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People photography – religious ceremonies

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:15:13 PST

People photography – religious ceremonies

new post about people photography

Postcards from Montenegro

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:53:45 PST

Postcards from Montenegro

Best places for people photography – slums (part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 10:08:38 PST

Best places for people photography – slums (part 2)

Best places for people photography – Airports

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:40:57 PST

Best places for people photography – Airports

Feature photographer of the month - Photoshelter

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:18:31 PDT

Friends and customers

Today I recieved a mail that announce that I was choosen, as the feature phtographer of the month of Photoshelter (more than 60,000 photographers) with the following picture.

The big blue rock of Veran in Tafraoute Morocco

Here is the link to the feature page

http://www.photoshelter.com/buyer

Way of leaving - photographing people at their home

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:34:29 PDT

Part 3 of photographing people

Taking pictures in people houses is demanding high level skills of interaction, ability to manage the situation in delicate manner. English is not my native language but still "taking picture" (taking instead of giving or other word), and "shooting people" are strong expressions to describe interaction with people. As some of us know already there are some cultures that consider photographing is like taking your soul.

Faces-of-the-world-morocco - Sidi Moktar's market
Morocco, Sidi Moktar’s market, 2010
Canon1Ds Mark III 16mm, 1/50 @F/4.5, ISO125
I entered the room that was located in the middle of the market.
I took some shots some of also include the face of the man in the
entrance but I preferred this photo for its natural pose,
the real life it describes and the internal interaction of each one
of the subjects. I asked to take picture when I entered the room,
one that stands in the entrance didn’t feel comfortable,
the one at the left continue like nothing was changes and the
one in the middle asking for money, as you can notice from his hand gesture
Privacy
Imagine that doing it inside of someone’s house, wife’s kitchen (sorry for the stereotype), and kids’ room. It is really invasion of privacy even if you asked for permission in advanced. Another of factor that nee to be considered is how much it is staged photo, natural scene, or ultimate decisive moment. You have to be polite and respect the house codes. It is sound obvious, and everyone consider him or her self as a someone that give respect especially those who consider themselves as people photographer. In one of my assignments I was negotiating with the sumo wrestling in Japan to come and stay within their property and to leave together with the sumo wrestlers and they refused until I found local contact that will vouch for me that I will keep the local customs. When my contact person ask them why they demand it they told him that they had bad experience with a photojournalist from one the famous magazines that didn’t respect the local customs. They told me that he didn’t learn them at all.
You have to learn the local customs. If you can step in with shoes on, so take it off like it is common in Japan or in other cultures. Cover your head with hat or yarmulke like in an orthodox Jewish house. Don’t take a woman picture if her man is not close to her in Islamic countries or don’t take picture of an Islamic woman at all. We can all notice that most of people and travel photo are from less develop countries where the population care less about their privacy than in the western world. It is all about the culture and you photograph people you photograph culture learn and respect it.
Interaction and communication
This chapter will focus on interaction with the family members and the photographer. It depends where you plan to photograph. You have to prepare yourself to this project. If you are a professional photographer or amateur photographer that is traveling to exotic places you have to vision and plan. It is easily understood if you are a professional photographer on assignment. You know that you have a mission to be complete and there are frames that you have to bring back home. But even if you are an amateur photographer you should know that won’t be back to this place again in the coming future. Usually traveler like you photographing by the itinerary they planned and not by the pictures they succeed to take. This means that you have only one chance to have your pictures. Because you will leave the day after to the next step in your trip and no second chance to record your vision.
Mumbai dharbi india - woman washes the dishes int front of her home
Dharbi Mumbai, India 2010
Canon1Ds mark3 16mm, 1/50 @F/4.5, ISO125
One of Dharbi’s characteristics is the small apartments.
Every family has a small cubical that as you can see cannot be
captured only from the outside. This lady gladly agreed to pose
while her husband continues to sleep in the back of the room.
She washed the dishes after she finished cooking lunch.
She was very friendly and wonders if to wake her husband or let him sleep.
