss my big beard... without it, I look like I have more chins than China Town.

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Little Legs joined in the experiment and was happy to give me a cuddle ... despite my failure to get both of us in focus, even at f 8.

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And the camera's struggle to find focus was as painful as getting a haircut by stumbling under a running lawnmower.

The in-focus rate is lower than my budget for a Sony A1.

If anyone is interested I can make mini reviews for the Ulanzi lights, I find them quite awesome for the tiny little price and size they have:

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The Ulanzi VL49 RGB has full RGB control, it came with a cute and useful carrying case and USB C charging capability and cable.

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The Ulanzi 96 LED is larger (49 lights vs 96) and has only 2 colour capabilities, white and yellow by magnetic clips and has 2 ways of charging, AA or it comes with a VERY WEIRD Nokia battery inside that charges via Micro B cable.

 

[rayvonn]

So, to use one of my mum's sayings, you're "swinging into action".

 

[gordo]

Lights look like they'll do the job.

Hair. Ack. Too much here and about and too thick and bristly, not enough up there and way too thin and wispy. I just keep it stubbled.

 

[camprl1]

I have hard months coming ahead. Working over 250 hours this month and next month I won't have time to go out or take advantage of late sunrises and early sunsets. I am hoping to build a mini macro Studio with wooden frames from a pallet and cover them with velvet blanket on own side to absorbe light and white sheet on the other side to act as a light defuser.
To help with that I just bought 3 mini tripods and I chose the flexible GorillaPods because they are very easy to manipulate and get different angles for the lights and because I fou d them dirt cheap at CEX.
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For lights I found very cheap Ulanzi LED lights that have white and warm options, the RGB one has selectable color spectrum (if I want to go more creative and artsy), the 96 model runs on 4x AA batteries (which I have loads of rechargeables) and VL49 has internal battery and can be powered by USB C (sweet for travel and at home).

I'm hoping that, for now, I can make due with 2 lights setup but I have desk lamps and flashlights I can add to the setup.
I will dedicate 1/3rd of my desk as a permanent set for the winter. I am looking forward to trying different rocks and minerals, mushrooms, flowers, objects to photograph. Might try a stab at water drops but I will need a dedicated flash for that (don't know if I can afford one). I would be very excited to try colouring the water for some interesting landscapes.

One issue I will have to address is if I need a macro lens or if I can get away with my Tamron 28-75mm f 2.8 G2. Or if I can add the Raynox DC-250 or an Apocromatic Close Up lens as a cheaper option.
The cheapest macro lens I can get is the Minolta AF 50mm f 2.8 Macro at 68 £ but it's not cheap to get a A Mount to Sony E Mount adapter that has electronic contacts to be able to close down the aperture. The Sony LA-EA3 used is 100 £ so I would need a minimum of 170 £.

You might also consider an older manual focus macro lens. Because I started photography with a couple of Minolta cameras (XG-M and XD-11) when I bought my Fuji X-A1 I bought a Fotodiox MD-X adapter and later found a Minolta Rokkor 50mm macro lens for about $50(CDN). Another frequently recommended option would be an older Micro Nikkor 50mm.