india
bejeweled
27/09/2008 03:00 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-5D - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - is3200 - f/4 - 1/50
Close relatives bejewel the bride during the engagement ceremony in a composition of colors, henna and jewelry.
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indian wedding
18/09/2008 14:46 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-5D - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - is1600 - f/4 - 1/30
Canon EOS-5D - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - is1600 - f/6.3 - 1/30
Canon EOS-5D - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - is1600 - f/4 - 1/640
During my stay in India, I had the pleasure to attend an Indian engagement and wedding ceremony. Spanning over 3 days, the celebrations differ quite a bit from our european weddings. Always remembered will be the groom traditionally riding on a white horse to the wedding venue, where the bride and her guests wait. We have stuff like that only in fairy tales... The groom’s family and guests join the procession, dancing to the tunes of a “louder than everything else big band”.
You get to see the women dressed in colorful sarees and their hands and arms painted with henna. The men dressed in stylish Indian clothing, if they avoided the kind of standard business suits, that look the same all around the world.
hippies hate water
06/09/2008 06:29 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM - iso800 - f/7.1 - 1/4000
The Hippie-Trails to India still seem to be alive, or some of the species have survived in Goa since the 60´s and 70´s...
The image shows some grainy noise, which can easily be explained. It is a 1700 x 1700 pixel crop of a 5624 x 3736 pixel file shot at iso 800, showing the amazing detail captured, but obviously emphasizing the inherent noise.
the kids of rajasthan
29/08/2008 03:34 Filed in: photos
take off
23/08/2008 03:17 Filed in: photos | techniques
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM -
iso400 - f/5.0 - 1/6400 - HDR composite of 3 exposures
To get the detail in the clouds and the shaded underside of the lantern, a HDR capture was necessary. 3 shots (-1.3 ev, 0 ev, +1.3 ev) were merged in Photomatix. As a fast moving object, the bird was only in the first exposure (0 ev), so that guy is technically LDR (low dynamic range), only the background and the lantern are merged. I had to wait a while and shoot a few times, to get this one. Birds tend to do what they want, not what the photographer would love them to do...
bombay boys
22/08/2008 03:43 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f8 - 1/160
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f8 - 1/200
Guys having fun and showing off after the celebration of Holi. Whenever you show a camera, there are different reactions around the world, but in Mumbai you always find a group, who wants to pose for a picture.
sandy feet
15/08/2008 15:00 Filed in: photos
bollywood sleeps
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso100 - f8 - 30sec
Film City - a large studio complex in the hub of the indian film industry: Bollywood in Mumbai. The state government has built Film City at the outskirts of the National Park, Goregaon, where leopards, tigers and snakes call the shots. I took the shot from the rooftop of a 22-story apartment building, just before dawn. Luckily the guard at the entrance was sleeping, when I entered around 4 am, so no questions, what I would want on the roof in the middle of the night. It was a great experience to witness dawn over Mumbai from that height. Just had to stay in the middle of the roof, as there were no railings to keep me from a final flight...
The next image is a HDR (high dynamic range) composition of 3 single shots. I used Photomatix for the exposure blending to get all the fine detail in the shadows as well as in the highlights and the sky. The exposures were taken at -1.3ev, 0ev, +1.3ev. Sometimes a range like -2,0,+2 or even wider is better, that depends on the dynamic range, that a given scenery presents to your camera. For professional work on a movie set, I normally shoot 5 exposures from -4,-2,0,+2,+4 ev, or even 7 from -6 to +6 ev, that gives enough dynamic range in most situations for real HDR image based lighting in 3D computer graphics. For pure artistic photography, that dynamic range is in most cases over the top and produces a lot of data (the 21mp raw files of the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III are around 25 mb each). If the scenery presents an extreme range from shadows to highlights, one should measure the dynamic range using a spotmeter, then bracket the exposures accordingly. It doesn´t hurt too much, to have more exposures than necessary, but it definitely hurts, if you didn´t capture the necessary range and find that out back home after the shoot...
