Aela the Huntress, Skyrim - Cosplay photoshoot - 8/21/19

On the 21st of August I planned to meet my sister for a photoshoot after we both got off work. She knew of a place where she had been to the walking trails before. And she had recently finished up a new cosplay. Aela the Huntress from Skyrim.

So, hopped in the car after work with as much gear as I could reasonably bring with me. I didn’t know it would be a bit of a hike, so of course I brought more than I needed.

But once we found the place, with the right entrance. The second one was closed, one of us got changed into a costume and we set out to find a good spot in the woods.

Canon 7D w/Yongnuo 50mm - 1/100 Sec - F1.8 - ISO 500

I had been doing some research since the last photoshoot I had done. I knew a good focal length for portrait shots to be 85mm. But I didn’t have an 85mm, and the wide angle I did have was alright but it was loose and the lens would “creep” which is to say it would freely go from one end of the spectrum to the other depending on how I was holding the camera. So with the crop factor of the 7D, and a 50mm. I could get close to the 85mm sweet spot.

However that lens was cheap, and it’s not the greatest quality. I evidently missed focus with it, but hey. Got that 1.8 F stop. Which was the reason I bought the lens to begin with.

So as you can see, besides missing focus and just getting a kind of blurry mess of a photo. We were trying to capture the rays of sunlight shining through the trees. Really didn’t work out for this shot as it just unevenly lights her and makes shadows throughout the cosplay, which is kind of the point.

Canon 7D w/Yongnuo 50mm - 1/125 Sec - F1.8 - ISO 500

Still wasn’t done with that lens though. And I still wanted practice with some headshots. But again, not the point of the shoot. Show the whole cosplay, got it.

Canon 7D w/Yongnuo 50mm - 1/25 Sec - F1.8 - ISO 500

Okay better. But try to keep the shutter speed higher so there isn’t motion blur when you’re shooting handheld.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @38 - 1/40 Sec - F4.0 - ISO 1000

There we fucking go. Switch back to the full frame and the wide angle so you can show the entire cosplay and the surroundings. Makes for a way better picture that is more interesting.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 1/25 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 500

And for a different and creativity approach, black and white.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @53 - 1/25 Sec - F4.5 - ISO 800

We tried a good amount of angles and positions, until we felt like we got something good out of it. Then we packed up and moved further along the trail to the water.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @28 - 1/50 Sec - F4.5 - ISO 800

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @47 - 1/30 Sec - F4.5 - ISO 500

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @107 - 1/30 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 500

It wasn’t all serious poses though. We had our usually sibling wacky fun with dick jokes and stupid faces.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @105 - 1/30 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 500

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @35 - 1/200 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 2000

I have a pair of these, one jumping and facing one direction and then the other way. And if you pull them up in a browser together and flip back and forth between them you make a little dance. It’s great.

So with all that out of the way, we had gotten plenty of good shots. Angles, poses, etc. The sun was setting and we were losing the light, but I had a few more ideas to try. Of all the things I had stuffed into a few bags I was now having to carry around the woods, I had brought my flash and the extension cable that went along with it. (As I mentioned in a previous post, get a wireless system for the flash)

I also had colored gel. Which went over the light so we could try and recreate something from the video game. However before we got to that point I wanted to see what green light would do on the subject.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 1/30 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 500

Turns out, makes it pretty cool and spooky.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 1/25 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 500

It also plays really well with the insanely red wig and made it stand out more when she turned her head.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @38 - 0.4 Sec - F4.0 - ISO 100

There we go, we eventually stopped playing around with the light and put it where we wanted it. Trying to get a plant to glow like a Nirnroot in the game. It also took a second flash that I put on the only other available option, the hot shoe on top of the camera. However at that long of an exposure I bet I aimed it straight up and bounced it off some foam core boards I brought for that purpose.

Maybe not, just speculating at this point. Maybe it was aimed dead on and just set to the lowest power so the green would really glow from the other flash.

Either way, that was an evening of cosplay photography. It was lots of fun and I look forward to the next time. I’ll leave you with an image for your nightmares.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 1/30 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 500

Down on the boardwalk - 8/17/19

Between the last post and this one I had made another purchase. It wasn’t for another lens, but give it time. This time it was for future portability and ease. Plus I like spending money.

