Final image:
Taking Some Time Off
Hey everybody, I might not be publishing posts for few days because I’m in a huge rush with school work and my half-time job. So don’t be mad, I’ll post some new great images after a while. In the mean time have fun!
Finding My Look
A lot of photographers out there have their favorite style and look. Based on those things they can be hired or not. I’m still looking for mine but have to say I’m getting closer and closer. This is a photo from 2 days ago and I just felt in love with this post-processing to be honest. The problem is to recreate it 
Try Different Points of View
Some people tend to go on a place, set up tripod, take/make 1 image and go away. When you are in the mood, space and time to make more pictures, try to go around your subject or try a different point of view. Not just using a different angle but be more creative, try to do some framing, use a strong element in foreground or anything like it. Here is planetarium in Prague shot from front and here from back.
Výstaviště during Sunset
This post is a bit follow-up to my shoot at Hradčany and yesterday’s. As I said and every better photographer says, good light happens two times a day – around sunset and around sunrise. Some people are lazy to get up early before sunrise so here is a small tip, shoot during sunset. This photo was taken with new Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L USM Mark II, and I really felt in love with this piece of glass.
Playing with the New Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Mark II
Hi guys, I’ve been busy a lot for a week or two, had to solve some problems in school and work etc. Anyway I’ve been using Canon’s new 24-70 on few events I covered for them and I’m very pleased with it’s performance! Image quality is superb and comparable with 70-200 f/2.8L Mark II, sun isn’t an issue anymore, sharper and having less chromatic problems than it’s predecessor. Too bad for having that huge price tag, but I’ll go for it! Maybe even before getting Canon’s 135mm f/2. If you are interested in this lens, be aware it should start shipping during June this year and cost is $2,299 at B&H. And here is an image from it.
Try to be Creative
Hey guys, just a short article for today. Everytime I shoot I’m trying to come up with something new. It doesn’t matter if my quest is portrait, landscape or anything else. When you do a new thing you haven’t ever done or nobody did it, then you will be unique. Just how to be so unique?
When I was shooting portraits with my friends it took a long time and we stayed out till night. Because we were close to fairground I got this cool idea. I put my camera to full manual, mounted it on tripod, used 24-70 combined with flash, 10s exposure and f/11 aperture. I fired the flash manually on 9th second to get as less motion blur as possible and good exposure. Here is final image.
Shooting Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L USM II
This weekend I borrowed that lens from Canon HQ in Czech republic to give it a try and was really blown away by it’s image quality it gives back for the price. Almost everybody says f/1.8 is sharper, better and this kind of stuff. And I know it is true but just the outstanding performance changes everything and now I understand, why it’s being loved by many Pros.
Everything worked perfect … weather, location, model and other stuff, really great. And when all this comes together than with also some skill you can get perfect photo like this.
Almost everything was shot during natural light except few images with off-camera flash. I just felt in love with 85mm, just need to test 135mm f/2 for comparison and decide which one to buy 
Be Patient
Hey everybody, I’m back with a new image I like. The name of article perfectly fits the story how I got this photo. Let’s start from beginning. It started out simply me thinking about buying an iPad and because we have few of them in company I borrowed one of them. Installed few great apps I’ve heard about starting with Stuck on Earth by Trey Ratcliff. If you aren’t familiar with this just check websites. Thanks to his app I found a great photo, went to same spot and tried to do the same thing.
When I arrived it didn’t look as good as I wanted. The Golden Hour already started and I wasn’t getting the light I was waiting for. So I made a small walk around Hradcany. This is how it looked when I was there for the first time.
OK, my exposure is a little bit off but you get the idea. Nothing is happening, sun is setting down, I smell supper. There isn’t anything I’d press the shutter button on my camera. So I had a small walk, a good chat with nice looking waitress, a beer and I went back on location. After about an hour or so the lamp in shot turned on and sky was getting darker and darker. This is what I was waiting for. I took my tripod down, mounted camera, fixed exposure and took a shot.