She asked me with her hands, if I would like her to continue
washing the dishes or want to enter house.
Main challenges – photograph in others houses
Light source –
One of the challenges in photographing in house is the light source. The light in the house usually comprised from different sources like lamp on the ceiling, from the outside like an open door or a window and or other source of light like fire, computer or TV screen etc.
When you decide about the scene you have to look carefully about the light conditions. It depend how you want to capture the scene and what to convey. You can look at the picture above which I took from the outside and the following picture I took just the opposite from the internal outbound.
In the above picture I used the external light for the foreground and the woman that was washing the dishes while her husband and the internal part of her house what lighted by a small fluorescent lamp and remains of the light from the outside.
In the following picture where light conditions were very complicated, I choose not to take the shot from the outside because in that case I could have record the woman – she has beam of light from the above – but the background would come out very dark and detailed less.
Morocco - woman makes tea under light beam
Morocco, Tiz-n-Tishka, one of the atals villges, 2010
Canon1Ds mark3 19mm, 1/160 @F/3.2, ISO500
I was at photography excursion to morocco and it was
the second time to visit this village. We came with pictures
from the first visit and used clothes. The grand mother is signing
while making tea as hospitality for the group while her daughter
brought cups from the other room so I could capture her as a silhouette
while the grandmother was sitting under the light beam that came
through the hole in the ceiling. There are 3 light sources which are equal
– light beam, fire in the middle of the room and the external light in the door.
Light conditions within the room itself were very difficult so I scarify
the ISO and maintain shutter speed that will enable sharp picture.
I could afford myself to use open aperture because I used a super wide
angle lens that enable reasonable depth of field (even behind the
silhouette woman you can still see details).
Posing or natural scene?
Photographing as a guest in house of a family come with lot of constrains. As we discuss earlier natural light is one of them. The other is the scene itself and does it reflect your vision. How, from one side to respect the hosts and on the other side to realize your vision? How without too much interference, create the posing that you had in mind before start to shoot? As you can imagine there is thick line between taking picture as it is in reality or posing the people in the right place ask them to continue what they were used to do before you came, and still with respect.
My personal approach and my intuitive behavior is to create the scene that you wanted because that even if you end with good frame, you might feel that you miss “the” frame. You should ask for cooperation. I found out that in most of the cases when you asked for help people were ready to help you achieve your goal. Most of the people that are ready to participate passively in a picture will be glad to participate actively when you asked them to. In some case people might ask for money or any reward for their participation. I will cover this issue in my chapter about specific markets.
Faces of the world - Romania the Carpathian - Shepperd in hut
Romania, The Carpathians, within the hut , 2006
Canon D5 16mm, 1/13 @F/7.1, ISO1000
This hut was located on top of the Carpathians and served
11 men that left their village down the mountains and climbed
early spring together with their common and small sheep in
order to produce cheese and to sell it. The reason for climbing
only in the spring is because the mountains still covered by snow
until than and they need weeds to feed the sheep. These men leave
together in the same hat for the spring and the summer without
their wives and family. When I came all were eating their lunch
outside the hut, and this man lie sown and rest in this room.
When I enter he stood up and I decided that the location of the
natural light to his left is very good for the scene and I shoot.
I asked him to be relaxed and natural (non verbal just with hand signs).
Please not that from technical point of view I could open the
aperture to F/2.8 and still have depth of field across the picture
(it is super wide angle – read in my last post about using
different lenses). By that I could reduce the level of noise that
was produce by the high ISO.
Which lens to use?
In close areas I will tend to use wide angle lens. Usually in the range of the ultra wide – closer to 16mm. The advantages of using this lens are the following: it can capture the whole figure of the object and in the background most of the room. It enables to have most of the frame in focus (depth of field).the disadvantages are mostly about the distortions. If the object is located the corners of the frame it might be skew a little bit. Or, lines of the walls, furniture etc can be distorted.
If the room is relatively big I would go to short-tele lens like 50mm or 85mm, which are considered as great portrait lens which enable you to gain object’s details while you will have challenges with depth of field.

