Filming a music video

    Ok, so it's not exactly a proper music video, but it is a bass cover of my friend, Stelian Saracut, doing this thing (with the bass of course). It has been great fun filming and editing it, especially because I learnt a lot in the editing domain. I feel more confident in editing my videos now, mainly because I did learn some new basic things.
    I was thinking of putting out a behinds the scenes type of video, but I'm not sure I have what to make it from. I was thinking of creating it from a timelapse we did while we were there and a series of "drwaings" to explain where were the lights placed and all of that... I mean, we'll see, who knows, maybe I'll do it...
    By the end of this week I'll be putting out my video about old DSLRs for new photographers, talking from my own experience of learning on a Canon 20D. But that's another video.
    Please check the video below and tell me what you think about it... Thanks and "see" you soon!

Something new

    I figured out it was time to try out new things... and that thing is video. Actually, there are 2 things. The first one is that I started experimenting with videography a little... I got myself on Olympus EPM-1 and have shot a couple so far... and I have to say I really enjoy it...
    The second thing is that I started a youtube channel. You can find it right here if you want to check it out! Actually, I invite you to do so. I'm not sure of the direction this channel is going to take, but I have a plan for it. I want to release different tips and tricks about photography and videography, why not? Also, I would want to do something like a little showcase of 5 images expressing what do I feel I've done wrong or right with them, and basicaly try to give them an honest critique. Or, maybe, some live lightroom editing, who knows?

    The things is, I don't lack ideas... I just have to find myself the right audience for this type of videos. I know it's been a while since I last posted on this blog, but I don't intend to just leave it. I actually quite like, it has been a mirror of my evolution throughout the year, and I'm proud of it. I will definetly keep this along with my youtube channel, because I like the way you can express yourself through theese posts.
    Attached to this post is my first video, my emmersion into a world of half unknown things, and that's video. I mean, phhotography helps a lot in vide production, especially in shooting the actual clips, but there are so many new things to explore, I don't really know where to start.
    Last, I tried my first photo story. It wasn't really an easy task, but I think I managed to get  my best 50 images of the night and tell the audience a story. If you'd like to critique the images, feel free to leave me a comment on this blog after seeing them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spizdi/sets/72157638488663433/


    Last, I know I won't write so often here, but that's because of the whole youtube thing... I really hope it will come out nice ;).

It's been a while

    So yeah, it's been a while since my last post, and I'm sorry for that, but, on another side, I did work on my own projects. My main one is a timelapse video which I'm trying to put together. Right now, I found the song for my video, but I still have to get some footage.
    Another thing I might think of starting is a youtube chanel. I'd like to make some videos on things that really helped me so far and that might help others... And this being brought up, the camera I bought for making theese videos and not only is an Olympus EPM-1. I currently have mixed opinions on the mirrorless camera thing, but I can say that for something that small, the video quality is really nice. It shoots 1080i at 60 fps, and the great thing is that it has manual video control.

    Getting back to the business, here are the first pictures I took with the Olympus. They were taken at night with the kit lens, so There had to be some high ISOs involved. Still, I think I got some interesting things...

For some reason, I really loved the effect thata turned out of this picture. I know I was walking by and saw this guy on the bench, so I took a picture of him without me stopping. This way, the cathedral remained sharp and, because of the slow shutter speed, the person became blured.

The last one is not that great, but I considered it a pretty good picture...

I will come back soon and I think that after finishing the time-lapse,  I might actually start the whole youtube thing... If you have some ideas for videos, contact me!

How do you know you got a good shot?

    I am not going to talk a lot about this topic, but I am going to say how I know when I get a good shot. Usually, like 95% of cases, I know it just after I press the shutter. It's an instant feeling, and I love when I get more that one per day. And this was exactly the case theese last two days.
    I didn't think going shooting with a prime would help so much, but I started seeing things differently (see the story here). I think before I couldn't decide how a scene would look, because I had to go through many perspectives given by the zoom lens. On the other side, with a fixed focal length, I managed to see things faster, and, more important, get closer.
   

And, surprisingly for me, the whole "getting closer to people" thing didn't work as I expected. It came naturally, like I had been doing this for ages, even if I hadn't. But still, I realized I am able to see things I could not see before, just because I took the zooming thing out of my mind.

