Reverse lens macro technique

Wish you can shoot macro with your brand new DSLR but haven’t had a macro lens yet? 
I found a video for you showing how you can do it with you regular lens.
IMPORTANT! For safety reason — safety for both the lens and camera body — don’t try reverse lens macro if you don’t have a sturdy adapter to mount the lens on the camera body.

Animated Gif from the previous post

I took the frames from the previous post and made a simple gif animation

click to view (2MB)

8fps

Location: Akka (Acre)

This is how fast the canon 7d can shoot.
8 frames per second

Family trip - Afek - 23-10-2010

Saturday,
Great weather for walking trip.
My father suggested to take us to "Afek Park" near Haifa.

Here are some pictures

Panasonic unveils DMC-ZS7 / TZ10 with built-in GPS

Panasonic has unveiled the Lumix DMC-ZS7 compact superzoom (TZ10 outside the US) with GPS that geo-tags and identifies over half a million locations. The latest in the popular TZ7, TZ5, TZ3 series, it also gains the company's 'Power O.I.S' image stabilization system, claimed to be twice as effective as on the old model. Full P/A/S/M control modes increase its photographer appeal, while the brightness and saturation optimizing 'Happy Mode' helps boost its point-and-shoot potential. The improved Venus Engine HDII processor offers differential image processing based on image content. AVCHD movie recording, SDXC support, high-res 3" display and 12x optical zoom (25-300 mm equiv.) help fill-out the list of goodies.

Read More (dpreview)

Canon offers EOS 7D Firmware Update V.1.2.2

Good news,
Canon has released a new firmware that fixes those issues:

1. Fixes a phenomenon in which the set aperture moves when shooting movies in manual exposure mode using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
2. Fixes the AF point-selection behavior of the C.Fn III-7 (Manual AF pt. selec. pattern) custom function when set to [1].
3. Fixes the AF point display for the viewfinder electronic level when shooting in the vertical position.
4. Corrects misspellings in the Spanish and Thai menus for applicable products.

download

50 Incredible Photography Techniques and Tutorials

I found these incredible techniques in "Smashing Magazine" and thought about sharing.
The techniques that the article talks about are:

1. High speed photography
2. Tilt-shift photography
3. Black & white
4. Motion blur
5. Infrared
6. Night photography
7. Smoke art
8. Macro
9. HDR
10. Raw Processing
11. Panoramic photography
12. Special issues

Read more
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Limassol, Cyprus 2010, A weekend with the office

On 12/5 we went to a nice weekend to Limassol, and had a great time at the hotel and parties at night.

HDR - Berlin 2010

These are HDR pictures that i took in Berlin, Germany

Testing light painting

After reading few tutorials about light painting i decided to try it out.
I wrote my wife's name (Hiam), and tried to make a spiral. It wasn't hard.
The Camera must be on bulb, better with tripod (I didn't use one, just put the camera on table).

try it yourself its fun.
I'll post some better pictures later on

Light Painting Tutorial

ainting with light is a fun technique that gives great results. It is called painting with light because this is what you are actually doing while taking the shot - painting with light.

You don't need much to experiment with this kind of shot, just make sure you have the following items:

1. A camera capable of long exposures - film cameras will work OK, but if you really want to get the most out of the shooting session, use a digital camera. You will be able to see the results in "real time" and make corrections as you go.

2. A nice tripod. Since you will be doing some long exposures you want to make sure your camera sits still. If you don't have a tripod you can make one in a few minutes (seethis article or this one).

3. A flash light - and by flash light I do not mean flash as in a speedlight, but the flash light or what our British will call a torch.

4. A dark location. This one is tricky. If you are going to shot at home - a dark room will be OK. If you are going to shoot outside - make sure that you are not doing this under a street light, or where a car can come by and "paint its headlight" all over your shot.

Here is how it's done:

Set your camera on the tripod and take a sample shot with flash / lights on. This will help you verify that your composition is OK.

Set the exposure to a relatively long value. Stop down the aperture as much as you need. If you are outside do nothing. If you are inside - this is the time to turn off the lights.

Make the click. Once the shutter is open use your flashlight to light the stuff that you want to "paint". You can use the flashlight as a brash, and "smear" the light, just like you would have done with brush and paper. Or, you can use the light as a pen, and do precise work. Areas where you go slowly will be more lit then others. Be careful not to linger to much over the same stop - you will burn it. (The machos amongst you will correctly identify this as the "I forgot the iron on the shirt" phenomena).

Once the shutter closes, you are a free person again. Inspect your image and make corrections.

Here are some great ideas to use this technique with:

Product like shot - In a closed (dark) room place your product on a table and paint it's contour. You can use several colors to make a strong effect or to draw different (even imaginary) parts of your object.

Location shot - find a location with some ambient light. Find an object that is less "hit" by that light. now you can use the ambient light to capture the background, while painting the object with light. You will get a nice effect - with some surreal foreground and a "normal" background. Also the white balance will be different on ambient and painted - another cool side affect.