How to photograph people in Markets and squares

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:41:37 PDT

Part two of "top places for people photography"

At the market near agadir morocco Canon 1Ds mark3 16-35mm at 16mm F/5.6 1/60

Markets and squares anywhere are great place to capture human dynamic, sounds and voices, colors and smells, diverse behaviors and emotions and thus are to be the first to be mentioned as top places for people photography.

In most of the cities in the world you will find a local or regional market. In some cases you have to check in advance the specific days these market are open.

My first recommendation to you before travel to any market or square out of your country is to make your try and error in your own home town market.

Try to understand the dynamics, the intense
How to communicate – it will be much easier in your mother tongue, and with someone that share with you the same culture
Try your preferences – shoot under shade and fluorescent light, try to play with your WB, how to handle low light with steady state in very crowded place.
How do you feel about wide angle picture? Do you find these lens distortions distractive or adding to the picture? How about portrait and candid with telephoto pictures? Its all about your intuition and felling do you like it or not.

After some exercises and training you feel that you are ready to the real thing. Before packing your gears and suitcase and travel here some things to be aware before getting into field:

Understand the structure of the market – selling fruits and vegetables, butchers, food court, peddlers, artists such as street dancers, magicians etc. walk, just walk through the alleys, don't take a pictures. Learn the structure, feel the dynamic, smell the smells and try to dissolve within the crowd.

Where to start – by understanding the structure, you get first insight what to expect for. Try to look for best location that best light by day light and not fluorescent which is the most common light within the markets. The places that don’t have day or natural light can be accessed in later stage.
When to come? Then try to plan by hours – which day or what are the hours this market is open? Which hour is the most hectic? If you intend to photograph the artists in that specific market, ask about their shows' hours.

Which lens to use?

As you can see in most of my pictures I use my wide lens on full frame body. In some cases I use either my portrait lens or my zoom telephoto. You should have your own preference but you have to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each one of these attitude.

The pictures in the above you can see the use of wide angle lens. It gives you the feeling that I was part of the scene.

In the table below I try to describe the main differences between the lens, which I hope will increase your awareness to the specific scene and hot to capture best scene with people. This table is a summary and adaptation materials from a photography trip that I had with Eli atias.

Comparison of wide angle and telephoto lenses
Lens Type	Super wide (~16mm-35mm)	Telephoto (>85mm)
Depth of filed	Almost unlimited – you can use F/2.8 and in most of the cases that your subject close to your lens more than 40cm and get sharp frame across.	Very limited. In most of the cases you will have to use F that is higher than 16 in order to have significant depth of field
Close to the subject	Have to be very close	Can be far from the subject
Perspective	Ratio between big to small is significant. Converging of lines that creates perspective	Strait lines. No convergence of lines. Same size for people in the background and foreground
Foreground and background	Enable to describe relation between the subject in the foreground and the background	Enable you to isolate the person from its background
Disadvantages	Distortions in the corners of the frame. In some cases skew the people in the photo.
When is it recommended to use in crowded places like markets and squares?	· In a relatively isolated scene · When you want to describe the overall environment · When there is a lot to tell · When you can approach and have good interaction with the subject	· When you want to focus on small part of the scene · When you do prefer to be de attached from the scene · When you don’t have access to the scene · In low light, and you need speed on the expanse of the shutter, and you care less about the background

The following picture, was taken by Canon 50mm F/1.2 on D50 (cropped frame=equal to 75m) compare it with the about 2 frames and try to understand what are the differences.

Faces of the world - Top Locations for people photography (updates and additionals)

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:55:04 PDT

Where to be? How to approach people? How to describe their lives? Which photographer are you - Documentary or art photographer? Which lens to use when?