I like variation, even though I can't allways avhieve it. Stil, in my opinion, this is one of the happy cases where I got a little bit of everything.

Initially, I wanted to go for a full silouette effect, but later I thought that seeing a little bit of his shirt could only add dimension to the person.

This is one of those pictures when you get in front of the computer and say "I didn't know I caught that...". I am refering to the flying pidgeon, of course. 

For some reason or another, I love this image. He has a kind of a "look into your soul" face expression. Also, shooting just the board would have been booring, so I decided to put him in context.

I am really pleased of theese two days, and I think, from here, my pictures will only get better as I try out new things...

Also, I can't decide on a favourite, so leave a comment to see which one is the one you like.

Thanks again, "see" you next time!(I hope so...)

The prime project

    I finally te step forward and bought a prime lens for my DSLR. Sure, it's no 50mm f1.2 or 35mm f1.4, it is in fact the well-known Canon 50 mm f1.8. As I did with my Tamron telephoto lens, I didn't want to go spend a lot of cash on a lens I wasn't sure how much use would it get. I must say, even at 80 bucks, that's how much I spent, this lens produces some great colors and sharpness.

    I did say last time I would come out with a review on the features an older DSLR misses, and I am intending to keep my promise. So, stay tuned for the review.

    Going back to street photography, the first shots were taken with the kit 18-55, wanting to stop shooting with my telephoto lens.

The first one is taken really wide because I wanted to incorporate the architecture of the city in the shot. I realize it would have been way better to get closer, but at this stage I simply can't. That is one of the reasons I got my 50mm, to force myself to get phisicaly closer, not just with the zoom.

    You have to take into account the fact that these last pictures were just tests, but I promise the next post will incorporate some real street photography. Getting to the shot, I only had 15 minutes to play around with the lens, so the area I could go was quite limiting.

    This last one is probably one of the last ones I actually took that day. I realize it is not a great shot, but still there are some elements I enjoy about it. Like, for example, the far background between the trees or the piston of the subject's feet.

    So, here are my initial impressions on the lens: it is really nice, compact and light, great image quality for the price and also plenty sharp with good colors. There is no point in writing a separate review for the lens, but I can say that all the good reviews out there are true.

    This was it for today,I promise the next pay will be better, and i know it will.

    Don't forget to check my portfolio at tudorsphotos.weebly.com .

Turkey trip

    Yes, as the title says, I went to Turkey for the timing of RedBull Sea to Sky and, meanwhile, I took the chance to snap some pictures. Plus, I've been thinking about the blog and decided to make my posts more photography-orientated, plus there is an interesting review/comparison coming soon.
    Sol, lets start!

        One of my goals in Turkey was to take at least one street photograph to ilustrate the people in there. And here you get a contrast between all the tourists visiting and going to the beach and the hard working locals.

No photoshop in here, trust me! This guy's pants were bouncing up and down like crazy, and here is what wah underneath :)).

For theese street shots I shot in A mode on my 40D. I probably was at around f8 and ISO 200, getting me a good enough shutter speed.

    What I like about about this picture is the amount of detail present and the wide perspective. Also, being shot at 18mm on a crop body, the depht of field is huge.

Being so close to the beach, I had to snap pictures of sunsests :). So this is one of them, though not my best...

This is my favourite. Again, you can see the contrast of tourists and locals, but in another enviroment. I really like the colors, too.

And, finally,the last shot. Actually, you can see a square on top of the mountain at the left. That was the race's finish. Nice right?

One more thing, I just bought a Canon 50mm f1.8 and I love it, but all of that in a coming soon post.

Thanks again and if you haven't, don't forget to check my website tudorsphotos.weebly.com. See you soon!

Back to school

    I'm sorry for posting so late, promise won't happen again :). I've been really vusy and didn't have time to post my latest pictures. I have 2 sets right now, here is the first one, and the second one is on the editing lane.
    I find going back to school an oportunity to go out on the streets more, to restart doing what I first did and loved (I still do), street photography.

I'm attracted to the first one because of the collors, but also because of the geometry. This was taken accidentaly, without having my camera to my eye, but I think I was pretty lucky.

For this one, I love the separation the colors give to the picture. Also, I am trying more and more not just to photograph people, but to photograph theur way of life and what are they doing, basicaly putting them into context.