With this type of look I was very happy, got contrast in colors, a bit of people moving around and not just nice ambient light but also nice light from lamp illuminating walls and stairs. I took 3 shots with -2, 0, +2 bracketing, merged them in Nik HDR Efex, some fixes were done in Photoshop. Very important was to fix colors, because HDR made them a bit funky on some spots and I got the final image.
Small Hands-On Review of Canon EOS 5D Mark III
This week I finally got my hands on the new 5D Mark III. To be honest I really don’t know how to start this review because there isn’t any extra super feature the camera has and will help it’s promotion. In comparison Nikon D800 has 36 MPx and so it brings medium size format resolution in a Nikon body with having a chance to switch lenses without buying a new gear from different brand like PhaseOne or Hasselblad.
In my opinion the best promotion “phrase” for 5D Mark III is “the successor to 5D Mark II”. Sounds weird but I really feel it like this. And that isn’t the best thing to be honest. Building it’s reputation based on previous model. Of course, it has 61 AF points with 41 cross-type, 6 FPS, weather sealing etc. But did you expect less? Manufacturers are pushing limits again and having these features is nice but for me they are standard and nothing extra.
In previous paragraph I started about autofocus so let’s finish this section. Total number of points is 61 and 41 are cross-type how I already wrote. There is just a small problem. 20 of those cross-type points aren’t f/5.6 how everybody would expect but “only” f/4. What does it mean? If you’re shooting with a lens and your minimal aperture number is bigger than f/4, you won’t have the advantage of cross-type AF point and it will be looking for contrast in vertical or horizontal line only! This means worse focusing in low light situations with lenses like 70-200 f/4 or f/2.8 with teleconvertors (1.4x for f/4 and 2x for f/2.8), 100-400 f/4-5.6, 300 f/4 + 1.4x teleconvertor etc. Canon didn’t think this through. Canon added a focusing similar to 7D and in general I was quite pleased with speed and focusing performance. Just for your information, AF system is one of three things I really like about the new camera.
For me another great feature is bracketing. Now you aren’t stuck with 3 exposures with max 2EV difference. You can go up to 7 exposures in 3EV increments. This is useful for shooting HDR in situations where you need those extra frames and don’t want to buy an extra accessory. A really nice feature to have. With it also comes an in-camera HDR. It will take several exposures and merge them together. You can see a final image in back LCD screen and get basic idea. The good thing is you don’t have to reshoot the scene again, if you like it because it will save not just final image but also all exposures on your CF or SD card. Second thing I like about.
Now let’s get to build construction. I wasn’t so excited about the new camera as I’m about a 600EX-RT Speedlight and when I got the 5D Mark III into my hands I knew why. It just didn’t feel right. I had a talk about the build construction with other photographers and everybody agreed with me, Mark II feels better in hands. Also buttons on top, where you can change ISO, Exposure metering mode, AF etc. are from 7D, so they are small and with new construction you don’t know if you pressed them or not. Especially in winter when everybody is shooting with gloves you might have some big issues. On previous model those buttons were big and you could feel them being pressed. Same with buttons on back of camera. Also grip was strange, had some issues with pinkie … just not happy about it. Only thing what I like about construction is card cover. It is rubberized and won’t open so easily. Also they added a spring which is a nice feature.
In previous paragraphs are written all the main features, at least for me. Why I’m not talking about image quality? Well we had just a sample model and weren’t able to image output. But image quality will be great. Even if they took just sensor from Mark II and adjust a bit ISO performance, which is awesome even with Mark II, I’d be happy as Larry. That is also the reason why I don’t care this time about it.
A lot of photographers don’t know if they should upgrade from Mark II or not. To be honest, it is up to them. If they thing they’ll have better images or performance with 61 AF points, faster FPS, weather sealing and 100% viewfinder, than go for it. For me it is not worth the upgrade. I just love everything on my Mark II and won’t switch. Today I’ll be shooting a bit with the Mark III so maybe I’ll be able to get my images out this time.
