Edit your own negatives!

boylescaleb posted a photo:

Simple directions to edit your own negatives can be found here!

No safety in numbers

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

I came across this dried fish on Manila market, it is offered wrapped in plastic in a thin layer as you see it in the image above - and it caught my eye so I had to photograph it.

Gear used: Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G, SB800 for backlight fired via CLS, popup flash for fill in.

A quick How To guide to this image. Real simple - the key was to balance the light between the front and background. For this I laid the foldable translucent reflector about 2 feet above the ground and lay the dried fish layer on it. SB was on the floor, triggered by popup of D700. By playing around in camera menu with power settings for both popup and speedlight I got what I felt makes it look the way it does to the eye.
Since macro lens was used I had to compensate for the shallow DOF by closing aperture, accurate focusing and staying parallel to the layer of fish. Having the rows aligned diagonally make the image more dynamic.

That's what you do to dry fish while the San Miguel beers are cooling in the fridge;)

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

La Trinidad, Philippines

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Gear: Nikon D700, Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 ED
Shot in "Vivid" picture control preset. No Photoshop or other enhancements other then adding the logo and resizing.

Another sample on how to make the colors pop straight out of the camera by simply using the picture control presets. Doing so saves time you'd normally spent post processing, so you can do something more exciting then sitting in front of your computer. Like eating strawberries from the field above... in January!

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Banaue, Philippines in Spring of 2008

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

BLP heading north!
North of Philippines that is - Baguio, here we come! See you!

Gear: Nikon D70s with Sigma 18-200mm lens

www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Photo Tips and Tricks

Stacie Stacie Stacie posted a photo:

Under the blood red sky

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Manila bay serves as a background to a spectacular display of setting sun on peaceful evening in Metro Manila as tragically over a 1000 people are dead in southern Philippines due to flash floods and landslides triggered by topical storm Washi.

Gear: Nikon D700, Sigma 24mm f/1.8 macro.
Shot in "Vivid" picture control preset. No Photoshop or other enhancements other then adding the logo and resizing.

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Manila, Philippines

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Fishermen casting a line at sunset from the remnants of the pier destroyed by recent hurricanes in Manila bay.

Gear: Nikon D700, Sigma 24mm f/1.8 macro.
No Photoshop or other enhancements other then adding the logo and resizing.

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

11 ways you can improve your photography

Stolenfant (TheSiracusas dot com) posted a photo:

Free downloadable photography ebook with 69 pages of meaty content, written by top photographers - download it here:
www.thesiracusas.com/?p=2969

Banana Float

digital4047 posted a photo:

This was fun. Used two photos and a bit of basic photoshop. I learned this from a guy named Evan... you can see the details at canonrebelt3i600d.com/canon-rebel-t3i-trick-photography/

Dad ... there are two things you need to know about photography ...

SemiCharmedLife (☯) posted a photo:

1. If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.
2. Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn't photogenic.

Rushing headlong

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Tomorrow I will be flying to Manila. From winter into summer, from loneliness to the best company in the whole world. It is very exciting time and I envy myself I'm doing what I am doing.
To all my friends - thank you. I'll see you soon enough! Take care for now...

Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2DC lens

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Aqua Zen temple

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S MACRO, off camera SB800 triggered by pop-up via Nikon CLS

Something in this image makes me so tranquil so longer I look at it... captured at 1/8000sec. No stinking photoshop BS other then resizing and adding logo in LR3.5.

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Dark waves of tranquility

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S MACRO, off camera SB800 triggered by pop-up via Nikon CLS

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Very Jolly Roger

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S MACRO, off camera SB800 triggered by pop-up via Nikon CLS

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Ukrainian macro

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

More macro, this time in Ukrainian national colors.
Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S MACRO, off camera SB800 triggered by pop-up via Nikon CLS

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Macro universe

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S MACRO, off camera SB800 triggered by pop-up via Nikon CLS

I'm guessing Macro might make it as a separate class for our upcoming photography workshops in Manila next month if there's enough interest.

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Macro, the photography from another planet

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S MACRO, off camera SB800 triggered by pop-up via Nikon CLS

Ugh... I'm starting to think of including the macro as a chapter into our upcoming photography workshops in Manila next month!

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

Electric shellfish

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S MACRO

Confirmed - macro is a lot of fun. Especially when your fiance is, like mine is, 9000km away, on the opposite side of the Earth... ehhh...

A word about technique - 2 shots from a tripod with 4 seconds each, main light(camera left) was a florescent table lamp, a bit of fill light(camera left) was more more bluish LED Fenix LD20 flashlight. Focused on different parts of the shell in each shot and focus stacked in CS5, where I also added the On Off Switch(which by the way looked OK in full rez but now looks quite artificial in the Flickr sharpened version).

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!

TumBhi Photography

Tumbhi2011 posted a video:

Tumbhi Photography exclusive website is a dedicated platform for photographers to help them showcase their talent, interact with other photographers and experts in the field, educate themselves through valuable tips and tricks and also offers opportunity to display their talent in front of millions of visitors through online Exhibitions.

Don't loose you head(with Micro DOF)

Vlad Nevynny | www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com posted a photo:

Nikon D700, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S MACRO

Finally I decided to use my macro lens as macro lens, even if I had to take a pause with peoples pictures for this.
I also picked up Adrian Davies "Close-up and Macro Photography" book, which is a great overview book on the subject by the way and it helped me realize why macro has been so frustrating for me.
Three things I've learned from the book all relate to the depth of field in macro - and I imagine if they were the culprit for me, a seasoned photographer then perhaps it might be helpful to share them with others.
Firstly, in 1:1 reproduction ratio the DOF really is FRACTIONS of a millimeter on reasonably closed apertures(before the diffraction sets in), so in order for the picture to work you need to choose either flat or real tiny subjects for your macro range.
Secondly, unlike in normal photography, the DOF is not dependent on the focal length. It only depends on aperture and magnification ratio. Not that this one is very important, but demonstrates one more time how weird world of macro is....
Thirdly, and that's other difference from normal photography, where the zone of acceptable sharpness extends from one-third in front of the main point of focus, to two-thirds behind, in macro this proportion changes - the sharpness in front of and behind the main point of focus become equal, and you should focus on a point halfway into the subject.
So naturally, in macro it is often becomes impossible to get all subject in focus and it is worth asking yourself whether you actually need such a high magnification, or whether a smaller magnification, with its correspondingly greater depth of field, is a better compromise. Or perhaps taking more images of neighbor baby girl with that AFS 105mm is yet another great idea?

I'll add to this that I did manage to get nice macro shots(the one in this post is from last night) and a gallery is coming.
And watch out for those people photography seminars in Manila from Black Label soon! We will not teach you how to take photos of water, but rather we will share with you what we learned about photographing the most fascinating subject of all - people!

©Vlad Nevynny
www.BlackLabelPhotogs.com
World Class Fine Art Photography from Vlad + Aileen.
Coming soon - photography workshops in Manila!