Environmental Graffiti - If you are shooting a wall (or even on thin air...), you can scribe on the wall. Make funny graffiti; Write huge love notes; Make a political statement - there will be no trace left other then the one on your memory card.

HDR test

After reading few tutorials about the HDR photography style, I decided to try it out.
I will try later to take a better pictures and composition.
these are only testing pictures.
The technique is to take 3 pictures from each frame. one with exposure +2, one with -2 and 0. then merge the 3 frames with photoshop or photomatix pro (or any other HDR software)

EV 0

EV +2

EV -2

HDR

Saturday at the beach

Its always fun to take picture at the beach
1. The car and wife :)
2. Surfer in actions
3. Watching the waves

canon 7d firmware update

What has been changed in Firmware Version 1.1.0?

The following improvement has been incorporated.

1. Corrects a phenomenon that in images captured by continuous shooting, and under certain conditions, barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame may be visible.
This phenomenon is not noticeable in an image with optimal exposure. The phenomenon may become more noticeable if a retouching process such as level compensation is applied to emphasize the image.

Are the previous versions of firmware included in version 1.1.0?

Yes, the following improvements from the previous version are included:

(Previous) Version 1.0.9 improvements:

Firmware Version 1.0.9 includes the following fixes:

1. Improves AF accuracy during Live View shooting.
This firmware improves the AF accuracy of the AF mode, Live mode, and Face detection Live mode during Live View shooting.
2. Corrects a phenomenon where in rare instances, movie images shot by the camera may exhibit abnormal colors.
3. Corrects a phenomenon that at certain timings, the shutter cannot be released when the camera's built-in flash or an external Speedlite is used for shooting.
This firmware corrects a phenomenon that in rare instances, the shutter cannot be released after the AF assist beam fires when the camera's built-in flash or an external Speedlite is used for shooting. Firmware Version 1.0.8 or later addresses this phenomenon.

How do I check the camera's current firmware version number?

Turn the Power Switch , and press the

button to display the menu. Turn the Main Dial and the Quick Control Dial, and you will see the "Firmware Ver.X.X.X" at the end of the settings shown in "Set-up 3 (Yellow)", which is the currently installed firmware version number.
Note: Select
mode (or any mode other than Fully-Automatic Modes). The version of the firmware will not appear in the Fully-Automatic Modes.

How do I update the firmware?

These are two ways to update the camera's firmware.

1. Download the firmware file from this web site and install the update as shown in the updating procedure.
2. Bring the camera to a Canon Customer Support Center and have the firmware updated by the center.

If you choose this method, contact a Canon Customer Support Center in your region.

Do I need any special equipment to update the firmware?

The equipment required is as follows.
(1) Battery Pack LP-E6 (The battery pack must be fully charged.) or AC Adapter Kit ACK-E6 (Optional)
(2) CF card (64MB or more, 32GB or less)

How do I copy the downloaded firmware file to the CF card?

Two methods of copying the downloaded firmware file are provided.

1. If you have an CF card reader, please copy the firmware file to the CF card via the CF card reader.
2. Connect the camera to a personal computer with a USB cable and copy the firmware file to the CF card in the camera. Please use the EOS Utility application bundled with the camera to copy the file.

Where to download

Click here to download the new firmware

HDR Photography using Photomatix Pro - by Honez

Great tutorial for HDR photography

Read at www.geofflawrence.com

Neighborhood cat

Lovely neighborhood cat that visits us almost everyday ...

She cooked :) My wife cooked !

Hiam had a day of and she decided to make a thai food for us.
Yummmmy :)

A friend opened a new store

Ameer and Maha opened a new store in Haifa last week, we went to congratulate them. (Mabrouq)

Ameer & the whiskey (Black Label) 

Ameer and his son

Hot Day

Today was a very hot day here in Haifa..

We went to the beach and it was full of people..

I took few pictures and decided to share, What we see through our sunglasses?

My wife ... she can definitely see me :)

Tony, watching the beach

Just a palm

13-02-2010 - Kfar Hasidim

Trip with my wife's parents and sister to kfar hasidim.

Jizel

Trip to the snowed Golan with friends 06-02-2010

Few days before the trip we've heard at the news that there is a lot of snow on the Golan's mountains, It is 2 hours drive from Haifa (my town).
We planed to go for a one day trip to check it out .. and we had a lot of fun.
Joule and his wife Souzan, Gaby and Jizel, Me and Hiam woke up early and head the road.

Joule Taking some photos

On our way to the far snow

We are close

Waiting for the snow ball

Gaby And Jizel

Me and My Wife

Hiam was hit

I was hit

HDR - High Dynamic Range Imaging

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.^[1]

The two main sources of HDR imagery are computer renderings and merging of multiple photographs, which in turn are known as low dynamic range (LDR)^[2] (also called standard dynamic range (SDR)^[3]) photographs.

Tone mapping techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect.

For More Click Here (Wiki)

For Tutorial Click Here

Pictures

Saturday 30-1-2010

Lovely barbecue with my wife's family