ProPixel Photography » Nikon

Rainy day = Studio time!

Herson — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:33:34 +0000

Keith Lyles

I guess the rain was good after all. It allowed me to get this amazing shot at today’s photo shoot. This was shot with a Nikon D300 and a 17-55 2.8 @ 5.6, Alien Bee – 800 as my main light camera right and an SB-800 for the backdrop.

-H

D3X finally announced…officially that is.

Herson — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:01:00 +0000

Nikon officially announced the D3X after being miss-announced a couple of days ago by Nikon Pro Mag in Europe.

Well, it’s finally here but, Nikon decided to let it go for $8,000 or $7,999.95 to be exact. ARE YOU KIDDING!? I don’t even think Donald Trump would pay $8k’s for a camera. After all, it’s just a D3 with more resolution and slower frame rate. Pretty much. It even has the same body. You probably need this if you’re a fashion photographer or something like that working for some big company or magazine. And then again, you don’t even need that much resolution to do a magazine shoot which is not bigger than 8×11 INCHES! My point is, I don’t see an average Joe buying this camera just because he’s shooting a couple of weddings next year. Nikon needs to understand this and drop the price because if they do drop the price, more people will buy this. In the mean time, just get a D3 or a D700 if you want Nikon’s best.

-H

Ooops… Did anybody say D3X?

Herson — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:35:00 +0000

The long awaited Nikon D3X has been announced “accidentally” by european Nikon Pro Magazine before Nikon’s “official announcement”. You can see the detailed images and text straight from the magazine HERE.
Nikon’s news still has nothing on their website though. Now that the big X secret is out there, the only thing we need is price and release date. Ohh, and patience. =)

-H

Tools of the trade…

Herson — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:46:00 +0000

I’m always being asked what kind of software I use to edit my photos so I decided to post it here.
Well here it goes; I use Adobe Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop CS3 (recently upgraded to CS4).

I just started using Lightroom 2 because it helps me organize all my photos through catalogs and creates the most important thing…………BACKUPS. I usually make all the exposure, color and white balance corrections in Lightroom and then export to Photoshop to do all the heavy post processing.
I shoot weddings and models, so I’m always shooting RAW. That way I can get more out of my photos when post processing, especially those fancy fashion shots and Lightroom allows me to make those corrections through it’s amazing camera raw processor.
All my work is done with either a 24″ iMac or a MacBook. I know you’ve probably heard this millions of times but I have to say it because it’s the truth…………….Macs are great for this stuff! They allow me to do everything fast, easier and better and the amazing HD monitors are a plus of course.

Well there you have it. Now you know a bit more about me.

See ya soon!

-H

Fun Day

Herson — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:46:00 +0000

I’m not always shooting weddings and/or models. I like to have a variety to keep my skills up to date. So I went out with the guys for a shoot today and decided to bring my Nikon strobes. I was able to get awesome results with three Nikon SB-800′s.
I shot @ ISO400, 1/1250 to darken the sky and the strobes we’re doing their job @ full power. I set my aperture to f/4 and went at it. After messing with my exposure for a couple of times, I ended up with what I wanted. Dark skies for a dramatic effect and a well lit subject. I didn’t have any kind of light modifier. Strobes were shot bare and I used Nikon’s CLS to fire the strobes. Enjoy!

P.S.
Flickr is not working for me today so I had to use Photobucket. :S

-Herson

DIY Ring Flash

Herson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:45:00 +0000

This was my first time doing something like this and I got to tell you it feels good. Good because instead of buying a $400 Ring Flash, I came up with one for only $19.26. That’s right! I ended up going to Lowe’s and grabbed everything I needed for my DIY Ring Flash. Here’s the list:

– Plastic terra-cotta planter
– Two 3″ PVC couplings
– Glue
– Metal tape
– Black spray paint

Also used some cardboard from a diaper box I had at home (thanks to my son for pooping so much ) and went to Michael’s to get some translucent paper. (scrap book section FYI)
The whole thing took me about 1 1/2 hours to complete and the results were amazing. It requires some cutting so careful out there with that razor blade. You want to finish the project with all your piggies still attached to your hands.
I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures of the entire process. Yes, MY BAD. But if you have any questions shoot it over and I’ll try my best to answer it ASAP.

Thanks for looking!

-Herson
www.propixelphotography.com