This is my favourite one for the set. I love the kid's curiosity, love the colors and the general composition. This is a picture that works really good for me, you might not like it, but I certainly do.

Not much to say, but please check out my portfolio at http://tudorsphotos.weebly.com/. See you next time!

The best camera is the one you have with you (extra)

    I took this quote from Chase Jarvis, and it really represented my situation that day. I was in Piatra Neamt to time an Enduro Contest, and didn't think I would get the ocasion to shoot some pictures, so I didn't bring my DSLR or something like that. But, once I got there, I tried to get the most out of a 5 megapixel Nokia Lumia 710 camera.

All theese pictures were taken using an in camera contrast compensation of +1 and saturation bumped up to +1. Also, I used prefocusing for the bike shots.

Here's the proof that, with a little panning techhnique, you can get tac sharp images even of fast moving objects through a mobile phone.

I tried to incorporate some leading lines from the roof in this shot...

This is one of my best landscapes. Even when shooting with a phone, I payed attention to the position of the orange cabin for example and composition. In the end, it's not the low ISO or aperture that makes a good image great, it's the moment captures.

Same landscape, higher angle. It's allways worth experimenting.

I tried to catch some silhouetted kind of picture, and I think it turned out great!

And finally, the metering. I kept changing between frame average and center spot for getting the best results.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind showing theese pictures to someone, even though they were taken with a phone. In the end, it's the photographer that takes the picture, not the camera. It will never take a picture by itself, it needs the human eye to frame and compose a shot. Sometimes, the limitations of a camera can actually bring the best out of a photographer...

One more thing, I have not post-processed theese shots in Lightroom, they are straight from the camera.

Don't forget to chack out my website and tell me what do you think about my portfolio... tudorsphotos.weebly.com. See you next time!

Black backgroung pictures

    Yes, I know the title sonds quite dull, but it describes best what I did the last weekend. Basicaly, I raed on the internet several times about how to make your background black during daylight, but never tried it before. I had the oportunity to take some portraits with this technique, but having only one flash, I didn't want to screw things up, especially cause those pictures were for my MTB's team website.
edit: I just realized, a couple weeks later, that this post was kept as a draft, I forgot to press the xPUBLISH buton... never the less, I will soon put up another post, going back to the "origins".

The way I did it is this: I underexposed the background until it was nearly black, then put a flash to iluminate the subject. Then, in post, I put some background and, with a brush, I cleared the remaining spots of light from the backgrounds.

This method works best with portraits, because you won't get the floor iluminated by the flash. Still, this is a good way to get rid of a nasty background.

This was just an experiment, I wouldn't necessairly do this to a serious shooting, but it feels good to know you can allways come back to this technique when you need it.

One thing I learned from sports photographers is that behind the scenes images worth just as much as the action ones, if not more. Actually, funny thing, there was a contest at a tennis tournament. One of my pictures was a non-action shot, otherwise 99% of all shots entered in the contest were action pictures. And, surprize, I won that contest with that static image.

Also, sometimes black and white works really good with sports...

I've got a surprize coming up, some shots from my phone, and I'll explain how I took them. Trust me, you won't believe those were taken with a cell phone...

Thanks again, and don't forget to check out my portfolio at tudorsphotos.weebly.com, untill that surprize :)

How a little change can challenge your creativity

    Maybe it's a long title, but it describes exactly my mood the last weekend. So, I just recently got myself a Canon 40D to replace my 20D, and wanted to try it out. I went to the mountains to take some shots, and that was a big challenge. I mean, from the usual sports or street photography, I went to nature shots, which was not bad, though I still enjoy the other 2 domains a little better. also, if anyone from Romania is interested in a really nice Canon 20D, mine's for sale here:http://mercador.ro/oferta/canon-20d-body-card-2gb-neck-strap-baterie-incarcator-IDUeYb.html.

Ok, here's the first one. Mainly I like the colors in it, though not the most creative composition, I have to admit.

This one, though looks heavily post-processed, it's actually not. I had the flash ot top of my camera, so I underexposed the whole scene and flashed the tree at half power. This way, I created this effect which I find quite interesting.