People photography's challenges

There are several types of challenges in that kind of activity. In each one of these types you will be faced by more question to asked and decision to take before taking the shots.

Type of photography – Portrait, geographical photography, cultural, ethnical, and more

What do you want to describe? Personality? Emotions? Culture? Environment? Etc. The way you might answer these and other questions, will change the way you take the specific picture. For example: if this classic frame of portrait with focus on the faces and their characteristic, you might choose the following options: take the photo in portrait and not in landscape mode (obvious, no?). You might choose prime portrait lens for example my canon 50mm F/1.2. (There are much more cheaper lenses which are also vey good – the 50mm but with the F/1.4 from the same manufacturer, Canon, is very good lens and lot of people might the ROI of this lens is much better than the former one).

Another option is to bring into the frame, the subject's environment. In order to do so you might choose wide angle lens like the Canon 16-35 F/2.8. You have to be carful, because this lens twist in the corner and most of the people don't like the effect. When you locate your subject on the corner of the frame, use 24m"m and above. The thumb rule is that your subject fills at least 30 percent of the frame's foreground and the environment, as background, fills 50% to 66% of the frame. Another advantage of this lens is that it depth of field is very deep due to the wide angle. So your foreground and background will be in focus almost all the way.

These types of questions might impact the way you should prepare yourself to the journey. What type of involvement will you intend to commit and much more question that I will try to elaborate in following blog' pages. If you choose to be very close to the subject, such those that will look into your picture will feel that you part of the scene or you choose to take candid shoot. One of the best lens for candid photography is the Zoom telephoto lens of canon 70-200mm

Relationship with the subject

How you treat your subject? How to create first contact? How you create eye contact? What do you know about subjects' attitude about photography?
And the main question to pay or not to pay to the subject? Or what kind of commercial relationship or agreement to from with the subject? Before during or just after taking the photo?

Environmental challenges

Light condition – where do you intend to take the shots? Internally? Externally? In shaded places? Weather – looking in advanced into weather forecast and hot to avoid flat photo in cloudy day? What type of equipment should you drag with you and how this going to impact your vision.

Dynamic of the event – is going to be static shooting, real life of extreme conditions? Challenging conditions as photographing people that are dancing in low light or having luck to shoot people that are sitting just in front of "magic hour" light

Technical challenges

Light – if you are a people photographer not all of your assignments will be in magic hours. People live their lives along 24 hours of the day. People work in 3 shifts. People are hanging out mostly until dawn. The paradise places for people photography like markets, fishermen's deck, sports fan balcony, usually suffer from either low or rush light.

Faces of the world - Top places for people photography

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:29:55 PDT

Where to be? How to approach people? How to describe their lives? Which photographer are you - Documentary or art photographer? Which lens to use when?

Today I'm starting new serious of articles, tutorials and essay about people photography. Based on my experience, what are the best places to photograph people? To present and discuss what are the main challenges in people photography? How best to bring the culture and the social/geographical environment into the frame? We will discuss also technical issues, such as what lens to use and when? And much more pictures from all over the world – great people in amazing places.

People photography's challenges

There are several main challenges in that kind of activity.
• What do you want to describe? Personality? Emotions? Culture? Environment? Etc. The way you might answer these and other questions, will change the way you take the specific picture. For example: if this classic frame of portrait with focus on the faces and their characteristic, you might choose the following options: take the photo in portrait and not in landscape mode (obvious, no?). You might choose prime portrait lens for example my canon 50mm F/1.2. (There are much more cheaper lenses which are also vey good – the 50mm but with the F/1.4 from the same manufacturer, Canon, is very good lens and lot of people might the ROI of this lens is much better than the former one).

