Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso400 - f6.3 - 3.2sec


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso400 - f5.6 - 1.3sec

Some night shots at Royal Palms Estate, Mumbai, India taken in March 2008. In that “satellite city in the jungle” photography is not allowed. I managed to shoot for half an hour, before some guards came on a motorcycle and asked me to stop. One thing often helps in India with these problems, you immediately switch to your mother language... dann versteht man dich nicht mehr, man selber spielt den Unwissenden, der die anderen nicht versteht... und mit etwas Glück löst sich das Problem durch gehörige Entnervung des Gegenübers.

Tags: india, dark

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 16-35mm 1:2.8L II USM - iso400 - f8.0 - 25sec

I love darkness. This one a 25 sec. exposure of the ocean waves coming and going between the rocks in Goa, India in March 2008. Note the spooky guy on the left. As it was almost pitch black, I couldn´t see him, he must have stood still for the whole exposure, probably a fisherman...

Tags: india, goa, dark, beach

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM - iso3200 - f3.2 - 1/60

Great weather and great football... I admit, that I am not really a football fan, but European championships or World cups get even my interest. Watching an exciting match together with friends at a nearby pub or a public viewing area is great fun.
And another welcome opportunity to shoot some pictures. Technically another test for the low light capabilities of a 1Ds Mk III with the EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM and a 5D with the EF 16-35mm 1:2.8L II USM. Gave me enough sensitivity to capture under street light conditions at ISO 1600 and 3200. I don´t like changing lenses, while I am standing on a wobbly table amongst thousands of crazy football fans, who don´t hesitate to give you showers with beer and sparkling wine, so I shot also with two cameras. The results are quite usable, even for printing. While a Nikon D3 would have given roughly another 2 stops of usable low light sensitivity with low noise, the Canons still produce very good results under these conditions. And I really like the 5616 x 3744 pixels of the 1Ds Mk III. As high resolution with great image quality at low ISO is an indispensable assett for my kind of “visual effects photography” for commercial and feature film shootings, I chose the Canon over the Nikon D3. Still everytime the daylight is fading, I wish I had one...
And by the way, Germany is in the finale.


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM -
iso3200 - f4.0 - 1/25

Yes, there is no football without beer in Germany. Especially in Bavaria...
Some of the pictures got some flash fill from the 580 EX II, while the rest is available light and I preserved the orange mood of the street lamps in Lightroom.


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM - iso3200 - f4.0 - 1/100

Interestingly this one (aswell as the title photo) is lit by the flash of another photographer, makes me wonder about the probability of catching another photographer`s flash in a 1/100 second...


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 16-35mm 1:2.8L II USM - iso3200 - f4.0 - 1/20

Hmm... is this guy selling beer to the police?

The complete album can be seen here: euro 2008

Tags: euro 2008, munich, football

What should one do with some old slide-scans of cheesy sundowners at the ocean...
One might say, you shouldn´t have taken the picture in the first place, but then, when you are at that beach you probably don´t feel cheesy about the view at all.
Thanks to the digital darkroom that can be fixed.
The images have been taken with my old trusty Canon EOS 650, the first serious of EOS cameras from 1987, which still just needs a fresh battery and a some film to work beautifully. I can still use my old lenses from that decade directly with my digital EOS bodies, don´t know of many technologies, which can provide that. Still I won´t switch back to film shooting at all, digital 35 is so much more enjoyable, has better image quality and you have the direct and full control in camera and in your computer.


Canon EOS-650


Canon EOS-650


Canon EOS-650

Tags: new zealand

Canon EOS-20D - 28-70mm - iso3200 - f3.2 - 1/40

C41-E6 cross processing. Cross-processing is a technique used in analog photography where C-41 print film is processed in chemicals, that you use for the processing of E-6 slide film, or vice versa. Nowadays these effects can be easily achieved with certain Photoshop filters. I used the PixelGenius PhotoKit Color 2.0 with the C41-E6 yellow settings (they had been converted from color to black and white before). This way you can sometimes “save the image” by adding an interesting effect (nothing out of the fancy spectrum, which burns your eyes...). The images below all suffer from technical deficiencies: due to poor low light capabilities of the used camera and lens and a rolling and shaking train as the shooting platform, sharpness, detail and noise are way on the bad side. But with some enhancement in Lightroom/Photoshop, they reveal the mood of taking a train ride in Mumbai, India. That´s where people stand in the open door frames and even on top of the carriages during rush hours.


Canon EOS-20D - 28-70mm - iso3200 - f4.0 - 1/60


Canon EOS-20D - 28-70mm - iso3200 - f4.0 - 1/60


Canon EOS-20D - 28-70mm - iso1600 - f3.5 - 1/60

Tags: india, mumbai, cross processing

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4.0L IS USM -
iso400 - f5.6 - 1/125


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4.0L IS USM - iso400 - f5.6 - 1/200

There is some barrel distortion when the 24-105 is shot at the wide end, but a big part of it is “natural”: most of the beautiful houses in Goa haven´t seen a straight line, when they were built.


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4.0L IS USM - iso200 - f8.0 - 1/1250

Tags: goa, india

Some abstract images, playing with smooth color and composition.
Also shot in Goa, India.


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM -
iso800 - f5.0 - 1/160


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM -
iso800 - f7.1 - 1/200


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM -
iso200 - f5.0 - 1/1600

Tags: goa, india, beach, abstract

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM -
iso200 - f8.0 - 1/4000

After a year working in Mumbai, in April 2008 I took the opportunity to relax a few days in Goa, together with a director and friend of mine. We stayed in Calangute, a very nice “hippie” part of Goa. See the full album here: goa.


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM -
iso400 - f6.3 - 1/800


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM - iso800 - f7.1 - 1/1000

Tags: india, beach, goa

Canon EOS-20D - 28-70mm - iso100 - f5.0 - 1/800

Finally after some sleepless nights of webpage design, www.grobe-bilder.com is online.
I will post all sorts of photographies, either related to my profession as a VFX Supervisor for feature films and commercials or my personal joy to capture the moment.
Photography is one of my great interests since I was a child and I got my first camera from my father, a Rollei 35. Professionally I use (nowadays digital) camera as tools to gather information for VFX (visual effects) post production, like high dynamic range (HDR) environments or reference and texture images.
Some advise on equipment, techniques and workflows will follow. So I hope you enjoy the pictures and maybe get some ideas about visual effects and photography.
The site is still under construction, only roughly done and will get a few updates and obviously more pictures, which need further preparation before publishing.