Category Archives: The creative process

Using Speedboosters on Fullframe Cameras

Introduction

Zhong Yi LensTurboII and Nikon AF 85mm 1.4D via Pixco Speedbooster on Sony A7rII

Speedboosters are still somewhat popular among videographers, but since these days used fullframe cameras are very affordable, this is not really the case for still photographers anymore. They can be used for some creative shallow depth of field photography on fullframe cameras though, and that is what we will have a look at here.

Sample Pictures

Sony A7r | Zhong Yi LensTurbo II | Canon nFD 85mm 1.2L | ©Simeon Kolev

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2023 in Pictures

Introduction

laowa 35mm 0.95 worlds fastest lens review bokeh 42mp 61mp laowa venus optics venuslens fullframe contrast resolution bokeh optical vignetting fall off
Sony A7III | Laowa 35mm 0.95 | f/8.0

We always tell you about new gear here, but at the end of the day lenses are just tools needed to take nice pictures. Martin and I went through all the pictures we took in 2023 to choose our 10 favorites. You can find those pictures here with a bit of additional information, for which there is not always a place in the gear reviews.

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Analogue Adventures – Part 27: Kodak Portra 800 Push +1 ECN-2

kodak portra 800 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Kodak Portra 800

Here we will look how the Portra 800 holds up when pushed by one stop in combination with the ECN-2 processing.
Exposed as ISO800. Processing (ECN-2, Push +1) and scanning was done at Silbersalz35 in Germany.

kodak portra 800 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | Voigtländer VM 40mm 1.4 MC | f/2.0 | Portra 800 +1 ECN-2
kodak portra 800 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | Voigtländer VM 40mm 1.4 MC | f/1.4 | Portra 800 +1 ECN-2
kodak portra 800 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | Voigtländer VM 40mm 1.4 MC | f/1.4 | Portra 800 +1 ECN-2
kodak portra 800 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | Voigtländer VM 40mm 1.4 MC | f/1.4 | Portra 800 +1 ECN-2
kodak portra 800 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | Voigtländer VM 40mm 1.4 MC | f/2.0 | Portra 800 +1 ECN-2

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How to: Create Environmental Portraits

Introduction

laowa 35mm 0.95 worlds fastest lens review bokeh 42mp 61mp laowa venus optics venuslens fullframe contrast resolution bokeh optical vignetting fall off
Sony A7III | Laowa 35mm 0.95 | f/0.95

With lenses like the Sony FE 24mm 1.4 GM, Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art DG DN, Laowa 35mm 0.95 Argus and the Sony FE 50mm 1.2 GM in the E-mount lens lineup and the ongoing Instragram hype it might be a good time to talk a bit about environmental portraits.
What is an environmental portrait and what is the difference compared to a normal portrait? Which lenses work best? Which mistakes I made in the past but you can already avoid today?
These are the questions I will try to answer in this article.

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Photoshop Ai: What can it do for you?

Introduction

By now I am pretty sure all of you have already heard of ChatGPT, Midjourney or any of the other artifical intelligences you can now talk to or make use of. Where it got interesting for me, was in early 2023, when Adobe released a Photoshop Beta version with AI features and staggering capabilities. Over the past months I have been using it (for professional work and private stuff) so I wanted to show you some examples where it was useful to me and also how it works.
One thing is for sure, this will vastly disrupt image editing workflows.

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