• Another option is to bring into the frame, the subject's environment. In order to do so you might choose wide angle lens like the Canon 16-35 F/2.8. You have to be carful, because this lens twist in the corner and most of the people don't like the effect. When you locate your subject on the corner of the frame, use 24m"m and above. The thumb rule is that your subject fills at least 30 percent of the frame's foreground and the environment, as background, fills 50% to 66% of the frame. Another advantage of this lens is that it depth of field is very deep due to the wide angle. So your foreground and background will be in focus almost all the way.

Just return from Morocco - pictures of my friends

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:30:56 PDT

Follow the above link and you can see doem pictures from the amazing photography expedition to Morocco. The rest of the picures you can watch on my Galleries at
http://www.photoshelter.com/c/greatphotoshop/gallery/Morocco-blues/G0000iPBAketRjYQ/
Will keep posted

Top Photoblogs to subscribe

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:04:20 PDT

Today a list of my favorite or at least important blogs that I recommend you to read, subscribe etc.

Aggregator of photoblogs
1. Photoblog community at http://photoblog-community.com/Home.php. A very big photoblog community. here you can find a photoblog categories and to be xposed to what is happening the the photography world

From the site:

The purpose of this web site is to offer free and fun way for photo-bloggers to add their photoblogs to our directory and become part of the community.

There are many interesting functionalities, such as: voting for your favourite photoblogs, posting comments, adding tags, live statistics, etc. This is a photography oriented web site and you can be assured to find good quality photoblogs from all around the world.

It is also a great way for you to increase your photoblog traffic and meet new and amazing photographers.

2. PhotoBlog - another photoblog aggregator with links to lots of photoblogs. the appereance based on ranking.From the site:

Our Mission

The mission of Photoblogs.org is to connect the audience to the photoblog, and to help the photoblogging community grow and evolve.

3. Coolphotoblogs - this photoblog baes on links exchange and you have to place a link in your site/blog before they approve your membership.

Here from the site:

CoolPhotoblogs.com was created by the sheer popularization of photoblogging around the world. Our mission is to inspire, encourage and unite the global photoblogging community.

The photoblogging community's most prestigious award, the Photoblog Awards, is presented annually by CoolPhotoblogs.com. Mission of the Photoblog Awards is to encourage and honor the brilliant photoblogs that have shown excellence in photoblogging.

4. Photoglogs Directory - another way to increase traffic to your photoblog. It based on reciprocal link with your site/blog.

From the site:

Photoblog Directory is a web directory for listing Photoblogs under chosen categories. You can also add 5 subpages if you submit as a Featured Site Review.

We now offer Free Featured Listings for our Photo Gallery Submitters. How does it work?

next post I will describe some of the blogs that I like to follow.

During the 2 first weeks of April I will participate in photography expedition in Morocco

How to photo Silhouettes?

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:32:49 PDT

Silhouette looks very striking. It is sharp colorful and convey strait message. That's what is a good photograph is all about no?

So how would we do it?

I will use photos from one afternoon at "Drummer beach" is south Tel Aviv. It was cloudy day with strong sun which creates very difficult conditions for photography. I decided at that day, to take some silhouettes pictures.

The first one is from a circle of "Capuera" dancers.

Usually I use these techniques:

1. Measure from the brightest source in the picture. It has to be at least more than 5 stops than the light from the figures that create the silhouette. The background has to be at least 3 stops brighter.

2. Open the aperture. You don’t need depth of field and you want that the silhouettes will be sharp and black so u need the aperture to be opened as possible.

3. Wide angle lens. Or would I say a super wide lens. It creates more drama in the picture.

4. Low angle. Take the photo from a low angle almost from the floor. Together with the wide angle lens your silhouettes become more live.

5. Include sky in the picture. Especially when you can get cloudy and dramatic sky.

Post production for silhouette

1. Sepia or other dominant color. I tend to use it a lot since silhouette images are usually mood photos. So, while using a dominant color you can emphasis the mood you wanted to crate.