Again, this is another product of my imagination. Again, underexposed and flashed, this one I kept in color. I shot a branch from the top of it, and here's theeffect I got.

I regretted not having a way of taking macro shots, but this was the best I could get. Still, I don't think it's bad...

Thank you for the patience and don't hesitate to check out the rest of my blog.

Also, I finalized my portfolio, and you can find it here: http://tudorsphotos.weebly.com/

Loneliness

    I've picked this post title because this is what I think is the general atmosphere in the shots to come. I am going to say how I managed to get low light shots even with kit lenses. Actually, I used   55-200 Tamron f4-5.6, so that's not exactly bright. But still, I managed to get some shots that I'm proud of. One setting that was constant was the ISO 3200 and the exposure was one stop underexposed, and then I brought it back in Lightroom. I underexposed the pictures to get a fast enough shutter speed to capture the moment.
    Okay, let's jump straight into the pictures...

I like the colors in the first picture. Also, I like how leading lines draw you into the picture.

Obviosly, when using kit lenses, you won't get big apertures, so that means you'll have to create some interesting effects using a slow shutter speed. This is exactly the case, where the little girl is sharp, while the 2 cyclissts in the background are motion blured. Also, from what I'm seeing, one of them might be actually looking down at the little girl.

I saw a cool picture on the internet and decidd to give mine a similar look. I achieved this in post-processing by decreasin the white balance down to 2000K. This allowed me to get a chilly atmosphere.

What I do at night is take bursts of  shots. So, out of 5 pictures, this exact one was the only one usable because of the low shutter speed. Now this is the picture that basicaly gave this post its title, because it gives you a sense of isolation. One more thing, even though my night shots are usually in black and white, don't be afraid to experiment by going color. Also, don't worry too much about ISO, if the picture is nicely framed, nicely exposed and gives you feelings about it, people won't care that there might be a little too much noise here and there. It's the moment captured that really matters, not the ISO.

Thanks again, and, if you hadn't already, please check my website to see my portfolio. It's still under construction, but I think it will turn out nice :).

http://tudorsphotos.weebly.com/

Crater DH Cup

    After running about after finishing my XCO race, I went to shoot some downhill action. Damn, those huys were nuts! :) I first did what I usually do, Get out my Flash and shoot some wide angle shots with on-camera flash. Then, I decided to make a change. I grabbed my tele, bumped my ISO to 3200 to freeze the action, and started concentrating on composition. Actually, it turned out really well. The ISO is good in daylight with the Canon 20D, so I could use all the images taken.

This is one of my favourite flash shots, and actually the only one presented in this post.

Sure, you can see the clues of the high ISO, but his pose and situation make the subject stand out, not the technical stuff like ISO.

I tried to integrate the tree and some of the track to put the subject in context.

I have two shots I like here, but I'm not sure which one is better...

This is one of my teammates who actually raced the DH race too. He was one of the only ones who made a double jump, so I stayed there to get the shot.

The same place, different rider, different perspecrive and route. I like the different focal plains present in the picture.

                                                    You can find all my pictures *here.

Also, check my website http://tudorsphotos.weebly.com/ for more pictures.

Photographing tennis is not as easy as it might seem...

    I saw this contest on the internet on shooting a tennis tournament so I thought I'll go for it. Basicaly, I went there, spent more than 5 hours in total in the sun, but I think I learned quite a bit...

First of all, timing in tennis photography is key. I probably have 600 backhand shots, and only one or two are with the player in the exact right position.

Little things like the racket being one centimeter off and covering someone's face can ruin a picture.

Also, one BIG thing to consider is the background. Noisy and busy backgrounds can also ruin a fantastic pose from the player.

Getting different angles is also important. I talked to a photographer from Nikon and he told me that a really important thing in such a sport is to move around, keep changing your shooting angles.

And the last thing, get close! Sure, with the zoom:). The better pictures are the one that are closer to the subject, even if sometimes you cut off some legs or thing like that.

One more thing, PLEASE help me qualify in the judging of a photo contest by entering this link https://www.facebook.com/winnerscluj and liking the pictures of Tudor Stupariu, which is my FB profile. Sure, while you're there, feel free to like any other images, there are some good ones there too. I need 20 likes per photo to qualify for the judging, so if you like my work, please stop by and help me qualify :).