brightstarphotos

Canon 90mm Tilt shift

brightstarphotos — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:35:36 +0000

Just received this lens a few days ago. Will use it for product, food and flower shots along with experimenting with portraits. My first attempt with is it is below. This is an antique persimmon driver my Dad gave me around 1976. It was refurbished a few times by a talented club repairman, you can see the epoxy.

The lens is very, very sharp. I’ll report more later.

In post I followed superb lessons that the most talented Jim DiVitale has concering product photography and processing on Kelbytraining.com. It was taken with the canon 1.4 ext II on the lens, perhaps not quit as sharp as it could be without it.

Antique Persimmon Driver Shot with the 90mm Canon Tilt Shift Lens.

Here is another version take a few days later, processed so it could be accepted by stock agencies – the name and logo was removed (trademarked).

First Video Tutorial – extracting a model onto another background

brightstarphotos — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:51:47 +0000

Please enjoy and hopefully pick up some tips from the very first video tutorial I created. It explains how to retouch a model using Lightroom 3 and Portraiture. Then extract her from the background on to another in Photoshop CS5.

Obvious that I need a great deal of practice making these, I am confident my next will be much better. I am working on it now.

My Photo on the Cover of a Book on Golf

brightstarphotos — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:13:32 +0000

A photo I took of Phil Mickelson made the cover of this book! I’ve ordered a copy of the book from amazon and should have it tomorrow (12/6/11) to see what type of photo credit I was given. It’s clearly, and as expected, not on the cover but the photographer given credit on all web sites that have the book for sale is Yasuhiro Tanabe. If I requested, should I be given a copy of the book? It sells for less than $8.00 on amazon:

Link to book on Amazon

It’s always exciting to find our work “Published” but then we hope for proper credit. When selling stock photos one sometimes not does know if that was given. If we so desire we need to do some of our own research to find out.

I located this by completing a google image search with my full name in quotes: “David W. Leindecker”, and from the results, I then dragged the thumbnail up to the top of the page.

According to the license I believe it was purchased at, the publisher would be required to buy an “enhanced License” IF it was printed more than 250,000 times. I tend to doubt this was printed that many times. I simply want to see a photo credit in the book with my name. If it is not there, I will contact the publisher and ask “why not?”

Click on image to see on Shutterstock

I shot several images of the famous golfer that day. They can be seen on my web page and stock sites. I’ve also been given credit for the same shot on other web sites. Here is one example:

Encyclopedia Britannica

A few other pics of Phil I shot that day and are on my shutterstock site:

Welcome – First Post

brightstarphotos — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 15:28:07 +0000

Welcome to my blog where misc. photography topics will be discussed. I hope you will discover interesting and useful information that will help inspire you to create better images while saving you money, or at least spend your life savings on just the good stuff. Enjoy, comment and visit often! Thank you….Dave

Great price on canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS II from BHphotovideo.com through 1/7/12

brightstarphotos — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:37:10 +0000

WOW! through January 7th…..easily my favorite lens! All serious canon shooters should consider this lens. This is not a mail-in rebate, it’s instant!

Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II at BandH

As of this post (it changes daily – I’ve seen it as low as $1974.00):

bandh: 2074.00

adorama: 2074.00

amazon: 2074.00

The Perfect Picture School of Photography – worth it?

brightstarphotos — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:06:09 +0000

What are your thought?

I’ve taken two classes and will take more….instructors are excellent and the assignments are fun and educational. They are moving toward all-video critiques, a very welcome decision.

My first was an eight week class, “Understanding Exposure”. For my class it was led and critiqued by renowned author and photographer, Bryan Peterson. I loved it, his critiques were truthful and sincere. You can sometimes be offered discounts, just get on their mailing list! Note: A few times a week you will also receive tips and tricks that are mostly very helpful and fun.

Below are links to the youtube videos for very recent critiques of my photos in a class I am just about to finish: ” The Art of Seeing” (a four week class for $195.00) . Chris did a great job with this class!

Assignment1

Assignment2

In this assignment we were asked to take three shots from the same location – wide, normal and zoom. Goal was to learn more about our lenses – their capabilities, unique effects, strengths weakness:

Assignment3

For me – highly recommended….. your experience, questions or comments?

PPSOP