I picked up a new laptop, specifically for on the go editing. It was just as fast and powerful as the big “gaming” laptop I picked up the year or two before. But it was small, and thin. Oh so thin. It’s got a touch screen and a pen, so I can edit with that which for me is really helpful. The majority of these blogs are written on that laptop. And all my editing. I did a lot of research on it for the past few weeks or months before it dipped in price on Amazon and I snagged it. About $200 cheaper than the exact same thing is going for almost a year later.

But enough about that, it doesn’t really affect the photography so much as the workflow afterwards.

This Saturday evening I went somewhere new, still to the same river though. (The Chattahoochee is huge)

There I saw plenty of wildlife. More waterfowl in one place than ever before. And yet, no pictures were edited out of this raw folder. Hundreds taken, not a single one edited. I didn’t remember why until I imported the folder and started editing them now for the post.

To keep it brief, missing focus, not being close enough, not understanding the 1-1 ratio for lens length and shutter speed. Etc.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/1000 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 800

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @ 256 - 1/500 Sec - F8 - ISO 800

Turns out I did see a kingfisher first much earlier than I thought. I couldn’t even tell what it was back then, I only know now because I’ve managed to see one with much better skills and equipment and I was actually able to identify it.

This next one isn’t too bad, but to be fair that is at the full resolution. If I cropped it in like I wanted to, it’s not looking great then.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @400 - 1/1000 Sec - F8 - ISO 500

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @400 - 1/640 Sec - F8 - ISO 800

Look the sun went behind a cloud and now the bird is blue. I’ve discovered an entirely new type of bird. The blue Egret.

Jokes aside I may be able to edit this back to natural colors. But it’s just not worth it. It’s not a particularly interesting photo, even if the bird was colored correctly.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @309 - 1/1000 Sec - F8 - ISO 800

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/400 Sec - F8 - ISO 500

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F8 - ISO 1600

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @ 150 - 1/160 Sec - F8 - ISO 1250

I hand picked out the “best” ones for these examples. Really it comes down to inexperience and trying to get top quality photos out of the bottom entry level equipment. I know gear doesn’t make the photographer, to an extent. You’re not going to get a nice full resolution clean and crisp photo of the details of a wildlife subject shooting on the cheapest lens available.

It was terribly disappointing to come back to hundreds of images like the ones above and feeling like a failure. Especially when hopes were so high that day from all the different kinds of wildlife I saw in a single outing. That does explain why I didn’t edit anything from this day.

However, to try and end on a better note. That same morning of the 17th I did take a picture from right out my front door.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @375 - 1/60 Sec - F8 - ISO 400

A Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, the only one I’ve ever seen so far. Pretty cool, and that picture still came out better. Get closer to the subject was really what I needed for the types of photos I wanted. That and a faster autofocus, bigger aperture… Things that cost money.

Oh look, the moon - 8/10/19

On the 10th of August I went out to a nearby parking lot as I’ve done before and took pictures of the moon. Over the past few months as I had been using the Tamron 150-600 I couldn’t help but notice how the reviews I read were turning out to be true. It’s a great lens overall, but you really lose sharpness past 300-400. They do have a zoom lock switch that only works when it’s at 150, or right around that middle spot. I think 400. I no longer have the lens today otherwise I would just grab it and double check.

It becomes fairly apparent when you’re taking pictures of the moon at 600mm.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 400

But also if you miss your focus. That’s not going to help matters.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/30 Sec - F16 - ISO 100

Much better. And this one is at a much slower shutter speed, smaller aperture. But it still was lacking what I wanted. At full resolution you really don’t get all the details. Or if I cropped it and zoomed in, it’s just kind of lacking that crispness that I wanted.

And here’s what happens when you set it to the longest exposure time, and just jiggle the camera all over the place. Looks like a signature.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 30 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 100

That’s it for that day. Not much else to post except more pictures of the same type of thing. I know astrophotography is a whole other style. And people use different techniques for it. I’d love to try it some day, but that’s a whole other type of money spending venture I can’t finance.