In order to create this color effect I used Camera raw. In the camera raw I play with the temperature and tint slider, that's all very simple.

Gold -taking photo with tele agains the sun will create gold hue, but still you will need to, slightly adjut it with photoshop.

2. Contrast – contrast can create drama. Although I kept some of the original colors of the picture, while I contrast it the colors blow up a little.

How to make a silky water - case of Costa Rica and Tel Aviv's coasts(2)

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:06:05 PST

And now back to the digital age and to Tel Aviv.
One Friday rainy night I grabbed my camera bag and went to Tel Aviv's harbor. If you are going by yourself don't forget to take with you the following items:
1. IPOD - with your favorite music. It is going to be long exposure shots, and while the light has been registered on your sensor, listen to a good music.
2. Your gear –
a. Camera – cleaned sensor and charged battery. Sound rhetoric? Believe me how many times I saw people that find out in the field that their camera is not charged.
b. Lenses - I prefer to use ultra-wide lens but in some cases I used my ultra-tele lens.
c. Cover for the rain – when you, like me, prefer to go out in stormy and rainy day (the clouds and the sky create more dramatic sky), take care for camera cover. Don’t save on this item. You will be sorry when you will download the photo into your computer and see stains of rain's drop from the lens that was register on the image.
d. Cable release – since it is a very long exposure every camera shake counts. Please note that you use Bulb, and you have to have release cable that fit this status.
e. Flashlight – it is dark out there. It will help you set your camera right and in some case focusing your camera.

In that picture, I manages to capture the woman that was standing on the boardwalk. It was only for 30 seconds, but still the waves was captured good.

What do you have to put attention to?
Metering - if you shoot in bulb you can't measure from the camera. You have to search for the 18% grey and then measure with 30 seconds and see what aperture you will get. With these two numbers, you can manipulate the shutter and the aperture to 2 minutes and above, based on the silk mode of the water that you want to achieve. The formula is – longer exposure=silkier water, longer exposures=brighter sky.

Solid ground – since it is very long exposure the risk for camera shake is higher. One night I went to biet yanai beach near Netanya Israel, and put the tripod on the sand. When I got home I found out that most of the pictures were blurred. The fact is that the beach's sand is moving, especially when you are close to the water line. The solution I found is to bring with me big brick that I found in one of the building sites and put the tripod on it. This picture was one of the few that is sharp.

How to make a silky water - case of Costa Rica and Tel Aviv's coasts

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:12:03 PST

I was asked several times about the picture of the blog. Where was it taken? How? etc.
So, taking photos of beaches looks as a simple task but there are few factors that can impact your final image. The pictures that I will show here (and more of it can be watched at Greatphotoshop.com and in my Gallery) were taken part of it by film and the others digitally.
The first picture of the silky water was taken with my old Minolta 7, and Fujifilm Velvia 50 ASA (the best film I used ever).Data for this slide was:
• F/22 in order to have depth of field and,
• 2min shutter speed in order to make the waves to a silky dream. There are several concepts of how to capture water. Usually the common practice for making silky water in waterfall or a river is 1Min. In order to transform the sea waves into silky water it must have to be longer than 2 second.
The place is at Manuel Antonio's beach - Costa Rica. It was a rainy evening but I couldn't resist going and shooting. It was very lucky, that the fisherman on the rocks almost didn't move (photo No. 5). I scanned this slide at Shevah and played a little with Photoshop.
Costa Rica - Manuel Antonio at night

Another one from this night

Next post I will talk more about the "how to do it" based on photography session at Tel Aviv's harbor.

When is the best time to approach a stock agency?

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:40:17 PST

I Like to follow this Blog as a good reference for help about the photography of the business. This is a good start for those who wnat to find out how to establish thier business or to expand. Please write me if you want more about this subjects.
When is the best time to approach a stock agency?

Free Personal signatures - cool!