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f8 - 2,5sec -
HDR exposure blending of 3 shots
togetherness
11/08/2008 05:41 Filed in: photos
the tree and the lamp
11/08/2008 05:14 Filed in: photos
holi - festival of colors
10/08/2008 12:09 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso400 - f4.5 - 1/2
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f8.0 - 1/200
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f8.0 - 1/200
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso1600 - f4.0 - 1/30
Holi - the festival of colors. A spring festival in February or March (this year it coincided with Easter) celebrated all over India. On the first day bonfires are lit to burn the demoness Holika, on the second people start early in the morning to throw colors in each others faces. That means dry color powder as well as liquid water colors. Children use balloons, water guns and their fathers don´t hesitate to pour full buckets over each others heads. As much as I would have loved to shoot right where the action is, I had no water proof housing for my camera and on the first night already a ballon full of liquid color missed my camera by only a few inches to explode on my chest. The camera is weather sealed, but you really don´t want liquid red color on your camera body and lenses... So next day I chose to wait inside, till the action is over and explore the aftermath in the afternoon. That little dog would be clean again after a few days I was assured, like the kids, who had fun with him...
faces of rajasthan
05/08/2008 05:19 Filed in: photos
the eagle has landed
30/07/2008 15:55 Filed in: photos
the colors of rajasthan
29/07/2008 13:29 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-20D - 28-70mm - iso400 - f11 - 1/750
Canon EOS-20D - 28-70mm - iso200 - f4 - 1/500
Canon EOS-20D - 28-70mm - iso400 - f11 - 1/500
In late 2007 we went to a small town in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a salt desert in Rajasthan, for the shooting of a Bollywood movie. It was a great experience, to be in this world of colors and textures, would have loved to stay there for a couple of days longer to have more time for photography. It seemed as if I had been the first european guy there, at least it felt like that to me. It was sometimes quite tricky to take pictures without someone in front of the camera, a few guys were quite keen to be on every photograph. So they constantly moved into frame with a smile...
It is a different and beautiful world out there, if you have the chance, go off the usual tourist track and explore the real beauty of India.
synchronicity
26/07/2008 13:45 Filed in: photos
parallelism
26/07/2008 00:35 Filed in: photos | techniques
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM - iso400 - f3.5 - 1/1600
This photo of a series had to be taken silently without the attention of the subject, otherwise the opportunity for this shot would have been destroyed. So the camera (EOS-1Ds Mark III) with the EF 70-200mm attached rested on my knees, while I was sitting. Zoomed to almost 200mm, live view enabled me to focus manually to precisly focus the shoe, the aperture wide open limited depth of field. Using autofocus would have had a great chance of missing the exact focus. It takes some practice to shoot hand-held with live view at 10x magnification for focussing, especially on a shaky boat.
The 100% crop below shows the actual captured detail.
100% crop - actual pixels
holy cow
25/07/2008 15:18 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f8.0 - 1/80
Yes these guys are all over the place in India, in the cities, on the streets. And they have the right of way. Imagine that in New York, London or Berlin...
But then... I´d love to have some elephants around in Munich... I know they can become dangerous, but I definitely would prefer them to all the dogs in the parks...
mumbai harbor
12/07/2008 09:09 Filed in: photos
marine drive in mumbai
10/07/2008 00:30 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso1600 - f5.0 - 1/8000
Shot from a fast moving car, exactly exposed to my taste, the sky and the sun burning away while the silhouetted people in the foreground still show detail and the skyline of Mumbai Harbor fades in the haze. No additional post-processing was necessary, apart from the standard sharpening. A situation like this ended up with a wrong exposure, if you are on evaluative metering, with all cameras I previously owned. Looks like the latest breed of Canon gets it right here. Having detail in the sky and in the foreground would require a hdr capturing of the scene, as the dynamic range is far to wide for a standard low dynamic range digital capture. As hdr (high dynamic range) capture with a slr camera means exposure bracketing (in this case at least 3 shots, 0ev, -2ev, +2ev), how do you accomplish that, when you are shooting handheld from a moving car... Real hdr capture in a single exposure is one of my favorite points on the wish list for future camera developments, but it is likely to take a few years, before we see that.
