[bais_before_after before_image=”http://www.luciancoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/130A9700_uncooked_slider.jpg” after_image=”http://www.luciancoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/130A9700_cooked_slider.jpg”] Before and After pictures! I’ve been doing food photography for The Caravela Portuguese restaurant www.thecaravela.com for quite a few years now. They have a wide variety on the menu but is mainly geared towards Portuguese dishes. Despite the Portuguese flavor, when comes to food photography the owner has a “Japanese policy” approach; and in Japan by law you are required to take photos only of the real food, and that is not easy to achieve at all. Food on camera by default looks flat, unappetizing, etc. and that will be the reason why you won’t see on the “Menu” cellphone pictures taken by regular customers, well at the end of the day a restaurant is “socializing” in the traditional way of the word as opposed to the trendy “social networks”. Along the years I did my fair share of tricks: I filled rolls with wet Tampax microwaved, so they are “still steamy” and they look like “out of the oven”. I colored mashed potatoes and put it in cones since ice-cream was melting way to fast, I used white glue instead of milk so the cereals do not get so soggy, I painted almost uncooked chickens […]
Diamond industry, photographing rough diamonds, focus stacking. In Botswana’s diamond industry the sightholders buying bulk rough diamonds will always demand the highest quality photographs. Debswana , www.debswana.com, will hold in Gaborone about 10 of this sightseeing events a year. It is usually a catalog printed on matte paper, but for high value “stones” many producers will also send high resolution photos to the bidders. Rough diamonds: They are not at all “transparent” as the polished diamonds. Almost all will look “cloudy “ in the pictures. Because of the irregular angles is hard to catch the “right” light. There will be slight color changes in all of them. Fancy diamonds will be various colors out of the ordinary. Photographing rough diamonds basic tools: Use a gray card. Always use a light meter. Various lights strobes, fluorescent, LED, etc. Macro lens are usually better. A Full frame DSLR is always better. Tripod with variable angle column. Diffusion materials. Honeycombs . Flags. Computer. Velvet. Reflective stand. Rail. Basic production methods Your biggest enemy will be surface glare because you shoot on a cross angle, second will be the shallow DOF. Usually I go for computerized focus stacking photographs. Even if you put a […]
There’s a time when you realize that time passed by and you are not young anymore. You run enough, you fight enough, you struggled enough, you did everything you could ever do and you tried even more…… Why so many commas above? Things are not quite how you expected them to be, something looks erroneous, something disconnects. That’s why you need to stop and reflect. The usual…. Who I am? What I am doing here? Where do I come from?… here are the questions to be answered first to calm your restlessness and structure your journey further and the inevitable where do I go …to show a clear path. You look at yourself reflected in a mirror of self. At first the picture is hazy because you are unidentified. Later things get clear and take shape. In the end everything is crystal clear. You see yourself the way you are. This mirror for a photographer is his work, his projects, his thoughts and the way he understands this noble profession. There is an instant when you should undo TIME and look at everything again. Every frame, every thought, every intention and movement must be found on that retrospective tortuous road. […]
Recommendations for your Botswana models and a successful pre-production photo/ video shoot . Pre-production is key to any successful shot even in Botswana, but even so often some crews forget or intentionally put aside this important detail. Especially Botswana photographers or cameraman will blame it on the tiny budgets. Some clients will also give you a brief that sounds like” Do you best” ……..? Obviously depends on your assignment and what are you producing but do not ever get fooled that only video needs pre-production . In the PDF bellow is just a tiny part of pre-production the core basics on preparing your models and yes is valid for photography also. Do you have 10 weeks to create a promotional video? You should be spending over six weeks pre-producing the project. We all love the shooting and production days , and most people enjoy seeing their project come to fruition in post-production. But in this era of the modern digital filmmaker, so often pre-production is overlooked. You may have the knowledge to shoot and edit a project, but really well made promotional films and even photographs are meticulously thought out. Every detail is examined. Whether it’s thinking about how to […]
In so many years of practice you pick up few terms what people use in the film industry, however without any intention to hire your services for a quality production. poco_bw
The Russian Connection To wake up at 4AM to go for a shoot is never amusing, but we wanted to catch some of that warm morning light. Joberg light is always softer in the mornings compared with Gabs light. I never understood why; probably the dry air just stands still, and the light particles stop a bit from their demented erratic dance . Game Stores assignment, ouch…that sounds commercial, conservative, corporate look ,not so entertaining…ah well all of us must make a living. Models getting a makeover, assistants preparing equipment, producer making sure everything gets right, zzzz….zzzzz….the buzz started. I closed my eyes, matching the various virtual poses, angles, shadows, with the long script what I just finished reading. I turned my head and then I noticed the Russian model. She was just sitting there in a tall orange chair radiating a sense of tranquility .Zzzz…..Zzzzz…..all around, deadlines, multiple locations…. just the Russian girl chairbound almost motionless in that orange background had nothing to say .She had that confident look…I done this a thousand time, why you people are panicking? Then I just knew…she was my sense of steadiness, I snap quickly few offshoot portraits, the zzzz noise start […]
Weddings Botswana Unusual Angles A typical mirror head-shot of the bride will suffice for most photographers, then why the unusual angle? Every bride will want to have a memory of her veil, but how to make it stand out and do not look so flat. If you didn’t manage to secure at least a 1 hour window to do your shoot, setup lights, etc. punish the bride and “corner” her, bingo you created an instant 3D environment. Basic anatomy, from a lot of squares, in 3 planes, the human eye will first distinguish the triangle and the circle as being the only odd shapes what will “pop”. poco_bw
Wedding Photography Challenge In Botswana a lot of weddings are done under a tent, and is one of the worst photographer/cameraman nightmares. If you do not have with you the proper light and modifiers you are pretty much at the mercy of the one flash, your creativity/experience, and the hope that one cloud will blind the sun for few seconds. But what if your “tent” is on high speed, is rocking hard and simply the sun wont hide? You want that clouds, you want that reflection in the water, the bride dress details, and even the waves to create a sense of action………then 50% of the work is editing. The difference in the photo above is about 18 stops of light, and no camera in the world will resolve that , even an ARRI Alexa have about 15 stops only. EXIF ISO 400,F 7.1, 28mm, +2EV manual Flash, 1/200S. This photo on the stopwatch took seven and a half minutes to edit, since was a quick edit are some small imperfections but most of the people won’t notice. Why I let them there? Simple I prefer to spend the time on the couple photos, action shots, and not on a […]
The Manhattan Bridge crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension. The bridge opened to traffic on December 31, 1909. It was designed by Leon Moisseiff. Poco_bw