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:37:00 PST

TEXTAREA_ID

Macro - the invisible world (2)

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:21:38 PST

As I promised, I will continue to post more macro images with some explanations.
But before posting the images, here is a link to a review about the lens that I took these macro images with.

And another important link, about macro photography. As you can see, the lightning becomes a very strong issue in Macro photography.
In the coming post I will try to bring some tips for Macro photography that I try in these sessions and some that I learned from others.

And here are the new macro images:

Brown sugar X5- can you believe it?

A cucumber, slice of it X3. As you might notice I used also a backlight

And to the last one for is week:

Just part of a flower X5.

Macro – the invisible world

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:19:54 PST

This week I got the amazing macro lens of Canon which I dreamt of for long time from my friend Roni Sofer. The Canon Macro Photo MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Manual Focus Lens for EOS is one of the greatest lenses I have. It magnifies the image 5 times and creates non realistic images.
It depends on what is the purpose for this lens. You can use it for more dramatic macro images like the following fork image.

I used 3 heads with snoot on the side and back light. The magnify ratio was X2. This effect or at least very close to it can be achieved with a macro lens or with regular lens with an extension tube.
The main target for using such lens comes when you want to create an illusion, a surreal image. It could be a well structured leaf that falls from a tree:

Or become a real surreal like this image of Kiwi:

Or this one guesses what it is?

You are right this is the same Kiwi not a plowed field. The different between the two pictures is that I used up light as main light while I tried in the second picture low angle light from the side as main source in order to blow up the surface structure as my friend Jennie suggested.
It is a must lens for all macro photographers and studio owners. The main disadvantage that I can report is it manual focus. I don't consider it as serious disadvantage because most of the macro photography must be focused manually. Regarding sharpness, I think it is equal along the magnifying ration from X1 to X5 with slightly deterioration towards the X5. You must take this photo with quality light environment. Especially when you shoot at the X5 ratio. There you really need to use all of your light horses in the studio. No more only good sunlight for macro photography!

E-commerce platform for potographers

noreply@blogger.com (Haim srur - greatphotohop.com) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:35:40 PST

Second step of becoming professional photographer

As you can recall I told you last time about my home studio and my new amazing equipment I purchased. So, I've started to operate it and since then my portrait photography skills were improved. I also started to shoot products photography and in-studio commercial photography works.
Today I want to tell all of you about new step I made to develop my business. I opened account in Photoshelter. Still not a pro account but beside the size the Gigabytes there is no different.
The advantage of this service is that it is really e-commerce platform for photographers, beginners and pro as well. I upload until now several galleries for licensing and images and photos for prints. They actually even supply you with the service of image printing. I try this now and very enjoy it. After learning all the advantages of the site I will share this with all of you.

Galleries

I consider my self as a people photographer. It includes people within their environment, their environment by itself this is why there lots of scenic images almost in parallel to every people gallery I have. It also includes rituals, celebrations, and ceremonies, and as we all know our world is full with these.
The tree galleries I already uploaded are from my travels, as an assignment or my jeep trips. The first 2 galleries are from Montenegro from my assignment their in May 2009.
One includes the people and the faces of Montenegro.

It was in May, so, this is the season when people from the villages and small cities in the valley take their family, the equipment they need and they put all of this on one old truck and move to their home in the mountains. These mountains become green and the temperature is not so cold. (During the winter, the houses are sealed). In that weather they can shepherd their flock and put the cows into the meadow. This move I already saw in my assignment to the Carpathians in Romania in 2006. (There is a gallery from that assignment which I will be elaborate in one of my next blog)
Woman shepherd the flock while knotting sweater is a casual sight. Kids that contribute their part to the living in the mountains. 12 years old boy that woodcutter trees, preparing boles to the winter.
Second gallery is full with photos and images of the amazing scenic of Montenegro. It includes views of the snowing mountains and its reflections in the lake. there is lot of green and water in those images.
In the next blog I will describe the other galleries of Romania and Japan to come.
CU