But here the image shines because of the burned sky and sun, so additional detail wouldn´t make it any better.
saree
09/07/2008 09:53 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM -
iso400 - f6.3 - 1/500
Indian saree flying in the wind through a hole of a ferry boat`s cabin wall. I like the beautiful and rich colors of indian clothes, they often stand out from their surroundings and compliment darker skin tones. Back here in Germany, people love to darken their skin in summer or by going to solaria, while in India everyone seems to long for fair skin, the TV channels are full with advertising of skin whiteners. Maybe one always wants, what is on the other side...
the 2000 dollar car
08/07/2008 05:34 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso3200 - f5.6 - 1/30
This picture shows the target group for the 2000 dollar car: an indian family, riding altogether on a motorbike. The 2000 dollar car would only be slightly more expensive than a decent new bike and most likely provide more safety to these families for their travels. I shot this one from a car window, while we were overtaking, iso 3200 made it possible, as the sun already had gone down and darkness was closing in.
monkeys on elephanta island
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f6.3 - 1/160
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM -
iso200 - f5.6 - 1/100
Caught some of the monkeys on Elephanta Island in Mumbai harbor with the 24-105mm, a great walk-around-lens for all occasions, where you just want to carry a single lens with your camera. But the EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM feeds the demanding 21MP of the 1Ds with better quality in terms of detail, sharpness and the bokeh is also much more pleasing and “alive”.
To explore the real capabilities of the 1Ds mk III there are a few special lenses beyond the best Canon L glasses: the ZEISS ZF lens line, some medium format lenses or the legendary LEICA 90mm f/2 APO-Summicron-R ASPH, which all can be used manually with adapters on an EOS body. For my professional work, where I demand high resolution, I use a Contax ZEISS AE 35/2,8 DISTAGON. Manual focus is anyway the way to go with live view from a tripod for perfect focus and manual stop down is a burden to take for that extra quality.
Go and get a review of the ZEISS ZF lenses from Diglloyd, worth every dollar, as the author provides one of the most comprehensive and detailed reviews to be found on the net.
If you are a Nikon shooter, the ZEISS ZF line is a no brainer, as you get it with Nikon lens mount originally, so it is manual focus, but no manual stop down. The author of this blog has been called “young enough to wait for a Canon EF mount version of the ZEISS lenses” by a ZEISS executive during a photo trade show in Mumbai, India in early 2008... whatever that means, a few months or a few years?
The LEICA 90/2 APO is very high on the wish list, if just the price of that good-old-german glass was a tad more on the casual side...
stranded
01/07/2008 15:22 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM -
iso100 - f4.0 - 1/640
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM - iso100 - f2.8 - 1/2000
A trip to Elephanta Island (Gharapuri Island) in Mumbai Harbour in March 2008 revealed these stranded boats, waiting for the elements to raise them to the dust, from which they came.
dark wings
01/07/2008 12:07 Filed in: photos
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f7.1 - 1/800
“people once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead” - proem of “The Crow”
I don´t know if that bird there is even a crow, but it reminds me deeply of that movie, a favorite of mine and makes me wonder, how many great cinematic moments Brandon Lee could have given the audience, if he didn`t die while shooting that film.
So get the soundtrack from the movie, put on your headphones and fly away gothic style with “The Cure: Burn”...
dark moon
30/06/2008 03:05 Filed in: photos
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.
dark waves
29/06/2008 15:14 Filed in: photos
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...
cross processing
28/06/2008 02:28 Filed in: photos | techniques
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
color and composition 2
27/06/2008 14:59 Filed in: photos
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
color and composition
26/06/2008 14:25 Filed in: photos
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
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
the beaches of goa
25/06/2008 12:48 Filed in: photos
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
